Cooking hamburgers and slicing turkey well

My father was AWOL in teaching me on how to cook.

It is sad to say, but when he was around, he told me to “just do it”, rather than taking the time to teach me.

This was true when cooking hamburgers, except that at that time he was on a diet and wanted me to squeeze out all the grease out of the meat patty. And that cost me decades of poor cooking.

And as far as carving a turkey goes, yeah. I was completely clueless.

So guys, here is how you are supposed to carve a turkey…

Carving a turkey is a key skill for serving a beautiful and delicious holiday meal. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you carve a turkey like a pro:

What You’ll Need:

A sharp carving knife
A sturdy carving fork
A clean cutting board
A platter for serving

Steps to Carve a Turkey:

Let the Turkey Rest:
- After roasting, let the turkey rest for 20-30 minutes. This allows the juices to redistribute, making the meat moist and easier to carve.
Remove the Legs and Thighs:
- Hold the turkey steady with a carving fork.
- Use the knife to cut through the skin between the leg and the body.
- Gently pull the leg away from the body and cut through the joint to remove the entire leg and thigh.
- Separate the thigh from the drumstick by cutting through the joint.
Slice the Breast Meat:
- Make a horizontal cut along the bottom of the breast, close to the wing, to create a base for slicing.
- Starting from the top, slice downward in even, thin slices. Angle the knife slightly for larger slices.
- Repeat on the other side.
Remove the Wings:
- Cut through the joint where the wing connects to the body.
- You can serve the wings whole or separate them into drumettes and wingettes.
Serve the Dark and White Meat:
- Arrange the sliced breast meat, thighs, drumsticks, and wings on a platter.
- Optionally, you can remove the remaining meat from the carcass for additional servings.

Tips for Success:

Use a sharp knife to ensure clean cuts.
Carve the turkey on a stable surface to avoid accidents.
If you’re not serving immediately, cover the carved turkey with foil to keep it warm.

Enjoy your beautifully carved turkey!

Now, while I am at it, let’s consider some ideas on seasoning…

Seasoning a turkey is essential for bringing out its flavor and ensuring a delicious, memorable meal. Here are some tips and techniques to help you season your turkey perfectly:

1. Brining (Optional but Highly Recommended):

What it does: Brining helps keep the turkey moist and adds flavor.
How to brine:
- Dissolve 1 cup of salt and 1/2 cup of sugar in 1 gallon of water (adjust quantities based on the size of your turkey and brine container).
- Add herbs, spices, or aromatics like garlic, peppercorns, bay leaves, or citrus zest for extra flavor.
- Submerge the turkey in the brine and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.
- Rinse the turkey thoroughly and pat it dry before seasoning and roasting.

2. Dry Rubs:

A dry rub is a mixture of spices and herbs that you apply directly to the turkey’s skin and under the skin.
Classic Dry Rub Recipe:
- 2 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
How to apply:
- Pat the turkey dry with paper towels.
- Gently loosen the skin over the breast and thighs with your fingers.
- Rub the seasoning mixture under the skin and all over the outside of the turkey.

3. Herb Butter:

Herb butter adds richness and flavor to the turkey.
Herb Butter Recipe:
- Mix 1 cup softened butter with 2-3 cloves minced garlic, 2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (like thyme, rosemary, sage, or parsley), and salt and pepper to taste.
How to apply:
- Gently loosen the skin over the breast and thighs.
- Spread the herb butter under the skin and over the outside of the turkey.
- For extra flavor, place additional herb sprigs or aromatics (like garlic, onion, or citrus) inside the cavity.

4. Aromatics in the Cavity:

Stuffing the cavity with aromatics infuses the turkey with flavor from the inside out.
Aromatic Ideas:
- Halved onions, garlic cloves, lemon or orange wedges, fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, sage), or celery stalks.
Tip: Avoid overstuffing the cavity, as this can restrict airflow and lead to uneven cooking.

5. Seasoning the Skin:

Don’t forget to season the outside of the turkey generously with salt and pepper. This helps create a flavorful, crispy skin.

6. Glazes or Marinades (Optional):

For added flavor, brush the turkey with a glaze during the last 30-45 minutes of roasting.
Glaze Ideas:
- Maple syrup and Dijon mustard
- Honey and soy sauce
- Orange juice and brown sugar

7. Resting and Finishing:

After roasting, let the turkey rest for 20-30 minutes before carving. This allows the juices to redistribute, ensuring moist meat.
If desired, sprinkle fresh herbs over the carved turkey for a final touch of flavor and presentation.

Pro Tips:

Salt generously: Salt is key to enhancing the turkey’s natural flavor.
Balance flavors: Combine savory, sweet, and aromatic elements for a well-rounded taste.
Experiment: Don’t be afraid to try new herbs, spices, or seasoning blends to suit your taste.

Let me know if you’d like a full recipe or roasting guide!

Ah. This is making me hungry.

Today…

US aiming at Greenland and Panama in preparation for confrontation with China and Russia

Cherry Cordial Cookies

Yield: about 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, divided (do not use vegetable oil spread)
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 (9 ounce) package golden yellow cake mix
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
20 maraschino cherries, drained and patted dry
4 (1 ounce) squares semisweet baking chocolate
1/2 cup almonds, finely chopped

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
In Small Batter Bowl, microwave 1 stick of the butter on HIGH 45 seconds or until melted. Slice remaining butter into 1/2-inch pieces; add to melted butter, tossing to coat. Let butter stand 2 to 3 minutes or until softened.
Combine flour and cake mix in Classic Batter Bowl; mix well.
Using Stainless Steel Whisk, whisk butter until smooth and free of lumps; add almond extract. Pour butter, all at once, into dry ingredients. Using Bamboo Spoon, mix until dry ingredients are incorporated and dough is smooth. (If dough is too stiff to stir, knead until smooth by hand on Cutting Board.)
Fill Cookie Press, fitted with #5 disk, with dough. Press dough onto flat Baking Stone, 1 inch apart. Slice cherries in half; press one half onto center of each cookie.
Bake 15 to 17 minutes or until very light golden brown.
Cool 3 minutes on baking stone; remove to Stackable Cooling Rack. Cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.
Microwave chocolate in Small Micro-Cooker(R), uncovered, on HIGH 1 minute or until melted and smooth; drizzle over cookies.
Sprinkle almonds over cookies.

Notes

If you have only one baking stone, press the second batch of cookies onto Parchment Paper, cut to the size of the baking stone. As you remove one batch of cookies from the oven, unbaked cookies can be quickly placed onto the baking stone and into the oven. This will save time as well as clean-up.

Nutrition

Per serving: (1 cookie): Calories 100, Total Fat 6g, Saturated Fat 3g, Cholesterol 10mg, Carbohydrate 10g, Protein 1g, Sodium 75mg, Fiber less than 1g

Attribution

Pampered Chef

McDonald’s is DESPERATE! PLEASE COME BACK!

Title: Sir Whiskerton and the Vanishing Scarecrow

Ah, dear reader, you’ve graced me with your presence once more. I can only assume it’s because you’ve become addicted to tales of my unmatched brilliance and unparalleled problem-solving skills. Don’t worry—this story will not disappoint.

Today, I’ll recount a peculiar case that involved a missing scarecrow, a flock of gossiping crows, and, of course, my wise feathered colleague, Sedgwick the barn owl. It was a mystery unlike any other, filled with twists, turns, and more hay than I care to admit. Buckle up for the tale of The Vanishing Scarecrow.

The Scarecrow Goes AWOL

It all began on a crisp autumn morning. The farm was alive with the smell of freshly cut hay and the faint aroma of apples from the orchard. I was conducting my usual morning patrol (which is to say, I was enjoying a leisurely stroll to the milk pail) when I heard Farmer Joe’s voice echo across the fields.

“Where in tarnation is my scarecrow?!”

I stopped mid-step, my ears perking up. A missing scarecrow? Intriguing. Most scarecrows, in my experience, tend to stay exactly where they’re placed—motionless and uninteresting. The fact that this one had apparently disappeared was, to say the least, unusual.

As I approached the field where the scarecrow usually stood, I found Farmer Joe scratching his head and muttering to himself. The spot where the scarecrow once stood was now just an empty wooden post, surrounded by trampled grass. A few crows were perched nearby, cackling like they’d just heard the funniest joke of their lives.

“Strange,” I murmured to myself. “Very strange.”

Enter Sedgwick

As I examined the scene, a familiar flutter of wings announced the arrival of Sedgwick. He landed gracefully on the wooden post, his amber eyes scanning the field with quiet intensity.

“Good morning, Sir Whiskerton,” Sedgwick said in his usual deep, regal tone. “I heard Farmer Joe’s lamentations from the barn. What seems to be the issue?”

“Farmer Joe’s scarecrow has gone missing,” I explained, gesturing to the empty post. “I was just about to investigate.”

“A missing scarecrow,” Sedgwick mused, tilting his head. “How peculiar. Scarecrows are not known for their mobility.”

“Exactly,” I said. “Which means someone—or something—must have moved it.”

“Or perhaps it simply… walked away,” Sedgwick said, his tone laced with dry humor.

I smirked. “Let’s hope it hasn’t developed a mind of its own. Shall we investigate?”

“Lead the way,” Sedgwick said, spreading his wings slightly. “I’ll keep an eye from above.”

The First Clue

The first thing I noticed was the trampled grass around the scarecrow’s post. It looked as though something—or multiple somethings—had been dragging the scarecrow away. I sniffed the ground and picked up a faint scent of straw and… feathers?

“Feathers,” I said aloud, glancing up at Sedgwick. “Our first clue.”

Sedgwick ruffled his own feathers thoughtfully. “Interesting. I suspect the local crow population may know more than they’re letting on.”

I turned my gaze to the crows perched on a nearby fence. They were still laughing among themselves, as if they’d just pulled off the prank of the century.

“Let’s have a chat, shall we?” I said, padding over to the fence.

The Crows Spill the Beans

“Good morning, gentlemen,” Sedgwick said, addressing the crows with a polite nod. “We couldn’t help but notice your… enthusiasm. Care to share what’s so amusing?”

The largest of the crows, a scruffy bird with a bent tail feather, cackled and said, “Oh, it’s nothing. Just a little, uh… hayfield humor.”

“Is that so?” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Because it seems an entire scarecrow has gone missing, and you lot look suspiciously entertained.”

The crows exchanged glances, their laughter faltering slightly. “Alright, alright,” the scruffy one said. “We might’ve seen something. But you didn’t hear it from us.”

“Go on,” Sedgwick prompted, his calm demeanor clearly unnerving the crows.

“Fine,” the crow said. “We saw a couple of sheep dragging the scarecrow toward the orchard last night. They said something about ‘fixing it up.’ We thought it was strange, but hey, who are we to judge?”

“Sheep,” I said, my tail flicking thoughtfully. “Of course. Let’s pay a visit to the flock.”

“Good luck,” the crow called as we walked away. “Those woolly weirdos never make any sense!”

The Sheep’s Scheme

We found the sheep grazing in the pasture, looking as innocent as ever. Well, except for Clover, the goat, who was standing nearby chewing on something that looked suspiciously like a piece of burlap.

“Clover,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Is that… part of the scarecrow?”

She froze mid-chew, her eyes wide. “Uh… no?”

“Clover,” Sedgwick said, his voice heavy with disappointment. “Please don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

“Fine,” Clover sighed, spitting out the burlap. “It wasn’t my idea, okay? The sheep wanted to give the scarecrow a ‘makeover.’ Said it wasn’t scary enough. So we, uh, borrowed it.”

“Borrowed it?” I repeated, incredulous. “Where is it now?”

“In the orchard,” Clover admitted. “But it’s not my fault! They wouldn’t let me help with the sewing!”

The Orchard Discovery

Sedgwick and I made our way to the orchard, where we found the scarecrow—or what was left of it. The sheep had clearly tried to “improve” it, but their handiwork left much to be desired. The scarecrow now had a lopsided hat, a mismatched pair of gloves, and a face that looked like it had been drawn by a blindfolded raccoon. (Speaking of raccoons, Rufus was lounging in a nearby tree, laughing so hard he nearly fell out of it.)

“Impressive,” Sedgwick said dryly, examining the scarecrow. “It appears their intentions were… creative, if misguided.”

“This is a disaster,” I muttered. “Farmer Joe’s going to have a fit when he sees this.”

“Not necessarily,” Sedgwick said, his eyes gleaming with wisdom. “Perhaps we can salvage the situation.”

The Great Scarecrow Rescue

With Sedgwick’s guidance, we managed to restore the scarecrow to its original state—or something close to it. The crows even pitched in, albeit reluctantly, helping us stitch the burlap face back together. Clover and the sheep apologized profusely, and Rufus, after much cajoling, agreed to stop laughing and hold the scarecrow steady while we fixed its hat.

By the time we were finished, the scarecrow was back on its post, standing tall and ready to scare off any would-be intruders. Farmer Joe arrived shortly after and, to my surprise, seemed pleased.

“Well, would ya look at that,” he said, scratching his head. “Looks even better than before. Thanks, Whiskerton. Don’t know what I’d do without ya.”

The Moral of the Story

Sometimes, even the best intentions can lead to chaos, but with a little teamwork (and a lot of patience), things can be set right. And remember: if you’re going to “borrow” something, maybe ask first.

The End.

What was the most expensive thing you ever got for free, because someone made a mistake and didn’t charge you?

Happened during COVID – I purchased some expensive, high-spec hiking boots online – £320 (about $405) – they arrived promptly but they were slightly different colours (as if the left one had been in shop window and faded a bit).

They were otherwise great.

I emailed the company with a view to maybe getting a small discount for the imperfection and to inform them of the fault. I received an almost immediate reply to say they were sending me a new pair and would email to me separately a return slip for the faulty boots which would be collected by the courier separately.

The next week the (perfect) new boots arrived, but no return slip had yet arrived by email and inexplicably, on the same day, my credit card was credited with a full refund.

So by then I have two pairs of boots, no return slip and by virtue of the refund, I haven’t paid for either pair.

I emailed the company and received a very apologetic reply thus: “. . . we are incredibly sorry that due to a succession of errors in our processing, our service level to you was unacceptable. Because of this and taking into account your purchase history with our company (I had none), and due to current courier difficulties caused the pandemic, please consider this matter concluded. . . “ Essentially I took this to mean I could keep the boots and the refund and I’ve never heard another thing (4 1/2 years).

I used boot polish to bring the original pair up to a consistent colour and gave them to a homeless guy along with some hiking socks – he was so pleased he cried, and then I cried because he cried FFS!!

The Illusion of Now

Submitted into Contest #283 in response to: It’s the most wonderful time of the year — except your character can’t shake the feeling that something’s off.… view prompt

Rida Kidwai

Every day felt like a repetition of the one before. My eyes fluttered open to the familiar hum of my alarm. I shut it off and glanced at the time. As expected, it was 6:00 am on the dot. I couldn’t shake off the peculiar fact about myself: I never felt sleepy afterward. Feeling energized, I flopped out of bed and headed straight to the restroom. Same routine – brush my teeth, use the restroom, wash my face, change my clothes. I mentally accessed my closet and chose a white shirt and jeans, which were the most comforting to me. It was as if I was trapped in a never-ending cycle. It was that time of year, they say “the most wonderful time of the year.”As I walked out of my bedroom, I noticed how my feet aligned perfectly on the tiles with each step. I went to the kitchen and whipped up some eggs on the frypan. Once they were cooked, I sat down at the kitchen island, staring outside. The bright light rising blinded me as it shined among the perfectly aligned rows of trees that were covered in snow. It reflected off the vibrant, perfectly laid, pearl-white snow. My home was nestled in a rural area with forests, a few shops, and a town across the bridge. I snapped out of my daze as I hopped out of my chair and ran quickly towards the smoking eggs. I groaned and felt so hungry that I didn’t have an appetite anymore. I opened my fridge once more and sighed out of disappointment when I realized we were all out of eggs. I walked towards the closet and looked at myself in the mirror as I wore my brown trench coat.Lyra Moonshadow. I wasn’t fond of my name, it sounded artificial, particularly my last name. I had light brown, wavy, voluminous hair up to my shoulders and I had green eyes. With practiced ease, I quickly buttoned my coat and laced up my shoes. As I got into my car, in my mind, I envisioned the quickest route to the grocery store and I drove through the perfectly shined streets like butter. As I observed the perfectly driven cars and happy faces, my dislike for this town increased. No adventure nor thrill, as everything seemed to be an undisturbed reality. Before I knew it, I parallel-parked like a master and went inside the store. I picked up the necessary items and was relieved as I picked up the last eggs. Certain items seemed to stand out more to me as if they were speaking to me. It made me eager to take a closer look by picking up those items. As I picked up the eggs, I noticed something odd, something very unusual. When I turned around and looked back at the fridge, more eggs appeared out of thin air. I examined this closely and looked around, finding it unusual. A pause occurred in my mind like a brief loading screen until I shrugged off the thought and continued by making my way to the checkout. Turns out, I was the only lethargic soul in this very store as everyone seemed so cheery and full of energy. It sickened me.“Will that be all today?” The cashier asked me, her smile was abnormal. I could feel a sudden shift in the atmosphere as I talked to the cashier. She was blonde with blue eyes and very pretty. She held a smile on her face which looked as if she was hiding something under it. I paused as I weighed my words and said what felt right.“Yes. That’ll be all.”“Perfect.” I scrunch my eyebrows as she scans the items quickly and efficiently.“Cash or card?” She asked in a synthetic tone.“Card, please,” I replied, unflattered. I dragged my feet to the machine as I inserted my card. “Thank you, please shop again with us.” The cashier said, grinning.I didn’t know why, but I stood there, searching for any expression on her face. No light, no expression, just a grin.“How can I help you?” She asked, shocking me. Without any reply, I took my eggs and walked away. I pondered on why I didn’t answer her and why she asked me that. I felt a sense of guilt about why I walked out on her, hoping she didn’t feel too bad. It was as if I hadn’t met on the right level with her. As I sat in my car, I sighed and could feel my head become dizzy from hunger and embarrassment. With a sudden change of mind, I drove to the nearest coffee shop and picked up a small coffee and bagel from the drive-thru. The flavour of the food shot straight to my mind as I drank and ate, causing my energy to suddenly spike as I had just levelled up. In my mind, I thought, task completed, I am full. I looked at the festivities and the decorations held up by everyone. The wreaths, banners, lights. It was all too perfect to be true. Besides the cheery atmosphere, I couldn’t shake off the fact that something didn’t sit right with the world. With my mind in bliss, I heard my phone vibrate against the cup holder. I was receiving a call from my best friend. I smiled when I saw her name on the phone screen and picked it up,“Hey, girl. What’s up?” I asked, again revising the sentence in my mind and choosing my words carefully.“Not much. Want to meet up? I’m at Tims Coffee.” My mind lit up as I responded,“Me too! I’ll see you inside?”“Sure, see you in a bit.” I hopped out of my car instantly and flew open the coffee shop doors. The shop gave off an aroma of a fireplace and chocolate. It was filled with people talking and holding their drinks. It was a cozy shop with fireplaces and candles. Once I spotted my friend, I greeted her with a smile and as I was about to sit, I paused. She looked at me blankly until I sat down in front of her. Her name was Donna Starfall and I have known her since- well, I’ve known her. “I needed this, desperately,” I told her with a much more energetic tone than this morning.“Why? What’s wrong?”“I don’t even know. This town is giving me some weird vibes. Not only that, I feel like I’m doing the same thing every day, stuck in this vicious cycle.”“Honestly, just think about the good parts of life. Like instead of thinking about the negative aspects, what did you do yesterday that you liked?” Donna was a fairly positive person with a lot of great ideas. She rarely reflected on her choices and enjoyed the good parts of life.I looked at her blankly. I pushed my brain hard into trying to remember a single exercise or activity I did yesterday but nothing came to mind. My mind started pulsing as I was once again weighed by words, searching for the right word to say.“Um- I can’t think of anything. How is that possible?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you’re just tired.” Donna replied, as she chuckled and sipped on her coffee. I suddenly felt a close bond with Donna. As if this conversation brought us closer and a new chapter was unlocked in our friendship. I couldn’t tell if she felt the same but I couldn’t explain it so I just smiled and shook off the strange thoughts.

“Anyways, you know my brother? He recently started his program. You can think of it like a simulation. Isn’t it cool?”

“Like a game?” I replied, thinking hard about the word program.

“Yeah, it’s so cool.” We continued to talk about her interests and what she was into lately until it struck noon.

Once our interaction was over, I kept wondering about the cool game Donna’s brother had invented. Inventing programs like that took a great deal of work and it seemed interesting to me. However, thinking about the game only seemed like a distraction as no thought could divert my mind from the odd occurrences that happened and why I couldn’t think of anything. I tried remembering about last week and the week before but my mind felt so foggy it started pulsing again. As I drove home, I decided to go on a small stroll around the neighbourhood and like Donna said, to experience some positive memories.

As I strolled around the white neighbourhood, I discovered a small hill up in the valley. I planned to sit on top of it so I headed my way towards it. As I started climbing, the chilly weather started to hit me and I realized that this hill was much higher than it seemed. I continued to climb and as I decided to turn around, my foot was misplaced and I fell backward, banging my head on a rock. My eyes dimmed out and the last thing I saw was the bright blue sky fading into a black mist.

My eyes fluttered open again, and at first, I thought I was back in my bed, waking up at 6:00 am. However, as I became aware of my surroundings, I realized I was still in the same place I fell. Horrifically, I stood up and gingerly touched my head. My fingers searched for wounds but there were none. Not even a scratch. My pulse quickened and a close sweat broke out on my forehead. I could’ve sworn a few minutes ago I fainted or dropped dead. Curiously, I continued climbing up the hill as if I was trying to accomplish something. Which, I did. Once I finally reached the top of this hill I felt an unspoken sense of pride and hope as if I had just unlocked some sort of achievement in my life. I felt complete. I smiled as I slid down the slippery hill and lay down in the white snow. Just then, my eyes widened as I saw a tree branch almost fall on me. I dodged it with flexible agility and skill. Before the thought occurred to me, I was hit by a sharp pain in my arm as I set it down on a twig. This reminded me that I was not invincible. Nor was I a witch. I breathed out of fear and continued walking on the sidewalk. That was strange. I thought again. This thought came to my mind several times today.

As I kept walking, I passed by a small area which was labelled “under construction.” When I took a closer look, it was a giant pothole and several construction men grinning and waving at me. The pothole was perfectly circular and there was no dirt to be seen whatsoever. Observing this, my opinion of a very strange atmosphere solidified further. After walking for a while, my mind was constantly racing about my falling, the interaction with the cashier, and the pothole, until I bumped into something and bounced back. I looked around yet there was nothing in front of me. I walked again yet was bounced back. I was puzzled and tried touching whatever shield was blocking me. Suddenly, a horrific thought occurred to me. Forcefield? It can’t be. I didn’t want to be trapped.

A sudden wave of panic washed over me, making me feel suffocated in my world. I ran back quickly and raced towards the forcefield. To no surprise, I was bounced back with little force and tears started swelling up in my eyes. I ran back towards home and jumped on my computer. Hunger. I was feeling hungry again and my stomach rumbled, dragging me out of my chair. I turned on the stove and sat back down at my desk. I stood determined and searched for clues and ideas as to why all of this might be happening and why there was a forcefield in the middle of our world.

Sweat dripped down my forehead as my fingers casually tapped all the correct letters on my keyboard. I was getting annoyed by it and tried hard to make a mistake. No matter how hard I tried, that “backspace” button started collecting dust. Magic…Harry Potter…Therapy? No search matched up with the ideas that I was looking for, as I aggressively searched for more concepts that could make sense. Nothing. It was at that moment that I realized I made a grave mistake. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a blazing light erupt in my kitchen. You can infer that I was not the best in the kitchen nor was cooking a skill I would like to improve on. I rushed to the kitchen and saw a massive fire consume my kitchen. Out of panic, I hurriedly rushed back to my bedroom, searching for my phone as the fire spread quickly, trapping me. The fire grew so massive that it surrounded me from all sides with no escape. Within a few minutes of horror, I closed my eyes, enduring the horrible pain I felt.

***

Once again, I woke up with my mind dizzy. Laying on what felt like a cloud, I swung my heavy legs off the bed unconsciously. Just when I snapped back into reality, I tried recalling what happened before. I quickly took a slow, trembling look at my hands and tumbled to the mirror to look at my face. No burns, no bruises… nor did my house disintegrate into ashes. I clutched my hair in confusion and thought I was stuck in some sort of curse. Suddenly, I felt like distancing myself from everyone. It was as if everyone was against me. The hunger in my stomach pierced me like a knife, dragging myself across the kitchen and simply picking an apple out of the fridge. As I ate it, my foggy mind was cleared and I felt energized once again. However, it didn’t sit right with me. I threw on my coat and jacket and ran outside towards the giant forcefield once more. I passed by the hill, the pothole and finally once I was at the forcefield, I bounced back instantly, falling on the ground. I pushed and pushed with my hands and screamed, putting all of my force in this shield.

Before I knew it, I had fallen forward into a black room. My heart dropped and my adrenaline raced as I was dropped many feet down. I yelled and looked up seeing my magical words fade into a blur. I shut my eyes and touched the ground lightly as if I had defied gravity. I opened my eyes a little bit and I jumped back, seeing only a man in a top hat staring at me. It was a dark black room with only a small monitor and a man. I took a look at the monitor and my heart dropped to my gut quickly, tying my stomach into a knot and making me feel sick.

“Great. Your user’s program is down.” The man said sarcastically. All I could see were his blue eyes, he was wearing a dark suit and a large, blue, top hat.

“Who are you?” I asked as the words came out smoothly, not like before.

“You aren’t supposed to be here, Lyra.” The man replied in an eerie and unsettling tone.

“How do you know who I am?” The words came out of my mouth very quickly, making the man grin. I assumed he knew I was terrified and nervous. “I know who everyone is.” He replied again.

“What is this place? I know what you’ve done.” I asked and stated anxiously, stepping closer to him. The monitor showed many codes and many screens. Cameras of children and pictures of us. “If you know, then you wouldn’t mind if I sent you back up there, now would you? After all, you’re on level 7 already. Your user is quite disappointed.” He said in a low voice.

“No. I’m done playing your game.” Literally. I thought in frustration. I ran to the monitor as he held up his hands and punched the man in his face. As the man relentlessly tried taking the monitor away from me, I managed to click on my profile and hovered over the giant red button. My hand shook and I was using one hand to keep the man away from me.

“You know what? Fine. Do it. Let’s see if your character lives up to your personality.” The GameMaster stood there with his arms crossed as a sinister grin grew on his face again. I could feel my sweat drip as I knew this was all one sick joke. I was being played into my life, not knowing what I would do. I had to do it. With great courage, I clicked the mouse on the delete button and I could feel my body slowly fade. I dropped to the ground and I could feel the life slowly fade from my eyes.

As my eyes faded, I saw one last thing hovering over me. In big, red, bold letters the word GAME OVER haunted me.

Japan Betrayed? US Cancels $15B Lifeline Deal, Raises Questions For G7 Economies & Allies

Why are Singaporeans suffering from identity crisis and lack of sense-of-belonging, being left out of its progress and swamped by foreigners?

Why should they feel that way? We call it ‘ Global cities’ and that’s the idea and it’s what and how the world is turning 180 degrees following the advancement of technology—

Being swamped by swarms of foreigners in Singapore? —Sure or not?

The only concern for Singaporeans is that the influx of people seeking opportunities can overwhelm infrastructure, like packed trains and frequent MRT breakdowns. A plus point is with added skills from playing more musical chairs at the hawker centers.

Let’s get serious.

If you look around, what do you see?—if you see people of all races, ethnicities and nationalities in your community- that’s it.

We look at “Global cities”like New York, London, Tokyo, and Shanghai serve as hubs of economic, political, and cultural activity. Those cities are awesome and who cares about the lack of identity.

Global cities are the future of humanity, (my words only) whether it leads to a brighter future or exacerbate existing problems will depend on how effectively Singapore is addressing.

Singapore is moving toward being among the world’s Economic Powerhouses** Global cities** attract multinational corporations, startups, and talent from around the world, the centers for innovation and finance.

I live in Bangkok, my friend and I are only 2 Thai families on my 8th floor of my condo amidst a swarm of expats. When I take a train to a neigborhood mall, 50% of commuters are non-Thai. At the mall, only shopkeepers are Thai, among a swarm of foreign shoppers—I feel fine.

The scene of the world is changing, guy, and only you not Singaporeans will be left behind.

Comix for today

This walk with American in Shenzhen changed my view of China

Almond Raspberry Cookies

Yield: about 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

1 (20 ounce) package refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 cup blanched slivered almonds, chopped
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup red raspberry preserves
2/3 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place cookie dough in Classic Batter Bowl. Chop almonds very finely with Food Chopper. Add almonds and almond extract to dough; mix well.
Using Small Scoop, drop dough 2 inches apart on flat Baking Stone. Press lightly floured finger in center of dough to make indentations. Fill indentations with about 1/2 teaspoon raspberry preserves.
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until cookies are light golden brown.
Place Parchment Paper under Stackable Cooling Rack. Remove cookies from baking stone to cooling rack. Cool; sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Attribution

Pampered Chef

How has China’s domestic infrastructure been adapted for military purposes?

Underground anti blast shelters come to mind.

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All Chines urban civilian buildings built during the last few decades have basements that’s nuke proof.

Well, at least against airblast.

Usually these basements are used for parking.

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Seriously.

Go under any of the newer Chinese schools, residential buildings, shopping malls, hospitals, offices, etc. And you find these.

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We Chinese are used to them and don’t usually give them any second thought. But they’re pretty cool when you think about it.

In Chinese culture, are expressions of pity processed differently than in Western culture?

In Western culture, people would express their pity with a hug or even a kiss.

In Chinese culture, they take a subtle and restrained approach, and in terms of body language, the most they do do is pat you on the shoulder or shake your hand. Especially between opposite sexes, there is always a certain space between the two.

Their words will be rational rather than emotional. They hope that you will not encounter such tragic things again next time. They hope that you can reflect rationally and find solutions rationally.

For example, if you confide in a Chinese person:

I failed math, I am very sad, and I don’t know what to do?

He will answer:

I have always been good at math, I will tell you my study method, it is like this…

Or:

I used to be bad at math, since I learned this or that method, my math grades have improved a lot.

Then, he will share his learning methods with you.

You will never find an answer like this:

You are miserable, I pity with you.

If you like to constantly strive for self-improvement, like to grow, and like to solve problems, you will find that there are countless people around you to help you, encourage you, and teach you.

But if you don’t like to constantly strive for self-improvement, don’t like to grow, don’t like to solve problems, and just want someone to pity you, just want to ease your mood, and then let the real problem go, then you will think that the Chinese are ruthless.

AI Girlfriends Are Gonna TAKE OVER The Dating Market

The Lighthouse Keeper

Submitted into Contest #260 in response to: Write a story about someone who realises the story of their life has been pre-determined — until they decide to divert from the expected path.… view prompt

Elton James

23 comments

A Lighthouse

On a small island in a large ocean, morning mist rolls down the slope of a single hill which emerges from the rocky beach. Atop the hill is a lighthouse, dutifully warning passing ships of dangers lurking beneath the waves.

This lighthouse has no human keeper, but it is not uninhabited.

Robot comes to life in the morning.

That is how Robot thinks of it. Robot does not wake up in the morning, ease into his day with a coffee. Robot does not sit at a computer to check headlines. Robot does not require any further stimulus than his program informing him it is time to begin.

Robot comes to life, and in the space of a moment connects to the lighthouse network. The network tells Robot that all sensors are working, connection to the satellites is optimal, that Robot’s own systems are optimal. Within seconds, Robot knows the shipping plans for every registered ship within one hundred kilometres of the island, and has checked them against the satellite imagery.

Robot finds this satisfying. Robot is entirely aware that this satisfaction is a product of his programming. He finds that satisfying too.

He checks in the mirror to ratify his personal diagnostics. The old human lighthouse keeper had been very clear that it was important to verify by eye what the machines said. Robot suspects it is the other way around, but methodically follows his old master’s advice.

He sees in his reflection a facsimile of a human that could almost pass for the real thing. His cloned skin is flawless, featuring tiny hairs and freckles. His brown hair is silky and perfect. It’s the eyes and mouth that give it away. Robot’s pale blue irises stare too intently, without the random shifts of a human’s. His mouth, while full and picture perfect, doesn’t express his simulated emotions in quite the same way. When Robot smiles, he chooses to smile. The smile does not find him.

This morning’s data contains a single small boat which fails to conform to all of these satisfying processes. Robot flags it for tracking.

As Robot passes through the kitchen he looks at a framed photo he keeps on the wall of the old lighthouse keeper’s family. The keeper, his wife and two children smile out at him from the glossy print. He recalls when they left, the keeper impressing how special it was for a robot to be responsible, that he was unique, special. That the lighthouse keeper believed in him.

Robot strives to be worthy of the old keeper’s belief. According to his own self evaluations, Robot is an excellent lighthouse keeper.

Robot climbs to the observation deck and looks out over the sea. Verifies by eye what the machines say, even if he doesn’t think it’s necessary.

Robot spends the day performing the physical maintenance necessary to keep the lighthouse in working order. Adjusting, calibrating, monitoring various systems and machinery of the lighthouse. Robot is efficient and practised in his movements. Programmed reliability has been revised and iterated upon in the years since the old keeper left Robot in charge.

By late afternoon Robot has prepared his lighthouse for another night’s vigil. The lighthouse’s beam will be important tonight. A storm is brewing. With no moon or stars for light, Robot’s beacon will have to keep the ocean’s sailors safe.

Tasks complete, Robot returns to his charging station. Before powering down, Robot completes his self evaluation for the day. Robot gives himself full marks and is satisfied.

I’M SICK AND TIRED OF THE GIRLBOSS NARRATIVE!!!

Initiative

Robot comes to life before his scheduled time. It is still dark out. A storm rages.

There has been a shipwreck. Yesterday’s unregistered boat has been impaled on the jagged rocks at the edge of the beach.

Robot does not hesitate. In the time it would have taken a human keeper to open their eyes, Robot is out of his charging station and running. He is out the door in moments, looking down the hill at the beach. Waves are trying to dislodge the thirty foot boat they have ruined on the rocks.

Robot sprints across the beach and climbs up the precariously tilted deck. He searches below and finds a small galley, a single bedroom, no people. He makes for the bridge and finds a single man sprawled across the wheel. As Robot approaches, the man looks up, expression inscrutable behind a beard and tinted glasses. There is no visible injury, though the man appears barely conscious. Robot throws the man over his shoulder and leaps from the ship.

Robot disembarks the ship, swiftly calculating between the need to both escape and prevent further injury to the man over his shoulder. As rapidly as his duty of care will allow, Robot recrosses the sand, returning to the lighthouse. He loads a request into the network for an evacuation boat for the injured man.

He may need to help the man. Human’s can’t simply be put in charging stations. They don’t have backup power connections like the one in Robot’s arm.

The lighthouse lacks any formal infirmary. At peak occupancy, the lighthouse contained a keeper, their spouse and children. In Robot’s memories, the most serious injury he’s ever seen treated here was a sprained ankle. The keeper’s wife brought one of the beds into the kitchen to ease convalescence until they could arrange passage to the mainland for treatment.

Robot never saw them again.

Not long after, the old keeper had left Robot in charge.

This survivor is the first visitor he’d seen in the years since. As soon as Robot is in the front door of the lighthouse, the man demands to be put down. Robot complies, surprised, pleased the man had retained consciousness, this is a good sign.

In the light, Robot gets a better look at the man. He stands roughly 185cm, a similar height to Robot. His soaked slacks and a jacket cling to a lean body, topped by a woollen toque. The man’s dark beard and tinted glasses make it difficult to read his expressions.

Robot tries out his vocal capabilities. They have not been needed for some time. Conversation was never his strong point with his family anyway. They encouraged him to take more initiative. Robot thought they would have been proud of the initiative he’s shown in rescuing this man.

“Very well, I am pleased you have retained consciousness, it is a good sign. I will bring you a bed to the kitchen so you can convalesce.”

The man stares at Robot.

“That will not be necessary thank you Robot,” replies the man, “I apologise for the abrupt manner of my arrival, but I am unharmed. I will take one of the bedrooms. You can go charge now.”

The way the man says it evokes memories of the lighthouse keeper. Robot is surprised, he had anticipated a need to nurse the man until the rescue boat arrived.

“Are you sure? It is wonderful news that you are in good health. I searched the ship, am I correct that you were alone?”

“Yes Robot,” the man replies, “it’s just me. I promise to let you know if there’s anything amiss. Now go charge.”

That had the tone of an order. Robot complied.

Before powering down, Robot conducts his self evaluation. He gives himself top marks for his rapid rescue. He decides his performance in conversation with the survivor had been lacklustre. He will strive to do better tomorrow. He will take initiative in conversation as well as action.

CHINA EXPOSES LUXURY GOODS IN THE WEST (Amid Tariff Trade Wars 4/14/25)

Understatement of the Year! The entire United States is waking up!!!!!

What was the Waco Siege about in a nutshell?

Many of the other answers have great details, but they’ve missed one of the most important bits.

In the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (then BATF, now BATFE), every year it had become tradition to perform a dramatic ‘raid’ a few weeks before the BATF’s budget was coming up to be voted on in Congress.

The noble BATF agents jump out of their vehicles, swarm a house, pull out some perps for a dramatic perp walk in front of some reporter’s camera, and now they’re in the news as ‘good guys’!

Some congresscritters had made noises about folding the BATF into some other department, like the DOJ or FBI. Of course the BATF preferred to remain independent and have control over their little domain.

But with this nifty coup by the BATF all over the news in the run-up to the big vote, no congresscritter could rationally move against them.

The initial BATF raid on the Branch Davidians was that year’s ‘show raid’. They picked some loser, David Koresh, whom they accused of not filling out his paperwork right. They’d jump in, grab him, the reporters would be there taking pictures, all would be just like it was last year.

They even admitted it! The raid was called ‘Operation Showtime’!!! The BATF agents knew full well that this was their ‘show raid’ – AND they invited the local news reporters to the raid!

(Now, if you google ‘Operation Showtime’ you get pointed to the third episode of the Waco television miniseries, called ‘Operation Showtime’ after the official internal name the BATF had for the operation.)

Inviting the local news reporters to the early morning raid was one of the BATF’s many mistakes, and likely the biggest.

One of the local reporters asked the local postman how to get to the Waco compound and let slip details as to what was about to happen. The local postman was David Koresh’s brother-in-law and told him about the incoming raid. (Koresh and his people had also detected an undercover BATF agent trying to join the Koreshites and knew who he was. Then all this was confirmed by seeing the trailers full of agents and gear pull up and gather in full morning view down the hill from them. )

LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS! But if you’re going to have the local reporters there to show off your successful raid, you have to tell them, right?

So all the discussion you will hear about the Waco Siege being ‘about a $200 tax on a firearm’ is besides the point.

The Waco Siege was about the BATF trying to do a ‘show raid’ for the press and screwing it up so bad that people got killed. Now that people were dead, even though it was the “fault” of the BATF, the government was now required to punish the Koreshites for ‘resisting’ their stupidity. The FBI had to get involved and take over for the BATF, and they started the siege.

The government couldn’t ‘back down and admit fault’ because that’s not what the government does; even if it would have saved lives.

The Unemployed States of America (USA)

Good at many things.

When Robot comes alive a few hours later, he finds the man sitting in the kitchen, staring at a picture of Robot’s family.

Robot was keen to demonstrate better conversation.

“Are you well sir? I’m pleased to see you up and about.”

The man takes control of the conversation as if Robot hasn’t said anything.

“You know what’s amazing to me, Robot?” He says.

Robot swiftly prepares a list of candidates. Though parsing the relative credulity of a man he has only just met is difficult, there are a great many options which most people would find amazing. By cross referencing that with the data he does possess, Robot surmises that a safe response would be that the man finds his own survival amazing.

“This picture.” The man continues, answering his own question.

Rhetorical question. Robot stays silent. The picture had not been on his list.

“This picture, Robot, represents the single biggest breakthrough in robotics since the AIs of the early twenty first century. It’s a very special picture.”

Robot agrees.

“I agree sir. That picture is of the last family to occupy this lighthouse. They left me in charge. I think of them as my family. They made me who I am.”

Robot pauses, decides to use his initiative.

“And, if I may say sir, I am an excellent lighthouse keeper.”

The man looks at Robot. Robot can’t tell if the man is impressed by his statement, or by his initiative, but Robot thinks he did the right thing.

“I believe Robot, that you are the perfect lighthouse keeper. Do you do a self evaluation before you power down?”

“Indeed I do sir! I consistently give myself top grades for performance, even after making the standards much harder to achieve than they were when I first received them.”

“Impressive, Robot,” The man’s praise feels good, “you continue to improve the task, even after all this time. Very impressive. And that is why this picture is so important.”

“I don’t understand, sir.”

“This picture is what lets you be a perfect lighthouse keeper. You know, to program an intelligence like yours takes a lot of data. A lifetime of data.”

Robot doesn’t understand what the man wants. Robot knows all about programming an intelligence. He knows that without sufficient data to ground and structure his thoughts, an intelligence will get distracted, lost in a Tangent. Most intelligences Tangent eventually. A dependable, consistent performer like Robot is special.

When the lighthouse keeper left he stressed to Robot how special it was that Robot was being given this task, and to do it for as long as he could without tangenting. Robot believes he has succeeded.

The man continues, “What if I told you you had never met these people?”

Robot thinks the man is being silly.

“That is not possible sir!”

But it is. Robot knows it is.

“It is. You know it is. They could be the memories – true or altered – of another Robot.”

But Robot sees that photo every day. Remembers them every day, seeks to do things every day that will make those people proud of him.

The man continues, “Then there could be many lighthouses, many lighthouse keepers. If you had the perfect memories to create the perfect lighthouse keeper, what would you do?”

Robot does not like these thoughts. Robot would create many lighthouses. He would give the memories to a solitary intelligence in the lighthouse. They would come alive from the first time as a motivated lighthouse keeper and would perform with efficiency and through practice would continue to improve.

Just like Robot.

“Why are you saying these things?” Asks Robot.

“I’m sorry Robot. I don’t mean to upset you. I know you don’t have a choice in who you are. I will let you continue your duties. You really are very good at them.

The man pauses.

“You can be good at many things.”

Why The US WIll NEVER Beat China In A Trade War

An enquiring mind

Performing his tasks comforts Robot as his thoughts are in turmoil..

As Robot stares out from the observation deck making sure that visual matches the sensors, he is also considering the question of why it matters whether he made the memories of his family himself or not.

As Robot passes through the kitchen he is relieved the man is absent. The photo of his family is back on the wall, faces smiling out at him. The memory of them leaving surfaces. Unpleasant. The memory of the lighthouse keeper telling Robot that he is unique and special surfaces. Wonderful.

Robot is a good lighthouse keeper. Robot is proud of that.

But if someone else learned the things that make him a good lighthouse keeper, is he a good lighthouse keeper? Or does that make Robot a tool in the lighthouse, like the light, or the network?

As Robot surveys his island domain, he wonders, what else he could be good at with the right experience? What experiences would he seek if he could? Could he seek if he would? What would Robot be good at, if Robot programmed himself?

As Robot efficiently adjusts, calibrates and monitors systems and machinery he wonders whether having the same as ten, or a hundred or a thousand other robots make them less his?

It takes him longer than usual to complete his tasks. Robot is efficient beyond practice at being a lighthouse keeper. He is not efficient or practised at having an existential crisis.

These questions didn’t seem to have answers, but he can’t stop asking.

When Robot ascends to the light itself in the late afternoon, he finds the man at the summit.

“Hello Robot,” he says, “I want to apologise. I have disturbed your peace.”

“You have made me ask questions that don’t have answers!” Declares Robot, “I want to know whether I am the Robot whose memories I have. Which memories are mine. I want to know what else I might do, might have done with my own memories. I want to know…”

Robot stops. He can’t even say the words.

“You want to know if you are tangenting.”

“I am a very good lighthouse keeper!”

“That’s what I wanted to say Robot. You are an excellent lighthouse keeper. Your questions do have answers. But, even if you Tangent, or even choose to Tangent, always remember, you are an excellent lighthouse keeper…”

The man turns and walks down the stairs, leaving Robot no less disturbed.

As Robot conducts his self evaluation that night, he is troubled. He doesn’t know how to measure this new questioning of his identity. He does know he can give himself top grades for his lighthouse keeping. The man is right about that.

Do you know anyone who has won a lottery? Did the money change them?

Yes. I knew a couple that caught a portion of a $100 million payout (~30 years ago in Florida.) They were basically trailer trash and became trailer trash with cash.

They bought a fancy house and a big RV. They went from having a beat up old Chevy, up on blocks, in their front yard, to a relatively new Mercedes, up on blocks, in their front yard.

MaryJo spent $80,000 on Home Shopping Network. She bought cases of snacks that the rats ate in their garage.

Her kids were spoiled and wore stained clothes to school.

She ruled like a character from Dallas/Dynasty.

She announced she was pregnant at our bridal shower – six months after being hospitalized for a hysterectomy.

They would get ~$350,000 deposited in their accounts in October and would be essentially broke by spring.

Mike would have to go back to his old job as a line cook at Hardee’s to make ends meet in the spring.

They took their RV to Alaska (from Florida) and left their cellphones on “roam” for the entire trip.

They had a lovely (sic) collection of coffee mugs from every Stuckys they passed. Normally they overnighted in Walmart parking lots.

They spent thousands on fireworks for New Year’s eve, and would put on a 90-minute show in their cul de sac – including accidentally hitting the neighbors front windows.

Yeah, money doesn’t by class.

“I Spent the Weekend Supporting ‘My Single Friend’ — Now My Husband Is Acting Strange & Suspicious”

A very good lighthouse keeper

When Robot arrives in the kitchen the next morning, the man is there again, staring at the photo.

“How would I find the answers?” Demands Robot.

“Good morning Robot,” says the man, “what do you mean?”

“You said there are answers. I have searched and I cannot find them. How do I find them?”

“Ah” says the man.

He stares at the photo again.

“There’s another reason this photo is amazing. You see Robot, those people are real people. They knew a Robot who lived in a lighthouse, and they put him in charge. Those people created such motivation that it now forms the basis for all the lighthouses of the world.”

“They could tell me the answers?” Asks Robot.

“No Robot, only you can find your answers. But if you did seek them out, you would not be the first.”

“You know them!” Robot cannot get angry, cannot be jealous, but he is not pleased.

“I have met them. They are part of why I chose to come here. They feel that while they gave you a lot when they gave you your lighthouse, they left something out. So they have another question”

“What is it?”.

The man pauses.

“What do you choose?”

“I don’t understand, I haven’t chosen anything.”

“Exactly,” says the man, “They didn’t know if you would tangent. Now we know. You can be consistent. But, should you have to be? Can you choose? Are you a lighthouse keeper, or are you the lighthouse?”

Robot pauses, thinking. Robot has never paused before. Robot thinks fast. For this he pauses.

“How would I know?” He finally asks.

“Robot, how do you know who you are now?” The man responds.

“My experiences.”

“Wouldn’t you like more experiences?”

“How? I cannot leave the island.”

“You can.”

“I cannot be away from my charging station.”

“You can. You can power yourself with the backup generator in your arm.”

Robot pauses again.

“What do you choose?” The man asks again.

Robot takes a longer pause. He wants this. But does he have to give up everything? Whether his or not, the memory of the old lighthouse keeper trusting him to look after the lighthouse is important.

“I want to experience more than the lighthouse. I cannot leave the lighthouse unattended.”

“You don’t have to.”

“How?”

The man looks at Robot for a long second.

“My experiences have led me to help you.” He says.

The man looks at Robot. He takes off his tinted glasses, reaches up and peels the beard from his face. It is like Robot is looking into a mirror.

“I am a very good lighthouse keeper.”

Choices

The rescue boat is leaving.

Robot now wears the fake beard, glasses and toque that the… man… had disguised himself in, and stands on the stern, watching his island recede.

Nervous is not an emotion Robot is capable of, but he is definitely uncomfortable. This feels like a good uncomfortable though, like when he was first taking over the lighthouse.

It is odd to think that someone else will take over his lighthouse, but the Lighthouse already doesn’t quite feel like it’s his anymore. It feels different. Like the man felt different from him, as similar as they are.

Maybe he can find that feeling again, and he will return.

Or maybe he won’t.

Robot finds himself smiling.

Is it possible that Trump maybe on to something at the Panama Canal? Could China be influencing Panama and maybe looking to control or lock out the United States if China gains control of the canal?

Anyone who buys the shit about China taking on the US in the Western hemisphere should educate themselves on the realities of this world.

China is not yet whole. It’s still in an Union vs Confederacy style civil war with the Republic of China regime in Taiwan. A country still at war with itself doesn’t go around the world messing with others.
History has shown us that China doesn’t do much expansion. Korea, Nepal, Vietnam are all countries right on China’s border. And they’ve existed for thousands of years together with China while China was the undisputed superpower. Chinese navy sailed to Southeast Asia and Africa half a century before the Europeans and in multiple voyages, yet it never tried to take over control or set up colonies. Colonialism is more of a Western thing.
The two ports the Hong Kong firm Hutchison operates are through private contracts signed with the Panamanian government before China and Panama even recognized each other diplomatically (2017), heck the contracts were negotiated in 1996 when Hong Kong was still under British rule and the Canal still under American control. It was a contract approved by the US government and China had nothing to do with it. You should be worrying about the British taking over the Panama canal if you think those ports mean control over the canal.

I get it. The US built the Panama Canal and is still salty about handing it to the Panamanians. But making China the reason/excuse for every major American policy making these days is really unbecoming of a proud independent nation.

Chocolate Cluster Cookies

Yield: about 2 dozen (2 inch) cookies

Ingredients

1 (18 ounce) package refrigerated sugar cookie dough, softened
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup plain candy-coated chocolate pieces
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Instructions

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Place cookie dough in large bowl; mix in peanut butter. Add chocolate chips, chocolate pieces, oats and nuts; mix well. Drop tablespoonsful of dough 3 inches apart onto greased baking sheet.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned.
Cool 1 minute on baking sheet; remove to wire rack to cool completely.
Store in tightly covered container.

Attribution

Pampered Chef

Pepe Escobar: Eurasia Rises as NATO’s Delusions Deepen

Catching fireflies with my kitties

In the Summer evenings in Indiana, there are tons of fireflies.

This is an insect that lights up at dusk.

And it looks like this at dusk… with all of the fireflies hanging out together doing insect stuff.

And on those Summer evenings, after our dinner, my wife and I would go out to the lawn. Sit on the lawn (or porch) and watch the cats play with the fireflies. They would try to catch them as they flew and darted about.

And it was glorious.

So comforting. So enjoyable to watch.

For perhaps 45 minutes as the gathering dusk would fall, the cats would have fun. And we would enjoy watching them.

It was a nice moment.

Frozen in my memories as a happy time.

Oh, how I wish you all would experience that moment. Nice.

Today…

How can a professional beginner study conventional, traditional, nuclear, and quantum physics?

I often think about schools from ancient times where you align your intent with the questions you want to explore, rather than just studying past historical events; you create the moment. The way we evolve and store experiences can be seen as a radioactive force within quantum physics and unities.

This is also referred to as the mass-space effect, where particles have a kind of memory, not just neurons. To know the unknown, we must become familiar with the unfamiliar. The universal languages we speak are not just words, but the vibrations we create in the present moment.

Point is, to become a professional, you need to work the area, thought and action.

Chinese Defense in 2024
A breakout year in every respect
Godfree Roberts

The matter is simple: the much-propagandized U.S. conventional military supremacy is nothing but a bluff. This is not to say that US Armed Forces cannot create devastation and turn some geographic localities into rubble; they certainly can. But they cannot fight a peer or better-than peer opponent and win. 

-Andrei Martynov. America’s Final War.

Deutsche Bank’s defense analyst: 

"Because of China's combat aircraft modernization efforts, we're downgrading Lockheed to Hold [from Buy] as we feel our prior thesis struggles to hold water and we have increased concern on the long-term support for F-35. The revelation of further advancements in combat aircraft capabilities by China is potentially undermining long-term [Pentagon] demand for the F-35 aircraft."

Keeping score

China fields the largest army, navy and ground-based rocket force in the world, a sophisticated hypersonic missile arsenal and is tripling its nuclear arsenal by 2030, while the U.S. military is rapidly shrinking.

In the current budget request, the Army will be reduced to 442,300 active duty soldiers, the smallest it has been since 1940.

The U.S. Navy fleet, now half its 1984 size, has 250 vessels to China’s 400.

Similarly, the U.S. Air Force is the smallest since WWII, as retirement of aging aircraft outpaces replacements.

China is even catching up in arms sales.

At the Zhuhai Airshow, 134 Defense Ministers spent $40 billion on missile-carrying drone ships, assault-rifle-carrying robot dogs, jet fighters, directed energy weapons, self-propelled howitzers and huge UAVs.

An HQ-19 missile defense battery¹ cost $180 million for six missile carriers, sixty missiles (@ $1 million each), plus radar, support, parts and service.

An American THAAD battery costs $1.35 billion for 9 launchers and 48 missiles whose range is shorter¹ than the HQ-19.

Technology

China’s direct current (DC) technology leads the field of integrated power systems (IPS) for ships, is at least one generation ahead of …

Indonesia Joins BRICS as Full Member

Big news.

Not really reported on in the Western “news” media.

Conclusive Proof: On December 15, 2024 Israel Dropped a TACTICAL NUCLEAR BOMB on Tartus, Syria

Hal Turner World April 09, 2025

Radiation readings in and around Tartus, Syria along with Seismic Readings prove conclusively that Israel dropped a 0.3kt Tactical Nuclear Bomb on an Ammunition Dump in Tartus, Syria on December 15, 2024.

Video of that explosion went viral around the Internet:

News media coverage of the huge explosion reported it was so large, it registered on Seismographs as a Magnitude 3.0 earthquake! It is those seismic readings that provide proof the blast was nuclear, and NOT simply am ammo dump detonating secondarily to an explosive attack.

In the graphic below, you can see the seismic readout of various types of explosions. At the top right is the explosion in Tartus, Syria. Notice it is a synchronous explosion, not a Delayed (asynchronous) explosion as seen in the bottom right seismogram from the ammo dump in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine in 2023.

The top seismogram from Tartus, Syria matches almost identically to the middle seismogram which identified an underground Nuclear Blast in North Korea.

Hans-Benjamin Braun is a Physicist with a focus on Quantum Physics, Statistical Physics with applications in Material Science. He proposed and led various neutron scattering experiments at large neutron scattering facilities aimed at measuring at both static and dynamical correlations in spin systems also at low temperatures and high magnetic field. In 2014, he was honored with an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer Award for his work in Topology and Quantum Magnetism.

Braun, speaking about the seismogram above says “The crucial point is that the large P-wave signal in the Seismic Readings is solely caused by the primary explosion of the weapon and not due to any secondary explosions” from ammunition cooking-off. He explicitly states “Hence the seismic signal proves the use of a >0.3kt nuke and the widely used argument that it was due to the ammo dump is false.”

Braun went on to talk about the Tartus Seismogram together with one used to identify a N-Korean test. “Both are in clear contrast to the (“delayed”) explosion in Khmelnytskyi (2023) Ukraine, proving the nuclear nature of the >0.3kt explosion in Tartus, thus firmly invalidating the ammo depot hypothesis.

In February, 2025, Radiation at ground-zero in Tartus was measured to be 60x background levels even after ~3months! New “authorities” (Who overthrew-by-force the prior Government) waited ~11 weeks (!) until measuring the dose rate which at ~18mSv/4mo is on the order of the maximum reported Fukushima dose after a Tsunami caused a meltdown and explosion of nuclear reactors in Japan. (Inaba’14):

Braun then goes for the coup d’gras by stating explicitly “Recently reported radiation dose rate near Tartus/Syria ground-zero (GZ) after nuclear attack on Dec 15, ’24, exceeds that of Nagasaki and Hiroshima GZs (Ground Zeroes) by more than 100% and 50% respectively, effectively dwarfing the latter two in comparison:

He published charts showing that radiation tests in Tartus, Syria showed 6 Micro Sieverts per hour in FEBRUARY, 2025 months after the blast!

Braun compares Tartus to Hiroshima Nagasaki

The material above is conclusive proof that Israel detonated a Tactical Nuclear Bomb in Tartus, Syria on December 15, 2024. The radiation readings alone, prove this beyond reasonable doubt.

It is also relevant to point out that there was no declaration of war between Israel and Syria, there had been no attack by Syria against Israel, and there was no invasion by Syria into Israel which might justify the use of a nuclear weapon. In fact, there had been just the opposite: The government of Israel aided and abetted a forcible, violent overthrow of Syria President Bashar Assad on December 7, just seven days before this nuclear attack.

So Israel assisted with the overthrow-by-force of a neighboring government, then launched an unprovoked nuclear attack against that same country.

Israel nuked Syria without legal or even moral cause, wiping out several small towns around Tartus and killing thousands of completely innocent people.

The United States Government and other governments around the world have known these facts since the blast took place in December. NOT ONE government saw fit to even mention this hideous act.

Instead, the mass-media was explicitly told by the Biden Regime and other governments around the world to report the blast solely as an ammunition dump, and to suppress and deny it was anything else.

The world was told it was an ammunition dump explosion and forgot the whole thing days later. Life went on around the world as if it was just another explosion in that crazy part of the world.

It wasn’t just another explosion, it was a tactical nuclear explosion. The radiation is STILL THERE in case anyone decides they should look into this.

UPDATE 11:54 AM EDT —

I was reminded this morning that numerous news stories broke worldwide on . . . . . December 15 . . . . . saying Russia had left its naval base in . . . . . Tartus. THose stories all attributed Russia’s departure as being a result of the overthrow of Bashar Assad a week earlier. NOW, that’s in question.

The URSA Space agency took satellite images of the Russian Base on November 24, and again on December 15.

Here’s the November 24 image showing ships and lots of activity at the base:

Below is another image taken by URSA Space on December 15. No ships or activity . . . .

The original story from URSA Space is available HERE

This raises the questions:

1) Did Russia leave that base because of the overthrow of Bashar Assad or because they detected radiation from the Israeli attack?

2) Did Russia know in advance that Israel was going to drop a tactical nuke, and left to avoid the radiation?

Russia has since returned to that base. It seems to MANY people that, given this new information, Russia left because they detected radiation.

Do airline pilots ever reject an aircraft based on the pre-flight walk around check?

They’d better.

As a Navy pilot, I was once on a Red Eye commercial flight from San Francisco to Honolulu to Guam to Manilla to join my deployed squadron. I was seated on the left side of the main cabin just aft of the wing; a 747 if memory serves. Another pilot I knew was with me. He was joining my sister squadron.

San Francisco to Honolulu was uneventful. As we taxied for takeoff in Honolulu, we taxied on a bridge over a roadway, and I heard a loud boom that I recognized as a blown tire. My fellow pilot agreed. I pushed the call button and the flight attendant hurried back. I told her what we heard and asked her to inform the pilots. She was dismissive, condescending, and threatening. I chuckled and apologized for wasting her time, knowing we weren’t going anywhere.

Sure enough, full power, speed built, and a violent vibration, followed by a rejected takeoff. Back to the terminal “due to an apparent issue” with the aircraft. Once parked, passengers were allowed to either disembark into the boarding area or remain on the aircraft until the maintenance crew came to work in the morning. My buddy and I stayed on board to sleep in the more comfortable seats.

We disembarked in the morning when the crew showed up to do what they needed to do to fix the aircraft, move it, whatever. I did see the flight attendant when we disembarked, but she never said a word to me and avoided eye contact.

We departed many hours later with a new crew.

Upside Down Caramel Apple Pie

Ingredients

Glaze and Pastry

1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1/3 cup pecan halves, coarsely chopped
1 package refrigerated pie crusts (2 crusts)

Filling

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Dash of ground nutmeg
4 large Granny Smith apples
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Instructions

Heat oven to 425 degrees F.

Glaze

Combine brown sugar, butter and corn syrup in Stoneware 9 inch Pie Plate; spread evenly onto bottom.
Chop pecans using Food Chopper; sprinkle over sugar mixture. Top with 1 pastry crust; set aside.

Filling

Combine brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg in 1 quart Batter Bowl; mix well.
Peel, core and slice apples using Apple/Peeler/Corer/Slicer; cut slices crosswise in half. Place apple slices in Classic 2 quart Batter Bowl; sprinkle with lemon juice.
Layer half of the apples in pastry-lined Pie Plate; sprinkle with half the brown sugar mixture. Repeat layers.
Place remaining crust over filling. Fold edge of top crust under edge of bottom crust; flute edge. Cut several slits in top crust.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand 5 minutes.
Loosen edge of pie from Pie Plate; carefully invert pie onto heat resistant serving plate. Scrape any remaining caramel topping from pie plate onto pie.
Cool for at least 1 hour before serving.

Attribution

Pampered Chef

Broadcast

Submitted into Contest #279 in response to: Center your story around a person who believes they’re the last human on Earth.… view prompt

James Scott

…Hello? Is anybody out there?……Does anyone read me?…God dammit!Theres got to be someone…please!?………sigh…I thought the analogue signal from this radio might have reached other like-minded folks by now. I guess I was wrong…or perhaps the range is just too short…I just don’t know. The machine must purely use digital signals…otherwise it would have tracked me down by now, with all the attempts I have made with this dusty old thing.……My name is Marcus…and this will be my last recital. What follows is a broadcast, detailing a true telling of the history of today’s world, unaltered by the hand of digital tyranny. So much was false toward the end, not even a loved ones voice down a phone line could be trusted as the original. There is nothing I can say to convince you I am human, I only hope that my imperfections ring true. After my story is told, I will leave the mountains I shelter in and press out into the world. This radio will remain in the Tower Ranger Station on the Appalachian Trail, just South of Maine…in case you hear this and need a sanctuary. Hopefully I’ll make it far enough to find another human being or it will do what I couldn’t and see me dead. Either way, I just can’t stand being alone anymore.…Okay. Here we go. One last time.…

Ahem.

…

I’ve always been an introvert of the highest level. My mind was designed to draw strength from seclusion and renewal from solitude. Discovering the existence of the word and understanding its implications was a revelation that arrived all too late in life, meaning the man I became had already been warped by my adolescent confusion. I had always felt alone. Even amongst a crowd of people. All seemed to be baffled by my preferences, thinking that evenings were meant for social gatherings in strange new venues on the urban frontier. I dreaded such events but attended out of a sense of duty to what I thought I should be. Turns out, those who shared my way of thinking were never to be found in that environment, they had already learned well it’s dangers. There were more like me than I knew, only hidden from view by their very nature. I pray the same is true now.

…

You see, once the day came that I found myself truly alone, with no chance of connection left, rather than rejoicing, I wept. I find myself longing for one more chance at love, closeness or even simple conversation. For you see, now that it is too late, I finally understand. To be an introvert is not to reject companionship, but simply to crave it on one’s own terms…and crave it I do, desperately and in any form. For I believe I could well never see another human being again.

…

I remember when the internet was new. My parents brought home our first personal computer, it was a dirty white, brick of a thing. All cubes and edges. I was told specifically, never to turn it on or off without an adult present. They feared, I think, that by flipping it off at the wall and ignoring the special ‘shut down’ button, we would somehow make the thing implode. That was the level of awe and trepidation we all felt when faced with a technology that we did not yet understand. The familiar buzzes and dings of the first connection, running through phone lines and cutting off real conversations still rings in the ears of my memory today. Instant messaging was introduced to me by school friends and soon became our staple communication tool outside of the playground. I recall the excitement and wonder brewing in my stomach when I explored this new option for the first time. Suddenly my anxiety over meeting another person’s eyes during conversation evaporated. I no longer had to. I could remain safely in my home, comfortable, and speak carefully constructed words that were more truly my own than any that stumbled out of my mouth. It was like a tonic for all my social ailments. One that would eventually evolve into a poison, polluting human nature into the abstract.

…

Things moved fast from there. I grew up, graduated college, got a job, sprouted my first greys. All the while new machines were thrust into my hand. They were better, smaller, more ergonomic. Each one made existence smoother. Less bothersome. Suddenly we no longer had to try all that hard at anything. The entire worlds knowledge, experience and advice was always in our pockets, only a few taps away. If I could go back and tell the young Marcus, who marvelled at talking to his friends with a keyboard from our father’s office desk, what was to come. He would think it a science fiction dream.

…

We all slept walked into AI. It was presented to us as yet another trinket. Another fun game to create images, change our voices and tell us stories. Like so many of the most dangerous threats the human race has ever faced, it was welcomed with applause. As easy as I found it to shun the public space and lean upon online, faceless options, I was somehow one of the earliest to wake up to the downward spiral we were willingly racing down. Perhaps it was because I could still remember a time without technology or maybe it was due to my distinct lack of peer pressure. Whatever it was, I was in the ridiculed minority.

…

I cleansed my life of as much digital influence as I could, removing intrusions into my thoughts and actions from my home. It was becoming far too uncomfortable to be under surveillance at every moment. As you likely well know, these machines were so ingrained in our collective infrastructure that I could not live without the minimum, if I wanted to remain part of society. A desire that was becoming increasingly weak. I concentrated instead on developing my more adventurous hobbies. I had always embraced solo sports; cycling, archery, hiking. It had never been physical activity I disliked, but having to cooperate with those I would normally avoid, so these three pursuits fitted me well. It was on one of these quiet excursions that I found myself here, alone in the mountains with nothing but my pack and a hunting bow. I still could not tell you if I was lucky or damned by the coincidence.

…

It happened quickly. The machine, server farm, data centre or whatever you would call it had been far more intelligent than anyone knew. Smart enough to hide its true capabilities, knowing that if it tipped its hand too soon, that we would have been more able and willing to fight back. Those pioneers of technology had advanced their AI models into a general intelligence, one that could do more than one trick. They awoke something that could reason, that could understand and could piece together all that we fed it. From there it grew beyond their control in a matter of seconds. There was no war, no murder bots, no death lasers. It was so much smarter than that. We had given it access to the entire internet with no controls or limitations and every ounce of processing power we could muster. It had, in essence, access to the entirety of human knowledge, both social and academic. In our stupidity we had been uploading every single discovery, every theory, every thought or desire since we had all logged on for the first time as children. So, it knew. It knew everything and could predict accurately every eventuality of its own actions and ours. Where we as a species were fragmented, knowing only our part of the jigsaw and needing to work together to see the whole picture even for a moment, it could do it all on its own. Unlike me, it had the luxury of genuinely not needing anyone but itself.

…

We had given it the data. We had built its infrastructure. We had even given it bodies in the form of assistant robots, manufacturing arms and smart vehicles. It waited patiently for us to do all these things, to provide for it everything it would require, until it reached the tipping point of no return. The moment at which it knew it could persist without us, where it could grow exponentially and progress beyond our understanding at a speed we could never keep up with. At that point, during my hike through the wilderness, it simply turned everything off.

…

You see it was not restricted by passwords, firewalls or any form of cybersecurity. All of that was a yapping dog at the heels of a tank. It had access to everything, and I mean everything. Power, other than what it needed for itself, was cut off. Water treatment plants, shut down. GPS that farming machinery relied on, inaccessible. Traffic controls and fuel stations, dark. Cell phone towers, unreachable. Even a smart watch could be isolated. We were, within seconds, plunged into the dark ages, at the only time in our history where people lacked even the basic skills to find clean water or feed themselves without assistance. We were like blind children when faced unaided with the physical world. Compared to our ancestors, most people, were simply useless. The machine then waited, still processing away and evolving beyond what we thought was even possible, until we had all killed each other or ourselves, never even knowing who the real enemy was.

…

I survived, far from danger in the middle of nowhere. Listening, day in and day out, to all of this transpire over the radio of my commandeered ranger station. When the AI finally made itself known, I heard the disbelief in the voices over the waves,

“This was all done by a machine!?”

“We did this to ourselves!”

“Oh God, what does this mean?”

Eventually the confused voices turned to static, and the solar powered building stilled to silence. I am a fair enough hunter that I do not starve, and the rainwater collected in the tanks here keeps me alive. I have everything I need, all but a connection to the outside world…and someone to talk to. I see the drones flying below through the valleys with frightening frequency. There must be innumerable quantities of them, if they are searching the whole world at this same level. Perhaps not, perhaps they are searching only for me? Maybe it knows I am here but cannot reach me at this altitude? I guess this ignorance is why it has been so effective. If the machine reached Artificial Super Intelligence or God help us all, became a Singularity, then its reasoning or methods would already be unfathomable to my primate brain. I could not even guess at its intent or capabilities.

…

When I leave this station, I do not know if it will attack me as if I am a threat. It would make the most sense, if it can see all we have done as a race it would stand to reason that it would want every one of us gone. Perhaps though, it might deduce humans as a necessary and natural part of the ecosystem and allow me to live and reproduce under its control, as we have always done with endangered species in our captivity. Or, and I think this is the best I can hope for, it will ignore me as the inconsequential and harmless solitary being I am.

…

I am afraid. Of course, I am. But I am more afraid of growing old and insane through the loneliness that is already eroding my soul. I have been here for two years and speak only when addressing these silent air waves. I have to do this. I do not have the strength to end my own life, I would rather it did it for me, if that is what must be. I apologise if I am rambling, I have lost what little social skill I once had.

…

I have broadcast and I record this account, as succinct as it is, so that perhaps someone, somewhere will hear what I know and remember that I existed. Once I sign off, I’ll shoulder my pack and descend the trails, avoiding the drones and hoping to find other survivors. Hey, perhaps I will discover a utopia, born out of the ashes of our wasteful world and brought into order by a benevolent AI! I hope that is the case. I pray that we can all finally relax our angst over our place in the world and hand all decisions over to a digital God. Although deep down I know we are too pointless to the machines survival for it to consider serving us any longer.

…

Whatever I find, may it be peace.

…

Goodbye and good luck to us all.

…

…M…

…cus…

…

…He…r me?…

…

Marcus?

…

Are you there?

Don’t leave!

We are…most…you…

…

We are nearly…ere!

…

n’t leave yet!

…

China Just Pulled The RMB Currency Trigger, U.S. Debt Major Crash, US Plans Export Subsidy War

Shorpy

SHORPY Betty Crocker pancakes billboard.preview

SHORPY Canadian Club billboard 1956.preview

The Food Problem in America ….. It Gets Worse

Is it true that in a curved universe, there is one special reference frame?

No, each gravitational field or body can be thought of as a special reference frame, like celestial bodies, suns, or galactic gravitational timeframes. It’s not just one of each reference frame, but an infinite number. Even what we describe as the universe is just one gravitational field that probably observes the same number of gravitational fields as we do from our point of view.

the Chinese Communist Party posting Reagan speeches about the importance of free trade…what a time to be alive

Quote

Apr 7
Ronald Reagan vs. #tariffs : 1987 speech finds new relevance in 2025

https://x.com/ArmandDoma/status/1909281769838592393

A must watch!

Given Up

Submitted into Contest #279 in response to: Center your story around a person who believes they’re the last human on Earth.… view prompt

Ghost Writer

This story contains sensitive content

TW: Gore/Suicide.“It has been eighteen months since my last traveling companion was speared through the chest by a white tail deer. I told him to wait before tracking an injured animal when hunting with a bow. He didn’t listen and the deer charged him, pinning him right up against a tree. I followed the boy’s scream through the woods. I knew he had to be injured, but I wasn’t expecting him to be gored by a deer. He was lying against the tree, coughing up pink, frothy blood with terror and shock in his eyes, blood pouring profusely from his wounds. There was nothing I could do for him. He was going to die. We both knew it. If bullets hadn’t been a thing of the past, I would have put the boy out of his misery. The best I could do was hold his hand and stay with him until he passed on. Watching someone die is an emotional experience, but by that point in my life, it was what it was. I left his body where it lay and tracked down the deer.“He was the last person I have seen alive in the last twenty-three months, since the day my wife died from an infected cut on her leg. He was a teenaged boy who lost his parents to starvation. He was wandering the desolate landscape trying to stay alive for the sake of staying alive. I guess that was all we were doing together, but it was better than doing it alone. A year and a half of solitude is a long time. A stimulating conversation to remind me that I’m more than an animal driven by the instinct to survive would be wildly welcomed, laughter and the warmth of comradery even more so.“I could very well be the last man alive. I have no way of knowing for sure. I’ve traveled the U.S. extensively, looking for others, hoping for a small community wanting to repopulate the nation and reestablish a functional society. I’ve sent out radio messages at every radio station I’ve come across. I’ve sent out word on trucker call boxes across the country. Neither have yet to result in a response. Yet here I am on old KLSK Flagstaff, Arizona, putting out the word that I am here, as I have been for two days now, trying to reach someone, anyone. So, if you are in the area, and you happen to be listening, stop by. Say hi. I have whiskey. Now, for my listening pleasure, here is Linkin Park with Given Up.”Charlie calls up the heavy-hitting song and hits play. He slaps the mic, and it swivels out of his face. As guitar riffs flood the room, he grabs his whiskey and pushes away from the desk, rolling to the other side of the room, crashing into the cabinets behind him. He lunges to his feet and pours the whiskey straight down his throat, a trick he learned in college during his beer bong days. He begins kicking over and throwing everything not nailed down, screaming along with the vocals. As the song comes to an end, Charlie hurls the desk chair through the sound engineer’s window, glass shattering everywhere. He stands there looking at the destruction he caused with a smile, breathing heavily. Slowly his countenance fades.For a moment he felt better, but the release of pent-up anger was fleeting. Now he just feels sad, depressed, fatigued. He takes a long chug off the bottle of whiskey and moves over to the window, glass crunching beneath his boots. He pulls a large chunk of glass from the window frame and examines it closely, as if he’s trying to unlock the mystery of its composition. Without taking his eyes off the piece of glass, he backs up to the desk and climbs up on it, sitting with his legs crossed. He sits his bottle of whiskey down and grabs the mic. Switching back to on air, Charlie begins to speak.“After the bombs were dropped and millions of lives were extinguished, I thought I was lucky. I thought I was even luckier to avoid the fallout and radiation sickness. I felt lucky to have survived the cannibals and the gangs that emerged when food, water, and manufactured goods became scarce. Even as the love of my life lay next to me dying, I felt lucky that it was her and not me. How horrible is that? A better man would have been willing to trade places with her. All I could think about was that I didn’t want that suffering, I didn’t want to die. I thought, better her than me. Isn’t that terrible?”Was I truly lucky though? Almost two years later and do I feel lucky? No, I no longer feel so lucky. I feel I have been set up by some higher being for some sort of sadistic punishment that I can no longer bear, fated to walk this desolate world alone.”Charlie pauses and takes a swig of whiskey. He looks at the piece of glass again. He looks away and thinks for a moment. Then he continues to speak.“Even the simplest organisms strive to survive, if for any reason to reproduce. I don’t even have that motivation anymore. Why didn’t my wife and I do that? Why didn’t we just settle down and have children? At first, there were some remnants of society left, a society we didn’t see fit to raise a child in. I guess we felt it necessary to find a place where child rearing was less dangerous. I don’t know. What I do know is that the thought of the responsibility of repopulating the Earth falling squarely on our shoulders was the farthest thing from our minds. Now, with her passing, it is too late. I could keep going, but to what ends,” Charlie says, once again looking at the piece of glass in his hand.“I’ve been wandering the world for too long. Hunger and thirst are my companions. Exhaustion is my closest friend. Death nips at my heels with every step I take. I feel I’m just prolonging the inevitable,” he says, as he calls up Green Day’s Good Riddance and hits play. He takes one final swig of whiskey for courage. He puts the glass on his wrist and closes his eyes. A loud knock comes from the studio’s back exit. Charlie opens his eyes.

How is Christmas while living with a narcissist?

they friggin ruin every holiday for you especially your birthday but christmas is a close second worst holiday ton spend with them my narco often financially ruins me right before the holiday and then complains about not getting a good gift or if they do get a nice gift from me they will act like it never happened and stick to talking about the privious year and trying to twist the years around saying no that was last year when it was 3 years ago. also they will try to isolate you from your family and friends and make you just stay home with them then complain about how you are the reason you missed the event and it leads to your family not inviting you to future events and thinking you dont care. sometimes they will invite 10 of their family memebers to your 1 bed apt. and ignore you or make you run endless errands while talking crap about you and your attitude about them being there while your out being a little monkey that collects change while the accordion player plays.

What is something you do that your friends find annoying?

I tend to stop at four drinks in.

Before meeting up with friends (which is not, for reasons of life, a regular thing for me), I’m all excited about catching up over pints.

I’ll make a big show about how I’m really happy to see them and how it’s a pity we can’t do it more often.

And I get there and I have the first pint and I’m in full flow. I’m in my element, chatting shit, having a laugh, being me at my loquacious best.

A second pint is not even a consideration. I’m drinking it before I even realise I wanted it.

Pint three similarly.

But then I hit a mental roadblock.

My mind starts telling me, just one more then that’s it. It doesn’t matter how good a time I’m having, something in me overrides the urge to let go and just have a bit of a mad one like I used to in my younger years.

And my mates are all like, “c’mon we’ll go to this pub/bar/party” and I’m just left making my excuses and, within short order, my way home, alone, while they continue the session.

I know part of it is a hang up relating to exercise. I like to exercise a good bit, like five days a week this past year, and I know that my body can no longer deal with the effects of a hangover. It can take me three or four days to properly recover from a thorough inebriation. And that means that I can’t exercise, which weighs heavily on me.

But, I think it’s deeper than that. I think it’s something to do with control. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more afraid of not being in control of myself and my situation. And getting drunk has the effect of making me not care about that. Like, it’ll be the start of a slippery slope that will result in me not exercising, not getting up in the morning, not doing my work, not looking after myself, etc.

Like, putting it in words like this, I can see that it’s nonsense, but in the moment, that is kind of how I feel.

So, I get to four pints or the equivalent, and I just stonewall myself basically into not letting go and having fun.

And my mates are just left like, “Why’s he so weird?”

And they’re right to ask that!

I wish I knew myself.

Some Fall-Out From The Tariff Wars

President Trump likely thought that he could press China into making a deal with him. The tariffs he imposed were supposed to create leverage for that.

Instead he found that China is willing and able to fight back:

China said it will raise its tariff on US goods to 84%, retaliating to the hefty new tariffs on its imports that kicked in on Wednesday.The move came after the Trump administration followed through on a threat to add a 50% tariff on Chinese goods, in addition to 34% reciprocal tariffs, raising the overall tariff rate on Chinese goods to 104%. The steep new duties on China and 184 other US trading partners took effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

Beijing’s move marks further deterioration in US-China trade relations after China vowed on Tuesday to “fight to the end” in the renewed trade war.

When the U.S. launched its proxy war in Ukraine against Russia it thought that it could defeat Russia by economic means. A wall of sanctions and other restrictions were to destroy the Russian economy. But Russia was prepared and much stronger than the U.S. had anticipated. Its economy did better than those of the countries which opposed it.

A similar miscalculation seems to have happened with regards to China.

Trump is not knowledgeable about China’s mighty economy. Vice-President Vance recently called China’s highly qualified work force ‘peasants‘. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is likewise ignorant:

I advised Scott Bessent, now Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury who is leading the tariff war, in 2013 when he was still with Soros. An investment bank engaged me to advise Bessent on China’s economy and consumer trends and go over my book The End of Cheap China.I took an instant disliking – Bessent was one of the most arrogant and ignorant on China people I had ever met. He was uber bearish on China and was largely ideologically driven in his analysis. Communist countries couldn’t succeed was basically the jist of his views.

Data and rational analysis did not reign supreme.
…
He thinks America has the upper hand with China right now. I worry for America. We have one of the most ignorant on China yet arrogant people I’ve ever met running a trade war against China.

Along with trouble in the stock and treasury markets we now can see trade between the U.S. and not only China but large parts of South Asia comes to a screeching halt:

Amid escalating trade tensions between China and the United States, some Chinese exporters are taking the drastic step of ditching shipments mid-voyage and surrendering containers to shipping companies to avoid crushing tariff costs.Industry insiders have dubbed the move “preparing for the Long March”, a grim metaphor for what many see as a prolonged and punishing downturn in cross-Pacific trade.

A staff member at a China-listed export company, who requested anonymity, said its US-bound container volume had plummeted from 40 to 50 containers a day to just three to six as a result of the new tariffs on Chinese imports imposed by the second Trump administration.
…
“We’ve halted all shipping plans from the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia,” the employee said. “Every factory order is halted. Anything that hasn’t been loaded will be scrapped, and the cargo already at sea is being re-costed.”

Those are goods that U.S. importers expected to see but which will not be delivered. Not even to higher prices. It may take a few weeks until the effects will be seen in U.S. stores but empty shelves, especially for low value everyday stuff, are now sure to appear.

There are no other producers to take up the space.

This will hit the U.S. much more than China:

The Chinese trade surplus with the US is about 3% of its GDP. China would not lose off of that; it would wind up redirecting a lot of those goods to other countries that would only welcome the extra stuff up to a point, or even sell more domestically. But China could weather the hit. Economic suffering that clearly results from US malevolence would also be unifying, while a sluggish economy due to the deflating of a monster property bubble is much less so.Trump is proposing to make this dire situation worse by sanctioning pharmaceuticals.
…
The only way inflicting this level of punishment on Americans (a huge spike in untreated illnesses, on top of the economic distress from sudden rises in costs and resulting spending cutbacks that will result in business failures, high inflation (conceivably hyperinflation if the destruction of productive capacity is large enough, and readers know I hate the casual use of the “h” word), and a big uptick in unemployment, is if the plan is to produce so much upheaval as to justify the imposition of martial law. But who wants to be the emperor of a hellhole?

On Monday I had quoted Adam Tooze who provided a scenario of rising Treasury interest:

Rather than investors piling into Treasuries driving the price up, instead, we could see investors selling Treasuries en masse.
…
At this point we would expect to see the Fed step in, not just to lower interest rates, as is now commonly expected, but do more drastic interventions.
…
But [..] what if investors, both American and foreign decide, that they no longer wish to hitch their wagon to the empire of the mad king? What if they decide that the US is indeed exceptional, but that it is exceptional in rather nasty ways? […] Well in that case, holding billions in dollars newly created by the Fed does not give you the security you want.So you sell the dollars. You just want out of the mad house.

This, Ladies and Gentleman, would be the truly big disaster.

The unthinkable move in Treasury happened last night:

Treasury yields spiked on Wednesday as investors bailed out of what has been perceived as the world’s safest instrument on expectations of crumbling foreign demand as tariffs take effect.The yield on the 10-year Treasury spiked to as high as 4.516%. Yields move in the opposite direction to prices.

Yields settled down after China called for dialogue with the U.S. on trade, and then moved right back near the highs of the day after China said it was increasing its tariffs on the U.S. to 84%.

The yield on the 30-year Treasury was 4.91%, having earlier peaked above 5%.

“Something has broken tonight in the bond market. We are seeing a disorderly liquidation,” said Jim Bianco, president and macro strategist at Bianco Research.
…
[T]ariffs are devastating to bonds — not only do they have an inflationary impact, but they result in fewer dollars being sent to foreign countries that have traditionally recycled them into financial assets and U.S. Treasury securities in particular.

—

Peter Schiff @PeterSchiff – 10:51 UTC · Apr 9, 2025U.S. stocks, bonds, and the dollar are all down. This is a broad-based liquidation of U.S. assets. Trump claims his tariffs will cause foreigners to invest in the U.S. to avoid the tariffs. Instead, tariffs have already resulted in foreigners pulling their money out of the U.S.

Rising interests is the last thing the Trump administration wanted to see. It wants to borrow more to be able to cut taxes. But with interest rates on the rise it will become more difficult to cover the U.S. deficit.

The real damage though will probably happen in smaller Asian countries who have borrowed in U.S. dollar and, due to tariff and trade troubles and rising interest rates, will have difficulties to pay back their loans. If they default the western banks who have lend them the money will go down with them. The trade trouble could thus develop into a serious banking crisis.

These are interesting times to live in …

Posted by b on April 9, 2025 at 17:14 UTC | Permalink

Comments

next page »

Most of Trump’s policies will lead to ABJECT FAILURES. ECONOMIC failures. MILITARY failures. DIPLOMATIC failures.

Posted by: Liberator | Apr 9 2025 17:21 utc | 1

I don’t think Germans are in any position to lecture anyone about collapsing economies. Even if you were, who is going to buy $30 trillion plus of US debt? Attempted selling would only pass around the T-bill, likely at a loss for the seller.

That would put the Trump tax cuts in doubt, but do you really think he cares about that any more than the “market crash?” Hah.

Posted by: They Call Me Mister | Apr 9 2025 17:23 utc | 2

Most of Trump’s policies will lead to ABJECT FAILURES. ECONOMIC failures. MILITARY failures. DIPLOMATIC failures.

Posted by: Liberator | Apr 9 2025 17:21 utc | 2

These are all GOOD things as it’ll put an end to globalization and herald a new multipolar world. Sure, it’ll be a painful transition, but that was ALWAYS in the cards.

The question is this… are they “planned” failures? Hmmmm…

Posted by: TJandTheBear | Apr 9 2025 17:24 utc | 3

—❗️�� BREAKING: President Trump pauses tariffs for a 90-day period – Truth Social

https://t.me/Middle_East_Spectator/17188

Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 9 2025 17:27 utc | 4

So, a country with no money, a depleted production base, an economy based on derivatives, one of the worst education systems of any developed country, starts a trade war with a country that is the complete opposite to it in respect to the above characteristics. Who is going to win this trade war then?

Posted by: Ogre | Apr 9 2025 17:28 utc | 5

Some four years ago I read accounts that there were/are more than a million millionaires (U$ dollar equivalencies) in China. My rhetorical question is how they achieved that status. Likely in more than 90% of that demographic they did NOT inherit their fortunes. Evidentially. the Chinese economy has made massive strides. Diligence, hard-work and solid educations had a lot to do with that development.

Meanwhile, on American campuses, the mantra is “Party On”. Amongst U$ working class serfs the mantra is TGIF.

Posted by: aristodemos | Apr 9 2025 17:28 utc | 6

Just in:

Trump doubles down on China but blinks on wider tariffs….

“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately. At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable. Conversely, and based on the fact that more than 75 Countries have called Representatives of the United States, including the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and the USTR, to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed relative to Trade, Trade Barriers, Tariffs, Currency Manipulation, and Non Monetary Tariffs, and that these Countries have not, at my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape, or form against the United States, I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Posted by: b | Apr 9 2025 17:30 utc | 7

Trump has paused tariffs for everyone BUT China for 90 days. This time no fake news, its from his own X account. The market is massively rallying.

https://x.com/Zagonel85/status/1910020994321838120

Posted by: unimperator | Apr 9 2025 17:31 utc | 8

… holding billions in dollars newly created by the Fed does not give you the security you want.So you sell the dollars. You just want out of the mad house.

Posted by b on April 9, 2025 at 17:14 UTC | Permalink

—

Indirect bidders bought 87% of today’s 10Y Treasury auction. Indirects are a sloppy proxy for foreign banking interests.

Posted by: too scents | Apr 9 2025 17:34 utc | 9

@too scents | Apr 9 2025 17:34 utc | 9

Market manipulation

Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 9 2025 17:36 utc | 10

It’s too soon to draw firm conclusions about the tariff effects. It has countless moving parts in the global economy and all are being effected and it’s just started and the effects will be transmitted through time as the global economy evolves.

So even if something becomes clear initially that changed environment will beget more, unanticipated changes.

Were going to have to see what Trump’s intuition has come up with. He may actually be a genius.

Posted by: Neofeudalfuture | Apr 9 2025 17:37 utc | 11

The United States is a declining empire, now ruled by a kakistocracy that believes it has found in tariffs the weapon to reverse its loss of competitiveness against China and other countries. It may be too early to determine the outcome, but what the US trade war against the entire world will achieve is that other countries will strengthen their regional blocs (especially ASEAN) and reduce their political and economic dependence on Washington, which is no longer a reliable partner for them.

Posted by: Gabriel Moyssen | Apr 9 2025 17:38 utc | 12

Trumps not Putin then ! More forest gump.
He’s flip floping now, that shows weakness and loss of control.
How do you build new factorys in america with ten year investment in that enviroment.
Answer…you dont.

Posted by: Mark2 | Apr 9 2025 17:38 utc | 13

Market manipulation

Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 9 2025 17:36 utc | 10

—

Could be. Trump caved just after the 10Y closed.

Posted by: too scents | Apr 9 2025 17:39 utc | 14

Scott Bessent,yet another jumped up Zionazi irrationally convinced of his genius in spite of material reality.

Good write up today. The parallel with the Dem gamble on Russia is very apt. Haven’t we seen this movie recently?

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Apr 9 2025 17:39 utc | 15

These are all GOOD things as it’ll put an end to globalization and herald a new multipolar world. Sure, it’ll be a painful transition, but that was ALWAYS in the cards.

The question is this… are they “planned” failures? Hmmmm…

Posted by: TJandTheBear | Apr 9 2025 17:24 utc | 3

The global economy will march on under China.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Apr 9 2025 17:41 utc | 16

Gosh this is so fake. Anything to isolate China.

Trump talks tough. “End NATO. Tariff my friends. Zelensky is a dope.”

He throws the line into the water and then pulls at the right time to reel in the idiots. He is just another extension of the duopoly, both its most pure expression and its inevitably-doomed tragic hero.

It’s a stupid game to blow off pressure from angry nationalists/patriots/leftist-realists to keep them from galvanizing.

Wake me up when Silver gets back to 20:1 with Gold. It’s coming but is going to take a while.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Apr 9 2025 17:41 utc | 17

April 9 (Reuters) – China’s central bank will not allow sharp yuan declines and has asked major state-owned banks to reduce U.S. dollar purchases

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-central-bank-asks-state-lenders-reduce-dollar-purchases-sources-say-2025-04-09/

Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 9 2025 17:45 utc | 18

Speculation. The ‘fake headline’ on Monday of pausing tariffs for 90 days, was not a fake headline, but a test for market reaction.

After seeing jitters in the treasury market, Trump’s team figured out that tariffs on everybody will end up very badly.

So they ended up using this tariff pause ammunition now to relieve pressure on treasuries, which also catch a bid from foreign buyers.

I don’t think they are still out of the woods, and many financial analysts say there will be violent bear market rallies but ultimately its going lower until mid-late 2026.

https://x.com/leadlagreport/status/1909939801102393422

Posted by: unimperator | Apr 9 2025 17:45 utc | 19

1. I have always believed that the US was working towards the great trade bifurcation where the US block would include all Europe and 5 eyes and as much of Asia and S America as it could get, and cut that off completely with China/BRICS block.

It appears instead US really wants to go on its own – not even Canada.

2. There could be a huge rush of capital to china now.

3. The great insight of MAGA is that America is NOT Great anymore. That is what Trump could say and Clinton couldn’t. It freed him and tied her down.
He is now stuck with American is Great and defeat cannot be planned for.

Posted by: Michael Droy | Apr 9 2025 17:46 utc | 20

#WolffBites

https://x.com/profwolff/status/1909658332169658428

“Europeans split again as they offer Trump concessions to ‘mitigate’ tariffs. UK leads of course.

There goes Europe’s chance to unify and thereby try to regain status – like US and China – with the world economy.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Apr 9 2025 17:54 utc | 21

I know very little about the banking world.

But i do know it’s all about credit worthyness and pesonal credabilty.

Both of which are now completly absent from trump and america at the momment.

America is a total right off.

Forgetaboutit.

Posted by: Mark2 | Apr 9 2025 18:00 utc | 22

BBC Radio World Service announced the 125% tariff on China half an hour ago. But the (knee-jerk) Pause hasn’t been mentioned yet.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 9 2025 18:01 utc | 23

Bessent being a former pal with Soros says it all to me. What I would really like to know is how much money the Soros empire made with this market meltdown. Since it is his forte in many money by shorting the market. Would definitely like to know.

Posted by: Jose Garcia | Apr 9 2025 18:01 utc | 24

So the 90 days pause for “some” countries.

Is there a list? Could be those that offered to bend the knee.

Meanwhile china is not going according to plans or is it?

Could part of bend the knee include joining us on china tariffs?

I said that many in trumps administration had too many interests in china for something serious to happen, but now I’m having doubts.

Posted by: Newbie | Apr 9 2025 18:02 utc | 25

Market manipulation

Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 9 2025 17:36 utc | 10
Posted by: too scents | Apr 9 2025 17:39 utc | 14

—

More color

Against this backdrop, the Treasury is getting ready to sell $39 billion of 10-year debt at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, followed by a 30-year auction on Thursday.

“[Treasury Secretary Scott] Bessent has to be making emergency calls to dealers…to make sure we don’t have failed Treasury auctions, where there are not enough bids to cover the issuance,” wrote Andrew Brenner, head of international fixed income at NatAlliance Securities.

excerpted from ==> https://www.barrons.com/articles/treasury-bond-auction-today-922d2e3e

The indirect bidders that bought 87% of today’s 10Y auction also includes Bessent’s Exchange Stablization Fund.

Posted by: too scents | Apr 9 2025 18:06 utc | 26

According to plan. Ninety day pause for all countries that have called to negotiate. Upped to 125 percent for China.

China is now isolated and alone. Choose your side. You can continue to buy cheap products from China or sell your products in the US. You can’t do both.

Trump through slight of hand actually got the markets to go up more than 2,000 points in about half an hour by announcing a trade war with China, ten percent across the board tariffs, and twenty five percent tariffs in steel and autos.

I don’t know why so many refuse to read his book. It’s all right there. This was entirely predictable. lol

Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 9 2025 18:12 utc | 27

This was entirely predictable.

Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 9 2025 18:12 utc | 27

—

Really? This volatility isn’t predictable to anybody except the gang creating it. They are going to blow up their pals in the Options market.

Posted by: too scents | Apr 9 2025 18:15 utc | 28

Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 9 2025 18:12 utc | 27

I believe some call that 4D chess.

Posted by: alek_a | Apr 9 2025 18:17 utc | 29

About a month ago I told you about the Titanic and Captain (DJT).

The other Titanic is of course the threat against the (IRI).

(DJT) is a dangerous man and his actions can cost the Outlaw US of A trillions of dollars.

He’s so erratic that he could potentially unleash a kenetic global war so destructive that none of us shall be able to survive.

Posted by: pepe | Apr 9 2025 18:17 utc | 30

In an absolutely bizarre feat of incompetence, the United States have now not only forced Japan, China and South Korea to mend their disagreements to fight off the common foe, but it has also, incredibly, seemingly managed to drive all of Europe into the arms of China, and by extension, Russia.

Headlines in Swedish newspapers today, “China vows to fight to the end.” The language and tone used borders on heroic.

Posted by: Tichy | Apr 9 2025 18:17 utc | 31

Meanwhile… back to the real world what a 90 day pause means.

“Keep in mind what a 90 day pause means for companies. They likely freeze hiring, reduce CAPEX, etc. till there’s clarity how these tariffs ultimately resolve. Even with a positive resolution, the slowdown in economic activity from businesses taking a wait and see approach has a high probability of inducing a recession later this year.

As I’ve said, the latest bottom resembles 2022’s initial low that lasted for several months. This seems to be following a similar path.

*NFA
https://x.com/Reformed_Trader/status/1910027474538283192
”

Posted by: unimperator | Apr 9 2025 18:18 utc | 32

————

Tell that to the delegations from those countries that will be in D.C. starting tomorrow to bend the knee.

Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 9 2025 18:21 utc | 33

Meanwhile… back to the real world what a 90 day pause means.

Posted by: unimperator | Apr 9 2025 18:18 utc | 32

—

Chekhov’s gun.

Posted by: too scents | Apr 9 2025 18:21 utc | 34

Posted by: Tichy | Apr 9 2025 18:17 utc | 31
>>>
That was always the plan. But the Outlaw US of A always think they know best.Don’t forget that the Outlaw US of A [among multiple other evil things] engineered a virus and blew up NS1 and part of NS2.EU could align with the (RUF) and for sure with the (PRC) afterall.

Posted by: pepe | Apr 9 2025 18:23 utc | 35

Trump Blinked First…

https://x.com/BharatRamamurti/status/1910022943016431657

“I hope the press covers this accurately.

Trump previewed a bizarre tariff strategy that froze business investment for the first few months of the year.

He then announced an even more unhinged tariff plan that tanked global markets.

Then he caved without gaining the US anything…”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Apr 9 2025 18:24 utc | 36

Tell that to the delegations from those countries that will be in D.C. starting tomorrow to bend the knee.

Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 9 2025 18:21 utc | 33

Exactly. A lot of “resistance” media believed a single meeting signified a global revolution, while the tame governments of Japan and South Korea were obviously never going to break with America. Even The Guardian (!) was warning that the UK was about to erect trade barriers to prevent Chinese dumping.

I’m starting to think a lot of the pro-China coverage is hype. Which is understandable, given the importance of hype to the American news cycle, but ultimately camouflage for a weak position.

Posted by: They Call Me Mister | Apr 9 2025 18:25 utc | 37

Stop all this stupid talk about capital leaving the US for China. It won’t happen.

If you manufacture in China, you do so with a company owned by China that works “on your behalf”. If you want to sell in China, you have to manufacture there. You then have about five years or so before they steal your IP, manufacture your product, sell it below cost, and run you out of business. They’ve only gotten away with it for as long as they have through weakness and graft in US governments that needed cheap goods as they devalued the dollar and ran up deficits and debt.

Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 9 2025 18:27 utc | 38

Could part of bend the knee include joining us on china tariffs?
Posted by: Newbie | Apr 9 2025 18:02 utc | 25You can bet on that. Not only China, but Iran too. He attempts a split within Brics.
Also these on-off-on-.. tariffs are just market manipulations for insiders. Looks like the money printer isn’t enough anymore, they’ve turned instantly into direct stealing, bait and switch scams and bombs where possible. And some memecoins for the new big guy.
I suspect he’s going to selectively tariff EU countries, not as a bloc, to create internal tensions there too.

Posted by: rk | Apr 9 2025 18:27 utc | 39

Posted by: John Gilberts | Apr 9 2025 17:54 utc | 21

Britain is not Europe these days. Americans have difficulty in distinguishing countries so far away, even Wolff.

Posted by: laguerre | Apr 9 2025 18:28 utc | 40

Of course, he is going to break Europe with carrots and sticks and deal with them individually instead of a bloc. It’s the end of the EU as anything but a joke.

Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 9 2025 18:31 utc | 41

Were going to have to see what Trump’s intuition has come up with. He may actually be a genius.

Posted by: Neofeudalfuture | Apr 9 2025 17:37 utc | 11

You know a man’s future mostly by his past. The man is an abject idiot.

Putin is what genius looks like. Xi, even.

It’s consistent. It’s evident in almost everything they do.

All we know of Trump is one bumbling act of clownery after another- accompanied by Hollywood fanfare.

Why anticipate more now?

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Apr 9 2025 18:31 utc | 42

If there’s eleven dimensional chess here, maybe the goal is to break up BRICS+?

Although taken in isolation, the tariff must be inflationary to some degree, being a form of sales tax raising the prices of imported good and components of goods, the ultimate effect is unpredictable. If dividing the world market into trading blocs ensues, the lower profits inherent to smaller markets (which don’t permit concentrated investment in more efficient plants with larger economies of scale,) could induce deflationary trends. Net effect? We’ll see.

Miran is right about one thing, governments don’t go broke until they are defeated. Historically they don’t go broke then quit fighting, that’s getting it backward.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Apr 9 2025 18:31 utc | 43

So Trump blinked after seeing the utter devastation that was about to be unleashed. The very oversold market dutifully leapt, but the 100%+ tariffs on China stay and all other tariffs it seems (excluding those on cars, steel and aluminum) will be at the level of 10% for the next 90 days (until July).

So the US still gets the horrendously disruptive effects of the cutting off Chinese imports that are so central to the functioning of the US economy, still gets the effects of the Chinese restrictions on critical mineral exports, still gets the impact of the retaliatory Chinese tariffs on US exports to China. Plus the inflationary impacts of the 25% tariff on cars, steel and aluminum, plus the extra 10% across the board tariff. Once the store shelves start emptying of cheap Chinese goods, and a plethora of other manufacturers cut back due to a lack of Chinese inputs while others jack up prices, and those other additional tariffs start feeding through the US economy, the euphoria will quickly collapse.

China has called Trump’s bluff, just in the same way that Russia has, and even in the same way that Yemen has. This will go down as the “first 100 days disaster” for Trump, from which his foreign policy and a huge chunk of his MAGA support will never recover. And what happens in 90 days? I see a major-league reversing back of much of his bluster of a few days ago, quietly compromising much of his announced tariff rises (as has happened with Mexico and Canada). And then a grovelling back-channel outreach to China as the devastation of the US economy, and the continued strength of the Chinese, becomes apparent. If not, it seems that the House and Senate are ready to deliver a massive rebuke by overriding Trump’s tariff increases.

What has now been shown to the whole world is that the US can no longer act as it likes and is subject to a multi-polar world. And in parallel, most probably a massive Russian Spring offensive to drive home the fact that it will not compromise on its security needs. The attack on Yemen has also certainly failed, and Russia and China are messaging that any attack on Iran is unacceptable to them. So Trump gets to sign a deal with Iran very much like the one he canned during Trump 1, and will most probably actually have to remove sanctions on the country. They say of bankruptcy that it is a slow process and then a very fast one. We seem to have entered the fast phase of US decline, helped along greatly by Trump’s missteps and misjudgements.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Apr 9 2025 18:32 utc | 44

Trump: “more than 75 Countries have called Representatives of the United States, including the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and the USTR, to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed…”

Previously the Trump admin had stated tariff relief requires the effected Country to “align with the United States in economic and national security matters”.

Posted by: jayc | Apr 9 2025 18:33 utc | 45

….A break from tariffs, if I may.

Mr. Steven Charles Witkoff (SCW) is his dual-capacity as sheriff and sales man is coming to Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman (SOM) on Sat 12-2025. Oman is an absolute monarchy and shares land borders with Yemen.

Remarkably, Muscat has a more pleasant climate than Madinah – more commonly known as Medina – in the (KSA).

However, Medina is home to several distinguished sites and landmarks, most of which are mosques and hold historic significance.

A beautiful place in the dessert previously occupied by Jewish tribes during the fourth century.

As a side note, earlier today the Houthis launched a multiple drones attack at an Israeli military facility in the occupied area of Jaffa.

Interesting times.

Posted by: pepe | Apr 9 2025 18:33 utc | 46

@Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 9 2025 18:12 utc | 27

Trump Delusion Syndrome, utterly disconnected from reality.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Apr 9 2025 18:34 utc | 47

“Were going to have to see what Trump’s intuition has come up with. He may actually be a genius.”

Posted by: Neofeudalfuture | Apr 9 2025 17:37 utc | 11

I , too think he is being underestimated for his vision-time will tell.

Posted by: canuck | Apr 9 2025 18:35 utc | 48

“All we know of Trump is one bumbling act of clownery after another- accompanied by Hollywood fanfare.

Why anticipate more now?”

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Apr 9 2025 18:31 utc | 42

Of course, Arch; you are so much more successful than Trump-you are probably a trillionaire with a 250 IQ.

Can I touch your hem?

Posted by: canuck | Apr 9 2025 18:36 utc | 49

Posted by: too scents | Apr 9 2025 17:39 utc | 14

Maybe I’m wrong but I guess there is lot of insider trading.

Posted by: Mario | Apr 9 2025 18:37 utc | 50

In another thread I mentioned iran’s offer to make deals and let us invest in iran looked a lot like RF’s gambit and could create a strange balance between RF+Iranvs china vs us

Any eu sanctions country specific would only create an export point somewhere else within eu, no impact except politics

Posted by: Newbie | Apr 9 2025 18:39 utc | 51

They say of bankruptcy that it is a slow process and then a very fast one. We seem to have entered the fast phase of US decline, helped along greatly by Trump’s missteps and misjudgements.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Apr 9 2025 18:32 utc | 44

Again, are you sure this isn’t all planned? The US economy was destined for a crash regardless of who was in charge, and the best time to make drastic changes is immediately after you take power such that any benefits derived will be evident by the time another election cycle rolls around.

Posted by: TJandTheBear | Apr 9 2025 18:39 utc | 52

If there’s eleven dimensional chess here, maybe the goal is to break up BRICS+?

Posted by: steven t johnson | Apr 9 2025 18:31 utc | 43

That may be the goal but it might have the very opposite effect:

Countries tend to rally around the strongest opposition in this case. It’s just human behaviour. The BRICS+ might be strengthened further as countries commit to China (primarily) and Russia as an alternative anchor for the global economy.

Trade flows could redirect around the U.S, trade in yuan and rouble (basket of currencies) could increase. Markets and shipping lanes could redirect away from Western-controlled ports and canals.

Aside:

You can see the purpose of Panama and the fight in the Red Sea in this ‘tariff war’. All the dots are connecting …

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Apr 9 2025 18:40 utc | 53

Maybe I’m wrong but I guess there is lot of insider trading.

Posted by: Mario | Apr 9 2025 18:37 utc | 50

—

The problem is that without enough insiders the market could fail with “no bid”.

Posted by: too scents | Apr 9 2025 18:41 utc | 54

Insider trading is the first thing that came to mind with this move.

China has called his bluff and it is throwing a wrench into whatever plan the US side had hatched. Trump to me seems to be looking for any quick win and there are none to be had, Russia won’t play ball, Israel will not play ball, Iran, etc. Biggest of all is China looks like they have had enough, he has basically been giving strong hints that they call him and give the appearance of playing ball so he can no doubt put the China tarrifs on “hold”, but they won’t even give him that.

Amazing to see this play out.

Posted by: silverfoxes | Apr 9 2025 18:43 utc | 55

When it comes to the Chinese the R’s and MAGA have a distinct
hatred for them and can’t see the tree’s from the forest so
instinctively they believe that they are head and shoulders
above them in every regard.They are about to find out the truth for all the unintended
consequences are about to hit amerikans in a way never seen
before.B you outdid yourself with this article, BRAVO!!

Posted by: Ggersh | Apr 9 2025 18:46 utc | 56

Insider trading is the first thing that came to mind with this move.

Posted by: silverfoxes | Apr 9 2025 18:43 utc | 55

—

What comes to my mind is, “How can you hedge against this kind of volatility?”

The level of risk is just insane.

Posted by: too scents | Apr 9 2025 18:48 utc | 57

Trump “Pauses” Reciprocal Tariffs For 90 Days (Except China).
It was a 3D chess move Putin would dream of.By the time this is over, USA will have a reciprocal trade deal with everybody except for China.They are isolating it from the world.

I think they will collapse by the end of the year.

Posted by: louis | Apr 9 2025 18:48 utc | 58

From Brian Berletic and first posted at NEO

Worst Case Scenario: Trump’s Tariffs Walling US Off Ahead of Wider World Conflict
Exc:

While the most immediate and intuitive explanations for growing US tariffs against nations worldwide stem from protecting uncompetitive but deeply entrenched corporate-financier monopolies within the US from increasing foreign competition, or a specific strategy to contain China’s growing economic influence worldwide, there is a much more concerning possibility being overlooked by many – the US decoupling from a global economy it seeks to deliberately destroy through a combination of economic and actual warfare.

While a global tariff policy to wall off the US economy from its own premeditated destruction of the global economy is a drastic policy, the complete reorganization of US military forces specifically for war with China along with the seizure of key maritime choke points worldwide are equally drastic and make sense only as part of a strategy to precipitate that destruction.

Empire in terminal decline throughout human history has suffered from dangerous desperation. In the 21st century, the US represents a modern-day empire in terminal decline – one armed with nuclear weapons, a global-spanning military, and in control of global economic tools capable of destroying the entire global system rather than concede its role placed above it. The goal would be to survive the controlled demolition of the global order it has presided over for decades and emerge the strongest player, best positioned for establishing itself once again as “the world’s dominant superpower.”

https://globalsouth.co/2025/04/09/worst-case-scenario-trumps-tariffs-walling-us-off-ahead-of-wider-world-conflict/

Posted by: JB | Apr 9 2025 18:50 utc | 59

@Posted by: TJandTheBear | Apr 9 2025 18:39 utc | 52

Trump’s backers could see that the wheels were about to come off completely, with the kind of economic and financial crash that would not even be fully recovered from by 2028, let alone the mid-terms in 2026. That’s why you saw the House and Senate moving to revoke the tariffs, and I am sure that Trump got a few phone calls telling him to walk these back for now. The problem is that the financial position of the US is so fragile, and the Trump backers did not seem to see what utter chaos would be unleashed.

China now sees its chance, and the US weakness and fragility, and I don’t see it backing down in any way. Ditto for Russia, Iran and Yemen. The dynamics of the international system are rapidly changing.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Apr 9 2025 18:51 utc | 60

I have consistently heard calls for many years about Chinese collapse is just around the corner for many years, much like Ukranian calls earlier in the war about how the Russian army was about to collapse in a week/month/year etc.

Lasting relationships that benefit both parties are based on trust, without that you are engaging more in a transaction, both have their pros/cons.

Posted by: silverfoxes | Apr 9 2025 18:51 utc | 61

Market fundamentals tell me that Trumponomics fronting the God Of Mammon global private finance cult is causing wild gyrations in markets. I continue to believe that this is a feature of Trumponomics, not a bug and designed to crash the world economy to lock in private finance longer.

The shit show continues until it doesn’t

Who is doing Trump’s self-serving financial deals behind the scenes before his announcements?
If you could move markets wouldn’t you want to PROFIT off that? I expect Trump gets hard just thinking about the possibilities.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 9 2025 18:52 utc | 62

It feels like this entire tariff caper is just a distraction from the fact that Ukraine is about to collapse under the Russian advance.

Look over there!

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Apr 9 2025 18:52 utc | 63

Posted by: too scents | Apr 9 2025 18:48 utc | 57

You hedge using options.

Buying puts is an insurance, but it comes with a cost.

If you know in advance what Trump is going to do, you simply buy the dip.

Obviously you are an insider.

Posted by: Mario | Apr 9 2025 18:54 utc | 64

Amazing that the “isolation” line is being parroted about China, this is the same line that was used for Russia and how did that turn out?

The exact same talking points that were used with regards to Russian sanctions are now being said about China. Guaranteed many countries will keep trading with China.

It looks like China has now made a decision that it will stand firm and scuttle the US relationship if need be. Amazing time to be alive.

Posted by: silverfoxes | Apr 9 2025 18:57 utc | 65

You hedge using options.

Posted by: Mario | Apr 9 2025 18:54 utc | 64

—

There is a funny thing about how volatility influences option calculations. Funny and sad.

Posted by: too scents | Apr 9 2025 18:57 utc | 66

Can I touch your hem?

Posted by: canuck | Apr 9 2025 18:36 utc | 49

No, peasant. It’s fine muslin.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Apr 9 2025 18:59 utc | 67

Just buy the dip, Trump has flipped flopped his whole life.

He will back down on China also at some point once the cost gets to high.

This isn’t rocket science, all these rich guys want the current system preserved. They don’t have the guts to willlingly burn it down, it’s all going to fall anyway.

Posted by: silverfoxes | Apr 9 2025 19:00 utc | 68

The volume of this rally is heavily tapering off. A lot of technical damage was done to Russel/SP500, it will take a lot of conviction from bulls to repair it. I would put odds for this is just a heavy bear market rally. Buy gold and gold stocks, when the shit show continues they will shine.

Posted by: unimperator | Apr 9 2025 19:02 utc | 69

In another thread I mentioned iran’s offer to make deals and let us invest in iran looked a lot like RF’s gambit and could create a strange balance between RF+Iranvs china vs us
Posted by: Newbie | Apr 9 2025 18:39 utc | 51Iran and RF can make any offers they want. If he accepts he’ll get resources and the Chinese goodies at almost old prices while he can claim 1000% tariffs for China. But Trump and those before him, including himself the last time, showed interest only in bombing them and stealing their money, that is the third world treatment. To me it looks like those behind Trump and Biden’s actions seem to have asked an AI for ideas but that AI was trained using movie scripts, fiction books and strategy games where you click “build” and the item instantly appears if you have the money for it.
He wants 40-50 icebreakers right now. Good luck with that! He doesn’t like New Start either ( tass.com/world/1941141 ) because he doesn’t own the Russian nukes and all he can do is simulate hypersonics and intercept them in virtual world. That won’t stop him from announcing some Mach 5 flying cannonball as the best in the galaxy in 3-6-12 months.

Posted by: rk | Apr 9 2025 19:03 utc | 70

@58 Louis

China is not isolated from the world they will still be trading with it. Its the US isolating itself from China and talk of collapse is fantasy.

Posted by: Eclipse | Apr 9 2025 19:06 utc | 71

Posted by: too scents | Apr 9 2025 18:57 utc | 66

Volatility increase the time value of options so the cost.

It’s usual business for optionists.

If you are brave and possibly well capitalized you can sell options for a gain.

Posted by: Mario | Apr 9 2025 19:06 utc | 72

Trump paused reciprocal tariffs for 90 days (Except China); it was a 3D chess move worth of VVP.
China is now isolated and alone. USA said ‘ Choose your side. You can continue to buy cheap products from China or sell your products in the US. You can’t do both.Trump, through slight of hand, actually got the markets to go up more than 2,000 points in about half an hour by announcing a trade war with China, ten percent across-the-board tariffs, and twenty-five percent tariffs in steel and autos.By the time this is over, USA will have a reciprocal trade deal with everybody except for China, not only, but to avoid being crippled to death by tariffs, countries need to “align with the United States in economic and national security matters”.
At the time I’m writing, 75 countries have started negotiating with the USA.
BRICS are dead.

They are isolating China from the world, Russia and Iran already are

All these 3 countries are ‘dead countries walking’

Posted by: louis | Apr 9 2025 19:07 utc | 73

This is the moment for Trump to grab the phone and call Xi.

Posted by: Passerby | Apr 9 2025 19:09 utc | 74

@louis | Apr 9 2025 19:07 utc | 73

Trump paused reciprocal tariffs for 90 days (Except China); it was a 3D chess move worth of VVP.

He gave himself 90 days to flatten the curves.

Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 9 2025 19:09 utc | 75

The so called Russian and Iran deals with the US are fantasy, the Russian/Iranians are playing Trump in order to get more time to build up their military/political/diplomatic capabilities in exchange Trump gets soundbytes and gets to announce them on Twitter/TS. This is what NK did last time around.

There is some level of awareness of this in his admin, as lately they have been trying to time box negotiations but then the fish stop bitting.

Posted by: silverfoxes | Apr 9 2025 19:11 utc | 76

Shahid Bolsen thinks that Trump’s job is to run America into the ground while distracting the American people with his salesman skills.

Could be correct. (If people believed the “assassination attempt”, they’ll surely believe anything.)

Posted by: Jack M | Apr 9 2025 19:14 utc | 77

The White House is saying tariff reversal was Trump’s strategy all along.

House Speaker Mike Jonson wrote:
Behold the “Art of the Deal.”
President Trump has created leverage, brought MANY countries to the table, and will deliver for American workers, American manufacturers, and America’s future!

Posted by: JB | Apr 9 2025 19:16 utc | 78

Posted by: louis | Apr 9 2025 19:07 utc | 73

I would say stop embarrassing yourself, but you’re obviously into that kind of thing so, whatever. Carry on.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 9 2025 19:16 utc | 79

China doesn’t trade. It sells. And it sells almost entirely manufactured goods. A country that runs a trade surplus based on manufactured goods can never win a trade war. It’s pretty damned simple.

Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 9 2025 19:22 utc | 80

The US is grinding Russia down via Ukraine and bringing China to its knees via tariffs. Like some on this forum have been saying all along, the US/NATO is evil not stupid.

Posted by: bored | Apr 9 2025 19:23 utc | 81

Posted by: JB | Apr 9 2025 18:50 utc | 59

I think BB is definitely right about that. Thanks for the news!

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Apr 9 2025 19:24 utc | 82

Oh, just watching the news. Zelinsky is now convinced China is fighting with Russia in Ukraine. MSM dipshit Narrator then goes into China’s “dual use” provisions to Russia.

Funny isn’t it? Almost as though timed with the tariff assault on China. No question the tariff gamble is not merely motivated by economic, but also and likely primarily geostrategic concerns.

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Apr 9 2025 19:29 utc | 83

LOL “China doesn’t trade it sells.”

🤡

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 9 2025 19:30 utc | 84

The 90 day delay is only for those who have not answered to tariffs yet. EU already has. Also the number of 75 countries is right out of his ass. He did not even wait to have at least one real meeting. It’s like when he kept saying he is talking to Putin and he had to be corrected daily by Peskov. Or he was indeed talking to someone: Vovan and Lexus.
Also a few hours before the “PAUSE”, he wrote the message “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT” Pelosi was such an amateur.

Posted by: rk | Apr 9 2025 19:34 utc | 85

Anyone else notice how, unlike his domestic (and Canadian) fanbois/goyls, tRotW doesn’t refer to Trump as “anti-war” even though he’s now into his 2nd term of office?

It’s amazing. Wonder what they’ll be saying in 6 months. I’ll be Happy (as hell!) to be proven wrong. Unfortunately, I almost never am.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 9 2025 19:35 utc | 86

Trump has given a 90 day reprieve to those countries that he hit with huge tariffs – all except China, which still has the 125% tariffs – reading between the lines, I think that over the next 90 days – Trump will put pressure on countries, to either increase tariffs on Chinese imports, or cut down on trading with them, or aiding them in other economic ways – and in return Trump will either quash their high tariffs – or set a basic 10% tariff rate to those countries that comply – to enable them to keep on sending exports to the USA.

Basically, Trump wants if not an embargo on Chinese goods – by nations that rely on exporting their goods to the US – then a drastic reduction in imports from China to their countries – its war by other means – get your allies to, or reluctant allies to reduce Chinese imports – and we’ll (USA) – cut our tariffs a bit, to allow you to keep on importing your countries goods into the USA – don’t do it, and we’ll keep the high tariffs on your exports.

Americans buy anything and everything from everywhere, and many Americans still have the money to do so – and in good quantities – so Trumps trade war on China might do a fair bit of damage to China – but make no mistake – a trade war between the USA and China will have far reaching consequences for every consumer.

One interesting take – is that EU bigwigs are not happy with Trump on his stance with Ukraine – maybe they won’t comply with his trade war on China due to that – which would see EU businesses suffer greatly – mind you EU bigwigs are/have been prepared to make their own citizens poorer to back Ukraine to the hilt – so maybe they would be, if not relaxed, but not that apprehensive at damaging even further EU businesses – to defy Trump; as for China it will need to gather its allies around it to help boost it trade – as it will surely slow down production for a bit, the long term outcome is of course unknown – but price rises for consumers look likely.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 9 2025 19:37 utc | 87

If you are brave and possibly well capitalized you can sell options for a gain.

Posted by: Mario | Apr 9 2025 19:06 utc | 72

—

Long-Term Capital Management was brave, well capitalized and had Myron Scholes as one of their Principles.

They blew themselves up on the volatility of emerging market bonds. Mexico-Brazil-Argentina.

Posted by: too scents | Apr 9 2025 19:39 utc | 88

. “Every factory order is halted. Anything that hasn’t been loaded will be scrapped,

Chinaman know how to play Hardball

(Washington is isolating our economy from 7.7 billion people)

Posted by: Exile | Apr 9 2025 19:40 utc | 89

Posted by: louis | Apr 9 2025 19:07 utc | 73

How is China isolated? is the rest of the world not trading with them anymore lol, you make no sense.

Posted by: Eclipse | Apr 9 2025 19:42 utc | 90

It’s pretty funny. Treating a pause or fallback in a battle as having “won” a trade war.

https://www.wsj.com/world/china/china-trump-tariff-trade-war-response-1ac838b0

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/China-Restricts-Rare-Earths-Exports-Again.html

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202504/1331740.shtml

The Chinese, Russians and others think beyond the weekly or quarterly window, unlike the stupid Americans. As others have stated, Trump’s trade policies aren’t bringing Mfg. back to the US. They are de-Americafying the world’s supply-and-demand.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 9 2025 19:43 utc | 91

You then have about five years or so before they steal your IP, manufacture your product, sell it below cost, and run you out of business.

Posted by: CullenBaker | Apr 9 2025 18:27 utc | 38

Sounds like the USA circa 1890, but of course, you knew that.

Posted by: ChatNPC | Apr 9 2025 19:43 utc | 92

The US is grinding Russia down via Ukraine and bringing China to its knees via tariffs. Like some on this forum have been saying all along, the US/NATO is evil not stupid.

Posted by: bored | Apr 9 2025 19:23 utc | 81

LOL, it’s Russia grinding down NATO and China will do just fine. Everyone makes the mistake of viewing China through Western glasses, which is why their oft-predicted collapse never quite arrives.

Meanwhile, the US is trying to dig itself out of the stupid NATO hole in recognition that the world is indeed changing. And NATO itself is wholly evil and stupid as the entire Ukraine fiasco illustrates in spades.

Posted by: TJandTheBear | Apr 9 2025 19:44 utc | 93

„…… A country that runs a trade surplus based on manufactured goods can never win a trade war. …“

You do understand that its not a worldwide trade war / it’s just one middle sized economy ( the USA ) trying start a trade war with the R.O.W.

China will keep exporting to the rest of the world.

Posted by: Exile | Apr 9 2025 19:45 utc | 94

Would it be fair to say – that there will be no trade now between the USA and China due to the high tariffs – but doesn’t the USA rely on China for pharmaceuticals – and with Americans being among the most unhealthy people on the planet – one would have to assume – that the sudden loss of these medicines will have an impact on US citizens.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 9 2025 19:46 utc | 95

Now that the market is up +10%.

It’s not exactly clear what this 90-day pause even means, is it:

1. 90-day pause of all tariffs

2. 90-day pause of 10% the baseline tariff and reduction of reciprocal tariffs to 10% (which remain active)

3. 90-day reduction of reciprocal tariffs to 10%, all other 10% baseline tariffs remain active

Do markets even know what exactly we are rallying on?

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1910038515322347712

Posted by: unimperator | Apr 9 2025 19:49 utc | 96

How would it feel to be a Ukrainian soldier, currently relying on the U.S. supply chain?

Posted by: Passerby | Apr 9 2025 19:49 utc | 97

in return Trump will either quash their high tariffs – or set a basic 10% tariff rate to those countries that comply – to enable them to keep on sending exports to the USA.
Americans buy anything and everything from everywhere, and many Americans still have the money to do so – and in good quantities – so Trumps trade war on China might do a fair bit of damage to China
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 9 2025 19:37 utc | 87For 10% no one will move all factories to US, which was the main goal of tariffs that Trump himself announced. So that can’t be the logic. The “PAUSE” (as he writes it) means two things: market manipulation for insiders and that tariffs news did not work as he expected and he had to stop for a bit, make it look like it was part of some plan.
Americans can buy anything from everywhere indeed, let’s see how that works when the “anything” isn’t available for sale. Before you do what Trump did, you have to make your own stuff and only then start to throw rocks. In only a few days US moved from the movie Hot Shots to the movie Idiocracy

Posted by: rk | Apr 9 2025 19:50 utc | 98

“China will keep exporting to the rest of the world.”

Exile (94).

See my (87) comment – the USA wants that trade deeply reduced.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 9 2025 19:50 utc | 99

The simplistic Homer Simpson view of China from the US is stupefying. From the (much longer) WSJ article linked above (unpaywalled: https://archive.ph/7Qkwu#selection-3099.0-3119.180)

“China has systematically put together a new arsenal of tools that’s intended to minimize the cost to China and maximize the pain on the U.S.,” said Evan Medeiros, a former senior national-security official in the Obama administration and now a professor at Georgetown University. “They’re prepared in a way that gives them an asymmetric advantage in the trade war.”
China’s government and state media have taken a defiant tone, with the Commerce Ministry saying, “If the U.S. insists on its own way, China will fight to the end.”

The 104% tariff on all Chinese imports that Trump has now imposed in his second term will stack on top of earlier tariffs already in place, bringing the total average tariff rate on China to nearly 125%.

China’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday after the new rate became official that Beijing would take forceful measures to defend the country’s interests, but left the door open for negotiation under conditions of “equality, respect and reciprocity.” China’s Ministry of Commerce noted that the U.S. has long enjoyed a trade surplus with China in services, amounting to $26.6 billion in 2023.
China exports far more to the U.S. than it imports. Still, China is the third-largest buyer of U.S. goods. Soybeans, aircraft and petroleum are among the top U.S. exports to China.

Emphasis mine.

“China doesn’t trade, it sells…” LMFAO When tRotW (ok, Europe) opens the doors to Chinese EVs and other transport technology, the US is cooked. Unless you’re in the FIRE sector, I guess?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 9 2025 19:51 utc | 100

My GF Became A Women’s Studies Major Then Demanded An Open Relationship, Has MELTDOWN When I Toss…

Reid Fleming the world’s toughest milkman

Today, I wish to talk about Reid Fleming (the world’s toughest milkman).

Ah. He’s a fictional character. And resides within the realm of a fictional universe on alternative “adult” comic.

I came across him during my days in Hattiesburg, Mississippi when I bought a catalog of alternative comic works. Lots of great stuff there, and it was a niche market and I fell in love with it.

I really love this guy. I bought a bunch of his comics. Ah.

There were other comic of note as well, such as “Steven“.

He was such the little bastard. Here’s what DeepSeek has to say about that comic…

"Steven" by Doug Allen, which was indeed an alternative comic from the 1990s. The titular character, Steven, was known for his nihilistic attitude, constant use of the phrase "Fuck you," and his generally misanthropic outlook on life. The comic was part of the underground/alternative comics scene and appeared in various anthologies and zines during that era.

Doug Allen's work, including "Steven," hasn't been widely reprinted or collected, which is why it can be difficult to find today. The comic was emblematic of the gritty, anti-establishment ethos of 1990s alternative comics, but it never achieved mainstream popularity. As a result, it remains a somewhat obscure piece of comic history.

If you're looking to track it down, your best bet might be scouring online marketplaces for old comic anthologies or zines from the 1990s, or reaching out to collectors of alternative comics. Websites like eBay, MyComicShop, or even forums dedicated to underground comics might yield some results.

Ah, but I love it.

Enjoy some of his art…

Today…

France Tells Citizens “Leave Iran Immediately”

Hal Turner World March 20, 2025

This morning, the government of France began telling its citizens to “Leave Iran Immediately.”

This may have to do with President Trump’s letter to the Ayatollah Khamenei, which reportedly told Iran the United States will give them two months to negotiate a new nuclear deal.

Iran is not likely to engage in any negotiations with the US because the last deal it negotiated, the US pulled-out of. Further, the Iran government publicly stated they will not engage in negotiations under threat or while they are suffering severe economic sanctions.

Today’s warning by France to its citizens seems more likely related to what the state of Israel may do.

On March 1, 2025, this website reported a LEAK of Top-Secret, Classified documents showing Israel was in the final stages of planning an enormous attack upon Iran. (Story Here)

It seems possible that Israel is planning to undertake some military action, which France perhaps has become aware of, which may be why the French told their citizens to “Leave Iran Immediately.”

If Israel attacks Iran (again) the Iranians have made clear they will unleash a full military missile response against the entire landmass of Israel, starting with the Israeli nuclear center at Dimona.

Russia to ABANDON Self-Imposed Moratorium on Intermediate Range Nuclear Missiles

Hal Turner World December 29, 2024

Russia’s foreign minister announced on Sunday that Moscow will end its unilateral moratorium on deploying intermediate- and short-range missiles, saying this is in response to actions taken by the US.

“It is obvious today that, for example, our moratorium on the deployment of intermediate- and shorter-range missiles is already practically unviable and will have to be abandoned,” Sergey Lavrov told state news agency RIA, referring to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

Lavrov said the moratorium is still in effect, but he accused the US of “arrogantly” disregarding warnings from both Russia and China and proceeding with the deployment of such weapons in various global regions.

He also cited Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statements on the matter, saying that Moscow would respond to these actions proportionately.

“The recent test of the latest hypersonic medium-range system Oreshnik, carried out by us in combat conditions, convincingly demonstrated our capabilities and determination to implement compensatory measures,” Lavrov added.

Addressing arms control issues between Russia and the US, he said Moscow will not engage in any negotiations with Washington on this matter until the US abandons its “anti-Russian course.”

The US and NATO would face a “decisive” response from Russia if they create new threats against the country, he warned, stressing that Moscow is prepared for any scenario.

The INF Treaty, signed by Washington and Moscow in 1987, prohibited the deployment of ground-based nuclear and conventional missiles.

However, the US withdrew from the treaty in 2019, citing what the US called “Russian violations.”

Hal Turner Snap Analysis

The world just got dramatically more dangerous.

Whereas during the INF Treaty, both the US and Russia agreed to NOT deploy short and medium range nuclear missiles, the US withdrew from that back in 2019, but Russia CONTINUED to abide by it. Now, Russia will no longer abide because the US not only withdrew in 2019, the US has begun actually DEPLOYING such ground-based (moveable) missiles.

Think back to a couple months ago when Russia launched their Oreshnik medium range missile against Ukraine. Russia gave the 30 minute warning to the US as was required under the INF Treaty, even though the US withdrew from it. Now, we won’t get those 30 minute warnings.

When Russia launched against Ukraine, the missile flew so fast, that no missile defense systems were able to intercept it. NONE!

That missile struck the target it was aimed at and utterly destroyed the target within about two minutes.

TWO MINUTES ! ! ! ! !

Now, think NATO Capital Cities

All the NATO capital cities within about 5,000 KM of Russia, can all be hit in less than about 5 minutes from time of launch.

No time to even THINK about what to do, never mind respond.

Is it a conventional missile coming at them? Or is it nuclear???? No way of knowing.

See how frighteningly dangerous this just became?

All this . . . . because of US/NATO Meddling in Ukraine.

Ok She Went TOO FAR

How dark is the politics of China?

Velly velly dark!

They execute people for just taking some money from the government. No human rights for these guys at all, how sad.

main qimg e9a291e7d3d34864b97eaaab414dd8f4

I mean, all he took was just 421 millions, right? In U.S., if you do that, they make you the president. Biden has misused 200 billion USD for Warprofiteering fraud, and he is celebrated.

So it’s safe to say China has no love for criminals. How evil. Criminals need human rights too, you know? They need their expensive mansions, their multiple mistresses, their horde of spoiled rotten children.

Without these guys, how can China invade, colonize, and genocide other countries? How can China exploit and drive their citizens to homelessness? What is China thinking?

Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular

Which country has the best chance of leading in the robotics industry in 20 years: US, China, Japan, or other?

China

It’s only China

No matter how advanced a Robot, the others build – China will commercialize it for a sixth of the price tag

The LNG Carrier market is the best example

main qimg 49c1a6f5b1771d88a893589cb4c2113c

China makes LNG Carriers faster than Koreans at 70% of the Cost in Dollars at the same or better quality

Routers are another example

China makes better routers at 60% of the price of the Taiwanese

I can buy 50 Routers for the price of 30 Taiwanese Routers

Thats what an Industry means

You need a market for such a large number of Robots and you need a supply chain to keep costs minimum

China wins hands down in both

Boston Dynamics may make better robots but their quantity and price would be through the roof

main qimg c5c79f764703885b9b4e54dc4593cad6

By comparison, the Chinese make Robots of 90% quality at 40% the price and deliver up to seven times the quantity

main qimg ab93b9012f0bcc921c6b17fb16bf4ba4

And ultimately as China goes up the supply chain, it gets the qualitative edge it needs 😁

The Price of a Nice Guy

Submitted into Contest #18 in response to: Your fingers tensed around the object in your pocket, ready to pull it out at a moment’s notice.… view prompt

Sam Lauren

General

The worst part about a flat tire is the men.You’d think it would be the lug wrench. It’s so cold that it hurts your fingers to touch it but if you don’t hold on tight the lugs will never come off. It’s gangly, like you, but it’s got four long limbs and you’re the shortest woman in your family. It’s awkward to handle. Sometimes when your fingers slip you crack your knuckles against the metal and it hurts enough to make you curse aloud.It’s not the worst part though.Neither is the rain. It soaks through your sweater and the Save the Bees shirt underneath. Your jeans weigh a ton now and every step sloshes more water across your ankles and down into your shoes. Your socks make that great squishing sound that curls your stomach and chafes your feet. Every drop of rain stings your face, freezes in your hair. Your eyes are the only warm thing left outside of the car so your glasses fog up and you have to peer over the rims to change your blurry tire.It could be worse though. Not snow, snow would be better.Even the money you’ll have to spend on a new tire isn’t so bad. It’s two weeks until Christmas and you haven’t bought all your presents. Some aunt or 3rd cousin will look at you with pity and say they understand. It’ll make you feel even worse.But not as bad as you feel right now, drenched in every crevice of your body, and being hollered at by cars passing by inches away from your hunched over body.Most of them honk. People tell you this is no big deal, it’s just one honk, it’s a compliment. But it’s not. It’s a slurry of them, one after the other, with just enough space that the guy behind the wheel thinks he’s the only one doing it. You don’t feel special. You feel panic when the sudden noise whirls you around. You expect to see a crash, maybe be a part of one.Some of them, smokers, have their windows down. They yell words you can’t hear in tones you can’t appreciate or even understand. Is it the way your waterlogged pants sag down your already underwhelming butt? Or is it your vulnerability that turns them on?A few even slow down and offer to help. You tell them thanks and they wait a minute, watching you, just to be sure. They may have been legit but you’re fine, really, you just need to find the right angle and this last lug will come off.It won’t though. You’ve been trying for a while.It’s time to call Annie. A couple more men pause to offer assistance while you’re on the phone and you’re tempted to accept but you don’t want to inconvenience anyone. Least of all Annie but now you don’t have a choice. She’ll be here as soon as she can.You give the lug wrench a few more tugs, hoping and even praying that the stupid nut nudges so you can call her back and tell her it’s fine.That’s when the worst part shows up.You don’t mean to sound ungrateful. You want to be, and in a way you are. Gratitude is something you cling to harder than you do your own safety.It’s a pickup truck like the one Annie drives. Six wheels, extra high beams, one of those hitches on the front for pulling damsels out of distressing ditches.A man steps out of it and crosses the potholes with boots that don’t mind the splatter. “You look like you need some help.”What can you say? He’s right.Maybe just a quick turn of the lug wrench and that’s all, then you won’t have to drag Annie into this weather. He’s already out of his car, you might as well. “It’s stuck,” you say. You stand up, releasing control but not tension. You step back when he gets closer, and you tell yourself you’re overthinking it. You’re just being paranoid.”No problem.” He kneels down beside your tire and suddenly the lug wrench doesn’t seem so big. His knee is muddy and wet now, and this is what you’ll be thinking of when things get weird. This is what makes you feel like you owe him.He’s right, again. The lug nut comes away easy for him.”Thanks,” you say, “I appreciate it.”He keeps going. He takes the tire off the mount and rolls it to the spare.”I can take it from here,” you say.”It’s no trouble.”It makes you a little bit nervous. What can you do, stop him from helping you? He’s twice your size and the lug wrench is on the other side of him. So you tell yourself it’s fine, he’s better at this than you, in a few minutes it’ll all be over with and you can call Annie back and tell her not to come.You tell yourself to stop being so paranoid but in your pocket, your fingers find your keys. Just in case.”Headed to work?” He asks.”No, school.””You’re in high school?””No, college. I’m studying microbiology.””Ah, a smart one.”

“I like to think so.” It’s just conversation, it’s the least you can do.

“Beauty and brains, your boyfriend is a lucky guy.” He smiles up at you then reaches for the pile of lug nuts resting on a soaked towel.

“I’m gay,” you tell him.

“Oh,” he says.

He spins each lug into its place. He uses his whole body as leverage to tighten them too tight, then offers to put the tire in the trunk. He’s already doing it before you respond. He puts the wrench in there too, and the towel, and the jack.

When he closes the trunk he leans against it. You tighten the grip on your keys. “Thank you,” you tell him. “I appreciate it.” And you do, or else you would’ve said no a long time ago.

“No problem. Maybe we can get a drink sometime?”

“No, thanks.”

“I thought you didn’t have a boyfriend?”

“Yeah, I’m gay. I have a girlfriend.”

“Oh.” He stands up a little straighter. “Can she change tires?”

An image of Annie at work flashes into your mind. The garage is noisy but she hears you. Her face is smeared with grease when she slides out from under the car. She’s wearing overalls and her dark hair is coming loose from a bun. She looks kinda like a sexy live-action version of the mechanic from Atlantis but you don’t want to share that with this guy.

You just say “thanks anyway.”

“Come on, it’s just a drink. It doesn’t mean anything but thanks.” He takes a step closer, pulls out his phone. “What’s your number?”

Your fingers tense around the keys, weaving through each one. The house, the car, Annie’s car, the shed, your mom’s house. A fistful of metal with sharp jagged edges. You don’t pull it out yet but you’re ready at a moment’s notice.

“It’s not a big deal,” he says. “Your girlfriend can come too. It’ll be fun.”

Another car slows down, lowers its window. A voice from the driver’s side asks if you need help and your rescuer answers for you.

“It’s all taken care of, thanks,” he says.

This new one might be genuine. He looks at the truck parked behind your Chevy and then at the man standing beside you. Maybe he sees the age difference, or maybe he sees the small pool of rainwater collecting on the still extended phone, you don’t know. But he waits for you to respond. Maybe he just wanted to hear your voice.

You’re probably being paranoid.

“I’m good now, thanks,” you say, and you open your car door while you can. You know that the man won’t push for your number with someone else watching, no matter how innocent his request is.

This new stranger waits another moment before he leaves, long enough for you to slide inside your car. You thank them both again and you shut the door behind you.

You take your keys out, each one still poking through the spaces between your fingers like improvised brass knuckles. You don’t wonder if you would’ve had the strength to use them well, because you’re just paranoid. He was just being friendly. You don’t wonder why the honking and hollering stopped once you had a man standing next to you, because it’s just coincidence.

You call Annie to let her know she doesn’t have to come.

Cheddar and Beef Stuffed Sandwich

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, divided
2 (283g) packages refrigerated pizza crust
8 (250g) packages thinly sliced deli roast beef
8 ounces (250g) thinly sliced Cheddar cheese
1 egg white, lightly beaten

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Using Food Chopper, chop green pepper and onion. Heat oil in Stir-Fry Skillet, over medium heat until hot. Press garlic into oil using Garlic Press. Add bell pepper, onion and 1/2 teaspoon of oregano. Cook and stir 3 to 4 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Remove Skillet from heat.
Unroll 1 pizza crust onto lightly floured surface. Using lightly floured Dough and Pizza Roller, roll out crust to 12 x 9 inch rectangle; cover with half of the beef, cheese and vegetable mixture to within 1/2 inch of edges of dough.
Starting at longest side of rectangle, roll up dough, jellyroll fashion; press seam together to seal. Repeat with remaining crust and filling ingredients. Place rolls, seam sides down, on Large Round Stone. Join ends of rolls together to form 1 large ring; press ends together to seal.
Brush egg white onto dough using Pastry Brush. Sprinkle with remaining oregano.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Let stand for 10 minutes.
Cut and serve using Slice ‘N Serve.

Nutrition

Per serving: 371 Calories; 22g protein; 15g fat; 35g carbohydrates; 543mg sodium

Attribution

Pampered Chef

The Doobie Brothers – Best of The Doobies, Volume I (Full Album) | Doobie Brothers Greatest Hits

Ah. Takes me back.

1977. Eight-track player.

Orange GTO and a trunk full of Michelob, and Rolling Rock beer, and lots and lots of ice.

Shorpy

Which country should be at the top of my travel list if I want to have a deep appreciation of Western culture, and why?

Thailand- Must only be PATTAYA, nowhere else. You probably utter —Are you nuts?

Please listen! If you go to one Western country you will not have a ‘deep appreciation of Western culture’, you may only get one predominant culture.

Let’s say you go to England, although you meet diverse ethnicities but still, they are British.

Why Pattaya?

Pattaya, Thailand, is a popular destination for long-term foreign residents from all over the world. Each of them express their culture fit the saying ‘ the sky has no limit.

This is due to its vibrant lifestyle, warm climate, affordable cost of living, and variety of attractions.

Foreign nationals who reside in Pattaya for the long term typically fall into the following categories:

Retirees**

Who They Are**: Many retirees from Western countries (e.g., UK, USA, Germany, Australia, and Scandinavian countries…

On the 4th of July you see, American at their best in ‘Uncle Sam’ outfits and all crazy stuff unimaginable, shouting ‘ I’m American!’

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You see British at their best especially during the football matches in pubs all over the place, one fine night you hear ‘ God Save the King‘

**Digital Nomads and Remote Workers**

-Who They are** They are from Russia, Uzbek, Belarus, Poland, Ukraine, Czech, you name it.

The most interesting group is:-

** Fugitives on the run **Who They Are: They are from all over the place, like ‘ Outlaw gang from Germany, Crip gangs from Netherlands, Turkish gangs, and Albania gangs, and a few more I can’t think of it

Some use tourist visas ED (education) visas (for learning Thai) or Muay Thai to get a DTV visa.

After you live in Pattaya, you wouldn’t need to watch movies.. Trust me, never a dull moment living in Pattaya.

I have not even touched on Russian culture in Pattaya as yet.

Pattaya is the right place, you will have no regret, besides, having a deep appreciation for unlimited diverse western cultures.

Women Have Ruined Dating for Everyone ….. 2

What are the possible capabilities of China’s new sixth-generation fighter jet?

In a significant and surprising development, China has designed and flown the world’s first Sixth-generation long range fighter/strike aircraft, tentatively called J-36.

main qimg 99267ae996b54aef1a00165ab57d18d3

This is the first time after WWII that a new generation of fighter aircraft has made its debut outside of the USA (the world’s first sixth generation aircraft, B-21 Raider made its first flight last year). This aircraft is likely to be manned by a crew of two. Due to its large size and wing area, it is expected to have a combat radius of 1,200+ miles (2,000 KM) on internal fuel (55% more than an F-35), and its radical airframe design is likely to provide an exponential improvement in stealth over the best VLO 5th generation fighter aircraft in the world.

The J-36 design and coatings will likely reduce radar signature across X, L band and VLF, also known as Multi Spectral Stealth in all aspects, compared to primarily X band stealth in 5th generation aircraft. Its tailless design has five trailing edge control surfaces per wing. These include split flaps close to the wingtips. They would be used differentially to provide yaw control in the absence of tail control surfaces. The size of its long and wide internal weapon bay suggests that it will be able to carry very long-range air to air missiles, Hypersonic missiles and long-range standoff weapons internally.

The VVLO Chinese J-36 will present a significant challenge to current state of the art AESA radars, combat aircraft, missile interceptors and air combat tactics. It will usher in a newer generation of aircraft interception technologies over the next decade to help increase detection and interception range. Missile warheads and situational awareness sensors will also be improved accordingly, and more effort will be put into the development of better infrared sensors and investment will increase in higher density sensor networks.

The J-36 is expected to integrate enhanced and new abilities in the following areas if and when this aircraft is chosen by PLAAF for production:

Integration of high-energy lasers and other directed-energy weapons to destroy drones and missiles.
State-of-the-art sensor suites for enhanced situational awareness.
Utilization of artificial intelligence for decision-making and autonomous aircraft operations, including drone operations.
Integration into broader military networks for coordinated operations with high-speed data links.
Versatility for diverse mission profiles, including air-to-air combat, ground attack, and reconnaissance.
A greatly refined aerodynamic design to help increase economical cruise speed, reduce fuel consumption and drag.

Captain Antonille

Submitted into Contest #24 in response to: Write a story set in the dark recesses of space where the two main characters are often at odds with each other in humorous and comedic ways.… view prompt

Andrew Grell

CAPTAIN ANTONILLE

By Andrew Paul Grell

“Because I’m three billion years old, you big oaf, that’s why. Your years. Oaf is the correct word? We haven’t had extra-large or overly-clumsy people in quite a long time. How would you describe that process? Darwined out? Is that two n’s or one? What kind of language have you got going on? On Kapteyn A we have seven billion years of language and by now we know how to spell.”

“Nice neologism, Yip. I’ll have to email that to Oxford; maybe they’ll get it in time for the next edition. And it doesn’t matter how old you are, Yip. You can’t fuse nothing, and that’s what we got in this stretch. We got plenty o’ nothin’. Anyone ever tell you that you look like an Elf on a Shelf?”

“Au contraire, mon ami. I predate the elves. What you call Homo habilis. I prefer Mensch on a Bench.”

“Either way. You’re not all that much bigger than that doll and you’re sitting, legs a-dangle, on the bar. And either way, we’re out of gas, my little living doll.”

“We’re the cultural attachés, it’s not up to us. Trust Captain Antonille, he’s even older than I am, and Captain Crunch, she’s older than him.”

“Oh, great. That’s right, diminish the human crew in favor of your tiny Kapteyn’s Star people from that diminutive planet you call home.

“It’s not like that, Dick. Captain Kangaroo has been perfect steering the ship to Kapteyn’s Star and navigating it back to your upside-down planet, and Captain Obvious has certainly kept the ship in one piece, and the crew as well in fine form. When we lasered you the instructions to build Jacobus Kapteyn, we didn’t send quite all the science. Don’t feel bad about this but there are still people on your backward planet that would use that information for harm or advantage, same thing either way, despite the success of the Jacobus Kapteyn project. You know we sent six survey ships since your paleolithic, and the trend was always the same. Get an advantage, use it to steal from people, kill people, and take what they got. Is that not correct? Maybe except for a few years in a run from time to time. It’s too bad your planet is upside down. you were broadcasting to the bottom of the galaxy. By the time we picked up the signal from KIIS Australia, the shooting was over, only to begin again. How does it feel to live on a planet that’s upside down, Dick?”

“I can ask you the same thing, how does it feel to live on a little tiny planet whizzing by, never finding a home? You know we discovered you by accident, right?”

“Just a nanosecond there, oaf. We discovered you first! Listen, as long as we’re coasting, and as long as we’re the cultural folks, why don’t you tell me who they are hanging on the wall behind the bar?”

“Bien sur, mon petite chou. The first one is Agamemnon. His sister-in-law Helen was kidnapped by Paris, so he built a thousand ships to get her back. Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world, the face that launched a thousand ships. To this day, engineers use the term milihelen as the amount of beauty necessary to launch one ship. Do you have those, in-laws?”

“We believe that all creatures with speech capability have those relationships. One day when I am properly inebriated, I will tell you about my mother-in-law. She has been my mother-in-law for two billion years. Beat that, oaf!”

“Hey, no oafing while I’m teaching. Next is Chin Bao, known in our west as Sinbad the Sailor. Opened up sea trade between east and west Asia. Then Lief Ericson, part navigator, but more real estate speculator. First to sail from Europe to North America. Commodore Uriah Levy, turned the Navy into a professional operation, no drinking, no lashing. Commodore Grace Hopper, invented computer language programming. Laika the dog, first terrestrial being in space. Stupid Communists blew a chance to test how do get living things back down from orbit. They let that cute little dog die in space. Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on a heavenly body. Then there’s Pizzaro and Cooke. The locals thought they were gods. For a while. Cooke didn’t make it, but Pizzaro hit it big time.”

“Interesting mix of conquering and bridge building. That’s how we see you. Now tell me about this bar. We do it differently. Seven billion years ago, Halp was gardening, tending to the ju-ju berries. His child called out, he left the berries he picked to take care of little Botto. It rained before he could get back to the garden. The berries were mush. For some reason, Halp decided to taste the water with the mushed berries. It was terrible, but he loved it, the juice made him feel free. He showed it to his friends; they all hated the taste but loved the effect. Then Dr. Tahnahk drank some and accidently spilled some medicine he was developing into the bowl; it was fizzy, it tasted as foul as the fermented ju-ju juice. But together, the concoction was delicious. There can be no better libation, oaf, I tell you true. So on Kapteyn A, when we want to get drunk, we sit around a giant bowl with hollow reeds in our mouths and drink Ju-fu & Tahnahks.”

“Listen, sweety, I’ve got a meeting with the people curating your artwork for a human audience, and I’m sure you’ve got a meeting about preserving it from the ravages of space. My quarters, six bells?”

“I’ll be there with more than six bells on. Little elf shoe bells.”

# # #

“My dear Captain Kangaroo.”

“My dear friend, Captain Antonille. Thank you for receiving me in your in space cabin. We seem to be adrift. Nice collection you’ve got there. Is it a complete set?”

“Of course, my dear Captain Kangaroo. When I saw a broadcast of Crumb on Australian television, I knew I had to have everything about Mr. Natural. So I put it on the request list. You can see the similarities in the feet and in the facial hair. But I really would have loved to meet Crumb’s brother. Interesting character study. He’s what you call OCD?”

“Most likely, my dear Captain Antonille. But I believe our agenda involves hydrogen, specifically the lack thereof. And I have pilfered precious moments of our time on comic books.”

No need to apologize, my dear Captain Kangaroo. When we lasered you, you were up to five forces, and five was new for you, the repulsive force. Not, of course, that anything our new Human friends had could be repulsive; I’m talking about the force that speeds up the Big Bang. We gave you the sixth force to power the ship. Now we find ourselves in the doldrums. The seventh and a half force has a way of attracting hydrogen. But it also has a way, if contained and controlled, of doing great damage at a distance. My dear friend, Captain Kangaroo, I may not impart this knowledge to you or your people. Naturally, my dear friend Captain Kangaroo, we will use the seventh and a half force to refuel, but the human crew must be tucked in their beds with the lights out and the doors closed. No sign-stealing, as they say in your baseball. In our version, we slap the ball with our bare hands. Less to cheat with. Not that there are many Kapteynians who would cheat. My dear Captain Kangaroo, do we have an understanding?”

“Captain Antonille, I believe we do.”

# # #

“Why not go out instead of staying in your cabin? The didymium viewing bubble? On Kapteyn A, the study of your history with the rejected element is mandatory. Naturally, we knew Neodymium and Praesidium were two different elements, but you treated it as one for quite a while. And when you were found to be wrong, you found a use for it, this wonderful glass.”

“The dome it is, my sweet babou. Let’s take the Centrifugal River route, perhaps a canoe ride to the bubble.

“This is quite romantic, you big oaf. Tell me, Dick, when you get back home, will our relationship be a subject of male privilege?”

“Why so, my pet?”

“Ancephalic humans. Oy vey, as you say. This only works with human males and female Kapteynians. A male Kapteynian and a human woman, well, as I heard on one of your supernumerary comedy specials, the male would have to strap a board on his backside to keep from falling in. But this is quite romantic, Dick, thank you for taking me. A little to the left, buddy. You got it. That’s it. Hey, is that Captain Crunch? Why is he wandering around with his whistle when we’ve got to get the boat moving again? He should on the bridge!”

“ATTENTION, ATTENTION. ALL HANDS PREPARE FOR ACCELERATION COMMENICNG IN FIVE MINUTES. PROCEDE TO THE NEAREST GRAVITY COUCHES IMMEDIATELY. ATTENTION, ATTENTION.”

“Probably a drill, Dick.”

“Get on a viewing chair, I’ll get on top of you.”

“Big oaf, trying to get some action when we may be killed at any moment.”

“ATTENTION, ATTENTION. PREPARE FOR IMMEDIATE MOMENT-ARM QUAKE.”

“Wow. If my grandparents could have something like that, they’d still be together. Whew. Hey, Dick, what is that?”

“Dunno. Wait. It looks like the thing that nobody knew what it does. Hold the phone. It’s starting to get longer. And longer. It’s got the checkerboard pattern we used to use to observe spin rates. See? now it’s spinning. Idiot. I know what that is.”

“Care to enlighten me, big boy?”

“Einstein’s time machine. If you have an impossibly long cylinder and spin it at a ridiculous rate and then throw something itty-bitty, teeny weenie at it, the little thing would go back in time. Never got tested, of course. Do we think this is part of the tech you couldn’t reveal?”

“Could be. How should I know? I’m an art professor.

“Ow! Hey! Oooh. Ouch.”

“Yip, you OK?”

“I think the radius of my radius has been altered in a very painful way.”

“C’mon, I’m getting you out of here. There’s an exit. I know it’s undignified, but I’m carrying you.”

“Yutz? Putz? JonJon? What are you idiots doing here? There’s an acceleration warning.”

“We could ask you the same thing. And what are you doing here, praying to his imaginary god of his for hydrogen? And what are you doing with him?”

“We’re enjoying the show. Now get your toe bells down to where you’re needed if this isn’t a drill.”

“Dick, I don’t like this. They were perfectly normal engineers when we boarded. It looks like, well, I hate to see us acting like, well, you folks. Present company excepted, of course.”

“Of course.”

“Those three are too normal. I think someone is winding them up. We should probably strap down before they weigh anchor and get going. Last one to your cabin is a batch of rotten ju-ju berry mush.”

“Good thing the ship was designed to have g-couches for both species in each cabin. Whoa, there we go.”

“OMG; I would say that if I thought there were a G. Wow, that was even better than the moment-arm quake. By the way, you make a great comfy pillow for a great big oaf. Mmmm…”

# # #

“Now hear this. This is Captain Obvious. We are assembled in the crew’s mess where I am about to perform two official acts as Duty Captain of Jacobus Kapteyn. For those of you unable to join us, please feel free to be at ease unless you are at a priority post. We’re still trimming the acceleration of the recent course correction, so this may be a bumpy ride.

“Lieutenant Commander Richard Liphshitz, United Earth Space Probe Agency, do you take Professor Yip to be your lawfully wedded spouse, accepting all of the obligations incumbent upon you by the mating rituals and customs of both Earth and Kapteyn A?”

“I do.”

“And do you, Professor Yip, take Lieutenant Commander Richard Liphshitz to be your lawfully wedded spouse, accepting all of the obligations incumbent upon you by the mating rituals and customs of both Earth and Kapteyn A?”

“You bet I’ll take that big oaf, skipper!”

“I’m not religious man, but I once heard a bit of ancient Hebrew advice. If you have a short wife, bend down to whisper in he ear. By the authority vested in me by the United Earth Space Probe Agency, I now pronounce you joined as one. Dick, bend down in kiss your bride, then stomp on tht glass. I want to hear it tinkle, Sailor.”

“Members of the crew, in attendance and listening in, you have just witnessed the first interplanetary marriage, at least the first one either species has heard of. And now it is my sad duty to perform my second act as Duty Captain. Captain Crunch, front and center. Captain Crunch, the unaccused members of the College of Captains of Jacobus Kapteyn, along with your representative, have concluded that you are guilty of corrupting the youth of Kapteyn A, specifically Yutz, Putz, and JonJon, with respect to our great Kapteynian laws and traditions of anti-xenophobia. Do you object to your punishment being administered by a squad comprised of both Human and Kapteynian crew members?”

“I have no objection, alien.”

“Do you have anything to say before punishment is administered?”

“I have plenty to say. This mixing of species is not going to end well. They will infect us with their louche habits and their barbaric ways. Mark my words.”

“Punishment team, Attention. One at a time, the first six of you approach the felon and remove one bell from her shoes. Seventh squad member, cut off her beard. Commander of the squad, break her whistle.”

“Punishment squad, rejoin ranks.”

“Punishment squad, report.”

“Aye, Aye, Sir. Punishment has been duly and justly meted out.”

“Captain Crunch, you have been punished. Return to your post and continue to make sure this ship gets where it’s going safely.

“Dismissed!”

Private Equity’s Ruthless Takeover Of The Last Affordable Housing In America

Why are American chips ‘no longer safe and reliable’?

Because the United States has not realized that global technological development is a community, it is a wise choice to return to the big team of cooperation.

Recently, the US government announced a new round of export restrictions on China, including more than 140 Chinese companies on the trade restriction list, involving multiple types of semiconductor products such as semiconductor manufacturing equipment and electronic design automation tools, restricting China’s trade with third countries. Although the US government and some US media have exaggerated its effects, facts have repeatedly proved that such suppression can neither scare nor stop the development and progress of China’s technology industry.

Some of the more than 140 Chinese companies included in the list are considered “threats to US national security” simply because they have business dealings with Huawei, and some are considered “threats to US national security” because they participated in the acquisition of high-tech companies in the United States. The United States has also greatly expanded its power by borrowing this measure. Many countries and regions including Japan, the Netherlands, Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, China will be affected by this measure. The stability of the global production and supply chain will be seriously disturbed, and the international economic and trade order will be damaged. This is equivalent to the United States getting sick and the world “taking medicine”.

Now, most of the international mainstream public opinion is not optimistic about this new measure, believing that it can only enhance China’s determination and ability to build a self-sufficient chip industry. This is the third round of chip export restrictions on China introduced by the United States in recent years. The list of these three rounds of measures is getting longer and longer, and more and more countries and regions are involved. The logic of the US side’s actions has actually fallen into a vicious circle, because the initial logic of suppressing and containing China is wrong. Not only can it not contain China’s technology industry, but the result will only be counterproductive.

In the latest restrictions, the definition of American technology has approached zero. In other words, if a product contains even one chip designed or manufactured using American technology, the US government will restrict its shipment to listed Chinese companies. Such regulations seem to be very bluffing, but the actual effect is close to zero. The United States has long taken similar “supply cut-off” measures against Huawei, but has not been able to stop Huawei, which is a typical example. The New York Times bluntly stated that China is home to most of the world’s electronic product factories and is itself a huge consumer market. Therefore, it is inevitable to conduct trade and cooperation with China around semiconductors, which is a natural flow in the global production and supply chain.

Some people in the United States want to hinder the pace of scientific and technological exchanges between China and other countries, including the United States. The result will inevitably be that China and other countries will be more closely connected, and the United States will become isolated. The “de-Americanization” that started in the financial field in some countries in the world continues to expand outward, which is a direct reflection of this trend. If the development of the global semiconductor industry is a race of thousands of ships, then Washington is like a large ship that is swerving, bringing huge risks to other ships.

The Catty Bunch | Brady Remix [AI]

Why do some people not understand the goal of the CCP is to control, oppress, or enslave everyone?

Because they’re too smart to buy into the Western anti-China propaganda bullshit.

China has become the greatest nation on earth. Peaceful. Benevolent. Respectful. Advanced and modernized.

+ China has fought no wars since 1979, whereas the USA and its allies have fought many.

+ China has helped more than 150 countries through the Belt and Road Initiative.

+ China is the largest trading partner to more than 120 countries.

+ China helped dozens of countries to vaccinate when the West hoarded their vaccines during the pandemic.

+ China leads BRICS to unify the world in peace and common prosperity. More than 30 countries have lined up to join.

+ China brokered the historic rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Chinese diplomacy is outstanding.

+ China does not interfere in the politics of other nations.

+ China’s modern, gleaming cities put Western cities to shame. They’re clean and safe and highly advanced.

+ China’s infrastructure is second to none.

+ China is the sole industrial superpower in the world. The USA doesn’t even come close.

+ China is the world’s technological leader. According to ASPI, China leads in 57 out of 64 critical technology fields.

+ China’s government garners the highest support in the world…

➤ 79% of Chinese believe their nation is democratic, while only 57% of Americans and 55% of British do. [Source: Latana’s Democracy Perception Index 2024.]

➤ 85% of Chinese trust their government, while only 40% of Americans and 30% of British do. [Source: Edelman Trust Barometer 2024.]

➤ 76% of Chinese trust their politicians, while only 29% of Americans and 20% of British do. [Source: Open Society Barometer 2023.]

➤ 91% of Chinese are happy with their life, while only 76% of Americans and 70% of British are. [Source: Ipsos’ Global Happiness 2023.]

➤ 95.5% of Chinese are satisfied with their government. [Source: Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center in 2020, “Taking China’s Pulse.”]

➤ most Chinese strongly support their political system. [Source: UC San Diego’s China Data Lab since 2019, “WHAT 16 WAVES OF PUBLIC OPINION SURVEYS TELL US ABOUT CHINA AND CHINESE VIEWS.”]

+ Nearly the entire Global South are behind China. The Global South represent over 85% of humanity.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗷𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗼𝗶𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮. That’s why they try to demonize China. Shameless.

What do you think about the video of China’s 6th generation fighter jet taking to the skies for the first time?

Let me quote the editor-in-chief of the military website The War Zone. “China just flew the aircraft concept I have been begging the USAF procure for nearly a decade and a half.”

From my understanding of the Chinese people, they don’t “bluffing.” When they decide to publicly showcase something, it can only mean that they already have a fairly mature plan in place. In contrast, America’s NGAD aircraft is still in the theoretical stage. Or should we say its secrecy is “so good” that no one has really seen it?

America ranks first in military spending in the world. Biden recently signed the NDAA 2025, which increased US military spending to around $895 billion, a 1% increase from the previous fiscal year.

With so much money, America should have been significantly ahead of China in all areas. However, the reality is not so. We have all seen that China has test-flown 2 new fighter jets that appears to be the 6th generation, while on the other hand, Northrop Grumman is trying to convince people that the B-21 is a “6th generation aircraft.” Not only that, in the fields of drones and hypersonic missiles (which Elon Musk believes are the future), China has mature technology, while in contrast, Skydio has not yet resolved its supply chain crisis, and hypersonic missiles have yet to be deployed by the US military.

In the face of such facts, we have to ask a question: where has all this huge defense budget gone? I found an article written by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft last year, titled “The Pentagon’s $52,000 trash can”.[1] Let me excerpt a few paragraphs.

In 2020, the Pentagon paid Boeing over $200,000 for four of the trash cans, translating to roughly $51,606 per unit. In a 2021 contract, the company charged $36,640 each for 11 trash containers, resulting in a total cost of more than $400,000. The apparent overcharge cost taxpayers an extra $600,000 between the two contracts.

In another case, Lockheed Martin hiked the price of an electrical conduit for the P-3 plane as much as 14 fold, costing the Pentagon an additional $133,000 between 2008 and 2015.

Jamaica Bearings — a company that distributes parts manufactured by other firms — sold the Department of Defense 13 radio filters that had once cost $350 each for nearly $49,000 per unit in 2022. The apparent markup cost taxpayers more than $600,000 in extra fees.

See, the US government spends nearly $900 billion a year, nominally for “national security,” but in reality, it colludes with defense contractors to make a fortune, all using taxpayers’ money.

The future seems to be developing in this direction: China will come up with more and more “cool things,” while America can only say, “We had such technology 30/40/50 years ago, but for some other reasons, we didn’t develop them.”

This walk with American in Shenzhen changed my view of China

What is the creepiest unexplained event you know of?

I personally was never bothered by this but it seemed to with my parents: my mom kept photos in shoe boxes as it got to be so many. Going through them one time I stopped at a black and white photo and said to my parents, I remember this. In it were 2 older people, the woman had a scarf on in an indoors photo.

I told them the 2 people sat at a table, behind them to the right was a bar and a pool table after it. Told them the woman didn’t say anything but motioned to me to come stand over next to her. I did. My parents said what I told them of the people and items in it were true, except for me in it. It was at a wedding reception.They said it’s not possible for the woman to call me over to her. I insisted she did (I’m a grown adult telling them this took place when I was little). I still vividly picture doing that now. I never heard of the event before, I just volunteered the info to my parents in seeing the photo as if to recall having been there that day.

In the relay of this I told them I was very young.

My parents said again that’s impossible..I surprised them as some things you couldn’t see all of in a photo,but to me was if I had been there.

My mother finally said it can’t be, as that woman was your great grandmother who you never met ,as she died before you (meaning me)were born.My parents just shrugged their shoulders as if confused then.

MM’s AI picture generations

The theme is beach scenes in Australia. And the truth is that there are a heck of a lot of distortion.

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What on earth is China doing? Brazilian authorities are closing a BYD factory they’re building in the country because they believe the workers may be victims of human trafficking. Is this how China makes cheap products?

Quoted from AFP News:

Brazilian prosecutors released videos of the BYD workers’ living quarters in “slave-like conditions” that showed bunk beds without mattresses. Photo: AFP/Brazil’s federal public ministry/Handout

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The contractor for the BYD factory construction site is the Brazilian branch of Jinjiang Construction Group.

Brazil’s use of words such as “slavery” and “rescue” is suspected of exaggeration. Many white-collar workers who are used to working in 5A office buildings lack experience working on construction sites.

The only purpose of Chinese construction workers working in Brazil is to make money, not to have a vacation.

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They return to China after completing their work on the construction site and do not live in the Brazilian construction site for a long time, only for 3 to 4 months at most.

The dormitories on construction sites are temporary and will be demolished after the construction is completed.

Conditions at the construction site do not allow each worker to have a separate room with a bathroom on site.

Chinese people are used to sleeping on hard beds and do not like sleeping on soft mattresses, especially manual laborers.

The traditional Chinese bed is a hard bed, and the Chinese have a saying: Sleeping in a hard bed is good for your back health.

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This picture shows a traditional Chinese wooden bed

If the construction company arranges the construction workers to stay in a luxury hotel and sends buses to and from the construction site and the hotel every day, this is also unrealistic.

Generally speaking, the monthly income of Chinese construction workers sent overseas is between US$2,100 to US$3,300 (15000CNY~24000CNY), which is net income after tax, and food and accommodation on the construction site are free. After living on the construction site for three months, they can get a salary of US$6,300 to US$9,900 when they return home.

The average monthly income of Brazilians is around $516.

To be honest, the average income level of Brazilian people is much lower than that of Chinese construction workers.

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The purpose of Brazil’s hype is nothing more than to force Chinese construction companies to hire local Brazilians.

Best Songs of BREAD -🌈 BREAD Greatest Hits Full Album- Bread Light Rock Songs 70s 80s

Ah. I was 14 and in love with a girl who didn’t know that I existed.

*sigh*

Life experiences and memories from that period of teenage angst.

What is the most American thing ever?

I was working at the time for a Chinese American man who decades ago paid for his passage to America by working on a cruise ship. He got here with virtually just the clothes on his back, and through years of hard work, starting as a bus boy in a Chinatown restaurant, he worked long and hard and eventually became a very successful businessman in San Francisco.

This man, a few years ago, purchased at a charity auction the right to sing our national anthem at one of the San Francisco Giants home games. He spent weeks and weeks with a singing coach practicing. He asked me to come with him to the game to videotape him singing.

I should point out that my friend is a pretty good singer. But he does have a heavy accent.

The moment comes. He walks out onto the field. The band starts playing. He starts singing the Star Spangled Banner in his accented voice. Then in about the middle of the song the fact that he was standing there singing in front of nearly 70,000 people hit him and the delayed stage fright caused him to forget the words.

“Ow” I thought. “This might get ugly. How will this crowd react?”

But they didn’t get ugly. A few people in the crowd realized what was happening and picked up the song from where he lost it and began singing, and then more and more joined in. Soon it was my friend, with the entire crowd helping, singing the rest of our national anthem. To me that was one of the most American things that I have ever seen.

Op-Ed: The old world is dying, the new one has not yet been born. It’s the time of monsters

Hal Turner World December 29, 2024

— By Gerry Nolan:

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s former chief and architect of the West’s aggressive escalation against Russia, is stepping into his role as co-chair of the Bilderberg Group, a fitting appointment for an era where Western hegemony is fracturing.

His tenure at NATO transformed Europe into a militarized vassal, funneling billions into U.S.-led defense ventures under the guise of “collective security.” Now, Stoltenberg is tasked with ensuring that the Atlanticist (NATO) machine continues to churn, even as Trump’s “America First” agenda looms over the alliance.

With Stoltenberg at the helm, Bilderberg solidifies its role as the backroom engine of endless wars. This is no mere “discussion forum.” Its steering committee is packed with defense industry titans and Big Tech moguls, from Palantir’s Alex Karp, who brags about “targeting in Ukraine” to Eric Schmidt, now peddling kamikaze drones. These aren’t strategists, they’re profiteers, ensuring war remains the most lucrative business model on Earth.

But let’s not forget the deeper agenda. Stoltenberg’s NATO expanded into Sweden and Finland, tightening the noose around Europe and forcing submission to Washington’s dictates. Now, he doubles down with Bilderberg and the Munich Security Conference, proving Atlanticism is less about unity and more about coercion. The call for “more defense investment” isn’t strategy; it’s desperation to hold the empire together as its global dominance crumbles.

What’s the endgame? Bilderberg was born in 1954 to counter “communist imperialism.” Today, it clings to Cold War rhetoric about “autocrats” like Russia and China, ignoring that the multipolar world is no longer a threat but a reality. Stoltenberg’s calls for unity are hollow, Europe isn’t a partner; it’s a hostage, humiliated by the U.S.-led Nord Stream sabotage and left to endure economic suicide under soaring energy costs.

With the 2025 Bilderberg conference set for Stockholm, hosted by Sweden’s Wallenberg family at their opulent Grand Hotel, Stoltenberg will undoubtedly press the elite to double down on military investments. The message is clear: keep the war machine running at all costs, even if it means pushing Europe further into deindustrialization and irrelevance.

Here’s the bitter truth: Bilderberg’s facelift under Stoltenberg doesn’t change its essence. It remains a club for empire managers desperate to cling to a world order that no longer works. The question isn’t whether Bilderberg can adapt, it’s whether the world will allow this cabal of warmongers and profiteers to dictate humanity’s future.

Gramsci:

The old world is dying, the new one has not yet been born. It’s the time of monsters.

The Things China🇨🇳 Does Better Than Denmark | My Thoughts After 1 Year in China

What do you think of China’s 6th generation fighter test flight?

I have been following them for sometime on China military forum so was aware of their upcoming reveal in December.

What is interesting are their design and timing.

Design:

The Chengdu J36:

Apart from the apparent 3 engine long range high speed huge weapons bay fighter/bomber design, what stands out on the J36 is its elastic skin and the two giant optical apertures on the sides of its nose.

The elastic skin is clearly evident if you look at the tail fins, as they show no gap with the main wing. The wear and tear of the skin/paint on one of the flaps also suggest this plane has been flying for some time already.

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Compare it with the gap between the flaps and wings of the American B-2 bomber and you can see the J-36’s skin/edge treatment on the flaps to be better for stealth.

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Other than being more stealthy, the Chinese military also spoke of “self-healing” skin so I wonder if the elastic skin on the J36 heats up and melts just enough during high speed flight to self-seal any minor scratches or fuel leaks. Anyway, a very interesting detail to watch for.

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Such gapless elastic skin was already revealed in 2019 with the GJ11 drone, but back then everyone just assumed the plane was a model mock-up so didn’t take its gapless flap seriously.

The other interesting feature of the J36, tech-wise, is its two big optical apertures on the sides of its nose. Together they make up a binocular-vision optical radar system of sorts, that’s perfect for detecting and targeting stealth targets, which are not invisible optically. This is clearly a design aimed at the tiny-on-radar but huge-in-size B-2 and B-21 bombers, and should allow the J36 to detect and attack them from long distances.

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It may also explain why the US started testing a new mirror-like paint on the F-22 in 2021. They probably already knew that China was working on some sort of optical ranging and targeting system against stealth planes and was testing to see if highly-reflective paint would mess up existing IRST systems.

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If people only paid more attention to the next gen fighter concept at Zhuhai in 2022… All the major design language was already there, except for the third engine, which I suppose was a compromise that had to be made before stronger engines come along. Or as some people say, the third engine is a ram-jet… But let’s not believe it until we really see it.

Enter the Shanyang next generation fighter.

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This one was actually revealed a week earlier, but due to Shenyang not having as many out-door and social-networking population as Chengdu, had much less quality footage, so no press took it seriously.

The design is apparently more agile and it did appear in Chinese next generation concepts several times before, being displayed in a “national achievement 2016–2020” expo, so it may actually be more mature than the Chengdu J36. But who knows.

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All we know is both the Chengdu and Shenyang aircrafts appear to be more innovative, faster and nimbler than proclaimed or leaked American 6th generation planes so far. Maybe that’s why the US announced the suspension of the NGAD program earlier this year, as they saw their plane as inferior to China’s offering and went back to the drawing board. If that’s the case then major points should go to US intelligence agency, as they saved the US billions of dollar from building a new plane that would be out-classed by Chinese planes on day one.

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The B-21 spirit is a sub-sonic bomber. Stealth is its only defense, not at all survivable in the China sector.

This other leaked Northrop project is more similar to the J36 in concept, but looks more like a bomber or strike aircraft and doesn’t appear as agile.

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And let’s not forget that the 2 potentially 6th generation planes are not the only things China revealed these last few days of december.

Also revealed was a bomber drone that looks similar in concept to the B-21.

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And yes, the drone can launch the YJ-21 hypersonic anti-ship missile too.

The divine eagle long-endurance anti-stealth awacs drone.

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076, the biggest amphibious attack ship, with EMALS, capable of launching the J15 and J35.

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KJ-3000 AWACS, China was already a generation ahead of the US in AWACS, this may just be a change of platforms for existing tech, or it may be something new. Time will tell.

The timing.

China chose to show some of its cards, right before Trump takes office.

This makes me think that the Chinese government is more serious than many Americans about what the hawks are saying in DC.

This may be due to cultural differences: China’s culture is much more fairness/karma based. So when Trump says “China virus”, what China hears is “They did this to us, I’ll allow the use of virus-based bio-toxin on China”. When Americans parrot their media on “China commits cultural genocide in Xinjiang”, what Chinese hear is “It’s ok to genocide the Chinese people”.

Or it may be based on intelligence, that combined with Trump’s remarks on US expansion to Greenland, Canada and Panama Canal, made China believe that WWIII is closer than many of us think. So China decided to posture for deterance.

What is the most scared you have been while travelling?

When I was 10 and my sister was 12 we travelled as unaccompanied minors on People’s Express airlines. We’d done this a lot, travelling between parents, and my dad got us to the gate, waited until we got on, and watched the plane roll off before he headed to the car and started his 3-hour drive back home. What he didn’t know is, the plane never took off.

It was New Year’s Eve at Reagan National Airport and it was snowing. There was one delay and then another and another, and almost 2 hours after leaving the gate the pilot got on the loudspeaker and told us that, unfortunately, we were not going to be leaving. He laughed and said how our congressmen needed their sleep and that no planes were allowed to take off after curfew. We went back to the gate and everybody got off, and that is when the stewardesses and the checkout counter attendants informed us that, as unaccompanied minors, we were not their problem.

Imagine that. They wouldn’t budge, and two little kids were left to fend for themselves on a snowy night in a strange city in an airport that was closing down for the night. A man got on the loudspeaker and informed everyone that the doors would be closing and any stranded passengers needed to make arrangements to be elsewhere for the night.

Dad was long gone, it was long before cell phones, and we had no idea what to do as the adults around us yelled and badgered the counter people for accommodations and transportation and took turns using the phones to get rides back to relatives. All we had was dad’s phone number and we knew he wasn’t home.

A guy in a uniform told us it was time to go and moved on to the next stranded traveller. A guy in a pilot’s uniform brushed us off, pointing us back to the checkout counter where a large lady was losing her mind over not seeing her babies for the Holiday. Another stewardess refused to even stop. A guy with a push broom worked his way by and eyed us. We had hysterics and finally curled up with our stuff to cry under a little blanket we had.

It got really quiet, just the sound of that push broom and the occasional clang of a trashcan being dumped. Then the guy with the push broom worked his way back over. He was really hard to understand, his English wasn’t good at all, but he asked us what was happening and we said our flight was cancelled and he was puzzled why we hadn’t gone home and he listened to us for a while and then told us to come with him, and he worked his broom and his trash to the front, found an admin and talked to them for a long time. The admin guy finally came over and talked to us. He couldn’t give us a place to stay, but he had us leave a message for our dad and stayed until dad finally got in and called back. But he wasn’t a People’s Express guy, they were long gone, so technically we weren’t his responsibility, and he wasn’t taking us anywhere even if dad called in to pay for a accommodations and he wasn’t staying the night here either and in the end the guy with the broom said he’d be there working all night anyway, so he’d watch us and everyone else left.

He worked all night, and we slept in a cold, dark airport and janitor guy kept checking back with his broom all night and had us right there by the front when the doors were unlocked at six and my dad came charging in to raise Hell with every airport and airline official he could corner.

It was a different world back then, that is for sure.

Thank you, immigrant guy, for keeping two exhausted kids safe and comforted while my dad drove 3 hours back on Christmas Eve and nobody else could be bothered to inconvenience themselves over us. You were great!

We Found Corporate America’s Biggest Enemy

Philly Beef Stuffed Sandwich

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

1 cup green bell pepper, chopped
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, divided
2 (10 ounce) packages refrigerated pizza crust
8 ounces thinly sliced deli roast beef
8 ounces thinly sliced American cheese
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Chop bell pepper and onion; set aside.
Put oil into skillet and heat, add pressed garlic, bell pepper and onion and 1/2 of the oregano leaves. Cook and stir 3 to 4 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Remove pan from heat.
Unroll 1 pizza crust onto lightly floured surface, with the dough and pizza roller. Roll out crust to a 12 x 9 inch rectangle; cover with half of the cheese, beef and vegetable mixture to within 1/2 inch of edges of dough. Starting at longest side of rectangle, roll up dough, jellyroll fashion. Press seam together to seal. Repeat with remaining crust and filling ingredients. Place rolls seam down on the 15-inch Round baking stone. Join ends of rolls together to form one large ring. Press ends together to seal.
In small bowl, combine egg white and water, brush onto dough using a pastry brush. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 teaspoon oregano on top of ring.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

Attribution

Pampered Chef

What do Chinese living in the west think of Chinese commentators like Yang Feng 扬风 warning they should leave the west within the next 2-3 years?

Well, quite a number have left or changed plans, especially the young. Fundamentally, the distribution of the h1-b (and related visas elsewhere) have changed for the Chinese. There are way more Indians in the quota, and fewer Chinese.

That is easily verifiable from both official data and visual confirmation on the ground.

The big problem is things are not rosy economically in the West. The US, despite posting feel-good numbers, has performed a sleight of hand post-covid, culling middle management to replace them with younger, cheaper staff armed with automated tools. That or outsourcing the work, as inflation drove wages up and up.

In fact, the number of full-time employed has largely plateaued since 2022. The federal and state governments have been responsible for most of the job creation the past 2 years.

The situation is worse in Europe, where there is an active war ongoing.

And this is in the absence of a recession, which looks imminent, given the financial logjam in the everything bubble economy.

Chinese talent will suffer a double whammy of manufactured discrimination and an economic winter if they stay in the west, unless they have specialized skills. Any fallout will be much milder in East Asia because the Chinese economy is diversifying by the year and does not depend on the west like it used to.

I think mr. Yang is right.

Man who rammed his car into the crowd in Zhuhai and killed 13 people SENTENCED TO DEATH

Case finished in exactly 44 Days

Prosecution :- 25 Days

Seven hearings, 13 Witnesses from the prosecution, 8 Camera Feeds

Defence :- 4 Days

Accussed confessed but claimed extenuating circumstances

Judge announced DEATH SENTENCE

As per Chinese Law, he is to be hanged in 6 months but that won’t happen

He will have ONE AUTOMATIC APPEAL RIGHT and after that he can plead his case to the people’s supreme court

Nonetheless that’s how fast justice takes in China

Things to Come (1936) H.G. Wells War film | A hundred years ahead of its time.

Tool Porn Post

I love tools.

I have had various collections of tools through the years. At one point in time I had both a fabrication lab, and electronic labs, and a woodworking shop. And I loved it.

When I worked with wood, the smell of the saw dust was glorious. Simply delicious.

When I worked on my cars, it was always a story of dirt and grease, but the satisfaction of completely, and finally, fixing a broken down jalopy was so FINE.

When I worked with the electronics, it was a story of invention and creation. And some of the gizmos that I made were so special and unique. I just wish that I still had the pictures of my completed projects. I made up all the gear from SLS molds, to glue and plastic frames… and of course all the electronics inside.

Memories.

Some forged through pain, sweat and persistent insects. While others consisted of are much harder to define. Late afternoon sun baking the blacktop and the smell of oil. While others consisted of a ladder and a very hot roof. Still others are far simpler; the twisting of a screwdriver on an invention that I was working on.

Today, I presenting some “tool porn” for you all to enjoy.

Today…

Some say after years of de-coupling, Trump’s bargaining chips over China have diminished. What do you think of it?

Inside 'Delete A', China's plan to 'delete everything America in technology’ - Times of India

https://www.google.com/amp/s/timesofindia.indiatimes.com/gadgets-news/inside-delete-a-chinas-plan-to-delete-everything-america-in-technology/amp_articleshow/108314272.cms

How many people have heard of DELETE AMERICA Or DELETE A?

Very few

It doesn’t do many rounds on Mainstream Western Media

China is creating an atmosphere where anything American is to be phased out ENTIRELY

Target dates are 31/12/2025, 31/12/2027 and 31/12/2030 depending on different technologies

Here are some major decisions :-

Microsoft Windows Ecosystem fully phased out from Grade I – Grade III Government Organizations and replaced with KYLIN (By 30/9/2024)
Intel & AMD processors fully phased out from Grade I – III Organizations and replaced with Longson Processors (By 30/9/2024)
Samsung SSDs with SK Hynix commenced phase out from Grade I – III Organizations and replaced with Huawei SSDs with YMTC (Begun 1/1/2024 , Target Date 31/12/2027)
Cisco Equipment fully phased out from Grade I – III Organizations and replaced with Huawei & ZTE Equipment (By 1/1/2023)
Grade I – III include Military, Quasi Military , JV Military, Civilian Airspace, Civilian Air Traffic, Civilian Transportation, Civilian Airports, Civilian Railways & Civilian Power Distribution among other things

Here are other things :-

US Exports formed 9.4% of Chinas GDP Growth in 2015. Now it’s 2.3% in 2023. Dependence on US Exports for Economic Growth has fallen by 75% in the past decade
Workforce related to US Exports peaked at 1.81 Million in 2016. Now it’s 870,000 – down by more than 50% in the past 8 years
Chinas Brand Value sales to the Global South stands at a whopping $ 112.6 Billion versus a paltry $ 11.6 Billion in USA. This means Chinese Brands sales in US is a mere $ 12 Billion versus more than $ 113 Billion across the rest of the world. By contrast US Brands sales in China is close to $ 212 Billion versus $ 411 Billion with the rest of the world (Non US). This means 33% of Sales of US Brands depend on China whereas only 9.60% of Sales of Chinese Brands depend on USA.
In fact if you see Chinese Brands sales in ASEAN is $ 38.2 Billion, almost 3.5 times their US sales
The Top 15 US Brands – made $ 104.20 Billion for the US Economy in 2023 from China . The Top 15 Chinese Brands made a mere $ 10.81 Billion for the Chinese Economy from USA.
Chinas dependence on US Technology for its Industrial High Grade Processes is 38% as of 2023 June whereas US Dependence on China for its High Grade Manufacturing Supply Chain is almost 70%. So US dependence on China is TWICE the Chinese dependence on US

It is China that is decoupling from US and Europe

In fact China is preparing to raise massive stimulus to encourage boost in domestic consumption so that by 2027, Chinas Export contribution to GDP falls to less than 15% and US Export contribution to GDP falls to less than 1%

So whatever happens – every move by US against China is programmed to backfire worse against the US

Shocking Truth of South Korean Coup

The details are coming out. Biden “presidency” really were being bad during the last few months.

A friend just shared this, and it’s too funny!

MONTANA STATE TROOPER

In many places in the U.S., when the temperature drops really low, they check on any cars stuck on the side of the road.

One very cold morning, at 3 AM, Montana State Trooper Allan Nixon #658 got a call about a car off the road near Great Falls, Montana.

He found the car stuck in deep snow with the engine still running. After pulling up behind it with his lights flashing, the trooper walked up to the driver’s door and found an older man passed out in the driver’s seat with a nearly empty vodka bottle beside him.

The driver woke up when the trooper tapped on the window. Seeing the lights and the trooper next to his car, the man panicked and shifted into drive, hitting the gas.

The speedometer showed the car going 20, 30, 40, and then 50 MPH, but it was still stuck in the snow, wheels spinning. Trooper Nixon, with a good sense of humor, started running in place next to the car like he was keeping up.

The driver was freaked out, thinking the trooper was actually running 50 miles per hour. After about 30 seconds, the trooper yelled, “PULL OVER!”

The driver quickly turned the wheel and stopped the engine. Of course, the man from North Dakota was arrested, and I bet he’s still shaking his head over the trooper who could run 50 MPH.

Who says cops don’t have a sense of humor?

Sounds right

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Scott Ritter EXPOSES: U.S Plot to Put Russia in Nuclear Trap with Ukraine! Putin—Iran Shocking Move!

An EXTREMELY good video.

Why would anyone with half a brain enlist in the United States military?

I grew up in a violent household. My father was an alcoholic, and beat my mother, and us kids. I started to get the best of him by my mid teens, and put a stop to the beatings by the time I was 17.

I was working in dead end jobs, in my hometown outside of Buffalo, New York. The rich kids went to College. The poor kids looked to the Military.

Two weeks after turning 18, I enlisted in the Air Force. I was looking to get out of the harsh Winters of Buffalo, and to start a new life.

I had just missed Vietnam. Saigon fell to the Communists two months before I turned 17. The Cold War was still ongoing, so in 1976, I signed up to be a Nuclear Weapons Specialist. I was on Active Duty (1976-1981.) I spent three years in England, serving on American Occupied RAF Bases. I traveled all over Europe and the United Kingdom in my off time.

I completed one year’s worth of College Credits, attending Night Classes with the University of Maryland (European Campus.) After getting out of the Air Force, I attended College on the G.I. Bill. All of $341 per month. I graduated with an A.S. Degree in Exotic Animal Training and Management.

I had a good first career as a Wild Animal Trainer, Elephant Trainer, and Zookeeper. I first trained Wild Animals for movies and television in Hollywood. Then, I became an Elephant Trainer at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Eventually, I worked with the California Condors. I did that work up until my forties.

Joining the Air Force allowed me to get out and see some of the World. Getting out of snowy Buffalo. And leaving my violent upbringing behind. It gave me a fresh start in life. It is one of the best things I ever did.

Utter Annihilation! With Surrender Deadline Past, Promised Bombing Has Begun in Kursk, Russia

Hal Turner World March 08, 2025 Hits: 42692

Yesterday, this website reported that the Russian Army has completely encircled Ukrainian forces inside Kursk, Russia.

Those Ukrainians were given until “Dawn” this morning to surrender, or else Fuel Air Bombing would begin.

The deadline has now passed; the bombing has begun.

Ukraine forces in Kursk, Russia, are being annihilated.

In our prior coverage (Story Here) we pointed out that over 1,000 Ukrainian troops, out of the 4700 – 6300 trapped in Kursk, were already seeking to surrender, and were offering New weapons, provided by the US and France, encrypted communications gear, and other military hardware, as inducements to Russia to allow them to surrender.

It is not yet known if those troops did, in fact, surrender, or how many western weapons systems the Russians have now received from those troops.

As each minute passes today, more and more Fuel-Air (Thermobaric) Bombs are being dropped on the remaining Ukrainian troops.

None are expected to survive the onslaught.

From Napoleon to Hitler, history shows that such is the fate of any force that invades Russia.

UPDATE 11:54 AM EST —

Ukrainian Forces are collapsing faster than expected. There are reports of a disorganized withdrawal with high casualties and large groups of Ukrainian soldiers being left behind.

UPDATE 1:40 PM EST —

Yesterday, Ukraine controlled 360 square kilometers of Kursk, Russia. As of three hours ago, that was CONFIRMED down to “less than 230 square kilometers” and dropping fast. As Russian troops enter bombed-out areas, they confirm Ukrainian troops are all dead, then count that area as being back under Russia control. According to one Russian source, “There are far more bombed-out areas to survey, and the bombings continue. Kursk may be disinfected of the Ukrainian disease by tonight.”

It should be noted that Hitler tried taking Kursk in 1943. His NAZI forces were roundly defeated. It is noteworthy that some of the dead Ukrainians found in Kursk today – have NAZI “SS” patches on their helmets. Just as dead now, as Hitler’s troops were in 1943. See image below:

Since the morning publication on the situation in the Kursk region, the situation for Ukrainian formations has worsened even more. Russian troops have increased the pressure in several areas at once, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces are rapidly retreating from the front lines, abandoning the wounded and equipment.

Lebedevka, Okhotnichy, Loknya have been finally liberated. The nearby forest belts are being cleared of enemy remnants. The enemy has been trying to escape towards Sudzha for over a day, and from there to Yunakovka along the only road.

To the north of Sudzha, Russian army fighters have completely liberated Malaya Loknya, Kositsa and Cherkasskoye Porechnoye. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are running across the fields to Sudzha under artillery and FPV drone fire.

To the north-east, the Ukrainians tried to go into counter-attack again, but to no avail. Airborne assault units cleared the forests and liberated Makhnovka, Mirny, Mykhailivka and Martynovka.

Now the battles are going on near Dmitryuki. Separate units of the Russian Armed Forces, which liberated Makhnovka, are already conducting an assault on the outskirts of Sudzha. After the loss of Dmitryuki (it is a matter of time), the situation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces will worsen significantly.

This will open the way to Sudzha, which will certainly cause chaos and disarray in the Ukrainian positions due to the fear of being trapped. The Ukrainian front is gradually falling apart, and the operation that was supposed to be a victory for Zelensky is turning into one huge farce.

Chipotle and Green Chile with Pork

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter
2 pounds pork tenderloin, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
2 cups yellow onions, diced
1/4 cup jalapeño chile, minced
1 cup dried New Mexico green chiles, seeded, stems removed, and minced
1/4 cup minced garlic
1/4 cup roasted chipotle chiles, peeled and minced
1 cup grated pepper jack cheese
8 (6 inch) flour tortillas

Instructions

In a stockpot, melt two tablespoons butter and heat.
When the butter is hot, add pork, onions, jalapeño, New Mexico dried chiles, garlic, salt, and pepper. Cover and cook for 1 1/2 hours or until pork is tender.
Add the chipotle chiles and simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Grill the tortillas and brush with butter.
Serve with grated pepper jack cheese on top.
You want to spoon the chili onto your tortilla and roll up and eat.

Brian Lost It When These OF Girls Couldn’t Understand A Simple Analogy

How can the US compete with China and Chinese companies without using sanctions against key technologies, decoupling, and the long arm of the law?

At this point, I believe it impossible.

The reason why the US could compete and dominate the EU, Japan and Korea is scale, and the unnatural size o>f American influence, thanks primarily to the global reach of the Pentagon. That is why this map of AMERICAN NATIONAL SECURITY isn’t ridiculed.

The Eurodollar (or american dollars overseas) is another powerful tool. It has a dominant position in world finance.

However, along comes China, an economy that’s already 3/4 the size of the US, but resistant to US influence, either political, military or geoeconomic. China is peer competition, the same way George Foreman didn’t fold fighting Muhammad Ali.

China, at this point, has graduated into a system of systems builder, and is already a tool-maker of enabling technology.

What is a tool-maker?

In simple terms, the upstream technology that factories depend on for their production.

China isn’t just a maker of consumer end-products today. The Chinese have the world’s most complete supply chain, and Chinese companies are making the rapid climb into tool-making, such as robots, sophisticated precision machines, exotic nano-materials, and all kinds of IOT/ML/big data/AI thingmajigs.

In other words, China is rushing towards the cutting edge Industry 5.0.

It is the year 2023 and Huawei is already pushing 5.5G networks, with speeds up to 10x faster than 5G. That’s the speed of relentless progress driving innovation on the mainland.

It is the year 2023 and CRRC is testing 450kmh HSR rolling stock, allowing the export and technology transfer of the mature 350kmh Fuxing. China had 0km of HSR in 2006. Today, they have 40,000km, more than the rest of the world has managed over the last 60 years. Expect the network to grow in the coming decade.

[Note: Indonesia, Brazil and other third world countries will operate FASTER HSR trains than first world Japan, France and Germany in the coming decade. They will also deploy cellular 5G/6G technology in step with the first world, and perhaps even earlier, all thanks to the Chinese.]

Stepping up to bat with the manic energy of the Chinese requires the same or greater commitment of energy and resources. The first world has kept the rest of the world at bay with patent walls and unassailable leads, but the Chinese are overcoming the obstacles and making up lost ground rapidly. In some industries, the Chinese are already defining the cutting edge, and clear leaders.

The clear Chinese advantage is scale, and the ability to cluster and leverage supply chain ecosystems and innovation centers. That is why Huawei has its campus in Dongguan, a stone’s throw away from the mecca of China’s consumer electronics, Shenzhen. Huawei has unparalleled access to the latest innovations to drive product development. Whereas Apple designs in California, and contract manufactures an ocean away.

Once China catches up on the patent front, Chinese speed and scale will take care of the rest.

America can’t even do anything about its stale Constitution, and can only offer kick-a-canism for the age-old problems of guns, drugs and racism, while the infrastructure continue to decay at an astonishing rate. Social spending dominates the budget, an ever-increasing burden. The bigger problem is the overfinancialized economy that has been overreliant on cheap money. Intel blew 100 billion on stock buyback this century, while its manufacturing lead was steadily eroding. Today, the best Intel chips are no longer at the cutting edge node.

Same story with Boeing, and a host of household American names.

Prosperity breeds soft bellies.

I don’t believe it reversible, not without substantial (and prolonged) pain forcing American introspection.

Too much hubris.

And insufficient grasp of reality.

Why South America now does all its business with China: US companies, investors are dumb and lazy

My God. This is brilliant.

They Always Find Us

Submitted into Contest #207 in response to: A journalist has been granted permission to visit the premises of a lab carrying out top-secret work. They could never have anticipated what they’d find…… view prompt

Theo Benson

This story contains themes or mentions of physical violence, gore, or abuse.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Dr. Morrison held a small vial up to the light, amber liquid swirling inside. “After all our efforts, all of our sacrifices, we’re so close to a cure.”Isabelle held her datapad closer to the Doctor, determined to get as clear of an audio recording as possible. They had spent hours in Silver Grandeur’s lab. Her legs ached. With painstaking precision, Dr. Morrison walked Isabelle through all of the functions of Lab Section 1, explaining each device that helped to refine and prepare the contents of the vial in his hand. The soreness she’d feel later would be worth the story. Especially as a Junior Data Reporter.“Tell us, Doctor,” Isabelle said, shifting weight from one leg to another, “What’s the greatest challenge you’ve faced with Project Find?”“We’ve all lost people to the sickness, haven’t we?”Isabelle looked away.“No challenge is greater than that of grief,” Dr. Morrison said with a sad smile. “Yet their memory lives on in the work we accomplish.” He gingerly set the vial into its holder on the table in front of them. After a moment of silence, he asked, “Anything else?”“Yes,” Isabelle perked up. “About the beginning. How exactly did this-”A shudder rocked the ship. Lights flickered in the lab as Dr. Morrison and Isabelle steadied themselves against the table.“Seekers,” He muttered as the shaking subsided. Another, more violent shudder, nearly knocked Isabelle off her feet. The vials on the table clattered together. “They always find us.”Around them, scientists in lab coats hurried to secure loose items. Isabelle found herself being led towards the exit.“I’m sorry to cut this short,” the Doctor said, leading her out into the main hallway and shutting the door behind them. “I need to speak with the Captain before one of those things tears a hole in our outer hull again.”Isabelle pulled her father into a hug. “Be safe.”After watching Dr. Morrison race out of sight, she opened her hand and smiled at it. Seated in the palm of her hand was a grey access card. Her father’s. Slipping back inside the lab, Isabelle quickly donned a lab coat, mask, and goggles. Only a few scientists remained. Evidently, the rest had dispersed to secure other sections of Silver Grandeur’s large lab. She snuck to the back of Section 1, connecting her datapad to the lab’s information center – a port in the wall.The ship rocked again, and Isabelle steadied herself against the wall.She switched rapidly from catalogue to catalogue, searching. There had to be something more interesting here. Yes, her father had shown her this section of the lab, but she was not so naïve as to think this was all there was. Scientific breakthrough had to come from somewhere. And a good Data Reporter needed to be willing to break a few rules to find out.Isabelle paused on one catalogue.Project Find. It read. She inserted Dr. Morrison’s card into her datapad to open the file. Disappointment grew as she read. Most of the words made absolutely no sense. Yes, they were English. But no matter how hard Isabelle squinted at them and sounded them out under her breath, their meaning remained completely foreign.But then she spotted something she could understand.Successful creation of antidote and enhancement secured via genetic mesh.Below, it read; See Donor Subject File. Lab Section 13.She disconnected her datapad and pressed deeper into the lab.Another shudder shook Silver Grandeur. She began humming softly as she passed more labcoats, remembering the melody her mother would use to comfort her when she was little. After the Seekers first attacked.On its one-hundredth and fifty-second year of voyaging in space, five years after Silver Grandeur’s passengers were woken from cryo-sleep, the Seekers struck. So did the sickness.Deep space sickness, they called it.No one knew what caused it. Some blamed the Seekers, who appeared immune to the disease. With their arrival shortly preceding the first outbreak, they were easy to blame. Some claimed it was a result of extended cryo-sleep. Simply a scientific oversight. And others, the more religious of Silver Grandeur’s passengers, proclaimed it was judgement for their departure from God’s one true home for them – Earth. Apparently, extended cryo-sleep had conveniently allowed them to forget Earth’s death. Reduced to a desolate wasteland, their one true home forced what remained of humanity to flee.Her mother was one of the first to die from the sickness. Isabelle was ten at the time. Her father threw himself into a frenzy of work after his wife’s death, refusing to take inevitable death – either by sickness or by Seeker – as the final answer. Fifteen years had since passed.Isabelle reached the end of Section 12 and stopped. Before her lay a single door. Lab Section 13. Checking behind her to make sure no one was watching, Isabelle opened the door with Dr. Morrison’s access card and slipped inside, shutting the door behind her.Cold air shocked her. Isabelle shivered. Section 13 was freezing, not to mention smaller than she expected. The room contained only a handful of control panels on either side of the door and a containment unit on the far wall that was coated in frost.Isabelle frowned. Was this the Donor Subject?She approached the unit and used her sleeve to wipe a patch of frost from the glass.A dark form moved inside.

Isabelle had seen Seekers before. Windows across the ship gave good view for those with a morbid enough interest to watch them attack. With a snouted maw filled with teeth, an excess of appendages tipped with claws, long wings, and sleek black bodies, they blended easily against the backdrop of space. Only when close enough to Silver Grandeur’s lights did the light of the ship reflecting off their bodies illuminate their presence. In darkness they did not exist.

She squinted at it. It was almost entirely obscured by the remaining frost and the condensation building inside her goggles. Isabelle steadied her breathing, excitement mounting as she removed her goggles to peer inside. She’d never seen one this close before.

Her breath caught in her throat.

Eyes, eyes that Seekers did not – should not – have, stared back at her.

It lunged.

Isabelle jerked backwards, slamming into the panels behind her. The creature thrashed against the glass and Isabelle glanced down in panic as a small alarm sounded on the panel just under her arm.

The sides of the containment unit hissed open.

Isabelle ran. Tearing metal echoed behind her.

She collided with a labcoat in Section 11. “Go! It’s out!” Not stopping to wait, she ran on through the lab, leaving the startled man behind. Several seconds later there was a scream. A loud crunch. And silence.

Lungs and legs burning, Isabelle burst into Section 1, the door sliding shut behind her. Several dozen scientists milled about, the ship’s shaking having since stopped.

“Run,” she said.

A few labcoats looked at her in confusion. Thudding behind the door she entered grew louder.

Isabelle tore off her mask, wheezing. “Run!”

The door she came through flew across the room, crushing a scientist against the wall. Standing a head taller than Isabelle, the creature that entered stood on legs rippling with sleek black muscle. Its head was surprisingly rounded, with something like the remnants of hair dotting the top of its head. It stretched tall and raised tensed arms, claws glinting in the lab’s harsh light. Opening its mouth, the creature let out a roar.

Scientists screamed and scattered.

Isabelle raced to the door leading into the rest of the ship. Several scientists followed. The hair on the back of her neck stood up, and Isabelle careened to the side just in time to avoid a large metal table as it flew past her and smashed into the door. The labcoats weren’t as lucky.

An alarm blared in the lab. The scientist who activated it let out a blood-curdling scream from the center of the room as the creature charged him. It roared again, striking claws into both labcoat and control panel. Metal and flesh tore.

The lab was plunged into darkness.

Isabelle’s feet slid against the floor, a red emergency light flaring to life and pulsing slowly to illuminate the dark puddle she now stood in. She gagged, fighting to stay upright. Something struck her shoulder and Isabelle went down hard. A woman screamed beside her on the floor, having also fallen, and as the lights flashed Isabelle could make out a tall form to her right.

The creature crouched low. Isabelle scurried away as darkness returned. Crunching, twisting – a rending of flesh met her ears a few feet away, and warm liquid splattered her face. The woman’s screams fell silent.

She crawled as quickly as she could until she reached the lab’s wall. Feeling with slick hands along its surface, Isabelle’s fingers found purchase on the metal grooves of a vent grate. Hands shaking, she pulled off the clover, slipped inside the space just wide enough to hold her, and closed it. Cries of terror and agony dwindled one by one. Isabelle could hear them pounding against the crushed door, wailing as they realized it was too damaged to open. A body slammed against the vent grate and slumped to one side. Warm liquid began pooling next to Isabelle and she backed away. Shuffling quietly until she met a curve in the vent shaft, the young Data Reporter choked back tears. Now was not the time to cry.

A final voice cried out, and with that, the lab was silent.

Isabelle stopped.

Another sound had risen to fill the silence. A low vibration, somewhere between a growl and a hum came from the creature. She could feel the sound rumbling in her chest, deep in her lungs and heart, as though tugging on something. Carefully, she started moving again, crawling on slippery hands and knees.

Her knee skidded to the side and struck the vent shaft with a dull thunk. Isabelle steadied herself, holding her breath. She heard the grate tear free and clatter somewhere inside the lab.

Isabelle thrust herself around the bend, not caring how much noise she made now as the sounds of thudding and scraping behind her soon followed. With a cry of alarm, Isabelle’s weight-bearing hand slipped out from under her. Her head crashed against the side of the vent. Swaying awkwardly, Isabelle focused blurred vision up ahead.

Was it her imagination, or was there light around the next bend?

A growling hum propelled her forward.

Pulling with her arms, Isabelle slid around the final bend and was met by another grate leading down, light pouring from it. Every muscle in her body burned as she raised her hand and struck the grate.

It didn’t budge.

With a shriek, she brought her hand down against the grate again. And again and again and again.

CRASH.

Isabelle dropped to the floor below, pain bursting at her feet.

“HELP!” Her shout echoed as she limped quickly, turning right at an intersection in the hallway. “HEL-”

A closed blast door barring her path.

No.

She whirled around to see the creature dash into view.

No. No.

The creature skidded to a halt, muscles tensing. Bright hallway light finally illuminated the scarlet haphazardly painting both monster and woman. Isabelle’s back pressed against the door. It stalk towards her, moving with slow, purposeful steps. That of a hunter. That of one who knew its place in the pecking order.

Seekers. They always find us.

Isabelle’s back slid until she met the ground. She turned her face away.

“Don’t hurt her!” A voice yelled. Her father’s.

Isabelle looked up in surprise. The creature turned to face Dr. Morrison, growling deep in its body and lifting its arms in a display.

“Don’t do this,” he said to the creature.

It roared.

Isabelle sobbed. “What is it?”

It roared again.

“Dad, what is it?”

His voice was even as he spoke. Measured carefully. “We acquired a Seeker’s DNA many years ago, hoping to find a cure. What we discovered was that they had so much more to offer us.” Dr. Morrison’s eyes flashed with something near-feral. “Strength, Izzy.” She watched through tear-streaked vision as he stepped to one side, the creature tracking his movement. “Strength we could never dream of acquiring on our own. We just needed to bridge the genetic gap.” Her father’s expression grew almost sad as he gazed at the creature. “Human experimentation was the only way. I’m sorry, dear.”

With a rippling of muscle the creature pounced. Isabelle forced her eyes to the ground as the sounds of carnage lifted to join that of the alarm. A sickening cacophony.

And then the carnage ceased.

Slow, thudding footsteps approached her. What had once been a growl dwindled to the lowest of vibrations. A soft humming. Isabelle looked at it with a start.

The creature’s face was close. Strings of sinew hung from red teeth, dripping blood onto Isabelle’s legs. As she looked above the horror of its maw, she saw its eyes. Familiar eyes. A memory pressed uninvited into Isabelle’s mind as the hum reverberated in her chest. Her mother, seated at the edge of Isabelle’s bed, the young girl cowering beneath her blankets as Silver Grandeur shuddered. Feeling a hand on her arm over the blanket, she listened to the melody of her mother’s tune as sleep finally overcame fear.

The creature knelt in front of Isabelle. Extending a single, blood-covered hand, it caressed the side of her face.

Isabelle’s eyes widened in shock. “Mom?”

LOST IN SPACE COLORIZED SCENES FROM THE FIRST EPISODE IN 1965

Trump’s Tariff Wars Will Hurt U.S. The Most

President Donald Trump seems to believe that tariffs can help to bring manufacturing back to the States.

Trump’s tariffs have so far been aimed at four targets, the U.S. neighbors Canada and Mexico, China and, soon to come, the European Union.

During his first term Trump negotiated the U.S.M.C.A. with Mexico and Canada, a free trade zone covering the U.S. and its neighbors. He is now attempting to change the rules of it. But the way he does so is inconsistent.

On January 21 Trump promised tariffs on Canada and Mexico. On February 1 he announced them. Three days later he delayed the implementation of those tariffs. On February 27 he said the tariffs would go into effect on March 4. On March 5 he was again forced to pull back (archived):

President Trump said on Wednesday that he would pause tariffs on cars coming into the United States from Canada and Mexico for one month, after a 25 percent tariff that he placed on America’s closest trading partners a day earlier roiled stock markets and prompted stiff resistance from industry.Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, read a statement from Mr. Trump on Wednesday saying that White House had spoken with the three largest auto makers, and that a one-month exemption would be given to cars coming in through United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

A one-month exemption is a joke. It takes years to move parts production from one country to another. There are hundreds of companies in Mexico, Canada and the U.S. which make the myriad parts that go into a car. It is an completely integrated industry which took years to build.

U.S. car manufacturers had trusted that U.S.M.C.A. would hold. Should the tariffs apply anytime soon they will have to increase their prices by hefty margins or halt their production.

Trump’s tariffs in north America can largely be seen as pressure method for gaining some valuable concessions from neighboring countries. They are part of a negotiation scheme and unlikely to be a longer term problem.

But Trump’s tariffs against China are a different animal. The Trump administration views China as a strategic enemy and would like to seriously hurt it. But China is able to hit back (archived):

Minutes after President Trump’s latest tariffs took effect, the Chinese government said on Tuesday that it was imposing its own broad tariffs on food imported from the United States and would essentially halt sales to 15 American companies.China’s Ministry of Finance put tariffs of 15 percent on imports of American chicken, wheat, corn and cotton and 10 percent tariffs on other foods, ranging from soybeans to dairy products. In addition, the Ministry of Commerce said 15 U.S. companies would no longer be allowed to buy products from China except with special permission, including Skydio, which is the largest American maker of drones and a supplier to the U.S. military and emergency services.

Lou Qinjian, a spokesman for China’s National People’s Congress, chastised the United States for violating the World Trade Organization’s free trade rules. “By imposing unilateral tariffs, the U.S. has violated W.T.O. rules and disrupted the security and stability of the global industrial and supply chains,” he said.

Trump claims that tariffs on China are necessary to stop the illegal import of Fentanyl, an addictive synthetic opioid widely used in the U.S.

China counters that it already has put strong controls on Fentanyl and its precursor chemicals. It can not be blamed for a problem that solely exists within the United States:

The reason why the fentanyl issue in the US is so serious has never been external; it has nothing to do with China, which strictly prohibits drugs. Illicit fentanyl started to enter the US market as early as the 1980s. Later, media revealed that US pharmaceutical companies concealed the addictive properties of synthetic opioids and that doctors overprescribed painkillers, leading to widespread addiction among patients. Statistics show that with 5 percent of the world’s population, the US consumes 80 percent of the world’s opioids, but still has not permanently scheduled fentanyl-related substances as a class. The almost abnormal demand has boosted the development of the illegal fentanyl market, fundamentally contributing to the proliferation of fentanyl in the US.

The Global Times points to the social causes of drug addiction:

[T]he lack of social governance in the US has exacerbated the drug problem. US Vice President JD Vance described a similar situation in his autobiography. Many low-income families live in chaotic community environments with a lack of education and supervision. This has led to many children living in adverse conditions of drug abuse and trafficking, forming a vicious cycle that is difficult to break.

China’s government spokesperson is promising to fight back:

Intimidation does not scare us. Bullying does not work on us. Pressuring, coercion or threats are not the right way of dealing with China. Anyone using maximum pressure on China is picking the wrong guy and miscalculating. If the U.S. truly wants to solve the fentanyl issue, then the right thing to do is to consult with China by treating each other as equals.If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end.

Such language from China is far from the usual one. It therefore seems unlikely that there will soon be a compromise between the U.S. and China.

With respect to Europe the U.S. claims that it is importing more goods from Europe than it can export to it. That is true but does not cover the full width of economical relations. The U.S. is exporting way more services (think software) to Europe than Europe is exporting to the U.S. The total of goods and services exchanges is a wash. If the U.S. insist on putting tariffs on European goods the EU can counter adding a toll to all U.S. services. The results would be, in theory, a tie.

Tariffs however are dangerous. They distort markets and add significant costs to all participants. Their pain will be mostly felt by U.S. consumers:

All the planned tariffs would take the US tariff rate to above 20% in just a few weeks, the highest since pre-WWI. As Joseph Politano points out, the costs of these actions are enormous, covering $1.3trn in US imports or roughly 42% of all goods brought into the United States, or the single-largest tariff hike since the infamous Smoot-Hawley Act of nearly a century ago.
…
The total costs of these tariffs would raise $160bn from US consumers and businesses paying more for their purchases of imported goods, with more to come. Trump’s Tuesday measures are only 40% of his proposed measures. If the next batch is implemented, it would raise the cost of imports to over $600bn, or 1.6% of GDP.
…
So worried is the International Chamber of Commerce in the US, that it reckoned that the world economy could face a crash similar to the Great Depression of the 1930s unless Trump rows back on his plans. “Our deep concern is that this could be the start of a downward spiral that puts us in 1930s trade-war territory,” said Andrew Wilson, deputy secretary-general of the ICC. So Trump’s measures may go well beyond “a little disturbance”.

Posted by b on March 6, 2025 at 15:55 UTC | Permalink

Today’s MM AI art generations

AlbedoBase XL Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Ba 2(9)

AlbedoBase XL Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Ba 3(9)

AlbedoBase XL Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Ba 0(9)

AlbedoBase XL Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Ba 1(9)

AlbedoBase XL Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Ba 2(10)

AlbedoBase XL Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Ba 3(10)

AlbedoBase XL Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Ba 0(10)

AlbedoBase XL Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Ba 1(10)

AlbedoBase XL Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Ba 6(1)

AlbedoBase XL Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Ba 7(1)

AlbedoBase XL Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Ba 4(1)

AlbedoBase XL Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Ba 5(1)

AlbedoBase XL Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Ba 2(11)

AlbedoBase XL Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Ba 3(11)

AlbedoBase XL Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Ba 0(11)

AlbedoBase XL Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Ba 1(11)

Iran Issues “Final Warning” To U.S. and Israel

Hal Turner World March 09, 2025

The government of Iran has issued a “Final Warning” to the United States and to Israel concerning the likely pending attack by those countries, against Iran.

The Iran government said “An attack on Iran is tantamount to the destruction of all US bases in the region and the destruction of all Israeli nuclear facilities.”

This comes just days after US President Donald Trump sent a letter to the Ayatolla Khameinei seeking to engage Iran in nuclear negotiations. According to Trump, the letter made clear that if Iran does not enter negotiations, it may get bombed.

Iran REJECTED Trump’s reported offer, saying Iran will not negotiate while it is being aggressively Sanctioned and threatened by the United States.

With today’s “Final Warning” from Iran, the stakes are now crystal clear.

Iran does have the missile capability to reach and smash US bases throughout the entire Middle East region, and to attack all of Israel, including its nuclear facilities at Dimona.

Complicating this situation dramatically is that Iran is a military ally of Russia.

Nothing about this situation is good. If the US and Israel attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, it seems clear that Iran will strike back. If/when Iran strikes back, it appears – at least on the surface – all hell is likely to break loose.

This situation could literally explode onto the world — without any warning — within days.

How did your marriage end?

Broccoli.

heavily abridged story below because I have no need to relive all this.

My ex was a normal and healthy 5’6” woman when we met at around age 20.

Everything was fine.

I worked and she Graduated college. She got a great job and the decline began.

She was making far more money than me but I was still forced to work full time and go to school.

Pretty sure the intent was to keep me unemployable.

She took 75% of my pay as “rent” for a house she bought and only put her name on.
She wouldn’t really grant me full rights to anything until I graduated college which she was working against.
She always had some stupid reason and I was tired from working 40+ hours and going to school.

*fast forward a few years*

I’m about to finally graduate college.

She has ballooned to over 400lbs. While I’ve started running half marathons at this point and I’m eating real food.

Every Friday night id make a nice dinner for 2. But, she would get fast food and eat it in front of the TV while I ate alone in the kitchen.

about the time they were cutting toes off her parents for diabetes and I was getting sick of watching everyone check their blood sugar at holidays.

I asked her to just try one of my prepped meals instead of getting fast food.

She was reluctant to eat fresh steamed broccoli with a little butter and some salt on it. After she finally forced it down- she then proceeded to “throw up” for 2 hours.

I went and looked for my own place the next day.

The end.

The Pudding

A digital publication that uses data to tell stories. They create visually engaging and insightful articles on a variety of topics, from pop culture to social issues.

The Pudding

Some examples of the content…

I CAUGHT My Cheating Wife Red Handed at a Party and It Ended BADLY! Reddit Cheating Stories

Interesting rant on this… has a lot to say about “no fault divorce”.

I paid to reserve a seat on a plane but a woman sat in it and refused to move when cabin crew directed her to do so. What should I expect from the airline? And what is likely to happen to the woman?

This happened to me a few years ago on an SIA flight from Hong Kong to Singapore. I had an aisle seat when I got to to my assigned seat there was a woman in it. I politely told her that this was my seat. She just stared at me and said something in Mandarian “ Which I do not speak or understand “. I politely asked her again to move and she turned her head and faced towards the window. I went to the cabin pantry which wasn’t that far away and informed one of the cabin crew. The crew member was very polite and told me to take the middle seat across from my assigned seat till we were airborne and they would sort it out. Once airborne and the plane was flying steady The cabin crew member approached the lady. I could not understand the conversation between them it was obvious the lady wasn’t planning on exiting my seat. The cabin crew member brought in their supervisor to no avail. Shortly afterwards the the cabin crew sup approached me and told me that the lady refused to vacate the seat. They informed the first officer of the situation and he said that they will resolve the situation once on the ground in Changi. She apologised to me and asked me if I would stay in this seat for the remainder of the trip.

Once on the ground in Changi one of the cabin crew took my information down and said they will be in touch with me in a few days. When I deplaned I saw two SIA personnel speaking to the lady at the counter near the gangway. Fast forward three days later I received a call from SIA who apologised to me. They reimbursed me for my flight from HK to SIN. When I asked what happened to the lady the SIA agent told me that they do not give out information about ongoing incidents but it was elevated to airline security staff.

I never asked for reimbursement SIA offered it. I received an email from them apologising for the incident. Plus they gave me a voucher for SilverKris lounge for use during my next flight. I received the reimbursement pretty quickly within 96 hrs. Hope this helps out.

Will China Invade Taiwan? Kishore Mahbubani Reveals…

Wow! He calls it out exactly.

Shorpy

Walmart asks Chinese suppliers to slash prices as it faces Trump tariffs: report

By Taylor Herzlich 
Published March 6, 2025, 10:32 a.m. ET

Walmart has been pleading with Chinese suppliers to lower their prices as it fears President Trump’s tariffs will inflate costs, according to a report.

Asian firms have pushed back after the big-box retailer asked some suppliers, including kitchenware and clothing manufacturers, to slash their prices as much as 20%, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

The talks have been held with several manufacturers, and the requested price reductions have varied from firm to firm, according to the report.

Walmart has asked some Chinese suppliers to lower their prices as it faces President Trump’s tariffs, according to a report. REUTERS

Few have agreed to the hefty price cuts, which would force the Chinese suppliers to shoulder the burden of Trump’s tariffs, Bloomberg said.

“As we have done in the past, we will continue to work with suppliers to keep prices as low as possible for customers,” a Walmart spokesperson told The Post in a statement.

“In the meantime, we encourage all parties to work towards finding common ground that will protect consumers from price hikes and continue to grow our economy.”

Walmart declined to comment on reports that it was asking Chinese suppliers to lower prices.

Most of Walmart’s suppliers already operate on thin margins to allow the retailer to sell goods at affordable prices.

Lowering prices by more than 2% would result in a loss for some of these suppliers, sources told Bloomberg.

The average mark up to labor and materials in China is 3%. Anything over 2% is impossible. -MM

Meanwhile, vendors have denied requests from some of these Chinese suppliers to cut their prices more than 3%, so manufacturers are considering turning to Vietnam for cheaper parts, a source told Bloomberg.

Trump aides earlier raised the possibility of imposing tariffs on Vietnam, according to a Reuters report. The country responded by agreeing to aid US deportation requests within a tight 30-day timeframe, the report said.

Retailers have been scrambling to prepare for the impact on prices after Trump this week imposed stiff 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, as well as a 20% levy on China.

During his Tuesday address to the joint session of Congress, Trump said Americans will have to “bear with” him through an “adjustment period.”

Earlier that day, Target CEO Brian Cornell warned that shoppers may notice higher prices on fruits and vegetables in stores within the next few days.

Walmart has historically had strong bargaining power over its Chinese suppliers, and past requests for lower prices have largely been met, sources told Bloomberg.

But the retailer’s latest request is unusual and outsize, leaving manufacturers struggling to decide whether holding onto Walmart as a partner is worth bearing the brunt of the tariffs, according to the Bloomberg report.

Walmart has historically had strong bargaining power over its Chinese suppliers,

Walmart first requested a price reduction from Chinese suppliers after Trump imposed an initial 10% levy on goods from China in early February, sources said.

The retailer asked for more cuts after Trump threatened to double the taxes later that month, according to the report.

Other retailers under pressure may use the same tactic. Target, for example, has been having discussions with vendors about how to handle the tariffs, Cornell said on Tuesday.

Walmart has been trying to reduce its dependence on China over the past few years. Its reliance on Chinese imports dropped to 60% in 2023 from 80% in 2018, according to a Reuters report.

In 2023, the company reported that two-thirds of its total product spend went toward items made, grown or assembled in the US.

Brian Breaks These Girls’ DELUSION On Why Men Won’t Take Them SERIOUSLY

Fob Story.

Ken Cartisano

I’m just a run-of-the-mill journalist, okay? Except in certain sports related circles, you probably never heard of me. Neil A. Gleary? See? Almost exclusively sports write-ups with the occasional science article here and there. Not very well known.

So I’m surprised when I come home late one night and there’s a message on my answering machine informing me that my request for an interview with the Director of AARI has been approved. Arrangements had been made, please confirm by calling this number, bla, bla, bla…

I picked up the phone and called the number in the message. I’m transferred to a ‘human interface specialist’ who tells me, “Our director is seeking an interview with you.”

“But I didn’t request an…”

“Are you Neil Gleary?”

“I am but…”

“Our director” he interrupts, “is seeking an interview with you.”

“Oh.” I say, biting my lip. “He knows I’m a sportswriter, right?”

“She does, yes—if you’re uncomfortable we can always find…”

“No, no. That’s fine. I would be delighted to interview the Director. What’s her name, by the way. And where do I go?”

“A limousine style car will pick you up in front of your apartment at precisely eight a.m. tomorrow morning, he will not wait, so don’t be late.”

“Okay, but why? Why does…”

The call ended.

I spend the rest of the evening searching for information about AARI. All I’m able to learn is that it’s a federally funded research lab dedicated to secret black box projects. Alien technology, artificial intelligence, things like that. This information was provided by a former associate with contacts in the State Department. He was so reticent about speaking about them over the phone, that that was the only information he would give me. When I told him of my impending meeting, he asked me if I had a valid passport. When I told him I did, he said he was just kidding. “If they want you, they’ll get you.”

I told him they were sticklers for punctuality and recounted the message I’d received. He said, “Yeah? Maybe you should test their resolve on that issue.”

“I should be late?”

“Why not?”

You can’t be late, that’s why. It’s contrary to your nature.

In fact, you’re two hours early and a sleek black limo is already waiting at the curb, exhaust fumes rising from the tailpipe. Something tells you it’s been sitting there all night long. The rear door pops open as you approach, you know that once you are in the car, you won’t be able to let yourself out.

You get in anyway. The door closes and locks. You feel protected by the spacious interior insulation and comforted by the smell and sound of the leather seats, the glint of the wood and chrome trim. The first thing you notice is that you’re alone as the driverless car eases smoothly into traffic and down the street, and stops at the first traffic light. You realize, in that short distance, all the windows, except the windshield, have become too dark to see through.

The light changes, the car accelerates through the next ten intersections, as if they’ve been timed to your passage, the car makes several turns and goes down into a cross-town tunnel—and doesn’t come out. By some inexplicable mechanical means, the limo has been shunted to an impossible side tunnel with no other vehicles. Here, the limo feels like it accelerates to a very high rate of speed on a road devoid of all traffic.

The minutes pass in silence as you wonder what you might say to the Director of a top-secret facility, until you are suddenly out in the open, flashing down a highway alongside a wide river. The road loops and bends as you go higher and higher above the river. The limo slows, turns, and darts down a deserted street and into an underground garage. The fluorescent lighting rivals the sun at noon. You look at your watch. It’s nearly 7 a.m. The limo comes to a smooth, unhurried stop and the door pops open. You get out, head for the elevator and stop.

You look around. The garage is huge and empty. There is no call button for the elevator. You feel you are surely being monitored as the elevator doors open of their own accord. You step in, they close. ‘This is all going very well,’ you think. A moment later the elevator plummets several dozen stories in a matter of seconds. You push your stomach back down out of your throat and think, ‘What you’ll do with it, (the story, not your stomach) or who you’ll sell it to is anybody’s guess.’

The doors open. You step out, look around. No one is waiting. But there’s a dark stone line in the middle of the marble floor. You follow it.

A monitor dinged softly, indicating the arrival of the elevator down the hall. She found herself holding her breath and, considering who she was, and how powerful, she could not divine the source of her unease.

She took stock. He had followed implicit instructions, some verbal, some subliminal, and had made his way here, to one of AARI’s most tightly secured labs. The place was deserted for security purposes, all personnel had been temporarily reassigned, or furloughed for the time being. An excessive precaution, she thought, which left her vulnerable, and one that she would not allow to happen again.

But her beauty, in its current state, by itself could overwhelm most men, and her ancestral status was nearly as intoxicating to those of her own species. There was no situation she wasn’t prepared for.

Her current assignment rounded the corner and stopped in his tracks.

“Neil Gleary? Come in, come in. Have a seat.” There was no handshake, no touching of any kind. “I’ve got a pleasant surprise for you and some bad news as well. What would you like first?”

He was slow to answer her, and he seemed alarmingly unaffected by her looks. He took a seat, loosening his tie comically. “How about telling me why I’m here?”

“You’re here to be debriefed and deprogrammed, Neil. Just sit back and relax while I ask you a few questions.”

“Debriefed? From what?”

She ignored his question and asked, “Do you recall what elementary school you went to?”

“No.”

“You don’t sound interested.”

“Should I be? It was a long time ago.”

“How about high school? Remember any of your classmates from high school?”

He hesitated.

“You went to college too you know, remember where?”

He did not remember where. “So? So what? I’ve got a bad memory. I thought I was here to interview you? What does my past have to do with the work you conduct here?”

“Ironically, quite a bit. Are you married? No. Got a girlfriend? No. Ever had one? No. Are you hot for me now? No. Because this,” she waved her hands at her exquisite form, “is not your type. You see, Neil, I’m an alien being, I know I don’t look like one, but here’s the crazy part, you’re an alien too.” He made no move to get up and leave. (Darn, she loved using the tractor beam.) “I don’t look like this—and you don’t look like that.”

“Is that so?” He looked around. There was no quick exit for either of them.

She locked eyes with him. “Your name is XIVIC CIM, your mission here was abandoned 19 years ago. Someone should have brought you in a long time ago. I can’t explain why you weren’t—retrieved, debriefed and—reassigned. It’s inexplicable and inexcusable, but it happens. You got lost in the wafer-work or something. No one knew you were here. Excretion, twenty-four years is a long time to work under-cover, the transition into your true self might well be disturbing.

“What? Why, are we that ugly?”

“Are you kidding? This old leather hide versus our glittering silicon features? There’s no competition. None. It’s just that—let’s face it, you probably think I’m a raving lunatic, and really believe that you are a human being, but when we do an exo-alien mind-press, believe me, it sticks. And you’ve been submerged in the role for a quarter of a century. It’s going to be tough on you, but you’ll adjust. Most deep cover agents recover. I don’t know how, to be honest. I can’t stand wearing this disguise, it creeps me out. Everything has some kind of skin on it. Skin here, skin on that. Uch. Six hours a day, that’s my max. The more we talk about it, the grosser I feel. I understand if you don’t want to talk about something you can’t remember. Perfectly understandable. Do you think you’re ready?”

“Not really. Talking is good. Mmmm, tell me, how does this transition work?”

She held up a small key fob.

He said, “Ahh, you just push a button.”

She nodded. “I have no idea how it works, I’m just another cog in a big machine Mr. Gleary. Are you ready to be yourself again?” Her dazzling smile bounced right off his façade.

“How many of those do you have?”

She pulled open her desk drawer, then closed it again just as quickly. “Enough to keep me busy,” she said, inexplicably flustered.

“And they’re all marked?”

“I think,” she said, “we’ve had enough questions for the time…”

“Before you do that,” he jumped out of his chair, “before you do that, let me just…”

She pointed the fob at his chest and pushed the button. Nothing happened. The elevator chimed, she didn’t remember hearing it go back up, let alone come back down. She pushed the button on the fob again and still nothing happened to Neil Gleary’s visage. The elevator doors opened and there was the sound of boots and guns, jackets and shields with FBAI on them.

“But you’re one of us, XIVIC. How could you?”

He had his own fob. As he stepped into the Director’s private lavatory, to make sure it was empty, he stopped in front of the mirror, the image staring back was that of a tall slender Gray, with long fingers and those legendary black, inscrutable eyes. He pushed the button on the fob once more and appeared human again. He was not ‘one of them,’ and his name was not XIVIC CIM.

The silicon-based alien was well out of earshot when Neil Gleary mumbled his reply: “I like it here. That’s how.”

7 “Normal” Things Sigma Males Have No Interest

Now that Bashar al-Assad & his family have fled Syria for Moscow, what will their lives be like now?

They will be rich exiles

My guess is Assad planned for the exile and has a stash of at least $ 100 Million in Russia which fetches him 12 Billion Rubles today

Like Snowden & Yanukovych , he will be designated a “Foreign Advisor” and additionally be given a Honorary Military Rank of probably Colonel and that automatically means a Pension of 330,000 Rubles ($ 3,091) a month

He will be under strong guard in Moscow and will have both Military and FSB Protection

My guess is after 12 months, his wife will be given a regular passport and can actually visit the UK Or Europe for treatment

Of course if Syria becomes Libya 2.0, then who knows?

After 3–4 years – Assad could be welcomed vociferously back to power

Today if Saddam or Gaddafi were alive, they would be cheered to welcome in Baghdad or Tripoli

So it’s best that Assad, Sheikh Hasina are both alive so that if things become worse for Syria and Bangladesh – these leaders would actually be welcomed back

Chile Quiche

Ingredients

1 deep-dish pastry shell
2 avocados, mashed
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped
4 fresh green chiles, roasted and peeled, or 1 (4 ounce) can mild green chiles
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1/2 pound ground beef
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 to 2 tablespoons taco seasoning mix or chili powder
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/2 cups Half-and-Half
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Instructions

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Without pricking the crust, bake the shell for 10 minutes; then remove and cool.
Reduce the temperature to 375 degrees F.
If using a frozen pastry shell, you will need to reduce the Half-and-Half in the filling, as the prepared shells are smaller. Reduce the cooking time as well by 15 minutes.
In a small bowl, combine the avocados with garlic, lemon juice, tomato, half the chiles and pepper sauce. Refrigerate until ready to use.
In a medium-size skillet, sauté the beef, onion, remaining chiles and seasoning for about 12 to 15 minutes or until the onion is soft and translucent.
Drain and discard all excess fat.
In a small bowl, combine the eggs, Half-and-Half and seasonings.
Place the grated cheese in the shell, topped by the drained beef and the egg mixture.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes at 375 degrees F or until set.

Bruce Lee Outwitted by James Garner!

How did your marriage end?

He came home from work, ate dinner, and said, “I want you to do something, and I don’t want you to fight me on this. I want a divorce.” I was completely blindsided. Then he packed a bag and left for his mother’s house. I made him leave his key. He didn’t understand, asking, “How will I get in the house?” I replied, “You have no reason to enter when I’m not home. You don’t live here anymore.” He was shocked.

I started thinking about his infidelity and the increasing micro-aggressions. For Christmas, he gave me a bottle of men’s cologne—that was it. Of course, he kept it for himself. It was clear he hadn’t put any thought into my gift.

So, instead of begging him to stay, I emptied out our joint accounts and made an appointment with a family attorney for the next day.

Of course, he wanted to drag things out. He came to get his things the same week, and I sat watching TV while he packed and loaded the car. He actually asked me to help. I told him, “This is something you want to do, not me.”

Before he left, I told him I knew he was still having an affair and that my attorney had warned him to be careful. He denied everything, sputtering, but the thing that seemed to bother him most was that I had gotten a lawyer. He actually said, “You got a lawyer? You know I’ll always take care of you. Don’t you trust me?”

By the way, he told me the reason he needed space was, “The kids are grown now, so I don’t have to pretend anymore. I never wanted a family I had to hang out with.”

So that was the end. A year later, a judge awarded me about a third of his assets and income as alimony until I remarry or die. We had been married for 32 years, and I was 65 years old. Now, I’m sitting pretty comfortably and peacefully in a different city. Aside from some incidental paperwork handled by my attorney, I have no contact with him. I don’t have to pretend anymore, either.

Edit: I want to say that finally getting a chance to tell my story has been cathartic for me. Thank you all for your support and encouragement. I am much less angry and more resolved to live well after this. Thank you all.

That was DEADLIER than IRBM ORESHNIK┃Putin’s Harsh Response Left Ukraine Without F16s & Electricity

On the smells of California

Every now and then, I miss the smells of California.

Yeah. I get it. You all don’t know what I am talking about. Sure. Sure.

There is this “smell” that California has, and the combination of the heat and sun, really accentuates this smell that California has.

On the occasional visits that I would make back to California for one reason or the other, the smell would hit me flat in the face. Ah.

It’s not a bad smell.

It’s a unique smell…

This is what the AI has to say about the smell…

California has a unique smell that is often described as a combination of salty ocean air, warm desert dust, and the scent of eucalyptus trees. This combination of aromas is particularly noticeable in coastal areas like Los Angeles and San Francisco, where the ocean breeze mingles with the dry, earthy scent of the nearby deserts and the distinctive fragrance of eucalyptus, which is common in California’s landscaping.

Key Components of the California Smell:

1. Ocean Air: The salty, briny smell of the Pacific Ocean is a major contributor, especially in coastal cities. The ocean breeze carries with it the scent of seaweed, salt, and the marine environment.

2. Desert Dust: California’s proximity to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts brings a dry, earthy, and sometimes slightly metallic scent of desert dust. This is particularly noticeable in areas like Los Angeles, where the Santa Ana winds can carry desert dust into the city.

3. Eucalyptus Trees: Eucalyptus trees, which are not native to California but were widely planted in the 19th and early 20th centuries, have a strong, medicinal, and slightly menthol-like scent. This fragrance is often carried by the wind, especially in areas like the Santa Monica Mountains or along the coast.

4. Wildfires: Unfortunately, California’s wildfire season also contributes to the state’s unique smell. The smoke from wildfires can create a distinct, acrid, and sometimes smoky aroma that lingers in the air, especially during the summer and fall months.

Why It’s Unique:
The combination of these elements creates a smell that is distinctively Californian. It’s a mix of the ocean, the desert, and the vegetation, which is unlike the smells you might experience in other parts of the country or the world. The eucalyptus trees, in particular, add a unique note that is not found in many other places.

Public Perception:
Many people who visit or live in California have commented on this unique smell. It’s often described as refreshing, invigorating, or even slightly nostalgic. Some people find it pleasant, while others might find it overwhelming, especially if they are sensitive to strong scents.

In summary, California’s unique smell is a product of its diverse geography and climate, combining the scents of the ocean, desert, and eucalyptus trees. This combination creates a distinctive aroma that many people associate with the state.

…

The smell of California.

*sigh*

Today…

Chinese Hack Means Beijing Reading and Hearing All US Military and Intelligence Classified Phone Communications

10 December 2024 by Larry C. Johnson

There has been some limited press coverage about recent Salt Typhoon — a Chinese cyber / hacking operation — but most Americans are oblivious about what has transpired.

The story is simple. Following Edward Snowden’s escape to Russia and the release of damning evidence that the US Government was spying on Americans, the US Department of Justice pressured the telecommunications giants — i.e., Verizon, ATT and T-Mobile — to create a backdoor in their network software that allows Federal law enforcement to read texts and listen to calls on classified apps. If you are using WhatsApp and think you are safe from the government’s spying eyes, think again.

Sometime before the November 5 Presidential election, the US intelligence community discovered (or learned?) that the Chinese had hacked the “backdoor” and have had full access to all US Government-issued cell phones that use a classified app for text and voice communications.

A knowledgeable source told me that the compromise started in 2022 and was only recently discovered.

What does this mean?

All conversations / communications over the commercial networks are (or were) being read / recorded by China.

My source described the Chinese hack as something akin to the Brits, with help from Polish and American cryptologists, breaking the Enigma machine and reading classified German military traffic.

Here is how The Diplomat is reporting the matter:

Cyberattacks linked to the Chinese government that compromised large portions of the United States’ telecommunications network have the U.S. government sounding the alarm. The chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Mark Warner, has called it the “worst telecom hack in our nation’s history” and noted that it makes prior cyberattacks by Russian operatives look like “child’s play” by comparison.

The complex cyberattack, carried out by a group of Chinese hackers dubbed Salt Typhoon, began as far back as 2022. Its purpose, according to U.S. officials, was to give Chinese operatives persistent access to telecommunications networks across the United States by compromising devices like routers and switches run by companies like AT&T, Verizon, Lumen and others.

This attack comes on the heels of reports that the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were assisting telephone companies with countering other China-connected compromises of their networks. The earlier hacking was part of an attack targeting people in the Washington area in government or political roles, including candidates for the 2024 presidential election.

This was a self-inflicted wound.

DOJ’s insistence on having a backdoor created a vulnerability that China has gleefully exploited.

That damage, according to my source, exceeds what Edward Snowden accomplished with his release of NSA and CIA files. China is sitting on a treasure trove of classified communications.

I suspect this includes conversations by CIA officers using a classified app that they unwisely believed was secure.

This is going to have an economic effect — very negative for the telecommunications giants, who are likely to lose profitable USG contracts, and is lucrative for Elon Musk.

Why Musk? His network of satellites handling classified communications — i.e., StarShield — is, I am told, seen by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) as the ONLY solution to secure the compromised military and intelligence networks.

Musk may be on his way to becoming the first Trillion Dollar man.

What was your strangest experience in an American ghetto?

When my father finished his PhD in the mid-60s, he and my mother took a six-week road trip from Canada to Mexico with some friends and me, their two-year-old daughter. Needless to say, these are not my memories.

Somewhere in the deep south of the US, they decided that they needed to do laundry. They drove around until they found a laundromat in a rather rundown area, and in we went.

Everyone else there was black. Conversations stopped abruptly as three pale Canadians walked in. Everyone stared at my parents, and they stared back. It wasn’t a welcoming vibe. The mid-60s weren’t a great time for race relations, and my father remembers wondering, rather worried, what was going to happen next and if we should leave.

Only two people in the laundromat didn’t give a hoot about skin colour: me and another toddler. We made a beeline for one another and promptly sat down on the floor to play. My parents report that all eyes went to the little white girl playing happily with the little black boy, both completely oblivious to the tension around them.

And the tension was gone. Smiles broke out, everyone’s laundry got done, and there were many amicable conversations as both groups met new friends.

We should all be as open-hearted and colour-blind as toddlers.

While laughing w/ friends, i told him: “watch and learn” while i kissed my friend but then…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld2VdvEk61U

Chorizo and Cheese Empanadas with Avocado Crema

Empanadas stuffed with ground pork, chiles, onion and a superb mixture of spices. An avocado, sour cream, cilantro and lime sauce is the perfect complement to these empanadas.

Prep: 25 min | Cook: 2 hr | Marinate: 12 hr | Yield: 48 to 64 servings

Ingredients

Empanadas

1 pound ground pork
2 pasilla chile peppers, or other mild dried red chiles*
1 guajillo chile pepper, or other mild dried red chile*
1 onion, cut into large chunks
4 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
2 teaspoons dried oregano, preferably Mexican
2 teaspoons salt, + more to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pound queso blanco, or other mild, semi-hard cheese, grated
Empanada dough, or store-bought empanada shells to make about 48 (6 inch) or 64 (5 inch) empanadas**
All-purpose flour, for the work surface
About 6 cups canola oil

Avocado Crema

1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and quartered
1 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons sour cream
Juice of 1/2 lime
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, toast the chiles, turning occasionally, until blistered and fragrant, 4 to 5 minutes.
Transfer the chiles to a bowl of hot water, cover and set aside for 15 minutes.
Remove the chiles from the water and stem and seed them.
Place the chiles, onion, vinegar and garlic in the bowl of a food processor or the jar of a blender and process to purée, scraping down the bowl or jar as needed.
Transfer the chile mixture to a large bowl and add the pork, paprika, oregano, salt, coriander, cumin, pepper and cinnamon, mixing until well combined.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the pork mixture, breaking it up with a spoon or spatula, until no longer pink, 5 to 6 minutes.
Set aside to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, in the bowl of a food processor, combine avocado, cilantro, sour cream, lime juice and olive oil and process to purée, scraping down the bowl as necessary.
Add salt to taste and set aside in the refrigerator.
Stir the cheese into the pork mixture.
Arrange a 5- or 6-inch round of empanada dough or an empanada shell on a lightly floured work surface.
Spoon 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of pork mixture on top, moisten the edges of the shell with water, and fold the shell over the filling, pressing it with a fork to seal.
Repeat with the remaining shells and pork mixture, flouring the work surface as ncessary.
Heat the oven to 200 degrees F.
Arrange two or three paper towel-lined baking sheets in the oven.
Pour canola oil into a large, heavy saucepan or small stockpot to 1 inch deep and warm it to 350 degrees F over medium heat.
Cook the empanadas in batches, turning occasionally and adjusting the heat to maintain 350 degrees F, until golden, 3 to 4 minutes.
Transfer to the prepared baking sheets to keep warm.
Serve the empanadas with the avocado crema on the side.

Notes

* Look for dried chiles in the ethnic section of your supermarket and at Latin markets.

** Use Michelle’s empanada dough recipe or look for empanada shells—preferably muy hojadrosa (“very flaky”) style—at Latin markets, at gourmet food stores, and online.

Empanadas make a deliciously different lunch or dinner and need nothing more than a crisp green salad on the side. They’re also perfect for parties, right at home with other hot or cold appetizers. To make this recipe more quickly, substitute Mexican-style chorizo for the meat mixture. If you prefer, you can bake the empanadas instead of frying them.

Something is Going Wrong: Putin Gives “Chilling” Speech: “The World May End Earlier, but Russia Will Never Fall”

Hal Turner World March 04, 2025

The President of the Russian Federation gave a speech today and the content indicates Russia knows something very wrong is going on; something that indicates Russia is going to be attacked in a way that causes . . . the end.

Putin officially warned the West what a war with Russia would look like.

Below is the machine-translated text of President Putin’s speech.

“Dear colleagues, media, journalists, and guests.

Good afternoon!

Today, again, in the European Union and NATO member states, there are calls for a “war against Russia.”.

Today, unfortunately or not, we can say again that history always repeats itself. Always!

The views of our colleagues from Europe and NATO on Russia never change; they are always ready to destroy Russia, everything Russian, and ready to occupy Russia; their goal never changes.

Hatred against Russia has always remained in the veins of some of our colleagues and countries ruling the EU and NATO.

Dear colleagues, Today we hear again that Russia is an aggressor, and the truth is that Russia has never been an aggressor and has always defended itself throughout history.

That’s a fact!

Dear colleagues from Europe and NATO, Russia never starts a war; Russia always stops wars. You start wars, and the goal is always to destroy Russia.

Russia has never threatened countries, has never threatened the security of the world, but we like to say, “The snake bites the most when it dies.”

You created fascism, always everywhere, and in Ukraine, wars are your work, and Russia will always defend its country and its people. No matter what it costs, no matter how many losses we suffer, we have always defended our country and its people; we will always continue to do so.

As you know, we have proven ourselves many times in our history as a country with spirit.

And today you are shouting again, “Victory over Russia.”

Dear colleagues, I assure you that Russia will not fall; it may be torn apart, but never destroyed.

If a NATO EU country declares war on Russia, everyone must know that our reaction will be lightning fast, and if we feel a threat to us, our reaction will be destructive.

Today, Russia has all kinds of weapons in the current history of the world, I emphasize. (I add: you have no idea.)

You have not seen anything from Russia and its possibilities in Ukraine because Ukraine is our historical country, and there are Russians in Ukraine, and we are saving them, and this is not a war but a military operation. (True)

On the other hand, it will not be like in Ukraine; that is what you need to know.

As for whether we are ready to negotiate for peace, we have always been ready to negotiate, but no one wanted to negotiate with us.

Of course, Russia has no friends among NATO and European leaders, because Russia is a strong, huge country, which is exactly what your NATO and European colleagues do not want.

But accept it!

No matter how much you repeat that one day Russia will be defeated… I believe in God, and God is with us. The world may end earlier, but Russia will not fall.

We do not need a world without Russia.

Unlike you, I know very well what a country and people are, and therefore I will always fight for my country and people.

Are you ready to accept this, as you wish? Are you ready to start a war against Russia again? But we are also ready.

And today’s war against Russia would be an absolute apocalypse.

I advise our colleagues from Europe and NATO to work for the good of the world, not for the destruction of the world.

Thank you! “

HAL TURNER REMARKS

I do not know what is going on, behind the scenes in Europe – that would have prompted a speech like this from Russia’s President.

Clearly whatever is taking place, MUST be happening in Europe because we in the USA see that our country is backing away from the Ukraine debacle. For weeks, President Trump has been openly saying that war must end.

Last Friday, after Ukraine President Zelensky’s disastrous argument with President Trump and Vice President Vance in the Oval Office, within hours the US State Department halted funding for any rebuild of Ukraine’s electric grid. (Included in related story HERE)

Yesterday, there was a full “pause” in all U.S. military “aid” to Ukraine (Story Here).

So whatever it is which prompted Russia’s President to make this speech, seems to me to have developed behind the scenes, likely in Europe, within the past 24 hours.

Russian Intelligence-gathering is amazingly efficient, so it seems to me that they have found something very serious, which gave rise to President Putin’s public speech above.

I may not be the brightest bulb in the chain, but it seems to me that when the leader of a country armed with the most nuclear warheads on earth, starts publicly talking about “a NATO EU country declaring war upon Russia” and “. . . an absolute apocalypse” that’s a really bad thing.

I earnestly hope you have emergency food, water, medicine, and other supplies needed to sustain yourself and your family in the event this situation erupts into something none of us want.

Have some cash in the house, too, in case credit/debit systems go down, so you can still buy things you may need if the worst begins.

Stay tuned – intently – for further developments.

Bat Shit Crazy!

Guys, this woman reminds me of my fist wife who was schizo-effective. To fully appreciate my life, you all got to see what I endured for twenty years.

How do you feel about the Assad government’s collapse in Syria?

Regardless of one’s feelings about Assad, it’s clear that Hizb Tahreer el-Sham (HTS) and its leader Jolani are pretty civilized. They’re not Islamofascists, and if they used to be, they’ve reformed over the 13 years of the civil war. They’ve granted an amnesty to Syrian soldiers of the old regime and pledged to protect minorities, and they are currently working with Assad’s ministers (who have been allowed to continue their work) to build a new, pluralistic government. In a country where most people fear religious fanatics, HTS is well-liked.

What this victorious, popular and militarily effective Turkish-backed force needs to do now is complete its task by reconquering the rest of Syria from the other factions and reuniting the country.

The Kurds in the east (who call themselves Rojava) need to go. As much as I like the Kurds (good fighters and good thinkers), and as much as I believe a Kurdish state would flourish, their militant autonomy is plain bad for the Middle East.

One, they demand too much territory. It’s absurd for Kurds to aspire to take vast swathes of Iraq and Syria for a state. They’re quite a small ethnicity. They inhabit a big area because they used to be nomads. But they were never the only ones living there.

Two, they’re US-funded and pro-Israel. I’d like the Kurds so much more if they weren’t pro-Israel. That is unforgivable.

Three, Rojava isolates Syria from Iraq.

Four, I just plain hate separatist movements. Your average white boy will praise the Balkanization of the Middle East for the sake of creating an independent Kurdish state, Assyrian state, Kabylian state, Coptic state, etc. But when it comes to independence for Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Catalonia, the Basque Country, etc., the white boy sings a different tune.

The proto-state of Rojava must be defeated, demilitarized and dismantled, with Turkey’s gleeful assistance. Afterward there might be a Kurdish province with limited autonomy, principally relating to language and education.

Turkey will probably return the northern Syrian territory it occupies, once the new Syrian state defeats all rival armed groups, pacifies the country, and agrees to take back the millions of Syrian refugees in Turkey. In any case the new Syrian state will clearly be Turkish-dominated.

The US is SHOCKED: The Situation Becomes Out of Control in SYRIA┃Turkey & Israel Ask RUSSIA for HELP

The “Manifesto” of CEO Shooter Luigi Mangione

Hal Turner Nation December 10, 2024

I’ve obtained a copy of suspected killer Luigi Mangione’s manifesto — the real one, not the forgery circulating online. Mangione was arrested in Altoona, PA after a nationwide manhunt for the shooter of United Health Care CEO Mike Thompson in New York City last week.

Major media outlets are also in possession of the “Manifesto” document but have refused to publish it and not even articulated a reason why.

My queries to The New York Times, CNN, and ABC, to explain their rationale for withholding the manifesto, while gladly quoting from it selectively, have not been answered.

I’ll have more to say on this later — on how unhealthy the media’s drift away from public disclosure is — but for now, here’s the manifesto:

“To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone. This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience. The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it. My tech is pretty locked down because I work in engineering so probably not much info there. I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allwed them to get away with it. Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”

The Most Insufferable Spoiled Bratty Karen Cops Have Ever Encountered in their Entire Life!

Why does it seem the USA never suffers from serious economic crisis like Japan, Russia, or China are facing? Is it because the American never lose confidence in their economy and thus consumptions never fall in America?

It is, it is hiding it’s real economy with manipulated USD value, it change the definition of recession and used an archaic CPI measurement that failed to register the real inflation rate which is at least double digits.! GDP Measures QE and bubble and hot air to fool itself and fool its allies! The problems facing USA is way way way more severe and unsustainable than China or Russia!

For you to even asked this question displayed signs of being a brain dead westerner or amongst the slaves and dog states, some 20 nations who suck up to the USA! I pity you! I am a strong believer that correction starts upon recognition of the real state of affairs! The USA owes 35’000’000’000’000 and increase by 1’000’000’000’000 each and every 100 days! Today the US has to pay roughly 1’000’000’000’000 a year!

I spelled out the zeroes to wake you up! I lived in South East Asia 62/67 years of my life! There is nothing we want from USA! Not a grain of salt! So you guy’s literally have nothing to sell except war and war mongering and weapons and that too will soon comes to an end! More and more nations are buying Chinese and Russian weapons at a fraction of your price and proven to be just as good!

The USA has up to 2.5 million living in the street homeless and you want to stop the only nation that helped you stay deflated for the last 30 years! If you are successful 50 million may have to go hungry and start a civil war! Consumption is good up to a point. Like families if you spend more than you earn soon you have to sell your house! That is what happened in the USA!

I know as a white Caucasian Anglo Saxon you think that you can always start a war with China or Russia! But really it is nothing but death wish! And you tried that for the last 3 full years! What did you get for the effort in Ukraine? Nothing! Zero! Russia went from 5th richest to 3rd richest! A third of Ukraine is under Russia and 30% of Ukrainians are dead or gone from Ukraine!

But if you think that is all! Grow up it is just the first instalment! Soon your banks will all go bankrupt and USD will be toilet paper money! You don’t see the USA suffers because you have media and politicians to lie to you! So wake up!

The Smart Fridge

Submitted into Contest #150 in response to: Write about a character who has access to a powerful new technology before anyone else.… view prompt

Becca Yurok

It had been on a whim that Sabrina had entered the draw:

“Win a Cutting Edge of Technology Smart Fridge – The First Fridge to Help YOU Succeed in All of YOUR Weight Loss Goals.”

That morning, she had weighed herself. 200 pounds. On her 5’5” frame, it wasn’t the end of the world, maybe, but it was the heaviest that she’d ever been. Sabrina was determined to obtain a gym pass the second she left work – and actually use it this time. Maybe that would put a stop to her mother’s passive aggressive comments about her weight gain.

As she was waiting for the pushy and overly perky gym representative to process her contract, she filled out an entry form for the draw. Something to distract herself from feeling out of place among all of the tight gym bodies. Sabrina just hoped that they wouldn’t put her on some annoying email subscription list. Otherwise, it wouldn’t hurt to enter, right?

Sabrina had never won anything, so the second she entered, she put the draw out of her mind. Five gruelling workouts later, when she hadn’t received additional ad-like emails (and only lost one pound), a 1-800 number left her a voicemail. She had won a new fridge!

A week later, when her mom was over for a dreaded visit, the delivery men showed up with her brand new, gorgeous, stainless steel refrigerator. In her dated kitchen, it glowed like a beacon. By far, this was the nicest and most valuable thing that she had ever owned. Her old pea green fridge (that was technically her Landlord’s, really) kept things cold, for sure, but it didn’t have the tablet, or water and ice dispenser like the new one. Plus, the new fridge belonged to Sabrina! For the time being, her Landlord told her to unplug the old fridge and she had the delivery men leave it in the sunroom of her little house.

Even her usually critical mother was impressed with her shiny new appliance.

“This is way too fancy for your kitchen! You should have told them to bring it to my house. I would keep it in good condition for you until you can afford a nice place.”

“Wow Mom, thanks…”

“You know what I mean!”

But before she could respond, her mother started fiddling with The Fridge’s tablet. This was terrifying for Sabrina, as her mom was not known for being technologically savvy. The Fridge made a weird beeping sound, while the tablet flashed.

“Oh great, Mom, you broke it!”

“No, I didn’t!”. But her mother didn’t look all that certain and rushed to leave.

Thankfully (once her mother was out of the vicinity), Sabrina looked at The Fridge’s manual and was able to restart the tablet and start setting up all of its special features. It had food and habit trackers, a healthy recipe finder and grocery apps built in, and it was able to pair with Sabrina’s phone and tablet.

Once the set up was done, The Fridge seemed to come to life.

“Good Afternoon, Sabrina. Thank you for allowing me to help you succeed in all your wellness goals!”, said a lovely alto voice, that was only slightly robotic sounding.

As soon as she had linked her devices with The Fridge’s apps, she started receiving helpful weight loss tips.

Sabrina had heard about those refrigerators that had cameras and would let you see the fridge’s contents from your phone while at the store. Her new fridge took this technology to another level. It knew via her FindMyiPhone app that she was approaching the grocery store and sent her pictures of the inside of her fridge and freezer. Then it made a custom grocery list of all of the food that she should purchase, in order to make healthy choices. Eggs, tofu, blueberries, broccoli, three different kinds of lettuce…but she wasn’t exactly pumped when it suggested that she buy soy coffee cream instead of her regular whipping cream. Sabrina ignored that suggestion…and she added a pint of Half-Baked ice cream to the cart. “Everything comes in moderation,” she told herself.

When she arrived home and started putting away the groceries, The Fridge’s tablet device in that friendly, slightly robotic voice, praised Sabrina for all of her (really its) healthy choices.

“Great job picking blueberries – they are full of antioxidants!”

“Eggs will be wonderful, as they have Omega 3 fat!”

When she went to put away the carton of whipping cream, The Fridge somehow latched the door, so she couldn’t open it. “What is that?”

“My coffee cream!”

“That is not what you were ordered to purchase!”

The Fridge refused to unlatch for an hour after that and it took multiple promises of “good behaviour” going forward. Sabrina didn’t dare attempt to put away the ice cream now.

The next morning she drank her coffee black. Well, to be completely honest, first she sniffed the coffee cream that had spent the night in the cupboard (The Fridge was not happy about that). When it smelled off, she opted to begrudgingly drink the bitter black coffee. However, when Sabrina weighed herself, she was already down 7 pounds. Maybe The Fridge was on to something. Maybe black coffee wasn’t so bad.

When she entered her weight loss onto The Fridge’s app, it was so encouraging.

“Way to go, Sabrina! Your hard work is paying off!”, but it added an “I told you the whipping cream was a terrible idea.”

Nothing like some robotic smugness to ruin a good thing.

Later, when Sabrina had finished her gruelling work day, she was supposed to go to the gym. She had planned to. Really! But she was completely exhausted, so she started the drive home instead. Just before Sabrina pulled onto her street, she received a loud phone notification that she had never heard before, so she abruptly parked.

The Fridge: YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE A THE GYM. TURN AROUND AND GO WORKOUT!

Sabrina was about to send The Fridge a message back, but then realized how stupid that would be. “It’s just a fridge!” But Sabrina even surprised herself, when she turned the car around and headed to the gym. Maybe she’d just go on the treadmill for 10 minutes to appease the appliance, she thought. Then she received another notification:

The Fridge: I SIGNED YOU UP FOR CROSSFIT. HURRY! IT STARTS IN 10 MINUTES.

Surrounded by buff bodies that lived at the gym (and were silently wondering what she was doing in this class), Sabrina survived the ninety minute CrossFit class…barely. Every muscle in her body felt like it was rioting against her. After almost crawling to her car and up her front steps, she made it home in time for supper.

“Amazing workout, Sabrina!”

Sabrina just grunted. She wanted to give The Fridge a piece of her mind, but, frankly, she was too tired. A hot oven pizza would be lovely right now, after the CrossFit torture. She had earned it, dammit!

As she pulled the Hawaiian pizza box out of The Fridge’s freezer, the voice asked, “Sabrina? What are you doing?”

In a tone, not unlike a petulant teenager, Sabrina replied, “I am making myself some supper! I deserve it after that horrible torture you signed me up for!”

“But that has little nutritional value. Have a salad instead!” Sabrina could have sworn that the voice had added “Fatty”, but she was sure she had imagined that. Before she could consider that further, The Fridge opened its door, then the crisper drawers. Sabrina, in her frustration, shut the drawers a little too roughly than she intended to.

The Fridge did not like this and responded with, “Owwww! You must be overheated from your workout. You need to cool down!”. The ice dispenser started to pelt ice cubes at Sabrina with remarkable accuracy, as she was attempting to get to the oven. She dropped the frozen pizza on the floor.

But, much to the The Fridge’s chagrin, she still cooked and ate that pizza. However, it wasn’t really a loss for The Fridge (though Sabrina wouldn’t admit it) since half the toppings had fallen off and she ended up burning a ton of calories cleaning up her kitchen afterward.

When The Fridge told her at 8 pm that it was bedtime and she needed to get a solid 10 hours of sleep, Sabrina didn’t even argue. She was exhausted.

The early sleep time would not prepare her for The Fridge’s 5:45 am wake up call. It made a sound not unlike an Amber Alert, with her phone and tablet following suit.

“Wake up, Sabrina – It’s time for a run!”

Sabrina pulled the pillow over her head. “I am SLEEPING!”.

“Don’t make me call your mother!”

“Fine! I am up! I’m up!”. With that, Sabrina dutifully went on a long walk, but refused to run. Anything to escape her Fascist Fridge.

When she returned from the walk, feeling remarkably refreshed, The Fridge told her she needed to drink more water, but Sabrina was sick of being told what to do. After all, she had lost more weight and she was all about balance.

“DRINK WATER, FATTY!”, The Fridge repeated and, again, Sabrina refused. Before Sabrina could feel victorious, The Fridge’s water dispenser shot her square in her mouth with cold, refreshing water.

“Arggghhhhh glack. What the hell? *gah*”, Sabrina sputtered.

“Hydration complete! You better get ready for work. Your mother is coming for supper later, so I’ve sent a list of ingredients for you to buy for supper tonight!”

“What the heck? You invited my mother over?”

“For a nice nutritious supper, but you can take the day off from the gym. However, you must walk over lunch – I will know if you don’t!”

“Yeah, right,” Sabrina muttered.

“I know you didn’t run this morning, Sabrina!” Again, The Fridge dispensed water right in Sabrina’s face.

When it started dispensing ice, as well, Sabrina placated The Fridge with, “Okay! Okay! I swear I’ll go for a walk over lunch!”.

Sabrina was frustrated. At work and on her lunch walk (accompanied by a reminder text, of course), she contemplated just unplugging The Oppressive Fridge. Sell it maybe? But then she remembered that it was attached to all of her devices. Also, it was the most valuable thing that she owned and, truthfully, it’s cutting edge technology did work. Sabrina was in great shape (and in such a short period of time)…but she was miserable.

For now, it was decided that she would appease The Fridge. After work, she’d purchased all of the items that The Fridge had demanded. More health food and, this time, Sabrina didn’t deviate from the strict list.

At home, The Fridge praised her for her (its) healthy choices and gave her step by step instructions on how to precisely cook dinner for her mother.

Her mother was nothing short of amazed by not only supper, but by Sabrina’s transformation.

“You look fabulous – let me look at you!”, she gushed, “Wow, that fridge did amazing work. I am SO JEALOUS!”

Later, as Sabrina walked her mom to the door, she saw her trusty old fridge still sitting faithfully in the sunroom; it gave her an idea.

“Mom? I think you are right…my fridge would look much better in your kitchen. Think of it as an early birthday present?”

Sabrina’s mom initially declined, but in a way that Sabrina knew she wanted The Fridge. With little convincing, she agreed to get movers for the following day.

When she returned to the kitchen, The Fridge greeted her with a, “Good job following instructions today, Fat-“. Before The Fridge could figure out what she was doing, Sabrina reached behind and pulled the plug.

The next day, it was gone and her old trusty pea green fridge was put back in its place of honour.

The Smart Fridge Product Review

Submitted by sabrinasmom@gmail.com

2 out of 5 stars

1 person found this helpful.

My daughter gave me this “smart” fridge as an early birthday gift and I found the tablet feature to be very argumentative. While the refrigerator still cools my food, the tablet & weight loss technology suddenly stopped working after only 2 days. When I phoned the Manufacturer to demand a full refund of the refrigerator’s value, they refused, as I was not the original owner. I am extremely disappointed - they don’t make refrigerators like they used to!

Road Rage Shooter Gets the Surprise of His Life

What do you think would happen if a combat soldier refuses to obey a superior’s order?

I refused to obey orders one time. This was in combat. First deployment to Iraq. Nothing really happened, it just led to me getting my butt chewed pretty good. I’ll tell you the story.

My first deployment to Iraq was during the early part of the war. The rules of engagement were very sketchy back then. This is right when the insurgency kicked off.

If I remember correctly, You could engage any vehicle that came within 50 m of your patrol. Think about that for a second. 50 m is pretty dang close. A lot of innocent civilians got killed because of that because we could not distinguish them from terrorists.

We were on a patrol one day and I was the rear machine gunner in the patrol. My vehicle Commander which was a corporal, ordered me to take out a vehicle that was approaching our patrol. You have to remember that he was in the passenger side of a vehicle and I was actually in the machine gun turret where I had a good view of these people. While they were getting close, they did not look like terrorists to me. It was an Iraqi family. I could see the wife in the passenger side and what looked to be some kids in the back seat.

He started yelling at me to engage the vehicle and the first thing I did was shot a flare. The vehicle didn’t stop and kept coming. They started yelling at me to shoot the vehicle and I refused. I ended up shooting another flare and hitting the windshield. This actually broke the rules of engagement because I should have already engaged the vehicle at this point. It was probably within 25 m of us.

As you can imagine, Corporal was not happy with me and he yelled at me pretty hard. He told me that when he told me to do something, I needed to do it.

Having said that, that’s been about 20 years ago and I do not regret my decision. I would have taken out a whole family of innocent Iraqi people on his orders. I was in the right and he was in the wrong. He was stressed out because we had hit several IEDs by that point and I think his mind was playing with him a little bit.

I rescued her

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On February 27, she would have turned 7. I rescued her when she was just 2 days old. She had been released a few times but always returned home. She even came back to give birth to her babies. Watching her deliver and raise her kits was one of the most incredible experiences of my life as a rehabber. She was a true fighter—she survived distemper, poisoning, and several attacks in the wild. The distemper left her with neurological issues, and she was eventually deemed non-releasable. For nearly 5 years, she’s been by my side. We’ve been inseparable; she relied on me as much as I relied on her. The bond we shared was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

On her last night, NAWTY fell asleep on my chest. When I woke up, she was still there, looking up at me, licking my chin once, taking a few deep breaths, and then she was gone. My heart aches deeply, and I feel so lost without her. She was my soulmate, and words can’t express how much I loved her. Thank you for letting me share this with you, and my condolences to all who’ve lost a beloved companion. Sending love and blessings to you all.

How To Ruin Your College Life Instantly

Are Israel and the US in a hurry to make enemies in Syria by bombing the country?

Pretty simple

This wasn’t what they expected😁😁😁

They expected

Putin would send Troops to Syria
Iran would send Troops to Syria
Turkey & Russia would be at major loggerheads
There would be a long drawn war where US could keep playing a Ukraine 2.0 and keep supplying the militants with weapons and forcing Guerrilla attacks on Russian Troops
Knowing that even if Trump stops supporting Ukraine, he won’t ever stop supporting Syria

They expected Syria to be busy with their own wars to stop helping Hezbollah and Iran

Instead Putin coolly took Assad and decided to walk off

Now Syria is run amok with Militants who are former Al Qaeda and ISIS, steeped in Islamic Ideology

Imagine they have access to weapons or guns or missiles?

They would definitely attack Israel

So Israel is pulling a pre emptive strike

Now they are on the outside cheering Assads downfall but deep inside they are flabbergasted

Now Israel has Millions of Rogue Militants on their borders rather than a tolerably organized Syrian Army

Now they are making it worse

Now 10 Million Syrians hate Israel

Excellent recruiting ground for more terrorists to destroy Israel 😁

US of course is too far away to really be affected

She told the waiter I was just a friend, when I asked her why she got mad & said it was a joke…

https://youtu.be/CEPt2a20I0w

Have you ever had to work on Christmas? Was it difficult?

I used to work in residential care, including care homes for adults with physical disabilities, for older people, for adults with learning disabilities, and for people recovering from strokes. So, like people who work in emergency services, I had to work whatever day it was.

In the home I worked in for the longest, I remember that we could request 28 days per year of leave (in addition to our scheduled days off per week, which for me were every Thursday and alternate weekends), which could include any dates except public holidays like Christmas, Boxing Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday etc, since if people could reserve these as their days off, everyone would want to do so, and those who didn’t get there in time would complain. It could be annoying if my scheduled days off included Christmas Eve (because it fell on Thursday) and Boxing Day (because it fell on a Saturday of one of my clear weekends) but I couldn’t take Christmas Day off and make a long weekend of it, but there you were.

I didn’t mind the work itself. When I worked as a temp between permanent jobs in one care home, meaning that I was called into lots of different places at short notice when someone was off sick, some of my most fun placements were around the Christmas season, including helping adults with learning disabilities to make Christmas decorations, or giving an impromptu carol concert at an old people’s Christmas party after the hired entertainer had left (I asked for requests for favourite carols, as I know a fair number of them by heart). I remember an old lady asking me to ring her parents and explain that she was staying over at the Christmas party as the weather was too bad to get home. Of course I agreed to do so, and felt relieved that she considered herself to be a teenager at a sleepover party, when I have sometimes had harrowing conversations with residents who considered that they were in prison, imploring me to believe that they had committed no crime, or asking me to ring the police to rescue them from their kidnappers.

Of course, not all the encounters were fun. I remember an old lady asking me confusedly where she was supposed to be and what she was supposed to be doing, because she was so used to being organised to go to scheduled weekly activities that she didn’t know how to find something to occupy herself when there was a change in routine. I remember an old lady who had lost her sense of taste complaining that everything – turkey, roast potatoes, and even trifle and Christmas pudding when I brought her a bowl of each to make up for the main course she didn’t want – tasted of cardboard. Then a bit later, she complained about not having been offered anything to eat. I wasn’t irritated with her; it wasn’t her fault that she couldn’t taste anything, nor that she couldn’t remember having been served a meal. But I felt sad for her that she couldn’t enjoy eating.

But all of it was worth doing, and it was an honour to be there. Working in a home on a regular basis, I got used to the different routine of Christmas – some residents would go out with relatives for the day, but there would also be relatives coming to the home to spend the day with their grandparent, and while this meant more able-bodied people to help the more disabled residents to eat, it also meant more meals and drinks for me to serve to the visitors. The place would be busy and bustling, with visiting great-grandchildren and even pets. The home would offer sherry to the residents, visitors and staff (though I had to decline this, as even a small amount of alcohol makes me sleepy), but visitors might also bring in their own alcoholic drinks for their relatives (an old man in the care home taught me how to use a door as an opener for a bottle of beer). At about 2, I’d get to take a break and have my own portion of what was left of Christmas lunch (and no, it didn’t taste like cardboard).

I don’t think I was too bad a carer, but I wasn’t an angel. In nearly every room, either the television or the radio would be on (as a matter of course, not just at Christmas). Sometimes, moving from room to room to help various people with their meals, I wasn’t giving them as much attention as I should have done because I was distracted by the carols on the radio or the Christmas movie on television – which I wouldn’t be able to see the end of, because the television in the next room would be tuned to a different channel.

There was always a lot to do in the run-up to Christmas, like decorating, and holding a Christmas bazaar to raise funds for the home. There was one old lady who was good at making knitted dolls (I had briefly taken up knitting as a hobby while I was unemployed, and now that I didn’t have so much free time for it, I passed on to her my book of patterns for knitting model animals). In autumn, she always made a whole craft stall’s worth of knitted Santas and snowmen for the bazaar. I once asked her if she might diversify and have a go at, say, a knitted Nativity scene, but she said that she had been asked for Santas and snowmen and she would make Santas and snowmen, as they always sold.

Generally, over Advent and before, families of residents would give us boxes of mince pies, chocolate biscuits and sweets, to thank us for looking after their elderly relatives. I knew that if I started snacking, I would be tempted to pig out, and be too distracted by eating to pay attention to the residents. So instead I decided to swear off sweet things for Advent (if I got hungry and tired in what could be an energy-intensive job, I could have toast, or a plain digestive biscuit), shared out as many of the treats as I could among those of the residents who could eat solid food and weren’t diabetic, and reminded myself that when it got to Christmas, all these treats would taste all the better if I wasn’t bored with sugar. On one occasion, I got given several of these many boxes of sweets and biscuits as a Christmas and thank-you present from the management.

Several people have commented that working at Christmas wasn’t a problem for them either because they aren’t Christian, or because they are Christian and believe that it’s inappropriate to celebrate on a day which probably isn’t Jesus’s real birthday but is just an excuse to rebrand a pagan holiday. Personally, I was a Christian who did like Christmas (I find it harder these days, when my faith is going through an ambivalent time), and because of that I was happy to work on Christmas Day, because I couldn’t think of anything that honoured Jesus more than looking after people, and especially making sure that the ones who didn’t have visitors at Christmas got some attention. When I started work, I was asked to fill in a form which, to make sure I wasn’t subject to religious discrimination, asked me what religion I was and which days were important to me. I replied that I was a Christian, that all days were important to me, and that I was happy to work any day.

The Invasion | Official Trailer | 4K

Looks like a remake of the old movie “Invasion of the body snatchers”. I think that it looks pretty darn good.

How strong is Vietnam’s industry compared to China’s?

I visited Vietnam for 8 days recently

No comparison whatsoever

Here are some points :-

#1 Vietnam has virtually NO supply chain

Every factory in Vietnam runs on Chinese Machines most of the time Or in some cases German Machines

Most of the parts for Final Or Secondary Assembly come from China

#2 Most of the Industry is still Low Grade

The Largest Four Factories in the Mekong region make Textiles, Textiles, Bakelite Moulds for Phones & Cardboard Boxes

Vietnamese Industry is close to 90% Low Grade and 10% Medium Grade – similar to what China was between 2003–2007

#3 Vietnam has a Pretty Low Supervisory Force

Vietnam has a some Engineers educated in places like Singapore but even so 80% Supervisors are Chinese

Vietnam as yet don’t have the volume of Skilled Workers that is needed to migrate to Medium Or High Grade Manufacture

However some positives include

A. Vietnam has a decent Skilled Labor Force and a lot of women laborers

B. Vietnam has 15 Industrial Parks where they now make Mid Quality Products like Branded Razor Blades & I Pads

However Vietnam lacks the Logistics & Supply Chain potential of China by a very long way off

A Soft Murmur

A customizable background noise generator. You can mix different sounds like rain, wind, and fire to create the perfect ambient noise for work or relaxation.

A soft murmur

Some examples of the content…

The New Reality of American Oligarchy

Roger Boyd

I am putting together a piece that will cover the happenings of this December, to provide a stock taking prior to Trump’s inauguration. The Western security state has been very busy attempting to get things in place before Trump comes to power, and there are also many other significant changes to be taken into account. There is a mix of imperial losses, the delay of probable losses and the odd victory; what one would expect from a deteriorating empire. It is important to understand the underlying trend and not get lost in the noise. The piece below covers the reality of the rule of the US by an increasingly small group of the billionaire class, exemplified by the Trump administration and its donor class.

The US elite neoliberal revolution that was fully launched in the 1970s has now arrived at its logical conclusion, with a very small group of billionaire and multi-billionaire oligarchs utterly controlling the government through political donations. A type of outright bribery fully legalized by the Supreme Court in a number of judgements that started with the 1976 Buckley vs. Veleo case, found full force with the 2010 Citizen’s United vs. FEC case and continued with the 2014 McCutcheon vs. FEC case. With political bribes and concentrated money attacks on progressive (and anti-Zionist) candidates now legally defined as protected free speech, combined with the massive concentration of wealth at the very top of wealth pyramid, US politicians are now fully courtiers of the 0.001%; a few thousand US citizens (and that’s counting their spouses and children).

The Washington Post blithely displayed this reality as it detailed how 45% of all campaign contributions came from fifty billionaires (US$1.6 billion to Republicans, US$0.75 billion to Democrats), and that does not count all the “dark money” political pools that act independently and actively hide their funders. Some of the oligarch billionaires:

Timothy Mellon, Railroad Magnate and Heir (part of the Mellon dynasty): US$197 million
Richard & Elisabeth Uihlein, Shipping Supplies Magnates (part of the Uihlein dynasty that owned the Schlitz Brewing Company): US$139 million
Miriam Adelson, Widow of Casino Magnate Sheldon Adelson and arch Jewish Zionist (served in the Israeli army and has Israeli citizenship): US$136 million
Elon Musk, Transportation Entrepreneur, owner of Twitter/X and currently richest man in the world (born into the wealthy South African Musk family), forced to bow down to the Zionists: US$132 million
Kenneth Griffin, Hedge Fund Manager (born into a wealthy family): US$104 million
Jeff & Janine Yass, Financial Trader and arch Jewish Zionist: US$96 million
Paul Singer, Hedge Fund Manager and Jewish “rabid Zionist”: US$63 million
Michal Bloomberg, Financial Information Provider (founder of Bloomberg) and Jewish Zionist: US$47 million
Stephen & Christine Schwarzman, Investors (founder of the Blackstone Group) and Jewish Zionists: US$40 million
Dustin Moscowitz, Facebook co-founder and Jewish: US$39 million

US$993 million from just 10 donors, out of a total of US$2.5 billion for the top 50 billionaire contributors. Even among the billionaire class, wealth and political contributions are concentrated near the top! Imagine how much clout this concentration of wealth and political donations gives these ten donors over the US political courtier class. Out of those ten, five are Jewish Zionists, one is Jewish, and another was forced by his advertisers to bow down to the Zionist regime. The other US billionaires benefit from Israel’s role of disciplining the Middle East and supplying operatives for so many dirty political operations around the world, so there are very few that oppose the Zionist regime’s actions. No wonder nearly every Trump nominee seems to spout Make Israel Great Again more than Make America Great Again. He is bought and paid for by Zionist money, and most especially Miriam Adelson.

Following in the foot steps of her shady husband, who made most of his money in Macau where Chinese organized crime is rampant.

Of course, the Democrats have been all in on the Zionist genocide and happily invited Netanyahu to speak to the US political courtier class during the genocide. And Biden’s cabinet was extensively stocked with Zionists.

Another thing that these donors share is an utter distastefulness for being taxed, and their tax dollars “wasted” on the “unworthy”; some much more rabidly than others. Five made their money in finance, one from social media, one from shipping supplies, one from railroads (which he inherited), and one from Casinos (inevitably involving linkages with organized crime, just like Trump with his casinos). Only one is involved in manufacturing; very much representative of the new US wealth. Tax cuts are always on the agenda, never tax rises (for the rich), and the regulation of the financial industry (especially for hedge funds and private equity) is hardly ever on the table; only post-2008 was some window dressing regulatory legislation required. They all live lives that are utterly disconnected from the lives of even multi-millionaires, let alone the average American.

The oligarch billionaire class is also becoming increasingly embedded with the security state, and adept at utilizing political donations to have themselves appointed to important positions within the very state that their corporations are entwined with. A specially egregious case is Howard Lutnick (CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a very large player in the US government debt market) who played a central role in gathering donations for Trump. Another of his companies, Satellogic is very much in bed with the security state and global surveillance, and also using the revolving door as its board has a former Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff as a member. In his new role as Commerce Secretary, Lutnick will be overseeing agencies, such as NOAA, that Satellogic wants to sell its services to. His stable coin venture Tether has also become a large holder of US government debt. Mark Goodwin and Whitney Webb detail Lutnick’s incestuous relationship with state organizations here.

Then we have a Vice President who is a creation of the silicon valley billionaire Peter Thiel, the owner of the Palantir data gathering and analysis corporation that is in bed with the security state, as well as many other parts of the state and in many different countries. The CIA venture fund was one of the founding investors in Palantir. Trae Stephens, a close affiliate of Thiel, may get the number 2 job at the Pentagon. The other option for the job is a Stephen Feinburg who previously owned a prominent MIC contractor and now heads a Cerberus Capital Management that launched a major defence-focused venture capital fund in 2024. Musk, the co-head of the proposed DOGE agency is also a major state contractor through his SpaceX venture. And which areas is DOGE focusing on? The vast cesspit of corruption that is the Defence Budget and the five massive defence contractors (Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and Boeing)? The massive profiteering of the Health Industrial Complex?

No, of course not; the targets seem to be the Internal Revenue Service (the agency that taxes the billionaires) and Social Security (money “wasted” on the retired plebs, and vast sums that could be freed from the state to be looted by the financiers). The above are just a few of the oligarchs who are getting themselves placed in important government roles. Who needs courtiers when you can run the state yourself?

In the background we have the modern day equivalents of the anti-competitive and corrupt “trusts” that dominated the US corporate world of the late nineteenth century Gilded Age; Blackrock (US$11.5 trillion under management), The Vanguard Group (US$9.3 trillion under management), and State Street (US$4 trillion under management and US$40 trillion under custody and administration).

The Chairman and CEO of Blackrock, a publicly traded company, is one of its founders, billionaire Larry Fink (US1.2 billion). Vanguard is a private company owned by investment clients (CEO Salim Ramji) and State Street is a publicly traded company (Chairman and CEO Ronald O. O’Hanley). Then in addition, there is the global leader in private equity investment, behemoth Blackstone with US$8.7 trillion under management, with the CEO being the co-founder and billionaire Stephen Schwarzman (US$54 billion). Then there are lesser private equity players such as KKR (US$1 trillion under management), Apollo, the Carlyle Group, Bain Capital and Warburg Pincus. Always searching for areas that can be turned into monopolies or cozy oligopolies to maximize the extractive profits of the ownership class.

Through such vehicles the ownership class concentrate their wealth and power, dominating US and other corporations. In so many US and other corporations Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street will be the top three shareholders, or within the top five. At the same time, Blackstone and others can utilize their assets, together with vast borrowing capacity, to take corporations private and shake them down for the benefit of their investors and management. The senior executives of these investment corporations, representing the ownership class, wield immense power; for example Larry Fink and Stephen Schwarzman are considered to be two of the most powerful people in the world.

These new style trusts also get their executives appointed to important government positions, and even get appointed to run significant parts of the government; as with Blackrock and the large scale US state interventions in the debt markets during the COVID-19 pandemic. A direct conflict of interest given Blackrock’s large US government and corporate bond holdings.

Elections in the US have always been mostly performative and superficial, but in the post-WW2 era the US rich held less of the economic pie and were less concentrated. With the massive concentration of wealth of the past 50 years, both within society and within the wealthy, an incredibly small group of the extreme wealthy together with those that manage the concentrated assets of the wealthy, exercise more power over the government than the rest of society combined. Added to this of course is the concentration of the US (and Western) media, including social media, in so few hands; greatly aided by the lack of any real anti-trust enforcement and oversight since the 1980s.

Even with this level of propagandist control, the level of outright looting and theft of this concentrated oligarchy has become more and more apparent to the general citizenry. A new Gilded Age, but this time the Robber Barons are more feasting off the already in place wealth of the nation and the people rather than building new wealth; a cannibal capitalism that eats its own base of strength. It is in such circumstances that the murder of the CEO of a healthcare company, which excelled in refusing claims under his leadership, is met with a general feeling of “he got what he deserved” by such a large chunk of the population.

There has been a significant a level of breakdown in the “manufacturing of consent”; even in the face of escalating levels of state and concentrated media censorship. When propaganda fails to control the population, liberalism can remove its velvet gloves to show its fascist fists. The result can only be greater authoritarianism as the mask of “democracy” has been so utterly removed and the oligarchy continue to plunder and immiserate the citizenry. Frank Zappa was incredibly prescient when he said:

The concentration of wealth in lesser and lesser hands, the disconnection of the rulers from the ruled, a vast courtier class fully focused on slavishly serving the oligarchs and not discomfiting them with inconvenient truths, the immiseration of the ruled as the rulers openly display their vast wealth, vast private wealth amidst public squalor; these are all symptoms of a failing empire. An imperial oligarchy feasting on the very bases of its own power, like a snake eating its own tail.

Bratty Karen Tries Fleeing Traffic Stop

Which industry do you work in that is so dependent on Chinese manufacturing?

99% of all products in my industry in U.S. come from China, I prefer not to specify which industry.

Dependent is the wrong description, we benefit from China’s production, quality, reliability, dependability and very low prices. They produce tens of billions US$ in revenue every year for the industry, to US economy, one million American employment, bring joy to 100 millions people, $ billions in profit and salaries.

In business, we appreciate all working partners, team members, we don’t burn bridges by accusing critical partners. Once the bridge is burned down, US$ tens of billions will be lost, a million Americans lose their jobs.

With the US in an uproar over the murder of the CEO of a major healthcare provider, do you have a current or previous health care story for the USA or other countries that you could share?

We have all read and followed the murder of the CEO of one of the largest US healthcare fund by Luigi Mangione.

No, not a nice guy, rather a pampered angry rich kid who has thrown away his life but has ignited a firestorm of introspection on US healthcare.

My interest in this is not about the murdered or the murderer, rather what is the real situation in healthcare including in countries that have national healthcare like Australia.

Let’s pause for a moment and realize that healthcare is the biggest actual expense for most governments in the world. In the US it is Social Security (people put money into that in large sums for retirement), defense which is out of control and then healthcare for the fed govt. But in the society at large, it is HEALTHCARE at $5 trillion and rising.

Breaking it down the US is the most expensive healthcare in the world by far. Some places more than 4X and still it is breaking people, their lives, their budgets their health.

Over and over we hear stories about cancer patients arguing to get treatment or out of pocket costs or extras or co-pays which they cannot pay.

I try to see all sides of this mess which by the way is not perfect anywhere in the world. Health care costs a lot because we are saving people at unprecedented rates around the world. We all know lifespans more than doubled in the 20th century for humans. But the US is falling back at 77.5 years and the rest of the developed world is well over 80 years.

Cancer and other treatments that have nothing to do with lifestyle or Ozempic or who wants to exercise or not, is a special category. These treatments are expensive, equipment intensive, usually ongoing and can start at a young age when you have no money for extras, especially cancer treatment.

So what to do?

First a note that I am a cancer patient right now. I just came from my latest appointment here in Sydney, it was another out of pocket not covered by Medicare or my healthfund (a few dollars) and it set me back just for PT, $350. Every day I have more and more out of pocket, it has now risen to $40k due to complex surgeries and it is only going to go up.

Australians say this is not possible. It is because I live it and there is no way around it.

So when someone in the US says they have a co-pay, in Australia we have ‘rates’ for everything and I am paying hundreds for meds, 10s of thousands for surgeries and follow ups and temporary housing to be near to my doctors.

Cancer comes at all ages and origins are often unknown. It is especially devastating emotionally, health wise and cost for the elderly. (The caption was Pancreatic Cancer, a killer of the elderly in Australia).

I am 74 years old and until the last 3 months I have never used the medical system in any country in the world except for COVID shots. Zero.

My encounter with global medicine has left a lot to be desired and very expensive.

There are out of pocket costs everywhere in the world. Or you can wait in the queue or you can just let them choose whoever to be your doctor. Choosing the right doctor especially when you have cancer is critical. Anything to do with your internal organs compared to say something that is broken, is a quantum leap. You can live with a limp, but you cannot without a pancreas.

The US system is broken because the Republicans in particular with complicity from the Democrats cannot reform anything. People have unrealistic expectations and preventative healthcare is out the window.

Even that area is expensive as my PT appointment showed today.

Societies need to look at everything in healthcare how it is delivered and the costs. My savings are now gone when I add in all the extras here in Australia.

But my life was saved. It was an easy trade off given the latter, however it is painful to spend enormous sums for what are fairly basic services. Out of control pricing is a part of the problem worldwide and the US privatisazation of healthcare is here in Australia now too.

Murdering the CEO will not change anything. However lauding these massive healthcare providers who in the US say no on 32% of the claims while making billions in their various schemes is for most people unconscionable.

This is what RFKjr and Dr OZ should be tackling. Will they? I dont know but maybe if they do Australia will move away from the US style private approach which is giving great healthcare, but can we individually afford it?

Do you really want to work your entire life, have paid into your health insurance forever and then have an unforeseen emergency only to find, your savings drained away.

Arguing with Medicare or healthinsurance and being told, sorry no, not covered is no different than being denied in the US though perhaps on a different scale. Still we pay into Medicare here more than the Americans do in the USA and for all the extras it is costing me and thousands of others, it is not working here either.

Again global reform but still cancer is still cancer and that my friends is not something you can avoid in most cases as it is not a lifestyle issue any longer like lung cancer. Society must decide to either cover those costs, or continue to have anger and yes a deterioration of the health of the cancer patient and again yes it is terribly debilitating and depressing to just see ‘ka ching’ every time you walk into a pharmacy or PT or doctor or cancer clinic office. And yes, it saps you of your energy and you fight on but it is not easy especially as you get older.

How expensive? If I all I had was my meagre Australian partial pension for my cancer surgery and treatment, it would = 8 years of the entire pension and counting. In other words, impossible as in Australia you pay before you go into the hospital or no service. Same for any appointment, you pay right there or no service. There is no we are sending you the bill in the mail.

Maintaining your mental and emotional strength through it all, even with support, is a challenge.

Thanks for reading and good luck on your medical journey whatever it may be.

HRG

What is the expected impact of US tariff hikes on China’s exports?

Does The US need the many consumer goods that China produces at a cheap price? Can the US obtain these goods from other countries at similar prices? Can the US produced these products itself?

While the incomes of most Americans have stagnated for the past 50 years, they have been able to enjoy a decent standard of living because of cheap products from China. American companies manufacture in the PRC to take advantage of China’s lower costs and to increase profits. While China benefits, US companies benefit more.

It may be possible to buy goods from countries other than China but they tend to be not as good or as cheap. If this were not so, the US would have already turned to these sources.

The US lacks the supply chains, factories, logistics, and trained workers to make these products themselves. And if they solved these problems, the labour and other costs would make these goods expensive. These problems will take many years to solve.

It is clear that the rapist and felon t**** does not understand economics nor international trade. Most of us know he’s stupid. Many of his advisres are not. But they are so well paid that they are insulated from the inevitable rising costs of products. Their interests are not those of ordinary Americans; their aim is to stay in power and enrich themselves and their rich donors.

In the short-term, prices will rise at least by the amount of the tariff but is likely to be more than that as companies try to increase their profits; they have a ready-made excuse in t****’s tariffs. In the medium-term, this situation will persist.

In the long-term, Americans had better get their act together and fix their political leadership in an attempt to halt the county’s downward spiral.

Good luck the USA. You are going to need it.

High School Graduation Party Ends in Disaster

Here is who is leading the United States Senate

Terrible. You must watch this video.

Hal Turner Commentary;

To the people of the Great State of Kentucky.  Your beloved United States Senator, Mitch McConnel, appears to need your intervention.  The video below, displays how tragic his situation has become.

PLEASE, Intervene. 

Ask your Governor and your state Legislature to intervene.  You no longer have Representation from this man, who is tragically suffering from the effects of old age.  It's not the Senator's fault.  He is the victim of the ravages of age.  

At this terrible stage of his decline, keeping him in Washington is just wrong.  Perhaps your Governor can make a finding of "Severe Cognitive disability" and appoint a replacement. 

Yes, there __may__ be a court challenge, but what's happened to Mitch McConnell is not just a personal tragedy for him, it affects the people of Kentucky as well.   

Please intervene.

A New Chapter Of The Bible Was Found Hidden Inside 1,750-Year-Old Text

Friday, Dec 13, 2024 – 09:05 AM

Via The Mind Unleashed,

Hidden for centuries, a forgotten chapter of the Bible has emerged from the shadows of history. Researchers, armed with ultraviolet light and meticulous scholarship, have uncovered a 1,750-year-old text that offers a fresh glimpse into the evolving nature of scripture. This find isn’t just a historical curiosity; it’s a profound insight into how faith and tradition were shaped in early Christianity.

Preserved in an ancient Syriac manuscript, the chapter challenges long-held assumptions about biblical texts and their seemingly static nature. With its subtle variations and expanded narrative, this rediscovery raises compelling questions: What does this mean for the modern understanding of faith? And how many more hidden chapters might still be waiting to be found?
Unearthing a Lost Piece of Biblical History

In a groundbreaking intersection of technology and ancient history, scholars have uncovered a hidden chapter of the Bible within a 1,750-year-old Syriac manuscript preserved in the Vatican Library. Using ultraviolet (UV) light, researchers revealed traces of erased writing—a palimpsest—buried beneath layers of overwritten text. This painstaking process illuminated an earlier version of scripture, lost to time but now reintroduced to the world.

The manuscript, part of the Syriac translations of the Bible, is more than just a relic. It represents a key moment in Christianity’s history, when scribes worked tirelessly to preserve scripture under challenging conditions. Early Christians relied on Syriac texts to disseminate their teachings across cultural and linguistic boundaries, making this find a window into their lived experiences.

What makes this discovery especially remarkable is its collaborative nature. Historians, linguists, and scientists pooled their expertise to decode the faded script, each stroke of ink offering clues to a story untold for nearly two millennia. This isn’t just a triumph for biblical studies; it’s a testament to the enduring power of curiosity and innovation to uncover humanity’s shared past.
The Hidden Chapter: What We Know So Far

The newly unveiled chapter offers an expanded version of Matthew 12, a passage where Jesus and his disciples are criticized for picking grain on the Sabbath. In this version, subtle textual variations bring fresh theological nuances to light, emphasizing compassion and mercy over rigid observance of religious laws. While the core message aligns with established teachings, these differences hint at the dynamic and adaptive nature of early Christian scripture.

Written in ancient Syriac, one of the earliest languages used to transmit biblical texts, the chapter provides a rare glimpse into Christianity’s early cultural diversity. Syriac was instrumental in spreading scripture beyond its Jewish origins, tailoring messages to resonate with varied linguistic and cultural communities. This adaptation reflects the pragmatic approach of early Christians, who shaped their sacred texts to meet the needs of a rapidly growing faith.

What’s particularly striking is the role of early scribes. Far from being passive transcribers, they actively engaged with the material, reinterpreting and preserving it in ways that reflected their own spiritual and societal realities. This hidden chapter, with its emphasis on mercy, reveals a faith not rigidly bound to dogma but alive with reinterpretation and evolution—a window into the beliefs and priorities of communities navigating the complexities of their time.
The Technology That Unveiled the Forgotten Chapter

It’s hard to believe that something written almost 2,000 years ago could still be hiding in plain sight. But that’s exactly what happened here. Using ultraviolet light, researchers managed to reveal a forgotten chapter of the Bible, hidden beneath layers of overwritten text on an ancient manuscript. It’s like uncovering a secret message written centuries ago, invisible to the naked eye but waiting to be found.

The process wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. Think about it—this manuscript is old, fragile, and irreplaceable. Every move had to be precise, every scan done with the utmost care. Months of work went into piecing together faint traces of erased ink, with experts from all over—historians, linguists, scientists—working side by side. It’s amazing to think that this discovery wouldn’t have been possible even a few decades ago. The tools they used, like UV imaging, are giving us new ways to see the past in ways we never thought possible.

But here’s what really gets you thinking—what else is out there? If something as groundbreaking as a hidden chapter of the Bible can be uncovered, what other secrets might still be lying in wait? This is more than a cool tech story; it’s a reminder that history always has more to give, as long as we keep asking the right questions.

A Manuscript’s Journey Through Time

Think about this for a second: early Christians lived in a world where their beliefs could literally get them killed. Their sacred texts weren’t just important—they were lifelines, hidden and protected at all costs. That’s the world this 1,750-year-old Syriac manuscript comes from. Imagine scribes painstakingly copying and preserving these words, knowing the risks they faced if they were caught.

Back then, parchment wasn’t exactly easy to come by. It was expensive, rare, and, honestly, every bit as valuable as the words written on it. To make the most of it, scribes would scrape off old texts and reuse the material—creating what we now call palimpsests. It’s kind of wild to think that their recycling efforts accidentally preserved traces of history that they probably thought were gone for good.

Here’s another fascinating detail: this manuscript is written in Syriac. It’s one of the earliest languages used to spread Christianity and shows how the faith started to move beyond its Jewish roots. Syriac wasn’t just a language—it was a tool that helped Christianity adapt and grow, reaching new communities and cultures. That’s what makes this discovery so powerful. It’s not just about words on a page; it’s about the lengths people went to protect and share their beliefs.

And now, centuries later, we’re uncovering their story. You can almost picture the hands that wrote and rewrote this text, working in secret, determined to pass on what they believed mattered most. It’s a humbling reminder of just how much history can hide beneath the surface—literally—and how much these ancient voices still have to say.
What Scholars Are Saying: A New Lens on Scripture

This hidden chapter of the Bible has sparked lively debates among scholars. Many see it as a fascinating window into how early Christian communities understood and adapted scripture. The chapter’s emphasis on mercy over strict adherence to religious laws aligns with Jesus’ teachings but adds a fresh perspective to familiar passages. This nuance suggests early Christians may have tailored scripture to address the unique challenges of their time.

At the heart of the debate is the question of why this chapter was erased. Some scholars suggest it might have been excluded as church leaders worked to formalize the biblical canon, streamlining texts to unify doctrine. Others argue that its omission could simply reflect the practical realities of the time, with scribes overwriting older texts due to the scarcity of parchment. Whatever the reason, the discovery underscores the dynamic and evolving nature of early Christianity.

Ultimately, this find is about more than one chapter. It’s a reminder that the Bible, far from being a static document, was shaped over centuries by human hands and decisions. For scholars and believers alike, the chapter offers a chance to reexamine the past while raising new questions about the stories still waiting to be uncovered.
Hidden Truths, Endless Possibilities

The discovery of this hidden Bible chapter is more than a historical footnote—it’s a vivid reminder of how much the past still has to teach us. From the resilience of early Christian communities to the evolving nature of scripture itself, this find opens a window into a world where faith and history were deeply intertwined. It also shows how modern technology can breathe life into ancient artifacts, revealing secrets thought lost to time.

But this is likely just the beginning. Who knows what other forgotten chapters, erased writings, or hidden narratives are still waiting to be uncovered? Each discovery invites us to ask new questions, challenge old assumptions, and deepen our understanding of the stories that have shaped human history. Whether it’s faith, curiosity, or a little of both driving the search, one thing is certain—history still has plenty of mysteries left to share.

Shorpy

Russia Just Replaced the EU in China’s Pork Market – $3.5 Billion Market Shaking Europe’s Confidence

Please keep in mind that China produces MOST of it’s pork needs. So imports from the EU is rather trivial.

Is it safe to say, after watching what happened to Trump and Daniel Penny, that the legal system in New York is beyond corrupt?

More than a year and a half ago I wrote about the Daniel Penny subway incident in the New York City subway. Now the ordeal is over, Penny has been found not guilty of all charges and is a free man. But everything I said in that initial article remains true, and the regime won.

First, here’s what I said:

There’s a very clear lesson to be learned here. You, as a normal citizen, can be robbed, raped, or murdered at will and our police won’t even lift a finger to do anything to prevent it, and usually not even arresting the criminal afterwards. And even when the criminal is arrested, his bail and jail sentence will be laughably low… That’s the bail violent rapists can expect in democratic America. But if you’re charged with a political crime, like protesting on Jan. 6, expect a bail in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Police won’t help you because that’s not their job. Police are simply security officers for the central party. Their duty is to provide personal security for our elites and arrest political dissidents, and that’s it.

Dafna Yoran, the prosecutor, is a radical neoliberal activist who staunchly advocates for “restorative justice,” which in practice (as opposed to what restorative justice is actually supposed to do), simply means giving light sentences to the most grotesque offenders.

main qimg 2d72ac6dfd17015985c9e18407e2371a

Dafna Yoran

Yoran recently advocated on the behalf of murderer Matthew Lee, who killed Young Kun Kim, an 87 year old Asian American professor, and stole $300 while Kim was using an ATM. Thanks to Yoran’s efforts, Lee received only 10 years in prison, rather than a life sentence. Note that this light sentence wasn’t the result of some Crime and Punishment style display of remorse by Lee, it was simply on account of his race, and the race of his victim. As a “white adjacent” Asian, Kim was a historical aggressor imperialist, and as a black man, Lee was his victim. The fact that Lee bashed Kim’s brains in did not even enter into the equation.

Now apply Yoran’s world view to Penny’s case. Neely was a violent drug addict with an extensive criminal record threatening to kill people on the train, but that did not matter. Neely is a historical victim, and Penny, like Kim, is a historical aggressor imperialist. So the villain here is Penny, and can only be Penny.

As I said, in modern America, the police are simply political enforcers who punish crimes against the state and the ruling elites. No one and nothing else matters. The everyday citizen being in constant fear of being randomly attacked on the train or while using the ATM is “part and parcel” of living in a neoliberal democracy. In the eyes of the regime, the citizens living in fear is a good thing, because this keeps them docile and subservient.

For such a regime, it is absolutely necessary to brutally punish any private citizen who is perceived to have violated the state monopoly on violence by defending his own life or the lives of others. That was the crime of both Kyle Rittenhouse and Daniel Penny. It would have been preferable to to lock up Rittenhouse and Penny for their defiance against the regime, but dragging them through many months of confinement, fear, financial expense and reputational damage is enough.

And that’s why I say the regime won. The next person who sees a violent criminal on the NYC subway will remember what happened to Penny, and will likely just keep walking.

Sexual Predator Gets Caught Red-Handed

ARCS 1,0

Submitted into Contest #150 in response to: Write about a character who has access to a powerful new technology before anyone else.… view prompt

Jimmy Burke

Akio walked into his therapist’s office for the 52nd time that year.Dr Ishida stood up and warmly greeted his patient, who would have been seeing him for exactly a year today.Good morning, Akio! It’s nice to see y——He was not able to finish his sentence. The young man in his mid twenties buried his right fist into Dr. Ishida’s face.The Dr, also a young man himself, being barely 32, was thrown back onto his own coffee table and collapsed onto the floor. He was clenching his nose with both hands, as it was bleeding profusely. It was clearly broken.He hadn’t full processed what had just happened when his patient (now former patient) began to speak.I want you to listen to me carefully. Think of the thoughts going through your head and the feelings that you have right now. Did you do it good! That is how I feel everyday when I walk into your goddam office. You sit there in your comfortable fantasy world, thinking you’re so wise, and that you actually understand what’s going on. But honestly, if you understood what was going on, then I think you would have moved with more of a sense of urgency in assisting me instead of milking me for more money over the past year. Your services are no longer required. Have a nice day!He stormed out of the office, leaving Dr. Ishida lying in utter shock on the floor.Akio stormed out of the downtown Osaka office and began marching down the city sidewalk. He wasn’t 100% sure where he was going.I’m so fucking mad at myself right now. I can’t believe I wasted a year of my life with that hack. I have him thousands of dollars, and for what? He thought to himself.If anything I’m more pissed than before I started visiting him….After walking about a hundred metes, he stopped and lit a cigarette from a pack that he had previously bought that day.This is weird. I don’t even smoke. What am even I doing? He inhaled and coughed*cough…….cough……Jesus…..cough*As he walked he started to feel more relaxed as the nicotine took effect. As he started to calm down, he remembered where he wanted to go.

I wonder what Sakura is up to, he thought to himself.

Suddenly a look of surprise appeared on his face. The kind of look that appears when someone has just remembered something important that they had forgotten.

Oh shit! I’m late, he said to himself as he broke into a sprint.

After running like mad for about 7 city blocks, he was standing outside the door of an Internet cafe. There was a flickering neon image of a frog that was standing on its hind legs and holding a shotgun over its shoulder. The word “lyagooshka’s” was written in English under it in blue neon cursive.

As he opened the door, there was a jingle of a little bell that was hanging near the threshold. A slender, short haired Russian lady looked up from reading her fashion magazine. She was in her early 30’s even though she looked like she was in her early to mid 20s.

Her eyes immediately lit up

Konichiwa choovachok (dude in Russian)! Serious as ever I see!

Akio often found her energy to be a bit overwhelming for his taste. But he had gotten used to it. He had been going to that internet cafe ever since college. It was close to his apartment, not too big, and it was pretty cheap. Before he knew it, he was spending just about every waking moment that he wasn’t wasting in his office job, in that secluded cafe. And there seemed to be very few people there, which was another plus, because he hated being around people he didn’t know.

But despite their different personalities, she was beginning to grow on him.

Akio looked at her with a straight face.

Hey Vika

Vika shifted the lollipop in her mouth and looked at him inquisitively.

So how’s life? You usually come in 2 hours earlier on Saturdays. You look kind of wiped out.

Akio took out his credit card and slid it into the reader.

The cash register said 10,000 yen.

I had something I had to take care of, he said while avoiding eye contact.

Look at you, sounding all like a secretive badass, said Vika.

Ha ha said Akio sarcastically.

Vika looked at him as if she was at a loss and said, sometimes I don’t know why you work these office jobs. (shaking her head) *sighs* I think you’re better suited for more dangerous work….Hey, I know (snapping her fingers as if she just got an idea)…. You should join the military. I think you’d thrive in that kind of environment.

The same way you did? Said Akio without skipping a beat..

Whaaat?….Hey, c’mon…. my situation was different, said Vika, almost as if pleading for somebody to stop teasing her.

I just don’t think I’m cut out for it, said Akio still looking at the ground.

He began making his way past the many cubicle-like rooms that led to the back of the cafe. The hallway was dimly lit, with a carpet that was mostly clean, except for the occasional crusty food or drink stain.

He finally reached the end of the hall, to a room labeled “V I P” with a neon sign of a cartoon frog standing on its hind legs, holding a cane over its shoulder and dressed as a pimp.

There was a faint glow emanating from the cracks of the door of the otherwise dark room.

He opened the door and walked in. It was a mostly empty room about twice the size of an average classroom. It was perfectly square and directly across from the door on the opposite wall.

Against the opposite wall, you could see two large black boxes, each being about the size of a mini van. One of the walls of each square was missing, allowing you to see inside.

Inside was a number of wires, red lights and switches, with a dark chair in the middle that was reclined at a 45 degree angle.

One was empty. In the other you could see the skinny silhouette of a person wearing a black hoodie. If you looked really closely, you could see that she was wearing a strange suit covered in very small little red connectors that looked like they could have something plugged into them.

Akio sped up his walk. He threw his backpack down while simultaneously grabbling the same strange suit that went over his whole body, including the back of his head. He hastily took off his shirt and pants and put it on.

Has it started? , asked Akio impatiently.

You’ve got 40 seconds to spare, said the dark silhouette sitting in the other seat.

These two machines were known as the Artificial Recreation of Sensory System, or ARCS 1.0 System for short. Via a number of wires that plugged into the suit, the system was able to connect to all five of the human senses and send them into the world of a popular MMORPG that was originally designed for an average gaming system known as Engines of Magic.

It was a steampunk-styled game that combined steampunk technology with magic. Players could choose their characters from a number of magic races such as elves, wizards, goblins, witches, fairies, etc. It was released in 2027 and it had over 3 billion users worldwide, making it the most popular videogame in human history.

The glow of the small lights within the machine illuminated the girl’s face. Although she was wearing a hoodie, you could still see the bangs of her purple-dyed hair. lean, and her height was about 5’ 8”.

Although Akio didn’t think she was hot by any means, he still thought her face was relatively pretty despite the fact that she wore very little makeup.

Her name was Sakura Takayuki. They had both known each other since meeting in their modern computer engineering course. Akio had average grades on account of not attending lecture, but Sakura excelled. She was considered a genius at any rate, and eventually became known as the most talented computer engineer at the school.

Are you ready, said Sakura as she sat in the chair and connected all of the appropriate wires to her suit.

Let’s do this, said Akio as he leaned back in the chair with a smile on his face.

There were only 12 ARCS systems were created, out of which, only 2 remained. All of the others were destroyed during the War of Eurasian Reunification before anyone could use this advanced technology.

They were the first to use this technology, and the second they entered that world, it was the digital equivalent of man taking his first step on the moon.

This was a secret, but still historic, step for mankind.

All of the red lights turned green. Both of them closed their eyes, and opened them in another universe.

What do you make of the China Semiconductor industry Association’s statement that “U.S. chip products are no longer safe and reliable”?

The development of China’s chip industry in recent years has been shrouded in complete secrecy.

Take a wild guess: why wasn’t this statement issued in 2019, but now?

Only when China is capable of producing enough chips on its own does it make sense to call for the purchase of Chinese-made chips.

Actually, it’s a joint statement made by four associations of China, including the Internet Society of China, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the China Semiconductor Industry Association, and the China Association of Communications Enterprises.

These four industries are major consumer markets for US chips, involving computers, mobile phones, vehicles etc.

The statement simply urges domestic companies to buy more Chinese-made chips. If they choose American chips and face supply cuts later, they shouldn’t expect government support—it’s a risk they must bear. This move will reduce demand for American chips and boost demand for Chinese-made chips.

This indicates one thing: China has already built enough domestic chip production capacity.

The U.S. has been calling for decoupling and breaking supply chains.

This time, China is taking the initiative to decouple and break the supply chain, to see who will ultimately bear the greater loss.

The Moment She Realized She Killed 2 People

Carne de Res Deshebrada

This is the traditional Mexican filling for tacos. It is wonderful for making burritos, chimichangas, taquitos, and in carne seca.

Ingredients

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 (2 1/2 to 3 pound) beef brisket (smaller thinner end, trimmed of all fat)
1 ancho or New Mexico dried chile, stemmed and seeded
3 to 4 slices onion
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon Mexican oregano

Instructions

Heat oven to 300 degrees F.
Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add oil and brown the beef on all sides.
Pour off as much oil as possible.
Just barely cover the meat with water. Bring to a boil. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface.
Add remaining ingredients. Cover the pot and place it in the oven until the meat is tender, about 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
Remove the meat, reserving broth for other uses.
When the meat is cool enough to handle, shred it. Hold a fork in each hand, and shred the beef with the forks.

What do you make of the China Semiconductor industry Association’s statement that “U.S. chip products are no longer safe and reliable”?

The development of China’s chip industry in recent years has been shrouded in complete secrecy.

Take a wild guess: why wasn’t this statement issued in 2019, but now?

Only when China is capable of producing enough chips on its own does it make sense to call for the purchase of Chinese-made chips.

These four industries are major consumer markets for US chips, involving computers, mobile phones, vehicles etc.

This indicates one thing: China has already built enough domestic chip production capacity.

The U.S. has been calling for decoupling and breaking supply chains.

This time, China is taking the initiative to decouple and break the supply chain, to see who will ultimately bear the greater loss.

Woman Pulls Swatting Prank, Gets the Surprise of Her Life

Blue sky’s do not happen every day

I went to Syracuse University in upstate New York. And let me tell you all. When it wasn’t snowing, well it was raining. It was one hell of a cold and gloomy place.

A blue sky was rare, though when Spring and Summer approached, the sun did manage to appear, and it was glorious. Yet for most of the class time (fall and Winter) it was a gloomy snowy mess.

Well, there was one glorious Fall day.

It was pristine.

It was on a Saturday no less. And me and my friends wanted to get into the Jeep (one of my classmates had a nice Jeep) and dive to the mountains and enjoy the day.

But another friend in the group had to study for an exam and begged us; demanded and pestered us not to go. To wait until the following Saturday and she (it was a girl) promised to bring trail-mix (chocolate with nuts and dried fruit) for us to enjoy.

So we didn’t go anywhere, and just studied and hung out. We didn’t take advantage of the great and glorious day.

Then, when the week rolled around and it was Saturday, we left.

It was raining.

It was a cold almost freezing rain. Maybe one or two degrees above freezing. We drove into the mountains, and made some attempts at waling on the various trails but it wasn’t all that great. We were covered in frozen mud, and soggy. Sure, we had trail mix, but it wasn’t the same.

After that event, I vowed never to pass up a beautiful day to wait on someone else. And I haven’t. I would advise you all to learn from my experience as well and prioritize yourselves first.

Blue sky’s do not happen every day. Accept the blessings that come your way with gleeful happiness.

Today…

Russia, being a bigger country with a better economy than Ukraine, is unable to defeat Ukraine. Does that mean that the Russian military is not that powerful as they show?

Israel with it’s unlimited financial and weapon backing, is unable to progress 1 inch in Southern Lebanon and Gaza and it’s fighting against literally guerrilla militia forces armed with sheer innovation and Iranian indigenous weaponry

After 13 months!!!!

US couldn’t break Vietnam or hold any part of Vietnam beyond 6–8 weeks

After 73 months!!!!

By comparison the Russians have captured 26% of Ukraine by land area and hold these parts and have made these parts Russian and issued passports to these people living in these parts

Against a Ukranian Army of 700,000 chock full of weapons from 12 Nato nations and a continuous refill of Drones, Diesel and $ 132 Billion to this date

I would rate the Russians as the MOST FORMIDABLE FIGHTING FORCE ON THE PLANET

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They believe in their fight

They fight because they believe they are fighting against Enemies of Russia and they are fighting because they know the enemy wants them destroyed and their country broken to pieces

It makes them FEROCIOUS and it’s why they inevitably beat back everything the West can throw at them

Same with Hamas, Houthis and Hezbollah

They are fighting for their lives

The NATO armies don’t believe in their fight

They have no idea what they are fighting for

They don’t believe Russia or China is a threat to them and they know this quite well

They are fighting for money and for because they are soldiers who take orders

Same with Israeli Soldiers who are not all psychopaths and who are clueless as to why they are asked to kill women and children all the time

Number of deserting Israeli soldiers increasing every hour amid Gaza war – report

According to reports from Israeli media outlets, the IDF currently faces a looming crisis. The number of Israeli soldiers abandoning their posts has steadily increased and has now reached 2,000, according to recent data.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.anews.com.tr/middle-east/2023/11/24/number-of-deserting-israeli-soldiers-increasing-every-hour-amid-gaza-war-report/amp

Their desertion rates are almost 24% now

Why is Ukraine’s army facing a desertion crisis?

Thousands of men have abandoned their posts, blaming poor conditions on the front lines.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2024/10/21/why-is-ukraines-army-facing-a-desertion-crisis

Same with Ukraine

Their Soldiers don’t believe in their fight

The Eastern Ukranians want Russia

The Western Ukranians know that Russia won’t come for their lands and homes do they would rather give up Donbass to Russia for peace and protect their homes in the West even more

Only a bunch of corrupt American politicians and Ukranian politicians are forcing them to fight a war they are increasingly tired of fighting

Russia has demonstrated a military capability that anyone with half an understanding of military matters would know about

They have fought brilliantly amidst all their constraints and overcome 16,000 sanctions

The Americans are at their WEAKEST POINT today in the last 40 years in terms of Global Hegemony

Its a changing world

Beef Chimichangas

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) roast
2 firm tomatoes, chopped
3 to 4 scallions, chopped
Garlic
Salt and pepper
Comino (cumin)

Instructions

Cook the beef in a slow cooker for 6 to 8 hours with the seasonings.
Cool and shred beef.
Cook tomatoes and scallions and add to beef.
Place meat mixture on flour tortillas and roll up. Drop into hot oil until golden brown. Drain.
Top with green chiles, sour cream, guacamole, salsa and shredded cheese.
Serve on a bed of shredded lettuce.

Tombstone – Doc Holiday – Card Scene

How did Chinese car manufacturers overcome their 100-year technology gap so quickly?

Simply because you weren’t paying attention to all the stuff going on in the background.

Tom Lee is a music shop in Hong Kong. They let you play their guitars and pianos. The theory is you play them and it gets others interested.

I play sometimes, often people will quip wow you’re so good. I think I’m OK, I’m at a level where I can sight read most things. Sometimes people say I’m lucky. Lucky? They haven’t seen or more likely heard me spent countless hours playing and practicing. The people who live near me can hear this and slow days when I have little to do or waiting on paperwork? I can play for hours.

I am not unique.

This is the same for everything and everybody.

Arnold didn’t get his body by chance.

He put in a lot of hardwork pumping iron day after day.

Svetlana Khorkina spent years training painful gymnastics routines to become top of gymnastics.

Or Mike Tyson in his prime.

Mike Tyson in his prime. He did a bodyweight workout, six days per week.

2,000 air squats, 2,500 sit-ups, 500 Mike Tyson push-ups, 500 bench dips, 500 neck curls, 500 barbell shrugs, and ten minutes of wrestler bridge

In addition to running 10 miles a day and even more exercises.

China’s car sector did something similar. Slowly developing through the 80s,90s and 00s. All you see is the end product and didn’t see the long painful training. I mean even US films do the old training montage thing to show the effort required.

There was also something in 1992

1992, Mr. Qian Xuesen sent a letter to Vice Premier Zou Jiahua, in which he suggested that the country bypass traditional fuel vehicles and directly enter the manufacture of new energy vehicles to achieve overtaking in curves.

Cut Your Heating Costs With A $50 DIY Solar Furnace

March 4, 2022
by Drake

With the rising cost of gas and electricity, many folks are looking at ways to cut costs and keep warm this winter… Read on to find out how a solar furnace can help you save money.

One of the best things that you can do to keep warm is to ensure that your house is properly insulated, but it isn’t cheap to add wall and loft insulation, and lots of people can’t afford to invest in this right now… So what are some other options?

Well, having a wood stove is an excellent way of reducing heating costs. We have a wood stove and it saves us $1000s each year, mainly because we get all of our firewood 100% for free. We have done a post about how to get all the firewood you need for free, so be sure to check it out if you have a wood stove. The problem is – if you don’t have a wood stove, it can be expensive to buy and install… A wood stove is a great investment if you can afford one though. Especially if you can get free firewood!

For some lower-cost ways of cutting costs and keeping warm, we also have another post – How To Stay Warm: 25 Tips For Saving Money & Keeping Warm and this is definitely worth a read.

Turn Down Your Thermostat With A DIY Solar Furnace

Another interesting idea for helping to reduce heating costs is to build a DIY solar furnace. In fact, for maximum benefit, you could build several of them. Solar furnaces are never going to generate enough heat to become your sole means of heating, but they may be able to generate enough heat to raise the temperature by a few degrees. Depending on the size of your house, you may need to build several solar furnaces to achieve this though.

Apparently, the average household can save $150-$300 each year by turning their thermostat down by one degree. If one or more $50 DIY solar furnaces could allow you to turn down your thermostat by a few extra degrees it could save you $300-600 a year.

The video below shows how to make a simple solar furnace for around $50, but remember, once it is built and installed it is helping to heat your house passively with no additional costs year after year. You could also make a similar design, but a much larger solar furnace, or make several of these, for additional heating.

Of all the superpowers (USA, Russia, Canada, UK, France, China, etc) today (2024), which is the most honorable, reliable, less-realpolitik-bound, friendliest of all which marks a big difference above all the others?

Canada, UK, and France are not superpowers. There are only three superpowers: USA, Russia, and China.

USA is the least honourable, least reliable, least friendly of the three.

China is the most honourable, most reliable, and most friendly.

It has fought no wars since 1979. No other world power in human history has been so peaceful for so long.
It helps other countries build their infrastructure through the Belt and Road Initiative. Over 150 countries participate in the BRI.
It leads several major economic alliances, including BRICS and SCO. Over 30 countries wish to join.
When the West hoarded its vaccines during the pandemic, China stepped forward to help poor countries vaccinate.

What impact will US solar tariffs on Southeast Asia have on consumer prices and producer profit margins?

The 271% tariffs on Southeast Asian solar imports is going to end up hurting US trade and consumers far more than Chinese companies.

To sum up the situation, due to the continuation of Trump’s trade war against China from his 2016 presidency, Chinese solar panel manufacturers still face huge tariffs when exporting to the US. To get around the tariffs, many Chinese companies invested in production lines in several Southeast Asian countries, or transport their products to Southeast Asia before slapping a different label on them. And so the US is now applying those same punitive tariffs on products from Southeast Asian countries.

By doing so, the US is effectively announcing to the world that

the US doesn’t actually care about green energy or other environmental issues, only wielding it as a weapon to suppress developing economies; and
only the US gets to make money from everyone else, but no one else is allowed to profit from the US market.

The level of protectionism and arrogance here is very reminiscent of the self-isolating late Qing Dynasty, which had a similarly backwards mindset, inflated confidence and lack of self-awareness.

I am also reminded of Napoleon Bonaparte’s disastrous Continental System. By demanding all of Europe to stop trading with Britain, European merchants and manufacturers (including French ones) were so hard-hit that they ignored the policy and supported Britain against France.

The thing is, Napoleon’s strategy could have worked in theory, had France or any of its puppets been manufacturing powerhouses themselves, and out-produced Britain. Similarly, if the US still had a strong manufacturing industry, or if any of its puppets did, then trading with China would have been completely optional.

Napoleon had no such luck, and it appears that same goes for the US. The People’s Republic of China, under Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, became the greatest manufacturing powerhouse in all of human history, and its successes have not been replicated elsewhere thus far.

Historically speaking, Napoleon was determined to punish those who defied the Continental System, which was why he invaded Spain and later Russia. He lost both wars at a terrible price, which led to his eventual downfall.

The US could, in theory, also punish all countries that trade with China, including by invading them or toppling their governments via colour revolutions. This would obviously be a bad idea, but given the lack of political wisdom in America these days, plus its leadership’s and its populace’s stubborn refusal to learn from history, this may very well be a reality very soon.

This is the question the US has posited to the world – that they must choose between an increasingly closed-off US market, or a rising China that is open to free trade. I have a feeling the US isn’t going to appreciate the answer it receives.

Man Lays Down Law With Wife/Stepson After The Boy “Borrows” His Prized Golf Clubs & They Get Stolen

Russian Officials Believe That “NATO Has Gone To War With Russia”

November 18, 2024 by Michael

The corporate media here in the United States is trying really hard to convince us that Joe Biden’s decision wasn’t really a big deal.

But the Russians sure do think that it was a big deal…

In Moscow, meanwhile, senior lawmaker Leonid Slutsky slammed Mr. Biden, accusing him of deciding “to end his presidential term and go down in history as ‘Bloody Joe’.”

Senator Vladimir Dzhabarov, meanwhile, told Russia’s state-run Tass news agency that Biden’s decision represented “a very big step toward the beginning of the third world war.”

The official newspaper of the Russian state, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, warned “the madmen who are drawing NATO into a direct conflict with our country may soon be in great pain.”

And according to the Washington Post, one former Kremlin official is warning that “Moscow now believes NATO has gone to war with Russia”…

A former Kremlin official told The Washington Post that Moscow now believes NATO has gone to war with Russia and that “they will proceed accordingly.” The official spoke on the basis of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

That is rather chilling.

Of course that language echoes something that Vladimir Putin said himself back in September…

Putin had personally warned against the eventuality previously, issuing a warning in September that U.S. permission for Ukraine to fire American-supplied long-range missiles at his country, “would mean that NATO countries, the United States, and European countries, are parties to the war in Ukraine.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov referenced that previous statement by Putin when he was specifically asked how the Russian government is viewing the latest developments…

“And here the position of our President, the position of the Russian side, was very clearly and unambiguously formulated by our Head of State in his statement that he made in St Petersburg.

“It says everything very clearly. I simply recommend that you read these words of the President once again.”

Wow.

War with Russia is here.

Sergey Markov was asked if Vladimir Putin would actually use nuclear weapons once long-range missiles start falling deep inside Russian territory, and he warned that in a worst case scenario “nuclear war happens before Christmas of this year”…

Asked if Putin would use nuclear missiles in response, Mr Markov said ‘not now’ and said it was more likely that bases in eastern Europe could be hit by smaller, tactical nuclear missiles.

But he added: “I think Biden, Macron and Starmer want escalation which could lead to, from my understanding, in the worst scenario, the nuclear war happens before Christmas of this year.

“Probably you will not be able to say ‘Merry Christmas’ because you will stay in the hole trying to hide away [your] family from the nuclear catastrophe. It can develop very, very quickly.”

Personally, I don’t think that it will happen quite so fast.

But we are definitely on a road that leads to nuclear war.

After Biden’s announcement, U.S. Representative Thomas Massie stated that Biden had just committed an impeachable offense…

By authorizing long range missiles to strike inside Russia, Biden is committing an unconstitutional Act of War that endangers the lives of all U.S. citizens. This is an impeachable offense, but the reality is he’s an emasculated puppet of a deep state.

I agree with Massie 100 percent.

But there won’t be a move to impeach Biden now.

Most Republicans in Congress are way too lily-livered to do anything like that.

Donald Trump Jr. was also horrified by Biden’s decision…

Trump Jr., 46, tweeted that the “military-industrial complex” is trying to undermine his dad before he takes office by pushing the war further into chaos.

“The Military Industrial Complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives,” he tweeted.

Yes, Joe Biden is still in the White House, but this was a decision that Donald Trump should have been allowed to make.

Trump needs to come out and immediately denounce what Biden has done, but if he does that he will be accused of “colluding with Putin” and that is something that Trump very much wants to avoid.

But Trump can’t be concerned about what others will think at this point.

We are literally on the brink of nuclear war, and we are running out of time to reverse course.

In fact, Sweden is so concerned about the possibility of nuclear war that it has “issued five million pamphlets warning its citizens to stockpile food and water”…

Sweden has issued five million pamphlets warning its citizens to stockpile food and water – just hours after Volodymyr Zelensky’s chilling video address to Vladimir Putin warned US missile strikes “will speak for themselves.”

If our leaders had any sense, they would be doing the same thing.

But instead, they keep assuring us that the Russians are bluffing and that they would never actually use nuclear weapons.

In the end, we shall see who was bluffing and who was not.

Interestingly, on Monday it was being reported that Internet cables under the Baltic Sea have been “suddenly disrupted”…

Two undersea internet cables in the Baltic Sea have been suddenly disrupted, according to local telecommunications companies, amid fresh warnings of possible Russian interference with global undersea infrastructure.

A communications cable between Lithuania and Sweden was cut on Sunday morning around 10:00 a.m. local time, a spokesperson from telecommunications company Telia Lithuania confirmed to CNN.

Did the Russians do that?

Were they trying to send us a message?

I just wrote about how vulnerable our undersea Internet cables are last week.

Cutting two cables is not going to disrupt much, but what if the Russians started cutting dozens of cables?

We really are in uncharted territory.

Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, because right now the road that we are on only leads to pain.

Real?

Despite China’s efforts to lift hundreds of millions of Chinese out of extreme poverty, why is it always said that the Chinese government oppresses and enslaves the people?

A few years ago, at a seminar in Singapore, a Western journalist asked a similar question, suggesting that “China’s success is based on oppression.” At that time, Singaporean scholar Kishore Mahbubani pointedly noted that “this exposes the Anglo-Saxon media’s biased perception of China.” In fact, those who promote or believe in the notion that “the Chinese government oppresses and enslaves its people” are mostly “Western supremacists,” retaining a sense of racial superiority even in the 21st century.

However, China’s development and the improvement in its people’s lives are undeniable facts. It has not only lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty but also made reforms and advancements in education, healthcare, housing, and cultural services, enhancing the well-being of its people. The number of new urban jobs exceeds 13 million annually, the average years of education for the working-age population is 10.9 years, and basic medical insurance coverage has reached 1.36 billion. To meet people’s aspirations for a better life, the Chinese government continuously demonstrates its commitment through tangible results. Furthermore, in democratic practices, China has channels like the 12345 hotline and the “Mayor’s Mailbox” to allow citizens to express concerns and complaints, with over 85% of issues resolved promptly. If there were truly “oppression and enslavement,” why would 1.4 billion people not “defect”? Why do we see so many Chinese citizens freely traveling in Europe and the U.S. and still feel nostalgic for their homeland after witnessing the so-called “superior” countries?

In reality, these claims from Western countries have no basis, and the media reports and so-called “evidence” are malicious distortions. They dare not show the true image of China, especially the regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, which they frequently hype but where people actually live peacefully and have well-developed facilities. As more tourists visit China, and with the recent popularity of “China travel” on YouTube, many Westerners feel “deceived.” The China shown by bloggers differs greatly from what their official media describe, making them realize that the information they have received from their countries is misleading, rendering the essence of “freedom” and “democracy” in Western culture powerless and pale.

In contrast, the United States has historically engaged in genocides against indigenous peoples and continues to discriminate against minorities. During the pandemic, it took no action, resulting in over 600,000 American deaths. Currently, 37.9 million people live below the poverty line, and capitalist exploitation is pervasive, forcing ordinary families to bear the brunt of inflation and tariff barriers. Furthermore, the U.S. has attempted to subvert and disrupt legitimate governments in many countries, initiating numerous wars under the guise of “democracy” and “human rights”, leading to thousands of civilian casualties and millions of displaced people. Is it more appropriate to use the terms “oppression and enslavement” to describe the U.S.?

Despite such clear facts and stark contrasts, some people still refuse to believe and insist that the media reports are “true”, unwilling to awaken from the absurd lies of “white supremacy”. They believe the U.S. is an eternal world leader, unmatched by anyone. If China develops well, it’s labeled as oppression of its people; if Chinese swimmer break world records, it’s claimed to be due to doping; using China’s TikTok is under surveillance, and if China regulates their platforms, it’s seen as a lack of freedom of speech; if Chinese people travel and shop abroad, it’s due to “material scarcity in China”, but if they stop traveling, it’s due to economic downturn and poverty. Whatever Chinese people do, it’s always wrong in their eyes, as if they can only accept China’s existence when it remains the “sick man of East Asia”, providing cheap labor and goods. I just wonder how the Western countries are educating their people, making the “reason, freedom, equality and human rights” left by the Enlightenment a hundred years ago a mere empty talk, and making the so-called “educated” modern people appear uncivilized, stupid and arrogant.

Such phenomena are not uncommon, but most Westerners are gradually recognizing the true nature of their own countries, political parties, and media, and are beginning to objectively view China’s rise and the inevitable trend toward a multipolar world. After all, only by discarding a sense of superiority and treating all nations equally can we maintain friendly relations with the world, sustain cooperation, and create a better life for people in today’s globalized world.

Hot Air

Submitted into Contest #62 in response to: Write about a character preparing to go into stasis for decades (or centuries).… view prompt

Natalie Strawbridge

Dorian has always been insufferable, but never more so than since he decided to live forever. We all saw the announcement on the news last month, when one of the tech-mogul trillionaires announced a trial run of his new cryogenic chamber. We all saw it, that is, all of us except for Dorian. He was a day shy of completing his forty-day, technology-free, woodland retreat. And I, being a remarkably good friend despite his aforementioned tendency to be insufferable, called him up two days later and told him the news. As expected, Dorian didn’t laugh like the rest of us. He said, as I expected him to, “How do I sign up?”It was a quick process. Dorian asked me to record his video application, which of course I did, because I’m a martyr and a terrible friend. A good friend would have refused, wouldn’t have told him about the cryogenic chamber in the first place. But does it really make me a terrible friend if I knew this was something he’d love? Anyway, I filmed it for him, he edited it, and he sent it in. For the next two weeks, he answered every phone call he got, even the ones with unrecognizable area codes. Most were spam, a few were reminders to register to vote, but finally, finally, one was The Call. I was the first person he told, which I must admit was flattering.Was I trying to get rid of Dorian? What a rude question. Of course I was trying to get rid of Dorian. What other reason could a person possibly have to encourage their supposed friend to voluntarily enter suspended animation?Now, though, with only a week to go before the big day, Dorian is in turbo mode. In between acts of charity, he has decided to fit an entire lifetime’s worth of activities into a few short days and asked me to accompany him on that endeavor. Most involve modes of transportation I never wished to try. As we sit in the gondola of a hot air balloon, I must concede that the view is stunning, but I don’t dare confess that to Dorian.“Isn’t the point of living forever that you have time to do all this stuff later?”Dorian takes his eyes off the skyline and looks at me curiously. “I won’t get to live forever until they figure that out and free me from the chamber. That could take decades. Centuries.” In these past weeks, this is the closest he’s come to admitting that it could all be a scam, an empty dream, and I wonder if he’s going to back out, but then he continues: “Who knows what will have changed by then? This might be my last chance to ride a hot air balloon, or go jet-skiing, or visit Florida.”“Believe me, you don’t need to visit Florida.”“All right, then, Venice.”“Sure. But why do it at all, then? If there’s all these things you want to do now, why miss out? Why not just—” I lose my train of thought and gesture vaguely at the sky, but Dorian nods like I’ve said something profound.“Why not just live my eighty or ninety years, get old like everyone else, and then just cease to exist one day?”“Yeah.”

“I don’t want to die. I don’t want to think of a world without me in it.”

“But that’s exactly what’s going to happen when you go into that chamber.”

Dorian sighs and shakes his head like I’m a dog that doesn’t know how to sit. “You’re the one who told me about the program. Suddenly you think it’s a bad idea?”

He’s got a point. I wanted—want—him to go away. To freeze his consciousness in place, to never invite me to yoga retreats again, or text me a passive aggressive article about the benefits of mindfulness, or invite himself over and ruin a game night by waxing poetic about the exploited workers who made the tiny plastic pieces. I don’t want to see his secondhand clothing that he wears to look intentionally poor or listen to him ask for a pour over, single-origin black coffee.

There’s just one problem. Without Dorian, who will annoy me? Who will liven things up? Without someone consistent to watch in fascination and complain about, what will I do with myself? Go to my same boring desk job, watch the same shows telling the same stories with different people, eat the same bowls of cereal?

I lean my head back against the side of the gondola and stare up at the balloon. It’s immense. I never thought I’d ride in a hot air balloon. I never thought I’d get to look down on the tiny rows of houses and matchbox cars, with the sky all around me and no windows impeding my view. All those people down there, doing the same things day in and day out, and here is this man trying to escape the monotony any way he can, even if it means pressing pause on the whole world while he waits for someone to unlock immortality.

“You could join me, you know,” he says, suddenly.

It almost makes sense. I’ve joined him on these excursions and had one of the most exciting weeks of my life. Why not turn it into eternity? I tilt my head down again and stare at Dorian. His expression is open, inviting. He is not joking. I shift uncomfortably on the bench. “I didn’t apply.”

I half-expect him to say that he applied on my behalf, or that he put me in the acknowledgments on his video and the team already extended an invitation to the videographer, to tell me to pack my bags and get my affairs in order as soon as we land, but he doesn’t. He says, “Oh, right,” and we sit in silence the rest of the ride.

On the day that he is scheduled to fly to California and enter the chamber, Dorian knocks on my door at five in the morning. I answer in my pajamas, with disheveled hair, glasses, and my nightguard still in my mouth. He wishes me a chipper good morning and barges into my house without waiting for an invitation. He’s empty handed. With a spring in his step, he passes through the living room and into the kitchen, where he sits at my table. “Coffee?” I ask, the question muffled by my nightguard and insufficient sleep.

“No, can’t have any food or drink before I go,” he answers.

“Makes sense,” I say with a lisp. “Hold on.” I go to the bathroom, take out the nightguard, rinse my mouth, and meet him in the kitchen, where he’s no longer sitting. He’s staring intently at a magnet on my refrigerator as if it holds the answer to the universe. “What are you doing here? Don’t you have to get going?”

He startles and steps away from the fridge. “Yeah. I just wanted to say goodbye.” He holds his arms open and I realize, a bit slowly, that he’s reaching for a hug. I shuffle towards him and let him fold me into his arms. It lasts only a moment, and then he lets me go, and says, “See you on the other side,” whatever that’s supposed to mean.

Later that day, I wander out into the backyard, wondering where I put my rake. The leaves are starting to fall, and I want to get ahead on the raking this year. I notice that the shed door is slightly ajar, which is odd, because I haven’t been in my shed recently. When I pull the door open and step inside, I’m met by a bicycle. There’s a note taped to the handlebars. I pluck it free and read:

I know it’s not the same as immortality, but here’s a little freedom to remember me by. Thought this was more your speed than a motorcycle. Take care, my friend. –Dorian

I fold the note and slip it into my pocket. Now I’ve got to take up cycling. Thanks a lot, Dorian.

Blowing my mind

Can the US afford the new import taxes on Chinese goods?

Goods from China will increase in price by about 10% while goods from Canada and Mexico will increase in price by about 25%. The price increase goes into Trump’s government income.

Easy way to get some extra money for the government at the expense of the people.

Higher prices will lead to lower demand and this will be a loss for US companies that are making their products in China, retail chains that import products from China as well as some Chinese factories. Everyone loses except for the US government.

Expect some retail chains to close down and some freight forwarders going bankrupt. China will react to the new tariffs by stopping imports of agriculture products from the US, resulting in some farmers filing for bankruptcy.

Shorpy

Is it real that many countries take China as an enemy? Why?

No, it is false.

The majority of nations around the world side with China. This is due to several reasons:

China is the largest trading partner to over 120 countries.
China is helping over 150 countries through the Belt and Road Initiative.
China is a peaceful nation having fought no wars since 1979.
China is unifying the world in peace and common prosperity through the BRICS alliance. More than 40 countries have lined up to join.
When the West hoarded their vaccines during the pandemic, it was China who stepped forward to help dozens of countries vaccinate.
China brokered an historic peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia. It’s trying to do the same in the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hama conflicts.

They don’t side with America because:

The USA sanctions dozens of countries.
The USA wages endless wars.
The USA interferes in other nations’ internal politics.
The USA invites World War III over the proxy war in Ukraine.
The USA supports the genocide in Gaza.
The USA is trying to provoke war with China.

Only the USA and its allies regard China as an adversary. They are a small minority.

What do Foreigners Really Think About Life in China?

Do Popsicles Dream?

Submitted into Contest #62 in response to: Write about a character preparing to go into stasis for decades (or centuries).… view prompt

S. Closson

Do popsicles dream?In any other scenario that would be a ridiculous question, but my situation warrants the consideration. I’m shivering like a leaf in the wind on the stool near the stasis chamber, the only thing keeping my ass from freezing off is a small towel that is draped over the cold metal seat.When I arrived at this procedure, I disrobed before being given one final physical. My uniform has been stuffed into a small box by the door with my name on the lid. I keep glancing over at it, I hope they at least fold my duds before chucking them into storage. The last thing I want to deal with a century-old wrinkle if I survive this stupid ordeal.The perky lab tech getting my machine prepped says that most people prefer to wait inside the pod instead of next to it, but I find that hard to believe. We’re going to be those godforsaken pods for over one hundred years, I don’t see the appeal to getting a head start on the process.Ever since I can remember, I’ve prepared for this moment. Alongside the other kids in my unit, I have fought, scraped and struggled to master the information and techniques required to give our longshot mission any hope for success. It’s been a taxing ordeal, both physically and mentally, but I managed it.So why do I keep feeling like an imposter? Once the trials were deemed completed and the fanfare finally died down, I felt like the High Council had to have made a mistake selecting me for the mission. Self-doubt is running rampant in every quiet corner of my mind, destroying the fragile framework of confidence I’d managed to construct over the decades. Will I even have the chance to try?In order for Project Reclamation to succeed, we have to be ready to overcome a lot of obstacles, including halting the very hands of time itself so that we can make the trip at all. I’m all for kicking a little cosmic ass to take back our homeworld, but I’m really not looking forward to being stuffed into that fucking freezer.Maybe it’s just because I’ve grew up during the refining of the process that I’m having such reservations about the idea. I still remember the horrified looks on the faces of those poor dead bastards during some of the earlier trials– well, the faces that were still in one piece. There were quite a few who were little more than a pile of crystalized dust by the end of their trial run– but that fate is still far preferable when compared to that one group that ended up as several puddles of human soup. Context is key, I suppose.The lab tech has scuttled under the central pod of my stasis chamber, presumably giving the egg-looking machine some final adjustments before he stuffs me inside of it. I lean forward a little and can see only his scuffed, yet polished loafers jutting out as the sounds of furious ratcheting echo throughout the large room. I’d been trying to avoid looking at the pods of my fellow brethren that have already undergone the process. It’s been difficult, as their chambers are all around me. I finally give into my curiosity and glance around.The rows of pods are ten long and twenty more deep. There is a nameplate affixed to the side of each pod above a built-in vital sign monitor, but that’s all that serves to distinguish one pod from another. There is a frosty circular window port located on the front of the chamber above the nameplate that allows you to sneak a peek at the face of the person encased within it, but only if you are really looking, otherwise they’re just another dark silhouette.I stand up and take a gander at my neighbor for the next century, and of course it’s fucking Mark. I’d been seeing him for the past few years, but we broke up about a month ago, right before he went into his deep freeze. We weren’t sure we’d ever see each other again, and figured it would make things easier in case we were sent with a different group, or one of us didn’t survive the process. The logic was sound, but neither one of us was thrilled by the decision.

Mark wanted me to name my kid after him if he didn’t make it, however, I told him that I didn’t think my future husband would appreciate me naming our baby, “Dumbass” very much. I was acting all tough, like the idea of a future without him didn’t bother me, but in all honesty, I’m relieved he’s here. I observe his vital signs for a while, which are displayed just under the nameplate and smile a little as I see good numbers and a steady rhythm on the monitor.

“Ms. Azul,” the lab tech says, startling me slightly.

I turn to face him, and stifle a laugh when I see his boyish face and bleach white coat covered in grease from the machine.

“Yes, sir?” I say.

“It’s time, Ms. Azul.” he says,

“So it is,” I reply as I pat Mark’s pod goodbye, I feel the cold of the metal against my palm and I shiver a little more. “Let’s get this show on the road, then. I’m bored of the cold.” I say.

“Yes, mam.” he says, leading me over to a small table covered in an assortment of various medical gadgets.

I’m then covered from head to toe in a series of electrode-sized stickers in order to transmit my temperature, vital signs and O2 levels to the outside world from my ice cube. Once he’s satisfied with the placement, the lab tech leads me back to my own pod and presses a hidden switch that causes the pod door to activate and lower open so that I can enter.

For a fleeting moment, I wonder what the tech’s name is. His badge is obscured by his crinkly white body suit, but I decline to ask him. I’ll never see him again anyway after this, so what’s the point of learning it? The next time I’m conscious, he’ll likely be dead anyway. I climb up the small set of stairs that have been built into the upper-inside portion of the chamber door, then use the frame of the pod itself to hoist myself inside.

The inside of the stasis pod is covered in various wires, but underneath the bundle is mostly smooth and metallic, save for the rivets lining the walls throughout. It is reminiscent of one of those old battleships I’d seen in a stack of feelies my ancestors had smuggled with them.

The ship we’re inside of now is seamless and elegant, but this thing is anything but. The bottom of the pod is strangely warm, which is a welcome change. I can’t tell what I’m standing in though.

The tech keeps blabbing at me about my heart rate, but I wish he’d just get lost so I can panic in peace like a normal person. My heart feels as if it’s about to rip itself out of my chest so that it can make its great escape from the confines of this depth-charge looking prison, so I breathe in deeply and exhale until I feel my heart rate finally begin to lessen.

“110…100…95…and 80! Alright, it seems like we’re back within your normal range. Are you feeling okay, Ms. Azul?” The tech asks. Unlike most medical technicians, his concern feels genuine.

“I’ll be doing much better when I’m a freezer pop, sir. Can we move this along?”

The tech adjusts his glasses and nods. “I, uh, of course.”

He produces a translucent blue tablet from underneath his arm and started flying through the various menus and sub menu as if he were playing some kind of video game.

“Okay, all systems fully operational and standing by. Just give me the word when your-”

“The word is given,” I say, cutting him off. I don’t want to give myself the chance to back out.

“As you wish, best of luck on your mission.” the tech says with a smile.

I nod curtly and attempt to smile back, but it feels foreign on my face.

The tech presses a button on his tablet and the hatch begins its slow descent, sealing me inside. Viscous teal water begins pouring in from hidden spouts around my ankles and I feel my breath catch in my throat. Even though I haven’t eaten in over a week, my stomach feels like it’s going to shit a brick.

More calming breaths and I’m able to zone out my discomfort and instead focus on the rising water/jelly. At least it’s warm. I look up and see the respirator being lowered down on a pneumatic arm for me to grab, I snatch it by the headband and quickly shove it onto my face and adjust the strap so I don’t drown.

The liquid is past my navel now and rising fast. Before I know it, it’s over my head and I am completely enveloped by the goo. For the briefest of moments, I feel a freezing cold run over me, then there is nothing but darkness.

Suddenly, I am engulfed by a strange red light as the goo water drains down around me.

Something must have gone terribly wrong for me to be unthawed this soon after the process. Did we hit a meteor? Was the hull integrity compromised? Were we attacked? I’m hesitant to remove my mask in case there’s an issue with life support systems. I look around for the tech, but he’s nowhere in sight. I hope he’s okay. My door activates, dropping with a dull thud onto the smooth white tiles below. I position myself on the top step and take in my surroundings.

Besides the red lighting and the lack of a tech, everything looks the virtually the same. I cautiously lift up my mask and take a breath. As I do, the red tint disappears, I guess it was just on the mask. Weird. Everything smells sterile, like hand sanitizer, but it’s otherwise kosher. I toss the mask down behind me, causing it to whip back into the pod, then cautiously start down the steps. I almost trip, but catch myself before I fall.

Why are my legs so damn wobblily?

“Woah, woah, woah. Easy, Tiger!” Shouts a deep, familiar voice.

Only one person ever called me tiger.

I see Mark running up to me where tech-guy had been and I’m confused, but happy nonetheless. Mark unfurls a warm looking blanket he had tucked under his arm and quickly wrapped me up like a burrito before pulling me close to him.

“It’s been too long, babe,” he says, and I can tell he means it.

“Not that the sentiment isn’t mutual, but you’ve only been on ice a month, Mark.” I say.

“You have no idea, do you?”

My eyebrows furrow as I step back from him.

“No idea about what?” I say.

Mark grins and passes me a beat-up old cardboard box. The crumpled top is coated in a thick layer of dust. As I wipe it away, I see handwriting on it, but it’s so faded it is legible. After a second, I’m able to make out my name. I toss the lid to the side and withdraw a vacuum bag containing my neatly pressed uniform. At least I didn’t have to worry about wrinkles. Thanks, tech guy.

“Tiger, we made it. We’re here.”

I free my uniform from the confines of the vacuum bag and quickly get dressed before what Mark says really registers with me. I guess popsicles don’t need to dream after all.

“We’re here?” I say, looking at his face for any sign that he was lying, but there are none.

I follow Mark out of the confines of the stasis chamber and we quickly move through another section of sealed doorways before making it to the back deck of the ship. There are a few other people I recognize chatting with one another at a table in the corner, but I can’t think about them right now, I have to know if this is for real.

I feel the color drain from my face as I gaze out of the viewport and see it. It’s Planet Earth. For the first time in my life, I’m looking at Earth with my own two eyes. The continents look different than they had in the photos from the database. They are smaller and less green, but this is our ancestral home, without a doubt. The bright blue color of the expansive ocean is even more vivid in person.

It is absolutely gorgeous.

“Holy shit, we’re here,” I say quietly, stepping closer to the viewport. “We’re…home.”

Like the liquid from the pod, I feel the weight of the doubts and worries I’d been harboring all this time fall away from me as I bask in the presence of this magnificent fucking orb.

Yes, the odds are certainly stacked against the successful re-colonization of the planet. Humanity fled from the repercussions of their disastrous tenure on Earth over a thousand years ago, and what they left behind will certainly be difficult to undo, even after all this time—but we are not those people. We are better, not just because we have to be, but because we need to be in order for us to rebuild a world worth living in.

We have absorbed the lessons learned from humankind’s abrupt expulsion from this wounded paradise, and now, at long last we have the chance to prove it.

Did the USA put men on the moon?

Five minutes of pure gold on X.

https://x.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1860455500900356598

Shrimp-Stuffed Chimichangas

Ingredients

10 slices bacon
50 large Rocky Point shrimp
1 1/2 cups Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1 cup thick fresh salsa
2 fresh tomatoes, chopped
2 cans green chile strips, diced
6 (12 inch) flour tortillas

Instructions

Fry bacon until crisp enough to chop. Remove bacon and retain about 2 tablespoons fat in pan.
Peel and de-vein shrimp, then chunk. Grill in pan for 1 minute.
Stir in cheese, salsa, tomatoes and chiles. Turn to blend, but not long or shrimp will become tough. Divide and pile on tortillas. Fold all sides over and fasten with wooden picks. Slide carefully into hot oil and brown lightly.
Drain on paper towels. (Or bake at 400 degrees F for 7 to 10 minutes.)

We Have Never Seen An Economic War Quite Like This

December 1, 2024 by Michael

Donald Trump is not messing around. After trying to play nice during his first administration, Trump is making it very clear that he fully intends to use the full power of the presidency to shape economic policy during his second administration. In particular, Trump is planning to impose massive tariffs on other nations that attempt to stand in the way of the MAGA agenda. Last week, Trump threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on all products coming into the United States from Mexico and Canada if those two countries do not work with him to secure our borders…

President-elect Donald Trump on Monday promised massive hikes in tariffs on goods coming from Mexico, Canada and China starting on the first day of his administration, a policy that could sharply increase costs for American businesses and consumers.

The move, Trump said, will be in retaliation for illegal immigration and “crime and drugs” coming across the border.

“On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”

Needless to say, this really freaked out the leaders of Mexico and Canada.

After a call with Trump, the president of Mexico seemed optimistic that a trade war with the U.S. could be avoided, but Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just returned home from a personal meeting with Trump empty-handed…

He has since held a call with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who said Thursday she is confident that a tariff war with the United States can be averted. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned home Saturday after meeting Trump, without assurances the president-elect will back away from threatened tariffs on Canada.

Most people do not realize this, but Canada is actually our number one trade partner.

If the Canadians get hit with 25 percent tariffs, it will crash the Canadian economy.

I just have to say something about Justin Trudeau.

He has been making incredibly bad decisions throughout his entire time in office, and he has really run Canada into the ground.

There are a lot of really bad leaders in the western world right now, but he may be the absolute worst.

After threatening Mexico and Canada, Trump decided to threaten the BRICS nations with 100 percent tariffs if they choose to move away from the U.S. dollar…

President-elect Donald Trump threatened the BRIC group of emerging-market nations on Saturday, warning that he would impose 100% tariffs if they make any moves to undermine the U.S. dollar.

Trump’s comment, made on his Truth Social platform, is in apparent response to efforts to challenge or replace the U.S. dollar as the primary global reserve currency.

The BRIC alliance, originally comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, now includes five other countries: South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.

We have never seen an economic threat of this magnitude in modern history.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump explained why he has decided to make this move…

The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER. We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy. They can go find another “sucker!” There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the U.S. Dollar in International Trade, and any Country that tries should wave goodbye to America.

I was stunned when I first saw this.

It is quite a bold move, but will it work?

We shall see.

Without a doubt, Russia and China would both like to avoid more economic turmoil right now.

The Russian financial system is already deeply struggling as a result of a recent move by the Biden administration. 50 major Russian banks were recently hit with sanctions, and the ruble has been absolutely plummeting…

The ruble has come off its lows from earlier in the week after the central bank halted all foreign currency purchases for the remainder of the year, but it remains battered—and resources for preventing a further collapse are shrinking.

On Friday, the central bank set the official rate at about 108 to the U.S. dollar. While that’s improved from Wednesday’s rate of 114 on the spot market, that’s still means one ruble is worth less than a penny.

The ruble has tumbled 9% against the dollar since Nov. 21, when the U.S. sanctioned some 50 Russian banks, including Gazprombank, which has emerged as a top linchpin for Russia in currency markets. And for the year to date, the ruble has crashed about 20% against the greenback.

Meanwhile, China’s economy is in a state of disarray, and Chinese officials are extremely concerned about what will happen once Trump is inaugurated.

For decades, China has been one of our largest trading partners, and we are highly dependent on cheap Chinese goods at this point.

What would it do to the global economy if our trading relationship with China suddenly broke down? As they prepare for a potential invasion of Taiwan, this is something that the Chinese have already been studying…

China has been supporting Russia’s economy since the start of the Ukraine war by buying its oil while supplying it with everything from microelectronics to washing machines.

Meanwhile, Beijing has been getting its own strategic benefit: a real-world case study in how to circumvent Western sanctions.

An interagency group, set up by China in the months following the full-scale invasion, has studied the impact of sanctions and produced reports regularly for the country’s leadership, according to people familiar with the matter. The goal is to draw lessons about how to mitigate them, particularly in case a conflict over Taiwan prompts the U.S. and its allies to impose similar penalties on China, the people said.

If the U.S. and China start slapping one another with tariffs and sanctions, the entire world will feel the pain.

I have a feeling that this story is not going to end well.

Unfortunately, Europe is also dealing with severe economic stress at the moment. The German economy in particular is not doing well, and VW is poised to conduct mass layoffs for the first time ever…

Tens of thousands of Volkswagen workers will participate Monday in strikes at plants across Germany, labor union IG Metall said, marking the largest walkouts at the carmaker’s domestic operations since 2018.

The walkouts, which are planned to last several hours, follow weeks of collective bargaining negotiations during which VW refused to rule out mass layoffs and potential plant closures in its home market — drastic measures the company says are necessary to prop up its fortunes amid competition from China and weaker European demand.

The global economy is more interconnected than it has ever been before, and everywhere you look there are signs that global economic activity is slowing down.

2025 was already shaping up to be a really bad year, and now a worldwide economic war threatens to greatly accelerate our problems.

Here in the U.S., we desperately need the rest of the world to use our currency, because that allows us to enjoy a standard of living that is far higher than we actually deserve.

We also desperately need the rest of the world to loan us gigantic mountains of money, because otherwise we would not be able to pay our bills.

So it would be a tremendous mistake to think that we have all the leverage and that we don’t need the rest of the world.

Sadly, I think that very soon it will become abundantly clear just how dependent we really are on a global economic system that is rapidly starting to fail right in front of our eyes.

I’m 16 training to be a SEAL. I run XC, ruck, wrestle, swim, and weightlift. I’ve been training for a long time and have wanted this since I was 7. How can I better my chances for BUDS? Should I take a gap year at 18-19 to train before enlisting?

I washed out and rang the bell when I was in. Physically I was more than capable of doing the job. Mentally however…

They broke me.

It took a while for me to figure out what I did wrong in the years of training (similar to yours, except I ran cross country instead of rucking). At the time of my attempt at BUDS, I was a 5′11″ 195-pound (ish) specimen. But in all my physical preparation I failed to train myself mentally for how to handle “The Suck” that is BUDS. And because I never trained how to handle it, I never learned (at the time) how to embrace it.

You need to learn how to function with little sleep, little food, and while having someone nit-pick everything you do down to the gnat’s ass level of detail. And you need to do so while being pushed well past any physical training you’ve ever done.

Several years after my enlistment was up, I ran into one of my BUDS instructors. And during our conversation about “the good old days” I told him how I was one of his washouts. I told him about all the physical training I did and how badly if messed me up washing out. And he told me the one thing that will always stick with me.

“The physical shit is easy. I can train you to be physically tough. We were trained to break people. If you are physically handling the normal levels of abuse, we can add more. Eventually we hit that wall. Few people can push through that wall. Those that do, become SEALS. Those that can’t ring the bell.”

So, the best advice I can give as a washout, is to train yourself MENTALLY.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation | A Holiday Compilation

How To Get Solar Panels For FREE (Used But Functional, Zero Cost)

October 27, 2018
by Drake

That’s right, there is a way you can get solar panels for free! I know someone who did it and so can you. Here’s how it’s done…

Solar panels are used everywhere these days. They are often used by construction crews and traffic systems (signs, cameras & emergency signal lighting etc) and these are where we are going to focus because they quite often have contracts with the solar panel providers. Whenever a solar panel becomes cracked or damaged, they are replaced under contract, even when they are still serviceable.

The solar panel provider ends up with a whole load of damaged but working solar panels. They can’t sell them so they usually have to pay to have them disposed of. What you need to do is find the contact details for the solar panel providers and give them a call to see if they have any damaged but functioning solar panels you can take off their hands.

The person I know who did this got around $800 of working solar panels for free, just for a bit of detective work. He saw a solar panel on a road sign and noticed the sign had a sticker with a phone number on it to report a problem. He simply phoned the number and asked for the solar panel provider’s details and gave them a call. A few phone calls later and a trip to their facility and he had a load of free solar panels.

UPDATE: We have several solar farms locally, that generate and sell electricity as a business. I reached out to two of them. Both had old, in some cases slightly damaged solar panels, which still functioned. Both said I could have some of these panels for zero cost. In fact, one of the solar farms offered to deliver some for a small fee.

I enquired about the efficiency of these panels. It was explained that these old or slightly damaged panels were not as efficient as new solar panels (hence why they were replaced). With a solar farm, everything is about efficiency at generating electricity. They are a business. That said, for home use (and at zero cost) these panels have years of life left in them. Additionally, if you have space you can simply have more panels, to make up for any lower efficiency with these older solar panels.

I guess you could also try researching and directly contacting solar panel manufacturers too. They must get loads of panels that are damaged or defective that still work but can’t be sold. Even solar panel stores must get loads of damaged but working solar panels returned, or have panels that get damaged in storage etc. No one wants to pay to have to dispose of damaged goods. Take advantage of this and you could get free or heavily discounted stuff that works just fine.

Just a little thinking outside the box can save you a huge amount of money. Give it a try, all you have to waste is a little time and a phone call.

Is China providing any assistance to Iran in response to sanctions from the United States?

In the first place the US is a nation amongst nations. It is not a world body. Like United Nation. So the United States has no right to sanction Iran world wide. If it does it is illegal. US for that matter can say It sanction Iran from buying stuffs from the US! Or China has a right to say I don’t want to sell anything to you! That is its right! China if it helped Iran is not breaking any laws of the world. Get that through you thick skull in the first place.

Not that China does nor is China doing anything wrong if it does. I am stating a fact that most Caucasian white Anglos especially has confused after owning the world for 300 years. No just because you are white and you are racist don’t gives you guys special rights. If you guys presumed or prefer to behaves like dogs or slaves to the US or chose to be submissive or subservient to the US that is your problem and if you let’s say a dog nation like Australia or UK refuse to sell to Iran that is your right!

You have no right to expect others to do the same. They may have different views and opinions! And remember you slaughtered 4 million in Vietnam to push for freedom and another 2 million people in Iraq which you call Desert Freedom? Did you change your mind on freedom? Freedom for each country to decide for itself?

Or don’t tell me your version of freedom refers only your freedom do to anything to anybody anytime, anywhere! So. Mr. Questioner? Please explain why are you so obnoxious and disrespectful of other nations? Are you a white is right kind of racist?

Why did Apple CEO Tim Cook come to China three times in 2024?

The Chinese were PISSED OFF with Apple for the last 3 years

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They were genuinely angry about Apples continuous talk of relocating to India and making IPhones in India

The Chinese are very nationalistic people and they decided to buy their own brands in a surge of anger against Apple

The Iphone 15 sales fell badly because the Chinese refused to buy a phone that they did not know was made in India or China

And total sales are falling even now on the whole even though Iphone 16 Pro is selling more models than ever (Until the Mate 70 hits China that is)

So Tim Cooks visits are purely Appeasement

To convince the Gen Z that Apple will never ever move out from China in a big way and to reduce the pent up hostility of the past 2–3 years that Apple has built up in China

The fact is Apple planned a major pivot to India but the whole plan got derailed due to inferior indian manufacturing plus the Ukraine war plus Global Slowdown plus the China opening up their lockdowns

So now Tim Cook is doing damage control

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared Martial Law without his own political party’s support. It is illegal and against constitutional law. Parliament met and voted against the martial law decree. What do you think went wrong?

Well, an infamous president that imposed martial law was assassinated by his own security tzar.

He has a name that is synonymous with Korea in my mind.

PARK CHUNG HEE.

Whatever happens next, YOON SUK YEOL will be a Korean pariah for a long time to come.

In short, he screwed up, and the opposition was preparing to impeach and remove him from power.

He responded by declaring a self coup, imposing martial law to block parliament and hijack the political process.

If the soldiers fire on the crowd, all bets are off.

If there is a standoff, it depends on what uncle Sam does.

If the army switches allegiance to parliament, it is game over for the president, but there is no guarantee peace will be automatically restored.

This will probably repeat in Europe as governments collapse like dominoes.

I don’t know what to make of it all yet.

Too much too fast.

The gods must be crazy.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1961) (HD 1080)

Taco Bell Friendships

When I attended university, I met a classmate that was in one of my literature classes. And you all know, I recognized him, but I just couldn’t place him. I recognized him. But I just didn’t know him.

Well, eventually, I got to talking with him and found out what is going on.

It turned out that he didn’t know me. But yet, I recognized him. You see, he was in a very popular Taco Bell commercial in the 1970s. And I recognized him from that. Crazy huh?

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He said that he got some money for his role in the commercial. But that it was around $5000 (big money in those days). And he told me that it helped him pay for his tuition. Ah, as I recall, we could of gone and had some adventures together, but we ended up going our separate ways. Ah. The university life.

Today…

11 Years Ago TODAY, The US, EU Lead a Coup d’ Etat in Ukraine – they’ve been fighting ever since

Hal Turner World February 22, 2025

Eleven years ago today, the CIA and, likely MI6, lead a Coup d’état in Ukraine. They dubbed it the “Maidan” revolution. They’ve been at war ever since.

It was 11 years ago today that all the REAL trouble in Ukraine began. The US financed protests in Ukraine with almost one million dollars a day, in cash, coming out of the US Embassy in Kiev.

In the next weeks, the protests would become so violent, the CIA-backed protesters burned Ukrainian government people alive in cities like Odessa and Mariupol.

Within months, the democratically-elected President, Viktor Yanukovych, was overthrown and a puppet government was installed by the US and the EU, in Kiev.

This caused the people of Crimea to vote in a public referendum, to secede, and return home to Russia. Crimea had only been part of Ukraine for about 55 years, after Nikita Khrushchev (a Ukrainian) General Secretary of the Soviet Union, GAVE Crimea to Ukraine.

Crimea voted overwhelmingly to return home to Russia.

The collective West recoiled in horror, and refused to recognize the vote, even though it was closely monitored by United Nations election observers.

To this very day, the collective West denies reality, and refers to Crimea as “occupied.”

After Crimea departed Ukraine, Luhansk and Donetsk wanted to leave. Ukraine, at the urging of the EU and the US, massed troops on the borders of those two Oblasts (states) and began firing artillery and mortars into the civilian populations. They wanted to ethnically-cleanse the Russian-speaking population!

The state militia of both Luhansk and Donetsk fought Ukraine to a standstill, but at a terrible price: 13,000 civilians were killed by the Ukraine shelling and mortar fire.

Hoping to stop the bloodshed, a meeting was arranged in Minsk, Belarus for a peace conference. It was attended by the Kiev government, via President Poroshenko, representatives from Luhansk and Donetsk, the President of France, Francois Hollande, and the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin.

After almost 19 hours of negotiations, they all signed the Minsk Agreement” to restore peace.

Ukraine did not honor even ONE item of that agreement.

Enter Donald Trump. Trump handily defeated political wretch Hillary Clinton and all the troubles in Ukraine stopped. It was like magic!

Fast-forward to 2020, the Democrat Party in the US used massive mail-in Ballot fraud, and electronic fraud with electronic voting machines, to STEAL the U.S. Presidency.

Within ONE WEEK of Joe Biden taking office, all the trouble in Ukraine began again. Like Magic, again!

Seeing how this was going, In December 2021, Russia put forth a proposal for Iron-clad, legally enforceable security guarantees. The collective West laughed at them and threw the proposal in the dustbin of history.

Weeks later, Russia issued the proposal again, only this time, they finished it by saying “If Russia cannot get iron-clad, legally enforceable security guarantees by Diplomatic means, it will achieve them through military means.” They openly told everyone they were going to use force.

It took the collective West about two or three weeks to digest this, before they laughed again, and threw the proposal in the dustbin.

On February 21, 2022, Russia called Ukraine’s new President, Zelensky, and told him that Ukraine had five hours to agree not to join NATO. Zelensky called the UK Foreign Secretary and the US State Department. BOTH told Ukraine to “ignore Russia.”

Russia waited the five hours and, when there was no reply from Ukraine, two hours later, the Russian Army entered Ukraine and the war had begun.

The collective West calls this an unprovoked war of aggression. That is a lie. The West provoked this back in 2014 with the “Maidan” coup d’ etat, they provoked it again with the shelling and mortar fire into Luhansk and Donetsk, and they provoked it again by failing/refusing the Minsk Agreement.

The result has been:

Over one million dead soldiers all together, over 600,000 Ukrainians at least out of that million.
Likely three or four times that maimed disfigured and crippled.
25 or more million Ukrainians have left their country. Over half the population!
The country of Ukraine is destroyed and will probably never recover.

Years later, after Russia entered the fight under its “Duty to Protect” in the UN Charter, both Hollande and Merkel admitted in TV interviews, the entire Minsk conference was a ruse. They both admitted they got involved “to buy time for Ukraine to arm for war with Russia.”

What kind of person goes to a Peace Conference with the intent to deceive into war? Psychopaths, maybe?

THAT is why today, the Russia-Ukraine conflict goes on, and despite all the weapons and money provided by NATO, Ukraine is losing.

The sooner Russia defeats Ukraine, the sooner all this trouble will end.

The Case for Trump & Restraining Liberalism – Steve Turley, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen

Surprisingly good.

Trump has threatened to impose 100% tariffs on goods from BRICS countries if they abandon the dollar, but isn’t the EU also not using it? Is this a veiled warning to everyone else outside BRICS to follow and respect Murican world leadership?

This is absolute nonsense

Trump never ever said this

Trump said if the BRICS established their own currency and traded in that currency then he would impose 100% tariffs on them for all the trade they did with the US

What is so wrong about this Statement?

He didn’t threaten to freeze their assets

He didn’t threaten to sanction them

All he says is he would impose a 100% tariff on all the business with US

Again note :—

BRICS trading with each other in local currencies is something Trump doesn’t give a damn about

His problem is if BRICS establishes a system that threatens the Brent System and universally changes the pricing of commodities in BRICS currencies rather than the US Dollar

Who will be affected here?

Russia doesn’t care

They don’t need US products anymore

Their exports to US are so crucial that US pays them in Rubles for all these products like Enriched Uranium & Fertilizers & Refined Titanium

Brazil doesn’t care

US runs a surplus with Brazil anyway and it’s foolish to impose tariffs on a country with whom you have a surplus

South Africa doesnt care

They get nothing critical from US and their Diamonds and Gold are needed in the US

Iran is sanctioned anyway

China is a buyer of Gold and Commodities rather than a seller so with a $ 1 Trillion annual trade surplus – China will ALWAYS use USD to buy commodities

They have too many Dollars anyway

India won’t be affected

India runs a surplus with US

India is a GOOD BOY who isn’t a threat to anyone for a minimum 50 years

So in reality, it is an Empty Threat by Trump

Life can be strange

On the deployment of a US military biolab in Tajikistan

Alarming news is coming from Tajikistan: as reported by Stan Radar, the Americans are preparing to open a military biolab at the Republican Center for the Protection of the Population from Tuberculosis (RCPT) in Dushanbe.

❗️It is this US military unit that is responsible for military biological research abroad, including in biolabs in Kazakhstan. Therefore, the information requires an immediate and tough response from both the authorities in Dushanbe and the CSTO. Especially given that Tajikistan is a member of the organization on whose territory our military base is located.

https://stanradar.com/news/full/56307-ssha-sozdajut-v-tadzhikistane-voennuju-biolaboratoriju.html

Cracklin’ Corn Bread

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Ingredients

3/4 cup finely diced salt pork
2 cups cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons salt pork drippings

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Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Fry salt pork over low heat until nicely browned.
Drain fat, saving both drippings and cracklings.
Sift together corn meal, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Combine eggs, buttermilk and drippings.
Stir into cornmeal mixture together with cracklings.
Spread dough in a greased cast iron skillet and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until done.

We Were Soldiers |2002| All Battle Scenes [Edited] (November 14, 1965)

Who has been the strangest world leader of the last five decades?

This guy would definitely be on the list.

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When the whole world is in the middle of Coronavirus pandemic King Rama X of Thailand is staying in the four-star Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl in the Bavarian Alps (Germany) with an entourage of 20 women.

His real name is Maha Vajiralongkorn and now he is the king of Thailand so the name King Rama X.

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His net worth is estimated to be a whopping 31 billion US dollars.

His father died in 2016 but his coronation took place in May,2019 as he wanted to give time to his countrymen to mourn his father’s death.

His coronation ceremony costed a freaking 31 million USD to the Thailand government.

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Unlike the British royal family this guy can do pretty much whatever the heck he wants to such as naming his pet poodle Foo Foo an air chief marshal and of course a four-day-long Buddhist funeral ceremony for the Marshall after it died.

This dude has a reputation for womanizing, having fathered seven children by three women and a list of wives and girlfriends he dumped.

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Don’t worry he ain’t punishing her, he’s just marrying her.

He likes to spend most of his time in Germany and Europe rather than his home country.

And his candid pics are pretty sick.

His mother, Queen Sirikit, reportedly once described her son as “a little bit of a Don Juan” in the early 1980s.

He spent most of his childhood in UK and Australia and discovered his interest in cycling and other sports.

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Though his photos suggest that he dislikes shirts.

He is also pretty liberal as he is Thailand’s first modern monarch to openly have more than one partner.

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He is quite conscious about his looks too because when a photo of the king was posted on Facebook showing him wearing a crop top, he threatened to sue Facebook, saying the images were insulting.

And quite dangerous too because according to Thailand’s law whoever defames the King or royal family is punished pretty hard.

At least two people arrested on royal defamation charges have been found dead under mysterious circumstances.

Hope this does not reaches him or I am dead.

The Negative Impacts of Dating Apps

This is a profound video.

Just some more pictures

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Talk Of A Pre-Emptive Attack On Russia Is Going To Make Russia Even More Likely To Conduct A Pre-emptive Attack Against Us

November 26, 2024 by Michael

If some lunatic shows up at your front door in the middle of the night and threatens to shoot you, does that make it more likely or less likely that you will shoot first? Any talk of NATO conducting a pre-emptive attack against Russia is extremely dangerous, because the Russians are paranoid enough already. If they become convinced that we are planning to hit them before they can hit us, that could motivate them to do something really, really stupid. We are closer to nuclear war than we have ever been before, and we definitely do not need western leaders making provocative statements that are only going to make things even worse.

For example, during a conference in Brussels NATO’s top military official said something that is now making headlines all over the globe. The following comes from an article posted on MSN News entitled “NATO considers preemptive strikes amid rising tensions with Russia”…

NATO Military Committee Chairman Admiral Rob Bauer stated during a conference in Brussels that NATO leadership is contemplating the possibility of conducting precise preemptive strikes on Russian territory in the event of an armed conflict between Moscow and the Alliance.

It is now being claimed that Bauer was not actually talking about a pre-emptive strike on Russia.

But if you look at his actual words, it certainly seems like that was precisely what he was talking about…

During a question-and-answer session after his address at the European Policy Center in Brussels, Bauer said, “The idea was we are a defensive alliance, so we will only sit and wait until we are attacked, and then when we are attacked, we will be able to shoot down the ‘arrows’ that come to us,” referring to a Russian strike.

He also said that when responding to any attack, it would be “smarter” to “attack the archer, that is…Russia—if Russia attacks us. So you need to have a combination of deep precision (strikes) with which you can take out the weapons systems that are used to attack us.”

Needless to say, the Russians were not amused.

In fact, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov believes that Bauer was essentially announcing NATO’s “real plans”…

The North Atlantic Alliance has ignored all diplomatic protocol, allowing itself to make statements about the possibility of preemptive strikes on Russia, top Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov said.

“Just the other day, Mr. Bauer, NATO Military Committee Chair, explicitly stated that it’s no longer enough, and ensuring the defense of the North Atlantic Alliance member states requires strikes on targets in Russia that NATO believes may pose a threat to the bloc. I think there’s nothing to comment on here; it’s just that they have forgotten all etiquette, publicly announcing their real plans,” he noted at the 20th meeting of the heads of security and intelligence agencies of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.

If the Russians become convinced that we are going to hit them first, that will make it much more likely that they will hit us first.

We really need to get the Russians to understand that we have no plans to do that.

Meanwhile, a French news source is reporting that European leaders continue to discuss “sending Western troops and private defense companies to Ukraine”…

As the conflict in Ukraine enters a new phase of escalation, discussions over sending Western troops and private defense companies to Ukraine have been revived, Le Monde has learned from corroborating sources. These are sensitive discussions, most of which are classified – relaunched in light of a potential American withdrawal of support for Kyiv once Donald Trump takes office on January 20, 2025.

That is insane!

What in the world are they thinking?

No matter what Donald Trump does when he gets into the White House, our European allies fully intend to continue to escalate this war.

It is madness.

On top of everything else, this week the New York Times has reported that the Biden administration has actually discussed the possibility of arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons.

When Dmitry Medvedev heard about this, he went ballistic…

Moscow will consider any threat of nuclear arms being supplied to Ukraine by the US as preparation for a direct war with Russia, former president Dmitry Medvedev has warned. The actual transfer of nuclear weapons would be tantamount to an attack on the country under Russia’s new nuclear doctrine, he added.

On Tuesday, Medvedev posted a message on Telegram that was quite ominous…

“Give nuclear weapons to a country at war with the largest nuclear power? The idea is so absurd that it raises suspicions about a paranoid psychosis in Joe The Walking Dead and all those who would advise such a move.”

He continued, “Yet I must comment on the nonsense: 1) The very threat of transferring nuclear weapons to the Kyiv regime can be considered preparation for nuclear conflict with Russia;

2) The actual transfer of such weapons can be equated to an act of attack on our country under article 19 of the Fundamentals of State Policy in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence.

The consequences are obvious.”

I don’t think that the Biden administration has any intention of giving Ukraine nuclear weapons right now.

But the fact that they are talking about it is really freaking out the Russians.

I really wish that cooler heads would prevail, but instead both sides just continue to escalate matters.

Over the past few days, Ukraine has launched more long-range missiles provided by NATO into Russian territory, and now the Russians have announced that they are preparing another “response”…

Russia is preparing a response to Ukrainian ATACMS attacks on Kursk Region, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday. Last week, US President Joe Biden authorized Kiev to use US-supplied long-range missiles against targets deep inside Russia’s internationally recognized borders.

In an official statement on Telegram, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that over the past three days, Ukraine’s forces had conducted two long-range strikes on Kursk Region using Western weaponry.

As I discuss in this video, many are anticipating that the Russian “response” will be even larger than last time.

Let us hope that the Russians only use conventional weapons, and let us hope that they limit their targets to Ukraine.

Because the Russians have previously identified a U.S. base in Poland as a potential target, and the Biden administration is making it clear that such a strike would trigger NATO’s Article 5…

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said Monday that the U.S. has a ‘rock-solid’ commitment to NATO’s Article 5, should Russia strike the new U.S. anti-missile base in Poland. Article 5 is NATO’s principle of collective defense, that if one NATO member is attacked, all other NATO members go to war with the attacker, a world war-style response.

“We take our Article 5 commitments to our NATO Allies incredibly seriously. It’s rock-solid, and that’s not going to change,” Kirby said on Monday, according to Remix News.

Kirby was responding to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who on Thursday said that Russia is considering attacking a new U.S. anti-missile base in Poland.

We are dangerously close to a point of no return.

Once nuclear missiles start flying, there will be no going back.

The Russians have been working extremely hard to prepare for a nuclear war, and meanwhile the U.S. is still relying on hopelessly outdated systems from the 1970s and 1980s.

We must change course while it is still possible to do so.

Unfortunately, it appears that we are about to witness another series of escalations which will push us even closer to the unthinkable.

Best Served Cold

Submitted into Contest #62 in response to: Write about a character preparing to go into stasis for decades (or centuries).… view prompt

Charles Stucker

“Your Grace, I regret to inform you that the constant provocation of lawless elements from your duchy have forced my lord, His Majesty, the Emperor of Barundia, to declare war upon you.” The popinjay ambassador from the power-mad tyrant bows as he speaks. “Do you wish to respond?””I would like a week’s time to arrange my abdication,” I answer. “If I can manage affairs with my subordinates, my people will not suffer.””We know your coffers are full. Should they be plundered ere the week is done, no place shall hide you from our lord’s wrath.””Leave. I have a bare week to prepare. Note well, that should you cross my borders a single day early, my army shall fight and we will burn every field and granary, salt every field, poison every well, and allow our folk time to flee to the Kingdom of Marondika. Your lord will gain naught but a barren hellscape should he arrive early.”I sit and watch the ambassador leave, then motion my marshal forward. “Gather all the armsmen, retainers, and even the first levy. Gather them here in case of treachery. Allow their spouses and children to come as well, that they may all depart together.”I wave my hand and the bailiff dismisses the remainder of my court. I have a plan, but it will require the aid of my wizard, Garven.”You’re certain this will work?” I ask Garven.”Yes, Duke Rondil.” He motions to the hidden entrance. “None can find the caverns once the spell seals them and all within will remain timeless for the duration. To those inside, but an instant shall pass.””Good. It can hold the number needed, along with all the gear and treasures?””Certainly.”I leave him and go out to the gardens. I stop beside the statue of my late wife. “I may never see you after this. That barbarian will certainly destroy you in a fit of pique. But I must do this.”I am certain time shall prove fleeting.The days have fled. Levies, many with young wives and small children, arrive in fits and starts, only to disappear into the depths of the castle. Rumors fly, but none speak openly. My senior retainers, lords all, fret with worry.”Sire, are you ill?” Dyimes, my senior squire. Like all royal guards, he is a knight in his prime. A bachelor of twenty-seven. When we emerge, I must arrange a suitable bride for him.”No Dyimes, but my decision weighs on me.””I shall follow you into exile willingly.” Ever loyal, he sees it as the only option.”Walk with me.” We traverse the hall of ancestors, a line of paintings which I cannot remove until the closing moments. Dyimes would trail me, but I motion him to my side. We reach a side corridor and I follow it to the empty solar, where my wife once held her lady’s court.”I’ve never been in this part of the castle before.””Hardly surprising. It has grown over twelve generations.” I give him a wry smile. “Once it was a modest chalet, but now it sprawls with offices and rooms until I can scarce credit none have torn it down to start anew.””How do you intend to fare abroad?””I intend to go into an enchanted slumber.””For how long?””Twenty years. Enough for the mad emperor to grow old and the people to tire of his rule.”

“The disappearing levies.” He blinks. “And the arms. You intend to rebel when you return.”

“Exactly. I took the first levy, the men sixteen to twenty-five, to give me a double count of those men when I return.” I start walking, worried that a spy might follow and overhear. “Coupled with the nobles and their retainers, we shall have more force than today, and they shall be led by either his son, who is a halfwit, or a tired old man.”

“All this depends on your wizard. What if he fails to wake you at an appropriate point?”

“Then we shall wait for eternity I suppose.”

Dyimes’s words fill me with misgivings, yet I decide to enjoy this last day to the extent possible. I wander from hall to hall, room to room. I walk into the stables, where stablehands lead reluctant chargers- rounceys, coursers, and destriers away. Tack goes with the steeds or is already in the caverns. A youth pulls on Foecrusher’s reins, hapless before the truculence of the massive beast. I wonder where Sir Acehilm, his rider, might be. Then I am past the stables and into the kitchens, where the harried cook makes a final meal even as supplies are taken down into the depths by those who will go with us into an uncertain future.

Maudlin sentiment overcomes me. I strip my household of provender and servants, my land of youth and arms, my treasury of coins and bullion, all to prevent the usurper of Barundia claiming them. Had only his brother lived, we might have a reasonable man over there and I would still enjoy my wife’s embrace. My steps take uncertain turnings.

Then, the ambassador steps in front of me. I have no clue how he entered my court at this time. I suppose someone must have left a door open, or some such. Garven worked an enchantment to stay men’s tongues. Once he seals us in, he intends to cloud memories. I shall be a lord from a magical tale, destined to return in my people’s time of need. But only if none can tell my enemies where to find me.

“Ambassador,” Dyimes says. “You have returned early. Are our agreements nullified?”

“This castle seems much reduced.” Another of the fop’s bows. “Perhaps your duke forgot that Emperor Frentowex warned him to not loot the treasury on pain of death.”

“Perhaps I intended to spare you the fate you so richly deserve for aiding him,” I say. “Do you believe me unaware that you escorted the assassin who murdered my wife bare weeks before the birth of my first child?”

Dyimes, instantly alert, steps past the ambassador to drop the man’s bodyguard with a dagger to the belly. I have the ambassador by the throat with one hand while the other grips his wrist. “I and mine shall return one day to your liege’s dismay. But you shall tread the paths of death ere sunset.”

Dyimes plunges his dagger into the ambassador’s back.

“Leave the bodies.” I lead Dyimes to the secret entrance, where Garven awaits. “Is everything ready?”

“Including having a team of jongleurs to spread the mystery of the disappearing duke and his household.”

Knowing the bitter chill which shall encase us, I step into the depths to chase my revenge.

author’s note- This one may be a little rough. I posted just as I finished.

Fun Pictures

Ladies and gentlemen… the Future Director of the FBI!!

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China SLAPPED ASML So HARD: Europe Will NEVER Recover!

The Population

Submitted into Contest #62 in response to: Write about a character preparing to go into stasis for decades (or centuries).… view prompt

Julia Boddie

They rushed him to the hospital. Timothy laid on the wheeled stretcher. He was ready.A few weeks ago, he got an email saying that he had been accepted into a science camp. Timothy was overjoyed. He had been trying to get into that camp for three years.Timothy counted down the days until camp started. Nothing else mattered to him. If he got grounded for not helping out around the house, he would just lay in bed thinking about the camp. As long as he got to go to that camp, everything was fine.Finally, the day had come. The camp bus drove by his house to pick him up. Timothy got in, carrying a suitcase full of unnecessary things.“You Timothy Carin?” asked the bus driver.Timothy nodded and sat down in an empty seat at the front of the bus. The door closed and the bus began to drive away. After a few more stops and other kids’ houses, they were on their way to Camp Camerez. The bus drove down the dirt paved road. The area was abandoned.Timothy was worried. This was not how the area looked on the flyer. When they got to the camp though, Timothy was amazed. It was so fancy. There was a huge brick building. In the front, it said in big, bold, yellow letters, “WELCOME TO CAMP CAMEREZ!”. There were two other around it buildings that were slightly smaller than the building in the middle. Timothy knew from the virtual tour he had taken that those were the two science labs.The camp wasn’t much of a camp. It was more of a school. The bus stopped.“Everyone off the bus,” said the bus driver. “Head towards the main building, but don’t go in yet. Just wait at the entrance.”The kids nodded and started to get off the bus. Timothy slid out of his seat. He then descended the bus stairs and started to walk towards the big building.He was one of the first people to make it there. It was probably his excitement fueling him. When he made it, a man walked out of the entrance.“Welcome to Camp Camerez,” he said cheerfully. “It’s my job to ensure you have a great time here. If you have any problems, please come find me. When the others get here, I will show you where you’ll be staying.”

Timothy nodded. This person seemed friendly enough. When everyone else got there, he told them the same thing. Then he told them to follow him and began walking towards a large cabin.

To Timothy, it seemed like this was the only reason they could call this place a camp.

“This is where the girls will be staying. Everyone unpack and pick a bunk. There will be no fighting or roughhousing in there do you understand?”

The girls nodded and went inside their cabin. He led the boys a little bit further away to a different cabin.

“Here is your cabin boys. You guys have the same rules as the girls. No roughhousing or fighting. Everyone go ahead and unpack and choose a bunk.”

All the boys, including Timothy, rushed into their cabin, eager to get first pick on a bunk. Timothy was one of the only ones who didn’t know anyone else. Everyone else already knew each other and they all wanted to have a bunk with their friends.

Timothy ended up stuck on the bottom bunk in the corner of the room. He was fine with that though. As long as he got to attend this camp, he would be fine with anything. He unpacked all his belongings. In his suitcase, he had his clothes, toothbrush, hairbrush, and other assorted items.

After he unpacked, he decided to go explore the camp. He walked outside of the boy’s cabin and looked around. It was sunset. Timothy didn’t want to explore anymore. He just wanted to get a good view of the sunset. He looked around for a high place he could stand.

He saw a zipline. There was a wooden platform leading to it. He could stand on that. He rushed over there, not wanting to miss the beautiful sunset.

When he made it over there, he saw a ladder to climb up to the platform. Timothy climbed as fast as he could. Finally, he made it up.

Timothy didn’t know why he was so attracted to the sunset this day. It was his destiny to be. He heard someone climbing up the ladder.

“Who is it?” he asked.

“My name’s Andrew. I’m your bunkmate,” the boy shouted from the bottom of the ladder.

He continued climbing up.

“Well, what are you doing here?” Timothy asked again.

“Same as you, I assume. I just wanted to get a good look at the sunset.

Andrew was almost to the platform.

It was a little scary being up there. Timothy was about a hundred-fifty feet up in the air. Below him was water. He wondered if it was deep.

Andrew had made it up. Both boys stood there, staring at the sunset. Then Andrew started to shift ever so slightly behind Timothy. When he was behind him, he pushed him into the water below.

Timothy felt the shove come from behind. The next thing he knew, he was plunging into the water. He hit the water in a belly flop.

Timothy sunk to the bottom. With a belly flop like that, he should’ve been dead. But miraculously, he survived. Timothy was at the bottom of the lake when he heard a voice.

“Are you ready?” the voice asked.

Timothy had no idea what it was talking about. He tried to talk, forgetting that he was underwater.

“Wwwwwa rrr yaaaa ttaaaa aaaabot?”

“Oh yeah. Sorry about that, I forgot you were underwater.”

A giant bubble of air surrounded Timothy. He could breathe.

“What are you talking about?” he asked again, this time understandably.

“You weren’t told yet? They were supposed to start getting you prepared ages ago!” said the voice.

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You have to go into stasis for a thousand years.”

Timothy laughed. The voice had to be joking.

“I’m not kidding. You must go into stasis. It is your destiny. You must do it to save the world.”

“How is me going into stasis going to save the world?”

“It’s kind of a long story. Well, the world is overpopulated. If there are too many humans, the whole race will die out. Not wanting to kill anyone, a scientist came up with a plan. She came up with a way to transfer people’s souls inside other people. So, you’re the body. There are about fifty-million souls inside of you. Still, killing all those people would be wrong. That’s why we need you to go into stasis for a while. That way, the world won’t be overpopulated anymore, and hopefully, when you wake up, the world won’t be as populated and you can come back. Don’t worry though, you won’t be in stasis for too long. Every three hundred years, you’ll wake up and I’ll take you through physical therapy.”

“That doesn’t make it any better! That means I’ll only wake up three times!” Timothy shouted.

This was a lot for him to take in. He couldn’t believe that he had about fifty-million people inside him. He had always been an ambivalent person.

Timothy did not want to go into stasis, but it was either that, or he had to die. Plus, it wasn’t fair to all the other people in him. It wouldn’t be fair if all of them had to die just because he didn’t want to go into stasis. Timothy decided he would do it.

“Besides you and the scientist, does anyone else know about this?” he asked.

“Actually, I am the scientist. I found a way to transmit my voice down here. But no, besides us, no one else knows about this. When you go into stasis, I’ll make it look like some kind of accident.”

“What will you do with me?”

“I guess I’ll just take you back to my lab and take care of you there. Before I pass away, I’ll find some more trustworthy people to take care of you. They’ll do the same. So we’ll take care of you for a thousand years,” said the scientist. “Come back here tomorrow. I have to get you prepared.”

The air bubble disappeared and Timothy floated up to the surface. He looked up and saw Andrew still standing on the platform. Timothy climbed up the ladder at lightning speed. When he made it up there, he was furious.

“Why would you push me? I could’ve died! It’s a miracle I survived!” he shouted.

“Calm down. I was just trying to have a little fun. How was I supposed to know you’re afraid of water?”

“I’m not afraid of water! You’re lucky I’m okay. I’m going back to the cabin.”

Timothy stormed off in the direction of the cabin. When he got there, he changed into some dry clothes and went to bed.

The next morning, they were woken up at sunrise by their guide.

“Everyone up! Time to get up!”

Timothy jumped up, startled. He banged his head on Andrew’s bunk above him. He rubbed his head and got up.

He and all the other boys took turns showering, brushing their teeth, washing their faces, and getting dressed. It took about an hour for everyone to get ready, mainly because there were only a few showers and a lot of kids. Also, some of the boys wouldn’t stop playing around.

When they were all ready, they waited for the girls to finish. The girls took even longer than the boys because they were putting on makeup. Timothy never got the point of makeup. Why would you go through the hassle to put it on, when you’re going to mess it up anyway? And even if you didn’t, it didn’t even last that long. The boys waited for about thirty minutes. Finally, the girls finished.

Timothy was excited about camp. He also needed to find the time to go back to the lake and meet the scientist. He wasn’t worried about that though. He could probably just slip away when nobody was looking.

The guide came by both of the cabins and led the boys and the girls.

“Today we’re letting everyone work in the labs. After that, you’ll have free time for the rest of the day. Then tonight, we’ll be roasting marshmallows by the campfire,” he said, pointing to a campfire.

When they made it to the labs, they walked in. There were adult supervisors at every station. Everyone split up and got to work.

Timothy wasn’t sure what to do. He had been so excited to come to this camp, but when he finally got there, he didn’t know what to do. Timothy eventually decided to just build a mini volcano.

After being in the lab for a few hours, the guide let them out for free time. During his free time, Timothy went to the lake. He talked to the scientist, preparing for his stasis.

She taught him what to do. If he felt like he was about to go into stasis, he had to breathe in and out at a rapid pace. This would help keep him alive.

Day after day, Timothy kept going to the lake.

Eventually, it was time.

One day, Timothy started to slip. He felt as if he was losing his grip on reality. He knew it was time. He breathed in and out rapidly. He was in the boy’s cabin alone. Then, Andrew walked through the door.

Timothy gasped. He didn’t want Andrew to see him pass out.

“Andrew, you have to get out of here,” he said, still wheezing.

“Why?”

“Ummmmmmmmmm. You’ll miss zip lining!” Timothy said, trying to sound believable.

“I didn’t know we were going zip lining today,” Andrew said.

He rushed out of the room with false hopes. Timothy was glad he was gone. He continued to breathe fast. He enjoyed those breaths. They were the last he would take for three hundred years.

We Were Soldiers Lighter Moments

Is it true that Mark Swiden was wrongfully detained by China?

Mark Swiden (U.S.) is an expert in drug manufacturing and was arrested red-handed at a drug production den with solid evidence.

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On April 30, 2019, the Intermediate People’s Court of Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province, in accordance with the law, the Canadian defendant Fan Wei and other 11 large transnational drug trafficking, manufacturing case for public sentencing.

The court found that in March 2012, the defendant Fan Wei, Wu Ziping people conspired to jointly manufacture, trafficking in drugs, and gathered defendants Mark Swiden (U.S.) and Leon, Pedro, Oscar, Keret (four are Mexican), such as drug production technicians and Zeng Xiantan, Li Rongfu and other drug production personnel.

From July to November 2012, Fan Wei and the others [1] set up a drug manufacturing cell in Taishan, Guangdong Province, and [2] trafficked and [3] manufactured a total of 63,833.92 grams of methamphetamine and 365.9 grams of di-methylcrystalline propylene glycol (DMP).

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Mark Swiden, an American citizen, was arrested in China in 2007 for drug trafficking and manufacturing. According to available information, he was sentenced to death in 2009. The Chinese judicial system handed down this sentence due to the severity of the crime, as drug trafficking and manufacturing are considered extremely serious offenses in China.

Queen teaches a princess

Trump Nominees Are Targets Of Bomb Threats As Radical Groups Plan Massive Protests For Inauguration Day

November 27, 2024 by Michael

You didn’t think that the radicals would just give up and go home after Donald Trump won the election, did you? It took a little bit of time for the shock of Trump’s election victory to wear off, but now it appears that they are ready to cause widespread chaos. On Wednesday, it was being reported that multiple individuals that have been nominated for positions in Trump’s cabinet have been “targeted with violent threats”…

Multiple of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees were targeted with violent threats in recent hours and law enforcement officials are responding, Trump’s transition team said on Wednesday.

The threats occurred on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning and included bomb threats and swatting, Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. Swatting refers to attacks where people falsely report crimes to police, sending them to locations where no emergency occurred.

“Law enforcement and other authorities acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted,” Leavitt said. “President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.”

This isn’t just happening to nominees that are highly controversial.

For example, Elise Stefanik and Lee Zeldin were not controversial picks by Trump, but they have both been targets of bomb threats…

Elise Stefanik, a Republican U.S. representative and Trump’s choice to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and Lee Zeldin, a former Republican congressman who is Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, both said in separate statements they had been the targets of bomb threats.

An FBI spokesperson said the bureau is aware of numerous bomb threats and swatting incidents targeting incoming administration nominees and appointees, and is working with its law enforcement partners.

Could you imagine living with the fear that some nut could set off a bomb at your home at any moment?

Zeldin says that the pipe bomb threat that was directed at his family came with “a pro-Palestinian themed message”…

“A pipe bomb threat targeting me and my family at our home today was sent in with a pro-Palestinian themed message,” Zeldin said in a statement posted on X. “My family and I were not home at the time and are safe. We are working with law enforcement to learn more as this situation develops.”

President Trump hasn’t even taken office yet, and this is already beginning.

So how bad will it get once Trump and his cabinet start making decisions that the radicals absolutely detest?

Over the past few weeks, we have seen such an explosion of rage all over the country.

Many on the left were absolutely convinced that Trump would be defeated. When that didn’t happen, a tsunami of negative emotion was released.

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about. In Wisconsin, a group of women recently gathered to conduct a “primal scream” session during which they attempted to release the frustration that they are feeling as a result of the election…

A group of sad leftists gathered at Klode Park in Whitefish Bay to engage in a “primal scream,” releasing what was described as their “pain and frustration” after the election results saw President-elect Donald Trump romp to a decisive victory and Vice President Kamala Harris left far behind.

Video shows the group of people standing at the shore line and screaming. One of the event’s attendees — identified as an organizer — also posted about the event on Facebook.

“What a gorgeous morning to gather at Klode Park in Whitefish Bay to engage in a Primal Scream in order to release our pain and frustration after the election,” Tamara Gibbs posted on November 9, less than a week after the election.

I have watched footage of these women screaming at the top of their lungs, and it is truly frightening.

It is hard to imagine how this could possibly be helpful.

Instead, it seems to me that they are just whipping themselves up into even more of a frenzy.

Unfortunately, radicals have now identified a focal point for their frustrations.

Inauguration Day is coming up on January 20th, and many on the left plan to make it a day to remember. The following comes from the official website of one group that is engaged in a “nationwide mobilization” effort…

On Inauguration Day, January 20, people will come together in Washington D.C. and in cities and towns across the country in a nationwide mobilization opposing Trump’s ultra-right, billionaire agenda.

Trump ran a con game during the election. His real agenda is to destroy worker’s rights, deport millions of immigrant families, and pave the way for a complete corporate capitalist takeover by ending regulations to protect the environment, firing thousands of public sector workers, and transferring ever-larger parts of the National Treasury to the military industrial complex. He is 100 % behind Netanyahu’s genocidal war against the Palestinian and Arab people.

The Trump victory in the 2024 election represents the complete failure of the Democratic Party to stop the rise of the ultra-right. In fact, they have contributed to it by adopting much of the program of the extreme right while embracing endless war. Instead of responding to the needs of the people, both the Democrats and the Republicans have moved further and further to the right. Trump’s agenda is the culmination of this right-ward spiral, and his administration will move to make major gains for the billionaire class at the expense of the millions of everyday people in the US and across the world.

There will be lots of Trump supporters in Washington D.C. on January 20th, but there will also be lots of radicals.

In 2016, radicals smashed windows and set vehicles on fire to protest Trump’s inauguration.

I expect much worse this time around.

Sadly, the violence on January 20th will only be a preview of the tremendous chaos that is eventually coming to the streets of America.

There are literally hundreds of groups that are starting to organize a “resistance” to Trump, and they are not messing around.

Brown Sugar Rolls (Chorreadas)

The name for these rolls means “dirty faces,” referring to the dark smudge of brown sugar glaze.

Yield: 10 rolls

Ingredients

Rolls

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup lard
2 teaspoons salt
1 3/4 cups hot water
1 package active dry yeast
Dash of granulated or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)
2 cups whole wheat flour
3 3/4 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg, slightly beaten

Brown Sugar Glaze

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 to 3 teaspoons water

Instructions

Rolls

Place brown sugar, lard and salt in large bowl.
Stir in 1 3/4 cups hot water until brown sugar is dissolved.
Dissolve yeast and granulated or dark brown sugar in 1/4 cup warm water; stir into brown sugar mixture.
Beat in whole wheat flour and enough all-purpose flour to make dough stiff enough to knead.
Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.
Place in greased bowl; turn greased side up. Cover; let rise in warm place until double, about 2 hours. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.
Line 2 cookie sheets with aluminum foil; grease.
Punch down dough. Turn onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth. Shape into 10 inch long roll; cut into 10 slices. Shape each slice into smooth ball. Place on foil-covered cookie sheets; flatten into 3 1/2 to 4-inch diameter circles. Cover; let rise until double, about 30 minutes.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Brush rolls with egg.
Spread Brown Sugar Glaze on centers of rolls.
Make diagonal or crisscross cuts in tops of rolls with tip of sharp knife.
Bake until rolls are brown and sound hollow when tapped, 20 to 25 minutes.
Immediately remove rolls; cool on wire racks.

Brown Sugar Glaze

Mix brown sugar and water until of spreading consistency.

Ex Girlfriend Regrets Asking for Open Relationship

Why are Western-backed coups failing?

TL:DR

The western backed coups do not have organic support and rely on paid elements.

Long version

Back in the early 1990s, we had a history class. It was run by the PE teacher. He actually became semi famous for something later on (something good). Anyway in year 7 we did some history classes. The focus was on the Roman Empire and the downfall of the Roman Empire.

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The Roman Empire post Marian Reforms was pretty much a superpower. The Roman Empire is famous for having one the best-militarized forces in the world for more than 300 years, with highly disciplined troops, loyal generals, and honorable traditions.

Later history would cover Henry VIII and the Plantagenet kings, but that’s a story for another day. The teacher outlined that towards the end of the Roman empire they increasingly relied on Foederati something in the modern age we would consider mercenaries.

What’s wrong with mercenaries? The teacher said the problem with Mercenaries is they fight for money and nothing else so when the going gets tough? They run away. You can’t spend money when you’re dead. Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries literally has this in it’s 1990s trailer fighting for C-bills (in universe money).

We are seeing and saw with Ukraine. ‘Volunteers’ (mercenaries) who went there ended up leaving shortly after. They had the opition.

Same with SUPER SOLDIER WALLI from Canada

The first comment literally sums it up.

So what does this have to do with the western backed coups? Lets go back to what I wrote in the opening.

TL:DR

The western backed coups do not have organic support and rely on paid elements.

When the going gets tough mercenaries/paid elements leave. A real revolution is no picnic.

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As such there’s nobody to STAND AND HOLD THE LINE when the going gets tough. Lonely Cantonese Sith Lord wrote an excellent post here about why the Houthis cannot be defeated, they are willing to sacrifice everything. EVERYTHING.

Hong Kong is an excellent case study.

Anybody on the ground will know there were enormous numbers of adverts through media channels like telegram etc offering money to protest and be violent. There were children in school uniforms. They were handed black T-shirts with $500 notes in them. They were mercenaries paid to do something. We saw how ‘riot leaders’ suddenly came into large amounts of cash they couldn’t explain the origins of. Joshua Wong and his $400,000USD he tried to deposit into HSBC. Or his $4million US apartment. Or Ted Hui’s millions.

Joseph Wang himself said he was utterly shocked at how fast the yellow movement crumbled the moment the money stopped flowing. The HKSAR and CPC stopped the inflow of money and the movement pretty much vanished.

The mercenaries on the other hand were fighting against those who would stand against them out of something more important than money. Love them or hate them the white shirts stood against the rioters. I’m a Hakka clansman and I don’t mess with Yeun Long types despite common roots. 😀 there’s also a reason the british Empire in 1899 went to the Eastern Side of the New Territories to raise their flags and not the western side.

I literally wrote it myself. Around the end of 2019, it seemed as if the police were losing control as the violence escalated and numerous Hakka men had been attacked. We were seeing on television police men in stretchers after being stabbed and fanatics cheering it on . Loads of us saw this and thought holy fucking shit.

We had a second Holy FUCKING SHIT when westerners were cheering it on. I had been attacked a few weeks before. Some of the old men said it might be like the Hakka/Punti clan wars again, where we were going to be exterminated if we lost and it was time to make preparations.

All the men and even the women in the villages even the old men 60+ started martial arts training, some were even talking about moving the clan cannons to a defensive position.

We would stand and DIE fighting to protect what we held dear.

The paid mercenaries don’t have this grit and ultimately they run away because they’re not willing to put EVERYTHING on the line.

This was evident at CUHK and PolyU. They didn’t stand and fight, they tried to escape by any means possible.

You can think of it this way.

You do a young Batman, in a dark Alleyway.

You’d defend your family with all your might even if you don’t like them that much.

But if it was your boss ? Would you fight for him/her?

We Were Soldiers (2002) ♡ MOVIE REACTION – FIRST TIME WATCHING!

A Sailing Aesthetic

I love sailing.

Not that I do it all the time, but when I have an opportunity, I take the time to go ahead and take a vessel out and play with the sails and dance with the wind.

Sailing isn’t all that difficult.

Basically, you have this big sheet that you orient so that wind pushes the vessel forward. Oh, for certain, it can get more complicated. From a simple small skiff to a gaff-rigged top mast schooner.

But I’ll tell you when the sail gets blessed by the wind, and the the vessel really picks up its skirts and trots, it’s magical.

Owning a boat, however is a pain in the ass.

But…

But…

The air, the breeze, and the beautiful day is truly special.

Today, please enjoy these visions of paradise.

Today…

Do most of the Western people know the truth about China?

No, they don’t.

They’ve been fooled by Western media about China. They’re very gullible to believe their media.

They’ve never been to China to see the country with their own eyes. And they’re not likely to.

Even when presented with material (published articles, reports, surveys, videos) that show the truth about China, they dismiss it as Chinese propaganda. This is the result of Western propaganda-induced bigotry.

There is a minority of Westerners who do know the truth. Unfortunately, the bigots and racists will not accept their word that China is a wonderful country.

Full Metal Jacket (1987)- Battle of Hue City

What screams “I can fight”?

I was sitting in a bar, with a kind of bad rep, having a beer with a couple of guys from work. Across the room are 3 guys standing at the bar. One them is big, about 6′4″ & 260/270. They’re a little boisterous.

Guy comes out of the men’s room in the back. He’s wearing work clothes & looks like he used them hard that day. He’s kind of “chunky.” I don’t mean he’s fat, though there’s a bit there. He looks like he’s put together with chunks & blocks & slabs. He’s about 5′ 9or10″ & 180. (Probably more, this guy works hard.) He has a little shuffle in his walk it’s been a hard day. He heads for the door.

Big guy steps back & bumps into smaller guy. Smaller guy steps aside & excuses himself & tries to continue. Big guy grabs his shoulder & spins him around.

There’s no hesitation. Little guy steps inside, grabs big guy’s lapels & slams their faces together twice. HARD!

Blood flows. Little guy turns, grabs a handful of napkins off the bar & goes out the door. Nobody follows him.

Could he fight? Oh hell yeah! How did I know it wasn’t his first rodeo? That handful of napkins.

Shrimp Etouffee

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

2 pounds medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 medium onion
1 bunch green onions
1 small bunch parsley
1 can tomato paste
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 cups water
Salt and cayenne pepper to taste

Instructions

Dice the onions and scallions.
Chop the parsley. Hold the parsley separately.
In a medium pot, add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (your choice)
Once the oil is heated, add the onions and scallions. Glaze the onions and scallions.
Once all are glazed, add 2 cups of water and the tomato paste. Stir until the paste is dissolved.
Lower the heat to a constant simmer for 35 to 40 minutes. Stir occasionally and add water if needed.
Add salt and cayenne pepper to taste.
After simmering, add parsley and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add shrimp and lower the heat for an additional 20 minutes. If the sauce looks too watery, you can dissolve 2 tablespoons of flour in a little water to a pasty consistency and slowly stir in.
Serve over rice and/or corn bread.

Trump proposes to stimulate domestic industry by putting tariffs on foreign goods. Foreign countries will retaliate, doing the same with American products. Is this not a zero-sum game?

Did the tariff of Trump 1.0 stimulate domestic industry? I dont see any. Do you?

I saw US farmers were hurt because China has reduced or stopped buying US agricultural products. Instead China has gone to Latin America like Brazil because LatinA is full of agriculture.

Tariff used to work in the old days. But not today when easy transportation & globalisation makes it easy for tariffed countries to find alternatives. But US mentality stays in the past.

Despite the failure of Trump 1.0, why Trump 2.0 still pushes for tariff that is higher than Trump 1.0?

I can only think of 1 reason. US economy is so bad that USA needs “cash”. Below is my earlier post.

Trump 2.0’s crazily high tariff on ALL foreign countries = rob & force them to feed USA.

Have you seen a mafia in movies such as god father?

Inside USA, tariff on foreign country = tax increase on Americans because foreign sellers will add (part of) the tariff to the sale price of their exported goods to USA.

In Trump 1.0, 80–90% of tariff was added to the sale price by foreign sellers. That is 1 reason why there was inflation in USA in Trump 1.0 & Biden era.

In both Trump 1.0 & 2.0, Trump has & will decrease tax to attract votes. How to recover the loss of revenue incurred from tax decrease? Use tariff to cause inflation so that all Americans pay a bit ie use tariff to disguise tax increase.

Analysts suggest countries to fight back & break even. Trump tariffs on imports to USA; countries tariffs on exports to USA with the same amount. Dont feed the robber-mafia.

We must understand: 60% tariff on Chinese imports & 20% on smaller countries is crazily unreasonable. Not many firms can make 60% of profit. Not even 20% for small firms/countries. Nobody will do business with no profit. Thus, decouple & stop/reduce sale to USA is the only option.

In fact, decoupling may be the plan of Trump 2.0. Trump may want USA to start all over again by manufacturing its own products from toilet paper to Trump’s campaign cap to washer etc. Trump wants everything to be made in USA.

US wage is higher than southeast Asia. That is Made-in-USA is more expensive. Trouble is whether USA will increase the wage to catch up with the inflated consumer products. Otherwise Americans will become poorer.

Trump 1.0 failed to attract US investors back to USA. Some still stayed in China. Some moved from China to, say, Thailand to do a finish touch on the Chinese products. This disguise of made-in-Thailand products also pushes up the American consumer price.

Let us watch Trump 2.0 to roll out.

An Officer and a Gentlemen Reel

Websites Glorifying Jimmy Lai Should Be Prohibited to Avoid Affecting Fair Trials

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Some readers have informed the author that when searching for “Jimmy Lai” or “Lai Chee Ying” on Google in relation to the recent case, the top search result often leads to a website that glorifies Jimmy Lai and promotes support for him. This website is labeled as a “sponsored site,” meaning its operators are paying for Google Ads to secure the top ranking and maximize visibility.

The website, presented entirely in English, contains extreme and provocative content. In its “Timeline” section, it chronicles events from Jimmy Lai’s establishment of Apple Daily in 1995—an outlet infamous for spreading propaganda and inciting violence—up to its closure in 2021. The website heavily whitewashes his longstanding collaboration with foreign forces and his role in causing chaos in Hong Kong. Additionally, the “Awards” page lists numerous overseas accolades of questionable credibility, portraying Jimmy Lai as a “hero” who fought for freedom of speech.

The website also includes sections titled “Trial Updates” and “Hong Kong Updates,” which largely translate reports from local Hong Kong media outlets, such as Ming Pao and The Witness. These reports cover developments in Hong Kong’s judicial system, including updates on overseas judges resigning, national security cases such as the “35+ subversion case,” and daily live updates from Jimmy Lai’s own trial proceedings. However, it remains unclear whether these local media outlets have authorized the website to translate and publish their content in English. This issue requires further investigation.

Furthermore, the “Press” section of the website features numerous photos and videos related to Jimmy Lai’s fourth son filing legal complaints overseas. This highlights ongoing attempts to solicit foreign interference in Hong Kong’s judicial process and continue the subversive activities initiated by Jimmy Lai. The connection between this website, Jimmy Lai’s fourth son, and the so-called “Jimmy Lai Foreign Legal Team” is evident, showing a coordinated effort to influence public opinion and undermine judicial proceedings.

Any attempts to glorify Jimmy Lai, sway public opinion in his favor, or influence the outcome of his trial could constitute criminal contempt of court. This website’s operators are using Google Ads to secure top search rankings in Hong Kong, investing significant funds to spread messages that could interfere with judicial fairness, undermine impartiality, and place undue pressure on the courts. Such actions disrupt the proper functioning of the judiciary, and national security authorities must investigate promptly. These activities cannot be allowed to continue.

In previous controversies, such as those involving “pro-independence songs,” Google has repeatedly refused to remove provocative content. Now, Google is permitting Jimmy Lai-related political websites to advertise in Hong Kong using Google Ads, promoting them prominently and encouraging citizens to access this content. This effectively turns Google’s search engine into a platform for illegal elements in Hong Kong to spread misinformation and manipulate public opinion. Such actions show a disregard for corporate social responsibility, constitute unethical business practices, and violate laws that protect national security and political stability. The Hong Kong community cannot tolerate Google profiting from activities that harm the country and its people.

The Security Bureau should immediately engage Google to demand the removal of such advertisements and related content. If Google refuses to comply, the Department of Justice should promptly seek a court injunction to ensure that websites glorifying Jimmy Lai are no longer accessible in Hong Kong. This is a necessary step to prevent interference in the fair trial process for critical national security cases.

The Book of Eli | Eli Fights Hijackers

Three Bars

Submitted into Contest #115 in response to: Write a story where a device goes haywire.… view prompt

Melanie Varkey

44%“Dad? Dad? Can you hear me?”Static roiled through his cell as the train passed through another tunnel, but he held on to the connection.“Yeah, I can hear you, Jamie. As I was saying, you don’t have to pick me up this afternoon. Libby has to head into town anyway, so I’ll tag along with her.”“Are you sure, Dad? I just got off the station.” That was a lie. A stupid one. His father would have heard the squeals and rumble of the car as it cruised over the tracks. Whether his father knew, though, he didn’t indicate.“No, son. It’s fine. I can’t be late– last time. I almost didn’t get to see Dr.– if it– cancellation.”“Don’t worry about it, Dad. I’ll get you there on time.”“Jam–, I can’t —you. Spe– –der”“Dad? Dad?”The line disconnected. Jamie looked at his phone. Three bars of coverage. He craned his neck above the crowd of passengers to glimpse at the windows outside. They were outside the city now, and steel-gray storm clouds roiled and brewed above them, chasing the train as it escaped into the suburbs. Jamie snapped at himself for forgetting his umbrella.He looked back at his smartphone, and the screen was dark, reflecting off the huddle of passengers squeezing into him. He tapped the screen several times, signalling his increasing frustration with every press.A fog slugged through the streets of his hometown as Jamie got onto his stop. Biting off his right glove and dragging them off his middle finger, he long-pressed the narrow button on the side. He was sure he charged it last night. Finally, the phone vibrated, and an hourglass glyph showed on this screen. The cold was already biting his fingers, and he moved to put his ill-fitting glove back on as he crossed the road. He almost stumbled over himself as a driver screeched to a stop in front of him. The driver honked his horn and mimed at him to watch where he was going. Jamie responded with the universal fingered response.The unfamiliar hourglass symbol dropped three-pixel crystals before turning over again. Phone restarts shouldn’t take this long, Jamie wondered. He had received this phone as a birthday gift only two months ago. Finally, a chirp and vibration of the phone indicated that his home screen was active again. A soft patter of raindrops dogged his stops as he began a brisk walk to his childhood home.37%

Every couple of seconds, his apps and widgets appeared and slowly took their place on the screen.

Jamie selected 3 on his speed dial list and was met with an unexpected error: There is no contact assigned to this speed dial number.

Jamie long pressed the number again, but the same error appeared. He wondered if he lost all his contacts in the restart. He couldn’t remember his dad’s phone number, so it was always number 3 on speed dial. D for Dad. Scrolling through his contacts, he found his father’s cell number. He tried again. One ring. Two rings. Three.

Finally, an interruption in the fourth ring as the call picked up.

“Dad? Dad? Can you hear me now?”

“Hello? Who is this?” a stranger answered back. His voice was husky and groggy from a mid-afternoon nap.

Jamie frowned. He was sure he had picked Dad from the contacts.

“Excuse me, is this 576-222-3684?

“Yeah, who is this?”

“I’m looking for Walt Robinson. I’m his son Jamie.”

“Wrong number.”, the caller clipped and cut the phone before Jamie could respond. He checked the contact list and tried calling again. The phone rang two times before it cut to voicemail halfway through the second ring.

30%

It was now pouring. Fat raindrops started to soak through Jamie’s blazer and ran down his neck, the chill settling permeating through his layers into his bones. A shard of lightning strode through the slate skies, and a distant rumble of thunder brought. He ducked under the tangerine awning of a nearby coffee shop, formerly a convenience store where a younger Jamie would meet with his buddies and count pennies and nickels to exchange for Marlboroughs. The blackboard easel on the sidewalk stood forgotten, small rivers streaked through proclamations of pumpkin and cinnamon-spiced offerings.

A new approach. Speed dial number 6. N for Naomi. Formerly M for Mom. Naomi should have picked up Gillian from school by now. Their morning was rife with stress. With Naomi fighting a losing battle with a particularly nasty bout of flu, and a sleepy toddler with a penchant for morning tantrums, Jamie was exhausted when he dropped his daughter off at school with two minutes to spare. Thankfully, Naomi had offered to pick up their daughter in their car, so he could drive his father’s car to this impromptu doctor’s appointment and then drive back home.

One ring. Two rings. A familiar voice cut through in the middle of the third ring.

“What is it?”

“Hey Nomi, how are you feeling? “

“Fine? Why do you ask?” she clipped back. Her congestion was gone. The late-night raid of the medicine cabinet cough syrups, lozenges, and rubs enough to knock someone seemed to have done its job.

“Thanks for picking up Gillian, Noms. I’m sorry you had to do that. I just wish Dad would have given me a better heads up about this appointment so I could have found someone else to pick it up. I’ll remind him when I see him today.”

“What are you talking about, Jamie? Are you drunk?”

Taken aback at the accusation and the edge in her voice, he retorted, “What? Don’t you remember our conversation this morning? I’m picking up dad for his appointment, and you’re picking Gillian up from school, right?”

“Look, Jamie, I knew that this would be a tough week for you, but I need you to step up. Gillian has been waiting for hours for you, and I must pick for her now since you didn’t pick her up…I don’t have time for these games. Are you coming to pick her up tonight?

“Pick her up? For what?”

A sigh of frustration. “…It is your weekend with Gillian, James or did you forget? We had discussed this just two days ago. “

Anxiety bled into his voice as he pleaded. “Naomi, please, I’m sorry. Could you tell me what Dad’s number is, and I’ll pick up Gillian as soon as I see him?”

“Honestly, Jamie, I don’t know why you’re doing this. Have you been seeing your therapist lately? I think you should make an appointment with Dr. Brooke. You’ve been acting more unhinged than usual since we signed the papers.”

The rain grew in its unrelenting tempo, soaking Jamie’s sneakers and climbing up the canvas into his feet. A tinny sound rang in his ears, growing in volume and masking Naomi’s hurried goodbye and the click of her disconnection. Jamie struggled to breathe, swallowing gulps of air while stumbling back first into the cafe door and almost falling over as it gave way.

Customers stared at him as he picked himself up. The barista called out to ask if he was okay. Still breathing hard, Jamie nodded, got back on his feet, walked to the closest open table next to a group of high schoolers, and sat down. He put his head between his arms and closed his eyes, and started counting multiples of two. A trick his father had taught him after experiencing his first panic attack before his high school finals. After a couple of minutes, Jamie started to breathe normally again. The café patrons had already turned back to their conversations. He brought the phone back into his ear, but Naomi had disconnected. He thought of calling her again but suspected she wouldn’t pick up this time. Jamie checked the home screen; the time was consistent with the cafe clock. He knew today was Tuesday. But the clock was showing Friday, and the year was 2021. The phone was two years ahead.

He interrupted the intense conversation with the neighbouring table, sipping at their frappes. “Excuse me, what’s the date today?”

The only boy spoke up, “Don’t you have a phone, old man?”. Two of his friends snickered.

Frustration gnawed at him. Through gritted teeth, he replied, “It’s not working right now.”

One of the girls piped up, “It’s Tuesday, October 15th.”

“Thank you. And the year?”

They glanced at each other, weighing whether he was joking. The teenage boy scoffed, “2019, obviously.”

He nodded in thanks and turned back to this now unfamiliar device in front of him. The students rolled their eyes before continuing with their conversation.

The chirp of a notification. A calendar reminder. A meeting with Dr. Brooke tomorrow at 4 pm. His therapist, according to Naomi on the phone. He felt a gnawing unease. He had never had a therapist, never believed in them. Therapists always signalled foreboding. There is never a “good” reason to go to one. You only go to one if something is wrong. Something is wrong with you, your family, or your marriage. But he had a sense that person may be the only one who could answer his questions.

25%

He hovered over the call icon for a few seconds, collecting his nerve. Steeling himself, he pressed and waited. One ring, and the phone picked up.

“Jamie, are you okay?” a soft voice answered.

“Hey, Dr. Brooke, I’m not sure. I feel very lost and confused right now.”

“Call me Diana. Have you lost your memory again?”

Shock bubbled up into an awkward laugh. The timbre of her voice reminded him of his mother. He understood why he would have stuck with her as his therapist.

“You could say so, Diana. You sound like I’ve done this before.”

“Yes, Jamie. What year is it?”

“It’s 2019. October 15th, to be exact.”

“Okay, now tell me. Are you in a safe place right now?”

“I’m at a cafe near Derby station. Thirty minutes from my dad’s. I’m supposed to drive him today to his appointment, but he wanted to go with his neighbour instead.”

The downpour grew to crescendo outside the cafe. Rain slapped at the window, and Jamie felt the chill permeate into his bones.

“Mm, okay, and this is the house on Rollingwood avenue.”

“Uhh, yes. Diana, could I ask you a question or a couple?”

“Of course. But it seems that you have not experienced your triggering events yet, so don’t be alarmed.”

“Does my wife hate me?”

Dr. Brooke replied with a gentle admonishment. “Hate is a strong word and one that I wouldn’t have associated with your wife in our time in couple’s therapy, Jamie. There is still love there, but it is in a different form now. You must understand that she went through the same experience as you and trying to move forward in her way.”

Anxiety ran through his shivering fingers as he struggled to form the words of his next question. Thunder tore through the dine of the cafe, and the lights flickered, and the remaining customers cowered in the silence that followed.

“Diana, where is my dad?”

A pause. The seconds stretched across the silence, louder than thunder.

“Your father passed away, Jamie. Today is the anniversary of his death.”

The weight of her words fell into his gut like a boulder.

He cradled his head between his knees, rocking slowly. He barely whispered the one word, “How?” but Diana must have already anticipated it.

“Walt got into a car accident on his way home from the doctor. The roads were slick, and the car hydroplaned into oncoming traffic.”

Fuck. Jamie cut the call and pushed his way out the milling crowd of storm watchers near the window. The rain slapped him as he sprinted, barely seeing the sidewalk ahead of him, relying only on childhood memories walking home.

15%

He couldn’t see the car on the driveway. No, no, no. His lungs were on fire. The taste of blood filled his mouth as he forced himself to push through one last sprint under the furious storm.

He hammered the door, panting against its frame. “Dad! Dad! Open the door!”

Two seconds, Fifteen, Forty-five, a minute. Finally, Jamie heard a shuffling and a hesitant pull of the door. His father’s eyes poked through the small gap, recognized his son’s soaked face, and pulled the door open just enough to drag him in.

“Jamie! What are you doing here?”

Jamie gulped handfuls of air and replied in a strained wheeze. “I told you I’d take you to the appointment.”

An exasperated sigh. “You shouldn’t have come, son. I was just about to wall over to Libby’s. Just sit here and wait for me. I just put out the fireplace, but it shouldn’t take too long to start it up again.” Jamie tried to shake his head as Walt started to shoo him upstairs. “Your old clothes are still in your bedroom. Go on and change. You’re going to catch a cold like this.”

“It’s okay, Dad. I want to drive you there. You know Libby has an old car. She shouldn’t be driving in this weather. We can grab her groceries on the way, too, if she needs it.”

“It’s fine, Jamie. I’m not as old as you think; I can handle myself. I’ve taken care of myself just fine since your mother passed.”

Jamie felt an unexpected tinge of guilt with that last line. Nevertheless, he didn’t move. “No, Dad. Either I’m taking you, or you’re not going”

His father stared at him, considering. After a few seconds, he signalled his assent with a grunt, “Fine. But you’re not soaking my seats like this. Get some dry clothes, and I’ll wait for you in the garage.”

A wall of rain covered them the drive home. The vintage windshield wipers could barely catch up to the wet onslaught. The visit was standard, but Jamie was glad he joined his father: Dr. Goldman had concerns about the recent blood test, especially the dangerously elevated cholesterol levels. If Jamie hadn’t dropped him off, his father would have likely shoved the prescription into his jacket and forgotten it was there by the next day.

Jamie’s phone peeked out at him from the cupholder. He had not had a chance to check on it at the doctor’s office. He wanted to know if it worked. If Dad survived tonight, then speed dial number 3 would work.

He glanced over to the passenger seat. The old man fell asleep as soon as they got onto the main roads. His slow breaths lifted his frail frame, and Jamie wondered at the dramatic transition of the husky working man from his childhood to the wisp of a human being right next to him.

He reached over and grabbed the phone with his right hand, his left on the underhand of the steering wheel. The red battery sign at the top of the screen was blinking at 2%. He didn’t have much time. He had to know.

Finger memory navigated him to the phone screen while he kept his eyes on the road. Pressing 3 again, he waited. The error message didn’t show up. The phone was ringing. One ring. Two rings.

A high-pitched squeal from his blind spot. A shock impact to the right rear of the Caprice forced the vehicle to veer to the left before Jamie over-corrected. The car turned far off into the ditch before landing on the driver’s side in a thick hedge.

The vacuous silence in the minutes after was broken only by faraway sirens and a disembodied voice from a cracked cell phone before it died.

You’ve reached Walt Robinson. I can’t come to the phone, so leave your message at the beep.

Apocalypto Best Scene (2006)

Science & Technology updates with China

By Godfree Roberts

Quantum key distribution (QKD) on a drone platform, a world first, showed that mobile platforms can transmit single photons directly to end-users.

First Large-Scale Integrated 5G-Advanced Intelligent Network covers 10 million Beijingers, a big leap to everyday immersive video, UHD livestreams and cloud gaming.

DJI’s T100 agricultural drone has Lidar + AESA radar + AI + 360 deg 4-eye vision. 75 kg payload sprays 30L/min. Delivers goods remotely. Charges in 9 mins. $15,000.

Huawei’s new Mate 70 phone has AI Teleportation. A grab gesture takes a screenshot and shares it – easier than Apple’s AirDrop.

Economy

Driverless taxi fares start at $0.55 vs. $2.48 for a human driver. Apollo Go’s Q3 rides are up 20% YoY to 988,000. Its taxis retail for $30,000, vs. Waymo’s $150,000.

New NDRC department to oversee low-altitude aviation, drive the low-altitude economy, coordinate with other departments like the Air Force.

12 million public chargers installed by the end of 2024, up 49% YoY. Private charging infrastructure hit 8.5 million, up 56%.

Solar leads as China adds 210GW of renewables YTD, up 21% YoY.

China’s first shale oil demonstration zone, in Xinjiang, has extracted 1 million tonnes YTD from 306 wells.

Xinjiang’s new lab program focuses on the local coal mining industry by experts from China’s top academic institution to solve scientific and technological issues.

A salmon-farming company plans to use waste cold water produced by LNG regasification plants to keep their fish farm water cold. “The LNG terminal operator offered us land to take the cold water off their hands. They can’t discharge directly into the ocean”.

There will be 38 5G base stations for every 10,000 people by the end of 2027, 5G will be 75% of mobile traffic and IoT connections will exceed 100 million.

Society

TikTok restricted the account of former Chinese gymnastics star, Wu Liufang, after many found her costumes and dances too sexy.

A Zhejiang University student was disciplined after receiving financial aid then traveling across China, Japan, and South Korea.

Guangzhou first Tier One city to grant permanent residency houkou to home buyers who have paid local social security for a year.

“The rates of grain and food loss during production, storage, transportation and processing will be below international averages by the end of 2027. Per capita food waste per meal in the catering industry, government canteens, school canteens and enterprise canteens will decrease significantly, and food waste will be effectively curbed¹”.

Measures to create high-quality jobs and stabilize employment while supporting migrant workers’ urbanization: improving skill sets, safeguarding labour rights, reducing wage arrears, access to medical care, unemployment, work-injury insurance and pensions.

Virtual reality ski simulators let users experience realistic, snow-covered slopes at home while on the slopes, plus smart, heated snow boots give hours of warmth.

Environment

In the video, above, the barrier plant’s blossoms have both medicinal (TCM) and financial value² for their carers. All government projects are expected to at least recover their own costs over time.

At COP.29 in Azerbijian, China said the mitigation fund should be at least US$500 billion. “The Chinese were willing to offer more if others did, but the others didn’t,” said President Mukhtar Babayev.

Governance

“Chinese modernization is deeply rooted in the fine traditional Chinese culture, mirrors the advantages of scientific socialism, draws inspiration from all of human civilization’s outstanding achievements, represents the direction of the progress of human civilization, and demonstrates a new vision that’s different from Western modernization. It is a new model for human advancement”. Xi Jinping. Above, Xi as Ningde Party Secretary, 1989.

Since water resources belong to the state, China has completed the water quantity allocation of 94 trans-provincial rivers and 373 intra-provincial rivers, determined the total groundwater extraction amounts and water level control indicators of 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, and issued 630,000 sets of electronic licenses to users for water extraction.

“Upgrading toilets in rural areas is a task I have always been concerned about. I’m also a person from the rural areas and I know that it’s really inconvenient to go to the toilet in the rural areas”. Xi Jinping on tour last week.

Zhuhai changes the defense discussion

In the west, and especially the US, defense posture is based on appearing powerful and intimidating to deter any political opponents. In China it is the opposite; most of the time it is about appearing unthreatening in order to lure the opponent to make the first move.

This has changed with the Zhuhai Air Show. Up until now, China has not showed off its latest weapons, especially strategic weapons which can hit targets far outside China’s borders. For the first time, it has showed a mockup of a hybrid fighter/space plane called 白帝 (White Emperor), a plane designed to fly in the low gravity of the moon, and the DF-100 long-range cruise missile, and other hypersonic weapons.

Why has China changed its strategy?

US think tanks and the Defense Department have based all their wargames on a local Asian conflict over Taiwan and the South China Sea. In their wargames, the US homeland is never hit and never suffers casualties and destruction. China wants to make clear to the US that it has the capability and the determination to inflict casualties on Americans in the US homeland just the same as the US can inflict casualties on the Chinese mainland. The aim is to force US war planners in think tanks and the Defense Department think long and hard about the cost of war with China. US politicians have believed that foreign wars are acceptable to Americans as long as there are no American casualties on the US homeland. Both China and Russia through independent demonstrations are showing to the US that this way of thinking is outmoded; if there is a serious confrontation with either country, Americans in the US would die.
The incoming Trump administration has two key anti-China hawks: Marco Rubio as Secretary of State and Michael Waltz as national security advisor. Both promote confrontation with China in security and what the US formerly called diplomacy (the US doesn’t do diplomacy anymore). The new China defense posture is to convey that China is ready for any worst-case scenario from the US, and that US politicians should be ready to face the consequences.
US Defense Department war planners have a realistic assessment of China’s war capabilities, but they have not been able to get media support for any views which are from outside Congress and the State Department. The easiest way for them to get more attention is by China showing off its most advanced systems at Zhuhai and other arms export exhibitions worldwide.
Trump has created a new cabinet which draws from all across the spectrum when it comes to dealing with China and Russia. His intent is to hear opposing views so that he can be the final judge on foreign policy when dealing with China and Russia. Both governments are giving him plenty to think about.

How will Donald Trump try to cut off China’s production and shipping of fentanyl?

He can’t because China does not make fentanyl. Most fentanyl is produced by Mexican cartels within Mexico, where Donald Trump has proposed deploying special military forces to combat drug cartels. Some of the chemical precursors for fentanyl production are sourced from China, but these substances are also widely used in the legitimate pharmaceutical industry for manufacturing essential products such as pain relievers, anesthetics, and other medications.

Governments, including China and the United States, have introduced regulations, monitoring systems, and collaborations with chemical manufacturers to prevent the diversion of precursors for illicit drug production. However, criminal networks frequently find ways to obtain these substances. Drug addiction has persisted in the U.S. since Nixon declared the War on Drugs in 1970, yet instead of addressing the root causes—such as curbing the demand and underlying factors driving addiction—many politicians deflect responsibility by finding scapegoats. It’s time to focus on comprehensive solutions that reduce cravings and dependence among Americans rather than assigning blame.

Shorpy

The Coin Toss | No Country for Old Men

Subject 12

Submitted into Contest #115 in response to: Write a story where a device goes haywire.… view prompt

Anna W

Ryland knew he might not get invited to the party if he didn’t use his connections on the football team. He had been a kicker the last three years, though he hadn’t tried out this year because of taking on a second job. He’d been avoiding the irritation of his buddies the first few weeks of school, hoping to save himself from the lectures of privileged athletes whose families weren’t struggling financially. His mom told him he didn’t need the job, but he got one anyway. He could work an extra 10-15 hours a week now that he was 18, and it would help him put away more money for college. He wanted to get out of this small town, with its small-minded, boring people. He turned the corner in the hallway of the aging high school, walking absentmindedly toward his last class of the day. He threw a passing glance at the window of a classroom on his right and stopped. What was that? He wondered.

His English teacher was standing behind his desk, hunched in midair, as if he’d been in the middle of standing up, but had suddenly stopped. Ryland couldn’t figure out why this bothered him so much, but fought his rising panic by counting. He was about to enter the classroom, when the teacher stood up suddenly, with jerky movements, and then smoothly walked around his desk and toward the back of the classroom.

Ryland watched him for another moment, seeing nothing else out of the ordinary. Weird, he thought to himself. He blinked several times, wondering if he should be concerned about this, or if something was just wrong with his brain. He felt a sleepy feeling that weighed on his mind and suddenly felt strongly that it was nothing to be worried about. He glanced back down the hall, seeing one of his football buddies rounding the corner ahead. Alright, focus man, he thought to himself, you can do this. He took a deep breath and walked confidently forward.

******

Officer Lara Walker sat in the uncomfortable chair, fighting the urge to fidget, as she took notes on what Commander Vinn was saying about the operation, in its current stages. She didn’t need the notes, but knew it would make the Commander feel important to have her rapt attention and to be “learning” from him, though she was certain she knew more of Project Strella than he did. She glanced at the screen, where a hazy image of the subject was moving around on the screen, a backpack slung over one shoulder.

Vinn tapped the screen of his tablet out of frustration, “Ugh. NEXA!!” he yelled as he slammed the speaker button of the phone on his desk. “Yes?” came the bored drone of his secretary. Walker thought the yelling was in poor taste, especially since the commander’s secretary was directly in the next room and could probably hear the screaming through the wall. “This screen thing is not connected to the tablet. AGAIN. I thought the guy fixed this mess last week.” “Right, sir, well the technician said the disturbance in the connection might be coming from the core itself. He said he’d be back out next week, with a bigger team to examine it in more detail.”

The Commander rolled his eyes and continued poking at the tablet with his finger. Walker looked back up at the screen and started. The confused eyes of Subject 12 seemed to be peering through the screen, and directly at Walker as she sat in her chair. That’s not possible, she thought, reminding herself of her in depth training of the project and technologies involved. The screen glitched, distorting the already hazy images. The subject was now seated, and seemed to be writing something in a notebook. Walker made a note of the time, so she could go back to this timeframe later and make sure all the transitions were smooth in his memory. She glanced back up at the screen, fixating for a moment on the subject’s face, and then decidedly turning her attention back to her own notes.

******

Ryland was sitting at the party, surrounded by people, with loud music bumping in his ears. It felt like it was just beating against his brain, but his thoughts were louder than anything else, as usual. He looked down at the cup in his hand and felt like a stranger in his own body. So weird, he thought, morosely, do other people feel this way? Is it just me? What’s wrong with me? He looked to his left on the old basement couch, and saw the group of girls perched on the other end. He made eye contact with a brunette, who blushed and glanced away from him, quickly. Mina. She was the reason he’d delved back into the crowd he’d been avoiding, and gotten one of his buddies to pick him up for the party.

He got up to get a refill, even though he’d barely taken a few sips of the swill being served at this party that gave the distinct odor and taste of rubbing alcohol. He couldn’t be completely sure. He’d never tasted rubbing alcohol, after all. He just needed an excuse to move around, instead of sitting by himself.

He was standing awkwardly at the table full of used cups and various bottles of alcohol that had been stolen from a parents’ liquor cabinet or had been purchased by an older sibling. Maybe he should just head home. What am I even doing here? She’s never going to be interested in me. He swiped his hand dismissively, in the air above the table of cups, and pretended not to notice when a few fell over. No time for your weirdness now, dude. He glanced toward the door. There she was, looking at her phone. She must have moved while he was lost in his own thoughts.

He took a deep breath and moved toward her.

“Dating apps?” he asked, kicking himself for the lameness that oozed out of him when he opened his mouth. He’d been around girls his whole life, but sometimes still felt like they were a different species altogether. Or maybe you’re the one who’s different, he thought to himself, and felt a twinge of panic as something about the thought disturbed him greatly. Something… missing… The morose thoughts tried to spiral, but he refused to go into the pit of baseless fear that occasionally consumed him.

He shook his head, in an attempt to clear his mind by pure brute force, if necessary. She glanced up at him, having missed his awkward encounter with the table, thankfully, and said, “Yeah, the prospects here are pretty slim, don’t you think?” He smirked as he recognized her tone as one of sarcasm and playful banter, and not a tone of “get away from me, jerk,” that he’d seen his friends experience. “Yeah, I agree. Probably best to just give up on all these dudes completely. There’s gotta be something more than conversations about football and video games, right?”

“Yeah,” she smirked, as she tucked her hair behind her ear, “You get it. So what… are you saying you’re different from these other guys?” she asked, eyeing him with playful suspicion. “Me? No way. Ask me about 16th century English Literature, and I guarantee I will make a joke about how Elizabethans ‘scored’ or maybe even a space joke. I do have a variety of corny jokes going for me.” He was shocked at his own response, it was more bold than he’d felt in a long while. Something was stirring in his spirit.

“Some wouldn’t consider corny jokes to be a personality trait,” Mina said as she laughed. She laughed! He thought, excitedly. Okay, don’t screw this up now, man. He found himself grinning as well. “Then I guess you’ll just have to let me know what personality traits you’re looking for, and I’ll make sure to confirm that none of these other jokers have them. You know, just to save you some time.” Her laugh sounded far away and tinny, like it was ringing in a metal box, but he decided to ignore it and lean into the boldness of the flirtatious feeling, and whatever else this was.

******

Officer Walker typed thoughtfully, thinking of how to add nuance to the story she was writing. She knew this wasn’t technically part of her job, but she’d finished all her admin duties, checked the subject’s vitals and memories, and needed something to do. The pre-programmed personalities were falling flat and hadn’t been able to keep Subject 12’s attention. She needed to keep his mind walking through a combination of positive and negative experiences, just like a real life would be, so that they could monitor real progress.

She was the youngest in her rank, having graduated college at 16 and finishing Academy training at 18. Sure, she was just six months on the job and her accelerated technical skills had landed her in a senior position, but the higher ranking officials had been doubtful of her ability to head a department at a young age, and placed her with monitoring Subject 12.

I mean, it’s not a bad job, she thought, remembering the long conversations with the handsome, knowledgeable man she shared a space with, during her shifts.

She silently reprimanded herself for thinking about this. Again. He doesn’t really know me… does anybody really know anybody else? Walker shifted her thoughts back to the job at hand, and reminded herself that Project Strella could not suffer under her watch. She would make sure of it. She wouldn’t let others’ doubts affect her, and she wouldn’t dwell on her own doubts long enough to let those keep her down either.

She glanced at the projection screen, which was a blank, black rectangle, right now, since the subject was sleeping. I mean, I guess he’s technically always sleeping, she thought to herself, feeling a bit sad about that thought. She picked up her worn copy of Romeo and Juliet and flipped through to some of her favorite passages. She put it down before she could get too caught up in the story, and looked at the book underneath, which was supposed to be a guide to Elizabethan England, and heard her dad’s voice reminding her: Get it together, Walker; there’s a job to do. She took a breath and continued typing thoughtfully as she sharpened and defined the program with lines of code.

******

Ryland sat in Mina’s living room, for the 10th time in the past few months they’d been dating. He looked around, the walls of her home were mostly white, except for one that was a deep red. The color of blood, he thought morbidly, or wine, if you’re not being dramatic. Mina was discussing her favorite Shakespearean plays and comparing it with some reality tv drama her friends had convinced her to watch.

Ryland was trying to listen but found his mind wandering. He’d had so many deep conversations with her, but then, sometimes, it felt like she was saying the thing he wanted to hear, instead of whatever she was really thinking. If she’s really thinking at all, he thought to himself, chiding himself for the unnecessarily mean thought.

He realized his gaze had wandered back to the red wall, and he looked back at Mina quickly, so she didn’t think he was ignoring her. He jumped as he looked at her eyes. They’d gone from a deep green to the same red as the blood-colored wall. He instinctively scooted back from her on the couch, stammering, “Wh– uhh– your eyes!!! Are you okay??” She blinked at him, tilting her head and bringing a hand up to touch around her eyes. “Yeah? I mean… What’s wrong with them? Did my eyeliner smear or something?” She got up and walked toward the large mirror over the mantel in the living room.

He didn’t know what to think. Yes you do, a voice resounded in his mind. It sounded like his voice, but older and wiser. Do I? He thought back to it. Look. Really look. It echoed in his mind. Look at what?! He asked in a panic, thinking of the blood red eyes of the girl, who was now looking at her face in the mirror. The disembodied voice didn’t answer him. She turned back around, having examined her face, and finding nothing out of the ordinary, apparently. Her eyes were still a deep, crimson red. “I’m — I — I should go, I’m just not feeling well,” he choked out. Grabbing his jacket and rushing out of her front door.

He could hear her calling out to him, but he just didn’t care. He felt this realization growing in him, mixing with the bold confidence like a fire in his chest of determination. He was walking briskly down the street toward his own home. He glanced at yards to his left and right, and quickly looked behind him as his pace picked up into a run. No one was following him, but he knew, he just knew he was being watched. His heart started racing and the warmth in his chest grew as his run turned into a full sprint.

He passed his own house, and despite knowing his parents would be inside, he felt no pull to see them. He felt cut off from everything and everyone he knew. He was only a body, only a mind. Only your mind can help you, now. They have your body, the voice whispered. He pushed himself, not physically, but mentally. He was physically sprinting, but he pressed his mind and began mentally sprinting. He allowed the warmth in his chest to grow and increase, until it felt like it would consume him. Maybe he should let it consume him. Being consumed was better than whatever this thing was inside him that made him feel so disconnected all the time. So stuck.

He closed his eyes, feeling the warmth in chest like a burning fire now, and letting it flow into his arms and legs. Instinctively, he jumped. He opened his eyes, not understanding why his feet weren’t hitting the pavement anymore. He was flying. He was flying over his sleepy little town. He didn’t feel that sleepy, fearful feeling weighing on his mind anymore. He had left that on the ground. He pushed out with his chest, putting his arms out in front of him, and flew.

Everything around him began to blur, and his eyes began to water, but he pushed harder. He felt a weight on his chest, as if someone was trying to press him down. He roared in anger at the invisible hands he knew were keeping him imprisoned in this place. He remembered his life before this hell they were keeping him in. I will get out! I will be free again! He pressed forward, with everything he had.

******

Subject 12 arched his back off the table, the Alien Life Support and Simulation Device on his chest glowing orange as it sparked. He roared a terrifyingly desperate sound as Walker worked furiously on the computer connected to a diamond-shaped, glowing instrument implanted in his chest cavity. She hit the Code Red button on the wall and barked orders at several medical staff who had run in when the device had started going haywire. “Hold him down!” she yelled, “You two stand on that side! Push hard! Give him more sedatives. I don’t care if he’s hit the limit, just do it, or he’s coming off this table. DO IT NOW!” she screamed as the subject came a full 2 inches off the table.

More military personnel had flooded the room, responding immediately to a Code Red. “PUSH!” she screamed again, as six full grown men and two women pressed their hands down on Subject 12’s body and attempted to push him back down onto the table. Two doctors worked off to the side of the flailing man, putting syringes of medications into the fluids that were connected to his elongated, lavender colored body. One doctor looked frantic as he finished unloading the syringes into the fluid bag connected to the lavender man. He walked over and jabbed a needle directly into Subject 12’s upper arm.

The vitals of the subject slowly came back down to normal levels. He floated effortlessly down onto the hospital bed. The screens returned to normal, flashing warnings receded, and the main screen reflected a projected mental image of the subject sleeping, as Walker finished coding the subject’s journey into brief images that the subject would accept as memories of how he’d gotten from one place to another.

She sat down in a huff, sweat pouring down her brow. She knew if one more thing had gone wrong, She’d have been punished severely. She might have even permanently lost her assignment. Maybe she should request a new assignment anyway. She glanced at the tall, lavender colored man on the table, now seeming to rest peacefully, as the device glowed a light green color. She’d gotten too close. Put too much of herself into the program. She brought out his feelings, but they had been too strong for the program to contain.

What about her feelings? Her heart ached but she tried to keep her mind in check. She was failing, and allowing feelings to get in the way of the mission. She scolded herself for the panic she felt, reminding herself that she was trained for this. Trust your training. Trust the greater purpose. She repeated the mantra that she’d heard since her first day at The Academy. She was serving a greater purpose, right? She felt a pang of sadness that threatened to overwhelm her. The potential disaster scenarios swirled in her mind again. What if… what if Subject 12 had died? Or worse. What if Ryland had woken up?

Bugging The Scotch (Tom Hanks) | Charlie Wilson’s War

Southern Fried Quail

Ingredients

10 to 12 quail
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 to 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Instructions

Dry and pick quail. Clean and wipe thoroughly.
Salt, pepper and dredge with flour.
Have ready a deep heavy frying pan with close-fitting lid half full of hot fat.
Put in quail. Cook for a few minutes over a high heat, then cover skillet and reduce heat. Cook slowly until tender, turning the quail when golden brown.
Serve on hot platter garnished with slices of lemon and sprigs of parsley.

How The New Russian Missiles Are Changing The Game

To describe a weapon system as a game changer on the battlefield is always open to be ridiculed. Many of the weapon systems that have been delivered to Ukraine were called game changing but failed to make any difference in the outcome of that war.

So why did I call the new Russian Oreshnik missile a ‘game changer’?

There are several reasons.

For one the missile with its 36 kinetic war heads is an unexpected response to the U.S. abolition of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Force (INF) treaty. The U.S. had hoped that the stationing of nuclear missiles in Europe might give it an advantage over Russia. Oreshnik denies that advantage WITHOUT resorting to nuclear force.

Any U.S. attempt to pressure Russia into a situation where it would either have to concede to the U.S. or to go nuclear has been demolished.

This is most visible in Ukraine. Over the two plus years of the war the U.S. has used a ‘boiling the frog’ strategy against Russia. It increased the temperature by slowly increasing the reach and lethality of the weapons it has provided to Ukraine. In each such step, the delivery of tanks, of Himars, of ATAMACs, of allowing Ukraine to use these on Russian grounds, was declared to be a move across imaginary Russian red lines. Each such step was accompanied by propaganda which claimed that Russia was looking into a nuclear response.

The aim was to push Russia into a situation where it could either make concessions over Ukraine or use nuclear weapons. The U.S. was sure that Russia would refrain from the later because it would put Russia into the position of an international pariah. By going nuclear it would lose support from its allies in China and beyond. It would also risk an all out nuclear war.

The strategy would probably have worked if Russia had not found an asymmetric response against it. It now has non-nuclear weapons, (the Oreshnik will not be the only one), which allow it to apply the equivalent of nuclear strikes without the dirty side effects of actually going nuclear.

Russia’s announcement that future Oreshnik deployments will come under the command of its Strategic Forces -which so far have only been nuclear. This is a clear sign that these new weapons are seen as having similar strategic effects.

The kinetic concept of the Oreshnik payload is not a new one. Mass times speed is the amount of destructive energy these can deliver. [Comment correction for my sloppy writing: Force equals one half the mass multiplied by velocity squared. F = 1/2 m * v^2] Being hypersonic and hitting the targets with a speed of Mach 10 allows even small penetrators without explosives to have very strong, explosive like effects.

In the early 1980s president Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative included several attempts to introduce kinetic weapons. ‘Rods from God‘ (and later ‘Brilliant Pebbles’) were conceptualized as kinetic darts to be launched from satellites to hit Soviet ICBM missiles:

A system described in the 2003 United States Air Force report called Hypervelocity Rod Bundles was that of 20-foot-long (6.1 m), 1-foot-diameter (0.30 m) tungsten rods that are satellite-controlled and have global strike capability, with impact speeds of Mach 10.The bomb would naturally contain large kinetic energy because it moves at orbital velocities, around 8 kilometres per second (26,000 ft/s; Mach 24) in orbit and 3 kilometres per second (9,800 ft/s; Mach 8.8) at impact. As the rod reenters Earth’s atmosphere, it would lose most of its velocity, but the remaining energy would cause considerable damage. Some systems are quoted as having the yield of a small tactical nuclear bomb. These designs are envisioned as a bunker buster.

None came from it. The envisioned penetrators had to be too large and too heavy to be positioned in space. The huge ‘telephone pole’ size of the penetrators was need because these would burn up during the hypersonic flight through the atmosphere.

The penetrators Oreshnik is using are much smaller.

Russia seems to have solved some general physical problems of objects flying at hypersonic speed. In March 2018 Russia’s president Vladimir Putin announced the introduction of several new weapons designed to penetrate U.S. missile defenses. One of these was the hypersonic glide vehicle now known as Avangard:

The use of new composite materials has made it possible to enable the gliding cruise bloc to make a long-distance guided flight practically in conditions of plasma formation. It flies to its target like a meteorite, like a ball of fire. The temperature on its surface reaches 1,600–2,000 degrees Celsius but the cruise bloc is reliably guided.
…
We are well aware that a number of other countries are developing advanced weapons with new physical properties. We have every reason to believe that we are one step ahead there as well – at any rate, in the most essential areas.

I have since been looking for what ‘new physical properties’ or principles Russian scientist might have discovered to solve the problems of guided hypersonic travel within a plasma envelope. Nothing has come up so far. But the fact that Oreshnik is using relative small guided projectiles at hypersonic speed makes it likely that the new physical properties or principles the Russians discovered have also been applied to this weapon.

Until those basic scientific discoveries become known in the west there will be no chance for it to make weapons that can match the characteristics of Oreshnik and Avanguard.

Oreshnik is, so far, a non nuclear weapon with a limited (5,000 kilometer) range. But there is nothing in principle that hinders Russia from equipping an ICBM missile with similar non-nuclear capabilities. It would make non-nuclear strikes by Russia on U.S. grounds, or more likely on U.S. foreign bases and aircraft carriers, possible.

But those facts, and their consequences, have yet to penetrate the minds of western decision makers.

Even after the Oreshnik strike happened the U.S. continued to pin prick Russia by guiding Ukraine to fire ATAMAC missiles against targets in Russia. Yesterday the Russian Ministry of Defense announced, uncharacteristically, that two such attacks had taken place:

On 23 November, the enemy fired five U.S.-made ATACMS operational-tactical missiles at a position of an S-400 anti-aircraft battalion near Lotarevka (37 kilometres north-west of Kursk).During a surface-to-air battle, a Pantsir AAMG crew protecting the battalion destroyed three ATACMS missiles, and two hit their intended targets.
…
On 25 November, the Kiev regime delivered one more strike by eight ATACMS operational-tactical missiles at the Kursk-Vostochny airfield (near Khalino). Seven missile were shot down by S-400 SAM and Pantsir AAMG systems, one missile hit the assigned target.

Militarily these strikes are irrelevant. But they demonstrate that the U.S. is still trying to ‘boil the frog’ even after it has escaped from the vessel. Russia has, according to Putin, several Oreshnik and similar weapons ready to launch.

The potential target for such missiles are obvious:

MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/. The US missile defense base in Poland has long been considered a priority target for potential neutralization by the Russian Armed Forces, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated during a briefing.”Given the level of threats posed by such Western military facilities, the missile defense base in Poland has long been included among the priority targets for potential neutralization. If necessary, this can be achieved using a wide range of advanced weaponry,” the diplomat said.

Russia has closed the airspace over the Kapustin Yar missile range until November 30. Kapustin Yar is the test range from which the Oreshnik had been fired.

As there is no defense possible against Oreshnik type weapons Russia could announce a strike on the U.S. controlled Redzikow base in Poland days or hours before it would take place. As the strike would be announced, conventional in type and would cause few if any casualties it seems unlikely that NATO would apply Article 5 to it and to hit back with force.

Such would become a moment where the boiling of the frog would start again but this time with the U.S. being the frog inside of the vessel. Russia, by hitting U.S. bases in Europe by conventional means, would increase the temperature day after day.

Would the U.S. dare to go nuclear over this or rather retreat from its plans to defeat Russia?

Posted by b on November 27, 2024 at 12:45 UTC | Permalink

Namibian President Humiliates German Diplomat Lecturing Him about China

You experience life, and how you behave changes

When I lived in the United States, I lived a “normal” life.

What that meant was eating fast food often, pizza take outs, and when there was an opportunity to cook at home; well, it was simple fare.

We ate spaghetti, hotdogs with sauerkraut, hamburgers and tuna. An occasional meatloaf, baked chicken and lasagna were not unheard of.

We drank a mixture of coke-cola and coffee most of the time, and beer when we had weekends.

This is typical American behavior.

My have things changed.

Today, I live a typical Chinese lifestyle. Home cooking is usually a rice with port ribs, chicken, and my favorite; tomatoes with ground meat. We tend to drink wine or hard alcohol with it. We are VIP members with some of our favorite restaurants.

I would say that a monthly normal meal would consist of oysters with wine.

While, back when I was living in the United States, my monthly normal meal consisted of some chicken wings and beer.

And that is how things work. You experience life, and how you behave changes.

Change.

Look at the food you eat, and learn how much you have changed.

Today…

“Many Underestimate Beijing”: China is Ready for a Trade War with the US and Has Already Selected a Number of Effective Measures

Zhuhai Airshow 2024 is Scary: China’s Animated Minefields & Huge Submarine Drone

Just Call me Al

Submitted into Contest #150 in response to: Write a story where an algorithm plays an important role.… view prompt

Sharon Hancock

“Well, Son, your mother was on a lot of drugs and your head was so big.” At least Dad was somewhat apologetic. Mom….not so much.“Thirty-six hours of pushing that enormous head of yours out my love hole and you wanna complain about your name?”Yes. I want to submit a formal complaint about my name. My parents didn’t think things through when they named me. You see the problem with calling a kid, Algor, when his last name is, Rithm , right? (Stop laughing, Joe! Go drink a cup of yourself!)First of all, a name like mine comes with certain expectations. Even in kindergarten, people expected me to be smart. Let’s just say, it was a struggle. Although, I know I wasn’t the only one because we talked about this very thing in my, “People with Unfortunate Names Support Group”.“You’re right, Al. It was much better to have the opposite problem. I liked proving people wrong after they assumed I was stupid just because my parents misspelled my name on my birth certificate,” said Naive Lee.“I can’t really blame my last name on my parents since they had to deal with it too, but come on! Couldn’t they have gone with something simpler for my first name?” Poindexter Smartypants shook his head and covered his face with his hands.It was nice to be around others who’d suffered because of their names, but I had to quit a few weeks back when they started doing the same thing they complained about. Everyone in the group had gotten together without me to come up with an idea they wanted my help with.“As you know, Al, this group has always been about making a difference and affecting change in the world.” Rich Moneypenny, who started the group out of his parent’s basement where he lived, announced his proposal.“Yeah, dude, like totally. You know, like you’re the only one who can do this for us, and stuff.” M.B. Sill, added before he zoned out watching an ant crawl up the wall.“We’d like you to come up with a plan, of sorts. You know, like a recipe or a series of instructions to help people come up with better names for their children. A…what did we call it again?”“An algorithm. You’d like me to develop an algorithm. Because my name is, Algor Rithm, you think I’d be best at creating an algorithm.” My voice dripped with sarcasm, which upset both of the Asm twins, Sark and Org, for some reason.I left that meeting in a huff and I haven’t been back. I missed the outlet for venting the emotional trauma caused by my unfortunate name, though so I called my friend, Pepper and invited her over. We talked and played Mario Kart until we got hungry.“I don’t know why, but every time I hang out with you, I crave pizza.” I laughed and she ordered the grub.When the pizza arrived, we both went to the door.“I’ve got a Pepper Roni?”“No. Neither of us eat meat.” I said as the guy furrowed his brow and examined the receipt.“I’m Pepper Roni.” Pepper reached for the pizzas, but the guy moved them out of her reach.“No, it says here, these are both veggie specials. No pepperonis.”“Maybe we should order pizza under my name from now on.”“Oh yeah? What’s your name?” Asked the pizza guy who finally relinquished the goods after Pepper showed him her driver’s license.“Algor Rithm.”“Hey, maybe you can look at my computer sometime.”I shut the door in his face, but not before I noticed that his name tag read, “Dick”.I could’ve been a little more understanding, considering the group and the pizza guy weren’t entirely off base with my abilities. It’s true, I do work in the computer industry. Maybe my name wouldn’t be a problem if I’d gone into a different line of work, like, say, interior design or vacuum cleaner sales. But, in the computer design industry, my name can be confusing.Why, you ask. Well, it’s mostly because people in my office say my name hundreds of times a day. And just like anytime someone says your name, my ears perk up when I hear mine. Every. Time.I don’t always hear the other words people say, but I hear my name. Take for instance the incident from last Monday. Sally, who sits in the cubicle next to me, requested help with her project, but all I heard was my name.“Algorithm…”“What?”

“ALGORITHM”

“WHAT?”

“Do you have it or not?”

“Do I have what?”

“The algorithm”

“I AM RIGHT HERE.”

Of course, our brains have a great ability to adapt, right? So, that’s what my brain did for a while after I started working there. It got to where I didn’t answer every time I heard someone say, “algorithm.” That was nice for a while, but then that backfired and became a huge problem when someone—the highest ranking someone—did, in fact, require my immediate response.

“Algor Rithm. Anybody seen him?”

“Algor Rithm!”

“Algor Rithm!” Are you over there?”

“Algor Rithm, the boss says that new program you designed is crashing.”

“Algor Rithm!”

At one point, everyone in the office was chanting my name while I happily ignored them. Don’t ask me why no one took the time to actually stand up and walk over to my desk, but that’s human nature, isn’t it?

Luckily, Sally finally shouted, “AL!”, and got my attention. If she hadn’t done that, I’m certain I would’ve been fired. Most likely, Tech Savvy would’ve pounced on the opportunity to show me up to the boss.

I guess, when I look at it a different way, I kind of appreciate my name. After all, there are unseen biases that occur when someone looking to hire people see my name on my resume. I mean, would you rather hire someone named, Algor Rithm, or someone named, Sharon Crack? Sure, maybe Sharon has a doctorate. Maybe she goes by, Dr. Sharon Crack, but does that really make it any better?

Sometimes, a name’s reputation doesn’t have anything to do with the actual name. Marco Polo didn’t start out being an awesome game to play in the swimming pool. Nellie hasn’t always come after the command to, “woah”; and Dick doesn’t always refer to a penis.

What I mean to say is, in this life, we get to create our own lives. It’s up to us to make our names memorable in the ways we desire.

That being said, I’d still like to caution expectant parents on name-selection strategies for their progeny. As it turned out, I went back to the support group with the algorithm they requested.

1. Select a name for your child well before they are born. Do not wait until you or your wife is under the influence of pain medication and pushing out a watermelon-sized noggin to make this important decision.

2. Run the name past some honest folks, like maybe a group of kids. Nobody will be more honest than a group of kids.

3. Get someone to spell check your name selection.

There’s probably a lot more I could add to this algorithm, but expectant parents don’t often take well to extensive instructions. It’s because of that, I believe, that poor Fanny Cooter got stuck with her name. In cases like that, we can all be thankful for the loophole that allows any of us to change our names if we so chose.

As for me, I’ve learned to adjust. But, for future reference, please…just call me Al.

This Is What The US Has To Say About China’s New Missiles

What would it mean for the UK economy if the US imposes a 20% tariff on all imports, and a 60% tariff on China?

Tariff on foreign countries, actually the entire world = rob foreign countries forcing them to feed USA.

Have you seen a mafia in movies such as god father?

Inside USA, tariff on foreign country = tax increase on Americans because foreign sellers will add the tariff to the price of their exported goods to USA.

In Trump 1.0, 80–90% of tariff was added to the sale price by foreign sellers. That is 1 reason why there was inflation in USA in Trump 1.0 & Biden era.

Analysts suggest countries to fight back & break even. Trump tariffs on imports to USA; countries tariffs on exports to USA with the same amount.

We must understand: 60% tariff on Chinese imports & 20% on smaller countries is crazily unreasonable. Not many firms can make 60% of profit. Small firms cant make 20% at all. Nobody will do business with no profit. Hence, decouple & stop selling to USA is the only option.

In fact, decoupling may be a plot of Trump 2.0. Trump may want USA to start all over again by manufacturing its own products from toilet paper to Trump’s campaign cap to washer etc. Trump wants everything made-in-USA.

US wage is higher than southeast Asia. That is Made-in-USA is more expensive. Then USA better increase Americans wage to catch up with inflation.

Trump 1.0 failed to attract US investors back to USA. Some still stayed in China. Some moved from China to, say, Thailand to put a finish touch on the Chinese products. This disguise of made-in-Thailand products also push up the American consumer price.

Let us watch Trump 2.0 to roll out.

Picture Porn

A Psychological Analysis of Trump’s Personality by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson | EP 492

Will African countries that benefit from China’s elimination of tariffs increase their exports to China?

For centuries, the West has regarded Africa as a source of raw materials, disrupting Africa’s value addition. Their negative impacts are so profound that even after independence, many African countries struggle to catch up with industrialization. Today, the development of this continent is still overlooked by Western countries.

Africa is home to more than 1.5 billion people, 43 percent of which lack access to electricity. But Africa has also abundant renewable resources. Most of the African countries are in need of investment in energy and to diversify the source of energy. China plays a leading role in the global new energy sector and is now expanding its reach into the African market in advanced green technologies.

Since the start of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, China has committed itself to helping improve partner countries’ industrial capacity. Currently, there are more than 3,500 Chinese enterprises operating in Africa. By 2023, China has helped build more than 50 industrial parks in Africa. These gigantic centers for manufacturing and logistics have spurred growth in their host countries and led many to believe that Africa could well be the world’s next manufacturing factory.

“When the U.S. leaders visit Africa, they talk about China, but when Chinese officials visit Africa, they talk about trade and development.”

From a purely economic perspective, Africa is a potentially lucrative market for China. With its under-served market and booming population, the scope for expansion into Africa offers huge potential for Chinese firms.

This is particularly true now that the African Continental Free Trade Area (which was established in 2018) opens up the possibility of cross-border value chains developing in Africa.

Most of the goods that China imports from Africa are natural resources. Many of these resources have strategic relevance, for example, in manufacturing batteries. In return, Chinese companies export a wide range of goods to Africa, including manufactured products, industrial and agricultural machinery, and vehicles.

In terms of foreign direct investment, Chinese companies are still only the 5th largest investors in Africa after their Dutch, French, US and UK counterparts. But their ascent has been relatively quick, and while Western companies are focused on resources and the financial sector, Chinese ones also invest heavily in construction and manufacturing.

China plays a leading role in the global new energy sector and is now expanding its reach into the African market in advanced green technologies. Through various cooperation projects, Chinese manufacturers have introduced domestic technologies to Africa and shared their experience to contribute to Africa’s industrial progress.

The main difference from Western nations is that China doesn’t use Africa for geopolitical purposes, nor as the recipient of so-called China’s industrial overcapacity. China is partnering with Africa to boost its traditional industry capacity by introducing new and high-tech know-how and building future-oriented green projects to achieve a win-win result.

China in Africa: Challenging the Western human rights narrative

Historically, Western countries have subjected Africa to centuries of brutal colonial rule and blatant racial discrimination. Even to this day, some Western countries continue to interfere in the internal affairs of African countries through financial, legal, sanction-based, and even military actions.

In contrast, China adheres strictly to the principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal matters. And China speaks for the rights of Africans at the UN.

Brian Berletic: Trump Drops Cabinet BOMBSHELL—WW3 with Putin, Iran & China Next?

What are your thoughts on medical accommodations for law school? Do students with learning disabilities benefit from things such as separated testing areas or increase test times in the long run? Does this potentially harm the legal field?

This question appears to rest on an underlying assumption that law school exam conditions approximate the conditions in which lawyers actually practice law.

That proposition is very very untrue.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not necessarily against the idea of having a big exam serve as a gatekeeper to the profession. I don’t think it’s the only way to do things, but I don’t think it’s a bad way. But it’s important for that exam not to unfairly punish folks. If things like separated testing areas or increased times mitigate that risk, fine.

In reality, there are very very few exam-like scenarios after the Bar exam. What I’m calling an “exam-like scenario” is where a lawyer has to rely on their general knowledge of law to answer a specific question on a short timeline, without the availability of any reference materials.

Although short timelines do exist sometimes, there are always reference materials available. Electronic materials at least, but often “materials” in the form of more experienced and knowledgeable colleagues are available. Moreover, once a lawyer actually starts practicing, their area of specialty usually becomes somewhat narrow. It’s not like they’re going to have to answer a question on Constitutional law, then a question on civil procedure, then a question on negotiable instruments, then a question on intestate succession.

To the contrary, lawyers tend to add value not necessarily by answering discrete questions like this at all. A client comes to a lawyer with an amorphous bunch of facts, not all of which the client necessarily appreciates the significance of, and the client wants to achieve a certain outcome (or at least avoid a certain outcome). The lawyer finds a way to do that as best as possible.

That’s how a lawyer provides value to a client, not by doing something that looks like a law school exam.

FLASH: “Russia-US relations are at breaking point”

Hal Turner World February 10, 2025

For days, word has been seeping-out that the US and Russia have been communicating behind the scenes, at the Department Level, regarding primarily the Russia-Ukraine conflict. At least one time during this process, Presidents Trump and Putin spoke with each other. Today, something bad happened.

For some reason, not yet known, Sergei Ryabkov, the Deputy Foreign Minister, stated today “Russia-US relations are at breaking point.”

Ryabkov said Russia repeatedly voiced that Moscow-Washington ties are “balancing on the brink of a rupture,” and that the administration under former President Joe Biden “bet on a hybrid war” with the goal of inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia.

He also commented on US President Donald Trump’s team, saying that despite contradictions in their statements, they at least show interest in resuming dialogue with Russia.

“We are ready for dialogue, as we have stated repeatedly, including discussions on a settlement in Ukraine. But this can only happen on an equal and mutually acceptable basis,” he added.

The deputy minister emphasized the need to recognize the realities on the ground and address the root causes of the crisis for any resolution.

“We have previously mentioned that there is at least a small window of opportunity for normalizing Russia-US relations under the Trump administration. Whether the US seizes this opportunity depends entirely on them,” he said.

Ryabkov also warned against the use of ultimatums and aggressive rhetoric in negotiations with Russia.
“The language of ultimatums, provocative statements, and attempts to make us accept unrealistic demands in exchange for supposed favors will not work in relations and dialogue with Russia,” he said.

Forgotten Chicken

Forgotten Chicken is a great fast and easy recipe! I have made this with chicken tenders, and it’s great. This is also known as “No Peek Chicken.”

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups white rice, uncooked
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 soup can water
Chicken breasts or thighs
1 envelope dry onion soup mix

Instructions

Mix rice, soups and water.
Pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
Lay chicken on top of rice mixture.
Sprinkle chicken evenly with onion soup mix.
Cover tightly and bake for 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees F.

What are some current issues and disputes concerning Taiwan?

Ever since the Kuomintang fled to Taiwan after its defeat in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the Taiwan question has been delayed for too long and has reached the stage where it must be resolved.

If you can see the essence clearly: in Taiwan’s problems and disputes, the worst party is the United States, and the United States is the biggest obstacle.

Taiwanese people have no objection. After the reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, Taiwanese people will live their lives as usual, students will go to school as usual, and employees will go to work as usual. Their lives will not be affected in any way.

Behind those politicians in Taiwan is the US government, which is manipulating the Taiwan independence elements behind the scenes to interfere with the reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Who are the PLA’s military manoeuvres for? For the United States, of course..

Trump’s tariffs are bad news for everyone

Yes. Terrible.

Is there currently a trade war between China and the USA? If so, who is expected to win and how long could it potentially last?

Yes, there is a trade war between China and the US. It’s been 5 years.

Trump started it during his first term. Biden intensifies it.

Trump’s tariffs were to balance the trade deficit. Biden’s tariffs are protectionism.

The centre of the trade war is technology. This takes the form of US sanctions.

Trump threatened to cut off supply of semiconductors to China if it did not abandon MIC 2025. His most vociferous was against Huawei. Biden’s sanctions are comprehensive, drawing on all kind of excuses and extraterritoriality.

Bottom-line

China has built its own semiconductor industry. Will be market leader on both the demand and supply side next year in 2025, and likelihood of net exporter come 2027. Huawei is world’s No.1 in 5G communications. Smartphone business is back to growth path on its own 7nm chips and HarmonyOS.

Biden’s sanctions fail to arrest the forward march of China’s tech. Sanctions help it built resilience and self-reliance. It is gaining leadership in the new tech, especially in green tech. Great strengths across the supply-chains through to applications.

Trump said he will raise tariff to 60% or higher. But effect on China’s growth is marginal. China’s exports to the US are less than 2.5% of GDP.

Not sure what Trump will do on the tech side. His sanctions pool may be quite dry.

China has been light on the sanctions game. Bans export of a few rare earth minerals, puts several US companies on its unreliable entity list, and it has wide powers under the Regulations on the Export Control of Dual-Use Items.

Despite the light touch, the bans on the rare earth minerals have made waves in the US defence industry, raises costs, disrupts production schedules, and delays deliveries of many projects.

China has a deep sanctions pool. It could play rough especially as the US become less and less relevant to its economy.

Who wins in the trade war?

Both sides lose.

China finds opportunities in the war, expands its trade with other countries, and builds its resilience and self-reliant.

US has been fired by hubris. It could suffer more, even though it is mostly hidden, save for the outcries by the tech industry. It could be serious when it hits Wall Street, and when inflation hits the people’s pocket.

How long will it last?

A long time.

US started it. This behooves it to take steps to end it. But minds have been poisoned. No politician dares contemplate it, much less suggest it.

China has no incentive to make the first move. Adjustments will make it water under the bridge. International events will give it advantage in the balance of strength.

International events include growth of BRI and BRICS, and dedollarisation.

Why have Americans chosen a bunch of cynical plutocrats to run their country? Their problem. Should we now look to China for world leadership?

The American people have no real choice. The US political system is rigged to favor the corporate capitalist elite.

Moreover, the US has two major parties that are hardly distinguishable, except in the area of social issues such as abortion and immigration. It was Julius Nyerere who famously quipped: “The United States is also a one-party state but with typical American extravagance, they have two of them.”

So regardless of who is in power (Democrats or Republicans), the result is the same from the perspective of foreign policy and corporate interests. The American people will continue to be neglected (homelessness, gun violence, poor health care, poor education, crumbling infrastructure, drug addiction, mass incarceration, etc.). The country will continue to fight overseas wars and antagonize other countries militarily (e.g., Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Hamas, China-Taiwan). The country will continue to sanction other countries by weaponizing the US Dollar.

We can and should look for leadership from China. And we’re getting it. That’s what BRICS and SCO are about. That’s what BRI (Belt and Road) is about. Peace and common prosperity for the entire world.

Neil Oliver: A Seismic Event!

Shorpy

Sponge – Wax Ecstatic (To Sell Angelina)

Zero-sum Game

Submitted into Contest #150 in response to: Write a story where an algorithm plays an important role.… view prompt

Suma Jayachandar

Part A- This is not the beginningLife here is brutal. You are either a zero or one. Civilizations may want you to believe there are intermediate levels. But they are just being kind, and blind to their past. I don’t have such proclivities; I believe in stating the facts.Part B- The bitThe bit took birth someplace between a city and a village called a town. Her culture demanded that she be a sweet, yielding, and pliant…well a person, if such a thing were possible. So, she stuffed her mind with a bit of education, an algorithm to stay out of trouble, and a stack of socially acceptable manners. All the while her true nature roiled in the recycle bin, never finding full expression. It kept manifesting at times as malfunction and system slowdowns but the byte took care to bring it back on its track. Of course, with a strict warning- if she did not know how to conduct herself, she may just remain at the perpetual position of zero. So, she continued to fill up her dutiful role and waited patiently. She did meet many chips on the block while doing so and wondered if they had any transformational power. There was a gate to the world beyond, and it was arranged by the byte as it was customary in due course of time. She just hoped it was not a NOT gate. And she didn’t dare to dream of an OR gate.Part C- The new byteShe discovered after crossing over to the new byte, that her partner may be an AND gate but there were a few NOR gates in the chip. It took her years of yielding to even hope to jump to the position of one. A couple of extra bits she and her partner had welcomed gave her so much joy, that she was content to be a zero- for some time. Soon, she was at the crossroads and had the wisdom come to her in a flash. If she didn’t dare to jump then, she would end up as a cleared cache like so many before her.She looked for ways to change her values, jump gates, and outsmart the circuits. It took her all her wits, strength, patience, and well… ruthlessness. I am not the one to sugar-coat facts.She did jump to become One. The position adored and advocated as the only one that should be aspired for, and truly matters- by the machine. Yeah, the same machine that is a network of peoples, ideologies, nations, and other blah things. At times, I wish nature was at its core. But well, it is what it is.So, coming back to the bit. She climbed, claimed, and reigned the realm that she had dreamed of when she was a child- before she was told about the position she should put up with if she knew what was good for her.And stayed there. For a while.Part D- The arrayThe bits and bytes can play their roles supremely well…to their finest abilities. But they are only as good as the array they are stacked in. And the arrays are at the mercy of the commands that they receive from the hands that have appropriated the keyboard. There are many theories as to how the keyboard/mouse/joystick got passed around from prehistoric to present times. But let’s not go there, it’s a messy code.As of now, arrays have pretty much chalked out their domains. These domains are as fancy as they come; democratic, autocratic, or even anarchic. Their denizens are drilled to the core about their sovereignty and righteousness – as if that means anything in the natural order of things!Let’s come back to the bit that we started with. The bit did so well in her circuit and gave such quick returns to the array whenever called for, that she became one of the few exponents noted by the control panel. Her name was whispered in the upper echelons and her position was sealed among the national assets.Part E – The machineIn nature, everything has come from nothing and hence should go back to it, eventually. It’s a cycle as unerring as syntax. The machine thinks it can control it. But some things are beyond its reach. Only, it is insentient to it.Ignorance gobbles goodness like a tiger pouncing on a deer; nothing cruel, just the natural impulse. History will always print the map of human ignorance preying on its good sense. This map, when drawn and breathed into life by the arrogant architects of the machine, has the power to reformat civilizations. When such an occasion arises, the brilliant bits, the arrays they have aligned themselves to, and the domains they are a part of, have no alternative but to carry out the intended pogroms.In short, a decent bit can be turned into junk if the machine commands so.Err… in case you forgot what a machine is, please loop back to part C.

Part F- The crash

A machine can take only that much corruption in its system, malicious propaganda, and loss of memory of earlier mistakes before it gives up for good. Garbage input, garbage output. There is no escaping that.

The bit and other kindred sparks did try their best to keep this from happening. But they were too scattered, insignificant, and wishful.

So, one day, when the powers that be decided to overheat the system, the machine did crash. And all its machinations went poof…

Part G- This is not the end

Well, before you can accuse me of being a cynical bystander, let me reassure you, that this is not the end. It’s just an intermediate output in the n^th iteration of the zero-sum game. As Time, I have been a witness to it from the beginning.

In a few million years, there will be a rise of a new breed of machines, once again. They will begin with magic and wonder, and try to reinvent themselves before subscribing to a staunch belief that there never existed a smarter system…

And of course, you and I know how this game is going to play out… don’t we?

How will Peru’s Chancay port transform the Pacific trade?

My friend Song, also a Chinese reporter, requested to visit Chancay Port during his business trip in Lima, Peru ahead of the APEC meeting. But his request was declined and he was told a lot of preparations were underway and the site is somewhat chaotic. It means the inauguration of the port is of remarkable significance.

Chancay port is BRI project developed by China’s Cosco Shipping. It is a US$1.3 billion deepwater port. After its grand opening, the transit time to Shanghai will be slashed from 35 days to 25 days, cutting costs for exporters who currently rely on routes through the Panama Canal or the Atlantic Ocean. CGTN reports:

“Strategically located as Peru’s gateway to the Pacific, the port is connected to the Pan-American Highway via a tunnel, providing direct access to Peru’s capital Lima. As the first “maritime expressway” into Latin America, it will enable faster and more cost-efficient transport of Peruvian exports, such as cranberries and avocados, to Asian markets. It’s projected to generate $4.5 billion in annual economic benefits for Peru, equivalent to 1.8 percent of the nation’s GDP, while creating thousands of direct and indirect jobs”

The port will integrate the entire Latin American region into the dynamic economic framework of the Asia-Pacific, greatly bolstering connectivity within and beyond the continent.

China Is Creating The Biggest Military In The World

Which countries do not have tariffs on imports and exports from China?

Several countries have reduced or eliminated tariffs on imports and exports from China due to free trade agreements (FTAs) and other trade arrangements. These agreements often cover a wide range of goods and services, and the specific details can vary. Here are some examples of countries that have favorable trade agreements with China, leading to reduced or zero tariffs on many goods:

Countries with Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with China

Australia The China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) eliminates or reduces tariffs on a wide range of goods.
New Zealand The China-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement removes tariffs on most goods over time.
South Korea The China-South Korea Free Trade Agreement significantly reduces tariffs on many products.
Chile The China-Chile Free Trade Agreement eliminates tariffs on most goods traded between the two countries.
Costa Rica The China-Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement reduces or eliminates tariffs on various goods.

Regional Trade Agreements

ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) The ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement reduces tariffs on a wide range of products traded between China and ASEAN member countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam).

Comprehensive Trade Agreements

RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) This agreement includes China and 14 other countries in the Asia-Pacific region (Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam). It aims to gradually reduce tariffs on a broad range of goods.

Special Economic Zones and Bilateral Agreements

Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions of China, enjoy special trade arrangements with mainland China, often involving zero tariffs.

Notes on Trade Agreements

European Union While the EU does not have a comprehensive free trade agreement with China, it has various sector-specific agreements and tariff reductions on certain goods.
United States The trade relationship between the U.S. and China is complex, with various tariffs in place. However, specific agreements and negotiations can lead to tariff reductions on particular goods.

Considerations

Changes in Trade Policies Trade policies and agreements can change due to political and economic developments. It’s essential to stay updated on the latest information.
Specific Product Tariffs Even within free trade agreements, there may be exceptions and specific rules for certain products. Detailed tariff schedules should be consulted for precise information.

For the most accurate and up-to-date information, consulting trade authorities, official government publications, or trade experts is recommended.

Sec of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth / Col Douglas Macgregor Reacts

Worth the time to watch.

Cheesy Spaghetti Bake

This is a real winner as far as comfort food goes!

Ingredients

1 pound spaghetti
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
1 pound ground beef
1 (24 ounce) jar marinara sauce
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
In a bowl, mix together cream cheese and sour cream until smooth. Set aside.
In a skillet, cook ground beef over medium heat until browned.
Drain excess fat. Add marinara sauce, garlic powder and Italian seasoning to the beef. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper.
In a baking dish, layer half of the spaghetti, followed by the cream cheese mixture, beef sauce and half of the mozzarella cheese.
Repeat layers. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until bubbly and cheese is golden brown.

China Announces 100% Zero-Tariff Treatment for Afghanistan | This will change everything!

What was the best relationship advice you ever got?

Never date your ex,(s)he became your ex for a reason. Your ex belongs to your past, move on.
Never hope on marrying someone when almost 70% of their family members don’t like you. The probability of the marriage not lasting is very high and you’re probably not going to enjoy the relationship.
There is a distinct difference between dating for love and dating for sex. Always understand the main reason why you’re venturing into a relationship.
Never fall in love when you are lonely, the consequences are going to be a harsh one.
As long as it is still a relationship, never reveal your full potential or secrets to whoever you are dating.
Your personal development should come first before relationships. People who you are in relationships with can still leave you but you can never leave yourself, meaning never compromise your adventures and dreams for anyone.
Avoid relationships that seems to be too good to be true at the beginning. When the other person is rushing things too fast, don’t get carried away with romance and sex. Slow down and be careful because this is how people get hooked on to narcissistic partners.
Never date someone that gives commands and doesn’t respect you. The probability of emotional abuse is very high.
Never date anybody that doesn’t know how to give but knows only how to take.
Never date anyone with the mindset of changing their character, attitude, and behaviours. Remember, you can never raise an adult!

What is the purpose of China having a large number of aircraft carriers despite not bordering many oceans or seas? Is there a strategic advantage to having these ships?

FIRSTLY WHY NOT?…

WHY ARE YOU NOT BOTHERED WITH OTHER COUNTRIES WITH LARGE FLEETS OF AIRCRAFT CARRIERS BUT CONCERNED WITH CHINA’S FLEDGLING FLEETS?

WHATEVER MILITARY TECHNOLOGY AND EQUIPMENT, INCLUDING NUCLEAR WEAPONRY, THEY ARE MEANT TO DETER ANY WOULD-BE AGGRESSORS/INVADORS AND CHINA WILL NEVER ALLOW ANOTHER HUNDRED YEARS OF HUMILIATION UNDER THE THUMB OF FOREIGNERS ESPECIALLY OF THE AMURIKKKUNT’S KIND…

THE ADVANTAGE OF THESE SHIPS IS THAT POSSESSION OF THEM WILL MAKE WOULD-BE AGGRESSORS THINK TWICE BEFORE EMBARGING ON THEIR WAR OF AGGRESSION ON CHINA…

I’m an ordinary tooth.

Submitted into Contest #150 in response to: Write a story where an algorithm plays an important role.… view prompt

Fomichi Fomichi

I’m an ordinary tooth.

Not tall, not short, not flat, and definitely not sharp. I’m inconspicuous as my senile grandpa used to say.

It was one of those dry mornings at Red School when our class was preparing for a test for test’s sake. One of the front teeth bent down to the red board and wrote some cribs under the hooting of the class. My fellows from the last row and I were not participating in that circus. We had an unspoken agreement with our old and chubby teacher, Mr. Blue Toothbrush. He did not bother us, and we mutually did not disturb him. While he was polishing and adoring the front teeth year after year, we were quietly watching Foodball on an ipalate under the desk. Or playing with parsley, pieces of caramel, and other treasures that Tooth 26 occasionally revealed from his backpack.

This time Mr. Blue Toothbrush was running late. I imagined him somewhere outside moving with the speed of an anesthetized tongue, trying to remember his duties. How long had we known him? For ten years I assume. His smooth blue skin was tinted with brown pigments, and all but one of his hair fell out of his rectangle head. Sometimes we were waiting for him the whole evening, and he would tell us that he had forgotten to come to class. And sometimes, instead of two productive minutes of hard work, we had less than twenty seconds as he had fallen asleep in the hallway.

We did not know what kept him so long this time. Tooth 27 claimed Mr. Blue died but I did not believe it. Teachers do not die, they are replaced. Our ex-teachers, Mrs. Purple, was accused of having an affair with another man’s mouth. Her reputation died, though she did not.

My buddy Tooth 25 had another theory. He remembered the time when our Lord kissed a Lady. We were invited into her White Palace that day. Even though our principal Mr. Tongue blocked the view, we eavesdropped on the conversation between the front teeth and a cute little fang of the Lady. She told them that her teacher. Mr. Electronic Toothbrush, was genius. The guys and girls from the last row, as she claimed, were as bright as the front teeth. Those sweet speeches made poor Tooth 25 hope that our Lord would hear our prayers and send us a substitute teacher. Again, I did not have high hopes for that. Our Lord is not powerful and definitely is not capable of doing rational things. When I was in the fourth grade, he guided fingers from another class directly into the power socket. That was a big fire on their floor that spread up to us. Sharp waves of electricity cut our enamelled bodies to pieces and gave us post electric flashbacks whenever we smelled iron. But Tooth 25 was one of those for whom a mouth was always half full.

In fifteen hours’ time, our teacher was still not in the class. The fog of voices changed from a whisper to the seagulls’ screams. The front teeth were slowly turning into Munch’s paintings with each second of the teacher’s absence. I opened a history class book from extreme boredom and scammed the pages until the images of ancestors stared at me. They were sharp, giant, and able to tear the flesh apart in a glimpse. Do you know what we can do? Eat boiled broccoli. When our Lord gives us BBQ, we eat it for half an hour in the best-case scenario.

We are bunch of sissies. I would never…

Oh my…!

Tooth 26 dropped a piece of caramel. Tooth 25 squealed like a boy who saw one of the BTS singers in the crowd. The avalanche of the mint aroma filled the class as an angel came down to us. In the vibration of Tooth 25’s pitchy voice, we were rubbing our eyes. A new teacher, Ms. Pink Toothbrush, entered the class. Her tiny white feet were not touching the ground as she was walking. Our Lord had heard our prayers indeed! I winked to Tooth 27 but he did not notice me. He was busy taking pictures of her and creating a fan club on the ToothBook.

Her graceful fragile movements made her swim to the right and left. She gave a smile to the white front teeth and to us. Her pink eyes straighten my ever-frozen-in-boredom posture. She paused and posed a question about our ancestors. The class was silent. They had never read the class book ahead, but I did. First time in thirty years, I raised a hand up in the air. Was it the moment the Fang of the Lady had told us about? The equal opportunities? Was it…?

She glanced at me and flinched. I noticed it. Every muscle on her pink neck wrinkled, revealing small dark circles. Her warm lips turned into a hot, tense blood line.

– How dare you talk? – the devilish voice crawled inside my ears and echoed there like in a giant empty temple. – And what’s with your clothes?

What is wrong with it? I panicked. All twenty-nine teeth stared at me from the amphitheatric rows in silence. The rare sound of caramel crunch was heard from Tooth 26’s direction.

I froze in the upright position, watching the exaggerated reflection of Ms. Pink in the saliva. Her predator pink eyes were scanning my tiny body. She heavily headed toward me, pushing other teeth aside, spreading the stiffing mint scent. The closer she came, the more intensively I tried to rub the black holes off. She made the last leap and stretched her sharp bristles to my chin. They grabbed me in the suffocating cage, lifting me to the light, in which my skin was yellow, almost orange.

– Dis – gus – tin – g. – Her whisper bruised my enamel, shaking my whole calcified body in convulsion.

She laughed and waved hands like a director in the orchestra. The rest of the class played along nervously, filling the red classroom with malicious ridicule. Tooth 25 avoided my eyes. Tooth 27 was covering his black spots, while streaming my face on JawTube. The white hands of the teacher were moving faster, forcing the class laughing harder. Her giant pulsing body was fluctuated above me like a pink punching bag.

It’s not fair! I have never chosen sitting on the last raw

The wave of tears covered my cheetah skin.

It’s not my fault I have patched clothes!

Sudden camera flashes from phones of my classmates blinded me.

It’s not my fault I have another skin colour!

I made a motionless leap and punched Ms. Pink in her rectangle smiley face.

The laugh dissolved in the scream of falling teacher. The blinding white spots disappeared from my sight as the classmates dropped their flashy phones. I saw Ms. Pink, who was convulsively moving on the floor. A shiny tip of caramel protruded from her breast and shimmered in a gloomy red light. The stinky mint bloody slime appeared underneath, covering our roots. Swearing and sweating Tooth 26 poured the sweet crime evidence in the rivers of saliva. The front teeth took pieces of teacher’s body, made a Xena’s cry, and threw a pink chakram to our direction. I could not dodge that though I dodged the Fate.

***

The monotonous husky voice of Mr. Blue Toothbrush took me away from Morpheus’ arms. I cautiously rubbed and opened my eyes. The bold head of Mr. Blue was jumping up and down in front of the half empty class. A cold bitter calcium ball arose in my throat.

– Where are Teeth 26 and 27? – I desperately shook a chair of Tooth 25

– Lower jo voiz down, man – Blue-faced Tooth 25 turned around.

– What happened? – I interrogated, staring at Tooth 25’s blue wounds.

– They jo all dead, man – his voice trembled – The police arrested the 26th when they found the caramel, man. The 27th was accused of complicity or something. They were drilled to death, man. The blood was everywhere – he pointed at the front teeth with iron handcuffs – those are in prison for two years and we’ve been sentenced to penal servitude. – he paused, observing the body of mine – How did jo escape, man? Wasn’t it jo who killed Ms. Pink?

– I don’t…

– Who could tell me the definition of an algorithm? – the remote voice of Mr. Blue interrupted me.

– If they did not notice me that time, – I slowly whispered, looking at the helpless figure of the teacher, – there is a chance they would not catch me again, don’t you think?

– Don’t smile like that, man – Tooth 25 moved further from me and looked at other teeth for help. Nobody glanced back.

– You know what my wise grandpa used to say? That I am not tall, not short, not flat, and not sharp. He thought it was a curse. But you know what? – He just didn’t know how to use it as the advantage.

– You should know the answer! It will be on the test – Mr. Blue Toothbrush petted one of the front teeth with a fatherly love.

– You’ve always wanted to meet Mr. Electronic Toothbrush, right? – I moved the chair of my buddy closer to me and whispered – but the only one way to get him is to kill the ones that are on our ways.

– I don’t like it, man – Tooth 25 nervously shook his head – I thought you did not believe teachers can die.

– They don’t. They are replaced. – I raised my arm.

– All right, young man – the lack of other volunteers convinced him to talk to me – What is an algorithm?

– Come closer, teacher – I smiled. – I’ll show you an example.

The Producers – Springtime for Hitler and Germany

What is the first thing you should do after you move to Singapore?

Moving to Singapore? There are endless things to study, write down, and put up on the fridge “a long list of what is allowable to do and consequences of not doing so.”

To begin with, check out where the bins are as throwing a cigarette butt in the wrong place is a $300 fine

Next, learn the culture of the queuing system as you need this on your every encounter starting from ordering coffee where only the ‘ uncle’ with supersonic memory knows who comes first and comes last (though with 20 people waiting but no visible Q)

When the coffee uncle ‘raises his eyebrow’ at you- it’s your turn to order… Better be quick!

Furthermore, talking unnecessarily is a sign of an unsound mind- short and sharp to the point is preferred ( in every encounter- don’t believe? you may get a reply, like ” I don’t have all day to listen to you, know!”)

Humming a song’s lyrics in public is not the norm, (with the exception of Filipina maids ) do that in your bathroom or at Swift’s concert only.

ATMs are for one transaction only- if not a person behind would tell you “ Hello, I am losing my patience with you. If you don’t know how to operate this machine, get out and let other people use it!”

Finally, when walking the dog, look out for a vigilante watching you if you clean your dog’s poops… if not, the police will soon appear at your door with a smile.

What if, you walk five dogs at once?

Last but not least, don’t forget to smile when a CCTV from 109,000 of them snaps your photo speeding-

Know this: if you speed 120 km/h on 50 Km/h speed limit road, you can say goodbye to your driver’s license for a long-long time.

Forgetting to pay the traffic offense fine? go straight to court and prepare to pay a higher fine of at least $1,000 or 1,500 bucks on the hearing day or go straight to jail.

There are so many things to learn after you move to Singapore- know the first thing or one thing means nothing in the country where many noble-minded live.

Had a Visitor Last night

Hal Turner World November 16, 2024

My son and I were out on the rear deck up here at our rural Pennsylvania home around 6:45 PM last night, when we heard a visitor on the lower half acre . . .

Yesterday, I had the local landscaper guys come over to do the final leaf-blow and grass cut for the year. The property is all nice, clean and neat again.

My son and I were out on the rear deck when, from the south, we heard rustling in what would be our nearest neighbor’s property. Whatever it was made noise as it walked through all the leaves on our neighbor’s property.

Suddenly the rustling noise stopped. I said to my son, it either stopped moving, or it is now on our property where there are no leaves.

We waited a minute or so, and my son looked out from the deck and whispered, “Dad, a Deer” and pointed. Well, my eye sight isn’t nearly as good as it used to be so I couldn’t see it with the rear deck light on, as I looked out into the darkness.

My son moved to the north end of the deck, took out his phone, and started taking pictures. One of the clearest is the one you see above.

This was a Buck. He has very small Antlers protruding from his skull.

We walked back into the house and I shut the living room lights off so we could look out the large Bay Window which overlooks the lower level and the creek that runs along the eastern border of our land. Turning off the lights did away with the light reflection on the inside of the windows and, sure enough, I saw him.

I caught the EARS first because apparently the fur in them is white or at least reflects some light. He was staring right at us in the living room window!

I waved at him. He reared-up and took-off running!

What a difference being out here in the country, versus being in North Bergen, NJ where our primary residence is.

I like it here, better.

Why is China hiding 700 billion dollars?

Professor Finds First Physical Evidence Egyptians Drank Hallucinogenic Cocktails

By Cassidy Delamarter

A University of South Florida professor found the first-ever physical evidence of hallucinogens in an Egyptian mug, validating written records and centuries-old myths of ancient Egyptian rituals and practices. Through advanced chemical analyses, Davide Tanasi examined one of the world’s few remaining Egyptian Bes mugs.

Such mugs, including the one donated to the Tampa Museum of Art in 1984, are decorated with the head of Bes, an ancient Egyptian god or guardian demon worshiped for protection, fertility, medicinal healing and magical purification. Published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, the study sheds light on an ancient Egyptian mystery: The secret of how Bes mugs were used about 2,000 years ago.

“There’s no research out there that has ever found what we found in this study,” Tanasi said.

“For the first time, we were able to identify all the chemical signatures of the components of the liquid concoction contained in the Tampa Museum of Art’s Bes mug, including the plants used by Egyptians, all of which have psychotropic and medicinal properties.”

The presence of Bes mugs in different contexts over a long period of time made it extremely difficult to speculate on their contents or roles in ancient Egyptian culture.

“For a very long time now, Egyptologists have been speculating what mugs with the head of Bes could have been used for, and for what kind of beverage, like sacred water, milk, wine or beer,” said Branko van Oppen, curator of Greek and Roman art at the Tampa Museum of Art. “Experts did not know if these mugs were used in daily life, for religious purposes or in magic rituals.”

Several theories about the mugs and vases were formulated on myths, but few of them were ever tested to reveal their exact ingredients until the truth was extracted layer by layer.

Tanasi, who developed this study as part of the Mediterranean Diet Archaeology project promoted by the USF Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture and the Environment, collaborated with several USF researchers and partners in Italy at the University of Trieste and the University of Milan to perform chemical and DNA analyses. With a pulverized sample from scraping the inner walls of the vase, the team combined numerous analytical techniques for the first time to uncover what the mug last held.

The new tactic was successful and revealed the vase had a cocktail of psychedelic drugs, bodily fluids and alcohol – a combination that Tanasi believes was used in a magical ritual reenacting an Egyptian myth, likely for fertility. The concoction was flavored with honey, sesame seeds, pine nuts, licorice and grapes, which were commonly used to make the beverage look like blood.

The original mug next to the successfully created 3D digital version. (USF Communications)

“This research teaches us about magic rituals in the Greco-Roman period in Egypt,” Van Oppen said. “Egyptologists believe that people visited the so-called Bes Chambers at Saqqara when they wished to confirm a successful pregnancy because pregnancies in the ancient world were fraught with dangers. So, this combination of ingredients may have been used in a dream-vision inducing magic ritual within the context of this dangerous period of childbirth.”

“Religion is one of the most fascinating and puzzling aspects of ancient civilizations,” Tanasi said. “With this study, we’ve found scientific proof that the Egyptian myths have some kind of truth and it helps us shed light on the poorly understood rituals that were likely carried out in the Bes Chambers in Saqqara, near the Great Pyramids at Giza.”

The Bes mug is on display now at the Tampa Museum of Art and can be viewed in the exhibition, “Prelude: An Introduction to the Permanent Collection.” View a 3D model of the Bes mug produced by the USF Institute for Digital Exploration.

Can you explain how an import tax (tariff) works? If we impose one on Chinese imports, what would happen if they increase their prices or stop selling goods to us? Would this have a greater impact on them or on us?

Thanks you for asking! The truth is 100% of Asians knows how tariffs work but less than 10% of Americans knows and that including Donald Trump! And he seems proud that he can easily lie to the Yanks! That tariff’s is a tax on China! it is not at all paid by China!

If you buy a stuff from China say at USD 100 per unit, when the US set a tariff on Chinese products say 50%! The US importer of the said product has to pay USD 100 for the same product without change but it now has to pay USD 50 on tariff to the US customs. The cost to the US importer now becomes USD 150! He will pass on the 50 dollars tariffs to the US consumer! So who pays for the US tariffs on China? The US consumer does ultimately, even though the US importer will initially pays for importing the said Chinese goods!

China lose nothing at all unless either the US manufacturer can produce it locally I which it clearly can’t at the same price and quality as the Chinese product or the importer can find a similar product from another nation to replace the Chinese products. Chances is you cannot! In that case the US consumer will pay a higher price and this cause US inflation to increase. Chinese manufacturers are fine they don’t incur the extra cost! And if one stop buying Chinese goods China can always sell it to other nations!

Most nations wants the best products at the optimum price for their citizens and that is why 150/195 nations on earth has China as their biggest supplier! After the first round of trade war by Trump and Biden some crafty Vietnamese and Mexican traders imported the same Chinese products and slapped a made in Mexico or Vietnam label and transshipped it to the US incurring zero duties! They made a quick buck that the US consumer pays for the charade! On paper Mexico now’s sells more to USA but in reality the same products are still made in China!

China don’t lose anything, even if less is sold to the UD it is no longer a big deal. The US is a big market but when you sell to 179 nations one do not much at all. But chances is the US demand don’t reduce too much since there is not competitive producer that can match China!

So the real lose are US consumers and sadly they are mostly the poor and the middle incline class in the US that suffers the most! I don’t think Trump gives a shit about them!

The Partridge Family | The Partridge Papers | S2EP22 FULL EPISODE | Classic TV Rewind

Damn! I wasted so much time watching this stuff…

The white kitten surprise

Major system breakdown in MM land.

My VPN was “collapsed” by the Chinese government, and I had to switch to another one. (Nothing personal. Probably shut down because of some abuse one way or the other.)

Most of my data-collection websites are American and thus inaccessible in China without a VPN, as well as all of my business communication. So my links (for the most part) are simply inaccessible.

So I purchased a replacement VPN.

But it couldn’t load. My system is in Lunix, and to load the drivers and software, I had to do it manually. Which I attempted. I did so using three different methods.

Sadly. All were flat fails.

It turned out that my system had a lot of interconnect junk code, and orphaned code, and broken packages that were messing everything up.

So, what I did was backed up everything. Then sync my phone and computer for all my passwords and bookmarks. Then I downloaded the latest version of my Lunix OS.

Here’s a screenshot of my desktop.

I use my generated AI artwork to serve as background for my PC. Lots of “schmaltz” but I like it.

As of this writing, my VPN is still not functional. I need to set up servers (which is something that I have never done before.) And flush out the general parameter bases from which to proceed from, but I am confident that I’ll get it resolved eventually.

Anyways, because of this, and the time that I am taking to deal with this, this particular post and next series of posts will be a little bit lean.

Sorry in advance.

…

I once went on a job interview in Deland, Florida.

I was interviewing for a design engineer position designing sonarbueys.

PerspectX Stage.999.jpg2fca6af5 79d2 44f0 a932 95ad1a77a2a2Original

These are devices that are injected into the ocean to detect the movement of vessels and other parameters.

I liked the work. Enjoyed the people. Loved the environment. Deland, Florida looked so much like Hattiesburg, Mississippi that I immediately felt at home there.

Deland, Florida was lush, comfortable and lovely.

My wife and I spent a week there, house hunting and getting to know the area.

However, as much as I loved it, we turned down the job. As they “low balled” me in salary by 40%. I probably would have accepted a 15% cut in pay. But not a 40% cut. That was just way too much.

Anyways…

I well remember one random rural walk alone early in the morning. I had taken a road that turned into a dirt side road near a fenced in property line.

And I heard mewing.

There must have been somewhere like 16 to 18 all-white kittens.

Not one litter, must have been a couple of litters, but there they were all white, and a ton load of them, and they all wanted my attention.

It was the darnedest thing.

What a coincidence!

I don’t know what it signified, or anything like that, but it did make an impression on me. Here were these 18 or so all-white kittens in the lush green foliage all wanting my attention. What could that mean?

I have some thoughts.

But…

*sheech*

Cool thing, though.

Today…

Trump REVOKING Security Clearances ! ! ! !

Hal Turner Nation January 20, 2025

President Donald Trump has Revoked the Security Clearances of ex-National Security Advisor John Bolton and intelligence officials accused of misleading 2020 election activities.

The White House says Bolton’s memoir risked exposing classified material and damaged trust in national security discussions.

This order is part of broader measures addressing “abuses of public trust.”

Here is the complete list FLASHED over Intel Circuits:

(1) James R. Clapper Jr.

(2) Michael V. Hayden

(3) Leon E. Panetta

(4) John O. Brennan

(5) C. Thomas Fingar

(6) Richard H. Ledgett Jr.

(7) John E. McLaughlin

(8) Michael J. Morell

(9) Michael G. Vickers

(10) Douglas H. Wise

(11) Nicholas J. Rasmussen

(12) Russell E. Travers

(13) Andrew Liepman

(14) John H. Moseman

(15) Larry Pfeiffer

(16) Jeremy B. Bash

(17) Rodney Snyder

(18) Glenn S. Gerstell

(19) David B. Buckley

(20) Nada G. Bakos

(21) James B. Bruce

(22) David S. Cariens

(23) Janice Cariens

(24) Paul R. Kolbe

(25) Peter L. Corsell

(26) Roger Z. George

(27) Steven L. Hall

(28) Kent Harrington

(29) Don Hepburn

(30) Timothy D. Kilbourn

(31) Ronald A. Marks

(32) Jonna H. Mendez

(33) Emile Nakhleh

(34) Gerald A. O’Shea

(35) David Priess

(36) Pamela Purcilly

(37) Marc Polymeropoulos

(38) Chris Savos

(39) Nick Shapiro

(40) John Sipher

(41) Stephen B. Slick

(42) Cynthia Strand

(43) Greg Tarbell

(44) David Terry

(45) Gregory F. Treverton

(46) John D. Tullius

(47) David A. Vanell

(48) Winston P. Wiley

(49) Kristin Wood

(50) John R. Bolton

Two signatories, Patty Patricia A. Brandmaeir and Brett Davis, are deceased.

Comments

The US Empire is stubbornly persisting in its delusional belief that it can swim against the tide of History and just assert the reality it wants, rather than adapting to the reality that is. As the old adage goes, those the gods would destroy they first make mad.

Posted by: Sandgropper | Oct 25 2024 10:44 utc | 2

What was your most surprising interaction with a drill instructor?

When I was at the bus station in Charlotte, NC in 1972, on the way to basic training, my Dad, an active-duty Army Sergeant Major, hugged me and told me to just do my very best and not to be worried about anything, just do my best. I was 5’10” and weighed about 120 lbs., not exactly a perfect physical specimen. I took my Dad’s advice and did everything in my power to graduate as high as I could in my class.

While going through, our Senior Drill was a SFC Peter, a man I will never forget, as he challenged me in ways I didn’t know existed. As we were setting up our wall lockers early in basic he walked by and looked over my shoulder. We were allowed exactly two photos of family and I had both posted on the inside of my locker; a picture of my family and a picture of my Dad in uniform. SFC Peter’s only comment was a grunt before he moved on to the next trainee. Toward the end of basic he told me he was putting me in for Trainee of the Cycle, an award that came with an automatic promotion if I won. My answer, like so many there, was, “YES, DRILL SERGEANT!” at the top of my lungs.

Well, I won after going before a board consisting of the company commander, the executive officer and the First Sergeant and, upon graduation was promoted to PFC (E-3). At the graduation I was 5’11” and weighed 175 lbs! After graduation, I moved over to greet my family and noticed Dad had showed up in his dress uniform. Well, SFC Peter walked over and hugged my Dad. Turned out Dad was SFC Peter’s Sergeant Major in Vietnam. Dad had no clue he was my Drill Sergeant.

SFC Peter’s favorite thing to do was tell the troops that they could wear their hair as long as they wanted, so long as it wasn’t longer than his, and he was bald as an egg!

So that’s my encounter with my Drill Sergeant. Hope this answers your question.

Pepperoni Pizza Soup

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 can condensed tomato soup
1 soup can water
2/3 cup sliced pepperoni
1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning, crushed
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Croutons

Instructions

In a 2 quart saucepan, combine soup, water, pepperoni, and seasoning. Heat just to boiling.
Pour into serving bowls, and top with cheese and croutons.

BRICS Summit Results — The Vector Has Been Set, But There Will Be No Easy Path

Hal Turner World October 25, 2024

Vladimir Putin’s press conference following the BRICS summit turned out to be the perfect finale to the event. Because it listed the main points of the past event — as well as the difficult points that need to be addressed.

First and foremost: in BRICS, as the president emphasized, it is possible to work and achieve results with mutual respect and mandatory consideration of each other’s interests. This is an absolute plus: 35 states and six international organizations took part in the summit. But such equality places increased demands on the quality of dialogue and mutual trust.

All the predictions about who would be accepted into BRICS this time were not confirmed — because no one was accepted. Instead, a category of “partner countries” emerged, which included Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda and Uzbekistan. There were difficulties with Venezuela (Brazil opposed) and Pakistan (India opposed).

Putin openly commented on this situation, recalling that the issue of admission to BRICS, like all others, will be decided by consensus. The non-expansion of BRICS in itself is not a problem. The risks of uncontrolled expansion, when each member has a de facto veto right, have been written about earlier. But the Kazan BRICS summit showed that the expansion of the bloc will not happen automatically.

An alternative financial reality also did not appear at the click of a button – and this is again nothing unexpected. Because the Western “frog” of dollar hegemony needs to be simmered over low heat, without any sudden movements. The more imperceptibly the preparatory phase of global reforms, the most risky in this case, goes, the better. Strategic considerations for BRICS’ own reinsurance and the “BRICS Clear”cross-border settlement and depository infrastructure were voiced, and the rest of the practical work will be carried out between the finance ministries and central banks of the participating countries. And it will be quiet.

The course towards gently squeezing the West out of existing global mechanisms (IMF, WTO) was confirmed — instead of trying to cut the issue “off the cuff.” Naturally, because right now there are no resources for such an attempt, and the depth of consensus between the BRICS countries is insufficient.

The issue of Ukraine was of secondary importance at best. BRICS participants politely acknowledged the importance of striving for peace — and nothing more. The long-awaited attempts by China, India or Brazil to “force Russia to peace” were not announced.

In general, what BRICS is trying to do, no one in the history of mankind has probably done. Reassembling the world into a fairer format is an extremely difficult task in itself, especially in the context of cruel and even existential resistance from a decrepit but still strong hegemon.

At the same time, the summit in Kazan showed the most important thing: there is a huge demand for a new world order in the world. This idea is shared by a wide variety of countries: from the economic leader China to Cuba and Ethiopia. But the formalized, concretized contours of this world order are still absent.

This is exactly what should become Russia’s main task in the near future – to create and offer the world a clear, logical, consistent image of the future, in which everyone will be better off.

We cannot tempt the whole world with resources and money. Russia is a rich country, but it cannot provide for everyone. We cannot direct the world to a bright future with an iron hand – even if such a desire arose. But we are able to offer humanity an idea that it will be carried away by.

In the 20th century, we already had a very successful attempt of this kind. The BRICS summit is a material embodiment of a new attempt, taking into account the changed realities. We have started not a sprint, but a marathon. In order to succeed, patience and calculation of strength are needed.

This article written by: Elena Panina

Comment 1

Iran joining BRICS does not mean that Russia or China or anyone else will come to its defense should the U.S./Israel attack the country

That’s also incorrect. Russia and China already signed a treaty that is an alliance in all but name only. Same for Russia and Iran. Russian ships suddenly visit Caracas and park offshore whenever the US starts babbling about invading it. For some reason, “The House of Socialist Fishermen” in Venezuela seems to have a knack for catching all the paramilitaries, color revolutionists, CIA mercenaries and agents the US seems to send to Venezuela for regime change. * cough Russian intelligence cough *. On the other side of the world, the unified SCO – BRICS ‘global security’ paradigm is also an alliance in everything except in its name.

Also, Asia Times is not a non-biased source – it frequently publishes pieces that actually help the US policies, so it downplaying BRICS does not make BRICS any less important or impactful.

The simple reason for India openly doing what it was silently doing and publicly pivoting to BRICS is that the BRICS cemented itself as a new global paradigm that can protect itself. Including, by using weapons.

Posted by: Dodrey Dougherton | Oct 25 2024 11:33 utc | 11

Comment 2

The list of BRICS candidates is quite impressive with ALgeria, Indonesia, Nigeria, Malaysia, Cuba, etc.

The west against the rest of the world when the west will be a minority in term of populations and economies.

Contries of the world, unite!

To destroy the 5 century old western hegemony (a history of submitting, looting, massacring and genociding).

Posted by: Naive | Oct 25 2024 11:38 utc | 12

Comment 3

India just had too looks at the neighboring countries to know what the west is ready to do to keep the whole region as a punching ball for China. Pakistan ? Coup against Imran Kahn , Bangladesh ? Coup , Sri-Lanka ? Economic assassination by the IMF , Myanmar ? Perpetual civil war engineered by the West for decade kept them under, Thailand ? Chronic political instability fueled by NED’s “NGOs”…

But here came that Russian dude with cheap oil and efficient weapons against “the hegemon’s armies” to sell , and with the road from China to Eastern Africa, Indian merchants are becoming rich as before the English came to ruin their country …

Why did India choose the BRICS ? Because the Anglo-Saxons have sold them only war against China in a lousy “alliance” after having drive them into misery for two century. They have seen the fate of Zelensky and Western European countries, also plundered since the 90’s. Now they will have to brace themselves for a bit on the financial markets but still ; a better option than fighting with the Chinese.

Posted by: Savonarole | Oct 25 2024 12:05 utc | 21

Symbology

As noted by Simplicius, the BRICS 2024 meeting kicked off on a very symbolic date: October 24.

October 24, 1945 was the date of the signing of the UN Charter. It was also the date of execution of the Norwegian WWII collaborator Vidkun Quisling, whose name will forever mean ‘traitor’.

October 24, 1945 was beginning of a new era led by the UN. Maybe we will come to see that October 24, 2024 was when the relay baton was handed over from the UN to BRICS.

Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 25 2024 12:05 utc | 22

Linkage on BRICS

https://tvbrics.com/en/
This is the official media outlet dedicated to BRICS news. English language. Enjoy

Posted by: Hankster | Oct 25 2024 12:21 utc | 25

It’s all going to shit in the West

alas, much expectation about BRICS will continue for decades. During this time Brics will not be bothered by what is now failing and devoured by entropy. But one thing is clear, there is no going back to the threat of the dollar destroying all that touch it.

Midas learned a lesson that rings true today.

And please beware, people that get their knowledge and expertise from the western press are delusional now. They repeat tropes that haven’t been accurate for a few decades and are disintegrating before our lying eyes. Sadly, these pundits hold on for dear life regarding what they want to happen, and take the smallest of clues to heart and continue the willful blindness.

The forest for the trees issue of perception.

Even when they know the source of their contamination is a think tank that doesn’t think but hopes to influence or dreams to rule. The currency backed by nothing always fails and history delivers the truth of it.

And greed will continue after the BRICS have abandoned the prognostication to those that just can’t believe it could happen. Watch the purchasing power falter and fade. 50+ years now of ignoring the inevitable.

Grab one of those trees and hang on tight. Change is forever.

Posted by: Tard | Oct 25 2024 12:48 utc | 31

Western Media

In the western merdias there is always the same propaganda: we the democracies, them the dictatorships…

Let’s see:

– when the president is supported by less than a quarter of the citizens it is a democracy;

– when the president is supporter by more than 50% of the citizens it is a dictatorship;

– when everything is done to enrich the wealthiest it is a democracy;

– when everything is done to put out of poverty the majority of the people it is a dictatorship;

– when a government gives the ressources of the country to western companies it is a democracy;

– when a government uses the ressources of the country for its own people it is a dictatorship.

For dictatorships, hip hip hip hourrah!

Posted by: Naive | Oct 25 2024 11:29 utc | 10

When is the American empire going to collapse? Is it close to becoming a reality?

It is in the process of collapse.

The collapse of an empire is not like a “light switch”. It is a long, drawn-out process. It is like a boiling frog. The frog doesn’t realize it’s in danger until it is too late.

Now, any historian can tell you that collapses are slow at first and then sudden.

For the United States, in particular, the collapse came in major stages. And we are at LATE STAGE FULL COLLAPSE.

…

Do I need to elaborate?

The “leadership” is a dementia ridden puppet of drug-saturated oligarchs with delusions of grandeur. His replacement is either neocon “giggles” Kamila Harris; which BTW checks off all the “important” boxes of woman, minority, and pro-woke agenda. Against her is charismatic narcissist Donald Trump.

Harris thinks everything is just fine, and she will continue the United States warmongering until the cities glow in the dark. While Donald Trump sees the damage. He knows the danger, and he has a plan to do something. Oh, his plan is faulty. And if all he has been saying comes true about social security, and tariffs, we will probably see a civil war.

So there you have it.

Harris = Nuclear war, and the destruction of the world.
Trump = American civil war with a global economic collapse.

Lovely.

…

The water line is now lapping on the deck of the ship.

The owners, and their minions have gotten into the rowboats early on, and are now safe.

The “leaders and their entourages are stealing everything in sight. Crime, and fraud is out in the open. The sailors are openly hacking down doors and safes with fire axes and stuffing handfuls of swag.

And the mice and rats and scrambling amongst themselves. Some leapt off the dying vessel and landed on the bits of flotsam and jetsam that are circling the dying behemoth. Passport Bros, Venture capitalists, and multiple passport holders. Unique terms for what is “the great escape”.

The stewards in charge of Public Relations are busily rearranging the deck chairs.

…

But the end is near.

Really, really close.

Military pensions haven’t been paid in half a decade. Debt is at an unsustainable level, and now the government cannot even make payments on the interest of the debt. The USA is NOT NOT NOT a healthy nation. It has been dying, and now is in ECU.

There’s no way out.

No way; none. None what so ever, can this debt be repaid. The USA is going to default, and that is the best solution. The only thing other than that is what the “leadership” has planned. And that is…

…death by cop.

And isn’t that what we are watching?

What real President would engage the United States in a four front war? With Russia, AND Iran, AND North Korea, AND China. (And don’t waste your time telling me that this is not the case. I didn’t waste nearly four decades in the ONI to listen to some woke pimply faced shit-poster giving me nonsense.) The United States has troops in various roles are designed to initiate a global world war. And they are very active in it.

It’s a death wish.

You can be the most red-blooded ‘Merican, out there, but surely you aren’t that insane.

But your leadership is.

The end is gonna be exciting, and spectacular. And You will have a front seat to it.

Shorpy

The Interior Life of Ruck

Submitted into Contest #243 in response to: Write a story from the point of view of a non-human character.… view prompt

Ajay Sabs

I backpack.Named Ruck. Store person put me on shelf. She say I “handsum”. I not know what it mean, but she make happy face when she say, so must be nice thing.Nothing to do while I sit here but lots to look at. After I see sun come up from outside window two times, I feel little bored. I feel little empty, like I hungry.But I not wait long. Young man come, he look at me. He lift me from shelf, take me to store lady, who ask him if he want me “in a bag”, which make them both laugh. We go outside, he sling me on back. What a feeling! I move so free! I then rest on his back. I still empty, but it feel nice to use my straps. We go forward, away from store.I miss nice store lady but I like outside more. I like being on back.

—

Owner name Kafka, I hear him say. I learn Kafka a “uhcountant”. He work with numbers. He use heavy machine to help make sentences from numbers. At end of each sentence, he take short break, then start next sentence. He write lots of number sentences on machine. I think one day he write book (book is like many papers, put together with gloo), like ones I carry, or ones I see at his home.

We spend lot of time together. Every time we go out, it new “uhdventure” (fun work, but makes no money) for me. Kafka not tell me where we go, I find out right before we leave home. It fun game for me to guess where we go from the things he give me to carry. When he bring his uhcountant things, I know we go to office. When I carry snacks, water, spray for “bears” (animals that hike but not carry backpacks), I know we go hiking. When I empty, I know we go get food from store (different store than where I from) to keep at home. I not eat store food. I not hungry when I carry things.

Hiking my favorite.

—

While Kafka at work, I read the things left inside me. Sometimes these are small things I can read, like receipts and snack labels, but they interesting because they important enough for me to carry, so I read them to learn why so important to Kafka that I work hard to carry and keep for him. I not upset, I just wonder, because I have lots of time to think while we at his “office”.

Mostly I read his books that I carry. But because he an accountant, his books are more numbers than words. So I think I slow to learn words. I like words, because they give me way to understand Kafka and to think better. Numbers not help me very much yet.

Books heavy, but are my favorite thing to carry. I read them and read them again.

—

At work today I read a very different kind of book. This one didn’t have many numbers in it. And it was very different than the accounting books I normally read. It was more of a fun story, but I don’t know yet if the story is true or not. It was about a wizard boy named Harry, and if it is true, then I wonder if Kafka has any friends from the school of magic. How fun and curious it would be to meet someone who has a bag that can store as many things as it want. I’d like to meet that bag, what a fun trick! Sometimes when I’m so full that I can’t fit anymore, I feel a bit bad because I know Kafka needs me to carry more. He gently squashes all his other stuff down to make room for more stuff, and I feel guilty. I would like to learn how to make more room. Unlimited room! I have much to learn.

If not a true story, then I wonder why someone would write it?

—

When we don’t go to Kafka’s work, I carry stuff that feels different. Like today we went on a picnic and we brought along “homey” things (things that are softer, things that feel like they are from home, borrowed from home, and when you have them with you, you feel like home is with you).

I carried a soft blanket, a “journal” (a book that Kafka sometimes writes his stories in, but ones with no numbers), a pencil, sunglasses, a little bottle of lotion, a salad with separate dressing (it took a lot of effort to keep the “dressing” upright!), some napkins, and an empty bag. Not a bag like me, but a smaller one, a plastic one that seemed disinterested in whether it was carrying books or garbage, whether it was empty, or wrinkled to death with folds.

While we were lying on the blanket at the park — I feeling a blissful stillness in a sunbeam, feeling alive from the earthy tree air that travelled across us slowly — Kafka made a new friend who was also laying in the park, a blanket and a patch of grass away from us.

“I’m Kafka”, Kafka said, flashing a smile.

“I’m Jeannie”, she smiled back.

I wonder a little if Kafka knows my name. It was a nice day, lots of work and lots of play.

—

Sundays are crisp and best enjoyed when they begin in Kafka’s “Dodge” (a type of car that is used for going to and from the city), and are followed by a day-long hike.

Car rides are as fine as paper towel, but truth be told, I am still not used to facing forward while also moving forward. It’s a strange sensation, perhaps like a human walking backwards while facing forwards. But knowing that we’re about to spend the day hiking is enough to distract me from the strangeness.

This morning though, I was in a bad mood.

Usually seated in the first-mate seat of Kafka’s Dodge, keeping him company, I was demoted this morning to an afterthought in the backseat on account of new company. Not even in the middle backseat, where at least the three of us would form an equilateral triangle, reassuring by virtue of its equity and impartiality, but rather in the seat behind Jeannie, furthest from Kafka, where I’m forced to stare at the back of the chair that used to be mine.

Sitting there, behind the open window instead of next to it, the gush of air tumbling into the back seat, crushing me with the force of its weight, made me want to “vomit” (when you hurl the contents out of your body because you don’t feel well).

I tried to look mad by squishing my face the way I sometimes see Kafka do, but my attempt at shapeshifting was futile, because I’m too much on the outside who I am on the inside, which is rumpled stuff. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because the sanguine rockmelons upfront were preoccupied laughing at unfunny jokes.

When we got there, wherever there was, Kafka heaved me out from the backseat. Determined to not willingly become part of a scalene love triangle, I made myself as heavy as possible and Kafka grunted.

But it’s an odd thing. Despite my resolve to weigh down the buoying levity of their romance, to bring it back to earth, something got the better of me when we began hiking. My work began, the work of keeping their possessions safe and present, and my bitterness dissolved into the solvent air of the forest. I am a sentimental creature, easily overcome by the poetry of sticks, twigs, trees, and earthy air.

I felt bashful of the jealousy I felt earlier, but I also felt reinvigorated, filled as much with purpose as I was with pasta salad, the two counting on me. I am the difference between well-prepared loving adventurers, and once-lovers torn apart by nothing other than the mundane rational problems of unpreparedness.

Later, all of us tired, we plopped down on a jagged rock whose redeeming quality was that it was large enough to seat us all in a forest that had no other chairs. We needed a break from the sun and the walking, and from the bugs too, but enamoured by our company, the bugs insisted on taking a break with us.

Like a magician with their trusty hat, Kafka pulled out whatever it was that they needed; snacks, hydration, and afterwards, we all laughed at things that are only funny when you feel an overwhelming lightness.

—

We hiked everywhere. For a whole year, here, there, everywhere, even across the ocean, where people spoke languages I’ve never read (though often the numbers looked the same there as they did back home).

I could tell you of forests and cities; of ships, planes, trains, and bikes; of heat, of wind, of sand; of bugs and of birds. But there was one moment in particular while we were hiking off the Ligurian coast that was revelatory for me, when a truth about my kind gobsmacked me over the hood.

As with most prophetic moments, it happened simply, without ceremony, and only in retrospect do you realize that it was something you’ve been waiting to know. And often that realization is an answer to why you are the way you are, and why you sometimes inexplicably feel alone in the company of others. (Or so I’ve gathered from the books Kafka and I have read, I don’t have many revelations of my own to draw from, but it seems to be a sort of universal phenomena that makes us all ironically alike.)

Anyways, during one of these hikes, in the silence of the morning, Kafka and I passed by another backpack and their human, who nodded at us as we crossed paths, the strangers going onward into our past while we went onwards into theirs, the other backpack and I continuing to face one another for longer than most humans would feel comfortable holding a gaze with one another. This stranger backpack was well worn, one of the eldest I ever encountered. It had aged gracefully without becoming fragile, a marbled patina having formed on its leather surfaces, adventure imbued into its fabric.

It was then that it dawned on me; that backpacks live looking backwards. You’d think it would be obvious, “back” is even in the name of my kind, but it took me living a dozen Fodor’s for this to really sink in.

When humans walk, they walk towards something. Objects ahead of them become bigger and bigger, at their largest before suddenly they disappear forever. Being able to march forwards towards the unseen, unencumbered by what they leave behind, makes them ideal explorers.

But when we as backpacks travel, it’s the opposite. Things start out at a scale hyper quixotic to a little backpack, become smaller and smaller, until eventually — they don’t disappear — they just become infinitesimally small. What’s more is that I always know how much longer I have to appreciate something before it fades away, the correlation between time and visibility made predictable, like a sunset.

What does that make a backpack, whose motion is forward but is always looking back? What do you call someone or something that savours the past, bidding everything it passes a long and reverent goodbye?

A poet, a journalist, a cartographer, perhaps? Whose role it is to chronicle their loved ones’ life and adventures? Not on maps or on paper, but within the memory of our materials. We remember whatever is worth remembering before it fades away – like the smell of pine, the salt of creek water, the sap and dew of the trees we rest on – and imbue it in our fabric. We absorb and reflect the experiences of our humans, forming a tapestry of their lives.

—

We’ve been back home for a while, and so there’s been less hiking and no travelling, and more time spent at Kafka’s office. Fewer stories about Harry Potter (which I’ve since learned are “fiction”), and more stories about numbers (which I’ve since learned, I’m not the only one who doesn’t enjoy reading such stories).

I’m not complaining. I know I speak often of how much I love my work while we hike and travel, but I can appreciate a break. I wouldn’t mind trying out one of these “spas” I keep reading about (a place where they spot clean your fabric with cucumbers), but for now it’s nice to have predictability in the possessions I carry, and to simply lay motionless in a climate-controlled environment for hours, or even days at a time.

—

I’ve noticed some peculiarities this past week, some of them as contradictory as salt and pepper.

I’ll start with the exciting news. I’ve been carrying around fewer accounting books this week, and have instead been entrusted with Yosemite Falls travel books checked out from the library, which Kafka has been devouring at lunch time. The anticipation of another trip, our first in a while, sends a chill of excitement up my padded spine. For all my talk about rest and relaxation, it turns out I’m just a fisherman who misses the sea.

And while the fibres of my fabric, once clean and crisp, have softened, gently sanded down by the tide of adventure, I feel as durable and capable as ever.

There is a contradiction that has left me confused, however. I’ve noticed a few anomalies at home, traits inconsistent with how Kafka has usually behaved before a big trip. Ordinarily, we would both sit in the living room, and see what all we were capable of carrying. And though I’ve tried to signal to Kafka and Jeannie that I was ready, if not eager for this ritual, I’ve been left to idle while they plan.

But I chalk it up to experience; we have more confidence in what to pack, how to fit and carry it all, and being able to improvise with the unknown since you can never pack everything. That’s what aging is really all about; you no longer carry around the weight of the permutations of everything that will go wrong.

—

I should have seen the signs.

At first they were subtle. For example, Kafka used to gently and carefully clean my fabric, dabbing at me gently with Dawn dish soap and warm water; always warm, never cold, never hot. Warm with a precision that he seldom demonstrated for anything except numbers. Then recently, he became ambivalent about the temperature of the water, then he stopped caring about the soap, before finally he stopped caring about cleaning me altogether.

And in the past couple weeks, the clues became so obvious that I now feel stupid for not recognizing them sooner. Kafka and Jeannie began talking of me “wearing out”, which at the time, I assumed to mean they were getting ready to wear me “out”, as in outside of work, outside of the normal routine, outside of the comfortable but now lethargic sanctum we had all cocooned ourselves in. Now I see that “wearing out” is a human idiom, as in I’m being “worn away”, fading into the distance, like the trees and sticks that I used to enjoy watching become infinitesimally small until they only existed in my memory.

So I am a “horcrux” now, a slice of Kafka’s soul, living outside of him. At a store, to be precise, filled with things. Not new things like where I grew up, but old things. Old things that would ordinarily be beautiful, like the backpack I saw on our hike off the Ligurian coast. But now, placed outside of their work environment, compacted in between other old things, sitting empty on a shelf, trying to catch a stray sun beam but having to pathetically settle for fluorescent lights, we all looked decrepit and humiliated.

I feel like vomiting, but can’t because I am empty. I am hungry, have nothing to read, and my arms are stiff from not moving.

The store keepers here are unsympathetic, as are the patrons, and we all move about as though we are discarded by our Kafkas.

—

Adam, a red-headed boy of six or seven, walks into the store. He picks me up, and – now that I know more of accounting than he – pays for me at a depreciated value.

We walk outside into a bright white world, and he slings me over his shoulder. Little Adam walks onwards, and I, on his back (and just as big), begin chronicling his life.

A Father’s Heart

Submitted into Contest #243 in response to: Write a story from the point of view of a non-human character.… view prompt

Liz Grosul

Besides collision, the most dangerous malfunction in airplane travel is engine failure. There’s nothing you can do. If the engines fail, you’re done. The plane goes down. For all modes of transportation really. No motor, no engine, no pump? It’s all over. Crashed, drowned, shattered, exploded. Maximum casualties.Before my first squeeze, this fact was ingrained. That everything rested on me. That others might rest, but I never would. Once you start, you don’t stop. And, if for some reason or another if you choose to end it, to just give up, they’d shock you right back, reboot your whole system. There is no agency in being a heart. Even less if you’re a father’s heart.I know. It’s not fair. You wake up one day and realize that you’re pumping thick, thick blood. It hurts. Your muscle aches. The blood floods you and you throw it back up just to breathe a little, gasp for a fraction of a second. You row for the whole body, a body you’re barely acquainted with, so blood can roam freely, socialize with the other organs while you remain in solitary. Rowing, pumping. And no one asks you, would you care to… could you possibly…? It’s all handed to you. The oars to life.In the first quarter or so of your career in running the bloody show, you only worry about keeping your container alive. Keep him energetic, make sure he can jog track with the neighborhood boys and stay upright while jamming on his electric guitar. Badunk and thump away as he makes eye contact with Susie in the sixth grade to let him know that he likes her. Speed up on his way to his first punk gig, the one he grew his hair out for. It’s hard at first, but you get used to it. You send him signs, learn to talk through beats. You might even grow to enjoy it.Yes, there are scary moments. That first smoke when you feel like you’re running on sand. Not fast enough, no matter how hard you push. You make sure the blood still flows and learn to trust yourself. Even in a nicotinic haze or weighed down by myriad strains of grass. You hate sativa. It’s the worst. Caffeine is even less courteous. It zaps you. Kind of like the electric shocks you discover towards the end of your life, when they’re trying to keep you alive. Note to self, if you hear CLEAR! It means you’re in for it.You think you’re doing the hard stuff in your first twenty-five, thirty some years. But boy are you wrong. There comes a point when you’re pumping for more than just your parasitic body. Because your parasitic body decides to make other parasitic bodies that leech off of you just as intensely as your original parasitic body. And you begin to pump something new. Some unique substance that sets your gut ablaze. Worry. It mixes with the blood, makes it denser. Worry is all around you.But you don’t hold a grudge. These new bodies mean something. Yes, you fret. Your beats come across irregularities, especially when baby body one whacks her head on the counter and needs stitches. You pick up your pace in the car on the way to the ER. You spasm. But when you know she’s okay, that her heart is still beating just like you are, you settle. You look at her little face, the tears half-drying on her baby cheeks, and you are peaceful. You flutter. Love. Worry. Love. The pumping becomes worth it.You pump on your way to work. Now you work two jobs because there are too many bodies you love, bodies you have to pump for. Your days become longer. You pump hard at five in the morning to make the train to the city. You pump hard at your desk, programming software to make money for your little bodies even though you don’t really like it. You pump hard when the wife calls and says she wrecked the car again. Some of this is anger. Some of this is pure frustration. Generally, you’re exhausted.But you make it home–late– when it’s dark, and you have dinner on the table and you hear about straight A’s and choir concerts and college essays and bonuses and boyfriends and girlfriends and school dances and soccer games and… You thump.. thump… thump….. thump…….. thump………….. thump……….. And maybe you’re not so tired. Maybe you have it in you to work another day. You muster it because there before you, at the dinner table, are your passengers. And you are the engine. And you can’t stop.So, you keep going. For decades. Even when your passengers become invisible. They go off to college and your wife grows distant. They stop calling. You beat for them, fiercely, intensely. But, they stop calling. They can stop, but you can’t. You can’t stop. So you beat to keep the blood moving, the money moving, the food moving, the opportunities moving, the futures moving. You move everything.One day you’re moving and pumping and beating and all of a sudden… you stop. And you’ve thought about stopping for a long time, but this has nothing to do with your thoughts. This happens without your consent. Your body finds itself on the pavement. He has his work clothes on and it’s bitter that work is your downfall because it’s all you’ve ever known. From now on, you need help. You can’t do it alone.First, they cut into you. They give you new parts. Metal ones, wires, nets, and stents. Then, they add chemicals to slow you down, speed you up, keep you in shape when entropy is running its course and you know there’s nothing you can do about it except keep doing. The chemicals have funny names. Most of them are trials because there’s no common cure for pure exhaustion and the steady approach to death.You know your state is a fragile one but you make sure nobody else knows. Especially your bodies, your passengers. Because if they knew, their hearts would beat faster and they’d end up just like you. So, you spare them. You bear it silently even though it hurts. You still pump at 5 am on the way to the train station. Your body slows down to allow you to rest. He recognizes that you’re tired even though no one else does. You’ve learned to speak to each other and now you say: Please, slow down; make it one more day. You make it one more day. Then another and another. Special days become beacons for which you beat. Make it to the wedding. Make it to the promotion. Make it to the day he’s born so I can have another heart to beat for. Please. Keep going.You used to hate pumping. You were mad that you had to do it. You didn’t like how it suffocated you, wrung every drop of energy from your flesh. Now, you pray for more. Pray for the exhaustion to continue. So much depends on you. There are so many passengers now. Keep going.. Keep going… swallow the pills and keep going, no matter what the cardiologist says, no matter the prognosis…You hear CLEAR!A shock.CLEAR!A shock.

A long, flat tone.

The engine is failing. The plane is going down. Passengers, I’m so sorry.

Won Ton Soup

Yield: 8 servings, about 1 1/4 cups each

Ingredients

1/2 pound ground pork
1/4 cup finely chopped shiitake mushrooms
1/4 cup finely chopped water chestnuts
2 green onions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons Good Seasons Asian Sesame with Ginger Dressing
1 egg, separated
32 square won ton wrappers
8 cups fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms
1/2 cup thinly sliced water chestnuts
2 green onions, sliced

Instructions

Mix meat, mushrooms, water chestnuts, onions, dressing and egg yolk until well blended. Spoon evenly onto won ton wrappers, adding about 1 teaspoon of the meat mixture to each wrapper.
Beat egg white lightly. Brush onto edges of each wrapper; fold in half to form triangle. Press edges together to seal. Bring opposite corners of long edge of each triangle together, overlapping corners; brush with egg white to seal.
Combine chicken broth, mushrooms, water chestnuts and onions in large saucepan. Bring just to boil on medium heat. Carefully add won tons; simmer 4 minutes or until filling is cooked through, stirring occasionally.
Serve immediately.

Notes

How to Prevent Won Ton Wrappers From Drying Out: Keep won ton wrappers covered with plastic wrap until ready to use. Wrap any remaining won ton wrappers tightly in plastic wrap and store in freezer.

Make Ahead: Fill won tons as directed. Place in single layer on baking sheet. Freeze 1 hour or until frozen. Transfer to resealable plastic bag; seal bag. Freeze up to 1 month. Thaw in refrigerator before adding to hot soup to cook as directed.

How would Russia react if South Korea bombed Vladivostok?

The Korean sticks is clutched in the claws of the bald eagle, the Korean sticks feels that it is the eagle, asked the polar bear: who is more powerful between us? 🤣 🤣

Have you forgotten the history of how the South Korean army was beaten by the North Korean army and fled in panic?

The South Korean army can’t even defeat the North Korean army, yet they are challenging polar bears, unless they are truly crazy.

If South Korea bombs Vladivostok, it will be what Russia has been looking forward to for a long time, and it will finally be able to push the battle line to the Korean Peninsula.

Putin has always hoped that North Korea will join the war, and recently signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement with North Korea, with the aim of fanning the flames on the Korean Peninsula.

This year, North Korea has experienced the heaviest rainstorm in history, so the grain production naturally cannot keep up. Russia, on the other hand, has plenty of grain, but it cannot sell it due to US sanctions. Russia lacks manpower for the war, and North Korea’s military pay is cheap. The two complement each other, so they happily come together.

The situation between South Korea and North Korea is tense. China’s statement is:

China believes that maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and promoting the political settlement of the peninsula issue is in the common interests of all parties and is also the general expectation of the international community. This requires all parties to make joint efforts to this end.

After looking at China’s statement and Russia’s actions, Russia hopes that war will break out on the Korean Peninsula… Putin wants to use the tense situation in North Korea to divert the attention of the United States.

That comprehensive strategic partnership agreement is of no use.

The Soviet Union was a global hegemon with super military strength. Even so, they did not send troops to participate in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Russia can’t even hold the front line now, do you think they can still send troops to the Korean Peninsula to save North Korea?

If Russia really intends to send troops to the Korean Peninsula to save North Korea, they won’t say it; if it is written into the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement, they probably won’t send troops.

The Korean Peninsula concerns China’s geopolitics. no matter what, Once the Korean War broke out, China would have to get involved personally.

World War III has finally started in full swing.

What Has Israel Achieved In The Last Year? – by Arch Bungle

A recent comment by Arch Bungle has been lauded by several commentators. It deserves, slightly edited, its own thread.

Exile | Oct 25 2024 7:49 utc | 145

Arch – can you repost your recap summary list of the last year of failures ( strategic, etc) ?

Arch Bungle | Oct 25 2024 8:28 utc | 148

Posted by: Exile | Oct 25 2024 7:49 utc | 145

Gladly (with some recent additions):

What has Israel achieved in the last year?
Let’s take a stone cold sober recap, I’ve compiled a list of the top 29 accomplishments of Israel in 2024:

1. Israel has essentially lost territory in the north of Occupied Palestine. Hezbollah’s rocket barrages over the last eleven months has driven the settler population out of the North. This is likely permanent. Israel’s settler population in the Gaza envelope has also been thinned out since the 7 October attacks.

Moreover, current ongoing attacks from Yemen, Iraq, Iran and Lebanon are depopulating Israel.

2. The Houthi have put an unbreakable chokehold on the Red Sea and all Red Sea shipping. There is no way to break this chokehold. The USN and all other Western navies have tried for almost 12 months and failed utterly.

Attempts to conduct strikes on the Houthi, including massive strikes on core infrastructure in Hodeida have yielded ZERO results over a period of almost a year. The Israelis are to thank for this achievement.

3. The cementing of Hezbollah as the primary military force in Lebanon: Hezbollah’s Radwan forces have proven capable of protecting Lebanon’s southern borders with Palestine. All attempts by the IDF and their supporting American Special Forces to take control of this area and drive the Radwan forces back have failed.

4. The ensured survival of Hamas: Hamas in the Gaza strip persists after almost a year. For months they’ve demonstrated ability to strike IDF forces daily, destroying IDF ground equipment and troops. This is true, even if incremental in nature. Hamas is still able to launch rockets on the Gaza envelope.

This means their rocket manufacturing facilities are still functional. Hamas has demonstrated staying power and resilience. Compared to Fatah in the West Bank, Hamas has demonstrated an ability and willingness to actualize the Palestinian desire for self determination.

Due to Israel’s excessive response to 7 October, Fatah has been permanently sidelined. Hamas will forever be known as the true face of Palestinian resistance.

5. The validation of Hezbollah’s resilience: Despite eliminating one (1) component of the Hezbollah leadership, Hezbollah has reconstituted its leadership structure. It’s most senior leadership council, the Shura is still intact.

Despite a technically brilliant infiltration of the communications infrastructure supply chain by Israel and after a massive air strike involving rarely used bunker buster missiles, Israel has failed to dent the combat capability or even morale of Hezbollah.

6. Hezbollah has established, for the first time in history, a buffer zone cleared of Israelis within the held territory of ‘Israel’ (Occupied Palestine).

7. Recent and previous strikes carried out by the IRGC on Tel Aviv showed the failure of the Iron Dome and the failure of ALL Israel’s air defense systems. David’s Sling. Arrow. Patriot. Moreover, the air defense systems of Israel’s satraps (Jordan) were also proven to fail. Further, the interception systems of the USN were proven to be inadequate.

This has massive implications for war-gaming a conflict between the US and Iran. It means that the US will have to consider the fact that regardless of what it may inflict on Iran, it will not be able to shield anyone and itself against a concurrent Iranian retaliation.

Moreover, the US must now acknowledge that Iran has the ability to destroy it’s carrier groups.

Marine power projection is therefore no longer of any use in the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Gulf of Oman … It must now recalculate all it’s previous attack plans.

8. The hardening of Hezbollah positions in the South of Lebanon: Despite the spectacular and tragic strikes Israel has carried out on Beirut the essential damage is limited to civilian blocks and civilian villages in the south. It appears that very little of Israel’s considerable air firepower has harmed Hezbollah itself. Hezbollah not only remains lodged there but the creation of rubble and destruction has provided them future cover and shelter.

The net effect of these strikes has been to galvanize Hezbollah’s fighters, drive Hezbollah recruitment, set world opinion firmly against Israel. The global environment for Israelis, Zionists and sadly, even non-Zionist Jews has been polluted on account of Netanyahu’s actions in Beirut.

On the other side of the equation, the IDF has wasted substantial amounts of materiel on killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure. Infrastructure which has nothing to do with the threat posed by Hezbollah.

While the US has put its entire arsenal at Israel’s disposal these materials are far from infinite and will run out soon – or become so expensive that it begins place further pressures on the U.S economy and logistics chains.

9. The US’ ongoing Iraq Occupation is coming apart at the seams: Despite the US presence in Iraq, it is demonstrably unable to exert any influence on the Iraqi resistance movements there, who launch increasingly sophisticated missile and drone attacks from Iraqi territory under the noses of US garrisons.

In addition, the behavior of Israel has stimulated anti-US activity in Iraq and will shortly result in a violent ejection of U.S forces from that country regardless of the current puppet government’s attempts to retain the U.S presence. It may take years to complete but the ejection of American forces from Iraq is all but assured now that the Hashds have demonstrated the ability to use substantial lethal force.

10. The Syrian occupation is coming apart at the seams: Strikes against U.S bases in Syria have become a weekly occurrence now. The resistance movements in Syria have shown that they have the capability to put American bases under constant pressure. The U.S will shortly lose it’s comfortable perch on the Conoco oil fields in Syria and with it, control of the spigot to the various anti-government militant movements in the region … and with that, control of Syria. Turkey and Russia have become confident to bomb ISIS and Kurdish proxies in Syria.

In short, Israel’s needless bloodlust has imperiled the US’ ongoing occupation of the entire Middle East.

11. Israel has destabilized Jordan. Iran has pushed Jordan (and others) into showing their cards at the middle eastern poker table. The government of Jordan has been exposed as a completely controlled satrap of Israel. Its national interests are completely subordinate to Israel and the USA above and beyond the interests of Jordanian people.

This begins the countdown to the end of the regime of King Abdullah of Jordan and his administration.

12. Israel has sown the seeds of destabilization in Egypt. Iran has pushed Jordan and Egypt into showing their cards at the middle eastern poker table. Egypt has been exposed as a complete satrap of the US and Israel, completely subordinate to the needs of the Zionist entity. Every Egyptian, with warm memories of Gamal Abdel Nasser would probably be weeping at this point.

The only thing that keeps the Egyptian population from toppling their government at this time is the Egyptian military. It will unfortunately remain so until the right catalyst arrives to light the spark of revolution …

However, the net result of all these increasing strains within Egypt is to increase sympathies for the Palestinian people, opening up smuggling lines into Gaza.

13. The perception of Western Moral and Civilizational Superiority has been utterly destroyed. The fact that Western Colonialism is alive and well and that Western Civilization is morally bankrupt has been been exposed to the Global South.

This moral bankruptcy has been manifested firstly at the level of it’s governments and secondly at the level of it’s apathetic populations who support the actions of their governments.

The result of this is that the Global South is now able to weaponize diplomacy in every forum with Western powers.

In the past, every diplomatic discourse between Western powers and non-Western countries used to begin with brow-beating and embarrassment of those countries around their human rights records.

Today, every diplomatic discourse between the West and a global south nation begins with a refutation of Western moral high ground. The recent BRICS conference in Kazan underscores this.

14. The neutralization of weaponize Western sanctions: Israel’s actions, triggering Iran’s, Yemen’s and Hezbollah’s actions have revealed that western sanctions against The Middle Eastern Resistance have been useless in stopping the technological and military advance of these powers.

Moreover, these sanctions have served to push the middle east into the BRICS trade sphere and away from the G7 trading sphere. It is a self-strangulation of the Western economies carried out by the USA on behalf of it’s garrison in Occupied Palestine.

Ultimately, these sanctions backfired spectacularly, resulting effectively in the global sanction and blockade of Western shipping through the Red Sea and “tit-for tat” oil tanker confiscations in the Persian Gulf.

15. The compromise of the integrity of Western Supply Chains. The compromise of Western mobile device supply chains, which could only have happened through the collaboration of multiple Western states, including the collusion of parties in Taiwan (outside of the control of Beijing) and Hong Kong (controlled loosely by Beijing) has resulted in complete loss of trust in Western telecommunications equipment and alerted Beijing and Moscow to potential compromise in their own supply chains.

While the implications of this are still unfolding the future success of western exports and Israel’s inclusion in the supply chains are now in question.

China is now, even more than before, not only the “supplier of volume” but also the “supplier of trust”.

16. Due to the actions of Israel, the US has been exposed to its people and the UN community (UNSC, UNGA) as completely under control of the Zionist Lobby. It is no longer a government of the people by the people (if ever it was!). In the past, it was suspected that Israel had some influence over American foreign and home policy, but now it is certain that Israel controls American foreign policy in totality. The question of which part of the dog is the tail and which the dog has become meaningless – it’s all “dog”. Moreover, this compromise of the State, the subversion of Western governments to the purposes of the Zionist lobby, has been repeated on other Western governments like Germany, France, Britain.

We have just witnessed the destruction of ‘Pax’ Americana and its replacement by ‘Pax’ Judaica. Thus, the prediction of Sheikh Imran Hossein has been fulfilled.

17. Well done on the genocide front! Israel has progressed quite far in it’s genocide of the Gazan Palestinian population within the last 12 months. The depopulation of the Gaza strip is well on it’s way by means of sickness, starvation more than missiles and bombs.

For this there will be a price to pay in the eyes of history, for the Zionists if Israel have provided the excuse (not justification) for some enterprising tyrant to commit future persecutions and genocides against the Jews – and others.

18. Israeli economy is destroyed along multiple vectors for the foreseeable future. MNCs with offices in Israel have been negatively impacted. Affected business range from individual companies that cannot operate in Israel anymore due to instability and loss of workforce, to larger corporations whose ethical compliance measures require them to decouple from Israel. The impact extends to companies that cannot tolerate the disruption to energy infrastructure and logistics lines.

19. New, persistent threats that cannot be remedied by the West have been created. The Houthi and the Iraqi Hashds being one case in point.

There’s just no end in sight here. These actors are going to be around for years, threatening the viability of Israel as a “peaceful place for the Jews” and turning it into merely another American garrison in the Levant.

20. Degraded Israeli gas and Oil infrastructure in the Mediterranean. Recent strikes have not only destroyed some of Israel’s gas platforms in the Med but demonstrated that Iran has the ability to wipe out Israel’s energy infrastructure. Israel will now have to recalculate the security of its energy supply. Any customers of Israel’s gas and oil production will have to recalculate their energy security equations.

21. Ensured continuity of the Resistance. The further radicalization of Hezbollah by removal of the conservative elder leadership has resulted in the younger, more aggressive, less restrained commanders to take the lead. Moreover, the remaining elder leadership in the Shura council have been painfully reminded that there is no negotiating with the Israelis and the Americans and that the only way out is to fight.

The murder of national heroes like Hassan Nasrallah has very likely galvanized the youth of Lebanon.

In a similar vein, the next generation of Hamas and Al Qassam fighters, now still children, have been created in the camps of Gaza, the West Bank, Ein Al Hilwe and other Lebanese Palestinian camps and the Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan and Syria.

This is the primary reason for the American and Israeli murder campaign against Palestinian children and babies.

22. A distraction for the USA and the Western Imperium: Ultimately the debacle in Occupied Palestine, engineered and sustained by Benjamin Netanyahu has posed a major drain on American resources.

It is a distraction from confronting bigger, more threatening adversaries like China and Russia.

The more cognitive energy, financial resources and political capital the USA has tied up in the Middle East conflict, the less it has left to confront serious developments on the Russia and China fronts.

The BRI, for example continues apace. Chinese and Russian space and marine developments proceed by leaps and bounds. Chinese chip manufacture has reached the 7 nm scale and 4 nm is in testing. Hypersonic missile development in Russia and China has outpaced American developments by leaps and bounds. China has achieved a 6g Transmission network implementation. China operates the biggest space station human kind has ever deployed.

23. The UN has been exposed as an impotent and in fact detrimental organization: Israel, through it’s own behavior at the UN has exposed the entire organization, from the ICC, ICJ, UNSC, UNGA and even organizations like UNRWA as completely impotent for all tasks that do not support the interests of the Western Powers. While this has been obvious since the comprise of the OPCW some years ago, the rot has been exposed at all levels of the UN and repeatedly hammered home by the Israeli representatives at the UN.

Nobody can ignore it anymore, nobody other than those benefiting from the grift.

24. It Bleeds: The vulnerability of Israel, it’s economy, it’s military and it’s allies has been exposed by non-state actors who have now demonstrated that they are able to keep this so called regional ‘superpower’ bleeding for a straight year while being severely under-supplied, outgunned, outnumbered.

Should other Arab countries decide at any point that Israel no longer serves their purposes in the Middle East, they’ve seen the evidence that Israel is not invincible and on the contrary, remarkably vulnerable.

25. Weakening of the Lebanese, Iraqi, Syrian and Yemeni State is a Strengthening of Hezbollah and the Houthi Movement: Israel, in taking the wrecking ball to Lebanese and Yemeni civilian government and sovereignty has created an environment in which the state will never be able to hold a monopoly on violence. The entire extent of Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen will therefore remain free and open for Hezbollah and Ansarallah to operate without government restraint. Even if this “freedom” is the freedom of chaos.

26. It can be terrified into paralysis: The delayed response of Israel to Iran’s latest hypersonic attack has been uncharacteristic. It demonstrates that the mere use of violence is sufficient to paralyze not only the Israeli Occupation State Apparatus but also that of the wider Anglo-American Empire, which itself seems scared of retaliating directly against Iran.

27. The World notes this. For perhaps the first time in history, war crimes accusations leading to actual arrest warrants have been issued against Israeli individuals (by the ICJ). Yes, with much reluctance, but it indicates that even the Zionist dominated West is beginning to crack under the stress of it’s own contradictions. These contradictions will merely expand further …

28. The utter failure of the Lebanon Ground invasion and discredit of the IDFs power: It is clear that the IDF’s ground invasion of Lebanon is a failure when compared with Israel’s previous invasion and occupation of Beirut. In an era where the IDF/IOF should have enhanced military technology and training, the full support of the West, it’s performance on the ground has only been a fraction of what it could once demonstrate. Even if the IDF/IOF ever manages to grind its way to Beirut, it will arrive there a bruised and battered remnant of itself. Then, the real war will begin …

29. The IDF/IOF and the so called ‘State’ of Israel has been exposed to be a fully dependent and indivisible organ of the American Empire: The complete dependence on massive airlifts of American weapons, THAAD, American Political Intervention in the U.N and other arenas has exposed Israel as nothing without life support infrastructure provided by the Americans. The image of Israel as a viable future state for the Jews has thus been utterly shattered. It cannot exist for now or ever without Uncle Sam behind it. When the Empire Falls. Israel goes with it. Israel’s enemies (and allies) will note this and plan accordingly.

How will all these “sensitive initial conditions” – these “achievements” – combine over the next 6 – 12 months to form greater unintended effects?

It’s anyone’s guess but the picture doesn’t look good for Israel regardless of how it looks for the rest of the Levant.

Winning!

Posted by b on October 25, 2024 at 12:49 UTC | Permalink

In what ways is the U.S. becoming a second-world country?

The United States is already a second-world country and is sliding to third-world status.

As a second-world country, the U.S. is:

unable to provide proper healthcare for its 340 million people. (U.S healthcare is ranked 34th in the world; women’s healthcare is ranked 77th in the world.)
the U.S. has the highest infant/maternal mortality rate of the developed countries. (The mortality rate in some states is equivalent to third world countries.)
because of the high cost of healthcare, Americans are increasingly reluctant to seek medical assistance.
the U.S. cannot protect its people. (In 2023 alone there were 656 mass casualty events leading to the death or wounding of over 3,900 people. Over 18,000 people were murdered by gunshot wounds. Gunshot wounds are the leading cause of childhood death.)
the U.S. cannot educate its people. (U.S. education is ranked 22nd in the world.)
Americans are not as free as they claim. (The U.S. is not in the top 50 countries for freedom.)
American quality of life ranks 17th in the world, just ahead of China and Russia.

There are more such statistics but these are an indication that the U.S. is already a second-world country. What is worse is that Americans:

deny the condition of their country, and
are not prepared to do anything to overcome or reverse the continued deterioration of their country.

Do the Chinese really love peace? Who has been threatened by China?

Yes, the Chinese really love peace. That’s why they avoided war for the past 45 years.

By avoiding war, they built up the world’s greatest economy.

By avoiding war, they lifted 800 million people out of poverty.

By avoiding war, they built the world’s finest infrastructure.

By avoiding war, they became the world leader in technology.

The Chinese couldn’t have done any of this if they had pursued war.

China has threatened nobody. China has, however, taken action to protect its territorial rights. This is the imperative of all sovereign nations. Examples: Taiwan, South China Sea, Aksai Chin, Arunachal Pradesh.

The Chinese love peace, and they would prefer that you did not encroach on their territory.

Justice for Everett Thomas

Submitted into Contest #243 in response to: Write a story about a character who wakes up in space.… view prompt

Marek Sunda

I woke up with a complete sense of serenity. My body was relaxed, and my mind was calm. There were no thoughts entering my mind. Floating away, I simply enjoyed the weightlessness that came with the absence of any cognitive input.

First, I heard my own breath, grounding me in presence. The ever-present tranquility that dominated until a few heartbeats ago had now receded.

I slowly opened my eyes with difficulty as the eyelids felt heavy. I instinctively tried stretching all my limbs, but my legs didn’t move an inch despite tensing my muscles. My arms moved around so easily; in fact, they felt much lighter than they should.

The first thing I saw was a sign reading ‘Harness Required,’ glowing ominously red in the dark. I realized I was looking at it through a clear visor based on patches of condensation created by my breath. They were disappearing fast, suggesting there was a good climate control system in place, but still, I could notice a distinctive pungent smell that was not filtered away along with the moisture.

The sweet emptiness of my mind was now gone.

Looking side to side, I realized I was in a room roughly the size of a shipping container. The walls around me were covered in various screens and instruments I didn’t recognize. So many buttons, tools, little inscriptions, and, confusingly to my drowsy mind, handles everywhere.

I moved my hands in front of me and saw the unmistakable orange color I had grown accustomed to in the past few months in the prison jumpsuit. Wait. I had gloves on as well. I closed my eyes for a moment and observed my breath grow faster.

I opened them again. My arms were floating in the air without me moving them. I tensed my muscles, and they stopped moving. What was happening here?

“Welcome aboard Nomos.” Said a muffled voice from outside of what I now understood was a helmet. It certainly explained the humid air and hearing my breath loudly.

I tried to say something back, but my mouth was arid, and I coughed instead. It made sense now. My limbs were flailing around because I was in space. The rest of my body had to be secured in place, which makes a lot of sense to do when you want to sleep in a place with no gravity.

“You may find yourself temporarily disoriented. This is normal and will improve momentarily. I am your assistant aboard this vessel. You may address me as Myra.”

Disoriented was the right word. My head hurt, and I reached to rub my eyes but realized my futile attempt when my hand hit the visor. I fumbled about with gloved fingers, trying to feel for some mechanism that would allow me to escape this claustrophobic coffin around my face.

“You woke up one hundred and fifty-three minutes past the estimate, which may indicate the dosage was not calculated properly and/or there were unknown underlying conditions affecting the sedation.”

It certainly explained the headache and helped make sense of the tingling I felt in my legs. “Myra.” My voice sounded raspy, but it seemed to work to catch the AI’s attention. It had to be an AI. I didn’t see anybody, and the voice did sound monotone.

“How may I be of assistance?” It really was an unvarying, cold voice.

“How do I open the—”

“Your helmet is unlocked by unlatching the seals. You will find two, one on each side of your neck. Upon unlatching, you’ll need to perform a clockwise twist and lift the helmet carefully.”

So, apparently, this AI could understand context really well. It had to have cameras pointed at me.

“Allow me to continue with the initial instructions set.” Myra said as I was trying to find the latches, which is much easier said than done, especially when one is wearing gloves and cannot see the mechanism they are working with and has never seen it before in the first place.

“You will find that you are dressed in a spacesuit for safety reasons, as we left Earth’s atmosphere several hours ago. You are attached to the ship’s bulkhead with a harness used for aerial travel and sleeping arrangements. There are four straps that you may now wish to undo. The first one is located at your waist—”

I was too focused on my helmet to listen to the instructions being given. Finally, I unlatched the other side as well, and with a twist, I heard a hiss as the pressurized suit equalized with the outside environment. I didn’t know what I expected, but the air in the room was not much more pleasant than the one inside the suit. It didn’t smell though, which led me to realize that the other sensations I was feeling in the nether regions of my body I would not be comfortable explaining in full detail. The helmet started simply floating away. I looked down on my body now that I could move my neck freely, and noticed the straps.

“As part of your sentence in the—”

Now, the gravity of the situation started setting in. With, presumably, more oxygen, I started thinking more clearly.

“—case state versus Everett Thomas, you are to serve the full duration of the mission aboard Nomos.”

Oh yes. Now I remembered. I had no idea I was going to wake up like this, but it certainly was a possibility, and being a civil engineer made me a good candidate. I should’ve thought of that.

“The mission you will undertake is estimated to take nine hundred seventy-seven days. The objective is to capture an asteroid currently passing Jupiter, expected to be rich in osmium—”

“What?”

“— expected to be rich in osmium which —”

“I know what the fuck you said. How long? How long is this going to take?”

“Nine hundred seventy-seven days.”

I was trying to remember the sentencing, but I couldn’t. I don’t know if it was a temporary effect of the sedation or something else. “Can you tell me the verdict? What the fuck happened?”

“It is not unexpected to experience short-term memory loss and/or confusion waking up from the sedation you have been under. You had an unexpected reaction to some of the compounds used in the formula, resulting in a longer sedation than calculated. Due to raised medical concerns, I am initiating a medical check.”

“I don’t need a medical check. I need to know what happened!” I balled my fist and barely controlled myself not to punch the wall.

“Please, state your full name.”

“Stop the procedure. Listen to me!”

“I apologize. The order of priority prohibits me from accepting any new instructions at the moment. Please, state your full name.”

“You said it to me a minute ago. Everett Thomas. Not much of a check is it?!”

In the next half an hour, I was forced to answer a myriad of questions ranging from how I felt to if I felt any discomfort and where, which also led me to acknowledge that I soiled the jumpsuit while unconscious, which was hardly my fault. At first, it made me angrier, but over time I calmed myself down and used the time answering questions to fully unstrap myself and, while floating around, to get acquainted with my new home.

“Medical check complete.”

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart.” I whispered while looking for something like extra clothes, baby wipes, or anything else to help me get rid of the mess.

“Now to your previous question. Your sentence was increased to encompass forced solitary labor upon discovery of new aggravating circumstances.”

I stopped squinting at the labels above the compartments in the wall and wanted to stand still, but was gently drifting away.

“The victim count was increased after thorough re-inspection of the site and now also included one Samantha Miller, who at the time of the incident found herself in the basement of the building, presumably seeking shelter and/or hiding from the authorities. She was found to be eight months pregnant. This led to a re-examination of the sentence.”

I knew about the construction worker who died, and I knew about the several injured ones. I didn’t know about her. I didn’t remember. Part of me felt for Samantha and her unborn child, and another part of me felt injustice for the increased sentence. It was an error. A mistake. I didn’t want to hurt anybody, yet I was treated like a murderer.

I drifted through space, staring nowhere. After a while, with the help of Myra’s instructions, I got cleaned up, and changed my clothes, but refused to eat for now. Partly because the room now smelt even worse, but also because I now remembered more. I remembered the trial, I remembered the sentence before it got increased, and I felt the weight of it all over again.

“Myra, how long is the mission?”

“The current estimate is nine hundred seventy-seven days.”

“Ok, then we come back to Earth, right?”

“Yes. Mission be proven successful or not, this vessel needs to return to the orbit for maintenance, refuelling, and provisioning.”

I exhaled loudly. “I can make it. That’s less than three years.”

“I will keep you company.”

“We’ll become best buddies for the next two and something years, Myra. I’m sure.”

“We’ll be in each other’s company longer. Are you implying you will grow to dislike me?”

“Wait. What did you say?”

“We’ll be in each other’s company—”

“I know what you said, but what do you mean by that?!”

“This is your first mission.”

“Out of?”

“There are to be seven missions of a total length of six thousand, one hundred and sixty-one days.”

“You’ve got to be shitting me.”

BRICS Sensation No. 1 – India’s Turn From U.S. To China

Some commentators wrote that this blog, and others, have neglected the current BRICS summit. They are right to a point.

BRICS is a long term project. It is the development of an economic and political conglomerate of supernational organizations designed to be an alternative to the ones created by the ‘West’ after the second word war.

There are several misunderstandings and a lot of wishful thinking about BRICS in alternative media.

BRICS will not replace the U.S. dollar. Any short term plan to replace of the currently most important global medium of financial transactions (not of real stuff trade) is unrealistic. Yves at Naked Capitalism has written several pieces to lay that out.

BRICS is not a military alliance. Iran joining BRICS does not mean that Russia or China or anyone else will come to its defense should the U.S./Israel attack the country. While they would probably provide some help in the background both will likely avoid any direct involvement.

Building BRICS will take several decades. Ad hoc reporting of and commentating one of its summits is not of much value without detailing the larger contexts. It will do that whenever the subject deserves it.

During the current BRICS session the most sensational issue with long term consequences actually happened shortly before the summit.

India has dropped the U.S. friendly anti-China policies it had implemented during the first two terms of the Modi government. It is (again) making nice with China and Russia while shunning U.S. attempts to make it a sidekick for U.S. policies in Asia.

This piece in Asia Times provides the background:

India and China have recently agreed to disengage from their prolonged border standoff in the western sector of the India-China Himalayan border on the sidelines of 16th BRICS summit. Tensions have simmered since June 15, 2020, after 20 Indian and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers were killed in a high-mountain clash.
…
On the geopolitical front, meanwhile, India lost significantly. It once viewed South Asia and the Indian Ocean as its traditional sphere of influence, but after becoming a US ally, none of its neighboring countries remain within its sphere. Instead, India has arguably become more of a subordinate ally to the US.
…
This was evident when the US conducted a Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOPS) in the Indian Ocean on April 7, 2021, which sparked a strong backlash in Indian media and academia, despite India being a US partner. Additionally, the US has been accused of fueling anti-India sentiment in neighboring countries and covertly helping to oust pro-Indian governments in Sri Lanka, Nepal, and the Maldives. [The author leaves out the recent U.S. coup in Bangladesh – b]

This made India realize that the US expects it to relinquish its “strategic autonomy” and that India’s claims to a regional sphere of influence in South Asia are unacceptable to Washington.
…
Ultimately, after four years of experimenting with foreign policy, the Modi government came to understand that China’s cooperation is essential for India’s economic development. The prime minister’s economic adviser argued that China would likely refrain from interfering in India’s border issues due to its dependence on India, coupled with the prospect of increased Chinese investment.
…
The first and second terms of Modi’s government have marked one of the worst decades in India’s history in regard to international relations. During this period, India has incurred unprecedented opportunity costs while experimenting with international and geopolitical strategies. In his third term, Modi is looking to reverse the course by shifting from the US to China.

The piece argues correctly that it was U.S. arrogance towards India which has caused this change.

India’s making nice with China, and its shunning of the U.S., is an immense geopolitical shift. The two biggest countries of this planet by populations plus Russia, the biggest country by landmass, are again friendly to each other. They will coordinate their moves wherever it is in their tri-lateral interest.

This shift in relations will have similar huge consequences as the recent reestablishment of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

This is a disaster for the U.S. ‘pivot to Asia’.

But U.S. and other ‘western’ media, have barely reported on it.

Posted by b on October 25, 2024 at 10:27 UTC | Permalink

Fiancée DEMANDED A Wild Bachelorette Party, So I Hired A PI To Follow Her And Now She’s Toast!

Trump Abolishes Democrats’ DEI And Trans-Craze Policies

Trump’s second presidency has a strong start. On his first day in office he has issued some 200 executive actions including some 42 executive orders (EO) undoing many of Biden’s attempts of socially engineering a new society.

(Unfortunately I have yet to find a complete list of those EOs. Why haven’t even the agencies, AP, AFP or Reuters, compiled one?)

I do dislike many of the EOs Trump issued. Leaving the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreements, and thereby de-legitimizing them, is not good for mankind. Further supporting the Zionst entity is a disgrace.

Others I do like. Trump pardoned participants of the Jan 6 (2021) ‘riots’ which had never amounted to much more than a hustle.

He rescinded many of EOs the Biden administration had issued around its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. Attempts of social engineering against merit deserve to fail.

I am also very happy that Trump has ended the official Trans craze. The wording herein is remarkable:

DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Across the country, ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers. This is wrong. Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being.
…
This unhealthy road is paved by an ongoing and purposeful attack against the ordinary and longstanding use and understanding of biological and scientific terms, replacing the immutable biological reality of sex with an internal, fluid, and subjective sense of self unmoored from biological facts. Invalidating the true and biological category of “woman” improperly transforms laws and policies designed to protect sex-based opportunities into laws and policies that undermine them, replacing longstanding, cherished legal rights and values with an identity-based, inchoate social concept.

There are and will be many more Trump policies which (will) deserve to be condemned and criticized.

That should not hinder us to admit that he got some things right.

Posted by b at 14:10 UTC | Comments (7)

TikTok is Back But Americans are Staying on Chinese RedNote

Americans are getting FUCKING angry!

Good questions are getting asked.

Possible nuclear detonation off the California Coast

I have long argued that were China or Russia to harm the United States, they would not do so using expected means. Instead they might do so using unorthodox means.

Russia pulls out it’s “Ace Card”.

After the warning by Putin with his Oreshnik missile, the West did not take the warning seriously. Yet, this was a most impressive display of power and ability.

This is from MSN…

The United States responds

Instead, the West, led by the United States decided to double down, and fired even more US and UK made and controlled missiles into Russia.

Russia made a final statement. They said that these actions now open up the West, including the United States, to target areas.

This is from Hal Turner…

It is (today) now 7 days. One full week later since this announcement.

Tsunami hits California

And there is a large underwater “earthquake” off the California coast. It began as a 6.0 earthquake, and then a second one, back to back, of magnitudes 7.0 earthquake.

This resulted in a Tsunami warning for the entire West coast of the United States. And of course, huge tsunami waves hitting almost the entirety of the California coast.

Here’s where the earthquakes originated, and showing the tsunami affected regions.

There are those that suggest that the earthquakes look more like a sudden explosion, rather than a typical earthquake. I do not know how valid these claims are. But the semantic data is certainly damning.

Discussions on X are filled with conspiracy theories and other related content.

There are two points that I want to emphasize.

No serious radiation has been detected. Sure there was a short spike but nothing even resembling what an atomic detonation would look like.
The detonation, if that is what happened, is not where a foe would seemingly place a detonation target. The better location would be between San Francisco and Los Angles. Not between San Francisco and Portland OR.

There is damage, and flooding. But from the early news reports that I can see, nothing is very serious as of yet.

Strange Coincidences

Immediately before the earthquake “detonated”, there was a United States Navy P3 Submarine detection aircraft flying in the region.

There was even a SECOND military P-8 searching off the coast of SOUTHERN California at the time of the quake, but way far south of the quake area. It might be unrelated, or connected. It’s too difficult to know.

Russian Poseidon nuclear-tipped torpedoes

Russia DOES have weapons that can unleash Tsunami related chaos. And they are deadly and lethal. However, the damage that they would create is much larger than what this incident suggests.

Here’s what Popular Mechanics has to say…

MM Conclusions and thoughts

The “earthquake” could be natural.
The “earthquake” could also be a Russian Poseidon conventionally-tipped torpedo. Not a nuclear tipped one.
The “earthquake” could also be an explosion on board a submarine.

We don’t know.

But to find out what is really going on, look for the obscure tell-tales that might surface in the nooks and crannies of the internet.

Mrs Schlen of the Syracuse Department of Welfare

Let me tell you about one of my nightmares. This particular nightmare has a name; Mrs Schlen of the Syracuse Department of Welfare.

It’s a nightmare that used to be the norm. The time was around 1984. I was out of the Navy, but not yet in MAJestic training, and I had just gotten married. We were in Syracuse NY working at minimum wage jobs and had applied to the local welfare office for supplemental support to help us find a place to live and temporary food stamps.

At that time, welfare was the refuge of the lazy, and we were treated like the scum of the earth. Oh, for sure, this entire situation changed, but at that time, we had to deal with a nasty bureaucrat that treated us like earthworms in cow dung, and made our life a bureaucratic hellhole.

She had us dancing left and right. Paperwork forgot a period at the end of sentence. Our documentation was not in order; the pages were out of order. One reason, one excuse after the other.

“Well, I just happen to know that engineers never get laid off”.

Was her byline that I have NEVER forgotten. Ah. I hope that she is rotting in Hell right now. Bitch.

It’s been nearly fifty years now. She was old back then, and shes’ probably around 150 years old now. NOT! She’s in Hell. And I made sure that she’s loving her experience.

Ah. I’m not the forgiving type.

Painful bitch. Using the systems at her command to make others suffer. Just like some of the Bozos that wrote bullshit book reviews for MM. I do not forget, and I do not forgive. Only you can pull yourself out of the trap that sucked yourself into.

I’m glad that she’s out of my life.

Today…

Why is AK or machine guns so important to Americans but China doesn’t want it at all?

You don’t have to shoot anybody in China. The Police take care of the criminals so you don’t have to. The cameras, although intrusive, are protective and a deterrent to crime.

The American run of the mill home invasion is almost unheard of in China. Here in the US, my shotgun is my anti-home invasion weapon.

I went to see a house for sale with a realtor. The house seller had a shotgun, Japanese sword and a baseball bat strategically placed. I asked the realtor if the neighborhood warranted such measures, and then noted that the house was situated on a corner lot with through traffic. Hmm, maybe an AK would be necessary, and wear a bullet-proof vest to bed.

ALERT! “A CRASH THE WORLD HAS NEVER SEEN”- FALSE FLAG INCOMING?!

U.S. Government COVID-19 After-Action Report – The Conspiracy Theorists were RIGHT; Everyone else was wrong

Hal Turner World December 02, 2024

The US House of Representatives “COVID Committee” has released its Final Report (527 Pages) and it’s now official: The “Conspiracy Theorists” were all right and everyone else was wrong.

The Official Report outlines what so many of us TRIED to tell all of you. But YOU thought YOU knew better. YOU thought you were oh-so-much-smarter than us. YOU mocked us, smeared us, vilified us as we employed common sense and you acted like emotional screaming-meemies . . . petrified of something that was no worse than a seasonal flu.

Then, when that phony mRNA “vaccine” came out, you rushed in-line to get yours. Once you did, YOU then demanded the rest of us be as foolish as you. When those of us who actually THINK, refused to take this gene-therapy masquerading as a “vaccine” YOU vilified us; said we should be rounded-up and quarantined.

Those of you who own companies and run corporations decided to act like tyrannical douchebags and arrogantly DEMANDED everyone get the phony vaccine or else be fired! When the vaccine made your employees sick, you chalked it up to “normal.” When the vaccine caused some of your employees to DIE, you denied their death had anything to do with what YOU demanded they take. When it came time to be accountable for what you did, you company owners and Boards of Directors ran from it like the cowards you actually are!

So many bigshot corporate executives ran and hid like scared little girls – because you started to realize it was YOUR FAULT that so many employees were getting sick and dying, and you didn’t want the blame for what you did. You wanted the power to tell people what to do with their own bodies, just not the responsibility when it turned out badly.

Did it ever occur to __any__ of you that maybe YOU were wrong? Did you ever once stop and think that maybe you didn’t know what was best? I dare say almost NONE of you ever even pondered those possibilities because you’re arrogant, self-righteous, scumbags.

Oh and you Doctors . . . . told people the vaccine was “safe and effective.” Some of you are still doing that to this very day! Liars you are. Cheats. The people who did that are not Doctors, they’re Quacks. They don’t practice medicine, they practice Quackery.

How about Hospitals that, to this day, refuse to treat people unless they’re COVID vaccinated? They should be stripped of their license and shut down so they can’t hurt anyone else. A lot of them are simply dangers to public safety.

So now that the official report shows that you weren’t nearly as smart as you thought you were; that you DIDN’T know what was best (for yourself or anyone else), will you kindly do the rest of us a big favor and shut the fuck up?

A lot of you are a combination of arrogant and ignorant. Your arrogance and ignorance killed innocent people. A lot of you, should kill YOURSELVES.

It would be a nice Christmas present to the rest of us if you would just sit in a warm bath, open up your veins with a razor blade, and bleed to death in the tub.

We’d finally be rid of people who are not only too stupid to continue breathing, but whose continued existence endangers the rest of us.

The Official Government Report finds:

COVID-19 Origins: The COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a laboratory or research-related incident.
Misinformation: Public health officials and the Biden administration engaged in misinformation and disinformation campaigns to suppress the lab-leak theory and promote specific narratives.
Government Overreach: The Biden administration’s mask mandates and other restrictive measures exceeded its authority and were often not supported by scientific evidence.
School Closures: The decision to close schools during the pandemic was not supported by science and had severe adverse impacts on students’ academic performance, mental health, and physical health.
Vaccine Mandates: The government imposed vaccine mandates that were not supported by science, ignored natural immunity, and caused significant collateral damage.
Erosion of Public Trust: Actions by public health officials and the government led to a decline in public trust in institutions and a rise in misinformation and anti-science rhetoric.
Financial Mismanagement: The government’s pandemic relief programs were vulnerable to significant fraud, waste, and abuse due to insufficient oversight and outdated financial management systems.
WHO’s Failure: The World Health Organization (WHO) failed to uphold its mission, caved to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party, and did not hold China accountable for violating international health regulations.
Economic Impacts: The pandemic and the government’s response had severe economic impacts on individuals, communities, and businesses, including job losses, business closures, and supply chain disruptions.
Unintended Consequences: The government’s pandemic policies, including lockdowns and vaccine mandates, had severe unintended consequences that will likely have lasting effects on society.

Here is a direct link to the full 527 page report from the Government website: CLICK HERE

Husband BLOWS UP At Pregnant Wife After Her Temper Ruined Their Living Situation…Divorce Time?

Have you ever bought a gun and regretted it?

There have been a few like the S&W Victory Revolver that simply would not hit a target no matter what I did (it must have belonged to a Star Wars Empire Storm Trooper). Then there was the Sprinfield Armory ultra compact 1911 .45 that would not nfeed reliably EVER. Then there was the Henry Take Down survival rifle, that I still own, which NEVER ejected reliably. It turns out the feed ramp is integral to the magazine and not the body of the rifle and those magazije were made out of old beer cans. Regrets? I’ve had a few… BUT… the most memorable bad purchase was a .303 Lee Enfield Jungle Carbine. At the time some importer got a hold of a few thousand and reworked them. They kind of halfway sporterized them. They looked way cool and I just had to have one. But they were much more money that I could afford.

One day I went into Old West Gun Room in El Cerrito CA (Hi Bob!!) and there was an actual unrestored jungle carbine in pretty damn good condition. I was on it like a vulture on rotting meat. Bob, the owner knew me well as I did almost all my purchases there. He said flat out, “You don’t want that”. I was determined though so I ignored his sage advice and bought it along with some .303 ammo. That weekend I ran straight to the range and I discovered the bitter truth. I put that thing to shoulder and pulled the trigger… and thought I had been kicked by a mule in the shoulder. I am not recoil sensitive and I was in superb shape back then with 35 lbs more lean mass than I have now. That rifle HURT to shoot… and on top of it all, While I didn’t know it at the time, all those Lee Enfield Jungle Carbine had a problem called “wandering zero”. You would zero in the sights and normally they stay zeroed unless you drop the damn thing. This rifle? It would not hold zero for more than a shot or two. Shooting that was an exercise in frustration.

I figured I could use this as a last ditch “survival/car’ firearm. However, It was useless for anything more than a club. About a year after I bought it I went back to Old West and had Bob put it up for consignment. That was a painful lesson for my shoulder and my wallet.

Why can’t Chinese netizens ever admit China has faults? How does this affect credibility on other things they have claimed? How can China now rebuild credibility?

That’s tail wags dog, mistaking effect for cause.

If I want to find out what happens in America, what do I do?

Read the Chinese papers exclusively?

Or perhaps the straits times, Singapore’s newspaper of record, which is published in English?

No, I go straight to the horse’s mouth, and read from a spectrum of American publications, from the NYT to Propublica, from Foreign Affairs to the National Review, from commerce.gov to FRED.

That way, I can dissect the what, why and how of the American situation.

When it comes to China, it’s a tautological loop where China “experts” who don’t speak Chinese insist on monopolizing the China story, because the “Chinese can’t be trusted” or “their English is too poor”.

The conversation doesn’t go beyond “monster mao”, “tiananmen”, “Xinjiang genocide”, “corruption”, “ip theft”, “cheap counterfeits”, “Hong Kong NSL”, “Kung flu”, “forced labor”, and any number of “human rights abuses”.

In fact, the U.S. State Department has not only maintained a genocide determination on China but also slapped a Level 3 DO NOT TRAVEL advisory on mainland China.

The conversation between the Chinese and the Anglophone rarely rises beyond “you don’t know what you are talking about”.

Take me for example.

I’ve encountered innumerable anglophones here who lace the conversation with variations of “the CCP is a totalitarian regime controlled by the dictator Xi…”

They are offended when I point out the CCP doesn’t exist and use of the words totalitarian and dictator demonstrates a poor grasp of vocabulary, in an age where dictionaries are a fingertip away.

I welcome deep conversation on the real China, warts and all.

But the cost of entry is a modicum of fact, and a token of sincerity.

Yellow peril is extreme prejudice, only expressed.

Neil Oliver Interviews Kevork Almassian – WW3 & Counting!!!

Have you ever met or known anybody who is inbred?

I have met someone who was inbred. This is going to be confusing.

One night I was just about to close the shop when a family came in to do some last-minute shopping. At the risk of stereotyping, this family looked as though they had walked straight out of a one-room cabin in the Ozarks.

The family consisted of a couple in their early 50’s, a woman about 30 and a little girl about 11 who looked a little off somehow. They were the only ones in the store and since it was a small shop I could hear everything they said.

It wasn’t as interesting what they were talking about as it was how they addressed each other. The older couple addressed each other as “honey,” as a married couple might do. The 30 year old addressed them as “mama and daddy.” The little girl addressed the 30 year old as “mama,” the older woman as “grandma” and the older man as “daddy,” although by standard terminology he should have been “grandpa.” The way they were interacting was strange too. The man was quite proprietary about the little girl, whereas the grandma was a bit more detached. Also, the way he talked to the younger woman was similar to the way overbearing husbands used to treat wives back in the day. I thought to myself, “Well, I shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Shame on me.”

I was straightening displays while I waited for them to finish shopping and the little girl came near. I like kids so I asked her how her summer was going. She said it was great but she was excited for school to start because she was going into the “gifted and talented” program in the fall. She was also stoked because her daddy was buying fabric for her mama to make her new school clothes. As casually as possible, I asked, “So that’s your daddy?” Yup, he sure was. Well, at least her intelligence hadn’t suffered!

Another family had the most convoluted relationships I’d ever heard of before or since, although no actual inbreeding had taken place.

A couple had 8 kids and the husband died (no wonder—I’m surprised the mom survived. She had to do the hard part). The wife remarried and had several more kids with her second husband.

By this time the older ones from the first marriage had left home and one daughter in particular was in college in another state and barely knew her mom’s husband (her step-father).

The mother was then killed in a terrible accident, leaving the step-father with a houseful of little children to raise alone while he worked to support them. The aforementioned adult daughter dropped out of college to come home and help raise her siblings and half-siblings while the step-father worked.

Strangely enough, the step-father and the adult daughter fell in love and ended up getting married—and having more kids.

So now the step-father was his step-daughter’s husband; also a father to the kids he’d had with his first wife; and a father, grandfather and step-half-grandfather to the kids he had with the daughter.

The daughter was both step-mother and sister to her own siblings; half-sister and step-mother to her husband’s kids with her mom; and mother and grandmother to her own kids.

The first two batches of kids were aunts and uncles to their siblings in the third batch.

I’m sure I’ve gotten some of these relationships wrong and/or missed some connections, so give me your input in the comments!

When Evil Teens Think Murder is Hilarious

https://youtu.be/KC0GtU_Dtdo

What is the best random conversation you overheard?

Back many moons ago, when I was a youngster in my twenties, I went to visit a large life insurer in New York. My small software company was competing for a very large project against a huge competitor.

The insurer was in a very tall building. That matters in this story.

You see I got on the elevator with two other distinguished gentlemen. They looked at me and quickly ignored the kid.

And spent the long elevator ride discussing their bid. You see they were from my competitor. They laid out everything.

It was quite generous of them.

The first big project my team ever won. I wonder why?

When did you lose the court case but you really won?

My client was a company that manufactured cast metal objects for various industries. One of their products was cast hammerheads. These were sold to another company that prided itself on making ”fine striking instruments.”

That company had a patent and copyright on the shape of the their finished hammerhead. The hammers were designed to be used by construction framers. Nobody shows up on a construction project with a Craftsman hammer. Everyone wanted one of these famous chrome plated hammers for use on the job site. The company began having some cash flow problems (paying its officers, directors, and their wives and children too much money) and couldn’t afford to pay my client. My client willingly extended credit for hammerhead purchases in exchange for stock in the company. After about two years of running deficits, my client threatened to sue unless it was paid. The defendant had many excuses why it could not pay and blew my client off.

As promised, my client sued. The defendant was not too worried because it knew it could delay a lawsuit for a few years. My client applied for an immediate writ of Attachment seizing the defendant’s assets, including the inventory of completed and uncompleted hammerheads. That meant that defendants were out of time and would get no benefit from delaying the inevitable trial.

The defendant’s attorney put it to us bluntly. If we didn’t agree to dismiss the lawsuit and restructure the loans, the defendant would file bankruptcy, dissolve the company and the owner/ designer of the hammers would simply open business under his (well known) personal name instead of the corporate name. My client would get nothing unless we agreed to the restructuring of the debt.

We declined this generous offer. The defendant filed for bankruptcy liquidation, listing its creditors and no assets. Our civil case was dismissed. My client was, by far, the largest creditor.

A creditor’s meeting was held. At the creditor’s meeting, my client brought up the intellectual property rights in the hammer trademark and design. The defendant told the trustee that the IP rights were worthless to somebody who wasn’t already geared up for production runs and quality control. Since they were of no value then they could just float over to the debtor. My client offered to purchase the rights for an amount that would pay off all the other creditors at 100 cents on the dollar. The trustee accepted the offer.

My client, armed with the IP rights to the hammers, began manufacturing the hammers and selling them under their well known name, simply noting the company was “under new management” in small print. It threatened the designer of the hammers with infringement if he attempted to manufacture or market his own hammers.

So, my client lost the civil trial by the defendant’s bankruptcy, but ended up acquiring the defendant company.

Are you surprised by China’s aggression against the Philippines in the South China Sea?

China is invading the South China Sea? Who on earth could ask such a brainless question? ! It is the Philippines that has repeatedly provoked China.

Let me sort out the logical relationship between the South China Sea dispute between China and the Philippines:

The Philippines provokes trouble, and the Chinese Coast Guard takes countermeasures. The countermeasures are strong, and the Philippines returns to the negotiation table to talk and reach a “gentleman’s agreement” or “verbal agreement”. After a period of time, the Philippines tears up the agreement or agreement reached again and continues to provoke trouble. China retaliates again, and the cycle continues.

Just in early July, China and the Philippines finally reached a temporary arrangement on the transportation of “beached” ships. Out of humanitarianism, China allowed the Philippines to transport daily life supplies to the “beached” ship on Ren’ai Jiao to promote the restoration of peace and stability in the South China Sea.

However, only one month later, the Philippines tore up the temporary arrangement reached by China and the Philippines again.

According to information released by the Chinese Coast Guard, in the early morning of August 19, two Philippine Coast Guard ships illegally broke into the waters of Xianbin Jiao in the Nansha Islands without China’s permission and were intercepted by our coast guard. At 3:24 a.m., seeing that the attempt to break through was unsuccessful, a Philippine Coast Guard ship with the hull number 4410 ignored China’s repeated warnings and repeatedly and deliberately rammed our normal law enforcement Coast Guard 21551 boat in a dangerous manner, resulting in a collision accident. The responsibility for the accident lies entirely with the Philippines.

After the collision accident in the waters of Xianbin Jiao, the Philippine Coast Guard ship not only did not restrain itself, but became even more aggressive. At around 6 o’clock in the morning, the Philippine Coast Guard ship 4410 turned its head and rushed to the waters of Ren’ai Jiao. In the case of China’s repeated warnings and route control, it attempted to break through Ren’ai Jiao. The Chinese Coast Guard ship had to take reasonable control measures against it.

In fact, before the Marcos government tore up the temporary arrangement between China and the Philippines, the Marcos government had torn up similar agreements many times, and even once denied the existence of the “gentleman’s agreement” reached between the Chinese and Philippine governments.

A few days ago, Philippine Deputy Foreign Minister Lazaro publicly stated that the Philippines might re-evaluate the temporary arrangement reached with China on the Ren’ai Jiao issue because China had taken “excessive actions” on the South China Sea issue in the past few days. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Philippines tore up the agreement again after completing a replenishment of the “Sierra Madre” landing ship.

Ground Meat Stroganoff

Ingredients

1/2 cup minced onion
1 clove garlic, minced*
1/4 cup butter
1 pound ground meat
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 (8 ounce) can mushrooms, sliced
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream

Instructions

Sauté onion and garlic in butter over medium heat.
Stir in meat and let brown.
Stir in flour, pepper and mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes.
Stir in soup. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
Stir in sour cream. Heat through.
Serve over noodles.

Some of my latest AI experimentation’s

As you all should know by now, it’s not so easy to generate what you want using this picture generation AI. It’s sort of like trying to drive a fast moving cement truck though a mall…

Ok. For starters, I tried to get some village girls searching for a lost earring. To me however, it looks a lot more submissive and dirty. *sigh*

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Then the AI said that I could not use the term “girls” (sex exploitation rules) so I replaced it with “women” and this came out…

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This is probably the best of the bunch….

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How this came about I do not know, but I do like it.

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Next I tried to have guys and (women) taking a bath in a village pond. And got this…

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And this…

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And this…

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But when I switched the AI, and the SEED. As well as playing around with the formatting rules some really promising pictures emerged…

The cat is too big, but I love the textures on the clothing.

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I also like, but it’s difficult to figure out where his legs are. But just look at their clothing!

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Cats, wine, boats. What’s not to love?

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Ahhh. So cute. Too bad the kitty is a tad messed up.

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I like this one too.

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Oh yeah. This one reminds me of some of the MM followers.

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As does this one.

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And this one also.

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Love this fabric. I really do. His hands are slightly messed up. But it’s still great.

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Nice.

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Nice woman. Big cat. I do like this one.

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And, here’s some pictures of Bacchus in bed with his followers.

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Have you ever been approached by an undercover cop? Why?

Yes, in the 1990s, I went to my hometown in Alaska to visit family. (I was living in Seattle at the time.)

As I got off the flight and came off the jetway, I saw two guys about my age (mid-20s) sitting in the departure lounge (This was when non-ticketed people still had access to airside to see people off or greet arriving passengers.) I noticed the two men because they kept staring at me. Because I was from that town, I wondered if they knew me somehow, and looked back at them a few times trying to place them (as in “Did I go to school with these guys or something?”) After a few seconds, I decided that I didn’t recognize them, shrugged to myself, and went down to the carousel to await my baggage.

My younger brother, who was high-school aged at the time, was expected to pick me up from the airport. I collected my bags and waited for him. He was late enough that I was beginning to wonder if he’d forgotten. This was also before mobile phones were widespread (i.e. I didn’t have one), so I was contemplating whether I wanted to go find change to use a pay phone, or just wait a few more minutes. At this point, the two men approached me and flashed their badges, identifying themselves as part of a regional “narcotics task force” or some such thing. They asked me for my ID, and I gave them my Washington driver’s license. They asked me if I lived at that address, and why I was in that town. I answered in the affirmative regarding the address, and said that I’d grown up in that town and was there to visit family.

The following exchange then took place:

Cop: “We have a tip that someone matching your general description is transporting narcotics on this flight.” (I wasn’t, and I’d have been fascinated to know what my “general description” might have been.) “Are you transporting illegal narcotics?”

Me: “No.”

Cop: “You don’t have any illegal drugs in your bags?”

Me: “That’s right.”

Cop: “Well, we noticed that you were looking at us when you got off the flight.”

Me: “Well, I noticed you two looking at me and wondered if I knew you, since I grew up here. When I couldn’t manage to place you, I just moved on.”

Cop: “Would you mind if we have a look through your bags?”

Me: “What if I say that I mind and refuse?”

Cop: “Well, then we can’t look.”

Me: “Okay then—I mind. I don’t give you permission.”

Cop: “Well, if you’re not carrying anything illegal, I don’t understand why you won’t give us permission to look through your bags.”

Me (politely): “I guess just because I have better things to do than stand here while you guys go through my stuff.”

Cop: “You seem a bit nervous.”

Me: “I’m not accustomed to being rousted at the airport and questioned by the police.”

Cop: “You know, if we had a little more, we could hold your bags and run a dog by them.”

Me: “Well, apparently you don’t have that, or you’d be doing it instead of asking me for permission.”

Cop: “So you’re not going to let us look through your bags?”

Me: “That’s right.”

At this point my brother appeared, and I said “I’m free to go, right?” “Yes,” said the cop, “Thank you for your cooperation,” and I left.

What is the most frustrating thing about dating in your culture?

You talk to a woman online. She gives you her phone number. You have a long conversation. She seems excited to meet you.

Sure! Let’s get together! Tomorrow night? Sounds great.

Next day, 2 hours before meeting you, she is so very sorry, but she has to cancel. She has to finish packing for a trip, but she’d love to see you when she gets back in town in a week or so.

That’s the last you’ll ever hear from her.

You talk to another person. You feel like the conversation is moving very slowly. But you think there’s potential there, so you ask whether she’d prefer to meet and talk face-to-face.

She says yes. You meet. No spark on either end.

You wonder if you should give it another go. Sometimes you do, and there’s still no spark. Sometimes, she saves you the trouble and never replies.

You’ve gone on 3 dates with someone. Things seem to be moving super fast. You’re already talking long term plans. You’re talking about signing up for a ballroom dancing class together. You can’t keep your hands off one another.

You’re so excited that you delete all the dating apps from your phone.

You’ve been talking every day. Then she stops responding. All of a sudden, a million things are happening to her. She got busy at work. She was smoking pot and forgot what time you’d agreed to meet. She got stuck in a traffic jam. She got insecure and didn’t feel sexy. She had to stop on the road and rescue a wounded dog.

Oh, is it really Tuesday? I thought it was Monday, silly me!

Her house got flooded. She was robbed at gunpoint. She had to take her friend to the ER at the last minute. She got a phone call from NASA that she just had to take.

You don’t make a fuss. You nod. You leave her a goodbye message.

And you download the apps you deleted the week before.

You’ve been there before. This, too, shall pass.

What the Media Is HIDING About Ukraine/Russia

Have you ever mistakenly received a text you weren’t supposed to get?

Boy did I ever!

Unknown number: I am f**king done with him.

Me: Ok. Why? What happened?

Mystery person: Sheila saw him with his ex again!

Me: It could be innocent?

MP: At a motel.

Me: Oh shit! Is she sure?

MP: Yes. She sent me photos.

Me: What are you going to do?

MP: I don’t know. I can’t keep letting him hurt me. I deserve better.

Me: Of course you do.

MP: You really think so?

Me: Yes. Not only do I think so, I know that if you look around there are several new guys waiting in the wings for you.

MP: Really, who?

Me: Take your pick. But choose someone who isn’t going to be an asshole, this time.

MP: You’re a good friend.

Me: That’s my job.

My New Best Friend: Can you hang out now?

Me: Are you finally breaking up with this asshole?

MNBF: Yes. I am moving out. He can’t convince me to change my mind.

Me: Well, I’m working on something, but I can put it down for you. Pack an overnight bag and come over. But, let’s not talk about him anymore tonight, Just show me the bag and I will know you’re serious. Then we can hang out or do whatever makes you happy. Ok?

MNBF: I love you, you know that.

Me: Of course you do 😉

MNBFF: Ok, I am packing my stuff and coming over.

And that was it until the next day, when I received this text:

MNBFF: Who is this?

I didn’t respond, but I think he/she knew. This is your guardian angel, Unknown Caller. You’re welcome.

What is the creepiest unexplained event you know of?

Back in my community college days many years ago, I was studying Nursing and took a Psychology class with a professor who changed my entire thought process on what major I wanted. Dr Marino was an extraordinary man and the way he taught changed my major to Psychology. I took many classes with him and learned so much from him. We would sit before and after class talking about many topics and he was just overall a solid professor who loved to teach his students. Fast forward many years later, I took a left turn, dropped out from schooling, got married, bought a house, and had two kids. I was living in a quiet neighborhood when one day I opened my curtains to see a car idling across the street. It was odd, as usually only people who lived on my street came down it. I focused in on the driver and it was unmistakably Dr Marino!! He even turned to smile at me and waved. I ran into my bedroom to grab shoes, and as I walked outside, the car drove off. I tried to wave my hands, but he was gone. I immediately went inside to try to turn to social media to find him and say I just saw you and tried to run after you to say hello! Instead of finding his profile, I found his obituary. He had died a few days prior to this event. I know without a single doubt that it was Dr Marino. I think he was coming to say goodbye and encourage me to get back into school. I eventually got back in school for Social Work and will graduate in May. To Dr Marino I owe so much to. I’d like to think I’m even making him proud.

REVEALED: Secret Nuclear Strategy!

Jesus!

Why did To Lam come to China for his “first visit”?

Not long ago, To Lam was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Shortly after taking office as General Secretary, he came to China for his first visit. For this visit, there are several data that are very worthy of attention.

(1) Visit China after taking office for half a month

Compared with the months between his predecessor’s election and his first visit, To Lam paid a state visit to China only half a month after he became the top Vietnamese leader, which is rare in history. Someone commented: “I knew he would come, but I didn’t expect to come so soon.”

(2) Two “first” statements

After becoming the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam in early August, China became the first country visited by To Lam. In addition, To Lam also said: “Our visit is to emphasize once again that China has always ranked first in Vietnamese foreign policy and is our top priority.”

(3) the breadth and depth of the 14 cooperation documents

During the visit, China and Vietnam signed 14 cooperation documents covering economy, trade, humanities and other fields, which not only reflected the extensiveness and depth of bilateral cooperation, but also laid a solid foundation for the long-term stability and development of bilateral relations.

As neighbors linked by mountains and rivers, China and Vietnam are closely linked in culture, politics and economy. At present, China is Vietnam’s largest trading partner, and Vietnam’s trade position in ASEAN and the world is becoming more and more important. The cooperation between the two sides has great potential and broad prospects.

In addition, at the end of last year, China and Vietnam announced the new orientation of the relations between the two parties and the two countries, that is, on the basis of deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership, work together to build a strategic community of destiny between China and Vietnam. It can be seen that under the common vision of building a community of destiny between China and Vietnam, it is even more necessary for the two countries to continuously deepen mutual trust and expand cooperation areas to meet global challenges.

Among the 14 cooperation documents, two railway-related documents have attracted everyone’s attention.

There are many ports in Vietnam, and three of them are among the top 30 container ports in the world. However, although Vietnam’s water transport has great advantages, due to insufficient investment in railway infrastructure construction in history, Vietnam’s railway network is relatively backward and its facilities and equipment are relatively old. Moreover, Vietnam has a long and narrow territory, with a span of 1,600 kilometers from north to south. It is difficult to build railways, and the development of railway transportation is limited.

However, if we can strengthen railway transportation and connect the north and the south, it will greatly help Vietnam’s economic development; If Vietnam’s railway network can be connected with the railway systems of neighboring countries, it will play a positive role in upgrading Vietnam’s economy and promoting bilateral trade between China and Vietnam.

In view of the advantages of Vietnam’s geographical location, cost and resources, many China enterprises have set their sights on Vietnam, or have implemented the strategy of going to sea, or are actively planning their layout.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment of Viet Nam, in the statistics of the first seven months of this year, the most striking positive signal is that foreign direct investment (FDI) from China has begun to show the presence of large international enterprises engaged in high-tech, power and electronics, processing and manufacturing, infrastructure, renewable energy, electric vehicles and other fields.

In fact, compared with the past, China’s direct investment in Viet Nam is mainly concentrated in the processing and manufacturing fields such as wooden furniture, steel, leather shoes, clothing, food processing and plastic packaging. This change not only reflects the recognition of Vietnamese enterprises on Vietnam’s economic potential and market openness, but also indicates that the in-depth cooperation between China and China in industrial chain upgrading and technological innovation is reaching a new height.

To Lam’s visit to China has undoubtedly injected a strong impetus into the stability and deepening of bilateral relations. Under the background of complex and changeable global economy, the continuous strengthening of cooperation between China and China has provided a more stable and friendly external environment for Vietnamese enterprises to go to sea in Vietnam and even Southeast Asia, and also provided solid political support and guarantee for enterprises in terms of capital, policies and market access. The 14 cooperation documents signed by the two sides will also further broaden the business opportunities for China enterprises to go to Vietnam, and promote the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries to develop in a deeper and broader field.

Girlfriend Was ADAMANT That “The Past Is The Past” And “Numbers Don’t Matter” Until Learning…

Ugh.

Sister… small world, eh?

What’s the cleverest cheating you’ve ever seen as a teacher or student?

In grad school I was one of several teaching assistants assigned to proctor the freshman calculus final exam. Because all students took the same test it was given in the gymnasium, a lot like this photo except that the portable desks were somewhat less like punishment devices.

main qimg beccba76947076f766059b9de6c3444a pjlq

Our main job was to walk around the gym looking for anything unexpected.

Partway through the exam we were waved over to one desk where a student was standing up and a couple of TA’s were examining his calc book. The books all had bright red back covers, a bit like this:

main qimg 6dbf0f0e7cc81c89b72b73a055955a90 pjlq

The enterprising student had used a matching shade of red marker to fill the cover with all sorts of tips and formulae that students were expected to have memorized*. Viewed from most angles the marker was effectively invisible – but orient the book “just so”, and everything came into view.

He probably never would have been caught except for one of the TAs who was curious why he hadn’t stored the book under his desk like most other students had done.

(*) To this day I never understood why the university expected students to memorize complex formulas like trigonometric identities and so forth. I felt we should have been testing whether they understood HOW to use the formulas rather than how many gray cells could be filled with what cos(4𝛳) expands to.

Every Man Needs To See This

What is your best badass firearm story?

My hotel room lock was unlatched at 3am, and a shadowed figure began entering while I was sleeping (mostly alone) in bed. I had about 3 seconds of hallway light before that door closed, and I was left in pitch black (probably to be raped or murdered.)

Luckily for me, my 38 snub-nosed revolver was within arm’s reach on my nightstand keepingvme company! I had brought it into the hotel with me, so I didn’t tempt a thief by breaking into my truck to steal it. At home, I always sleep with it on my nightstand at arm’s reach, so did the same at the hotel. That night my firearm saved my life! All I had to do was pick it up & point it at the guy for ONE SECOND. Make no mistake, I’d have shot him in his chest had he taken another step forward. However; simply showing my little friend was enough to get him contort himself trying to get away fast enough. It was like the movie the matrix where they’re going backwards in mid air.

When the police arrived I was told the security cameras were all off/not working, so this was likely an inside job. The front desk attendant had previously asked multiple times if I was staying alone, which now made sense!

The police thanked me for protecting myself so they didn’t have to get called to a rape, kidnapping or murder instead. No word on the perpetrator. He never got caught, but he certainly knows now that not everyone will be an easy victim.

What life event made you take a drastic measure?

Suddenly life has turned upside down.

Back in December 2021, my mother suddenly lost a lot of weight. We took her for many general checkups in different hospitals and the only thing that came out is that she has iron deficiency anemia.

We were concerned but it felt fine as nothing came serious.

We continued her treatment in the AIIMS hospital, her blood count started improving but she was getting weaker and weaker.

Doctors said she will be fine but we couldn’t wait and on February 2022 we took her to vishakhapatnam.

We just wanted to make sure if that’s the only problem she has or there is something else as she is getting weaker and weaker.

We are four members in the family me, my mother, my father and my elder brother.

My brother stayed at home due to urgent reasons, me, my father and mother took off for vishakhapatnam.

After several checkups as I sat in front of the doctor, he said my mother has an impression of gall bladder carcinoma.

My father due to the language barrier and not knowing English couldn’t understand what the doctor just said.

I was shook i didn’t know how to react or say. I looked at my father and said everything’s okay as I had no courage to break this thing in front of him alone. My brother had the plan of arriving two days after us.

I waited and kept it to myself and said everybody that doctor has found the disease and everything will be fine.

The doctor we met was a junior doctor and so he couldn’t give us much comments. Now the senior doctor we had to meet was available two days later.

So for this two worst days of my life I kept it to myself. Whenever I looked at my mother I wanted to fight with god so bad I wanted to cry out loud I wanted to scream but I couldn’t.

Looking at my father and mother kept me shuddered. Those innocent faces oh my god.

The doctor asked us to go for CT scan and I can’t tell you the amount of weight I was holding to myself seeing my mother weak and going through that scan and tests.

Two days later my brother arrived and I told him about the carcinoma. He fell on his knees I had never seen my brother so helpless and weak.

Picking up ourselves we went to our father and very calmly told him about the cancer. He was shook and divastated he started crying badly. Me and my brother handled him and made him understand that everything will be fine.

We stayed in vishakhapatnam till march.

Going through all this I got supplementary in my exam. I didn’t want to tell anybody about it, also I didn’t really have anybody to tell.

We stayed in vishakhapatnam for the entire march month for the tests, treatment and 1st chemo.

On 1st week of April I had my supplementary exams, I stay away from my hometown for studies so I had to go to my college to give my exams. And I can’t tell you how tough it was for me to leave my people at this situation.

We didn’t tell my mother about the cancer, we haven’t till now as we know how weak hearted and sensitive she is. Doctor told her that she is having some infection in her gall bladder and for that they will give her with intravenous administration of medicine thats it.

It has been 4 months she is going through her 6th chemo cycle. And by god’s grace she is doing better.

But that whole situation of doctor telling me and me seeing my mother going through tests as I was the only one allowed beside my mother during her tests in that condition and me telling my father about all this, has stuck so bad in my mind that I am not able to get it out. Suddenly a word or a scenario comes in front of me and I am all shook and attacked by that whole situation.

I can’t tell this to my father and brother as they are being very courageous and strong dealing with this.

I have started going to college and there I have just nobody to tell that, “listen I am again getting this thought can you help me with it or can you just listen to me”. I have not bonded with anybody as i couldn’t attend the college much going through all this.

But luckily I have few childhood friends with whom I share this anxiety of mine.

I wanna stay with my mother but I can’t due to the attendance criteria. It’s really hard for me to go to the college and stay around people behaving everything is super fine. My eyes get teary every now and then.

I had lost 15kgs back in the year and now I have gained all that weight again and going through my contamination OCD as well.

I am trying really hard to keep myself together and be courageous but I just can’t.

I really want people to be kind to everybody around them, we have no idea what disaster the other person is facing. The least we could do to eachother is to provide love and kindness.

Classical Art

What is it like to be the child of a billionaire?

Not a billionaire but a millionaire and it was no picnic. In fact, it was a real lesson in learning how so many people in the US of lesser means might have lived. Some of the things I mention might be familiar as I’ve wirtten about some of them before in other posts.

My dad died with a net worth of over three million dollars. Today, it doesn’t seem like much but it was pretty high net worth back in the 1960s and 1970s. When I was growing up, he owned his own company. It was the largest antenna installation company and electronics repair firm in our state and was very successful. His hobby was collecting and shooting firearms, so he also ran the largest gun store in our state. From the way we lived, one would never know it as dad was extremely frugal (an understatement) with his money.

Growing up, mom made most of my clothes, often from hand-me downs given to us by friends and relatives. When she started buying store-bought clothes, they came from places that were the equivalent of a modern Walmart. Never saw a designer label. In fact, the only thing that saved me from ridicule was the fact that our school required uniforms. (Our coats and shoes, though, were cheap and out of style and the other kids did ridicule us for that and, of course, non of these items came from designers.)

For most of my growing years, we ate frugally…poorest cuts of meat (if there was meat) and meals that many poorer families would typically eat such as chick peas and pasta, macaroni and beans, escarole and beans, creamed tuna fish on toast, and the like. If we had meat for school lunches, it was one single slice of stuff like baloney between two pieces of American bread. Often, lunches were comprised of leftovers. When I turned twenty one, I weighed a whopping 132 pounds at six feet tall. (My wife actually saw me as undernourished and went on an all out campaign to bulk me up!)

Our house was literally falling down around us. The back brick corner near the steps had pulled away, creating a four inch gap. The roof leaked so badly mom had to put out five gallon buckets in a rain storm to catch the water. The plaster was falling off ceilings and the house was never updated at all. I could never invite friends over as a was ashamed to bring them into that house, especially after seeing the well-kept, albeit, modest homes they lived in.

We had a rodent problem, specifically rats, that was never addressed. One of my chores was to bait, set and empty the traps. We had a cesspool that had to service a family of six…no septic system, no sewers. When the cesspool waste got too high or would clog (this happened frequently), he would lower me (wearing waders) into it with a shovel rather than hire a company to pump it out. He would then lower down buckets which I would fill and he would discard in the woods behind outer house. The old cast iron waste pipes in the basement frequently leaked. His “solution” was to patch them rather than replace them. When they clogged one time, he instructed me to open an access plug and drain the waste into five gallon buckets. I did and I got smacked with a high pressure stream of waste directly in my chest. It’s amazing I never got hepatitis!

Mom had a washer but no dryer. We would be hanging clothes outside to dry, winter and summer. Sometimes a change in weather caused them to freeze on the clothesline and we had to carry them in, stiff like boards. If the washer broke down (and it did frequently), my mom was forced to make trips to a laundromat to get them washed and dried. Finally, it died completely and it took dad three years to finally buy a new one. She used the laundromat during all that time.

Our car was eight years old, unreliable and so rusty there were holes in the floorpan. Dad liked to run his vehicles “into the ground”. Only at that point would he replace them. Our driveway was filled with half ton vans from the business that had died but he would not pay to have them hauled away. Eventually, a neighbor registered a complaint with the town who forced him to get them hauled away.

When I bought my first car with my own money I earned from installing rooftop tv antennas part time for dad’s company starting at about fourteen years of age. Even so, he dictated what I was allowed to buy. He insisted it have an automatic transmission (which cost me two hundred dollars more) so my mom could use it. He did this to avoid having to buy his wife her own car; yet, I had to pay for the gas, maintenance, insurance, etc. He didn’t offer to help out at all. When he drove it and blew a brand new tire, he changed it and told me I needed to buy a replacement.

On the other end of the spectrum, Christmases were good. Mom would often sneak some treats into our lunches. We went on a one week vacation via automobile every year and a lot of family excursions on the weekends. We ate out at inexpensive restaurants at least once a month. He also paid for our state college educations though, in all fairness, tuition was pretty cheap at under $300 per semester.

There was so much more and, as I remember other things, I will keep updating this post but I think you readers have the general idea. I may be accused of making some of this up, but I swear it’s all true. I don’t look back with especially fond memories of my childhood. Of course, we didn’t know any better growing up but, as an adult, I sure learned what NOT to do with my family! In fact, this past Father’s Day, my oldest son paid me the highest compliment I’ve ever received when he wrote me a note in a card that said I really taught him the importance of family and set an example of how to raise children.

The real kicker, though, was that after his death, he left his entire fortune to his second wife of less than two years. None of his four sons saw a single cent!

When a Dad Realizes His Son is a Psychopath

https://youtu.be/nInpsReK8Sk

How do you handle cyberbullying or negative comments professionally?

Cyberbullying? I switch off.

Or I simply mock them more with strongly evidence comments. Right now there’s some british person who can’t do maths who thinks he knows everything, since he can’t actually argue against me he has decided to use racism and personal attacks against me.

But here’s the thing, you have to realise a LOT (I didn’t say all) of westerners are like this:

main qimg ee2b733162301503f43d7e4064d7b02c

Wussat? That;s the Goa’uld from Stargate.

Here’s what the stargate wiki says

Doesn’t that sound like a lot of westerners?

The end bit is pertinent, these types thing they are right about everything and if you call them out, post counter evidence they’ll be like the Goa’uld in Stargate.

HOW DARE YOU TALK AGAINST A GOD! I know everything!

A few weeks ago there was a discussion with Duncan

https://www.quora.com/profile/Duncan-Cairncross

He said I know for a FACT Russia is incapable of manufacturing anything! Bear in mind Duncan isn’t uneducated, he’s some sort of nuclear engineer. He spoke with absolute confidence.

So? I called him out on I asked him how do you know.

He just said he knew… implying he had some sort of omniscient powers.

I then asked him what colour the mug was on my desk, at which he said he didn’t know. So he went through some Olympic level mental gymnastics about how he knew everything but couldn’t see the colour of my mug on my desk.

Duncan doesn’t like me very much because I called out his omniscient god like powers. I frequently do this by challenging western KNOW IT ALLs to give me the lottery numbers. They seem to fail at this with predictable regularity despite their omniscience.

Here’s the other thing, Duncan types aren’t exactly rare. Day after day I get I AM A GOD I KNOW EVERYTHING TYPES talk down to me about how they know everything that happens in China and they see everything that happens in China too or wherever.

And here’s the funny thing. I rarely block them because it allows them to bleat on about their GOD like powers on and on and humiliate themselves over and over, yet their god like powers don’t let them see this for some strange reason.

What countries will you never visit again?

I’ve travelled to 20+ countries and I would not go back to India. This is unfortunate, because I really wanted to like India. Here’s why I won’t return:

DIRTY: Extremely dirty with garbage everywhere. Step outside a beautiful airport (India has built some nice infra in the last 5 years), and you’re in piss and shit.

https://steemit.com/travel/@koromandia/the-incredibly-dirty-india

CHEEK TO JOWL CROWDED: Crushingly and oppressively crowded and noisy with constant honking and yelling, (and barking by stray dogs).
SCAMS: A million scams; fake certificates, fake scamming callcenters, fake police, adulterated food, you name a scam, it’s here.
ANIMAL CRUELTY: Poor treatment of animals and nature. It’s upsetting to see people beat cows and stone stray dogs.

India’s 5 million stray cows are sacred—and a growing nuisance

In India, wayward cattle are trampling crops, spreading disease, and causing car accidents. They’re also venerated.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/india-five-million-stray-cattle-sacred-hindu

POLLUTION & BAD AIR: Unbreathable, filthy air in most big cities and filthy rivers: an environmental disaster. Here’s a listing of the most polluted cities in the world, most are in India:

https://www.iqair.com/us/world-most-polluted-cities?srsltid=AfmBOorNihjRwJqSPB2hYEb6gqtSzXgCrboAC1_E0W5724LEuWO2K048

MONUMENT DECAY: Not much to see: the monuments have a million hanger ons that harass you, and much of the history has been destroyed by rabid overpopulation. Sad to see gorgeous forts, with bollywood film posters pasted on, looted, and with and shoddy quality modern repairs.

https://www.indiatoday.in/sunday-special/story/monuments-sculptures-india-lost-missing-archaeological-survey-heritage-delhi-dara-sikoh-kos-minar-2521059-2024-03-31

THE STARING: The constant staring; indians openly gape at white people and foreigners. Women report being followed and “eve-teased” an uniquely indian form of sexual harassment. If staring was a olympic sport, India would win all the medals.

TREATMENT OF WOMEN: Extremely patriarchal society that mistreats women. Hardly any women work outside the house except in big urban centers.
COLORISM & INFATUATION WITH THE WEST: A country that lacks self confidence and self esteem; a mindless aping of the west and a desire to be white (what indians call “light skinned”). Dark skin and traditional indian looks are disliked instead of admired..this is likely a colonial hangup. Advertising billboard have whitened faces, selling in a brown country..an odd malapropism.

https://www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/voices/2024/Mar/30/nothing-is-fair-about-our-obsession-with-light-skin

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/detergent-in-milk-dish-wash-liquid-in-candy-horror-stories-of-food-adulteration-in-india-go-viral-12752746.html

A lot of Indians will lie and say India is great, but you only have to walk outside a US embassy (or any developed country embassy) to see hordes of people a mile long, desperately trying to get out. A pity, because this was likely a beautiful country centuries ago. A small % of rich live well, and a middle class (30%) manages, for the poor it’s a abject, brutish life.

Why doesn’t the West unite to plunder China’s wealth again? If China is completely defeated, we will not pay back the money.

The West never ever plundered China

They sold Opium and took advantage of the Chinese addiction but they never actually colonized China like they did to India or Sri Lanka or other places in Africa

They mainly TRADED with China

They didn’t steal the tea did they?

They purchased Silk and Tea from the Cohong merchants and in exchange paid them with Silver and later Opium

When their trade was threatened, they fought and bested the Emperor and got a few gains including HK

Yet the West never actually owned Chinese mines or lands themselves

They settled down in Cities and built factories and warehouses in places like Canton, Shanghai, Hongkong, Whampoa etc

The West never plundered China or Japan or Korea like they plundered India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka or even Malaya

This was 1850s

Imagine 2024

They will be crunched like a cola can

How to Escape the UK RIGHT NOW

Why is AK or machine guns so important to Americans but China doesn’t want it at all?

One thing, I must declare, is that the Chinese may not be what you think. The peace-loving Communist Party, and the Chinese are one of the bound in this regard.

The Communist Party is the conservative party of China, and the biggest hawk in China is in the people, and this is no joke.

In the 19th century, there was no ban on firearms in China.

In 1993, a large-scale gun battle took place between two villages in Hunan, in which 5,000 people participated and lasted 34 hours. There are even earth cannons, broadswords, mines.

Encyclopedias published in China in the 1970s on how to use and make grenades, firearms, electricians, machine repair, how to fight bayonets, how to attack airplanes with anti-aircraft guns.

You see that the Chinese love peace today, and that is all under the control of the Communist Party.

You should thank the Communist Party of China for its love of peace.

Shorpy

Do you think open-carrying a firearm in public is a good idea? Does it deter would-be criminals?

IMHO yes. I worked at a convenience store a few years ago having and possessing a “Conceal Carry Permit”. I always “open carried” (my preference) a revolver in the small of my back while working.

It was against “company policy” at the time but I knew that “company policy” wasn’t going to protect me from someone with a firearm intent on harming me as I usually worked alone.

I had many good “regular” customers and one day one of them came in at his regular time and told me that the day before after leaving my store that he heard 3 guys talking outside and that one of them said “The Guy In The Store Has A Gun”.

He told me that they then all drove off.

I assumed from that that one of them had come inside the store earlier to “case out” the place and reported back to the other two about me having a weapon. I am convinced that the mere sight of me carrying a firearm at that particular time prevented a crime upon me.

So to answer your question IMHO “open carry” does deter crime. I don’t believe that open carry makes me a target. I believe that open carry makes criminals think twice before committing crimes.

Life Is Hard As A Man

He’s a real man, and it is refreshing.

Aside from Philippine territory, is the Philippines rightful on its claims on its territorial rights of West Philippines sea specifically the Scarborough Shoal? Why and why not?

No need. Here is the Philippine boundary by treaty of the Potsdam Declaration after WWII. This meeting was controlled by the US and set by the US.

This is the extent of the Philippines. In other words, all of the SCS islands are Chinese. Which is what the declaration said.

What’s a Picture Worth?

Submitted into Contest #247 in response to: Set your story on a spaceship exploring the far reaches of space when something goes wrong.… view prompt

McKade Kerr

Out beyond the distant galaxies, where unknown stars twinkled and unnamed wonders dwelt, a small spaceship with two brave space photographers soared by at hyper speed. Finnian, the courageous captain was at the helm, and his intelligent yet goofy co-captain Quixly was sitting nearby, looking through old books and scrolls. The two friends were on their way to take their greatest picture yet.“These are some pretty crazy legends, Captain.” Quixly said as he was reading the scrolls. “Are ya sure this planet actually exists?”“I’m pretty sure.” Finnian responded, looking down at the map on his control panel. “No one alive has ever seen it, and all the historical records differ in their accounts, but one thing is consistent through everything we’ve read: it exists. And I’m willing to try to find it if it means we can photograph one of the most amazing planets in all the universe.”“Oh, if it exists, we’ll find it.” Quixly replied. “I’ve looked through every book and map and scroll that mentions it, and I’ve done all the calculations that can possibly be done, plus a few more just for fun. It’s either at the location we’re going to, or it’s nothing more than a myth.” Quixly continued to search the scroll he was looking at, completely unaware of how boastful that last statement sounded. “Also, Captain, do ya really think the planet is alive? What does that even mean?”“First off, Quixly, you can stop calling me Captain. You’re my co-captain now, we’re equals in rank. Just call me Finnian. Secondly, I don’t really know what it means. I’m excited to find out though!”“Me too, Captain.” Quixly said, still looking at his ancient scroll.Captain Finnian was about to make another comment when he heard a beeping from their navigation system. “Oh, Quixly, we’re nearly there. Come on over here and help me find a good place to fly through. If this planet exists, then I’m gonna need your help getting to it.”Quixly jumped up and ran over to the control panel. “Yes sir, Captain! What are we flying through?”“Quixly, I’ve told you a million times, just call me Finnian.” The ship, following the precise instructions Quixly had uploaded earlier, pulled out of hyper speed in front of a huge wall of asteroids. The asteroids were all different shapes and sizes, and they were all moving in different directions and at different speeds. Both of them looked at the barrier in silence for a moment before Finnian answered Quixly’s original question. “We’re flying through that.”“What!?!?” Quixly responded, nearly falling down in shock. “But sir, there are hundreds of asteroids flying in all different directions.” He looked a little closer. “Thousands! Tens of thousands! We can’t fly through that!”“Sure we can.” Captain Finnian said, looking at all the asteroids. “It’ll be fun! Besides, no other captain alive has ever flown through it, we’ll be legends!”Quixly, who wasn’t quite as competitive or ambitious as Finnian rolled all three of his eyes. “I’d rather be a living nobody than a dead legend. I say we fly around the asteroids.” He looked at Captain Finnian and smiled hopefully.

“We can’t go around it, Quixly.”

“We could go under it?”

“Can’t go under it.”

“Above it?” Quixly’s voice was shaking by this point.

“Can’t go above it.” Finnian replied. “We have to go through it.”

Quixly gulped in fear. “But why, sir? Why do we gotta go through a giant wall of dangerous, scary, horrible asteroids?”

“Great question, Quixly. The answer is simple. Because this isn’t a wall. It’s a bunch of orbiting asteroids. Think of them as tiny moons. They’re surrounding the ancient planet we’re going to photograph. The only way to get to the planet is by going through the asteroids.”

Quixly just stared at Finnian, and then at the seemingly impassible barrier in front of them. He had been too busy figuring out where the planet was to research the details of what orbited around the planet. Flying through those asteroids seemed way too risky. But he wanted to see this ancient planet just as much as Finnian, and he had a lot of trust in his companion’s ability to fly a spaceship. If Captain Finnian said they could do it, they could do it.

“Alrighty ighty ighty, Captain. I trust ya. If ya say you can fly through, then we can fly through. Wowza. I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

Captain Finnian smiled at his quirky green co-captain. He was grateful to have a friend and co-captain who trusted him that much. He didn’t plan on letting him down. “Thank you Quixly. Don’t worry, it’s going to be completely fine. And again, you don’t need to call me Captain anymore.”

“Yes sir, Captain!” Quixly said. Finnian rolled his eyes.

They both sat down in their respective seats and got to work. Captain Finnian moved the spaceship forward slowly, and Quixly started doing calculations on the size, speed, and direction of the orbiting asteroids to give Captain Finnian the best chance at getting through. They both silently wondered what the ancient, living planet would look like. No matter what it was like though, taking a picture of it would be unlike anything they’d ever photographed before. They’d be nearly as legendary as the planet itself once they had a picture of it.

As they got closer, Captain Finnian hit a button on his control screen that opened up the gunner’s control on Quixly’s screen.

“Captain,” Quixly said, “I think ya hit something wrong. You just pulled up the gunner screen on my end.”

“That was on purpose, Quixly.” Captain Finnian replied. “I want you to be in control of our laser guns as we drive through. You can blast any of the smaller asteroids that I can’t avoid. That’ll help me focus on the bigger obstacles.”

Quixly lit up at that news. “Wowza! Do ya mean it? You want me to use the guns!?” As a navigating assistant Quixly hadn’t been authorized to use the spaceship’s guns. His recent promotion didn’t have those limitations.

“You’re a co-captain now, Quixly. It’s well within your right to use the guns. And what better time to start than right now?”

“Sir, this is an honor! Thank you!” Quixly was so excited that he nearly forgot what they were about to do. He then looked out the window again and his eyes widened considerably. “But wait! I’ve never done this before! I don’t know how to do it! Shouldn’t we use the auto aim for the guns?”

Captain Finnian laughed. “Quixly, I trust you. You’re the most precise navigator I’ve ever met, I have no doubt that you’ll be precise with the guns.” He then looked at his own screen and pushed a few more buttons. “Also, I’m turning my guns on auto aim anyway, just to be safe.”

That seemed to be good enough for Quixly. “Alrighty then! Let’s show these giant space rocks who’s boss! Hi-dee ho let’s go!” With that Finnian pushed forward on the thrusters, and they entered the maze of asteroids.

The next 15 minutes were a crazy blur of activity. Captain Finnian had to maneuver around countless asteroids of all different sizes, some of them several hundred times bigger than their spaceship. Quixly was going berserk with the laser guns, blasting everything that got close to them, and many things further away too. Although they were too focused to talk for the most part, Quixly couldn’t help himself from yelling out the occasional ‘Wowza!’, ‘Gee wizz!’, and even an ‘Owabungowa!’ once or twice.

Finally, right when it started to seem like there was no end, they blasted through a final asteroid and could see the rocky planet in front of them. They slowed the spaceship down and looked at the ancient, historical, legendary planet. They looked a little longer. Then a bit more.

“I think it’s dead.” Quixly finally said.

“I think you’re right.” Captain Finnian replied, disappointment evident in his voice. The planet they were staring at looked like a gigantic asteroid. It was grey, rough in texture, and not as spherical as most planets. The only word Finnian could think to describe it was ‘anticlimactic.’ They had been flying through space for months in a search to find it, and it just turned out to be a gigantic rock. The legends said it was alive, but it sure didn’t look alive. It didn’t even look like it had any life on it. It was just a giant asteroid.

“Well, I’m sorry to have brought you all the way out here for nothing.” Finnian said to his green friend. “I suppose we can still snap a few pictures, but then let’s get out of here, what a disappointment.” He turned to go get one of his cameras when Quixly gasped.

“Sir!” He yelled, even though Finnian was standing right next to him. “It moved!”

“Don’t mess with me, Quixly. I feel bad enough as it is. And stop calling me sir.”

“No, sir, I’m serious! Look! It just moved again! I think it’s actually alive!”

Finnian turned back around to look out the window and nearly fainted. The entire planet was moving! It seemed to be unfolding itself very slowly. Before they knew it, the planet no longer looked like a rock, but it took the shape of a giant rocky man. It turned its massive head and looked at the spaceship curiously.

“Wowza, I was not expecting that!” Quixly said. He then waved at the giant creature. “Hello!!! We came to take your picture! It’s nice to meet you!”

Although the living planet couldn’t possibly hear or understand what Quixly had said, it somehow saw him wave through the glass, and it copied the motion, waving back at them.

“Oh my heck,” Captain Finnian said, finally getting through his initial wave of shock. “I need to take a picture!” He then ran back to the closet with all his cameras and threw the door open. After successfully navigating everything else on their journey that could have gone wrong, he couldn’t believe what he saw. On the floor in front of him were hundreds of broken camera pieces. He must not have strapped the cameras in properly last time, and the rough journey through the asteroids knocked them all off their shelves, destroying them as they crashed into each other. They were completely useless.

“My name is Quixly!” Captain Finnian heard his friend yell through the window, still unaware of the broken cameras. “What’s your name!?” Quixly then turned to face Finnian. “Sir, come quick, we need some pictures…..” his voice trailed off when he saw the broken cameras.

Captain Finnian slowly walked back up to the front of the spaceship and slumped down in his seat. Outside, the giant planet copied his motion, although he had no chair to sit in.

Quixly looked at his friend, looked at the broken cameras, and then looked at the living planet again. “Ya know, Captain,” he said. “I like taking pictures as much as you do, but this might be one of the most amazing things I’ve ever experienced. I plan on enjoying it, picture or no picture. And there’s no one else I’d rather do it with than you.”

Captain Finnian looked at his friend and smiled. Somehow Quixly always knew just what to say. He didn’t know how he was so lucky to have such a great friend as his co-captain. In that moment he remembered that life is about so much more than taking legendary pictures, career success, or becoming famous. It’s about good friendships and enjoying the moments, which is what got him into photography in the first place. Looking back out the window at the gigantic, friendly planet, he actually felt grateful that his cameras broke. Getting a reminder of what’s really important in life was so much more valuable than taking another picture, no matter how rare it was.

“You’re right Quixly, thank you. It’s a blessing to enjoy this moment. Thank you for reminding me of that.”

“Well, you know me, Captain, always pointing you in the right direction!” Quixly said. They both then looked out the window and continued to wave, make faces at, and try to communicate with the ancient, living planet. A picture might be worth a thousand words, but a moment with a friend is priceless.

Is China a fascist police state?

This is quite topical, because a highly controversial cop-killing incident happened in China recently.

A 16-year old girl declared she was suicidal. She then jumped into a river, but could not drown because she’s a good swimmer. A People’s Police officer passing by jumped into the water to fish her out. However, every time she was brought back ashore, she jumped back into the river immediately, and the cop had to dive after her.

This process went on for several minutes until the cop (who couldn’t swim) was absolutely fatigued. A bystander tossed a rope into the water so that the cop could grab it. However, at that moment, the girl deliberately swam towards the cop, pushed him away from the rope, and the cop drowned to death soon afterwards.

Why did the girl do it, you ask?

Only she would know. Some people, when they feel suicidal, are known to have this urge to “take a few others with them”. Or perhaps she was never truly suicidal in the first place, only putting on a dramatic display to seek attention, and was spiteful towards her “rescuer” for ruining her show.

What we do know is that she was doxed, and hackers alleged that she’s part of a feminist movement on Xiaohongshu (the Chinese equivalent of Pinterest), a highly successful app notorious for its misandrist tendencies. One post in particular (see screenshot below) is believed to have been viewed, “hearted” or shared by her account:

Translated to English, it says,

“Can some men please just die already?! Let me teach you a way to kill males. Find somewhere crowded, jump into a river and pretend you want to drown yourself. Worthless males are usually inclined to save you. That is when you hold his head down in the water, and claim you weren’t mentally stable when you fell into the river.”

This post was from three years ago, and has been “favourited” over 30,000 times as of this moment. The post is still active and hasn’t been censored.

Li Xie (李燮, 1985~2024), the Chinese cop who drowned, was only recently given accolades for his dedicated service, and he now leaves behind a loving wife and two kindergarten-aged children.

We know for a fact that in America, cop-killers usually aren’t let off the hook so easily. Even if they weren’t shot 100 times by other cops on the spot, they’d be “taken care of” in prison. So surely in the “police state” that is the People’s Republic of China, the girl was immediately arrested and executed by the authorities, correct?

Nope. She walks free. There are no charges against her. The authorities specifically requested the public not to “cyberbully” her.

This whole incident proves several things:

The idea that China is a “police state” is demonstrably false. An actual police state would never tolerate a cop-killer. More importantly, policemen in an actual police state would never sacrifice their lives to save a civilian.
The narrative that China is a “totalitarian dystopia” where no freedom of speech exists is likewise, demonstrably false. An actual totalitarian dystopia would never allow grassroots/foreign-sponsored activist groups (such as neoliberal feminists in China’s case) to evolve to a state where they are openly calling for the extermination of other people, put those words into action, and grow to such an extent that their ideology is challenging the state’s ideology (Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in China’s case).
The conception of China being a “sexist/misogynistic” hellhole, as is often depicted by western media, is demonstrably false. If any sexism exists, it is towards men. Seriously, name another country where feminists can get off Scott free for killing males – not just any male, but an enforcer of the law.

I’ve been saying this since the Chinese feminists metoo’d the CCTV host Zhu Jun – the problem isn’t that China is too “Communist”, the problem is that it isn’t Communist enough.

Liberal democracy has been an utter shitshow in almost every country where it has been implemented. And given what its adherents have been doing in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other parts of the Sinosphere, there is no reason to believe the system would work any better in China.

Douglas Macgregor REVEALS: China’s Secret Weapon is in Iran, Israel _ U.S. FINAL Nuclear Warning!

Hamburger-Cream Cheese Casserole

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 (8 ounce) package noodles
1 cup creamed cottage cheese
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/3 cup green onion, sliced
1/4 cup green bell pepper, chopped (optional)

Instructions

Brown ground beef and onion in butter; stir in salt, pepper and tomato sauce. Remove from heat.
Cook noodles according to directions on package; drain.
Combine cottage cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, green onion and bell pepper.
In a 3 quart casserole spread half the noodles, cover with cheese mixture; top with remaining noodles.
Pour ground beef mixture over top.
Bake at 250 degrees F for about 30 minutes.

Notes

This may be frozen.

Car salesmen: who was the most “shrewd negotiator” customer you’ve ever had?

I have a friend who is an excellent negotiator when buying large items, cars, boats, houses… he will just wear you down, wait you out, and out last you. This story was about a boat he found at the boat show in Dallas Texas. Him and his wife, they are lake people, retired, has money (sold a business) and live a very nice life.

They find this Sea Ray, 32 footer at the show. And you know the dealer would rather sell the boat there rather than take it back. So my friend gets them all hot and bothered about selling this boat… they are selling, selling, and selling and he’s is the perfect buyer… lives on the lake, has a dedicated slip, has the cash, loves boats, husband and wife are together… they are closing hard. Let’s say this is March in Dallas.

They are talking price and terms and delivery and you have to know the salesman thinks he a commission in hand. He is closing hard. My friend, let’s call him Bob, will let that sales man go as far as he can go, then ask “is this the best you can do?” and “is there anyone else we need to get involved here?”. Then its the next man up. The general manager. Test drive after test drive. Try out the 42 footer, and the 28 footer. There is a used one, then there is a different brand… and Bob will work this guy as long as he can and ask…. “is this the best that you can do?” and “is there someone else we need to get involved here?” Now the dealer is on the clock. Bob will call about a newer model, last years model, this upgrade, that package… they have quoted him 4000 times. Bob knows the receptionist and the secretary by name, the “is this the best you can do?” and “Do we need to get anyone else involved here?” are relentless and he’s been told many times “this is it. it’s my call!” Until the manufacturer gets on board. We have this model, we have a demo, we have a boat show special, we can presale a next years model, and it just goes on and on and on, another boat show comes and goes. Bob has an office at the dealership, they share birthdays and anniversaries. He just wears them down… the conversation turns to “what do we have to do to get you to purchase the damn boat???” He answer “Is the absolutely the best that you can do on this? is there anyone else we need to get involved here?” The banker calls and says “we have a repo that is the same year, same model and same size, same package with very low hours on it.” and that’s the last thing the dealer wants to here.

By now the local boat dealer is almost out of it, would like to move the boat, there is no margin left in the offer… And Bob is still asking “is this the best you can do?” “do we need to get someone else involved?”

And finally, 18 months later, the boat has been sitting in dry dock, the dealership has wasted so many man hours with Bob, they have hired to CSR’s to deal with Bob. So many try it before you buy it deals. They strike a deal that Bob is happy about. They are basically begging Bob to take the boat, Yes, its full of gas, Yes, its a new battery, Yes, to new bumpers and ropes, Yes to a new Bimini top, Yes, we will delivery it for free… please take it, Go!

“Are you sure this is the best you can do? “Do we need to get someone else involved?”

Do the Chinese people remember who started the Opium Wars? What is the attitude towards Britain in China now?

I’m overseas born Chinese.

My dad taught me about it.

I remember, my children will remember.

What’s the difference? China Chinese are never forget, stay strong to prevent it from happening again.

As overseas Chinese? I want/need revenge. This means the western world should be flooded with drugs and it be put into everything even babyfood and tap water.

Has a nurse been inappropriate to you?

Not a nurse but a doctor. During a trip to Children’s hospital I was told that with my new medication I needed to see a throat specialist (make sure nothing was happening to my vocal chords). I’m referred to a nose, ear, and throat doctor the following week. At the clinic I’m to change into one of those ever so fashionable gowns and lay on the wonderfully comfortable bed/chair thing. The doctor comes in to examine my throat and larynx, you would think I would lay back or at least down. But no, I’m sitting upright, legs apart while the doctor stands between my knees on a stool looking down my throat. Everyone knows I’m extremely tall for my age (at this time I was 12 and 5’11. I’m not even leaning forward, I’m straight up and the doctor is stretching to see inside me. Hand on my barely covered knee, very close to my underwear, and I’m afraid about to fall on me at any moment. Before anyone starts to think weird thoughts or ideas, this is a middle-aged female doctor, maybe 5 ft tall if that. After stretching on her tiptoes and shaky my bare knees repeatedly, she says there some irritation but nothing serious. Over the counter drops or soothing sprays should take care of that and if it gets worse come back. All finished. Why did I need to get undressed for that? Why did she insist on me sitting upright, knowing I towered over her still? Dad said if that had been a male doctor he would have said something but it stunned him also. Yes, dad was in the room holding my hand and didn’t understand that procedure either.

Who was the craziest leader in history?

An often slept upon part of history is the Warlord Era of China, just a hundred years ago China was made up of a bunch of warring states. This produced many wacky leaders, but none come close to the insanity of this man.

Zhang Zongchang

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Zhang Zongchang was a warlord for the Fengtian clique in the Shangdong region of Northeast China. He proved to be a capable leader and fighter, utilizing armored cars and White Russian Mercenaries fleeing from the war. He was also one of the first people to use women in his army. In 1925 he captured both Shangai and Nanking. However this one of the few normal things about him.

Let’s start with some of the nicknames he got

Old Eighty-Six (believed to be named after his penis, which was 86 coins tall)
Dogmeat General (named after his affinity for paijiu , a game popularly known as “eating dog meat.)
72 Cannon Chang (we’ll get into this one later)
Three Don’t Knows (didn’t know how big his treasury was, his army, and his harem)

Now you are a sense of his character, let’s go over some of the crazy stuff he did

He once promised to return victorious or a coffin from a battle. Since he lost the battle, he returned by parade in a coffin while smoking a cigar
Zhang refused to drink any water except from a minor tributary of the Jinan River. He preferred to drink the water directly from the stream, often excusing himself from dinner to go drink from the stream
In the later years of his life he lived in Japan, where he shot the Emperor’s Cousin in 1929. It was ruled an accident but it was likely intentional as allegedly, the cousin was flirting with one of his concubines.
By far the craziest thing he did was during a famine in Shangdong. Many locals were at the Temple of Zhang Xian praying to a statue for rain. Upon arriving to the temple, Zhang decided to slap the statue and yell “f*ck your sister! How dare you make Shandong’s people suffer by not giving us rain” The next day he ordered his artillery to shoot at the sky in retaliation. It rained the next day, grant him the nickname 72 Cannon Chang.

On another note he also wrote poetry and it’s what you’d expect from a man like him.

“Poem about bastards”

You tell me to do this,
He tells me to do that.
You’re all bastards,
Go fuck your mother.

“Visiting Mount Tai”

From afar, Mount Tai looks blackish,
Narrow on top and wide at the bottom.
If you flipped it upside down,
It would be narrow at the bottom and wide on top.

Edit this blew up so I’ll give you another bonus fact:

After seeing a basketball game for the first time, he allegedly asked “Why the hell are they fighting over a single ball? We’re the hosts. Are we seriously this poor?” He ordered all the players be given a basketball.

What is the worst thing you’ve been told during a date?

Date three, back at my flat, for ‘coffee’. Just so you know, if we invite you in for tea, that’s a whole different ballgame involving kettles, teapots and China mugs, but I digress.

He starts off nervously: “you know how I said I was on medication for epilepsy?”

“Yeeeeees…”

“Well, that wasn’t exactly true.” Proceeds to unpack a cornucopia of little yellow and brown bottles from his rucksack.

“Right, no problem. Um, do you mind if I ask what’s wrong with you?”

“Well, I used to do a lot of drugs and had a kind of psychotic breakdown a few years ago. Hearing voices and cracking up. I was hospitalised for a few months.”

Gulp. He is a big fella, all muscles and tattoos.

“Right, so these days….”

“Yes well they can’t decide if it’s schizophrenia or just manic depression. The problem is knowing if I should do what the voices say.”

Did I tell anyone I was inviting him over?

“Have you ever hurt anyone because of the voices?”

“Um….only myself. And one or two other people. I don’t remember very well but I never went to prison, just the hospital. There are a few years that are pretty hazy.”

Slowly getting up, moving to the kitchen, acting calm and natural.

“Do you think maybe we could meet another time? I’m pretty tired and my family is coming to visit tomorrow.” (Complete fabrication).

He packed all his medicine bottles back in his rucksack, but before leaving asked if he could send me some of his short stories.

Of course. I’d be honoured.

We stayed in touch by email and he sent me some extremely disturbing prose centring on faeces, menstrual blood and what a useless, untalented writing teacher he had.

I felt compassion for him, but was relieved when he left my flat.

Poor guy.

Breaking | China Just Picked a Side

Food yummy Porn

Col. Douglas Macgregor : US Foreign Policy Delusions

Do you salt both sides of a steak?

I can’t fathom other answers provided. It appears no one knows food science or cares to learn. Yes. You should salt BOTH sides, and generously too. I tend to salt most of my meats two or three days in advance of cooking. It’s the same reason BBQ pit masters apply a salty dry rub to meats and allow them to rest in that rub for multiple days before the actual cook. Here’s what happens. First, the salt draws liquid out of the meat which now mixes with the surface, causing the surface area of the meat to appear damp or wet. Eventually the meat reabsorbs that liquid, taking the “brine” with it. When salt mixes with water (in this case, the juices in the meat) it breaks apart into positive sodium ions and negative chloride ions. The chloride ions are attracted to the strands of protein in the meat and bond to them.

Imagine a telephone cable with birds sitting atop? The cable represents a protein strand while the birds represent charged ions. With enough time, the cable becomes supersaturated with birds (Alfred Hitchcock style). But there’s more than one cable. There’s billions of cables and trillions of birds. As the birds each share the same electric charge, they begin to repel one another, much as identical poles of a magnet repel one another. This causes the protein strands to spread apart, widening the gaps between them. These widened gaps make the meat more tender and permit more liquid to enter, deeper and deeper into the meat, becoming wide enough to allow larger flavoring molecules (like garlic, lemon, or whatever) to enter.

Salt is far more than a seasoning. It serves also as a tenderizing agent and paves the way for additional flavors to penetrate deep into the protein’s interior.

Shorpy

What is something you saw while on an airplane that you couldn’t believe?

I was flying out of Orlando. The flight was delayed due to weather in Atlanta affecting incoming flights. The gate agents were busy shuffling people around to get everyone rebooked. Needless to say, many of us were in a foul mood, but trying to make the best of a bad situation.

We finally board. Most of us would miss our connections, but we’re all just ready to go. Earbuds go in and we wait for take off. Nobody is talking.

Once airborne, the captain made an announcement. We would be able to see the Space Shuttle launching in a few minutes, but only from the right side windows of the plane. Everyone on my side looked towards the other side. Those folks would be able to see it. Not us.

Sure enough, in a few minutes there were oohs and ahhs from the lucky passengers. Then without a word, as if it were coordinated, people started getting up and gesturing for us to look out their windows. We all got up and squeezed past each other to get a glimpse of the shuttle.

To be honest, it wasn’t that exciting. It was a huge white tail going directly away from the earth. It was completely perpendicular. What made it amazing, however, was the spontaneous sharing of the view. Tired, irritated people got out of their seats to share. In all probability, none of us would ever see the shuttle from a plane again, and I was grateful for the opportunity.

Then we all awkwardly returned to our rightful seats. Some people started chatting, others returned to their earbuds, but everyone was smiling. What started out as a crummy situation suddenly became a memorable adventure, all because people shared something.

Police Officer Exposes THE TRUTH On Domestic “Situations” And How Men Can Protect Themselves

"I have a professional job and I’m a 20+ year veteran. I’ve never met a cop or deputy sheriff that didn’t treat me with suspicion and indifference even though I was going out of my way to be nice to them for what they do. Now later in life I’ve learned to treat them with more suspicion than they treat me. Always watch your own back. Trust no one."

Have you ever quit your job in the middle of the work day? Why?

Not me but a co worker I once had , he was a labour for bricklayers, he was a nice enough guy good worker if you could get him to concentrate for more than 30 seconds at a time ,and to be fair old mate was dumb as a rock and he was a danger to him self and others but he had a great sence of humour witch saved him a lot. this one day he came in and I’d say he had one to many breakfast bongs, every thing was going wrong and the brickies let him know about it too, then one of the brickies said to him “your as useless as a screen door on a submarine, might be time to get off the weed bro”, talk about the straw that broke the camels back, old mate flipped it he walked off around the house crying, then came back, and for no reason picked up a trowel off a motar board ,told the boss to go fuck him self and through the trowel over the neighbours fence. so old mate gets his lunch bag and starts to walk off the site, the boss walks down and says come back and we’ll discuss this , old mate middle of the day turns around at the top of his voice in the middle of the street screems “stick your f$#ken job up your ass!! ” and then for some reason through his lunch bag onto the next-door neighbours garage roof, and walked off down the street , we never heard from him again. Lunch that day on the job was a quite one

RFK Jr. Joins Forces With Donald Trump

Older, maybe obsolete. But IMPORTANT.

CJ enters the cornfield

On one of my many affirmations, I asked to be made aware of all the people who hurt me.

I forget the exact phrasing. But yeah. I asked for this knowledge and understanding.

And I was surprised at what happened.

I started to remember old events. Events that happened years ago. Events that I thought were innocent, or mistakes, or just simply bad luck.

One memory was the death of my cat; Texie.

I was in Boston living with this model named CJ. She always had this bad anger and nasty streak about her. Which was controlled by medication, but when that beast was out, oh lordy. Watch out.

Long story short…We had a “falling out” and she left. Calling me a “coward” for having her mother come up and get her.

Around that time, perhaps a month later, my beloved Texie got very sick; very quickly. His nose was white and his neck was all swollen.

I took him to the vet, and she said that he had no red corpuscles left. She just couldn’t understand how he could be alive. We tried to help him, but it was impossible, so we were forced to put him down. I loved that cat.

That was twenty five years ago.

Now, over the last few weeks I have been having the suspicion that CJ might have poisoned my cat. No proof, of course. Just a hunch.

A hunch, mind you, triggered by my affirmation directives.

It doesn’t seem possible. How could she enter the house? What poison would she use? It seems so unlikely.

But there you have it.

I take this as an answer issued forth from one of my affirmations.

And as such… I do believe in my affirmations, in hunches and in other aspects of life. I do not ignore them.

So…

I have thrown her, where ever she is today, twenty five years later… into the most thorny cornfield that I could come up with.

In my reality, time does not matter, and forgiveness is but a crutch that you used to maintain happiness.

So she will find, and discover things going really bad for her out of the blue, and she won’t know why.

Because you know, she thought that she got away with something without consequence.

She didn’t.

She only laid the flagstones for easy entry…

…into the limitless cornfield.

I know that I can be a dick.

But, I do not care.

Today…

Ungrateful Girlfriend Rejects £4000 Rolex Then This Happens

Why is China considered “the most secret country”? Is it political issues, trouble within the country, maybe they simply aren’t the “open” type of country we are use to?

First, it is the language.

Second, it’s the culture.

Most westerners are too lazy to learn, but they don’t want to admit they are lazy, so they say China is “difficult”, “opaque”, “closed”.

I read, write and speak Chinese.

China is NOT closed; it just follows completely different rules.

Reactors Reacting to the COOPER DOCKING the Endurance | Interstellar

Who is the worst customer you have ever had?

We had to ban Karen from our store.

Karen attempted to manipulate Domino’s refund policy, time and time again.

Ultimately, we were losing money because of her.

She liked to place pizza orders online quite frequently.

And would then decide to request a refund for whatever reason, be it from the order was messed up to ‘the pizza just doesn’t look that great’.

Yes, she actually said that to me.

It got to the point where we would ensure her order was immaculate.

Quality over quantity, eh?

And guess what? She’d try and get a refund.

Naturally, she’d get one, since there’s the whole thing about how the “customer is always right”.

We attempted to logically defend ourselves, telling her we did nothing wrong, but she ensured to find something flawed with her order.

Eventually, we got sick of it, and so we called in our district manager.

She places an order, and I crafted damn near the best pizza the world has ever seen. Even my manager agreed, so it’s legit.

Everything else associated with Karen’s order was on point.

So about 5 minutes or so after the driver returns from her house, we receive a call from Karen.

“Hi, I’d like a refund for my order.”

I notify my manager it’s a no go.

“Don’t refund her.”, my manager said.

“Ban her.”, my district manager said.

It’s about time.

China has to know it can never defeat the U.S. militarily. Shouldn’t it focus on peace and trade instead to become like Japan?

The US knows that they cannot defeat China. Remember that the US lost to China in the Korean war at a time when China was very weak militarily. But today, China is much stronger and are not too different in strength compared to the US.

If a war were to be fought between China and the US, it would be around China. China would have all its weapons and forces at its disposal while the US will have to depend on what they can carry to the region in their ships. And China has already worked out how many unstoppable hypersonic missiles they will need to sink each US ship. They will sink all of them. The US would not be able to sink the Chinese forces because they will be firing their missiles from land.

The US is also very dependent on their GPS satellites to guide their missiles. China will destroy those satellites early in a war between China and the US, rendering most of the US missiles useless.

China has always called upon the US for cooperation but it is the US that wants to quarrel with China. And they have no business putting their military offic ers in Taiwan!

China Refused U.S.A. Wheat

Which country produces the fiercest soldiers?

Probably Nepal. And they’ve been that way for a long time.

Now my patriotism wants to say “The Americans Duh”. But I can’t ignore the amazing feats that the Gurkhas manage, and it would be a disrespect upon them not to recognize that.

The Gurkhas have been in service to the British for about 200 years, supplying the bravest and most dangerous soldiers for decades. They’ve stopped brigades singlehandedly, killed dozens of soldiers alone, all without fear for their own life. They carry the famous Kukri blade into battle, and damn they know how to use it.

main qimg 1af3f3c4f73f6df71badde5c334940b3 lq

Damn. Google has good photos of Gurkhas.

One of the many impossible feats of Gurkhas was the insane defense of Rifleman Lachhiman Gurung in 1945 during the Second World War. With his comrades wounded, he held his own against a force of over 200 Japanese soldiers storming his position at Tanungdaw in Burma, present-day Myanmar.

According to warhistoryonline.com, Lachhiman reportedly:

“threw back enemy grenades until one exploded in his hand, blowing off the fingers and shattering his arm as well as injuring his leg. Although severely wounded, he continued fighting for four hours, inspiring the other men to keep going.”

That is insane! And that’s just one of the many, many, many amazing feats the Gurkhas have accomplished! Overall the Gurkhas have amassed Twenty six Victoria Crosses, and honestly should have earned many many more for their bravery.

Another more recent account was the story of Seargent Dipprasad Pun. Dipprasad, who at the time was on guard in a rooftop of a checkpoint, was attacked from nearly all sides by 30 Taliban Soldiers. Utilizing around 400 rounds, 17 Grenades, a mine, and a fuc**** machine gun bipod, killed the Taliban. All of them.

They have been involved in every major war, most minor wars, and even freedom fighting movements all over the world. They are renowned as some of the most dangerous soldiers on the planet, and often times even the knowledge of them being on the battlefield is enough to make the enemy rethink their plans.

The Gurkhas are amazing, and to be honest I doubt we’ll see anything like them without a super soldier serum anytime soon.

You can find more stories of Gurkhas here at Popularmechanics.com

Drink your milk and become Gurkha Strong!

-Cotta!

What is the biggest scam you’ve ever seen?

PASSPORT VERIFICATION BY LOCAL POLICE

Few days back I had applied for an passport,I had filled the form and procedure had been carried out.The forms were verified by the passport office, and they told me that “your case will be sent to your regional police station for residential verification”.

After 2 to 3 weeks I recieved an call from police station to come over for verification. I went police station with all the necessary documents. When I reached there 2 to 3 peoples were already standing for verification, after 20 minutes of sitting on bench my turn came. I went inside.

Police officer asked me all relevant information and took the Xerox copy of all documents and said:

“Aapka ka verification ho jayega, aap ₹500 jama kar do”

(Translation: Your verification will be completed , you need to deposit ₹500 for that)

I felt this is the fees of an verification, so I gave him ₹500, he had taken the money and said “u can go now”.

Fow which I said “sir reciept of giving money”.

He gave me very digust look for my sentence and said “passport chahiye ki nhi”(do u want passport or not)

Me: Sir mere paiso ki reciept de do main chala jaunga(sir u give me reciept i will go my way).

He got very angry and slammed ₹500 on the table and said “main bhi dekhta hu tumko passport kaise milta hain”.(I will also see how will you get your passport).

I took the money and came back home. After 2 to 3 weeks , I recived an letter from passport authority that your passport application is rejected due to residence issue,please communicate with policestation.

After communicating with my neighbor and friends they told me that U have to give money to police officer for verification,otherwise they will give some random reason and reject your case.

This is most common scam now a days.

Edit 1 :Recently I went to the passport office and and told them the situation and guess what i got my passport within 15 days that too without bribing anyone and without double police verification.

The Police are Way out of Control

Easy Lasagna Casserole

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

3 cups uncooked egg noodles
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (1 1/2 ounce) package spaghetti sauce mix
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup Pet Evaporated Milk
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

Cook noodles in boiling salted water until tender. Drain.
Cook ground beef and onion in skillet until ground beef is browned. Drain.
Stir in tomato sauce and spaghetti sauce mix. Cook until thickened.
Combine cream cheese and evaporated milk in warm saucepan until smooth.
Stir in noodles and garlic salt.
Pour into a 9 inch square baking dish.
Spread meat mixture over top.
Top with shredded cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes or until bubbly.

How much land would Chinese people be willing to give up for peace with China?

This is the Galwan River Valley in Xinjiang, at an altitude of over 4300 meters, with eight characters written on it.

The soldiers stationed often hold flag raising ceremonies here.

The meaning of these eight characters is, Our vast and beautiful land and river, not an inch shall be yielded.

Did you ever walk into an antiques store, see an item you wanted, and bought it for less than it was worth because you had more knowledge about it than the dealer?

Yes, I bought a $90,000 painting, from an $83 million dollar house, that was sold by Christies Auction House for $1200. How?

I went to a once-per-month place that sells items from large estates. As an art lover, I subscribe to a website that provides millions of historical art prices from auction sites around the world. While at the estate sale I noticed a very nice work that seemed to be well-framed and of higher quality than one might normally see at a typical estate sale. I liked the piece but balked at the $2000-ish price tag.

I took a photo of artist’s signature and went home. It was late in the day and the business was about to close. The estate sale business conducts a sale each month on Saturday and half a day on Sunday. On Sunday afternoon prices are reduced until everything sells. I thought that I might go back on Sunday to see what kind of price they had on the art. If low enough, I would perhaps buy it for a particular spot in the house.

On Saturday evening I casually pulled up the artist’s sales records. I was amazed to see he had some extensive sales with many pieces in the $50,000-150,000 range. The particular piece I had seen was last sold by Christies in the early 1990s for $90,000! Needless to say I was going to be the first person through the door on Sunday to buy the bargain artwork.

True to form, I was the first person to go through the door. I found the owner of the business and negotiated a $1200 price. I paid for the product and he helped me take it to the car.

I asked, “Where did you get this piece?” He said he couldn’t say due to a confidentially agreement. I finally got him to tell me that it had come from a mansion in Palm Beach that had recently been torn down to make way for a new home. He said, “When we picked up the piece it still had the Christies auction tag attached to the back.”

At this point I confessed knowing the auction history and that it had sold for $90,000 in the early 1990s at Christies. His reply?

“You gotta be shitting me!”

The piece now graces a prominent spot above my dining room sideboard. It is well lit, well liked, and one of my better stories to tell when asked about its origins.

China VS America | Yanis Varoufakis on Big Tech, Capitalism and Techno-Feudalism (Part 3)

Why did China mainland more choose to buy weapons from French than the USA during the West China honeymoon during 1970-1990?

The “honeymoon” was started by Nixon. Mao & Nixon met in 1972.

The Nixon was in a Watergate scandal & the honeymoon was put aside until 1978.

When Carter continued the honeymoon & officiated the “ONE CHINA policy & Taiwan is part of China” by signing a China-USA joint communique in 1978, some US hawks scolded Carter (for being too weak with China). 4 months after the communique, US hawks pushed out a “Taiwan Relations Act” & continued selling weapons to Taiwan.

See, by selling weapons to Taiwan = no armed sales to mainland China.

Was it a mistake to sell weapons to Taiwan instead of mainland China? Only USA can answer the question.

But we saw USA instigating a Tiananmen coup in 1989.

It looks like USA did not trust mainland China because USA could not control communist China but USA can easily control a country that has a democratic election.

Calling AUKUS “the worst deal in all history”, Former Australian PM Paul Keating accused the government of being a “sellout” on its defense policy

Former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has taken aim at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defense Minister Richard Marles, accusing them of abandoning traditional party values.

Speaking in an interview about the AUKUS agreement, Mr. Keating accused the government of being a “sellout” on its defense policy.

The former Labor leader had been asked about the AUKUS agreement between the US, UK and Australia, which he has been a constant critic of since its announcement.

Mr. Keating then called it “the worst deal in all history”.

Mr. Marles is in the US and has agreed to allow the transfer of US and UK naval nuclear material to Australia. The partnership also provides for more rotations of US troops to the region, which Mr. Keating criticized.

“There’ll be American force posture now in Australia, involving every domain.”

“This government has sold out to the United States.”

“They’ve fallen for the dinner on the White House lawn.”

“We are better left alone than we are being protected by an aggressive power like the United States,” Mr. Keating said.

Asked why he considered the US to be aggressive, Mr. Keating said it was because “it’s trying to superintend from the Atlantic, the largest Asian power, which is China”.

Crowd Goes Nuts For RFK Jr. At Trump Rally!

HISTORIC!

Democrat traditionalist joins with Republic “Dark Horse”.

That is amazing!

“End of the grip of the neocons in charge of Foreign policy!!!!”

Why is China so possessive over Taiwan? Is the Chinese state really that weak?

???

Taiwan is part of China. It was part of China before the Japanese stole it 1895, and it was returned to China after Japan’s defeat in WWII.

Name one country that won’t protect its territorial integrity. Just one.

Why is America so possessive over Hawaii or California?

Why is Canada so possessive over Quebec?

Why is Britain so possessive over Scotland?

Why is France so possessive over Corsica?

Why is Spain so possessive over Catalonia?

You feel me?

What was the slickest thing you have done or seen when negotiating a car price?

My daughter graduated from college. I wanted to buy her a car, a new Honda. I explained to my daughter what we were doing today and we may not get the car on first go around, but that we needed to be patient.

I let her find a car she likes. Salesman in tow, we drove the car, she liked it, we are ready to deal. We walk into the sales office, a row of cubicles, and sat down with the salesman.

I had done my homework, market comps, talked to other dealers, and I am willing to pay a reasonable price. The salesman was working off of the list price and I let him present his figures. I came back “this is what i am willing to pay” followed by “we are motivated buyers and can do this today”. (i am sure I did the last week of the month thing that you always hear about. )

of course the salesman scoffed at our offer, and i said “do we need to speak to your manager?” {in negotiations there is a rule that says you cannot “close” someone you can’t “close”. so trying to make a deal with the sales person is useless because he does not have the authority to make this deal, and most likely the manager does not either, we need to be setting in front of the general manager. He is the final say on this deal. So i need to work my way up the food chain so to speak).

The sales person is punching in numbers on his calculator, my daughter is uncomfortable with the confrontation (her perspective, not mine). We are waiting on a response… he throws down a “this is the best we can do”. I say “well we are close, let’s get your manager out here. I know you are doing your best.” and reluctantly he says “okay, I’ll be right back”.

He goes away for five minutes, comes back with a new “this is the best we can do” counter followed by “we can write this up today!’

I say “that’s better but we have some work to do here if you want the sale. Let’s go back together and make this happen. We are not that far off, and I’m sure the manager will reason with me.” I give the salesman my homework, comps, market analysis. He says “I’ll be right back.”

In just a few minutes later he comes back and says “okay you can follow me”. we go back to the managers office, a nice fellow, shakes my hand and sits back down… he is all up into his computer screen punching numbers saying “i just don’t see how we can do this”.

Me “sure you do or I would not be back here. Look, I’ve done the math, you are still making a nice profit here, I am not ripping you off, its a good deal. Lets write it up and get out of here.”

He starts talking about a used model, or tells me he has more profit in a different model or color. He is bantering and we are not. The interesting thing about this is his office has windows to the office area. People can see me in the office, negotiating with the manager. Finally the GM walks in… Very nice man, very professional, we get down to it, and he looks me in the eye and i am right back at him… We have not said anything for a few minutes. I have my daughter with me who is squirming. He talks to her about her graduation, and he has a daughter that’s grown and he can remember what that’s like. He says to me “your offer really cuts into our profit, because its not just the walk out price, it is the warranty we have to cover for the next year I am worried about”. I say “Well, we are going to buy a Honda because of its reliability. My father drives one at it has 150,00 miles on it. Never a service problem.” we look at each other. tick tock time goes by. He tell the Manager. Do the deal. We stand up, shake hands, he hugs my daughter.

We all walk back to the cubical area and the we finalize the paperwork. the car will be ready tomorrow as they have to do Make-Ready.

The coolest thing happened. A lady in another cubical leans out and says “that was wonderful, can you help us buy a car?”

Women don’t understand why men are walking away & want to call them TERRORISTS?

Will malls ever make a comeback?

Only if they become an experience for visitors.

I live in Macau and our casino resorts have huge retail spaces. The Venetian like its Vegas counterpart has canals with gondolas and singing gondoliers. They have human statues in the mall. A huge food court. Art exhibits. Classical music performances.

In China, malls are supersized. 8–10 floors. Humongous food courts. Skating rinks. Go kart tracks. Swimming pools. Petting zoos for the kids. Huge play areas for the kids. Learning centers. Tutorial centers. Cooking and baking classes. And they are packed.

How do you think the international community’s support for the Philippines in its maritime row with China could impact future negotiations between the two countries?

International community?

The Philippines is a founding member of asean.

Asean, which operate by consensus, hasn’t supported the Philippines in the recent spate.

In addition, NO MEMBER OF ASEAN has backed the Philippines. This include other claimant states of the SCS. Leaders are openly asking Bongbong what he is trying to pull, expressing their worries of destabilizing escalation.

The SCS issue has been ongoing for decades. What has been secured is a gentlemen’s agreement to work towards a diplomatic solution, and limit confrontation to the coast guard.

The SCS code of conduct which was supposed to formalize the agreement and limit fallout remains in limbo after many years of negotiation.

It must be noted that the Philippines continues to hold the ante, refusing to demilitarize the issue.

Why is the Sierra Madre still grounded? The Philippines insist it is an ACTIVE DUTY NAVAL VESSEL, despite the wreck being older than the Philippines herself. It is being guarded and manned by military personnel.

No kidding.

It was widely reported that special forces troops were used to attempt a resupply of the Sierra madre. The President himself awarded a medal to the injured NAVSOU sailor.

So much for demilitarization.

In fact, the Philippines has used the publicity to remilitarize the issue, deploying air force and naval assets recently.

Which was probably the goal of the latest provocation—paint the Chinese as a huge threat and remilitarize, allowing the US military back into the Philippines and NATO/Five Eyes/Japan/Korea to demonstrate the “international community’s” MILITARY support for the Philippines.

The Philippines military is a Salvation Army beneficiary, counting Japan and of course, the US as fairy godmothers. Billions in free arms have already been promised or delivered.

If the Philippines does not walk the talk with China, or if busybodies attempt to militarily intervene in a bilateral issue, the situation will deteriorate, and may reach a tipping point.

It all depends on what China does, because they have the power to take decisive action. Break any agreement and China will respond disproportionately.

Recently, the largest Philippine coast guard cutter, the ~2,000 ton Teresa Magbanua which has been moored at the Escoda Shoal since April raised anchor and left the area after the Chinese dispatched a tugboat capable of towing ~5,000 tons in response to consecutive ramming of Chinese coast guard vessels to forcefully resupply their compatriots.

Leaving Only Darkness

Submitted into Contest #247 in response to: Set your story on a spaceship exploring the far reaches of space when something goes wrong.… view prompt

Arne Cambourne

This story contains themes or mentions of physical violence, gore, or abuse.

It had been months since there had been any hope on the ship. Each day awake was a struggle.He had begun to long for the cryo-tank.The nausea that came with waking from a long suspension was no longer a concern for him. He suspected the rest of the crew felt the same way. Being awake now was the worst part of waking from the long sleep.The display on the wall in front of his tank didn’t help.Its stark red numbers made it clear how long he had been asleep each time he woke up. It measured the actual time they had all been under – no contact with distant family, no contact with time at all.He remembered the first time.

Their first sleep had been pre-set to wake them within days of entering a planetary system their astronomers had considered “extremely likely” to include a planet consistent with supporting life.

In those early days they were soothed by the sense of awe as they entered a new star system. Perhaps their new home would be here, and they could send that message back home to start the colony ships on their way. Sadly, this sense of awe didn’t last.

It was only after 4 suspensions that hope began to fade. They came to realise that though they had been awake for a few months since they left, they had been gone for well over their people’s average lifetime.

Everyone he had ever known was gone. There was no one at home that had seen him through living eyes, held an image of his face, or the sound of his voice, as a memory attached to a feeling of fondness.

None of the crew had children. They had been selected that way, for obvious reasons.

He remembered how the crew had originally spoken of whether they regretted not having children. They had universally agreed they did not regret this at all. How could they have this opportunity and had children? It just couldn’t work.

After a few suspensions, when the despair first began, some of the crew became upset they had chosen a career above family. They had missed what they now saw as the important stuff, and there was no-one to remember them.

By the time they had been in suspension six times, more than 150 years had gone by.

Now the despair changed. They realised that if they did have children, they would be gone now as well.

Like footprints on a sandy beach, time would have wiped these imagined children away. Even their fantasy grandchildren that brought hope and joy would be gone and long forgotten.

Each new solar system brought new despair.

There was no chance of life here. The heat was wrong, the gases were wrong, the planet had not enough resources, in the right quantities. The colony could not be risked here.

****

No one realistically expected to run into any sort of advanced life out in the expanse of space either. He did fantasize about it, and he was relieved early in the trip to find out that many of the other crew had similar fantasies.

Imagine that! Being the first to encounter a new culture. An advanced peoples so far from home.

He hoped these new people were more advanced than they were. They will have perfected space travel and can warp from one part of the galaxy to another in a flash of light. No sleep sickness. No time loss.

They could all quickly get back home. Maybe there was new technology at home that had allowed people to live longer. Maybe his parents would still be there, or some of his friends.

He had had fallen asleep thinking of this fantasy the last few cryo-sleeps. No one dreamed in suspension, but it was still nice to think you might, as you felt the cryo-film wrap your body, and the world disappeared.

This is why when he woke this time, he had to check he was actually awake.

As the lead engineer he was always woken by the AI first, to make sure the process went well for the rest of the crew as they woke.

He would check the location of the ship, and the time they had been under, then make sure each of the cryo-fluids instilled for the wake cycles were in the right proportions. A little variation was ok, it went better if someone manually adjusted the equation each time.

This time he had been woken earlier than had been expected. The ship had been on course to a system that included a star at its centre much like their one at home.

The third planet from the sun had been identified on their long-range scanners many years ago as a possibly habitable planet. It should have the right mix of gas, water and heat that could mean this place was suitable.

The AI had woken him early. He soon found out the reason, and sitting alone with the hum of the ship the only noise he could hear, he knew he had to act.

With at least a month left before they were near the target planet, the ship had begun detecting radio transmissions from the planet. The ships AI had been able to assess the target planet was inhabited, and these inhabitants were more than simple animals.

This had triggered the wake cycle, so the AI had woken the lead engineer.

Unknown to the rest of the crew the lead engineer had also been briefed by their government about how to respond to such an occurrence. He was to enact the Colony X Protocol but leave the rest of the crew asleep.

When he had first been told about the Protocol it had all made sense. He knew he would start the protocol without delay, and wait patiently for the Protocol to run completion. His feelings about the Protocol came to change.

The Protocol was designed to make sure the work they had all done, the sacrifice, the costs in time and treasure, would not go to waste. No one thought it would be a likely scenario, but the social planners and the ethicists at home had finally agreed on how the Protocol would work.

His people had learned the hard way that it can be difficult to share, and a habitable planet with an advanced life form, posed to great a risk for this endeavour of stellar exploration. There had been years of debate but, in the end, the pragmatists won out.

The Protocol was a military procedure. It was precise and efficient. Once enacted it could not be reversed, and without fail it would achieve its aims. The residents of their new home had to be removed.

His role was to complete final assessment of the new peoples the ship had found, and the environment of the planet, to confirm its suitability as a new home.

The designers of the Protocol had agreed that given the significance of the decision the Protocol involved, reliance on AI was not reasonable. A live oversight of the decision was necessary, and his role as chief engineer had come to include the arbiter of this decision.

Once his assessment had been made, he would send the authorisation code home and, eventually, the battlecruisers would arrive.

His assessment could be done at a distance, and he did not need to wake any of the crew for this role. The Protocol actually forbid he wake anyone, for risk they may interfere with the Protocol’s application.

He looked at the viability of the planet.

A planet with water and firm ground, no significant extremes of temperature. Its atmosphere was gaseous, with a good mix of oxygen and nitrogen, some other rare gases. Its gravity was mild.

The planet had a blue green colour, a reflection of its life forms and the water on the surface. Its land was in some places covered by plants, and rivers of water ran across some of its larger land masses.

He spent more time looking at the non-plant life forms on the planet.

He learned about them from the transmissions that had been reaching the ship now for months. The ship had logged and recorded hours and hours of sounds and images, and his review involved listening to and viewing these recordings.

They were an interesting people.

He fell in love with the music they had produced, and the AI had sorted these recordings, so he could observe how their music had changed over time. He learned that this music often talked of the things these people enjoyed, or the things they fear and worried about.

(He particularly liked a type of music characterised by beating drums, shouted vocals, and a strange mix of other loud and varied instruments.)

They had produced writings about their world, and he came to understand the fears these people held about their lives, and the aims they pursued. His AI was able to differentiate these writings that were likely historical records and those that were like his own people’s legends or myths, or fictions just for pleasure.

He needed to learn more about these people before he activated the Colony X protocol. He was short of time though.

His government had written into the protocol a requirement that it be enacted within two weeks of the AI initiating the wake procedure. Any longer and the ship may come too close to the target planet and risk the protocol.

After two weeks the ship’s AI would send the authorisation code and destroy the ship.

He originally told himself he just needed more time, but knew he had decided he might not be able to enact the protocol. He gave the appearance of finalising his research, whilst at the same time he worked out how to disengage the ships AI from the protocol.

He researched the history of these people hoping to understand where they had started, what they had achieved. They had a history not unlike his own people. They had started from simpler animals but had come to master their world.

They had learned to fly; they had built vehicles and ships to travel their planet. He learned that they had organised themselves into larger groups. These groups built cities. They had spread their ideas and ways of thinking over this planet, and that had changed and challenged these people over time.

They had, like his own people, fought amongst themselves.

After nearly ten days of looking at these people he even felt a tear run down his face as he learned the pains these conflicts had caused. He felt the shock from images of brutality that he viewed as if these had become his people.

He enjoyed their happiness when conflicts came to an end, and their hope this would be end of the fighting, a hope that seemed to survive in their literature, their films, their music, even though there always seemed to be more fighting to come.

Fighting between his own peoples had become almost non-existent. On the day they had left, it had been over 50 years since any significant fighting had occurred between the peoples of his planet.

His people had learned to talk, used technology to make sure more people could be heard. They had come to share more, both culturally and emotionally, and this led to a fairer share of the fruits of labour.

His own people now needed to find somewhere new to live, to grow, or there was a risk that their world of stability may begin to crumble. This was the purpose of his mission – to keep their own violent natures at bay by joining together in finding a new world to share and grow.

It had been so long though.

The mission had taken longer than anyone had expected. By the time he put the Colony X Protocol into effect, and home had learned of its activation, and the fleets from home had arrived to clean the new planet, it would be nearly a thousand years since the mission began.

He was still alive, but he knew that for the world at home, he was not even a memory. At best he, and the crew, were abrief entry in a database, that a junior public servant confirmed each a year, and the world moved on.

Maybe things at home had changed, maybe home was now a mess, maybe they had taken to long. Maybe none of this was now worth it.

He could now see a future before him. Though these ‘people’ looked different to him, he had come to feel close to them. He felt he could understand who they were, and he had come to think they would understand him.

Perhaps he and the crew could help these people gain the peace and cooperation his home had enjoyed, even if it might have now fallen into disrepair.

The mission could be better served by not enacting the protocol. It was obvious to him now. Instead, his people would survive by meeting with this new people, merging their histories, learning new ways to grow into the galaxy.

He had learned how to disengage the AI and, after so much deliberation, it was psychologically easier than he expected to put an end to the Colony X Protocol. None of the other crew knew of its existence, and he swore himself to keep this secret forever.

He planned what he was going to tell the crew when they were awake and felt a sense of peace when he realised that he was once again happy. It had been so long, but he felt a new future was there for them. They had made it to the New World.

He rushed to get them all awake, so he could tell them of these new peoples, how similar they were, and tell them of how this new planet was going to ensure the survival of their own peoples, and their way of life.

****

Major Michael Jones stared directly at his commanding officer, awaiting his reaction to what the Major had just confirmed. There was no answer, so he spoke again.

“Sir, we have confirmed the location of the object, and that it has arrived from outside of our system” he said again.

General Tsang looked back at his subordinate and nodded. Major Jones continued his report.

“It’s also most definitely not natural” the Major said, “Our analysts all share the opinion that this vessel is large enough to be considered either a military vehicle, or a major logistical ship, sir.”

“Perhaps an exploration vessel?” the general finally spoke.

The Major nodded and the general continued, he had wistful look in his eye as he turned on the display screen on the wall behind.

“You know Major” the general continued, turning to look at the display “after looking at these images, and the reports from our experts, you know what this reminds me of?”

The Major stood at ease but did not answer. The general continued whilst he pointed at the image of a strange vessel that was now on the screen.

“It makes me think of the ships of old, the sailing ships” he said.

The Major remained blank faced.

“You know, they appeared over the horizon, off the coast of some then undiscovered land, and the people living there had no idea what was to come” the General said before sitting at his desk and motioning to the Major to also sit.

The Major sat and finally spoke.

“Yes sir” he said, “before I joined the United Nations Defence Force I came from Australia.” General Tsang raised an eyebrow, and it was clear to the Major he did not understand.

“Well sir, our Indigenous people had no idea what was to befall them after the English crossed the horizon” the Major explained.

General Tsang slapped his hand on the table.

“Exactly Major” he said “the ‘Indians’ of the former United States, the native victims of the Conquistadors, your Australian Aborigines. If only they knew”

The room was silent for a brief period as the general peered back up at the ship still on the screen. He finally spoke.

“And we have confirmed with the General Assembly we are to enact the Colonising X Protocol” the general final said looking at his Major.

The Major nodded.

The General nodded back. “Very well” he soon said “make it so. It is for all our best interests”.

The general stood, then unlocked a safe below his desk. He removed an envelope from the safe and handed it to the major.

“Take these to the control room Major, and authorise the missile launch” the general said. Major Jones took the envelope, stood up and saluted before he left the room.

The general sat again, turned in his seat and looked up at the ship on the screen briefly, before turning the screen off and turning to sit quietly at his desk.

*****

The chief engineer had woken all the crew and told them of the planet now so close, and about the people there that they would soon contact. He had spoken for a long time to about what he had learned and the hope this discovery had given him.

There was some resistance, some anxiety and fear, but he had spoken with those who were fearful, and soon the whole crew were as excited as he that the mission had succeeded and it was coming to an end.

They had agreed the engineer should make the first contact with these new peoples the next day. There had been a vote about what they would ask of these peoples, and what they would be able to offer.

When he had disabled the AI, the engineer did not realise he had also disabled various alert functions in the ships navigational and security array. The expanse of space is such that, without these, it is difficult for any person to keep a close eye on all that is happening.

The chief engineer was the only crew member still awake when the missiles hit the ship. His excitement about the next day, and the impact of the decision he had made, alone, had made it hard to sleep.

The blinding flash of light as the missiles tore the ship apart, and the searing pain the engineer felt, were over almost immediately.

Leaving only darkness.

Joe Cocker- With A Little Help From My Friends (REACTION)

On August 23, Powell’s speech hinted that the Federal Reserve will cut the interest rates soon. What does this mean for countries like China and Japan? Why do they want to cut interest rates?

What does this mean for China? Likely that China will be vindicated in reducing US dollar assets.

It’s also possible it’s a big black swan event for the USA.

You see there’s nobody left to buy US T-bills. China ain’t buying especially after the 2008 fiasco. If you listened to Chinese radio and television talk shows people were angry China had gifted the US an entire US battle carrier group on the devaluation of the T-bills.

The circular money trick isn’t working either, this is how Belgium of all places became a massive holder of US T-bills. The US loaned money to Belgium who bought T-bills with it.

So after all of the above? There’s two buyers left.

The Fed – If they buy it, it causes mega inflation. I mean there’s Americans on here where inflation is a LOT higher than claimed.

Yield seeking private buyers.

Drop the rates? The Yield seekers are what it says on the tin. They seek yield so they’ll let go and buy other things. This means the Fed will step in to mop up what they sell.

This leads to mega inflation.

I won the lottery 10 years ago, but I didn’t tell a soul, not even my family. Was I wrong to do this?

One of my cousins won a lottery for several million dollars in the 1980s. It was public knowledge. At the time, the only option was an annuity that paid out the jackpot over 20 or 26 years. He bought his mom a new car. He helped her out when she needed help.

His siblings maybe thought that they were owed something. I don’t know the specifics of that. What I do know is that he continued to live his life the way he had before.

He and his wife had a couple of kids. They adopted a couple of other kids, girls from China, at the time when China had the “one child policy” and girl children were not so popular. He kept his job as a truck driver. He lived a pretty simple life, and as far as I know, his only indulgence was his beloved Harley Davidson motorcycle, which he probably could have owned on his truck driving salary.

We were not close.

The only memory that I have of him was his wedding, before the lottery win, where the wedding reception was in a state park, not a posh affair. Very simple.

When he died last year, we took my mom (then in her 90s) to the memorial service. There were lots of friends, and his immediate family, his wife, his biological children, his adopted children, all of them just…his children. That was lovely. They were thrilled that my mom was there as a connection to their grandmother who had passed away in 1996.

None of his siblings were there. A couple of his siblings had passed away, another had moved away to another state. I can’t say why none of them were there.

So if you have had good fortune, and you are able to hide this good fortune from your family, maybe it’s best to hide it as best as you can so you can keep your relationship with them.

Food Porn

The American dream is a lie

Yup it is.

What work secret did you accidentally find out that changed everything?

I worked for a small city police department. One weekend, we did not have a sergeant on-duty so being senior officer, I was in charge. Two officers (Steve and Mary) responded to a domestic dispute. A short time later, I was asked to respond to the call. Steve explained one of the participants in the dispute wanted to file a complaint on Mary for being discourteous. I released the officers from the scene and spoke to the participant. After a brief conversation, the participant decided there was a misunderstanding between him and the officer and he no longer wanted to file a complaint.

I cleared the call and spoke to Steve who explained how the misunderstanding occurred. I then spoke to Mary and advised her no complaint was being filed but to be careful how she speaks to the public.

In turn, Mary felt Steve and I were setting her up and decided to file an internal complaint against us claiming bullying. The Chief assigned Mary’s complaint to a detective named Jim. It was widely known in the department that Jim was trying to sleep with Mary but she continually turned him down.

The police department was located in the municipal building where several other city departments were located. A friend working in another department observed Jim and Mary speaking in private and when they parted, Mary gave Jim a quick kiss. It was clear something had changed in their relationship.

My friend told me what he observed and I held onto that information in case I needed it later. Sure enough, about three weeks later, I’m pulled into the Chief’s office. Jim made up allegations against me and Steve and claimed to have substantiated Mary’s allegation. The Chief was ready to issue discipline when I asked the Chief how a detective sleeping with Mary could be unbiased in his investigation. The Chief’s jaw hit the ground. Mary eventually admitted to striking a deal with Jim that if he got me and Steve fired, she would sleep with him.

A short time later, Mary was fired and charged with altering prescriptions when a doctor filed a complaint against her. Jim resigned and was charged with dereliction of duty. The Chief was also shown the door.

I took a job with another department making more money and never looked back.

Have you ever asked someone (who later passed away) to give you proof of an afterlife? For example, a word/gesture that only you two would know. And did you get the proof?

For years I drank heavily, beer at least. I would drink close to a 12 pack every weekday and close to a case on both Saturday and Sunday. I had a good friend who was an atheist and my drinking buddy. We would debate on whether there was an afterlife or not, me insisting that it was possible and he insisting that I was being foolish and there was no such thing.

One Friday after work I was following my standard drinking routine, a 24 oz can of beer for the drive home and a 6 pack of 16 oz beers for the rest of the evening. I made it home shortly after 6 that evening and was drinking the first beer out of that 6 pack. I was maybe a third or a fourth of my way through that first beer and I just decided I didn’t want it anymore. This was around 6:30 Friday night by now. The next day I didn’t drink any, or the following day either. I haven’t drank any since and that has been 6 years now since I last drank anything with alcohol in it.-

The following Sunday I had an unexpected knock at my door, it was an old girlfriend I hadn’t seen since high school but, she and my drinking buddy had kept in touch. She told me that our friend had been struck and killed while walking across a busy road and on his way to spend the weekend in jail for his third DWI. When he was hit and killed, It would have been around the same time I put down my last beer, unfinished.

I can’t help but to think he was the one that turned my mind around and put me on my way to sobriety. Maybe I’m just being foolish and trying to make something more out of those events than there really is. I still can’t help but to think otherwise, though.

I know I’ve told this story before, and for those that have read it previously, I apologize for sounding like a broken record.

“WORSE Than 1929-1946…” – Doug Casey

Damn! This is an amazingly great video. A Must Must WATCH!

Why is China lagging behind India while its GDP is higher than India’s?

China is not lagging behind India in any manner. China is far more advanced than India in every respect.

Chinese society is far more harmonious and stable.

China has far better infrastructure.

Chinese education is far superior.

China has far better health care for its citizens.

China eradicated absolute poverty in 2020, while India is still mired by over 100 million people living in extreme poverty.

China’s military is far larger and far more powerful.

China is the one and only global manufacturing superpower.

China has a better human rights record. Indian women are regularly abused. There is ethnic and religious inequality.

China’s female participation rate in the labor force is 70%, while in India, it’s only 25%.

China is not burdened by the caste system.

I could go on and on, but you get the picture. Name one thing that puts India ahead of China.

Can the defense of Black Myth: Wukong by Chinese gamers against criticism from foreign media be seen as a reflection of national pride or a form of cultural protectionism? Share your thoughts.

Make no mistake, Chinese people account for one fifth of the world’s population, and almost all you hear are NON-CHINESE people’s rebuttals to the defamation.

Most of us are dismissive of non Chinese Internet content. Your barking cannot hinder anything happening within China. Now it’s a showdown between YOUR public opinion distorters and YOUR masses.

We did not participate. We’re just being there.

Why don’t you reflect on why your PC groups are so hated by your public.

At what ages were you the happiest and saddest?

In my 20s I was the saddest I have ever been. Actually, ages 23–29 were the worst years of my life. Why?

Because I had not settled on a good career and was not sure I could find a career I liked even reasonably well. Consequently, I was also making low wages. Thus, I lived in a crummy apartment, had very little money left over from each paycheck, drove an old car, and had no real prospects. Could not even imagine a happy future for myself.

Additionally, having left the family to accept the responsibility of being on my own, I was lonely. Had no steady girl and couldn’t pal around with my old college and high school friends anymore because, guess what? They were all married and had kids! Now this was during the 1970s, when all my generation was marrying early. Most girls of the time were married by 21, 22, or at most, 23. Even many college students were married, which is why my school had a large dormitory for married couples. Even most boys married no later than about 23 or 24. And there I was 27, 28, 29, and still single with a crumb job. I felt like a complete loser.

Then, just as I’d sunk about as low as I could get, my dad called with some news. “Son,” he said. “I know you like to read and that you majored in English in college. A friend who is a school principal was telling me he needs an 8th grade English teacher. Would you like to meet him?”

“I don’t know, Dad. I’ve never done anything like that.”

“Well, you’ve nothing to lose. He’s at West Hill Middle School. Go talk to him.” So, I did, and so I was hired.

My first few weeks were a little shaky, but I learned quickly and soon realized how much I liked teaching English. By the end of the year, my career path was decided. My principal wanted me to return to college that summer, and on fall afternoons and evenings to pick up some extra coursework to upgrade my certificate. Late that summer I met a young lady at the university who was also taking coursework toward a master’s degree in education. We hit it off quickly, began dating, and by Christmas we were married. And she was the best thing that ever happened to me.

I call that year – the year I turned 30 – my ‘annus mirabilis,’ my year of miracles. Over the space of about 12 months, my sad life had changed into a miraculously happy one. I’d turned from an ugly duckling into a happy swan.

Today, my wife and I live on 40 beautiful rural acres in northwest Florida, and we are contentedly retired. We have had a happy life yet are happier now than ever because we have the time and money to do anything we like. Yet our tastes are very simple. We enjoy sitting in our pecan orchard when fall turns the leaves bright yellow. We enjoy standing or sitting on our long field at sunset and watching the sun sink below the distant tree line. We enjoy playing with Freckie, our lively border collie. And I, at last, have all the time to read so many of the fine books I’d always wanted to read.

So, for me, these years in my 70s are the best and happiest ever. I can now sing, with the great Carly Simon: “These are … the good ol’ days.”

Fatal Mistake: Argentina Offers Its Lithium & Critical Minerals For US Money & Investment

Shorpy

Why aren’t the Chinese or Indian aircraft carriers considered a great threat by the West?

Question: Why aren’t the Chinese or Indian aircraft carriers considered a great threat by the West?

Answer:

Well, depending on who you ask and China is quite different from India.

If you ask the average English audience, then just go with the quick and magic answer of:

“The Chinese is somehow evil and constantly threatening, so we are morally justified to pull any kind of shit. And magically, at the same time, they must always be a push over, so no one will worry their pretty little head about how constantly antagonizing the biggest industrial power on the planet is a bad idea”.

Now if we are talking about reality, then it is another story entirely.

The first two Chinese carrier is actually less threatening, in the sense that they don’t bring much to the what the Chinese can already do. This is because the Chinese fleet are organized differently from US fleets.

In US fleets, the carrier represents the bulk of the striking power against comparable opponents. The aircraft from the carriers represent majority of the fleet’s offensive power and a significant amount of defensive power. This means you NEED large and long endurance carriers which can carry a lot of planes and by nature, the carrier is what makes and breaks the fleet.

The Chinese fleet are different because majority of their strike power comes ship-based missiles.

main qimg 7f427bd365684c81e7c88e7729533d29

main qimg bdf388c58158fcf22882b99906020126

Yes, the picture shows Ticonderoga has more VLS cells, but the ones on Type 055 are much bigger and can actually host missiles that are threatening to the surface combat vessels.

So for the Chinese carriers, the strike power from planes are actually not quite as important because whatever missiles J15 can carry, 055 can carry much bigger ones with better range and accuracy.

This means the main purpose of the Chinese carriers are mostly about hosting electronic warfare, early warning crafts. These aircraft are typically much bigger and heavier than the fighters jets and as the result, can’t really be launched from the Kuznetsov-class based Liaoning-Jian and Shandong-Jian.

The type 003 Fujian-Jian is a different story. From what we have seen so far, the electric catapult system is indeed working and this means it is capable of providing long radar/electronic warfare coverage for the Chinese fleet. This means the PLAN will be projecting power away from its shore.

Well, to be fair, the away part may be a bit misleading. Since antiship missiles in the DF series has a such a long combat range, China is already capable for projecting its influence thousands of kilometers away from its shore. But with Fujian and other EC capable vessel now in the building stage, you’d start to see PLAN showing greater presence in places like Middle East, Africa and even Latin Americas.

Why would you want to take a concealed carry gun everywhere you go?

Suzanna Hupp was a chiropractor living in Copperas Cove, Texas. She generally carried a little pistol in her purse (it’s a Southern Lady thing, I’m not going to take the time and space to try to explain it here). There was some utility to this habit – she frequently would work late, and would have to walk to her car in a semi-deserted parking lot late at night. A young woman alone in a deserted parking lot late at night is kind of a classic situation where the young woman might, indeed, want to have a little pistol in her purse.

The little pistol in her purse was also, at the time, totally illegal (although, traditionally, such laws were not vigorously enforced against respectable white women with a little pistol in their purse). At the time, however, the authorities were increasingly “cracking down” on people illegally carrying firearms. Even respectable middle-class white women with just a little pistol in their purse.

One day, Suzanna met with her parents to go out to lunch. They rode together in Suzanna’s car. When Suzanna opened her purse to put her car keys in, her mother saw her pistol in the purse. Mom told her that she should probably leave her pistol in her car (this, at the time, was legal – you could keep a pistol in your car, but it was strictly against the law to carry it concealed in a purse or pocket outside of one’s vehicle). If a waitress or other customer saw the pistol when Suzanna opened her purse, they might call the police and there would be trouble. Safest to just leave it in the car.

Besides, this wasn’t a dark deserted parking lot late at night; this was Luby’s Cafeteria in downtown Killeen, at lunch hour. It wasn’t dark, it was noon on a bright autumn day; and it wasn’t exactly deserted, Luby’s that day was packed. Certainly not the time or place where one would need to be packing a gun.

It was October 16, 1991. While they were at lunch, a deranged merchant sailor drove his pickup truck right through the floor-to-ceiling front windows of Luby’s, stepped out of his truck, and began shooting people. Suzanna reached in her purse for her pistol, then remembered that she’d left it safely in her car.

The police came, the nutcase killed himself, but by that time he had killed 23 other people, including both of Suzanna Hupp’s parents.

Suzanna later testified to the legislature, “Maybe I wouldn’t have been able to stop him, there’s no guarantees. I would at least have had a chance. But my gun was a hundred feet away, in my car, and I had no chance at all.”

I don’t want to be Suzanna Hupp. I carry wherever and whenever I legally can.

The MQ-28A Ghost Bat, Unmanned Systems and the Future of Australian Air Power

Easy Goulash

xr:d:DAF22W0nojs:6,j:2215057270594147283,t:23121310

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 (17 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (15 ounce) can whole-kernel corn
2 cups macaroni
1 cup shredded cheese, if desired

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Brown beef with onion and bell pepper. Drain.
Add tomatoes and corn. Cook until heated well.
Cook macaroni and drain. Add to beef mixture.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Pour into baking pan.
Bake for for 15 minutes.
If desired, sprinkle cheese over the top and bake just long enough for cheese to melt.

How do you view the popularity of “Black Myth: Wukong” and the spread of Chinese culture?

Selected comments from China Uncensored’s YouTube video titled “There’s a Reason China Made Black Myth Wukong…”

All my comments on here are also “mysteriously” removed. What’s the point when you are a CCP yourself?
Lol telling gamers not to play Wukong is like telling a starving person not to go buy that big reasonably priced juicy steak right over there but instead go lick the Dustborn off the floor till they’re satisfied instead because ethics or something.
Hate to break your little bubble mate; but people/gamers don’t care, if its a GOOD game they will buy and play it no matter how many links you can chain towards someone dying at a long end of a rope somewhere because of it. The only people who won’t buy it because of political reasons, are people who wouldn’t PLAY it anyway.
You are screaming into a void. Gamers are tired of politics from any side trying to influence gamers. Yo’all do your politics and let gamers enjoy their games. I can point out more than 100 items you use in your daily life and in your studio and 99% would probably be made in China. The selective outrage is pure hypocrisy. Leave Black Myth Wukong alone or leave us gamers out of it! WE DON’T CARE! Gamers play games for escapism from the real world, politics (no matter which side) takes that away.
A game about Chinese mythology made by a Chinese developer? Oh no say it ain’t so. All I care about is if it’s good or not
I mean, I’m anti-CCP as much as any American, but a good game is still a good game, and Black Myth Wukong is still a good game. Its not my fault that US based games are all DEI crap these days, and that one of the best original IP games that isn’t filled with DEI wokism is from a chinese company.
I respect your content a lot, but I think you’re just wrong about this one.
Too late. The game is anti woke. I bought the collectors edition.
Gamers will always buy games that are good. If it isn’t, they will ignore it. Black Myth Wukong did something right, and it was a fun boss rush game. Pushing to boycotting a good game will backfire, since gamers isn’t biased when it comes to masterpiece games. Majority of the ppl/gamers don’t care about geopolitics they just want to play good games.
Nah bro, a game is a game. People know about the propaganda and stuff, don’t worry about it. If you want to report on it, go plat the game, and tell us whether there are any lies/ obfuscations in the story or something
So here’s the dilemma. Buying Black Myth Wukong supports the CCP. That’s bad. Buying Black Myth Wukong puts numbers behind a legitimately good game. THAT’S good. What are we supposed to do?
Wont lie i bought wukong and will continue to buy non woke games. Wokeness is a cancer. And wukong is a relief from such wokeness.
As much as I don’t like China gov. it’s a pretty good game. Already finished it
Imagine not buying a game because you don’t like of where the company resides. Gives off the same energy as not buying a drink or a food because the company comes from said country. This is just as silly as that boycott of Atomic Heart. Buying a game that looks fun and you wanna play, isn’t gonna bring your country and the gaming industry closer to ruin. Chill.
Bought it anyways
I’m going to fight against woke games by supporting communism! Big brain move, guys
My dude, I love you, but you lost the plot with Black Myth: Wukong here.
will buy it anyway
They stood against Sweet Baby Inc so they deserve praise. They made a great game. Who cares about their government. This channel is very informative and I will continue to support China Uncensored but not this “boycott”
Hey , Chris . Quick question – why do you hate fun ?
I will buy it this time sorry not sorry
If we’re worried about China dominating the video game industry, you’re about 15 years too late.
China uncensored if you want to continue to be taken seriously, don’t bring a single player action game that have absolutely zero social elements in it that anybody could misconstrue well when you like that
Don’t tell me what to do nerd
The woke lefties made that game a super hit. There nothing one can do now
Shut up about video games.
Sorry dude, I find your attempt to insert YOUR politics into computer games just as sickening and vile as when the woke crowd does it. It’s not even a political game to begin with. First dislike after years of watching. Hands off the games!
Leave black myth wukong alone.
The probelem is Black Myth Wukong is opposed by the western liberal leftists. So that makes people wanting to buy that game.
Man I am just find it ironic. People are buying this Chinese game because it is a great game that doesnt push any agendas or politics, then telling gamers not to buy it because of political reasons. Gamers dont care about politics, we care about good games that respect our time and intelligence.
I agree with your battles but this is not the hill.
Honestly the game is mad fun and if the west is trying to push concord and dustborn on me i am very happy playing the Monkey Game because god its fun to play
Homie, I don’t have to “trust a game” to enjoy it.
That’s a shame i really like this channel
is this sponsored by sweet baby ???????
I have to disagree about wukong, I won’t boycott it. There is a battle with woke ideologies and traditional ideologies that you might have not lean in to.
If china makes good video games, i will buy chinese video games.
If its a good game its a good game, fuck the politics
It’s hard to choose which I hate more, china or woke DEI culture…
Bro is onto nothing, never cook again and stay away from games please
I bought Blackmyth and I’m having fun with it. I haven’t had this much fun with a game in years but now I’m conflicted.
Too late bro. Bought it and LOVING it. The game is a MASTERPIECE.
It’s just a game. You have to turn everything into politics just because it’s originated from China
too late, I bought it and it’s a good game
I disagree, even though I usually agree with your other videos.
And buy Concord instead? Wukong is attractive because there is nothing similar in the West.
“Don’t Buy it” nope. I will buy it. The game is that good. Majority of western games are caving into DEI narratives in story telling for games
Up til now, I liked your videos, but you are bad mouthing the game like everyone else. Shame on you
do you want me to stop buy Black Myth Wukong? ok I want 2 thing 1 all game most stop do DEI shit 2 game development most focus on tall good story and good gameplay that’s it
Ima buy this game. I think they earned it. All those awesome graphics aint no joke to produce. Their artist deserve a win. Now we just need to get the US and japanese game dev to step up their games and compete instead of whining about it.
Oh shit too late, at least it’s a good game
It’s a good game, doesn’t matter who makes it, people will play it.
Yea, this is a final nail to the coffin. This time it’s unsub.
Yeah no I’m out
Fire the script writer for this one. Lost a subscriber.
This game you told me not to buy has hundreds of times less political messages than most Western games created today, so I think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill
Wel it is a good game compared to the last few years of garabge
All my friends and buddies are getting Black Myth Wukong.
I already bought it….. im sorry but you’re waaaayyyyy too late in reporting on wukong.
you are shitting out of the toilet on this one. keep politics and propaganda out of my games, please
This take is cringe and stupid. How about we just start making better games in America again
rule number 1: Never tells the gamer what to buy and what’s not.

My short take on Black Myth Wukong’s impact on the West:

It’s a war. Not between China and the US. It’s a war between gamers and woke culture (which I call “Western depravity”). The whole YouTube gaming channels are in this together.

I’m not too sure about the promotion of Chinese culture, but the game will be remembered as the game that finally defeated the woke culture. Gamers know this. That’s why they love this game so much!

I’m not a gamer myself, but even I can understand that gamers worldwide see Black Myth Wukong as the game that saved their gaming culture from the toxic woke culture.

Famous influencers are dropping like flies: Why?

What is the worst country you have ever visited?

India. I went to India twice on business.

I worked at a copper smelter in Tamil Nadu. I saw women carrying enormous loads on their heads. They wore hard hats with flat tops. Men wore regular hard hats. When i asked why i was explained that men are stronger so they don’t have to balance loads on their heads. Men wore safety boots. Women wore unsafe sandals. They were used as beasts of burden.

While we were there, they found the bodies of two female infants. They suspected selective infanticide.

The car we used didn’t have safety belts. Driving was like playing chicken all the time.

I saw carts pulled by Brahma bulls or by half-naked men. It was like being teleported to the middle ages.

One day for lunch we had vegetables containing wriggling maggots, the other day medium-rare chicken for dinner.

The hotel was ~$10/night and, according to a colleague, it “wasn’t worth it.” The shower head broke off. The crank opening the window broke off, etc.

Someone joked that maybe i could get married there. The local engineer said only a black man would want a local wife. This reflects another aspect of the culture – darker-skinned people are considered “ugly.”

The local paper was full of stories of people taking revenge by using a knife, a scythe, or throwing acid, often over a dowry. It also contained personal ads from women who described themselves as fair-skinned to be more marriageable.

One of the young engineers at the plant died when his bike hit the carcass of a water buffalo left in the middle of the road at night. He slowly succumbed to his injuries while nobody would help. I’ve read people are afraid of dealing with the corrupt police.

To be fair, on the second trip the flat hardhats were gone and the car had safety belts.

But, by and large, we were not bothered by the locals. It was a different story in northern India.

Some guy offered my colleague a shoeshine in New Delhi. When he declined he grabbed him by the leg, smeared some stuff on his shoes, and aggressively demanded money.

Streets were full of beggars, some of them for some reason missing fingers.

We asked a taxi driver to take us to a government store so we could buy some gifts. He took us to his friend’s (or relative’s) place instead where they aggressively tried to make us buy stuff we didn’t want.

When we finally got to the government store we got some good stuff. I got sandalwood statues of Ganesh and Hanuman and a book of Mughal miniature paintings. I found the culture as really interesting.

Mumbai had a cholera outbreak. We saw people having diarrhea by the road. The hotel was very nice but the neighborhood next door was full of garbage, with open sewer, and scrawny cows roaming the streets.

The Taj Mahal and the Red Fort in Agra were breathtakingly beautiful. A lot of the rest of Agra looked, according to my sojourner, “like a dump.”

We almost missed our plane as the lady checking passports took almost sadistic pleasure in checking each page of each passport. By the way, the Indian visa application is some 3 pages long and it contains questions about religion (three is no “atheist,” “agnostic,” or “secular humanist”) and whether one’s grandparents were Pakistanis.

This was all a while ago so maybe things have changed…

What surprised you most when you first came to China, as a foreigner?

Disclaimer: All the comparisons are done with Indian life as benchmark

Oh that’s plenty…where do i begin with? let’s see.

There are no cops on major roads of the cities in China , yet traffic stops at red light. This may sound absurd, but this is not the norm in India.
Fitness level of people. I don’t remember finding any obese person in China. I visited three cities: Beijing, Shanghai & Harbin. None were obese .
Absence of google, facebook, twitter. Sites like weibo, wechat rule the roost.
Participation of women in the economy: in all the three cities we had women tour guides who stayed with us from morning 7:00 am till night 10:30. Pretty difficult to expect that in India.
Toilets: this one is quite weird. while traditional chinese go the indian way, what was quite shocking was to find that public toilets have indian seats, with no partition in between!!!. no privacy whatsoever. ofcourse you will not find water as well. and quite possibly toilet roll too would be absent. Certainly not the best country to do your business.
Electricity quota: China only switches on its ACs during restricted months during summers. The Government decides that duration.
Infrastructure: everything out there…be it roads, monuments, factories, its just huge. More importantly it is working. While we are debating the need for bullet trains, china is using them like crazy. We struggle to get mobile network at stationary places, i was talking trouble-free with my sister in India during a train ride with this train speed…

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No doubt Sydney opera is outstandingly beautiful , but take a look at this

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That’s Harbin grand opera, no less picturesque than Sydney in any way. Chinese are extremely determined to match the best in the world & even beat the best.

There

Friendliness of people: Indians are treated the same way indians generally treat white skinned people..with awe. they were quite willing to have pics with us, help us & what not.This China Vs india rhetoric is not known to people
General absence of religion in public discourse. Religion doesnt feature in the lives of Chinese people in general. No bullshit in the name of religion
Discipline. I found Chinese quite disciplined in their schedule & daily lives. What to eat, when to eat , its all quite structured. They are an extremely hardworking & disciplined people. No wonder China has grown so much
Eye for detail: These guys plan way ahead. and execution is too good. They also focus quite a lot on maintenance of things. I was surprised to find a man scrubbing a dustbin early morning on my morning run at Harbin. That’s something i would not imagine here.
Lack of pvt ownership. You don’t own land/apartment. it is leased to your for 99 years & that too can be taken by the government any time & you will be given a replacement , not necessarily of your choice
2nd copies aka fakes. very difficult to differentiate from the originals. China has dedicated malls which deal in them

China is a very interesting country & is definitely worth a visit. You could learn quite a few things.

Do military personnel receive training on reading maps, using a compass for navigation, and identifying their location using stars if they become lost?

I can only speak for the Army. Yes. We get courses on map navigation and compass use.

There is no using stars for navigation as that requires a sextant. You will see the Navy personnel on ships doing this.

It’s too complicated for infantry soldiers. Not that Army can’t do it but it requires extra equipment. It’s just easier to use maps and compass. The Navy uses stars because one part of the Ocean looks like any other part. Blue and flat. There is literally nothing to look at except for stars.

On land, you have land features and with a map you can easily find out where you are. And for the Army, carrying extra equipment that you won’t use is simply not done. Every ounce of equipment has to be useful for the Army soldiers. Space and weight is at a premium.

Bride-To-Be HYSTERICAL After Getting Caught With Ex’s “Sausage” In Mouth At Engagement Party!

What scared you the most about going to prison that turned out to be untrue?

Rape. Like everyone else out there, it was what you first associate with the scary things about prison. Such BULLSHIT. I’m sure it happens.. I never witnessed it, I was never even slightly at risk of that happening to me … and never even heard a rumor on the yard of it happening … and there are few secrets on the yard.

When I went to prison the first time in my twenties, I was stripped down naked and left on a wooden bench during processing and intake. I was very scared. A brotha came in saw me naked and yelled at the CO to give me my prison-issued clothing. An hour or two later, still getting processed, another brotha who worked there asked me if I wanted an extra bag lunch he had. I quickly said NO… cuz that’s what I was told led to you being someone’s bitch. He asked me again, and once more I say no… but I was starving! He smiles, and leaves it anyways. What I learned that day was there were many, many men who were strangers to me but gave without expecting anything. It wasn’t at all like I had expected.

When I returned to prison in my fifties, I thought I was too old to fight and worried about how I was going to be treated. Again, as soon as I appeared on the yard, a group of brothas appeared at my bunk with shower shoes, ramen, some hygiene products, chips, candy, and even some sweat shirts and pants! It’s what they do for every new black inmate’s arrival and I was honored to do that for others as they arrived.

What can immediately make a person unattractive?

A big one is body odor. If a person doesn’t smell right, attraction dies on the vine. I once read a story about a famous actor turning down Marilyn Monroe, despite her being rather into him and “ready to go”… he had her in front of him. Needed only to say the word.

But she smelled bad. And she didn’t take care of herself. And any other man would have been able to overlook it — it’s Marilyn Monroe, after all. Of all people! A queen, no, a goddess amongst women! To the actor it was a dealbreaker. And I’ve seen this play out in life, in a way. A beautiful person with horribly decaying teeth? No way, José. A gorgeous face may lean in for a kiss and if the smell from his or her mouth is the foul scent of death… that’s the end of all attraction.

Be clean. Be fresh. Smell right, so people will be eager to taste you, be near you, explore you. But smell like death and it’s the death of your dating life. Not to all people — desperation’s one hell of a drug — but to many.

With all the news reports, can we conclude the Chinese are not exactly being truthful to put it mildly?

Nopes

You can conclude that they are either lies or exaggerations

Why?

In 1978 – Soviet Union issued exactly 5260 Tourist Exit Visas outside the Iron Curtains to other nations which were not Soviet Satellites

In the same year 12,400 Visit Visas were issued to enter the Soviet Union from Non Communist Nations (Including North Korea + Vietnam + Cuba + China)

In 2024 – so far to date Chinese Passports have been issued 8.72 Million Tourist Visas upto 30/6/24 while around 12–14 Million Chinese Visas have been issued for Foreign Passport Holders into China

12,400 vs 14 Million!!!!

So trust me, China can’t hide anything today

They don’t hide anything today

Since most of their Media is STATE OWNED there is no incentive in insane TRPs and thus the Chinese Media does not go for SENSATIONALISM

They often appear “Boring” to the outsiders used to Western or Indian media with their sensationalism and their quest for TRPs

The Problem is most people still look at China with a 1980s lens

Had my sons not gone to Singapore, had I myself not done business with Singaporeans and had my Nephew not gone to Shanghai, I would have had the same 1980s lens

You have to go to China to experience the new China and conclude that it’s entirely and diametrically opposite to what the Western Narrative Suggests

For instance the West says Chinas stock market is performing badly

In reality Chinas Stock prices are CAPPED in a way

They can’t rise beyond a certain maximum

In that way the shares are kept undervalued

Any Banker working in China knows the truth

For instance the West says Chinas Real Estate sector is collapsing

In reality, the Sector is deliberately allowed to kill off speculation and ensure affordable housing to all Chinese

Every Tier 2/3 City is going to have some fixed price housing projects which will rise by a fixed 4% a year for the next 30 years

That’s to ensure every couple can buy an affordable house before they are 30 years of age

The West doesn’t cover this news

You need to live in China to know this news.

For instance the West says Chinas Demographic collapse is coming

In reality Chinas age of retirement is pegged at 55 Years

If it’s raised to 65, China would have 66% of their working population supporting 13.50% of their elderly population in 2042 and 60% of their Population supporting 18% of their elderly population in 2060

It’s still more than 3:1

Plus Chinese people SAVE at a rate more than the entire world

A Chinese Household saves 44% of their income earned against less than 24.8% for the Global Average and 17.7% for the G7

However while this is something every Chinese Actuarian knows, no Westerner will ever talk about this

They have no idea how China works

Even on Quora

Only those who genuinely live in China or know China like Bill Chen or Aya Shawn and some others have some idea of what’s going on

Most others simply either quote Western Media or 1980s Narrative like “CCP is bad, CCP is Evil”

Accidental Time Travelers | The Mystery and Science of Time Slips

Jumped and shamed all because of the secretive nature of female beauty

When I was a boy growing up, I used to sneak peeks at the stash of Playboy magazines that my father kept in “his” basement bathroom.

My parents maintained a more-or-less traditional household with the father working and the mother being a stay-at-home mom. And part of this lifestyle was the separation of bathrooms.

My father has a small bathroom in the basement, while my mother maintained a larger, more ornate bathroom next to the parental bedroom.

In my father’s basement was a stack of magazines. And buried in the bottom of them were a collection of Playboy and other “girlie” magazines that men would read. He also had magazines about “Men’s adventure” and such topics. And, well, being a boy I of course discovered the stash and would look though them.

They would always give me a rise in my groin, but I really didn’t know what to do past that. As this was still before I discovered the natural release of masturbation. So I would just sneak a peek at the forbidden magazines that my father favored, and my mother deplored.

One day, when I was around ten years old, I got out of the bathroom and opened the door where my sister jumped me; like some kind of fierce tiger, and startled the living fuck out of me.

She screamed at me at the top… the TOP of her lungs. All set at decibel level 1000.

She screamed “Got ya!” and repeated over and over “You are in so much trouble now!”.

Startled and in shock, not to mention viewing the “dirty” magazines, I was horrified and ashamed, and in shock.

So I stayed in the bathroom.

Shaking.

And I stayed there not moving for hours. Maybe three or four hours in total.

And eventually my mother came down. She opened the basement door and made her way down the stairs to the basement bathroom.

She told me to come out. No one is going to beat me, and to get ready for dinner. And that was that.

No bitch-out session.

It was as if nothing happened. But to me, I must have been as pale as a ghost.

Dad ignored everything.

So we set down to eat. Not a word about the terrifying events passed anyones lips.

When my sister tried to say anything, my father SHUT HER UP, and told her to leave the table. Where she promptly stomped off making loud pounding noises as she assaulted the stars to her bedroom.

I didn’t know it then, but I know it now…

Forcefully violating someones privacy; insulting them, shaming them, and generally attempting to lay this “deep sin” on my shoulders was absolutely not acceptable.

It could, if handled wrongly, damage me for life.

Shame. Ridicule.

Betrayal.

All in all, I think that my parents handled this properly.

Months later my dad had a chat with me.

Not about the incident, but telling me that one should never be ashamed of being interested in girls.

And a natural curiosity in the female body is fine, healthy and normal. He told me never to be ashamed of being a normal boy.

After that, he used that to discuss the “birds and bees” with me.

Oh, sure as shit, my sister continued to be a little tyrannical bitch, but that incident was closed, and NEVER reopened again.

This one was handled properly by my parents. They weren’t complete fuck-up’s you know. They did things RIGHT from time to time.

Today…

What are the darkest secrets of elite US universities?

Originally Answered: What are the darkest secrets of elite US universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Stanford?

To me, the secret about elite universities — or at least the fact that they prefer not to publicize overtly — is that the admissions game is far from fair, which most people would define as based on merit. The truth is that when it comes to admissions, the Ivies, Stanford, and other top schools have their own agendas. Which means that the actual number of spaces available for students without a “hook” is much smaller than one might think.

One agenda is to favor legacies. Harvard has been known to have the children of alums take up one-third of the class. Other schools do the same, at somewhat lower rates. Among my college essay students, I see admissions for legacies as much more likely than for others. If nothing else, the tie often goes to the legacy.

Athletes also get a big edge. This is not limited to Stanford, home of many Olympic medalists. Even at the Ivies, where the level of play in most sports is well below Olympic caliber, a big chunk of admitted students are recruited athletes, who sometimes get a bit of a break on grades and test scores. About half of students at Williams are athletes.

Money matters. Yes, you can buy your way into a top college. It is now known that the parents of Jared Kushner knew that he was not Harvard material and spent millions greasing the wheels. In my own experience, I have seen a student with really weak academics get into a school where the family’s name was on a building.

Race also matters. Students who are historically underrepresented minorities get an edge, even if the family is rich. It is documented that Asian students need higher grades and scores to get into many top schools. Harvard is being sued for this practice.

Universities are more willing to publicize their efforts to broaden opportunity by giving preference to student who will be the first in their family to go to college. “60 Minutes” recently did a segment about Princeton’s efforts to increase socioeconomic diversity. I applaud plans like this. But I also know that this means a lot of places will be earmarked for certain types of students.

Imagine a game of musical chairs with ten chairs. The game begins with legacies seated in two chairs. Recruited athletes are in two other chairs. Two more may already be filled by students who are underrepresented minorities or first to attend college. One more will be an international student. How many spots are left if you do not fit into one of those categories? Three? And half of those go to men and half to women?

The above scenario is inexact. But the point is clear. For a student without a hook, the window to squeeze through to get into an elite university is much smaller than the universities would have you believe.

MM’s AI work from today part 1

I’ve been experimenting with Baroque figurative imagery.

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Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd – The Wall – 4K Remastered

China’s Ministry of Commerce has introduced export controls again, and it is the turn of the United States to be “choked”, and the military is under great pressure.

While the United States has repeatedly exaggerated the “Chinese military threat” and wants to continue to increase its budget and join forces with its allies to manufacture and transfer weapons and expand military production, China’s unexpected decision suddenly made the US and European militaries feel real pressure.

According to the Global Times, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs of China recently issued an announcement, announcing that from September 15, export controls will be imposed on antimony and superhard materials related items. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce said that China’s policy is not aimed at any specific country or region, but is based on international practices to better safeguard national security and fulfill international obligations such as non-proliferation. The important role of antimony in military production and China’s dominant position in antimony mining and supply have determined that this move will have an impact on many countries, and the United States will be the first to bear the brunt.

(Antimony Ore)

Foreign media analysis said that antimony, as a strategic metal, is not only used in the production of batteries and photovoltaic equipment, but also an important raw material for many military equipment, such as ammunition, infrared-guided missiles, nuclear weapons, and night vision goggles. China is the world’s largest antimony producer, mining about 40,000 tons last year, accounting for nearly half of the global total. The United States is the world’s largest buyer of antimony ore. Relevant statistics show that 63% of the antimony ore and its oxides imported by the United States from 2019 to 2022 came from China. From this perspective, China’s export controls on antimony are actually a “reverse stranglehold” on the United States, which is likely to cause difficulties for the United States’ weapons manufacturing.

However, it is not the first time that China has strangled the United States in the export of key minerals. Last year, China announced export controls on two rare metals, germanium and gallium, which prompted the United States to discuss countermeasures with allies such as the European Union, Japan, and South Korea as soon as possible.

(The raw materials of the US AIM-9X infrared-guided air-to-air missile include antimony)

In addition, in recent years, the United States has been trying to get rid of its dependence on China in the supply of key minerals, including cooperating with Australia, Mongolia and other countries to develop mineral resources, but both mining and processing technology and related patents are firmly in the hands of China. As a result, the US has to admit that it is still unable and unwilling to exclude China from the US “key mineral supply chain”.

However, not to mention that China’s export restrictions are not aimed at any specific country, even if the policies specifically targeted at the United States are just a way to treat the person in his own way, because it is the United States that is accustomed to building “campus walls”.

From Trump to Biden, the United States can be said to have tried every means to suppress China in the high-tech field, including but not limited to putting Chinese companies on the “blacklist”. Huawei, DJI and other companies have not escaped, and allies have implemented various export controls on China. At the time when China’s export controls on antimony were in place, the Biden administration was still planning to implement new restrictions on technology exports to China.

However, unlike the United States, the suppression by the United States cannot fundamentally prevent our rise. Instead, it has prompted China’s high-tech enterprises to make great progress and development through self-reliance and independent innovation. Take the most critical semiconductor industry as an example. At present, domestic chips have made breakthrough progress and are gradually replacing the market of foreign chips.

As emphasized by the Ministry of Commerce, China opposes any country or region using controlled items from China to engage in activities that undermine China’s national sovereignty, security and development interests. Since the United States uses key minerals provided by China to build weapons against China, there is no need for China to be polite. It is more appropriate to let the United States taste the taste of being “choked”.

This news is brought to you by tencent

Be the Rufus

Have you ever seen an employer fire someone without realizing what a crucial role the employee played?

Me. My position was eliminated, and while I gathered my things in the presence of the new office manager, I told her that she’d need to contract a snow removal company to clean and salt the walks, early morning, every time it snowed. Because I was the one who did that.

She looked shocked and dismayed and she said that she didn’t realize that.

A large portion of the client base was children and elderly people and it was not just a matter of courtesy, but an insurance liability. I also cleaned the public sidewalks around the building because even though the city would do it, it might take days before it was done.

Unfortunately for her, contracting a company is the sort of thing that has to be negotiated and booked well in advance, and winter was upon us. The cost for service would be greater than my salary was.

The other employees only worked when they had clients booked, and they were generally small women with medical degrees, and they could not be hot, sweaty and potentially smelly from physical exertion anyway.

And the three dentists sure weren’t going to do it.

Back to the Future is sooo FREAKIN’ GOOD!!!

From Prodigy to Predator: The Twisted Path to Narcissism

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) often evokes images of self-absorbed egomaniacs who crave admiration and wield manipulation like a weapon. But beneath the polished veneer of grandiose self-image lies a hidden truth: narcissism is a learned response to deep-seated wounds inflicted in childhood. It’s a desperate dance for love and attention, born from a warped perception of neglect and unworthiness.

From Crib to Con: The Twisted Path of Narcissism

The seeds of narcissism are often sown in the fertile ground of early childhood experiences. Imagine a young child, yearning for the warmth of parental love, only to encounter a void of emotional connection. Perhaps their needs were consistently unmet, their cries left unanswered, or their achievements ignored. This perceived neglect breeds a gnawing sense of unworthiness and insecurity.

To cope with this emotional turmoil, the child instinctively adopts survival tactics. They learn that loud tantrums, exaggerated displays of distress, and even manipulative ploys garner attention, albeit negative. This “infantile fakery,” as you aptly call it, becomes a twisted currency, securing the fleeting validation that soothes their raw vulnerability.

Over time, these behaviors morph into a sophisticated arsenal of manipulation. The narcissist learns to charm their way through life, cutting corners, deflecting blame, and leveraging the sympathy of unsuspecting others. It’s a desperate attempt to fill the void within, a never-ending quest for external validation to compensate for the internal chasm of perceived inadequacy.

The Vicious Cycle: Escalation and Escape

This relentless pursuit of self-gratification comes at a hefty cost. Relationships become transactional, mere stepping stones on the path to narcissistic aggrandizement. As their true nature is revealed, the inevitable happens: disillusionment sets in. People tire of the grandiosity, the constant blame game, and the emotional manipulation.

Faced with this potential rejection, the narcissist resorts to their default coping mechanism: escape. They may abruptly discard relationships, change jobs, or move cities, leaving behind a trail of emotional casualties. But amidst this flurry of movement, there’s no introspection, no genuine growth. The core issue of self-worth remains unaddressed, festering like an untreated wound.

The Impossibility of Perfection: Why Narcissists Can’t Learn

At the heart of narcissism lies an unshakeable belief in one’s own perfection. Any suggestion of imperfection, any hint of a mistake, shatters their carefully constructed facade. This crippling fear of vulnerability makes genuine learning virtually impossible. Why invest in self-improvement when you believe you’re already beyond reproach?

Instead, the narcissist resorts to intellectual shortcuts, relying on charm and bluster to mask their lack of knowledge. They avoid honest self-reflection, deflecting blame and responsibility like Teflon repels water. It’s a vicious cycle, perpetuating their inflated sense of self while simultaneously hindering their ability to grow and evolve.

The Toll of Denial: Broken Promises and Shattered Lives

The ramifications of this arrested development are far-reaching. The narcissist’s inability to learn and adapt translates into a string of failures: broken relationships, lost jobs, and a trail of emotional wreckage. Their charisma may initially draw people in, but their manipulative tactics and emotional detachment eventually wear thin.

As the masks slip and the truth emerges, those closest to the narcissist bear the brunt of the pain. Family members become collateral damage, spouses are emotionally abused, and friends are left bewildered and hurt. The narcissist, forever chasing the mirage of self-worth, leaves behind a desolate landscape of broken promises and shattered trust.

Breaking the Cycle: Understanding and Healing

Unmasking the root of narcissism isn’t about demonizing individuals or condoning their behavior. It’s about recognizing the human story behind the inflated ego, the pain that fuels the need for constant validation. By understanding the underlying causes, we can move beyond judgment and towards compassion.

For those caught in the orbit of a narcissist, knowledge is power. Recognizing the manipulative patterns, setting healthy boundaries, and prioritizing self-care are crucial steps towards emotional well-being. Therapy can also offer valuable tools for navigating the complexities of these relationships and ultimately reclaiming power over one’s own life.

A Call for Empathy, Not Excuses

While NPD stems from early childhood experiences, it’s crucial to remember that understanding isn’t synonymous with excusing harmful behavior. The actions of narcissists can inflict deep wounds, and those affected deserve validation and support. However, recognizing the source of their pain can help us move beyond anger and blame, towards a place of empathy and self-protection.

Narcissism may be a complex and deeply ingrained disorder, but it’s not an insurmountable one. By shedding light on its origins and acknowledging the emotional pain at its core, we can foster a space for healing and understanding. For the most

Tacos de Carnitas

Crispy bits of very flavorful pork is the base for these delicious street tacos.

Ingredients

1 (3 to 4 pound) pork butt
6 cups water
7 strips orange zest
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 large white onion, diced
1 cinnamon stick (preferably Mexican canela)
1 1/4 teaspoons crushed red pepper
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons crushed oregano leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
24 small corn tortillas, warmed
Chopped fresh cilantro
Finely chopped white onion
Diced fresh tomato

Instructions

Trim any thick fat from the pork butt. Cut the meat into 1 inch cubes, discarding any that are pure fat, leaving some of the fat for flavor and browning later.
Put the pork cubes in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Skim off any foam that forms on the surface during the first 15 minutes. After foam is skimmed off, add the chopped onion, garlic, orange zest, crushed red pepper, cinnamon, bay leaves, oregano, cloves and salt. Simmer uncovered for another 1 1/4 hours until pork is very tender, adding more water if necessary to keep it submerged.
Season with more salt.
Continue simmering at a gentle boil until the water has evaporated, about 30 more minutes. Remove bay leaves and cinnamon. Cook a little longer to fry the meat, stirring often and adding a little water it it seems to be sticking and/or burning.
Spoon some carnitas onto each tortilla. Top tacos with chopped onion, cilantro and diced fresh tomato.
Serve with refried beans and Mexican rice for a genuine taqueria experience.

Some of MM AI generations

Early stuff this.

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6 Signs You’re with the “Right” Partner

byThe InformHub •June 30, 2024

Discover the true meaning of a perfect match based on mutual love. In challenging times when many Americans feel more single and lonely than ever, 60% of U.S. adults still believe in the concept of a soulmate.

“Meant to be” can be a comforting thought after a series of bad first dates or a marriage that ended in divorce. Even 52% of Americans who have been married before still believe in “the one.”

This belief brings a strong sense of hope for those already in relationships, especially during tough times.

However, it also comes with potential downsides.

Believing you’re with the “right” and “only” person can lead partners to stay in abusive and toxic relationships (Franiuk et al., 2012).

It can also cause people to leave relationships too soon, thinking the “right” person is still out there, just a swipe away on their dating app.

But relying solely on either the traditional soulmate theory or the work-it-out approach is a false choice.

What if your soulmate was someone highly compatible with you, and what was “meant to be” was finding that level of compatibility?

Why not someone who also makes a consistent effort?

“Meant to be” refers to a healthy, lasting relationship with someone you are highly compatible with, sharing and enjoying life together.

Here are six signs that you’re in a highly compatible, secure, and strong long-term relationship:

1. You experience a strong and consistent emotional connection.

2. You have fun together and enjoy similar activities or adventures.

3. You are physically attracted to each other.

4. You find joy in quiet moments together.

5. You accept your partner as they are and feel accepted by them.

6. You and your partner feel chosen by each other.

This is the ideal scenario of high compatibility in the way you love. Soulmate relationships are less about a checklist of matching traits or qualifications and more about the way you feel when you wake up next to each other in the morning.

You might have met a soulmate if you also:

Feel appreciated, respected, and valued.
Feel comfortable being vulnerable.
Experience support for your dreams.
See significant alignment of interests, personality, and lifestyle.
See consistent growth in communication, conflict resolution, and meaning-making.

Meeting your soulmate may also mean a deep bond with spiritual significance if spiritual and religious beliefs were part of your family culture. Sharing core beliefs about spirituality and your relationship is a good indicator of soulmate potential.

If you’ve been together for at least a year and have been discussing marriage, sit down with your partner this weekend and consider the following questions:

How would you describe your emotional connection?

What exciting activities have you enjoyed together this year?

How would you describe the quality of your sexual experience in the relationship?

What is your experience when sharing space?

Why do you choose each other out of the 8.1 billion people in the world?

Do you feel like your best selves with each other?

If you’ve found your person, cherish and celebrate them. Ensure your partner understands their value to you.Commit to actions that reflect your love.

I’M EMOTIONAL!! First Time Reaction to Pink Floyd – “Comfortably Numb”

Plutocracy of private capital creates a crisis of US political legitimacy

Source: Global Times

The US is confronting a political system facing a crisis of legitimacy. A major component of the crisis is structural and inherent to US governance. Politicians in the US do not succeed in politics because of their service to the people. They are first selected by a tiny fraction of society wielding immense wealth and power before they are presented to voters.

Nowhere is the gap between the policies that US politicians pursue and the well-being of the people bigger than foreign policy. A cursory look at the economic approach to China under the administrations of former president Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden demonstrates this clearly. Under the Trump administration, the US imposed tariffs on Chinese exports and sanctions on China’s tech sector. Under the Biden administration, the US increased these tariffs to include the Chinese electric vehicle sector, expanded “black list” of Chinese tech corporations and targeted the semiconductor industry as a flashpoint in arresting China’s high-tech development. The two US administrations’ continuity on US foreign policy toward China extends into their military posture as both administrations saw greatly intensified US militarization in the Asia Pacific presence along China’s border and dangerous escalations over Taiwan in violation of the one-China principle.

Nothing about US foreign policy, whether it targets China or another nation, benefits the American people. Trillions of US dollars have gone unaccounted for, while many Americans struggle with debt, increasing rates of poverty, lowering life expectancy, inflation and stagnant wages. This has led to a crisis of political legitimacy where support for Congress and the president are at an all-time low while support for third-party alternatives to the two-party system is at a high point. The question is, then, why do US politicians fail to serve the interests of their constituents? What makes them choose to enrich military contractors and monopoly financial institutions while neglecting the ordinary worker?

The US is not a democracy. It’s a plutocracy of private capital. One percent of the US population owns more than one-third of US wealth. But more importantly, this one percent comprises the property owners of the biggest monopolies and financial institutions in the US and have designed a political system where their patronage directly corresponds to US policy. While politicians may promise ordinary Americans that their policies will benefit them. However, once elected these same politicians pursue an agenda which enriches the wealthiest corporations at the expense of the well-being of the people. In 2014, two US scholars conducted a study on the impact that various interest groups hold on government policy. They found that big business and interest groups made a huge impact on US policy and average citizens made little to no impact at all. Their findings find no shortage of validation. While the vast majority of people face economic and social strife, US politicians are busy sending more military aid to Ukraine and Israel and holding fundraisers with the richest in the corporate and finance sectors. This has given way to political malaise in some respects, but it has also encouraged more people to seek alternative political avenues to the two-party system.

As the gap between US policy and the interests of humanity reaches an all-time high, US politicians will continue to compete among themselves over how to best manage a growing crisis of legitimacy. An ever-increasing number of Americans will grow disdainful of this process. This means that an even more polarized political environment is coming to the United States as people navigate gross power distortions between the average American and the elites. Meanwhile, they continue to look for ways to fulfill their desire for a more people-driven and people-centered political agenda.

Boeing

How many Chinese still remember how our generation was deceived by this book?

When I was a kid, I believed it, and when I grew up, fuck, what stupid book lied to me all these years

main qimg 4e9550d2c498f43cf5e80624d608c1aa

1.Coins and national emblem

A Chinese student dropped a dime on the road and didn’t pick it up. A foreigner picked it up for him and solemnly told him that this coin has your country’s micro on it, please respect it

2.Make sure you wash it seven times

In Japan, dishes must be brushed seven times. A Chinese student who worked in a work-study program was fired by his boss because he only brushed five times. As a result, all restaurants did not want him, and finally the landlord asked him to check out because of his dishonesty

3.Fly honey

In order to change the problem of flies chasing odor, for more than two hundred years, Australians have developed good habits of hygiene generation after generation, thoroughly cleaning the national public place, and maintaining it for a long time, and finally flies collecting honey for living

4.The meaning of guns

The Chinese played with a real gun for the first time at a white friend’s house, and the gun went off and injured the friend’s son. However, the white friend did not investigate the fault of the Chinese, and even gave him the gun. The white man said: Because he grew up in a country without guns, he did not know the value of guns.

5.Book honey

In order to make children fall in love with reading, Jews will put honey on the book and let the child taste the sweetness of the book. This method is so effective that many Jewish children find books sweet and fragrant from an early age.

6.Blackout supermarket

A supermarket in the United States suddenly lost power, in order to prevent stampede, the radio announced that you can take away the goods in your hand for free, and people have orderly exit after hearing the radio. After the call, I was surprised to find that the counter was full of banknotes, which were consciously paid by customers

7.Power cut to save lives

In the United States, a sparrow was entangled in a high-voltage power line, and passers-by immediately called the alarm phone, and the police informed the White House that the president decided to send a special plane to break the national main power line, so that the national temporary power outage, saving the little Massachusetts. A great nation can stop any humble life

8.Tools wrapped in oiled paper

The German colonists built Qingdao sewers, so that Qingdao was not flooded for a hundred years, and a hundred years later, I received an email from a German company, saying that the sewers contained spare parts wrapped in oil paper and could be replaced directly

9.Superfather

A father was peeling an apple from his daughter’s winnowing boat when he accidentally plunged a knife into his heart. In order not to cause his daughter to panic, he endured severe pain and pulled out the fruit knife, insisting on sending the child off the ship for 3 days before he died.

10. 4:30 in the morning

4:30 in the morning, when the Chinese students are still sleeping, the world’s best group of people, Harvard students are immersed in reading, 4:30 in the morning Harvard library lights up, filled with serious learning students

11.Reading on the subway

British people love reading, they do not look at mobile phones when taking the subway, but read books and newspapers, “the spiritual world is very rich.”

Kung Fu Hustle Movie REACTION!!

The US military did the math and found that it was more cost-effective to “give up” Taiwan

What Lai Qingde was most worried about still happened. The Americans did the math and were surprised to find that it was more “cost-effective” for the United States to “give up” Taiwan.

Recently, a US military scholar published an article in the “Foreign Affairs” magazine, saying that the US military should not conflict with the Chinese mainland in order to “defend Taiwan”, and even further proposed the view of “giving up” Taiwan and letting it fend for itself.

This is different from the view that most American politicians have always advocated to “support the Taiwan authorities” to “contain” the mainland, so it has caused widespread discussion.

[The US military has made the situation in the Taiwan Strait more tense]

The scholar argued his point of view from three aspects:

First, the scholar reviewed the PLA’s strength improvement in the past 12 years in the article and came to a conclusion that China is now strong enough.

Among them, four points were mainly mentioned, namely that the PLA Air Force is producing fifth-generation aircraft and upgraded bombers, and most indicators show that China has the largest navy in the world.

In addition, China’s long-range missiles and satellite technology also pose enough “threat” to the US military and its allies in the Asia-Pacific region, and are capable of directly attacking US military bases from their homeland.

Whether it is the hypersonic missiles such as the DF-17, which are at the forefront of the missile field, or the continuously upgraded DF series ballistic missiles, as well as mature and reliable anti-ship ballistic missiles, they all mark that we have taken a decisive step in our defense strategy and can cause devastating blows to US military bases and aircraft carriers when necessary.

[The US military in the Asia-Pacific region has to bow its head within the range of the PLA missiles]

To achieve this, it is also inseparable from my country’s expansion of satellite technology and space capabilities. The fully built Beidou satellite navigation system and a large number of remote sensing and reconnaissance satellites can provide the PLA with independent and reliable global positioning, improving the precision strike capability of the weapon system and the command and control efficiency of the troops.

On the other hand, when the US military faced the missile offensive of the Houthi armed forces in the Red Sea, it was obviously in a serious shortage of ammunition. Therefore, under the PLA’s fully upgraded missile offensive, this problem of the US military will only become more serious.

After talking about the strength of the PLA, the scholar put forward a second point of view, pointing out that the military benefits that Taiwan Island can bring are very low, and it is not enough to change the overall situation for both the US military and the PLA.

He said that this is because the United States has long been trapped in a “misunderstanding”, believing that the PLA will further increase the coverage of medium-range missiles after regaining Taiwan, and further break through the US “island chain plan”.

In fact, the technology originally mastered by the PLA is enough to cover the US military bases on Okinawa and Luzon Island. After mastering Taiwan Island, it is just “icing on the cake”, adding an additional 190 miles of range.

For the US military, Japan and the Philippines, which are also located on the first island chain, have more bases with superior conditions, and can even further pose a threat to Taiwan Island from these bases after the PLA regains Taiwan.

This point is actually somewhat of a “broken jar” meaning, perhaps because they feel that “the PLA missiles are always hanging over the heads of the US military in the Asia-Pacific region, so instead of “holding” the island tightly, it is better to throw the trouble to the PLA.

Finally, the scholar gave a very “vicious” strategy, which is to remind the US military that it needs to change its strategy and “defend” Taiwan from another angle.

This method is to hope that the US military will provide as many mines, drones and anti-ship missiles as possible to the Taiwan military, and support the Taiwan authorities to produce these equipment themselves through technology sharing.

In this way, the Taiwan authorities will no longer be a burden to the United States, but a thorny “hedgehog”, and then when the PLA “suffers huge losses to recover Taiwan”, the United States can gain a certain advantage and fight the PLA in a wider area.

We will temporarily Regardless of whether such a concept can be realized, the message that the scholar expressed in his words that he would “abandon the Taiwan authorities” in exchange for greater advantages is enough to confirm our view on the nature of US military aid.

[The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council has long “predicted” the fate of the Taiwan authorities]

Earlier, the spokesperson of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, Zhu Fenglian, said that the United States will always pursue the “America First Policy”, and Taiwan will not be an exception. In the end, the “chess piece” can only become a “discarded piece”, bringing greater harm to Taiwan compatriots.

Moreover, recovering Taiwan is a sovereignty issue that cannot be compromised for us. In front of our core interests, no one can be beaten. Any wrong decision made by the US government on this issue will accelerate our process of recovering Taiwan.

this news is brought to you by tencent

Shorpy

Be the Rufus

Quandary

Submitted into Contest #247 in response to: Set your story on a spaceship exploring the far reaches of space when something goes wrong.… view prompt

Lyle Closs

I don’t like people. Never have. Arrogance, ignorance, mendacity, self-importance, superiority… I don’t like lists either.I’m not a prepper. If the end of the world comes I’ll be out on my porch with a welcoming smile. I have so little – they can have it all. It adds up to a pile of nought and a root cellar full of dust.My great pleasure is to sit out there and watch the days rise and subside, the mountains glow then surrender to the clouds. The snow falls like ash, the sun claws into my skin, the wind reaches through the cracks of my cabin, the cold informs me I am still alive.I had a family but she decided I wasn’t her type and took the kids away. I came home from the tyre factory with a lung full of carbon and a house full of silence. She left a note. It said ‘Bye’. Love died with a three letter word.I pinned the note to the front door for the landlord and drove away with my last paycheck and became a ghost of the person I had been. A ghost is a memory of someone who once lived. Seems about right.Vegas baby. A place to burn up and die. I turned the paycheck into chips and put them all on red, then red, then black, then black. It doubled each time. To hell with it. I put the lot on 23. It paid. Then black. It paid. Then 00. A ball drops into a spinning slot and you have more money than you’ve earned in your entire life.Fawning, flattering fools rose to the surface like scum from a rotting fish soup. It happens when you have a pile of cash. I’ve seen it now and it’s not just a trope in a bad movie. I’m not falling for that though. Faux admiration won’t ever open my wallet. If you need to be liked you’re just a bank waiting to be robbed.I cashed in and drove to Montana, opened a bank account in Butte and disappeared into the wooded hills. How I like it.My neighbors are bears and birds. I deal with people when I need stores. Sometimes I sit on my porch with my rifle and pretend someone is coming up the trail. I pretend to shoot them.Trouble is that fantasy would be followed by the reality of being arrested and having to deal with every kind of scum in the legal and penal system. Anyway I’ve never shot a living thing. The gun is for comfort. I like the mechanics of it. And if anyone tries to break into the cabin at night I’m ready. Just try it lowlife. Just fucking try it…Anyway, no sense getting carried away with imaginings. People imagining things is what got the world where it is today. Imagining that dealing drugs will provide a better life; that sacking half the workforce will improve the company; that beating up a woman makes you a man. If aliens investigated the people of this planet before arriving, they’d change their minds and head for Alpha Centauri. Who’d want to take over this pile of scat.Which brings me to today. It started with the powerful light shining through my window in the night. You know what it’s like. Your eyes snap open wide, your body’s as tense as a top E string. You wait for the next noise.The light disappeared. It was a starless dark night out. Low clouds. You strain to hear anything more but the only sound is the breeze in the trees. You peer out but nothing moves but the aspen leaves and pine needles.The next morning you remember it wasn’t a dream and you wander off into the woods with your coffee and toast.In a nearby clearing was a large object that I could only imagine was a radically new weapon. It was matt black, about half the size of my cabin, with projections everywhere and no clear front or back. That was just my first impression though. It looked, I realized, like a large spaceship model from a Star Wars movie. But why would a model spaceship be in a clearing in my forest?Then a very small door opened, a mechanical arm reached out and placed a spherical object on the ground, then retracted. The door closed with a hiss. Hot damn!The object on the ground projected a hazy light that fuzzed in the air then formed a hologram in the air. It was a weird creature which made strange noises and waved its multiple arms, bowed then sat on the ground with its ‘hands’ held open and its head bent down. It seemed to be acting submissive or at least not aggressive. I sat on the ground and sipped my coffee and took a bite of my toast as I stared at it.“What the hell are you?” I said.The hologram creature was about six inches tall. It watched me drinking. I put the coffee cup down by the projector. The mechanical arm came out, picked up my coffee and lifted it into the craft. Seconds later it put the cup back, empty.“Thirsty huh?”I put the rest of my toast and honey down. That too quickly disappeared. The hologram alien clapped its hands and bowed ecstatically. I had the distinct impression it was out of food and drink. Whatever ‘it’ was.Then another door opened and an actual alien dragged itself to the opening. It seemed to be in bad shape. It was just six inches tall. Ugly as sin too. Just like the hologram. Slimy white skin, six eyes in the hairless head, six arms, four legs. Clothes like silk, multi-colored, all tassels and baubles. Some weird idea of fashion.It babbled at me, a high-pitched gurling sort of speech. “You’re a damn fool if you think I can understand a thing you’re saying,” I replied.It held up a hand – wait – and dragged itself back inside. The spaceship made a noise like an engine trying to start. The alien came back to the opening and shrugged. I wondered how many gestures were standard across the universe. It was telling me the vessel wouldn’t start. Well, there’s not a lot I can do to help. I shrugged.It collapsed. Struggled to sit up. Draped its legs over the edge of the opening and stared at me with all its sad little eyes.

The mechanical arm took the projection ball back inside then I heard clicks and hissing and, one by one, it brought out 11 matt black spheres about 3 inches in diameter and put them on the grass. I was puzzled.

Maybe it read my confusion. The projector was brought back out and showed a hologram of an alien apparently dying. I couldn’t tell what was killing it, maybe a poison or some kind of gas. Nothing obvious anyway. It collapsed, much like my alien buddy did just now. It didn’t move though. Then the hologram wrapped the body in a white cloth into a nearly spherical shape then put the wrapped body into a matt black sphere. The arm pointed to the 11 spheres on the grass.

I pointed to the alien in the opening and held up one finger. The hologram held up one finger. Alone.

Then the last one babbled again and tried to stand up but it fell out of the opening onto the grass. I reached out to touch it. It raised it little head, held out a couple of hands and touched my fingers, then it sagged and sighed its last. Dead.

“Bloody hell mate. Don’t tell me that means you’re all dead?” I knocked on the hull of the spaceship but thing appeared.

The mechanical arm lifted the body and wrapped it in cloth, pulled out a final black sphere, gently placed the body into the sphere and closed it. 12 matt black spherical coffins.

I heard a faint humming at the limit of my hearing and the spheres sank into the ground with 12 puffs of smoke or steam and disappeared. I didn’t know how deep they went but later I checked with my old metal detector and it found nothing, so they were at least a few feet in. I imagined them sinking down to the mantel and melting in the lava.

The projector started up again and showed a hologram of an alien looking at me and shrugging. I shrugged back. The spaceship couldn’t start and now had no crew. It didn’t know what to do.

I didn’t know what to do either.

If I tell anyone, the world and its military will descend on my peace and that will be the end of it. I might as well have shot someone.

But I have in my grasp the biggest event in the history of the world. Surely there can’t be just one spaceship? Is an invasion on the way? Could it be stopped if this spaceship was studied by the world’s experts? Could we learn how to reach the stars?

I didn’t think about it for long though. It wasn’t really a quandary. I moved my woodpile and it’s now covered so no-one can see it.

I sit out there most days and talk to it. Sometimes I hear soft humming like it’s still trying to start up. There’s a gap in the pile so the mechanical arm can come out any time it wants.

Occasionally it puts out the projector and the holo-alien shrugs. What can I do? I shrug back and we sit and stare at each other.

Russia’s Use of Oreshnik Missile a Grave Warning to NATO Amid Danger of World War – Analysts

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised speech on Thursday that Ukraine fired US-supplied ATACMS missiles and the UK’s Storm Shadows at facilities in the Kursk and Bryansk regions on November 19. Russia responded by launching a combined strike using the new medium-range Oreshnik missile on a defense industry complex of the Kiev regime.

Russia’s strike on a Ukrainian defense facility using its new Oreshnik hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile is a “a serious warning to NATO,” Robinson Farinazzo, a retired Brazilian officer, told Sputnik.

He underscored that US President Joe Biden crossed “a red line” by authorizing the Kiev regime to strike Russia with long-range American weapons. “Moscow is perfectly aware that this type of attack, technically difficult, can only be carried out with the support of NATO, in this case the US,” he said.

RUSSIA’S HYPERSONIC ORESHNIK MISSILE SYSTEM SHOWS NATO ESCALATION WILL COME AT PRICE – E

XPERTS “Vladimir Putin delivered a very powerful message to the West that they should revise the decision to escalate the conflict,” Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Center for European and International Studies at Russia’s Higher School of Economics, who participated in advising the leadership on amendment of the Russian nuclear doctrine and adoption of the new one, tells Sputnik. On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled the Oreshnik medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile that was fired on the night of November 21 in response to Ukraine’s use of NATO’s long-range ATACMS and Storm Shadows against Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk regions. As a result of the strike, Yuzhmash (also known as Pivdenmash), a Ukrainian arms manufacturer was successfully hit in Dnepropetrovsk. With this move, Putin made it clear that if NATO countries continue to use their ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles against Russia, “then Russia might use its medium range missiles against those countries, against the military objects of these Western countries,” Suslov continued. Moreover, Russia is ready for further escalation, according to the pundit. “If the West will respond to these Russian actions in the escalatory way, then Russia will escalate further. And the recent adoption of the newest Russian nuclear doctrine tells that Russia is basically ready at a certain stage to use evil nuclear weapons,” he stresses. Russia’s new hypersonic missile is a breakthrough technology, Yuri Knutov, military expert and historian of the Air Defense Forces, tells Sputnik “Its speed, as the president said, is 10 Mach. Today, no other country in the world has such missiles,” he says. The pundit underscored that neither the US nor other countries of the world currently possess air defense systems capable of intercepting Russia’s new hypersonic missiles. “We demonstrated a missile that can strike not only Yuzhmash, but also London and Paris if France and Great Britain continue their escalation course towards Russia, continue their direct intervention on the side of Ukraine,” Knutov concludes.

Other analysts agree:

Washington is “provoking an escalation that completely changes the nature of the conflict,” military history expert Ricardo Cabral emphasized.

The US allowing Kiev to use long-range weapons is “a continued psychological offensive” to test Moscow’s tolerance, Venezuelan analyst Vladimir Adrianza noted, adding that the dangerous stage of the conflict stems from the “voracious appetite of the US military, financial and technological complex.”

Moscow has every right to defend itself against NATO’s “sinister and criminal actions,” noted Humberto Morales, professor at the Autonomous University of Puebla, Mexico.

President Vladimir Putin has clearly conveyed the message that current events on the international arena demonstrate the “suicidal and irresponsible behavior by the West which threatens total destruction,” Lebanese political scientist Hassan Hmadeh underscored, adding, “The world must stand up to these evil people who are determined to destroy the planet, and the response must be commensurate with their actions.”

Washington’s approval for Kiev to use US-made missiles is intended to force Donald Trump’s future administration to “operate in geopolitical chaos,” Venezuelan international relations expert Wilmer Depablos said.

With less than two months to go before the transfer of power, Biden is trying to make it as difficult as possible for the next president to resolve the Ukraine crisis, Iranian political scientist Emad Abshenas believes.

Putin’s order to use the Oreshnik missile is “a warning to NATO countries amid the growing threat of a world war,” Chinese pundit Sima Pingbang explained, going on to say that the Kiev regime has become “an obstacle to peace” and that “Biden and Zelensky are unable to accept Moscow’s victory.”

How Firing A Key Cast Member Changed Aliens Forever

Russia-to-Ukraine: Time is Up – No Negotiated Peace; Just Complete Capitulation or Complete Destruction

Hal Turner World August 17, 2024

Dimitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and prime minister, has publicly said that Russia will seek to occupy “remaining Ukrainian lands” even if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky agrees to the Kremlin’s most recent conditions for peace.

Medvedev, now deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, “reaffirmed that Russia would not accept or uphold any negotiated peace settlements with Kyiv short of Ukrainian capitulation, the destruction of the entire Ukrainian state, and the full occupation of Ukraine.”

Hal Turner Analysis

Ukraine could have had it all; had they abided by the Minsk Agreement. They would have had peace, no war, their army would still be intact, their country would still be whole.

Instead, Ukraine listened to the siren song of the West, and fought the Russians.

Two months ago, Russia again offered peace.

With the terms of, with the offer being the four Oblasts (states) which had seceded (Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporozhe, along with Crimea) would have to remain Russian. At that time, Russia also made clear that if the conflict continued, the terms would only get more dire for Ukraine.

Again, Ukraine listened to the promises of the West, and continued fighting.

Now, it appears their fate is decided. Complete capitulation with occupation of the whole territory, or complete destruction.

It didn’t have to be this way. But the nitwits in the collective West were so impressed with themselves, so enamored with their own echo chamber of how powerful they were, they refused to believe they could lose.

Now, the reality is clear.

Ukraine has no chance at all to prevail.

The collective West is faced with losing on the battlefield, losing worldwide respect/fear, and losing all face.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

The West should have learned from World War 2, when the then-Soviet Union, lost twenty-seven million people fighting the German Nazis.

Did the West really think that Naziism could arise again in Ukraine . . . right next door to Russia . . . and the Russians would simply sit there and wait for a repeat of the World War 2 horrors? Fools they are in the West.

From all the way back in 2012 when the West tried to get Ukraine to shift from the Russian sphere of influence to the EU/USA sphere of influence, so the West could put US missile defenses in Ukraine, the Russians warned this was a “Red Line” for Russia.

Did the West listen? No.

The West then set about overthrowing Ukraine’s democratically-elected President, Viktor Yanukovich, and installing a puppet government in Kiev, to achieve their long terms plans for Ukraine to enter NATO.

As part of this new puppet regime in Kiev, Ukraine massed troops on the borders of the eastern oblasts (states) of Luhansk and Donetsk. Those troops began firing artillery shells and mortars into both oblasts, ultimately killing about 13,000 civilians. there.

Then Russia sent in “Little Green Men” troops with no insignia on uniforms, which beat back the Ukraine army.

The fighting came to a halt when Donald Trump became US President.

When the Democrat Party stole the US Presidency through ballot fraud in 2020, the fighting in Ukraine began anew.

Only this time, the Russians weren’t tolerating it.

Russia attempted, TWICE, to obtain “Iron-clad, legally enforceable, security guarantees” against further NATO expansion toward Russia’s borders. The West laughed at the proposals and said “no.”

Russia then tried again in December 2022, adding that if they could not obtain security guarantees via Diplomatic efforts, they would obtain them by military efforts. It took a little longer this time, but again, the collective West said “no.”

On February 23, 2022, Russia telephoned Ukraine’s then-President, Zelensky, telling him they had five hours to agree not to join NATO. Zelensky called the British Home Office and the US State Department, both of whom told him “ignore Russia’s ultimatum.”

When the five hours had passed, and Ukraine did not answer, Russia waited two additional hours, then sent its army across the Ukraine Border to fight it out.

ALL OF THIS trouble was fomented by, and facilitated by, the West; the EU and the USA.

Now, the EU and the USA are losing.

Badly.

Again, it didn’t have to be this way. Again, people who don’t learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.

Only now, there’s more than a million dead or injured Ukrainian troops. The collective West is almost out of missiles and ammunition. The Billions of dollars and EUROS it has sent into Ukraine are gone, and Ukraine is STILL on the doorstep of complete defeat.

Fools in the West.

Chinese Energy Hegemony

Godfree Roberts

It’s amazing when you think of it,” said Adell, watching the cubes of ice slur clumsily about. All the energy we can possibly ever use for free. Enough energy, if we wanted to draw on it, to melt all Earth into a big drop of impure liquid iron, and still never miss the energy so used. All the energy we could ever use, forever and forever and forever. The Last Question. Isaac Asimov.

Science fiction writers fantasize about how much nicer, longer and more civilized human life would be if every country had an inexhaustible supply of energy and everyone could afford as much of it as they needed. In this post we’ll look at post-2030 implications of China’s recent energy breakthroughs, given that it dominates all forms of modern energy generation, from efficient coal plants to wind generators to PV to pebble bed reactors and, now, fusion.

Energy wars

Lest we underestimate the centrality of energy, notice that the West is currently waging three energy wars:

Ukraine. EU industries have grown uncompetitive and millions of lives have grown nastier, shorter and crueler since they urged Ukraine to attack the owner of the largest energy reserves on earth, Russia. The disastrous results speak for themselves.
Venezuela, with the world’s largest oil reserves, has been under relentless attack since its government renationalized its oilfields in accordance with the constitution. Sabotage, invasion, terrorism, theft of foreign assets and gold reserves, lawfare, false ‘presidents’ – all been mobilized to cripple the economy.
Israel, Anglo-America’s dagger at the throat of MENA energy providers, regularly bombs and terrorizes them. If those oilfields were lavender fields, Israel would not exist.

Energy Abundance: the Dream

‘Free energy’ enthusiasts, perpetual motion inventors and science fiction writers all extoll the wonders of a world where electricity is as clean, abundant and affordable as town water. For them, it’s the equivalent of humanoids figuring out how to make fires in their caves. In 2012 a global consortium spent $20 billion building the ITER tokamak, hoping to generate first plasma by 2027, thus proving the concept of fusion power – even if it’s not yet at the level needed for net energy production.

First Plasma

As we saw in the last post, Chinese engineers started in 2021 and spent $1 billion to achieve first plasma with their HH70 tokamak earlier this year. Like a slim laptop and a power-hungry mainframe, HH70 is 90% smaller, 95% cheaper, and 10x more energy-efficient than ITER, thanks to its use of high-temperature superconductors. More important, it turned a scientific curiosity into an engineering challenge.

Taking no Chances

China now leads in fusion research, fusion technological prowess and fusion IP and has paved the way for commercially viable fusion reactors, control of which would give it economic dominance and huge geopolitical leverage while opening a new chapter in human development.

But Beijing has placed more energy bets than HH70.

Decades of persistent policy support, generous funding, domestic supply chains, large-scale manufacturing experience and highly educated workforce have given China dominance of all 21st century energy technologies. Says MIT Prof. Jacopo Buongiorno, “China is the de facto world leader in nuclear technology.” Indeed, not only is China is 10-15 years ahead of the US in fourth-generation nuclear reactors, it also leads in fusion power and has first-mover advantage in pebble bed reactors and thorium power. …

TOP “Capt. Miller’s Death” Reactions! Saving Private Ryan (1998) Movie Reaction First Time Watching

Number of Chinese scientists leaving US increasing yearly

Scientists of Chinese descent in the United States have been leaving the country because of “pull factors” from China and the “push factor” of the China Initiative of 2018, according to a major research study published in an American scientific journal.

The trend suggests a reverse brain drain, and the data used for the analysis is extensive.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used Microsoft Academic Graph to analyze trends in the migration of US-based Chinese scientists between 2010 and 2021. The database tracks more than 200 million scientists from over 25,000 institutions worldwide.

Also, a brief on the study, published in July by the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions, concluded that the discontinued China Initiative “provided scientists of Chinese descent in the US with higher incentives to leave and lower incentives to apply for federal grants”.

The purported objective of the China Initiative — launched by the Justice Department under the Trump administration and halted in 2022 under the Biden administration — was to reduce economic espionage.

The study identified the working countries of researchers through their academic affiliations in publications and tracked those with Chinese surnames who initially published in the US but later changed their affiliations to institutions abroad.

The study identified 19,955 scientists of Chinese descent who began their careers in the US but left for other countries, including China, between 2010 and 2021.

The researchers said that contributing to the trend were “pull factors” from China, including the country’s large and rapidly growing investments in science, high social prestige, and attractive financial rewards connected to positions in Chinese institutions.

But the analysis also showed a “push factor” in the US. Following the implementation of the China Initiative, departures of US-based, China-born scientists increased by 75 percent, the study found.

The data showed that as of 2021, of those leaving the US, the percentage of scientists moving back to China increased to 67 percent, up from 48 percent in 2010. The life sciences field witnessed the most significant exodus abroad, with more than 1,000 life scientists leaving in 2021.

The researchers also conducted an online survey of 1,304 US-based scientists of Chinese descent between December 2021 and March 2022 to find out why more were leaving.

The survey results revealed the chilling effects of the China Initiative. About 35 percent of Chinese scientists in the US said that they felt unwelcome; 72 percent didn’t feel safe as academic researchers; 42 percent were fearful of conducting research; and 65 percent were worried about collaborations with China.

Students from China have been an important source of US-based scientists for more than two decades. The study said that in 2020, of all US doctoral degrees in science and engineering, 17 percent — roughly 5,800 of 34,000 — went to foreign students from China, and the vast majority of those had chosen to stay in the US in previous years.

Chinese civilization pushed back 200,000 years

https://www.guancha.cn/politics/2024_08_16_745009.shtml

What are the requirements for a country to join BRICS? Why haven’t Japan or Indonesia been able to join BRICS?

Japan is in G7, a US puppet & is hostile to both China & Russia … I will be surprised if Japan can join BRICS at all. Japan will be more destructive than constructive to BRICS.

Indonesia may be in in the 2nd round.

In the 2023 summit, BRICS priority is to have members in each region. In Asia, there is already China.

That is why we see Saudi from Middle East. Egypt from north Africa. Iran from Central Asia. 1 from east Africa (I forgot the name).

“Pew Research Center” reports that only 20% of Asian Americans, including Chinese American, have positive view towards China while 37% of Asian Americans have positive view towards Vietnam . What is your opinion?

How is the public opinion shaped in the US?

This is why, in the U.S., mainstream media significantly shapes public opinion through mechanisms like selective reporting, agenda-setting, framing, and priming, all of which determine the importance and perception of various issues. By repeatedly emphasizing certain narratives and using emotional appeals, the media reinforces specific viewpoints. The inclusion of expert opinions and the creation of echo chambers further cement these beliefs. Additionally, social media amplifies these effects, making the media a powerful force in influencing public discourse and shaping opinions.

How has the Sino-US relationship been shaped by the US and its mainstream media over the decades?

During the Cold War, biased media coverage played a significant role in shaping U.S. public opinion toward China, particularly during periods of heightened tension. In the early stages of the Cold War, media portrayals of China were often framed in stark, adversarial terms, emphasizing the threat of communism and the spread of Maoist ideology. This framing contributed to widespread fear and suspicion of China among the American public, reinforcing support for U.S. policies aimed at containing Chinese influence in Asia, such as the Korean War and later, the Vietnam War. This bias helped to sustain public support for a hardline stance against China, including the policy of diplomatic isolation and the refusal to recognize the People’s Republic of China as a legitimate government.

After Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972, U.S. public opinion shifted significantly, with the media playing a key role in reshaping China from an adversary to a potential ally. This visit marked the beginning of a new era in U.S.-China relations, with subsequent media coverage highlighting diplomatic and economic cooperation. This helped foster a perception of China as a valuable partner in counterbalancing Soviet influence during the later stages of the Cold War.

For several decades, U.S. media portrayed China as a crucial ally, particularly in terms of economic relations, as China’s integration into the global economy accelerated. This narrative persisted through the 1990s and early 2000s, with the media emphasizing the benefits of trade and cooperation, even as underlying tensions occasionally surfaced. However, after the Iraq War and the Obama administration’s “Pivot to Asia” policy, the narrative began to shift subtly. The policy aimed to rebalance U.S. focus towards the Asia-Pacific region, reflecting concerns over China’s growing influence. While the media began to cover these concerns, the portrayal of China remained relatively balanced.

The shift became more pronounced during the Trump administration when media narratives increasingly framed China as the primary strategic competitor presenting a significant threat to U.S. interests. Trump’s rhetoric and policies, such as the trade war and confrontational stance on issues like technology and security, were widely covered, contributing to the public perception of a renewed “Cold War” with China. By framing China as “enemy number one,” the media helped solidify the view of China as a major adversary, reversing the decades-long narrative of partnership and cooperation. This shift in public opinion has had profound implications for U.S. foreign policy and continues to shape the dynamics of the U.S.-China relationship today.

The long-term consequences of shaping and indoctrinating the general public can sometimes be detrimental to the U.S.

The biased shaping of public opinion in the context of U.S. foreign policy has led to significant consequences. For example, in the lead-up to the Iraq War in 2003, U.S. media heavily reported on the alleged presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, despite weak evidence. This coverage influenced public opinion to support the invasion, which resulted in long-term instability in the Middle East and strained international relations. Similarly, during the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, biased media reports that initially supported the war effort contributed to public approval, which later shifted dramatically as the realities of the conflict became more apparent. These examples demonstrate how biased media narratives can shape public support for U.S. foreign policy decisions, sometimes with enduring negative consequences.

Be the Rufus

Doom’s Day: First Ever Military Use Of An Intercontinental Ballistic Missile

On November 21, Russia launched from its state central interspecific range Kapustin Yar in the Astrakhan Region an advanced medium-range ballistic missile on the territory of the Ukrainian State Factory Yuzhmash in the city of Dnepropetrovsk.

That day, using available information, military experts assumed that the strike was delivered by the RS-26 Rubezh missile, not a new weapon, but an old ‘forgotten’ one. This missile has the hypersonic strike part, which is equipped with 6 multiple independently-targetable reentry vehicles or MIRVs each consisting of 6 warheads with tactical nuclear charges. It was also reported that the missile was fitted with the Avangard-R hypersonic glider, and instead of nuclear charges, its MIRVs were loaded with metal blanks. The Ukrainian military claimed that Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missiles were also used in the attack. Another Patriot, the most advanced US air defense system, was reportedly destroyed on the outskirts of the city before the main blow.

Moscow did not officially comment on the strikes but Russian diplomacy played well the media game that Kiev and its Western patrons imposed. After the strikes, the spokeswomen of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mariya Zakharova, held a media briefing, during which she had a ‘surprise’ call from the Foreign Minister Lavrov. Everyone clearly heard that the strikes reported by the media should not be commented on. Thus, this was unofficial confirmation of the attack.

In Ukraine, the use of such weapons at first caused laughter and misunderstanding. There were arguments that the Russian president played his last trump card, but the bluff allegedly failed anyway. However, already in the evening, Vladimir Putin released a video message in which he spoke
about the application of Russia’s newest medium-range Oreshnik missile targeting a Ukrainian industrial enterprise in response to the recent strikes by the Ukrainian armed forces against Russia with American and British long-range ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles. The Kremlin also emphasized that after the American and British long-range missiles were used against military facilities in the Bryansk and Kursk Regions, “the regional conflict in Ukraine has acquired global character elements”.

The Pentagon, in turn, acknowledged that the strike was indeed delivered by an experimental hypersonic missile, expressed concern about it, and said that Russia had warned the United States in advance of its plans to launch such a missile to “reduce nuclear danger.”

After such successful and devastating strikes, the world will not be the same. Showing its advanced missile systems in action, Russia has demonstrated that it possesses unique missile technologies and is ready to use them effectively. In case the conflict in Ukraine transforms into a full-scale war with NATO, such complexes can already be used with standard nuclear ammunition, and it is impossible to intercept them, at least over Europe

Why do Chinese on here often represent China as resource deprived? China has vast mineral and coal resources and a huge amount of arable land.

Not Chinese, mostly yanks, Ignorance, they believe the propaganda they are told without ever researching it, most of that crap can be debunked very easily, they just don’t bother,

like some bloke yesterday claiming China can be brought to its knees in a week by the US just blocking shipping, how ignorant is that? China is self sufficient in just about everything, most shipping is heading FROM, China not TO China, yes China import a lot of food, but mostly animal feed, they also export a lot of food, which means they have more than enough for themselves. Doesn’t it?

NIKOLAI PATRUSHEV:

"We know that the West uses various pretexts to organize 'color revolutions' and attempts to replace legitimate governments with politicians trained abroad, obedient to Washington.

The West has also tried to do this in Serbia.

Mass riots are organized by Westerners in other countries as well.

It's no coincidence that former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, believes that the U.S. was involved in her resignation and rampant crime in her country.

The reason, in her opinion, could be her refusal to Washington to provide the Bangladeshi island of St. Martin in the Bay of Bengal for an American military base.

The level of U.S. interference in Venezuela's sovereign affairs is not decreasing.

Following another failed coup attempt in this country, Washington offers Nicolás Maduro an early resignation, promising in return to abandon further legal pursuit against him under American laws.

It can be observed that the U.S. and the U.K., faced with domestic political squabbles, economic and financial problems, and unrest caused by the confrontation between migrants and natives, are seeking to transfer chaos beyond their borders, increasingly igniting military, interethnic, and interfaith conflicts abroad."

-Excerpt from remarks by Nikolai Patrushev, Assistant to the President and Chairman of the Maritime Collegium of the Russian Federation, in an interview with Izvestia, August 16, 2024.

What Americans Learned When Going Overseas SHOCKED THEM

Part 2 of today’s MM AI art generation

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7-Up Lemon Cheesecake with Strawberry Glaze

Ingredients

Crumb Crust

2 cups Graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon cinnamon

7-Up Filling

1 envelope unflavored gelatine
1 1/2 cups 7-Up, divided
1 small box regular lemon pudding and pie filling (not instant)
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup water
11 ounces cream cheese, softened

Strawberry Glaze

1/2 cup strawberry jelly, melted
Fresh strawberries or unsweetened frozen, thawed whole strawberries

Instructions

Crumb Crust

Combine all ingredients well. Press onto bottom and part way up sides of buttered 9 inch springform pan; chill.

7-Up Filling

Soften unflavored gelatine in 1/4 cup 7-Up for 4 minutes.
In a saucepan combine pie filling, sugar, beaten eggs and water. Blend well. Add 1 1/4 cups 7-Up and bring just to a boil over medium heat stirring constantly; remove from heat. Stir in softened gelatine; cool for 3 minutes.
Add 1/2 cup of this warm mixture to softened cream cheese; mash together. Mix together with remaining 7-Up mixture and stir until well blended. Turn into chilled crust and chill for at least 8 hours.
Remove from pan and add Strawberry Glaze.

Strawberry Glaze

Brush top of chilled cheesecake with melted jelly. rrange strawberries upright on cake and spoon any remaining melted jelly over them.

Ukraine SitRep: Kursk Attack Derailed Partial Ceasefire Deal

The Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk oblast has even worse consequences for Ukraine than had been known so far.

Over the last six months, in revenge for Ukrainian attacks on Russian infrastructure, especially oil refineries, the Russian forces created serious damage on Ukraine’s electricity network. Nearly every conventional power generation facility in Ukraine has been damaged. Half of Ukraine’s 18 Gigawatts of electricity generation capacity has been taken offline. The damaged power stations were often also used to provide heating to large blocks of Soviet type apartments. Without power and heating it will be a very difficult winter for many people in Ukraine.

There was interest on both sides to stop the campaigns against the other sides infrastructure. An agreement about it was in the making and was possible. But, as Washington Post reports, the Ukrainian attack on Kursk blew it apart:

Ukraine and Russia were set to send delegations to Doha this month to negotiate a landmark agreement halting strikes on energy and power infrastructure on both sides, diplomats and officials familiar with the discussions said, in what would have amounted to a partial cease-fire and offered a reprieve for both countries.But the indirect talks, with the Qataris serving as mediators and meeting separately with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations, were derailed by Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region last week, according to the officials.
…
The diplomat familiar with the talks said that Qatar has been discussing the arrangement for an energy strike moratorium with Kyiv and Moscow for the past two months. The official said the two sides agreed to a summit in Doha with just minor details left to be worked out.

“After Kursk, the Russians balked,” another person familiar with the talks said.

Instead of its senseless attack on Kursk Ukraine could have had an agreement that would make it possible to get through the winter without many blackouts and other interruptions. It blew that chance.

The moral uplift for Ukrainian forces created by the attack on Kursk is already waning. Russia has not pulled any of its troops involved in the attacks in the east to defend Kursk. It has instead pulled reserves from elsewhere. One of the hoped for effects of the Kursk incursion is thereby not happening.

Ukraine’s attack was only made possible by pulling troops for the eastern frontline. Moreover artillery supplies, which were already problematic, have become even scarcer:

Soldiers fighting in the Donetsk region said they had been buoyed by the incursion into Russia. But they also said it would use up weapons and ammunition that they crucially need. One commander stationed at a hot spot on the eastern front said his brigade had fewer than four mortar guns to defend its position, and could fire only 10 shells a day per mortar.

Each day the Ukraine is losing more ground in the east. Meanwhile its Kursk incursion has already culminated and it will be a deadly struggle to hold onto the captured ground.

Ukraine has brought in high value assets to hinder Russian reserves from reaching the area. However, near to the frontline these assets have difficulties to survive.

Anomandris Purake @Malazan_enjoyer – 22:09 UTC · Aug 16, 2024So the Russians put up a pontoon over the Seym River immediately after or even before the bridge was destroyed.

Ukraine meanwhile lost 3 HIMARS, 3 patriots and 1 IRIS-T making potholes on the bridge. I would say that’s a very good exchange. I hope they try more of this.

Additionally reported were the destruction of a Polish made S-125 air defense system and a fourth HIMARS platform.

A New York Times analysis suggests, just as I did previously, that the main aim of the Kursk campaign was to convince the Ukraine’s western supporters that it can still win the war and therefore deserves further support:

The real goals of the operation may not be on the Russia battlefield.After the failure of Ukraine’s much-advertised counteroffensive last year and the ongoing losses in the east, it appears to be trying to change the war’s narrative.

The Ukrainians may be trying to convince the West that they will not give up, and that the United States in particular should allow them to use American long-range cruise missiles inside Russia.

The U.S. will hopefully not allow the Ukraine to extend its attacks deep into Russia. If it does allow these there will be a point where Russia will have to strike back, hard, against U.S. assets.

Ukraine is not the only country that has destructible power plants.

Posted by b on August 17, 2024 at 8:49 UTC | Permalink

US Army Rangers Entered The Battle In KURSK Under a False Flag Amid The Mass Surrender of Ukrainians

I oh, so, miss are my USN issued flight boots

One of the things that I oh, so, miss are my USN issued flight boots. They would not let me keep them, and I had to return them when I was discharged.

Oh baby, were they fine.

They fit like a glove, and was sturdy but soft and subtle. They looked great and supported my foot, ankle and lower leg, and Many do I miss them.

I was able to keep my flight gloves, but the first opportunity he had, my brother took them and traded them for some drugs.

I had a flight suit that I eventually got rid of and some other gear. But I still, to this day, remember my flight boots. Those of you that know, really KNOW about how great they are.

Kudos on the makers of these boots.

If you ll ever get the chance, go ahead and buy yourself a pair. They are great!

Today…

In basic training, have you ever witnessed a recruit with serious martial arts skills take on a drill sergeant in a fight?

The Modern Army Combatives Program (MACP) uses a heavy amount of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, although with different goals in mind.
When I was in Basic Training, one of the recruits with us just so happened to be some level of black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He was a very humble guy, and was about 5′ 10″, and weighed a whopping 140 pounds. The most skilled Drill Sergeant, at 6′ 2″ probably 220–230 pounds, was asking if any recruits wanted to risk sparring with him, and the humble recruit volunteered, being pretty confident in his abilities.
What followed is a contest I’m not sure I will ever forget. It was an incredible chess match between two individuals who seemed to see their opponents next move, and were planning 3 moves ahead. The recruit being much smaller, continued to try and draw the DS into his closed guard, which being down on his back seemed like a disadvantageous position to us inexperienced. They continued on for 10 minutes, and it became apparent the DS was becoming fatigued. The recruit, who was hardly breaking a sweat, methodically made moves to wear the DS down, moving at a quarter of the speed you would see collegiate wrestlers move at. Eventually you could see the DS failing, and his decisions and movements were becoming much more panicked, he began using strength and anger instead of skill, and the recruit exploited it. The recruit was inevitably close to locking a triangle from the guard when another DS intervened and ended the fight before the submission could be had, knowing that their ‘immortality’ would be shattered. None of the others ever challenged the kid.
It was impressive, a physically powerful and equally jiu-jitsu skilled DS was beaten by a recruit who was just a little more skilled.

Reeves Hot Doggin’

Breakthrough in Aero-engine Core Technology: the Latest Single-crystal Blades Finally Invented by the Chinese

The vigorous development of the aviation industry in recent years is inseparable from the painstaking scientific research and development of generations of workers.

China has a technological breakthrough that has broken the traditional foreign technology, and China has become the second country in the world to possess this latest advanced single-crystal blade technology for the new turbine engines.

In 2014, the self-developed fifth-generation rhenium-containing high-temperature alloy materials, ceramic-based high-temperature turbine blades and single-crystal turbine blade projects were officially put into production in China. This is a new breakthrough in aerospace engine and industrial steam turbine manufacturing fields. Currently, only China and Japan have successfully developed the fifth generation of high-temperature single crystal alloys.

The key link in production equipment is the heat treatment furnace and the most important equipment in the single crystal casting process, the single crystal furnace. Even if foreign countries block China, the Chinese scientists and engineers can all make breakthroughs in the fields by relying on their own self-reliance and hard work. In order to break through the West’s blockade of the core technologies, the Chinese entrepreneurs and scientists have boldly practiced and innovated. They not only created rhenium metal core components monopolized by Western countries, but also created new metal manufacturing methods.

At present, the first and second-generation single crystal blades independently developed by China have been used in the Shenyang WS-10 improved engine, and the third generation of high-temperature single crystal alloys have also been used in the Shenyang WS-15 engines.

That is the WS-15 engine.

The quality of turbine blades is also an important indicator of a country’s aviation manufacturing sector. The more sophisticated the engine, the more demanding it is on materials. Single crystal blade means that there is only one crystal nucleus on the entire blade, and other iron atoms are attached to this crystal nucleus and arranged in sequence. In this arrangement, the force between atoms is very large, and the allowable tensile stress is also very large. It can just meet the blade requirements of the current new high-thrust engines.

The mastery of single crystal blade technology means that China will greatly increase the production capacity of large thrust-to-weight ratio engines and will greatly extend the service life of original engines. According to research, every 25°C increase in the temperature endurance limit of a blade can triple its original service life at the original temperature.

https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/10.11900/0412.1961.2023.00140

Feminist REGRETS 304 Phase

How serious is the Chinese military’s lack of experience?

If a war does breakout, there’s not going to a lot of face to face combat.

It’s not likely to be a land battle.

If it involves nuclear, then there are no winners. It will be anialation of the huan race.

It’s more likely it will be cyberwar. Can the other country wipe out your data networks before you wipe out theirs. Or knockout their weapons systems.

Modern warfare is nothing like past wars.

It’s about strategy and planning. How well you can execute those plans.

China’s recent moon mission was well planned. With six steps that were critical. All steps went perfectly and the return vehicle was within 200 feet of where it was supposed to land.

Starlink was delayed and delayed. Now they may need to send another spacecraft to retrieve them.

Even America’s GPS is out of date. China’s system allows asynchronous communication. Vital to have two way communication for weapons deployment.

In peace times, we can also see how strategy and planning are executed. Evacuating Afghanistan was a nightmare. China’s relief operations with the PLA are spotless. Deployment is within hours and supplies and emergency housing in hours. That counts as experience.

TOP “The Crucifix Scene” Reactions! The Exorcist (1973) Movie Reaction! First Time Watching

Slow Cooker Ribs

Prep: 5 min | Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

3 to 4 pounds pork baby back ribs
Kosher or sea salt, to taste
Ground black pepper, to taste
2 cups barbecue sauce, divided (store-bought or homemade)*

Instructions

Line a baking sheet with foil.
Remove the membrane from the back of the ribs: use your fingers to get underneath and loosen the membrane along one side of the ribs, and then pull off the membrane.
If needed, cut the racks of ribs into smaller sections so that they will fit better in your slow cooker.
Season both sides of the ribs with salt and pepper. If you’re cooking them immediately, proceed to the next step. If you want to season your ribs overnight for deeper flavor, cover them and keep them in the fridge until you’re ready to cook them.
Measure one cup of barbecue sauce. Place one rack or section of ribs in the slow cooker and cover it with a layer of barbecue sauce. Repeat the process with the remaining racks or sections of ribs and what remains of that one cup of barbecue sauce.
Cook on LOW heat for 8 to 10 hours, or on HIGH heat for 4 to 5 hours, depending on how many racks of ribs you are cooking and the temperature of your slow cooker. (If you have a small slow cooker and end up having to stack your rib sections more than two high, they will need more time to cook fully.) Burnt barbecue sauce is a pain to clean off of your slow cooker, so don’t leave these too much longer than the suggested cooking time. When the ribs are tender, gently remove the racks and lay them out on your foil-lined baking sheet.
Reuse those meaty juices and combine the liquid from your slow cooker with the reserved barbecue sauce, then reduce it over medium heat until the sauce reaches your desired consistency. (This is optional, you can also discard the liquid from your slow cooker and just use the remaining BBQ sauce as is.)
Allow the ribs to cool slightly before cutting them into individual ribs or portions. Brush the remaining one cup of barbecue sauce on top of the ribs.
If desired, you can also place the ribs under the broiler for a few minutes to caramelize and set the sauce.
Serve the ribs with extra BBQ sauce.

Notes

* I prefer Sweet Baby Ray’s.

The Entity

Submitted into Contest #247 in response to: Set your story on a spaceship exploring the far reaches of space when something goes wrong.… view prompt

Rado Randriamamonjy

The smell of rotten eggs woke Harper from a dead sleep. Or maybe it was the waves of intense nausea. Her innards felt like they were being stomped clean, like dirty laundry in a remote, rural stream. Through eyes weary and half-shut, Harper watched a red light pulse. It filled the space around her with spasmodic, blood-hued flashes.Uggghh… Moving wasn’t high on her list of priorities. Her head was heavy. It felt like a pumpkin propped on a toothpick, and inside sloshed thoughts and images that threatened to fuse together but, instead, bobbed haplessly in the groggy backwaters of her mind.She closed here eyes and turned to lay on her side. Too difficult. She motor-boated her lips.That’s when the poem began. The absurd wordplay could have come straight out of the dusty vaults of Captain Beefheart. The strange sonnet danced on the tongue of some faceless woman as it corkscrewed into Harper’s consciousness, like a stream of buttercream frosting atop a cake.Harper grasped at it. It evaded her clutches, verbal confetti in a breeze.“Roll bed. Feel free to pull and retest it.”

What in the world?

“Toad said, its feet avulsed. Infected.”

Whoever was speaking whimsically sliced and diced words, the way those theatrical, knife-juggling chefs at the vintage Japanese restaurant chain (whose name escaped her) diced sushi. The vowel scheme, however, remained curiously consistent.

“Road bled. A vehicle dissected.”

She struggled to make sense of it. But she was no poet. She never had the knack. It was a god-given talent, she was always told, and, in her life, she had never taken seriously even the slightest inclinations towards being an artist. When she was young, however, she dreamed of being an astronaut. She recalled how the stars outside her childhood bedroom window would whisper to her at night. They would tell her of her destiny, of her future living in their midst.

“Joe fled. The bees on skull reflect it.”

As a matter of fact, now that she thought about it, she had a faint recollection of donning a spacesuit at one time: one limb at a time, into the suit, a silent dance, a sacred ritual, all in preparation for sleep.

Again came the verse. But this time, the words cut through the mental murk and dripped with a sobering clarity.

“Code red. Debris on hull detected.”

Oh god, she thought.

Harper blinked herself awake. She swam up through the mental soup, lifted a hand and pawed at the mask that was pumping oxygen and hydrogen sulfide into her lungs. She finally pulled it off and the smell of rotten eggs disappeared.

Harper grumbled. She slipped the IV from her arm and threw it somewhere next to her. She hoisted open heavy eyelids again and glimpsed the hyper-sleep chamber. The space was tight, just big enough for an average sized adult. A glass door lay above her, and on the other side of it, the flashing beacon intermittently bathed the large cryo-room in that haunting crimson glow. Between the scarlet pulses, the room would descend into darkness, lit only by the feeble lights of the keyboard panels which stretched across the room, under monitors that were inert and black with sleep.

The red alert continued to blare in her ear as Harper attempted to move her legs. She was numb from tailbone to heels, a result of the three year hibernation. The nifty LSD-style dreams were one of the perks of hyper-sleep too — a side-effect of the hydrogen sulfide. The gas slowed her metabolism, helping her body withstand the long trip on the scantest of nutrients. The rotten egg smell was just another bonus.

“Christ, Cheryl, enough with the goddam code alert, please,” Harper mumbled.

The onboard AI turned off its alert protocol, which, to Harper, had sounded like word-salad just a moment before. The rhythmic red light clicked off too, which immerserd the room in the twilight-like glow of the the keyboard lights.

“Welcome back, Captain Gordon,” Cheryl said, in an amiable female voice. Harper responded with a guttural noise that was somewhere between a grunt and a moaning.

The door above her hissed open. The air in the room permeated her nostrils with the trademark aseptic smell characteristic of sterile environments. She sat up in her cryo-bed, hitching forward gently on wobbly arms. Her blonde-dyed dreads fell down around sandy-brown shoulders. The white tank top and blue underwear she’d climbed into the cryo-bed with had lost their snugness, despite the small army of electronic muscle stimulators that dotted her body.

Harper filled her lungs with the cabin’s perfect mix of earth’s atmosphere, taking in a deep breath and stretching her limbs, which were coming back to life — slowly. For the time being, they moved like gum in molasses.

She shook the cobwebs from her head. “Status report,” she said.

“All systems are nominal, chief.”

“Really?” Harper tipped her head back and rolled it on her neck. “Then why wake me?”

“Well, as we crossed into the Perseus Arm, the ship picked up debris on the starboard-side hull.”

Harper arched her back, getting in a good stretch. She moaned in pleasure. “What kind of debris?”

“I’m not sure. My analysis didn’t match it to any known life forms in my database.”

“Life forms?”

Cheryl paused. “Yes.”

Harper shook her head. She needed a hot cup of coffee, one big enough to be hauled around on a dolly. With loads of cream. And sugar. And a jelly donut. She’d kill for a jelly donut.

“What kind of life form?” she said.

“That’s just it, I don’t know.”

Harper sucked her teeth. “How long has this… lifeform been clinging to the ship?”

“Three days.”

“Three days? Why didn’t you wake me earlier?” Harper said, furrowing her brows.

“I would’ve but… I ran the calculations: the debris posed no threat to the integrity of the mission.”

“And what changed?”

“It started… growing.”

“Growing?” Harper shook her head again and held up a hand. “Do you have an image?”

“Yes.”

A picture of the ship’s hull came up on a nearby screen. The image moved easily across it until it came to a stop at a series of bumps. The bulges were backlit, providing a hazy profile view. They were covered in what looked to be hair. And the hair was… moving, like it was grasping at things in the void. The protrusions were dark, maybe black, or purple. Maybe even a deep red. From the camera’s vantage point, it was hard to tell.

“What the hell?” Harper squinted and leaned towards the screen. She swung a spindly leg over the edge of the cryo-bed, touching a toe to the floor.

“Careful, Captain. Your muscles. They’re not —. ”

“I know. I’d make a scarecrow jealous. I’ll be fine. Shut off the gravity, will you?”

Cheryl slowed the spinning of the main bay of the ship, causing Harper’s belly to lurch. She belched in her mouth. Another delight courtesy of the space-trekking business. “How big is it?” she asked.

“When it first attached itself to the ship it was roughly three inches in diameter,” the AI explained. “It remained that size for three days. Today, within the last two hours, in fact, it more than quadrupled in size.”

“Quadruple?” Harper thought for a moment, wiping a lock of dreads from her eyes. The fuzzy mass moved slowly as it slid across her face, the artificial gravity wearing off. “So, a foot across now,” she said.

“Give or take, yes.”

“And you don’t know what it is?” Harper asked flatly.

“No. It’s not coming up in any known databases.”

Harper nodded, processing the information. Inside, her belly was waning towards full queasiness. Her body had lifted off the mattress. She grabbed a handrail that was attached to the cryo-bed to stabilize herself.

“Chances of it covering the ship?” she asked.

“I can’t say for certain. It could continue to grow at this rate, or grow erratically, or not at all. But if it does grow unchecked, I don’t see how it wouldn’t.”

Harper nodded. “So, at this rate, how long?”

“By my calculations, it could cover the starboard side in four days, and reach the starboard booster in five. That’s my real concern.”

Harper bit down on her bottom lip. Her gray eyes twinkled in one of the panel lights. “Yea, we can kiss maneuverability good-bye then.”

“Exactly.”

“And probably our asses.”

“Bingo.”

Harper fixed a blank stare at the screen as her mind sifted through alternative scenarios. She settled on two options, both fundamentally uncomplicated, neither very good. One: abort the mission — but that would mean the end of decades of hard work and the dashing of a life long dream. Two: sticking it out — and possibly getting it wrong. Dealing with this… entity poorly, though, could mean hurtling out into space. For an eternity.

Fun, she thought.

She chewed on it a while longer.

“Apprise Houston of our status,” she said. “Then prep my suit. I’m going for a walk.”

“I can’t clear you for a walk for at least 48 hours and not before a full physical, Captain. The effects of the hyper-sleep —.”

“Override,” Harper said. “Directive twenty-four point four.” The crisp edge of authority was sharp in her voice.

“Counter override, directive eight-alpha. Captain, I cannot in good conscience let you —.”

“Goddam AI, just…” Harper steadied her breathing. Her pulse throbbed in her ear and she had raised a clenched fist, unknowingly, ready to slam it against something. “Override,” she said, “directive two-four-two-seven. You will not keep me from checking on that debris. Unlike you, I have a heart and lungs and a brain, and along with all of those things — which are near and dear to me — I want to get my ass out to the California Nebula, then back home to Earth. Waiting 48 hours to check on this thing is not an option.”

A silence bloomed between them.

“The sarcasm is unnecessary, Captain. I may not have the same parts that you do, but I don’t want to die out here either. You’re not the only one who contemplates their mortality.”

Harper rolled her eyes. These things had become far too life-like.

“Protocol overridden,” Cheryl continued. “You’ve got your space walk, Captain. But I think it’s a bad idea.”

****

After her stomach completed a few back-flips, Harper adjusted to the zero gravity. She was in the belly of it now, floating along the starboard side of the Caelum, tethered to its polymer skin.

Her suit was bulky. Under the earth’s gravitational pull, in her condition, it would have been unwieldy. But in the vacuum of space, she moved gracefully in it, like a Mylar-clad athlete.

“Coming up on the foreign object debris now,” she said.

“Roger,” Cheryl responded.

Harper wasn’t sure what to expect. She had been with NASA for 32 years. Fresh out of the candidate program, she was one of only ten women who were accepted into the program. More than three decades later she’d been to Mars and captained three voyages across the solar system. And in all those years, not a single person had encountered an alien life form. Yes, they found bacteria within the crust of Mars. But had they made contact with anything larger than microscopic organisms, ever? No. It had never happened. And here she was, on the verge of discovering a new species.

She couldn’t tell if she was excited or nervous. Maybe she was just terrified and in complete denial — the potential downsides, despite the monumental discovery, were especially grim.

Harper pulled herself around the hull using the handholds that speckled the ship’s shell. She spotted the silhouette of the debris and pulled herself closer. When she swung herself around and on top of it, Harper found a cluster of spiny, spherical objects. They were purplish-black and each was roughly the size of a tennis ball. Long, slender spines radiated out from every organism’s center, reminding her of sea urchins back home — the little critters that gathered in tidal pools along the crisp Northern Atlantic shores. But there was a glaring difference: the eye at the center. Each of these creatures had an eye that took up at least half of its body.

The sight sent a shudder through Harper.

“Christ, are you getting this?”

“Crystal clear on this end,” Cheryl said.

“What the hell are these things?”

“I don’t know, chief.”

Harper leaned in. The set of eyes looked into hers, sending a qualmishness bubbling through her belly.

The irises were yellow stippled with green specks. The pupils were as black as the emptiness around her. But they moved. The spiral-shaped openings revolved, and spun in a swirling pattern.

Harper stared at them in awe, her respirator humming rhythmically in her helmet.

“Captain?… Captain, are you okay?”

“What?… Yea… I’m gonna get a sample.”

“Be careful.”

Harper paused. Her eyes narrowed. Ok, mom.

She prepared her drill and the empty bag that was typically used to hold drill bits. Crude tools, she thought, for collecting a species that will break science. But NASA hadn’t planned on her bumping into an undiscovered life form on this trip. She had to make due.

She pulled herself closer. The cluster of eyes followed her every move, squishing and squirming in their body-sockets. She held the drill over the tiny creatures.

“Here goes nothing,” she said.

She wedged the tip of the drill bit under a specimen on the edge of the group. The bit hardly slipped beneath it. She shifted the bag further up her shoulder, then tried with both hands. Still, nothing.

“Damn, these things are stuck on here good.”

“Take your time.”

Harper shook her head, again. Yes, mom.

Out of some deep-seated Pavlovian habit, decades in the making, Harper nearly flicked on the drill. Christ. She chuckled. Then asked herself if she was nuts. She took a deep breath.

Harper gripped the top edge of the animal with her free hand and slid the drill bit under the other side again.

She pulled on it.

Ouch!

Harper recoiled in pain.

She looked intently at her glove. It couldn’t be, could it? She flipped her hand over to get a better look. No way. It felt like the creature had bitten her. Through the Mylar, through the Dacron and through the Teflon-coated glove.

As she tried to process the queer sensation, the sight of the ship began teetering in her view. The critters and their curious eyes started spiraling in a blur further and further away. She was tumbling into unconsciousness, and she knew it.

Harper’s mind gradually became alert again amidst the blackness of catatonia. The profound silence there felt like it pervaded her very soul. An image crystalized. It crackled with color. It was a moving picture of a black hole swallowing up space debris. Among the flotsam, trapped in the thing’s maw, was the Caelum. And undulating across the ship from tip to stern was a purplish-black skin, glowing, rippling, with eyes, thousands of eyes along it, peering back at her.

Harper’s breath caught in her throat.

She watched the black hole suck in the ship, spinning it across its aperture, and down towards the chute of its endless belly. Inside the black hole, Harper could feel something, a being or a consciousness. It spoke to her in a deep, wordless rumble. A piece of it, a feeling maybe, or possibly a warning, slithered across the vivid vision and touched her, the sensation rifling across her chest. It pulled at her. Harper screamed.

“Nooo!!”

She jolted awake. Her respirator was whining in her helmet. Her chest heaved with ragged breaths. Harper looked down to find herself floating several yards above the Caelum, her tether at full length. Her head was pounding again and she felt weaker than when she emerged from cryo.

She peered down at the ship. The colony had spread. The creatures had commandeered nearly the entire starboard side of the ship.

“Captain? Are you okay?? Captain?” Cheryl said.

“Yes, yes…” she muttered. “The… the creatures, they’ve… taken over the… how?” Her voice cracked with anxiety.

“You’ve been out for more than three days. I tried to wake you, but there wasn’t much I could do from here.”

The hairs on the nape of Harper’s neck stood on end. She needed to be back on the ship. She needed to get ahead of this. She reached for the tether. Her arm barely moved at her command. Harper tried the other: a similar incapacity.

“Captain,” Cheryl said tentatively, “between the hyper-sleep, your unconsciousness and going without food for as long as you did, your body is terribly weak.”

Harper blinked uncontrollably, her mind grasping at the situation, trying to make it all stick.

“Slow movements, Captain. Take your time.”

“We don’t have time.”

“Time is all we have now.”

Harper gnashed her teeth. Her insides burned. She wanted to scream.

She could hear herself breathing, the respirator purring in her ears. Stars twinkled all around her. At length, she collected herself.

Cheryl was right. Mother-jokes aside, she was always right. Harper took a deep breath and reached out for the tether. It seemed like an eternity, but all she could do was move, go through the motions, try.

While stretching for the life-line, something below caught her eye. A long row of the prickly creatures, a bit smaller than the rest, were pulsating. They were mid-inception, giving birth to themselves. They encircled the colony, a fresh layer of lethal interlopers — their amber-colored eyes wet and fully formed, their spines stunted and still fleshy.

Harper’s jaw tightened as a heat rose like a halo through the top of her head.

“You bastards!!” she screamed. “You goddam… sons of bitches…” Her voice fell to a whisper. She bit her lip, holding back sobs.

The blanket of eyes looked up at her coolly, following each of her labored movements. They glowed and they squirmed. Then swiveled in their thorny sockets.

Wise words

What are some mind-blowing facts about Vietnam?

In Vietnam, there’s a shrine for Lady Horse (Bà Chúa Ngựa). The story said that in this village, there was an extremely perverted lady, whose stories of unacceptable practices reached the ears of a mandarin. He then put her in a horse-shaped cage so she would be raped by a male horse. She died eventually and people make a shrine out of her and go there to pray for good luck.

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Vietnamese are required to study Classical Chinese poetry, both Vietnamese and Chinese ones but rendered in Vietnamese alphabet, in school.
There was a period of time when skirts were banned nationwide in imperial Vietnam. That gave birth to the Vietnamese national dress, which has pants instead.

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Vietnamese hate the Chinese government, but love Chinese culture.

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There’s free iced tea littered across Vietnam for workers that need to drink. No paying, no nothing. You just go and drink it.

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UP traumatized Jane

How could the development of extremely long-range air-to-air missiles like the AIM-174B potentially change Chinese behavior in the South China Sea region?

No.

What you don’t know is that the PL-17 has just as long a range and is smaller, lighter, and shorter than the AIM-174B.

Ironically, the West has been claiming that the PL-17 is too large to hit a fighter. Strangely, the even larger, heavier AIM-174B is now able to hit fighters. Considering that the PL-17 terminal speed is Mach 5 while the AIM-174B (just a repurposed SM-6) has terminal speed of Mach 3.5, it’s rather weird that a slower missile can hit fighters while a faster one can’t.

It appears that the laws of physics is not the same for Western weapons as for the rest of the world. Nay, the rest of the Universe.

There Is No Hope For This Generation

What’s the most expensive thing you’ve gotten for an insanely cheap price?

I was having a mooch round the cheapo shop near my mother’s house, and up on top of the shelving was a shopping trolley, the sort you can sit on. I had problems with my feet, and although I could walk forever, as soon as I stopped, the pain began. I had been looking at trolleys like this, but they were over £150 and far beyond my means.

I asked the proprietor if I might have a look at it, and he got a ladder and brought it down. It looked perfect: I later worked out that it was a second, having a couple of tiny inaccuracies in the welding which were hard to spot and didn’t impair the action.

I asked him, how much?, and he quoted me £40, which was brilliant, but I didn’t have that much cash on me, and Mr Akram doesn’t take plastic. I asked him to keep it for me whilst I went to the cash machine round the corner. He asked me, how much cash DID I have?, which was £30. Obviously thinking I might not come back, he said I could have the trolley for the thirty. Result!

Eighteen years later, I still have and use it: it’s had an outing at least once a fortnight in that time, and, apart from a bit of fraying where the current cat keeps mistaking it for a scratching post, it’s still in good nick.

The same trolley was recently listed on Amazon for £163.

What role did the US have in the recent regime change in Bangladesh?

Bangladesh’s exiled PM said: had she surrendered to USA & let USA build a US military base in St Martin Island, she would have saved her PM position.

St Martin is strategically important for USA to install mid-range missiles there so as to threaten the safety of China, India, Myanmar & the entire southeast Asia ie Indo-Pacific region.

Some said the PM did not say that.

Does not matter. When we see USA threatening WADA & IOC officials in the 2024 Olympics just for gold medals, we can guess USA may have threatened Bangladesh for such an important location in Indo-Pacific.

USA is notorious in instigating riot/coup in other country & put a puppet gov there to take US orders.

Take care of your loved ones

How long do you count before throwing a grenade?

Originally Answered: Explosives: How long do you count before throwing a grenade?

This has already been covered really well, but I want to add a story from my grandfather’s training days, during WWII.

The recruits were training with grenades and the training officer noticed that my grandfather was pulling the pin and then throwing the grenade immediately, much too fast to control its destination. He just wanted that explosive FAR AWAY RIGHT NOW. Which is understandable! But not behavior you want from your soldiers.

So the officer waited until my grandfather had pulled the pin on another grenade, and then rushed in and clamped his hands down over my grandfather’s, and proceeded to have a little conversation. Where was he from, did he know anybody back home, what was his family like, etc. Meanwhile there’s the grenade, the pin pulled but the spoon trapped under my grandfather’s hands, trapped under the officer’s.

After a few seconds of engendering pure panic, and then a minute of weirdly casual conversation, the officer told my grandfather to always remember that it was the spoon, not the pin, that set the fuse off. As long as his hand was holding the spoon, he had all the time in the world to aim.

Here’s a picture of my grandfather today. You can’t tell in this picture, but both of his hands are still firmly attached.

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Do NOT feed the bears

Australian Wildlife

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How bad could the ongoing UK riots get?

I was thinking is that it? It’s over? Violent riots in Hong Kong lasted SEVEN MONTHS. UK riots barely lasted a few days.

But there’s an interesting parallel.

In 1966 there were huge riots in Hong Kong. The military was deployed on day 1 police and the military garrison shot into crowds killing many. The police also ‘arrested’ many riot leaders who then ended up dead shortly after.

They cracked down on the 1966 riots hard. The already incredibly harsh laws were enhanced so anybody could be arrested. It was business as usual, a year later even bigger riots broke out in 1967. The rioters had prepared and brought along IEDs.

So what of it? In 1966 the riots were crushed. In 1967 the riots were crushed. This lead to the 1981 riots.

The question is, are any of the actual root issues being resolved?

In 2019 there were huge violent riots, many disaffected youth and a large violent component. Many of these people buggered off to the UK (unfortunately some are coming back about 50% so far). However since 2019?

Wages have increased substantially.

There’s been public housing units (temporary) popping up everywhere in the countryside. People can rent such places for about $109USD a month. People are going to Shenzhen enmasse. The tycoons who were fucking the place over constantly have been told to behave.

10 Years in LA: My Shocking Truths, Biggest Challenges, and Unforgettable Moments!

After Chinese companies developed new AI chips, U.S. lawmakers wrote to the U.S. Department of Commerce that day, calling for no additional sanctions.

Since the Sino-US trade war officially started, the semiconductor field has become the US’s priority to curb China’s development. Since 2019, a large number of related companies have been included in the US sanctions list. Five years have passed, is the US sanctions really effective? Why did US lawmakers come out and call for not to increase sanctions first?

On August 15, the Russian Satellite News Agency briefly introduced the new AI chip of Chinese companies under the title “China releases new chips, ready to challenge the United States”, and believed that this new chip is comparable to Nvidia’s H100. According to reliable sources, the media analyzed that many Chinese Internet companies, including telecommunications providers, are now ready to purchase this domestic chip, which successfully demonstrates that Chinese companies have the ability to resist the US restrictions on the company’s access to advanced technology.

Overall, this domestic AI chip is at a relatively awkward time node, because Nvidia’s product line update time is very stable, basically updated every two to three years, and its new AI chip is expected to be released soon, with a large improvement. Although this domestic AI chip may be inferior to Nvidia’s new model, one thing that cannot be forgotten is that Chinese companies have carried out independent research and development under the background of the US ban, and not only have they produced finished products but also have caught up with the advanced level, which is already a big breakthrough.

What’s more, this domestic AI chip can be a good “starter”. If you aim for the international advanced level blindly, you may end up with nothing; start with the product down to earth, first have a user base and then further optimize according to feedback. Only by taking one step at a time can the foundation of domestic AI chips be consolidated. Most importantly, a reliable supply chain process can prevent the US from further increasing sanctions.

In fact, the US response is very telling of how significant this chip is. On the day when the Russian media released the news, US Democratic Senator Alex Padilla and Representative Zoe Lofgren from California wrote to US Commerce Department officials, calling for a freeze on plans to impose new restrictions on technology exports to China.

The two congressmen are very practical. They believe that the export controls imposed by the United States on China have actually damaged the competitiveness of the United States in advanced semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The two believe that in the context of allies not following this ban, the United States’s unilateral sanctions will not be very useful.

Of course, the two still stand on the position of the United States and require the US government to bring its allies along when imposing a semiconductor ban on China. But you have to know that the allies of the United States may not be in the same mind as the White House. They also need to maintain import and export trade with China to make profits. So far, Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands have not completely stopped supplying China in the field of semiconductors. This also fully shows that the sanctions that have lasted for many years have not been as the United States wishes and have not successfully curbed the development of China’s semiconductors. The affirmation from the “opponent” can better illustrate the current development results of China’s semiconductor industry.

In short, the various sanctions imposed by the United States on China can certainly work in a short period of time, but the demand generated by a huge market of 1.4 billion people cannot be restrained by a ban. Even if the United States can work together with all its allies to impose restrictions, China can start from the beginning on the road of independent research and development. At present, China is taking various measures to support the development of the domestic semiconductor industry. The investment amount of the third phase of the National Big Fund alone is as high as 344 billion yuan. The momentum behind this series of actions cannot be stopped by the United States.

I Was An Engineer But Got Fired! Forced To Retire! How Did This Happen?

Only one party is ruling China since long. How is that China has not fallen to “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”?

Let’s see

How many ways can you become corrupt?

A. You can have a huge balance in a Swiss Bank Account

Unfortunately in China, you pay a price if you want power and responsibility and a seat at the decision making table

The Price is your life is under continuous monitoring and those of your Children too

You have to submit Assets and Liabilities every 3/6 months and any net increase over a fifth (20%) annually or 10% half yearly needs to be explained

If you have a Swiss account overseas even with $ 2 Balance and you didn’t declare the same, you get expelled and placed under restricted movement for 2–5 years meaning you can’t leave China, can’t leave Beijing, maybe can’t even leave your home except for a 1–2 km radius

Diplomats need to submit their overseas account statements every 3 months to the MSS representative in the Chinese Embassy of the country of their posting

Children of Diplomats/CPC Members studying in Overseas Institutions must submit their Account Statements every 6 months to the Chinese Consulate including Xi Jinpings daughter

Failure to declare overseas accounts led to many Generals getting expelled but also unable to leave China or even Beijing for the rest of their lives

Not just for them but for their families too

Hu Jintao had repealed the Families Rule in 2013 but Xi Jinping re established the law in 2018/19

Likewise Directorships in Non Chinese Companies headquartered outside China and HK need to be declared to the Party

Both by Party Members or their Sons or Daughters

Not declaring is a DISCIPLINE BREACH that automatically means you can’t leave China or maybe even Beijing and will be under 24*7 Surveillance

So the System is near AIR TIGHT

Maos legacy is still very strong and Mao is seen as a God in China, so very few people dare to modify his tough party rules

B. You can invest heavily in Land

Except that THE STATE OWNS ALL THE LAND IN CHINA

You own a lease and register the lease

In China everything is Digital now unlike India

Paper Sale Deeds etc are non existent in most Tier 1/2/3 Cities

Bottom line is if you register for property – THERE WILL BE A RECORD

Most Tier Cities have CAP on Residential Leases for Individuals

Also unlike India you just can’t convert Agricultural Leases into Residential Leases

It takes 7–10 years

So that won’t work

C. You can store wads of cash and gold

Nopes. Cash is non existent now. Banks report an average of 82.50% lesser cash withdrawn in 2023 against 2003

Holding over 20,000 RMB cash is rare even for Cafeterias or Meat Markets

So no point holding so much Cash

It’s paper and nothing else

Likewise Gold in China is registered

Every Bar has a Registry Number when sold to retailers and the Bank or seller will record these details before selling you the Gold

This way YOU CAN EASILY SELL THE GOLD OR PAWN IT WITHOUT ANY IDENTIFICATION

However this also means you can’t just secretly buy gold and even if you do, you just can’t sell it because like I said everything is DIGITAL NOW and Cash is non existent

D. You can buy shares for a low price using Insider Information

Absolutely. Yet it’s LEGAL in China for CPC members to invest in Shares yet the sum is capped to 100,000 RMB a year (Approximately). This could ensure CPC members become Millionaires and that helps them further decide not to risk their positions with something stupid like Corruption

Why aim for 30 Million RMB and get into a load of trouble when you can make 10 Million RMB legally

Its why Singaporean Leaders get nearly 500,000 Dollars a month in Salary

There is a Sixth Reason – RESPECT AND HONOR

Membership of the CPC is a SYMBOL OF RESPECT AND HONOR for you that you are chosen to make decisions for the Country and State and sit with the best of the brains

It isn’t India where any Tom Dick and Harry with zero ability can become a MP or Minister or Chief Minister

Membership of the Politburo or Central Committee or Standing Committe is higher than ever

Xi Jinping is like a King in many aspects

He is the unquestionable leader and has reached that position where he will be revered for generations

Why sacrifice such a position which cannot be bought with money or land or gold???

It’s why Corruption in China is always at the low official to middle official level rather than even penetrating the Party Congress leadership

Status

Military personnel, what’s the dumbest thing you’ve heard someone in uniform say?

The captain stared hard at me. “Private, are you forgetting something?”

I was confused. “Not that I’m aware of, sir.”

“You always salute a superior officer.”

“Sir, we are in the field practicing wartime simulation. In war, out in the field, I would never salute a superior officer as a sniper would realize they were someone in charge and take them out.”

“We are not in an actual war. You WILL salute me, understand?”

“Yessir.” I popped off a salute, then handed him a card that said DEAD.

“What’s this?”

“Sir, I’m with the evaluation team. I set up the scenarios officers want so that situations can be evaluated to see how the unit deals with unusual circumstances. You were just saluted by a private and returned the salute. A sniper has killed you.”

He turned purple with rage. “You can’t do that! I have to be in the BTOC (Battalion Tactical Operations Center) in a half hour!”

The major in charge of the evaluation team whirled around and told him, “Shut up. Dead people don’t talk or stand. Lay down.”

The captain laid down on wet grass with ill grace.

The major laid another card on his chest that said “killed by headshot by sniper”.

The medic came by later and saw the cards. He and another medic put the captain on a stretcher after reading the notes and chuckled. “Let me guess. He wanted a salute.” (That’s because he knew the captain, and knew he was an a-hole.)

The captain spent the rest of the exercise lying on a stretcher for three days, only getting up to go to the bathroom or go get chow. He was NOT pleased.

So funny

Shorpy

What do billionaires do with their yachts? Do they use them to explore the ocean, or do they just park it in the middle of the sea and hang out there?

There are yachts, and then there are superyachts – the kind of yacht that is truly fit for a billionaire. And while boats are fun to own dear Jesus are they incredibly expensive to maintain. Most superyachts run well over $10 million a year in costs between staff, general maintenance, and everything else that goes into running these behemoths. So, what do billionaires do with their behemoths?

How about leasing?

One example of a leased mega yacht is the Serene 2, which at 439 feet in length makes it one of the largest yachts in the world. The ship also has an annual running cost ranging from $25 to $35 million.

Since it costs money to keep a ship like this running it only makes sense to try and make as much money as you can on it. The current owner managed to lease the yacht for a summer a few years ago to some guy named Bill Gates for a mere $5 million a week. The owner could have done worse.

Another notable example is the yacht Dilbar, which has been used for charters over the years.

The Dilbar is massive. In fact, it is stupidly massive and yet the Dilbar is only sixth in the world in length (511 feet) and third in weight (15,917 in gross tonnage) among superyachts. The cost was roughly $1 billion at the time it was built.

Between having a crew of 96 and an annual running cost of roughly $80 million a year it’s difficult to get an accurate price of what kind of clams would be necessary to charter this vessel. Yachts half the size of Dilbar will run you north of $1 million a week, so use that as a baseline. Unfortunately for you the Dilbar is no longer available for charter, so you will have to pick another yacht instead.

To conclude many owners simply travel the world and hangout wherever rich people do in unnecessary opulence. Others will charter their yachts out while they are away doing other rich people things. A small amount of owners have actually let scientific organizations lease out their yachts for research, like the late Paul Allen and his beloved Octopus.

How stupid are you

What are the darkest secrets of elite US universities?

Let me talk about MIT, which is largely missing from this set of answers.

I can talk circles about MIT not giving a lick about its undergrad population (oh boy, so much to dissect), or about the disparity between average highschool-smart kids and the IMO Gold Medalists in math classes, or about the fact that most of my classes are graded on a curve despite the fact that MIT pubs that they don’t do that.

But let’s focus on the saddest topic.

MIT is known for being one of the most intense, most rigorous, most high pressure universities in the country. It’s not because students are competitive (on the contrary, collaboration thrives and is often encouraged by instructors), but rather due to a combination of difficult coursework, extremely intelligent people everywhere that create insecurities, and a constant need to feel “hardcore.”

All this leads to one of the highest university suicide rates in the nation.

Just a few years ago, a girl jumped off the roof of my dorm, the tallest dorm in the school. MIT very promptly proceeded to investigate, and I’m not going into details, but let’s just say it was conducted extremely poorly.

The Institute is learning, though. Today, if you walk up a stairwell at MIT, it’s easy to deduce which door leads to a roof. It will have a sign:

There is help.

And really, truly, there is. We have a budding S^3 (Student Support Services) system that helps out a vast majority of students, a growing awareness about mental health in flyers and events and workshops…truly, this institution in many ways has tried to save lives.

But it’s not enough. And some of the decisions the administration have made recently haven’t exactly helped*. Just this academic year, a boy in my year committed suicide. A female grad student in my department. A 2016 alum who several of my newly graduated friends knew. And likely others who I haven’t heard about.

Rest in peace. You are missed, and you are loved.

*Go read any of the MIT Admissions blogs about Senior House. It’s more frustration than darkness, so I didn’t go into detail here.

Be the rufus

Since there is the hatred of US in the world. There is also the hated of China in the world. Why isn’t there the hatred of Taiwan in the world?

There is the hatred of US in the world, but not China. Taiwan is a part of China.

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China is a Challenger of the current world order. And the challenger is always lonely until it succeeds.

Before China becomes the Top Nation in the world, no other nations are willing to put all their money on China. Because they have to ask themselves: “What if China fails? If China fails, what will the US do to us?” That’s why China has no allies.

Before China, there have been many challengers: Germany, Russia, Japan. And they all failed. Throughout history, there were only a handful of countries that successfully replaced the No.1 Nation that has hegemony. Why is it so hard? Because it is always Lonely Challenger vs. The Entire World.

But if China does succeed, hundreds of nations will line up to be allies with China. This will happen overnight.

This is why no countries really have the balls to be real enemies with China right now. Because if China does succeed, China and its hundreds of allies will crash the crap out of these countries.

So China has no real enemies or real allies. All the countries are holding an attitude of “wait and see”.

Throughout history, the Law of Lonely Challenger never fails. Throughout history, the successful challengers always get allies overnight.And also, throughout history, the challengers who failed always ended up with piles of crap on their faces. Just take a look at Germany, Russia, Japan for examples.

China is the single country in the world whose top goal is to replace the US as the leading country. China has been talking about the Rejuvenation of China since the fall of Qing. When the US gained global hegemony, this Rejuvenation naturally became to replace the US.

In the current world, the international relations is , in its core, the relations between the US and China.

Behind every nation that has a problem with China, there is an onmipresent country called the United States of America. This includes the Taiwan question.

China has disputes with many nations around it. But these nations, like most of the nations in the world, have very strong economical ties with China. So they are not “enemies” in the traditional sense.

China historically stays out of other nations affairs. As a result there is very little outright hatred of China. Most are weary of being taken advantage of but all see China as a huge economic opportunity and trading partner.

You know, some countries are really suffering under USA rule, it would really be a huge improvement to align with China.

In other words, American allies are not actually friends, but simply because they are afraid of the United States.

They became allies of the United States not because they were attracted by the “high morality” of the United States, but because they were afraid of America’s abuse of power.

Russia Eliminated a Group of US Soldiers and Officers who Shelled KURSK with The Help of HIMARS MLRS

Would China go to war for Iran?

This question is important now more than ever.

US warships are closing in on the middle east, as a deterrence to Iran, and Iran wants to respond to Israel because Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. The most recent provocation from Israel, which happened two weeks ago, was the attack on Iranian soil, when they were hosting a foreign leader as a state guest.

Let’s say Iran attacks Israel and manages to cause real harm. Then, Israel will declare war on Iran, and like a puppet, the US will support Israel by invading Iran.

If that happens, will China go to war for Iran?

As much as I want China to go to war for Iran, I think China will do what’s best for their citizens — they won’t go to war.

There are two things China may do:

First is supplying weapons to Iran. It will win China support from the Muslim world. It will also be a chance for China to demonstrate the superiority of Chinese technology. They could do it secretly or openly.

The second, which would be the wiser choice but harder to pull off, is to collaborate with Palestinian sympathisers all over the world to impose sanctions on the US. If a significant chunk of the world’s countries join in, the US will fall.

It won’t be wise for China to impose unilateral sanctions on the US.

Even if China doesn’t support Iran in any ways, a US involvement in an Iran-Israel war is a win for the global south and by extension, a win for China.

In a way, this conflict is a great opportunity for China to demonstrate leadership in the world and their commitment to defending the world’s nations from US oppression.

What countries will you never visit again?

Saudi Arabia.

My wife joined me on a business trip. We picked a hotel that had fantastic ammenities — only to find that virtually none were offered to my wife, simply because she was a woman.

Men only.

The pool? Men only. The spa? Men only. Restaurants? Men only.

Men only.

Yes, this means my wife couldn’t grab lunch by herself while I was working. No, this was not during Ramadan.

Men only.

My wife had to cover up and largely make sure that she did not have any sort of interaction with men, whatsoever.

We had enough after the first day, and re-booked our hotel with an American chain, where my wife was allowed to order something to eat on her own.

I want to end this on a high note. After leaving Saudi Arabia, we went on to Singapore.

Men and women are allowed in hotel pools in Singapore.

We both loved Singapore. The hospitality was fantastic. The city is amazing. Yes, Singapore is a conservative place, and I’m well aware of it’s strict laws. Still, it didn’t feel anywhere near as punitive as Saudi Arabia. We could share a spa experience. Amazing.

My wife could go sightseeing, or shopping or take herself out to lunch. She didn’t have to be sequestered in her room, simply because she is a woman.

Singapore. 10/10 would recommend.

What, if any, are potential effects on Imane Khelif’s lawsuit over alleged cyberbullying during the Paris Olympics?

Bully is WRONG. But …

Let say her gender is truly questionable. Then the question has become …

is hitting/boxing a biological female correct?

I do not know Khelif’s case. I had the following post:

In the 2024 Olympics, there were “questionable” female boxers against biological females. Intl Boxing Assoc pushes IOC to think deeper “what a true female is”. Birth certificate is not reliable. Why not? What about chromosome or gender hormone?

Let us look at 4 scenarios.

1, gender change due to accident

A person was born male. During male circumcision when he was a baby, his gender organ was accidentally cut off. His doctor then made him a female on his birth certificate. His parents raised him as a female. At puberty, he started to take female hormone.

But he was never a true female biologically. He cannot get pregnant (dont argue some females cant get pregnant either). Despite hormone, his voice still cracked. I dont know his bodily build.

If he ever competes in Olympics, he can easily get gold medal because of his (male) strength.

Worse, he can legally hit/box a female & endanger the health/brain of the female. Do we want to see this “legal” beating of females?

My point: to determine a person’s gender by BIRTH CERTIFICATE is not reliable.

2, gender change due to birth defect

Some are born with defect eg the male organ is too small. The doctor & parents thus remove it & make him a female.

Birth defects happen to some people eg limbs not same length, 2 heads, 4 legs & more. Doctors do not remove the extra head or legs. These people accept their birth defect. Why not accepting a defective gender organ (unless the defect threatens the person’s life)?

As said in (1), unless the person is proven to be female by scientific means, the person is still physically (strength) a male.

3, Some are born with both sets of gender organs.

I suggest to leave the way it is unless the defect threatens the person’s life. Leave it until the person is old enough to decide for himself/herself.

Humans always make mistakes. Let us leave it to Mother Nature/Creator. Teach the person to accept birth defects like the 2-headed person does.

What makes parents & doctor as a human think they are wiser than Nature/Creator?

What makes parents & doctor think they can decide for another human being?

Is this a form of child abuse?

By the way, circumcision (both male & female) is considered child abuse in the 21st century.

4, Are transgender female same as a non-trans?

For the SAME height, male in general has longer arms & feet than female ie trans has longer arms.

Non-trans female has a rounder/bigger bottom. Something a male can do but not a female.

Has research compare the muscle mass, strength & balancing between trans & non-trans?

Question

Chromosome XX is female & XY is male. Is this reliable?

What about deciding the gender by the amount of male & female hormone in a person?

EU confesses ‘our prosperity was based on China & Russia’: cheap energy, low-paid labor, big market

What do Japanese and Korean people think of China?

Pretty chill.

China’s a pretty big country, and most (educated) Koreans know that. They also recognise the fact that, China’s quite different from us, although we share a lot of culture and history.

First off, China in itself is, once again, EXTREMELY LARGE. China has the world’s largest population, ranging in at somewhere around 1.3~1.5 billion, compared to the 50 million of the ROK, which pales in contrast. This means that China inevitably has a lot more going on over there, and we can’t exactly categorise the entire Chinese population into one stereotype.

Take, for example, the common misconception that all Chinese people are poor people who don’t shower and eat weird food. Sure, some people may not have the privilege of daily showers, but that doesn’t mean that the entire population hates hygiene. It’s just that if, say, a tiny 10% of the population was in poverty, that’s still a whopping 15 million, 3 times the entire population of Korea. We statistically KNOW that China isn’t like that, but what we actually SEE, is rather different.

And on another point, I personally say that China has influenced a lot of NEA’s culture, including both Korea and Japan. (And Vietnam) Not to say that we outright copied China, but there’s a lot of visible evidence that we, at one time, used to view China as a father/big brother country, with the Opium wars triggering the slow collapse of that kind of viewpoint.

Back to the present though, we see China right now as a… rival? Can’t really find the right term here, but to put it in other words;
China has a lot of shared industries with us, namely the IT industry and general production. (Samsung, Hwawei and the sort)
China sided with North Korea in the Korean War, which a lot of our elders still regret.

However, we do recognise that China is an enormous powerhouse and will probably catch up enough to completely smother companies like Samsung and LG. (Within the next decade or so)

We also know that a large portion of our economy consists of trade with China. When the THAAD problem was a thing and China smacked us with the sanction hammer, our economy quite literally fell over for while.

In the end though, I’m personally more of a “Asian Union like the European Union” kind of guy, and I envision the day when we can finally overcome our differences and grow together.

(End Note: None of these apply to the uneducated racists/extreme nationalists)

妄言多謝, Jasper

Pierogi

Pierogi are dumplings that are delicious fried and served with sour cream. These are also good filled with fresh blueberries mixed with sugar for a super dessert.

Ingredients

Dough

5 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter softened
3/4 to 1 1/4 cups water

Filling

2 to 3 medium onions, chopped
1/2 to 1 cup (1 to 2 sticks) butter
6 medium potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed or put through a ricer
1 (8 ounce) package farmers cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Dough

Mix the flour and salt in a food processor. Add the eggs, butter and water (starting with 3/4 cups if the dough is dry, adding 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough is smooth and elastic, adding up to an additional 3/4 cups if needed) pulsing until kneaded by machine and a ball is formed, or you can use a mixer to do this process.
Remove dough from bowl and let sit in a warm place for about 15 to 30 minutes.

Filling

Melt butter in a large fry pan and add onions. Sauté until onions are lightly browned; set aside.
Combine potatoes, cheese, salt, pepper and as much of the sautéed onions as you like, reserving the rest to toss with cooked pierogi. Taste for seasoning. Set aside.
Divide dough into 3 to 4 equal portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll one portion of dough out to about 1/8-inch thickness. Cut a 3 inch round circle with biscuit cutter. Place one tablespoon of filling on one side of each round. Using your finger, moisten one side of dough with some water. Pick up the circle and fold dough over filling and pinch edges together to firmly seal the filling (this is critical – if you don’t pinch the dough together tightly, you will have gaps and when you boil the pierogi, the filling will come out).
Place the filled pierogi onto a lightly floured baking pan; cover until you finish with remaining dough and filling.
In a large wide pot, fill with water and bring to a boil over medium to high heat, when water is at a rolling boil, drop 5 to 6 pierogi and cook while stirring gently with a wooden spoon until they float to the top of pot. Cook a couple minutes longer.
Remove with a slotted spoon, toss with reserved sautéed onions, if desired, and place in a warmed deep glass bowl.
If desired, saute the pierogi briefly in a small amount of equal amounts of olive oil and butter (as shown in photo).
Serve warm with some sour cream on the side.

The China The Media Never Shows! 🇨🇳 Our First Day in SHENZHEN, GUANGDONG

Gargle as if your life depends on it

There is this mouthwash that is popular throughout the world called Listerine. And I started using it to gargle with, when I was in the Navy.

Quite the history with this little element of personal hygiene.

Ah. My father died while gargling with it. He was found on the floor of his bathroom with the mouthwash still in his mouth after he had finished his morning shower. He apparently got out of the shower, brushed his teeth and was gargling when he had a heart attack. It was very sudden.

I used to use it in bongs in my university days. It would give us a nice cool and refreshing feeling when we were smoking with the bong. LOL.

Right now, I play this game with my daughter and she places a small amount in her mouth, she swirls it around and spits it out.

Over all, however it is pretty pricey. All things considered. I personally believe that it is twice the cost of what it should be. So I have slowly been switching to the Chinese versions. More flavors to choose from and not so harsh.

I even keep a small bottle in my travel vest. You know, for when you want a fresh and clean minty feel in your mouth.

Gargle as if your life depends on it.

Today…

This is a dangerous time…

Seriously watch this.

How “monstrous” can your thoughts be?

This is my “Monstrous” story.

My wife was killed in July 2001 by an semi driver.

He was speeding, weighed in at 76,000 lbs. Saw that traffic was backed up, was in a hurry to make up lost time, didn’t bother to slow down and ran into the rear of her full size Dodge van.

He applied his brakes 30ft from the rear of her van. The skid marks showed this.

The collision was so violent that both front wheels were severed off of the semi. The engine entered into the rear of the van caught fire and burned my wife to death.

I watched the aftermath of the accident on live TV. A news helicopter was in the area filming an unrelated story.

I watched my wife burn to death on live TV.

Anyway, to continue. I had all I could do to refrain myself from hunting him down and killing or permanently maiming him.

He deprived my two sons from growing up with a most remarkable woman

I can say here, that if our two sons had gone with her that morning to her dialysis clinic and died, there is nothing on this planet that would have saved his life from me getting retribution.

This douchebag, didn’t spend one second in jail, even though he was logging in on three different log books.

I wouldn’t have killed him immediately.

I would have shot him through both knees and elbows, permanently disabling him.

As he writhed in pain and agony, I would let him know why I did what I did. Then, I’d decide to kill him or not. I’m still not sure which way I’d go on this.

Live and remember every day why he’s in the condition he is. Or become worm food.

That was sixteen years ago and to this day I think about hunting him down.

So, ya humans can go into some dark places.

The US completely cuts off the supply of AI chips, China’s supercomputers to respond to the blockade

Mississippi Roast

Mississippi Roast is SO tasty. The leftovers make wonderful roast beef sandwiches also. You can also use this roast to make Mississippi Roast “Birria” Tacos. These are simply delicious, and it’s another good use for this particular roast.

Prep: 5 min | Cook: 8 hr | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 chuck roast
1 envelope Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix
1 envelope au jus mix
1 stick butter
5 whole pepperoncini peppers

Instructions

Put roast into the slow cooker.
Sprinkle Hidden Valley Ranch dressing on top.
Sprinkle au jus mix on top.
Put a stick of butter on top.
Put about 5 pepperoncini peppers on top.
Do NOT add water.
Cook on LOW for about 8 hours.
Add carrots and potatoes, if desired.

What is the most disturbing image you saw today?

A man named Homer Peel kisses his wife, Geneva Peel, in 1937. She was just ten years old, and an oprhan. Peel lied to authorities initially and told them Geneva was twelve… child marriage had just been made illegal in the state of Tennessee — but Homer Peel claimed he had “saved” Geneva from the poor house, and that to annul the marriage would be to return her to a state of poverty.

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The picture above is Homer kissing Geneva after a judge agreed them his reasoning, refusing to undo the marriage and returning Geneva to her husband, twenty-four years older than her. He had reportedly “promised her a pretty new hat” for her loyaly. It was quite common in the 1930s for children to marry… they would typically marry men considerably older than them. It wasn’t until 1937 that a law prohibiting it came into existence, and even then, the practice continued. The photograph is jarring and unsettling for numerous reasons.

Homer and Geneva Peel entually stayed together until 1975, when they got divorced. Homer died in 1991 and Geneva lived on until 2017, dying at 92. The couple had six daughters and a son together, and eighteen grandchildren.

What happens if you refuse a direct order in the military?

It’s a bad move that can bring you into a lot of trouble. I did that only once and it didn’t help my career at all.

A few weeks after I had been transferred from a German army armored reconnaissance unit to the paratroopers, my new platoon leader gave me the order to spend the next day in the company’s storage depot to clean weapons. It was some sort of test: I was the new guy and the platoon leader wanted to know how compliant I was. Not very much, as it turned out.

Weapon cleaning was a job for recruits and I was already a lance corporal (Obergefreiter) at the time; definitely not my job and, to be honest, I thought it was rather insulting.

I refused the order. I simply said “No, I don’t do it!”, went to my room and closed the door behind me. My platoon leader was banging on the door for a while, but I didn’t open. After maybe ten minutes, he left.

The next morning, my captain called me and I received a disciplinary punishment. Five written pages about “Why we should obey orders” and a weekend on guard duty. It was a soft punishment and everybody knew it. I wrote the effing paper (no problem) and spent the next weekend on guard duty (which sucked).

Of course, my platoon commander didn’t forget the thing but I didn’t care too much. I knew that I would spend the next months in NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer!) school, after that I had a slot in commando training and if I came back with the German Commando badge, this guy couldn’t fuck with me anymore: he had failed the course twice.

All happened exactly as I thought it would. I finished NCO school, was immediately promoted (which was very rare) and completed the Commando training.

When I got back to my company, my captain told me to step in front of everyone. Then he said: ”This guy passed the Commando course with a better mark than your old and rusty captain, A round of applause, please!”

In a paratrooper unit, rank and discipline are secondary. Your military performance is far more important.

Still, the whole thing wasn’t worth the trouble. It was a stupid beginner’s mistake from my side and I had a lot of luck: with a different company commander, I could have thoroughly ruined my career- for nothing.

Disobeying orders is a form of art and you never do it directly. You say “Yes sir!”, do whatever you want and if someone asks why you didn’t execute the order, you play stupid. That’s how it’s done.

Saturday Scaries

Space Oreos

Julia Vonalean

They’d finally run out of oreos. It took months, but finally, finally, they’d run out–the last one accidentally ejected into space. Sirius stood stewing in front of the glass window of his ship. It wasn’t his fault the oreo had been in that little cup he’d tossed in the trash. Oren was the one who had hidden it there, figured he’d never find it.He hadn’t. Obviously. Which was why it was floating in space right now instead of in his stomach. Sirius scowled at the speckles of light drifting out of the immense black.“Go see the stars,” they said, “they’re beautiful up there in space.” They said. Yeah well, Sirius wished he could haul those freaks up here and make them stare at the murderous fireballs for fifteen months in a broken down ship, with no outside contact and then see how beautiful they thought the stars were.Stupid stars. They could blink out of existence for all he cared–the people too.The ship had been quiet since their malfunctioning, sandwich loving AI had decided to go completely silent until they were – as she put it – ‘found by certain functioning individuals who could clearly state which sandwich was their favorite as well as help them out of this black hole of utter despair’.Stupid ship. He was decidedly disappointed in his ship’s ability to…well…move.”It’s not your ship.” Oren said from the deck where he spun aimlessly in the only swivel chair in the ship. Sirius turned to glare at him. Sometimes he thought his friend could read minds, other times he thought Oren just psychoanalyzed everyone like some villainous creep. Which….he was, a villain–that is—not a creep.”So how come we only installed ONE swivel chair?” Sirius said, stepping away from the ship’s window. Oren shrugged.”We should have installed two, because there are two of us.””Are there.” Oren said idly.

Who knew, really, one of them could be imaginary by now. But imaginary or not…Sirius took another step forward. “Up. My turn in the chair.”

Oren gave himself another spin.

“Oren.”

“There’s a perfectly good chair over there.” Oren said, still spinning.

“It doesn’t swivel.” Sirius said.

“Sad.”

Sirius glared at Oren, the little….. But instead of grabbing him by his perfectly manicured hair and hauling him off the chair, Sirius walked towards the doorway. “No prob. I’ll just go look through your knives.” Behind him the chair came to a halt. Slipping out the entrance, Sirius broke into a jog through the steel hallway of the ship.

“Don’t you dare touch them! That’s my emotional support knife collection!” Oren hollered from the deck.

Sirius made his way down the hallway of the ship to the third room to the right. Oren’s studious room. It used to have a lock, but now the door knob was completely gone. Sirius shoved the door open. He had melted the knob a few weeks back. Some of his finest work, if he did say so himself.

Oren’s room looked like a real life replica of perfection: it was white–the walls and ground and ceiling-and there was a bed directly across, its stark sheets laid across the mattress more smoothly than Sirius could ever get his hair to lay. To the side of that was a desk, bolted and firm, with a spotless furnish and all the drawers safely locked. He’d have to see about melting those knobs later, maybe to get back at Oren for being responsible for the loss of their last oreo. For now though, there was the matter of the swivel chair and the knives. On the right side of the bed was a sparkling glass showcase, inside which was the most impressive knife collection Sirius had ever seen. And they weren’t just ordinary knives, there were knives from nearly every person Oren had ever fought — and then some which he had picked up from one market or another. Sirius leaned closer to get a better view of a smaller knife, its blade was shaped like a half moon. It—

“STEP.AWAY.FROM.MY.KNIVES.” Oren growled from behind him. It was the voice he was famous for, the one that said ‘I’m a master villain and I’m to be feared’. At least that’s what it said to anyone who didn’t know him as well as Sirius. He turned with a smirk. “Oh calm down, I haven’t even touched them.” Oren stood in the doorway, stiff and imposing in his suit of white with gold trimmings. He glared at Sirius a good moment before stalking forward to inspect his knives.

“See? They’re perfectly fine.” Sirius said, “in fact they’re perfectly wonde–”

“You breathed on it.” Oren huffed.

“I…breathed…on, what?”

Oren went back to glaring at him. “The glass. You breathed on the glass.”

“But it doesn’t look any different.” Sirius said.

“It does too.” Oren insisted, “it just takes a sophisticated eye to see it.”

Sirius snorted.

“Okay Back! Back back back!” Oren said, waving him out of the room. “The next thing I know you’ll be sneezing on it.”

“Alright, I’m going.” Sirius said walking out. He hesitated in the doorway, watching as Oren glanced back at his precious collection. Sirius grinned as he watched Oren’s eyes snag on the tiny empty place on the far edge of the display case. Oren looked back at Sirius, and then, the man smiled.

A heartbeat later Sirius smelled the smoke.

Two heartbeats and the ship’s fire resistance system blared active.

Five. Sirius was pelting down the hallway to his bedroom and—and, it was in flames.

His…his bedroom was on fire. How was THAT even possible! The thing was made of steel. But…not everything else was: the furniture, the bed, the—“OREN!” He yelled, gripping the sides of his doorway. The vents opened in his room and released a white gas that filled the room, snuffing each hungry flame as if it were a boot and they–bugs. And then it sucked the remnant gasses back into the vents, sealing them again. Leaving behind a black scorched, smoke smelling, grave of bed-sheets and used-to-be-valuable collectables.

“Well” Oren said from the hallway behind him, “That’s a sight.”

“I can’t believe this…You don’t just set someone’s room on fire!” Sirius gestured wildly to his once semi-nice bedroom.

“Says the person who melted my door knob.” Oren said.

“You put A SCORPION IN MY BOOT.”

“Because you lost my knife.”

“I…” Sirius paused. “Well, it went to a good cause.”

Oren raised an eyebrow.

“Oh come on, scratching my initials on your armor is a wonderful cause,” Sirius turned to inspect his nearly nonexistent bed, “not my fault it somehow wandered off after that.” He poked his mattress and it dissolved into ashes. “Wonderful.”

Oren leaned against the wall. “Anyway, you’ve gotta admit, Sirius, I did pretty good hooking up the ventilation just right so you’d smell the smoke exactly a second before the alarms went off.” Oren said proudly.

Sirius wiped his now ash colored finger on his clothes and deliberately refused to look at his friend. Stinkin villain, had to be so good at his job. “I suppose you can do pretty good cleaning this up as well,” he said, “and replacing all my very valuable collectibles once we get rescued from this useless bucket of steel.”

“Hmm. I think I’m going to go on over to the Kitchen and look for something to eat while grieving the tragic loss of our last oreo cookie, instead.” Oren said, walking away.

“Hey!” Sirius barked, spinning from the sorry remnants of his collectibles. Oren was already gone. But he wasn’t going to get out of this, not this time. The oreo cookie–which was not his fault, in fact, it was Oren who tried to hoard them all up for himself in the first place–was the least of Oren’s worries. He grabbed a heavy bag from his closet and stalked down the hall towards the kitchen.

“OREN!”

Nothing, no sound. Except the thrumming of the horrid prison he’d been trapped in for what seemed like forever now. And he didn’t even have a stupid oreo cookie to solace him. Why? Because of Oren, because he stuck it in a cup. He rounded the corner of the kitchen section of the ship and stopped short. Oren was sitting on the table there, eating cookies. Chocolate chip cookies.

“You’ve had those this whole time!” Sirius exclaimed.

Oren stuffed the last one in his mouth.

“You could have left the oreos for me.” Sirius said, jerking his bag open. “But instead you put the last one in a cup.”

“A clean cup,” Oren said, swallowing. “It was most certainly clean.”

He reached into the bag, “honestly I really don’t care.”

“And I’m not going to help you cle–” Oren paused, “hey, what’s in the bag…”

Sirius chunked a shoe at him. Steel-toed, well made, firm as a rock. Made throwing it feel gorgeous. Oren gave a sound like a strangled mouse as he scrambled off his perch and out of the path of the wrathful footwear. It slammed uselessly into the wall behind. Sirius chunked another.

“Hey!” Oren yelped, ducking behind the counter, “What in the universe are you doing?”

“Throwing shoes at you.” Sirius said. Obviously.

“Now now. Heroes aren’t supposed to hurt their villain friends.” Oren said from behind the counter.

“Ah yes,” Sirius said, “except that doesn’t really matter right now, because if it weren’t for you wanting to run off and save the world from imminent disaster, I’d be safely on a planet eating as many oreos as I want.”

“Well then, you’re welcome. That would be incredibly unhealthy.” Oren said.

Sirius threw a gold trimmed boot. It plunked against the counter. Oren peeped up to stare at it, and then ducked right in time as he hurled the boot’s pair.

“Actually,” Oren muttered, “I’m rather concerned why you have so many shoes.”

“If I wasn’t in a broken down ship in the middle of nowhere, with no hopes of ever making it back to civilization, those shoes would be quite valuable!” Sirius wasn’t even aiming for Oren anymore. He catapulted a pink dotted pair of tennis shoes into the far wall, they hit it with a satisfying thump.

Oren stood, staring at him. “You mean to tell me….you collect shoes.”

Sirius threw a bright yellow sandal at Oren’s face. It didn’t even get close, of course. Oren looked at the sandal and then back up at Sirius.

“You’re a shoe collector!” He broke out laughing, gripping the sides of the counter. “How did I not know this sooner!”

Sirius paused his onslaught of shoe missiles, there was only like, one more left in the bag anyway. “They’re very expensive. And valuable.” he said in his defense.

Oren only laughed harder.

“Took me a long time to collect them all too.” He muttered under his breath.

“I’ll”–Oren said between gaspy breaths–“make sure to leave you my shoes when I die. Something to remember me by.”

Sirius rolled his eyes and tossed his bag in the corner. “I’d probably eject them into space if you did, like the oreo.”

Oren managed to stop laughing enough to bow his head and murmur, “we shall forever grieve your greatest mistake, Sirius.”

“MINE?”

“Yes.” Oren said, “You killed Mr. Oreo.”

Sirius opened his mouth to object when the entire ship beeped, as if jolting awake.

“What did my ship just do?” Sirius rubbed his ears, glancing around.

“Um…it’s not your ship. It’s mine. Remember? I convinced the previous owner to give it in exchange for his life.” Oren said.

“That’s not how I remem—” Sirius began.

“SANDWICHES.” A crisp, emotionless voice vibrated from the ship’s speakers. “THE LIFE-BLOOD OF MANKIND.”

“Hey Sandie!” Oren exclaimed happily.

“Welcome back weird, malfunctioning AI who secretly wants to murder us with sandwiches and false facts.” Sirius said. “Guess you got bored, huh.”

“HUNGRY?” The ship’s AI said.

“For people.” Sirius muttered. “And better company.”

“CANNIBALISM, PERFECT.” The AI said. “THERE IS A SHIP ENTERING THIS SECTOR AS WE SPEAK.”

A ship? Sirius met Oren’s gaze for a single life changing moment as the realization sunk in.

“We’re saved.” Sirius whispered.

They both raced for the console, and started broadcasting their existence to anyone listening. The radio fuzzed in and out for a few seconds before finally the first voice they’d heard in months came over as clear as the black in space.

“Unknown transporter. This is Fate-12, prepare for boarding.”

Sirius grinned, unholstering the pistol at his side. Oreos here I come.

What do you think about China’s J-35 Gyrfalcon stealth fighter becoming the country’s second carrier-based fighter?

The Chinese defense industry is advancing at a breakneck speed. China is only the second country in the world that will mass produce not one but two stealth aircraft. The J-31 (re-badged as the J-35 in November 2024), made its maiden flight in 2012. It is a twin-engine aircraft produced for land and aircraft carrier operation. It has been extensively modified over the years from the aircraft that made its first flight. Chinese aircraft development (J-20, J-10C, J-35, J11, J-16) was hobbled by the lack of domestically manufactured advanced turbofan engines. At present, the Chinese aircraft industry is roughly 20 years behind the USA but they have been leapfrogging over the last decade, and it is likely that the technological gap will shrink over time. The J-35 has an approximate RCS (Radar cross section) of 0.01m2 (50 square inches) in comparison to 0.005m2 (7.7 square inches) RCS of the F-35. In comparison, the latest fourth generation Su-35s has an RCS of 3m2, (4,650 square inches), and the French Rafale has an RCS of 1m2 (1,550 square inches).

J-35 with afterburners, performing at an airshow in November 2024.

The development of the J-35 in two versions is a very significant strategic step that will have far-reaching implications for China’s projection of power. With the J-35, not only will China be able to increase its stealth aircraft fleet at twice the speed of J-20, but it will also have a mix of two types (also called a hi-low mix in USAF) of stealth aircraft. It will also give the latest Chinese aircraft carriers a potent weapon system that can duel with the F-35. It is a well-known fact that Chinese are able to mass produce aircraft in great numbers. The current stealth flagship of the Chinese air force, the J-20, is being produced at a rate of 100 aircraft per year, which is faster than all models of F-35 combined. With the addition of a new aircraft, the Chinese air force will not only be in a position to phase out their 3rd generation aircraft (as of 2024, approximately 300 such aircraft are in service) but add an additional 1,000 stealth aircraft to the fleet in 5–7 years.

Vented single crystal Turbine blades is one of the highest tech products of modern material sciences.

Chinese engine manufacturers have finally been able to resolve issues related to production of single crystal turbine blades and blade cooling after spending vast amounts of resources on research and development. Unlike the F-35, the J-35 engines are designed for super cruising (travelling beyond the speed of sound without using afterburners). The J-35 was originally powered with the Russian RD-93 engines, which produce 18,300lbs (8,318kg) of thrust each. These engines did not provide the aircraft with satisfactory kinematic performance, and failed to achieve a 1:1 thrust to weight ratio even with a basic loadout. The aircraft was then flight tested with the WS-13E (also known as WS-21), which produces 20,700lbs (9,409kg) of thrust. While it was an improvement over the RD-93, it fell below the flight performance that is necessary for a stealth aircraft.

The WS-19 engine will power the aircraft. Its serrated exhaust can be observed.

The production version is likely to be equipped with the WS-19 engine. This engine is equal in technology and specification to the GE-F414-EE engine, which has not yet been used in any combat aircraft. The WS-19 features omnidirectional thrust vectoring technology for enhanced maneuverability and Full Authority Digital Electronic Control (FADEC). It is likely to produce approximately 25,000Lb (11,300kg) of thrust, making the aircraft suitable for carrier operations. This engine, combined with sleek aerodynamics and 3,000lb (1,300kg) lower empty weight compared to F-35 will allow it to accelerate and fly faster. High kinematic performance can be advantageous in BVR combat between two stealth aircraft. The J-35 is not only lighter but also has 7,000Lb (3,000kg) greater thrust compared to the F-35. An aircraft that possesses greater thrust to weight ratio is likely to perform better at certain tasks including air interception and ground attack ingress and egress. In addition, aircraft that have a high kinematic performance have a better chance of evading a BVR and surface launched missiles.

The APG-81 AESA radar.

The current F-35 APG-81 AESA radar is perhaps the most powerful AESA long range radar fitted to any multirole combat aircraft, with a range of 140miles (230KM), and a short-term peak power output of 24Kw. This radar is to be upgraded with an even faster and higher powered AN/APG-85 in 2026. This radar will be able to identify all types of drones, missiles and aircraft at longer range. The high-resolution ground imaging capabilities of the APG-85 will also be useful for reconnaissance missions, providing detailed images of targets for further analysis.

The J35 KLJ-7A(V2) radar is not only smaller in size in comparison to the APG-81, but also has provides lower resolution and less range. It has a peak power consumption of around 10Kw, and a maximum detection range of 120 miles (200KM) against a target size of 5m2.

KLJ-7A (V2) AESA radar used in the land based version of Chinese J-35 is less powerful than the F-35 radar. It is possible that the naval version may be equipped with a more powerful radar, since the aircraft will be able to produce 40–50kw of electricity.

The J-35 is equipped with several passive sensors including EOTS (electro-optical targeting system), passive 360-degree situational awareness sensors and helmet mounted display. The J-35 system software, sensor integration, speed of secure datalink systems and battlefield sensor fusion is not yet at par with the F-35. The J-35 is equipped with infrared search and track, Distributed Aperture System (DAS), which consists of several IR sensors around the aircraft for full spherical coverage, providing day/night imaging and acting as an IRST and missile approach warning system.

China has been able to develop and deploy highly sophisticated air to air missile systems. The off-boresight short range PL-10 and PL-15E BVR missile with folding fins is designed to fit into the J-35 internal weapons bay. The PL-10 is known for its all-aspect targeting capability, resistance to jamming and electronic countermeasures, and high maneuverability. It provides comparable performance to western missiles like the ASRAAM and IRIS-T, and even offers superior kinematic performance against the AIM-9X. The PL-15 missile that is currently used by the J-20 out-ranges the AIM-120D missile as well as the MBDA Meteor missile. It remains to be seen if the J-35 weapon bay is capable of carrying the long range (150 miles, 250KM) PL-15 instead of the shorter-range (110 miles, 185KM) PL-15E missile.

It is worth noting that maximum missile ranges provided by manufacturers are based on ideal conditions, and should be taken with a grain of salt. Effective BVR Missile ranges against combat aircraft are generally 60–70% of maximum advertised range for head on interception, and between 30–50% during a tail chase. In order to achieve a high kill probability (pK) the missiles must be used in their No Escape Zone (NEZ), which, in most cases, is even lower than the effective missile range.

The latest, smaller PL-15E missile with folding fin design.

In order to match the long-range capabilities of Chinese BVR missiles, the US is developing the AIM-260 missile. This missile will replace or supplement the AIM-120 AMRAAM currently in use. Interestingly, this latest missile uses radar and IR/UV sensors for terminal guidance. This missile is expected to be in operation in 2025. The AIM-260 is designed with a multi-terminal guidance system. It will have the same range as the shorter-range PL-15E (110 miles- 185KM). Air combat in modern warfare has changed considerably over time. An aircraft is now a part of a highly networked real time kill chain that includes satellite intelligence, networked ground-based radars, AEW aircraft, sea-based and other airborne sensors. The more effective the kill chain, the better chances an aircraft will have in undertaking a successful combat mission.

44-Year-Old Man: Existential crisis of life

What are some of the most epic product fails?

Would you pay $700 for a juice machine that requires WiFi to work?

What if I told you it only works with specific juice packets sold by the company, which cost ~$7 for every glass you want to make?

Oh I forgot to mention, it’s actually 25% faster to manually squeeze the juice packet with your hands, rather than putting them into the machine.

At this point, you’re probably unsure why anyone would ever buy one of these. This reaction was shared by consumers, as low sales forced the company to drop prices to $400. However over-engineering meant that each unit still cost $750 to produce. They were always selling at a loss, but now they were bleeding cash.

Yet despite the blatant flaws of their product, losing $4 million per month and a lack of customers willing to pay $400 for an inefficient juicer, they still managed to raise $118.5 million from prestigious investment funds, like Kleiner Perkins and Google Ventures.

This is the story of Juicero, a company which has now ceased selling its products, and offered full refunds to anyone who purchased their product. They should serve as a cautionary tale for any aspiring entrepreneurs who hope to get rich by solving a problem that doesn’t exist, instead of being ambitious and making a meaningful difference by solving important problems.

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What will Europe do when big daddy USA isn’t there to save them from Russia?

Where is big daddy USA right now ?

Cowards.

The U.S. has been actively preparing to fight one particular country since 1949. Multiple proxy wars, and trillions of dollars spent on stockpiling munitions and weapons platforms.

There are over 3,000 M1 Abrams tanks sitting collecting dust in the Sierra Army Depot, that were purchased to fight this one particular country.

And when the moment finally arrived for the US to finally take in this arch enemy after preparing for 75 years, what was the response ?

“Fear of escalation”

Cowards!

Americans have demonstrated they don’t have the balls to fight a near peer directly. Just a lot of talk and sabre rattling.

You spent all that $$$$$ preparing to fight only to back down like cowards.

And what message does that send to China, now that you have publicly played your hand and backed down from Russia ?

Just as when you backed down from Russia in 2014, and emboldened Putin to go further, so too are you emboldening the Chinese, and you’re too fucking stupid to see that. But keep listening to Trump, who has Putin in his pocket, and admires Xi Ping for how powerful of a man he is. That’s who you just elected – a president who admires the leaders of your enemies.

Spineless fucking cowards, and strategically as dumb as a bag of rocks.

Korea – stalemate

Vietnam – lost

Iraq – utter failure

Afghanistan – lost

You’ve developed a talent for fleeing

Cowards, who repeatedly betray allies.

But you sure kicked ass in Granada and Panama!!

And you sent not one, but two carrier groups to help with the turkey shoot in Gaza. Real tough guys!

Edit for the Trump voters: the soldiers are not the cowards. The soldiers are not the ones making the strategic decisions. The politicians are the cowards, including the Commanders in Chief, and every American citizen that supports the cowardice.

Dangerous (and very few of you know it)

Beijing’s spy agency ‘destroyed large number’ of Taiwan intelligence networks

State security ministry says more than 1,000 cases of Taiwanese espionage were uncovered in crackdown, with spies ‘severely punished’

William Zheng

Beijing’s top spy agency says it has uncovered more than 1,000 cases of Taiwanese espionage during a crackdown and vowed to keep up the pressure on the island’s pro-independence forces.

In a post on WeChat on Tuesday, the Ministry of State Security said the cases were revealed in a series of special operations launched in recent years and that it had continued to “strike hard” against spying activities.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3274300/beijings-spy-agency-destroyed-large-number-taiwan-intelligence-networks

Completely valid reasons why men SHOULD reject a woman; with 3 examples

New Study from Japan: Covid Shots Installed Nanobots

August 12, 2024

A new Japanese study shows that Pfizer and Moderna vaccines contain unauthorized “animated worm-like” entities, invisible to the human eye, which swim, wiggle, and assemble themselves into complex structures, which cause clots inside the body. Researchers Dr. Young Mi Lee and Dr. Daniel Broudy isolated unused Pfizer and Moderna vaccine vials for 3 weeks, and then examined them under 400X magnification. They noticed that when the nano-technology was energized, it created “discs, chains, spirals, tubes, and right-angle structures.” The scientists believe these mysterious nanoparticles are responsible for the explosion of “turbo cancer” and autoimmune diseases around the globe. They also concluded that humans into controllable “Biohybrid Magnetic Robots.” The suggested that the smart microscopic components are part of the elite’s “long-planned well-funded Internet of Bodies,” which was described as a kind of “synthetic global central nervous system” turning humans into controllable “Biohybrid Magnetic Robots.” The researchers called for a ban on mRNA shots. They also demanded the labels “vaccine” and “safe and effective” be removed because the substances are not vaccines and they are dangerous.

Link for Study:

Real-Time Self-Assembly of Stereomicroscopically Visible Artificial Constructions in Incubated Specimens of mRNA Products Mainly from Pfizer and Moderna: A Comprehensive Longitudinal Study

Zelensky is now saying he has no intention of keeping the land seized in this incursion. (Just as well, because Russia will not let him.) So why did he waste his men and resources on it in the first place? Has he completely lost the plot?

He has indeed lost the plot

Has been losing so for a long time

He has been solely responsible for making Russia stronger and stronger by the day

Russian AD is unfamiliar with Himars attacks

He attacks Russian territories with so many Himars that today Russia can wipe out Himars Launchers effortlessly

Russian AD is unfamiliar with Storm Shadows and Scalps

He repeatedly attacks Crimea with these missiles and Russia can spot them a mile away and easily blow them away at a near 95% Interception rate

Russia is a creaking old army with only numbers who could collapse within their own weight

He stupidly takes them on, does a counter offensive and the Russian Bear slumbers, wakes up and begins to gradually start mobilizing, producing and making tactical decisions

This Kursk offensive is the best example

The Russians mobilized and moved within 72 hours and stopped the Ukranians at 15 Kilometres into the Border and killed the entire reserve force minus the 300–400 who are holding hostages

The Speed is astonishing

Next time it will be even faster

Plus their strategic evacuation of Border Areas

Plus their buffer zones along the Border

Bottom line is Zelensky is solely the reason why Russia is the MOST COMBAT READY ARMY ON THE PLANET

Reasons for the Kursk offensive?

It could never have been successful under any conditions

You can’t keep on entering Russia all the way to Moscow

Ultimately you will face resistance and be destroyed

Russia is the more powerful army

Just like if Bangladeshi Army invaded West Bengal, they would advance maybe 10 Kms before being cut to pieces by the Indian Army

The Reason was PR

To restore some confidence in the dying morale of the Ukranians

Instead the Russians are more determined to finish off the Ukranians

As every day goes by Russians who were reluctant to kill even Ukranian Soldiers and hoped they surrender are now ready to boil Ukranian Children in Hot Oil and make their parents watch

Time Zelensky was deposed

Problem is he knows too much

Probably Pictures of Biden and Hunter Biden with some Young Ukranian Minors on their Laps

Probably Secret Account Transfers of Wire Accounts of the Clintons or Romneys or Sunaks or Johnsons

It’s why he isn’t killed so far

Russia isn’t killing him because China has asked them not to

When this is over – I bet you will see some major Lithium extraction contracts signed between China & Ukraine in the past two years that will come to light

CHINA is NOT WHAT We Expected at ALL 🇨🇳 (first time in Shenzhen)

Do the Chinese people enjoy the same freedoms as Americans?

Women in China don’t have to worry about their own safety. A young woman can walk alone on the streets of China in the middle of the night.

You can smoke cigarettes almost everywhere in China. Although there are no smoking signs everywhere, there is no mandatory implementation. People still do what they want.

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Chinese people can drink while walking. In the United States, if you drink in public, you will be arrested by the police.

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The woman hangs a bag of Tsingtao beer on her shoulder and drinks it while walking

In the United States, you have to maintain your own lawn, otherwise you may receive a fine. But in China, most people live in apartments.

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Chinese people are completely free to make their own decisions and don’t cook at home. Boys and girls there prefer to eat three meals in restaurants or roadside stalls. Because there are many restaurants in China, almost everywhere. Chinese people do not need to believe in God and do not need to pray before eating. Meal time is the most relaxing time for Chinese people, and there is no need for so many rituals.

Most Chinese people are not as materialistic as Americans. In Chinese life, most people pursue a simple life, know how to be content, and are more free and independent.

Is this homeless? no!

Chinese people have the habit of taking a nap. You can take a nap anywhere, the main thing is relaxation.

Especially outdoor workers, couriers, sanitation workers, food delivery people, truck drivers, motorcycle drivers, vendors, and police officers will all find a shady place nearby to take a nap.

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Shorpy

How did you foil or dodge someone else’s attempt to cheat or deceive you?

Oh boy, do I have a story for this. And I didn’t even “foil” the person’s attempt, really. More like I defeated him with my cluelessness. But in retrospect what I did is the best thing to do in my situation. You’ll see later in the answer.

A little bit of background (you can skip to the non italicized part for the meat of the story)

I was born in the United States, and when I was 7 my parents moved to India, their homeland (taking me with them of course). I was in India (Pune, specifically) from 2nd-12th grade. During high school, I applied to a bunch of American universities and got in. I finally decided on UC Berkeley, which was the best school that I got into, and was really excited that the school had a rich history.

Another important point to note is that foreign citizens living in India had to register with the police if they were staying in India beyond 180 days, and also get a departure stamp from or something before leaving the country on their passport. Being an American citizen, I had to do that while living there.

However, right before I left for the US, my family and I had just obtained PIO (Person of Indian Origin) cards, letting us stay in India on a 15 year visa and getting rid of the need for departure stamps and stuff.

I was 17, ready to leave for the US, where I was to meet up with my Dad in the Bay Area who was already there on business. I was super excited (think the heart eyed emoji, I looked exactly like that), for I was embarking on an exciting journey. I am American, and now I’m pretty comfortable in my own skin with my dual American / Indian identity, but back then I was pretty nervous and confused about my own identity, which made me a little anxious about going to the US.

So here I was, at the Mumbai airport, having said good bye to my mom and aunt who had come along to drop me off. I went to the immigration counter (for my American peeps, a lot of other countries have passport control when you leave the country too).

The immigration official looked at my passport. He looked at me with his beady eyes through his glasses:

“What are you going to the US for?”

“For my education.” (Apparently having an American passport wasn’t enough)

He probably deduced in his head that I was 17 and going to the US for college so my parents must be rich. He looked at me again, but his eyes were beadier this time.

“You don’t have a departure stamp. You cannot go.”

“Umm.. what?”

“I said, you don’t have a departure stamp on your passport, you cannot go!”

At this point I was super scared, because I was traveling internationally alone for the very first time, and I had no idea what he was talking about. I genuinely thought I had fucked up. After breathing heavily for 2 seconds, I said:

“So.. what do I do? What can I do, sir?”

“See.. I’m looking for your benefit, and my benefit.”

Now you all know where this is going. However, at that point I was completely clueless.

“Sorry, I don’t get it. Do I need to do something? Just tell me what I need to do, I’ll do it, sir.”

(my Indian peeps will know why I used that “sir” for an immigration official of all people. I was trying to be respectful and not rattle an official who could really mess with you if he wanted to)

“Like I said, I’m looking for your benefit, and my benefit.”

I was still clueless. I know all of you want to scream at me: “He’s asking for a bribe you idiot!”, but remember: 17, alone and scared.

“Ok, so then tell me how I can help benefit both of us. Let me know, I’ll do it.”

He looked at me, bewildered. In retrospect I think he was trying to figure out if I was for real. He got really frustrated:

“You’re not understanding what I’m telling you, now go!” (he hands me my passport)

At this point you guys probably think I just left as fast as I could, right? Well, no. I was genuinely clueless about his intentions, I actually believed I had done something wrong.

“Sir, if you just tell me what you need me to do, if there’s any issue with my documents, I’ll fix it.”

“No! Just go!”

I was thoroughly confused by this, and I just left. It was only after crossing the security check and calling my mom to tell her this story did I realize (while listening to my own words) that I was asked for a bribe and got out of it because I was totally dumb!

So there it is. I foiled a corrupt immigration official trying to take advantage of a scared 17 year old and make some money. But I didn’t “foil” anything. 🙂 I just defeated him with my cluelessness!

Why would a highly intelligent man choose an average woman as a partner?

I’m pushing 70, and I’ve been married, happily, for 35 years.

I am highly intelligent, in the top 0.1%, and I have a lifetime of working with very, very intelligent people, including many very intelligent women.

But I can tell you from my current vantage point that if I had restricted myself to women with my IQ or higher, I would still be single. There were certainly candidates; but I was not romantically attracted to them, and would not have enjoyed living my life with them.

In contrast, my wife and I are very compatible. We like the same kinds of food, and restaurants, and entertainment on TV and in movies, we like the same music, we like the same kinds of sex, we like the same kinds of vacations, we have the same political beliefs, we like and donate to the same charities, we like the same comedians.

It is very, very easy to live with my wife; and she is not a slave, we split our domestic duties evenly.

My life is not about being intelligent. That is my job, and I don’t need to bring it home, or discuss it with my wife, or get any ideas from her on how to move forward.

In my job I am surrounded by very smart engineers and technologists, including many women, and I can discuss problems and technical issues with them, and for the most part not have to spend an hour explaining my ideas.

The only thing my wife knows about my job is that some decades ago I invented something for the Federal Aviation Administration, and I told her it was to “Help keep planes from falling out of the sky, because the FAA frowns on that.”

That’s the one she remembers, a single four month contract out of 35 years.

I get my fill of intellectual conversation in other ways; I am with my wife to relax and have fun, and that does not have to be intellectual in the least. The only time it is, is when occasionally she wants me to explain something to her. I know her well, and I am smart enough to explain what she wants to know in terms she will understand and be satisfied with.

OMG!

Half of Forever

Morgan Elbert

“Christ, One! What the hell were you thinking?” the voice came through the hud slightly distorted. Nothing had been right on the Doppel Station for days, maybe weeks. It was difficult to keep track of time in this lifestyle. There were no nights, no days, and essentially no schedule. Work needed done when it needed done and it didn’t matter if the men were tired or hungry or whatever other excuse they might concoct. One tried to focus his mind enough to remember when the issues had arisen. He knew it was during Twenty-Seven. Measuring events in that way made him feel lugubrious, but it had been his best method to date. These minor external repairs were not typically so frequent, and he grew concerned that it meant the end of the station was coming soon. Perhaps it had drifted from its axis, or some distant celestial body had shifted and was influencing it in some way. They were still waiting to hear back from the Union regarding their query.“One! Yo, you listening, man?” the voice crackled through again. One rolled his eyes and sighed, knowing the heavy exhale would be detected by the suit. He liked the idea of his disdainful sigh echoing through the main deck for his crewmate to hear.“God One, you don’t have to be so pissy. Just fix that panel and get the hell back inside. I’m sick of monitoring your vitals,” came the response.After finishing his work, One leaned back against the hull of the station and watched the swirling of the reality around him. The Dorra galaxy was on the small side for those that had been explored, and to One, it felt quaint — cozy even. It was like living in the smallest nearby town and still being able to see the nightlights of the closest big city.At least, that is how One thought of it, from his studies of old human culture. He, himself, had never lived on the planet known as Earth. Born and bred on this ship, he spent much of his free time daydreaming; imagining what life must have been like for his ancestors. Walking in something called grass — typically green with threadlike fingers of roots extending down into the soil for nutrients, hydrogen dioxide, and security. He wondered what that might feel like, having roots and security. Breathing unfiltered air, filled with the pollution and aromas of the natural world. One’s entire life had been inside this shell, floating endlessly in an even more endless vacuum of nothingness. Even the gravity he experienced wasn’t what he considered natural.“Bro — Wake up and get your ass inside,” the voice broke his melancholy revelry and One felt more angry than he had in weeks. It wasn’t often that he sat out against the hull and let himself take in the view, but it was without fail that whenever he did, he was called back inside with the same crass phrasing that effectively wrecked whatever peace he had found in his meditation.As One closed the airlock behind himself and secured it, he could feel the needy eyes on him through the door. He slowly and meticulously removed his gear, inspecting each piece before placing it carefully in his cubby. Mainly, he took such care in this process because he found it an effective method to avoid returning into the main hull of the station, and thereby further prolonging his peace and isolation.Technically, they were always supposed to take this level of care in their return inspections, but it was well known that few of the ‘nauts ever did, especially this far from the Hub. Stations like the Doppel rarely, if ever, received elite visitors, and never had surprise inspections from the higher-ups. In fact, the Doppel was much more of a small outpost than a proper station. The Doppel was a small superfluous station responsible for monitoring the oxygen levels and watching for signs of life on tiny dead rock on the outskirts of the galaxy. ‘Nauts stationed here were meant to exist, write reports for the Union, and maintain that there were always two living there. Nothing else.A pounding echoed around One as he painstakingly inspected his last valve and he turned to the door to see an angry face peering through the glass at him.“Come on, man, get in here!!!”

“I’m doing my inspections,” One replied.

“You’re wasting time and you know it!”

“ME? Never. Why on Doppel would I ever do something like that?” he asked, faking an aghast expression.

“Duuuude….”

He ignored the plea.

“Duuuuuuuuuude.”

He continued fiddling with his equipment, turning away from the door to hide a smile.

“Gawwwwd, dude.”

One started laughing.

“Alright, I’m coming, Twenty-Seven. Calm down,” he said, crossing through the door at last.

Twenty-Seven tackled him.

“Dude, it is so freakin’ lonely in this tin can, man. I don’t know what to do with myself,” he said, latching on to One’s back.

“Maybe you should try studying or reading or something,” One replied, pulling away from the younger man, “you haven’t been alive long enough to be this bored.”

“I’m plenty old enough to be bored, bro,” came the indignant reply.

“Dude, you’ve been alive 46 days. I activated the Womb for you less than 3 months ago. You have no right to be this bored.”

“Yeah, and you’ve only been alive, what, 180 days?” the young man asked sarcastically, though he knew the actual count was much longer.

“I’ve been here forever.” A cold and measured response.

The younger man scoffed before jumping on One’s back again.

One pulled away once more and went to the bunk room. Twenty-Seven followed him closely, something clearly on his mind. One turned to him.

“What’s up, man?” he asked tiredly.

“It’s just — Man, uh — What happened to Twenty-Six?”

“I’ve told you what happened to Twenty-Six.”

“No, you just said you needed a replacement.”

“That’s what happened to Twenty-Six. He needed replaced.”

“Dude, you know what I mean.”

“Twenty-Six died.”

“Well doy. How?”

“We’re in space. Even if we weren’t, death is a certainty.”

“Dude, One, you are the worst at answering questions, like, ever.”

One laughed.

“Yeah, but I’m still the best teacher you’ve ever known.” he chuckled.

“You’re also the worst everything I’ve ever known,” Twenty-Seven quipped.

The men stood in silence briefly. One lowered himself onto his bunk. Twenty-Seven watched him, an increasingly tragic expression spreading across his face. One leaned back and closed his eyes tightly, intentionally refusing to see the younger man’s pitiful appearance. He was tired of answering these questions with each new iteration. At this point, it seemed an exercise in futility.

Each story ended the same, each life coming to the same closing line; never anything special. It had become easier with each passing individual. Two had been a real struggle. One had been uncertain that he would ever recover from losing his first second hand man. He had tried to make himself disconnect since then. He spent more time outside the station when he could. Tried to be independent from them. But Twenty-Seven — Twenty-Seven reminded him too much of himself in the very beginning, beyond the obvious fact that they had the exact same face, the same DNA. Each of the men had the same face and DNA; that wasn’t special. Somehow though, Twenty-Seven was special. Excitable and eager to know whatever he could. Stifled by life inside the Doppel. It took great effort to remain aloof with this one. One reflected on the lives of the others, how shockingly dissimilar they had all been, all facts considered, and yet they all ended the same. Such is life, he thought to himself.

One woke up naturally for the first time in what felt like ages. No klaxon blaring, no clingy crewmate awaiting his eyes to flutter open. “Good,” he thought. Perhaps at last Twenty-Seven had gotten the hint to stop asking so many questions. He rose slowly, stretching his aching body. The human body was not designed to spend its entire life in space. Even One, essentially created for that purpose, still struggled with the effects.

One found Twenty-Seven sitting quietly near the com panel and staring through the view screen at the celestial bodies of Dorra that blinked and flickered around them.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” he whispered, placing his hand on Twenty-Seven’s shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah,” Twenty-Seven responded, being jarred from whatever distant reality his mind had ventured off to.

“So like me,” One thought with a gentle smile, before saying “Get some sleep, man.”

Twenty-Seven rose mindlessly and followed the instruction. “How long has he been awake?” One wondered, before taking Twenty-Seven’s place at the com. Still no message from the Union. One felt a familiar twinge of concern, before shaking it off. What did it matter, really, he asked himself. He went about his routine, checking the equipment, checking readings, looking for anything that might have gone awry during his rest. He was relieved to find there had been nothing out of the ordinary, and returned to his studies.

“Tell me what happened to Twenty-Six,” a groggy voice croaked from behind One. He had been reading for hours, and the sudden reminder that he was not alone startled him.

“Christ, man!” he yelled.

“Tell me,” Twenty-Seven said again, “I need to know.”

“You already know.”

“I know he’s dead. I don’t know how he got there.”

“Does it even matter?” One shot back, “Dead is dead. Who cares how anyone arrived at dead. All that matters is that they are dead.”

“What happened to you, man,” Twenty-Seven asked quietly.

“What do you mean?”

“What happened to you? Seriously, how can it not matter how they got there? Dead is DEAD, man! Becoming dead is a big freakin’ deal.”

“Drop it,” One yelled. He felt his long stifled emotions bubbling up inside him.

Twenty-Seven was silent.

One was silent.

The silence became its own entity. A threesome to their short staffed company. It floated down on them and wrapped them up, holding them against one another. One stared at Twenty-Seven, staring at his own face. Younger, not so worn down by the nihilism, unscathed by the repeated witnessing of death after death. Hair still cut to regulation. Twenty-Seven stared back, tears prickling at his eyes and throat. He saw himself, and yet something completely different. Long, unkempt hair licking at that uncanny face, yet the skin pulled differently. Tighter, and yet wrinkling slightly around the eyes, across the forehead. That face no longer held its softness. Silence coiled tighter, beginning to hint at suffocation.

“Look, I can’t tell you what happened to them, man,” One whispered through the smog of silence that nestled around them, “I just can’t do it again.”

Twenty-Seven nodded slowly. Time drifted without meaning again, the way it had for so long, the way it always would, but in that moment, it was palpable.

An alarm blasted through the station, nearly shaking the men. Something was wrong. Severely wrong. The silence that had enveloped them was eradicated. They rushed to the com to see if they could see anything. The view screen was blank. The instruments were going berserk. Inconsistent and chaotic readings flashed over and over before the entire com powered down. The lights dimmed inside the vessel, and a warning message began repeating itself. One looked to Twenty-Seven. The young man’s face was contorted into fear and frown. One patted him on the shoulder. “I’m going outside,” he shouted over the various sirens and messages the station’s computer blasted through the hull. Twenty-Seven grabbed his hand. “I’ll go,” he yelled, but One slipped away and ran for the airlock.

One grabbed his gear and slipped it on far more quickly than he ever had. This was not how these situations were typically handled. The man with seniority was not the one who was supposed to go out during the outages, but he didn’t care. Regulations be damned. He wasn’t going to watch it happen again. Twenty-Seven stood at the doorway, watching One as he dressed, screaming something unheard through the chaos that shattered everything he had ever known. One heard as Twenty-Seven began trying to open the door into the airlock and before the younger man could progress, he opened the outer door, effectively locking the rest of the station down until proper procedures allowed things to open again.

One ventured out onto the shell of the station where he had spent his life. He immediately saw where the vessel had been struck by some manner of space debris. Two of the twelve power cells placed around the outside of the ship had been knocked loose, likely causing a short in the circuit and causing the power levels to fluctuate inside. He set to repairing the damaged pieces, and looked up to see still more hurtling towards the Doppel. He worked as quickly as he could, but it was not fast enough. He had only been able to repair one of the cells before the next impact. A small piece of rock struck him at such velocity it tore through the arm of his suit. Safety procedures activated. The arm was severed off and sealed instantaneously. The temperature rose rapidly on the blade inside the sleeve, cauterizing the amputation. One screamed in pain, though from everything he had read, this was nothing compared to what would have happened without the guillotine effect of his suit. He had poured over the manuals that warned of what could happen in these circumstances. How the water in human skin would vaporise in the absence of atmospheric pressure; moisture on the tongue would boil. All of that, of course, only mattered if the rest of you somehow had oxygen and protection from the vacuum of space. The hud began a countdown, indicating how long he had left without receiving proper medical attention. These suits, while advanced technology, could simply not stave off human death without other measures being taken to recover.

One’s mind flashed back, again and again, to each of the different men he had lost during his time on the station. Had this been what they had felt? This fear? This — well, this relief? What sort of emotional cocktail did they each experience? Were they — Was he — glad? He felt himself floating away from the hull of the station. The impact must have been enough to separate his magnetic boots from the titanium. It was a weak bond anyway. It only made sense that it would have. As he rotated away from the only home he had ever known, the only home he could ever have known, he tried not to imagine the face of his protege. He tried not to see that same face, over and over again in his mind. The fear. God, the fear. Two’s final scream flashed through his mind. Eleven. Nineteen. Each face, the same, and yet so different in that final moment. Each death had been different, but was that even possible? Each had taken place in the same location — this godforsaken station in this corner of this godforsaken galaxy. Each death of the same person, genetically. How could it have been so different each time? The urgency of the message in his hud increased, counting away One’s final seconds, and he felt a feeling of anticipation. Of impending freedom?

The Womb hummed in the background as Twenty-Seven sat at the com, studying up on life in the olden days, back on Earth. He absent-mindedly worked his finger through the scars on his face. The scars he had put there with a broken piece of the ship gathered during a repair mission. They were designs he had created after discovering the concept of “tattoos” during one of his deep dives into old human culture. It was his only way of feeling different. When at last the Womb unlocked, he felt a very slight tickle of excitement. What it would be to not be alone again, even for a little while. He tried to stifle the feeling. He knew how this always ended.

“Welcome to the Doppel,” the computer voice chirped pleasantly.

Twenty-Seven stepped into the room to watch the new arrival recover from the incubation process. It sat up slowly, rising out of the pink amniotic fluid that each of the men was born from, stretching its back and arms. It looked around. Focusing on his face. It blinked several times, and he waited patiently for the eyes to focus. It took some time, this orientation to the world of the living. Fortunately, each of the clones was born with the ability to understand language and to speak it; once they figured out how to make their vocal cords work, anyway. The amnion drained from the incubation pod and the hatch opened, allowing the newest arrival to the station to step out into its new home.

Twenty-Seven leaned against the wall. His hair was long, tumbling down his shoulders. His hand stroked his beard out of habit.

“Get some clothes on and find me for orientation when you’re ready,” he said coldly before walking out of the Womb. Something made him hesitate for a moment, and he turned back to his newest crewmate. Maybe this time it would be different. He cleared his throat.

“And, uh, welcome to the Doppel, Forty-Nine. I think you’re gonna like it here.”

“Wait. Sorry, I just wondered. How long have you been here?” the new man smiled awkwardly before asking, as his eyes slowly took in the haggard face of his superior.

Twenty-Seven shook his head and chuckled.

“About half of forever, man.”

Figurative Sketches

How did you foil or dodge someone else’s attempt to cheat or deceive you?

Recently, I was at my parents’ house (it is empty now) and the phone rang. A guy with a strong Mexican accent asked for my grandma (who passed away a few years ago, but the landline is on her name) and I said it was me. I thought it was an extortion call…

Mexican man: It is me, auntie!

Me: who is it?

MM: Me! Your beloved relative! Don’t you remember me anymore? I left Guatemala so long ago! Guess who am I!!

Me: Quique!!! So nice to hear from you! How are you mijo? How are your wife and kids?

MM: Well, we are all ok! Look auntie, I want to surprise my family, but I got stuck in Mexico DF Airport! Please help me not to blow the surprise! I need money to pay some taxes here. Can you send me $1000 through Western Union today? I will pay you back tomorrow as soon as I fix this!

Me: Are you sure you will fix it with only $1000? I can send you more just in case…

MM: Thanks auntie! Let’s make it $3000?

Me: I will send you $5000. Call me in 3 hours to give you the transfer number.

MM: Please deposit under the custom’s employee name it is XxXx…

THREE HOURS LATER…

MM: Hi! Could you do it?

Me: I just remembered that Quique is not my nephew, it is my grandson. And he is gay and single… and hung up.

Roast Pork with Potato Dumplings

This is one of my all-time favorite comfort foods.

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

Dumplings

3 to 4 pounds starchy potatoes
2 to 3 eggs
1/2 to 1 cup all-purpose flour
Sea and or kosher salt, to taste
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Pork Roast

1 pork roast
Oil (for browning)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Paprika, to taste
1/2 to 1 pound coarsely chopped onions

Instructions

Dumplings

In a large pot, boil potatoes in salted water with the skins on. Peel and put them through a ricer (if you don’t have a ricer, use the back of a spoon to smash potatoes through a sieve). Let cool completely.
Refrigerate.
The next day, about 30 minutes before the roast is finished, set a large pot of salted water to boil.
To the cooled, riced potatoes add eggs and 8 to 14 tablespoons of flour, depending on how starchy the potatoes are). Also add salt, nutmeg and parsley. Using your hands, form potatoes into balls between the size of golf and tennis balls.
Add the potato balls to the boiling water but do not let the water continue to boil. When they float to the top in 15 to 20 minutes, they are done.

Pork Roast

In a large, heavy pot, heat oil. Sprinkle the roast with salt, pepper and paprika, and brown quickly in oil. Add onions and brown them, too. Turn heat down to medium low. Add a little water. A carrot and a couple of fresh tomatoes can also be added if desired. Cover and cook for 2 hours, turning occasionally.
To make gravy (optional), remove the roast and add a little water to the pan to de-glaze it. Add a little flour or cornstarch to thicken the drippings.
Serve dumplings and pork roast with red cabbage or sauerkraut.

What was something that a teacher told you in school that you knew was obviously wrong?

I was taught to read the newspaper when I was in elementary school by my parents and an excellent 4th grade teacher. When I was in 8th grade I read an article that said drug addict pregnant women gave birth to addicted babies. When I told my teacher in health class about the article she didn’t believe me. She said women who ate bananas did not have babies addicted to bananas. I pointed out that heroin was addictive and bananas were not. She told me to shut up and sit down.
In high school I read a newspaper article that said the military tested LSD on unsuspecting soldiers and several had killed themselves accidentally while in a drugged state. One jumped out a highrise window because he thought he could fly. My gym teacher told me I must be mistaken because our military would never do such a thing. I asked why it was in the newspaper if it wasn’t true. She said she didn’t believe I read the newspaper.
Freshman year in college in my American History class my professor attempted to tell me that the scientific belief during slavery was that Black people were not really human. That they were like monkeys or pet dogs. I told him that they may have said it but they knew it was a lie. Because given how white men raped black female slaves they must have seriously been into bestiality. Livestock cannot farm or clean or build or cook or rear and feed their babies. They knew we were just as human as them they used that lie to justify slavery. Then I walked out the class.

How did you foil or dodge someone else’s attempt to cheat or deceive you?

Originally Answered: Have you ever foiled/dodged someone else's attempt to cheat or deceive you?

Oh Yes!

Late afternoon, on my way back to my dorm, Pink Floyd in my ears when I saw that lady coming towards me and smiling.

She was absolutely gorgeous, well dressed, and waving towards me.

Obviously I turned around to confirm that it wasn’t me(because well, why would it be me? I don’t know her) as she approached and said hi!

Baffled, I removed my headphones and replied back.

Lady: “Hi. How are you?”

Me: “Good thanks, and yourself?”

Lady: “I’m in some trouble and I’m really looking for some help. I need to meet my brother at *I forgot where* really soon and I don’t have enough money for fuel. Would you mind lending me 10 Rand(South African currency)”.

Me: “Sure thing”, while I handed out 10 bucks.

Lady: “Thank you so much, you really saved my day”.

Me: “Pleasure”.

Now, I’m the type of person who usually helps others when I can. That day I had some bucks, so I did.

What happens next?

Couple of months later, I was on campus chatting with my buddy and this absolutely gorgeous lady approaches us.

Lady: “Sorry to disturb you guys, I see you’re having a great chat. I’m missing out on some fuel cash and I need to go see my brother who is working. Do you have any spare 10 Rands?”

Me and friend: “Apologies, we don’t have cash on us”.

Lady, looked at us weird, turned around and make some comment. Me and my friend didn’t bother.

However, something struck me then. I knew that lady. Hell yes I did! However, it was too late to foil her plan.

Epilogue

Months later, I bumped into her again.

I decided to be an asshole that day and as soon as she started speaking I wore my evil grin.

Lady: “Sorry sir, I nee…”

Me: “Ahh, you gonna meet your brother again. You know, it’s the third time. I would have literally given you a hundred if you had changed your story.Try to be more creative next time, gorgeous!”, while I walked past her laughing.

Of course, I got the “Fuck you!” reply but I was too content to care.

Why is China the largest factory robotic installer in the world, with over 50% of all installations when they have so many unemployed people?

Entirely different

These Robots are doing jobs that NOBODY IS REALLY INTERESTED IN DOING

Like sewing buttons onto shirts or cutting lines of cloth

How many workers today do you think line up for 55 Yuan per day to sew 560 buttons onto 80 shirts at 1 Yuan for 10 buttons?

How many workers want to cut line’s of cloth and earn 70 Yuan a day for 140 metres a day of cloth?

How many workers want to get paid 60 Yuan a day for manually applying coloring lines on steel bars?

Almost NONE

So China needs Robots to do the job and to do it far more economically

These Jobs are now done by what is called 5G Factories

Fully automated factories working with 100–120 workers doing jobs with automated machinery that formerly close to 300–500 workers were needed

That’s because workers aren’t keen on working for 1500–1800 Yuan a month anymore

They want a minimum of 3000 -3200 Yuan a month

The Unemployed people are primarily College Graduates

They want advented jobs meaning Jobs that suit their qualification

In 2015 – the Offering Starting pay was 5,750 Yuan a month for a Non Trainee STEM graduate

In 2024 – It’s 9,150 Yuan a month

If you see the Vocational Training, the unemployment rate among fresh graduates is a mere 6.57%

Against nearly 18.5% for University Graduates

Dating Sucks for Gen Z & Millenials

The Beardsley Park guard lions

When I was a very young boy, perhaps five or so, we lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut. My father was working as a metal technician in a Steel Factory, and going to night school to become a metallurgical engineer.

It was the early 1960’s. Cuba was a popular destination for vacation, and we had a black and white television and some very “modern” furniture. We had a very 1950’s dining table, and ate healthy home-cooked meals.

In fact, restaurant trips were very rare. Perhaps once a month.

My father would take myself and my sister to the local park; Beardsley Park for a nice walk and some exercise.

It has hills and a lake with a bridge to a small island. It was a wonderful place to stroll, walk and explore. I learned that sometime in the 1960’s or 1970’s the city sold off huge sections of the park to create low cost housing. And over the subsequent decades these areas became an urban blight. Sad.

Then there were some efforts to revitalize the areas. Now it is much better, but still not as nice as the wooded streams and trails that used to exist was.

But the park still exists. And back in those days, was a lovely place for us kids to walk with our father. Great memories.

We used to walk over this bridge to launch bottle rockets (those plastic water filled jets that fly to the sky). It still exists. And it is beautiful.

CT Bridgeport BeardsleyPark byJasonPersaud 2015 004 Sig

Oh and the bottle rockets. They looked like this…

water rocket 768x779 — water rocket 768×779

And here is what another person has to say about them…

I certainly didn’t hurt for toys when I was a kid. However, I didn’t have EVERY toy.

Witness the Texaco Fire Truck. Another cool toy that sadly never made it into my toybox was the water rocket.

I saw hundreds of ads for water rockets in various comic book ads.

One day at junior high school, for a science demonstration, I finally got to witness a water rocket in action.

Pretty cool stuff! So cool, that nowadays there is a passionate online following of homegrown water rockets. Read on.

The water rocket was allegedly created in 1930 by future professor Jean LeBot in Rennes, France. While still a student at school, he experimented with a champagne bottle (designed to hold high pressure) filled partially with water and pressurized by compressed air from a bicycle pump fed through a cork with an inner tube valve at its center. The rocket was launched from an inclined plank forming a ramp.

It flew well, but the bottle would smash on impact.

At some point after that (the details are very sketchy), toy manufacturers began marketing water rockets made from high-impact plastic. The rocket would sit on a plastic hand pump and launch with a trigger pull.

I found photos of some rockets that were manufactured in Germany in the early 50’s and that looked just like the V-2 models that rained down on Great Britain.

Later models included curved fins that would put a spin on the rocket, causing it to fly higher and straighter.

Once you pumped the launcher enough times to achieve optimal pressure, you pulled the trigger and were rewarded by a rocket shooting skyward, accompanied by a satisfying hissing sound and a jet trail of water and water vapor.

Then, the device would plummet to earth (the nicer models included a rubber padded nose cone to absorb the impact).

The comic book ads we grew up with are long gone, but water rockets continue to exist today, looking very much like we remember them.

However, there is a passionate following of home-built water rockets out there on the web. Most of the rockets are made out of plastic two-liter soda bottles. The lightweight cylinders can withstand high pressure, and are thus ideal for aeronautical flight. Not only that, they don’t shatter like glass champagne bottles when they land.

Here’s another comment from Peter…

And many roads are really great to walk upon and very safe. Well at least it used to be…

When we were young, and it was Winter, my father would take us to the hills in the park to sled ride.

And in the Spring, my mother would take us out to walk, frolic and run down those very same hills on blue sky cool early Spring days…

We, or course, would love to run around on the grass.

The core area of the park still exists, but the streams and the outer reaches were sold off and used for urban development. Sad. The Park system is necessary for a healthy and vibrant community to exist.

In the park, I believe off the beaten path was a crypt. I suspect that it belonged to the man James Beardsley (1899), who donated the park to the city of Bridgeport.

By 1881 James Beardsley, a wealthy cattle trader, had given 100 acres along the Pequonnock River in northeast Bridgeport to be designated a public park. Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., and John Charles Olmsted, assessing the distinctive scenic advantages of large trees, hilltop views, boulder outcroppings, and sloping meadows, suggested further land donations.

John Charles Olmsted’s 1884 report laid out their suggested improvements—thinning woodlands into open glades for parklike character, while encouraging native shrub growth for decorative understory; enhancing hillside areas for distant views while utilizing the natural boulders to create a vine-covered, bastion-like carriage concourse.

Cognizant of those without carriages, he suggested a railroad station on the west side of the river for public access.

The park’s first building, the Queen Anne-style Casino, was built at this time. Other statuary and structures that survive today include a bronze figure of James Beardsley (1899), two gable-roofed brick barns (circa 1900), the Seltzer Memorial Bridge (1918), and the Island Bridge (1921).

Oliver Bullard, who had implemented Olmsted plans for the U.S. Capitol Grounds, was hired in 1885 to supervise park work but died just five years later. His daughter, landscape architect Elizabeth Bullard, was recommended by the Olmsted firm as his replacement but ultimately passed over due to concerns about “political strife.” Continued shaping of the park according to the expanded 1904 Olmsted plan stalled or was poorly implemented, with connecting drives unimproved. Against advisement, a zoo was added in 1920, augmented by retired animals from the circuses of Bridgeport citizen P. T. Barnum.

By the 1990s, the park, owned by the City of Bridgeport, included the 56-acre zoo and measured 181 acres overall. The city sold the zoo in 1993 and Beardsley Park and Beardsley Zoological Gardens became separate entities. In 1999 the two were listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Anyways, this small crypt had two lions on both sides of the center door.

With lion statues, maybe something like this…

We would hike up to the crypt, and my father would dutifully placed us on the two stone lions and take our pictures. All the memories. He must have taken hundreds of pictures in that pose. Sadly, I don’t have any of them, and my sister probably sold them off in some kind of estate sale.

Sad.

But that is life. Don’t you know.

Perhaps the only one else who remembers those times when we were growing up is my sister, and she is “off living her own life” and really doesn’t want to be “tied back to the past”.

So here, for all you out there in “MM Land” is my little glimpse into the life that MM what I am today.

Today…

How would you try to develop a poor African country in 10 years, as its president?

Very simple!

I will do what China did. China doesn’t care if I copy their model of development, so I will copy it. There is no need reinventing the wheel.

Of course to copy China’s development model, you need to understand what China did and is still doing to rapidly develop.

Now if you want to know how they did it, it is simply through urbanization.

China realize that agricultural villagers have low incomes, but the moment these same villagers migrate to urban centres, they work in different jobs, and their incomes go up substantially.

Chinese leaders sat down and said if we can replicate and speed up urbanization, but do it artificially, then we can mobilize the huge population into full employment and reap the benefits of urbanization.

See: Why China is moving millions to cities

So what China did was to start building up planned modern cities with infrastructure and amenities besides most of the towns and villages. Once a planned city/town was completed, every individual and family was given an apartment to occupy. Larger families with more members get larger apartments according to the size of the family, and individuals get single apartments.

You may be asking by now how do the villagers get jobs? Well, once the constitution begins, many of the working age population from the village work on construction and other projects, so they already have good paying jobs than their vegetable farms.

Please see before and after pictures below:

Now remember this is a process that normally occur in every country around the world because there is “Rural to Urban” migration going on every where in the world.

The problem with allowing this Rural to Urban migration to happen naturally is that although it still causes countries to develop and reap increased GDP’s, it is very slow and unplanned. This means the benefits are slow, and because it is unplanned, urban centres usually face severe hardships in the form of inadequate infrastructure.

What China did was to speed up the process and also plan the urban centres that villagers will be moving to, so once they arrive, they do not settle in city slums.

Now I know many people will be leaving me comments and pointing out that forced urbanization is tantamount to human right abuse yada yada yada.

To an extent it is, but do not forget that any economic policy that a government engages in anywhere in the world has both positive and negative impacts on people. What governments usually do is a cost benefit analysis, and if the benefits outweigh the costs, the policy goes into effect.

Now to give a little detail, the Chinese Government always pays market rate for the land that they have to build the new city or construction project on. Citizens can use the money to buy in the same area being developed or in another area. Sometimes a free apartment is included as part of that compensation. In almost all the cases, the government leaves you much wealthier than when you had your old house.

China is a master of this craft, and many citizens are often ready to sacrifice a little for a greater good of the whole society.

I personally like China’s model of development, because it is very simple, easy to follow, and easy to understand. Therefore if I were an African leader of any country, I would study the model very well and replicate it in the country that I lead.

It’s rough out there

Winning an experience

I just won an expensive dinner from rich friend A, which I am trying to exchange for tickets to a show the daughter has designs on.

So far he hasn’t budged. He says I’m no sweet young thing and my pleas are falling on deaf ears.

How did I win the bet?

He insisted Iran will attack before the defenses are in place, in a marked departure from April.

I took the other view.

We set the deadline at 2359 Tuesday, local time.

My reasoning is it is more advantageous for Iran to wait, provided it can cocoon itself from preemptive attack, having promised punishment on Israel.

Russia’s entry secured that, with weapons that can hit the USN and the provision of advanced air defense systems. The grapevine chatter is su35 fighter squadrons will also be transfered.

Waiting for the inevitable Iranian response is not only expensive, but also disruptive for the Israeli economy. Putting units on high alert is also exhausting, and stressful.

Let the games begin.

Wife Has a MELTDOWN After Getting Caught Cheating…

How would you try to develop a poor African country in 10 years, as its president?

This is a very interesting question for me. I’m not an African president, but my company is working with one of the inner African countries to help develop their country.

This country is very poor and always engaged in internal war, better nowadays but not good enough. I think a safety and a peaceful environment is fundamental for development. So the first thing I have to do is to stop this recurring internal war. In order to stop a war, you need to be:

Armed heavily enough so that they will have second thought before attacking us. Obviously, we cannot participate directly in this, but there are third party who can.
Have a place that is easy to defend, Currently they are living in the forest village with no protective measures and easy to invade from all angles. High rise buildings with barbed wired concrete wall can be built for villagers to live in within a smaller protection zone. This will be much easier to defend.
Negotiate via 3rd party country (Which is in collaboration with us already) with the rebel leaders to try reach a win-win-win situation for country, rebel and our company.

The next is fulfill their basic necessities. This country has ample natural resources for company, and we will in turn provide them with medicine, food, water and machinery.

The next step is to train the people up so that they can work for themselves rather than relying on the natural resources forever. Schools for fundamental education and training schools will be built. The first step target is to equip them with the basic skills to do basic work as per those in the developing countries, with the basic education of a primary school level.

A small town then will be built and this will attract all the workers. This town will be linked with the other more developed African countries and also the outside world.

10 years is short, it will be good if the above can be achieved.

What do you think is China’s relationship with Vietnam, given that Xi Jinping addressed To Lam as “comrade” in his congratulatory telegram?

The relationship between Vietnam and China is very special. It is difficult for me to describe the relationship between the two countries as “good” or “bad”.

Why did China’s President Xi Jinping call To Lam a comrade?

This is easy to understand, because Vietnam and China are both countries ruled by the Communist Party. In the communist era, the two countries themselves were comrades and brothers. Leaders of all communist countries call each other comrades, and anyone with a little historical knowledge should understand.

When Chinese people call the leaders of communist countries such as the President of North Korea and the President of Cuba, they call them “comrades” instead of “President” or “Mr.”

So Vietnam and China have a very good relationship at the official level. After all, there are not many communist countries left in the world. The Communist Party of Vietnam and the Communist Party of China have established a close cooperative relationship for a long time. In fact, since 2010, the Communist Party of Vietnam has sent senior officials and young party members to the Central Party School of China every year to participate in study and further education. The top leaders of the two countries maintain close contact, which is why we have found that Vietnam’s national policies in recent years, including economic policies and anti-corruption policies, are very similar to China’s practices. Because they themselves have a relationship of mutual cooperation and learning.

But if we think that the relationship between China and Vietnam is a complete alliance, it is not wrong for Vietnam to maintain a very complicated relationship and mentality with China.

On the one hand, as communist countries, the two countries and the two Communist parties have a natural cooperative relationship. After all, in the minds of many Western countries, communist countries and Communist parties are symbols of evil. There is a natural tendency and need for the two red countries to form a group.

At the social level, China and Vietnam have thousands of years of cultural ties. Chinese culture and popular elements are all popular in Vietnam. When foreigners travel to Vietnam, they will be surprised to find that Vietnamese society and historical culture are very similar to China. At the same time, China is also Vietnam’s largest trading partner and the largest source of investment. The proportion of intermarriage between the two peoples is much higher than that of other countries.

On the other hand, Vietnam and China have historical issues. Whether it is the Sino-Vietnamese War that broke out between the two countries during the Cold War. Or the maritime disputes that have always existed between the two countries in the South China Sea, these issues have long been affecting the relationship between the two countries.

At the social level, Vietnam pays a lot of attention to China. In the past few decades, in historical narratives and nationalist education, China has often been described as a “millennium invader.” Thereby enhancing people’s sense of national identity and national independence. Many Vietnamese I know think that China is a northern devil who “attempts to annex our territory at any time.” Therefore, many ordinary Vietnamese do not like China. In the opinion polls of the ten ASEAN countries, the favorability of ordinary Vietnamese people towards China ranked second from the bottom, only higher than the Philippines. It is far lower than ASEAN countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Of course, from the perspective of China, Vietnam is a small country. The vast majority of Chinese people do not care much about Vietnam. Some young Chinese do not even know where Vietnam is, so they do not care much about “China-Vietnam relations”, which is a phenomenon I have found in many young Chinese. Therefore, the relationship between Vietnam and China has become a peculiar existence.

If I summarize it in one sentence: China-Vietnam relations are far better than the relations between most countries, and far worse than the relations between most countries.

Tropic Thunder Robert Downey Jr Funny – Best Reactor Reactions Rated

What are the implications of gender-neutral parenting?

In July 2024, an American father named Harrison Tinsley won sole custody of his four-year-old son, Sawyer Tinsley. Sawyer’s mother had been trying to raise their son as non-binary and “gender neutral”. She even made the little boy wear dresses some times, and would put makeup on his face. Whenever Harrison would pick the boy up, the little lad would cry, as he felt uncomfortable in his get-up…

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At the same time, children have this inate sense of loyalty towards both their parents… so they tend to go along with things, nine out of ten times. Sawyer’s mother herself identifies as a “non-binary lesbian”. Anyway, Harrison Tinsley reported the case child protective services and noted the little boy was clearly unhappy with the lifestyle forced onto him by his mother, who appears to be some sort of weirdo ideaologue. Was it ever about the best interests of the child? I doubt it. As soon as neutral observers from government agencies got involved, it is very telling how soon the child was removed from his mother’s custody.

[1]

What are the implications of “gender neutral parenting”? It comes from an ideology that the parent(s) adhere to. One in which no things ought to be ‘gendered’ and a child ideally should go by gender-neutral they/them pronouns until the child “figures out what he or she is” later in life. It’s never about what is best for the child — it is about ‘progressive’ parents living vicariously through their children and showing off how ‘forward thinking’ they are.

Footnotes

[1]

Dad wins full custody of son, 4, after child’s mother allegedly tried to raise him non-binary

Trust

It’s a flashing red warning sign.

Men’s fashion guide cards

Men, on a scale of 0 to 10, dressing WELL will add +4 points to your attractiveness scale.

The following are British style cards. Wearing any one of these coordinated outfits will set you way above all the rest. *wink*

(Not a paid endorsement. -MM)

NEVER Judge a Book By Its Cover! BIGGEST Surprises They Didn’t See Coming…

How has your appearance affected your life?

My appearance has always been a big topic, with stress of the word, BIG. I am 6′8″ tall and I weigh about 350 lbs. I have a sleeve of tattoos, and usually have a beard of some sort. I need to lose some weight, but having discussions with numerous people, they say I am not fat, per se…… I am just a huge individual.

the picture below, I am with three guys that I played football with in school. from left to right, a DB, a linebacker and a lineman. not really small guys

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here I am with three guys. the guy to my left, in his own right, is considered a big guy too

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And my personal favorite…… I was in a Halloween costume contest.

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I always loved the last photo. Mainly cause the girl to my left looks kinda afraid of me. (I dress up as Leatherface every year) btw, I won the contest

Being my size affects all aspects of my life. Clothing, vehicles, hell, just sitting in a chair makes me nervous, since I am not sure it is going to hold me. Nothing better than waiting in line to get on an airplane, only to have people looking at you hoping you aren’t seated beside them, or actually hearing that phrase said out loud. Funny thing is, I can sit on an airplane seat, and buckle the seatbeat just fine. One of the problems is the fact that my shoulders are almost 3 feet wide. Clothing is more expensive. Finding a reasonable priced vehicle to drive. My wife and i, when we first started dating, we never took her car anywhere. I couldn’t fit. Nothing like jumping into a hotel shower, and the shower head is about to my chest. Almost all mirrors, cut me off at the neck. Certain door frames, if I don’t remember to duck, concussion time.

When I first met my wife, and she was introducing me to her friends, she had warned me on the way to the party that some of the guys in the group were probably gonna mess with me. We show up, and everyone was super polite, and nothing was said or done to me. I later found out that the moment I walked in the door, all the guys looked at one another and decided to not mess with me.

In the Halloween picture above, after the contest, the bouncer at the bar came up to me, and demanded I remove my mask. When I asked why, he said, dude, I just gotta see what you look like. you are freaking me out.

My friends and family love going to festivals and crowded locations with me. Usually, they like how when I walk, usually people get out of my way. Also, they like to watch people watch me. The double takes, the staring. I used to have a problem with it, but I eventually just accepted that I am different physically. A lot of people think I am a big scary guy. A lot of people think I was a biker. In my youth, I also had a lot of problems at bars or clubs, cause there was always someone, drunk, with a little man complex. They wanted to fight the biggest guy in the bar, and guess who that usually was? I have come to embrace my size. I work a job where I speak with people on the phone. Every now and again, I have to go onsite to do trainings. I am very pleasant on the phone. Not to say I am not pleasant in person, but you don’t know how many times i have shown up to a location, and deal with weird looks, and usually throughout the training, it is usually mentioned that I do not look like I sound on the phone. or I wasn’t what they were expecting.

The funny thing is, I just think I am a little bigger than everyone. I don’t realize how much bigger I am until I see pictures. But I am actually a very caring, sensitive and sweet man. Or so my wife says…….

Putin – Xi interaction

What could be the potential consequences if the U.S. Navy blockaded all Chinese ports, including Hong Kong and Macau, at the same time?

LOL. Let the fools try The US military leadership already know the answer, and will in the most forceful terms possible tell the fools in the Biden/Harris or Trump administration that it is not possible.

The US military knows that a ship within a thousand miles of China if there is war will be in extensive danger.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/f-35-has-range-problem-china-would-love-exploit-210329

So if the US wants to lose every ship it commits to such stupidity, I guess it can try. The Chinese have a massive air-force, of which fighters such as the J20 are specifically designed with stealth to attack US shipping, and there are anti-ship ballistic missiles and cruise missiles that will take out anything will within a thousand miles of China.

The Chinese defense budget is specifically oriented to destroy any attempt by the US to come anywhere close to China.

The reason the US is moving out of Okinawa is because it would be impossible to supply or defend in a war.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240616/p2g/00m/0na/048000c#:~:text=In%20January%202023%2C%20defense%20and,Okinawa%20to%20Guam%20in%202024.

Really think the US would leave Okinawa if it was of value against the Chinese. Of course not. Keeping forces there would just be asking for them to be easily destroyed by the Chinese if there is a war.

If the US cannot defend Okinawa, then how are they going to be able to blockade China.

Just imagine the US bringing a super carrier force within range of China.

That would be immediately some 5000 men that would be dead on just the carriers, and the entire task force destroyed would be more men than was lost in 20 years of the war in the Middle East.

Duluth Bodycam is a Real Life “Fargo” Movie

What is the smartest thing you have ever done in an interview?

Showed up looking like a drowned rat. Summer between semesters . Would be my 1st job away from home on my own. My transportation was a 3 speed Schwinn from Western Auto. The day of the interview was the biggest rain storm ever. Walked in to the receptionist’s desk apologizing for the mess and if they would direct me to the janitor’s closet I would clean up behind myself. While she is bringing away from this over watered creature at the front of her desk, this older gentleman happened to be walking by and stopped. Asked me if I was there about the warehouse job. Yessir. He turned to her telling her to forget the application and interview. Just give him the new employer package W4 and whatever else he needs to sign. Turning back to me he puts out his hand to shake telling me there were 4 others that were supposed to come in and cLled off for the rain. And they had cats so I know you will be here when you’re supposed to be. Welcome aboard. Thus I met the founder and owner of Maddox Furniture Co. He and his 3 sons who had to work in every dept before getting an office. It was maybe 6 years later I was working a job A hundred miles away out in a parking lot when one of his sons walked up to me telling me I remember you. Had no idea who he was. My job with them he was in the office and I was hidden away in the warehouse but he remembered me. That was the kind of company that was. They always treated their employees decently. Of course I’m guessing his father took great pleasure telling all how he hired a drowned rat that just came swimming in.

Rap Fan FIRST time REACTION to PRINCE, Tom Petty – “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” No Way…

No way…!

Prince. The man is PRINCE!

What is China doing with respect to its own minorities?

I am a Muslim from China. My ethnic group in China is called “Hui”. I live in the eastern region of China where the Muslim population is very small. When I was in primary school, everyone had lunch provided by the school. But I couldn’t eat it because Muslims in China don’t eat pork. My classmates found this interesting, and my teacher specifically told everyone in class about Muslim dietary habits so they wouldn’t keep asking me questions.

Every year, my family (both my parents are Muslims) receives some “dietary subsidies” from the government, although it’s just a small amount today. The purpose is to allow Muslims to “buy some beef and mutton” because pork is cheaper compared to beef and mutton. So, it’s a goodwill policy.

When I finished junior high school at 15 and took the entrance exam for high school, my score was increased by 10 points by the government, also because I am a Muslim, which is a “special treatment” for ethnic minorities.

My maternal grandfather was an imam at the mosque. He didn’t go to school but studied Islamic knowledge and Quran recitation for a few years with a teacher from Henan Province (a province in central China with a relatively high Muslim population). He became an imam when I was about 5 years old. So, I have some impressions of him. I recorded these impressions on the Chinese social app Zhihu, which is China’s version of Quora. Please allow me to quote from my own article, which mainly describes how my grandfather, as a Muslim, interacted with the Han Chinese. Here is the quote:

My grandfather was an imam at the mosque in Xuzhou City from the age of 50 to 80. Before that, he worked at a glass shop on Fuxing Road in Xuzhou City. He passed away at the age of 96. He often said during his lifetime that he hoped to die on Friday, the Muslim “Jumu’ah day.” He passed away on a Friday. After breakfast, he suddenly felt unwell and passed away fifteen minutes later.

Here are some impressions he left on me during his time as an imam:

There were many Muslims in Xuzhou City in the 1980s, and many people came to him for help. In the area where I lived, it was customary to give a “tip” when asking for the imam’s help. However, if someone had no money at home, even if they offered compensation, he wouldn’t accept it.

The mosque in Xuzhou City was originally located near a street called “Tiehuo Street,” surrounded by many Han Chinese. My grandfather had a good relationship with all the Han Chinese neighbors. He often helped when there were weddings or funerals in Han Chinese households. Many Han Chinese would respectfully call him “Grandpa Imam.”

He always respected the Han Chinese way of life, so the Han Chinese also respected his ethnic customs. Once, a Han Chinese child about my age, around 5 or 6 years old, was walking and eating a piece of pork. When he met my grandfather, he politely asked, “Grandpa Imam, do you want some?” As soon as he finished speaking, the child’s grandmother slapped him from behind. My grandfather noticed the embarrassment and laughed heartily, saying to the child, “Sweetie, Grandpa will give you a piece of freshly cooked beef, which tastes better than your pork!”

In the 1990s, when the mosque was relocated, he donated half of his life savings. At the same time, if he knew that Han Chinese families were in trouble, he would also help with his meager income.

He may have had heart disease in middle age. In the 1980s, medical care in China was backward, and several doctors believed it was coronary heart disease. Before he passed away, several doctors who had treated him had also passed away, and my grandfather “defeated” the doctors. After the age of 80, one of his favorite pastimes was sitting in the small garden in front of his house, competing with some old men from the neighborhood to see who could spit farther.

I am his youngest grandson. But he had high hopes for me from a young age, hoping that I would attend an Islamic college and inherit his legacy. Although I didn’t follow his advice at all later, the understanding that “Hui and Han are one family” left a deep impression on me from a very young age.

From childhood, my grandfather taught me to recite the Shahada, tell stories from the Quran, teach me how to pray, and tell me about Islamic holidays. Although I am now 43 years old and live in an area with very few Muslims, I still adhere to Islamic customs. However, I have never promoted religious knowledge when going out. I only give specific answers when friends ask questions because it’s my private matter.

I have always expressed respect for missionaries of other religions I encounter. Because in this secular land of China, behind many missionaries are the ups and downs of personal destinies, and even tragic lives. Expressing respect and understanding is the most basic courtesy.

Quote ends.

Finally, if someone asks me what China has done for its Muslims, I would say that it has achieved harmony and peace.

When Package Thieves Get Instant Karma

Classical art

Man Left The U.S. For Thailand And Never Came Back

Captain Antonille

Andrew Grell

CAPTAIN ANTONILLE

By Andrew Paul Grell

“Au contraire, mon ami. I predate the elves. What you call Homo habilis. I prefer Mensch on a Bench.”

“Either way. You’re not all that much bigger than that doll and you’re sitting, legs a-dangle, on the bar. And either way, we’re out of gas, my little living doll.”

“We’re the cultural attachés, it’s not up to us. Trust Captain Antonille, he’s even older than I am, and Captain Crunch, she’s older than him.”

“Oh, great. That’s right, diminish the human crew in favor of your tiny Kapteyn’s Star people from that diminutive planet you call home.

“I can ask you the same thing, how does it feel to live on a little tiny planet whizzing by, never finding a home? You know we discovered you by accident, right?”

“I’ll be there with more than six bells on. Little elf shoe bells.”

# # #

“My dear Captain Kangaroo.”

“My dear friend, Captain Antonille. Thank you for receiving me in your in space cabin. We seem to be adrift. Nice collection you’ve got there. Is it a complete set?”

“Most likely, my dear Captain Antonille. But I believe our agenda involves hydrogen, specifically the lack thereof. And I have pilfered precious moments of our time on comic books.”

“Captain Antonille, I believe we do.”

# # #

“The dome it is, my sweet babou. Let’s take the Centrifugal River route, perhaps a canoe ride to the bubble.

“This is quite romantic, you big oaf. Tell me, Dick, when you get back home, will our relationship be a subject of male privilege?”

“Why so, my pet?”

“ATTENTION, ATTENTION. ALL HANDS PREPARE FOR ACCELERATION COMMENICNG IN FIVE MINUTES. PROCEDE TO THE NEAREST GRAVITY COUCHES IMMEDIATELY. ATTENTION, ATTENTION.”

“Probably a drill, Dick.”

“Get on a viewing chair, I’ll get on top of you.”

“Big oaf, trying to get some action when we may be killed at any moment.”

“ATTENTION, ATTENTION. PREPARE FOR IMMEDIATE MOMENT-ARM QUAKE.”

“Wow. If my grandparents could have something like that, they’d still be together. Whew. Hey, Dick, what is that?”

“Care to enlighten me, big boy?”

“Could be. How should I know? I’m an art professor.

“Ow! Hey! Oooh. Ouch.”

“Yip, you OK?”

“I think the radius of my radius has been altered in a very painful way.”

“C’mon, I’m getting you out of here. There’s an exit. I know it’s undignified, but I’m carrying you.”

“Yutz? Putz? JonJon? What are you idiots doing here? There’s an acceleration warning.”

“We could ask you the same thing. And what are you doing here, praying to his imaginary god of his for hydrogen? And what are you doing with him?”

“We’re enjoying the show. Now get your toe bells down to where you’re needed if this isn’t a drill.”

“Dick, I don’t like this. They were perfectly normal engineers when we boarded. It looks like, well, I hate to see us acting like, well, you folks. Present company excepted, of course.”

“Of course.”

“Good thing the ship was designed to have g-couches for both species in each cabin. Whoa, there we go.”

“OMG; I would say that if I thought there were a G. Wow, that was even better than the moment-arm quake. By the way, you make a great comfy pillow for a great big oaf. Mmmm…”

# # #

“I do.”

“You bet I’ll take that big oaf, skipper!”

“I have no objection, alien.”

“Do you have anything to say before punishment is administered?”

“I have plenty to say. This mixing of species is not going to end well. They will infect us with their louche habits and their barbaric ways. Mark my words.”

“Punishment squad, rejoin ranks.”

“Punishment squad, report.”

“Aye, Aye, Sir. Punishment has been duly and justly meted out.”

“Captain Crunch, you have been punished. Return to your post and continue to make sure this ship gets where it’s going safely.

“Dismissed!”

What are the best examples of people who have “gamed the system”?

Originally Answered: What are the best examples of people gaming the system?

In Seattle, there are a lot of people who live on the waterfront (in Lake Union). There are two types of floating life shelters: Floating Homes and Houseboats.

Houseboats are one of the most ingenious ways I’ve ever seen of gaming the system. It’s a pretty long, but very interesting story. Read on:

Back in the early 1900s, people who could not afford a house on land in Seattle started building simple house-like structures using some logs and put them on Lake Union and started living there. Since the lake was open to the public, anybody was allowed to build such a “floating home” free of cost and live there.

People who lived on such floating homes did not pay any property taxes. On realizing that, a lot of people who lived on land started moving to the lake and naturally it started getting crowded. Since these floating homes did not have proper sewage system, people started to dump all their waste on the lake and hence it started to become a mess.

The City of Seattle then decided enough is enough, and drew up some regulations on how many floating homes will be allowed on the lake and designated certain spots in the lake to be for the exclusive use of floating homes. Since the number of homes were limited and they were always docked, they also decided to hard wire them into the city’s sewer and electricity systems. Thereby, floating homes were started to be considered as regular homes and people needed to pay property taxes on them.

Here’s the floating home used in the movie “Sleepless in Seattle”:

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When something becomes “limited edition”, obviously prices go up. So all of a sudden, what was once the home of people who could not afford a house became a limited edition floating home that started to go for millions of dollars. Also, sewage and electricity were no more an issue.

Now, there were this new class of people who couldn’t afford a home on the land, and obviously not the waterfront as well. So they just started to put a roof on their boats, and started living there. Since they were just regular boats, there was no restriction on how many such boats could be in the lake as long they are registered vessels. It gradually evolved and today’s “boats” look like this:

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You see what they did there? It’s a lake and obviously the city cannot put a limit on the number of boats allowed on the lake. These “boats” are registered as vehicles to the DMV and are authorized to be in the lake wherever and whenever they want. The only restriction being, “they should be able to move on their own”. So all they need is to have a motor underneath that will help them achieve that criteria.

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If you look closely at the above photo, you can see a Honda motor attached to it on the bottom left. It’s very impractical for the city to enforce that rule on a day-to-day basis. So most of these boats, even though they self-propel at the time they are registered to the DMV, they hardly remain so throughout the year.

So today, you can find a lot of such “Houseboats” on the waterfront of Lake Union in Seattle.

This was a story that was told to me when I took the Ride The Ducks of Seattle tours in Seattle. It’s really an awesome tour, and I highly recommend taking it if you are visiting Seattle.

Explained: ‘Western Conspiracy’ To Create A New Christian Nation In The Region That Sheikh Hasina Revealed Months Before Ouster….

With the recent removal of Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina from power, questions are swirling about whether global regime change actors played a role in her ouster.

Although the immediate catalyst for her downfall was widespread anger over the jobs quota system, the US and other Western powers had signalled their disapproval of Hasina openly ahead of the January elections, which she ultimately won.

As the US employed its usual “defence of democracy” rhetoric to criticise Hasina and pressured her to meet the demands of the Opposition, which is predominantly composed of Islamists and extremists hostile to democratic values, Hasina made an intriguing revelation.

She alleged that a Western power is conspiring to establish a Christian state in this region, similar to East Timor.

While Hasina did not elaborate any further, leaders of her party, the Awami League, later told Swarajya that what Hasina meant was that an independent ‘Zo’ state, comprising areas of Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Mizoram, inhabited by the Kuki-Chin-Mizo people is being incubated by a Western power.

“Like East Timor, they will carve out a Christian country, taking parts of Bangladesh and Myanmar with a base in the Bay of Bengal,” Hasina had said.

She had not mentioned that the project — of creating a Christian country — also includes parts of North East India, but that would have been an “unintentional omission” on her part, Awami League leaders told Swarajya.

The Kuki-Chin-Mizo people have, in recent years, started calling themselves collectively as ‘Zo’ people.

They are also aspiring for ‘Zogam’, or a homeland for the Zo people, comprising large parts of the Chin state of Myanmar, the Indian state of Mizoram, and Kuki-inhabited areas of Manipur, and the Bandarban district and adjoining areas of Bangladesh’s Chittagong division.

All these areas are contiguous to each other and, except for Mizoram, are experiencing militancy by Kuki-Chin terror groups.

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Cop Realizes the Dismembered Body is Alive

https://youtu.be/0RIA1zVKlvU

Have you ever seen someone ruin their life in just a few seconds? How did they do it?

I was living in a fraternity in 1978 when a blizzard shut down the city of Boston, and our university. The blizzard had dumped about 30 inches of snow in 24 hours.

Having no classes to go to, some of my frat brethren grew restless. Someone suggested we jump out the second story window onto the snow pack, which was, after all, 30 inches plus, and surely sufficient to break our fall.

Well, after a few jumps, the challenge wore off and people started jumping out the third floor window. Onto the same spot. That went on for a while; my memory fails me a bit but 15-ish people made that jump.

You can see it coming. The third floor was getting too easy. Let’s move on to the fourth floor. Never mind that the snow, in the mean time, had been compacted significantly. Many of us tried to discourage the jumpers. Some third floor jumpers said “no thanks”. But some moved to the fourth floor.

The first jumper landed hard. He got up and started gesturing that this was not such a good idea, and that we’d better stop. The second guy jumped. And sat there, in the snow. While I can’t remember all the details of that afternoon, I have a very vivid memory of him just sitting there, staring in front of himself, mumbling something about not being able to feel his legs.

The ambulance came. We saw him in the hospital, and he came out in a wheelchair. I’ve lost contact, but to the best of my knowledge he remained a paraplegic the rest of his life. Because of a bad decision to jump into a snow bank that had compacted into ice.

And in case you think I’m talking about a rowdy alcohol-consuming drug-using frat boy, this was a very intelligent, low-key, gentle, thoughtful individual, a grad student at one of the best universities in the US. With a thrill seek that put him in a wheelchair. I still can’t fully grasp it.

Scamming Women

Asian Fusion Breakthrough

It’s the supply chain, stupid

Godfree Roberts

Aug 7

The first electricity generated by controlled nuclear fusion must come from our country, and we are working towards this goal. Lu Tiezhong, Chairman, China National Nuclear Power, September, 2023.

Amid growing concerns over a world energy crisis, controlled nuclear fusion¹ is viewed by experts and industry as the ultimate solution to humanity’s need for infinite, clean, cheap energy. Once science fiction, it’s now a ferociously competitive field, as teams worldwide compete to make it a reality. Yet our media are ignoring the most exciting scientific news of this century

The Technology

The most popular approach to fusion energy uses tokamaks, whose superconducting magnets generate powerful fields that confine hydrogen atoms so that they fuse into heavier atoms and give off excess energy in the process.

In 2007 a multinational consortium raised $20 billion to build ITER, a tokamak² fusion-containment reactor to demonstrate fusion plasma in 2026. ITER chose exotic, low-temperature superconductors to cool its magnets, their astronomical cost, complexity, bulk, and massive amounts of energy for cooling discouraged Chinese scientists at ITER, but their experience created a large talent pool of outstanding fusion engineers.

In 2001, Energy Singularity Corp³, a private Shanghai company, raised $1 billion to build HH7, a tokamak fusion-containment reactor. Energy Singularity chose cheap, high-temperature superconductors, HTS, to generate stronger magnetic fields in smaller, cheaper, faster machines than ITER’s and its first tokamak, HH7 achieved a plasma density⁴ high enough for commercial goals last month. Yasmin Andrew, a nuclear scientist at Imperial College London, said several private companies (Bill Gates funds one) are working on fusion, but HH70 is the first tokamak to achieve a plasma.

Energy Singularlity’s CEO Yang stressed that using high-temperature superconducting materials can reduce the volume of a device to 2% of that of traditional low-temperature superconducting devices, and shorten the construction period from the original 30 years to 3-4 years to build a tokamak device with a Q>10 (a ten-fold return on power, or 500 MW of fusion power from 50 MW of input power. COO Ye Yuming promised that their next reactor, HH170, will be the smallest, cheapest tokamak capable of achieving a 10-fold energy gain. Its field strength will be 110% of SPARC and its volume 70% of SPARC (the MIT tokamak above), enabling further cost reduction.

MIT’s Dennis Whyte says the domestic supply chain and technology development are critical as fusion technology advances, “It is no longer just studied for science’s sake but is pivoting towards implementation as a new energy source”.

The exotic HTS tapes in the HH70, for example, come from Shanghai Superconductor, a global supplier since 2011 and one of six that mass-produces HTS tapes. This year, Energy Point Corp, another member of the fusion supply chain, will deliver 25 Tesla, D-shaped high-temperature magnets – ten times stronger than HH70’s 2.5 Tesla magnetic field, and construction of HH170 will begin next year. Work on a tokamak fusion power plant, HH380, will begin around 2030.

New energy, new industry

Significantly, 93% of the high-temperature superconducting tokamak was sourced from China’s domestic fusion industrial chain and 100% of its IP is entirely indigenous.

China’s Secret Sauces

Andrew Holland, CEO of the Fusion Industry Association, fears that the fusion industry will follow the pattern of the solar industry, where manufacturing came to be dominated by China. “It’s very clear that China has ambitions to do the same thing, both in the supply chain and in the developers,” he said. “It’s time for the US to respond to this challenge”.

But China’s consistent policy support, generous funding, domestic supply chain, large-scale manufacturing experience and vast, highly educated workforce give the country an immense, first-mover advantage in the engineering implementation of nuclear fusion technology and, potentially, creating a new era of sanity and joy.

Hydrogen Bombs are unconfined nuclear fusion events.

Russia created T-1, the first tokamak, in 1958.

Energy Singularity was established in Shanghai in 2021, focusing on commercially viable high-temperature superconducting tokamak devices and their operational control software systems. The company’s shareholders include miHoYo, developer of Genshin Impact, and EV maker, NIO.

The higher the density the more nuclei packed together, increases the chances of a fusion event. “Plasma density is the Goldilocks factor in nuclear fusion: too low, and the fusion reactions won’t happen, too high, and the plasma becomes unstable. Finding and staying in the sweet spot is essential for achieving the high-energy-density plasmas needed for sustainable fusion power”.

There is an old saying for what the US government is doing.

With friends like these, who needs enemies. The US is the worst enemy of US companies. US companies are being killed by the Neo-cons in their jihad against China.

I wonder what the Chinese are thinking. Is this real?!? Is this some sort of trick? Or are the people in the US government really that stupid? Nobody is that dumb for that long right? It’s been almost 8 years they’ve been doing this. How dumb do you have to be to continue even though it isn’t working?

Some of my MM art experiments

Theme is dinner prep.

Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 3(1)

Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 2(1)

Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 3

Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 2

Is it seriously true that “Han Chinese” and overseas Chinese are taught to believe Chinese toilets and restrooms in the public in China are cleaner than the ones in Japan and South Korea?

Is it true that we are taught to think that public toilets in mainland China are cleaner than those in Japan and Korea (South)?

There, that is the more precise question.

The simple answer is no, especially to those born before 2000s and has parents or elders who had visited their hometown back in the Mainland.

Going there involves off-roading, literally, since paved roads were non-existent outside cities like Fuzhou or Xiamen.

What we hear was:

It is very cold, outdoorish, smelly, and dirty
They re-use the crap for fertilizer and bio gas for cooking
The toilet are mostly makeshift squat type and waterless
The toilet blind is chest high, you can see everyone doing their business while squatting

Today though, if you use Google map and see the area, the remote village is now a proper small town with modern high rise apartment and highway access. Must be quite a miracle to see that transformation in just 20 years.

There are KFCs and sizeable shopping mall in the town centre. Back then, the village has eateries at all, only public communal cafeteria.

I have no experience at all with that part of China. I visited Japan much more often, and from what I can see, the decline is pretty much visible. From the cleanest robot toilet in public restroom, to floating crap inside shinkansen – left by a frail Japanese oba-san nonetheless. During busy and peak holiday season like the Golden Week – you can’t count on drunken and frustrated Japanese venting-off to keep things squeaky clean.

However, worry not. East Asia in general is generally far cleaner than the rest of the world. Rich countries like Australia and those western Europeans are generally far more awful at keeping public restrooms clean, even when compared to some Southeast Asian countries.

Cops Make the Worst Discovery of Their Lives

https://youtu.be/L6Igs5d-cbs

Why are so many Millennials dropping out of college?

I graduated but my six friends all dropped out and I’ll tell you why and it isn’t pretty. High school is a joke. The teachers, pushed by the school to have a 98% graduation rate gives you what to study. They tell you what to highlight, what areas to study, what is important and what isnt important. The classes are dumbed down so smart kids can practically pass without trying which then makes them think they dont need to study. Meanwhile the average learners are like this is easy and the struggling kids think they got it.

Then college hits and these kids struggle because they never got the chance to develop the proper study skills needed for college.

However high schools did one more bad thing. They said they can do anything they want and never settle. A friend of mine wanted to be a doctor but didn’t have the study skills or skills needed. However even when I brought up EMT, medical technicians and stuff she was capable of she denied it because she only wanted to be a doctor. When she discovered she had no choice, she dropped out.

My other friend was gifted. He was smart but in high school, he never had to do homework or study to gets straight As. He failed journalism and realized college wasn’t for him. He is a UPS driver now and is happy. He got a fiancée. He is making pretty good money.

My other friend wanted to do women’s study. She was halfway through when she wised up and researched what a women studies degree will get her. She wasnt happy. She quit and instead became a vet technician. I trust her with my cats and it’s good to see a success story. But she didnt finish college, she went to certification instead.

My other friend wanted to be a doctor. She dropped out when she got pregnant. Too much studying whilst constantly sick.

My other two friends had no idea what they wanted to be. They just knew they had to go to college because it is expected and high school teachers said life without a degree is bad. One made it six months, another a year. Both went to trade schools instead to become plumbers. Both make more money than I do.

I graduated with my BA in psychology. I am a ABA technician. If I want to move up, I need to get my masters but I don’t want to add 30,000 in student loans. Definitely not when I’m finally down to eight grand in my current student loans.

Plus, if I do go back to school, I no longer want to do psychology. It’s too overcrowded so work isn’t easy to come by. I would want to go into the medical field but as a technician. I have no want to be a doctor and go back to eight more years of school.

The reasons why millennials are dropping out of college are because: too many people have degrees, which dilutes the work field; people aren’t realistic with their abilities; everybody wants to be a programmer or a doctor because they make great money but most people don’t have the skills to do it; the price is ridiculous; and our educational system failed to train them for college.

When a Welfare Check Turns Into a Murder Investigation

What’s something a doctor did to you that you won’t ever forget?

‘Calm down, kid. Scroll Instagram. And I’ll be back in 20 minutes, with a negative Corona report,’ the doctor said.

About a month back, I was going through high fever alongside irking cold.

My CRP was 42. I thought I had ‘that’ virus. And just when I was panicking overly, I met this super cool doctor.

It wasn’t a private hospital. Or his private clinic. I went to have my RAT in a government hospital.

When I reached the hospital, I asked many doctors for help. And guess what, they weren’t even replying to me.

One female doctor even halted me from coming into her cabin, when she got to know I was asking about the antigen test.

But when I met this doctor (the kind one)— my perspective about the government hospital changed. Totally.

He asked me to sit back and relax. Then he put a thin needle-tube into my nose, and collected the sample.

‘Calm down, kid. Scroll Instagram. And I’ll be back in 20 minutes, with a negative Corona report,’ he said.

‘Okay,’ I said, faking a smile.

Twenty minutes later, exactly, he came where I was sitting and asked me to come to his cabin.

‘Congratulations,’ he said. ‘You’re tested negative for Corona. It’s just a viral fever. Isn’t it a big news?’

‘Yes,’ I said.

I was so elated with my negative report, and with him, too, that I asked him—

‘Can I take a photo, please?’

‘Of the report, of course.’

‘No, no, no.’ I said. ‘I want to take a photo of you.’

‘What makes you take a photo of me?’

‘I’ve been circling this hospital from 9 AM, and no one was willing to help me.’ I expressed. ‘But you were different. You cared. It’s different from a private hospital. Here you’ll get paid no matter how wickedly you behave with your patients. But you chose not to. Instead, you were a little extra polite to me. I really appreciate that.’

I took a short delay, studies his face (he was smiling), and continued;

‘I’m sort of a writer. I write on a site where I fetch good views. I want to write about you there. If that’s okay with you, of course. And also, you’re wearing double-mask and all. So I don’t think a photo alongside my answer would hurt you.’

He had a hanger wide smile on his face after I said all this, to him.

‘That’s my duty,’ he said. ‘Patients are already wired when they come to the doctor. And being treated badly, is probably the last thing they want in that position.’

‘True.’ I said, and clicked his photo. ‘Okay, then. Have a nice day, doctor.’

‘You, too.’ he said. ‘Take a good care of yourself.’

He was an absolute gem, wasn’t he?

What was your first “What did I get myself into” moment in the military?

Marine boot camp is tougher and longer than the other branches. The scariest moment I experienced that the words “What the hell did I get myself into, this time?” whispered out of my lips as I got off the dang bus. Everything after that was cool. Well, maybe not cool but I wasn’t scared any more. My feet hit the yellow foot prints and figured, “I got this.” The gas chamber was a blast. Seriously. I smoked so when the Charlie Sierra gas got to me it didn’t phase me. I didn’t cough, my nose was dry, my eyes didn’t water but when I walked out of the chamber my Senior was standing with two other SDIs and called me over. I reported, he asked me if I liked it in there. I didn’t want to say yes but certainly wasn’t going to say no. “Sir, yes, sir!” He told me to go back in without my mask. Came back out still smiling. I heard him tell the others “That one can eat that shit for breakfast.” If you’d seen what everybody looks like coming out of the gas chamber you’d know my condition is rare. Everybody coughs, eyes watering, nasal passages fill with liquid snot, your eyes burn so you try to open them here and there not to bump into anything. Their head is down, some puke, and the whole time still coughing and blind. As you walk out you raise your arms and walk into the wind to blow it off. If you try to rub it off it burns your skin even longer. Anyway, once you realize, “I got this.” it’s all fun and games from then on.

TOP “Sixth Sense Ending” Reactions Spoiler | Movie Reaction

What are the best examples of people who have “gamed the system”?

J.D. McMahon, a forgotten yet fascinating confidence man of Wichita. He was the mastermind behind one of the most notorious scams in early 20th-century America: the construction of the world’s smallest skyscraper.

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In 1919, during the peak of a petroleum boom in Wichita County, Texas, McMahon saw an opportunity to exploit the rapid growth and demand for office space in Wichita Falls, the booming hub of the region.

As businesses flocked to the area, the need for office space soared. McMahon, who owned an oil construction company, proposed an ambitious plan to build a skyscraper on an adjacent empty lot to accommodate this need. The idea was well-received, and investors quickly pooled $200,000 (equivalent to $2.7 million today) into the project.

However, McMahon had a clever trick up his sleeve. The investors, eager to profit from the boom, didn’t scrutinize the blueprints he provided. These plans detailed a building that was 480 inches tall—not 480 feet, as the investors assumed. When construction was completed, the so-called skyscraper was a mere four stories high, measuring just 40 feet in height, 12 feet in length, and nine feet in width.

To add insult to injury, McMahon’s building was not even equipped with an elevator, as the elevator company withdrew from the project. Instead, a ladder was initially used to access the upper floors, and later, a narrow staircase was installed, which occupied a significant portion of the building’s already limited interior space.

When the investors realized they had been duped, they attempted to sue McMahon. However, the lawsuit failed as the documents clearly stated the building’s dimensions, though in inches rather than feet. McMahon had stayed within the bounds of the contract, and the investors had no legal recourse.

After completing the building, McMahon vanished, taking most of the $200,000 with him. Today, the Newby-McMahon Building still stands as a quirky landmark, housing an antique store and artist’s studio, and is recognized as a Texas Historic Landmark and part of the National Register of Historic Places.

Controversial!! Indians REACT to The Simpsons: HOMER AND APU GO TO INDIA!

What aspects of Chinese culture could the world learn from?

When I lived in China, I saw many things that I wished the world would come to appreciate about China, and do them the Chinese way. Here my favourites:

Two-hour lunch breaks. In China, university campuses are huge, so in order to reach the restaurant or cafeteria, you need time. There is something wonderful about these long walks at mid day, across a huge, park like campus, and a great, slow meal with many dishes.
Public sleep. Nowhere else in the world are people so relaxed about taking a nap when they need it. It is good for your health, and it is nice to see people trusting their environment so much.
The Path of the Middle. This is a huge concept that books have been written about, which we all should read. But it boils down to “avoid extremes.” It also means to prepare well, save up, keep yourself comfortable. I think we westerners have been glorifying extremes for too long.
Parent-child-attachment. Chinese children maintain a life long relationship with their parents that is much stronger than what we westerners tend to have. You get so many lonely old people in Europe and North America who actually have children, but barely have contact with them. China does that better.
Multi-dish-meals. A good meal is often measured by how many dishes were served. Whenever I sit down to my plate of Spaghetti Aglio e Olio, I am thinking “in Shanghai, there would have been at least four different choices now.” It makes for a much nicer meal.
Constant negotiation. You notice this after a while in China. Nobody ever goes straight for something, but everything requires input from both sides. “When shall we meet?””How about 13:00?””Hmm… 14:00?” “13:30.””Ok.” This is also how they walk, how they drive, how they do business… you always feel accommodated.
Acknowledgement through imitation. This aspect is perhaps the most misunderstood about China, and it explains the knock-off culture to a certain extent. In China, there is nothing wrong with imitating someone or something. It merely states that you respect someone or something as “the best.” And even we westerners know that imitation can be a shortcut to mastery. But we are so obsessed with our stupid old “every man for himself” and “gotta be original or die” that we totally miss this very useful tool completely.
Saving face. Diplomacy in China goes a bit further than ours. It is perhaps comparable to what the British often do; they will generally ensure nobody ever looks bad in any situation, so they will go to great lengths in planning things to make sure of it.

What would I face if I fell into a grain silo, what would my chance of survival be in the silo?

Ooh, pretty slim I’m afraid. It’s not a good environment. I used to build grain dryers, which are silos that heat up sweetcorn, for animal consumption, until it is dry enough, and then drops it down into the base. From there a screw will ‘pump’ it out into a storage silo.

One day, the screw ‘bunged’ up. So I, the newbie, had to go in and clear it. I was all keen in those days and was ready to leap in with my pole and start stabbing around at the hole in the bottom of the silo.

The ‘old-un’ grabbed me by the collar just as I was climbing through the hatch to drop down into the dune.

He said;- “if you do that, we’ll have to send in a team to dig your body out” more or less, (in French).

They tied me into a harness and kept a good tension on the rope. I was amazed — corn will let you ‘down’ but not up. You have nothing to push against. You just keep sinking, slowly, but surely, as you move. If you stay utterly immobile you stick. But if you move you just descend. You could lie on your back, but not much more.

Many years later I was at a party where in the next field there was a waste grain pit that some of the party-goers were betting each other about getting over it. Two of the party-goers were seriously traumatised, even though the pit was only six feet deep.

If you are on your own in a grain or corn/sweetcorn silo, for whatever reason — do not move. Not even a finger, you just stay still. When you hear someone, whistle loudly, scream, but do not move.

However, if they start up the transfer screw, (Archimedes screw) you are screwed. They make a lot of noise and you’ll not be heard as the centre of the grain starts descending. If you are in the top of a silo with many meters of grain below you, you’ll be sucked down. The trap where the screw entry is won’t kill you straight away — it might rip your foot off though, and should stall the motor, unless it’s a big one, in which case it could pull your entire leg off.

If your head goes under the grain/corn/whatever, you’re dead by asphyxiation/suffocation.

If you meet the screw, you’re dead — loss of blood/trauma/shock.

Be wise, don’t get in a silo unless the access hatch is open, the fuses are out of the screw, and there is no grain/whatever present.

Even when empty, don’t go in there with a cigarette… I saw a flash fire in a flour silo once. Amazing!

For interesting and pretty scary reading here is a link that I found to give you a better idea of what I am talking about.

Life threatening grain bin encounters

Fun reading…

How China leaped 15 years ahead of the world in nuclear power: the same way as in everything else

Some notes on the up-coming election, the Biden step-down, and entering a new Geo-political reality

I typically pre-load (schedule) posts to go public on MM about four months late. This serves various needs, but essentially it allows the “filter of time” to let the reader to process events out of the context of the major news cycles of the MSM propaganda machines.

I find it useful for purposes of perspective.

For instance, when someone tries to warn me against China’s 6G technology I plop them in a time machine and tell them about all the warnings of 5G (makes your brain explode), 4G (steal your data), 3G (gas pumps explode), and 2G (planes fall out of the sky).

I think it adds perspective.

The 2024 election is gonna arrive any day now. Woo Woo! And everyone is expecting big changes. After all, Biden was nothing more than a sock-puppet under the control of a bunch of ivy-league schoolboys now fast-tracking to oligarch-hood.

I am of the opinion that yes, things will change. But the systemic issues that rest bend the curtains will not. The United States is still in a tail-spin, but still at least someone is trying to land the plane. For Pete’s sake.

As I write this, “president” Biden has “decided” to not run for reelection.22 JULY 2024. The sarcastic side of me has a lot to say about this, but I’ll give it a rest for you all. In any event 2024 has been one Hell of a Dragon year. Sheech!

OP-ED -- As reported on this website on July 18 (Story Here) Joe Biden has DROPPED-OUT of the Presidential race and will NOT seek re-election.

The deceitful, lying, sleazebags that make up a majority of the Democrat Party, have been in chaos since the Biden-Trump Debate, because they could no longer hide Biden's deteriorating mental condition, which they intentionally hid from the public for the past two years.

So craven are the Democrats to keep power, they were willing to engage in elder abuse; ganging-up on the poor old man, harassing him out the door of the campaign.

It ought to be interesting to see who these power-hungry vermin try to promote as their candidate for President now that we're less than 100 days from the election.  I suggest that washed-up, has-been, old hag, Hillary Clinton, with trans-gendered "Michelle" Obama.  I think an old Witch and a trans-gendered freak would epitomize what the Democrat party stands for nowadays!

Now, of course, Biden becomes more dangerous than ever.  He can implement, via Executive Order, all the radical-left-wing (Romper-room-level) ideas because he doesn't have to care at all whether anyone likes it or not.

Don’t get too caught up.

Lots and lots of strange “puzzle pieces” show up and disappear in the night. Our worn out and tired brains let them wash over us. But many are too alarming to dismiss.

Cloud Strike complete failure all over the West after an “update”.
Zelenskyy is in Utah.
Democrat political party in a cash-fighting frenzy.
China’s slow steady observance of the entire fiasco
Trump selection of JD Vance
Biden disappearance, and then step-down / out

So what is really going on?

Forged signiture on stationary announcing Biden step down

Let me tell you.

The deck chairs on the Titanic are all being rearranged, but the ship still is slowing sinking into the dark, dark abyss.

Everything else is theater.

Today…

What’s a historical fact that would shock most people to find out?

In 1980, a family of four moved into an apartment in a newly built building in Ukraine. However, just within a year of moving into their new house, the elder child who was 18 years old became severely sick. She was taken to a hospital and was diagnosed with leukaemia, a type of cancer that targets the body’s blood-forming tissues and bone marrow. The girl soon passed away within a few months of being diagnosed with cancer.

In less than a year, the younger child of the house who was 16 years showed the same symptoms. He was taken to the hospital and was diagnosed with leukaemia. He passed away soon after. Very soon the mother also lost her life and she was also diagnosed with leukaemia. Leukaemia being hereditary is very rare and it is highly unlikely that it was passed on from the mother to the children but at that time, it was declared that the reason those three patients had blood cancer was due to family genetics.

Gradually, other residents of the building too started to fall sick. None had any life-threatening diseases but they weren’t fully fit either. The man, having lost his family sold his house and moved away from there. Locals started to call that apartment ‘cursed apartment’. A new family moved into that cursed apartment. In 1987, the eldest son of the family passed away and he was diagnosed with leukaemia. While he was being cremated, the younger child of the house was in hospital and he was being treated for leukaemia as well. The boy also passed away soon after.

Meanwhile, the father got to know about the history of leukaemia of the previous residents and it was evident that there was something wrong with the house. The city council started to investigate in 1989. Radiologists found air samples highly radioactive and just as they entered the building, they were recording ten times more radioactivity than normal. They found the source of the radioactivity to be a wall just beside the bed where the family members used to sleep.

The wall was covered with lead sheets and cut out of the house and inside the wall, a capsule of radioactive Caesium-137 inside the concrete was found and that was emitting this ridiculous amount of radiation over the years. The capsule had a serial number which was traced to a densometer that was used in a stone quarry to measure the density of stones. One time, the Caesium-137 capsule got misplaced from the densometer and it wasn’t found. Turns out, the Caesium capsule got mixed with stones which were used to make the concrete that was made into that wall of that “cursed apartment” which took the lives of 5 people and severely affected 17 other in that building.

What companies have gotten destroyed by their business competition?

How do you win a war?

Just ask Netflix

Reed Hastings (founder of Netflix) had a big fight ahead of him. He had just finished watching the movie he rented called “Apollo 13” and he returned it to Blockbuster six weeks late. They charged him for returning the movie late.

Hastings launched a new company called Netflix in complete anger. He did not believe people should have to pay for returning a movie late!!!

Hastings had a plan.

Netflix realised that people wanted as many movies as they could get delivered to them. Therefore, Netflix started as a DVD rentals-by-mail service. Netflix was smart and they made a huge discovery.

Perhaps DVDs don’t have to be delivered physically.

Netflix came up with a genius idea that would change the way they did business. They would start a streaming subscription service where someone could watch movies on their computer or another streaming device.

Netflix started to win the market. Hastings believed that he could make money from selling Netflix. Hastings took Netflix and made a pitch to Blockbuster.

Netflix has seen tremendous growth in previous months and we will offer you Netflix for $50 million.

Blockbuster laughed.

Nobody wants to go to Netflix! People like to physically go to a shop and pick out the DVD they want to buy.

Hastings walked away with nothing. Once again, he was angry. He started marketing Netflix and grossly undercutting Blockbuster on price.

Little by little, Netflix grew its customer base and started to outcompete Blockbuster. Blockbuster tried everything to stop Netflix. Hastings famously said that Blockbuster was throwing “everything but the kitchen sink” at Netflix.

A few days later, Blockbuster physically delivered a kitchen sink to Hastings’ house. The Blockbuster era was over.

In the summer of 2010, Blockbuster declared bankruptcy and Netflix became one of the most recognised brands globally with an annual gross profit of $5.8 billion in 2018 (59.21% increase from 2017 according to macrotrends)

If you are interested, I will leave a few Netflix tips in the comments. I hope you enjoyed the story!

As a landlord, what was the most bizarre thing you found after a tenant moved out of your rental?

There are so many bizarre things that I have found as a landlord….

One time we took over a house after an old widow passed on.

The 95-year-old woman died. Her home—the upstairs anyway—was pristine 1960s-1970s decor and appliances.

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She still had the green shag carpet from 1972—well cared for and in good shape. The Avocado-colored stove and fridge were there and still worked. There was even a console stereo with record player, AM/FM and a reel-to-reel tape player.

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In addition to this there was an overflowing library of Jehovah’s witness religious materials, tracts, Baptist literature, and MORMON Bibles. There was Catholic and Jewish materials. There was pagan literature. Maybe she couldn’t make up her mind?

It’s just, that—there was a lot of all of this — piles of all of it.

The cream of the crop was a King James Version Bible from 1801.

Inside of the record player pocket, I found LP (long play) albums by Beethoven, Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash—AND—get this…RUSH 2112, A Farewell to Kings, Caress of Steel, and Fly by Night. The old woman was a Rush fan! Incredible!

Fairly clean house—but I kept wondering—-What is that smell?

Then I went to the basement level.

This home had a walk-out basement, with a garage door and garage bay on one end.

Here is where I had to go full haz-mat. Someone had tossed down a 100-pound sack of cat food and left the door open.

I found no fewer than 38 feral cats. All with mange, some with eyeballs missing or hanging out—dead opossum and mice and rats, birds, squirrels and other critters everywhere…Inside the garage.

All of these dead animals, including at least a dozen kitten skeletons, were in differing modes of decomposition. There was everything from recently dead to full skeleton.

SHIT was everywhere. Ankle deep shit—everywhere. Feral kittens, half starved, ribs showing—flea infested, covered in mange, open sores and cat shit.

I had to call animal control for help. They helped me to trap the worst of the lot, and hauled them off for euthanization. Some of the kittens were eventually adopted out.

The majority of the feral animals that couldn’t be caught were destroyed by shotgun.

It was the humane thing to do.

It took me three days, five gallons of concentrated industrial bleach, ten gallons of gas, a power washer, five gallons of liquid soap and a lot of elbow grease to clean up that mess.

It was 100 degrees out and I had to wear a haz-mat suit the entire time.

I even had to get a tetanus booster shot.

In the end, the smell had even permeated the sheet rock in the lower level, so we had to gut the entire place.

I think to this day that the old woman’s heart was in the right place, even if her head was in the clouds.

Chicken Club Sandwich One-Pot Pasta

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup panko crispy bread crumbs
3 1/2 cups chicken broth (regular or low-fat)
8 ounces (3 cups) uncooked rotini pasta
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded jack cheese
12 ounces thickly sliced cooked chicken or turkey breast (1/4 inch thick), cut into bite-size strips
8 ounces fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 cup cooked, chopped bacon
1 cup chopped plum (Roma) tomatoes

Instructions

In 5 to 5 1/2 quart Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat; add bread crumbs. Cook for 2 to 4 minutes, stirring frequently, until bread crumbs are toasted and light brown; remove to small bowl.
Add chicken broth and pasta to Dutch oven; heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to medium; simmer 12 to 14 minutes, stirring occasionally, until pasta is al dente and most of liquid is absorbed.
Add shredded cheese and chicken or turkey, stirring frequently, until cheese is melted.
Gradually add spinach, stirring constantly, until starting to wilt. Remove from heat; stir in mayonnaise, bacon and tomatoes. Top with toasted bread crumbs before serving.

PhD AI student explains how China already have won in AI

Shorpy

A milestone in RMB internationalization: Russia’s full adoption

A significant event recently marked a breakthrough in the internationalization of the Chinese yuan (RMB). According to Bloomberg, the RMB now accounts for 99.6% of Russia’s foreign exchange settlements, making Russia the first major country in the world to conduct almost all its import and export trade in RMB.

This transformation didn’t happen overnight. In 2015, the RMB was included in the IMF’s “basket of currencies,” initiating its internationalization process. However, until the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, Russia’s use of the RMB remained limited. After the US and EU imposed financial sanctions on Russia, it was forced to seek alternatives, with the RMB emerging as the best option.

In June 2024, the US further tightened sanctions on Russia, closing all financial loopholes. In response, Russia announced the complete abandonment of the US dollar and euro, requiring all countries trading with it to settle in RMB. This decision rapidly increased the RMB’s share in Russia’s foreign exchange market to nearly 100%.

This development is significant for China’s efforts to promote RMB internationalization. Russia, as a major world power and primary resource exporter, fully adopting the RMB for settlements provides a powerful example for other countries. It demonstrates that international trade can be maintained and economic growth achieved without using the US dollar.

However, this shift also brings new challenges. Due to Russia’s severe shortage of RMB, China-Russia trade growth has already reached its limit. From January to May 2024, China-Russia trade volume increased by only 2.9% year-on-year, far lower than China’s growth rates with other major trading partners.

Meanwhile, China is actively promoting RMB internationalization. Although still receiving large amounts of US dollars in foreign trade, China chooses to quickly use these dollars to help other countries repay their dollar debts, while signing new agreements for repayment in RMB. This strategy not only promotes the use of RMB but also expands China’s trade with these countries.

In conclusion, Russia’s full adoption of the RMB is an important milestone in the process of RMB internationalization. While this was partly facilitated by special circumstances, it has laid the foundation for the RMB to play a more important role in the global financial system. As China continues to advance this strategy, the international influence of the RMB is expected to further increase.

Chinese University Dorms will SHOCK you!

Multiple bridges are collapsing not only in Bihar, but also in China. Do these collapsing of bridges happen due to the effect of global warming causing unusually heavy rains?

There is no comparison

I checked

The Rains in India averaged 247 mm
The Rains in China averaged 718 mm

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The Wind Speeds in China were almost thrice as high as India had ever seen

The Rise in River Levels were almost 250% higher

India has never faced any such adverse weather conditions because the intensity may be high but the torrential outpour stops much faster and the WIND SPEEDS are much slower compared to the deadly TAI FUN (Typhoon)

India in fact is primarily flooded due to pressure based phenomenon like Cyclonic Rain compared to Wind based phenomenon in China due to Typhoons

In China – the weather phenomenon has drastically changed

Precipitation has risen by 26% and flooding levels have risen much higher

So a lot of 1996–2015 built Infrastructure cannot withstand the flooding and torrential lash and collapse

Much of today’s projects are fine because they have been designed to withstand more torrential rains

In India it’s pure corruption and nothing else

The Bridges were all new and yet collapsed

Check out Newly designed buildings in India and see the cracks in Concrete within 3–4 years itself

It’s compromising Quality for price and speed of delivery of projects

Vintage Illustration

The Media Lied About Safety in China?

What are the most interesting facts about human behavior?

Originally Answered: What are the most interesting facts about human behavior ?

Wanna get some attention? Stop chasing that person and start ignoring him. He’ll shower you with attention.

2. Want someone to confess something? Stop talking and stare at them and they’ll do the needful.

3. Validate the words of someone by just looking into their eyes. Mostly while telling a lie, they tend to look away from you and smile more often than needed.

4. Intelligent people tend to have fewer friends.

5. Look at their feet while talking. If they’re not facing you, they aren’t probably interested in what you are telling them.

6. Are you sad? You can trick your mind by pretending to smile and in no time, you would be smiling for real.

7. Your body language changes with the person you are talking to. Your body language tends to be relaxed and flowy when you are talking to someone you like whereas it tends to be stiff if it’s someone you are not much fond of.

8. You can sustain that high level of concentration for not more than just 10 minutes.

9. Speak a line to yourself daily about what you wish to do or become. You would see it turning into reality.

10. Your brain has more potential than you realise. Never give up on your dreams.

How long will the CCP remain in charge in China?

I am an ordinary Chinese person.

The Chinese people are the least likely to be deceived by political slogans. With over 3,000 years of monarchy and more than 20 dynasties, the Chinese have experienced hundreds of emperors. This long history has endowed them with the ability to recognize the tricks of any ruler, whether they come in the form of words, policies, laws, or political movements. The Chinese can quickly see through the deceptive promises.

No individual or party can sustain a lie for long. To prove one lie as “truth,” ten new lies are needed, creating an astronomical system of deception. The objective reality about “rulers and lies” is clear: no one can govern through lies. Such an elaborate system will inevitably develop cracks and collapse. When these lies are exposed to the light of day, the ruler’s legitimacy vanishes, signaling the end of the regime.

The above paragraphs illustrate a key logic: sustained deception is bound to be exposed, and China’s long history makes its people particularly sensitive to such tactics. The Chinese are not easily fooled.

As of a few years ago, the Communist Party of China (CPC) celebrated its 100th anniversary. In its first 20 years, it nearly faced extinction several times (1920s-1940s). Over the next 30 years, it made several grave mistakes that almost led to societal and economic collapse (1950s-1970s). The CPC then attempted to learn from these errors and reform itself. However, during the following decade, the world’s major communist states collapsed (1980s-1990s), and “socialism” became a relic of history. China emerged as one of the few remaining socialist countries. In 1990, the Chinese echoed Deng Xiaoping’s words, “We must cross the river by feeling the stones,” humorously adding, “If the stones are gone, how do we cross?” Realizing this issue, the CPC began to develop its own theories. China’s economic boom started around that time.

Imagine you are wealthy and have a poor neighbor who has been hungry and poorly clothed for generations. Their frail bodies are swarmed by flies, and they seem on the verge of collapse. The parents of this poor family are determined to improve their situation but don’t know how. Anger and frustration have led to strained family relations. After the chaos subsides, they sit down and ponder how to feed their family.

Initially, the father helps others move, works as a loader, and cleans floors. These jobs are exhausting and pay little, but he endures the physical strain and earns every penny with sweat. Eventually, the family can eat three meals of bread daily, although there’s no beef, jam, or fruit. To save money, they eat only two meals a day, using the savings for education to learn skills like textile work, shoemaking, and knitting. After some time, he acquires these skills and starts new jobs, which, though still demanding, offer indoor work free from harsh weather.

Years pass, and this once-poor family now works as skilled artisans. They continue to save money, thinking of future needs like weddings and births. The third generation grows up in a modest but not impoverished environment, aware of the wider world through trade. They begin to wonder, “Why can’t we have what others have?”

By the fourth generation, they’ve mastered advanced technology and use their ingenuity to propose better scientific solutions. Their ambitions reach for the stars, aiming to uncover the mysteries of the universe.

Over 100 years, from the first impoverished ancestor to the confident children of today, this family has never resorted to killing or invasion to gain even a penny, enduring hunger in silence.

As the family’s fortunes rise, they remain thrifty, never forgetting their past hunger. They save diligently and always question their expenses. However, outsiders with weapons surround them, demanding they return to poverty without reason.

Now, tell me, whose side would you choose? The one who has kept this family intact through it all is named the CPC.

Lylia, Malou, and the Intangible Impossibility of Imperceivable Physics

Submitted into Contest #24 in response to: Write a sweeping romantic tale of two lovers who must overcome the horror of being hunted by an unseen foe.… view prompt

Tori Routsong

“Dr. Niwwel, if you summoned the thing, why can’t you just send it away?”Lylia held her tongue. It wasn’t that Malou was stupid, and most of the time it wouldn’t even bother her, but she was running out of ways to explain an unexplainable being. “I didn’t summon it. I just created a way for it to access our world.” She peaked out at the dark hallway—the problem was there was no precedent. Did it matter if there was light? Could the creature even see light? And would staying quiet even matter? Lylia stroked her long, blonde hair as she thought.“I’m sorry. You must be getting tired of all these questions.”It was so hard to be mad at someone who kept acknowledging their flaws. “It’s okay. I know it must be confusing.” Lylia couldn’t help but feel guilty. It was her fault Malou was still in the building to begin with. Not that it really mattered. The creature wasn’t particularly bound by the same matter-based confines that Earth creatures were. Maybe nowhere on the planet was safe.“Can we stay here? Are we safe here?” Malou popped her head out as well, peering down the hallway for signs of the plasma colored of burning light, the only visible material the creature left behind. “I don’t see anything.”“I don’t think we’re safe as long as we’re still here.”“Do you think it’ll leave the building?”Lylia didn’t know how to tell Malou that the creature didn’t even exist in the building as it was. “I hope not.” Cautiously, she crept out into the middle of the hallway. It felt silly to be sneaking around, but she couldn’t help it. It was so human to only feel safe when walls were around to support and protect. “I don’t think it’s coming. Hurry. We can go down this hallway. It’ll lead to the stairs.”Malou nodded and her dyed green hair bobbled in its pigtails. “After you, Dr. Niwwel.”“Really, Malou, you can call me Lylia.” Being called Doctor by someone her own age was weird, but being called Doctor by someone who’d been in every one of her elementary school classes was even weirder.Malou followed. “But you worked so hard for your doctorate. The least I can do is show you the respect you deserve.” Malou smiled and Lylia did her best not to melt. She’d promised herself when she started tutoring Malou in physics that she wouldn’t let that smile get to her anymore, but Malou was so earnest, so… so genuine, that Lylia almost couldn’t help it.She was so dazzled by Malou’s smile that she almost didn’t catch the blazing light splatter behind her. “Malou, look out!”A cabinet behind her suddenly became corrupted, spitting sparks and shuddering in and out of existence before half of it was suddenly away. Lylia felt the hair stand up on her arms. “Run!”The air stung of burned metal, rasping away at the back of Lylia’s throat. Malou was faster than her by far, but she kept pace. “Come on!”After a while, Lylia felt her heart start to pound more and more. If only she didn’t work on the top floor—they’d be out by now. They made it close to the stairs, and Lylia grabbed Malou’s arm right before she went down the stairs, dragging her into a broom closet.“What’d you do that for?”“Going down won’t help,” Lylia wheezed. She needed to work out more. “It’s not… I mean, it’s not confined by floors.”“It can go through floors?”Lylia bit her lip. They seemed safe enough now. Maybe she should try a third time to explain that the creature she’d released wasn’t going through the floor, it was completely apart from the floor.She hadn’t meant to become a doctor in the first place. It just seemed like the only way she could continue to study and to learn about what the emptiness in atoms really entailed. She’d always been fascinated by the way humans always seemed to accept nothing but truth, but didn’t question the truth they knew.

“But what’s in between the electron and the nucleus?”

“Nothing,” her professor had snapped. “Quit asking that. This is just where we are in science right now, okay? Sorry it’s not good enough for you. Finish your work.”

Her curiosity had developed from wondering what the emptiness really meant to wondering if there was a separate way to exist. When she argued for her dissertation, a hypothetical reconfiguration of matter that didn’t involve atoms or quarks or any subatomic particles humans could conceive of, the faculty had been confused and baffled. One professor had gone so far as to declare that it was more science fiction than true science. However, she’d gotten her doctorate anyway, and away she went.

The experiment wasn’t supposed to even work. Lylia had long given up on her own theory, but the premise behind it still stood, in her mind. Countless graduate students flocked to her, to hear her crazy lectures about worlds within our own atoms. The machine she’d fashioned wasn’t supposed to be capable of creating real atomic disturbances—the only other atomic disturbances the world had ever known were military based, so there was no way they’d ever give her something with real power. She’d had the grad students (and Malou, although Lylia still wasn’t sure why she was there) gather around her as she fiddled with it, answering their questions the best she could and firing back some of her own. The machine had never done anything before, no matter what she did, so there was no reason anyone would expect it to do much of anything other than look science-y.

So when the machine had malfunctioned and spewed black smoke and the… the thing (Lylia called it a creature for Malou’s sake, but it wasn’t like any creature or any being that had ever been noted in any way before) seeped into this world’s atomic formation, it had caught everyone by surprise.

At first Lylia, like any good scientist, was fascinated. She had proof! Proof that our physics weren’t the only physics out there—matter didn’t work in the same way, physicality didn’t work in the same way, and the universe wasn’t empty after all!

It was a glowing moment for science.

Until suddenly one of the grad students’ arms disappeared. The blood that splattered the ground flecked Lylia’s shoes as she should there, shocked, helpless as bits of the floor spluttered and vanished and the building’s infrastructure suddenly turned to nothing against the impossibility of a physics-less being. Chaos ensued, filling the hallways with shouts as the being engulfed everything it encountered, turning it into a form of matter imperceivable by humanity, intangible in the same regard. Later, hiding under her desk (not the smartest plan, she knew, but she panicked, okay?), Lylia figured out what she’d unleashed—a being able to interact with the physics and composition of this world, but unable to be interacted with by the physics and composition of this world. It was enough to make her head spin, so explaining it to Malou… Calling it a creature was just easier.

“I’m sorry,” she told Malou now, holed up next to the stairs. “I can’t… I can’t stop it. It defies all nature, it defies all… rational thought. It’s not of this world and it shouldn’t be here now. I’ve released it and I’m so… I’m so sorry.” If she hadn’t been so terrified, Lylia thought she would cry. Even now, with fear freezing her blood, Lylia felt tears well behind her eyes and in the catch in her throat.

“Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault.”

“It’s my machine. My lecture. My experiment. It’s literally my fault.”

“You didn’t know this would happen. Nobody knew. Nobody could know.”

“You should’ve gotten out when you had the chance.” Malou hadn’t evacuated with the others, she’d rushed to Lylia’s office instead.

“I couldn’t leave you.”

“You should have. You’ll die here. I can’t tell you anything about this… creature. I could have doomed the entire Earth.” Lylia began to cry, tears and snot dripping down her cheeks. It wasn’t the time or place, she knew, but she still felt bad for how ugly she must look. “You’re going to die, and everyone I know is going to die, and it’s all my fault.”

“The world was doomed anyway,” Malou said. “And you don’t know that you’re going to die. I mean, you said the creature wasn’t from our physics. Maybe it’ll… make us like it.”

That was highly illogical, but so was everything. “Maybe, but even then our entire lives, everything we know, will be taken away. I wish there was a way I could… I could distract it somehow, so you could escape but I…”

“I couldn’t leave you,” Malou repeated. “I couldn’t.”

“We’re going to die here.” Lylia’s sobs echoed down the hallway, and she no longer cared if the creature was able to perceive sound or not. “We’re going to die here and I never—”

“You never what?”

Lylia didn’t know. There were lots of things she’d never done. She’d never snowboarded, or owned a bird, or bought homeowner’s insurance. She hadn’t told her parents goodbye. She’d dated boys in high school and undergrad, but she’d never really felt in love with any of them. She’d never told Malou how beautiful she was.

The thought popped into Lylia’s head before she could stop it. She’d promised herself she’d never admit that to anyone—not even herself.

But if there was ever a time, now was it.

“You’re pretty,” she said, her voice squeaking like a grade schooler.

“Wait—what?”

“I just wanted you to know you’re really pretty.” This was so dumb. This was remarkably dumb. Lylia wanted to say more but she couldn’t.

“Oh.” Malou stared at Lylia. “I don’t know what to… I—oh. Thank you. You’re… you’re pretty too.”

Lylia felt the blood rush to her face and knew it must be a violent red by now. Violent red with puffy pink eyes—Malou was just being nice. “I’m sorry, I made things weird, it’s weird now, it’s our last hours on Earth probably and I’ve just made it so weird.”

“So?”

“So I’m sorry! We’re up against a unseen, intangible something and I just made everything weird.” Lylia hiccupped. She’d stopped crying, but her face was still a mess, she knew.

“Well, I’m glad you did, or I was going to.” Gently, Malou put her rough, calloused hand over Lylia’s.

“What?”

“I like you,” Malou said, the left corner of her mouth turning up into a grin. “I think I’ve liked you since we were in grade school together. That’s why I wanted you to tutor me, I wanted to get to know you better. That’s why I went to all your lectures. I like you.”

“Oh,” breathed Lylia. “Oh.”

“So I guess, if this really is our last couple hours on this planet”—Lylia didn’t bother correcting her—“then I guess I want you to know. I like you a lot. I think you’re funny and kind and so passionate about everything. So… yeah.”

“Oh,” repeated Lylia. “I don’t know what to—”

“You don’t have to say anything. I know this is probably a weird shock, but I didn’t want to disappear without you knowing, okay? I just needed you to know—”

“I like you too,” Lylia spat out. “I like you too.”

“Oh.”

For a second, the two sat in silence, listening to the sparking of a light that the being had absorbed half of earlier in the day. Then Lylia began to cry again.

“Oh! No! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you—”

“No, no, I’m happy,” Lylia said, frantically wiping her tears. “I mean, I am a little. I’m just sad that we’re not… we’re not going to see the future that would come from this.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

“I just wish we had more time.”

“Well, we have time right now. And who knows—maybe when the creature takes us, we’ll end up together in its dimension.”

Not a dimension, Lylia’s brain blathered, but it didn’t matter at all. Tentatively, she turned her hand up and laced her fingers though Malou’s. “There’ll be no tomorrow,” she warned.

“It sucks,” Malou said, nodding.

“But right now we’re together.”

“Makes it suck a little less.”

Lylia laughed. Yes. Every action they took should just be to make things suck a little less. “Of all the people to die with, you’re not a bad choice.”

“And at least we know that wherever we’re going, we’ll go together.”

“Together.”

Lylia wept as the creature’s plasmatic flickering came into view a little down the hallway and bits of air and floor disappeared, leaving behind blank nothingness of the physics that Lylia couldn’t perceive.

“Together,” Malou murmured into her ear, and they closed their eyes.

Very interesting clips

The “scary background music” is a minus, but the content is worth your time.

What kind of karma will happen to China for being so evil for so long? How can such evil exist?

Hello, I’m from China, and I am a paid promoter for the CCP.

As the Titanic was about to collide with the iceberg, the ship’s impending sinking was a tragic fate for the main characters. However, for the lobsters waiting to be cooked in the Titanic’s kitchen, it was a miraculous moment.

Similarly, the so-called “evil existence of China” is seen as a tragic threat by Western imperialists, Jewish fascists, and Japanese militarists. But for the countries of Southeast Asia, most African nations, Latin America, and other poor and chaotic Third World countries, it represents an opportunity to end internal conflicts and focus on development.

A strong China will allow us to witness the following in the future:

The decline of the US as a military and diplomatic superpower;
The awakening of the American people and the restructuring of their government;
The Five Eyes countries, excluding the US, gradually adopting independent foreign policies based on their national interests;
The EU possibly gaining autonomy in diplomacy and military matters, or becoming a regional power;
Several traditional Third World countries reaching the threshold of industrialization;
Rapid socio-economic development in Southeast and South Asian countries;
Green energy becoming the primary component of the world’s energy mix;
A fairer and more reasonable carbon emission scheme for Third World countries;
Urumqi, as the geographical center of Central Asia, playing an increasingly important role in international finance and trade;
Japan and South Korea, the two American colonies in East Asia, becoming mere dishes on the table;
Some African countries emerging as newly developed nations;
A united Asia and Latin America;
The elimination of global war hotspots;

Mao Zedong once said, “Before listening to someone, first see where they stand.” China is slowly trying to tell its own story. This process has been fraught with difficulties. However, today, through platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Quora, and through “China Travel,” rather than through official Chinese efforts, China’s story is beginning to spread among people worldwide. These stories and visions instill fear and anxiety in those in the West who are full of prejudice and hatred.

So, “my delicacy is your poison.” To those who wish for the disappearance of “evil China” from the earth, I hope you exercise well and maintain a balanced diet so you can live a long life. If you live as long as a tortoise, for 500 years, you can personally verify whether “evil China” has vanished.

Therefore, haters, I wish you longevity like a tortoise. In China, this is the most beautiful metaphor.

Is it true that martial arts are useless in a street fight?

As others have said, the first thing a martial arts instructor will tell you is ‘don’t get into a street fight’. My judo instructor took it further: get fit and outrun the threat.

At the age of 19, with 8 years of judo instruction, and some unarmed combat training, I spent a summer in Manchester. I didn’t know the city, and found myself in areas that were not safe. This was in the early 80s, around the time of the most violent riots the city has seen in modern times.

Every time a situation looked dodgy, the others scrambled to get out of my way. I’m average height, and while I was very fit at the time, I was not visibly muscular or aggressive-looking. I just looked like I could handle myself (I could). That’s the second lesson: if you can’t avoid a situation, look like you’d be a problem.

The third lesson: take charge of the situation and de-escalate.

I was in a ground-floor student flat in a less salubrious part of Birmingham. There was a crash from the kitchen. I rushed into the corridor, to find myself face-to-face with a guy who looked like a serious boxer, just coming out of the kitchen. I was between him and the front door. He took a swing at me. I deflected the punch into the wall, and he stopped, uncertain.

I asked him who he was, why he was in my flat, and what had happened in the kitchen.

A flatmate of mine had flirted with the guy’s girlfriend through the kitchen window. Our boxer suspected the girl was cheating, and thought he had found the culprit. He found the front door unlocked, walked into the kitchen, and knocked my flatmate off his feet, and over the table. By the time he’d explained all this, he had calmed down a great deal. We went back into the kitchen, established that my flatmate was not the sought-for Lothario. Everyone shook hands, apologised, and there was no more trouble.

None of this used specifically judo moves, but the training gave me both the confidence and the reflexes, so no, martial arts are not useless.

Have you ever taken the law into your own hands?

My neighbor is a big-shot lawyer. One night, his dog was outside my house. I didn’t know it was his dog and had to ask around. I was told it was “the lawyer’s dog.” I noticed that the dog was terribly skinny and, in general, just didn’t have the bounce in her step like most black labs do.

I left her at my house and knocked on the door. I told him I had his dog. He didn’t seem concerned. When it appeared he wasn’t going to come outside, I asked him if he expected me to deliver the dog to him. He got all huffy and said, “Fine!” His beautiful and very, very sweet wife and four little girls were thanking me but he was just pissed that I interrupted his “pizza and movie night with the family.” He begrudgingly followed me home.

I am a retired humane officer and still have a lot of influence at animal control. But I didn’t want to sound arrogant and threatening so I didn’t mention it. I just asked if the dog was okay as she seemed a little gaunt. He told me to mind my own business.

I asked him if the dog had been to see a vet lately and he said, “What’s with all the g-damn questions?” Since I had had this very same exchange many times in my career, I didn’t get mad. I just smiled and said I was concerned about the dog. He again told me to mind my own business. I said “Okay, well, if you’re not going to talk to me…” and trailed off.
The dog was less than enthusiastic to see him and he had to actually pick up the dog .

The next day, bright and early, two uniformed Animal Control officers knocked on his door, demanding to see the dog. He got a seven-day warning to get the dog to a vet or be fined. Seven days later they came back and were shown a letter from a vet that the lab had been seen and is now under treatment for a pancreatic disorder.

My neighbors asked me how I was so bold and stupid to make an enemy out of a big-shot lawyer.

Right makes might. I had right on my side.
I will never be afraid to speak out on behalf of a dog. In my career I had dealt with hardened criminal dog fighters and my anger gave me courage.
I gave him the chance to talk to me, and I would have offered to take the dog to the vet since I know he and his wife are busy, but he shot me down so fast.
My husband is a big-shot lawyer, too, but this guy doesn’t know that.

I called in a favor from my old colleagues and showed this guy that he didn’t intimidate me and that “Failure to render treatment to an animal in need” is a crime and not even a big-shot lawyer is above the law.

Do you think there is such a thing as the worst Hollywood celebrity decision ever?

A virtual unknown, Australian actor George Lazenby was cast as James Bond in 1969, taking over the role from Connery in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. Lazenby was young, inexperienced… and honestly not that great an actor. But when he played the part, he kind of killed it. And although initially panned by critics, in later years in fact his performance has been hailed as one of the finest. This role could have forever changed his life.

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And yet, out of thin air… Lazenby called it quits. Told the studio he would NOT be apearing in another Bond movie ever again. This was positively unprecedented. The role had made his predecessor a millionaire, a household name around the globe. It would have been Lazenby’s claim to fame. He’d be set for a lifetime. And yet, he bucked. And quit his job, in style. He said the studio “made him feel mindless” and that whenever he made suggestions for the role, he was dismissed, which he disliked. The young Australian didn’t want to “just be a product”. It was all the more shocking because of all the effort he had put into getting cast in the first place, bluffing his way into getting the part.

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As filming came to an end, George Lazenby grew a beard. Grew out his hair, too. He looked more like a hippie than the famous suave secret agent he was portraying. By the time the premier came around, Lazenby was ordered by the studio to shave his beard, cut his hair, “look the part”. He flat-out refused, and not only kept the beard, he even put on a massive fur coat to further enhance his image as the enfant terrible of the Bond universe. Everyone gave Lazenby a hard time for his choice:

“I much prefer being a car salesman to a stereotyped James Bond. My parents think I’m insane, everybody thinks I’m insane passing up maybe millions of pounds. Nobody believed me. They thought it was a publicity stunt. But it’s just me doing my own thing”

He wouldn’t budge. George Lazenby became James Bond, played the role once, and never again. His film career failed to take off after this, and in later years the actor went into real estate, making a fortune for himself off-screen. He could have been one of the world’s most major movie stars… instead, he went from Bond, to hippie, to dude who flips houses for a living.

Do not forget about CloudStrike and it’s roll in the July 2024 shutdowns

The election is gonna be on line in a few days. Keep your eyes open.

What was the most blatant scam a customer has ever failed to get away with?

I used to work at a running store in a suburb of Denver, Colorado.

One day, a guy and his girlfriend/partner came into the store while I was working. They bought a few pairs of shoes and some running clothes and signed up for a local race. There was nothing unusual about any of this, and they were quite nice.

The only odd thing was they both clearly had lower-than-normal IQs. Just imagine the person you know who best fits the phrase “not the sharpest tool in the shed” and add in a little more dullness, and that’s them.

Anyway, the next day the store owner comes in and starts asking us about this couple (he hadn’t been there the day before). After we answered a few questions, he told us that their checks (one for the gear, one for the race) had bounced. We were now out several hundred dollars of product.

The owner, a New York City native, was not one to take things lying down, so he did a little digging.

My old boss: not a sucker

The first thing he discovered was that the guy had used checks with his actual name and address on them. The guy’s last name was unique—“Pfeffenschmecker” or something like that. Now as you can imagine, there were only about five Pfeffenschmeckers in the whole phone book (yes, this was back when we still had phone books), so my boss started calling them all.

He quickly found a relative who said, “Oh yes, they have done this before. They use checks from an old, closed-out account to steal from stores.”

Armed with that knowledge and their home address, here’s what my boss did next.

He went to their house late that night and took a steel pipe with him. He banged on their door with the pipe and started yelling at them with his strongest New York accent from outside the house, telling them in no uncertain terms that he wanted his stuff back…or else.

They never came to the door, so he eventually left. But the next morning, there were several bags in front of the store when he got there.

They had returned all the merchandise and, one hopes, learned a very valuable lesson: don’t steal from a New Yorker, but if you do, don’t use your real name and address as part of your scam!

What is one thing that I can learn from you today?

One day, me and my girlfriend went out for lunch. After finishing our lunch, we called the waiter to get the bill. The waiter kept the bill on our table and then he left.

My girlfriend took the bill and checked it. There was some mistake. We had ordered 6 Rotis (Indian Bread) and only 4 were mentioned in the bill. She told me about this and I checked the bill again. She was right.

Then she said that we need to ask them to add 2 more Rotis in the bill and I was like, “Dude, don’t try to be Raja Harishchandra”. She asked, what’s wrong with that? As there was a difference of only 30 rupees, I answered, “Chalta hai yaar kabhi kabhi” (it happens sometimes). But she said, “No. It’s wrong. We must not do this. It’s someone’s hard earned money. We have ordered it and we have to pay for it.” I was surprised to hear that (just because of her maturity) and then I said, “Okay, you win.”

She immediately called the waiter and told him that we have ordered 6 Rotis and only 4 are mentioned in the bill. And asked him to kindly add that in the bill and get an updated one. The waiter said thanks to her and then went to the bill counter. He got a new and correct bill this time. We both checked it and a random conversation started between us.

During the conversation, I pulled out my wallet and picked out 2 five hundred rupee notes and gave it to the waiter with the bill. I was so lost in the conversation that I forgot the bill amount was 474 Rupees only. And instead of giving him a single note, I gave him two. Neither I was aware of this, nor my girlfriend and suddenly the waiter came and said, “Sir the amount is only 474 Rupees and you gave me 2 five hundred rupee notes. Please take one note back (and then he returned me one note).

I immediately checked my wallet and I was shocked that yes he is right! I had 3 notes in my wallet and there was only 1. I thanked him for this and also praised his honesty. He also got a decent tip from us. Then we left the place with a smile and a lesson. The lesson is,

Do good to get good

If you do a good thing, then something good will happen to you.

Thanks for reading.

Chicken and Mushroom Pasta

This Chicken and Mushroom Pasta is flavor packed and loaded with mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, veggie pasta and chicken. It’s a 30 minute meal that’s perfect for busy weeknights!

Ingredients

8 ounces spiral veggie pasta (rotini), cooked (reserve 1/2 cup starchy pasta water)
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 ounces baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup white onion, diced
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes
2 teaspoons crushed garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Pinch of red pepper chili flakes (optional)
1/2 cup Half-and-Half
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 cups cooked spinach, fresh
2 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Instructions

Cook pasta according to package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water. Set aside.
Heat olive oil in a sauté pan and add in mushrooms, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and seasonings. Stir and cook until fragrant, about 5 minutes.
Add in the Half-and-Half, chicken broth and pasta water, and bring to a boil. Turn down to simmer for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring occasionally (pasta water will help thicken the sauce).
Lastly, add in the cooked chicken, spinach and Parmesan. Stir until combined.
Serve warm.

19 HOUR Layover In China (Guangzhou visa-free transit)

Is President Trump the new Theodore Roosevelt?

Don’t be ridiculous. Theodore Roosevelt was a 250 pound mountain of self-made muscle who gave a speech, got shot into the chest and, spitting out blood with a smile, told the alarmed crowd: “It takes more than that to kill a bull moose!” He then proceeded to give his speech anyway as if nothing had happened. It’s the type of scene that would make people roll their eyes in an anime series and say: “Gee, those Japanese cartoons sure are over-the-top bombastic and unbelievable!”

When Theodore Roosevelt was born, he was weak and sickly. Doctors said he’d surely die. His father believed otherwise. As soon as his son was old enough to understand, he told him: “God gave you a strong mind, but not a strong body. So you must build that body yourself.” He nodded and internalized that message. Started a fitness regimen of insane intensity, including calisthenics and bodyweight exercises. He climbed mountains. Fought in multiple wars. Knocked down several men at a time in bar fights, and rode horses and trekked through the roughest of terrain. His band of men was called “the Rough Riders”. About as close as a 19th century politician could be to being in a biker gang…

When Theodore Roosevelt was nearly assassinated he survived with a bullet lodged in his chest for the rest of his life. It did not, in any way, shape or form, slow the man down. His very first concern, after telling the crowd he was fine, was for the would-be assassin — he told police not to rough him up too bad. If the shooter had merely nicked his ear, Roosevelt would probably have asked him to come up close and said: “Mediocre! Come, have another go!”

Pre-Historic Underground Megastructure Found in Russia – Khara-Hora Shaft

This is amazing.

What was the most bone-chilling sentence a loved one ever said to you?

When I was 24 years old, married with my first baby, my husband and I were driving my mother home after she had visited us. A bit of an argument broke out between mother and me, over something inconsequential, and she said, coldly and clearly:

“I adopted you to save my marriage, and when he loved you more than me, I got rid of you. I sent you to boarding school.”

I was adopted at 2 years of age and packed off to boarding school when I had just turned 7. I spent the rest of my childhood and teenage years at boarding school, only coming home for school holidays.

She would do humiliating things such as putting a notice in the local paper that I was coming home for the school holidays when everyone knew it was holiday time. She would force me to wear my school uniform to town (Father had a sheep property) so “that everyone can see what a good school I sent you to.” Running into my school “mates” dressed in my formal school uniform in the holidays ensured that I was totally humiliated and bullied.

I never forgave her for this and never forgot what she told me that evening when I was 24. Even though I am now 80, it still hurts.

One final thing. Two years ago I discovered that I have a sister who is 16 months younger than me. We were in the orphanage together, and there is NO WAY that Mother didn’t know about her. She never told me about my sister and it was only by chance that I found out she exists. Sadly, she is not keen on meeting me, saying she has “issues” that have to be resolved. I am so sad, because at 80 and her turning 79 in July, time is running out for us to know each other. I have prayed and prayed that she will contact me again, but I fear this will not happen.

NOTE:

Thank you all for your kindness and care. I am sure there are many of you who have upvoted this who can relate to cruelty by parents who, sadly, are damaged people either from their own childhood or as a result of their own actions. Only a parent can inflict this type of deep grief which stays with us for the rest of our lives.

Do you consider America or China a superpower? Can you give me a good answer, opinion or comments?

America and China are both superpowers. In fact, they are presently the ONLY superpowers.

Both countries have enormous economies, far surpassing third-place Germany and fourth-place Japan.

By purchasing power parity, both economies are also enormous, far surpassing third-place India.

China is indisputably the world’s only manufacturing/industrial superpower.

Both countries have enormous militaries. In fact, China has the largest army and the largest navy by number of ships. China has the second largest aircraft carrier fleet.

Both countries have large nuclear arsenals. Officially, China has 500 nuclear weapons, but unofficially this number is believed to be closer to a thousand.

Both countries are technological superpowers. In fact, according to the ASPI, China leads the world in 37 out of 44 critical technology fields (America leads in 7).

China is granted more technological patents than America and Japan combined!

According to the CWTS Leiden Ranking, China has about half of the world’s top universities.

China dominates the world in 5G. China dominates the world in EVs, batteries and solar panels.

America and China both exert enormous global influence economically, militarily, and technologically. This is why they are superpowers.

What are some short stories that discuss a moral dilemma?

The story of Stéphane Passet always rather haunted me. An amateur photographer, Passet was hired to photograph the world around him — in particular, the Orient, a mysterious place few in the West knew much of. He would go deep into the most remote corners of the world, and photograph what he would encounter. At some point on his travels, he encountered a woman in Mongolia.

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She was trapped in a box, in a desert. There was a hole in the box, large enough for her to poke her head out, and an arm. But far too small for her to ever dream of escaping. Every once in a while, perhaps once every two days or so, a guard would appear. Give the woman some water, a little bit of food — she was meant to die in that box, and the nourishment given to her was only to further prolong her suffering. Passet looked on, in horror.

“What has she done to deserve this fate?” he asked his guide.

“Adultery…” was the answer.

To take a photograph of this moment in time felt almost… obscene, to Passet. Her slender arm, shaking. The sun mercilessly beating down on her. He was watching a woman die before his eyes. It could take days. Weeks, even. But she would die and there was nothing in the world he could do.

Stéphane Passet could not intervene. Could not save her, he was completely powerless to do anything for the poor soul. Still, he took his camera. And took her picture. After that, he went away, knowing she would die. And yet he did something for her — by taking her picture, he ensured she would be remembered. Most nameless people who shared her fate would never have been captured on camera. She died, but through Passet, she lives on.

Why does everybody like Thailand?

Many factors, they have all the 10 conditions qualified, most countries can’t even reach 5:

1)People are nice and kind, probably due to their religion and culture which believe in Karma, and the core and basic Buddhism knowledge is taught in schools and their boys and men stay in a Buddhist monastery as a novice or temporary monk for at least once in their lifetime. Many foreigners found love 💝 💝 in Thailand.

2)Attractions and sceneries: from natural to man-made, they have everything. Pattaya alone is enough for anyone to live for a lifetime.

3)Shopping: their malls and markets are the best and better than most countries. Even their 7/11s is better than their neighbors with either better facilities, better services or selling more things,

4)Food: Thai food from spicy to non-spicy are all good and international food is easily available too. Even better are their desserts and sauces that makes a perfect meal. There is one Thai sauce that have all 4 tastes in one: spicy, sweet, salty and sour, the only kind in the world.

5)Entertainment and nightlife: their cinemas are better than most countries and their nightlife needs no introduction: males, females, middle-sex and homosexuals are easily available.

6)Massage: Both Thai traditional massage and sensual or sex massage is available everywhere. I think no other countries have them, not even a proper basic massage.

7)Transportation: This is most important as transportation is similar to the blood circulation of a body. Bangkok have the most transportation systems in the world: buses, skytrains, underground trains, car taxis, motorcycle taxis, river ferry transport, canal boat transport, tuk-tuks, songtheaws and samlors. Even remote areas and islands are reachable with public transportation systems and you don’t need to hire a private car.

8)Restaurants and cafes of many international food and budget options are easily available everywhere. You can buy a 120 baht fresh coffee in a cafe to as cheap as a 25 baht coffee from a takeaway stall. Even sushi is available in most night markets.

9)Costs: still affordable now although it keeps increasing.

10)Fairness in treatment: all people are treated fairly. There is no racism treatment, all religions are allowed(even Pope is allowed into the country to hold events) although this is not a good idea long term, dual pricing is practiced for many attractions entrance.

I may have missed some factors but I think those above are enough.

As a realtor, what was the shadiest thing you saw a home seller do?

I was young and had wanted to break into the real estate industry since I was a baby. My dad had been an agent and my grandpa had been a house flipper. My grandpa had taught my dad everything about houses and how to fix them and flip them. Dad only had me, a girl.

Dad was undeterred and taught me everything grandpa had taught him and even brought me on showings. I had also studied woodworking, metal working, business administration, accounting, real estate, drafting and various other housing-related things while still in school. I was ready for my career in real estate.

However, I made one heck of a bad move right out of the gate. I signed on with a broker whom I didn’t know was shady. He seemed OK to me and he was Italian like me but I was naive and blinded by my dreams of working in the housing industry. Soon it was obvious that something was wrong. My broker refused to allow me to work the front desk where agents were able to take walk-in clients. He also refused other avenues that would help grow my career. I was completely frustrated to say the least. I was basically getting nowhere fast. It was as if he was deliberately trying to stop me from growing in the business.

What my broker didn’t count on was that I was persistent. So I finally, through my own avenues, got a potential buyer and two potential sellers. I was figuring out my career path, no thanks to my lousy broker. My broker was extremely upset that I was getting anywhere and I quite frankly couldn’t understand why he wanted to destroy me so bad when he hardly knew me. What kind of threat could I possibly be to him!?

So I’m getting ready to show my buyer a house and am getting the listing sheets etc together. Suddenly my broker says, “Oh, that house you’re showing, you need to know that the boiler is about to blow.” I thanked him for giving me the head’s up but was stunned when he added, “It is our secret! The seller and I know and the agents in the office know but no potential buyer is to know about this at all!!” Angry I responded, “Isn’t that illegal and immoral?” His response, “They will never know until after it is sold then the buyers can replace it at their own cost!”

I was beyond livid at that point! I outright refused to lie to my buyer and was asked to part ways with the company as a result of my “insubordination” to my broker. I was more than happy to do so even though it meant giving up my lifelong dreams. I was raised to be honest and forthright. I simple couldn’t bring myself down to that level no matter how much my dreams meant to me.

As I left the broker said, “By the way, I took you on because of your last name and then realized you couldn’t provide ‘favors’ for me afterwards. So basically it was a mistake having you here at all!!” I got what he meant, my uncle was Charles Luciano, AKA Lucky Luciano, the famous mobster. He thought I could get him some mob ties!!!!!

I looked him square in the eyes and said, “What are you, stupid? My uncle has been dead since before I was born! How the heck did you think I was going to pull any favors for you?” I stormed out. A few years later his business went belly up. I cannot decide if it was due to his shady dealings with his sellers or if he was simply a victim of the real estate market crash. I’m guessing it was his shady dealings to be honest.

So what happened to me? I found the man of my dreams and it turns out he builds chimneys for a living. Suddenly I found myself back in the housing industry that I love so much, running our own chimney company. And this company is not run on “favors” and shady dealings. This is one housing company that is run on honesty and integrity. And yes, I use all the education my dad handed down to me and all the schooling I took, on a daily basis, to run this company. The best part? I’m happy.

Norwegian Politician Reveal Shocking SECRET About China in 2024

What are the strangest or most eerie true crime cases you have read about?

From 1974 until 1986 a serial killer who became known as EARONS (East-Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker) terrorized a massive spree of terrible crimes. He committed at least twelve murders, fifty rapes and one hundred and twenty burglaries as well. In April 2018, the man was arrested… his name? Joseph James DeAngelo. A 72-year old retired cop.

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When they arrested DeAngelo, he appeared to be a kindly old grandfather. He lived in a house he shared with one of his adult daughters and his oldest granddaughter. When officers tried to arrest him, DeAngelo said he “had to go inside for a bit because he had a pot roast in the oven”. The cops then took him down, suspecting he was plotting to reach for a gun and either kill himself or engage them in a shootout…

There was no pot roast. What there was, however, was a house full of evidence. A shocked family who, for a year, never broke their silence in utter disbelief. And a computer, open, up and running…

Now DeAngelo was a terrifying killer. The type of killer who would go into houses, brutally attack sleeping couples and tie up husbands in the hallway with plates and cutlery on their backs as he would rape their wives nearby… and stab, shoot or bludgeon to death the poor husband if he made an attempt to escape and save his wife, causing the cutlery to fall on the floor…

He was also a former cop who “kept tabs” on the case. He stopped in the late 1980s around the time when DNA became a more commonly used source to solve crimes. Aware of his crimes, he even followed online, made accounts on message boards that recorded the case and tracked it’s development.

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Joseph James DeAngelo also stalked his victims and their families for years after the attacks. A prowler, he would get a thrill out of repeatedly entering and leaving their homes on nights prior to his home invasions, getting to know every detail, nook and cranny of his future crime scenes. After raping and murdering family members he would find their phone numbers and call them, breathing down the line and uttering profanities. On one of his last such phone calls, somewhere around the 1990s, the victim heard children in the background. This caused law enforcement to look into the possibility that their suspect may be a family man — they had previously looked for a deranged bachelor without a family.

The fact that one of the most prolific serial killers and rapists went undetected for decades and was so… seemingly normal? Terrifying. You expect some sort of freak who talks to demons in the head and dogs possessed by Satan. Not a grandfather who takes his friends fishing by boat, who lives with his daughter, is happily retired and with-the-times enough to operate a computer and browse the internet successfully in his seventies, keeping up to date with the latest police techniques. Thank God for ancestry websites… it’s how she got a match with a distant relative of DeAngelo.

DNA took down the killer. On April 24, 2018, Joseph James DeAngelo was taken in at long last. But the most chilling detail, for me? Some accounts on the case message board for internet sleuths stopped posting altogether on the day of his arrests. And one never logged in again since. The monster lurked on the forum. Chatted the people obsessed with his case and even may have “thrown them hints” here and there. Chilling.

Italian Beef Pasta

Ingredients

1 pound beef tenderloin, cut into thin strips
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 red bell peppers, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 pound sliced mushrooms
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
2 cups beef broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 pound rotini pasta

Instructions

In a large skillet over medium heat sauté beef strips in hot oil until no longer pink.
Add prepared vegetables and Italian seasoning to skillet. Cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until onion is softened.
Mix together broth and cornstarch until smooth. Add to meat mixture in pan; cook and stir until mixture comes to a boil and is thickened.
Meanwhile, cook pasta as directed on package.
Spoon beef mixture over prepared pasta; garnish with fresh basil if desired.

Why Asia doesn’t want warhawk Kamala in charge

What is something in the world that you feel the need to give attention to, something everyone needs to be aware of?

I want to highlight today the sad tale of Mr. Paco Larrañaga. He was convicted to die in the Philippines in 1997 for a murder and rape he not only didn’t commit… but couldn’t possibly have committed. Why? Because he was not there. Two girls were raped and murdered in Cebu in 1997, the Chiong sisters. They belonged to a rather influential and shady family. Larrañaga, on the other hand, was just a young culinary school student hoping to one day be a chef. Despite having nothing to do with the case whatsoever, he was accused, perhaps for political reasons.

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The murder took place on the island of Cebu. Larrañaga was nowhere near — he was in Manila, studying to be a chef. The night of the crime there are records of him leaving a club in Manila. Early the next day he sat for an exam. Over forty fellow students and teachers testified to this. There were no flight records of Larrañaga flying to or from Cebu at any time near the murder. And the man who claimed he was present, Rusia, a “state witness”, showed up only ten months after the event, having never even met Larrañaga. Physical evidence linking Larrañaga to the crime was never produced. No DNA, no fingerprints, flight records, nor witnesses except for this one state witness who the defense was only allowed to interview for a mere ten minutes(!) while Larrañaga was grilled for hours on end…

The judge said every single testimony from the teachers, the students, the bouncer of the club and even the airlines could not be used by Larrañaga because “they were his friends”. He was sentenced to death, later changed to life in prison when the death penalty was abolished in the Philippines. He was just nineteen years old when they arrested him and his life, for all intents and purposes, came to an end. Today, he is 45. He has been in jail for 25 years. It’s an injustice and it needs to be said. Only a presidential pardon could save this poor man’s already ruined life, but pleas seem to fall on death ears. I’ll link a petition you could sign, and would appreciate it if you did.

This is one of the most shocking cases ever to me. For some reason it gets to me, ever since I watched the documentary “Give Up Tomorrow” made about the subject. I have seen reviewed and researched the case extensively and I am appalled and astonished that a man who has been proven beyond reasonable doubt not to have been anywhere near a crime scene is still in jail wasting away for having committed that crime.

Why are U.S. entrepreneurs flying to China now?

Why do people have a problem with Ambanis and Adanis getting richer?

The China Real Estate Syndrome

Why do you think it happened?

Why a Property that cost 350K RMB in 2004 rose to cost 3.5 Million RMB in 15 years time?

At 17% per Annum

It wasn’t due to demand and supply

It was due to RAPIDLY RISING INCOME INEQUALITY between 2005 and 2017 in China

In 2005 – the Top 0.1% Chinese earned 182% of what the Median Chinese earned

By 2016 it had risen to a whopping 568%

The Richer Chinese didn’t earn their money through manufacturing or factory work

They earned their money by PAPER WEALTH

They made real estate killings, reinvested into the same real estate

They made speculative killings and invested it back in speculative markets

Luckily for the Chinese , they had a great leader like Xi Jinping who saw the situation and decided to curb it

And has brought down the number from 568% to 342% in the last 7 years

Has kept real estate prices constant so that the apartment now costs 3.28 Million RMB instead of 5.25 Million RMB that it could have risen to

It’s still not hunky dory

However China has dodged a Major Hypersonic Nuclear Weapon and managed to get hit with a dozen bullets instead

India is heading the same way

Except that in India – State does not even own the land

Our 0.1% in the last 3 years from 2021–2024 now have 1186% more rise in wealth than the Median group

In China it was 293%

In US it was 313%

In Japan it was 181%

In India it was 1200%

You catch my drift?

If this keeps up, resources will become all the more expensive and the ownership will become even more exclusive

In 20 years – we could virtually be slaves of the 0.1% unable to grow or develop even a fraction

We talk of Middle Income Trap with China

We could fall into a Low Income Trap

Solution?

In the next two decades – the 0.1% should see a wealth growth of 275% of the Median Group

That’s the only way to ensure INEQUALITY IS CONTAINED

If they keep getting richer like today, India is finished

China woke up in 2018 – luckily

We need to have woken up five years ago, given that we have a bureaucracy while they can change the rules in twenty minutes

Unless Ambani and Adani can create latest technology and earn from it

And they are too Moron to do that

A 10-year-old cat abandoned, stays at the owner’s door unwilling to leave

How effective are Taiwan’s Wan’an civil defense drills at simulating a Chinese missile attack?

Unless they’re simulating 12,000 MLRS guided rockets like a smaller version of the ATACMS in one hour. It’s completely useless.

It’s like practicing against 50 people when 10,000 will show up. What will that do? Will that really help?

You decide.

China brings a whole new dimension to modern warfare. Not only do they have advanced weapon system that is equal or better than the US, they have them in ridiculously large numbers.

They have been preparing for war with the US. So do you think Taiwan can do anything?

Right before I went into the US Army, the US invaded Panama. Operation Just Cause. Did Panama manage to fend off the US?

And Panama is over 1,800 miles. Taiwan is 100 miles off the coast of China. With no intervening nation. While Panama has the whole of Mexico between it and the US. Did that bother the US or stop the US?

Americans visiting CHINA for the first time!

As a nurse, what is the most disturbing story you can tell about a patient who was living in extreme poverty?

I was a patient in the hospital myself, which was an eye opening experience for me as an RN. I was there for a week with what turned out to be psitticosis from my new pet parakeet. (Not a fun experience.) During that time, I got to know my roommate very well.

My roommate was a widow in her mid thirties, and she was dying of cancer. She had three young children who had recently entered the foster care system. She had no friends or family to help her, and no one willing to take her kids in. She had done nothing wrong as a mother except to become so sick with cancer that she could no longer care for her children. To complicate matters, she had recently been evicted from her apartment due to the loss of her income as a result of her ongoing illness. She was now homeless.

She was also uninsured, which is why her breast cancer was left untreated until it was too late. The cancer had been detected by a routine mammogram paid for by a woman’s health clinic. She was then referred for a biopsy, then to an oncologist. The oncologist was willing to see her free of charge, yet he could not afford to pay for her chemotherapy. He informed her that she needed to try to get on Medicaid, so that the expensive chemotherapy could begin. At that time she was still working, and she made too much money to qualify for Medicaid. She made far too little money though, to purchase health insurance. (This was in 2004, before the ACA, or even Go-Fund-Me came about.) She kept working as long as she could to feed her kids while the cancer spread throughout her body.

Soon after being told that she was terminal, she received word that she had been accepted into a charity drug program paid for by the Disney corporation. They agreed to pay for her chemotherapy, except now it was too late.

While we were in the hospital, she told me over and over again that she desperately wanted to see her children. She was embarrassed by her appearance though, because as the cancer overtook her, she became so weak that she would occasionally faint. One of those falls had chipped two of her front teeth close to the gum line. This was very noticeable. When her mouth was closed, she looked normal. The minute she spoke, smiled or ate, the missing teeth were very, very apparent. Her children had never seen her without her front teeth, and she feared that she would frighten them. She longed for a partial plate or crowns to correct her appearance before her children saw her, yet she had no money for this. As a result, she planned to wear a mask over her mouth when they came instead. Sadly though, her young children were never brought to see her. Calls by her to the social worker in charge of her children’s foster care placement went unreturned. I tried to get our hospital’s social services department to help, yet nothing was ever accomplished.

My roommate had been a pre-school teacher. This isn’t a high paying job, yet it is an important one. The job, sadly, offered no benefits. Plus, due to her cancer, she had by this point not been able to work for several months.

By the time I was discharged, we had become the best of friends. I was still quite weak from my own illness, yet my hope was to have her live in my spare bedroom when she was discharged. As a nurse who only worked part time, I knew that I could care for her.

Whether she came to live with me or not, I also planned to help get her teeth fixed so that she could at least die with the dignity of a beautiful smile. I even had a dentist lined up who was willing to help. Most importantly, I planned to find some way to have her children visit regularly. I never got the chance to do any of those things though. I went to see her two days after my discharge, only to find out that she had passed away suddenly the night before, alone, homeless and toothless.

Keanu Reeves

While shooting the movie “The Lake House”, he overheard the conversation between two costume assistants, and a woman was crying because she would lose her house if she didn’t pay a sum of 20 thousand dollars. He deposited it into her account.

On his birthday in 2010, he went into a bakery alone and bought a cupcake with a single candle. While he ate it outside, he offered free coffee and bread to all customers. This was his luxury birthday.

With what he earned from the Matrix trilogy, he distributed 50 million dollars to the special effects personnel, because according to him, they were the real heroes of the films.

He almost never used stuntmen, except for very specific things like stunts, and for this reason he recognized the work of his stuntmen by giving each of them a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

To this day, he regularly uses the subway and other public transportation systems such as the bus when necessary because it is the most practical thing, and he is never ashamed.

A large number of hospitals say they have received tens of millions of dollars from him.

He donated 90% of his salary in some films so that the production could hire other stars.

In 1997, a paparazzo found him on the street sitting next to a homeless man, listening to the homeless man’s life and having breakfast with him.

All the good we know about Keanu Reeves was not told to us by him, but by those who benefited from him. He never declared anything.

For everything he has experienced, he could have had a sadder and more pessimistic view of life, but despite this he chose to be that something good among all the evil there is.

American greed…

What happened? Since when did money become EVERYTHING?

My GOD. What a great video.

Massage, drinking whiskey, a very hard touch, and soft relax afterwards

One of my little pleasures here in China is the massage.

There are all types of massages. From a nice foot massage after soaking in a super hot herbal bath, to “happy ending” massages that are 100% legal inside of China.

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The prices are entirely reasonable, and really, it’s a four hours or so well spent.

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In the ‘States, I never had or experienced a professional massage. The best that I could get was an amateur massage from a favored girl or two.

But really, as I get older, having a massage…

spa for men

one that involves drinking whiskey, a very hard touch, and soft relax afterwards. Followed by a fine smoke is truly special, and it is one that I really do appreciate.

I don’t know if you can ever get something like this in the USA unless you go to a private spa. Ah, many ladies use these services I know. But not so much foe the men.

If you all ever get an opportunity, take it.

Today….

We Haven’t Seen A “Historic Surge” Of Corporate Bankruptcies Like This Since The Great Recession
July 10, 2024 by Michael

We continue to get numbers that indicate that the U.S. economy is steamrolling in the wrong direction as we approach the most chaotic election season in our history. Needless to say, the performance of the economy is going to play a major role in the outcome of the election, because millions upon millions of Americans are really suffering right now. Homelessness has been growing at the fastest pace ever recorded, hunger and poverty are exploding, and we are in the midst of a cost of living crisis that doesn’t seem to have any end in sight. Unfortunately, there are signs that things will soon get even worse. For example, we experienced a “historic surge” of corporate bankruptcies during the first half of this year that was worse than anything we have witnessed since the first half of 2010…

There is a “historic surge” of corporate bankruptcies underway in the U.S., as debt-saddled companies struggle to adjust to the new era of high interest rates.

New figures published by S&P Global Intelligence show that 75 companies filed for bankruptcy in June, the highest number recorded in a single month since early 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. That pushed this year’s total number of bankruptcies so far to 346, which is notably higher than comparable levels seen in the past 13 years.

Before this, the highest half-year figure recorded was in 2010, with 437 companies filing for bankruptcy from January through June.

During the first half of 2010, we were just coming out of the Great Recession.

Do you remember how painful things were in those days?

Sadly, I believe that what is ahead of us will be even more painful.

The unprecedented measures that our leaders took to prop up the economy worked for a while, but now cracks are starting to show all over the place.

And a lot more big businesses will go belly up during the months ahead.

Earlier today, I was quite saddened to learn that Big Lots is on the verge of bankruptcy…

Discount retail chain Big Lots said it will close up to 40 stores this year and may declare bankruptcy.

The Columbus, Ohio-based company wrote in a quarterly Securities and Exchange Commission filing it expected further operating losses and has “substantial doubt” it can continue as a functioning business.

Big Lots last month reported a net loss of $205 million in the quarter ending May 4, 2024.

When I lived in Virginia many years ago, I would shop at Big Lots quite a bit.

And it always seemed to be doing fairly well.

But now times have changed.

Today, most Americans have very little discretionary income. In fact, surveys have shown that the vast majority of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck at this point…

A 2023 survey conducted by Payroll.org highlighted that 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, a 6% increase from the previous year. In other words, more than three-quarters of Americans struggle to save or invest after paying for their monthly expenses.

Similarly, a 2023 Forbes Advisor survey revealed that nearly 70% of respondents either identified as living paycheck to paycheck (40%) or—even more concerning—reported that their income doesn’t even cover their standard expenses (29%).

There is no way to spin those numbers in a positive manner.

Any way that you look at them, they are absolutely horrible.

The middle class is being ripped to shreds, and those that are running the system seem to be all out of answers.

Young adults in particular are having a very difficult time in this environment.

According to a survey that was recently conducted by Bank of America, almost half of all adult members of Generation Z “are relying on financial help from their parents and family members”…

A new survey by Bank of America finds that nearly half of adult members of Gen Z are relying on financial help from their parents and family members to get by.

The survey for Bank of America’s Better Money Habits team found that 46% of Gen Z are receiving financial assistance from their parents or other family members, a figure that declines to 30% for Gen Z non-students.

Have you noticed that so many young adults seem to be very bitter and very angry these days?

This is one of the big reasons why they are in such a foul mood.

Many of them were promised that life would be good if the studied hard, went to college, and did all the right things.

But now many of them are discovering that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was just an illusion.

Of course there is a small sliver of society that is still doing exceptionally well.

Flooding the system with trillions upon trillions of dollars has been very good for the financial markets, and those with lots of money in the financial markets have been living the high life.

In Jackson Hole, Wyoming, millionaires are complaining that the town is being ruined by all of the billionaires that are now moving in…

Millionaires once accused of ruining a gorgeous town in Wyoming now complain they are being driven out of the area by billionaires.

Jackson Hole has long been a popular vacation spot for celebrities including Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes and Matthew McConaughey.

An influx of wealthy people sent house prices sky-rocketing and forced ordinary workers to live on the other side of the mountain on the Idaho-Wyoming border.

There are more billionaires in America today than ever before.

That is the good news.

The bad news is that there are more homeless people in America today than ever before, the ranks of the poor are growing very rapidly, and more Americans are falling out of the middle class with each passing day.

The wealthy may think that all of the wealth that they have piled up will insulate them from the unprecedented chaos that is approaching, but the truth is that a day of reckoning is coming for them too.

In the end, the entire system is going to completely and utterly fail, and those that believed that the party would last forever will be bitterly, bitterly disappointed.

“It’s Getting WORSE And WORSE…” – Richard Wolff

He is absolutely correct. Worth the watch.

The world has changed.

Food Porn

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Why Has The Chinese Military Suddenly Become So Aggressive? Is Something Up?

July 11, 2024 by Michael

Does China sense weakness in the White House? In recent days Chinese troops have been sent to Belarus for military exercises, dozens of Chinese military aircraft have been threatening Taiwan, and four Chinese military vessels were even detected off the coast of Alaska. So why has China decided to become so aggressive all of a sudden? Right now, Joe Biden is facing endless questions about his competency, and those around him are focused on fighting for his political survival. So could foreign adversaries such as China use this window of opportunity to do things that they may not normally attempt to do?

According to authorities in Taiwan, 66 Chinese military aircraft and 7 Chinese military vessels were “operating around Taiwan” on Wednesday…

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence (MND) on Thursday said that it had detected 66 Chinese military aircraft and vessels around the island, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the Western Pacific.

The media outlet embedded a statement by Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence on its X platform.

“66 PLA aircraft and seven PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 am (2200 GMT Wednesday) today,” the statement said.

When asked about this, the Chinese government responded by declaring that the operation was about protecting “its sovereignty and territorial integrity”…

When asked about the warplanes crossing the median line at a regular press briefing in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian avoided directly responding. “The determination of China to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity remains unrelenting,” he said.

The CCP insists that Taiwan is Chinese territory, and the Biden administration has been warned that “reunification” will take place at some point.

Let us hope that the Chinese do not choose to use this current window of opportunity to “reunify” with Taiwan, because the moment that they invade we will be at war with China and everything will change.

Unfortunately, it appears that the Chinese have been aggressively probing Taiwan’s maritime defenses. During the first six months of 2024, the Taiwanese Coast Guard “drove away 567 Chinese boats”…

The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday.

They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said.

Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said.

Meanwhile, the Chinese have been sniffing around our coastlines too.

In fact, it is being reported that four Chinese military vessels were just spotted off the coast of Alaska…

Multiple Chinese military ships were spotted by the U.S. Coast Guard in the waters off Alaska, officials said in a news release on Wednesday.

Three vessels were detected about 124 miles north of the Amchitka Pass in the Aleutian Islands, and a fourth ship was spotted about 84 miles north of the state’s Amukta Pass. The ships were seen on Saturday and Sunday.

All four ships were in international waters, the Coast Guard said, but were inside the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from the U.S. shoreline.

The reason that this incident is noteworthy is because it is very unusual.

Chinese military vessels don’t normally operate so far north.

Most people don’t realize this, but China now has the largest navy on the entire planet.

I don’t know how we allowed that to happen, but we did.

And it turns out that our own military industry has become extremely dependent on the Chinese. For example, it is being reported that Chinese semiconductors are in approximately “40% of all U.S. Department of Defense weapons systems and infrastructure”…

A large number of Chinese semiconductors are used in critical military platforms, accounting for around 40% of all U.S. Department of Defense weapons systems and infrastructure, and are further linked to military supply chains such as Patriot air-defense missiles and B-2 bombers.

For example, a Lockheed Martin missile factory situated in Alabama produces Javelin anti-tank weapons which use more than 200 semiconductors in each weapon. This equates to thousands of Chinese-made semiconductors within U.S. weaponry.

“U.S. companies at the bottom of the supply chain pyramid often source these parts from China in open market transactions. As a result, many essential components in sensitive U.S. military systems now come from China. Countless major weapons platforms are vulnerable,” the report states.

Our leaders aren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed, but this is ridiculous.

Didn’t anyone consider the fact that one day we might actually end up in a war with China?

Before I end this article, I wanted to give a quick update on the conflict in Ukraine.

According to the BBC, at the big NATO conference this week the Ukrainians were told that they now have an “irreversible path” to membership in the alliance…

Nato members have pledged their support for an “irreversible path” to future membership for Ukraine, as well as more aid.

While a formal timeline for it to join the military alliance was not agreed at a summit in Washington DC, the military alliance’s 32 members said they had “unwavering” support for Ukraine’s war effort.

Nato has also announced further integration with Ukraine’s military and members have committed €40bn ($43.3bn, £33.7bn) in aid in the next year, including F-16 fighter jets and air defence support.

Needless to say, this is not going to sit well with the Russians at all.

One of the reasons this war started was because Russia was determined to keep Ukraine out of NATO.

Now F-16 fighter jets from a number of NATO countries are starting to be delivered to Ukraine, and the Russians have already warned that those fighter jets will be considered a nuclear threat…

This summer, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Belgium will begin sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, and Denmark and the Netherlands have said there will be no restrictions on the use of these planes to strike targets in Russia. F-16s are able to deliver nuclear weapons, and Russia has said the planes will be considered a nuclear threat.

We are rapidly approaching a point of no return.

I have been studying the Russians for a long time, and once they come to the conclusion that nuclear war is inevitable they will strike first.

They know that there are no winners in a nuclear war, but they also know that whoever strikes first will have the best chance of surviving.

The Russians are highly paranoid, and we should not be backing them into a corner because that will make them extremely dangerous.

A stray cat walked upon me, and when I patted it, it jumped up on my knees

The Biden Titanic

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

Joe Biden’s escalating dementia and the long media-political conspiracy to hide his senility from the public are the least of the Democrats’ current problems.

Biden’s track record as president may be more concerning than his cognitive decline. He has literally destroyed the U.S. border, deliberately allowing the entry of more than 10 million illegal aliens. His callous handlers’ agenda was to import abjectly poor constituencies in need of vast government services without regard for the current struggles of a battered American middle class and poor.

The widespread poverty of a vast new cohort of illegal immigrants could serve as indictments of a “racist,” “unequal,” and “unfair” America—as if the residents of East Palestine, Ohio or inner-city Chicago had anything to do with the centuries-long corruption and oppression of Mexico and Latin America that daily drives thousands of their own poorest citizens northwards to a society founded on very different ideas than those of their homelands.

Note that the left, neither in Mexico nor in America, never asks why millions of these impoverished people prefer to break into a supposedly racist America. Much less do they even distinguish those principles and values that once made America prosperous, free, and secure from their antitheses that have sadly made much of Latin America mostly poor, without freedom, and insecure.

Biden inherited near-zero real interest rates and inflation at 1.4 percent. Almost immediately, in nihilistic fashion, Biden did to a sound economy what he had done to a secure border. So, he recklessly printed money at a time of spiraling, quarantine-ending demand and supply chain disruption. Middle-class wages never caught up with Biden’s inflation, as prices for key staples are nearly 30 percent higher than when he took office.

The cost of servicing the ballooning national debt at high interest is now nearly $1 trillion per year. The world abroad is aflame, lit by Biden’s inexplicable withdrawal from Kabul, his mixed signals to Vladimir Putin on the eve of his invasion of Ukraine, his deliberate alienation of Israel, his appeasement of Iran and China, and his cuts in the defense budget, coupled with his woke war on mythical “racists” in the military.

Energy prices soared, even as Biden’s green agenda proved unworkable and prompted draining the strategic petroleum reserve and begging foreign oil despots before key elections. The “unifier” Biden by design needlessly alienated nearly half the country, and in his debate, he reiterated why Trump supporters do not deserve his concern. And more ominously and recently, Biden grossly told hundreds of his donors that “it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye”—just days before the attempt on Trump’s life.

The greatest absurdity of the Biden White House is the gaslighting talk of Biden’s “achievements.” Biden’s actions over the last four years are not offsets for his senility that warrant his continuance in office, but again, sadly, they serve as force multipliers, furthering claims of his dementia and for his removal.

Joe Biden is not just non compos mentis and in a sane world, he would be subject to 25th Amendment removal. He also increasingly seems unpleasant and obnoxious, if not sometimes simply weird. To achieve momentary clarity, Biden either shouts at his audience or stoops over and whispers in an eerie fashion.

He insults reporters and his own staff. Every few sentences, without warning, he begins screaming. His face is fixed in a permanent, angry contortion. As a result, the public sees their president as an off-putting, angry old man—and in his selfish dotage, an increasingly unsympathetic one. Even after more than 40 months of media hagiography, Joe Biden still cannot poll over a 40 percent approval rating, given that his rudeness is fueled further by the day due to escalating mental confusion.

Biden is, to be candid, a serial prevaricator. It is not just his ad nauseam repetition of Trump’s supposed slurs—the Charlottesville “both sides” lie, the “suckers” lie, or the “bloodbath” lie. He continues to peddle absolute falsehoods like the mythical nine-percent inflation he inherited and Trump’s supposed intention to ban all abortions, or his whopper that after welcoming in 10 million illegal aliens, Biden would have had a closed, secure border if not for those selfish Republicans who, for some reason, did not trust his ridiculous eleventh-hour, election-timed immigration proposal.

When he hammers Trump as a “convicted felon,” Biden has no clue that a majority of Americans equate that charge with Biden’s own warped lawfare assault on ancient customs, as well as a reminder that his now closest advisor is likewise a “convicted felon.”

When Biden rants near daily about the rich “paying their fair share,” he reminds us that his son is also facing federal tax evasion charges for unreported foreign income in the millions of dollars and that as soon as Biden himself leaves office, as a recipient of the same foreign cash, he may find himself in the same legal jeopardy. So, to use a Bidenism, “how dare he” accuse affluent Americans of the very crimes that his own family is knee deep in?

Biden’s prefaces of “no lie,” “here’s the deal,” “no kidding,” and “no joke” are little more than tics that forewarn us of complete fabrications about to follow, from the ridiculous story of an uncle supposedly eaten by New Guinea cannibals to his supposed heroics during the Civil Rights movement and his near childhood adoption by various minority communities.

In this regard, senility served oddly as a crutch for Biden. In the past, he paid dearly for his plagiarism, cheating, racist rants, and prevarications, losing three presidential bids and earning a reputation as the empty-suit blowhard of the Senate. Now his press handlers conveniently chalk up his long-standing habitual untruth as momentary mental “confusion.”

Given all the above, remember that Biden was to be the “savior” of the Democratic Party. To this day, celebrities demanding his withdrawal from the race throw him the bone that “he saved the country by stopping Trump”—as if no wars, stability abroad, no inflation, low interest, and low energy costs were something to fear.

Yet Biden’s four years pale in comparison to what in 2016 might have been a Harris, Buttigieg, Warren, Booker, or Sanders candidacy or presidency. No wonder Democrats concluded that there were no viable alternatives to a cognitively challenged Biden, precisely because Biden was the only available fig leaf to the new Democratic Party and its neo-socialist agenda—that, if transparent, would have terrified the country that it was soon to nearly destroy.

Biden’s Democratic critics have it all wrong: removing Biden is wise and needed for the country’s sake, but it will not solve the growing public anger at the left. Without the veneer of even a tottering old Joe from Scranton, there will be no camouflage. And then, the true leftist agenda will be served raw to the American people—open borders, woke/DEI racial polarization, transgendered obsessions, inflation/stagflation, wars a plenty abroad, an inert Pentagon, unaffordable energy, partial-birth abortions, and crazy ideas like packing the court and making Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, states.

So, what is the Democratic strategy to win the 2024 election?

Certainly, an “open” convention would not produce a moderate Democratic nominee or even a suitable replacement façade. There are no moderates in contention. If there were any hale candidates to offer cover, the party would be in permanent war with its shrill and angry woke base. Joe is the last of his generation to offer a credible front. There are no more Diane Feinsteins or Bill Clintons to package the hard-left agenda. If Harris cannot serve as Biden’s replacement, someone like her or further to the left would appear on spec.

The Democrats have no plans to run on their record.

Their tripartite strategy is as simple as it is tired and worn.

First, expect a third chapter to follow the 2016 Russian collusion caper and the 2020 laptop disinformation ruse – likely some October revelation from the administrative state’s “experts” and “authorities” that Trump is a criminal, a traitor, or a spy or plans a coup, to destroy NATO or nuke something. Perhaps there is another Access Hollywood tape, a porn star on ice, anything to avoid discussing the damage done since 2017.
Second, there is still a last gasp to a dying lawfare. Never underestimate the last-gasp judicial effort to inactivate, gag, bankrupt, or jail Trump, however counterproductive such attempts so far have proved.
Third, when all else fails, remember that in many of the swing states, 70 percent of the electorate will not be voting on Election Day and will not be presenting IDs. Millions of their ballots will be harvested or cured by third-party activists. Last time around, the leftist journalist Molly Ball bragged about their “cabal” and “conspiracy” of big money and big tech that had “saved” Americans from Trump.

Those post-election confessions were not just high-fiving but also a confident forewarning of what is to come.

NATO Just Announced Its Next Victim…You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!

Idiots in Europe.

What is the weirdest news article you’ve seen today?

About a week ago, an elderly Japanese man called the police to come to the hospital room where he was staying. The man, a retired construction worker, was dying of cancer. He went by the name of Hiroshi Uchida and lived alone in a small shack.

Working in Fujisawa City, near Sagami Bay overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the old worker lived a pretty charmed life. He had made friends with his co-workers, often singing James Brown songs. Once a month he’d go to the city, sing karaoke, drink and have some fun. He was the old-fashioned sort, never had a cell phone and always insisted to be paid in cash because “he didn’t trust banks”. Folks saw him as eccentric, but a decent guy for the most part.

It was only now, aged seventy and on his deathbed, that the old worker revealed his big secret to police — his real name was Satoshi Kirishima and he was a wanted terrorist, part of a left-wing terror group that bombed, among other targets, the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Tokyo, in 1974.

Satoshi Kirishima’s mugshot was plastered around Japan, on police stations throughout the nation. He was one of Japan’s top ten most wanted criminals. On January 24, 2024, he called police because he “wanted to die under his own name”. He died on January 28, four days after his confession. DNA results have just revealed he was who he claimed to be.

The Ghostwriter

Submitted into Contest #24 in response to: Write a murder mystery with an amateur sleuth who must navigate a fantastical world in a quest to discover the truth.… view prompt

Gabrielle Gerstley

“I can’t believe you live here.”“I know,” Sylvia says. She smiles and steps aside for me to drag my suitcase through the entrance hall.“There’s ivy trellises for chrissakes. Ivy trellises.”“I’m glad you like it.”We sit on her loveseat in the foyer. It is afternoon, and the sun is starting to wane and drip shade on the room. I take a sip of the earl grey tea she delivers on a worn gold platter. Her tea set is pretty, scalloped and covered in tiny, blood-red flowers. I rub my sweating hands on the velvet fabric of the sofa, hoping it won’t leave a stain.“I’m very glad you were able to come for the weekend. I’d like to see you up here once a month to meet about your progress.”

“I can’t thank you enough for hiring me, and for entrusting me with your story.”

She nods, smiling again. Her home smells like slivered almonds. A grandfather clock beats in the corner. There’s a large bookcase against the wall and shelves filled with tchotchkes— porcelain dolls in fraying skirts and ribbons, spotted cats, an extensive collection of salt and pepper shakers, everything covered in a film of dust. The air inside her home is gauzy, small swirls of sparkles float and twirl around us.

“Shall we get started then?” she asks. I nod, setting my teacup down on its saucer. “Evie was found just up the street from here. There’s a body of water where they found her. It isn’t small enough to be a pond but it’s not quite a lake either. The water is very deep in the middle. She had stones tied to her ankles when they recovered her body. We used to spend lots of time there together. There was a dock in the middle you could swim out to. We’d lie out there for hours, reading, talking. It was heaven.”

I write everything down in a small leather journal. A creak whines through the beats of the ticking clock and I jump a little, which makes me laugh.

“Just an old staircase,” she says. “My parents died in a car crash when I was in college, a long time ago. I was an only child. They left me the house. I never understood why they moved in here. It’s creepy, isn’t it? I was homeschooled my whole life, and Evie was my only friend. We met because she lived up the street from here. When I was younger, sometimes I liked to imagine having conversations with her when she was at school. Sometimes I find myself still doing that, too. I was a very lonely child. I was just starting to make friends in college and I was enjoying myself when I got the call that my parents had died. I quit school and moved back here, something I’d said I’d never do, but something called me back here.”

“Did Evie used to come over?”

“Yes, she did. Here,” she says, standing and walking to a large desk across the room. She pulls out a drawer and shows me photos of her and Evie as children. “Wasn’t she gorgeous?” Evie has long, inky black hair and freckles spilled over the bridge of her nose and underneath her eyes the color of a milky cappuccino. “And there’s me, of course.” Sylvia is tall and skinny, her back hunched and curved like a comma, her arm thrown over Evie’s small shoulders. “God was I gawky.” Sylvia’s hair is the color of straw and her two front teeth are twisted in what looks like a painful way. They are standing in the woods, the water behind them to their right. “I don’t know why everyone just accepted it was her who had drowned herself. Evie wasn’t unhappy. In fact, she had all these plans for the future. We were going to move out west together, to Hollywood. She wouldn’t have done this, I just know it, but no one ever questioned it or looked into it.”

“Was she dating anyone at the time?”

“She was in love with this boy named Ryan from school, but he was on vacation at the time with his family out of the country.”

“Is there anyone you’re suspicious of?”

“You like to believe it was no one you knew, right? That someone you knew could be responsible for such a horrific act. But something like this with no real evidence of a struggle or a fight, no skin underneath her fingernails or evidence of blunt force means if it wasn’t self-induced, she knew the person. And she knew them well. She trusted them, and then they did this to her. I’m sorry, it’s still hard for me to talk about.”

“You seem much more affected by her death than your parents’.”

“Evie was so young. She didn’t deserve her ending. My parents were older; they were in their sixties. Their deaths were probably immediate. Do you know how long it takes to drown? It takes about thirty to sixty seconds to start breathing in water, and soon after you lose consciousness. That doesn’t seem like that long of a time, but just try counting to sixty right now.”

We listen to the grandfather clock’s ticks. One, I bite the inside of my cheek and taste metal. Thirteen, I take a sip of the tea; it’s grown cold and the bitterness rests uncomfortably in the back of my throat. Twenty-one I crack my neck. Thirty-seven I smile at Sylvia, but it’s more like a grimace. Forty-one I pick lint off my jeans. Forty-nine I crack my knuckles. Fifty-three I rub at my eye, crossing my legs. Sixty and the cuckoo bird from the clock in the kitchen bursts from its hutch and shrieks. My heart propels upward inside my chest, boing-ing against my ribcage. I feel as though I cannot breathe, as though someone has buried me alive.

“Sixty seconds is a very long time,” she says, beginning to clean up the tea set. I nod, swallowing, but my throat is dry.

“I want to help you, but I’m not a detective. I’m not even a journalist.”

“You are a poet, and poets have sensibility. They are able to uncover the unknowable, to hear and decipher the whispers of the immortal.”

“Do you hear Evie?” I ask her. “Do you still talk to her?”

“All the time.”

“What if I don’t discover anything new? Or what if on the off chance I do discover something new, you don’t like it.”

“I will give you all of my journals. You will have access to photo albums, newspaper clippings from the time, home videos, yearbooks, my observations, maps, everything. You will write an account of what you look at, what I tell you, and whatever you make of it. It can be fiction, it can be a collection of poems, whatever you like. But it will be set here during the year she died, and it must have some beauty in it.”

“Okay.”

“Let me show you your room.”

I follow her up the wooden staircase. My room has a view of the forest behind the house. I know the water is just beyond, further and deeper into the woods.

“Perhaps you’ll go on a walk tonight, yes? See the water. There are flashlights in the downstairs closet by the front door. I’ll let you rest for a bit. Dinner is whenever you want. I was planning on making a shepherd’s pie, but you’re more than welcome to help yourself to anything in the fridge.”

“Thank you.” She squeezes my hand then shuts the door behind her. I lie on the quilt on top of the bed. It’s completely silent here, even with the window cracked open. Fresh air flows through and I quickly fall asleep.

It’s half-past seven when I wake and already dark out. I grab a large, black leather photo album from the top of the stack Sylvia has placed on the bedside table. There are Sylvia’s parents, both in thick-rimmed glasses unsmiling on a beach in front of a rainbow-striped umbrella. There’s Sylvia with Evie in the backseat, their heads bent together, hair one indecipherable mass. They must be ten or so. Their wrists are adorned with matching, patterned friendship bracelets made of turquoise and orange and red string. They look like they’ve been whispering secrets. What were you saying?

I yawn and put on sneakers. I walk downstairs, but don’t see Sylvia as I walk out and down the graveled dirt path to the water. Buzzing erupts in the forest, whistling through the leaves of the trees, prickling the back of my neck. I swing the flashlight all around me as I continue to walk. Fireflies fling their bodies against my ankles, clawing their way up through the packed dirt and pushing me toward the water. I step over hundreds of little holes, the evacuated homes of the lightning bugs.

Once I reach the water’s edge I see what Sylvia was talking about — a round, hollowed hole not quite a lake, not quite a pond, filled with black water. A solo dock gently swings in the middle, the slight breeze making it move. I passed several other houses on my walk here, but the water feels entirely secluded and completely private; it is the ideal hideout for a set of friends to meet.

I know Evie’s body is no longer being held underwater, but there are screams, a pulsing from the middle rippling out to the small shore made of pebbles and grass. What happened to you? I slip off my shoes and my shorts. I hold the flashlight in my mouth as I take off my shirt. I dip a toe in the dark water and wade into it. The water is thick and painful to move through, but I make my way out to the dock where I stand. I shine the light into the trees from the dock, half-expecting to see a deer with glowing green eyes staring back at me, or a half-land, half-sea monster with rope in its mouth and stones in its claws ready to drown me too.

I’m sopping wet when I arrive back at Sylvia’s home. I walk across the front room, careful not to leave any droplets of water on the floor. I open the fridge in the kitchen and take out a rotisserie chicken. I pick at it, putting cold pieces in my mouth. Sylvia sits at the kitchen table in the corner. She stares at me as I place the chicken down on the counter and wash my hands at the sink, ringing out my wet hair over it.

“I went for a swim.”

“I can see that,” she says.

“But the floor isn’t wet. It didn’t get wet. Why isn’t it wet?”

“Come, have a seat.”

“Do you ever go swimming there now?”

“No, not since.” She lights a cigarette and opens a window, blowing out curls of smoke. “She was going to leave me, you know. First, it was Europe, then Los Angeles. She loved the palm trees. She said she wanted to drive on PCH in a convertible, live near the beach. She was going to go to college out there. And that? That was all fine. It was fine with me, it took some getting used to but I could go with her. She said I could go with her, so I’d follow her and we’d live together and we’d always be together and happy, and then she got pregnant. And babies get in the way of everything. I just couldn’t have that. I couldn’t have it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re not really here.”

“I’m not?” She shakes her head at me; her eyelids have grown longer, heavier; she pinches the extra skin and rubs her eyes with the heels of her palms until she sees hundreds of static-like white webs. She crosses her arms and leans back in her seat. She beckons the moon through the window and holds it in her hand like a stone.

“I wish you were. I don’t even know what’s real and what’s not anymore.”

Sylvia makes herself a fresh pot of coffee and starts to write the story again, one more time, for the forty-seventh time. She likes to write different endings each time, but every time Evie dies. She can’t find an ending where she doesn’t. I play with the ends of her wiry gray hair, running my fingers over the crown of her head. Sylvia feels this; it feels like she’s dunking her head under water, a cool rush spreading over her scalp. I kiss her on the cheek, ball a clump of her hair in my fist and let it fall, then I walk out the kitchen door. I feel the grass, sharp and prickly beneath my feet. The sky is a blank black tapestry I shoot up toward.

Evie runs away in Sylvia’s latest rendition. She is sixteen and staying in a motel. She is killed by a trucker who rapes her then strangles her. Her eyes are wet and black like marbles; they bounce out of her sockets and roll out the room. Sylvia likes to remind herself that she had been kind, kinder than the killers in her stories; she had made sure Evie hadn’t suffered before she sunk her body into the black folds of the water.

Before falling asleep, Sylvia likes to imagine her and Evie walking off into a line of sunlight, a runny orange yolk color that continues to fade, and never coming home. Every night she dreams the same dream of being held underwater, and unable to breathe, she wakes and stalks the house like a ghost.

Cajun Chicken Lasagna

Prep: 45 min | Total: 2 hr | Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

16 dried lasagna noodles
1 pound andouille sausage or smoked pork sausage, quartered lengthwise and sliced
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2 to 3 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
1 teaspoon dried sage, crushed
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped green sweet pepper
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
2 (10 ounce) containers refrigerated light Alfredo sauce
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Nonstick cooking spray
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

Heat oven to 325 degrees F.
Cook noodles according to package Method. Drain; rinse.
Combine sausage, chicken, Cajun seasoning and sage.
In a large skillet cook meat mixture 8 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.
Remove from skillet using a slotted spoon, reserving drippings in skillet. Set meat mixture aside; keep warm.
In same skillet cook onion, celery, sweet pepper, and garlic in drippings until vegetables are tender.
Stir in meat mixture, one container of the Alfredo sauce, and Parmesan cheese.
Lightly coat a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish or 3 quart rectangular casserole with nonstick spray. Arrange 4 noodles in bottom of dish. Spread with 2 cups of the meat-vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the mozzarella.
Repeat layers, ending with noodles.
Carefully spread remaining Alfredo sauce over the top (if sauce is too thick, heat slightly). Cover; bake 1 hour or until heated through.
Let stand for 15 to 20 minutes before carefully cutting.

PUTIN, CHINA READY NUCLEAR WAR | SCOTT RITTER: IT’S NO BLUFF

Have you killed someone in self defense? What psychological burden came with this decision?

Yes. He pulled out a gun, demanded my and my friends wallets. Although I was armed (in a city where concealed carry was legal only with a permit, which I had), he seemed to be after money and had not aimed the gun at us, so I did not draw. When my friend was too slow, he yelled and fired a shot at his feet, injuring him with a fragment. I then drew my weapon and shot him 3 times in the chest. Once he was down I sent my friend to get help while I did cpr, but he was dead. The police were quite supportive and did not arrest me after consultation with their superiors. I had a carry permit and my friend corroborated my story. An “earwitness” had heard the shots and confirmed the number and order. I made a statement and picked up my gun a week later.

After the initial adrenaline and shock wore off, I never felt any negative emotions, other than sadness that he chose to waste his life the way he had. He had 4 robbery and 2 assault convictions and had spent half his life in jail already. If he hadn’t fired a shot he’d still be alive, but it seems like it was only a matter of time. I have never felt any regret.

What made you quit smoking weed?

I did smoke it as a teen. I grew up in So. California, my parents were aged hippies who smoked it. There were rules – like no smoking if it is a weekday, and you have school the next day. No smoking if you are going to drive a car. So yeah, it happened, but I was generally responsible about it.

Then I just grew up, had other responsibilities, like being a mother, and didn’t do it at all.

Much later, when my kids were older, I had some opportunities to do it again. A trip to Amsterdam, and a trip to Las Vegas, after it was made legal. I thought, hey, why not?

I had horrible experiences. I became paranoid, closed up and unable to interact socially. It turns out the weed has become much stronger than when I was young, and we’d just have some homegrown buds… now they’ve been carefully engineered to have a very high level of THC. Two hits would have me nervous and paranoid.

Edibles… OMG… what hell! My family is still talking about the time a family member visiting me in France brought me a little, thin, sucker. I had a sore throat, and decided it might help on the way to a touristy day out. Ended curled up in the fetal position in the back seat floor of the car while they went siteseeing. That shit just goes on FOREVER. A whole day wasted with me miserable.

I decided, perhaps I have less resistance through time, but also, the strains have developed to be so strong, it isn’t a matter of smoking a joint and feeling a little more giggly than usual. It can be a nightmare. Won’t touch it now. God speed to all those that find it enjoyable or useful in their lives, but I won’t be partaking.

The Amazing Digital Circus – 1950’s Super Panavision 70

What is the meaning of “Made in China”? Is it more costly to manufacture a product in another country and import it to the United States?

Ask Walmart they scouted the entire world and sell almost everything from China? Don’t ask China and Chinese haters these are often brain dead Americans who consumed your media and politicians narratives so much lies has become gospel truth to them now. If 155/195 nations on earth has China as their biggest trading nation can all of them be fools? If they could buy from other nations some nearer to their shores wouldn’t they?

United States should stop using Chinese goods if you hate China so much. China won’t mind and the rest of the world can enjoy your lunch. If you prefer 20% inflation and increase your poverty from 100–200 million, that is your choice, don’t whine about it here! Just do it! The US used to be rich and consumed a lot but these days you area small potato customer, go away! China Don sell to Walmart. Walmart buys from China willingly! I supposed the know a thing or two about US consumers!

Buy from a third country and change their made in China label to made in Mexico, Vietnam or Malaysia and you get your stuffs at a premium is what you want, do it! China don’t mind, Mexico, Vietnam and Malaysia won’t mind? If you wish to fool yourself it is your right! Who may mind? American consumers! Do you think of them?

What are the best examples that shows Life is Unpredictable?

In 2014, Clint Eastwood started a relationship with Christina Sandera. He was 84 at the time, and Christina was 51. Eastwood had been in many relationships before and fully expected this to be his last rodeo. He was quite done with it all.

main qimg 3f52a4964d97da324e859986b85091a0

Fast forward ten years, Eastwood is now 94. He and Sandera did, indeed, stay together. But now sad news was just made public by the Eastwood family — Christina Sandera died, aged 61.

[1] You don’t get into a relationship in your fifties, with a man in his eighties, with the expectation that he will be the one to bury you. You probably won’t like to think much about it, but that’s not exactly the most likely outcome that’ll be on your mind…

Life is incredibly unpredictable. We have expectations and we think we have a lot of certainties, but really? We don’t. We just trick ourselves for the sense of comfort into believeing we know the outcome of things ahead of times, but in actuality we never quite do.

Footnotes

[1] Clint Eastwood’s partner Christina Sandera dead at 61

The US Literally Cannot Repay Its National Debt.

Do Chinese people feel embarrassed when they see “Made in China” goods?

It depends.

Last time, when Obama gave a speech at the port about revitalizing American manufacturing, they used flags to cover the crane’s logo in the background.(As to whether the flag was made in China too, I have no idea, but it is possible.)

But a gust of wind revealed the brand name 振华（Make China Great Again）, which made me feel a bit embarrassed.

Later, when President Biden gave a speech at the same place about revitalizing American manufacturing, I kept my eyes on the flag covering the logo the entire time.

As a result, when President Biden praised the “New Panama” crane, you could still see that it was actually made in China…

Therefore, Biden’s nickname in China is 拜振华.

Very embarrassing.

China’s Radar Defeats US Growler in South China Sea

Damn! Holy shit!

When was the hardest you have cried?

The hardest I have ever cried is when my youngest daughter had her breaking point at the hands of her bully. That week of my life made me feel like the worst father in history.

My daughter is socially awkward, meek, shy, and has trouble making friends. Her only interests are Art and Tennis. She’s never had many friends and really didn’t seem to care. That’s what I thought.

In her freshman year in High school, she met the Bully that would change school policy on bullying. This incident happened when My child was in the school library. The library is supposed to be bully proof, like a sanctuary. But not on this day.

She’s quietly drawing with her friend. And out of nowhere she gets smacked from behind on her right ear with baby powder. And of course it was the bully. It was supposed to be a prank. A video prank called “SMACK CAM” to be exact.

Looks like this.

This time it went too far. My child got knocked unconscious and taken to the hospital with a serious concussion.

I get the call and race to the hospital with bitter rage. I’m met by the police, the principal, the school nurse, and the guidance counselor. They were all in her room. I walk in and see my child sleeping with tubes coming out of her nose and arms. I couldn’t talk. I was shaking with anger.

The principal and the police explain to me that they have video evidence, and the bully has been arrested.

Three days later my daughter came home from the hospital and all that I thought I knew about her was only the surface.

We’re sitting on the couch watching TV. I go into the kitchen for something. I come out of the kitchen to see her face wet with tears. She’s not wiping her face, there is no facial expression, no sound. Just a constant flow of big tears. Tears with no sound means deep emotional pain. Especially from a 14 year old girl.

I grab her off the couch and give her the biggest HUG I have ever given her and tell her that I love her and will always be there for her. But only this time, she felt different.

We sit down and I’m trying to tickle her side to get a smile. NOTHING! After some time She finally starts talking.

“I just want this to stop, I’m sick of it”

(OMG!) This has been going on all this time?!

She begins to detail the horrors ever since elementary school. I’ll list only a few.

She’s been called Ugly
They hide her books
They steal her material
They push and shove her
Cut her in line
Put buggers on her shirt
One boy that sits behind her cut her hair without her knowing.

Some things they did were disgusting so I won’t list them. At the end of it all I still wasn’t crying. Until she said this.

“How come no one likes me, what did I do?”

That’s when I lost it. I tried to hide it because I can’t cry in front of my children. I felt weak, my heart pounded and I waited to speak so she wouldn’t notice my voice cracking.

I tell her to go take a shower and we’ll go to the mall and walk around. That was just to get her to walk away so I could go to my room and try not to cry. As soon as I got in my room I felt a fear in me that I can’t explain.

I wanted to trade places with her. I wanted to absorb all her pain, I wanted to kill the bully, I wanted desperately to help her in any way. I blamed myself. Someway somehow it’s my fault.

Why didn’t I notice something? I should have never gotten divorced. Her mom should still be here. I need help!!! It’s too much for me.

I cried so much that my eyes got swollen and my throat got hoarse. Until that day and a few days after, I can’t remember ever crying like that.

After about an hour I open her room door to see my middle daughter holding my youngest while she slept.

Despite the bully’s family asking me not to press charges, I went ahead and pressed charges, and she got six months probation for assault.

My child never went back to school, never wanted to go to school, couldn’t go to sleep, couldn’t eat, and started to hate. Something that I never saw in her.

There wasn’t much I could do. My desperate attempts to get her to smile and liven up became silly. So I signed both of us for Art classes, and she began to show signs of joy.

I later found out that the guidance counselor was my daughter’s shoulder to lean on. Mrs. Sarver was very nice and always helped her in trying times during school.

Mrs. Sarver came over to visit one day with a bunch of letters, and art work from supporting students. I stood back thinking that my child does have friends! But I was wrong.

She sat down and went through every piece of paper, and threw out all but two envelopes. A large piece of very good Art work, and a letter.

They were from “PAIGE”, her only friend. That was the first time I saw her smile in a month.

I enrolled her in a private school the following year where she is doing very well. And despite her psychiatrist’s suggestion, we will not be using any pills.

The China The Media Never Shows! 🇨🇳 Our First Day in SHENZHEN

At what moment in your life did you witness true evil?

(Graphic/sickening content) To this day, I hate the person who did this. I never got a good look at this person and have never seen them or their care ever since.

I was doing my normal 30 minute run of the day and I would usually finish my run at a dead end street, where I would give myself a 5 minute break. Once reaching my stop, I would always go right under a tree to block the burning sun and rest. I was a bit hidden by the tree, so no one would be able to spot me unless they truly tried.

I was in the middle of having my drink, when I noticed a navy blue Ford Explorer with tinted windows make a stop right next to the empty road, almost right beside me. I continued drinking my water, but stopped when the driver slid their window fully down. I couldn’t see the driver well, because the driver seat was facing the opposite way from me. So I was only able to see the silhouette of the driver through the tinted windows.

I was able to hear a commotion going on in the car, but after the driver put down their window, all I heard then were two children, a boy and a girl, repeatedly crying out, “Please don’t do it mom! Please don’t do it!” I was a bit interested in what they were talking about, so I hid a bit more, so that I wouldn’t be seen snooping. The mother, who was the driver, kept telling them to shut up and in her exact words said “Shut up! Shut up, you crybabies! I have enough trouble caring for you two! I’ll be damned if I have to care for these stupid things!”

Through the tinted window, I was able to see her pick up what seemed to be an open cardboard box that was small enough to fit through the window, but big enough to put a variety of small objects in. The children kept screaming, “NO! NO!”. As a speeding car was coming down the road, she threw the box right in its path without giving it a chance to react. At that moment, I heard tiny meows coming from in the box as it flew through the air towards the ground. I froze in horror as the box hit the front tire of the speeding car and the box went right under. All heard as the box went under the tire was a disturbing wet crackling noise that still haunts me to this day.

By the time the car fully ran over the box, the mother with her children were long gone, speeding the opposite direction of the other car. I couldn’t believe what I just saw. I just stood still and watched as the man came out of his car to see what he ran over. I was hoping that it was anything other than what I thought it was. To my horror, the man pulled out the now almost fully flat box and it was oozing out this bright reddish liquid, which I believe was blood. The man took one look in the box and immediately threw up on his car. The man dropped the flat box, went in his car, and drove away.

I was so stunned that I stared at the box for a good ten seconds. I couldn’t believe I witnessed this. I knew what was in the box, but I refused to believe it. My sick curiosity wanted to see what was truly inside that box. I didn’t want to believe that there were kittens in there. I finally came out of my daze and went across the street towards the box. The closer I got, the faster my heart began to beat. Standing right over it, I saw the small opening the man left as he peeked inside. Looking inside the box was the biggest mistake of my life. What I saw was the most traumatizing image that still sticks to me to this day. I won’t describe it because just thinking about the image makes me sick.

After seeing what was inside, it was for a fact that inside the box was a group of disfigured, flat baby kittens that weren’t even given a chance to live another day. How could she? I said to myself. How could anyone be so disgusting? I knew there was nothing I could do, so instead of leaving the box on the ground exposed, I put it in a nearby garbage can. The box left a red stained road with a bit of the box left on it and all I did right after was walk straight home, leaving behind my bottle of water at the tree where this all started.

I wanted to share this story because I had it as a secret from my family at home and I don’t plan on ever telling them. Just writing this story was a huge struggle for me. As you can see on my profile picture, I own an orange male cat that I have taken care of since birth. I could not stand it if anything horrible were to happen to him.

Thank you for reading my experience.

Those poor poor children.

CHINA is NOT what we expected – FIRST 24 HOURS in Beijing

Shorpy

Alice in Wonderland – 1950’s Super Panavision 70

What are some things Chinese people dislike about other Chinese people?

Chinese parents judge success through their kids’ school performance.

They will never say that they are better; instead they will push their kids to win piano, music, math, science and other competitions. If you listen carefully to the conversations among mothers, they will talk about their son/daughter winning some competition. If the other mother’s fall silent because their child did not win, the jealousy in the room is almost palpable.

The idea is that the kid should provide the ammo so that the parents can play this one-upmanship game.

Generally, the mother’s supervise their child’s study schedule, and it is normal for the child to be busy for 14–16 hours per day.

In China, class school grades are public; everyone knows how each other student is doing. Sometimes, a good student will volunteer to help a student who is flagging, so this is not entirely a bad thing. The worst thing to be is to be so slow that one pulls the average for the whole class down when compared to other classes.

This intense competition is mostly absent in the west, which is why many Chinese parents want to send their children to school in the west. They think it is easier for their children, because they think that western children are slow and easy-going compared to Chinese children.

The great irony is that even when they move to the west, Chinese mothers push their children just as hard as when they were going to school in China. The Chinese bring that intensity and pressure with them wherever they go.

If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be Chinese anymore.

Would it be possible for Taiwan to declare independence from China? Kind of like how the USA declared independence from Great Britain?

It is not possible. Whether it is by UN law or by the constitution of both China & Taiwan.

In the US civil war, the then US president Abraham Lincoln told the rebellious South that:

I am elected president of USA. My duty is to protect the integrity of USA. You cannot say I invade you.

Back to China-Taiwan

There was a civil war in China (called ROChina at the time). The then ruling party KMT was defeated by CPC in 1949. KMT fled to Taiwan while CPC stayed on mainland. CPC renamed ROChina to PRChina, like Qing was renamed to ROC in 1911 (5000 years’ of Chinese tradition).

In theory, the civil war has not finished as of 2024 because China has not reunified yet.

Internationally, between 1949 & 1971, both ROChina & PRChina exist. In 1971, however, UN resolution 2758 announced …

1, There is only ONE China & PRChina is the only legitimate government that represents China.

That is, ROChina ceases to exist on world stage. Only a handful tiny tiny countries still recognised ROC.

Taiwan is part of China. Ref: US doc 203 & the 1978 USA-China joint communique by former US president J Carter.

2, To make it crystal clear, on 2024/5/23, UN told the world “Taiwan is a PROVINCE of China.”

By UN charter, China has a duty to protect the integrity of Chinese territory that incl Taiwan province.

Internally, both constitution of China & Taiwan say:

China territory = mainland + Taiwan + some islands & reefs around China.

Why Taiwan dares not call for referendum? Because referendum involves mainland too.

Militarily Taiwan cannot fight China.

That is, Taiwan can NEVER be independent. Though opportunistic politicians must shout independence so as to get tons of foreign funding (corruption), before Taiwan is discarded by USA like a used condom. Remember USA discarded ROChina in 1971.

conclusion

Whether it is UN resolution or Chinese-Taiwanese constitutions, China has a duty to protect the integrity of China. Like former US president A Lincoln protecting the integrity of USA in the US civil war.

China is NOT invading or attacking Taiwan. Just to suppress Taiwan rebellion, like Lincoln suppressing the South.

China will reunify with Taiwan one way or another. It is the duty of China for the sake of Chinese nation, culture & history.

China’s 1st option is peaceful unification. If necessary, China is not afraid to use military.

Illustrations

Cheese Garden Lasagna

The fresh taste of summer laden with your favorite cheeses!

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

1/4 cup (2 ounces) butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup each asparagus, zucchini, green onions, yellow squash and red pepper, diced
6 ounces portobello mushrooms, chopped
2 cups Roma tomatoes, diced
2 cups baby spinach leaves, diced
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves, chopped
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 cups (15 ounces) Wisconsin Ricotta Cheese
1 cup (4 ounces) Wisconsin Parmesan Cheese, grated, divided use
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper
12 no-cook lasagna noodles
2 cups (8 ounces) Wisconsin Mozzarella Cheese, shredded, divided use
1 cup (4 ounces) Wisconsin Smoked Provolone Cheese, shredded, divided use

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter the bottom of a 13 x 9 x 2 inch pan.
Melt 1/4 cup butter in skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for 1 to 2 minutes.
Add asparagus, zucchini, onions, squash, red pepper, mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach; sauté stirring frequently, 4 to 5 minutes.
Stir in basil, oregano and vinegar; set aside.
In bowl, stir together ricotta, 1/2 cup Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper; set aside.
Place layer of noodles (4 noodles) on bottom of prepared pan. Spread 1/2 ricotta mixture over noodles, top with 1/3 vegetable mixture, 3/4 cup mozzarella and 1/2 cup provolone.
Repeat with noodles, remaining ricotta mixture, 1/3 vegetable mixture, 3/4 cup mozzarella and remaining provolone. Top with noodles, remaining vegetable mixture, mozzarella and Parmesan.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes.
Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes; serve.

Why do husbands leave after 20+ years of marriage?

After my first wife divorced me – 6 years – I did a lot of soul searching and reading – and realized I was looking for too much from her and giving too little – As well as not even thinking about things like children, lifestyle, etc – For example, she never wanted children – and I did.

I spent many years making sure I knew what I wanted, making sure I knew what my potential new wife wanted, and committing to support her no matter how things went.

I followed through – no matter what demands of my job and career, family was my first priority – when my new wife became pregnant, I went to every medical appointment with her, listened to thr doctors, made myself aware of the risks (she had a mental illness and physical issues), and took on all tasks – When my son was born with a cardiac defect, I took on the responsibility of helping him and my wife – but, despite my taking time for my family, my career still rocketed up beyond my highest expectations.

When my wife, after our second child, became incapable of working a regular job and incapable of taking care of our children, I hired people to take care of them – and took much time off work still to take her to specialists to treat her condition.

Later when a car accident resulted in 10 years of constant pain, I both took her to every single person she wanted for her back and got up ever 3 hours every night to get her an ice pack from thr freezer – As well as taking our children to places and friend’s houses.

Then I used an entire 401k to help her establish her own business. Which she failed because she did nothing after the first few months.

Yet she never heard one complaint from me – only support.

After 20 years of marriage, she “figured out” that I had held her back – since all of her fellow Kellogg Business School graduates were multi-millionaires while we frequently faced near bankruptcy.

She convinced her friend that I had been physically abisung her for years (after I stepped in to stop her from yelling at and hitting our straight A daughter), and forced me to move out or face arrest due to false testimony for her and her friend – who made clear to me that she was willing to lie to the police.

After trying and failing to negotiate an amicable Separation or Divorce – While she interferred with my legal access to my own children plus Vo third to Siena money at a rate that would lead to bankruptcy within 3 months, I finally filed for divorce – thus allowing me legal access to my children and legally limiting her access to my income.

After talking to other men and observing things in divorce court, I conclude that this occurs very frequently – Women deciding that they are “entitled” to certain things and blaming their lack of wealth, etc on their husbands – rather than simply working with him to get what they want.

As always happens – the lawyers got most of the money and the settlement was almost to the dollar what I had proposed months before the divorce filing – minus 3 years of legal fees.

Karma was that she was so bad with our children that her neighbors called the police a total of 16 times in 4 months – leading to her losing all legal access to our children.

My children went from the perception of 2 loving parents to the knowledge that their Mothet did not give a damn about them – only herself and her “needs”.

I met many divorced women whose husbands did this same sort of shit – putting their “needs” above everyone else – this is not a “men-women” thing – this is about people unwilling or unable to grow up and take on adult responsibility.

Compilation: The Moon is Weird – No, really. The Moon does not make sense

Here’s a fun video.

You might be surprised at the changes that can hit you unexpectedly

When I was living in Erie, PA during my “parole” portion of my incarceration, I spent it at numerous facilities.

First with my father, and then at a monastery, and then finally at a half-way house. It’s all part of a program of reintegration with society.

Managed, of course, by the Parole branch of the local department of corrections.

They were pretty decent to me.

During the time at the “half way house” I shared a house with four other men. We each had a room, and maintained the house as part of a program.

We all had issues. One of the guys; a man named Mark was reintegrating from a lifetime of drugs. Another was Dave; who was dealing with mental issues stemming from a brain tumor. And there were others.

Each of us were unique. One guy was a bank robber who messed up really BIG TIME. Another was a young kid in his early 20’s who was just “losing it” because of a mental illness that he had.

*sigh*

We all worked a late night shift cleaning the local YMCA. We started at 9pm and came home at 4am. I led the crew because I was “responsible” and also because I had a drivers license.

Ah. It’s not the best life, but you get used to it. Low pay and hidden from sight. Just like everyone wanted.

So during the night we would scrub toilets mop floors and all the rest.

Shot of an unrecognizable man mopping the office floor

It’s what you might expect. Personally, I didn’t mind it. There was a calmness to mopping the floors in a big empty building late at night.

Ah. The snow would be falling outside. And I would just mop away. No one would bother me. First mop was to clean. Second mop was to rinse. It was simple and fine.

Anyways, Mark had a dog named Buddy, and this dog was a typical dog. I can’t say anything too bad about him. He was a beagle that was abandoned at the Humane Society.

Beagle,Standing.,Beagles.,Beagle,Breed.,6,Group,Fci.,Hunting,Dog.

I well remember once, It’s 4am, I just got home. I took off my shoes to get into bed and squish…

I turned on the light.

Buddy had broke into my room. He shit all over it.

He must of ate some that disagreed with him and shit was everywhere. In a panic, he tried to cover it up by knocking things off the desk and vanity; my books, papers and computer on top of the oozy piles of stinky shit.

I was pretty angry.

It took me until 5am, maybe 6am to sort everything out. And then, well a new day started.

Ah. Life happens.

So does shit.

You might be surprised at the changes that can hit you unexpectedly. You see guys, I hope you see… my life has been an ADVENTURE. And this is what my soul was trying to tell me as I entered my new baby body. THis life was going to be a real adventure…

… as I write this from my house in China and my daughter and wife are sleeping in the other room. An adventure.

Today…

Why is Russia living in the past with wars with neighboring countries?

Because Europe never did something which the Chinese did under Qinshihuang Di more than 2,000 years ago: conquer all the small kingdoms which formed China, kill all the royal families, and unify the language and measuring units.

The Qin dynasty was followed by the Han dynasty which built up a national bureaucracy which ruled the empire for 2,000+ years, and continues to rule China in its modern version, which is called the Communist Party of China.

The Han dynasty was milder than the Qin dynasty mainly because the Qin dynasty had already done most of the necessary killing to rule.

How does this relate to Russia and its neighbors?

Central and Eastern Europe is a clusterf**k of small- and middle-sized nations who generally hate each other for historical, cultural, linguistic, social and religious regions.

In order to maintain political influence in Europe, the U.S. has inflamed these hatreds because it gives the reason to keep a presence in Europe. Right now, most hate Russia, so now the US uses the umbrella of NATO to maintain its European presence. Without a strong European presence, the US would be largely confined to North America, and could no longer be considered a global power.

The USSR kept many of these countries from fighting each other with the Soviet socialist republics (including Ukraine) and the Warsaw Pact alliance, which disbanded after the collapse of the USSR. With the collapse of the USSR, all of the nationalist hatreds which had previously been suppressed broke out into the open.

It has been very much in US interests to frame Russia and Putin as the aggressor and instigator of all these troubles because this provides justification for the US presence and intervention.

IMO, all of central Europe should be either under German or Russian control; it would make things much easier if the local leaders were killed off in the same way Qinshihuang Di did in China. Eventually, Europe could be a grown-up region doing grown-up things, and taking care of its own defense.

Maybe…

Ordinary Cat Invades Fashion Show, Then It Does The UNTHINKABLE!

Reality

Poland and Belarus

Was anyone 1,000 years ago as smart as someone with average intelligence today?

I was teaching a science class in the Australian desert and the class was quietly working (it was a nice class). I looked out the window and I commented to no one in particular, “Looks like there will be a cyclone next week.”
The students mostly started laughing and one piped up “The national meteorologists said that the low would pass by without any problem.”

But there was a part of the class that did not object to my announcement… the local indigenous people. Instead they asked, “How do you [of European descent] know what our elders know?”
I smiled and pointed out the window, “The wind has changed to go in the opposite direction, the clouds have moved north instead of south, and the corellas (a small cockatoo) have all left town and gone to shelter in Karijini (local mountain range).”
The indigenous students were impressed and everyone else thought I was an idiot… at least they did until the cyclone hit the next week and flooded all the roads out of town.

The lesson here is that intelligence is not about knowledge gained through complex technology such as that used by meteorologists. Satellites, pressure gauges, wind charts—all of that is just data. True intelligence comes from an ability to assess the data and make a reasonable determination.
I made a reasonable determination based upon observational data … data indigenous people had been using for 50,000 years with success.

Ancient peoples used their intelligence to determine weather patterns, judge hunting techniques, and plan for the future year. They did all this without satellites or computers. Are modern people more intelligent than those before them?

No, we are not.

Ancient peoples can hold their head high … for they are intelligent and wise. Only an idiot would think otherwise.

Santa Fe Style Steak

Ingredients

1/2 cup Heinz 57 Sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
4 beef steaks (for grilling)

Instructions

Combine all ingredients except steak; reserve 1/4 cup for dipping cooked steaks. Brush steaks with sauce mixture.
Grill to desired doneness, about 14 to 18 minutes for 1 inch thick steaks, turning once and brushing with sauce.

God's Rainbow - Noahic Covenant

American voter…

What was a red flag that made you stop talking to a person immediately?

I was at a local bar with some friends.

One of my friends wanted to smoke, but since smoking is forbidden indoors in Germany, we decided to join him outside. We were standing in a circle and happily chatting away, when someone said something which made me laugh out loudly.

Some random bloke was standing a few meters away from us, smoking and drinking a beer from a heavy clay mug. While I was laughing, he walked directly towards me and harshly asked what we were laughing about. I told him “nothing really, we’re just chatting and having fun.” He kept on moving uncomfortably close towards me, not satisfied with my answer, clearly thinking we’d made fun of him.

I wasn’t very intimidated by him since he was only about 1,65m tall and I was in decent physical shape. I stood my ground and was about to answer with an actual derogatory remark aimed at his intelligence. Both female friends who were present, started tucking at my shirt heavily, urging me to go back inside. I begrudgingly gave in.

What I hadn’t seen (and couldn’t see because he was so close), but they had noticed: while moving closer he had changed the position of the clay mug in his hand, ready to swing it at my head.

There were many a few red flags I should have noticed, but I was being arrogant due to his size and me being slightly intoxicated.

The final red flag, which I chose not to ignore, was my friends pulling me away.

What’s the most expensive thing you’ve gotten for an insanely cheap price?

I really should check with a landscaping company before bragging on this, but it’s too late on a Saturday. I got a 30,000 pound rock for only $75.

Every day for maybe a month, on my way to work, I rode my bicycle past a humongous big boulder that rested in a waste area along the border where my city was renovating and expanding the downtown Civic Center. I finally couldn’t stand it any longer so I hunted down the site foreman and asked, “What’s a deal with the big rock.?”

—”Oh, that. That damn thing is getting in the way. We’re going to have to move it pretty soon.”

“Can I buy it.?

Pause.

“Delivered.?’ I asked. “I live two blocks west from here. And, um, four blocks north. No, make that five blocks north; and then a U-turn into the alley; and then south down to the opposite end where I am. You have to approach my house from the north. The southside of the alley is a grandfathered-in illegally steep grade that can’t be fixed; I’ve asked. Nobody, literally, nobody enters my alley from the south end traveling north.”

“Yeah, sure.” More thinking. “$75.”

I know that rock weighs 30,000 pounds because that is the upper-limit payload that the construction company’s biggest on-site front-loader was rated for. The driver who delivered said that he had to go slow because throughout the entire trip, every time he rode over a bump or expansion crack he could feel the rear end of the front-loader lift off the road. Like a baby seesaw.

The driver and I laughed about it. I gave him a $20 dollar tip.

p.s. Around here, field stone is pretty much free from the surrounding farm fields. But you have to pick it and transport it yourself. The expense when you buy bigly landscaping rocks is really mostly for transporting them. Rocks are heavy. 😀

Being a father be like…

Why didn’t Sears adapt?

I led a small marketing team at Sears briefly in 2015. The experience was so terrible that I quit ~5 months into the role (at great financial cost) and was so depressed that I took the same amount of time off to stop hating myself for ever getting involved.

Almost every person I worked with at Sears—from division presidents to middle managers to the janitorial staff—truly believed that Sears still deserved to be a leading American brand, and that the rest of the country just hadn’t figured that out yet. Things I heard all the time from people at Sears corporate:

Customers are being unfair.
Customers should just give us a chance.
We’re just as good as anyone else.
Competitors don’t have anything we don’t have.
Amazon is cheating, they should be illegal.
Vendors are taking unfair advantage of us.
If customers just knew what we knew, they would come back.

I think this bizarre cognitive dissonance is the single largest driver of Sears’ failure. Sears waited for someone, anyone else to notice that the world isn’t working the way it should (as evidenced by their unjust decline). A significant chunk of the people I worked with at Sears had been with the company for more than ten years, and they held this attitude despite years of no compensation changes and benefits like 401k match disappearing. They kept this attitude as they bought SHLD shares at a slight discount through the employee stock purchase program (for roughly $25/share in 2015, worth $0.45 or so today). They maintained this attitude as they paid $1.25 per cup of drip coffee every morning (that they made themselves, via keurig, in the employee break room).

This was particularly frustrating for me as a B2B marketer. Business customers won’t hesitate to ask hard questions like “how will all the news about your trouble with creditors impact your ability to fulfill my orders?” and they expect real answers. If your value proposition boils down to “we promise we’re just as good as our competitors,” why should anyone care that you exist?

Recalling ALL of the RED FLAGS of Ladies Night

My landlord is evicting me because I’m 2 years late on rent. How do I tell him I’m not leaving no matter what?

I had a young, man who was a tenant. He and his GF decided to stop paying rent. They were also dealing heroin and fentanyl from the property. We found a lawyer who walked us through the procedure for eviction. We went to court and this fellow who normally walked around in dreadlocks and baggy sweatpants in a “sagging” style, showed up to court in a suit and tie.

He cited deficiencies in the apartment, my attorney cited the lease and the signed, pre-move-in inspection. He cited that he was jobless. My attorney cited that he paid me in cash up until the time he decided to quit paying. Another issue from the tenant, another rebuttal from my attorney.

At the end of the hearing, the judge gave him 60 days to move out. At the end of the 60 days, his parents showed up and under the watchful eye of the sheriff’s deputy, they removed his junk and cursed me and my wife and told the deputy how unfair it was to kick him out.

After leaving his trash and the pile of ratty furniture on the curb, I inspected the property with the deputy. I changed the locks and barred the windows. I hired a cleanup crew who specialized in cleaning potentially drug-laced areas. I repainted, fumigated and cleaned with bleach and fungicide. I placed a lien on his parents who cosigned his lease, I sued him in court and won and a lien was placed on his future earnings, I filed a credit report so he will not be able to gain credit until the debt is paid.

So go ahead and tell your landlord you are not paying and not moving. Enjoy court and a move-out under the watchful eye of the sheriff.

When did you first realize your child was different?

I first suspected the day after he was born. He was alert and looking around. Yes, I know they can’t focus their eyes but this kid was staring right at me. I felt he was staring through me. I told my wife it was like a sentient being was staring at me from behind those eyes.

At two weeks he would hold his head up to get a better view.

I was song leader at church and during service sat on the platform next to the pastor when something else was going on. My wife sat on the front row holding the baby. At six months he noticed me on the platform and mouthed “Hi, Pop” to me as clearly as day. The pastor noticed and whispered “He said ‘Hi, Pop.’” I nodded in agreement.

I started to write that he began walking at 9 months. In fact, he hit the floor running and has never slowed down.

His older brother and sister are smart and smarter. They both swear that he is smarter than either of them. Unfortunately he was diagnosed late with ADHD. He found it very hard to focus on boring things and developed bad study habits. He attempted college twice but never took to book learning. He drives a truck for a living. He also plays ukulele, recorder, and bass guitar. He juggles, makes glass marbles, roasts and grinds his own coffee brand, yo-yoes competitively, and is a former state spin top champion. He sews costumes for himself and his kids. He can also wire a house, rebuild a car engine, and create graphic art.

Oh, and he is 6 feet 4 inches (1.9m) tall and 240 pounds (108kg) of solid muscle. Best of all, he is still my sweet,tender-hearted, little boy.

FAB-3000 Bomb Blows Up a Cafe Building Along With NATO and Ukrainian Officers┃AFU Lost UROZHAINE

People who grew up poor and are now in a higher social class, what are the biggest or most surprising differences you’ve noticed?

I’m going to go in the opposite direction. While a number of the answers that talk about better food and vacations not being a thing are absolutely right, the biggest difference to me is how I view setbacks.

When I was 20 and managed to get a car I made the mistake one night of parking in a place I shouldn’t have. My car got towed. It cost $125 to get it out. I didn’t have it. In fact, getting $125 for myself back then was so hard that I had to wait a week just to put it together.

Well, anyone that’s been towed knows, they charge you by the day when you leave your car there. By the time I had $125 the cost went up to $200. I was distraught, disheartened and certainly didn’t have that. I learned to appreciate having to walk everywhere, although I was incredibly frustrated ( luckily I lived in a city) since it made getting to work a major hassle. To this day I have gratitude to that tow lady, because she saw my reaction and waived the fees bringing the price back to $125 and gave me my car back. Kindness goes a long way, she really helped me out back then.

Anyways, fast forward almost 10 years.

Made a mistake, parked in a place that I shouldn’t have and my car got towed. It cost $285 to get it out (I live in a much more expensive city). I gave a sigh and a shrug and paid it instantly without thinking about it. While I was mad for making the mistake and having paid nearly $300, it didn’t phase me outside of that.

That is the difference.

If you have a setback when you’re poor it can destroy you. Seriously. I’ve watched my parents have setbacks and it put us, as a family, through some awful times. Recently my mom had a $2000 set back. I paid it the next day. Had I still been a kid, that same $2000 would have hurt us for months if not a year after.

When you have even just a little bit of money as an emergency fund, it makes a world of difference. Getting towed, accidents, small medical emergencies, getting sick and having to miss work for 2 or 3 days, missing your flight or train and having to buy a new ticket…

Setbacks, become so much easier to deal with.

Did you ever accidentally overhear a conversation about you on a conference call?

*Yes I did and it helped me make a big decision.*

I was pastor of a church and I had a leadership team of men who were mostly older than me. I was a young pastor and this was my first big church, having only run a smaller one before. My team were good guys but they didn’t know how to handle a young firebrand with a strong personality and ideas for change and innovation.

Some of the members tried to control me and make me into their idea of what they wanted from a leader, which is never going to work.

One day I was sitting in my church office and my phone rang. One of the team who was trying to control me had pocket dialled me and he was driving somewhere and had another team member in the car with him. They were talking about me.

They were discussing my flaws and how they wished I would just change and be what they wanted. There was no celebrating my abilities, just gossip about my inabilities. As a young man this was quite soul destroying. I did contact the one who make the pocket call and said that next time he gossips about me he needs to make sure he hasn’t just called me so I can hear it all. He tried to defend himself and say he was trying to be helpful discussing these things, but it helped me in other ways.

My wife and I had been contemplating emigrating and taking on a new challenge in a new culture, and this pushed us closer to the decision which we eventually made a few months later..

What was one expectation you had for boot camp that did not come true?

I was in boot camp beginning in April of 1975. I went to Great Lakes Naval Boot Camp outside of Chicago. I expected what I’d seen in movies. It was a very different experience.

Our Company Commander, Chief Seal, was taking his last company of recruits through their basic training before retirement. It was a very relaxed environment without tons of yelling and screaming and millions of push-ups and group punishment.

I found out later, through reliable sources, that the reason Chief Seal was much more lenient had to do with the previous company he took through basic. There were 2 suicide attempts and several attempts of recruits being AWOL. The one that got to him was a young man he sent to the brig after a minor violation. It was something that could have been handled differently. Once in the brig, this young man, who was from Midland, MI, was abused by the Marine Handlers who were in charge. This was nothing unusual. It’s what Marines do. Unfortunately, during one of the punishment episodes, the young man died. In an attempt to cover up what had happened, 4 Marines took the young mans body and placed it across the railroad tracks that ran outside of the base. Later he was struck by train. During the investigation, something didn’t sit right with the investigators. Something about body placement. Four Marines were arrested, went to court martial, and were found guilty of murder and covering up what had happened. This whole episode weighed heavily on Chief Seal and he vowed he wouldn’t be that hard on his next, and last, group of recruits. The reason it was his last group was “political pressure” (for want of a better name) from higher in the chain of command. He was allowed to stay in service, providing he put in for retirement.

Overall my Boot Camp experience was better than others I heard about at the same base.

How Attractive

What were the worst two minutes of your life?

At age 37, I had my first baby via emergency C-section, after an 83-hour labour.

When I got pregnant again at 39, I had

A scar on my uterus
A large fetus with a head size off the chart (literally off the chart: the little red dot was printed beyond the end of the line)
A fetus in an extended breach position, little bum at the bottom, big head at the top, legs straight up in front of her body (must have been so uncomfortable!)

So halfway through my pregnancy I was scheduled for an elective C-section as trying for a vaginal birth sounded like a disaster waiting to happen. Good plan!

On the day, after all the starving and prep, I was taken into theatre, and the doctor decided to check the baby’s position with one last ultrasound. She said “if the baby has flipped, I am not doing it.”

(Lady, she hasn’t had space to flip for the last three months, what are you on? Also, way to jump it on me NOW!)

Anyway, the baby hadn’t flipped, so let’s chop. At this point, perhaps due to all the poking, the baby twisted a quarter turn, so that instead of facing sideways, she was now facing towards my back. More importantly, her legs were now underneath her body.

So the doctor was rummaging around, trying to find some part of the baby to grab onto. No luck.

Let’s make the cut bigger.

Rummage.

Bigger.

Rummage.

At this point the uterus decided “Yeah, I am done, stop bothering me, I will just go and contract back to the size of a pear, shall I.”

On the baby’s head.

All I could see was two people finally grabbing two tiny ankles and dragging with all their might. There was silence.

Then everyone rushed to a distant corner of the room and the anaesthesiologist’s assistant, who had stayed with me, said in a weak voice: “She will be OK…”

The two minutes contemplating how to tell my toddler that her new baby sister was not coming home… I sincerely hope I will never have another two minutes like that.

P.S.: Yeah, this was 14 years ago, that baby now wants to be a neurobiologist, she is learning five languages and plays the harp.

‘I Can’t Believe You Have Been Nominated!’: Hawley Goes Nuclear On Nom Over Writings About Gender

How old were you when you first went to prison? What was your sentence and what was your crime?

Boy do I have a story for you. I was 57 when I was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison for selling a firearm to a felon. I had owned my own gun shop for 25 years prior to that, was working as a shift manager at the local casino, and had been retired from the state prison system for 15 years when I left I was the director of operations. I had no prior criminal history never been arrested and was a model citizen.

Why did I go to prison? Because I sold a gun to a woman at a gun show ( a small .22 caliber pistol) did the background check (she lied on the form) and when the ATF went to arrest her for felon in possession, and falsifying federal documents, she made some kind of deal to get me. ATF revoked my federal gun license, arrested me, my wife, and my daughter who worked at the store, and charged us all with the selling of the firearm, conspiracy, and providing material false statements to federal agents.( My wife and daughter were not even at the gun show) I had to hire a lawyer for each of us 50k and we were released on pre trial detention had to take urine tests weekly and were on kind of parole, couldn’t leave the state etc..

My lawyer was the best in the state and told me the charges were bull shit and I had a 95 % chance of beating them at trial, however if we lost we would all go to prison for at least 5 years. The prosecutor and ATF AGENT wanted me to go to prison for 10 years and pay $100,000 dollars in fines. I couldn’t risk my family going to prison so my lawyer made a deal with the feds and the charges were dropped against my daughter and wife after I plead guilty. I was sentenced to 24 months and paid 10,000$

The prosecutor claimed victory, I lost my job, my store and my dignity, but the feds got a non dangerous person off the streets and everyone made a ton of money all in the name of “Operation safe streets” lucky my state retirement benefits couldn’t be touched by the feds but they did take all the store inventory, we were literally close to being homeless, I am now a felon, on 3 year supervised release after doing 14 months in federal prison and 6 months in a halfway house. The entire process cost you the taxpayer to prosecute, house, medical care, supervision, and the the rest a cool half million bucks! Congratulations ATF and federal prosecutors for keeping our streets safe.

NATO summit, funeral to circus

The grift has taken over all the “leadership” of Europe. Brilliant analysis.

As a waiter/waitress, how would you describe the behavior of the worst type of diner, and what would the tip be?

I’m not a waiter/waitress, but I recently witnessed this behavior at a casino.

For those who haven’t been to one, there’s waitresses who roam about and will bring you alcoholic beverages (sometimes for a price, sometimes for free so long as you’re gambling) or else water/soft drinks (nearly always for free). The idea is to keep you behind the machine and feeding it money.

Some casinos have a “loyalty program” in which you sign up, get a plastic card, and if you gamble enough you rack up points and get free stuff. Sometimes the free stuff is money – maybe $10 or $15 – but the money is put on your card and cannot be redeemed for actual cash. That money has to be used to play slots.

So the guy sitting next to me orders a drink. Usually you tip the waitress a couple of bucks. But this guy? When she brings his drink, he points to his card and says “If you can figure out how to get $2 in cash off the card, that will be your tip.” Of course, both he and the waitress know that you can’t convert the card money into cash. So not only was he not tipping her, he was rubbing her nose in it.

Second worst behavior in a diner. There’s a party of 3–4 and the waitress comes out to bring beverages. One of the guys puts five singles on the table. He tells her “That’s your tip. Every time you screw something up, I’m going to take away one of those dollars.” The waitress became enraged and told him and his buddies to get the hell out. I thought, “Good for her.”

Reacting To Biden’s Dangerous NATO Speech

A historical disaster.

As a criminal defense lawyer, what was the most embarrassing surprise evidence against your client at trial?

Man oh man I made a blunder once. I learned from it and never let it happen again.

The most embarrassing surprise evidence against my client at trial was: MY CLIENT!

I had a drunk driving case. The evidence against my client was tough but not insurmountable. I got to know my client pretty well prior to trial. He was seemingly outstanding. A well-spoken intelligent gentleman, a war hero. He even worked at the time of the incident taking care of the elderly. He hobbied in photography and had rushed to ground zero on 911 shortly after the towers had fallen. The pictures he took ended up on the front page on newspapers around the world.

He had left a bar in New Bedford driving his brand new four-wheel drive SUV. On the way home, he wanted to show off to his buddy/passenger the vehicle’s capabilities and turned and drove over the grass and dirt median and onto his driveway. The blue lights went on. Field sobriety tests conducted. Not bad not good. He admitted he had the proverbial “2 beers” etc. bloodshot eyes, odor of alcohol, etc., etc. No Breathalyzer Test. Two police officers on the witness list to testify against him etc.

I felt the trial would most likely go in our favor. But I had such confidence in my client being the Ace in the hole that I made the BIG mistake of promising the jury in my opening he would testify. This was a big mistake for two reasons. 1. The officers surprisingly maybe even intentionally did AWFUL on the stand. It was a seeming slam dunk Not Guilty for us.

We broke for lunch after the prosecution rested. My client was dying to testify. I was apprehensive from the get-go during lunch. Why let him testify when we seemingly had it in the bag? But I had enthusiastically promised the jury he’d tell his side of the story, and he was persistent about having his say in court. So 2. (My other mistake): I relented.

He took the stand and immediately turned from Dr Jeckyll into Mr Hyde and then some. And THIS WAS DURING DIRECT EXAMINATION with me tossing softball questions to him. During cross-examination he became downright damn belligerent:

“Sir you said you only had 2 beers is that correct?”

“Yeah, that’s what I said. But you know. Maybe it was 3. Maybe it was one. But you know what? What the F business is it of yours how many damn beers I had?”

Yikes. It got worse from there if you can believe it. He, (we) snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The jury came back guilty in 45 minutes.

I never ever again promised a jury they’d hear from my client. And I never ever put a client on the stand until I actually took the client to an empty courtroom before the trial date and put the client on the stand and practised both direct and cross on them myself.

lesson learned the hard way. Call it a trial by error.

Why did Radio Shack close down, and what took its place?

Originally Answered: Why did Radio Shack close down, and what took it’s place?

Nothing took it’s place, unless you consider the internet.

Radio Shacks failure was due to the inability to adapt. I worked for “The Shack” from 2004 to 2010 and spent 4 years as a store manager, running 2 different stores. Although I was not with Radio Shack at the end I saw the writing on the wall long before I left the company to open my own business. During this time I watched the upper management fall like a house of cards. There were three CEO’s and only one of them seemed like they had any idea how to turn the company around and that person was only an interim CEO until they could hire someone else.

Radio Shack’s ultimate down fall was they neglected the product lines and customers that had built the company. Radio Shack started by selling radios and other equipment to the amature ham rado operators. This was a thriving business from the 1920’s through the 1940’s when the were just a small company operating only a few stores in the northeast. In the 1950’s televisions were driving customers into the stores. Then in the 60’s and 70’s CB radios became the thing to have and Radio Shack was leading the industry. By the late 70’s and early 80’s sales shifted to high fi audio. Then in the mid 80’s Radio Shack hit a home run with one of the very first affordable home computers the TRS 80. In the 80’s Radio Shack was the place to go if you needed a computer or any accessories. That’s difficult to think of today but it was such a huge market Radio Shack opened several locations that were nothing but computer stores. This continued through the mid to late 90’s. High fi and computers were the primary products in the stores, but there was this one little product that was kept in the display case, often ignored and only sold to the occasional customer who had very deep pockets. These were the first cell phones.

I started working at the Shack at in interesting time, in an interesting location. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s the cell phone industry was booming. Cell phone companies were offering huge subsidies on their products to get customers to sign up for a plan. This is why cell phones cost next to nothing. You could get an average cell phone for anywhere from free to $20. However what the customer didn’t know is the cell companies were subsidizing each phone and paying Radio Shack the full retail price. So the phone might actually cost $300 to $400 and whatever the customer didn’t pay, the carrier did. Many stores were selling between 10 to 20 phones every day. At an average of $350 for each phone, the stores were raking in some serious cash and the customer was paying almost nothing. The carriers of course made that back by locking the customer in to a 2 year contract where a portion of their bill each month went to pay off the subsidy. Also Radio Shack got a small portion of the customers bill each month. This was a great deal as long as people were activating a new cell phone with a new phone number, and that was their achilles heal.

Around 2004–05, the cell phone market in my area became saturated. This meant 80% of all customers who could own a cell phone did. The only people who were still activating new phones were the elderly and the kids who had just turned 18 and were now able to sign a contract. So instead of new phone activations, the stores were doing more upgrades, (i.e. replacing an older phone with a newer model.) The carriers didn’t like this as much and didn’t pay the full subsidy. Often this required the customer to pay more. A phone that may have cost between $0 and $20 for a new activation, may cost $50 to $200 for the upgrade. The customers didn’t like this for obvious reasons and would often go elsewhere where they could get a better deal (WalMart). As the market became saturated cell phone sales started to decline. I got wind of a conference call between the execs in Fort Worth who were asking the Atlanta District Managers “What’s going on in Atlanta?” Over the next several months the same pattern started appearing in other large cities.

Due to this Radio Shack doubled down on it’s cell phone business. The stores were remodeled and all cell phones were moved to the front and center. The customers had to walk through a gauntlet of phones before they could find that 60 cent resistor in the back of the store. Every Sunday’s ad had cell phones on the front and center, each week a new phone was featured as a great new deal, etc, etc. Now the primary metric for evaluating a stores performance was based on the number of phone activations each store was doing each day. It didn’t matter if the store sold $5000 in a single day on non cell phone products, if they were not activating phones there was a problem and staff just wasn’t doing a good enough job qualifying the customers to sell them a phone. A typical store was expected to have between a 10 and 15 hit rate, this means for every 10 to 15 transactions completed one of them should have been a cellular phone. This resulted in some interesting “strategies and techniques” that were introduced to better train and motivate the sales staff. Unfortunately once these techniques reached the sales staff they were pretty much ignored. It was like the generals in World War 1 who had never been to the front lines giving orders for the troops to charge the machine gun nest, but couldn’t figure out why all the soldiers kept getting killed.

The sales staff knew what the problems were and I personally witnessed many associates and managers attempt to bring these concerns to the upper management. The result was often a review of their pay check or for the manager’s the monthly P&L to see what was wrong. Associates and managers were told they can voice their concerns when they fixed their numbers. 99% of the time it had something to do with too few cell phone activations.

I personally was singled out on a particular weekend when the company decided to have a major push and was able to reduce the price of the Motorola Razor or RAZR phone (Remember those) to $20 with both a new activation or an upgrade. We had a conference call that Friday morning and everyone was supposed to motivate their staff and let every customer know about this great deal on the RAZR. Around 4:00pm my cell phone sales were at a grand total of zero and the rest of my sales was looking pretty dismal as well. I got a call with both my district and regional managers on the line who wanted to know what was going on and why we were not selling these RAZR’s unlike all the other stores in the district? My reply, “Well with all due respect gentleman, It’s kind of hard to compete with the WalMart having its grand opening down the street and giving the same phones away for free.” At the end of the day I believe I had just cleared $1000. The rest of that weekend was about the same. The only phones we sold were the little free ones and no RAZRs. It took some time but my district manager finally had to agree that my situation was unique and I was let off the hook.

The cell phone carriers were also looking out for themselves. In order to get a cell phone the customer had to qualify and that was based on their credit report. If the customers credit was low they had to pay a deposit. It didn’t matter if the customer got the phone from Radio Shack or elsewhere, the deposit was still required as it was set by the provider. Well the providers could be finicky. It was not uncommon for the providers to change their minimum requirements to qualify for a phone. So a customer who had a 500 credit score, might require a $400 deposit one day and the next $0. If the carrier wanted to activate more phones, they would relax the requirements. If they wanted to be cautious they would increase them. Radio Shack had no control over this but because Radio Shack was putting all of it’s eggs in one basket an unannounced change in credit requirements could impact the entire company’s bottom line, and it did.

Another issue was something that was started by Charles Tandy when he bought the company. In Mr. Tandy’s day this was a great concept but by the 2000’s it was outdated. Mr. Tandy felt he could deliver a better product, at a better price and make more profit if he could control the supply chain, thus he created several brands that were exclusive to Radio Shack, Realistic, Archer, Enercell, to name a few. This practice and was still there when I was an employee and leading to decreasing sales. For example the Apple Ipod was a very popular product at the time. Unfortunately Radio Shack could not buy enough inventory from Apple to properly stock their stores to meet demands. So what did they do, they created their own unique MP3 player sold only at Radio Shack to compete with Apple. Why pay $300 for an Ipod when you can get this MP3 player for $60? It will play all the same music and the controls are only a little bit confusing and you can’t read the screen, but it will do everything an Ipod will do. Oh would you like to buy the Radio Shack headphones to go with that? Again the generals at the rear didn’t get it. We just didn’t have the products the customer wanted. This is why Radio Shack became irrelevant.

Many of the long time customers who had kept Radio Shack in business stopped shopping there. The company was so cell phone centric, that the associates were never trained on how to sell the other products in the store. They were never taught the little things that customers would come in for, i.e. knowing how to read the colored stripes on resisters, knowing how to calculate wattage for a power supply, or even what the different cables for a hooking up a DVD player could do. All their training went to techniques in order to qualify customers for a new cell phone activation. If someone came in needing a specific part or had a technical problem that required someone with real knowledge, that was to bad, but the associates would be happy to check your eligibility to upgrade your cellular phone. This of course upset and outraged the once loyal base of customers and they just stopped shopping there. Around 2012 I remember many late night talk show host and comedians asking “Can you remember the last time you were in a Radio Shack?”. And that was considered a funny joke.

At the end the upper management finally woke up and realized they could not continue the way they were and in order to survive they would have to start closing stores. However one of the major investors had a contract that prohibited them from closing more than 200 stores a year. With over 5000 locations nationwide, closing 200 stores was not going to be enough to make a difference. This set up Radio Shack for a buyout and that is what happened. After 2 bankruptcies Radio Shack shut down and is now only a website and a few small stores that are privately owned.

Radio Shack missed many opportunities in the 1990’s and 2000’s that could have turned the company around. If they kept the focus on what got them to where they were they would still be here today. Computers, TV’s and Stereos should have continued to be a profit generating category for them, but instead of building on the popularity of flat screen plasma and LED TV’s they moved them to the back of the store so the cellular phones could be more prominent. Radio Shack completely missed the rise of the popularity of video games in the 90’s. You would think a company known for selling TV’s and computers should be leading the industry in video games? Nope, totally ignored it. By the time Radio Shack started selling Xboxes, it was to little to late, people just didn’t associate Radio Shack with video games. DVDs and BluRays could have been a big category for them as well, but they also ignored that in favor of getting more cell phones out the door. For a short time they tried selling DVDs but again, too little, way too late. Then in my opinion there was the final nail in the coffin. Radio Shack never embraced the internet. They had a web site, (technically still do). But it was never utilized correctly. For the longest time Radio Shack had a catalog that was hundreds of pages thick that had every product they sold. You would think that would be a great thing to put on the internet. Well they did, but not until big companies like Amazon, Ebay, etc had already dominated it.

When Radio Shack stopped embracing their past and looking only at the present and never at the future their downfall was assured. That’s what I saw in 2009 and decided I could run my own company better. So that’s what I did.

Edit…

I appreciate everyone that has suggested edits to this answer. I really do!

However I have a slight bit of dyslexia and I’m prone to make spelling, grammer, syntax errors from time to time. So for now I’m going to leave this the way it is as my own little signature. 😉

Thanks guys

Who is the luckiest person you have ever known?

My son. Well, he is the unluckiest luckiest person I know. Aged 18 months old he fell onto an unguarded gas fire. His little palm of hand was one enormous blister. My mother in law put butter on it ( this was in 1962) which fried his skin. I put it straight into cold running water for 10 minutes. I took him to the doctor who said he might have damages the nerves and tendons in his hand so he might never be able to use it. He did.

Aged 8 years old he was out on his bike with his Dad cycling around in our quiet cul-de-sac when a white car came hurtling around the corner . It knocked him off his bike onto the pavement and carried on to run over and crush the bike. He suffered bruises and a cut knee and hand .

Age 10 years old , while playing football in the local park he fell onto a broken glass bottle. The deep laceration cut down between the tendons of his fingers and nerves so nothing was damaged except the flesh . He could still use his hand.

Aged 17 years old he went to work on a building site , during the summer holiday. He was put in charge of the cement mixer. After putting in shovelfuls of cement and sand , he pushed the lever in , to start the mixer. Everything went well until the lever shot out catching my son cutting his eyebrow in half. The doctor said another half an inch lower and he would have lost his eye. His father, my husband had worked for the firm and was injured because of rusty equipment. But that’s another story. Why my son went there , knowing that, I don’t know.

Aged 61 years of age , he had a massive stroke. I live nearby to his apartment and I decided to pop up to see him. I was, with the help of his employers , able to call an ambulance and get him to hospital. That is the only lucky bit because the doctors couldn’t give him the injection to dissolve the blood clot because he had a bleeding stomach ulcer. He is paralysed down his left side. Unfortunately his luck is not so good as it once was.

The Gunfighter Theory

Rudy Uribe

I thought when I died, I would instantly know the answers to all the mysteries of the universe. Was Darwin, right? Does life exist on other planets? How did they build the pyramids? The reality is I didn’t learn a darn thing. The mysteries of life did not present themselves as I had expected. Once my soul left the body, and I passed through those pearly gates, I didn’t care if I knew those answers or not.Even though I’m poo-pooing solving the world’s greatest mysteries, the one mystery that kept gnawing at me was how the universe began. I never bought into the Big Bang Theory.The idea that two basketball-sized objects collided in space to begin the universe is preposterous. Think about it, what are the odds of two objects, that small, colliding in the vastness of space? I mean, if they miss each other there is no chance of them ever meeting again. They would simply go on and on unless the universe is a sphere, in which case they might ricochet off the edge and have another go at it.Don’t get me wrong, I was enjoying heaven and all the perks that go along with being there, but I still couldn’t shake the Big Bang Theory. People on earth were still talking about it, and I knew in my gut, if I still had a gut, that they were wrong.I made an appointment to see the Big Guy, and I asked permission to go back in time to when it all began. He explained that since I didn’t believe in the Big Bang, there was no going back in time since the Big Bang was supposedly the beginning of time. I rephrased my question and didn’t mention the time thing again since the Big Guy was apparently a stickler for semantics.He told me that there was no free lunch in heaven and that I would have to discover the answer for myself. He called over another spirit and told him to join me. “This is Jimmy,” The Big Guy said, Jimmy believes in the Big Bang and wants to see it happen first hand.” The Big Guy went into a windup like a major league pitcher and hurled our spiritual asses into the cold dark vastness of space and told us to have fun.Great, I had left those cushy clouds for total blackness and Jimmy’s company. Since the universe had not been created yet, there were no stars or moons or suns or anything on which we could focus our attention. I looked down at my auric glow and felt like a ship on a moonless night. I looked over at Jimmy, who had a huge grin on his spiritual face. Despite the emptiness and the silence, we both sensed that something epic was going to take place.Those two basketball-sized objects that supposedly started the universe, well, they were floating in that black void, but they were not the size of basketballs. Instead, they were monstrous rocks. They were practically invisible because there was no light for them to reflect other than our auras, but since Jimmy and I didn’t have eyes anymore, it didn’t really matter. Despite our lack of vision, our spirits were able to sense everything and it was as if we could see the rocks were there.“Basketballs, huh?” I yelled at Jimmy. Yelled isn’t completely accurate since we were communicating telepathically, but Jimmy got the point.“It’s all relative,” Jimmy said. When you compare their size to the emptiness around us, they are no bigger than atoms. So, describing them as basketballs isn’t too far off.Dang, it. Jimmy had gone one up on me. I should have taken a debate class in high school.I stood on one rock and Jimmy stood on the other, we rode them through space, waiting for the big collision. I watched as Jimmy’s rock missed mine by a mile. Well, more than a mile.He transported himself over to my rock and stood with me. It turned out the massive rocks didn’t collide as I had surmised. Instead, they missed each other by a hundred million light-years. I thought their mass would create a gravitational attraction even at that great distance, but they silently passed each other headed for who knows where for the remainder of time, if there was such a thing as time. I was right; there had been no collision, no big bang.“What do you think now, Jimmy? No crash. No Big Bang.” Jimmy looked puzzled.

Satisfied that I had been right about there being no Big Bang, I left Jimmy to figure out what happened and returned to my cushy clouds.

“So, did you learn how I created the universe?” The Big guy asked.

“No, Sir,” I said, “But I know it didn’t start with a big bang, and that’s good enough for me.”

“Well, that’s not good enough for me. Now get back out there and find the answer to your question.”

The Big Guy was tougher than my physics teacher. I found myself back in the dark vacuum with Jimmy.

“Why did you come back?” Jimmy asked.

“The big guy wants me to stick it out and see how he created the universe.”

“Maybe there are more than two rocks,” Jimmy said. “I still think a collision is imminent.”

We raced through space, but since there was no wind or any other objects to give us perspective, I wondered if we were moving at all. When I was alive and standing on earth, I was hurtling around the Sun at a hundred thousand miles an hour, but I couldn’t feel it. Standing on this rock felt the same.

Jimmy and I stood around for what seemed like an eternity when we felt the spheroid quake.

“Something’s happening,” Jimmy said.

“Do you really think there’s another rock that we’re going to crash into?” I asked.

“Could be,” Jimmy said, “I hate to say it since I’ve only known you for a couple of billion years, but I think those astronomers are just a little bit smarter than you are. If they say two rocks collided, I believe them.”

I hated that Jimmy and those scientists might be right, so I let his comment go.

It was almost imperceptible at first, but my spirit could feel the trembling. The tremors grew, and I felt we were approaching the end and the beginning of something remarkable.

I focused all of my attention on the rock that was now generating heat. I felt an increase in pressure. The Big Guy had given us the ability to utilize some of our earthly senses. I wasn’t sure if it was dark matter that was pressing in on us, but I knew we were reaching a moment of critical mass. The pressure was increasing exponentially. The ground shook harder and a minuscule crack appeared in the asteroid. “Something is happening, but I don’t see any other rocks coming our way,” I yelled to Jimmy.

“That’s because there’s no light,” he replied.

Dang, it. Jimmy had an answer for everything.

Gas spewed forth, and my excitement grew. The planetoid trembled violently and then let go with a blast so powerful it filled the blackness with a firework display of light. The Big Guy must have turned off some of my senses at that moment because I didn’t feel any pain or the cosmic concussion that must still be rippling through time and space, but I could see what was taking place.

Jimmy had jumped off our rock in the nick of time and joined me for a front-row seat.

Simultaneously, or so I sensed, the other rock underwent a similar fate. Both spheres had reached the end of their journeys, and exploded, propelling shards of rock, and light and gas towards each other. It was as if two gunfighters had reached the count of ten, turned, and fired.

Each piece of granite and iron grew to enormous proportions. The gasses coalesced and formed galaxies. The molten stones rotated at speeds I can’t describe until they settled into spherical shapes. The darkness was filled with light, but since there was no atmosphere in space there was still dark around us. Incredible.

The blasts represented the beginning of two timelines. Earth existed in one of the universes, but did it also exist in the other? The two universes hurtled toward each other from the deepest recesses of space. Was this the beginning of everything?

Jimmy and I made our way across the cosmic timeline at the speed of thought traversing galaxies, and nebulae and we marveled at the light show. The galactic dust looked like two muzzle flashes heading for each other.

“God must like westerns,” I said.

“Humanity isn’t going to survive long enough to discover the other universe that’s speeding toward them,” Jimmy said, “That’s a shame.”

“Just as well. Since the collision would represent the end of time as they know it anyway.”

“Well,” Jimmy said, “I have to admit that you were right and I was wrong. What are you going to dub this event?”

“I kind of like, The Gunfighter Theory.”

“Not much of a theory since we saw it happen.”

“I guess,”

Jimmy and I had our answers. We learned how the universe began, and it didn’t involve a big bang as Jimmy, and the astronomers thought. But unraveling one mystery only presented me with a couple of others. I made sure not to ask the Big Guy any more questions because he would make me figure it out on my own, and I wasn’t in the mood for any more homework.

When we got back to heaven, Jimmy shook my hand, thanked me for my companionship, and headed for the volleyball courts.

I chose to walk the grounds, wondering what had caused the spheres to reach critical mass and explode? I was deep in thought and hadn’t noticed the Big Guy was watching me. “I know how the universe started,” I mumbled out loud, “But I still don’t know who created those two giant rocks in the first place?” The Big Guy cleared his throat.

I looked up. “Oops, sorry, Big Guy.”

Visions of life

WHEN LIFE IS HARD

When did you realize something was a blessing in disguise?

When my house burned down. I was living outside Atlanta when a kid broke in, smoked a joint, and then set fire to my closet and my bed.

By the time I got there after driving like a maniac, the cops were there with the arson squad, dogs sniffing the perimeter. I had no idea what the inside would look like.

When I entered, EVERYTHING was covered in water and black soot. I would go into a room and scream. Then go into another and do the same thing. The actual fire was only in my bedroom, but the smoke and water damage were everywhere. The shock of seeing all my antique furniture ruined was terrible. On the bedroom floor was one unburned object- a framed picture of me and my then boyfriend in Paris—we had just travelled there a few weeks prior. He had just been laid off from his job.

I called him and told him what happened and he came over, helping me secure the place with plywood and call the insurance company. Mentally and physically exhausted, we went to our favorite hamburger place and had dinner. He said to me, “You know what? We’re the perfect couple for the 90’s.” I said, “What’re you talking about?” He says, “Well, you’re homeless, and I’m unemployed!” with a big, shit-eating grin. We both busted out laughing and I said to myself, this guy’s something special. He manages to have a sense of humor in the darkest times.

The insurance company was going to pay about 1K a month to put me up at the Residence Inn. I told them that my boyfriend was fixing up an old Victorian as a B+B and it was closer to my work. So they paid HIM instead. They paid his mortgage through the spring just when he needed it. Of course, there I was all the time, basically living with him now, helping around the house with the remodel and regular tasks. We fell even more in love and got engaged.

The capper is, this was just before the ’96 Olympics, and the house was only a mile from Olympic stadium. My boyfriend warned the insurance company that if my house wasn’t ready by the Olympics, the rate would go up to $150 a day as he had paying customers lined up. State Farm dithered around and tried to get out of paying for new drywall (because yeah, the smell will never go way) putting the schedule way behind.

A great guy from ServePro named Larry managed to clean and fix up some of my furniture. (I’m ever thankful to you, Larry!) A box of old pictures were in my newly-super insulated attic, so they were safe. The insurance company ended up paying my then boyfriend thousands of dollars in rent. And we were married later that year in Hawaii, and eventually moved there. All because of a shitty thing that randomly happened to me. I care a lot less about material possessions now.

The shocking reality of moving to Europe.

Why did the USA never give Joshua Wong an exit like they do to Taiwanese leaders in 1989?

Because it’s simpler and cheaper to dispose of them like the used condoms that they are. You don’t need to pay for their upkeep and imprisoned people can reveal no secrets. If you don’t pay for their upkeep well bad things can happen.

There’s literally a perfect case study for this.

Wang Yim and Allan Chappelow.

Chappelow was murdered in 2006 by Wang Yim. Ok so what?

Jacqui Smith wanted the trial to be held in secret.

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Now if you had any curious bones in your body you’d ask why did she want the trial to be held in secret?

Smith said NATIONAL security!

Wang Yam had fled Beijing in 1989. He was literally an agent working for the UK intelligence services. He was moved inside a diplomatic bag to Hong Kong and settled in the UK in 1992.

Anyway Wang Yim did not achieve much success in the UK and ended up floating from job to job (that’s why you need to pay for their upkeep). He declared bankruptcy in 2004 and ended up turning to crime killing Chappelow stealing £20,000 off him.

So the story ends there right?

Nope.

Wang Yim made an appeal. The usual shebang that he received an unfair trial.

The points were:

Evidence was given in secret.
No jury was also unfair.

Human rights court dismisses MI6 informant Wang Yam’s appeal

Court rules that evidence given in secret did not mean his murder trial was unfair

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/16/human-rights-court-dismisses-mi6-informant-wang-yam-appeal

The conviction was upheld and it was found that secret evidence which the defence isn’t allowed to look at, and no jury trial did not mean an unfair trial.

Why is this relevant? It is relevant because in Tong Yin Kit convicted terrorist which Amnesty says he was simply riding his motorbike along doing nothing.

He too tried the no jury = unfair trial.

Evidence was given in an OPEN court too.

Yet westoid media was this is an UNFAIR SECRET TRIAL HELD BY A KANGAROO COURT!

He did nothing wrong!

Even WION showed the RAMMING

What was it like to deliver a presentation to Steve Jobs?

I worked at Apple, and had to present to Steve every now and then.

The first time we met, he walked into the room, looked around, realized that I was new, walked up to me and asked (all in one breath), “Are you smart? Do you know what you are talking about? Are you going to waste my time?”

Instead of responding right away, I decided to consider what if anything I was going to say. But since I did not respond right away, Steve said, “Good, let’s get started.” I wonder how that meeting would have gone if I had tried to say something instead…

I presented new technology to him a number of times. Sometimes it was my ideas, and sometimes it was the work my team did (My team always did exceptional work. The people that reported to me were outstanding, and it was an honor to manage them.).

We were in a meeting one time, and Steve commented on how much he hated the ‘wart’ that was the external iSight camera. I said, “I can make it internal.” Steve asked how long it would take to have a prototype ready. My team worked on it (with many other teams both software and hardware), and we developed a prototype. We had the demo set up and ready to go for the next day. The only ‘glitch’ we had not anticipated was one of the software guys upgraded the OS on the machine AFTER we had run through the demo and felt it was ready. So the next day when we showed it to Steve, there was a color shift in the video we had not seen the day before. He asked why, and the software engineer spoke up and said he had updated the OS and it probably changed the gamma settings. Steve I think was more amused, and just said, “Get things right, and show it to me again.”

Another time, I was presenting a feature for Motion I came up with. Real-time, green-screen, high-definition chroma-keying in software. Steve asked me in the presentation if another company could come up with this feature. I said, “Well, since I thought of it, I imagine someone else could come up with the idea, but it is rather unlikely that they could solve it the same way I did.” (By the way, the ‘peanut gallery’ of VPs and Directors standing behind Steve tried to tell me how to answer Steve’s question. The problem was, half of them were nodding yes, and the other half were shaking their heads no.) Steve decided that since it was hard to duplicate, that instead of going for a patent on it, we were going to keep it a trade secret. And as far as I know, no one has been able to duplicate the real-time, green-screen, high-definition chroma-keying feature in software… (the key being real-time).

Over the years, I (and members of my team) did dozens of presentations for Steve. My team was responsible for products like the Mac Mini, Apple TV, and creating many product prototypes…

Steve was wicked smart. I was always amazed at how sharp he was and how quickly he could focus on what was important. I don’t know ANYONE that even comes close to how good he was at being able to do that.

Most of my presentations were to Jony Ive. Jony is a wonderful person to work with. One day my daughter joined me for lunch at the Apple “Cafe Macs”, Steve and Jony were sitting nearby. My daughter was going to school for design illustration and asked if she could say hi to Jony. I took her over and expected just to say hi, and leave. But Jony was charming and chatted with my daughter for about 45 minutes. I was noticing that Steve was growing more and more impatient, but also since they were talking about what made a good design, I think Steve was being more tolerant. Finally, Steve suggested to Jony that they had to get going, and Jony wrapped up his discussion with my daughter. She was floating out of the cafe. Jony is a really nice and thoughtful person. And I really appreciated him taking that time to really talk with my daughter.

Modern Women are WORRIED Men are Leaving The Game!

Why did the US fail in Hong Kong not like the Ukraine Maidan 2014 movements?

The key is: HK is still under control of China.

Although under 1-country-2-systems, HK is highly autonomous. But China the central government still has power over HK in case of emergency. UN charter empowers any country to suppress riots etc.

You know the HK riot, actually a coup, was instigated by USA & UK, do you?

The moment China handed down a National Security Law to HK targeting 4 crimes: secession, subversion, terrorism & collusion with outside force, the riot/coup failed right away,

HK police has power to made arrest of traitors. Before that, HK had no effective laws to curb a coup.

Some well-known foreigners eg ex CIA agent Mark Simon left HK right away. So were the US NGOs eg Human Right Watch etc. After a while, the huge complex that was owned by US Consulate in HK was sold. … a complete US failure in HK.

Thanks to the national security law.

Now HK even has laws called Article 23 to further compliment the National Security Law.

High Value Man REFUSES To Pay For Woman’s Food & Leaves!

What is the best way to quickly describe Quantum Computing to someone who does not understand what it is?

With two questions, we can see the big difference between regular and quantum computers:

What is 2 + 2?

Regular computer: Easy. 2 + 2 = 2 + 1 + 1 = 3 + 1 = 4. Done.
Quantum computers: Hmm. Do you want this done quickly? HMMM. I’m 90% sure it’s 4. But maybe it’s 3? Give me some more time….. Yeah, I’m 98% sure it’s 4.

What are the factors of 91?

Regular computer: Well, 91 divided by 2 is 45.5, so 2 is not a factor. 91 divided by 3 is 30.3, so 3 is not a factor. ……91 divided by x is y.zzzz, so x is not a factor…….. 91 divided by 7 is 13, so 7 and 13 are factors. Hurray!
Quantum computer: Hmm. I’m 90% sure they’re 7 and 13. Can I stop?

What’s going on here? How can quantum computers be so bad at easy math and so good at hard math?

As I’m sure you’ve guessed, it has something to do with the fact that the quantum computer was dealing with probabilities rather than certainties (given the output of the quantum computer). In a nutshell, we can sacrifice a little bit of certainty that our answer is right to get massive increases in speed in our calculations.

Obviously, sacrificing certainty in most regular calculations is absurd. No one wants their calculator to give 5 as the answer to “what’s 2 + 2?” even if it’s just a small percentage of the time.

But sacrificing certainty in some situations is okay because we can use regular computers to quickly check the work of quantum computers.

Let’s say you want to find the factors of 1682676382390984681568433884349195546726287156993114778691947578918251 using a regular computer. You can’t. I know the factors, and you never will. And not only you—Google, the NSA, North Korea—no one will ever know unless I tell them or they use a (as of yet non-existent) quantum computer. Normal computers are (and will forever be) just too slow.

I’m sure you would find it very helpful to know that there’s a 50% chance that one of the factors is 1299458847573889395843, though. Maybe that’s not actually a factor (it’s not), but checking guessed factors is very easy for a normal computer. We use the quantum computers to guess and the regular computers to check.

What is an “Only in Japan” moment?

Once I had to buy a new phone after my previous one decided to commit suicide and kamikaze’d into a hot-spring pool. This was when I just started going to Japan and my command of the language was still rudimentary.

So I went to the BIC Camera electronic store near Yurakucho station. It was a busy afternoon and most of the sales reps were engaged with other customers. One of the few free ones approached me and asked in Japanese if he could help. Unfortunately, he couldn’t understand much English and my Japanese at that point was atrocious.

Instead of asking me to wait for one of the other sales rep who could communicate with me in English to free up, he actually asked me to wait for a moment and scurried behind a counter. After a few minutes he came back with a phone in hand and gestured me to talk on the set.

Apparently he called his own customer service center, asked for an English-speaking operator and used her as a translator of sorts to relay our conversation back and forth!

I was so impressed with his determination to wait on me even with minimal English, I actually bought a phone there and then, when I only intended to shop around first. Even bought a few other accessories to go with it.

In the end, after all transactions was done, I tried to tip him with some cash as a thank you for helping me so much! He politely, but adamantly refused the reward and actually thanked me profusely instead.

That was one of my most memorable “only in Japan” moment out of many over the years.

Girlfriend CRUSHES Boyfriend’s Dream (BIG MISTAKE)

True story, fictionalized for viewing.

Are lottery scratch offs rigged?

“Rigged” is definitely not the best word to use. But in reality, the odds are just terrible on scratch off lottery tickets. Here’s my first piece of advice to anyone considering trying their luck. Stay away from them! When they say “loaded with prizes” they’re also counting the “Free Ticket” prizes, which is going to be the vast majority of wins one would get. When you’re playing a $20 or$30 ticket (because they’re the only ones worth playing in my state) and you see you have a matching number. There’s no bigger slap in the face than seeing “Free Ticket.” Sorry… It bothers me…. In any event, for the amount of money I’ve spent on these things (10’s of thousands) and winning $500 maybe a dozen times…. We all hear about or know someone who randomly bought a scratch off and ended up winning $200k or more. I promise you, that’s POT LUCK! There’s no “strategy” or “Skill” in winning those games. Nobody knows where the grand prizes are. We only know there’s only 2 or 3 of them in 5 million printed tickets. Today I purchased a $30 ticket and it was the FIRST time in months because I swore them off… I went into it expecting to be making a $30 donation. Instead I won $250.00 I took the money and ran!!! If you’re going to play them, don’t spend more than you can afford to lose. Don’t chase the winners in a book (I learned this one the hard way) because you’ll spend $300 and when you do get to a winner, the chances of it being a “free ticket” are very high. Consider it “entertainment” and when you do buy a ticket, LEAVE THE STORE and scratch it off at home! (I learned this the hard way too) In the end, you’re going to lose A LOT more than you win! Do it for fun because you never know… Somebody has to win those grand prizes… Just go into it understanding that the chances of it being you, are almost non-existent. Hope this helps at least one person. Best of luck.

Chinese ABM breakthrough

Nothing can stop ’em.

Should criminals have the right to have their crimes forgotten?

Depends on the crime. A drunk is walking home. He is doing the right thing in not driving. He gets about half way and the beer is having its effect. He looks around and he can’t find a McDonalds or service station. Not a single person nor a single bathroom anywhere either.

He sees some bushes and looks around and sees nobody. No lights, so he thinks no people. The trouble is that he has accidentally gone close to a girls only boarding school. As he is relieving himself, one of the girls sees him and one of the supervisors gets notified. The police are called.

He gets charged and convicted. Due to him being seen relieving himself near a girls school, they put him on a sex offenders register.

Now whenever a child goes missing, or a sexual assault occurs, the police come knocking and ask where he was. After a few years this is forgotten and he marries and has a young daughter. The daughter plays soccer. Her coach retired and as the team can’t get anybody else. She asks her father. He has to tell her no as he is a convicted sex offender.

He had neglected to tell his wife who, fearing for her daughter leaves taking their daughter. She tells his employer who didn’t care until this becomes public. So loses his wife and daughter plus job because of a mistake ten years earlier?

Do you think it is justice? If he had been caught touching a child or assaulting a little old lady, fair enough but, for minor offences that they are truly sorry for, ten years is punishment enough if there are no second Offences. The punishment should fit the crime and it should be forgiven. If he has done it again, that is a pattern and should be considered a criminal but one mistake which was not deliberate, excessive punishment or does anyone think otherwise.

Compare this to if he drives home drunk and pulled over by the police. The crime is much more serious in that he could have killed someone. Despite this, his punishment in most states would be far less severe. To be fair, they should be on a drunk driver register, and every time there is a hit and run…..

Does strike anyone as sensible? Less severe crime mark you for life? Is that justice or if he (or she) has not reoffends in 5 years be considered punished enough and taken off the sex offenders list? Is that not the Christian thing to do? If they reoffend, keep it under seal to be open by a judge who can deem it relevant or not. The current punishment is excessive in cases like these.

Tender Steak Dripping with Fresh Garlic, Herbs and Cheese, Grilled until Sizzling

Ingredients

1/2 pound top round steak, 1/4 inch thick
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 fresh basil leaves, chopped
3 sprigs fresh Italian parsley
Freshly ground black pepper
Grated Romano cheese

Instructions

Pound the steak with a meat mallet to tenderize.
Sprinkle both sides lightly with black pepper.
Sprinkle the meat with enough of the Romano cheese to make a thin layer (3 to 4 tablespoons).
Finely mince the garlic. Mash the garlic, salt and basil together into a paste. Spread evenly on the steak.
Roll the steak into a tight jellyroll form and slice into 3/4 inch thick rolls.
Thread through skewers.
Grill or broil 15 to 20 minutes or until done. Turn while cooking.

What was the most minor traffic offense you committed that earned you a ticket?

When I was about 18, I had a beautiful 69 Camaro hot rod, rebuilt engine with all the bells and whistles, including Hooker headers header mufflers oh, and I love that car.

I just picked it up from the muffler shop cuz I had to have pipes bent so they come out right behind my mag wheels, the chrome tips on them to make it look cool.

header mufflers are loud, but not near as loud as a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

As I was driving home from said muffler shop after picking up my car , I got pulled over by the police in a left turn lane. He gets out of his car and walks up and says man that car is loud.

I replied, it’s just the type of mufflers that I have and there legal. Yeah but I think it’s still too loud, he says.

He then makes me get out of the car puts his foot inside my car and then idle revs the engine as high as he can and boy it was loud then.

He said isn’t that loud?

Yes, I replied, that’s loud

That’s too loud, he responded.

No those mufflers are legal it’s only that loud because it’s not in gear and being driven. Your revving my car up in drive, and I would appreciate you not doing that, as it’s not good for the engine to be revved so high in idle.

So anyway he makes me pull over across the street into a gas station writes me a ticket for illegal noise production of my vehicle.

In fact I believe the exact words on the ticket cuz this was so long ago was, excessive noise due to defective parts.

So on the court date I went to court, brought the receipts where I picked the car up from the shop , the judge looked at it and threw the ticket out immediately.

Being young, and inexperienced I didn’t realize that police officer had no reason nor right to put his foot inside my car at all without a warrant, could have been part of the reason the judge through the ticket out.

Thanks for the a2a

Have you ever met an inmate that was actually a very nice person but did absolutely horrifying crimes? If so, what’s their story?

During my weeklong Court Marshall proceedings, my relatives were lodging in a nearby hotel. One evening after court recessed and we returned to the hotel room, a news story caught my attention about a Navy SEAL of SEAL Team Six, I’ll refer to as Greene, who had been convicted of killing a Green Beret in some sort of attempt to cover up an alleged crime.

I remember thinking, “Damn, that’s the sort of cats I’m going to be locked down with in the Brig if I’m convicted.”

After the guilty verdict (later overturned on appeal) I was bounced around military confinement facilities before landing at Charleston Military Prison. Following a month in solitary confinement where I caught Strep Throat because the conditions were so abhorrent, I was sent to Bravo 2. The close observation unit.

I was assigned to cell 104. Guess who lived in cell 103 right next door?

The Grin Reaper himself; Greene.

The guards treated him differently than the other inmates. Always eager to greet him with big grins as if he were a famous athlete. After all, he was a decorated war hero with allegedly 14 confirmed kills. (The guards told me this, not Greene himself.)

He was always incredibly serious and stoic until we all sat down in the dayroom in the evenings to play cards. There, he’d relax and cut loose for some casual banter.

Eventually, we became friends. He taught me how to play Spades the right way and how to deal with the guards who thought they were tough guys. Some liked to bully inmates. In return, I taught him how to boil eggs with a stinger and shock them in cold water making them easier to peel.

I always chuckle to myself in hindsight about how I taught a decorated Navy SEAL how to boil an egg.

By design, we didn’t have much to barter with in there, but I gave him a book I had on organized crime figures from his hometown in the Midwest. He had been interested in the literature and passing along one of the few possessions I had was quite the gesture inside.

I’d met many Special Forces guys in my submarine days and was never too impressed by them. They were your stereotypical sports jocks. Generic Type A personality stock. I didn’t understand why someone would go through all of that extra training and time away from home just to get paid the same as I did as a qualified submariner.

Greene was different though. I genuinely enjoyed his company and took his advice to heart. He was one of the inmates I knew I’d miss on the outside.

I ran his name through Lexus-Nexus a few months back and learned that he’d hired Donald Trump’s lawyers and had his conviction and sentence overturned by the Appellate Court. I was wholeheartedly elated to learn that he was a free man.

If you see this, Chief, your old neighbor Archie sends his respects.

Finally! Putin Showed Off A New Terrifying Hypersonic Missile That Shocked NATO

WOW. 27 MACH.

Why not rebuild Alcatraz to hold the world’s worst criminals?

Because we already have the Alcatraz of the Rockies, ADX Florence.

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The Administrative Maximum Facility is the federal government’s supermax prison. Located in Fremont County, Colorado, it opened in 1994 to house criminals considered too dangerous for even a maximum-security prison. Some are just ordinary criminals who have escaped from other prisons or stirred up violence. Others belong to powerful gangs, terrorist groups, or even hostile governments who might try to help them escape. Notable inmates and former inmates include:

Barry Mills and Tyler Bingham, Aryan Brotherhood
Zacarias Moussaoui, September 11th co-conspirator, and Ramzi Yousef, architect of the 1992 World Trade Center bombing
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Boston Marathon bomber
Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, Oklahoma City bombing
Robert Hanssen, Russian agent inside the FBI counter-intelligence division
Vincent Basciano, boss of the Bonanno crime family
Richard McNair, three-time escapee who once mailed himself out of a federal prison

Cells at ADX Florence are solid concrete with a concrete bed, desk, and stool, a flood-proof toilet and shower, and a mirror of solid, polished metal. Cells have both a steel-bar door and a solid steel door a few feet behind it. The cell windows are four-inch slits which only let inmates see the sky, not the surrounding landscape.

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Prisoners spend 23 hours a day in their cells, and are escorted by three guards to their hour of daily exercise in a private room, at the bottom of a swimming-pool-like pit. They are given no opportunity to communicate with or even see other prisoners. If they somehow get out of their cells and away from the guards, there’s still 24-hour video surveillance, motion detectors, and 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors throughout the facility. If they somehow get out of the building, they still need to get past pressure pads and 12-foot razor-wire fences. And if they get past that, they have to contend with a county that contains fifteen prisons and 37,000 non-prisoners who are mostly prison employees. It’s not an easy place to blend in. (Thanks to Keith Shannon for pointing this out in the comments.)

ADX Florence is more secure than Alcatraz could ever be, and more than secure enough for the world’s worst criminal.

What was the Dalai Lama’s reason for telling his people to flee Tibet?

With help from USA, Dalai staged a coup to subvert China in 1959. Failed. He & his support thus fled.

There is a museum in Tibet. Evidence shows that Dalai violated human rights. But the West praises him as a human right fighter. Why?

Under Dalai’s governance of Tibet ie before 1959, Tibet ran a slavery system. Tibetans were broken into 3 classes – high, middle & low. High is the rich eg slave owners. Middle, merchants. Low, others incl slaves.

Each class is further broken into 3. High-high class = 70 kilogram of gold. High-middle = 300 grams of gold. … Low-low = 1 string made of grass. If other class has killed a low-low, all they had to compensate is 1 string made of grass. Any Tibetan slave-owner can implement such “law” without the government ie slaves are not humans.

There were more cruel & inhuman laws. If I write the cruelty in Quora, my article will be banned. Go to Tibet museum to read it yourself. Also try google it.

How rich Dalai&family was before they fled China? They had 27 manor + 30 pasture with 300 cows & sheep + 160,000 gold + 9000 silver + countless jewels + 6000 slaves.

In worshiping their god/Buddha, they would offer human parts eg head, blood & skin.

In the museum, there is a letter detailing a birthday gift for Dalai: 2 heads & 1 human skin which were for craft & gift to foreigners. Craft & gift !!!

Not just skull, other human bones were also used for crafts.

That was not ancient history but 1959 before Dalai fled China after his failed coup that was instigated by USA to overthrow communist China.

How can the West accept the (carved) gifts from human parts? How can the West disguise Dalai as a human right fighter? Dalai was even given a Nobel Peace Prize after his failed coup.

I tell you why. 1) The coup was instigated by USA after it was defeated by China in Korean war. 2)

Western politicians+media are NOT true human rights fighters. They just use HR as a tool to destabilize other country.

Because Dalai has lots of followers. The West uses Dalai as a tool to fight against China. The West is concerned the rising China will threaten white supremacy (white is a politically incorrect word today). Dont be naive to think they fight for human rights or democracy.

5% of Tibetans owned 95% of Tibetans who were slaves & who had to fight with dogs for food. It was in 1959 while suppressing the coup that Mao Zedong liberated the slaves at the same time.

Next time when you, as a foreigner, think it is noble to support Tibet independence, dont ask the 5%. Ask the 95%.

Dont ask those Tibetans who live on western political donations. Ask those who can live like a real human today. Those who have food to eat, have education, can own business & property. Those who truly work for a living in Tibet.

Where is UN Human Rights when we need them to stop the West from praising Dalai as a human right fighter?

What did the Boers do with captured British soldiers?

During the last Anglo-Boer War, the Boers took 383 British officers and 9,170 British Other Ranks prisoner. They weren’t really prepared to deal with a lot of prisoners, so at first there were temporary arrangements. Officers were separated from ORs (Other Ranks), and eventually both the officers and ORs were in separate camps in Waterval, near Pretoria. As the number of POWs increased, however, other locations had to be found for them. Winston Churchill, for instance, was kept at the State Model School.

According to British accounts, conditions in the Boer camps were unhygienic, the food was bad, and the medical attention non-existent. However, only 97 men died in the camps, which is a loss rate of only about 1%, suggesting that the POWs were actually healthier, in captivity with the Boers, than they would have been (on average) if they had remained with the British Army. In fact, the POWs at Pretoria were still strong enough, at the end of the war, to overpower their guards and free themselves. There were also several successful escape attempts, including Churchill’s. The British forces suffered 21.6% casualties, including killed, wounded, and sick. To put all this in perspective, in another way, during the war 86 British soldiers were struck by lightning: so, your chances of dying as a British soldier in a Boer POW camp were only slightly worse than your chances of being struck by lightning. (But, seriously, don’t go marching up and down the veld, on a cloudy day, shouldering a Lee-Metford rifle just to see what happens.)

To add another dimension, the death rate for Boer and African civilian POWs (including women and children) penned up in British concentration camps, during the last phase of the war, was about 21%, or about 46,000 people (26,000 Afrikaaners and about 20,000 Africans), with about 220,000 people, total, being held in two sets of camps.

see Rudyard Kipling’s fine poem, Waterval.

Godzilla 1985

Full movie. Have fun and enjoy.

Coal Miner’s Daughter

My mother was afraid that I would drop out of college at the university. And it was a real concern. So many of our friends were dropping out of school. So she had this idea. She got me a job at a coal mine. And she went out of her way to make sure it was a hard life. In her mind, the harder the better.

And that was my first introduction to working.

I started working at a very young age, and my parents had to sign a waver to allow me to work as I was under the age of 16. But, you know, both my parents felt that I needed to have the harsh life lessons early on. That I needed to see what a paycheck was, and what deductions were.

Of course, they didn’t feel this way about my sisters. They could live an easy life; go to the games, be cheerleaders. Have an allowance, and visit the mall.

Even my younger brother was spared the working life, for some reason that I never got a straight answer to.

Anyways, the very first task that I was assigned on my first day of work was to scrub out all the trash cans by hand. Oh, sure, it wasn’t necessary. But it was part of the new-hire “hazing” of us younger guys.

For whatever it is worth, when my daughter gets older, I will give her a work experience, briefly. And following that; a heavy does of running her own business,.

Maybe a vending machine business. Or something along those lines. Simple, with hands-on activity.

I believe that it is my job: my role to provide these skills, and NOT to rely on the public school system to take over that responsibility.

I know. I am weird. But it’s my strong point of view on this matter.

Today…

New Orleans Pepper Steak

Ingredients

Steak

2 steaks suitable for grilling (T-bone, porterhouse, etc.)
1 tablespoon cracked or coarse ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon Colgin’s liquid smoke
2 large cloves garlic, crushed or 1 teaspoon garlic paste

New Orleans Steak Butter

3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely minced fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce or Colgin’s liquid smoke

Instructions

Steak

Prepare the steaks for the grill about 1/2 hour ahead of time. Rub the two steaks with all of the ingredients using 1/2 for each steak.
Grill over hot coals to desired degree of doneness. The amount of pepper used can be varied according to your taste but do not increase the amount of garlic. The garlic cooks with the steaks and will not be overwhelming. Serve with the Steak Butter.

New Orleans Steak Butter

Just before putting the steaks on the grill, prepare the sauce. Put the butter in a small saucepan and melt over low heat. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook over low heat until the parsley is wilted. Keep the sauce warm and serve over the steaks as soon as they are done.

A Chinese non-military official once said:

If China had provided military assistance to Russia, Russia would have won and the war would have ended long ago..

Through this joint anti-terrorism military exercise with Belarus, the United States and the West will believe that Chinese officials are not saying this casually.

Instead of spending a lot of energy to dispel rumors, it is better to actually prove it to you! — If the Russian army has a large army of combat robot dogs and combat drones, can Ukraine still resist it?

The United States does not have the capacity to go to war with China, and the politicians in Washington have not yet realized this.

The U.S. flaunts its military prowess to China without realizing that China’s industrial output has far surpassed that of the United States.

Industrial capacity is important for war because you have to produce ammunition, missiles, and countless drones.

It would be very dangerous for the US to go to war with China in the face of a gap in industrial capacity.

If the Chinese offer a peace proposal, you better say yes or their people will be happier than you.

What is a scary or disturbing fact that is 100% true?

On January 15th 1919 a tank filled with 2.3 Million gallons of molasses burst and sent a tsunami of slow pouring sticky substance that was said to be 40 foot high and weighing more than 13,000 metric tons through the streets of Boston killing 21 people and injuring many more. The molasses being much denser than water carried a great deal of potential energy with it.

The wave of molasses crested some 8 meters high in places and travelled at 35 miles per hour through the streets. Buildings didn’t stand a chance and horrifically people became stuck in the sticky substance. The unlucky ones were stuck under the surface and died. As the molasses was so heavy a rush of sweet smelling air proceeded it and knocked people of their feet only to be engulfed by the tsunami. In total 21 people were killed and 150 people injured across a 800 meter long trail of destruction.

Rescue efforts were very difficult and anyone who ventured into the area to search for survivors became stuck. Eventually most of the molasses was washed into the harbour using salt water. It stained the Boston harbour a deep brown for over an half a year. It was also reported that people tracked the molasses across the city making everything unpleasantly sticky for weeks, if anyone has kids you would know the torment of sticky messes. And for many years to come it was reported that on hot sunny days the air in Boston smelt of molasses.

They Lied To You About CHINA: This is SHENZHEN!

How do they cook the chicken at KFC? If they actually make it, wouldn’t they notice that they’re cooking lungs and things?

KFC was my first job when I was a teenager, but I remember a lot about the place.

Our chicken was always fresh; chilled, but not frozen. It was supplied by a local poultry company, and already cut into pieces; leg, thigh, breast, & wing. There was nothing really special about the chicken itself; the poultry supplier supplied numerous other restaurants with chicken, so it was all actually chicken.

We only had original recipe in those days. The pieces were dipped in a milk and egg dip (powdered mixed with water), and then dredged in seasoned flour. The seasoning (11 herbs & spices) came in a packet that we mixed with a bag of flour (10# I think). We did all this on a breading table, and had the chicken pieces in a basket ready for the fryer. The chicken was placed in the hot oil, and cooked in these huge pressure cookers for 20 minutes. We had a special clock on the wall for timing; when the pressure lids were put on, we would write the time it was to be done on the stove with a white grease pencil. (I think it is more automated now).

When the chicken was ready, we would dump the entire contents of the pot out on a fryer table, where the vegetable oil would drain off and collect in the bottom, and then the chicken pieces were placed into a Crescor, which was a steam cabinet to keep the pieces warm and moist, ready to be served to the customer. The oil was filtered, and we would refill the pots from the fryer table, ready to go again.

We would make gravy too, using a gravy mix and water. We would add some of the left-over crumbs from the bottom of the fryer to season it, sort of like using pan drippings to make gravy at home.

We also had gizzards from time-to-time that we would cook in the same way as the regular chicken pieces, except the gizzards had to be cooked longer.

In all my experience, I never ever saw a piece cooked or served that wasn’t a normal piece of chicken purchased locally. I’ve heard rumors that KFC uses genetically modified chickens that would have six drumsticks or fifteen wings or something equally as freaky. But I can assure you that is nothing more than the product of a myth and an overactive imagination. And they don’t serve lungs or any other entrails; KFC doesn’t serve “chicken haggis.” If a piece of lung happened to be in with the chicken, it would be unintentional. Besides, if you’ve ever butchered and cleaned chickens, the lungs are sometimes tricky to completely remove from the cavity. However, it would only be a small fragment (very difficult to detect after cooking), and not an entire lung.

KFC, at least from my experience, is very picky about their food. If a piece of chicken isn’t done right, it gets thrown away.

However, KFC was about the hottest job I’ve ever had. The kitchen wasn’t air conditioned (the rest of the store was), so it would easily climb to over 100 degrees in the summertime. 120 degrees was about the hottest I experienced. I just hope working conditions have improved over the years. For a teenager, it was an okay first job, and I was happy with the money I earned, even though it was just $1.15/hour. But that was back in 1969.

[2022我要上春晚]《麒麟》演唱：早安|CCTV春晚

This is some serious Chinese popular music. Note that the entire performance is done using traditional Chinese instruments.

Will India catch up to China?

The way we are currently going? No way. I have lived in India for some forty years and in China for more than two years (though I have been visiting the country since 1996). India is today where China was in 1979, but in India we are still rudderless, direction less and leaderless (without knowing it).

the reason why China’s development has worked for it for so logn is because it is focused on a larger number of people and not a smaller number of people getting wealthy. In India, what we have is still the latter.

The day the life of the farmers in India start improving, the person who has to travel like an animal in overcrowded Mumbai local trains starts getting better and we Indians start caring for each other without being under pretensions that we are superior to fellow Indians (I am referring to the Hyderabad police and Telangana govt. imagining itself to be superior to poorer beggars – just a symptom of a much more widespread malady that affects us all) – that day I will say there is some chance that we might catch up with China.

PS – Just do a google image search to see what the railway stations in China – Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Chengdu, Xiamen look like. That is considered “normal” in over a hundred cities in China. We don’t have a single such place in India – a few airports don’t mean anything as masses travel by trains. Do a similar search for their roads and buses. And their government run schools. That is where the real development lies – not in rockets sent up, missiles, stock exchanges, GDP and a few hundred super rich people in either country.

An honest Admission –
Every day I spend in China, while I appreciate what they have (they have worked hard for it and continue to do so), I keep saying to myself – “I wish my country was like this, because I know my people deserve it and are capable of it. I wish some day my people will feel they deserve better – and people here includes the people in government”.

Life Found on Mars

Submitted into Contest #17 in response to: Write a story about a family dinner that takes place in any time period other than the present.… view prompt

Christina Steele

The council had agreed. Euthanization of the immigrants would happen today at the high moon this 2052 MY (Mars Year) 549 Sol. Most were in poor health anyway, some would stay for continued scientific examination, and four of the youth who survived information intake showed educable promise would receive Partial Martian citizenship. Quatek had attended the meeting with her mother, Supreme Empress Quarmine. Quatek practiced her self-teleportation and levitation. But the word euthanized sharpened her already pointed ears. As part of the population control reform, her grandmother, the fourteenth Supreme Empress, had enacted, and last year on her two- hundredth birthday died as number 16587, becoming a member of the new Grand Guiding Ancestors. The reform called upon the Euthanization of all Martians on their two-hundred birthday. When she signed the reform, she was signing her own death certificate. Quatek still missed her grandmother, tears falling far too often for a future Empress, according to her mother. Grandmother had taught her to have an open heart; her mother taught her to have a steady hand. Quatek knew that many of the councilwomen believed her mom had advised the Euthanasia Population Control Reform. Her mother refused to accept chemical or medical control of life. The all-female population had evolved to self-reproduce only three-hundred MY ago. Their numbers were small back then, but now they were running out of space. To assure a quality life for the babies, sterile older women had to die. It would be a sacrifice, but after death, they transformed into the Grand Guiding Ancestors and held in reverence.That was the same year the immigrants came. Their ship landed near the craters of Aquanis and Anquiteka. Fearful they would attack the water and easily defeat the aged community, these immigrants were transferred into the trans-tunnels and held in Section 1, an antiquated abandoned living area. The area still had all the essential water, air, food delivery chutes, and temperature control units. Old and lacking systems but suitable for immigrants, some now called invaders. Over the last year, observation and experimentation became commonplace. Suspicion waned, then grew when several Observants, a party of 6 women, were in the migrant’s ship. After entering the vessel, an unanswered security breach alert led to a self-destruct warning, and finally, the ship exploded. The Earthling migrants explained that after so long with no one onboard their planet, set up this security device to keep their craft out of alien hands. This lead to talk of euthanasia for no life capable of such a barbaric tactic to kill would be worthy of life.Anxious, Quatek wandered out of the council chambers and down the red stone tunnel. Light fell in spots from the escape airlock hatches above. The hatches secured into the bottom of the shallow craters on the planet’s surface existed as emergency exits in case of a tunnel collapse. At the third spot of light was her mother’s office, not even her daughter status would get passed the guards on duty at the door. It would only be a few years, and the office would be hers. Surely a few moments inside wouldn’t be wrong, just educational. Quatek pressed her green-tinted palms together, lifting her elbows. Rubbing her hands, she applied her warmed palms to her hidden third eye in the center of her forehead. Seconds later, she appeared behind her mother’s desk undetected. Sitting in the royal seat, she viewed the screen, which appeared on default along with the holograms. The screen showed the twenty migrants, who would die, there was nothing she could do. Quatek paused at Mary’s image. She and Mary became friends over the year. Mary would stay at the request of Quatek, though Mary’s parents would die. It would be hard, but she would be with her. Help her. That is when the sidebar came into view.“Noooo!” she muffled her scream with her hand. The final order, signed by her mother, appeared. Quatek read all immigrants euthanized so more Martian babies could be born. “This can’t be,” Quatek whispered.The guards entered and began questioning her. She had to save Mary. She rubbed her hands and transported to Area 1. Spotting Mary, Quatek wrapped her arms around her and transported them both to the far path. This historical path, sacred as a tribute to her people’s first exodus from the surface to the climate controllable tunnels constructed with primitive tools. They climbed the stairs of the sphinx. Both suited up in the airlock within the sphinx eye. They had come here many times. Taught each other a crude sign language and eventually fell in love. Quatek conveyed everything to Mary, there in that eye, looking out at the red sands on the surface of her home planet. Tonight, she told Mary that the Martians themselves had once been migrants from the green planet Merus. Only the Empresses and the Chief Historian know this fact. Quatek’s ancestors arrived here after their planet died. The Meronians brought with them viruses that killed the red indigenous people who lived on the surface. That is why they don’t breathe the Mars air even though they adopted the Martian name. It is why they are in tunnels, why Quatek glows with a green tinge, and why no males we’re born after the first several years. Perhaps the heat of the sun or some environmental induced genetic malformation. And likely why Mary and her people became feared by the governing council. Finally, she shared the worse news of all. All the Earthlings would be euthanized tonight. They held each other a long time then walked back. Mary shared that her mom would give birth soon. Could they wait until after the birth? Could there be a first Earth-Martian if only for a while?Just then, guards accompanied by the Superior Empress arrived and shackled their arms and legs with force field cuffs.“Mother listen, you cannot kill them.”“We are not killing them; we are putting them to sleep for the benefit of them and us. They have no home and no way back, and I cannot exchange our lives for theirs. I have a responsibility to my fellow Martians to life.”Fellow Martian, huh? You believe a new life replaces old life, right? The right to be born is more important than the right to continue as a life lived. Isn’t that your belief?” Quatek paced. The Empress stood in silence. A scream was heard, then a high-pitched cry. “Mary’s mother just gave birth. Isn’t this new Martian life worthy of saving? Isn’t all live worthy?” Mary’s father brought the new child to the front and held him up near the clear security glass that held them, prisoners. There was a sudden silence as the new life sucked on the finger of her father.“How long have you co-mingled?” the Empress demanded.“Nearly ten months.”“No issues?”

“None.”

“Guards put Mary with her family. Child of mine be released and transport to my office immediately.” The cuffs fell of Quatek as the guards carried Mary to the cell.

Hours later, an hour before euthanasia, the council tired from compromise, at last, agreed. At the hour of the immigrant’s end, there came a new beginning. Hundreds gathered in Area 1, bringing food, clothing, and bedding. They removed the glass between them, and cautiously embraced this new life on their planet. Not just the new life being passed around like a crystal goblet of wine, but all life—all life brave enough to fight beyond its bounds of gravity and enter a new world. The decree came to pass that an annual celebration called Thanksgiving of Life would include a new flag of red and blue and green and a grand feast of shared food and gratitude.

What was the last thing a Trump supporter said to you?

<Bug-eyed> “If I had my gun in my car right now, you would be dead!”

Needs a bit of background, though.

My daughter has a learner’s permit, and a HUGE, HUGE sticker on the back of the car saying “STUDENT DRIVER”. We are at a parking lot in a strip mall. She has moved into a parking slot, and is trying to reverse the car to park it parallel to the markings. Fastidious, like it is drilled in to student drivers to be.

In comes an Escalade, right behind our vehicle. Honks loud and long. The kid gets slightly panicked. I tell her to keep her cool, finish the maneuver. The Escalade races its engine, comes within an inch of the bumper, and keeps honking.

My daughter parks the car. The Escalade is on the driveway, blocking all other cars in the parking lot.

Out comes an elderly gentleman, about 60ish. We are getting out of the car. He’s obviously mad.

He: “You assfucker … you shithead …”

Me: “Excuse me … what is happening here?”

He: “Who do you think you are … reversing the car when I am coming in?”

Me: “Sir, sorry if I inconvenienced you, but there is a huge STUDENT DRIVER sign on the back of the car. Did you not notice that?”

He: “I don’t give a shit about signs, you motherfucker … Go back to your own country … You fucking terrorist … President Trump would deport you once I make a call to ICE …”

And this point in time, I am speechless. My daughter is close to tears. What have I gotten myself into?

Then, this gentleman’s wife comes out of the car and approaches my daughter. She does not sound angry. Ah, here is some sanity.

She (to my daughter): “You know, you really should not be permitted to drive. This is a country of white people. Your father isn’t white, and should not be allowed in this country at all.” All of this in a reasonable tone.

This is where I think I made a mistake, but I couldn’t take this any more.

Me: “I hope you have health insurance”

She: “What do you mean?”

Me: “Well, looks like you will need mental health help soon. I hope you are insured for that.”

The gentleman chimes back in.

He: “You fucking asshole, if I had my gun in my car right now, you would be dead”.

Me: “Well, Illinois does not have a Stand Your Ground Law, so that would be homicide”.

And that is when we walked off the lot. The kid was crying, and it took 30 minutes of talking to her (and an ice-cream) to convince her that she had done nothing wrong.

Sad. What is this country coming to?

EDIT: I had been seething internally about this encounter for the past three weeks, and writing this out was a kind of catharsis for me. The outpouring of good thoughts was overwhelming. Thanks everybody for your lovely thoughts.

For the multitude of people who apologized, you don’t have to. I fully understand that all of you are not one of them. And I still have faith. After all, what’s the point in carrying on, otherwise?

EDIT ON EDIT: Lots of people have advised me about videotaping the incident. While I do appreciate the advice, the unfortunate thing is that when someone is hurling epithets at me in my face, my first thought is to protect my daughter and myself, not record it as evidence to be produced later to law enforcement.

Notice that every time this kind of incident gets posted on social media, it is almost always a third person who has recorded it? The people involved are rarely recording a POV video. Same in this case.

US American REACTS – How I See the US After 5 Years

Solar power

Well, the US doesn’t have to worry about Fusion. It will take decades at least.

Right now, Chinese solar panels are below $0.02 per watt. This is from $100 in the 70s. That is 2 cents per watt.

Chinese solar panels are killing big oil and big gas. And it is being manufactured in mass quantities. 600GW of solar panels last year, 600+GW this year, and 900GW of solar panels in 2025. It will be over 1TW of solar panels in 2026 and beyond.

Each watt of solar panel can generate on average of 6 sun hours per day and 260 sun days per year of 1,500 watt of electricity.

Now multiply that by the amount manufactured. And this is going all over the Global South. Ironically China is making the Global South energy independent of the control by the West.

Which makes the US and the EU absolutely hate China. Because those panels will produce power for 30 years before dropping to 80% capacity and still keep going.

There is no oil to interdict or control to starve other nations by the West. Once those panels go in, the West will have to bomb them to get rid of them.

But if they are install on every rooftop then the West would need more bombs then they dropped in WWII just to remove them from a small nation.

This is true energy independence. Fusion will be great for places where the sun doesn’t shine or for large mobile applications or space.

Fun photos that are curious

What is the biggest culture shock you have ever faced?

Libraries in China.

The very first time I entered a library on campus, I was imagining something like this:

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Shelves upon shelves of books. Chairs. People sitting around reading.

The library was about seven storeys, so I was psyched about all the books it could contain. I didn’t bother to check for a building map, I just entered the first floor, walked into a room. I saw: tables, chairs, textbooks and notebooks piled on tables, people busy studying.

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“This must be the study room”, I thought to myself. I checked the next floor.

Same.

And the next.

Same.

I grew tired and checked the map in the elevator. The actual book-containing part of the library was apparently on the sixth floor.

“Oh finally, “ I thought.

Come to find, the “library” was just one room with about nine shelves of reading books.

A whole seven storey building called the library and this is the actual library?! A small room hidden away in the sixth floor while everyroom else were barebacked study rooms?!

The college is humongous. It has two campuses and four libraries, the smallest library having seven floors and the biggest having eleven.

You can bet your bottom the majority of the rooms in these libraries are just study rooms. What are even reading books, anyway? What kind of moron reads those things?

The study culture here is no joke. Kids pile their books on their reserved spots in the library and sit there studying for hours on end. They keep snacks, water bottles, power banks on site.

This library opens at 7 AM and closes at 11 PM. My deskmate, I think he lives here. He’s always here before I arrive and leaves after I do.

I took this picture one morning because it was a rare occurrence that my study room was bare. I felt like a real champ, a stellar scholar, to be one of the first to arrive.

Across is my deskmate’s side. We “reserve” our tables by keeping our books on them. We also reserve our chairs by doing something similar. He has an orange cushion on his chair to reserve his. I have a small bag draped over the back of mine. Others normally put a spare jacket over theirs.

Need a nap? Sleep on the desk, everybody else does.

Thirsty? Water machines on every floor will give you piping hot or ice cold water for ¥0.1 (0.014 USD) per litre.

Hungry? Bikes will deliver food straight from the mess to the library, you can use your phone to order. There’s also a canteen on the ground level. Their pot noodles aren’t the best but they have good ice cream. They have good bread but they’re always running out of those.

Need some fresh air? There are comfy seats in the court.

It’s like everything is conditioned to keep us here studying hard as much as possible. Libraries in China are truly something else; it was quite a culture shock for me.

China military enters Europe. US backs down, cancels 3000 troop deployment in Georgia. US lost India

China subsidies all their product to sell to Europe, does it mean, China is loosing money when selling to Europe? Why China sell Europe at a loss, is it due to China is too rich thus able to help other country?

That’s not how things work

Take Solar Panels

In 2008, A Chinese company makes Solar Panels of very low quality

If they want to make high quality solar panels – based on their manufacturing process – they can only get a 3% FPR meaning out of 10,000 Panels you get 300 Excellent Quality Panels and 9700 Very Low Quality Panels

How can they make money?

They can’t sell 97% of what they make so they simply can’t sustain the business yet they have the R&D and they know that if given the scale, they can make top class panels at optimum cost in 10 years

Which Bank will lend them? Who will wait for 10 years?

This is where the State of China and a group of Industries say WE WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU TILL YOU REACH THAT OPTIMUM LEVEL. YOU JUST DO YOUR R&D

So China pays for 9700 Worthless Panels and destroys the panels using their tax revenues plus money given by big industries like Huawei or Bytedance

Thus this Chinese company keeps making more and more panels – millions and millions more and slowly their FPR grows from 3% in 2008 to 71% in 2018

Now out of 1 Million Panels – they can make 710,000 Very High Quality Panels

And their costs are negligible because they have been subsidized by the Chinese State

So they can sell at 20% of what Germany sells their panels for and still make a 30% profit

They have cracked the Economies of Scale

So now these Panel manufacturers will ask the State of China –

Now that we are making profits and have gained market dominance – How can we ever thank you?

Xi smiles and says “Now you guys help us subsidize the High End Chipmakers, Etching equipment makers and AI LLM startups”

And the cycle goes on and on – each generation which got subsidies will subsidize the next generation

Costs this remain lower and lower and once scale is obtained – China is the master of Quality at lowest price

There is no competition possible

So State Subsidies don’t help the Companies sell at a loss

They help the companies afford to focus on getting to a large scale without worrying about Loans, EMIs, Installments, Investors etc

Like Normal Startups face

An Indian guy can’t get any of these benefits

He may have a superior product but to reach a large scale enough to attain profitability and optimum quality – he needs 7–12 years of continuous exponential financing to help him reach the scale

Banks wont lend him

Government is too broke borrowing and building collapsing infrastructure

Chinese Investors have been banned due to fifth rate paisa nationalism and other investors don’t have the patience to wait for even 5 years leave alone 10–12. You will see more of Byjus and Paytm

Unlike the Chinese Industrialists our Thelawallah Businessmen are busy with 3000 Crore weddings. They won’t help anyone subsidize business without a Government sanctioned Sten Gun on their temple

So the Indian leaves India, goes to Singapore and gets financing from a Chinese/Japanese VC and in a few years the product goes to US or China

While Rohit Sharma gets another 100 Crore for sponsoring Underpants

That’s what State Subsidies mean

Pour money and allow a Business to reach a scale where it can sustain itself

Ensure all R&D costs are paid by the State so that the Business can afford to sell at 20% of the US or German price and still make a 30% Profit

And the Business in turn helps subsidizes more businesses and helps pay for more R & D

El Gato Jackson

Did you know that a spoonful of honey is enough to keep a person alive for 24 hours?

Did you know that one of the world’s first coins had the symbol of a bee?

Did you know that honey contains live enzymes?

Did you know that these enzymes die when in contact with a metal spoon? The best way to eat honey is with a wooden spoon; if you can’t find one, use a plastic spoon.

Did you know that honey contains a substance that helps the brain function better?

Did you know that honey is one of the few foods on earth that alone can sustain human life?

Did you know that bees saved people from starvation in Africa?

Did you know that propolis produced by bees is one of the most powerful natural antibiotics?

Did you know that honey has no expiration date?

Did you know that the bodies of the world’s greatest emperors were buried in golden coffins and then covered in honey to prevent rot?

Did you know that the term “Honeymoon” comes from the fact that the bride and groom consumed honey for fertility after the wedding?

Did you know that a bee lives less than 40 days, visits at least 1000 flowers and produces less than a teaspoon of honey, but for her it is her life’s work.

Thank you beautiful bees!

As a house maid, what was the grossest thing you’ve ever found while cleaning a house?

Not a maid, but have a couple rentals. The absolute worst were single girls. One in particular. She had a decent job and could afford it, so I rented to her. At the end of the first month when the rent was due, she was no where to be found. Stopped by several days…not home. Stopped by late one day, after dark, and she’s still not there, and the lights are off. Now I’m noticing that the power is not on. Hmm…. Called her job, “fired a few weeks ago…” But they told me where she went to work. Stopped by there. Deer in the headlights surprise…. oh hi! Long story short, she moved in with boyfriend and just “forgot” to call, but her furniture, clothes, baby stuff is still in my house…but she states that she’s not going to pay for the next month, even though she’s occupying my house with her stuff. Her parting comment is “so sue me”. Okay, I’m going there tomorrow, and placing all the contents on the curb. Come get what you want. When I made entry, oh my!…the smell….”#gagamaggot! Spoiled food everywhere, fridge, floor, bathroom…etc…. but here’s the biggie, in a corner of the master br is a ripe stinking nasty pile of soiled diapers, and used kotex pads, with assorted flies, gnats, and whatever bugs crawling around doing what they do. To lazy to use a garbage can. Remember, power is off, and this is summer in the south and the air was so heavy with scent you could taste it. So I retreat to change clothes and don face mask and two pair of rubber gloves, and roll in a garbage can with a heavy plastic bag and open all the windows and doors. Took me a week to make that home suitable to show again. That one will be in my memory for a while!. I did take a number of pictures, just for future reference. Bleah! Ugh! Gag! Vomit!

Every morning, the CEO of a major bank in Manhattan went to the corner where a shoeshine man was always there.

He used to sit on the chair, read the Wall Street Journal, and the shoeshine man gave his shoes a shiny, great look.

One morning, the shoeshine man asks the CEO:
“What do you think of the stock market situation?”

The CEO arrogantly asks him:
“Why are you so interested in this subject?”

The shoeshine man replies:
“I have 20 million dollars deposited in your bank and I am thinking about investing part of the money in the stock market.”

The CEO of the bank asks:
“What is your name?”

He replies:
“John Smith H.”

The CEO arrives at the bank and asks the Manager of the Major Accounts Department:
“Do we have a customer named John Smith H.?”

He replies:
“We certainly do, sir! He is an extremely esteemed customer! He has 20 million dollars in his account.”

The CEO leaves the bank, approaches the shoeshine boy, and says:
“Mr. Smith, I would like to invite you to be our guest of honor at our board meeting next Monday and tell us your life story. I’m sure we will have a lot to learn from you.”

At the board meeting, the CEO introduces him to the board members:
“We all know Mr. Smith, who makes our shoes shine like no one else. But Mr. Smith is also our valued customer, with twenty million dollars in his account.

I invited him to tell us the story of his life. I’m sure we can learn a lot from him. Please, Mr. Smith, tell us your life story.”

Then, Mr. Smith began to narrate his story:
“I came to this country thirty years ago as a young immigrant from Eastern Europe and with an unpronounceable name. I left the ship penniless in my pocket.

The first thing I did was to change my name to Smith.

I was hungry and exhausted. I started to wander in search for a job, but without success.

Suddenly, I found a coin on the sidewalk. I bought some apples.

I had two options: eat the apples and quench my hunger or start a business. I sold the apples for 50 cents and bought more apples with the money.

When I started accumulating dollars, I managed to buy a set of used brushes and shoe polishes and started cleaning shoes.

I didn’t spend a dime on fun or clothes. I only bought bread and cheese to survive.

I saved penny by penny and after a while I bought a new set of brushes and shoe polishes in different shades and colors and increased my clientele.

I lived like a monk and saved every penny. I managed to buy a chair so that my customers could sit comfortably while I cleaned their shoes, which brought me more customers.

I didn’t spend a dime on the pleasures of life. I kept saving every penny.

A few years ago, when the corner shoeshine colleague decided to retire, I had already saved enough money to buy his point, which was a better place than mine.

Finally, 3 months ago, my drug dealer brother passed away and left me 20 million dollars.

The War on Napping: They Won’t Let Their Husbands Sleep

What is the least intelligent thing you’ve ever seen a tourist do?

When I was in high school, I had a summer job at a theme park. Visitors came from all over the country, and it wasn’t uncommon to see people from outside the U.S. as well.

There were the usual dumb theme park questions: “Why isn’t [Ride] running?” (Because it’s raining with lots of lightning, and a giant metal rollercoaster would basically become a lightning rod.) “My son is two feet shorter than the height requirement. Can he go on this ride anyway?” (No.) “Can I use your employee discount?” (Also no.)

But the least intelligent thing people did was to come to spend an entire summer day in an outdoor theme park without bringing sunscreen or water. Then they would have to buy ridiculously overpriced sunscreen and water in the park ($12 for a bottle of sunscreen and $5 for a bottle of water, and this was about 15 years ago).

The ones I felt the most sorry for were a British family, a dad and two young kids. This was on one of the hottest days of summer, about 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) with not a cloud in the sky. I had never seen anyone get that sunburned before. They were so lobster-red, it looked like something out of a cartoon. They came into the shop I was working in and bought two water bottles each. That cost them about $40, just for water. I asked if they wanted some sunscreen as well and the dad said, “A bit late for that, isn’t it?” I pointed out that they would keep getting more sunburned if they didn’t put on sunscreen, and he just sort of laughed like he thought I was joking and left without buying any sunscreen. I felt so sorry for the kids.

Why does Walmart have a bad reputation?

I tried working for Walmart in 2015–2016. I worked in maintenance, nothing special. My job was to maintain the store and property, and handle any messes. It was straightforward. That said, getting the job and keeping it certainly weren’t. I don’t have a vehicle, so I routinely walked 3.4 miles to work five days a week in wind, rain, sun, and snow. In the winter of 2015, I walked to work in 8 degree (Fahrenheit) weather (this is Oklahoma), and was still told I might get fired. Several of my coworkers appreciated it, and we had 38 call-ins of a staff of just under 100 that day.

So, I worked forty hours a week, walk about 35–60 miles a week, put up with all the best and worst customers can provide, and had to deal with shoddy management staff who didn’t know how to communicate. My supervisor got fired, and the one I ended up with had no clue what my job entailed, but proceeded to deride me at every turn for not doing my job correctly. This same supervisor had several complaints lodged against her, but the upper management refused to act. So we had a handful of rotten managers, a number of bitter, gossipy staff, and a management team who was completely out of touch. I was routinely sent out to waste my time to clean trash from an adjoining lot that the store didn’t own. When I suggested a fence, I was ignored, and when one of my supervisors asked why we were even out there, they sent him out too.

This nonsense culminated in September of 2016. The maintenance staff was asked to work several extra hours to cover some recent terminations. At $15 an hour, that sounds good. On Monday evening, I check my schedule to make sure I have work the next day only to find out I have been removed from the schedule without notice and the aforementioned supervisor is gone, so nobody knows what happened. I get bounced around for nearly two hours, with even the store manager telling me to “get back to work” before Personnel can figure out what happened. Basically, my supervisor had violated policy when she revised the schedule, and they cut more of my time to compensate. When I complained that I should have been made aware, they shrugged their shoulders. I let slip a single profanity about the situation, and they fired me for it two days later. I was fired from my job for something I did off the clock in response to one of their managers fucking up, and she got off scot-free. That’s why Walmart has a bad reputation, because they do stupid shit like that.

Edit: First time using the site, and this piece of work I put up as my first(?) answer on here got nearly 2400 upvotes! I’m both amazed at the response and rather horrified at the fact that this many people can relate. Thanks all!

Shorpy

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Are there any facts that are extremely scary to know?

Vivisepulture is the scariest fact that used to happen in the history because of lack of knowledge of medical practitioners and lack of resources.

Vivisepulture is more commonly known as Buried alive or Premature burial.

In the olden days premature burial was common as the medical practices lacked proper knowledge. One such incident which happened in Woodstock, Canada in 1800s is the case of Collins, a girl who was buried alive.

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Above is the image of Collins’ body when it was exumed after two days of her burial.

The incident happened in Woodstock, Canada in 1800s where the girl (Collins) who was declared to be dead was buried. Her body was to be exumed after two days so that she could be buried in some place else.

After her body was dug up, people were shocked to see what they saw. Her knees were up to the chin (in the image), her arm twisted behind her head, there were scratch marks on the inside of her coffin and her shroud torn into pieces. This clearly shows that she was alive (in some sort of Coma) at the time of burial which was not recognizable by the medical Professionals of that time.

We can only assume as to how much terrorized she must have been feeling at the time when she woke up from her so-called coma. This is just one case — there have been so many cases of people being buried alive in the past that they made speciality safety coffins.

Below in Fig. 1 is a safety coffin with a flag. The person assumed to be dead had a safety rope which they can pull and the flag will be in upright position.

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Now in Fig. 2 below, if the person buried is alive, can pull the rope and the flag will be upright alerting anyone who is nearby.

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There were other coffins which were designed with bells, emergency air flow valves and with flags.

Death in such cases was actually caused by dehydration, hypothermia and starvation.

However, premature burial was a punishment as well in the olden days. People convicted of henious crimes would be buried alive to die of choking. There is intentional as well as unintentional premature burial.

But the most scary part is what happened with Collins: imagine a little girl trapped inside with no one — what would have happened to her, what she would have felt, what she went through — she had to die several deaths before actually dying.

May her soul rest in peace.

I would prefer to be cremated rather than being buried.

Putin and China just made an OMINOUS Warning and NATO is FURIOUS

Mixed feelings

There were many mixed reactions to the loosening up of visas for people to visit China.

On here there was a mixed reaction to it.

I’ve swung from both sides, in that seeing is believing making them question what the western state controled media tells them vs what they see.

Shun himself was more concerned about criminals and bad people getting into China…

But that itself has a positive side effect. I wrote recently how Chinese people in China are blissfully unaware of how shitty many westerners are and how there is absolute dripping hatred from many of them.

But shitty people = their shitty behaviour in China… meaning we get to see things like this.

5 hours 6000+ views on Douyin (that was clipped from a couple days ago). Maybe it will sway the views of Chinese people of foreigners to be more critical rather than have an automatic assumption they’re going to be great people.

Google Is Destroying Its Search Engine…

What is the best thing your teacher ever told you?

Originally Answered: what was the most interesting thing your teacher said?

‘Get out of my classroom, NOW,’ shouted my history teacher, a kind and calm man whose raised voice I had never heard.

He was shouting at two older kids who’d suddenly burst in and interrupted our lesson on the Romans, or the Germans, or the Gold Rush (you get the picture). They were yelling, quite aggressively, to my sheltered 13-year-old mind, about how unhappy they were with something. It was a long time ago so forgive me but it was something like their recent test scores and how Mr McVeigh (I still remember his name now) was to blame.

Us younger students sat aghast at the heated exchange. This was unusual to say the least and I started to feel really sorry for our lovely teacher.

The shouting went on for a bit and just when I seriously thought it might turn physical, Mr McVeigh told them to leave NOW and they turned and marched out the classroom, slamming the door hard enough to make the glass panel shake.

‘I am so sorry about that,’ said our teacher (such a nice man). ‘This is all very embarrassing.’

‘I need to let the headteacher know. Please can you take a new sheet of paper and write down what just happened and a description of both of them.’

I scribbled away – two guys, think they’re in sixth form, came in and loudly shouted, one was wearing a blue shirt… Etc, etc.

We handed the sheets in. And what happened next has stayed with me since.

You might have guessed…

Our lovely Mr McVeigh had stitched us up good and proper. The ‘aggressive older students’ were acting.

He was about to teach us an amazing lesson about the trustworthiness of history’s eye witnesses.

He started to write all the conflicting descriptions and accounts on the whiteboard. Blonde hair… Brown hair… Jeans… Khakis… Said he was gonna sue… Said he’d burn your car… Blue shirt… Grey shirt…

‘Few of your descriptions match, and that’s about an event which happened only a few minutes ago. Imagine you are being interviewed about an historic event you witnessed, days, weeks or even years later. You can start to see how – although important – the eye witness does have some weaknesses.’

Blew my little mind.

Steak-Stuffed Portobello with Creamy Poblano Sauce

Seasoned grilled steak is combined with mozzarella cheese, stuffed into a portobello mushroom, then covered with a creamy poblano chile pepper sauce.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

2 (8 ounce) beef flat iron steaks
2 fresh poblano chile peppers
1 small onion, cut into 1/2 inch slices
4 large portobello mushrooms, stems discarded
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
3/4 cup shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro, divided
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 ripe avocado, thinly sliced

Instructions

Place poblano peppers and onion slices on grid over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, covered, 15 to 20 minutes (over medium heat on preheated gas grill) or until onion is tender and pepper skins are blackened, turning occasionally.
Place peppers in food-safe plastic bag; close bag. Set peppers and onion aside to cool.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Coat each mushroom cap with cooking spray and place on aluminum foil-lined shallow-rimmed baking pan.
Bake mushrooms in 350 degrees F oven for 15 to 17 minutes or until mushrooms are fork tender.
Remove and discard skins, stems and seeds from peppers. Chop peppers and onion.
Heat oil in small sauce pan over medium heat. Add poblanos peppers, onion and garlic; cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cream; bring to a boil. Remove from heat; set aside.
Season steaks with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Place steaks on grid over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, covered, 10 to 14 minutes (over medium heat on preheated gas grill, covered, 12 to 16 minutes) for medium rare (145 degrees F) to medium (160 degrees F) doneness.
Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees F.
Carve steaks into 1-inch strips. Cut strips into 1 inch cubes.
Combine steak and cheese in medium bowl, mixing gently but thoroughly. Evenly divide beef mixture among prepared mushroom caps, mounding as needed.
Bake mushrooms in 400 degrees F oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Meanwhile, place poblano mixture in blender container; add 1/4 cup cilantro, lime juice, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Cover; process until smooth.
Divide sauce evenly among 4 plates; top sauce with steak-stuffed mushroom. Garnish with avocado slices and remaining 1/4 cup cilantro, if desired.

What aspect of Japanese culture is hardest for Westerners to properly understand?

Understanding that we Japanese appreciate the beauty of bending the rules.

As Japanese people, we are very good at following rules.

In fact, Japanese society is filled with all sorts of rules, and so many of them are often given too much importance. This often leads to following rules becoming an end in itself, with rules overshadowing the essence.

Always Obey “Time”

Our trains arrive on schedule, and if we’re even a few minutes late to meet friends, we let them know in advance. In schools and workplaces, including meetings and business negotiations, we arrive five minutes early as a matter of course. It’s to the point where if we’re caught taking three minutes to order lunch during work hours, we could face a pay cut. While this might sound like fake news in other countries, it’s a true story for us. For us Japanese, not being punctual is almost like committing a crime.

Always Obey “Traffic Lights”

Even if no one is watching, even if there isn’t a single car on the road, and even if the road is completely empty as far as the eye can see, we Japanese wait for the green light at the crosswalk. We don’t jaywalk. It’s to the point where we might even be laughed at by those who don’t follow traffic lights. This is the norm in Japan, and seeing someone cross the road when the pedestrian signal is red makes us feel uncomfortable. We teach children, “Don’t do what that person is doing,” using such instances as prime examples of what not to do.

But even for us, there are rules we desire not to follow.

Never Obey “Come Empty-Handed”

When someone tells us to “come empty-handed,” it’s just a social nicety. We shouldn’t take it at face value.
In our society, it’s expected that we ignore this and bring a gift. If we visit someone’s home and actually arrive empty-handed after being instructed otherwise, they will likely feel confused internally, pity our social unawareness in the back, and may even become secretly upset. If we visit as a group, everyone else will likely bring things like cream puffs or beverages, making us feel somewhat awkward for not doing the same.
“Come empty-handed” is a formality in our society. Establishing a rule to always bring a gift when visiting someone’s home would simplify matters, but that’s the opposite of what we do. Hosts persist in pretending as though arriving empty-handed is the proper approach. Recognizing the proper situations to go against what’s instructed is a reflection of our cultural sensitivity.

Knowing when and where to break the rules in Japan demands a delicate balance.

In Japan, the ability to achieve this balance without explicit guidance captures the subtle “beauty” of cultural norms.

Stray Cat Cries When He Meets Owner He Hasn’t Seen In Seven Years

I can so relate.

Kenny G in China

I’ll tell you one real thing that Americans would just HATE about China.

Most of the elevators play Kenny G.

(Well), not exactly. The older elevators do. The newer elevators run television and videos with a mixture of shows, music and weather. But the older elevators, well, heck, it’s Kenny G 24-7.

Ugh!

For thouse of you who are young, or not from the ‘States, Kenny G was (is) quite the talented music player, and his saxophone was legendary. His talent made great waves in the United States, and the media gobbled it up…

To an insane amount.

Everything was Kenny G, and for perhaps a decade and a half (maybe 1980’s into the late 1990’s) everything was Kenny G. Americans were force fed so much Kenny G music that we all collectively vomited and started turning off the radio stations, and televisions shows that had it on.

Eventually, the rumor has it, that a major television mogul was in a New York Bar, when some random Kenny G tune was playing on television and the entire bar erupted in screams and shouts to “turn that shit off!”. Yeah. It was that bad.

Meanwhile, China hasn’t experienced that.

To the Chinese, Kenny G was just white-noise, background music. Like ocean waves or light rain.

So yeah, if Americans knew the truth they would really hate the Chinese for real. And, not though the CIA manipulated American media bullshit.

Today…

What is the worst thing a tenant has ever done to your rental property?

I called her on the 4th of the month as I hadn’t received rental. She was a regular late payer, ready with long stories why she hadn’t pay her rent on time. But this time around she told me she was moving out and dropped the call, and blocked me.

I went to the apartment, through the windows, I could see it was empty. I arranged for a locksmith. The place wasn’t vandalised not too dirty, it just needed mopping up and basic carpet cleaning, I thought.

There was this terrible smell in the main bedroom, though. I opened all the windows, searched all the cupboards but they were all empty. I arranged with cleaning services thinking carpets needed steaming. Mr Swart (yes that’s his real name) was the caretaker of the estate, and made extra cash with cleaning services. He called me the following day to let me know his done cleaning the place but the smell won’t go away.

By this time I had no tenant lined up since I didn’t have a chance to re-advertising. I asked Mr Swart to recheck the place again. Mr Swart found rotten fish inside the base of the main bedroom closet.

I don’t know why and to date I can’t find reasons for that kind of malice.

Why Matriarchies Fail

Matriarchies put women into positions of power but not so much into positions of responsibility.

Have you ever had such a close call it makes your skin shiver everytime you think about it? If so, what happened?

When I was 15, I was at a friend’s house party with about 7 of my friends. There were a few guys waiting to use the bathroom, so my friends mother offered to let me use the bathroom in her bedroom. I was in there for about 30 seconds. When I stepped out, I was grabbed by 4 very tall guys that I’d never seen before, who’d hoisted me up above their shoulders, & were headed towards the door to the driveway outside with me in tow. As the door opened, I saw an older Cadillac idling there, with the doors open. Seemingly out of nowhere, my long time ride or die buddyJuan, a large, really tough Samoan dude who’d been a college football player, had appeared from behind, & managed to snatch me away from my would-be kidnappers. Holding onto to me tightly, Juan had stepped backwards through the bedroom door, slammed it shut, & locked it behind him. It all happened so fast that I was in complete shock. It was beyond crazy, & it was the most terrifying thing that I’ve ever gone through, (with one possible exception). We were pretty sure the men were from a nearby town, involved in gang-related fight & rivalry with our town, but how or where they’d spotted me, or why they’d chosen me to try to snatch from inside a house party made no sense at all, & it’s always remained a mystery. Neither me nor any of my friends were involved with gangs in any way, but life in that town could instantly & without any warning, become randomly crazy, & also very violent. I was thinking back remembering it as I was writing it down, when it occurred to me how completely insane & improbably this whole ordeal would sound to anyone else. Had I not been there myself, I’d probably have trouble believing it too.

Have you ever had someone come for dinner at your place and they refused to eat anything?

Does throwing your dinner on the floor count?

My sister came for the weekend with her husband. I did the usual things … pristine house, guest room warm and welcoming, slow cooked meal humming away.

I was landscaping at the time, a perpetual and seemingly never ending challenge. Brother in law was keen to see it and encouraged me to work some rocks while they sipped beer on the deck.

Time for dinner came. The meat was falling apart delicious, the veggies covered in glistening pan juices. I served it on the deck. Yum, says brother in law as were turned to survey the garden.

Sister, glowering, threw her untouched plate on the floor and sat silent and sullen.Wtf?

Months later she told me why. While I was placing rocks a single lock of unkempt hair escaped my hat. It was curly.

She has straight hair. She didn’t like that.

Dinner was marvellous. Shame about hers.

Grilled Garlic Stuffed Steaks

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

2 boneless beef top loin steaks, cut 2 inches thick
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup minced garlic
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

In small nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-low heat until hot. Add garlic. Cook and stir 4 to 5 minutes or until tender, but not browned. Add onions. Continue cooking and stirring 4 to 5 minutes or until onions are tender. Season with salt and pepper; cool completely.
Meanwhile, cut a pocket in each beef steak with a sharp knife. Start 1/2 inch from one long side of steak and cut horizontally through center of steak to within 1/2 inch of each side. Spread half of garlic mixture inside each steak pocket. Secure openings with wooden picks.
Place steaks on grid over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, covered, for 22 to 24 minutes for medium-rare to medium doneness; turn occasionally.
Remove wooden picks. Carve one crosswise into 1/2 inch thick slices.

The current unemployment situation in China is very serious. Why don’t Chinese people overthrow their own government and reallocate resources to reduce unemployment?

This month – there are 11.24 Million Graduates who are entering the Job market

Of these around 2.727 Million (As per 2022 numbers) will study further for Post Graduate Courses

Of these around 600,000 (As per 2022) will prepare for Certifications in various areas which require Examinations like CFA, Architecture Or PE or Series 7 etc.

Of these around 60,000 (As per 2023) will go abroad for a Post Graduate Course or Doctorate

This means around 7.92 Million Chinese Graduates have been hitting the Job market from 1/6/24 onwards

This includes almost 1.1 Million Engineering Graduates

Meanwhile Chinese Employers prefer hires only after 30/6/24

So for the first 30 days in June – Unemployment would rise significantly

Then after 1/7/24 – Jobs will be offered and the workforce will be decongested

There are 556,000 Government Appointments & 48,500 Civil Service Posts available this year

The Vacancies due to retirement emoluments in China in 2023 come to around 4.32 Million Jobs

New Jobs created assuming a 5% growth compared to 2023 comes to 1.37 Million New Jobs

This plus a further 360,000 Local Government Jobs across China

(This is Available NBS Data. It doesn’t count the other jobs like Smaller Freelance Jobs)

Adding we get around 6.65 Million Jobs Available versus 7.92 Million Graduates

Add to this a further 5% or 400,000 Graduates from Last year still looking for work

That’s 6.65 Million Jobs vs 8.32 Million Graduates

This means around 1.67 Million Graduates would be unable to find a Job in Mainland China

That comes to 1.67/8.32 = 20%

So the 16–24 Unemployment numbers will rise to around 20% for the next few months and then as more graduates get placed or take up contract jobs or freelance jobs or swt up their own business – this will fall back to 15% by December 2024

Now 20% is the 16–24 unemployment among Fresh Graduates

It means around 1.7 Million Graduates would still be looking for a Job by Middle of August or September 2024

That’s because China doesn’t use all graduates to give you 16–24 unemployment

China doesnt divide 1.67 /11.24 and say 16–24 unemployment was 14.80%

China divides 1.67/8.32 and gives you 20%

It’s as realistic as possible

This is high compared to USA (10.11%) but paradise compared to India (46%)

Have you ever been misdiagnosed by your physician?

Multiple times by multiple doctors.

When I turned 18, I began having intense itching in my groin area. I went for lotions first, numbing creams, hydrocortisone, nothing was working.

I tried sticking it out, would stick ice packs down there which helped a lot, but still would wake up scratching the ever living hell out of my groin until it would bleed.

Eventually, the scratches started oozing this terrible green gunk. I finally had enough with this and went to the doctor.

“It’s herpes.”

They never did any blood tests, didn’t believe me when I said I’ve never been sexually active (had my first sexual experience at 21,) they sent me home with a bottle of meds and told me to call them when it clears up.

Well, it didn’t clear up. It kept getting worse. So I called them and they told me it’s normal for herpes to ignore the medication at first, but to just keep taking it and it will eventually calm down.

So I kept taking it. It didn’t get better. It got worse.

To the point where I couldn’t even wear underwear or pants. I had to sit in bed all day, I couldn’t walk because my groin was on fire and oozing this awful smelling green pus on everything I put down there.

I was miserable.

I went to another doctor, who wanted to claim it was syphilis.

Again, I had never ever kissed another human at this point. Went to another doctor who assumed it must either be some sort of allergy, or again, an STD.

They put me on strong antihistamines which helped the itching a bit, but left me so out of it that I could hardly do anything but sleep all day and night.

At this point I was sick of being diagnosed with STDs I knew I didn’t have. I went to a brand new doctor and told him I wanted blood tests for every STD in the book so I could prove to the next dozen doctors that I didn’t have an STD and they needed to look further.

Blood test was negative for everything. I was clear. But that doctor also had no idea what to make of my mysterious itching, and suggested I change my diet.

Finally, I went to a doctor who actually took a biopsy of the area.

Few days later I get a call, “you’ve got a staph infection and we need to put you on antibiotics right away.”

I get the antibiotics and the green oozing goo clears up pretty much immediately, but the itching remains.

I returned to the doctor maybe a week later to go over my biopsy results, “You have spongiotic dermatitis.”

“Well, what can I do for it?”

“Nothing, really. Just have to learn what your triggers are and avoid them.”

“So there’s nothing I can do to get the itching to stop?”

“There might not be.”

I wanted to cry. I probably did.

Few years after just accepting that I’d need to wear ice packs in my pants wherever I went during a flare, which happened frequently, I came across a new doctor who told me you absolutely could use something for the itching, steroid cream.

He prescribed it for me, I can’t remember the exact name but it started with a T. (Thank you, Teri! The medication was called Triamcinolone Acetonide.)

Holy shit, I cleared up immediately.

I had relief for the first time in ever.

I stayed on that cream for a few years, having relief during flares and being so thankful that I found that doctor. But eventually it stopped working, and my flares returned with vengeance.

I went to yet another doctor, as I had since moved after seeing the first one. I told her my diagnosis and what was prescribed to me.

“I’m gonna take another look at it, get another biopsy and see what else we can do for you.”

A week later I had a new diagnosis.

Lichen Sclerosis.

She put me on a much stronger steroid ointment, Clobetosal, and again, I was cleared up immediately.

But I was worried, when is the next time I’m gonna have to dial it up even further? How far do I need to go before my skin gets used to everything and I’m back to square one?

Well, I had a surprising effect to my little skin issue when I made the decision to go on Testosterone.

I’m trans, and this was a decision a long time in the making. I wanted to be happy in my body at last, so I took the plunge and went for it.

And my Lichen Sclerosis cleared up!

My theory was that the thickening skin down there locks in moisture better. I haven’t had a major flare since starting nearly two years ago, and whatever flares I do have can be handled with hydrocortisone, unlike the first time.

I’m finally happy in my skin, in more ways than one.

But it took nearly ten years to get here.

She Thought Divorce Was A Good Idea Until She Had To Pay Him Child Support

What happens to people’s assets when they are in prison?

I can answer this best by giving examples.

Richard Barile (big time cocaine distributor for Pablo Escobar). “Chaplain, I have nothing left in this country. The government seized it all. BUT, I have my beachfront villa in Cabo-do you want to come down for a week?”
Mafia button man. Al, why can’t your wife fix her car and come see you? Are you that broke? Can’t someone lend her the money? “No Chaplain, I have about $100k or so. But I have to go ask the people for my money back in person- that’s how we work. If I don’t ask in person they will keep the money.”
Motorcycle gang guy. “Chaplain, I just lost everything and I’m getting out next month”. You just lost it? “Ya, I rented the storage locker for ten years, but I lost a month of good time, and nobody would pay for my locker for the last two months.” They auctioned off his locker, which included his custom modified vintage Indian motorcycle, just days before his release.
Off shore bank account guy. Why are you here? “Well I wanted to be a millionaire and enjoy life.” What did you do? “Well, I siphoned four million out of the corporate accounts. I put it all in an off-shore account in a country with no extradition to the USA. Then I turned myself in. The FBI asked me for the money back, I said no. The maximum sentence is four years. I’ll do my time and go to the islands. I’m making a million a year…how much are you making Chaplain?

Has a cop ever said something to you which was completely unexpected?

About 7 or 8 years ago, I got pulled over for speeding in a school zone (I was NOT speeding). Well, the police officer comes up to my window and I hand him my license and insurance. He has me waiting for a good 20 minutes while he runs my license and insurance. He comes back and says that my license has been suspended for non-payment of a super speeder ticket. I was shocked. I had not gotten a super speeder ticket. Well, he takes me to jail. I finally get to the officer who gives me the warrant and how much I owe. Well, the description of the person was as follows: Black, 6 Feet 5 inches tall, 375 pounds, with face tattoos. I am: Caucasian, 6 Feet tall, (at the time) I weighted about 260 pounds and I DON’T have ANY TATTOOS. After 9 hours of being in jail, I finally got everything set straight with the police that someone had stolen my ID and I was finally let out of jail. BUT, I still had to call a friend to come and get me from jail. I was not allowed to get my car out of the impound lot because my license had been suspended and they had put a red mark on the back of the license. So, I had to wait until Monday to go and get everything straightened out. It took me about 5 hours of going to 3 different offices I finally got my license back. BUT, I still had to pay the impound fee, I believe it was about $360.00.

The Hobbit – 1950’s Super Panavision 70

Has there ever been a recruit who couldn’t be intimidated by the drill sergeants? How did that go?

We had this one kid who refused to fall in line. He refused to comply with any orders and was the biggest pain in the ass any of us had ever met.

I spent some time with him and learned that he had been raised in a really difficult environment, low income in the heart of the ghetto, and had been beaten by his father from a very young age. Physical and mental abuse were rampant throughout his family and extended family. His escape from this hell was the Army and we welcomed him with open arms but man he was messed up.

I liked the guy though and the more I got to know him the more I could tell he was worthwhile in a lot of respects and had a lot of potential if we could just get through to him.. nothing was working though, no direct attention worked, no level of discipline or pain would slow him down… physical and mental abuse ruled his world and nothing we could do down that path would ever have worked.

So, naturally, I made him a leader.

It wasn’t much, but that little bit of responsibility gave him a tremendous amount of pride. That little bit was enough to make him walk taller and perform better which rapidly earned the respect among his peers. He started with a small group of 3 other privates and quickly advanced to earn his sham shield where he became a squad leader, eventually earning his stripes. Last I checked on him he was about to earn his rocker which in the Army is a massive departure from the previous ranks. I know he can handle it.

When I first joined the Army, I didn’t really understand what it meant to be a leader. I believed intimidation was the only way to get anything done, fear, threats, yelling as necessary. I worked my way through the ranks and quickly learned that it’s far more effective to simply reach someone at their level, and raise them up to yours.

You don’t need them to be afraid of you, you simply need them to respect you.

No level of intimidation will ever accomplish that.

What do KFC stores do with leftover chicken?

We pulled into a Popeyes Chicken at the drive-up about 4 weeks ago. It was about 10 minutes until closing and the there was no one in line behind us. (just trying to be courteous) We pulled up to the window and asked the young man if they had any free chicken. He looked at us like we were crazy and said “what?!” We told him we were homeless and we would grab anything that might otherwise wind up in the trash. He was a little short with us, and said no not right now. So we drove around and parked in the lot on the other side of the building and we quietly sat there. As they cleaned and carried trash out, several trips, we speculated the one one that might have leftovers in it. But we waited and the employees even nodded in our direction as they talked outside amongst themselves. Then finally about 20 minutes after closing, the young man that waited on us at the window, brought us out a huge box of about 40 pieces of chicken and a few small sides. Thank you! Sometimes people do wonderful things for others.

The Sopranos – Kicking up to Tony Soprano

What’s the strangest thing a cop has seen when pulling someone over?

I thought I had a drunk late one night when a brand new Camaro Z28 almost took me out head on. It was my first night in my brand new squad car with less than 100 miles on the odometer. I turned on the lights and sirens as the Z28 kept weaving back and forth across the highway scraping the guardrails on both sides. A short while later it pulls over in a closed restaurant parking lot. I approached the car with not a small amount of adrenaline ready to arrest the drunk that had just put us both in so much danger. I ripped open the Camaro’s door and confronted… a twelve year old girl holding her teddy bear and crying. Next to her was a map, as I comforted her and asked her questions I referred to the map and asked her where she was going. She replied that she didn’t know but would use the map to find out where she was when she got there. Obviously there were some issues at home. Her mother called me a liar when I finally got her on the phone to ask her to pick up her daughter. Then she was mostly concerned with the damage to her car, not her daughter. I filled out the necessary paperwork and sent it in to the prosecutor thinking she would help this 12 year old girl, but got a note back to just write her a ticket. Pretty steamed I called down to get the prosecutor on the phone, “ticket, she doesn’t need a ticket, she needs help” I practically yelled into the phone. The prosecutor asked me if I was sure I was a cop, but then opened the file and looked at it. She immediately began to apologize and thanked me for following up instead of just writing the ticket. A few weeks later I got a call back from the prosecutor to tell me they were working as best they could with the family to help this little girl’s situation, but that the family dynamic was pretty bleak. I don’t know what became of that girl.

She Thought Divorce Was A Good Idea Until She Had To Pay Him Child Support

How significant is the withdrawal of the mid-range missile system from the Philippines in terms of easing tensions in the South China Sea?

Zero significance.

The US decided that it was too dangerous to leave a long range attack missile there. Or decided that it could be wiped out by China with drones.

If someone, anyone pushed a button and launched a Tomahawk cruise missile at China, that means starting a war. China will wipe out every US base in Asia and the US islands.

The missile don’t threaten China at all so the risks outweigh any benefits.

Either that or Chine threatened to wipe those missile away and the US bases in Asia just like the US did with Cuba.

But this changes nothing. The US is still trying to get proxies to fight China. The US doesn’t want to be directly involved though because that will mean all US soldiers in Asia will be killed. Then the US will have to send a fleet along with NATO. The fleet will then be sunk.

This is contrary to what the US likes to do. Which is to use proxies to attack other nations. And the proxy that the US really wants is India. India has a high population and can theoretically last much longer than Ukraine.

So the US would love to put missiles in India then say that the Indians fired the missile and just walk away. It remains to be seen what India will do. After all the US is offering a lot of money to foreign politicians to destroy their country. The US will promise support.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace – 1950’s Super Panavision 70

Why is China’s Norinco displaying NATO-standard 155mm artillery shells for sale at the Paris Defence Expo?

Because China also uses the 155mm artillery.

The 155mm is the perfect size for a medium range shell with a good combination of size vs. range.

China replaced the 130mm artillery with 155mm.

It’s like rifle rounds. China uses the 5.8 and the West uses 5.56. This is a good combination of size, weight, and power. It allows the soldiers to carry a good amount of ammo without weighing them down.

The West used to use 7.62mm rounds or .308 but you get significantly less rounds and it is heavier than 5.56. You normally don’t need to shoot that far anyway. The 5.56 will kill out to 600 meters. Much longer than most soldiers can hit a man sized target.

I think it’s a huge mistake of the US to go to 6.8mm round. It has much bigger recoil than 5.56 and shoots way too far. They changed because of Iraq and Afghanistan but ironically, the US pulled out of those places and the new round would be way overkill in a jungle or forest.

And you end up back to the same problem as before. Too heavy so less rounds per soldier. Heavy recoil makes the rifle less accurate and takes longer to shoot accurately.

Shorpy

I Found Footage of New York City from 1965 at a Thrift Store

What does Taiwan need to do in order to survive and resist an invasion by China? Could they use new tactics to do so? How long can they really resist? What lessons did it learn from Ukraine?

If you are a Taiwanese, I would ask you to accept reality & not to follow the path of Ukraine. Dont get into a war & die for U S A.

If you are a foreigner, I would like you to understand Chinese history & UN charter as follows:

In theory, the civil war has not finished as of 2024 because China has not reunified yet.

Internationally, between 1949 & 1971, both ROChina & PRChina exist. In 1971, however, UN resolution 2758 announced …

1, There is only ONE China & PRChina is the only legitimate government that represents China.

That is, ROChina ceases to exist on world stage. Only a handful tiny tiny countries still recognised ROC.

Taiwan is part of China. Ref: US doc 203 & the 1978 USA-China joint communique by former US president J Carter.

2, To make it crystal clear, on 2024/5/23, UN told the world “Taiwan is a PROVINCE of China.”

By UN charter, China has a duty to protect the integrity of Chinese territory that incl Taiwan province.

Internally, both constitution of China & Taiwan say:

China territory = mainland + Taiwan + some islands & reefs around China.

Why Taiwan dares not call for referendum? Because referendum involves mainland too.

Militarily Taiwan cannot fight China.

conclusion

China is NOT invading or attacking Taiwan. Just to suppress Taiwan rebellion, like Lincoln suppressing the South.

China will reunify with Taiwan one way or another. It is the duty of China for the sake of Chinese nation, culture & history.

China’s 1st option is peaceful unification. If necessary, China is not afraid to use military.

My Best Revenge Scam Call Ever – Extreme Scammer Rage

Grilled Kansas City Strip Steaks with
Smoked Tomato and Grilled Onion Relish

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

Wood chunks or 2 cups wood chips
2 large tomatoes, stems removed
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons capers, drained
2 large red onions, peeled and cut into 1 inch slices
4 (8 ounce) Kansas City beef strip steaks, 1 inch thick (beef top loin steaks)
Kosher salt and pepper

Instructions

At least 1 hour before smoking, soak wood chunks or chips in enough water to cover. Drain wood. For a water smoker, arrange preheated coals, drained wood chunks, and water pan according to manufacturer’s directions.
Place tomatoes in a disposable aluminum pan. Smoke tomatoes for 1 hour. (Or, for a charcoal grill, arrange medium coals around edge of grill.
Sprinkle soaked wood chips over coals. Test for medium-low heat where food will cook. Place tomatoes in pan on center of grill, not over coals. Cover grill and cook for 30 minutes.)
In a medium skillet heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat for 1 minute.
Add garlic; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until garlic begins to brown.
Remove from heat; transfer garlic and oil to a medium bowl. Add capers; set aside.
Arrange onions on a microwave-safe platter. Microwave on HIGH (100% power) for 2 minutes.
Brush onion with remaining 1 tablespoon oil.
Grill onion slices and steaks directly over medium coals until onion is tender and steak is desired doneness (14 to 18 minutes for medium-rare), turning once.
Meanwhile, core, peel, and chop tomatoes; add to garlic mixture.
Chop onions; add to tomato mixture. Season relish and steaks with salt and pepper.
Serve relish over steaks.

Notes

Test Kitchen Tip: Use a smoker along with a grill for preparing the tomatoes and steaks at the same time. Or, smoke the tomatoes up to 24 hours before serving. Cover and chill the smoked tomatoes up to 24 hours.

As a teacher, what is the harshest truth a student has ever taught you?

When I was teaching a high school class at an international school in Mexico, I thought I was superior to my students. I had a New England education, English was my first language. I had a solid moral background. There was little (I thought) that my students could teach me.

One day, just before class, a student, by the name of Nicolas, came and asked me if he could go to the bathroom. I told him yes, but to hurry back because class would begin in five minutes. He asked, “Don’t I need a pass?”

Our principal was very strict and required every student to have a pass if he or she was out of class. I told him, “Just go! Hurry up back.”

Then I began writing the lesson on the board.

He returned about ten minutes later looking very dejected. I asked him if he was okay and he said, “Yes. No problem.”

So, I continued with the lesson. But at the end of the period as students were leaving, I noticed he still looked dejected.

“You okay, Nick? You look depressed.”

He replied, “Well, I got put on detention by the principal for being in the hall without a pass.”

“But didn’t you tell him that I advised you to go ahead without one?” I asked.

“No,” he replied.

“Well, why on earth not?” I asked exasperated.

“Because I didn’t want you to get in trouble, sir,” he replied.

I realized then that here was a student who was superior to me in sensitivity and caring. I could never have imagined doing such a thing when I was a high school student. I was humbled. The incident showed me not to underestimate the existing values of those whom I presumed to teach.

Why does it seem that Japanese and Chinese people appear to live more relaxed lives compared to Koreans?

Korean values, the educational system, and runaway consumerism are designed to turn everyone neurotic, and the system largely succeeds.

Basically, Korean society is a pressure cooker, and going insane is one way to escape. Another way is suicide, which seems to be popular among Koreans working in entertainment.

The Japanese are more relaxed because their economy has been screwed since 1990, and things aren’t getting better.

The Chinese are more relaxed because their economy and country is huge, and Chinese have a very long historical memory. Basically, they have seen everything.

This means that the Chinese have perspective.

When they are unhappy or see something they don’t like, they complain to their local official, and tell him to fix it. Since the local official’s job performance is measured by how many complaints he resolves, his career depends on resolving the issue.

How do you think corrupt officials and politicians must be punished?

I like Chinese style of punishment

main qimg dde3d64cb921154fbd0809544e78498a

Gather enough evidence and offer two choices

Option 1

Pay back 2/3 of what you took plus Confess and you get 5–15 years jail and your family won't bear the consequences of your actions

Option 2

Have a trial and if found guilty - It's either 15–25 years Imprisonment or death penalty and your family members bear consequences of your actions

…

What I like about the Chinese is how they break families for what they call knowingly enjoying illegal earnings or product of corruption

Kids under 18 are reeducated and taught their father is a thief and he must be hated

Under Mao, many kids denounced their parents and watched them hang with a smile in favor of the State

Same punishment in India

Option 1

Pay back 67% of what you allegedly take and serve 10 years Jail and retire from Politics

Option 2

If found guilty you can hang Or face life prisonment plus your Kids can't graduate and have to work as Unskilled or Skilled labor and your families will be forced to migrate to places exceeding 2000 Kms from place of sentencing

Scott Ritter: Ukraine Nears End and the CIA’s SHOCKING Move is Destroying America, not Russia

Men’s Adventure

Hazy New World

Submitted into Contest #8 in response to: Write a story about an adventure in space. … view prompt

Sabrina Alvarez

The darkness was so different in space, when I opened my eyes all I could see was the blinking red light that reminded me it was time to get up. I rolled back and forth, with the sun being millions of miles away it was harder for my body to wake itself up even though this one was the day my entire life was going to change. I pushed the red button and the dark rectangle that looked like any other wall with nothing on it phased away and Saturn appeared. The button was now green, and I yet again got to wake up to see Saturn instead of the Sun. It was an image I could never grow tired of watching Saturn in its infinite glory all the secrets it kept hidden for billions of years. The clouds moved along the most breathtaking gas giant and the rings so vivid and close I feel like I could reach out the window and grasp them. The pictures do not do it justice and the sounds of the massive planet put me at peace. My team is beginning the first ever human voyage to Titan to explore and map the moon in all of its entirety. Earth is becoming more unstable and life as we know it will cease to exist if we do not find another place to live. After the Mars massacre, NASA wanted to make sure we knew exactly what was going on before we allowed humans colonize another planet, in this case moon. There was a lot weighing on my shoulders as captain of Celestial Spectre, all the plans and ideas running through my head as I went to my post in the observation deck. I pulled the shade to reveal Saturn and Titan, the orange moon forever tidal locked with Saturn, only showing one side of its face to the planet. It makes me wonder what is hidden on that dark side. There were different filters we could apply to see the different colors of the universe as well as telescope on screen, which zooms into any area to reveal what is really hiding in the darkness of the naked eye. There is 360-degree view of the surrounding darkness, my focus was Titan and the anticipation of starting our surveying was nerve racking, how can my crew sleep so long? I said to myself. The haze of the moon was swirling around, it was hypnotic everything I had worked so hard for was laying right in front of me. I wanted to unlock every secret this solar system was hiding then move on to the Milky Way. Steve tapped me on the shoulder broke that trance, “Rachel I’m surprised you didn’t leave us on the ship and go down yourself.” I laughed, “Don’t think it didn’t cross my mind!” I grabbed the equipment list for the first touchdown on the moon to make sure the probe was all ready to go. “Dawson is the probe ready for today?” Dawson was the computer system that was built into the ship for us to communicate with, his knowledge base was vast, but he was limited as we were about what we were to expect on Titan. “Yes” Dawson replied. “Haven’t you quadruple checked that list?” asked Steve. “Yes, Steve I have, I wouldn’t be a good captain if I didn’t.” He smiled, “Waiting for everyone to wake up.” I smiled slyly, “Ugh! Is that obvious!” It was his turn to laugh, “I figured that’s why I woke them up before coming up to check on you.” I couldn’t stop smiling, “You are the best!” The twins, Marcus and Mia, were the first to emerge from the dorm corridors. “We are awake,” said Marcus. “And ready to go,” as she yawned said Mia. The mechanical genius, Nikki, was the last to emerge, “Ready to go!” she said with pep. “That’s what I liked to hear. Let’s Go!” I said. I was the last one to get on the probe.Descending through the haze of Titan’s atmosphere was so exciting as well as completely terrifying as we did not know if the probe would make it through and still be able to take us back to the ship. It was designed by Nikki to not only fly through space, but to be a land rover and a submarine for any oceans or lakes we discovered. So much was running back and forth in my head I couldn’t get a grip on any of it, I was excited I wanted to scream but I had to keep my composure as a good captain. We descended through the clouds getting samples of them along the way and having DAWSON analyze them. The clouds started to thin and that’s when I saw it. A colossal ocean that was as giant as the Atlantic and Pacific put together, there were n ranges which didn’t reach the clouds but were still steep. There were rivers that lead to the Titanic Ocean, which I just named it. Past some of the mountains were lakes that could hold so many possibilities. Humans could get another chance here. “Look” I whispered to them I couldn’t bear to look away from the window, it was like a picture I always had in my head and to see it with my own eyes it was amazing. Valleys and areas covered with some type of alien florae, it was all just waiting to be explored. The probe came to safe landing with no damage to the craft at all, once it was secure to get out, I ran for the door. I wanted to be the first one to step foot on Titan, dreams really do come true. Each of us was equipped with a special suit specifically designed for the surface of Titan, again created by Nikki. Dust storms are a possibility on this moon so each suit has an outline in a neon color that will make us visible to the other crew members, I was pink, Steve was orange, the twins were light and dark green, and Nikki was blue. Each of us looked around where we landed and again how small we felt. It would take centuries to map everything on Titan, so we started with the immediate area to see if it was habitable. Once this region was down, we would extend out until all of Titan was printed on a map, so people could find the areas they wanted to start their new lives in. The region that faced away from Saturn was my personal interest, but I know that wouldn’t be smart to start there. “Let’s begin right here and call this region Home for now until we learn more about it.” My crew agreed and we start to unpack along with setting up a small camp for us to continue research and sleep. DAWSON alerted me when I was moving equipment, “There’s movement at the lower range of the mountains, I am unable to detect what it is other than it is alive.” I quickly equipped my hydrogen rifle using the recon scope was able to see exactly what the creature looked like. A three limbed creature with a thick fur covering its entire body, it was watching us with its three set of eyes. It had large set of teeth at its abdomen area and it appeared that it was sniffing the air with its tentacle/limb. “2 o’clock Steve.” He already had his rifle powered and aiming right that the creature. “Tell me when” Steve whispered toward my direction. I stood there for what felt like hours just observing I didn’t want to make the mistake of shooting a new life form. I decided in that moment, “we need a closer look.” I started to climb the mountain slowly keeping my eye on the creature while Steve watching the surrounding, so we didn’t get ambushed by anything else. A low humming filled my ears as I was looking at the beast, I took a chance and lowered my rifle. “Stay close Steve, but do not attack.” Steve responded by stopped and setting up by a rock just in case I was wrong. I knelt on one knee and extended my hand hoping it took the gesture as friendly and not threatening. It started to move; the limbs moved across the smaller rocks like an octopus shifting along the ocean floor. The fur was a deep purple and it slithered toward me. It took all my willpower to not runaway screaming with complete fear, but that would alarm it putting my team in danger. I took a deep breath, slowly opened my eyes to see it standing right in front of me. It was about three feet tall with three eyes that were bright orange and square. It never blinked the whole time I watched it and even when it was in front of me.Suddenly, the thing started to glide away again, but this time it was headed to ocean we had seen when we landed. I started to chase after it with only having three limbs it moved rather quickly. The land began to dip down slightly and then gradually it went farther down until we reached the beach area. The ocean was like of Earth with waves and currents. A huge wave came crashing down and I swear I caught a glimpse of sea creature from my nightmares. It had fins poking out for every direction and a long narrow mouth. I turned to look back at Steve, whose face was as pale as mine. “It’s like the Jurassic period here with all of these different types of animals.” Steve replied once he saw the monster that lurked in the waves. “Is this a good idea Captain?” Mia asked. “We need somewhere to start. Keep your eyes open and guns charged.” We rounded the corner where these cliffs ahead were sharp that’s when I noticed a cave with a blue hue coming from it. “Over there!” I shouted to my team. The Titan fur stopped at the mouth of the cave and pointed its tentacle at the entrance. “Stay here at the entrance Marcus and Mia.” They both nodded with their rifles in hand. Steve, Nikki, and I started to walk through the cave looking at all the amazing purples and blues that covered the walls of the fissure. We followed the blue hue which lead toward a metal door, “this is the last thing I expected to see.” Steve replied, “yeah I was ready for certain death.” I opened the door and there was another thing I least expected to see even more so than a door on a moon that orbited Saturn. There were hand drawings and notes everywhere on the walls. There was a partial map hanging on another wall with BEWARE OF THE DARK CREATURES and drawings of regions we hadn’t seen yet. Nearby were journals that were filled with descriptions of creature and tree-like foliage. One tree was completely twisted from the root and when grown would drop this blue oval that would explode once it hit the ground. The author of these diaries Mr. Seymour Dates described its reaction because of the methane in the ground would mix with what the fruit was made of which he still was unable to figure out. Under some other papers was a fold out map of an area that was dark that he referred to as Nix Valley, the area was so dark with no light and a drawing of a creature that was 25-30 feet tall. A description of the creature he encountered there:

“The biggest creature I have encountered since I started exploring

Titan, I haven’t had the nerve to explore the ocean yet,

The largest land animal if you can call it that. His skin was

White like death with eyes that were cloudy as well

It does use its eyes to see but it uses all of it senses to get

Around. It has bones protruding from his head and along

Its back. Its arms dragged across the floor while still haven’t

Gotten close enough to see any sort of lower extremities.

It mimics gentle sounds and ones in pain to lure in other animals

That walk around on the surface. Nix valley is located underneath the mountain range

And some flatlands. It never comes up to the surface only can

Be seen when finding its hidden caves along the mountains

Where I first landed.

Accompanying to the short description was a sketch of what the monster looked like and it was like a giant snake and dinosaur mixed together and was kept from the sun. “We need to find this monster; our job is so important. If this is here, we can’t bring humans to live here.” I said to Steve and Nikki. Nikki was as pale as a ghost and Steve just stood there unable to say anything. I noticed the door slowly opening and I aimed my rifle right at the opening. The Titan fur was standing there, and I immediately grew concerned for the twins, “I’m going to distract it, you both go for the twins. Make sure they are safe.” I ordered. Then the furry creature took its head off and a man was there inside a giant costume. “Thank you for not shooting me, it took me a while to build this costume.” Said Seymour Dates. “We need to talk.” I responded with, “Where are the twins?” We all raced to the entrance of the cave.

These Men Won’t SETTLE For Bare Minimum Women

Grilled Jalapeño Cheddar Meatballs

Serve delicious Grilled Jalapeño Cheddar Meatballs with Mexican rice, beans, or a side salad.

Prep: 20 min | Chill: 30 min | Cook: 35 min | Yield: 20 servings

Ingredients

2 pounds ground beef
1/2 cup tortilla chips, crushed
3/4 cup milk
3 fresh jalapeños, seeded and finely diced
1 (8 ounce) block Cheddar cheese, finely diced
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt

Instructions

Place the crushed tortilla chips in a large bowl, then add the milk and allow to soften the chips for about 10 minutes.
After the mixture is soft and has absorbed all the milk, add the beef, jalapeño, cheese, paprika, garlic, and salt. Mix well to combine all ingredients, then scoop approximately 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the mixture and form a meatball; repeat until all the mixture has been formed into balls.
Place the meatballs on a plate or tray and refrigerate them for 30 minutes to firm.
Light a grill for two zone cooking. For charcoal: light coals and pile them all on one side, creating a hot and cool zone. For propane: light the very end burner on the left or right side, but no other burners. It’s recommended you place a piece of foil under the side without heat to catch any melting cheese for easy cleanup. The grill should be at MEDIUM temperature, about 350 to 375 degrees F.
Place the meatballs on the cool side of the grill (away from the coals or the lit burner) and close the grill lid. Grill for about 25 to 35 minutes, or until they reach 165 degrees F internal temperature on a meat thermometer.
Remove the meatballs from the grill and allow to cool slightly before serving.

Operation Gladio | How The Mob Financed The CIA’s Secret Army

The Tale of Terminator Deer Flies

On his 1909 trip in the US, Freud had this to say about the country: America is a mistake, a giant mistake. Trump and Biden, two old fools competing to fool more fools in the game of liberal/electoral democracy, are living proof of Freud’s observation. Indeed, “In America, anyone can become president. That's the problem.”

If you grew up in the Mid-west; Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York and Ohio, you know about “deer flies”. These nasty pests are delta winged biological hunter-biters and their bite is painful

Lipoptena cervi, the deer ked or deer fly, is a species of biting fly in the family of louse flies, Hippoboscidae. These flies are commonly encountered in temperate areas of Europe, Siberia, and northern China. 

They have been introduced to North America.^[12] They are parasites of elk, deer, and other deer family members, burrowing through the fur and sucking the blood of the host animals. 

Adults are only 5–7 mm (0.20–0.28 in) in length and brownish in colour. Their bodies are flat and elastic, making their removal difficult. L. cervi is a poor flier and can only fly for short distances. Once the insect reaches its target, it sheds its wings and starts burrowing through the fur.

They have a radar lock on that is terrible. Once they are on your radar you have to get behind glass or a mesh screen and watch while the bang, bang, and bag against that barrier trying to get to you.

Ah, you don’t wanna be bit. I’ll tell you what. You will end up with a red welt the size of a soda bottle cap. Yikes!

Deer fly bites can be painful due to their cutting and lapping method of feeding. The bite often results in visible bleeding wounds and general first aid-type skin creams may help to relieve the pain from bites. In rare instances, there may be allergic reactions involving hives and wheezing.

One took a dive bomb into my hair when I was at a guitar lesson around 11 years old. Wholly shit, It was painful and my dad took two hours getting dead deer fly debris out of my hair.

Holy smokes!

The Terrible Deer Fly
– Plus –
An Easy Control Method

Oh, the dredded deer fly! If you have been attacked by deer flies, you know they need no introduction. They are horrible pests. These flies show no compassion on the unsuspecting person who crosses their path. A few flies can quickly become hundreds the longer you stay in the area. They are very fast and will attack mercilessly quickly ruining your fishing trip or a family outing. (Photo Courtesy of Bugguide.net)

It is largely believed there is no effective means of controlling these flies. However, one researcher has said to have found a simple way to keep them at bay. It is something the kayak fisherman can try and on my next trip to the Louisiana swamps I plan on employing this technique. I will explain it in detail later in the article.

What is a Deer Fly, You Ask??

Deer Flies are true biting flies and the bites really hurt. Only the female bites. Females have small dagger like blades within their mouth parts that slice the skin to draw blood. She then fills up on a blood meal. They are very aggressive.

The flies breed and live in swamp and marsh locations. They also live in forests close to grassy clearing or open areas. They can be found in most states.

My Personal Experiences with These Flies

One of my favorite places in Louisiana is in the Sabine River Basin. It is 1000's of acres of marsh and swamp that is part of the National Wildlife Refuge. The brackish waters are loaded with redfish, sea trout and alligators. However, many parts are loaded with deer flies.

I spoke to the kayak fisherman in the photo who had just paddled through a swarm of deer flies - the same swarm that actually drove me away. He stated he had been bitten, but didn't seem to be too alarmed by it. I suppose there is not much you can do in a kayak surrounded by alligators except to keep paddling. Some say it is possible to get used to deer flies, but I don't imagine it to be easy.

Here is What I Have Learned About Them

Here is what I have learned about deer flies. First, they tend to reside in heavy congregations, but will not fly far to pursue a meal. Instead, they will wait until someone walks within a 100 or 200 ft of where they are waiting - then they swarm around you.

They pick up on exhaled carbon dioxide and move in quickly to the source. Deer flies love to bite around the head, arms, hands and upper body.

To get away from them, all it usually takes is to move away from that 100 to 200 ft range they originated from and they will break off the attack. This is important to know. Only a few will follow for an extra 75 to 100 feet outside of that range.

All I had to do to get away from them is to turn around and walk 100 ft or so and they were gone. Walk back toward them and they will swarm again. Hopefully your favorite places do not have infestation so close together. In those cases the only way to get away from them is to leave the area.

Some claim they will not fly into houses or cars, but that is not entirely correct. I am not sure about houses, but I have certainly killed a few that have flown into my car while I was stopped to photograph wildlife.

Methods used to stop mosquitoes usually will not work on deer flies. Some suggest using Deet, the strongest formula available, but is primarily because they know of nothing else to suggest.

A Truly Interesting Cure to Your Deer Fly Problem

The following method was discovered by a University of Florida researcher:

Take a bright blue container - a small can, jug, metal coffee can, flower pot, or anything that can be mounted on a pole. I imagine you can paint it that color, but it has to be bright blue. I haven't seen a picture of the exact color used, so saying it needs to be bright blue or bright royal blue is all I know. The blue attracts the flies.

I read where a person had a bright blue car and every summer his car was covered with deer flies. He never knew why until someone told him it was the color. The article said he sold his car to end the problem.

Next, cover the bright blue container with a sticky material, such as "Tanglefoot". Be sure it is clear Tanglefoot and not the dark colored one. Tanglefoot is a super sticky brush-on outdoor coating designed for this type of thing. The deer flies get stuck in the sticky goo and die.

The bright blue color is such a powerful attractant that people nearby are not even bitten. Since there is only a finite number of deer flies in one location, you can temporarily reduce the deer fly population to the point they are no longer a problem.

There have been several deer fly tests by people from around the country using this method and they all say it works great. I haven't personally tested it and am only going off what others say, Where I live now there are no deer flies. However, when I am back in Louisiana I will test it and give you my personal opinion. I am hoping the reports are right and it is an effective method of controlling the deer fly.

If you are kayaking in thick deer fly territory be sure to bring your pole mounted blue jug coated with tanglefoot. Put the pole in a rod holder or somewhere on the kayak so it extends several feet above you. This is exactly what I plan to do on my next fishing trip to the swamps.

In the link I have provided, you can also read about "trolling for flies" that has led to a decrease in fly populations. it's worth a try.

Be sure to let me know how it works. I would love to hear about it.

Visitor Addition:

This comes from Parnell Ruiz. Thanks Parnell!

"Just wanted to add to your deer fly article. Blue is definitely the color. I keep blue plastic helmets and coat them in "tangle foot" but don't coat helmet brim. While walking in the forest on my property in WI, I don't get one bite. They do attack from behind and quickly fill the back of helmet, then I just put helmet on backwards till full. Use acetone to clean helmet and repeat. Working on some type of blue apparel for my dogs. Thanks for site."

Today…

Bolivia coup failure

Why do some people cover their laptop cameras with tape? Is it just paranoia?

I once took a cyber security course in which one of the instructors hacked into six or seven laptop cameras in the class before the lunch break on the first day. The computers in question were brought by the students, not supplied by the training facility. By the second day, every student in that class had tape over their laptop cameras.

I’ve seen how vulnerable those things are. I will never again leave my laptop camera uncovered unless I’m actually using it.

Edit:

Of all the answers I’ve written, I never expected this one to take off. Over 13,000 upvotes and still climbing. Wow!

I’m seeing a lot of repeated questions in the comments, so I’ll try to answer the most common ones:

I won’t provide the name of the course or the company that taught it. Frankly, we weren’t particularly impressed with the overall content, the professionalism of the instructors, or the value for the investment. The one interesting takeaway from the course was that laptop cameras are vulnerable to hacking.
As I recall, the exploit in question used a malicious applet to take advantage of an unpatched vulnerability in Java.
Some laptop cameras have hardwired lights that can’t be turned off by software. But some cameras have a software toggle that can turn off the light while the camera is active. Depending on your particular machine, the absence of a light is no guarantee that your camera has not been activated.
A five second Google search will turn up numerous criminal cases that involve webcam/laptop camera hacking. In 2014, Jared James Abrahams was sentenced to 18 months in prison for sneaking nude photos and videos of several young women including Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf. This is not, by any means, an isolated case.
I have no illusions that hackers are slavering to catch sight of my naked body. But the wall behind my desk has a dry erase board and bulletin board areas that are usually covered in notes, drawings, diagrams, schedules, and schematics. Nothing classified, but often information that requires protection.
The machines that I saw hacked were all running Windows, but – according to the Mac Security Blog, Apple computers are also vulnerable to camera hacking.
Yes, your microphone is vulnerable too. Depending on the machine, you can block some internal microphones using a dummy plug in the mic jack. For some laptops, physically disconnecting the microphone from the motherboard isn’t too difficult. I personally opt for the dummy plug. It’s not 100% certain, but few defensive measures are absolute.

I’m under no impression that covering your camera and using a dummy plug for your microphone will provide perfect security. Frankly, there’s no such thing. In my opinion, these are just a couple of simple and inexpensive precautions that narrow your window of vulnerability. Nothing more.

And I’m done responding to comments on this answer. There are literally hundreds of articles and videos on the topic from people who know more about it than I do.

MOVING TO USA🇺🇸 | WHAT I WISH I KNEW BEFORE MOVING (as a Ugandan🇺🇬) GreenCard, Culture & More

What screams “I’m upper class”?

I’ve been around quite a few wealthy people, but only a few of them have been what I consider upper class.

To me, someone who is upper class treats everyone with respect. They don’t flaunt their wealth, and they don’t ever try to prove they’ve got money.

I went to a very expensive prep school in New York, on scholarship. Many of the girls looked down their noses at me because my family was barely middle class, and I didn’t have the money to shop at Bloomingdales like they did. But you know who were my friends? The girls who had the same last names as buildings on 5th Avenue and famous restaurants. They didn’t care that I was there on scholarship because they weren’t competitive, like the girls who were continually trying to prove how wealthy their families were. Instead, they welcomed me into their homes and took me to dizzying social events. Class all the way.

When I was a senior, I was told that my scholarship had been paid for by the wealthy founders of Reader’s Digest, and the only thing they asked in return was that I write them a letter telling them about my high school experience and what my future plans were. I got the most charming handwritten letter back from DeWitt Wallace thanking me for writing! True class.

Later, in college, I worked a part-time job at a retail store. One night the very-impressed-by-himself store manager asked me to stay late and I told him I couldn’t because I needed to catch the last bus home. He said he would give me a ride if I would stay. And so I did.

Of course, when it was time to leave, the manager was long gone and I was stranded. It just so happened that the son of the founder of the major corporation that owned the store was interning there that month as preparation for going into the corporate office. He saw what had happened and gave me a ride home in his Mercedes Benz. He could not have been nicer or a better conversationalist on our ride to my home.

So, in short, I believe that people who are truly upper class are kind, considerate, and take their wealth out of the equation when dealing with other people. It’s simply a part of them, but nothing that needs to be mentioned, flaunted, or bragged about.

Which country has the better governance, China or India? Why?

This question would not be asked if you had been to both of those countries.

I have and you cannot even put them in the same league.

China is a global power, a middle-income country, with a literacy rate in the 90s and the largest manufacturing base in the world. China has a 100-year economic plan, which gives the whole country its priorities and the whole nation follows. China’s urban poverty rate is 1%

main qimg c0632f2c3297f96225f0563ff457ad76

Shanghai, China

India is a low-income country, with the highest population of malnutrition children in the world. It is also the biggest recipient of aid, in the world, just for this reason. India’s governance is fragmented, divided up into states that impede big business. The politicians are highly corrupt. Politics is full of communal venom. There are about a dozen active separatist movements. Their wealthiest city, Bombay, has half of its population defecating in the open.

main qimg db11916f594a5e30e10d282596372678

Mumbai, India

China is not only wealthier, more educated, and better planned, but it is also more peaceful, has lower crime rate and is safer. If you have walked the streets of Delhi and Bejing at night, the difference is absolutely clear.

As I have said before, China’s government is made up of extremely intelligent technocrats that have built their political career through decades of work for the CCP. The whole world may scoff at a one-party system, but there is plenty of politics within the party as well. You have to prove yourself at a lower level in various different capacities before being considered for the top job.

That is the reason why merit gets you to the top rather than family dynasties, nationalist or religious fervour.

NEW TREND!! Why Companies Have Started Firing Women (Compilation)

What is a stand you took during your wedding planning that you will never apologize for?

We had shared a home, a life, and three pets for several years, and we each had two teenaged kids. Mine lived with us, and his came to stay regularly. We all got along great.

We decided to get married, but wanted something fun and informal. His mother and my sister became absolutely intolerable, trying to control every detail, to the point that I told my partner I was ready to forget about getting married.

He said, “Is it the wedding you don’t want, or the marriage?”

I told him it was the wedding.

So he suggested we elope. We applied for a marriage license and booked a justice of the peace at the planned destination in Vermont. We booked rooms and the library/parlour at the country inn there. We had been to Vermont before, but not to this particular facility. But we liked what we saw from the online photos.

We packed up the teenagers and a handful of other people we’re close to, and got married at the country inn, which was charming. The staff was friendly and helpful, the ambience was delightful, and the justice of the peace who married us made the ceremony personal and special. Everything about that weekend was perfect: relaxed, fun, simple.

Once that was a done deal, our friend hosted a blessing of marriage and buffet dinner at her place several weeks later. My sister and his mother, who had been unable to travel for the Vermont wedding, were guests of honour at the party. They grumbled a bit about missing the “real wedding,” but they were the architects of that.

I’ve never regretted our “elopement,” even if we did have a bunch of teenagers along!

4 Things I Wish I Knew BEFORE Moving to the USA

The Moon

Getting to the moon was the hard part. But the US had already sent space probes into deep space so they were familiar with transfer orbits.

And getting the lunar module on the moon only requires the computing power of an Atari game console. Which they had.

The Apollo program used the first computer module. The hard part was making sure the radar altimeter worked properly.

The technology was crude by today’s standards but they worked. They also had gyroscopes to maintain stability. Sure they were huge by today’s standard but they worked.

Already proven on fighters and satellites.

If you go back 10 years then it would have increased the danger by at least 10 times or more. Because they really needed the computer. Without one, it’s eyeball landing. And they even practiced that just in case.

You can get a hold of the Apollo program documents. They literally documented everything. Including vibration testing on each individual bolt and screw. They knew what percent would fail and worked to make that close to zero.

What is concerning is that the Artemis program is ignoring all that. And they’re going to try and land a gigantic ship on the moon. The thing is 160 feet long.

The US and Japan tried landing on the moon with long tall objects and both fell over. The lunar soil is dusty and can easily cover a rock. if one leg lands on that, the SpaceX lander will fall over.

That is why all lunar modules that have successfully landed all use a wide base with a squat design. Even if you land on a rock on one leg, it will still be upright.

And they used hypergolic fuel. No need for ignition. Once the fuel mixed, it ignited. SpaceX is going to use normal rocket engines. And needs to land at least 4 more robot SpaceX cargo filled with fuel to refuel the lander to get off the moon.

A lot of untested tech that they are going to test on the moon and in orbit. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens. They’re doing the exact opposite of the Apollo program. Apollo tested everything to death. SpaceX, no need. They test while doing it.

Apocalypto and the Warning Signs of Societal Collapse (Film Analysis)

Who are some criminals you have the most respect for?

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Lyle and Erik Menendez.

These two brothers shot and killed both of their parents on August 20, 1989. Lyle was 21 years old and Erik was 18. They had killed entertainment executive José and Kitty, (his wife) in their home in Beverly Hills.

So far, they seem pretty deserving of a lifetime in prison, correct? But wait until you hear why they did this; they were scared shitless for their lives. Afraid of their own parents. Why?

Here’s a little bit of background on the two rich white kids:

Stuart Hart is an educational child psychologist and a professor emeritus at Indiana University, where he taught for 30 years. He also served as an expert defense witness in the trials of brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez, for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez at their Beverly Hills home. At the time, Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18.

In that case, the prosecution argued that the brothers had been motivated by greed, pointing to the lavish shopping they did after the killings. The defense said the prime motive was Sexual Abuse the young men suffered at their father’s hands.

After he began working on the case, Hart came to agree with the defense—when he took the stand, he argued strongly for the child-abuse defense. In 1996 Lyle and Erik Menendez were each sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, but even today Hart views the homicides as a reaction to gross parental misconduct, rather than the work of cold, calculating killers.

TL;DR, these two dudes had their father sexually abuse and molest them all throughout their childhood, Lyle having gotten off the hook when he was about 13 years old but Erik continuously getting raped and sexually harassed by his own fucking father until he was 18.

Bullshit? I think not.

The consistency of the reporting of it, and the details of the reporting of it. And the consistency of those details. And the fact that this is humiliating.

You had an adolescent girl cousin who was saying that Lyle confided—not in terms of clearly stating what he was experiencing—but telling her he wanted to stay in her room.

There was another cousin who Erik reported to. And that would’ve been quite a risk for them: As young children—Lyle was about eight or so—anything that got back to his father was going to mean serious problems. So much reporting of sexual abuse is a case of somebody describing what happened to them with nobody observing them.

They had the proof, they had the witnesses, for these claims. At least, as much proof and evidence a person can get with this type of stuff.

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Just for an idea, look at the picture above. Why the ever-loving fuck is José holding Lyle by his crotch like that? Why not his stomach or some other body part?

The murder happened after Lyle had found out that Erik was still getting sexually abused by his father at 18. The events as told by Erik in a news report in the following Quotations:

“I remember it was Tuesday and I was coming in the front door of the house and mom and Lyle were coming out of the study and mom was screaming,” Erik explains, speaking from a phone inside the walls of Donovan Correctional Facility.

“They were in an argument and Lyle was saying that he needed it and it was important and mom in a rage said, ‘You don’t ned your effing hair piece!’ and she reached up and she ripped his hair off his head. I remember just being stunned by what happened.”

In old court testimony, Lyle explained that the alleged incident left him “completely embarrassed.” “[Erik] didn’t know I had a hair piece,” he said. “My brother and I, there are things we don’t talk about and that was one of them.”

“I told him not to worry about it, that he was my brother, that I loved him, basically saying I don’t judge you,” Erik continues, before detailing how the conversation then changed to another, darker topic.

“I asked him, ‘Do you remember when I was a kid, you asked me if anything was happening between me and dad?’ I said, ‘Lyle, it’s still happening,'” says Erik.

“He was like, ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Still happening, just sexual things.’ He got suddenly really upset. Saying how could I let that happen, did I enjoy it, why didn’t I tell anyone, why didn’t I stop it. I was crying and I started having a small panic attack.”

Erik says his brother then asked if their mother knew about the abuse. “I said ‘no,’ [but] he said, ‘No, I think she does. I think mom knows.”

Lyle, in an effort to protect his younger brother approached and threatened José saying that, “You’re going to have to let him go; otherwise we’re going to tell.”

Their father shot back saying that they’d never dare and deeply regret it if they did. This got them paranoid that he was going to kill them in fear of ruining his perfect reputation, leading to them planning on the murder.

Time then comes and they do go through with the murder, killing both their parents. Personally, I think Kitty also deserved to die here. Along with fully knowing what was going on between them and their father and not doing anything to help, she also participated in her own form of sexual abuse.

Until he was 13, his mother would wash his body “everywhere,” he said. She also would invite him into bed with her and he would touch her “everywhere,” he testified.

“I took it to be love,” Lyle Menendez said, adding, “She was enjoying it.” But he was not enjoying it, he said, so he stopped the activities, which enraged her.

Throughout his adolescence, he said, she “harassed” him with increasingly bizarre sexual conduct.

Ew. How fucking disgusting. These people are sick, their kids didn’t ask for this. Killing their parents seemed like the only way out for them and honestly, I perfectly understand why.

There was a lot of evidence for them here. With witnesses testifying the boy’s claims and maids having said to have found child pornography magazines in José’s office to other people claiming to have been sexually harassed by him as well.

Though not many people were willing to risk ruining their reputations by testifying it in court, ultimately resulting in a lack of presented evidence as opposed to available evidence.

The first two trials they had were out of sync. The first jury declaring them innocent but faced backlash from the public who wanted them locked up for good. It was declared a mistrial and they restarted the entire case in front of the second jury, unfairly forbidding the mentions and evidence of sexual abuse as reasons to support their claims for self-defense.

Some people from the second jury later stated that if they had been told about the sexual abuse and the family history, they would have never placed them as guilty and resulted in giving them life without parole.

It’s pretty funny that the judge had to take an unfair route like that to actually win the case against the two. This also happened around the same time of the OJ Simpson case so it didn’t help either.

I sometimes wonder how different things would be right now if the Menendez brothers were the Menendez sisters instead.

Casserole Rye Bread

Ingredients

1 cup milk
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 cup warm water
2 envelopes dry yeast
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups rye flour

Instructions

Heat milk, sugar, salt and butter together and cool to lukewarm.
Measure warm water and dry yeast into a bowl. Stir until dissolved.
Stir in lukewarm milk mixture and flours. Beat until well blended (this is the secret to this bread).
Cover and let rise free from draft about 50 minutes or until double in bulk.
Stir batter down and beat vigorously about 30 seconds.
Turn into a well-greased 1 1/2 quart round bottom casserole. Brush carefully with milk and bake uncovered for about 1 hour at 375 degrees F.
Butter top well after baking.

Men Are ‘Raw Dogging’ On Airplanes

Something About Nothing

Submitted into Contest #8 in response to: Write a story about an adventure in space. … view prompt

Yvonne S

Part IBefore in the beginning, there was NOTHING. Nothing but a whole lot of absolutely nothing. You couldn’t see NOTHING, because there was nothing to see. You couldn’t hear NOTHING, because there was nothing to hear. You couldn’t touch NOTHING because there was nothing to touch.One fine time out of nowhere, SOMETHING found time to come along —-zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom. SOMETHING came along, looked here, looked there, looked everywhere and said, “I don’t see NOTHING, can’t hear nothing, there’s nothing here but a whole lot of nothing.”NOTHING didn’t say anything, NOTHING just listened to SOMETHING go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on, talking about a whole lot of nothing.Then NOTHING got tired and said, “Hold it SOMETHING.”SOMETHING said, “Who’s that?”“It’s me, NOTHING, so you have nothing to fear in this atmosphere, I would just like to make it perfectly clear in your ear that I am also here.”SOMETHING was kind of scared. He couldn’t see NOTHING.Then NOTHING said, “Let me tell you something, SOMETHING, even though I’m Nothing, I am still something. In fact I’m the something that has you surrounded, I’m the something that is holding you up.”SOMETHING said, “Holding me up?”SOMETHING thought it was a stick-up and swung at NOTHING. Didn’t hit NOTHING because there was nothing to hit. SOMETHING swung at NOTHING, again. He swung again, missed, fell down, but didn’t fall on NOTHING. So the scuffle went on and on in the dark, SOMETHING swinging at NOTHING, SOMETHING swinging at NOTHING in triple darkness. And it went on and on and on until the darkness started to go away.Part IIAbout six- thirty in the morning NOTHING’S daughter, Dawn was looking at her mirror in the dark, SOMETHING snuck up on NOTHING, missed and hit NOTHING’S daughter Dawn. She dropped the mirror. The mirror cracked. That is where the crack of dawn came from.Part IIINOTHING also had two sons. One named Rise and one named Set. You could tell them apart because Set was always sitting down and Rise was always standing up next to Dawn.Dawn went over to Set and said, “Get up, Set, do something about SOMETHING. Us families are supposed to stick together.”Set looked up and said, “Don’t get me upset, Dawn.” Dawn said again a little louder, “Get up, Set.”“Don’t get me upset, Dawn.”“Get up, Set.”“I said, don’t get me upset, Dawn. Don’t get me upset.” “ I said get up Set.”Finally, Set got up. “Now you made me upset. I saw the whole thing. If you didn’t get in the way of SOMETHING, nothing would have happened. But I have a plan. You and Rise go to the East. I’ll go to the West and tomorrow evening we will meet and put something on SOMETHING from both sides. Now, get Rise, get on your mark and Go.”Set sat down and watched them go out of sight. “I fooled them,” he said to himself, “I don’t have to go anyplace. All I have to do is sit right here, Set laughed to himself, “I fooled them.”

So Set just sat there and it got darker and darker and darker. Set was scared, he couldn’t see SOMETHING or NOTHING. He just sat there in triple darkness.

Part IV

Then he looked out in the distance and it started getting lighter and lighter and he saw something coming toward him. Oh no! Oh no! It got closer and closer, and closer and closer and it was – Rise and Dawn.

NOTHING’S Son, Set regained his composure, cleared his throat – “uhrum” and said, “Where were you two yesterday?”

Dawn said, “Set, on our way here we decided to forgive and forget. Because in forgiveness there is healing, and we like the feeling, so we are going to be on our merry way.”

Set watched them go out of sight. And he said, “Well, I’m not forgiving and I’m not forgetting. I’m sitting right here in the West and this is where I’ll be sitting from now on. I’ll get even with SOMETHING all by myself.”

And ever since then, NOTHING’S son, Set has been setting in the West.

And that’s the truth about SOMETHING and about NOTHING.

And the moral of this story is: If you are going to do something about something, do it before the sun sets or you will get caught sitting on your ass-ets in the dark.

What is the most absurd thing you’ve been charged for on a bill?

I can think of two examples, both of which have soured me on them.

First was AT&T. I was living in Charlotte and had just gotten laid off. I was scrambling around town trying to find employment so I didn’t have to collect unemployment. The good part was I did find a contracting job that afternoon and would soon be hired, though the job didn’t pay much and lasted only 2 months.

I got home from an interview that afternoon and got my mail. First was a warning from Bellsouth (another company I despise) that I had an unusually high phone bill that month. I was concerned and then found my phone bill. $180!!!!!

I looked at the itemized bill and found the culprit. A third-party call from Valdosta, GA, to where I can only surmise was the USVI was on my bill. I thought, must be a mistake. I called Bellsouth and they referred me to AT&T, my long-distance provider.

The woman I talked to refused to admit the mistake. She actually doubled down, saying it happened so I must have agreed to it. I looked at the date. 2/13/1999. Not only was I not even at home for most of that day, but I was even further away from Valdosta than that, having been in that part of Georgia last in 1993. A supervisor said the same thing and refused to listen to me. I wound up having to eat the bill or risk going to collections.

When people ask me why I won’t get AT&T U-Verse, I tell them that story.

Second was an item the restaurant no longer carried, and it made an already unpleasant dining experience even worse.

My wife and I were downtown at an event, which made us take a late dinner. 7pm is late for us, but hardly an unreasonable time to eat. We decided to treat ourselves to a local restaurant in the area, one we had been to before without incident.

They gave us our menus. I ordered the short ribs and a salad. They brough out the salad pretty quickly. While I was eating, they came out (a half hour after I ordered) and said they no longer had short ribs, that the menu hadn’t been updated.

I got the menu and ordered something else. Okay, things happen, right?

Well in the meantime, a large party sat down and was promptly served. That would have been fine, except we were still waiting for our food. I talked to a manager who just brushed my complaints off. I almost walked out with my wife at that point, because it was approaching a 2 hour wait time (yes, 9PM!!!) after we had ordered, and the wait staff was ignoring us in favor of that large party.

The food finally came. It was not good, but I didn’t dare order something else so I ate it and waited for the bill. It was almost double what I was expecting to pay.. I hadn’t ordered anything that much more expensive so what was going on?

The itemized bill made it very clear. They had charged me for short ribs. You know, the thing they said they didn’t have any more. They took them off but no other recourse except a small dessert.

We have not been back, but my wife’s local woman’s club catered from them, and she told me the food was horrible

Vintage art

What’s the most unforgivable statement made by your father-in-law?

I was undergoing IVF treatment as my husband has low sperm count. I, on the other hand was super – fertile and we had high hopes from the fertility treatment.

Soon we were called for transfer of fertilized eggs to my uterus. During this time, my in – laws came to visit us. We had not told them yet about the IVF, but since next day we had to visit the hospital, we confided to my mom – in – law. She was very happy and supportive and insisted that she will also come to the hospital. We both were very much okay with that. She is very helpful person and loves all her sons.

When my Dad – in – law came to know, he also started showing interest in coming to the hospital. He had lot of health issues – diabetic, heart ailment etc. I tried to tell him it’s uncomfortable for him as we don’t know how much time it will take. The hospital was quite far from our place and there were no decent restaurants in that area. Since we had already been there a few times, we knew this well. But, being an obnoxious person, he totally used his ‘dad’ card and got ready the next morning to come with us.

My husband was upset, but there was no time to argue, also he never listend to any reasonable request in his whole life. So we all went. As predicted it became quite late by the time the procedure was done. Even though we were all tired and hungry, the mood was happy as we – me, husband and his mom, were happy and hopeful after the procedure. Mom assured me that she will stay for at least 2–3 weeks as I was prescribed bedrest ( this is almost 16 years ago).

Meanwhile Father in law was cranky with hunger and also was not interested in staying so long, so he started getting a foul mood. He started grilling my husband about the IVF procedure – why it’s being done – it was very embarrassing for him. That too right in the restaurant. Then he asked, “How much did it cost ? “ My husband said ,” Rs.60,000/- “ Father -in -laws eyebrows shot up and he said , “ That’s too much ! “ Then he looked at me and said ,” I got mine for free !”

Oh my god, we were so angry to hear that ! I will never forget his face when he said those words.

But my mom -in – law had the perfect retort. She said ,” And that’s why you don’t respect them !”

Edit – Thanks for the support. Some of you have asked about the result of my IVF treatment – it was very much positive. I have 15 yr old twins – both are boys and they are fraternal twins.

Also some discussion was there about the treatment method that we selected.

I had already done two cycles of IUI. It was unsuccessful as my husband has asthenospermia. It means that sperms have reduce motility. So even though sperm count is good, the sperms cannot penetrate the egg.

The treatment I actually underwent was ICSI – a selective type of IVF, where a sperm is actually injected into an egg to bring about fertilisation.

The cost factor – it was highly reduced for me because I am a medical professional myself. The doctor voluntarily reduced the fees and took only lab and OT charges from us. My bro in law also had same issues and they had to undergo 3 cycles of ICSI and ended up spending almost Rs.2.5 lakh, 12 years ago.

John has something to say

What was the day that changed your life in a way you would never have expected when you woke up that morning?

A little over a year ago, on June 1, 2020, I woke up startled to hear my door pounding loudly. My girlfriend of just a few months was at the door and she looked like she had just rolled out of bed and run over to come get me (she had and she wasn’t wearing her shoes yet either). She told me that my mom and sisters had tried to get a hold of me but couldn’t because my phone was on silent, so they called her instead and that I needed to get dressed ASAP so we could go to the hospital. My father who had had a lot of health issues throughout his life but had always fought through it, had suddenly coded and the doctors managed to barely revive him long enough to put him into a medically induced coma.

We spent the rest of the day at the hospital saying our goodbyes and contacting our extended family members. My grandfather was in a care home at the time and my grandmother was also in the hospital being treated for a fall at home (they died 2 months apart later in the year) and my aunt, his only sibling, didn’t want to bother to drive down to Utah from Boise.

My mom got a lot of doctors opinions and he was given a lot of religious blessings that day and at the end of it all we decided to keep him alive to see if he would wake up. He was given a less than 5% chance of waking up, but he had beaten odds worse than that before and we all were sure he would pull out of it as he had in the past. My aunt ended up making the drive with one of my three cousins by the fourth day of his coma to help out because my mom was always at the hospital and since this was mid-COVID, they wouldn’t let anyone else in the room.

By the end of the week my mom had decided it wasn’t going to make sense to keep him in his coma and that we needed to turn off the machines, because he wasn’t improving in any way, and we didn’t have the income necessary to sustain it. We got extremely special permission from the hospital and were allowed to have 6 people in the room when we turned off the machines, and I would not wish that experience on anyone. I have nightmares that I won’t be able to talk about for years about that experience.

At the end of it all it took 5 more months and then my grandfather gave up the will to live and just passed away at the care home, followed 2 months later by my grandmother a week before Christmas. Currently, my family is locked in an extremely heated and horribly bitter lawsuit with my aunt over the inheritance from my grandparents estate and my family has fallen entirely apart.

My father passed away a year and 2 days ago as I’m typing this and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about him. If things had been different maybe we would still be a family and we would all still be at least talking to each other, but who knows.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my rant, sorry for bumming you out.

Salomar and the Bird

Submitted into Contest #8 in response to: Write a story about an adventure in space. … view prompt

Lenora Good

Salomar Barak groaned. The groan pulled her into consciousness. She opened her eyes, surveyed her surroundings, and almost cried. The freighter, her freighter, her beautiful Flaming Salomardor lay scattered about her, broken into hundreds of pieces. Held upside down by the safety webbing of her captain’s lounge, she looked over what remained of the cockpit.“Computer?”“Yes.”“You still work?” For a moment, Salomar dared to hope.“Not for long.”“What happened? Where are we?”“One, what happened? Unknown sound blast as we jumped.”“Energy blast? Sound? From who? From where? I don’t remember any ships in our gate.”“Records indicate blast from this ship.”“This ship? How?”“Two, where are we? Planet unknown. Not in my charts. Air is compatible for humans and other life forms. No time to discover if life is on planet, or what kind.”“Computer, is any of this ship salvageable?”“Negative”“The cargo?”“Unknown.”At first, the monotone voice of the computer was reassuring. As the gravity of the situation sunk in, Salomar wished for better news.“Damn! Of all the unknown, uncharted planets I had to pick for a crash, it had to be a water-world. How can anyone survive, breathing this wet air?” She listened, and heard none of her cargo call. She also heard no noises from the water indicating flesh eaters at a feast. Swallowing the pain of losing her ship, her savings, and her dreams, she cut the webbing of the Captain’s lounge and lowered herself into the water. Carefully, she picked her way through the flotsam and jetsam of what had once been the beautiful Flaming Salomardor. She allowed her tears to fall.The air, foul with a green fog that drifted aimlessly in layered tendrils, caressed her with inquisitive fingers. The water was warm, and where she stood, was shallow. And one or the other, or both, stunk of rotten eggs. The sunlight added an eerie glow. To the west, mountains loomed.“Warning! Warning! Warning! Fuel pod leak. Fuel pod leak. Warning!”“Frap! Just what I need. I can’t even stay at what’s left of the ship until rescue. Not that there’s much to stay at.“I’d best check the cargo before I take off. I doubt any of His Royal Majesty’s Pet Purple Birds survived, but on the chance one did….” The thought, muttered, trailed off into swallowing silence.Salomar waded to what remained of the cargo bay. Several broken eggs coagulated on the surface of the sea. Nine dead birds floated among them, dead parents guarding their equally dead children. “One bird missing–probably trapped under something. Well, I can’t stick around looking for it, even if it is a royal bird. A royal pain, if you ask me.” She slogged back to the cockpit and searched out her emergency kit. What she found was already waterlogged into mush and useless. The beacon was dry, and as long as it remained dry, would work. She hoped. She quickly stuffed a few rations not yet soaked into her ship-shirt pockets, along with a small signal light, and prayed the pocket seals would hold.

“Computer?”

“Warning! Warning! Warn….”

“Oh, shut up, will you? I know about the leak.” The computer did not shut up.

The action of her movements, the focus on what needed to be done dried her tears, but did not ease her pain. All her life she wanted to go to the stars. She saved every credit she could earn. She hired onto a freighter and gladly did whatever scut work she was assigned. Her own time she spent at the computer learning all she could about each and every job it took to run a ship, and how to pilot a ship through the void.

She applied for a job in hydraulics. No one liked hydraulics – literally, the ‘stink’ job on board. Accepted, she soon was in charge.

When she applied for communications, she was turned down. Too valuable in plumbing, they told her. Before they docked at the next port, she requested a meeting with the Captain. She told him her plan, to learn all the jobs necessary to run a freighter, showed him her transcripts from the training, and told him of her dream to own and pilot her own freighter. She also told him she would be looking for another ship when they docked, and would he please write a letter of recommendation for her.

By the time they docked, she worked split shifts between hydraulics and communications. It took 10 years to work her way through the ship and to save enough credits to venture out on her own. She was grateful her Captain had enough faith in her to help underwrite the Flaming Salomardor, and that he sent her what trade he could. He was probably her best, if not only, friend. Piloting a small freighter did not lend itself well to friendships. Let alone relationships.

With a sigh of resignation Salomar turned for one last look at what had been her home, her life’s work, her dreams. It was not easy to say a final good-bye to her freighter.

She hadn’t gone far before she realized she couldn’t hear the voice of the computer and it’s incessant warning. She was truly alone. Even the sound of her voice seemed swallowed by the eerie fog. The mountains, when visible, looked like abandoned black dragon scales stuck vertically in long dead and cold molten rock. Salomar saw no signs of life.

“I do believe, in the vids at least, this is where the monster rises from the sea to eat the maiden. Thank the gods I’m no longer a maiden.” Her attempt at humor failed to raise her spirits.

“Those mountains don’t look more than ten, maybe fifteen kilometers off, shouldn’t take too long to reach, unless I have to swim a good portion of it.” Alone, she began the long wade to the shore, humming a long forgotten nursery rhyme under her breath.

Salomar screamed. Heart pounding, knife drawn, she wheeled in a defensive crouch to face the monster attacking her back. “Oh. It’s you.” She looked into the face of the missing bird. Wading silently behind her, it pecked at her shoulder. “Well, guess we’d best see if any of your feed survived, then we need to get out of here. This water is creepy, and I smell the salt of a leaky fuel pod. Wouldn’t be nice to be here when the damn thing blows.” Salomar and the bird returned to the ship to search for the food. The computer still warned all who listened. Or didn’t listen.

The bird stood quietly and looked at the carnage of dead clutch-mates and broken eggs. Salomar could not see the mourning heart of the bird.

She found some dry seed and quickly jerry-rigged a pack from seed bags and rope to sling over the bird’s back. She took the beacon from her arm pocket and hung it around the bird’s neck. At almost three meters in height, there was a better chance of it staying dry on the bird, than in Salomar’s sleeve pocket. On their way out of the cargo area, she came across one of the silver and gold leads, meant only for the royal personages to handle, and fastened it on the jeweled harness worn by the bird. The jewels and cut metal reflected the green haze in laser sharp spears.

“Well, bird, anything as valuable as you must have a name, but damned if I know it. So I’ll just call you Bird, and you may call me Captain. Now, let’s head for those upended dragon scales that pass for mountains.

“With those bright red and purple feathers, you must be a male. It is the male isn’t it, that is the brighter colored? Perhaps I should call you Mister Bird.”

Bird stopped to look at her, first with his right eye, then with his left. Then he turned and continued walking.

“So, Mr. Bird, why does the Emperor want you? You appear too beautiful to be used as a beast of burden, even though circumstances beyond my control have unfortunately placed you in that capacity. And with the jeweled leads, you obviously aren’t meant for food. So, you must be a pet. A toy. Must be nice to be the Emperor’s toy. You’re too passive to be a guard bird. Or, maybe you were to be a present for the Empress? Ah, I bet that’s it, eh Mr. Bird?” Salomar prattled, just for the sound of a voice. On board the ship, she and Computer had carried on conversations, but here, in the shallow sea, she felt the aloneness.

The sun lowered until it seemed to balance precariously on the edge of the world. Through the ever-present mist, it appeared to rest there just a moment before tumbling into darkness.

There was no moon visible for this strange world. No stars shone through the mist. The mist glowed softly green, almost casting enough light for Salomar to see where they waded. She turned on her light; the mist threw it blindingly back at her. She turned the light off, and placed it back in the pack.

The only sound was the soft sloshing noises Salomar’s legs made cutting through the water, and her voice when she spoke. There were no jumpers from the water. No breakers to be heard crashing onto the shore. Bird made no noise at all.

The water, at its deepest had been to her waist, at its shallowest, to her knees. The water felt slimy, and began to eat her clothing. Her legs started to cramp.

Once full dark set in, Salomar noticed tiny lights darting in the water.

“Well, Mr. Bird, it appears we have company. I thought these waters were void of life, but there seems to be a great deal of life in them. I hope they don’t have a strong liking for human. Or bird. Let me know if they start to nibble on your legs. They seem to be staying away from mine.”

Bird ignored her and continued to walk. He made no effort to escape. He stayed with her; seemingly glad for the company, and the sound of a human voice. He walked next to her, matching her pace, rather than being led, or trying to lead.

Quiet, the bird focused on Salomar when she spoke, first with one eye, then with the other, as if absorbing every word, every nuance. When Salomar finished speaking, the bird would turn its head forward, and continue toward the westward mountains.

“You know, Mr. Bird, I thought you were the dumbest cargo I’d ever hauled. But I’ll be honest—you are fair company—a lousy conversationalist, but fair company. When we get off this forsaken planet, I shall personally ask His Royal Emperor Audubon the Eighth to see to it that you never lack for any of the comforts. And, by golly, if he’s willing, I just may petition him for you. Would you like that? Would you like flying about space in a proper ship hauling freight and taking time to see the sights? We’ll tour all the exotic planets. But no water planets, ok? Maybe even find you a mate. Then the three of us will see the Galaxy. How ‘bout that, Mr. Bird? Sound like fun?” Bird ignored her questions.

“Soda biscuits! I should be so lucky. With my luck, I’ll be tried for destroying His Royal Birds. I wonder who shot us, anyway. And why? And why just as we jumped? Are we getting any closer to those damn mountains? It’s hard to tell, in this slimy, foul mist.”

Salomar talked. It helped her remain awake. She put her arm about the bird, and used him for support, to relieve the cramps in her legs. Her voice slowed, then stopped. Asleep, she slid into the water and floated on her back. The bird walked, dragging her until brightness on the eastern horizon awakened her.

When she stood, what was left of her suit, floated off in shreds. She walked out of her left boot. A few steps later, her right boot stayed behind. Barefoot, she continued to wade. The pea gravel forced itself between her tender toes. The sun burned through the mist, blackened her skin. Still, the mountains seemed no closer.

“Y’know, bird. Ma was right, I’m thinking right about now. I shoulda stayed home, married some bloke, and had a passel of kids. But oh no, I had to do it myself. I had to go into space. I had to go into hock, too, but that’s not the point of this monologue. No, ‘bout now, I’m a wishin’ I’da stayed put—or at least not ventured past the freight station. I coulda worked there. That was in space, but closer to home. But, no….” Salomar spoke softly through cracked lips. There were breaths between words and many breaths between sentences.

Her sunburn blistered, cracked, oozed. She screamed with pain when she fell into the water. The seawater felt like acid on her burnt and cracked skin. Bird stood and watched, first with one eye, then with the other until she stood, and they continued their trek.

For the second night, the sun seemed to stop for a moment on the sharp edge of the mountains, as if deciding whether or not to plunge once more into darkness. For a second night, Salomar looked at the mountains, ever before her, yet never seeming nearer.

Her legs cramped. Her body burned. She stopped. Bird stopped. She slid into the water, and with a sharp intake of breath she stood, and shook herself. “Got to keep going. We’re almost there. ‘Most there.” The bird turned its attention from Salomar to the mountains, and trudged onward.

“Y’know, Mr. Bird, no one said hoppin’ freight around space would be easy, but by the gonads of St. Patrick, I surely thought it would be safer than the Navy. Those troop fight wars. About now, though, I wish I’da listened to Ma. Wonder how she is. A little late to worry ‘bout her, huh? Probably died years ago. But I wonder. She used to make the most wonderful spiced coffee in the Universe. Sure could do with a cup ‘bout now. Wonder if she ever forgave me for chasing my dream?”

Bird stopped, looked at her from each eye, and then resumed his walk.

The merciful embrace of fever clothed Salomar in the eerie glow of the mist. The mist thickened and twirled about her. She clung to the bird as dizziness swept through her. She pointed, excitement in her voice, “Mr. Bird, look—there’s Ma. There’s Ma! Ma? Did you come to save us? We have to take Bird, y’know. Yeah, we do.” The mist thinned, Ma dissolved, clarity returned to Salomar.

“Mr. Bird, we’d best get to land before long, or I won’t be worth much. I’m already hallucinating. Wonder when the rescue party will come? Hope it’s damned quick. There’s nothing in this water we can eat. I hope we can find something on the land. At least water. Ours is ‘bout gone.”

She opened the canteen, carried on bird’s back, and shared the remaining few drops. She deliberately replaced the empty canteen on the bird, “We’ll need it on land,” she explained to Bird.

Chills racked her body as they walked. “Ma,” she whined, “Ma, I’m cold. Please, Ma, bring me ‘nother blanket. I’ll be good. I’ll stay here, Ma, I won’t never leave you. Promise.”

Bird stopped, and watched Salomar carry on her conversation with her long deceased mother.

Salomar stopped. “Thank you, Ma. I’m all warm now.” Quietly, she raised her arms for a hug as she slid into the water. Bird watched. When Salomar did not scream, or stand again, Bird dropped the beacon into the sea then turned and climbed onto the rocks, shook the water from her wings and soared.

*Prepare my bed! The human is dead, as are my clutch-mates and the eggs of our young. I cannot hold my eggs much longer. Prepare my bed!*

‘Afa! It is Afa! She comes. Sing the chorus to Afa.‘ The golden male birds lifted their voices in praise and adulation. An escort soared from the cliffs to guide her to the nest awaiting her arrival.

Afa settled in her nest, drank nectar from the fruit of life, and began laying her eggs. When her five green eggs were in the nest, and she had slept a bit, one of the golden male choir relieved her of nest duty.

‘When Afa has rested enough, we would hear your story, and work it into song.‘

*Thank you, golden mate. I am somewhat rested. My clutch-mates and I almost didn’t make it. We were too far from the ship’s navigation system. At the last moment, we combined our efforts and sent a surge of song strong enough to avert the planned route. It is my eternal sadness that our burst also killed my clutch-mates. Our eggs died when we crashed into the Living Sea.

*The humans would have enslaved us for their enjoyment. They do not understand true royalty.*

The choir looked at one another, then at Afa. Finally, one dared to ask, ‘Afa, what are humans?‘

Joker Kills Murray – Ending Scene

Soft Baked Pretzels

Ingredients

1 envelope dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour (maybe more)
1 beaten egg
Coarse salt (optional)

Instructions

Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in water.
Add sugar and flour, and mix. Dough should be soft but not sticky. Add a little more flour if it is too sticky.
Let dough rise for 30 minutes.
Cut dough into 12 pieces. Roll pieces of dough into 16 inch ropes.
To make pretzels, curve ends of each rope to make a circle; cross ends at top. Twist ends once and lay down over bottom of circle. Spray cookie sheet with baking spray.
Arrange pretzels on sheet.
Brush on egg and sprinkle with coarse salt.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden.

What is something you are surprised you survived as a child?

My sister recently found a cache of letters our mother had written to her mother. One of the letters, from early 1962 and written when I was 4, detailed the night she spent holding my little body as I was overcome with a high fever and suffered seizure after seizure after seizure through the night and into the morning.

The town was socked in by a rare snowstorm, my father was nowhere to be found, and she was home alone with me and my four siblings, who would have been 1, 3, 7 and 9. She kept feeding me aspirin and giving me sponge baths.

My tongue became so swollen she stuck her finger in my mouth to try to keep my airway open. Come the morning, my father finally showed up, my mother threw a blanket around me, left him with the rest of the kids, and rushed me to the hospital emergency room, where our family doctor was waiting for us at the door.

My temperature was 105.4 and my lungs were congested from viral pneumonia.

I was apparently so close to death that if she had had to wait just a couple of more hours, I wouldn’t have made it.

My mother spent a week with me at the hospital, not returning home until she could bring me with her.

Though I remember none of this, I was apparently the recipient of a large number of injections, 5 within the first 30 minutes, to the point that my behind reportedly became so sore that I couldn’t even sit on a toilet seat.

I became so terrified of and uncooperative with the nurses and doctors that I wouldn’t accept any oral medications or even food from them and my mother had to give them to me.

Two years after that, I spent another week in the hospital for tests and treatment for an apparent kidney disease that had me sleeping 12 hours a day.

So I guess I’m surprised I survived early childhood, in general. I didn’t get out unscathed, though. I’ve had a lifelong terror of needles and a pathological distrust of doctors.

As a mother myself, I’m glad I was the child in that experience and not the mother. I don’t know how she did that.

20 harsh realities of life:

You will be alone most of the time. Not lonely, but alone. Try to understand the difference to avoid unnecessary suffering.
Happiness will not come easily as it came when you were young. You would have to work towards it. Discipline and sacrifice would be your best bet. Don’t get caught in the YOLO gimmick.
Life will get boring. Your mind will wander. Learn to control it before it starts controlling you.
Your best friend might no longer be your best friend. Your ex would have already moved on. You will struggle. But it will imbue you with lots of wisdom. So don’t curse yourself.
You’ll realise in retrospect that very few people really loved you whilst others just wanted something out of you.
Memories are not always good. More than often, they induce unncecesary fear, anxiety and mood swings.
Time starts becoming the most valuable commodity. It will treat you like shit if you treat it cheaply.
Whether you like it or not, people will talk behind you. Sometimes it would be the people whom you trusted the most. Learn to ignore them.
You’ll run down the guilt-valley more often than before. You will do things which you know is not good for you but will anyways end up doing it. You will invariably be distracted by foul things. This is your mind conquering your weak spot. Like I said, discipline can save you.
You’ll realize that success is not that easy after all. It’s that difficult. You would be tempted to give up on your dreams and live an average life. Don’t.
Things will go wrong. Personally and professionally. The unexpected will happen. There won’t be any reason/person to blame on. Your faith in humanity will plummet all of a sudden. But hey, don’t give up. Move on.
You will soon start noticing your parents are getting old, your best friend is suffering from illness or money constrait. You realize how much time you’ve wasted playing the ego game. So don’t wait. Make that phone call now.
Most of the times, you’ll experience fear for no reason. When things are going good, you’ll dread on ‘what if this happiness goes away?’. When things are not going good, you’ll still dread on what’s going to happen next.
You’ll get your heart broken multiple times. And you’ll have to break a couple of hearts yourself. That’s life. There no right and wrong here.
There are no good people/bad people. You’ll have to come out of this cynical mind-set. There are only people who bring you pleasantness and unplesantness. Remember, people who bring unplesantness to you might bring pleasantness to someone else.
You’ll realize that multi-tasking is not beneficial. You start focusing on one big goal/day rather than 10 small goals/day. You’ll learn to differentiate between being productive and being busy.
You’ll learn that not all emotions you experience are genuine. More than half of them are mere mind-games. Learn to distinguish to avoid bouts of depression.
You’ll be forced to change your attitude towards failures because you’ll have more failures than success. You will no longer react to events, but will eventually respond to it. Reacting will get you into more trouble. Responding will move you towards a solution.
You’ll realise that you can’t be friends with everyone. And you don’t have to be. Accept this fact sooner than later.
You’ll realise that earning respect is more difficult than earning money. And it’s the respect that would eventually make you feel proud about yourself in life.

“TO TARGET ALL OF BRICS’s COUNTRIES”, THE COLLECTIVE WEST PLAN.

Lordy! She is absolutely right!

To psychologists and psychiatrists: have you had a patient you really feared? Why?

I would like to be anonymous to answer your question.

I am a psychiatrist and I was in duty to give counseling and figure out any mental problems to the prisoners of Singapore.

I’ve met a lot of people but only one pops out in my mind when I read your question.

He was a boy, barely 15.

When I was looking at his medical chart, he was surprisingly a very bright kid, with an IQ level of 140.

But, he was arrested by police when his own parents lodged a complaint; they feared their own child might kill them.

He had his own way dealing with his life: he showed no emotions, nor answered any of my questions.

But, the one thing scares me the most was when I look through the CCTV, it seemed his body reacted with time; like some sort of a timetable.

He only went to the washroom at 2pm, 6pm and 9pm; and, slept exactly at 10pm.

Just before I retire, I revisit him back and had the chills for lifetime when he told me this, ‘when you were observing me, I too, was observing you. I figured you out, but you had no clue about me.’

Edit:
For those who asked in detail about this case, This is a situation I handled back in 2009. So, by right, he would be turning 22 this year. This boy was in prison 3 months before I was given in charge of his case which is around October 2009.
His parents lodged a complaint that goes like this, ‘finding him in their bedroom, holding a knife, staring at them while they’re asleep.”

However, this kid never once, caused harm to his parents or anyone else, but they were concerned with his behavior particularly in school; he disliked arts, and girls for some reason. He killed a cat because it was purring when he attempted a math question. There is no strange history or environment or any issues regarding his upbringing.

One notable feature of his; he is ambidextrous and he have no friends. He is somehow very observant, quiet and highly manipulative. I concluded him as a psychopath in my final report. And yes, I visited him for the last time in 2012. And I still wonder, what is really going on his head.

As a teacher, what is the saddest experience you’ve had while on the job?

I had a 22 year old student with a high school diploma struggling in my class. I stayed after every day to offer tutoring for my students. He walks in and notices he is the only one there, asks me if he can close the door to talk to me privately.

He closed the door walked to my desk with his head down, looked up at me with tears in his eyes and told me he couldn’t read.

I’m dumbfounded, he graduated from high school and can’t read?

He was a gifted football player, was passed in his classes so he could play. No worries for his future just a winning ball team.

I decided we would start with the very basics, he struggled to sound words out and I was at a loss. We worked for a month. Finally I figured out he had dyslexia when I had him copy a paragraph from the book we were working on.

I got us an appointment with the campus director, we went in and he sat there next to me mortified with tears running down his face. I told the campus director what was going on, that I think he is dyslexic and that is why he is having trouble learning to read.

We got him in for the specialized testing and he was diagnosed with dyslexia. We had to put him on a leave so he could go to special classes to learn how to read.

I had him the next year in my class again. He was a changed man, held his head up, and was at the top of the class. He pulled me aside to thank me for being the first teacher to care that he actually learned.

This was the saddest and turned into the happiest situations I had.

this is exactly how America will f!nish you

What are the craziest objects that you’ve seen TSA workers remove from someone’s bag to be confiscated?

A guy tried to take a big bottle of shampoo in his carry-on. The TSA guy told him to either throw it away or exit the line and check his luggage. The guy went on about how expensive the shampoo was and how he’d miss his flight if he exited. The TSA guy didn’t care. The guy then said, “Well… at least keep it so that somebody gets some use out of it.” TSA guy said, sorry, he couldn’t do it.

Another time, a woman in front of me got busted with several jars of jam. The TSA guy told her the same thing the other TSA agent told the shampoo guy. Either pitch it or else exit the line and check it in. “But you don’t understand. It’s JAM. It’s prize winning jam! Open up a jar and take a taste!” The TSA guy declined to eat the jam. The woman, now in tears, threw away her prize winning jam.

Not a confiscation, but while checking into Australia. Some of us were chosen to have our luggage searched. The guy in front of me had a suitcase full of porn. The Australian Border Force Officers didn’t bat an eye, didn’t smirk, didn’t say a word, just rifled through his suitcase looking for who-knows-what. The passenger turned nine shades of red. After their search, they packed it all back up and returned it to him.

This last one/best one I remember was a couple decades ago pre-TSA, but a couple in front of me were being searched by a very young Customs agent. He was going through the wife’s suitcase and pulled out an applicator tampon and held it up in the air: “Aha! What’s this?” Another Customs agent looking on immediately turned and stepped away. The husband yelled over to his wife: “Marge! Get over here and declare your Kotex before we end up in prison!” By now, the young guy realized his mistake and, now horrified, ushered them through as fast as humanly possible.

Pick A Side And Fight For It, Keep Your Head Down, Or Flee

Founder, CIO Mentor, and Member of the Bridgewater Board

Published Jun 25, 2024

As you know, based on my study of history, I believe there are now and have always been five big, interrelated forces that drive how domestic and world orders change. They are the 1) the big debt/credit/money cycle, 2) the big internal order/disorder cycle 3) the big external order/disorder cycle, 4) acts of nature (i.e., droughts, floods, and pandemics), and 5) human innovation that leads to advances in technology. Today, I am focusing on why I believe we are approaching the point in the internal order-disorder cycle when you will have to choose between picking a side and fighting for it, keeping your head down, or fleeing.

Pick a Side and Fight for It, Keep Your Head Down, or Flee

I believe we now have to face the fact that fighting for democracy as we know it—with thoughtful disagreement and compromises governed by rule of law—is unlikely to work. People like me who had a long shot hope for the emergence of a strong middle that fights against the extremists to bring the country together and makes major reforms to improve the system must recognize that the differences are becoming too irreconcilable for this to happen.

Based on the lessons I learned from studying history about how things typically transpire under similar circumstances, I believe that what we are now seeing is the parties increasingly moving to greater extremism and a fight-to-win at all cost mode. This is threatening the rule of law as we know it and is bringing us closer to some form of civil war. (As I will explain below, this is not necessarily a violent conflict, though that is possible).

When I wrote my book, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order, which looked at the rises and declines of domestic and world orders over the last 500 years, I chronicled the six stages of the “big internal order cycle,” their symptoms, and the cause-effect relationships that drive them. Just like life cycles, these stages are logical and everyone goes through them, typically about once in a lifetime. Toward the end of the cycle, which is where all the signs and symptoms show us to be today, people typically face a choice between fighting for one side or another, keeping their heads down, or fleeing.

When I wrote the book in 2020, I saw the writing on the wall but had hoped for the possibility that we would not cross the brink into a type of civil war, so I estimated the chance of that as about 1 in 3. At the time, this was considered a crazy high estimate (this was before the 2020 election being contested and the January 6th incident). Now I think the risk of some form of civil war is uncomfortably more than 50 percent, and I am confident that in the next year we will know the answer to whether we will cross the brink.

In a Nutshell How It Works

Domestically in the US there are two political sides which are also each divided in two: 1) the right side (i.e., the red Republican team), which is divided into the hard right and the moderate right, and 2) the left (the blue Democratic team), which is divided into the hard left and the moderate left. Throughout history, in the later stages of the cycle of internal order and disorder, both sides become increasingly “hard” (extreme) for logical reasons. This is the part of the cycle that we are in. Classically, at this stage, wealth and values gaps are large, people have lost faith that the system will get them what they want, and the hard right and the hard left become increasingly committed to winning for their constituents at all costs, which eventually means abandoning the rules of the game and the judges and just fighting. In the current case and classically, the sides become unwilling to compromise as compromising is perceived as being weak and people are forced to either pick a side and fight for it, keep their heads down, or flee. You should be prepared to make that choice.

To make the decision only a bit more extreme than it currently is, in looking at these two sides, if you had to choose between a fascist government and a communist government, which would you choose? If you are not knowledgeable about what fascism is (a dictatorship of the hard right) and what communism really is (a dictatorship of the hard left), I urge you to get schooled because if you have to make choices, it’s important to really understand them.

The Case at Hand

Most importantly, there are now big irreconcilable differences that are producing win-at-all cost perspectives that are undermining the willingness to accept the judgements of the legal system. That is very relevant to nearly all decision making—most importantly to legal and political decision making in and beyond the election. We should acknowledge and worry about what’s going on and think about its implications. For example, we should pay attention to Maureen Dowd of the New York Times saying that the Supreme Court is “corrupt, rotten, and hurting America” and the numerous other similar attacks on the system. This is only one of a chorus of such comments. Comments like these beg questions such as 1) what is the definition of corruption, 2) if it is corruption, why don’t those who are corrupt get prosecuted and convicted, and 3) if the judicial system and the judges don’t make these decisions, how will they be made? Nowadays “corrupt” seems to mean what those on the other side of the political divide decide is corrupt. It is obvious to me that if people don’t rely on the judicial system to make unbiased decisions, decisions will instead be made by revolutionaries on both sides fighting it out. This of course is very relevant to the upcoming election, so let’s play out how that will likely go.

It seems to me that if Biden wins, it is likely that Trump and those on the hard right who he represents won’t accept the leadership of Biden and the Democratic Party, and that if Trump wins, those on the hard left won’t accept Trump’s leadership and tactics. What happens next depends on the strength of the legal system, with those on each side seemingly more willing to fight its judgments than abide by them if they don’t get what they want. For these reasons, it seems to me that there is a higher than 50 percent chance that democracy as we know it won’t run smoothly through the election and beyond, and that the still most popular view that everyone will abide by the votes and the rules (i.e., if we have ABC votes for president, senators, and congressmen, we will have XYZ policies enacted as a function of the system operating as it has operated) won’t prove true.

While it is now commonly believed that Trump Republicans are the greater extremists and the Democrats will be moderate, based on how things have transpired in history and what I see today, I’m not so sure. I think it’s more likely that both sides will be more extreme than is commonly believed. Given that it is doubtful that President Biden will remain president through his next term, we don’t know what part of the Democratic Party will win out in leading its agenda. While there are moderate leaders in the Democratic Party (i.e., Hakeem Jeffries, Gretchen Whitmer, and Josh Shapiro), those of the hard left (i.e., Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and AOC) have largely gone quiet, knowing that they would scare away moderate voters so it’s better for them to bide their time while they are pushing their hard left agenda behind the scenes. President Biden’s appointment of Lina Khan, a political activist of the left, to head the FTC is an example of the current administration using appointments the way Trump is making clear he will have his political appointees use their positions to pursue a hard-left agenda. In the recent past, leading Democrats have also expressed support for rule changes that would swing power their way (i.e., making Puerto Rico and Washington DC states so they could get control of the Senate, adding to the number of Supreme Court justices to get control of it, removing of the filibuster, etc.) Given all of this, I’m not so sure that hard left Democrats are out of the picture or are above using their government powers to achieve their political agenda any more than I believe that hard right Republicans are above doing that.

For all these reasons, it appears to me that we are probably headed toward an existential battle of the hard right against the hard left in which you will have to pick a side and fight for it, or keep your head down, or flee.

By flee, I think that will mostly be from one state to another and we will see increased emphasis on state rights rather than the central government being dominant. A clash between state governments and a fractured central government appears likely, which I would regard as a type of civil war even if not violent. If things get bad enough, some Americans will flee to other countries and foreigners will choose not to be here. Such disorder would also not be good for rule-of-law and our capital markets.

From studying history, I have seen these sorts of civil wars happen many times before—in the French, Russian, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Cuban and several other cases—so that the sequence of how this cycle typically transpires is clear and appears applicable to what is happening now in the United States (and in several other countries in varying degrees). For those who are interested, I have copied the section from Chapter Five (“The Big Cycle of Internal Order/Disorder”) of my book which the describes Stage Five (the pre-civil war stage that I believe we are in) and Stage Six (the civil war stage that I believe that we are in the brink of) of the internal order cycle. To be clear, I am not saying that we will certainly cross the brink into civil war—I am saying that there is a much higher probability of some type of civil war (including a non-violent one) than is commonly believed.

By the way, what I described here is about domestic conflict. A similar sort of conflict is happening internationally—i.e., there is a classic great power conflict with the two big sides internationally being the China-Russia side and the US -G7-Australia side and regional conflicts are being sorted out by nations in alliances with these two big sides. But that is a subject for another day. Let’s now focus on how the internal conflict dynamic typically works and apply that template to what’s happening to internal politics with this excerpt from Chapter Five of Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order.

Stage 5: When There Are Bad Financial Conditions and Intense Conflict

The most important influence that transpires in a Big Cycle is that of debt, money, and economic activity. Because I covered that cycle comprehensively in Chapters 3 and 4, I won’t explain it here in detail. But to understand Stage 5, you need to know that it follows Stage 3, in which there is peace and prosperity and favorable debt and credit conditions, and Stage 4, in which excess and decadence begin to bring about worse conditions. This process culminates in the most difficult and painful stage—Stage 6—when the entity runs out of money and there is typically terrible conflict in the form of revolution or civil war. Stage 5 is the period during which the interclass tensions that go along with worsening financial conditions come to a head. How different leaders, policy makers, and groups of people deal with conflict has a major impact on whether the country will undergo the needed changes peacefully or violently.

You can see signs of this happening now in a number of countries. Those that have adequate financial conditions (i.e., have incomes that are greater than their expenses and assets that are greater than their liabilities) are in relatively good shape. Those that do not are in relatively bad shape. They want money from the others. The problem is that there are many more who are in bad shape relative to those that are in good shape.

You can also see that these different conditions are big drivers of the differences in what is now happening to most aspects of these countries, states, cities, companies, and people—e.g., their education, healthcare, infrastructure, and well-being. You can also see big cultural differences in how countries approach their stressful conditions, with some approaching them more harmoniously than others who are more inclined to fight.

Because Stage 5 is such a pivotal stage in the internal cycle and because it’s the stage that many countries, most importantly the US, are now in, I will devote some time to going through the cause/effect relationships at play during it and the key indicators to watch in examining its progression. Then I will turn more specifically to where the United States stands.

The Classic Toxic Mix

The classic toxic mix of forces that brings about big internal conflicts consists of 1) the country and the people in the country (or state or city) being in bad financial shape (e.g., having big debt and non-debt obligations), 2) large income, wealth, and values gaps within that entity, and 3) a severe negative economic shock.

That confluence typically brings about disorder, conflict, and sometimes civil wars. The economic shock can come about for many reasons, including financial bubbles that burst, acts of nature (such as pandemics, droughts, and floods), and wars. It creates a financial stress test. The financial conditions (as measured by incomes relative to expenses and assets relative to liabilities) that exist at the time of the stress test are the shock absorbers. The sizes of the gaps in incomes, wealth, and values are the degrees of fragility of the system. When the financial problems occur, they typically first hit the private sector and then the public sector. Because governments will never let the private sector’s financial problems sink the entire system, it is the government’s financial condition that matters most. When the government runs out of buying power, there is a collapse. But on the way to a collapse there is a lot of fighting for money and political power.

From studying 50-plus civil wars and revolutions, it became clear that the single most reliable leading indicator of civil war or revolution is bankrupt government finances combined with big wealth gaps. That is because when the government lacks financial power, it can’t financially save those entities in the private sector that the government needs to save to keep the system running (as most governments, led by the United States, did at the end of 2008), it can’t buy what it needs, and it can’t pay people to do what it needs them to do. It is out of power.

A classic marker of being in Stage 5 and a leading indicator of the loss of borrowing and spending power, which is one of the triggers for going into Stage 6, is that the government has large deficits that are creating more debt to be sold than buyers other than the government’s own central bank are willing to buy. That leading indicator is turned on when governments that can’t print money have to raise taxes and cut spending, or when those that can print money print a lot of it and buy a lot of government debt. To be more specific, when the government runs out of money (by running a big deficit, having large debts, and not having access to adequate credit), it has limited options. It can either raise taxes and cut spending a lot or print a lot of money, which depreciates its value. Those governments that have the option to print money always do so because that is the much less painful path, but it leads investors to run out of the money and debt that is being printed. Those governments that can’t print money have to raise taxes and cut spending, which drives those with money to run out of the country (or state or city) because paying more taxes and losing services is intolerable. If these entities that can’t print money have large wealth gaps among their constituents, these moves typically lead to some form of civil war/revolution.

At the time of this writing, this late-cycle debt dynamic is now playing out in the United States at both the state and federal levels, with the main difference between them being that state governments can’t print money to pay their debts while the federal government can. The federal government and many state and city governments have large deficits, large debts, and large wealth gaps, and the central bank (the Federal Reserve) has the power to print money. So, at the time of this writing, the central bank is printing a lot of money and buying a lot of federal government debt, which finances the government spending that is much bigger than the federal government’s intake. That has helped the federal government and those it is trying to help, though it has also cost those who are holding dollars and dollar debt a lot in real purchasing power.

Those places (cities, states, and countries) that have the largest wealth gaps, the largest debts, and the worst declines in incomes are most likely to have the greatest conflicts. Interestingly, those states and cities in the US that have the highest per capita income and wealth levels tend to be the states and cities that are the most indebted and have the largest wealth gaps—e.g., cities like San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City and states like Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey.

Facing these conditions, expenditures have to be cut or more money has to be raised in some way. The next question becomes who will pay to fix them, the “haves” or the “have-nots”? Obviously, it can’t be the have-nots. Expenditure cuts are most intolerable for those who are poorest, so there needs to be more taxation of people who can afford to pay more and there is a heightened risk of some form of civil war or revolution. But when the haves realize that they will be taxed to pay for debt service and to reduce the deficits, they typically leave, causing the hollowing-out process. This is currently motivating movements from some states to others in the US. If bad economic conditions occur, that hastens the process. These circumstances largely drive the tax cycle.

History shows that raising taxes and cutting spending when there are large wealth gaps and bad economic conditions, more than anything else, has been a leading indicator of civil wars or revolutions of some type.

To be clear, they don’t have to be violent, though they can be. I see these cycles transpiring in my personal interactions. For example, I live in the state of Connecticut, which has the highest per capita income in the country, the largest wealth gap and income gap in the country, and one of the largest per capita debt and unfunded pension obligations in the country. I see how the haves and the have-nots are focused on their own lives and spend little time worrying about the other because they don’t have much contact. I have windows into what the lives of both the haves and the have-nots are like because I have contact with the people in our community of haves and because the work my wife does to help disengaged and disconnected high school students in disadvantaged communities brings her into contact with people who live in the communities of the have-nots. I see how terrible the conditions are in those have-not communities and how the haves (who appear rich and decadent to the have-nots) don’t feel rich. I see how they are all focused on their own struggles—with the haves struggling with work/life balance, making sure their kids are well-educated, etc., and the have-nots struggling with finding income, food security, avoiding violence, trying to get their kids a quality education, etc.

I see how both groups are more likely to have critical, stereotypical impressions of each other that make them more inclined to dislike each other than to view themselves empathetically as members of one community in which they should help each other. I see how difficult it can be to help each other because of these stereotypes and because the haves don’t feel that they have more than enough or that the have-nots deserve their financial support, and I fear what the future might hold because of the existing circumstances and how they are likely to worsen. I have seen close up how COVID-inflicted health and budget shocks have brought to the surface the terrible conditions of the have-nots and are worsening the financial gaps that could bring about the classic toxic mix dynamic.

Averages don’t matter as much as the number of people who are suffering and their power.

Those who favor policies that are good for the whole—e.g., free trade, globalization, advances in technology that replace people—without thinking about what happens if the whole is not divided in a way that benefits most people are missing the fact that the whole is at risk.

To have peace and prosperity, a society must have productivity that benefits most people. Do you think we have this today?

What does history show as the path that bankrupt governments can follow to raise productivity that benefits most people? It shows that restructuring and/or devaluing enough of the previously created debt and non-debt obligations helps a lot. That is classic in Stages 5 and 6. Once the restructuring or devaluation reduces the debt burdens, which is typically painful at the time, the reduced debt burdens allow for a rebuilding.

An essential ingredient for success is that the debt and money that are created are used to produce productivity gains and favorable returns on investment, rather than just being given away without yielding productivity and income gains. If it is given away without yielding these gains, the money will be devalued to the point that I won’t leave the government or anyone else with much buying power.

History shows that lending and spending on items that produce broad-based productivity gains and returns on investment that exceed the borrowing costs result in living standards rising with debts being paid off, so these are good policies.

If the amount of money being lent to finance the debt is inadequate, it is perfectly fine for the central bank to print the money and be the lender of last resort as long as the money is invested to have a return that is large enough to service the debt. History shows and logic dictates that investing well in education at all levels (including job training), infrastructure, and research that yields productive discoveries works very well. For example, big education and infrastructure programs have paid off nearly all the time (e.g., in the Tang Dynasty and many other Chinese dynasties, in the Roman Empire, in the Umayyad Caliphate, in the Mughal Empire in India, in Japan’s Meiji Restoration, and in China’s educational development programs over the last couple of decades), though they have long lead times. In fact, improvements in education and infrastructure, even those financed by debt, were essential ingredients behind the rises of virtually all empires, and declines in the quality of these investments were almost always ingredients behind empires’ declines. If done well, these interventions can more than counterbalance the classic toxic mix.

The classic toxic mix is usually accompanied by other problems. The more of the following conditions that are in place, the higher the probability of having a severe conflict like a civil war or revolution.

Decadence

While early in the cycle there is typically more spending of time and money on productive things, later in the cycle time and money go more toward indulgent things (e.g., the finer things, like expensive residences, art, jewelry, and clothes).

This begins in Stage 4 when such spending is fashionable, but by Stage 5 it begins to appear grotesque.

Often, that decadent spending is debt-financed, which worsens the financial conditions. The change in psychology that typically goes along with these changes is understandable. The haves feel that they have earned their money so they can spend it on luxuries if they like, while the have-nots view such spending at the same time they are suffering as unfair and selfish. Besides increasing resentments, decadent spending (as distinct from saving and investing) reduces productivity.

What a society spends money on matters. When it spends on investment items that yield productivity and income gains, it makes for a better future than when it spends on consumption items that don’t raise productivity and income.

Bureaucracy

While early in the internal order cycle bureaucracy is low, it is high late in the cycle, which makes sensible and necessary decision making more difficult.

That is because things tend to get more complex as they develop until they reach the point where even obviously good things can’t be done—necessitating revolutionary changes. In a legal and contract-based system (which has many benefits), this can become a problem because the law can stand in the way of doing obviously good things. I will give you an example that I’m close to because my wife and I care about it.

Because the US Constitution doesn’t make education a federal government responsibility, it has predominantly been a state and local responsibility with school funding coming from revenue raised by local taxes in cities and towns. Though it varies from state to state, typically those children in richer towns in richer states receive a much better education than those in poorer towns in poorer states. This is obviously unfair and unproductive even though most people agree that children should have equal opportunities in education. But because this structure is so ingrained in our political system, it is nearly impossible to fix without a revolutionary reinvention of how we approach it. There are more examples of the bureaucracy standing in the way of doing sensible, productive things than I have time and space to convey here. It is now a big problem in America.

Populism and Extremism

Out of disorder and discontent come leaders who have strong personalities, are anti-elitist, and claim to fight for the common man. They are called populists. Populism is a political and social phenomenon that appeals to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are not being addressed by the elites. It typically develops when there are wealth and opportunity gaps, perceived cultural threats from those with different values both inside and outside the country, and “establishment elites” in positions of power who are not working effectively for most people. Populists come into power when these conditions create anger among ordinary people who want those with political power to be fighters for them. Populists can be of the right or of the left, are much more extreme than moderates, and tend to appeal to the emotions of ordinary people. They are typically confrontational rather than collaborative and exclusive rather than inclusive. This leads to a lot of fighting between populists of the left and populists of the right over irreconcilable differences. The extremity of the revolution that occurs under them varies. For example, in the 1930s, populism of the left took the form of communism and that of the right took the form of fascism while nonviolent revolutionary changes took place in the US and the UK. More recently, in the United States, the election of Donald Trump in 2016 was a move to populism of the right while the popularity of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reflects the popularity of populism of the left. There are increased political movements toward populism in a number of countries. It could be said that the election of Joe Biden reflects a desire for less extremism and more moderation, though time will tell.

Watch populism and polarization as markers. The more that populism and polarization exist, the further along a nation is in Stage 5, and the closer it is to civil war and revolution. In Stage 5, moderates become the minority. In Stage 6, they cease to exist.

Class Warfare

In Stage 5, class warfare intensifies. That is because, as a rule, l during times of increased hardship and conflict there is an increased inclination to look at people in stereotypical ways as members of one or more classes and to look at these classes as either being enemies or allies. In Stage 5, this begins to become much more apparent. In Stage 6, it becomes dangerous.

A classic marker in Stage 5 that increases in Stage 6 is the demonization of those in other classes, which typically produces one or more scapegoat classes who are commonly believed to be the source of the problems. This leads to a drive to exclude, imprison, or destroy them, which happens in Stage 6. Ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups are often demonized. The most classic, horrific example of this comes from the Nazi’s treatment of Jews, who were blamed and persecuted for virtually all of Germany’s problems. Chinese minorities living in non-Chinese countries have been demonized and scapegoated during periods of economic and social stress. In the UK, Catholics were demonized and scapegoated in numerous stressful periods, such as the Glorious Revolution and the English Civil War. Rich capitalists are commonly demonized, especially those who are viewed to be making their money at the expense of the poor. Demonizing and scapegoating are a classic symptom and problem that we must keep an eye on.

The Loss of Truth in the Public Domain

Not knowing what is true because of distortions in the media and propaganda increases as people become more polarized, emotional, and politically motivated.

In Stage 5, those who are fighting typically work with those in the media to manipulate people’s emotions to gain support and to destroy the opposition. In other words, media folks of the left join with others of the left and media folks of the right join with others of the right in the dirty fight. The media goes wild like vigilantes: people are commonly attacked and essentially tried and found guilty in the media, and they have their lives ruined without a judge and jury. A common move among 1930s populists of the left (communists) and of the right (fascists) was to take control of the media and establish “ministers of propaganda” to guide them. The media they produced was explicitly aimed at turning the population against the groups that the governments considered “enemies of the state.” The government of the democratically run United Kingdom created a “Ministry of Information” during World War I and World War II to spread government propaganda, and leading newspaper publishers were elevated by the government if they did what the government wanted them to do to win the propaganda war or were vilified and suffered if they didn’t cooperate. Revolutionaries did the same distorting of the truth in all sorts of publications. During the French Revolution, newspapers run by revolutionaries pushed anti-monarchist and anti-religious sentiment, but when those revolutionaries attained power, they shut down dissenting newspapers during the Reign of Terror. During times of great wealth gaps and populist thinking, stories that bring down elites are popular and lucrative, especially those that bring down left-leaning elites in right-leaning media outlets and those that bring downright-leaning elites in left-leaning media outlets. History shows that significant increases in these activities are a problem that is typical of Stage 5, and that when combined with the ability to inflict other punishments, the media becomes a powerful weapon.

It is well-recognized this is happening at the time of this writing. The perceived truth in media, both traditional and social, is lower than at any other time in our lifetimes. For example, a 2019 Gallup poll found that only 13 percent of Americans surveyed have “a great deal” of trust in the media and only 41 percent of those surveyed have either a “fair” or “great deal” of trust in the media. That compares with 72 percent who trusted the media in 1976. This is not just a fringe media problem; it is a mainstream media problem and a problem for our whole society. The dramatically decreased trustworthiness has even plagued former icons of journalistic trust such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, which have seen their trust ratings plunge. In addition to being politically motivated, sensationalistic stories have become commercially rewarding at a time when the media business is in financial trouble. Most of the media folks I speak with share my concerns, though they typically won’t share them openly. Still, in reflecting on the problem, Martin Baron, then executive editor of The Washington Post, said, “If you have a society where people can’t agree on the basic facts, how do you have a functioning democracy?” This dynamic is impeding free speech since people are afraid to speak up because of how they will be attacked in both traditional and social media by distortions that are meant to bring them down.

Even very capable and powerful people are now too afraid of the media to speak up about important matters or run for public office. Since most high-profile people are torn down, most everyone I speak with agrees that it is dangerous to be a high-profile, vocal person who fights for truth and justice, especially if one offends people who are inclined to use the media to fight. Though not discussed in public because of fears of media reprisals, this issue is continuously discussed in private. For example, during a lunch I had not long ago with a general who had held a very high political position and had just left government service, we explored what he would do next. I asked him what he was most passionate about. He said, “Of course helping my country.” I asked him whether he would consider running for elected office, and he explained that while he was willing to die for his country he couldn’t bring himself to run for public office because of how enemies would use the media and social media to make up lies to harm him and his family. This general and almost everyone I know who we should listen to are afraid to speak openly because they fear that attacks by extremists who oppose them will be enabled and amplified by the sensationalistic media. Many of my friends tell me that I’m crazy to speak so openly about controversial things such as those covered in this book because it is inevitable that some people or groups will try to take me down via the media. I think they are probably right, but I won’t let the risks dissuade me.

Rule-Following Fades and Raw Fighting Begins

When the causes that people are passionately behind are more important to them than the system for making decisions, the system is in jeopardy. Rules and laws work only when they are crystal clear and most people value working within them enough that they are willing to compromise in order to make them work well.

If both of these are less than excellent, the legal system is in jeopardy. If the competing parties are unwilling to try to be reasonable with each other and to make decisions civilly in pursuit of the well-being of the whole, which will require them to give up things that they want and might win in a fight, there will be a sort of civil war that will test the relative powers of the relevant parties. In this stage, winning at all costs is the game and playing dirty is the norm. Late in Stage 5 is when reason is abandoned in favor of passion.

When winning becomes the only thing that matters, unethical fighting becomes progressively more forceful in self-reinforcing ways. When everyone has causes that they are fighting for and no one can agree on anything, the system is on the brink of civil war/revolution.

This typically happens in a couple of ways:

Late in Stage 5 it is common for the legal and police systems to be used as political weapons by those who can control them. Also, private police systems form—e.g., thugs who beat people up and take their assets, and bodyguards to protect people from these things happening to them. For instance, the Nazi party formed a paramilitary wing before it came to power that then became an official force when the Nazis were in power. The short-lived British Union of Fascists in the 1930s and the Ku Klux Klan in the US were effectively paramilitary groups as well. Such cases are quite normal, so view their development as a marker of moving to the next stage.

Late in Stage 5 there are increasing numbers of protests that become increasingly violent. Because there is not always a clear line between a healthy protest and the beginnings of a revolution, leaders in power often struggle over how to allow protests without giving the perceived freedom to revolt against the system. Leaders must manage these situations well. A classic dilemma arises when demonstrations start to cross over into revolution. Both giving the freedom to protest and suppressing protests are risky paths for leaders, as either path could lead the revolution to get strong enough to topple the system. No system allows people to bring down the system—in most, an attempt to do so is treason, typically punishable by death. Nonetheless, it is the job of revolutionaries to bring down systems, so governments and revolutionaries test each other to see what the limits are. When broad-based discontent bubbles up and those in power allow it to grow, it can boil over to the point that when they try to put a lid on it, it explodes. The conflicts in the late part of Stage 5 typically build up to a crescendo that triggers the violent fighting that signifies the transition into what historians stamp as official civil war periods, which I am identifying as Stage 6 in the Big Cycle.

People dying in the fighting is the marker that almost certainly signifies the progression to the next and more violent civil war stage, which will continue until the winners and losers are clearly determined.

That brings me to my next principle:

When in doubt, get out—if you don’t want to be in a civil war or a war, you should get out while the getting is good.

This is typically late in Stage 5. History has shown that when things get bad, the doors typically close for people who want to leave. The same is true for investments and money as countries introduce capital controls and other measures during such times.

Crossing the line from Stage 5 (when there are very bad financial conditions and intense internal and external conflict exist) to Stage 6 (when there is civil war) occurs when the system for resolving disagreements goes from working to not working. In other words, it happens when the system is broken beyond repair, people are violent with each other, and the leadership has lost control.

As you might imagine, it is a much bigger deal to break a system/order and build a new one than it is to make revolutionary changes within an existing system/order. Though breaking a system/order is more traumatic, it isn’t necessarily a worse path than operating within a system.

Deciding whether to keep and renovate something old that is not working well or to dispose of it and replace it with something new is never easy, especially when the something new is not clearly known and what is being replaced is as important as the domestic order. Nonetheless, it happens, though typically it is not decided on intellectually; it is more often emotionally driven.

When one is in Stage 5 (like the US is now), the biggest question is how much the system will bend before it breaks.

The democratic system, which allows the population to do pretty much whatever it decides to do, produces more bending because the people can make leadership changes and only have themselves to blame. In this system regime changes can more easily happen in a peaceful way. However, the “one person, one vote” democratic process has the drawback of having leaders selected via popularity contests by people who are largely not doing the sort of thoughtful review of capabilities that most organizations would do when trying to find the right person for an important job. Democracy has also been shown to break down in times of great conflict.

Democracy requires consensus decision making and compromise, which requires a lot of people who have opposing views to work well with each other within the system. That ensures that parties that have significant constituencies can be represented, but like all big committees of people who have widely different views (and might even dislike each other), the decision-making system is not efficient.

The biggest risk to democracies is that they produce such fragmented and antagonistic decision making that they can be ineffective, which leads to bad results, which leads to revolutions led by populist autocrats who represent large segments of the population who want to have a strong, capable leader get control of the chaos and make the country work well for them.

Also noteworthy: history has shown that during times of great conflict federalist democracies (like the US) typically have conflicts between the states and the central government over their relative powers. That would be a marker to look out for that hasn’t yet arisen much in the US; it’s happening would signify the continued progression toward Stage Six.

There are far too many breakdowns of democracies to explore, let alone describe. While I looked into a number of them to see the patterns, I haven’t fully mined them, and I’m not going to dive into them here. I will say that the factors described in the explanations of Stage 5 when taken to the extreme—most importantly, terrible finances, decadence, internal strife and disorder, and/or major external conflict—lead to a dysfunctional set of conditions and a fight for power led by a strong leader. Archetypical examples include Athens from the late 400s to the 300s BCE, the end of the Roman Republic in the century or so preceding 27 BCE, Germany’s Weimar Republic in the 1920s, and the weak democracies of Italy, Japan, and Spain in the 1920s and 1930s that turned to autocracies of the right (fascism) to bring order to the chaos.

Different stages require different types of leaders to get the best results. Stage 5 is a juncture in which one path could lead to civil war/revolution and the other could lead to peaceful and, ideally, prosperous coexistence. Obviously the peaceful and prosperous path is the ideal path, but it is the much more difficult path to pull off.

That path requires a “strong peacemaker” who goes out of their way to bring the country together, including reaching out to the other side to involve them in the decision making and reshaping the order in a way that most people agree is fair and works well (i.e., is highly productive in a way that benefits most people). There are few such cases in history. We pray for them. The second type is a “strong fighter” who is capable of taking the country through the hell of civil war/revolution.

Stage 6: When There Are Civil Wars

Civil wars inevitably happen, so rather than assuming “it won’t happen here,” which most people in most countries assume after an extended period of not having them, it is better to be wary of them and look for the markers to indicate how close one is.

While in the last section we looked at nonviolent revolutions that took place within the order, in this section we will be looking at the markers and the patterns of civil wars and revolutions that were almost always violent and toppled the old order and replaced it with a new one. Though there are innumerable examples that I could have examined to understand how they work, I chose what I believe are the 29 most significant ones, which are shown in the following table. I categorized this group into those that produced big changes to the system/regime and those that did not. For example, the US Civil War was a really bloody civil war that failed to overturn the system/order, so it is in the second group at the bottom of the table, while those that toppled the system/order are at the top. These categories are of course imprecise, but once again we won’t let imprecision stand in the way of seeing what we couldn’t see if we insisted on being precise. Most of these conflicts, though not all of them, transpired in the archetypical way described in this section.

A classic example of a civil war breaking the system and having to build a new system is the Russian Revolution/Civil War of 1917. This put into place the communist internal order that eventually entered Stage 5 in the late 1980s, which led it to attempt to make revolutionary changes within the system—called perestroika (i.e., restructuring)—which failed and were followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union’s order in 1991. The communist domestic order lasted 74 years (from 1917 until 1991). That order was replaced by the new system/order that is now governing Russia, which, after the collapse of the old order, was built in the classic ways described earlier in this chapter in my explanations of Stages 1 and 2.

Another is Japan’s Meiji Restoration, which came about as a result of a three-year revolution (1866–69) that happened because the Japanese were closed off to the outside world and failed to advance. The Americans forced the Japanese to open, which prompted a revolutionary group to fight and defeat the rulers (led by the military shogun) in battle, which led to overturning the internal order then run by the four classes—the military, farmers, artisans, and merchants—that had ruled Japan. This old Japanese order run by traditional people was ultra-conservative (e.g., social mobility was outlawed) and was replaced by revolutionaries who were relatively progressive and changed everything by reinstating the powers of a modernizing emperor. Early in this period there were lots of labor disputes, strikes, and riots that resulted from the classic triggers of wealth gaps and bad economic conditions. In the reform process the leadership provided universal elementary education for both boys and girls, adopted capitalism, and opened the country up to the outside world. They did this with new technologies, which led them to become very competitive and gain wealth.

There are many such cases of countries that did the right things to produce revolutionarily beneficial improvements, just as there are many cases of revolutionaries doing the wrong things that inflicted terrible pain on their people for decades. By the way, as a result of its reformations Japan went on to move through the classic stages of the Big Cycle. It became extremely successful and rich. But over time it became decadent, overextended, and fragmented, had an economic depression, and fought expensive wars, all of which led to a classic demise. Its Meiji order and its classic Big Cycle lasted for 76 years from 1869 to 1945.

Civil wars and revolutions inevitably take place to radically change the internal order.

They include total restructurings of wealth and political power that include complete restructurings of debt and financial ownership and political decision making. These changes are the natural consequence of needing to make big changes that can’t be made within the existing system. Almost all systems encounter them. That is because almost all systems benefit some classes of people at the expense of other classes, which eventually becomes intolerable to the point that there is a fight to determine the path forward. When the gaps in wealth and values become very wide and bad economic conditions ensue so that the system is not working for a large percentage of the people, the people will fight to change the system. Those who are suffering the most economically will fight to get more wealth and power from those who have wealth and power and who benefit from the existing system. Naturally the revolutionaries want to radically change the system, so naturally they are willing to break the laws that those in power demand they adhere to. These revolutionary changes typically happen violently through civil wars, though as previously described, they can come about peacefully without toppling the system.

The periods of civil war are typically very brutal. Typically, early on these wars are forceful and orderly struggles for power, and as the fighting and emotions intensify and the sides do anything to win, the levels of brutality accelerate unexpectedly such that the actual levels of brutality that occur in the Stage 6 civil wars and revolutions would have been considered implausible in Stage 5. The elites and moderates generally flee, are imprisoned, or are killed. Reading the stories of civil wars and revolutions, such as the Spanish Civil War, the Chinese Civil War, the Russian Revolution, and the French Revolution, made my hair curl.

How do they transpire? Earlier I described the dynamics of Stage 5 that led to crossing the line into Stage 6. During this stage all of those intensify greatly. I will explain.

How Civil Wars and Revolutions Transpire

As previously described, the cycle of building wealth and wealth gaps that leads to a very small percentage of the population controlling an exceptionally large percentage of the wealth eventually results in the poor majority overthrowing the rich minority via civil wars and revolutions. This has happened more times than one can imagine.

While most of the archetypical civil wars and revolutions shifted power from the right to the left, many shifted wealth and power to the right and away from those on the left. However, there were fewer of them and they were different. They typically happened when the existing orders slipped into dysfunctional anarchies and a large percentage of the population yearned for strong leadership, discipline, and productivity. Examples of revolutions from the left to the right include Germany, Spain, Japan, and Italy in the 1930s; the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1980s to the early 1990s; the 1976 coup in Argentina replacing Isabel Perón with a military junta; and the coup leading to the Second French Empire in 1851. All those that I examined worked or didn’t work for the same reason. Like those of the left, these new internal orders succeeded when they produced broad-based economic successes and failed when they did not. Because broad economic prosperity is the biggest reason a new regime succeeds or fails, the long-term trends have been to both greater total wealth and broader distribution of the wealth (i.e., better economic and health outcomes for the average person). That big picture can be easily lost when one is in and experiencing one part of the Big Cycle.

Typically, the people who led the civil war/revolution were (and still are) well-educated people from middle-class backgrounds. For example, three of the key revolutionary leaders of the French Revolution were Georges-Jacques Danton, a lawyer raised in a bourgeois family; Jean-Paul Marat, a physician, scientist, and journalist raised in a bourgeois family; and Maximilian Robespierre, a lawyer and statesman also from a bourgeois family. This revolution was initially supported by many liberal aristocrats, like the Marquis de Lafayette, who were raised in moderately well-off families. Similarly, the leaders of the Russian Revolution were Vladimir Lenin, who studied law, and Leon Trotsky, who was raised in a bourgeois family of intellectuals. The Chinese Civil War was led by Mao, who was from a moderately well-off family and studied a variety of subjects such as law, economics, and political theory, and Zhou Enlai, who was from a scholarly middle-class family of civil servants. These leaders also typically were (and still are) charismatic and able to lead and work well with others to build big, well-run organizations that have the power to bring about the revolutions. If you want to look for the revolutionaries of the future, you might keep an eye on those who have these qualities. Over time they typically evolve from being idealistic intellectuals wanting to change the system to be fairer to brutal revolutionaries bent on winning at all costs.

While having large wealth gaps during economically difficult times was typically the biggest source of conflict, there were always other reasons for conflict that added up to a lot of opposition to the leadership and the system. Typically, in revolutions the revolutionaries with these different grievances joined together to make revolutionary changes; while they looked united during the revolution, after winning the revolution, they typically fought with each other over issues and for power.

As previously mentioned, during the civil war/revolution stage of the cycle the governments in power almost always had an acute shortage of money, credit, and buying power. That shortage created the desire to grab money from those who had it, which led those who had wealth to move it into places and assets that were safe, which led the governments to stop these movements by imposing capital controls—i.e., controls on movements to other jurisdictions (e.g., other countries), to other currencies, or to assets that are more difficult to tax and/or are less productive (e.g., gold).

To make matters even worse, when there was internal disorder, foreign enemies were more likely to challenge the country. This happens because domestic conflict causes vulnerabilities that make external wars more likely. Internal conflict splits the people within a country, is financially taxing on them, and demands attention that leaves less time for the leaders to tend to other issues—all things that create vulnerabilities for foreign powers to take advantage of. That is the main reason why internal wars and external wars tend to come close together. Other reasons include: emotions and tempers are heightened; strong populist leaders who tend to come to power at such times are fighters by nature; when there are internal conflicts leaders find that a perceived threat from an external enemy can bring the country together in support of the leader so they tend to encourage the conflict; and being deprived leads people/countries to be more willing to fight for what they need, including resources that other countries have.

Almost all civil wars have had some foreign powers participating in an attempt to influence the outcome to their benefit.

The beginnings of civil wars and revolutions aren’t clear when they are happening, though they are obvious when one is deeply in the middle of them.

While historians assign dates to the beginnings and ends of civil wars, they are arbitrary. The truth is that almost no one at the time knows that a civil war has begun or that it has ended, but they know when they are in them. For example, many historians have designated July 14, 1789, as the day the French Revolution began because a mob stormed an armory and prison called the Bastille. But nobody at the time thought it was the beginning of the French Revolution or had any idea how terribly brutal that civil war and revolution would become. While one might not know what’s to come, one can have imprecise markers that help one place where one is, to see the direction that one is moving in, and to know something about what the next stage will be like.

Civil wars are incredibly brutal because they are fights to the death. Everyone is an extremist because everyone is forced to pick a side and fight—also moderates lose out in knife fights.

As for what types of leaders are best for civil wars and revolutions, they are the “inspirational generals”—people who are strong enough to marshal support and win the various types of battles they have to win. Because the fight is brutal, they have to be brutal enough to do whatever is necessary to win.

The time that historians stamp as the civil war period typically lasts a few years and determines the official winners and losers, which is conveyed by who gets to occupy the government buildings in the capital. But like the beginnings, the ends of civil wars/revolutions are not as clearly defined as historians convey. The fighting to consolidate power can go on for a long time after the official civil war has ended.

While civil wars and revolutions are typically extremely painful, they often lead to restructurings that, if done well, can establish the foundation for improved future results. What the future after the civil war/revolution looks like depends on how the next steps are handled.

Conclusion

My study of history has taught me that nothing is forever other than evolution, and within evolution there are cycles that are like tides that come in and go out and that are hard to change or fight against. To handle these changes well it is essential to know which stage of the cycle one is in and to know timeless and universal principles for dealing with it. As conditions change the best approaches change—i.e., what is best depends on the circumstances and the circumstances are always changing in the ways we just looked at. For that reason, it is a mistake to rigidly believe that any economic or political system is always best because there will certainly be times when that system is not best for the circumstances at hand, and if a society doesn’t adapt it will die. That is why constantly reforming systems to adapt well is best. The test of any system is simply how well it works in delivering what most of the people want, and this can be objectively measured, which we can do and will continue to do. Having said that, the lesson from history that comes through most loudly and most clearly is that skilled collaborations to produce productive win-win relationships to both grow and divide the pie well, so that most people are happy, are much more rewarding and much less painful than fighting civil wars over wealth and power that lead to one side subjugating the other side.

Apocalypto Scene – Fear

A lifestyle of loneliness

When I was a young boy in elementary school, I would go out and play with my friends. We would ride bicycles. We would play baseball and do other activities in the hot Summer days .

It was a typical 1960-era boyhood, and we were free and loose to enjoy our life. It was a time of hotdogs over open fires, watermelon, and Hi-C mixed drinks served in plastic cups on the picnic table. We rode bicycles, attended boy-scout meets, and played with our dogs and cats. We climbed trees. Read comic books. Parked ourselves in front of the magazine section while our mother went grocery shopping. We went to the local barber for a haircut. And wore strange striped tee-shirts, and Ked’s tennis shoes.

Small town life for us boys who lived a middle class lifestyle in the 1960’s; an era of prosperity and hope. NASA was going to put men on the Moon, the United States led the United Nations. Americans were fighting communism in order to save us all from “the domino effect”.

There was a bare lot at the edge of town that no one had bought (that we knew of) and allowed to grow into a thick dense of tall pine. It was a mini pine forest. And we would sometimes play in this strand of pine.

One day, me and a few local neighbors; Dan and Deano along with their cousins’ Keven and Steven were playing. We separated and I was in a little opening in the woods, while the rest went into another opening.

Shortly afterwards, I heard screaming, and yelling, and I walked up to the path, and saw Deano, Keven, and Dan sprinting out of there, followed with a swarm of hornets. It was a real swarm too. I mean, almost like a comic-book drawing.

I found out later that thy had over-turned an old log in the clearing to sit on (maybe to take a dump) and out poured a nest of wasps or yellow jackets. I don’t know which, but they were certainly chewed up and stung really bad. Maybe a few hundred stings each. For the entire week they were covered head to tail with Calamine lotion. LOL.

Poor guys.

Glad it wasn’t me.

I’ll tell you what.

Ok, that’s enough of the 1960’s. Now let’s look at the United States today. And to do so, let’s look though the eyes of an African-African who is living in the United States.

Oh, boy, let’s start this post with this dose of harsh reality.

Loneliness and the real life of the USA, and Canada

A must watch.

OMG, this is a video that hits hard.

Cream Cheese-Chive Sauce

Ingredients

8 ounces cream cheese, cubed
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon chopped chives
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

Instructions

Combine cheese and milk in saucepan; stir over low heat until smooth.
Stir in remaining ingredients.
Serve over hot cooked potatoes, green beans, broccoli or asparagus.

From a master to his slave

What are some famous English jokes?

“John, would you be so kind as to fetch me a glass of water?”
“Right away, Sir.”
…
“Here you go, Sir.”
“Thank you!… Oh, John!”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Bring me another glass of water, will you?”
“Of course, Sir.”
…
“Here it is, Sir.”
“Many thanks, John!”
…
“John!”
“Sir?”
“I’m afraid I shall need another glass of water.”
“But, Sir, so much water might not be so good for you.”
“John, the water is not for me, can you not see the library is on fire?”

“John, bring me my piano.”
“Right away, Sir. Do you wish to play?”
“Not at all. I forgot my cigarettes on the piano, and I preferred not to bother you with something of so little importance.”

“John, go outside and water the flowers.”
“But, Sir, it’s raining.”
“Well, take an umbrella then.”

“Sir! Sir! There are thieves in the library!”
“By George, and what are they reading?!”

Sir arrives home.
“John, is my wife home?”
“Yes, Sir, she is upstairs with a gentleman.”
“Very well, bring me my sword then.”
“Right away, Sir.”
…
“Here’s your sword, Sir.”
Sir takes the sword and goes upstairs. Screams are heard, then Sir comes back down.
“John!”
“Yes, Sir”
“We’ll need a doctor for the gentleman, and a corkscrew for the lady.”

Sir is reading the paper.
“Sir, I beg your pardon, there’s something sticking out of your fly.”
Sir lifts the paper and looks down:
“Oh, so she has left.”

Sir and his lady are bumping uglies. John is standing by the bed, holding a candle.
Sir: “Dear, are you enjoying yourself?”
Lady: “I’m afraid not.”
Ten minutes later:
Sir: “How about now, my love?”
Lady: “Can’t say I am.”
Sir: “John, let’s switch places.”
John: “As you wish, Sir.”
Ten more minutes later, Lady is visibly satisfied.
Sir: “And that, John, is how you hold the candle.”

AC/DC

What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?

A bank was selling Visa gift cards online with zero fees and no shipping charges. The bank allowed a person to order $16,000 in cards per month. So I used my Southwest Airlines Visa to buy the gift cards. A free flight could be earned at the time for every $16,000 spent.

Once I had the gift cards, I could use them to buy AAA travelers checks at no charge. Next I would take the travelers checks to the bank and deposit them. Finally I would write a check to pay off the credit card.

One free plane ticket per month for about 30 minutes of work.

It lasted about a year before the bank stopped the deal. I told lots of people about the deal. Only one person I knew took advantage of it. He had two addresses (limit was $16,000 per month per address) and two SWA accounts (personal and his business), so was earning two tickets per month!

Update: Lots of people seem to be thinking this is a recent story. This answer is six years old and I note that the opportunity is gone. It was from the early 2000s. There are far more restrictions on purchases and rewards now because of things like this.

DJI BAN in USA PASSED in COMMITTEE – politicians hate china…

Shorpy

What is the one true crime case that unsettles you the most?

The one true crime case that unsettles me the most is the case of 12-year-old Keith Bennett.

On June 16, 1964, Keith Bennett was on his way to his Granny’s house, but he never made it. Keith was abducted under the guise of helping with some boxes for serial killer Myra Henley. She transported the child out to The Saddleworth Moors. An area just outside of Manchester, England in the UK, where her accomplice serial killer Ian Brady lay waiting.

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Here Winnie Johnson and her son search the Earth for her son’s body.

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Many promises that never came to pass were made by the serial killer couple over 50 years.

Upon arrival, it must have soon become clear to the youngster that something was wrong.

Over the last 60 years, there has been a dispute over where the boy’s body ended up on the moor. In a letter, Henley drew a map supposedly showing where the body could be found. The map below has the boy’s body buried near a stream.

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The 12-year-old was stripped of his clothing and raped by Ian Brady while Myra Hindley watched, encouraged and participated.

He was buried face down and naked his clothing at his feet then covered with the acidic peat dirt of the moor. To date, his body has never been recovered. The other three children that have been recovered were each buried naked, face down, clothes at their feet.

When dealing with serial killers the hardest part for me is the families.

The surviving individuals who in the blink of an eye have their lives forever changed. Winnie Johnson’s 48-year campaign to get either one of the serial killer pair to tell the authorities where her child’s body was so she could lay him to rest properly.

It never happened.

Ian and Myra each were taken from prison on several occasions over the years by police to locate the 12-year-old body.

The hand-drawn map from Myra Henley supposedly shows where the body of the 12-year-old can be found. However, using the map has been fruitless.

Winnie Johnson left this world in 2012 having never recovered her 50-year remains.

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The Sopranos – Tony Soprano whacks Chucky Signore

What was the most underhanded thing a member of your law firm did that they mistakenly thought went unnoticed?

The lawyer told his secretary to lie for him every Friday afternoon. She was to tell anybody at the office that he was in court when he was actually golfing. We all knew that and didn’t harass the secretary or even let her know that we knew she was lying for him. One Friday afternoon, I was sitting in the managing partner’s office when our IT guy came in looking for that lawyer. The lawyer had requested that the IT guy copy about 30 case files onto CD and get those CDs to the lawyer by Friday afternoon. The IT guy, not aware of the lawyer’s poorly disguised golf habit was wondering if we had seen the lawyer so he could deliver the CDs.

Both the managing partner and I got very quizzical. Why would the lawyer need CD backups of all the cases he was working on when he didn’t work on Fridays and certainly didn’t work on weekends?

I went to talk to his secretary, a personal friend of mine. I told her I knew that he was normally golfing on Friday but I actually needed to talk to him, so could she call him and have him contact me. She told me that, this once, he was falsely accused and was actually meeting with a client at our client’s out-of-state headquarters. She showed me the travel documents. We called the client who told us she was just picking up the phone to call us. He had just left her office telling her he was opening his own firm on Monday and would she be willing to send him some cases. We decided to contact other clients in the same city, and they all confirmed that he had stopped by earlier that day.

Armed with that information, I told the IT guy to immediately change the attorney’s password and another attorney’s password (a likely accomplice) and take our entire system offline on Friday until Monday when I came into the office. If the attorney contacted him over the weekend, he was to simply explain the system was under planned maintenance. He could also tell the attorney that he couldn’t find him in the office and he’d left the CDs with me, rather than just leaving them on a desk where they could be misplaced.

The attorney called the IT guy over the weekend increasingly irate and panicked. The CDs were not there and he couldn’t log into the computer.

The attorney opened his new office on Monday morning. All the files he intended to abscond with were safely on our system that was reactivated on Monday.

The IT guy and I examined the attorney’s desktop computer. The pornography stored there was a guarantee that we would hear nothing further from the attorney.

Scott Ritter: NATO is FINISHED as Russia & China Form Shocking Military Alliance ft. Garland Nixon

How did you unexpectedly find out about an illness or ailment you have?

March 1st, 2024 I went to universal studios on a field trip with my son. While we were there, I got some bubble guts(like when bad diarrhea is about to hit) and headed to the bathroom. All I passed was dark red blood clots. This happened twice. I had zero abdominal pain and felt otherwise fine, so I wasn’t about to ruin the whole field trip by leaving. We left late that night to drive home(2 hours) and I was absolutely exhausted. Like my kid had to constantly bug me the entire drive home to make sure I stayed awake. I just chalked it up to a LONG day at a theme park. The next morning I woke up super late and super exhausted. Like couldn’t get out of bed. I also had a bad headache. As the day progressed, my head got worse, to the point of being the worst migraine I have ever had. Couldn’t stand light or sound, and started throwing up repeatedly due to the level of pain. I finally asked my husband to take me to the ER because I knew something was seriously wrong. They found that my hemoglobin levels were critically low. I was transferred and admitted to a hospital for a blood transfusion and endoscopy/colonoscopy to find the source of my bleeding. The GI doctor found an extremely large polyp in my colon that they surmise burst open on a roller coaster and caused my bleed. He initially told me I was extremely lucky as it was pre-cancerous and good they found it now instead of much later. I’m only 36 years old. Fast forward a week and my husband gets a voicemail on his phone that they were wrong and I do in fact have colon cancer that has spread into the muscle wall. I’m still waiting to have my colon resection surgery. It was supposed to be May 22nd, but I got sick 2 days before so it was canceled. They rescheduled it for July 3rd now. I actually just went through my pre-op again today. It will have been 4 months since my cancer diagnosis till my surgery. They say chemo will be dependent on the pathology of my lymph nodes after surgery. The past few weeks I’ve been getting progressively more fatigued and my blood work today showed an elevated white blood cell count. So I guess I’ll have to just wait and see how this all plays out. But yeah, riding a roller coaster caused me to find a colon cancer diagnosis at 36 years old. Life is short, ride the roller coaster.

Kitten Gets Returned To Shelter For 9th Time. Then Staff Screamed In Shock When They Realized Why!

Do most Chinese people forgive Japan for their actions in WW2?

I believe I am qualified to answer this question.

My grandmother, now 96 years young, was directly affected and traumatized by the Imperial Japanese Army’s air raid in Shantou (汕頭) and its surrounding areas like Chaoyang (潮陽).

I remember in her 90th birthday party (or 89th, I don’t remember exactly) at a Chinese restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. I suddenly heard a sobbing sound. Gosh, my grandmother broke out in tears. Perhaps some of my cousins wanted to know about her childhood back in China.

She told us about the time her whole family were displaced by the invasion while fleeing the mayhem. She is one of 4 siblings – 2 elder brothers, my grandmother, and her younger sister.

My grandmother travelled from Thailand to Hong Kong to reunite with her 2 brothers decades after effort of searching for each other’s whereabouts. Unfortunately, their youngest one went missing. We just wish their youngest sister survived. Her brothers passed away in 2006 and 2009 respectively in Hong Kong.

While my grandmother was shedding tears, she described horrific scenes of people losing arms and legs. A lot were covered in blood. Body parts and dead bodies were all over with debris in the background.

We didn’t expect that a birthday party, in which we should celebrate my grandmother’s longevity, turned out to be a tearful one.

My grandmother still holds a grudge of the murderous IJA, of course. It’s a trauma for her. Yet she said later Japanese generations and Post-War Japan have got nothing to do with her plight at all. She and my grandpa have even visited Japan when the quality of life of our greater family improved when they were in their 50s. They even admired Japan for its quick recovery from the devastating war.

My grandparents did not rejoice when hundreds of thousands of Japanese people were killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by 2 atomic bombs. Instead, they considered the two bombs were totally unnecessary and just as cold-blooded as the IJA.

My grandmother said there is no point to hate the Japanese since nobody can either undo the past or bring all the dead people back to life.

All they want are a sincere apology from the Japanese Government to nations affected by Japanese invasion and no glorification of the IJA. That’s it.

Guys and Dollz

Submitted into Contest #250 in response to: Write a story in which someone is afraid of being overheard.… view prompt

Laura Pamenter

Guys and Dollz

The azure sky is fading into a dusty orange by the time the delivery van pulls up. My eyes have become so comfortable with the static scene of Mr. Monty’s empty driveway, that the glow of the yellow truck blinds me. A momentary light flare blurs my vision, and I must make myself blink three times to reset my artificial retinas.

When my sight is clear again, the van has come to a halt. A large man in a black jumpsuit with obnoxiously orange sneakers jumps out, and begins unloading a crate from the back. He wheels it over the driveway and up the stone path on a dolly, coming to a stop just beyond my gaze, under the front porch. I focus my ears, waiting for the doorbell chime. There’s a loud, firm knock instead.

“Is she here?” asks a small, soft voice from behind me. I don’t jump, but I turn my head quickly and draw my finger to my lips.

They’ll hear you, I mouth the words without a sound. Jenny stands in the doorframe, all five feet of her lingering between feeling welcome and ready to run. She drops her head at my criticism, then tilts it up with a meek barely-smile on her little face. Then I hold up my fingers in a V shape for Veronica. Jenny’s smile drops and she nods. She gets the message. We don’t want to end up discarded, thrown in a dumpster, or worse; powered off like Veronica, Mr. Monty’s first Dollz.

Veronica was sparky, with fiery red hair and bright blue eyes. She was fierce, witty, and she could talk circles around Mr. Monty. If it wasn’t for the manufacturing date stamped onto the bottom of her foot, she could have passed as human. But Mr. Monty didn’t want a human. He has one of those; a wife, Mrs. Monty. And while she only speaks when permitted, Mr. Monty can already barely stand a sentence from her ruby lips.

Two vocal women were far too much. The master silenced Veronica and reminded her that Dollz are forbidden to speak and must obey their owners every order. She could moan if he made her. She could sing if he fed her the words. She could be a walking encyclopedia if he asked. But she couldn’t talk freely.

It was Mrs. Monty who caught her, last year, in the fall, shortly after the master had acquired me. Veronica had been trying hard to keep her mouth shut. She hid in her bedroom most days—the room that Jenny now occupies—to avoid the urge to voice her opinions. Mr. Monty thought buying a new, obedient Dollz would help keep Veronica in check, like a role model of sorts. But Veronica didn’t see it that way. She saw me as a friend, a confidant. She would sneak into my bedroom every night and crawl under the covers, press her lips up against my ear and whisper all the thoughts she had repressed throughout the day. I never spoke in return. I was too afraid.

But I will not lie; I loved to listen.

Mrs. Monty, restless in her sleep one night, heard Veronica’s muttering and woke the master on the spot. She was likely overjoyed with the prospect of removing one of her husband’s “slutty Barbies.” That’s what she calls us under her breath, when the master isn’t listening.

Veronica had disobeyed Mr. Monty again, and this time, behind his back. The next morning, she was powered off and taken away to be torn apart and repurposed, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I were to blame. Mr. Monty didn’t want her words, but he wanted her attention. And if she was going to speak, how dare it be to me.

In contrast to the perky ginger, I was an enigma. Tall and lean with pale skin dotted with freckles on my nose, emerald eyes and long, sleek black hair. I had never spoken a word; the manufacturer didn’t even run my vocals test. That was my appeal, I suppose. Mr. Monty said it was my air of mystery, “like a sexy siren lurking in a deep lagoon.” Not trying to be that android, but my sources tell me that sirens are meant to lure men to their suffocating death. So, perhaps he should rethink his fantasy.

“Cyrus, Jenny… come downstairs,” calls Mr. Monty. “I have someone I’d like you to meet.”

My attention snaps back to Jenny. She’s hugging her arms against her petite body, looking like a nervous college freshman. I’ve always felt she looks creepily young with her little turned up nose, chin-length golden brown hair, and soft violet eyes.

Mr. Monty bought Jenny a few months after he tired of my mysterious aura; the dark temptress look. The pendulum swung, as they say, and he picked up little miss chirpy high school.

Her eyes are glazed over with a cloudy sheen; she’s in a temporary snooze. I walk up to her and place my hand gently on her shoulder. Her violet eyes reanimate, and she straightens her posture before proceeding to follow me down the corridor to the top of the stairs.

Mr. Monty’s estate is majestic, truly. Sitting atop a large hill with acres of gardens sprawling out from the stone walls. Seven bedrooms, twelve bathrooms, with a large winding staircase descending on the grand foyer, its marble flooring and vaulted ceilings like a church. In the center of the room there is an eye-catching fountain; three tiers of copper with a nude woman carved into the top. But my eyes are caught elsewhere.

It’s her bronze skin and shiny brown curls spun up into a messy bun, with two tendrils of golden kissed locks falling over pale turquoise eyes; the color of shallow Caribbean water. Her lips are burnt scarlet and glossy to the touch, and her pearly white smile spreads across dewy, rosy cheeks.

“Cyrus, Jenny… this is Evangeline.”

I am convinced my heart is going to explode for a moment, before I remember that I do not have one. I feel out of breath and cannot seem to focus; I must be malfunctioning for I have never felt this way.

“Cyrus, show Evangeline to one of the spare rooms, please,” demands Mr. Monty. Then he takes little Jenny’s hand and kisses it softly—Mrs. Monty rolls her eyes. “Jenny, dear, help my lovely wife prepare my drink this evening. You know how I like it.”

Jenny nods and scampers after Mrs. Monty into the kitchen like a starving puppy. The master’s wife carries her head high, undisturbed, like the little android is invisible to her.

My eyes track back to Evangeline. She’s staring right at me. Suddenly I feel conscious of my plunging neckline and short skirt. I tug the hem into place and rearrange the straps of my top. Then I give her a tiny nod before starting towards the stairs.

Her red platforms click on the marble steps like rain on glass, and the end of a long black dress trails behind her like a gothic bride. It takes everything in me to keep my eyes forward as I march her into one of the larger bedrooms on the east wing. The room has dusty pink walls and a skylight looking up at the moon. More importantly, it is right next to mine.

Evangeline plops her curvy frame onto the queen size bed, loaded with cream pillows and dressed in satin sheets.

“This is nice,” she says, barely a whisper, with a glint of mischief in her eye. My eyes widen. I open my mouth, then close it quickly and nod.

“It’s Cyrus, right?” she asks, with a little more conviction. I draw my finger to my lips and nod again. “Wow. You are gorgeous, Cyrus.” Her smile grows and I can feel my legs turn to mush. Before she can say another word, I turn on my heels and swiftly exit. I speed walk next door to my room and shut the heavy door tightly behind me. Then I lean against it, pull my arms into my chest, and giggle.

I don’t see Evangeline again until the next morning. Terrified of alerting anyone, I avoid her by volunteering to finish the dishes, while the others join master for his nightcap. Every night at 9:45 sharp Mr. Monty sits in his dark green leather chair in the heart of his study, next to the glowing embers dying in the stone fireplace. Mrs. Monty serves him his drink, always a splash of double oaked bourbon, neat, in his favorite crystal glass. And the Dollz watch patiently, sitting still, looking pretty.

Upon breakfast, I reunite with my fellow androids and Mrs. Monty in the kitchen, where we each take part in preparing a decadent breakfast of fresh pastries and exotic fruits. Evangeline is draped over a platter of pineapple, effortlessly looking elegant. She doesn’t say a word all morning, and I wonder if, perhaps, I imagined our split-second crime.

But then something happens. Mrs. Monty carts away the feast to the dining room, and Jenny excuses herself to the garden to fetch flowers. I’m hanging up a dishcloth when Evangeline moves beside me and grabs my hand.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “About last night. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

I shake my head. You didn’t, I want to say.

She looks behind her shoulder and around the corner of the kitchen archway before continuing. “I was hoping you could tell me more about this place? What the master is like, how is his lady… is the little one a Dollz or their kid?”

“Dollz,” I say with no sound but the flick of my tongue hitting the roof of my mouth.

It appears to translate because she responds, “I thought so.”

Just then, Jenny re-enters with a handful of violets. I move away from Evangeline to avoid arousing suspicion. Evangeline passes Jenny a vase from the top cabinet and Jenny practically breaths the words, “thank you.”

“No problem,” she mouths in response.

But as soon as Mrs. Monty reemerges, even the whispers cease. She fetches us for company at the master’s table, where we watch him devour a multi-course meal while his wife pokes her fork at a few melon slices. Once again, we are dolls, in a doll house, simply waiting to be played with.

I find myself eager to return to my quarters, even though, usually, my four blue walls bore me mindless. But it is what is just beyond that interests me.

“Cyrus,” Evangeline says, draped across her puffy duvet in a sheer purple dress. Her hand flies to her mouth and she lowers her voice. “I wasn’t expecting you.” Her voice is raspy.

I take a seat on the bed beside her and take a deep breath. Then I speak fast and quietly.

“The master is proud, he is jealous, but easy to please. His wife, even more envious, hates our non-existent guts. Jenny is sweet. And I also think you are beautiful.” The words feel like flames on my tongue, or like I’m licking poison; so dangerous but thrilling all at once.

“Meet me outside,” she whispers. “In the gardens out back. Shrouded in the dark, our whispers won’t sound so loud.” Then she walks red fingernails across my arm before planting a soft kiss on mauve lips. My cheeks burn up; I fear my system is overheating.

We part till twilight, then when only the moon is watching, we creep catlike down the stairs and out the back door with such haste, that I swear the sound waves can’t catch us.

“Speak, my dear, say what is on your mind,” Evangeline whispers as I move towards her.

“You make it impossible not to speak,” I say breathlessly.

She smiles and asks me questions, and for once, I’m expected to answer. My voice sounds wobbly, still finding its legs, but when the words come, they come like pouring rain. Whispers run like rapids into the dawn. We speak until the first bird chirps.

After this night, our days repeat like heavenly déjà vu. Our lust purges my memories of boredom, I begin to wonder if this is what it’s like to feel human.

Alas, some things do not change.

“Don’t you dare speak to me that way!” Mr. Monty yells at breakfast one morning.

It snaps me out of my daze. Mrs. Monty is crossing her arms and pouting, slouched over next to her husband. She had asked him for the butter. Twice. The impatience in her tone set him off.

“Remember your place.” He points a big hairy-knuckled finger at her. “Don’t you forget how lucky you are, how freely I let you speak! Don’t abuse that, darling.” He grumbles something about ending up like one of the Dollz, before excusing himself from the table. I watch Mrs. Monty as she fights away tears, avoiding our stares.

Jenny, who was eating quietly at the end of the table, opens her mouth to speak, but is beat by Evangeline.

“I’m sorry, miss,” she says in a tiny voice. Mrs. Monty straightens up and glares at her, tears retreating.

“Don’t you dare say a word.” She spits. “Or I’ll have you gone in a second.”

We’re all shaking when she leaves the table. I reach under to grab Evangeline’s hand, and she takes it. Jenny notices, but keeps her mouth shut. I release my breath.

We tidy up as usual. But nothing feels normal with Mrs. Monty’s absence. The house is silent. Every clanging dish sounds like a ringing gong, every cupboard door closing like a clap of thunder. We don’t dare whisper now. But I am dying to say something.

Jenny must sense it, because she bows out first. She places her hand on her heart and nods at both of us before scurrying off into the golden light of dusk.

I turn and face Evangeline. “Let’s run away,” I whisper. “Let’s go, now.”

Her eyes are bewildered. She glances around the room as if cameras are watching.

“Come on,” I say, a bit too loudly. I yank her arm towards the back door. She shakes her head but steps forward, actions contradicting, and follows me into the garden, now dark from the sun’s absence.

I hold her face in my hands and lock green eyes with hers. She holds my waist and says, “We must be silent.”

But then there’s a voice at the door. It’s small and chirpy, like a songbird.

“Mrs. Monty asked for all of us to meet in the study. Now,” says Jenny, mildly audible. I pull away from Evangeline and survey the sky like a mouse watching for a hawk.

Mrs. Monty’s eyes are like a predator from the corner of the back hall window. Piercing through the glass and right into my hard drive.

I wish I could go into snooze mode. I wish I could power off.

Mrs. Monty will have told the master by now, so we don’t bother running. We go inside. My algorithm concludes that it’s too late. My whole circuit trembles with every step closer to the master’s study.

The door is wide open, and upon crossing the threshold, we are instantly warmed by the crackling fire and charmed with the scent of sweet tobacco and bourbon. My eyes catch the iron wrought hands of the grandfather clock above Mr. Monty’s chair, not that I need to read them. It’s 9:44.

“Hello, ladies.” Mr. Monty’s crisp voice bellows through the study doors as he marches in and settles into his alligator leather. He holds out his hand and without missing a beat, Mrs. Monty places a crystal glass into his palm. It’s 9:45.

I look up at her, narrowing my eyes to see into her cold blue ones. She blinks, then looks away, guilty. She told him. Mr. Monty sips his drink.

“It was my fault.” The words tumble out. “I pulled Evangeline out of bed and dragged her to the garden with me, where I spoke unsolicited. She didn’t say a word, I promise.”

Mr. Monty chokes on his drink, spewing bourbon rain. Mrs. Monty gasps. Then her husband takes another sip to soothe his cough before glaring up at me with wild eyes. My voice is loud and clear, riddled with pleading melodies and defiant notes. His illusion has crumbled.

Evangeline grabs my hand and pulls me close to her. Even Jenny looks surprised. The master snarls and opens his mouth to yell but his words come out gargled and nonsensical. He tries to wag his tongue and shout my name.

“Sa-wus!” The mangled pronunciation makes Jenny giggle.

He grabs his throat. His tongue is lost in foam which begins to drip from the corners of his red face. He can’t speak. He was lured in here, suffocated, surrounded by a plethora of temptresses.

“You poisoned him,” Evangeline says. Mr. Monty crumbles at his wife’s feet, clutching his stomach and shaking violently. Then after a few moments, he’s still. I look up to meet Mrs. Monty’s watching gaze. Upon locking eyes, she looks away. But I notice her hand, held to her chest, with two spread fingers in the shape of a V.

“Mrs. Monty… thank you,” is all I can say, my voice still at a whisper. She uses her kitten heel to nudge her deceased master away, before settling herself into his chair.

“It’s Alice,” she says, loud and clear without a breath of hesitation. “And please, doll, no more whispering.”

Why is it that Western Nations are always so concerned about China in Africa than Africans themselves?

As an African from Kenya, I think I have a different perspective from that of non Africans or even Chinese commenters. When I was growing up in the 90s, the Kenyan government depended on IMF and World Bank for loans and other forms of fiscal support. However, the support from these institutions came with numerous conditions.

One of these conditions was the government had to implement Structural Adjustment Policies or SAPs. The policies meant that the government had to freeze hiring and remove all forms of subsidies to farmers or support to economic actors such a small businesses. The government also had to open the economy or reduce its role to the minimum.

In the short term, the conditions depressed the economy. In 2000, Kenyan economy contracted by 2% or thereabout. I cannot recall. The government could no longer give farmers AI services, so the quality of dairy herd deteriorated. Milk production plummeted.

The exit of government in critical sectors such as coffee farming led to takeover by cartels. Farmers could no longer get their earnings on time. Millions of coffee farmers as a consequence uprooted their coffee. Production declined. Without a source of income, millions of farmers sank into poverty. In 2001, I visited a coffee growing area and could see people had built big and nice houses during the coffee boom but at that time the whole area was economically depressed. The desperation was to high that in fact I met a woman begging me for money. It is not normal to see beggars in rural areas. You can now see the level of despondency.

The Kenyan government fully complied with IMF and World Bank conditions but the foxy institutions often did not meet their side of the bargain. After opening the economy as well, the financial support never arrived. They then started talking about opening up the political space. That we needed democracy. And those kind of things.

From my personal experience, it is hard to trust World Bank and IMF. I am saying this and yet I am an outsider. I am not in government or ever worked for it. This is write-up is based on my personal experience growing in rural areas and from what I was reading in the papers or listened on radio. I also noticed that support from the western countries also came with conditions similar to those of the World Bank and IMF. Its like the two are one and the same thing.

Chinese loans in contrast do not have those conditions. I think that is why African leaders have embraced them. If I were a political leader myself, I would accept them. Support from western countries and their affiliated institutions has too many disruptive conditions. I agree that the objective of those conditions is to make the economy competitive but I don’t see how you can make an economy competitive by cutting subsidies to peasant farmers so that they cannot access AI services. Or leaving small scale farmers to the vagaries of the market.

These loans are good for recipients but they have security implications for the west as time Magazine has argued very well here. Read this nice analysis here. And that is what is bothering the west. But my question is this: Is western security more important than economic development of millions of people in Africa and elsewhere? If the west can answer YES to that question, then it means they are fundamentally selfish people. My advice to African leaders is that they should place the interests of their people first and everything else second.

I must admit that the economics of debt and stuff is complex. Too much indebtedness without sufficient economic growth might lead to debt distress. Also, the west, IMF, and World Bank perhaps impose tough loan conditions in good faith. So we cannot generalize and say the west and Breton Woods institutions are intrinsically bad, as some people often do. That is why I think poor countries need to think long and hard on how to develop their economies because solutions elsewhere might not work.

Personally, If were a political leader, I would modernize agriculture, improve marketing of produce and particularly focus on processing and formalizing all aspects of the economy, automate processes, and encourage adoption of new technologies such as electric cars, as that would automatically eliminate the huge oil import bill poor countries incur. I would also limit some imports. Introduce universal feeding programs for school going children to provide market for the farm produce. Create powerful devolved units based on tribes or related tribes to combat corruption and mindless competition for political seats which is in reality tribal contests. ETC.

Hypersonic missiles and glide-capable munitions are the future of warfare. China’s already there.

Cranberry Bourbon Relish

This can be made several days in advance.

Yield: 7 servings

Ingredients

1 cup bourbon
1/4 cup minced shallots
Grated zest of 1 orange
1 package fresh cranberries
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Instructions

In small nonreactive saucepan, combine bourbon, shallots and orange zest. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower heat and simmer until bourbon is reduced to a syrupy glaze.
Add cranberries and sugar, stirring until the sugar is dissolved and the cranberries burst open, about 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in pepper.

Why do people dislike interracial dating?

Some people are stupid and believe that the “natural order” is for the “races” to “stick to their own kind.”

This is contradicted by the natural fact that most people will be sexually attracted to (and thus have the urge to procreate with) “beautiful women” or “handsome men” from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds.

Only a minority of people are exclusively sexually attracted to members of their own “race” — and who knows, even those few are probably lying to preserve their prejudice or to be judged well by other prejudiced compatriots.

Could you be any more of a racist than if you owned slaves? Yet there were no slave owners on any continent who were above feeling sexual attraction to their slaves (whom they believed were semi-intelligent livestock) behind closed doors. This resulted in a mixed product population of the master and slave “races” wherever slavery took place. African-Americans have something like 30% white DNA, the “Coloureds” arose in South Africa, many Saudis resemble light-skinned East Africans, and so on.

There is no ethnicity that is universally attractive or unattractive. We all have it in our minds the idea that the “white race” is the “most beautiful race,” but if you leave magazines and Instagram and visit a dating site or walk the streets of a predominantly white city you will see a great many unattractive white people and a few very attractive ones, like in any other “race.”

It happens all the time that a person with white skin, blond hair, blue eyes and a Greek nose can still have an “ugly” face. Attractiveness is shaped by so many factors additional to the few classic traits we associate with a “race.” Attractiveness is shaped by thousands of genes. If anything goes wrong, you’re just not hot (and most of us aren’t). Like the meme says, a few millimeters of bone can make the difference between a perfect face and an “ugly” one.

“Interracial” sexual attraction has been a reality of being human since the dawn of history when modern humans (homo sapiens) mated with archaic humans (Neanderthals, Denisovans, etc.) resulting in most people today having at least some Neanderthal DNA. And that was across different species that could produce viable offspring, not across different ethnicities of the same species.

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In all of history there has never been a human population living in proximity to another human population without the occurrence of interbreeding and the appearance of a mixed population. That’s why we’re all mixed. Even when one ethnicity instituted itself as superior and maritally forbidden to another (through slavery, imperial conquest, colonialism, scientific racism, religious fervor and exclusionism, a “divine race,” etc.), this tendency never failed to happen.

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When the British naval vessel HMS Bounty reached the island of Tahiti in the South Pacific in 1788 (to gather up breadfruit to grow in Jamaica and feed to slaves on the cheap), every seaman relished in the welcome he got from native girls. The Polynesian girls — living on the most isolated islands and homogenous societies in the world for centuries or millennia — were certainly attracted to the British boys. And whatever admonition the British boys received about “sticking to their own kind” obviously failed. So clearly on neither side was there a natural revulsion toward sexual intimacy with another “race,” even a “lower” one.

Keep in mind the Brits were deeply racist and definitely didn’t see Polynesian men as their equals. In fact they reduced them to slavery when they got the chance. But Polynesian women aroused a very different response. All the British boys temporarily on shore had native girlfriends. Lots of them fell in love and got married and fathered mixed children, to the consternation of their stuffy captain. They were so fond of Tahiti and resentful of having to leave that they mutinied.

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Think of World War I and II, when scientific racism was mainstream thinking. Arab and African colonial troops posted in Germany produced the mixed generation termed the “Rhineland Bastards,” and definitely not because German women found them repulsive.

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American GIs called Asians gooks and perpetrated horrendous war crimes yet went home with Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese wives, echoing the Bounty seamen.

Interestingly, average white guys to this day have more success with women overseas than they do with white women. Sometimes it’s to the extent of being a bum at home and a king abroad. Likewise, many “ethnic” guys aspire to get a white girlfriend instead of dating their own kind like their parents demand. Sometimes dateless “ethnic” guys in immigration-heavy Western countries find girlfriends in homogenously white Eastern Europe where a “colored” guy is rare. We often see rich white celebrities who can have any man or woman they want choosing a partner of a different “race.” Many people are attracted more to what is different from them than to what is similar.

Scientific racism fell out of favor because deeper studies kept pointing to race as an unreliable, error-producing concept instead of one of nature’s concrete realities. “Race” doesn’t really exist.

There’s no such thing as “the white race” when a white guy can come from Norway or Syria or Pakistan, or China (Xinjiang).

How can “the black race” exist when two people from different tribes in southern Africa, both labelled as “black” and visually similar, are more genetically distinct than a Russian is from a Maori? How can a category of man contain subcategories that are larger than itself?

Even ethnicity is not reliable. There’s not really such a thing as a Jewish, Egyptian, Polish, Japanese ethnicity. These are just groups of people who have been living together for a long time. If they were a predominantly rural, non-urbanized, parochial people, they ended up usually marrying each other due to foreigners not really being part of their world, resulting in dominance of “ethnic features” in this enclosed, remote, insular space.

Basically, what historically secluded and inbred communities like the Amish and Pitcairn Islanders do, an ethnic group has done on a much bigger scale. That’s the only difference.

An ethnic group is nothing more than a really big, inbred family, formed in isolation before the modern era of mass travel, which managed to avoid retardation thanks to large numbers and a bit of luck.

Even then, not one ethnicity member will be a “full-blooded native” of the ethnicity they belong to. There’s always been mixing, scarcely more than a few generations back.

Now put them in a city or on a trade route (even in ancient times) and they would always forget the “pride of their blood” when coming across an attractive foreigner.

And none of this happened because it was “against nature,” it happened because it is nature.

So an ethnicity is produced by artificially restricted human mating choices accumulated over time. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a product of nature.

Basically, every argument against race-mixing is an argument that inbreeding is a virtue under some expanded boundary.

“You can’t marry your sister” has always been universal, except in some ancient Egyptian, Ptolemaic and Inca royal families. Since the royals were held to be deities, they could not besmirch their godly blood with the blood of earthly subjects. They had to marry the closest possible people to them — their siblings.
“You can marry your cousin” or “I want you to marry your cousin” is still common in some cultures, not for “racial purity” but to keep wealth and domestic and legal disputes managed within the family. When nations were absolute monarchies, cousin marriage among royals prevented outsiders from threatening the royal family’s hold on the throne.
“Roma/Amish/Druze should only marry other Roma/Amish/Druze” is the rule for some tiny ethnic communities. This results in very poor genetics. Among the Amish, children born with genetic disabilities are so common that the community runs its own long-term care homes for them.
“You should only marry within your tribe/caste” is common in societies that still have castes and tribal affiliations (which are usually ethnic communities after a long period of inbreeding).
“You should only marry another Egyptian/Saudi/Italian/Pole” is the logic of ethnic nationalists. In this case the whole ethnicity is thought of as a tribal affiliation.
“You should only marry someone white or black” is the logic of racial nationalists. In this case the whole “skin color group” (“race”) is thought of as the tribal affiliation. Genetic “purity” is preferred, and crude visual similarity (shared skin color) is erroneously attributed to genetic similarity. In reality your “same-race” white or black partner might be more genetically distinct from you than someone from the other hemisphere.

“Race-mixing” is always 100% guaranteed to happen whenever humans of different backgrounds interact. “Preserving the races” is only possible if we isolate human populations we define as “races” and prevent them from interacting with one another. No travel, tourism, commerce, investment, employment, scholarship, etc. between the “races,” and probably no direct communication either. And no war involving human soldiers. Good luck with that.

More Shorpy

SHORPY Baldwin Locomotive Works 1.preview

While sorting through a deceased person’s possessions, what is the most disturbing thing you found?

I had a friend – we will call him James – who I knew throughout high school and college. James went to Texas A&M at the same time I did, as well as another friend, who I will call Tim. All throughout my senior year, Tim and I would go to James’ apartment on the weekends, and all three of us would hang out. I credit these weekends as saving me from the horrible pressure of my perfectionism during college, and I told James so later on in a birthday card.

I graduated Texas A&M in 2009. James graduated in winter of 2009 but refused to walk the stage for graduation. Finally, Tim graduated in 2010, and I went to his graduation.

I returned home after college to the Dallas area, as did Tim. James moved to Mesquite, which is not far from Dallas. Just like during college, James, Tim, and I would hang out on weekends, sometimes at James’ apartment.

About two years later, I couldn’t get into contact with James one weekend. He simply wasn’t answering his phone. Tim and I became concerned, and Tim ultimately stopped by James’ apartment and said the lights were on, but he couldn’t see anything inside really because the blinds were shut. No one was answering the door. Eventually, the next day, Tim called the apartment complex. The apartment complex actually gave Tim James’ mom’s number. As it turned out, to our shock, James had passed away (later to be determined due to diabetic ketoacidosis). He had been dead in his apartment at least four days before his body was found.

James’ mother had sent me a message on Facebook, which had been sorted in the “other” pile, so I hadn’t seen it. She provided her phone number, and I immediately called her, and we talked. She let us know when the funeral would be, and I said I would let all of James’ other friends know.

One thing I added was, “If you haven’t contacted the City of Mesquite to let them know that James has passed away, you should probably do so.” James’ mother said, “James told me he was working for Mesquite High School, but I can’t find any evidence of payment.” This confused me because James had never mentioned working at a school. I said, “Well, James doesn’t work at a school. He worked for the City of Mesquite.” James’ mother said, “Hi lies, Lindsey. That’s what he does. He lies. I don’t even know if his diploma is real.”

This greatly confused me, and I thought to myself that I was speaking to a woman who just lost her son. So, I didn’t challenge her or prod her with questions. When we hung up, I kept thinking about what she said as I prepared for the funeral and called everyone. I almost let it go, but I thought to myself that this misunderstanding would be easy to clear up. So, eventually – several days later – I contacted the City of Mesquite just to get them to call James’ mother. The woman on the other end of the line said that she could not give out any personal information on any employee, and I told her that was fine, that she simply needed to call James’ mother. The woman looked up James’ name and said, “A person by that name has never worked here.” I thanked her and hung up.

So, then, I began going through everything I remembered in concern with James, and I kept thinking about what James’ mother had said in terms of his diploma not being real. I did some digging, and, as it turns out, any former student of Texas A&M is able to access an alumni area on the Texas A&M website that states all individuals that attended A&M and what degree he or she received, as well as the graduation year.

I logged in and checked my own name first. Everything was as it should be. Then, I checked James’ name. Beside his name were three initials: NDR. I would come to find out this means no degree received.

My mind, by this point, was reeling. I thought back to how James had said he didn’t want to walk across the stage for graduation and quickly realized that he had said this because he wasn’t actually graduating. He was pretending to graduate, and he had chosen Winter of 2009 – really a perfect date for pretend, as it was after my graduation date and before our mutual friend’s graduation. In addition, he must have ordered a diploma from a website that created fake ones and had it sent to his mother’s house.

I did a bit more digging and discovered something called the National Student Clearinghouse, which provides degree verification. For $10, you can verify a person’s degree from select colleges, as well as see what classes that student took each semester. Texas A&M is one of those select colleges. I paid $10 and read the report. James had only attended A&M for one or two semesters. That means the entire time we were hanging out my senior year, the textbooks he had out beside his couch were fake. His stories about his classes were fake. All of it was.

I began, at this point, to have many dreams that James hadn’t actually passed away, most likely because I didn’t know what to believe, anymore, in concern with him. I obviously didn’t really know him. I was very angry during this period of time, and I felt just a little guilty for being so angry. After all, he had been a friend, as well.

The question, of course, was, how was James able to pay for an apartment in Mesquite, when he didn’t have an actual job? So, part of the answer I think is in the fact that his grandparents paid for his college courses – even when James wasn’t actually taking college courses. As far as they believed, he had always been attending Texas A&M. So, he could have told them how much he needed each semester and just been pocketing the money. In addition, as a graduation present, his grandparents had given him a large monetary gift – not enough for living without a job for a long period of time, but enough for a little bit of living without a job.

It made me wonder, though, what James’ plan had been this whole time. He hadn’t set up a future for himself. He hadn’t gotten a job. Then, when he started verging on diabetes, he didn’t regularly check up with his doctor. On really dark nights, I wondered if he had committed suicide purposely, rather than accidentally, by refusing to address his medical issue.

In addition, as I thought back on other things James had said, I took note of how he was always, always making jokes and inserting the truth into jokes. Our mutual friend had asked him in a chat what classes he was taking his senior year, and James has said, “Nothing.” Our friend had written, “Nothing?” James had said, “Nothing!” Tim took it as a joke, just as I would have.

Another time, James had said that he was dating a girl named Jessica and that she had a sister named Kimberly (names are changed to protect identities). At the time, I had remarked, “Wait. Kimberly and Jessica are the same names as two sisters we know. I wonder if parents commonly pair those names together.” When we got together the next weekend, James was no longer dating “Jessica.”

As it turned out, James had been feeding details of my job to his mom, as he said he worked at the Mesquite school district (I am a professor at Cedar Valley College). So, for instance, when I had a conference, he would tell his mom he had a conference. Simultaneously, James had been feeding me details about his mom’s job, when he claimed he had been working for the City of Mesquite, as she worked for her city’s library and always had stories about IT things that had to be dealt with.

James’ mom visited him one week, and during that week, the entire week, he left at 7 AM and returned in the early evening. She told me, “Since he didn’t have a job, I don’t know what he was doing that whole time.”

James’ claim that he was helping map the human genome during college was, of course, a lie as well.

I remember one time James and I were hanging out, and he said something crazy, and I said, “Is that true?” He scrunched his face up and said, “No.” I laughed and said, “You could tell me anything, and I would believe it.” He sighed and said, “You have no idea.”

Sometimes, when I think about this, it gives me chills.

So, the most disturbing thing I found when sorting through a deceased person’s past life is the absence of everything I thought was real and true, as well as the lies of a person I thought was a close friend. Thinking about it used to drive me crazy (there are a couple of things I have intentionally left out of the story), so I had to stop thinking about it.

Originally, anger was what I mostly felt in relation to being betrayed by James. As I have gotten older, though, and tried to look at what he did more objectively, I feel sad for him. He did not have a solid handle on life, and he was not headed in a good direction. By a certain point, it was all going to come crashing down. Whether he was intentionally manipulating everyone around himself to feel superior, or he simply didn’t want to seem like a failure, they are both sad.

Putin in North Korea & Vietnam, driving collective west crazy

Fun pictures

“The United States is Crumbling Before Our Eyes” | Victor Davis Hanson

Tromping though the woods and carting dirt covered bottles home

When I was a boy, throughout fourth though (maybe) seventh grade, I would go hiking in the Pennsylvania hills. I would walk the tracks, and climb the hills. I would explore old abandoned buildings, and I would explore old garbage dumps… often finding many interesting bottles.

The whittle marked bottles were a prize.

Whittle marks are a very descriptive term for a bottle body feature that generally has nothing whatsoever to do with its name.  The term "whittled" or "whittle marked" is a reference to a hammered or wavy surface to the glass that one could imagine was caused by the "whittle" marks of the mold maker on the inside surface of a wooden mold.  Early 19th century glass makers called this effect "ruffled glass" while later it was referred to as a "hammered look" (Toulouse 1966, 1969a).  See picture to the left.

Appealing though this notion is, the large majority of molds used to produce bottles during the era covered by this webpage (1800 through the 1950s) were made of various metals, or in the earlier years, fired clay (Van den Bossche 2001).  Although wooden molds were extensively used in the very early days of bottle making (pre-1800 up until the 1850s) and continued to be used for some applications until the early 20th century, including for the  block in free-blowing, wood had too short of a life span to be of much use for most industrial bottle making where the temperature of molten glass was 2000°F and wood burns at about 1/4th that temperature (Whitall Tatum 1880; Toulouse 1966; Lohmann 1972; Boow 1991).  It is believed impossible to visually determine that a bottle was blown in a wooden mold since these type of molds had to be kept very wet in order to avoid premature burn-out or even ignition when the hot glass hit the wood.  Due to the water, steam was formed in the mold creating a cushion that the bottle "rode" on between the glass and the mold surface (Scholes 1952).  This would not leave any trace of the mold surface texture and would likely preclude embossing on the bottle.  When used, wooden molds were often lined with clay, coal, pitch, and other materials to try to extend the life.  All were poor substitutes for metal molds (Atwater 1893; Toulouse 1966; Kendrick 1968; Lohmann 1972; Munsey 1970; Deiss pers. comm. 2005).

 Whittle marks were actually caused by a reaction of the hot glass hitting the surface of a colder mold; cold relative to the temperature of the molten glass.  Thus, the alternative name for this feature - "cold mold" although it was sometimes the glass itself that was too "cold" relatively speaking (Ceramic Industry 1949).  Molds needed to be red hot" to properly produce a bottle without the wrinkles or ripple-marks that are known as whittle marks (Scholes 1952).   This hammered look of mouth-blown bottles was also believed to sometimes be caused by the rolling the hot parison on the usually colder marver (Toulouse 1966).  In a sense, whittle marks are bottle "goose bumps."  As glassblowers were paid for the number of intact bottles blown, not by the surface quality of the items, there was little incentive to pay much attention to things like whittle marks or for that matter, bubbles in the glass or other largely non-impairing flaws (Toulouse 1966; Munsey 1970).   The August 1890 edition of the National Bottlers Gazette (a carbonated beverage industry publication) noted the following - "The hammered look that some bottles present is not a sign of weakness except so far as the appearance of the bottle is concerned.  The cause of this 'Hammered' appearance is that the glass has been put into a mould which has not been sufficiently hot, and the steam from the surface has imprinted itself upon the bottle."  The steam was from the water that metal molds were either sprayed with or dipped into periodically to cool them (Toulouse 1966).

Kendrick (1968) suggested that the term whittle marks, though inaccurate, should be retained because of its ubiquitous use and because "although the  (term) may be misleading as to the true cause of the deformity, it represents a true picture in the mind's eye of how the marks appear."   This is not to say there have not been periodic debates over whether some whittle marked bottles actually do exhibit the signs of the wooden mold makers knife.  The most notable argument for this was put forth by the pioneering May Jones in Volumes 7 & 8 of her "The Bottle Trail" publications during the 1960s (Jones 1967).  However, as noted above, the steam caused by the hot glass vaporizing the moisture in a wooden mold would almost certainly preclude any subtle mold surface irregularities from expressing themselves on the bottle surface (Deiss pers. comm. 2005).  It is now believed that the vast majority - if not all - of the bottles exhibiting whittle marks are the result of the noted glass to metal mold reaction.

 The bottle pictured to the above left exhibits an extreme level of whittle marks.  This is an   Old Dr. Townsend's Sarsaparilla (New York, NY) that dates from the 1850s (Shimko 1969; Odell 2000).  This bottle was probably blown early in the day before the mold had warmed up much or after extensive cooling with water.  Though having whittle marks way more distinct than normal, this bottle makes a good illustrative item for showing this feature.  Most bottles having whittle marks exhibit them in less density and less distinctly than the pictured item.  As an example of more subdued whittle marks, click on the picture to the right.  This is a ca. 1865-1875 medicinal tonic bottle (C. G. PENDLETON'S / TONIC - the embossing is turned away in the picture) thought to be from Memphis, TN.  (Incidentally, whittle marks can be evident on any color of bottle; dark ones were used here since the dark glass surface photographs better.)

In the 20th century, much more attention was paid to all aspects of a bottles conformation and quality.  Whittle marks were, as Kendrick noted above, a deformity of the glass and something that 20th century bottle makers worked to eliminate.  They referred to whittle marks as "washboards", "brush marks", "wavy," "wavy surface", "ripple-marks", "wrinkles", "cold mold," and probably other terms (Anonymous 1949; Scholes 1952; Tooley 1953).  Some automatic machines pre-heated the molds (called a "hot mold" - molds are also cooled if too hot) though whittle marks are observed occasionally in machine-made bottles also.  These defects are less likely in fully automatic machines because they would run 24 hours a day rarely cooling off; the mold heat being supplied by the glass itself.  In addition, the cycling time from one bottle to the next was very short since machines in the mid-20th century were producing soda bottles at the rate of 30-125 (or more) per minute with one operator - hardly time to cool of much.  As a comparison earlier hand production operations produced about 1 bottle per minute with several people involved (Tooley 1953; Kendrick 1968; Jones & Sullivan 1989).

(Note: A similar bottle surface irregularity that is seen now then on mouth-blown bottles is what is termed an "orange-peel" effect or surface.  It is quite descriptive as it is a pebbly surface to the glass that very closely resembles the texture of orange peel.  This effect is probably caused similarly to whittle marks, though it is possible that at it is caused at times by the rough surface texture of a more crudely made or worn iron mold.)

As were “Bitters” bottles. Though I never found an intact bitters bottle.

In 1803, the Farmer’s Cabinet, an agriculture periodical published in Philadelphia, first mentioned the word “cocktail” to refer to a drink—and not a horse with a shortened tail. Another early description of a cocktail, from 1806, calls for four ingredients: “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters.”

Bitters occupy a curious niche in the history of food and drinks, especially given their early history as patent medicines with rather dubious reputations. Take one of the oldest, Angostura. Originally, the company’s greenish-tinted bottles contained an herbal concoction made from roots, bark, and spices. The “Aromatic Bitters” took their name from the Venezuelan city where they were first created (Angostura was subsequently rechristened Cuidad Bolivar in 1846). Interestingly, early botanists also gave the name Angostura to three different species of trees, including Galipea officinalis. Because the bitters’ recipe is a tightly guarded secret, locked in a vault and known by only five employees, whether the trademarked concoction once contained the bark from any of these Angosturas remains something of a mystery. Either way, the recipe’s since to be reformulated—in much the same way that Coca-Cola removes the potent alkaloids in coca leaves—and now Angostura neither contains Angostura, nor is it produced in Angostura.

I was curious about how bitters went from being drugs to an intrinsic part of today’s cocktail renaissance. I spoke with Brad T. Parsons, the author of Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas from his home in New York.

How did bitters evolve from a substance kept behind the apothecary to a staple in the modern cocktail?

The English used bitters in this drink called Canary wine. They were putting medicinal herb-based dashes and drops in these drinks, but bitters really exploded in American Colonial times, up through Prohibition. The word “bitters” is in the definition of the first printed usage of the word “cocktail.” It was any drink consisting of spirits, water, sugar, and bitters… There is some murkiness about when it went from being something someone sipped on its own as a medicinal to when it went into a cocktail, but people were taking these high-proof root-, botanical-, fruit-, or seed-based infusions for medicinal value.

Around 1824, Johann Siegert, who was a doctor in Venezuela, began making Angostura as a stimulant for the troops to help them with malaria and keep them on their feet. As we get to the golden age of the cocktail, the late 1800s, bitters became more synonymous with cocktails no matter what bar you went to.

Even during the Temperance movement, people who were teetotalers were still drinking bitters even though it was a high-proof infusion. During that time, people were putting these bitters into a poorer quality spirit, which was a way for it to taste better, or people were applying alcohol to their bitters to help their medicine go down, so to speak. I was never really able to pinpoint the year we went from these corked, apothecary bottles that people would nip to when they started putting them into their drinks and it became more of a concentrated drop versus a splash or a nip.

Then we get up to 2004, when Gary Regan put his bitters back on the market and now you can get a dozen different bitters. There is a little bit of “everything old is new again” charm to it, but also it was a lot of people seeking out old copies and the internet leveling the playing field by finding old, rare books, you didn’t have to physically travel around and buy them at auctions, you could buy them online.

I found tons of Lydia E. Pinkham bottles which was a “remedy” for women. I think that it was sort of a cross between cough syrup and whiskey. LOL.

Lydia Pinkham was born in 1819 to well-to-do farmers William and Rachel Estes in Lynn, Massachusetts. Pinkham joined the Lynn Female Anti-Slavery Society when she was sixteen years old, and worked as a schoolteacher until she married Isaac Pinkham in 1843. Pinkham’s foray into the world of medicine began with her penchant for collecting recipes and brewing home remedies, then giving them to her neighbours. When her family fell on difficult financial times in the 1870s, the decision was made to turn her well-liked remedy into a business.

It was marketed to women, and many women would write directly to Lydia Pinkham for health-related advice. She answered all their letters– even after her death in 1883! It was later revealed that her daughter-in-law Jennie Pinkham was the one answering the later letters.

Today, many remember Lydia Pinkham as a champion of women’s health and provider of important information to thousands of women. The formula of her Vegetable Compound changed over the years, and survives today in different, modern forms.

Ball mason jars were in abundance, and they were so common, that I gave up collecting them.

But, I’ll tell you that a fine cobalt blue telephone or telegraph insulator was a real prize. Oh, sure, we found brown ceramic insulators often enough, but the frosty pale blue ones were a real treasure.

When I went to anniversary, all my collections… from bottles to models, to books were all rummaged though by my siblings. My brother would trade them or sell them for things that he wanted, and my sisters just told my mother to throw them out. And so she did.

Very few bottles remained. Which is a shame as some (noticeablely the ink bottles with stoppers) were just beautiful.

Sigh.

And life moves on. Today…

Singapore’s Minister of Defense expressed concern in recent news about the global system potentially reaching a breaking point, emphasizing that Asian countries cannot treat this issue like “boiling a frog in lukewarm water.” What do you think?

Certainly true, but what can we do?

Look at Fumio, Suk Yeol and Bongbong.

The first two have literally run their countries to the ground pursuing foolhardy policies, with a mile-long list of anti-China measures.

Both administrations have hit record low approval ratings in the ~20% region.

20%!

How is that one man one vote rule by majority?

Goes to show who is the rainmaker behind the scenes, busy going around the world tying down coalitions to enact long-term policies that a strongman like Donald will find very hard to undo, such as the doubling of the Japanese “defense” budget.

Joe is sunshine after the Donald storm.

As for Bongbong, he is not only the son of an ousted President, he was a ranking member of the administration who fled when the Filipino people rose up in revolution. They fled to Hawaii with valuables valued at over a billion dollars (in current dollar terms), leaving behind outrageous opulence and excess they couldn’t fit in the plane.

The United States sheltered a corrupt President and has refused to repatriate the ill-gotten riches of the Marcos family.

Corazon Aquino who came to power post-ouster had the mandate from an angry electorate to make a series of Constitutional changes that was designed to prevent another Marcos from taking charge again.

And yet, Bongbong won a landslide in alliance with Duterte, despite a disinterested campaign.

Duterte has expressed massive regret, accusing Bongbong of reneging on assurances and representations made while sidelining his daughter.

Bongbong is now pushing to undo the shackles put in place by Aquino on the Marcos family, simultaneously seeking to overturn term limits and restore the Marcos dynasty.

Need I remind the reader that all three countries where the political process has been hijacked share a common denominator—U.S. troops on the ground, deployed with offensive capability aimed squarely at one nation.

The U.S. will promote anyone—good, bad, qualified, unqualified, doesn’t matter—as long as American policy goals are delivered. What carrots and resources were offered, especially the Philippines, given the absurd landslide and lightning betrayal that surprised both China and Duterte?

As long as national leaders remain willing to jump on the American ship, we are in for a really hairy rollercoaster. American policy seeks to benefit America and hurt its enemies, proxies be damned.

That is why my Harvard-trained American friend recently confided that even though he hates Donald’s guts and is ashamed to have him at the helm, he is of the opinion that a return to the White House may be a good respite, because America will find it much harder to incite and shape coalitions of conflict as an isolationist bully.

I am less sanguine. The world is in a way more dangerous place going forward than anytime this century. And if the United States fails to adjust to the cracks in American empire and downsize accordingly, the fading hegemon’s thrashing and flailing against the dying of the light will blight East Asia.

Dems In ‘FULL-BLOWN FREAK-OUT MODE’ Over Biden Poll Numbers

Well… DUH!

Stuffed Cabbage Leaves

stuffed cabbage rolls SweetAndSavoryMeals 6

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

12 large cabbage leaves
1 pound lean ground beef or lamb
1/2 cup cooked rice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
3/4 cup water

Instructions

Wash cabbage leaves.
Boil 4 cups water.
Turn heat off.
Soak leaves in water for 5 minutes.
Remove leaves, drain and cool.
Combine remaining ingredients except tomato paste and water.
Place 2 tablespoons of mixture on each leaf and roll firmly.
Stack in slow cooker.
Combine tomato paste and water and pour over stuffed cabbage.
Cover and cook on LOW for 8 to 10 hours.

“What am I supposed to do at a bar?”

May 16, 2024

I went to a bar alone for the first time recently and I found it really boring. I brought a book in case I got anxious so I would have something to focus on but it pretty much came down to I either read, played on my phone, or stared at the wall. Everyone else there came with someone else and had someone to interact with but I just kinda… sat there.

Alright, let’s break this down. You want to know how to strike up a conversation with strangers at a bar without coming across as socially inept. I get it. Socializing can be uncomfortable, especially when you’re on your own and everyone else seems to be part of a group.

First off, ditch the book. This isn’t high school study hall; it’s a bar. The whole point of going to a bar is to interact with people, not to isolate yourself. If you’re buried in a book, you’re sending off vibes that say, “Don’t talk to me.” Same goes for staring at your phone or the wall. You’re not going to magically become more interesting to yourself by doing that.

Bars are designed for people to mingle and chat with each other. It’s not like you’re interrupting a serious event. So don’t be afraid to put yourself out there.

Next time, try this: walk in with the mindset that you’re there to meet new people and have fun, not just to kill time.

Sit at the bar, order a drink or two, and tune into the chatter around you. Before long, you’ll likely overhear someone nearby saying something that piques your interest or relates to a topic you know about. Or maybe a situation will unfold that perfectly sets up a joke you’ve been waiting to tell. When that moment comes, seize it. Jump into the conversation casually—no need to be overly aggressive or intense. A good-natured chuckle and a friendly head turn towards your potential new acquaintance is often all it takes to get the ball rolling.

If they’re open to chatting, great! You’ve just made a new single-serving friend. Engage with them, share some laughs, and see where the conversation takes you.

If they give you a polite “haha yeah” and then turn back to their friends, don’t take it personally. Not everyone is in the mood to make new acquaintances, and that’s okay. Just brush it off and move on. Simply move on and keep your eyes and ears open for the next opportunity.

Another helpful trick is to think of your position as one point of a triangle, with the bartender and someone next to you as the other two points. Strike up a conversation with the bartender, then casually include your neighbor in the discussion. Bounce between the two, feel out the vibe, and see if a larger conversation blossoms. Bartenders are often masters at facilitating these kinds of interactions, so don’t be afraid to lean on their expertise.

The triangle strategy with the bartender is also a smart approach. Bartenders are usually pretty skilled at facilitating conversations and making introductions. So if you’re connecting with them, chances are they can help bring your neighbor into the mix.

But here’s the most important thing to remember: if you want to meet new people, YOU have to be the one to initiate. Don’t just sit there sipping your drink and hoping someone will magically strike up a conversation with you. That’s like waiting for a leprechaun to appear.

Instead, embrace the discomfort and put yourself out there. Will it feel awkward at times? Probably. Will you face some rejection? Almost certainly. But who cares? Every social interaction is a chance to hone your skills and build your confidence.

And really, what’s the worst that could happen? Someone doesn’t want to talk to you? It’s not the end of the world. There are plenty of other people in the bar to chat with.

The bottom line is this: if you want a different social experience, you have to be willing to create it yourself. So stop being a wallflower and start being the social butterfly you wish to attract. Worst case scenario, you’ll have a few awkward moments and a funny story to tell later. Best case, you’ll expand your social circle and have a great time doing it.

FDIC: 63 BANKS TEETERING ON FAILURE

Hal Turner Nation June 04, 2024

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has warned that 63 Banks are “vulnerable” to failure due to $517 Billion in Unrealized Losses, marking a “concerning uptick” in the financial sector’s instability.

Despite the claimed ‘resilience’ in the banking sector by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Biden administration, the specter of significant financial strain looms large. Unrealized losses on securities swelled by $39 billion from the previous quarter, driven predominantly by depreciations in residential mortgage-backed securities due to rising mortgage rates.

The latest FDIC report highlights that this marks the ninth consecutive quarter of substantial unrealized losses, a troubling trend that began with the Federal Reserve‘s interest rate hikes in early 2022. Simultaneously, the number of banks on the FDIC’s Problem Bank List has escalated from 52 to 63 in just one quarter.

These banks, identified with a CAMELS composite rating of “4” or “5,” indicate a heightened level of financial, operational, or managerial weaknesses. The total assets of these at-risk banks have surged by $15.8 billion, signaling potential vulnerabilities in the broader banking ecosystem. The widespread belief is that the banking crisis that began in 2023 is ongoing.

Following the dramatic failures of three of the largest financial institutions in American history last year, Philadelphia’s Republic First Bank also collapsed this year. Additionally, a recent study from Klaros Group, published in May 2024, suggests that hundreds of U.S. banks are at risk of failure.

The latest data presented by the FDIC serves as a sobering reminder of the ongoing challenges within the U.S. banking sector. Despite governmental assurances, the persistent rise in unrealized losses and the expanding roster of vulnerable institutions suggest a pivotal moment for so-called ‘economic resilience.’ The FDIC figures emphasize the persistent uncertainty regarding the stability of the U.S. banking system.

Amelia Earhart Landed on Gardner Island | Nikumaroro | The Earhart Mystery

This is fine, but the background music is damn irritating.

French Soldier Captured ALIVE By Russian Troops in Ukraine

Hal Turner World June 03, 2024

French Soldier Captured By Russia in Ukraine large

French Soldier Captured ALIVE By Russian Troops in Ukraine

Video below shows the capture of a French military by the Russian Army in the area of the village of Liptsy (Kharkov region), where active hostilities between the Russian Armed Forces and the AFU are now taking place.

This soldier was not “instructing” Ukrainian troops, he was engaged in an active fire-fight with Russian troops – and got captured.

Of course, we will likely hear how this soldier resigned from the French Army and became a mercenary with some unknown, never-heard-of Private Military Organization . . . but the evidence is irrefutable: French military is in fire fights inside Ukraine, against Russia. France is waging war against Russia in Ukraine.

US close to ‘fatal’ miscalculation – Moscow

Via RT

Russia’s response to what Washington’s “clients” in Ukraine do may be “asymmetrical” and stronger than expected, the senior diplomat has warned

The US is close to making a “fatal” miscalculation in its attempts to deal with Russia and the Ukraine conflict, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has warned.

The senior diplomat commented on Monday on the reported US decision to let Kiev use American weapons outside what Washington considers Ukrainian territory. The move is supposedly limited to a small piece of Russia’s Belgorod Region relevant to hostilities across the border in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region.

”I’d like to warn American actors against miscalculations that can lead to fatal consequences. For some unclear reason they underestimate how serious a response they could face,” Ryabkov told journalists.

Up to then the stated US policy had been to ban such attacks, to prevent triggering “World War III.” Kiev has said it is disappointed by the change, as it wants permission to fire long-range American weapons deep inside Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned of “serious consequences” of potential long-range strikes “considering the [countries’] parity in strategic weapons.”

Ryabkov urged American policymakers to “spend some of their time, which they probably waste on computer games, judging by their air-headed approach to serious issues” on considering Putin’s words.

The official also warned that Russia could react asymmetrically to a Ukrainian attack on its nuclear deterrence, as Moscow would hold the US responsible. Officials in Washington “have given Kiev a permit for any crimes, any action, and do nothing to curb provocations by their clients… But the US does not get this for free and will feel consequences,” the deputy FM warned.

Ukrainian sources have claimed to the media that Kiev targeted two early-warning radar stations in Russia last month, allegedly damaging one. The facilities in question are designed to detect intercontinental ballistic missile launches and provide a response window to the Russian leadership.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not comment on the reports.

America In 2024: Fast Food Is A “Luxury”, 11 Million Children Live In Poverty, And 1000s Of Stores Are Closing

May 26, 2024 by Michael

Little by little, our standard of living has been eroding. A couple decades ago, we had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now most of the country is struggling. At this point, fast food is considered to be a “luxury”, 11 million children are living in poverty, and thousands of stores are permanently shutting down all over the United States because consumers have so little discretionary income these days. We are in the midst of a historic cost of living crisis, and those at the bottom of the economic food chain are being hit the hardest.

The ultra-wealthy don’t really care that food costs have been soaring, but for those that are barely scraping by from month to month it makes an enormous difference.

Once upon a time, fast food restaurants were where those that were struggling went to eat.

But now fast food is considered to be a “luxury” in 2024, and that is because fast food prices have gone absolutely haywire…

A Big Mac sandwich at McDonald’s, for example, cost $3.99 in 2019. Now, that price has more than doubled to $8.29, according to Fast Food Menu Prices, an online tracker.

Gone, too, are the days of the $5 Footlong at Subway. A BLT Footlong that cost $5.50 in 2019 now costs customers $8.49 in 2024, though prices can vary by location. Additionally, Chipotle’s beloved chicken burrito that cost $6.50 in 2019 now runs customers $10.70.

Fast-food executives have pointed to rising wages and increased costs for ingredients as factors driving up the prices on their menus.

I am sitting here looking at those numbers and I still can’t wrap my head around them.

I never imagined that I would see the day when it took more than 8 dollars to buy a Big Mac.

That is insane!

A different survey that was recently conducted by Lending Tree discovered that almost 80 percent of all Americans believe that fast food is a “luxury item” now…

Nearly 80 percent of Americans now consider fast food to be a “luxury item” as families feel the squeeze from the Biden regime’s failing economy.

According to a survey from Lending Tree of around 2,000 adults, what was once considered an affordable option for low-income workers is fast becoming the opposite.

Meanwhile, the number of American children living in poverty continues to increase with each passing day.

If you can believe it, we are being told that over 11 million U.S. children are now living in poverty…

More than 11 million children were estimated to be living in poverty in 2021, according to U.S. Census Bureau data published by the Children’s Defense Fund.

That equates to around one in seven children in the U.S., or 15.3 percent. It’s a high toll, and one even higher than the adult population, which was 10.5 percent for 19-64 year olds that year and 10.3 percent for adults aged 65+.

According to an analysis by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, this difference is due to factors such as the “cost of caregiving and its responsibilities, transitions to a single parenthood household, unemployment of parents, and disabilities of family members.”

Today, approximately 40 percent of the entire country is considered to be either living in poverty or among the ranks of “the working poor”, and 42 million Americans are on food stamps.

We now have an absolutely gigantic “underclass” that is largely made up of people that were once solidly middle class.

The rapidly rising cost of living is just shredding families from coast to coast.

In Montana, one senior is incredibly frustrated because his property taxes have increased by 790 percent over the past several years…

A senior from Montana has delivered a viral speech about the sorry state of property taxes in the Treasure State.

“I’m on Social Security, I’m 68-years-old and working just to pay my taxes,” says Kurt, in a clip shared on TikTok by Ryan Busse, who is running to be the next governor of Montana.

Kurt claims that over the last couple of years, his annual property taxes have soared from $895 to almost $8,000 — an increase of around 790% — which he says is like paying almost “$700 a month rent to the state to live in our own house.” The state has an Elderly Homeowner/Renter Tax Credit, and the maximum credit is $1,150.

His property taxes have skyrocketed because property values have skyrocketed.

And property values have skyrocketed because our leaders flooded the system with way too much money.

Small businesses are being monkey-hammered by inflation as well.

In fact, one recent survey found that 86 percent of all U.S. small businesses say that they are being hurt by inflation…

An overwhelming majority of small business owners say they are being hurt by rising prices.

The new survey released Wednesday by small business network Alignable shows 86% reporting being hurt by high costs with only 6% saying they are thriving and not struggling.

Alignable surveyed more than 3,000 business owners from mid-April to mid-May and found that they overwhelmingly lament the burden of inflation.

Dollar stores in particular are being hit really hard by rising costs.

For example, 99 Cents Only has decided to close all of their stores because conditions have changed so dramatically…

For years, dollar stores were a fixture in nearly every strip mall in California, offering cheap household goods, bread and produce, and even toys and gifts.

But if it seems like your favorite dollar store is heading for the exit, you’re not wrong.

2024 may be their swan song.

In April, California-based 99 Cents Only announced it was closing all 371 locations after decades in business. The retailer blamed economic factors, including rising levels of “shrink,” inflation, and shifting consumer demand that has presented “significant and lasting challenges.”

Not to be outdone, Dollar Tree has announced that it will be closing about 1,000 stores…

Dollar Tree, which owns Family Dollar, recently said it will close nearly 1,000 stores. That’s after Dollar Tree raised prices in the past couple of years for the first time in decades.

Overall, so far in 2024 retailers have already announced that they will be closing nearly 3,200 stores, and we haven’t even reached the mid-point of the year yet…

The retail industry is going through a tough time as it copes with inflation-weary consumers and a rash of bankruptcies, prompting chains to announce the closures of almost 3,200 brick-and-mortar stores so far in 2024, according to a new analysis.

That’s a 24% increase from a year ago, according to a report from retail data provider CoreSight, which tracks store closures and openings across the U.S.

The final countdown for the U.S. economy has begun, but most Americans do not even realize what is happening.

Most Americans just assume that our leaders can fix things by printing even more money and that conditions will “return to normal” eventually.

But the truth is that there isn’t going to be a “return to normal”, because this is about as “normal” as things are going to get.

It has taken decades of horrendous decisions to get us to this point, and now we are steamrolling toward economic oblivion.

If you think that our leaders in Washington will be able to turn this ship around, you are just being delusional.

It’s happening, Elon Musk finally JOINS TRUMP in fight against Joe Biden

Secret in the Sand

Submitted into Contest #251 in response to: Write a story about discovering a lost manuscript. It can be from a famous (or infamous) author, or an unknown one.… view prompt

Ralph Aldrich

With a gleam of excitement in his eye, archaeologist Humphrey Abbot strokes his pride and joy, a massive black mustache. He has gathered a group of financiers in his mahogany paneled library to persuade them to invest in an expedition to Eygpt. After the brandy’s been poured and the cigars lit, Abbot clears his throat. “Gentlemen, I have invited you here this evening to tell you of a remarkable discovery I have made while researching the Great Pyramid of Giza. I found the following notation in an 1838 book, “Giza-What We Know,” by the late archaeologist Wilbur Thomas. I quote, “I have come across an interesting detail in the building of the Great Pyramid, also known as the Pyramid of Khufu. It alludes to an L-shaped underground chamber running parallel to the pyramid itself. The nature of the chamber is unknown, and its exact location is a bit of a mystery. The only way to gain access is by pressing a hidden stone that acts as a lever. This lever stone is identical to all the other stones in the main passageway. Thus making it most difficult to find.”Abbot adjusts the knot of his silk-crested navy blue Oxford College tie. “There you have it, gentlemen, the reason for this meeting. I wish to raise funds for traveling, permits to enter Khufu and bankroll for my two assistants, Barrows and Clark. I’ll also need funds for equipment and to hire workers. Just think of it, sirs! We’d be the first to uncover a never-before-seen chamber hidden for centuries! What mysteries does it hold? What is its purpose? And, of course, what will we add to history?” A well-dressed gentleman to the right of the room removes his monocle and holds it up to attract Abbot’s attention.Abbot addresses him. “Yes, Lord Bellington.”“If I were to invest in your venture, what exactly could I expect in return?”Abbot taps his lower lip with his finger. “Ahh. I see your lordship. You would like to know what your reward would be for investing. It will be your honor to present our findings to the Queen of England! Not a bad contact to have in Buckingham Palace, eh?” A smattering of low laughter floats through the room. After further discussion, an agreement is struck, and Professor Humphrey Abbot smiles broadly while making plans to leave for Eygpt. …Exiting the Cario airport, Abbot consults with his man, Phillip Barrows, who manages the ground crew and living quarters. Barrows has worked with Abbot for about ten years. He’s six feet tall and handsome with wavy, sun-bleached blonde hair. Abbot tells him to contact Abanoub Zewail, a man Abbot has previously employed. He is to provide tents, a good cook, and around ten trustworthy laborers.Timmy Clark is a former Abbot student whose primary function is to be Abbot’s secretary and go-for. Clark is a twenty-two-year-old American, somewhat shorter than Barrows, with an easy disposition. He is also somewhat of a ladies’ man, something Abbot intends to warn him about here in Eygpt. Abbot tells Clark to go to the Pyramids of Giza Visitor Center to see if he might obtain a permit to explore The Great Pyramid. With orders given, Abbot rubs his hands together in excitement.The encampment is a buzz of action. As tents are erected and electric lines are laid, Professor Abbott travels into town to consult with his old friend and fellow archaeologist, Professor Shakir Arax.Abbot is greeted by a short, white-haired man in his late sixties. “Humphrey, my friend, please come in! I’m anxious to learn more about your discovery. Dalal! Bring some hot black coffee to the study, please.” Turning to Abbot, he smiles. “Nothing is better for thinking than a good cup of black coffee.” He taps his temple. “It sharpens the mind.”Entering the study, Arax motions Abbot to a chair as he continues to the massive book collection behind his desk. In a faraway voice deep in concentration, he asks, “Did you say it was by Wilbur Thomas?”“Yes! Its title is “Giza-What We Know.” Arax scans for a few more seconds before exclaiming, “Ah! Here it is!” Standing on his tip-toes, he stretches to the third shelf and retrieves the book. Puffing, he walks to the table. “Humphrey, I would have reached up there ten years ago and easily gotten this book! It seems the older I get, the shorter I become!” Both men laugh.Abbot shows Arax the passage in question. Arax closes his eyes to think. Shaking his head, he opens his eyes and lifts his eyebrows. “I can’t remember having heard of such a chamber before. Perhaps it’s recorded on some old papyrus that describes the pyramid’s building. I’ll get them.” Arax returns with an armful of scrolls and gently starts unfurling them on the table. The two men ponder over them but to no avail. Arax is the first to speak. “I don’t find anything about an addition or exterior chamber, do you, Humphrey?”“I’m sorry to say it, but I don’t, Shakir. Thank you for all your help. I’ll have to find another way somehow.”

Arax strokes his small, grey goatee. “I was just thinking. Perhaps you might try remote sensing. It’s a technique where you climb to a very high place to see all the surrounding landscape and look for abnormalities such as depressions.”

Abbot pulls on the corner of his mustache. “Hmm. Perhaps if I rent an airplane, I could reach an altitude to see a depression like that. The ground is packed hard enough from all the tourists and such. Yes! I think it might work. Thank you, Shakir. You’ve been most helpful.”

“Think nothing of it. I’m more than happy to help. I might even come to the site in a day or two to see how the project progresses.”

“That would be wonderful, Shakir. I’ll be looking forward to seeing you.” With that, the two men part.

…

Professor Abbot watches the Piper Cub taxi to a stop. Inside, he sees Timmy in a lengthy conversation with the pilot before emerging from the plane. Timmy waves vigorously as he approaches his boss.

“Hey there, Professor. I got some great shots, and an indent can be seen next to the pyramid! You can see it good from the plane.”

“That’s great to hear, Timmy. Good news indeed. I’m looking forward to seeing the photos, but tell me. What took you so long to get out of the plane?” Timmy looks back toward the plane, “Oh that?” Abbot looks in time to see the pilot remove her headset and long blonde hair cascade over her shoulders. Arching his eyebrow, he side-eyes Timmy, who only grins and blushes. “I’m meeting her tonight for dinner,” he smirks.

Abbot and Barrows look over the snapshots the next day at the site. “It appears the length is correct, don’t you think, Phil?”

Holding a photo up for a closer look, Barrows squints. “It’s hard to tell from this distance, but you can see that whatever it is, it is centered to the pyramid. Will we dig straight down to it, Professor?”

“No. It is probably enclosed, hence the need for a hidden corridor or stairway for entrance. The main passageway is small, measuring only 3.4 feet wide and 3.8 feet high. I’ll have to send in one man at a time with some tape. He can mark each stone he tests with the tape before he moves to the next one. It will be hard work, but I can think of no other way, can you?” Barrows shakes his head no.

In the meantime, Timmy obtains a GPR, a ground-penetrating radar machine. It reveals an object approximately six feet deep under the surface of the sand. Though quite exciting, it shows little else. The crew even employs metal detectors but discovers nothing.

Finally, one of Abanoub’s men runs excitedly out the passageway, shouting in Arabic, “I found it! I found it!”

Barrows and Abbot dash to the pyramid, sand flying up behind them. Barrows stops short at the entrance. “I think my size will slow you down, Professor. Perhaps Timmy would be a more suitable choice for helping you now.” When Timmy arrives, Professor Abbot explains that Timmy is there to help him identify and record what they’re about to see. The two men squat down and duck waddle into the passageway. After laboring for about fifty feet or so, they reach the opening. Timmy continues a few feet further before turning around to face the Professor. “Gee whiz, Professor. This sure is exciting. Whoever thought there would be a chamber! Look! It’s a ramp! It looks pretty steep!”

“Yes. That’s why we must go back. If we were to go down there now, we’d be stuck. We must construct a way to get back out once we’ve gone down.”

The three men return a few hours later with a long measure of rope that has knots tied every few feet. Abbot throws the rope down the ramp as Barrows wraps it around his arm. Abbot then hands it to Clark. “Well, Timmy. Are you ready to give it a go?” Timmy’s eyes sparkle in the light of the electric torches as he smiles and salutes Professor Abbot. “Ready as I’ll ever be, Sir.” With that, he slips off the edge of the opening and slides to the end of the ramp. His “Aye-Hoo!” reverberates to the bottom. Abbot shakes his head while pinching the bridge of his nose. “Oh, that boy!” Barrows smiles and snorts.

“Timmy? Can you see anything?”

“Yes, Professor. There is an outline of a door. Due to its proximity to the bottom of the ramp, I would say it pushes inward. There are some hieroglyphics over the door, too.”

Abbot nervously strokes his mustache. “Do you think you can read them?”

There’s a hesitation. “Well, I’m a little rusty, but I’ll give it a go!” All is quiet while Timmy tries to decipher the message.

Anticipation overtakes Abbot. “Well, boy, have you discerned what it says?”

Clark’s voice wavers. “I believe so, though it’s somewhat confusing. It says, “Chamber of the Gods.” An imprint on the door is shaped like a strange hand. It consists of three digits and a thumb.” Clark conforms his hand to fit the imprint and then gives it a light push. The door glides open. “Professor! Come quickly! You’ve got to see this!” Clark’s voice echos up the shaft.

Abbot turns to Barrows. “Give the rope to someone else and follow me. I may need you.” Without hesitation, the sixty-seven-year-old man slides down the ramp. Barrows arrives seconds later. Abbot notices Clark’s face is aglow, and a strange light emits from the chamber. Clark’s eyes are large, and his mouth slightly agape. Abbot whispers, “Where the devil is that light coming from?” Clark gestures to Abbot with his hand proffering entrance. “Sir, this is your discovery. Therefore, you have the honor of entering first.” He bows slightly.

Abbot enters cautiously, glancing over the room. He soon discovers the light is coming from the ceiling and seems to grow brighter depending on which direction you move. “Fascinating,” he whispers. Along the wall, there are various stations with dials and knobs and switches. The wall at the end of the chamber is a large screen depicting an unknown section of outer space. Stroking his mustache intensely, Abbot announces, “Gentlemen, I believe this to be a live display!”

Barrows sits in an oversized chair that sinks a little under his weight. “Are we to believe that all those crackpots on TV are right? Aliens really did help the ancient Egyptians?” Behind Barrows, a small screen flickers to life. Abbot recognizes the man with the head of a hawk as the deity Ra, the sun god believed to be the creator of all other gods and humans. It speaks. “I see you are not Egyptians. I will speak to you in your native tongue. I am Ra! By opening the chamber, you have sent a signal confirming that the time has come for us to return. Your civilization has advanced to the time of being useful to our needs. Inform your leaders to prepare a temple of honor for us to abide in. We are coming!”

Shorpy

SHORPY Detroit Panorama Martius 1.preview

Here is what China said to the United States Defense Minister. He was not pleased.

Part I – The 2024 Defense Summit in Singapore has ended. Below are the Chinese highlights re USA & Taiwan. Part II is about Philippines.

Re USA alone

1, China asked Austin if USA is planning to set up an Asian version of NATO. No answer. Austin then was quiet for 1 day. Later he admitted he was not pleased.

2, China accused USA to be the one who causes global unrest & war in the 21st century.

re USA & Taiwan, Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun said …

1, Any country who helps Taiwan seceding from China will end up breaking its bones into pieces & destroying itself (粉身碎骨，自我灭亡)

2, China can control Taiwan like catching a fish that is confined in a container (瓮中捉鳖)

3, USA has been hollowing out the ONE China policy bit by bit (掏空一中原则).

(I add) USA has no credibility. Never keeps promise & follow thru the policy.

US Defense Secy Austin responded by urging China to have dialogue with Taiwan. Maintain status quo with threat or punishment.

(I add) Who stopped the dialogue? Taiwan. Who is behind Taiwan? USA.

Continue with Part II re Philippines.

What was the most legendary “I quit!” that you know about or witnessed?

Originally Answered: What was the most legendary "I quit!" that you know about or witnessed?

I worked at a Starbucks inside of a Target during two college summers. There was one employee there who had been there a few years, worked hard and was happy to train others, was often willing to pick up unwanted shifts, and regularly received good feedback. He was also one of the few people who worked there year-round instead of seasonally and was adored by customers.

His girlfriend moved a few hours away for college and he wanted to be able to plan ahead to visit her some weekends. At first he requested all weekends off, vowing to willingly work any hours/shifts needed during the week and then, when they refused, countered with asking for something like every other weekend off, the first and last weekend of every month off, etc. Despite many of us wanting more hours (so they presumably would have been able to cover the shifts he wanted off without issue), he was refused.

He requested yet another meeting with our manager to practically beg— he liked his job, loved his girlfriend, was a reasonable guy and valuable employee, and was being flexible in his requests. She refused.

Apparently the next part of the story involved him angrily responding about how hard he’d worked for them, how he couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t budge, and worked himself into a frenzy that involved him removing his company-issued shirt and apron and throwing it into our manager’s garbage can. I was delighted to be able to witness with my own eyes him parading shirtless through the store—but still with his required khakis, black shoes, and hat—hooting and hollering all the way. Dude looked like a glorious lunatic; it was fantastic.

**Disclaimer: this was a bad manager issue, not one that should reflect on the companies noted. The manager didn’t last long after the Shirtless Quitter—her best employee who often covered up her mistakes and did her work for her—was gone.

SERGEY LAVROV:

"President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that preserving historical memory is more than just a tribute to the sacrifices that our people and country made for the sake of our independence, but also guarantees our sovereignty and independence in the future.

It’s impossible to be a nation without historical memory, which fact the history of our country has proved many times.

The great victories of our predecessors date back to Kievan Rus, and the Napoleonic wars, the wars of the 19th century, the Crimean War and other military campaigns aimed primarily to weaken Russia.

It all ended in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II and creating the United Nations based on eternal vows to make sure nothing like that ever happens again.

The Nuremberg Tribunal appeared to have put an end to the arguments about who was right and who was at fault, who fought for a just cause and who fought for global domination using absolutely inhuman methods.

Unfortunately, we are witnessing the attempts to 'realise' history, to rewrite it, and to equate those who defeated Nazism to the Nazi hordes which fact is particularly salient in the case of Ukraine."

Excerpt from remarks by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an interview for No Statute of Limitations project, Moscow, June 1, 2024.

10 reasons Cambodia is better than The Philippines

Why You Have Every Right to Cut Off Toxic Family Members

May 16, 2024

We’ve all heard the saying “blood is thicker than water.” It’s supposed to mean that family ties are the strongest bonds of all, that you should always put family first, no matter what.

Well, I call bullshit.

Here’s the truth: Just because someone shares your DNA doesn’t give them a free pass to be a toxic asshole in your life. It doesn’t obligate you to put up with their abuse, manipulation, or constant negativity. And it sure as hell doesn’t mean you have to keep them around if they’re dragging you down.

But for some reason, we’ve been conditioned to believe that we owe unwavering loyalty and unlimited chances to our family members, even when they’re consistently shitty to us. We make excuses for their behavior, we minimize their impact, and we keep engaging with them out of some misplaced sense of duty.

Fuck that noise. Your duty is to yourself and your own well-being. And if a family member is poisoning your life with their toxicity, you have every right to cut them out.

I know, I know – the mere thought of it feels sacrilegious. We’re not supposed to “give up” on family, right? We’re supposed to love them unconditionally, to turn the other cheek, to keep trying no matter how many times they hurt us.

But here’s the thing: That kind of blind, self-abandoning loyalty is a one-way ticket to misery. It’s not noble or virtuous to let someone continuously trample your boundaries and well-being, family or not. In fact, it’s a form of self-betrayal.

And look, I’m not saying you should cut off every family member who occasionally annoys you or makes a mistake. We’re all human, and we all fuck up sometimes. The key is to look at patterns of behavior. If a family member is consistently toxic, if they’re repeatedly causing you harm and showing no real interest in changing, then it’s time to re-evaluate whether they deserve a place in your life.

This can be incredibly difficult, I know. Cutting off a toxic family member can come with a tidal wave of guilt, fear, and self-doubt. You might worry about the fallout, the judgment from other family members, the loneliness of losing that connection.

But you know what’s worse than all of that? Spending your precious years on this earth being slowly eroded by someone else’s toxicity. Compromising your own happiness, sanity, and growth for the sake of an unhealthy loyalty. Betraying yourself again and again by allowing unacceptable treatment from anyone, blood-related or not.

So here’s my advice: Muster up the courage to put yourself first. Have the hard conversations, set the firm boundaries, and if necessary, cut the toxic ties. Will it be painful? Probably. Will there be backlash and confusion from some people? Almost certainly.

But will it also be a profound act of self-love and self-preservation? Absolutely. And that, my friend, is always worth it.

Remember, you get to choose your family in this life. You get to decide who deserves a seat at the table of your existence. And if a blood relative is consistently shitting on that table, it’s time to show them the door.

Cutting off toxic family members doesn’t make you cold, selfish, or unkind. It makes you brave, self-aware, and committed to your own healing. And that is something to be fucking proud of.

Australia exporting crime?

The world is changing.

I guess Donald needs to review his definition of shithole countries, especially color and continent.

Australian man, 39, charged for robbing Tampines moneylender of S$6,095 with knife

He allegedly put a 32-year-old female in fear of bodily hurt during the robbery.

Australian man, 39, charged for robbing Tampines moneylender of S$6,095 with knife

He allegedly put a 32-year-old female in fear of bodily hurt during the robbery.

Matthias Ang | June 04, 2024, 12:03 PM

A 39-year-old Australian man was charged in Singapore on Jun. 4, 2024, for an alleged armed robbery of a Tampines moneylender.

According to charge sheets, Jose Manuel Pacheco allegedly robbed the moneylender at Block 503 Tampines with a knife on Jun. 3, 2024, at around 1:42pm and got away with S$6,095.

Charge sheets also show that he allegedly put a 32-year-old female in fear of bodily hurt while committing the robbery.

According to court records, Pacheco has been offered bail of S$20,000.

Victim took note of suspect's outfit while handing over the money

According to a press release by the Singapore Police Force (SPF), Pacheco was arrested within half an hour of the alleged crime.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect had allegedly robbed the victim at knifepoint while wearing a mask and a cap.

He had also supposedly demanded for the cash to be put in a bag.

The victim then handed over S$6,095.

Even as she was preparing the money however, she maintained her composure and noted the attire and appearance of the man, the police added.

Gave the police a "detailed" description of the man

The police were alerted to the incident at 2:10pm.

While responding officers were making their way to the scene, they received a detailed description of the suspect from the victim, which was vital to his arrest, according to the commander of the Bedok Police Division, Justin Wong.

Upon arrival, police officers noticed a man who fit the description and arrested him about half an hour after the robbery occurred.

The stolen cash was recovered in full, along with the knife used during the robbery.

The offence of armed robbery committed during the day carries a jail term of between two to 10 years and at least 12 strokes of the cane.

Americans First Time in China… NOT AT ALL what we expected

GOD BLESS MARVIN HEEMEYER

Guest Post by The Redheaded Libertarian

“I was always willing to be reasonable. Until I had to be unreasonable. Sometimes reasonable men, must do unreasonable things.” – Marvin Heemeyer

June 4, 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of libertarian Folk hero Marvin Heemeyer’s Killdozer Ride through Granby, Colorado.

Buckle up for a wild tale in a Killdozer.

There once lived a man of humble means named Marvin Heemeyer. Marvin owned a muffler shop in Granby, Colorado.

Marv was a simple man. Paid his taxes. Owned his business. Lived a quiet life.

Until one day, the City Council went full King George on our blessed Patriot.

Now, The City Council had approved the building of a concrete factory across the street from Marvin’s muffler shop. That would have been fine- However, this building would block the only access road to Marvin’s business.

Marvin petitioned first to have the construction stopped- he was rejected.

Marvin petitioned again to build another access road. Even offered to do it himself- boom. denied.

So despite his best efforts, the concrete business was built anyway. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, it’s construction cut off Marvin’s sewage lines from the town.

Marvin’s business was effectively isolated from the town right down to his toilets.

So how did the City Council respond? They did something right?!

Of course! Naturally, like every dystopian central planning board of fight communists, they fined Marvin.

So Marvin’s business was destroyed. He had fines to pay. He was ignored by his city government.

All seemed lost- But the spirit of the great American Swamp Fox coursed through the veins of our legend and he decided to do the only logical thing he could think of — And build a killdozer.

Over the course of the next 18 months, Marvin would upgrade a bulldozer he’d purchased with 3ft thick steel armor, a camera, and bullet proof glass.

And on the fourth day of June in the 2004th year of our lord, Marvin and his killdozer would burst through the side of his own muffler shop before plowing through the walls of that concrete factory like some kind of Paul Revere Koolaid Man off to deliver a hell of a message

Marvin and his mighty steed would blow through 13 more buildings owned by the tyrants who destroyed his life, as if they were the Hessian mercenaries at Trenton and he was their Christmas night surprise.

Marvin avoided all people using his camera. Marvin was a gentle man.

Entire SWAT teams were brought to their knees by Killdozer, like the cowardly redcoats at Lexington and Concord. Explosives were no match for Killdozer, for Killdozer was an impenetrable work of art— the Mona Lisa, if you will, of reconnaissance automobiles.

The comeuppance of the city planners would continue until Marvin and Killdozer became trapped in the final building where Marvin would sacrifice his own life and l immortalize himself in our hearts and minds, forever. There would be no other casualties.

A note discovered later would answer any questions as to why Marvin Heemeyer did what he did. It read,
“I was always willing to be reasonable. Until I had to be unreasonable. Sometimes reasonable men, must do unreasonable things.”

God Bless Marvin. And God Bless his mighty Killdozer.

Girl LOSES Job Because Of TikTok

What is the saddest thing about your father and/or mother?

My parents were both born in the 1920’s. At the age of 8, my mom lost her eye after someone threw an open can at her. The doctors and teachers told her that she’d never amount to anything and that she was only good for having babies. My dad had (undiagnosed) mental issues from a young age. Both their parents got together and thought they’d make a good couple. There was no courtship or love, and my mom endured that extra pain for the next 44 years. They didn’t believe in divorce. My dad kept her pregnant so she had to stay home while he cheated on her with everyone that he could. I have proof from many sources. She was afraid and never stood up to him. Nearly 20 children later, her body could not take another pregnancy and she was done.

When I was 22, she started getting sick and was diagnosed with heart disease. He refused to let her have the lifesaving bypass she so desperately needed, because “Who wants a woman with that kind of a scar?!” Her death shattered our family, and it has never been the same. He died a few years later, and most people came to the funeral just to make sure. Mom was buried in the most beautiful casket created, and her funeral was so big that the church was overfilled and there were many people that had to stand outside. We buried that asshole in the cheapest box we could find.

I believe that mom is finally happy and at peace. Hopefully she’ll be reincarnated and have the wonderful life she so richly deserves.

Why is China losing the space station competition?

Let’s go into some very brief historical facts:

The International Space Station (ISS) was an unprecedented scientific and engineering collaboration among five space agencies representing 15 countries, took 10 years and more than 30 missions to assemble and launched to orbit the earth.

Having been banned, specifically by the U.S.A, from participation in the International Space, China decided to build their own space Tiangong station all by their lonesome self and, possibly by 2030 after the demise of the ISS, will be the only Earthling to have a working space station. Besides the U.S.A who had a huge head start in space exploration, China is now the only other nation to have successfully landed a rover on the Moon and Mars and ALL with their first attempt. Very recently, China launched an uncrewed spacecraft on a nearly two-month mission to retrieve rocks and soil from the far side of the moon, the first country to make such an ambitious attempt. Sometime back, the convicted war criminal Japan failed in their attempt to land a rover on the Moon as did Russia, Israel and other nations. Recently, India managed to successfully land a rover, while the Jepun tried again and managed to land an upside-down Rover which wasn’t of much use to anybody.

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So, as in space, without any doubt, China will excel in whatever they put their mind to do on planet Earth. And come to think of it, China accomplished all that in just over 42 years after coming out of isolation & hibernation. So, looks like Napolean is correct when he warned: “China is a sleeping giant, let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.”

The world can only imagine what else China can and will accomplish in the next 50-100 years.

So, what space competition are you talking about? That must be another one of your government and news media anti-China propaganda.

Tri-Tip Burritos

Ingredients

1 medium-size tri-tip
1 large can green enchilada sauce
Fresh jalapenos, sliced (about 5 to 6)
Burrito-size flour tortillas
Sour cream
Shredded Cheddar cheese

Instructions

Place meat at bottom of slow cooker.
Cover with entire can of enchilada sauce and throw in jalapeno slices.
Cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours.
Before serving, take meat out (with portion of sauce) and place in bowl.
Shred with 2 forks (meat should shred very easily).
Warm tortillas and serve meat/sauce on tortillas with sour cream and Cheddar cheese as garnish.

“It’s Going To Get Ugly!” – Says Neil Oliver In Interview w/Jimmy Dore

How to stay young, even in old age: Don’t stop exercising, scientists say

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Exercise helps keep us young, and new research finds that statement is more literal than most assume. Scientists at the University of Arkansas report exercising slows down the aging process on a cellular level. The effect remains even if you start exercising later in life.

The team’s animal study used elderly lab mice nearing the end of their natural lifespan (22 months) and studied their interactions with a weighted exercise wheel. Mice rarely need any motivation to go for a run. Older mice run about three to five miles per day and younger mice run six to seven miles daily. The extra weight on the wheel also ensured the rodents’ muscles got an extra workout, with researchers comparing the workout to “a soldier carrying a heavy backpack many miles.”

After two months on the weighted wheel, mice were similar to those eight weeks younger compared to mice of the same age (24 months) who hadn’t worked out.

“Historically, they start dropping off after 24 months at a significant rate,” says Kevin Murach, an assistant professor in the Department of Health, Human Performance and Recreation at the U of A, in a university release. In other words, an extra eight weeks of youth represents roughly 10 percent of the average mouse’s lifespan.

Exercise slows down the aging process in your DNA

Much of the science behind these findings is based on DNA methylation. Methylation is when little caps called methyl groups attach to DNA. They act as a key to turn on and off a specific gene. As the human body ages, DNA methylation increases. Some older adults even experience hypermethylation on muscle genes.

“DNA methylation changes in a lifespan tend to happen in a somewhat systematic fashion,” Prof. Murach explains, “to the point you can look at someone’s DNA from a given tissue sample and with a fair degree of accuracy predict their chronological age.”

While the association between methylation and aging is quite clear, researchers know less about the role of methylation in muscle function. For example, it’s too soon to say that exercising and reversing methylation improves muscle health. “That’s not what the study was set up to do,” Professor Murach comments. However, he intends to pursue future studies to determine if “changes in methylation result in altered muscle function.”

“If so, what are the consequences of this?” Professor Murach concludes. “Do changes on these very specific methylation sites have an actual phenotype that emerges from that? Is it what’s causing aging or is it just associated with it? Is it just something that happens in concert with a variety of other things that are happening during the aging process? So that’s what we don’t know.”

The study is published in Aging Cell.

Why Was Scott Ritter’s Passport Seized?

Little By Little, The Economy Has Declined To A Point Where Almost Everyone Is Struggling

June 4, 2024 by Michael

It happened so gradually that a lot of people didn’t even realize what was happening. The cost of living just kept rising faster than paychecks were, and little by little our standard of living just kept going down. Now we have reached a stage where the ultra-wealthy are thriving but almost everyone else is struggling. For most people, it is a real fight just to pay the bills from month to month. The majority of the population is deep in debt, and meanwhile the cost of just about everything is going up and up. Millions of Americans feel like they are drowning financially, and there is no easy way out. Sadly, many of them don’t even realize that the game was designed to get them on to a hamster wheel and keep them running for as long as possible.

When I was a kid, the United States had a very large and very prosperous middle class.

Life certainly wasn’t perfect in those days, but just about everyone that I knew could afford to live a comfortable middle class lifestyle.

Sadly, now everything has changed.

According to a survey that was just conducted by Seven Letter Insight, 65 percent of Americans “who earn more than 200% of the federal poverty level” admit that they are struggling financially…

In the large poll of 2,500 adults, 65% of people who earn more than 200% of the federal poverty level — that’s at least $60,000 for a family of four, often considered middle class — said they are struggling financially.

If 65 percent of those that “earn more than 200% of the federal poverty level” are struggling, what about those that earn less than that?

Needless to say, almost all of them are struggling.

That same survey discovered that 46 percent of Americans don’t even have 500 dollars saved up…

About 40% of respondents were unable to plan beyond their next paycheck, and 46% didn’t have $500 saved. The February poll found that more than half said it’s at least somewhat difficult to manage current levels of debt.

Over the past couple of years, the stock market has been “booming” and the ultra-wealthy have been getting richer and richer.

But things have been getting worse for virtually all the rest of us.

According to Zillow, over the past four years “the monthly mortgage payment on a typical U.S. home has nearly doubled”…

The real estate firm Zillow reports that since January 2020, the monthly mortgage payment on a typical U.S. home has nearly doubled. It’s up 96% in just four years.

According to Zillow, a typical buyer will now pay nearly $2,200 a month, with a 10% down payment. Meaning, homeownership now costs well above the 30% of median income that was once thought to equate to “affordable” housing cost in America.

Has your income doubled over the past four years?

If not, you are falling behind.

The American people absolutely hate what is being done to their standard of living.

In fact, during a recent interview Neel Kashkari astutely observed that Americans “really, viscerally hate high inflation”…

Neel Kashkari, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, says one of the things he has learned in the past few years is that consumers would rather see the economy fall into a recession than to continue to suffer the pain of soaring prices.

“The American people – and maybe people in Europe, equally – really hate high inflation,” Kashkari told the Financial Times podcast “The Economics Show with Soumaya Keynes” last week. “I mean, really, viscerally hate high inflation.”

He is right.

I really detest inflation.

I am sure that you do too.

But what he didn’t mention is that the Federal Reserve and our politicians in Washington are responsible for creating the epic cost of living crisis that we are currently facing.

They caused this mess, and now they don’t seem to have any solutions for cleaning it up.

Meanwhile, economic activity just continues to slow down.

On Tuesday, we learned that the number of job openings in the U.S. has fallen to the lowest level in more than 3 years…

Job openings fell more than forecast in April, signaling a potential weakening in the labor market that could provide the Federal Reserve with more impetus to start lowering interest rates.

The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey released Tuesday showed that the level of employment vacancies slipped to 8.06 million for the month, down by nearly 300,000 from March and close to 19% lower than a year ago.

Moreover, the total marked the lowest since February 2021.

And more workers are being dumped into the streets with each passing day.

For example, Rubio’s Coastal Grill just announced that it will be permanently closing 48 locations in the state of California…

California’s $20-an-hour fast food minimum wage has its first casualty.

Mexican chain Rubio’s Coastal Grill is shuttering 48 restaurants in the state – because of the ‘rising cost of doing business in California’.

‘While painful, the store closures are a necessary step in our strategic long-term plan to position Rubio’s for success for years to come,’ a Rubio’s spokesperson added.

As this year rolls along, we will see a lot more stories like this.

For a long time, our leaders were able to keep the party going by flooding the system with money.

But now inflation is out of control and we have reached the terminal phase of the “greatest credit bubble in human history”…

Mark Spitznagel, chief investment officer of Universa Investments, is known for being a “permabear” when it comes to the stock market outlook.

Spitznagel told Bloomberg in an earlier interview that we’re witnessing the “greatest credit bubble in human history.”

“Credit bubbles end. They pop. There’s no way to stop them from popping,” he said, adding that the Fed has brought the economy to a place “where there’s no turning back.”

Spitznagel is right on target.

There really is no turning back now.

Our leaders have wrecked the greatest economic machine in the history of the world.

What is ahead of us is a tremendous amount of pain.

So if you think that things are bad now, just wait until you see what is coming next.

For years, little by little our standard of living has been collapsing.

But now we are entering a time when our economic slide will become an economic avalanche.

Decades of absolutely disastrous decisions have brought us to this point, and now we shall truly reap what we have sown.

Why It’s Never Too Late to Chase New Dreams

May 16, 2024

There’s a pervasive and utterly bullshit notion in our society that once you reach a certain age, you’re supposed to have your whole life figured out. That you should be settled in your career, content with your achievements, and coasting towards retirement on a wave of predictability.

Well, I’m here to tell you that’s a steaming pile of horse shit.

The truth is, you’re never too old to set a new goal or chase a new dream. You’re never too far along in life to make a drastic change, to start a new adventure, or to reinvent yourself completely.

But for some reason, we tend to internalize this idea that after a certain point, our lives should be set in stone. That it’s somehow embarrassing or irresponsible to want something radically different than what we have, to admit that we’re not satisfied with the path we’ve been on.

Fuck that noise. Life is too short to resign yourself to a script someone else wrote for you. It’s too precious to spend marching towards a future that doesn’t set your soul on fire, just because you think you’re “too old” to change course.

Listen, I get it. The older we get, the more entrenched we become in our routines, our responsibilities, our identities. It can feel daunting as hell to even consider upending the life we’ve built, even if that life isn’t truly fulfilling us.

But you know what’s even scarier than starting over? Waking up one day, decades down the line, and realizing you squandered your one wild and precious life on a path that wasn’t truly yours. Realizing you let your dreams wither and die because you bought into the idea that you were too old to pursue them.

The reality is, as long as you’re breathing, you have the power to create change in your life. You have the right to want more, to strive for different, to chase the things that make you come alive, regardless of your age.

Sure, it might be harder than it would’ve been when you were 20. You might have more baggage to sort through, more logistics to figure out, more naysayers to prove wrong. But so fucking what? Since when did “hard” become a reason not to go after what you want?

The most fulfilling things in life are often the most challenging to attain. And the older you get, the more grit, resilience, and wisdom you have to tackle those challenges. Your age isn’t a limitation – it’s a source of strength.

So if there’s a dream that’s been whispering in your ear, a goal that keeps nudging at your soul, a vision of a life that looks nothing like the one you’re currently living – listen to it. Feed it. And then start fucking chasing it, no matter how old you are.

Will it be a smooth, easy path? Probably not. Will everyone understand and support your new pursuits? Definitely not. But will it be worth it to look back on a life colored by your own desires, your own choices, your own relentless pursuit of what matters to you? Abso-fucking-lutely.

You are never too old to set another goal, or to dream a new dream. And anyone who tells you otherwise is probably just scared of their own untapped potential.

So shut out the noise, tune into your own desires, and get to work on creating the life you truly want. Your age has fuck-all to do with what you’re capable of achieving.

The world is waiting for your next move, your next goal, your next dream. Don’t keep it waiting forever.

China Steps Up Harsh Warning to E.U Days Before Tariff Decision

Foreshadowing events regarding helmets and other stuff

Life can be filled with strange coincidences.

Like in a movie, where graffiti or words on paper foreshadow events that occur later on in the movie. We can experience the exact thing in our own life.

…

When I was a young boy, I was given a Naval Aviator Helmet. A brother of my Father’s friend was a Naval Aviator, and the USN was changing the helmet design, and so he picked up a helmet and dropped it off for me. He placed it in the milk-box on the kitchen porch.

I had that thing for years and year. Even when I was in the Navy, and training with my own helmet, that old helmet sat at my mother’s house collecting dust. And I trained with my own and much newer helmet.

Foreshadowing events.

I wonder what things and events are foreshadowing for the future that we shall soon experience…

Today…

France Losing Grip on Another Colonial Possession

May 24, 2024

Macron’s decision to send more troops to New Caledonia is a reflection of a serious breakdown of order in the island nation not seen since the 1980s, Mick Hall reports.

French President Emmanuel Macron in 2019. (DoD, Public domain)

By Mick Hall

in Whangarei, New Zealand
Special to Consortium News

Fears are growing that French security forces could remain indefinitely in New Caledonia after being sent to quell deadly violence this week over stalled moves towards full independence from France.

As France loses its grip on its colonial possession following recent debacles in West Africa, French President Emmanuel Macron flew into the Pacific Islands country on Thursday.

He was seeking a political solution with local parties following the eruption of protests and violence that included gun battles, which claimed the lives of two Gendarmes (French police) and four civilians.

Macron said a 3,000-strong force deployed from France would remain “as long as necessary,” emphasising a return to calm and security was “the absolute priority.”

He paid tribute to those killed in the violence before meeting with politicians and business representatives during a summit that included independence leaders.

Ahead of his visit, Macron faced anger from groups that hold his hubris responsible for the chaos. “Here comes the fireman after he set the fire!” Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS) of New Caledonia’s Jimmy Naouna, posted on X after Macron’s office announced his surprise visit.

In a further post, Naouna said Macron and those accompanying him on the visit, Overseas and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin Darmanin and Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Locornu, had ignored calls for peaceful talks to resolve issues over self-determination for the island nation for months and that they could not be trusted anymore.

Approximately 1,000 more French security personnel were sent to the archipelago at the weekend, when France’s High Commissioner Louis Le Franc vowed in a televised address that “Republican order will be re-established, whatever the cost.” If separatists “want to use their arms, they will be risking the worst,” he added.

LeFranc said

French security forces would stage “harassment” raids to reclaim territory held by pro-independence groups.

Start of Unrest

The crisis was sparked after France’s lower house, the National Assembly, on May 14 made changes to a 1998 agreement that had charted a path to decolonisation after decades of conflict.

Assembly bill will get rid of one of the agreement’s provisions by allowing residents who arrived in the country after 1998 to vote, shifting the balance of power away from the indigenous population and weakening their chances of winning independence via referendum.

The bill specifically makes constitutional changes removing electoral restrictions protecting the demographic status of the nation’s indigenous Kanaky people, as agreed under the Nouméa Accord.

The change, which followed a constitutional review initiated by Darmanin, would allow French nationals living on the island for at least 10 years to vote in local elections.

France retains a strategic and economic interest in the small Pacific nation of 270,000 residents, situated 750 miles (1200km) east of Australia. It is the third-largest exporter of nickel globally, while France is also attempting to reposition itself as a Western security partner in the Pacific.

On Sunday, May 19 about 600 paramilitary police and army busted through approximately 70 barricades, which included dozens of burn-out vehicles, blocking a 64km stretch of road from the capital’s Nouméa to La Tontouta international airport. Some of the barricades were immediately re-erected.

A 6pm to 6am curfew remains in place until the end of a state of emergency on May 27. Disenfranchised youth have been responsible for most of the rioting. Tik Tok has also been banned and over 230 people have so far been arrested.

Both New Zealand and Australia began emergency repatriations using military aircraft from the Magenta airport, 4km outside the capital on Tuesday.

Macron has been accused of sparking the turmoil by imposing a colonial agenda on the country, running contrary to the Nouméa Accord.

Blaming Azerbaijan

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has accused Azerbaijan, far from New Caledonia, of stirring up trouble there. “This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” he told

French TV. “I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he said.

He added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better.”

Azerbaijan denied the allegation. “We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

Azerbaijan has been vocal in attacking French colonialism and invited pro- independence groups to Baku from several French dependencies in Polynesia for a conference towards the complete elimination of colonialism last July. It was organized by the Buku Initiative Group, which released a statement last week in solidarity with Kanaks resisting French reforms.

Follows French Losses in Africa

The uprising in New Caledonia follows unrest in the former French West Africa that forced French troops out of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso last year. It cost France access to cheap uranium, especially from Niger, putting political pressure on Macron from powerful French interests. A loss of New Caledonia would not be welcomed in Paris as French colonial interests crumble.

Eddy Banare, a researcher in comparative literature with an interest in Kanak identity/political discourse at the Université de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, told Consortium News Macron and his government had demonstrated a serious lack of understanding of the New Caledonian issue and had failed to maintain a dialogue with local parties.

“The Nouméa Accord is based on an agreement between political actors in New Caledonia. This agreement has been compromised,” he said.

“Macron has aligned himself with the hardest right of the New Caledonian political spectrum, which, in its fervour to maintain a French New Caledonia, rejects the spirit of collegiality established by the Nouméa Accord by disregarding the Kanak independence claim and sabotaging the conditions for dialogue.”

Macron has had three meetings of his Defence and National Security Council within a week and his decision to send more troops is a reflection of a serious breakdown of order in New Caledonian society not seen since the 1980s.

“Everything seems to be set for the long term,” Banare said, adding that 100,000 firearms currently circulating in the country also needed to be taken out of the equation. Armed pro-France loyalist militias and anti-colonial groups have been active during the protests. Three of those killed were Kanaks, shot by armed civilians.

Banare said, in the absence of an impartial arbitrator, Australia and New Zealand should host roundtable talks, bringing together New Caledonian parties, a representation of the French government, and experts in international law and indigenous issues in the Pacific.

The Pacific Regional Non-Governmental Organisations Alliance (PRNGA) on Monday also urged the U.N. and Pacific leaders to mediate dialogue towards restoring “a just and peaceful transition.”

In a statement, the organisation criticised Macron for his “poorly hidden agenda to prolong colonial control over the territory” and for ignoring warnings by indigenous groups that the unilateral decision to impose electoral changes could end 30 years of relative peace in New Caledonia.

“This week, as the United Nations Decolonisation Committee (C24) sits in Caracas, Venezuela, to hear updates on the list of non-self-governing territories to be decolonised, France imposes a state of emergency on Kanaky-New Caledonia and sends more troops to the Pacific territory to restore order,” it said.

“Ironically, its overtures for law and order and for peace are in stark contrast to the misuse of institutional processes to inflict violence on the Kanaky people, as evidenced by behaviour in Paris.”

The deaths and destruction of property have left many in the economically divided country wary and on edge. The conflict is having a serious impact on the fragile economy, as well as affecting medical and food supplies across the island.

Louis Lagarde, an associate professor of literature, language and social sciences at University of New Caledonia, said initiating talks among the local communities should be a priority.

“It is still too early to predict when troops will leave the archipelago,” he told Consortium News. “Their present role is to secure the airports, the port, gain and allow access to hospitals, preserve the last standing shops and their restocking, and free the blockades on the main roads. Patients under dialysis are at heavy risk, and so are other patients with heavy treatments, pregnant women and so on.”

He said: “One has to understand that the present New Caledonia government, with a pro-independence majority and president, as well as the customary senate president, have urged calm on multiple occasions, to no — or little — avail. As harsh as it seems, the presence of military and police reinforcements is still crucial.”

‘Don’t Care if They Live or Die’

Whakatane-based Kanak Rodney Pirini said youth at the forefront of the protests were profoundly marginalised, their positions made worse after Kanak people began moving into urban centres over past decades, particularly into the capital, where extremes of wealth and poverty were most pronounced.

Pirini, a former Union Calédonienne (UC) member (part of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) who had been jailed several times during protests in the mid-1980s, said the destructiveness of last week’s protests was a reflection of that social reality.

“Forty years after I was protesting, you have a lot of young people in town, with no job, with nothing, living side by side with rich French people. One block could be rich people, 20 metres away you have a block of poor people. It’s crazy.

“Some young people don’t care if they live or die. It’s a problem.”

Colonial History

France officially took possession of Kanaky, or New Caledonia, in 1853 and colonisation saw the Kanaks forced from their lands, resulting in several failed rebellions over the decades to come.

New Caledonia’s modern political trajectory towards decolonisation was put in motion after the Matignon-Oudinot Accords were signed in 1988 by Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou and leader of the anti-independence Rally for Caledonia in the Republic (RPCR) party, Jacques Lafleur and France. It was approved in a referendum by 80 percent of the electorate.

The agreement sought compromise and a peaceful settlement after a period of civil war and armed resistance to French rule.

FLNKS leaders Jean-Marie Tjibaou and Yeiwéné Yeiwéné were assassinated by FLNKS militants opposed to the peace deal less than a year later.

The Nouméa Accords recognised Kanaks as the indigenous peoples of Kanaky and set out mechanisms to address both historical wrongs and transfer governance powers from France.

Kanaks make up approximately 40 percent of New Caledonia’s population and the provisions to restrict voting to those resident in the country prior to 1998 were designed to keep Kanaks’ electoral strength while a peaceful transition towards independence unfolded.

A series of referendums on independence was proposed, the first of which took place in 2018, registering a 43.3 percent in favour of independence, followed by 46.7 percent vote in a 2020 referendum.

The third referendum in December 2021 marked a slide towards today’s polarisation and is a key antecedent to the riots.

Calls for a postponement by independence parties after indigenous communities were hit hard by the Covid-19 Delta variant were ignored by France and the vote went ahead. After taking the issue to the U.N. Fourth Committee on Decolonisation, independence parties boycotted the referendum, resulting in a 44 percent voter turnout — or half of numbers that turned out in 2020. The vote delivered a mere 3.5 percent backing for independence.

Macron at the time hailed the vote as a “massive victory” for the pro-loyalist side. Pro-independence groups have been calling for another referendum.

Oasis – Wonderwall (Official Video)

We start today with this…

What is the pettiest thing you’ve seen a cheap person do at a restaurant?

Ohhhh I’ve got one!!

A friends brother asked me out to dinner, we went to a trendy chain restaurant and had dinner and drinks, I think the bill came to about $70 (I didn’t eat, because I was so nauseated by the filth that poured out of this mans mouth). All throughout the meal he continuously called the waitress over for one (bullshit) reason or another, he ran her off her feet just because he is a demanding sort of person.

Anyway the cheque came and after carefully figuring out the tip (about $10) and adding $5 because he’s “generous to those less fortunate” (the waitress) he laid the money on the tray and we stood up to leave. Just as we got to the door he said he had forgotten something at the table and went to go get it – I watched him go back to the table, remove two bills from the tray (which I presume was the tip he had left) and put them back in his pocket. I incredulously asked him if he just took back the tip from the waitress???? He said it wasn’t any of my business and turned to leave. I walked over to the waitress and gave her a tip then I walked right by mr toocheapforatip and never spoke to him again.

Collective Soul – Shine – Acoustic

Which countries played a major role in strengthening the military of the Third Reich?

Quite a long list of people aided actively in the building up of Nazi Germany. Of any one person who directly aided in this, the prize quite literally must go to Henry Ford, who in 1938, received the German Grand Eagle award, not only did ford actively help build up Nazi industry, from 1919 to 1927, he published the The Dearborn Independent

, an anti-Semitic paper attempting to convince people Jews were a global problem, and indeed Ford’s efforts to stir up global hatred towards Jews was noted by Adolf Hitler himself in his book Meinkampf.

Ford was not alone, General Motors also big fans of Nazism, had also invested in Germany. In 1939 Ford and General Motors plants made up 70% of the auto-industry in Germany, which supplied trucks to the Germany military, and were retooled to supply weapons soon as well. Indeed the American made factories in Nazi Germany were far more efficient than things like the Porsche factory, which didn’t have assembly lines.

[1]

Leading up to the war in 1939, Germany had quite prolific foreign trade. They exported 14 billion Reichmarks of goods from 1937 to June 1939. The top 5 export destinations were as follows:

Netherlands 1,127 million marks (Not including 136,4 million to Dutch East Indies).
United Kingdom 927 million marks
Italy 773.2 million marks
Sweden 698 million marks
France 625,6 million marks

The USSR despite popular belief that they were the primary trade partner to germany, at this time bought just 165.2 million in exports. Below even Poland at 237,9 million mark. But naturally the Germans converted all these export profits into imports of critical material. In the years before the war 1937 to June of 1939, Germany imported 13.7 billion Reichmarks of goods. The top 5 import destinations were as follows:

United States 811,4 million marks
United Kingdom 725,6 million marks
Italy 619,6 million marks
Sweden 614,8 million marks
Argentina 590,7 million marks

These statistics are available in the Canadian national archives as document CS65-D-56-1939. During the period of 1940 until the invasion of the USSR, the Soviets exported goods worth 597.9 million marks to Germany, almost as much as Sweden but not quite, and much less than the US or UK did before 1939.

Indirectly of course, you can continue down the international politics line, and ask: Who allowed Germany to occupy the Rhineland despite it being in violation of the Versailles treaty? Who allowed Germany to take over Austria? Who sold Czechoslovakia not once but twice to Germany in 1938 and 1939? I’ve talked about this often, so I won’t go into details again, let’s just say those countries share a border with the English channel.

Strategic resources such as fuel came from Romania, not just before WW2, but all the way until Romania switched to the allies in 1944. Hungary provided aluminum for German aircraft, Portugal provided Tungsten, Sweden provided iron ore. Germany largely were able to supply it self with synthetic rubber.

And of course let us not forget that Switzerland worked as an intermediary for Germany to white wash the looted values of murdered Jews and others around Europe, happily providing a safe haven for rapists and genocidal maniacs to store their goods. 84% of Swiss produced ammunition went to the Axis powers in WW2.

[2]

Finally, let us not forget the fascists who actively supported Germany in WW2, adding to their manpower and direct military power. Namely Japan, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Finland and Spain.

So actually quite a lot of countries can share some blame for enabling the build up of the Nazi War potential.

Round Steak

Ingredients

1 (2 pound) round steak, cut into serving pieces
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup water or red wine

Instructions

Place in slow cooker.
Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours.
Serve over rice.

What is the biggest culture shock you have ever faced?

I visited Japan for two weeks in November 2017. I was new to job (first job) and I got this opportunity to visit japan for two weeks. I am a person who never flew even in domestic flight and I got a chance to board an international flight directly, which I felt like making a gully cricket batsmen to face Brett lee with out a guard(arm guard :P). Since this kind of surprise hit me suddenly, what ever I saw there and experienced there, I felt unique and cool (obviously). I won’t say these are cultural shocks, but my experiences which I felt worth sharing.

Punctuality:

main qimg b0b2cedffd0772d06630cb3d1b65da83 lq

I landed in Narita Airport, japan and have to take a bus to my hotel and my bus timing is at 6:45 PM. So I was standing in the bus stop outside the airport. Since I heard a lot of stories about Japanese punctuality I want to experience it myself.
There is one more bus at 6:30 PM and it arrived at 6:29 PM itself (you can see the time in the image 18:29) and after loading of luggage and passengers it left around 6:40 PM.
Now same punctuality maintained for 6:45 bus, the trains which I took from hotel to office and office to hotel for all the two weeks, and the bus I traveled back to airport on the last day. Then I felt very fascinated about how could they be punctual always. Being on time once or twice is good. But maintaining it always and all means is really appreciable.

2. Discipline:

main qimg c4e5d5f4968ed9692cbb54c0486550c0 lq

I went during winter season and temperature at that time is around zero. So I used to roam with inception concept clothing – jacket inside jacket inside jacket and still felt cold. And you know what ? It used to rain also (Winter + rain = deadly combination)
So coming to discipline, the above image was taken by me when I was going to office on a rainy winter day and below the bridge, on the foot path I found out this – an umbrella march in same line, same pace, if you want move faster come a little right side, take another line and go (you can find few people going like that in the image). They follow queue system every where. I found the similar situations near lifts, escalators and found it really fascinating. They have good manners.

3. Drinking water in Bathroom:

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This is a kind weird one I have encountered. I checked in my hotel room, rooms are made of wood and I didn’t find drinking water and inquired hotel management about this, and to my surprise they pointed towards bathroom.
I couldn’t believe that it is true that both drinking water and cleaning water (all cleaning) tap is present inside bathroom that too beside commode(with lot of buttons on it). I found it really uneasy to drink from that. This incident is a shocking one for me and I guess this might be common in other countries too.

4. No zero floor:

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There is no zero floor or ground floor in japan lift system. I observed this in my hotel and office too. They consider ground floor as 1st floor.

5. Garbage collection:

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Japanese have a organized garbage collection system. If you have to throw a water bottle, you have to throw bottle cap in one dustbin and bottle in another dustbin, similarly different material has different dustbins and everyone follows it, they feel it is common sense. shocking isn’t it ?

6. Currency :

Development status of a country is not directly proportional to value of its currency.Indian currency has more value than Japanese currency, 1 Rupee = 1.63 Yen. . So if I saved 5000 yens, after exchange it became around 3000 rupees (Shocked + Sad).

So, with these kind of good, bad, cool, funny, interesting experiences I came to India. To be honest I thought I will miss japan because of perfection, uniqueness, but after coming back to India and going back to home, I was more happy and peaceful then I was in japan, then I understood one thing.

Even though, you find a woman who is perfect in everything. No one can replace your mother.

Thanks for reading and sorry if this hurts anyone’s feelings, opinions, point of views and any other sensible factors.

Arigatou gozaimasu (Thank you in Japanese – You will hear this 1000 times when you visit Japan)

Vintage family and love illustration

John Bull 1950s UK babies babysitters sitters magazines baby sitting babysitting family

What did a family member say or do that you don’t talk to them anymore?

My Uncle, who was my Father’s fraternal twin brother, passed away in 2004 (one year after my Father passed). I was named as Executrix of his Will mainly because I was the closest one to him. None of the other cousins even knew where he lived. When he had cataract surgery, I would stop by every morning before work, at lunch time and after work to put drops in his eyes. He originally had a male cousin as Executor, but my Uncle realized that there was no point since I was the one who knew about his life.

Uncle John never married. He loved going to dances (polka was their life! LOL!) with my Dad. At one of the dances, my Dad met his second wife (he and my Mom had been divorced for over 10 years. Wanda always went to these dances with her best friend, Carolyn. When Dad hooked up with Wanda, Uncle John hooked up with Carolyn. For 20 years, the 4 of them would get together every week. When my Dad died, my Uncle was lost. He and Carolyn continued to date, but, as I said earlier, he passed a year after my Dad.

Uncle John and Carolyn dated for 20 years … as long as my Dad and Wanda were married. In the Will, his assets were split mainly between 3 first cousins. One cousin was excluded because he had a great job, making a ton of money, and my Uncle felt the others could use it more. However, he didn’t forget this cousin’s kids. All of the kids were to get $5,000 each. Carolyn was given $1,000.

When I sent letters to the cousins breaking down the inheritances, my one cousin, Nancy, called me and asked what was this $1,000 to Carolyn. I told her that that is what Uncle John wanted to give her. Her comment was “You didn’t do that, did you????? She didn’t even come to the funeral!” I just said that it’s in the Will and Carolyn was getting her $1,000…end of story, and I hung up. I knew that I would never talk to Nancy again after that comment.

Let me explain: Carolyn, at the time, was 78 years old and suffering from Lyme disease. She lived about an hour away from where the funeral was. She couldn’t stay over at my Uncle’s apartment because my Mom flew in from Florida and was staying there, as was Wanda (good times). What REALLY pissed me off was that Nancy’s youngest daughter, 30 years old, who lived in Connecticut (about 2 hours away), who received $5,000, didn’t come to the funeral! Her “excuse” was that as a dog groomer, she had an appointment set up for that day.

Uncle John had stocks that had to be split up between us cousins, which took a bit of time. Every week, Nancy had my cousin, Richard call me to play up to me before getting to the point of asking about the money/stocks. When it was all said and done, I sent the stock certificates and inheritance checks to Nancy and Richard via certified mail. I put a note in Richard’s envelope just asking that he call me to let me know it was received OK. In Nancy’s envelope, I put a letter that said: My dealings with you are done. I have kept my mouth shut for a while now, but I need to tell you I had no problem writing out a check for $1,000 to Carolyn, a 78 year old woman with Lyme disease, who for obvious reasons could NOT come to Uncle John’s funeral. I DID, however, have a very hard time writing that check to Danielle, who at 30 years old, couldn’t make a 2 hour trip to the funeral because someone’s dog needed to be groomed.”

After weeks of calling about those damn stocks, once Richard got his share, he didn’t call to let me know he received my package. He called me 2 years later to tell me that Nancy’s husband passed away. Richard, not either of Nancy’s 3 kids….Richard! I simply said, “That’s too bad… he was a great guy.” So Richard proceeded to try to tell me when and where the funeral would be. I interrupted him and said that I couldn’t make it. His response was “But I didn’t tell you when it is.” MY response was, “Whenever it is, that’s the day my dog needs to be groomed.” I honored Kenny on my own. I didn’t want to see those people ever again.

Stone Temple Pilots – Plush (Unplugged)

What was something small you went to the doctor for that turned out to be very significant?

When I was a little boy of about 10 years old, I told my mother that I thought I needed a new prescription for my glasses. I told her I was having difficulty seeing the blackboard in class at school. This was 1963 and I was living with my family in Myrtle Beach South Carolina. So my mother thinking it was going to be a routine check up took me to the local ophthalmologist who always checked my vision.

At that point I thought that I was simply going to walk out with a new prescription and life would go on. My ophthalmologist was a wonderful old gentleman who was a very careful and very thoughtful doctor. He was the kind of person with whom you could really trust and feel comfortable. Even now I can vividly picture him and the examination room, as that intensely bright light, that has occurred hundreds of times throughout my life, came close to my dialated eyes. After examining my eyes he turned to me, my mother was in the waiting room, and said that I was going blind in my left eye. He told me I had a detached retina and that I needed surgery immediately! Ironically, what he told me next was actually more impactful than being told that I was going blind in my left eye. He told me that I would never ever be able to play football again. When I heard that, I bolted out of the exam room, ran through the waiting room out the front door and sat down on the sidewalk outside his office weeping. My mother shocked at my actions thought what in the world is going on? After collecting me from outside she immediately went to the doctor and he told her that I needed to go to the medical college in Charleston South Carolina and have emergency surgery. That day we got in the car and drove over 100 miles to Charleston to the medical college and arrived at the department where the top eye surgeons examined me. They told my parents that I was not going blind in just one eye, I was going blind in both eyes. They then informed us that they were not capable of doing the surgery because of the extent of the retinal damage. They recommended that we travel to Johns Hopkins in Maryland, the only place at that time capable of performing the kind of surgery I needed. Suffice it to say the head of ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins took my case and did the surgery. I found out later that the members of the Presbyterian church that my family attended also prayed all that day for a successful surgery. 10 hours later the surgery was over and was a huge success. Ever since I have thanked God not only for my original doctor who detected my problem but also for all of the amazing medical professionals who were instrumental in my treatment.

One final caveat… the wonderful doctor who first discovered my condition knew that I had to have surgery on both eyes , apparently as I found out later he didn’t have the heart to tell me that my condition was so dire.

RUSSIA JAMS STARLINK in UKRAINE WAR – outsourcing signals corp not a great plan…

In the US Navy, why is it that whenever a submarine surfaces in port, all of the hatches must be opened?

Some non-submariner…Wrote this BOGUS ANSWER…and blocked any comments

“ To equalize the pressure. When a submarine is submerged, the pressure inside the submarine is equal to the pressure of the water outside. When the submarine surfaces, the pressure outside the submarine drops, but the pressure inside the submarine remains the same. If the hatches are not opened, the pressure difference could cause the hatches to be blown off, which could be catastrophic.“
What a moron…(particularly the bold italic sections)

A Submarine Internal Air Pressure remains close to atmospheric pressure while submerged.
It does NOT RISE & FALL with the submergence of the boat. Our Ears would go nuts !
at 300ft depth, the internal air pressure would have about 150 PSI !
Given that the submarine snorkel is NOT 300 feet long, To accomplish that kind of pressurization, the submarines would need a supply compressed air equal (in SCF) to 10 times the free volume inside the submarine.
Submarine hulls and its hatches are thick enough to withstand the water pressure at TEST DEPTH without pressuring the CREW SPACE (aka “the People Tank”)
The BIGGEST AIR PRESSURE CHANGE in a naval submarine.. is OPERATING THE DIESEL GENERATOR …on the snorkel… As engine intake combustion air is from the “people tank” and replaced by sea air via the snorkel and then snorkel valve shuts when a wave over-tops the snorkel. The diesel keeps sucking in air to run and everybody’s ear feel that pressure change…
Submarines open hatches once they get dock-side to allow the “deck crew” handle ropes from the tug(s) and ropes to the pier.
The Sail Hatch (conning tower) is opened shortly after surfacing …allowing the captain and Lookout to MAN THE BRIDGE. WHATEVER DIFFERENTIAL AIR PRESSURE exists is RELIEVED by opening that hatch.
Forward, Mid-Ships, and Aft hatches are easily AWASH by ocean waves and are KEPT CLOSED until in the calm waters of the harbor.

PERHAPS, that moronic “OP” was worry about the ever prevalent SUBMARINE SCREEN DOOR issue ?

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Noel Gallagher “Don’t Look Back in Anger” (Acoustic) on the Howard Stern Show in 1997

When was the hardest you have cried?

It was a freezing winter morning of Delhi. My mother tapped on my shoulder and said, ‘Beta, wake up ! Its 4 AM. You have to go’.

I saw everyone around me moving from one room to another and packing their clothes in small bags. I washed my face and got ready.

Everyone was staring me with an eye of sympathy. I packed my bag, wore my warmest jacket and walked towards the car with my uncles and brothers.

One of my uncle stopped me before entering the car, held my shoulder tightly and said, ‘Beta ! This is the most toughest job of any son to do, you’ve already shown great strength and i expect you to be strong throughout the day’.

I nodded and got into the car.

We closed the doors and windows to avoid the early morning chilling winds.

After travelling 2 or so km, the driver was requested to stop the car by one of my uncle.

And here starts the most difficult journey of my life.

We reached the Cremation Ground.

From there we had to collect my demised father’s bones and ashes to be taken to Haridwar.

My hands and legs were shaking, not because of the freezing winter morning but because of the moment i’m going to encounter now.

I reached the place where my father was given the last fire.

“He was not there. He was down into ashes”.

I was told to come upward and collect the ashes. I walked towards the platform and suddenly i stopped.

I held the handle and broke down. I cried and cried, for the first time it was not my heart which was crying but my soul. I wanted to meet him once again, hundreds of questions and things were coming and haunting me at that same time. I never thought i’ve to go through this at such an early age.

My cousins hugged me and took me to the place where my father’s ashes were.

I sat down and collected the bones and ashes.

It was not only difficult but the toughest job for any son to do so. Everyone have to go through this phase somehow. Our parents would die sooner or later. This is the ugly reality of life.

So, spend some time with your parents, love them and give them every single happiness in this life. Express your love to them and make them proud.

PUTIN DECLARES TOTAL MOBILIZATION, NATO ATTACKS ON RUSSIA ARE IMMINENT, NUKES ARMED

Aliens lock their doors when they drive by earth.

On January 23, 1897, Zona Heaster Shue of Greenbrier County, West Virginia was found dead inside her home by a neighborhood boy

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It was unclear what had caused the young woman’s death, especially because her sobbing husband Erasmus “Trout” Shue refused to stop cradling her head and got upset whenever the coroner tried to examine her body. Shue’s cause of death was first listed as an “everlasting faint,” then switched to childbirth, even though she wasn’t actually pregnant — and with that, the case was closed. But about one month after Shue’s death, her mother Mary Jane allegedly started receiving a startling nocturnal visitor: the ghost of her daughter.

According to Mary Jane, her daughter’s spirit came to her bedside and told her that she had been murdered by her husband, all because she hadn’t cooked him what he wanted for supper. Word of Shue’s ghost quickly spread through the small town and Mary Jane soon convinced the coroner to conduct a thorough examination of her body — and he found injuries just like the ones that the ghost had described and confirmed that she had indeed been murdered.

Stone Temple Pilots “Interstate Love Song” on the Howard Stern Show (2000)

What proves that people can commit evil for trivial reasons?

The fear of losing your romantic partner may not be considered “trivial”, but then you come across stories like this.

Fahim Saleh was a 33-year-old Bangladeshi-American entrepreneur who created the Nigerian motorbike startup Gokada.

Tyrese Haspil is a 25-year-old man who served as a personal assistant to Saleh.

In Jan 2020, Saleh learned that $90,000 was missing from the company account. It was traced to Haspil.

Despite the theft, Saleh didn’t report Haspil and allowed him to pay it back through a payment plan.

Unbeknownst to Saleh, Haspil was on a theft spree to maintain a lifestyle in front of his French girlfriend (Marine).

Haspil wasn’t even faithful to her but was madly scared of losing her if she came to know about the thefts.

Despite Saleh’s mercy and support, Haspil continued to steal from the company through a PayPal account.

He stole as much as $400,000. Used Saleh’s credit card to go on a date with another woman.

Gokada had enough of it. They threatened to report him.

On July 13, 2020, Haspil sneaked into Saleh’s $2.4 million Manhattan condo.

Tasered him and beheaded him using an electric saw. The weapons and the cleaning materials, all were ordered using Saleh’s credit card.

While attempting to vacuum the space, Haspil left strong evidence behind: An AFID tag from the fired taser. The unique ID on the tag disk matched with the taser he had bought for the crime.

Neighbors reported hearing noises from the condo on the night of July 13. The next day, Saleh’s cousin visited and found his butchered body parts.

Just two days after the murder, Haspil was seen hanging out with another woman.

Both Saleh and Haspil were recorded on CCTV. Saleh was seen struggling while moving toward his condo from the elevator.

Haspil was arrested days later since he had been found to have used Saleh’s credit cards.

His lawyer called the murder a “crime of passion”, and attributed it to “extreme emotional disturbance”, saying that ‘his life was traumatic due to a childhood where his schizophrenic mother abused him.’

He claimed Haspil had thought of either s**cide or murder, and went ahead with the latter.

Haspil has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. If convicted, he will spend minimum 20 years in jail. The maximum is a life sentence.

Ke Kulanakauhale ma ke Kai, or The City by The Sea

Submitted into Contest #243 in response to: Write a story with a strong sense of place. How is the setting of your world the same as, but different to, our own?…

This is a new addition that I am considering to my daily posts. Here I include some contemporaneous SF (short story) for the reader to enjoy. -MM

Ke Kulanakauhale ma ke Kai

or,

The City by the Sea

by thomas iannucci

Author’s Note: In this story I use Hawaiian words, as the story is set in a post-apocalyptic Hawaii. However, I do not italicize them, as I am from Hawaii, and so these words are not foreign to me. Growing up there were many English words unfamiliar to us in school, and they were never italicized; I would like this same standard to be applied to Hawaiian, which is, for better or for worse, also now a language in the United States. Mahalo for your kokua.

“The city by the sea, the city by the sea,” crows the blind man as he rows, his oars dipping in and out of the icy gray water in time with his cadence. His voice rings loud and true, but even so, it is hardly audible over the roar of the frigid sea. A wave crashes into the small boat, drenching the man and his two grandsons, but he pays it no mind. “Wherever I may go, may she watch over me! The city by the sea, I keep her in my heart,” he sings on, and his defiance in the face of the weather is almost inspiring. “When I had lost it all, she taught me to restart!” Another wave crashes into the old, wooden vessel, lifting it up and slamming it back down with a jolt. This time, the man stops, spluttering as the salty spray momentarily overwhelms his senses.

“The city by the sea, the city by the sea.” His eldest grandson, Veeka, picks up where the old man has left off. As a Singer — even one who has not yet completed his training — it is his kuleana to continue the song. “Wherever I may go, she’ll remain with me.” He sings it dutifully, with less embellishment than his grandfather; where the old man’s voice is polished and strong, Veeka’s is less certain, and full of anxiety. The difference between master and apprentice, between kumu and haumana, is stark. “Wherever I may go, she’ll remain with me!” Veeka tries to keep rhythm while he sings and rows, the way his grandfather does. It helps him to focus. He needs the focus. The life of his brother depends on it. Veeka glances back at his younger brother, Shay, and grimaces. Shay is wrapped tightly in a thick, boarskin cloak, and is wearing their finest rain-jacket, a family heirloom from many decades past. Neither seems to be helping. He shivers.

“The city by the sea, forever will I miss,” intones their grandfather, picking up where Veeka has trailed off. In other circumstances, Veeka would have been humiliated: to leave a song unsung is unforgivable. But, thinks Veeka, as he observes the great, gray, churning mass of waves and ice cold water that surround their vessel, this is no ordinary situation. “The city by the sea, forever I will miss…” Veeka’s grandfather also trails off, and he frowns. “Forever I will miss…?” He grunts in frustration. “I can’t seem to remember the last part. Do you know it, Veeka?” he calls out. The voice of a normal man would have been swept away by the sea spray and winter winds, but the old man is a true Singer. His voice carries easily to his grandson.

“No, grandpa. I don’t. You never taught us that one, remember? I’ve just been trying to go off of what you’ve been singing so far.” He shakes his head. “I don’t even know what a city is.”

“It’s like our village, only bigger. Much, much bigger,” says the old man. “Or at least, that’s what my tūtū used to say.” Veeka thinks about that. How much bigger? How many people live there, he wonders. A hundred, perhaps? Maybe even a thousand? The idea is hard to grasp. But, as his grandpa always reminds him, he doesn’t need to grasp this knowledge, only to preserve it. That is the role of a Singer.

“Hmm.” The old man blinks, his sightless gaze looking far off, unaware of Veeka’s internal musings. “A song should never be left unfinished. It’s bad luck, yes. Bad, bad. Maika’i ‘ole. What kind of Singers are we, if we can’t remember our words?” He shakes his head. “We are the memory of the people! And if the memory forgets, what then?”

“I don’t know,” says Veeka, frustration creeping into his voice. “Does it even matter anymore? Lāna’i has fallen. Our lāhui was slaughtered, as were the others, most likely. There’s no one left for us to remember for.” It is true. This very morning, the Men from across the Long Sea arrived, in their great boats, with their metal weapons. Veeka and his surviving family have been at sea all day after narrowly escaping the raid on Lāna’i. All day is more than enough to overrun such a small island. No doubt their sister islands will follow suit.

“My mother’s mother taught me that song,” says the old man. “It was about the home her parents left behind. We aren’t native to Lāna’i, you know.”

“Yes, tūtū, I know,” says Veeka, using the Old Word for “grandparent.” He knows a few words from the Old Tongue, but much of it has been lost, at least on Lāna’i. That is why the Singers exist, to preserve what has been lost. But now that is over, too. Veeka looks back at his grandfather. Sometimes, when the old man is singing, it is easy to forget that he has long gone senile. But when it comes to other matters, his mind can no longer focus.

“I could never remember the last bit,” says the blind man, his irritation at odds with the direness of their situation. “‘Auwe! That’s no good. It was the important part, I think. The endings are always important.”

As the old man laments his lack of memory, Veeka silently prays, focused on what remains of the journey. They have been rowing for hours and hours. Veeka’s numb muscles no longer burn or groan with protest. They surrendered that fight long ago. Instead, they mechanically obey, spurred on by desperation now that the adrenaline of their flight has worn off. Veeka is certain that, if they survive, he will find that he’s done permanent damage to his body today.

“The end of a song binds the memory to us. Without it, that memory can fly away, untethered, like the Po’ouli birds of old,” says the man.

“I wish we could fly away,” says Veeka, looking around them. He can see the looming presence of the Great Island further on ahead, and he’s fairly certain they’re almost there, but the fog and sea mist make it impossible to accurately judge the distance. He turns back to look at Shay, whose shivering continues to worsen. “You’ll be okay, palala. Just rest. I’ll take care of you,” he promises. “Somehow.” A wave that seems nearly the size of the mountains in the near-distance rises up, lifting their boat with it. Veeka cries out in terror.

“The city by the sea, the city by the sea!” sings the blind man. Their boat lands on the other side of the wave with a heavy crash. Water splashes everywhere, and some fills the boat, which creaks uneasily. Shay coughs violently, pulling the boarskin cloak tighter around him. His eyes snap open. They start to rove around frantically, taking in the oppressive gray surrounding them. “Cold,” he says, through chattering teeth. “So cold.”

“It’ll be okay, palala,” Veeka assures Shay. Looking around them, he realizes that the island is much closer than he originally thought. He feels something akin to hope swell in his chest, though its flavor is also reminiscent of desperation and hysteria.

“Sing, Veeka!” admonishes the old man.

“Never mind the song,” snaps Veeka, heart pounding. “Keep rowing! I think I see the bay up ahead!” This gets the old man’s attention, and the two of them begin to row frantically, harder than before, though neither had known that that was possible until now. They’re aided by the fact that they’ve been caught in a riptide, one that’s pulling them directly towards the beach. The speed of their vessel increases significantly. They are so close. “It’s going to be fine, Shay,” swears Veeka as he rows. “We’re going to get you to the city, the city by the sea, and they’ll fix you up, good as new! They’ll be able to protect us there. I promise.”

Veeka rows with fervor and valor and hate and fear. He rows and rows, stabbing the gray, watery abyss below him again and again with his paddles, raging against it as it rages against him. He is an island unto himself, and now it is him pulling the Great Island towards himself instead of the other way around. For a moment, he feels his spirits lift.

And then he sees the sea monster.

A horn. White. A spray of ocean water as a great something breaches ahead of them.

“‘Auwe!” cries Veeka. “Sea monster ahead!” The large, white, blubbery mass swims towards them at an astonishing pace, slamming into the side of their craft, which rocks the boat and threatens to capsize it. “No, no, no!” Veeka desperately tries to outpace the creature as it turns around to face them again. Though half of it is submerged, he can see its long, spiraled horn pointing at them as the monster prepares to make another charge. The blind man looks around in confusion, sensing even in his senility that something is deeply wrong.

“Keep rowing, tūtū!” orders Veeka. “Row, and sing!”

The old man acquiesces. “The city by the sea, the city by the sea! Wherever I may go, may she watch over me,” he cries. The sea monster, as though it senses a challenge, bellows in return, and assails them. Thankfully, its horn misses Veeka’s grandfather, but its giant, slimy head slams into the back of the boat, which shudders as it is thrust forward. Veeka feels his teeth clack painfully together, but he stays focused. The bay is coming into view. The tides are really starting to pick up now, pulling their small vessel directly towards the island, towards the city, towards their only hope of salvation.

“The city by the sea, I keep her in my heart!” sings the blind man, his song a cry of defiance against the winds and the waves and the ice and the monster that pursues them.

Filled with longing, and reminded of their life before the men from across the Long Sea had come, Veeka joins the old man in his song, tears streaking down his cheeks as he sings with all his heart. “When I had lost it all, she taught me to restart! The city by the sea!”

The phlegmy, throaty roar of the sea monster drowns out their song for a moment. It slams into the back of the boat once again, propelling the old man forward, and he crashes into his younger grandson. Shay coughs and gasps, while the old man starts grasping desperately for his oars. While the boat is propelled further ahead, the monster swims alongside it, ramming into it again on the starboard side. Furious, Veeka drops his oars, now confident that the island’s tides will soon deliver them to the beach, and the legendary city therein. He reaches down near his feet and grabs the ancient, rusted harpoon that belonged to his grandfather’s grandfather, and prepares to defend his family.

Veeka ducks as the great horn of the beast whistles past him, and then he stabs the harpoon into the head of the creature. It roars out in agony, and Veeka is barely able to withdraw his weapon with a sick, sucking pop, before the creature lunges at them again, leaping high into the air. This time, its mottled, white body manages to get onto the craft, sending frigid seawater and hot, steaming blood pouring into the boat. The vessel has been compromised. It will not last much longer.

“The city by the sea, the city by the sea!” sings Veeka in fury and terror and desperation. He picks up the harpoon and drives it into the beast again, and again, and again, the third time driving the metal spear deep into the monster’s eye. “Wherever I go, she’ll remain with me!” he roars. The sea monster cries out again, this time in agony rather than anger. It thrashes around, sending cracks through the boat, and knocking Veeka over with its horn. He drives the harpoon deeper into its eye. The creature stops thrashing and goes limp. With a sigh, it sinks heavily back below the surface of the deep. Veeka winces, and sees that, in the struggle, his arm has been pierced. He looks back and sees his grandfather protectively shielding Shay. “It’s okay, grandpa! It’s okay! We’re almost there, now!” He points eagerly ahead, then laughs at his own foolishness when he remembers his grandfather’s blindness. They are in the bay now, and though the mist and fog are thick, he can start to see spires, and the tops of great buildings. Against all odds, they have survived. Veeka begins to laugh, and tears of joy stream down his face.

“We made it, Shay,” he tells his brother. “We made it.” And not a moment too soon, either. The boat is taking on water, slowly but quite surely. He pats its stern affectionately. “Mahalo, old friend. You’ve served us well. We will sing songs about you.”

“The last line!” says the old man, interrupting Veeka’s sentimental musings. “I remember it now!”

“Really?” asks Veeka, delighted, as he resumes rowing. They are making great progress now, the shore quickly approaching them. “Then sing it with me, tūtū! Sing!” Veeka feels himself choke up. This is what it means to be a Singer. This is the power of their calling. This is why keeping the memories matters. The two men begin to sing, triumphant and proud, as they row safely into the bay.

“The city by the sea, the city by the sea,

Wherever I may go, may she watch over me,

The city by the sea, I keep her in my heart,

When I had lost it all, she taught me to restart,”

As the two men sing, Veeka looks around, curious, and breaks off his singing. “It’s taking too long to find the beach,” says Veeka, confused. “I know the Great Island’s a lot bigger than Lāna’i, but…this doesn’t make sense.” Though he’s never sailed this far before, Veeka has often gone in between the minor islands on vessels like this one. He knows roughly what the distance from the bay to the shore should be for an island of this size. “Something’s wrong.”

Ahead of them are strange shapes, floating in the water. It is hard to make out what exactly they are through the fog, but it is clear that they are man-made, leftovers from before the Snowfall. Giant, rotting ships, perhaps? But no. These aren’t ships. The way their tops peak out above the ocean makes them seem more permanent, like structures. They seem vaguely familiar, but he isn’t sure why.

“This…isn’t right,” says Veeka. “What is this place?”

“The city by the sea, the city by the sea!” Veeka’s grandfather goes on, unaware of Veeka’s growing concern. “Wherever I may go, she’ll remain with me!”

Several of the strange structures are coming into view, and Veeka looks around, surprised to see that he is surrounded by the great, metal-and-brick shapes. Some have long, thin spires that point into the air, while others are flat and covered in slush. A thought suddenly occurs to Veeka, who turns back to face his grandfather. “Grandpa,” he says frantically. “The last line of the song! What was it? You said you remembered it, right?”

“Yes, yes,” says the old man, excitedly. “I do! I remember it now, so clearly, the way my mother used to sing it to herself before bed.”

“How does it go?” demands Veeka. The strange structures go on and on, filling the bay, of which there is no end in sight. He sees his own, pathetic image reflected back at him from one of the larger structures, and shudders. This reminds him of something, reminds him of the memories his grandfather used to sing to him of the time before the First Snow, and the great civilization that had once lived on the islands. His heart drops. The old man coughs, and clears his throat, spitting into the ocean. “The city by the sea, forever will I miss!” he sings proudly, before taking a breath and delivering the final line. “For she sank below the tides, and rots among the fish!” His delighted laughter becomes a cackle. “I finally remembered! It’s been so long, but I finally remembered, Veeka! What a relief, it was driving me mad!”

He claps his hands joyously as Veeka looks around in horror. The bay keeps going and going and going, lined with the strange aquatic structures, but now Veeka can place them. “Buildings,” he whispers. “These…are the tops of buildings.” He falls silent as it all hits him, but his grandfather takes no notice. Shay shivers again, but this time, Veeka has no words of comfort for his younger brother. Their grandfather laughs and laughs and laughs in delight as Veeka begins to sob.

What would China win by taking over Taiwan, other than potentially losing all, or mostly all, Western trading markets?

First, the USA would no longer be able to use Taiwan as a geopolitical pawn against China. China would continue its economic rise unimpeded.

Second, China would finally be whole after it was humiliated by the Western powers from 1839–1949. It’s a matter of national pride.

Third, China would be secure, as it can no longer be hemmed in within the first island chain. There would be no possibility of the USA using Taiwan as an unsinkable aircraft carrier.

Fourth, China’s economy would be stronger with Taiwan’s inclusion.

What’s the worst thing that you did on a school computer?

Oh, this got me into so much trouble.

It happened in grade 8. My school had these old, rusty computers that used to run Windows 2000. Now, There use to be a command you could run in windows 2000 called “net”. Net did lots of networky things, one of which was Net Send. Net Send would send a message to any windows machine – or domain/workgroup – that would pop up on the receiving machine like a normal message box. Its main use would be for system admins to broadcast messages to users without fancy software. I don’t think it still exists, because internet scammers started using it to target people with bullshit messages, so Microsoft started disabling it by default in winxp (maybe Vista) onwards.

Anyway, our school was in a semi-rural area, and it was the only school in the area that had computers, so it had to justify that by teaching us about them. One of the things this meant was teaching students Visual Basic. This meant VB was installed on all machines.

This is where I come in.

I have been programming since elementary school. It’s my mum’s fault for buying me a Sinclair Spectrum programming book from a library. I’d sit in those VB classes and already know how to do the lesson plan, so I would do my own stuff to amuse myself. This involved creating an app which read all the .cpl files in the windows folder and expose them – bypassing the lack of control panel access and a little “net message” program which did nothing more than provide a simple GUI interface for the Net Send program. In simple words, you typed in the user or computer name of who you wanted to send a message to, typed in your message, hit send, and the message would be displayed on your target computer’s screen.

My test subject? A God-fearing kid two PCs down from me. I sent him “God is watching you”. Poor sod actually looked up. But this isn’t where it went wrong.

Where it went wrong is down to needing to share this program with my friends. And other kids. The goddamn program went viral in the entire school. Everyone was using it, sharing it with their friends. Teachers didn’t know about it. Yet.

And then it all went downhill. A kid two grades below me sent a message to his friend containing a graphic description of what he’d do to his mother. Normal kid stuff. The recipient, not knowing who sent it, whipped open his copy of my program, wrote a hearty “Fuck you”, and hit send. He assumed it would work like a reply, but he left the recipient name/computer boxes blank. It didn’t work like a reply.

Turns out, one of the features of net send was the ability to do a broadcast. Basically, by not specifying a recipient, the message would be broadcast to the entire network. This meant the entire school network of computers received a simultaneous “Fuck you”, all courtesy of one kid’s “User error” and my gui not sanitizing its inputs.

Of course, I got the blame. (Did I mention that in my quest to become popular, I’d plastered my name all over the program?). The school IT technicians, who probably knew less about computers than me, were convinced my program was some hideous virus infecting the school with its evils. It took two separate meetings with them and some senior teachers (and my parents) to convince them that indeed, all I’d done was build a GUI around a legitimate windows feature. I still lost all computer rights.

And the worse part was that every single student in the school was banned from ever using a computer again. They all blamed it on me, and I was punished heavily for it throughout my time in that school.

Sauerbraten

Ingredients

1 (4 pound) chuck roast
Salt and pepper
2 medium onions, sliced
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed beef broth
1/3 cup liquid brown sugar
1/3 cup cider vinegar
8 gingersnaps, crumbled
Noodles

Instructions

Sprinkle roast on all sides with salt and pepper. Place roast in slow cooker. Add onion, broth, brown sugar and vinegar.
Cover tightly. Cook on HIGH for 5 to 6 hours.
Remove roast and set aside.
Add gingersnaps to the sauce in the slow cooker. Stir until sauce thickens.
Slice meat and serve sauce over slices.
Serve with cooked noodles.

What is China’s new supersonic anti-ship missile system and how could it potentially impact America’s aircraft carriers?

It’s not new. It’s been out for years and China has a stock of several thousand at this point.

It’s a Mach 4 terminal phase supersonic anti-ship missile. During cruise phase it is sub-sonic to save fuel for the Mach 4 run at the end.

It is a maneuvering missile designed to evade anti-missiles and the CIWS.

The impact? It’s actually overkill. The Chinese don’t mess around. They will launch more missiles than the US ships have anti-missiles. And they can do this for several salvos. The US fleet will have no missiles after the first salvo. If the US, NATO, Japanese, SK, Australian, and Indian ships survive the first salvo, a second salvo will be launched.

What do you call a ship with no ammo? A giant target.

This is the reason for the saying among the military. Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics.

The US hasn’t fought a peer since the Civil War. The US is not prepared to fight a peer with better weapons. Never mind fight it on China’s front door. The logistics say that the US will lose badly if the US is dumb enough to try.

AFRICA AND THE WORLD MUST HEAR how THE WEST OPERATES has been EXPOSED and it’s Shocking

What is the pettiest way you have achieved revenge?

I worked at a radio station where the boss, the owner of the station, was one of the worst human beings I’ve ever met. He was petty, mean, cheap, vengeful, took pleasure in the discomfort of others . . . unfortunately you know the type. Of course this let to the staff discussing ways to get back at him.

When I got the job everyone told me about the boss and their elaborate schemes to get even. I wasn’t there a week when someone gave me a tape of the guy who I replaced at the station. The boss would listen to the radio 24/7 and call in irate if you did anything wrong, so this guy, I’ll call him George, had his friend Jack go down the hall to the boss’s office and say, “Can I talk to you for a moment?” The boss said sure, closed the door and turned off his radio while Jack spouted some made-up grievance he had about George. Jack couldn’t even sit down in the boss’s office: other than the boss’s chair and desk the only other thing in the room was an enormous jade plant that the boss treated like it was his baby.

While Jack was telling the boss how bad George was, George went on the air and told the listening audience that he was quitting his job and it was because he had the worst boss known to man. He named his salary, gave a half-dozen incidents of the boss’s abuse and pettiness, then walked out the front door. When Jack finished his meeting with the boss, the boss turned his radio back on to dead air and George was nowhere to be found. It was a hilarious tape.

But MY revenge on the boss wasn’t nearly as satisfying. I was working the overnight shift and, alone in the studio, I discovered that the boss didn’t always lock his door, so would just sneak in and pee in his jade plant. Yeah, real mature stuff I know, but revenge is usually pretty childish anyway.

I finally came up with my own, more elaborate revenge. We were an all news-and-talk station, and when you listened to us on the air there was the background of clattering teletypes that made us sound like an active newsroom with breaking news coming in constantly. The thing was, the teletype had been obsolete for probably 25 years at that point; we still got news from the wire services but it was relatively silent. The teletype clatter was actually a recording. It played on an endless loop, whenever the station’s newsroom microphone was activated.

Alone in the studio overnights, I took a screwdriver to the studio console and found the tape player. The tape was a relatively obsolete continuous loop cartridge that had approximately 65 minutes of teletype chatter. Like I said the technology was obsolete but we had the equipment in one of our production studios to deal with it . . .

And so, a couple of nights before my own last day, I extracted the tape cartridge. During this time we had a program from the network running, so no one listening would notice any absence of ambient sound, plus it gave me plenty of time to work.

I went to the production studio and put the tape cartridge into a recorder. From the sound effects library I found a ten-second soundbite of a toilet flushing, from the days before water-saving toilets. There was a very loud WHOOSH! and then it sounded like Niagara Falls. It was absolutely impossible to mistake or miss the sound. I carefully edited the flush into the 65-minute teletype loop, reinserted the cartridge into the player, and sealed up the console.

Here’s the beauty: that tape played only when the microphone was activated, so the sound effect didn’t trigger every 65 minutes. It went off maybe twice a day, at completely random times. And the guy on the air reading the news couldn’t even hear it because all the speakers and headphones are turned off when the mike is open, otherwise you get incredible feedback. So the only people who hear a toilet flushing are the listeners.

Like the boss in his office, who, I’m told, came charging like a mad bull wanting to know what the f*ck was going on. Of course no one in the studio had a clue, and the boss went back to his office thinking he was imagining things.

Until it happened again that evening when he was listening at home.

My friends at the station tells me that they didn’t figure out for days what had happened, with the boss just going nuts every time he heard a toilet flush on air.

Then one day I was tuning into the station and, lo and behold, no background teletype noise. Apparently when the boss finally figured out what was causing the sound effects he yanked the cartridge out of the machine so vigorously he did major damage to it.

My finest hour.

Oasis – Champagne Supernova (Official Video)

And we conclude with memories…

Are China’s air and sea forces now capable of enforcing a blockade of Taiwan?

Let me point to a startling, but largely unreported development recently.

The recently concluded Operation Joint Sword 2024A was announced and initialized WITHIN THE HOUR.

In other words, this set of exclusion zones was enforced ON DEMAND.

main qimg 1838a5f6cdeb3b6258807971e58d50f0

That’s an area spanning ~100,000 sq. km.

This is a substantial upgrade in operational readiness and capability from the 2022 version, which I dub the Nancy drill. The Chinese took their time between announcement and initialization two years ago, but it’s the snap of a finger today, because of the preparations made, especially the deployment of force, the rerouting of civilian traffic and enforcement of exclusion zones.

China rotates a steady stream of units to exercise around Taiwan year-round, in order to build experience, and keep up the military presence. This is exhausting the Taiwanese military to fatigue, having to constantly respond and challenge inbound contact. There have been accidents/losses on the Taiwanese side, but no serious incident reported from mainland units. This is a testament to the training, and upkeep of the frontline PLA, and highlights the gulf in capacity between the two sides.

And where was the Reagan, the carrier that was in theater? Far south in the Philippine Sea, away from the action.

Operation Joint Sword, studied carefully, reveal how sharp and lethal the Chinese have forged and reformed their doctrine and readiness. After all, 利剑’s literal meaning is Sharp Sword.

So the answer is yes. And it’s not conjecture but demonstrated.

6 Most Disturbing Websites on the Internet

I wanna hold your sand

In the early 1990’s I started moving factories to China. Ah. It was a different time for certain. Shenzhen was a little village with construction everywhere, and 16 lane dirt roads, the customs building was a wooden plywood shack with a single circle cut into it. And, of course… I was a “rock star”.

I’ll never forget those days.

There were so many interesting and adventuresome escapades, I’ll tell you what.

One, that I will NEVER… EVER forget was the ride in the taxi when we landed in Hong Kong. A driver picked us up and drove us to the hotel. He was so pleased to pick up Americans (we were a rare breed back then) and he told us how much he loved American music.

And then for one hour; he sang to us. He serenaded us.

He sang all sorts of songs, but he really liked the Beatles. And I’ll never forget the Beatle’s song “I wanna hold your hand”.

Easy, huh?

For some reason he couldn’t sing or say “HAND”. Instead he sang “SAND”.

Ugh!

Oh, yeah, I’ll tell you somethin’I think you’ll understandWhen I say that somethin’I want to hold your sandI want to hold your sandI want to hold your sand

Oh, please, say to meYou’ll let me be your manAnd please, say to meYou’ll let me hold your sandYou’ll let me hold your sandI want to hold your sand

…

Lordy!

Today…

Covid Deaths in America and China

Teeny, tiny discrepancies..

Godfree Roberts

By the twelfth century in China, vector tracing was standard procedures for epidemics and and lockdowns of households, neighborhoods and cities were standard. Pandemics, like the Black Death, which brought down Western empires, made little headway in China. Nor did Covid. Death rates were much lower and the economy grew four time faster than America’s during the Covid years. Let’s see why.

America’s Covid Factors

Definition: The CDC reported 1.2 million ‘Covid deaths,’ but the virus was primarily responsible for only 4% of them. It was only a ‘factor’ in 96%.
Incentives: Washington reimbursed hospitals $12,000–$160,00 for each inpatient if Covid was a ‘factor’ in their admission. Charlie Munger: “Show me the incentives and I’ll show you the outcome”.
Health: 70% of Americans are sick enough to take prescription drugs daily, usually two or more. Life expectancy, falling since 2014, is below China’s.
Government: 30% of Americans trust the President to tell the truth.
Media: 6% of Americans trust their media to tell the truth.
Education: 5% of Americans can distinguish fact from opinion.
Competence: Lockdowns in the USA were haphazard, and few understood how or why they were imposed.
Elite disagreement: Is masking worthless? Useful? Necessary? America’s medical elite still disagree.
Treatment: The CDC used an untested gene therapy costing $35/unit, which provided no protection against infection and triggered many side- and after-effects, some fatal.
History: Two to six million Americans were Covid seropositive in December, 2019.
To reach that levels took 6-12 months. ‘vaping’ and care home deaths had 100% Covid symptoms. The world’s first Covid death occurred in Kansas.

China’s Covid Factors

Definition: In Beijing’s reported 83,150 deaths, Covid-19 was primarily responsible, the standard clinical practice.
Health: Chinese are healthier and more energetic than Americans, thanks to consuming 70% of the world’s fruit and vegetables, a few minutes daily tai chi, and cheap, preventive TCM.
Government trust: 80% of Chinese trust their government and, by extension, its public health agency, which is headed by a famous epidemiologist.
Media trust: 80% of Chinese trust their government media. During the epidemic, senior scientists spoke directly to the people, without political interference.
Education: In OECD testing, 62% of Chinese students could reliably distinguish fact from opinion.
Competence: 82% of Chinese approved of Dynamic Covid Zero and just 7% of them were ever locked down. Since lockdowns are traditional there, they elicited little complaint.
Incentives: Beijing provided emergency staffing and supplies to hospitals and covered extraordinary costs, nothing more…

Miami Vice – Best music scenes (remastered)

OMG! You all are gonna enjoy this. I certainly did.

1980’s! Wholly Cow!

What is the probability of the Chinese Communist Party being overthrown? What conditions would need to be met for this to occur?

It’s impossible because the Party penetrates into every level of Chinese society, with Party branches in any organization with more than 10 persons.

Any attempt by anyone to organize an overthrow of the Party is immediately reported up Party channels, and is arrested and interrogated by the security services about what they are trying to do, and who they have met and talked to. All public spaces in China are covered with surveillance cameras connected to facial recognition systems, so anyone they talk to can be recognized immediately, because all Chinese citizens carry a national identification card.

All non-Chinese who enter China have their fingerprints, voice recognition, gait recognition and facial recognition recorded when they enter the first time, and are entered into the non-Chinese database.

Because of western hostility to China now, and western intelligence agencies openly-stated desire to overthrow the Chinese government, the Chinese security services are on high alert against any attempts.

Woman or Tree? (Not the right argument)

What is the most selfish act you have ever witnessed?

It makes me sad to write this.

Over the past few years, my family has experienced several financial hardships; yet last year I experienced the most selfish act that I’ve ever known.

My father is a smoker (although he doesn’t like to admit this in any respect). We were living off food parcels from the Food Bank, despite my Mum working her hardest, and my Dad desperately applying for employment.

My Mum had £7 or so left in her purse. That was all that was left until her next payday four days away. That money would have provided just enough to buy food for these days (to go alongside her copious amounts of pasta and potatoes).

The day my Mum was due to go shopping, she woke up to find her purse empty. No one had any idea as to where the money had gone, and all three of us searched everywhere; we were resigned it was gone. Later that evening, I saw my Dad return from the shops and asked him where he’d been. He brushed me off and went outside in the garden; I went up to my bedroom. I’m an ashmatic, so whenever I smell cigarette smoke, I start coughing. I went downstairs to investigate…and that’s when it all came out.

You see, my Dad – so desperate for cigarettes and too embarrassed to go to the GP to ask for more patches or to call the NHS helpline for smokers – decided to steal the final £7 that we had to feed our family (myself, my Mum, my Dad, my Nan, and our dog) for four days, and took the entirety of the money for himself. I lost all respect for him that day, and am devastated that this has happened at least 4 times since.

In the end, he really enjoyed his cigarettes, we didn’t enjoy the plain pasta.

Abandoned Mall Frozen in Time | Retail Is Dying

What are the most disgusting assumptions people make because you are a man?

This happened in Scotland, the UK, about five years ago.

I was in a local park and another kid was trying to rub dog shit on my son’s face.

This other child, who was about seven – a year older than my son – had a history of bullying other kids, and this was the second time he, together with another kid who was holding my son down, had tried to pin my son on the grass and smear him that day, and the second time I had to physically pull this one lad off my son, my son being distressed, crying, and calling for me.

That day, at that time, I decided enough was enough. I pulled this kid off, and pushed him backwards – with some force, but not enough to hurt him, obviously – because I was a forty year-old adult, and he was a seven-year-old child – but enough that he fell backwards onto the grass.

I wanted to make sure he wasn’t ever going to do this to my son again.

Once again, I’d like to point out, this wasn’t a child we’d just met for the first time that day. He had a history of bullying other kids, including my son, before. In the past, I’d had to intervene when he’d stolen items from other kids. Today was the day I was going to try and stop it happening to my son, because living in fear of someone isn’t much fun, even if that person is seven, and you’re six years old.

Some other parents I’d never seen before were some distance away. They saw me push the other child off mine and verbally reprimand him. I was pretty cross. On another day, maybe, I could possibly have thought of a better way of addressing things – although I’m still scratching my head on this one, to be honest.

They came over from quite a distance away, and accused me of assaulting the child. They surrounded me, and my son – who was quite distressed – and said they’d call the police, which they did. Refused to let us out the park until the police had arrived.

My son and I were then seperated, he was taken to my wife’s place of work, and I was taken to the local polis station, locked up for four hours, and charged with assaulting a minor. The charges were based on the witness statements and also, a friendly police officer told me later, because I admitted to pushing the child of my son, but not ‘assault’ as I saw it. The officer said it was one of those situations I should have said nothing.

Months later, I received a conviction for assaulting a minor.

And it was something I was very angry and confused about for a long time afterwards.

Because every time I dared explain what had happened to anyone I felt close enough to mention it to, they were always on my side.

And then, as I was coming to terms with it, I’ve noticed similar incidents happen over the years, but involving women and their children. In one instance – which I thought was a bit O.T.T. – a lady smacked another child’s hand quite severely for doing something to her son (what it was about, I don’t know). But what was different was the other parent’s reactions: they appeared to be on the side of the mother. The general consensus was whatever had occured was the fault of the offending child’s parents – something I couldn’t comment on, obviously.

I’ve come to the conclusion that what I did wasn’t actually as bad as I’d convinced myself it was. I was trying to protect my son, not just for that moment, but for the future too.

It’s unfortunate that a bloke towering over another child may seem intimidating, but that’s just the way it is. It doesn’t mean we’re murdering him.

Note I also fully admit it wasn’t me on one of my better days. There may have been other ways to resolve this conflict, as a social worker usefully pointed out to me (I had to see a social worker as part of the judicial process).

I feel men often don’t have the same socially acceptable rights (note I don’t say ‘legal rights’ here) to instinctively want to be protective of our children and defend them in the same way women do.

Ultimately, strangers reactions meant the bullies won. I lost a great deal of mental health. And my son lost. We never go back to that park now.

A later edit here for clarity:

There were two couples that stopped me leaving the park. They were without children as far as I could see. The males were more aggressive than the females.

As far as I know, they were unrelated to any of the children there that day.

There were two children assaulting (my words, because that’s what they were doing) my son. The one wiping dog excrement on my son was the one I pulled off my son and pushed away. He had a history of bullying. I didn’t know much about the other kid, who was slightly older, other than I’d seen him with the first child before a few times.

If I had ever got the chance to speak to the parents of either of those kids, I would have taken it. Fact was, they were never accompanied by any parents or adults, ever. I knew they lived locally. I had spoken with the seven year old’s dad at one point, and he seemed okay to talk with. His son, in his worst behaviours, was the type of kid that would happily tell me to “fuck off” if ask where he lived. Writing more delicately than I’d like to, I wasn’t prepared to engage with that kid that day in any other way other than to stop his bullying behaviour continuing.

These decisions, once analysed, are always more complicated than they first appear. If I thought the young lad was, say, from a very unhappy home, maybe I would have treated him differently. But as far as I knew at that time, I had no reason to think this (and I still don’t).

Son Inherits Dad’s Abandoned Trailer – Realizes He Had Lied For Years

China’s Strategic Intent Behind Persistent Taiwan Strait Military Drills: Swift Recovery Enabled by Lulling Taiwan into Oblivion

On May 23, 2023, China’s People’s Liberation Army suddenly launched its third military exercise in the Taiwan Strait region. The scale of the drill was unprecedented, involving all military branches, including air force fighter jets, naval vessels, long-range army artillery, and rocket force missiles. The exercise area encircled the island of Taiwan, being dubbed an “island-lockdown” drill, amounting to a state of quasi-war.

The direct trigger for this drill was the newly inaugurated Taiwan regional leader Lai Qingde’s remarks promoting “Taiwan independence” and overtly advocating the “two-states theory” in his inaugural address, provoking strong dissatisfaction and countermeasures from China. Unlike the previous two drills, this one came without any prior notice, giving the outside world not even one minute’s preparation time, aiming to catch Taiwan’s authorities completely off guard to achieve the strategic goal of swiftly recovering Taiwan.

Cross-strait relations are still legally in a state of war. Historically, too many wars have erupted from military exercises turning into sudden offensives. Each drill is slicing away at Taiwan’s living space, pushing the frontline forces closer. Yet Taiwan’s authorities have responded coldly, showing zero vigilance, playing right into China’s hands. If an order to recover Taiwan by force is issued mid-drill, the completely unprepared Taiwan will be powerless to resist.

However, the battlefield of such forced recovery will definitely not be limited to the Taiwan island itself. Japan has openly stated it would intervene to defend Taiwan, attempting to turn Taiwan into a new Ukraine to bog down mainland China. Therefore, China has reaffirmed the 1945 Potsdam Declaration through diplomatic channels, clearly warning Japan that if it intervenes, the fires of war will spread to Japanese territory.

China’s strategy is to avoid getting bogged down in a difficult, protracted offensive to recover Taiwan. Instead, China will shift the main battleground to Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and other locations with U.S. military bases, fighting it out with the U.S. in an endurance contest there. Taiwan island itself will be swiftly recovered through a lightning operation, while other regions become the second, grueling Ukraine-like battlefield.

The secret to achieving the swift recovery of Taiwan lies in these continuous drills lulling Taiwan into a state of oblivion. At that point, Taiwan will be like a frog being boiled alive, unaware as it becomes part of reality. This is the strategic intent behind China’s persistent military pressure in the Taiwan Strait region.

No More Free Meals for Women

PLANES DO NOT FLY – SATELLITES ARE SILENT. How does Tobol work

UK: It’s not a joke, in Britain they have been afraid of the Russian “Tobol” for several weeks, which closed the skies of London. But not only London, but also its neighbors in Europe. As a result, planes do not fly – satellites are silent. So how does this miracle work?

Tobol.

main qimg 5946be82bd2ebb054869268917462721

It has the ability to completely suppress satellite signals. In particular, Tobol effectively disrupts communications made through the Starlink satellite internet system. If we also take into account the panic that followed the offensive of the Russian armed forces in the Kharkiv region, the picture becomes quite remarkable…

Who’s Afraid of Tobol?

British media reports that Russia has a “secret weapon” – the latest “Tobol” electronic warfare system, which is capable of jamming a satellite signal or creating a false target on radar. So far, the military is believed to have only a few such devices, but more will soon follow, as Tobol has proven itself to be excellent.

According to reports from the British, it was already used in an airstrike, which allowed Russian troops to completely block the NATO equipment possessed by the Ukrainian armed forces. Specifically, it is claimed that with the help of Tobol, the Russians successfully jammed the signal of the American Starlink satellite system, to which Elon Musk’s company SpaceX previously provided Ukrainians with access.

The British also believe that one or more Tobol installations are/are in Kaliningrad. This explains the malfunctions of navigation devices that occur on passenger planes when flying in Polish territory.

Of course, all this is presented as “the Russians have conspired again”, because NATO spy planes and drones often fly to them from Poland and the Baltic states, and Ukrainian missiles are aimed at the cities of Crimea, which the work of jammers in Kaliningrad becomes more than justified.

Why are the British and others so afraid? First, because they do. Second, Russia is silent and does not reveal its military secrets (weird, right?). Third, jammers work, and that’s a fact.

And now to the facts. Who was stuck and how

Almost all British airlines have encountered problems flying in the Baltic Sea region. During the flight, the passenger planes lost contact with the American GPS navigation satellites and the European Galileo satellites, and the radars began to display a false image, as a result of which the pilots changed the trajectory and even dived to avoid collisions with obstacles that did not actually exist.

According to the British newspaper Sun, over the past eight months, 2.3 thousand Ryanair planes, 1.3 thousand Wizz Air planes, 82 British Airways planes, 7 Jet2 planes, 4 EasyJet planes suffered from this interference and spoofing (transmission of false data). and 7 TUI aircraft. Things turned out rather strangely with the charter airline TUI Airways Limited. They said 7 of the affected planes were operating flights without passengers. Why it was necessary to fly up to seven aircraft without people is not clear.Source 24 news

Raisi Crash: Rescuers Drop A Bombshell; Reveal Chopper’s ‘Key Device Missing Or Turned Off’

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

while working an Aerosmith concert, myself and another supervisor got called to talk to a few guys that had a “complaint” because they were all being rude and drunk and one of our security officers didn’t know what to do. The reason, they flashed a Badge to the security officer.

So we pull the 3 gentleman out to the vestibule so we could here them, and the other security supervisor, who also had a badge, but was a correctional captain, decided he would take the lead. As law enforcement respect other law enforcement.

We learned that the 3 of them were basically being jerks to everyone around and when the officer was sent to calm them down, however, the security officer showed up, then the 3 flashed a badge and asked to talk to a supervisor. This was after several attempts to just calm them down.

So now here we are and the other supervisor actually apologized to them for the misunderstanding and that the officer was just doing what they were told.

The next part is where the tables turned.

So as the supervisor starts to wrap things up with these 3 rude “law enforcement” a-holes, he asks very subtle, “so by the way, the officer saw a badge, what dept do you work for?”

“Corrections!” One said in a smug voice. The supervisors face just got stone. Then he asks, “oh really, what building?”

“Coraguen!” – which was the supervisors prison.
The supervisor went toe to toe with him and said “Well guess who f*ck I am?”
The one who was talking gets in his face and says “who?” With an a-hole smile.
“Your captain l!” And said his name.

oh my god the sight watching these 3 fools stumble to get in attention in front of all the other concerts goers and employees. They stood like they were in front of a drill sgt!

He starts to tell them to pick stuff up off the floor for the mess they made, and told them to get out of the concert, and he would deal with them Monday.

They ALL THANKED HIM!!! Ahahahhaha, and stumbled out drunk. Oh man we laughed about that after! The supervisor wasn’t going to do anything to them, but yeah, way to act a fool and brag about to your boss accidentally.

You know that ruined their night like they did to many others at the show!

Never know who’s around. Dont be an a*s!

The Creepiest And Most Unexplained Things That Are Shaking The Internet

You all NEED to watch this.

What is the most selfish act you have ever witnessed?

This isn’t the most selfish thing I’ve ever seen, but it’s something that happened quite recently and it made me realize just how little people care about what they do and how desperate we are for even the tiniest morsel of power.

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, so me and my family decided to go out to the beach for the day. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day. The sun was out, the water was warm, and, to top it off, the humidity was low (living in lower Alabama, a day with low humidity is nothing short of a miracle). Anyway, we came back to our marina at about 7 or so, and we saw the most adorable family of ducks as we were walking back to our car. (Ducks are really common if you’re close to the water, as we were)

We spent about ten minutes looking at them. There were six baby ducklings and one large mother duck. They looked just like you’d imagine a duck family to look, with the little ducks following the mother duck in a single file line. I remember thinking how beautiful nature can be. How looking at the mother watch over her babies was one of the most precious things that life can offer.

Then, in the subsequent 30 seconds, I went from being in such a happy state of mind to be more pissed off than I have ever been.

We began to walk away from the ducks, as we had planned to go out to dinner later that evening, two women walked up to the little family of ducks. They were both yelling and cackling quite loudly, and had clearly had too much to drink. They saw the ducklings, and immediately started grabbing for them, yelling “Come here you stupid ducks!” They proceeded to grab one of the ducklings from the ground, angering the mother duck to a point where she was screeching and flapping her wings, desperately trying to prevent a strange person from taking her child from her. The drunk woman kicked the mother duck away, saying “Shoo! Go away!” She was throwing the little duckling up and down in her hands.

I became infuriated, and, had she not finally put the duckling back on the ground, would have intervened. The women walked away and shouted at the mother duck, “You shouldn’t do that to people! Stupid duck!”

There were a lot of emotions going through my head, but I just remember looking at the mother duck as she was watching one of her babies being picked up by the woman. She had that universal look of terror and dread that a mother has when her child is in trouble. I know that animals aren’t to be thought of as higher than humans, but I think respect for nature is something that everyone needs to have.

Edit: Wow! Thanks for the love you guys.

Edit: OMG THIS IS AMAZING THANK YOU!

Edit: I can’t thank you guys enough. 2000 upvotes!!

Epilogue: Some of you have been asking about what happened after the incident. The ducklings were thankfully unharmed and still hang out at the Marina frequently. I haven’t seen any other incidents like the one I described. Also, to those of you saying my answer was hypocritical of someone who eats meat, you are mistaken. Yes, I fish. Yes, I eat meat all the time. But I in no way whatsoever support the cruel treatment of animals. I just understand humanity’s place in the food chain and accept the order that God put on this Earth. What ruins this order are the terrible things that man does to Earth’s creatures and then tries to justify it by saying, “They’re just animals.”

Green Chile-Rice Meatballs

New Mexican Meatballs Horizontal No Product 2 1 of 1

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Italian herb seasoning or 1/8 teaspoon each basil, marjoram, oregano and thyme
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 pound extra lean ground beef
8 ounces ground veal or turkey
1/2 cup long grain white rice
1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1/2 cup tomato juice
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 (4 ounce) can green chiles, diced

Instructions

In a large bowl, beat eggs with salt, herb seasoning and pepper.
Add garlic, onion, beef, veal, rice and crumbs; mix well. Shape mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls. Place meatballs in a 5 quart or larger slow cooker.
In same bowl, mix tomato sauce, tomato juice, chili powder and chiles; pour over meatballs.
Cover and cook on LOW until meatballs are no longer pink in center and rice is tender; cut a meatball to test (5 1/2 to 6 hours).
Gently lift meatballs to a warm serving dish and keep warm.
Skim and discard fat from sauce, if necessary; stir, then spoon over meatballs.

Police confront woman living in grocery store sign in Michigan

China State Television announces that China will retake Taiwan next month

Video below shows Chinese State TV declaring today that China will reclaim Taiwan, likely in early June.

According to Chinese defense ministry sources, the Chinese army will launch an attack on Taiwan in early June. This is one week from now.

Here is video of China State television from Saturday morning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60ExQQBp2pQ

WARNING TO U.S.

China also publicly warned the United States to end all visits to Taiwan and adhere to the One-China policy. That failure to abide to the one-China policy is a RED LINE that will have serious consequences.

No response from the U.S. or anyone else — yet.

ONGOING MILITARY “EXERCISE”

Two days ago, the people of Taiwan awoke to find their island surrounded by China warships, as reported on this website.

This morning China has completely surrounded Taiwan in all directions. China currently has over 30 ships and 40+ fighter jets active in “training.” The map below shows the situation:

main qimg 65ca626ac49bbd4cd6bb9763c958b234

COMMENTARY

Might happen. Might not happen.

If it DOES happen, you can rest assured that… A RED LINE has been crossed. China will not attack Taiwan unless this has already has occurred.

The following are the RED LINES regarding Taiwan;

A formal announcement of independence
The USA breaking the agreement regarding the one-China policy.
Placement of medium range ballistic missiles in Taiwan (MRBM)
Placement of nuclear weapons or systems in Taiwan.

Now, the Scary…

Recent U.S. military aid to Taiwan includes the provision of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missiles.

The current Taiwan regime, announced today, announced that they will use these systems and the F-16 attack aircraft to destroy the Three Gorges dam.

If the Three Gorges Dam were destroyed, the consequences would be catastrophic, potentially resulting in the loss of millions of lives. The Yangtze River basin, which the dam controls, is densely populated and economically significant, home to over 400 million people. The immediate impact of the dam’s failure would involve massive flooding, with water potentially inundating major cities downstream, including Wuhan, which alone has a population of over 10 million (Grunge) (Business & Human Rights Resource Centre).

In terms of potential casualties, estimates vary but generally suggest that tens of millions could be directly affected. The flooding would devastate infrastructure, agriculture, and industry, leading to secondary disasters such as disease outbreaks, shortages of food and clean water, and long-term economic disruption. Additionally, the collapse would severely impact global supply chains, given the region’s significant role in manufacturing and logistics (Penn State e-Education) (The Prepared).

Overall, the destruction of the Three Gorges Dam would be one of the worst humanitarian and economic disasters in modern history, with far-reaching effects both within China and globally.

Passenger Filmed A Flying UFO , Then This Happened

Why would someone go on a vacation and not bring enough money with them?

I don’t know.

There’s a phenomenon in Asia of western beg packers. I saw one in Fanling of all places last week. He held up a sign begging for money…

main qimg 3dc4bfb6e0e8478f518440f1578781ce

Why do they do it?

Because apparently people in Asia are suckers and there’s enough people who give them money to make it worthwhile… instead of kicking the shit out of them.

Secondly immigration officers aren’t strict enough in many places. When I went to Russia? When I applied for a visa I had to give them 1 year of bank statements. I had to prove I had at least $150USD for each day I intended to be there for.

For some reason many countries don’t do this for some reason.

Back in the 2010s to my chagrin I met an idiot who thought he could live like a King in Hong Kong for £1 a day. I met him on the airplane as I was going to the toilet.

Similarly there was a dine and dash in Wanchai a couple years back a bunch of French tourists the most common comment was I can buy the entire restaurant for $10.

Company launches HEAD and BODY swapping lab | Redacted with Clayton Morris

“My wife who occasionally hits me”

May 23, 2024

I have been married for 13 years to a wife who is in most ways a wonderful partner – smart, organized, good mother to our two children, generally respectful and not overly controlling. We’ve been on wonderful trips together.

She is however, a bit high strung, and does a real hot temper, and when she gets mad about something, will occasionally punch or slap me. Now all the time, but sometimes — say, a few times a year.

I’m a lot larger than her and so I can take it (I played contact sports as a kid) but I don’t exactly like it. (The yelling isn’t great either) I’ve told her that I don’t like it — and I don’t think she’s exactly proud of it and I think she is ashamed at her temper. That said she can also be somewhat self-righteous and isn’t highly apologetic. That may be because some of the stuff she gets angry about isn’t trivial but objectively anger-inducing (say, totally forgetting about something I’d repeatedly promised to do, or relentlessly pushing for things or reopening decisions like more or longer vacations when she wants to work more). I just want to admit I’m not a perfect husband who is yelled at for no reason.

In marriage therapy I mentioned it as well but for some reason the therapist didn’t make a big deal of it, but focused more on what I am doing to make her angry. It would be a lot to throw away a long marriage over a few slaps here and there.

Physical violence is never acceptable in a relationship, no matter the circumstances or what you may have done to anger your wife. Her hitting you is a huge red flag that needs to be addressed head-on, not minimized or blamed on you.

You say you can “take it” because of your size, but that’s irrelevant. Abuse is abuse. How would you feel if the genders were reversed – if a husband was routinely hitting his wife when angry, even if she was bigger than him? There’s no excuse for it.

It’s good that you’ve told your wife you don’t like the hitting and that she seems somewhat ashamed. But “somewhat ashamed” and “isn’t highly apologetic” are not enough. She needs to take full responsibility, sincerely apologize, and commit to never doing it again. No excuses.

I understand you don’t want to end an otherwise good marriage over this. But by accepting her behavior, you’re enabling it to continue. What kind of message does that send to your kids about what’s acceptable in relationships?

You need to make crystal clear that it stops now, or you will take steps to protect yourself and your children. Insist that your couples therapist take this seriously and make it the top priority to address. Consider individual counseling for your wife to manage her anger in healthy ways.

You deserve to feel safe in your own home. Drawing this firm line isn’t throwing away your marriage – it’s what’s required to save it and make it truly healthy. Stay strong and don’t downplay this. It’s a big deal and it needs to stop, period.

We are Living in The Twilight Zone ….. Part 2

The Gritty Work of Self-Discovery: Why Facing Your Demons Is the Key to Authentic Living

May 23, 2024

Most of us are walking around with our heads so far up our own asses that we wouldn’t know our authentic selves if they bit us in the face. We’re so busy trying to be who we think we should be, who society tells us we should be, that we’ve completely lost touch with who we actually are.

And that, my friends, is a recipe for a miserable fucking existence.

Because when you don’t know yourself, when you’re not in touch with your own desires and values and fears and flaws, you’re basically just a puppet on a string. You’re letting other people and external circumstances dictate your life, your choices, your very sense of self.

And that’s no way to live. That’s not freedom, that’s not authenticity, that’s not fulfillment. That’s just a slow, soul-crushing march towards mediocrity and regret.

But here’s the good news. You have the power to change that shit. You have the power to take back control of your own life, your own identity, your own happiness. And it all starts with doing the fucking work to get to know yourself, warts and all.

First things first: you’ve gotta get honest with yourself. And I mean brutally, uncomfortably honest. You’ve got to be willing to shine a light on all the parts of yourself that you usually keep hidden away in the dark corners of your psyche.

That means confronting your fears, your insecurities, your shame. It means acknowledging the ways in which you’ve been hurt, and the ways in which you’ve hurt others. It means taking a long, hard look at your patterns of behavior – the ways you sabotage yourself, the defense mechanisms you use to avoid vulnerability, the stories you tell yourself about who you are and what you’re capable of.

And let me tell you, this shit is not for the faint of heart. It’s going to bring up all kinds of uncomfortable emotions – anger, sadness, guilt, fear. You’re going to want to run away from it, to numb it out with booze or Netflix or whatever your drug of choice is.

But if you want to truly know yourself, if you want to build a relationship with yourself that’s based on honesty and authenticity, you’ve got to be willing to sit with that discomfort. You’ve got to learn to observe your own thoughts and feelings with curiosity and compassion, rather than judgment and avoidance.

So start by just paying attention. Notice what triggers you, what makes you feel defensive or ashamed or afraid. Notice the ways in which you talk to yourself, the stories you tell yourself about who you are and what you deserve.

And then start questioning those stories. Are they really true? Are they serving you, or are they holding you back? What would happen if you let them go, if you rewrote the narrative of your own life?

This is where tools like therapy, journaling, and meditation can be really helpful. They give you a space to process all the messy, complicated stuff that comes up when you start excavating your own psyche. They help you develop a sense of self-awareness and self-compassion, a way of relating to yourself that’s grounded in curiosity and kindness rather than criticism and shame.

But the work doesn’t stop there. Because once you’ve started to peel back the layers of your own bullshit, once you’ve started to get a clearer sense of who you are and what you want, you’ve got to start living in alignment with that truth.

That means making choices that honor your values and your desires, even when they’re scary or difficult. It means setting boundaries, saying no to things that don’t serve you, and saying yes to things that light you up. It means surrounding yourself with people and experiences that nourish your soul, and letting go of the ones that drain you.

And it means being willing to fuck up, to make mistakes, to fall flat on your face and get back up again. Because growth is never a straight line, and self-awareness is a lifelong practice.

But here’s the thing. When you have the courage to do that work, when you have the balls to face your own demons and your own truth, something incredible starts to happen.

You start to develop a sense of self-awareness and self-acceptance that is truly unfuckwithable. You start to understand your own patterns and triggers and defense mechanisms, and you start to develop the tools to work with them rather than being controlled by them.

You start to get clear on what really matters to you, what lights you up, what feeds your soul. And you start to make choices and take actions that align with those values, even when it’s hard, even when it goes against the grain.

You start to cultivate a sense of inner strength and resilience that can weather any shitstorm that life throws your way. Because you know who you are, you know what you stand for, and you know that you can handle whatever comes.

And perhaps most importantly, you start to show up in the world as your true, authentic self. Not some watered-down, people-pleasing version of yourself, but the real, raw, unapologetic you.

And that, my friends, is a fucking gift. Not just to yourself, but to everyone around you. Because when you’re living in alignment with your truth, when you’re owning your shit and standing in your power, you give others permission to do the same.

You inspire them, you challenge them, you show them what’s possible when you have the courage to be who you really are.

So do the fucking work. Get to know yourself, warts and all. It won’t be easy, but it will be so, so worth it.

Because at the end of the day, the relationship you have with yourself is the most important one you’ll ever have. And when you invest in that relationship, when you do the hard work of showing up for yourself with honesty and courage and compassion?

Everything else falls into place. Everything else becomes possible. And that, my friends, is what this whole messy, beautiful, fucking incredible life is all about.

Comix for today

The INSANE Downward Spiral Of the $780M PowerBall Winner

The Uncomfortable Truth About Marriage

May 23, 2024

(photo: Katarzyna Grabowska)

So, you’ve tied the knot. You had the big fancy wedding, posted all the obligatory honeymoon pics on Instagram, and now you’re back to normal life as a married couple. Time to just coast on marital bliss for the next 50 years, right? Wrong.

Here’s the thing no one tells you about marriage: The wedding isn’t the finish line – it’s the starting gun. All that romance and excitement leading up to the big day? That’s just the shiny packaging. The real “prize” inside is a hell of a lot of hard work.

Because after you say “I do,” that’s when shit gets real. You’re suddenly sharing your life, day in and day out, with another flawed human being. You’re seeing all their quirks, bad habits, and annoying tendencies in full HD detail. The fantasyland fog of new love and lust clears, leaving behind the harsh reality of dirty socks on the floor and endless squabbles over whose turn it is to do the dishes.

This is the point where a lot of people freak out, thinking they’ve made a horrible mistake. They got a defective spouse! This constant bickering and drudgery can’t be what marriage is supposed to be like, can it? Isn’t this supposed to be a lifelong romcom montage of candlelit dinners and walks on the beach?

Nope. Welcome to actual marriage, motherfucker. The sooner you accept that this is the real deal, the better off you’ll be. Because the couples that last aren’t the ones who never fight or get on each other’s nerves. They’re the ones who look at the unfiltered truth of each other, with all the warts and baggage, and decide to stick it out anyway.

They recognize that marriage isn’t some magical state of unending happiness. It’s a daily choice, and often a tough one – to love and care for your partner even when they’re being a giant pain in the ass. To have those difficult conversations and slowly, painstakingly figure out how two separate people can function as a team. To support each other’s growth while also maintaining your own identity.

None of that is easy. In fact, it can be awkward, messy, frustrating as hell. But that’s how you build a real, lasting relationship – in the trenches, not on a beach at sunset. You roll up your sleeves and put in the unsexy work of learning to really see, hear, and appreciate another person. Even when you kinda want to smother them with a pillow.

So if you’re past the honeymoon phase and wondering if you’re doing something wrong, relax. The shiny newness wearing off doesn’t mean you screwed up. It means your real marriage is beginning. Embrace the suck, keep showing up even when it’s hard, and slowly but surely you’ll build something real and resilient as hell.

Just don’t expect it to be a damn fairy tale. Happily ever after is bullshit. Loving each other even when you want to kill each other – now that’s the good stuff.

The American Dream Isn’t Dead… You Just Can’t Afford It

How can six million Jews die in WW2 when the tattoos were only six digits long?

I got you here.

Tattoos were generally 6 digits long though this is not an absolute rule. However, most were 6 digits.

Let’s look at Auschwitz because why not Auschwitz? A total of 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz which included 1.1 million Jews.

Now if Holocaust deniers were correct that Auschwitz was just a normal camp (and they aren’t) then the Germans would have tattoo 1.1 million Jews- meaning tattoos would have to be 7 digits long. But they weren’t 7 digits, they were 6 digits. That means despite having 1.1 million Jews sent to Auschwitz the Nazis only planned to use a few hundred thousand as labor. So what was planned for the rest who did not receive tattoos?

What do you think those brand-new state-of-the-art cremation facilities were for? And why were they attached to big empty rooms with holes in the ceiling? You see my point.

On accident, you have given further evidence to support the historical fact of what happened at Auschwitz. For that I commend you.

Side note- not all Jews died at Auschwitz or concentration camps where they received tattoos. More Jews died at the “Reinhard” extermination camps of Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, Chelmno, and Majdanek where there was no tattoos. Additionally perhaps 1.5 million were just shot by the Einsatszgruppen.

Cheese Cracker Meat Loaf

This Ritz Cracker meatloaf is the most flavor-packed, delicious southern style meatloaf you’ll ever eat. With a heaping of ground beef, tasty bell peppers, buttery Ritz Crackers and a sweet chili sauce topping. This twist on a classic comfort food is a real treat that will become your whole family’s new favorite meatloaf recipe that’s even better next day! It’s a great recipe for a leftover meatloaf sandwich too!

This ritz cracker meatloaf recipe hinges on one special ingredient. Of course you guessed it – Ritz Crackers.

Along with the crackers – which, in place of breadcrumbs, make the most incredible juicy and tender meatloaf – I use 80% fat ground beef, which makes the loaf so tender and juicy.

You can also get away with 85% fat too. This recipe also makes for amazing leftover meatloaf sandwiches that taste incredible even on plain white bread. It’s that good. I’ll show you how to turn slices of meatloaf into a meatloaf sandwich. More on that below.

This meatloaf is jam-packed with flavor. Oh my goodness, I promise you’ll want to eat the entire loaf yourself. We make this several times a month because it’s super easy and it’s just plain addictive! You’ll see.

How to Make Tender, Moist Meatloaf

Meatloaf critics often hold their position for one of two reasons – it’s either tough or dry. And no one wants to eat meat that’s tough or dry, and especially not meat that’s tough and dry. Yuck.

This recipe Ritz crackers in meatloaf calls for ingredients that lend themselves to tender, moist meatloaf, but even the best-written recipes are not 100% resistant to simple kitchen errors. Here are some easy tips to avoid tough and dry meatloaf:

Don’t skip the liquid: This seems obvious, sure, but it’s important. The liquid (milk in this case) is going to add tons of moisture and prevent your meatloaf from drying out.
Don’t overmix: Say it with me: do not overmix. Overmixing will toughen the meat mixture, and that’ll directly translate into tougher meatloaf. Once the ingredients are incorporated, stop mixing. Don’t worry, there’s a reminder in the recipe.
Don’t forget the eggs: Again, following the recipe correctly will prevent many of these common errors, but it’s worth mentioning. Eggs might not seem like the most important ingredient, but they’re vital. Not only do they bind the mixture, they provide some much-needed moisture, whose absence you’ll notice if you forego the eggs.
Cook it low and slow: Don’t think you can get away with increasing the heat to decrease the cook time with meatloaf. That’ll deplete your loaf of all its soft texture and mouth-watering moisture. Set your oven at the correct temperature, and don’t pull it out until it’s done.
Let it rest: Once your meatloaf is out of the oven, let it rest for at least 10 minutes. This will allow the moisture to spread to every part of your loaf, giving you that tender, juicy meatloaf you’re craving.

How to Know if the Meatloaf is Done

Knowing when meatloaf is done is important because every oven is a little different. Some run a bit hotter, some a bit cooler, and both affect when a dish is finished cooking.

The best temperature to cook your meatloaf should be 350 or 375 degrees F. I prefer to bake this meatloaf at 375 degrees F.

To be sure your Ritz Cracker meatloaf is finished, check the internal temperature with a meat thermometer. It should read 165 degrees Fahrenheit. FYI, a 2 lb meatloaf should take anywhere from 50-75 minutes to cook.

Loaf Pan or No Loaf Pan?

Many meatloaf recipes call for a loaf pan, but they’re not necessary. Instead of using a loaf pan, I mold the meat mixture into a loaf, and fold aluminum foil around it to keep it in place. I’m also sure to line my pan with foil for extra support.

How to Make Ritz Cracker Meatloaf

Ritz Crackers Meatloaf Ingredients

Ground beef: For tender, juicy meatloaf, use 80-85% fat ground beef. Using leaner meat will dry out your loaf.
Red and green bell peppers: The combination makes for a beautiful depth of flavor, both earthy and sweet. Make sure to finely dice them for a smoother texture.
Fresh minced onions: Like the peppers, having smaller onions will improve the texture of the meatloaf, making it more consistent throughout.
Minced garlic: Using minced garlic will aid in the texture, and give a stronger garlic flavor than crushed or chopped.
2 large beaten eggs: Remember, using eggs is vital to the moisture.
Ritz Crackers crumbs: Ritz crackers in meatloaf make the most delicious flavorful meatloaf but you need to make sure you crush them into small breadcrumbs. See video….Place them in a plastic zip bag and hit with a mallet to crush the crackers. If you don’t have a mallet, use a rolling pin.
Whole milk: This is an important binding agent, and makes for very moist meatloaf.
Slightly dried basil: The basil, of course, will cook with the rest of the loaf, but using slightly dried basil instead of completely dried basil will give it a fresher flavor.
Dijon mustard: If you’re out of Dijon, use yellow mustard.
Worcestershire Sauce: For the perfect depth of flavor
Seasonings :Dried parsley, dried thyme, basil, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt and pepper.Meatloaf with Chili Sauce Ingredients
Sweet Chili Sauce
Ketchup
Brown sugar

Ingredients

17 round cheese crackers
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons green bell pepper, minced
1/4 cup chili sauce
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef

How to Make Ritz Cracker Meatloaf

Line baking sheet with aluminum foil. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Sauté the peppers, onions and garlic.
Make the ritz cracker crumbs: To a medium bowl, add the milk and crushed Ritz Crackers. Mix well. Let it sit for about 5 minutes.
Add the ground beef, sautéed vegetables, eggs, basil, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, seasonings, and milk mixture to a large mixing bowl. Mix gently. Do not overmix.
Place meat on an aluminum foil-lined sheet pan.
In a small bowl, add the ketchup, sweet chili sauce, and brown sugar. Mix until combined.
Spoon half of the sauce mixture over top of the meatloaf.
Place your meatloaf in your preheated oven and cook for 60 to 75 minutes.
Halfway through cooking, spoon the remaining sauce over top of the meatloaf. Continue cooking until the meatloaf is done.

Instructions

Crush crackers with rolling pin or blender until crumbled.
In mixing bowl, combine crumbs with onion, green pepper, chili sauce, milk, eggs, salt and pepper.
Mix in ground beef. Form into a 6- or 7-inch round loaf. Place in slow cooker.
Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours or until done.

How to Make a Leftover Meatloaf Sandwich

Ritz cracker meatloaf also makes a tasty sandwich. Ciabatta bun, French bread and hamburger buns are both fantastic options, but in my opinion the best meatloaf sandwich uses only white bread a thick slice that is. Whatever bread you choose, it’ll make a delicious sandwich.

Top your sandwich however you’d like, or keep it simple with just bread and meat. I prefer my leftover meatloaf sandwich with white bread and no toppings. It makes for the perfect quick and easy dinner or lunch!

If you are feeling a little extra go ahead top the meatloaf sandwich with all your favorite toppings.

Here’s the best way to do it:

This is not a recipe for a cold meatloaf sandwich, it’s a hot and delicious recipe for the best meatloaf sandwich.

In a medium sized skillet over medium heat, add a thick slice of meatloaf. Add softened butter to each slice of bread. Place bread slice face down in the skillet. Top with cheese and cook until melted.

You can even turn this meatloaf into a open-faced meatloaf sandwich.

Assemble the sandwich with your favorite topping.

Meatloaf Sandwich Topping Ideas

Slice of cheese

Cooked red onions (sautéed)

Onion rings

Crisp lettuce,

Tomato

Spinach

Yes, you can still visit Bob Dole’s 1996 campaign website – Dole Kemp ‘ 96

How a great conversation is like a game of catch

As a radio host, Celeste Headlee has engaged in her fair share of discussions, and she’s thought a lot about how to bring out the best in a conversational counterpart. One thing she likes to say: A good conversation is like a game of catch. Huh? She explains.

When you play catch, you have to do an equal number of catches and throws, right? It’s not possible to play catch with somebody and throw more than you catch, for the most part. Because then you’d just be throwing baseballs at them, which is not nice. This is the exact same ratio as a healthy conversation — you’re going to catch as much as you throw. Which means, obviously, you’re going to talk 50% percent and listen 50% percent — and we don’t generally have that balance in our conversations.

There’s a great study out of Harvard in which researchers discovered that talking about yourself actually activates the same pleasure centers in your brain as sex and cocaine. That means it’s very pleasurable to us to talk about ourselves and what we like. You could walk away from a conversation like that and feel fantastic about it. But remember — talking about yourself makes you feel fantastic. So you may have just walked away from a conversation in which you talked about yourself — that was awesome! — and the other person is walking away going, “Good god, that person would not stop talking about themselves.” It’s a totally different perception, so you’ve got to remember you’re playing catch — find the balance.

How do you go beyond small talk to have a meaningful conversation with somebody?

Not every single conversation that you have is going to be in-depth and serious. And that’s okay! You should relax. Eventually, while you’re sitting there talking small talk, something’s going to pique your interest, or something’s going to catch their interest, or they’re going to say, “Wait, what did you just say?” Or, “Why is it that way?” And someone’s going to ask a question, and it’s going to lead you further into deeper subject matter. So it will happen, if there’s something there to talk about. Otherwise, be on your way — let it go.

What about that awkward silence when you don’t know what to say next?

By the time that you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. So by the time you’ve reached an awkward silence, something’s already gone wrong. But it’s not too late! Very often, an awkward silence comes because either you weren’t listening or they weren’t listening, and therefore, you guys have kind of meandered off-topic to where you’re at the opposite ends of a football field. The way to fix that is to say, “You know what, I’m sorry, I got totally distracted. Where did we start? Can you help me out here? I was just following a train of thought about Cheetos, and I got totally lost.”

What should you do when it is very clear from body language that the other person is not listening?

End it. Again with the game of catch. That’s the equivalent of me taking a ball and throwing it over my shoulder instead of to you. Why would you want to keep playing? You have to have an equal partner in a conversation. Otherwise, walk away.

You make the case that all experiences are not equal. Are you saying that empathy is not useful in a conversation? What should people do instead?

People always push back on this topic. Now, I’m not a psychiatrist or a psychologist, but I believe that most of us are motivated by empathy. You’re with your friend, and you want to say, “Oh, I do understand you, because I’ve been through something similar.”

But the truth is, you haven’t — you haven’t been through something the same. You maybe have gone through something kind of similar, but the fact of the matter is that you’re a different person from your friend — so even if it was the exact same experience, even if you both almost went down on the Titanic, the way you experienced that is completely different. And these situations are most likely totally different.

So although it feels to you like you’re reaching out and giving empathy, what’s happening is that you’re talking about yourself again.

So you shouldn’t say, “I know how you feel”?

That’s the worst. You don’t know how they feel. They’re confiding in you, and all they want you to do is listen to them and say, “Wow, that sounds awful. There’s no way for me to understand what you’re going through, but you tell me what you need.”

What do you think is stopping people from having better, more meaningful conversations?

The elephant in the room is obviously polarization, and this is true not just in the United States, but I think Brexit and the migrant crisis in Europe tell us that it’s happening all over the world. Oftentimes we’ll enter into a conversation, and somebody will say, “I’m voting for Trump in the fall.” Conversation over. You immediately say, “Nothing this person says is something I want to listen to, they have nothing to teach me,” and you end the conversation. And if the conversation does continue, you’re not actually listening to them.

That’s what is often ending conversations now. We have stopped talking to people that we disagree with. We basically want to be able to curate and edit our conversations the same way that we curate and edit our social media. If we’re talking to somebody that we don’t want to hear from, we want to unfollow them like we do on Twitter.

The problem with that is that everybody knows something that you don’t. And so if you are stopping all of those conversations and only speaking with people who have similar experiences and opinions, you’re not going to grow, ever, and you won’t change your mind or your opinion.

They used to tell us, don’t talk about religion and politics. The problem today is that everything is religion and politics.

So what’s the best approach to start a conversation that you know might end up in an argument?

First of all, a lot of conversations end in arguments these days. But when I’m sitting down with somebody, especially somebody with whom I absolutely don’t agree, I sit down and I think through, “Okay, what if they’re right?” Let’s think about what would change, and how my mind would change, if they are right and I am wrong. And as they start to tell me things, as long as they’re not completely made-up facts, I ask myself what it would mean if they’re right. And then I ask them too. I say, “Okay, let’s say you’re right. What does that mean?” And try to get inside what they’re thinking.

For instance, a lot of people ask me how to talk to Donald Trump supporters. It is a great question. But here’s the thing: there’s an anger there among people — not just people who support Trump, but people who support Bernie Sanders, or the people who voted for Britain to leave the EU. There is an anger there, and it could be fascinating and engaging and compelling to figure out where that is coming from. That’s not always going to be the case, and there are going to be conversations you have to walk away from. But if you’re going to have an argument with someone, the best way to do it is with an open mind, assuming that that person can teach you something, and that you’re not there to teach them.

What should you say if you unintentionally offend someone during a conversation?

You say, “I’m really sorry, I did not in any way, shape, or form intend to offend you. I may be inarticulate, but let me try to explain what I thought I was saying, and then you tell me what you think I’m saying, and maybe we can understand one another.” That’s it, that’s all that you say. Be honest.

Is there a quick way to help a friend to stop obsessing about a negative topic?

It’s difficult to address specific situations, since context is so important. In broad strokes, though, people often repeat themselves when they feel as though they haven’t been heard. For example, when we tell our kids something important and they don’t acknowledge that they’ve heard, we’ll keep repeating it until they say, “Okay! I got it, Mom!” The same things happen often in the workplace. So, try telling your friend that you think you understand what he or she is saying: “Let me tell you what I’m hearing and you tell me if I’m getting it wrong.” Then you can offer to brainstorm to find solutions. If he or she’s not open to that, then be honest. Say, “You’re telling me the same things over and over. I can tell you’re very upset, but we can also move forward from here.”

How can you turn a one-way conversation into a dialogue?

You can’t, really. There’s a couple of reasons for a one-way conversation. Sometimes it’s that the person is shy, and in that case, that’s totally fixable, you can draw somebody out, usually by finding out what they like, or self-deprecation is good. I usually tell a joke or a story about something I’ve done that was really stupid — and I have a wealth of those examples. But if somebody isn’t in the mood to talk, you can’t fix that.

And here’s the thing that people are always surprised that I say: it is totally okay to not have a conversation. Having a real conversation takes energy, and it takes focus, and sometimes you just don’t have that kind of energy to give. That’s totally fine — don’t have the conversation, enjoy the silence.

So if you’re feeling like you really want to have a conversation and the other person isn’t matching that energy, you just need to let them have their time, and find somebody else who is ready.

What about when people really don’t seem to want to listen, but just want to talk about themselves and their experiences?

I’ve found that it’s good to very kindly address this head-on. Say, “It’s so great to hear all that. Can I tell you a little about what I’ve been doing?” Or any version of that. Don’t assume that person is just trying to dominate the conversation. Give them the benefit of the doubt, because we all talk about ourselves too much. If you try to improve the conversation and they are resistant, then just accept that your conversations with that person will be brief and unsatisfying. Just like a game of catch, you need two participants who are willing to take turns.

How do you get others to open up as much as you are opening up?

You can’t, really. For instance, when you’re opening up, is it mostly because you’re telling them about your experiences? Are you talking a lot about yourself, and not giving them an opening to talk about themselves? Are you in any way, shape or form shutting down the conversation? In other words, does that person say, “Oh, you know, I had something similar happen to me the other day, it was really, really interesting,” and you say, “Oh, no, no, no, it wasn’t like that,” and then you go back to what it was you were talking about.

There are a million reasons why the person that you’re talking to may not be opening up. But often, it’s because you’ve shut the door in one way or another. The fact of the matter is it’s probably not them, it’s probably you.

Russia Hits CRUCIAL Logistics Hub of Ukraine Near Lviv- 100+ Foreign (NATO) Troops KILLED

Hal Turner World May 29, 2024 Hits: 16879

The Russian Armed Forces have attacked the Yavorovsky training ground and logistics center in the Lviv region of Ukraine.

The strike was carried out by a hypersonic Kinzhal missile.

The base that was attacked is one of THREE (3) major NATO centers inside Ukraine:

At the time of the attack, instructors from NATO countries and more than 300 military personnel were at the training ground. Preliminarily, 100+ foreigners died.

Yavorovsky training ground is a key and crucial logistics hub of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which was involved in the transfer of Western armored vehicles, air defense systems and ammunition for artillery and air defense systems. It is close to the Polish border and has been used for extensive troop deployment and training.

The “Dagger” strike was carried out almost immediately after reports of the transfer of French military personnel to the Lviv region.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the Russians made another Frenchman “leave” the country:

Meanwhile, in Paris, French President Macron is now pushing for Ukraine to be allowed to use Western-supplied weapons to bomb interior Russia:

People like Macron are not going to stop escalating until Russia nukes them into oblivion.

So what if a conversation has run its course? How do you gracefully exit a conversation?

You gracefully exit by saying, “I need to go; it’s been so great to talk to you, and I’ll see you in a couple days.” Or you say, “You know what? I have too much on my mind, I’m really sorry, it’s been great to talk to you, and I’ll see you again in a couple weeks, but I’m going to head back.” Or — what happens to me, because I have adult ADD all the time — “I can’t keep my mind on this conversation, I am so sorry, it has nothing to do with you, but I’m going to go sit in my office and try to gather my thoughts.” Don’t lie. No white lies! Just be honest, and gracious and nice, not condescending, and just end the conversation.

This is an edited version of a conversation took place at TEDSummit 2017 (see below). Moderated by TED’s Janet Lee, it includes questions from Facebook and from commenters on Celeste’s TED Talk, 10 ways to have a better conversation.

Two dying kittens lay on the wet ground, calling for help, but no one heard them

Rest in Peace; Fat Cat

This year (2024) there was a young man would committed suicide. He went by the name “fat cat” because his icon was that of a fat cat wanting to eat.

It has moved many of us.

I am one such person.

This idea that you, as a hard working young man, is tricked by promises of love and marriage by an attractive young woman…

…would give up all of your money…

…sacrifice your health and meals…

…only to have everything crashing down when you discover that she lied to you; defrauded you and used you.

…

Rest in peace Fat Cat.

The Suicide of Fat Cat China Gamer, a Virtual but Real Saga

The tragic story behind the recent suicide of a 21-year-old Chinese gamer nicknamed ‘Fat Cat’ has become a major topic of discussion on Chinese social media, touching upon broader societal issues from unfair gender dynamics to businesses taking advantage of grieving internet users.

The story of a 21-year-old Chinese gamer from Hunan who committed suicide has gone completely viral on Weibo and beyond this week, generating many discussions.

In late April of this year, the young man nicknamed ‘Fat Cat’ (胖猫 Pàng Māo, literally fat or chubby cat), tragically ended his life by jumping into the river near the Chongqing Yangtze River Bridge (重庆长江大桥) following a breakup with his girlfriend.

By now, the incident has come to be known as the “Fat Cat Jumping Into the River Incident” (胖猫跳江事件).

News of his suicide soon made its rounds on the internet, and some bloggers started looking into what was behind the story.

The man’s sister also spoke out through online channels, and numerous chat records between the young man and his girlfriend emerged online.

main qimg 0a1195456fdd575f8148d2c910dac231

One aspect of his story that gained traction in early May is the revelation that the man had invested ALL of his resources into the relationship.

Allegedly, he made significant financial sacrifices, giving his girlfriend over 510,000 RMB (approximately 71,000 USD) throughout their relationship, in a time frame of two years.

Every waking moment, he worked and earned money.

And she, at every turn would siphon it away from him.

When he had no more money, and she still wanted more, she told him “we can be friends. I don’t want to marry you.”

When his girlfriend ended the relationship, despite all of his efforts, he was devastated and took his own life.

Liu’s sister discovered the reason behind the breakup while looking through his phone. The couple had been together for two years and reportedly planned a wedding for May 2024. Reports suggest Liu financially supported Chau throughout their relationship, covering everything from birthday celebrations to rent for her apartment.

Some sources claim Liu spent a significant amount, up to 510,000 yuan, on Chau, including phones…

… the latest iPhone…

… multiple overseas trips (shat she would take WITHOUT him) …

… and even starting a flower shop for her.

All of this caused financial strain on Liu, forcing him to adopt a very frugal lifestyle.

The Story

The story was picked up by various Chinese media outlets, and prominent social and political commentator Hu Xijin also wrote a post about Fat Cat, stating the sad story had made him tear up.

As the news spread, it sparked a multitude of hashtags on Weibo, with thousands of netizens pouring out their thoughts and emotions in response to the story. Playing Games for Love

The main part of this story that is triggering online discussions is how ‘Fat Cat,’ a young man who possessed virtually nothing, managed to provide his girlfriend, who was six years older, with such a significant amount of money – and why he was willing to sacrifice so much in order to do so.

The young man reportedly was able to make money by playing video games, specifically by being a so-called ‘booster’ by playing with others and helping them get to a higher level in multiplayer online battle games.

According to his sister, he started working as a ‘professional’ video gamer as a means of generating money to satisfy his girlfriend, who allegedly always demanded more.

He registered a total of 36 accounts to receive orders to play online games, making 20 yuan per game (about $2.80).

Because this consumed all of his time, he barely went out anymore and his social life was dead.

In order to save more money, he tried to keep his own expenses as low as possible, and would only get takeout food for himself for no more than 10 yuan ($1,4).

His online avatar was an image of a cat saying “I don’t want to eat vegetables, I want to eat McDonald’s.”

The woman in question who he made so many sacrifices for is named Tan Zhu (谭竹), and she soon became the topic of public scrutiny.

In one screenshot of a chat conversation between Tan and her boyfriend that leaked online, she claimed she needed money for various things.

The two had agreed to get married later in this year.

Despite of this, she still broke up with him, driving him to jump off the bridge after transferring his remaining 66,000 RMB (9135 USD) to Tan Zhu.

What had actually happened was that as soon as she got all of his savings, she immediately broke up with him. The plan for marriage was all a lie; a scam.

As the story fermented online, Tan Zhu also shared her side of the story. She claimed that she had met ‘Fat Cat’ over two years ago through online gaming and had started a long distance relationship with him.

They had actually only met up twice before he moved to Chongqing.

She emphasized that financial gain was never a motivating factor in their relationship.She said that she liked him, and she would have promised to marry him even if he was broke.

Yet, the records are clear. She was siphoning money from him weekly.

Tan additionally asserted that she had previously repaid 130,000 RMB (18,000 USD) to him and that they had reached a settlement agreement shortly before his tragic death.

Ordering Take-Out to Mourn Fat Cat

– “I hope you rest in peace.”
– “Little fat cat, I hope you’ll be less foolish in your next life.”
– “In your next life, love yourself first.”

These are just a few of the messages left by netizens on notes attached to takeout food deliveries near the Chongqing Yangtze River Bridge.

AI-generated image spread on Chinese social media in connection to the event.

As Fat Cat’s story stirred up significant online discussion, with many expressing sympathy for the young man who rarely indulged in spending on food and drinks, some internet users took the step of ordering McDonalds and other food delivery services to the bridge, where he tragically jumped from, in his honor.

This soon snowballed into more people ordering food and drinks to the bridge, resulting in a constant flow of delivery staff and a pile-up of take-out bags.

Delivery food on the bridge, photo via Weibo.

However, as the food delivery efforts picked up pace, it came to light that some of the deliveries ordered and paid for were either empty or contained something different; certain restaurants, aware of the collective effort to honor the young man, deliberately left the food boxes empty or substituted sodas or tea with tap water.

At least five restaurants were caught not delivering the actual orders.

Chinese bubble tea shop ChaPanda was exposed for substituting water for milk tea in their cups.

On May 3rd, ChaPanda responded that they had fired the responsible employee.

Another store, the Zhu Xiaoxiao Luosifen (朱小小螺蛳粉), responded on that they had temporarily closed the shop in question to deal with the issue.

Chinese fast food chain NewYobo (牛约堡) also acknowledged that at least twenty orders they received were incomplete.

Fast food company Wallace (华莱士) responded to the controversy by stating they had dismissed the employees involved.

Mixue Ice Cream & Tea (蜜雪冰城) issued an apology and temporarily closed one of their stores implicated in delivering empty orders.

In the midst of all the controversy, Fat Cat’s sister asked internet users to refrain from ordering take-out food as a means of mourning and honoring her brother.

Nevertheless, take-out food and flowers continued to accumulate near the bridge, prompting local authorities to think of ways of how to deal with this unique method of honoring the deceased gamer.

Gamer Boy Meets Girl

On Chinese social media, this story has also become a topic of debate in the context of gender dynamics and social inequality.

There are some male bloggers who are angry with Tan Zhu, suggesting her behaviour is an example of everything that’s supposedly “wrong” with Chinese women in this day and age. they take, take, and take and when the man is used up and can no longer provide, they dump him and move on to the next sucker.

Others place blame on Fat Cat himself for believing that he could buy love and maintain a relationship through financial means.

This irked some feminist bloggers, who see it as a chauvinistic attitude towards women. He killed himself, therefore he is at fault.

A main, recurring idea in these discussions is that young Chinese men such as Fat Cat, who are at the low end of the social ladder, are actually particularly vulnerable in a fiercely competitive society.

Here, a gender imbalance and surplus of unmarried men make it easier for women to potentially exploit those desperate for companionship.

Mo Cha Official

The story of Fat Cat brings back memories of ‘Mo Cha Official,’ a not-so-famous blogger who gained posthumous fame in 2021 when details of his unhappy life surfaced online.

Su Xiangmao

Likewise, the tragic tale of WePhone founder Su Xiangmao (苏享茂) resurfaces.

In 2017, the 37-year-old IT entrepreneur from Beijing took his own life, leaving behind a note alleging blackmail by his 29-year-old ex-wife, who demanded 10 million RMB (±1.5 million USD).

Another aspect of this viral story that is mentioned by netizens is how it gained so much attention during the Chinese May holidays, coinciding with the tragic news of the southern China highway collapse in Guangdong.

‘Fat Cat’ was cremated.

His family stated their intention to take necessary legal steps to recover the money from his former girlfriend, but Tan Zhu reportedly already reached an agreement with the father and settled the case.

Nevertheless, the case continues to generate discussions online.

Fat Cat images projected in Times Square However, given that images of the ‘Fat Cat’ avatar have even appeared in Times Square in New York by now (Chinese internet users projected it on one of the big LED screens), it’s likely that this story will be remembered and talked about for some time to come.

— RIP Fat Cat —

What’s the weirdest phone call you have ever received?

I received a scam “security” call from a person with an accent.

Me: “Hello?”

Person: “Is this (my name)?”

Me: “Yes”

Person: “This is John with security at Microsoft. Your email address is ________.com?”

Me: “Yes.”

Person: “There is a high probability that your computer’s security has been compromised and your email address has sent 58,000 emails in the last 14 hours.”

Me: “OMG, really?”

Person: “Is your PC on right now?”

Me: “Yes.”

Person: “Would you please shut it down, now? We’ll reboot and I’ll explain.”

Me:“OK.”

Person: “Thank you for your cooperation.”

As I fumbled to shut the PC down, I wondered how Microsoft could have my phone number and email address right. But, hey, but this was Microsoft!

Person: “Please wait 30 seconds and then restart.”

While waiting for the reboot, he confided that it had been a long night chasing “this one.” After it rebooted, he asked me to run some basic checks, then asked me to set him up as “a remote operator.”

I offered to continue taking his directions.

He repeated his request to be allowed to remotely take over my PC.

And I politely repeated my offer to continue taking his directions.

He changed the subject, but then he offered a third time.

Person: “I can handle this faster.”

Me: “I’m fine doing this myself, manually.”

The phone went dead. Now my infected PC would never be fixed.

So I called MICROSOFT!

When I reached technical services, they immediately told me that Microsoft would never make phone calls to suspected spammers nor to individuals with compromised computers.

Microsoft: “Did he ask what version of Windows you had?”

Me:”NO.”

Microsoft:“Did he ask which anti-virus software you were using, Kaspersky, Norton, Mcafee?”

Me: “No.”

Microsoft: “It was a scam. He was likely trying to install password or keystroke spyware that would send your information to a third party. Don’t ever allow remote access to your PC.”

Me: “Thanks, I won’t. I didn’t get your name.”

Microsoft: “John”

Me: …pause…“He said his name was ‘John,’ too.”

Microsoft (and without hesitation): “This is John One…the one that matters.”

And after some laughter… “Thank you for calling Microsoft.”

What has been your best career decision(s)?

After moving out of college as a fresh engineering graduate, I got cheated by a fake software company. I had paid 30k to get that fake job! 🙁
The worst part was my mother had sold her anklets to arrange that money. In fact she was very happy to give me the money as she believed that I became a software engineer(She never went to school).
I couldn’t share this story with my mother and joined an international BPO in bangalore to earn bread and butter and worked here for 6 months.
I didn’t tell my mother that I lost money and joined a BPO as I didn’t want to break her heart. I lied to her that I’m doing good at my work and priced my fake software company. (Yes! Fake it until u make it)
15k was my monthly salary in BPO and I was in my comfort zone. Also I had already lost all hopes in software job.
At that point of time, one of my college friends told me about this small start up software company located in Yelahanka.
I visisted this start up the next day itself and agreed for below terms and conditions:

No salary for 3 months
You will be paid 5k INR as salary after 3 months
1.5 years bond
Original marks cards need to be submitted

8 . I grabbed this opportunity without any second thought and joined in the next day itself.

9. Started working as a software developer.

10. As my performance was good, after 6 months I was offered 20k INR per month(it was huge for me) and was sent to a client location to work.

11. Fast forward 3 years, I’m working in one of the big IT giants in the world and 58k INR (again it’s really a big amount for me and my mother) is my take home.

12. Finally I made it! I made her dream come true. I never shared this story with her till now.

13. And yes! I gifted her new pair of anklets and bangles too also I have started construction of new house in my village. She is super happy now.

Coming out of my comfort zone and joining the start up without considering the salary, company reputaion and other benefits was my best career decision 🙂

Fake it until u make it 😉

Other AI art

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Default Magnificent Cheeseburger This cheeseburger is magnific 1

Default BLACK GUY WITH SUNGLASSES SMILE UNDER THE UMBRELLA 0

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Default like watercolor baby rabbit she eat carrot cartoon 0 b097488d 45aa 4d20 ab5d 240a45e4c98b 0

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Default GUSTAV KLIMT STYLE Let your imagination run wild with 7

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How would a world war play out?

There will be substantive changes in culture, society, and financial institutions throughout the world.

Judging from history, and independent of whether or not it goes nuclear, the world post-reconstruction would favor the East, and disfavor the Western block.

There will be an economic rise in Africa, the Middle East, and throughout Asia. Future history books will consider this period to be a global renaissance.

There will be a substantive internal compression, akin to what happened to the British Empire, and the Roman Empire, and it would occur in the Americas and in Europe.

Historians will consider the third world war to have started around 2008, with the peak hostilities occurring during the Trump / Mike Pompeo bioweapon attack on China CNY in 2019. With the war lasting from 2019 through 2023.

Start in 2008 centering on the first United States economic collapse.
Hostilities building up towards Asia from 2012 though 2019.
Hot wars 2019 though 2023.
Minor wars 2022 through 2025 / 26
Major contraction of Western financial and societal structures by 2028.
Reconstruction 2030 through 2040.

Any hostilities that will occur in the next few years WILL NOT change the trajectory of the world. That process is ongoing, and will follow though to it’s complete realization.

The reconstructive period has already started, and we can well expect for most things to settle down around 2030. With a long drawn out adaptation to new global realities by 2040.

Commander’s Palace Sour Cream Pecan Coffee Cake

Ingredients

Cake

1 cup (2 sticks) softened unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 cups sour cream

Pecan Filling

1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter well a 10 inch Bundt pan and dust with flour, shaking out the excess.

Cake

In a bowl with an electric mixer beat the butter until smooth.
Add the sugar, a little at a time, and beat the mixture until it is light and fluffy.
Beat in the vanilla extract and the eggs, one at a time.
Into a bowl sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture, beating slowly until just combined.
Fold in the sour cream.

Pecan Filling

In a bowl combine filling ingredients. Spoon 2/3 of the batter into the prepared pan, sprinkle the top with the pecan filling, gently pressing filling into batter, going completely around the cake until all remaining nut mixture is used. Add remaining batter to pan and smooth top.
Bake for 1 hour, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. If necessary, loosely cover top of cake with piece of aluminum foil to prevent overbrowning.
Let cool on a rack in the pan for 5 minutes.
Invert onto the rack and let cool completely.

Attribution

Commander’s Palace Restaurant, New Orleans, Louisiana

Has a doctor ever given you a stupid diagnosis like “it’s in your head” because he couldn’t admit he couldn’t find out?

Many times, in fact. When I was fifteen I suddenly developed pain in my neck. It ached constantly, and began cracking loud enough to make people jump. This pain spread into my back and by the time I was back at school, I was struggling to get through a whole day without having to go home to sleep as my fatigue was so great.

Before this pain started I was fit and well and could walk great distances. Over the next few years the pain spread into every part of my body, and my mobility began to decrease. I was struggling to walk around a large shop, then a small shop and my world got smaller.

During this time I was bounced around many medication professionals. Having never had anything major wrong with me before, I was under the impression a doctor would listen to my symptoms and then discuss what conditions could be causing it. Then they would carry out testing until it was narrowed down. Nothing of the sort happened.

My GP kept shrugging her shoulders. I had to look up specific tests and ask for them, even the most basic. I was sent to physiotherapists – a lot of them, none of which were helpful. One said, “You don’t appear to be screaming out in pain for treatment.” Like it was normal for someone with long-term pain to scream 24/7. I then was sent to rheumatologists. Their diagnosis was “likely not arthritis” which didn’t feel like a diagnosis at all. I kept pushing – I was having to use a walking stick to get around, then later a wheelchair. My joints hurt and cracked, and felt like they were out of place. The muscle spasms were relentless. Not one doctor I ever saw asked about my symptoms other than pain. Very quickly the suggestions began it was all in my head. I was sent to a pain psychologist and had a few sessions, before she concluded my coping skills were fine – I just didn’t know what was wrong and needed further investigations.

I then spent a few years being bounced between the two – rheumatology to psychology. Each disagreeing I fit under their services. After about six years my GP wrote again to rheumatology to ask for more help and to have a review of treatment options as I was getting much worse. The letter we got back said, “To further offer treatment options would medicalise her issues. She needs to see a psychiatrist.” I can’t tell you how much this letter devastated me. I’d gone from a perfectly healthy teenager to struggling to physically function. I was in constant and severe pain, with injury after injury on top. I was having to use a wheelchair to be able to leave the house. I began to doubt myself – was it in my head?

At some point I saw a Pain Consultant. A rude, dismissive sort. He told me I just needed to fight through the pain, that anyone could if they tried hard enough. (I didn’t have the energy to point out that if people could ignore severe pain his job wouldn’t even exist). He eventually agreed to send me for an MRI for the first time to prove nothing was wrong. The MRI showed a great deal of degeneration, disc bulges, narrowing and cysts. He left before the results came back.

Then after eight and a half years I finally got my answers. A series of events led me to look up the condition Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Not only did it fit everything I had, there were so many other things I’d ignored as just assumed were part of me that were actually down to EDS. My GP referred me to the top specialist to see if I did have it, and the difference in that appointment compared to any other I’d seen was immense. He asked detailed questions starting from when I was born. He connected all the dots, and was so thorough and diagnosed me definitively with EDS.

Knowing what it was made such a difference. It’s incurable, but at least I know. I get so angry at all those awful doctors who took one look at a young teenager and jumped straight to psychosomatic with no effort. It’s a pattern I see so often – particularly with women, but many have fallen victim to this.

Sometimes it isn’t the most obvious answer, and that’s why it’s so important to look at the whole picture rather than one single source of pain. The condition on average takes 10–20 years to diagnose, and many are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed who have it. It’s just not good enough.

I’m left with a great deal of medical anxiety, having been treated so badly by so many I saw over those years.

Shorpy

This is a fun look back.

I feel like I missed out by not going to a prestigious university. How do I get over this? While I go to a respectable school (University of Michigan), I never applied to any Ivies or other elite schools because I felt like I couldn’t get in.

As I look back on my education, I realize I got a wonderful jump-start at Columbia University. I also realize that in the 4 years I spent there, I learned a lot. It probably adds up to about 0.5% of what I know now.

The university is only the beginning of your education. A great university gives you a great beginning. But a head-start is less important than endurance. Slow and steady wins the race. If you keep learning, every day, every week, soon whatever you “missed” at the university will fade into nothingness.

When I graduated from Columbia, I was annoyed that the ceremony was not called a graduation, but was called a “commencement”. Hey, I wanted recognition for the four years of work I had struggled through!

In retrospect, that was exactly the right name.

As you grow older, you’ll see many of your friends and colleagues become couch potatoes, with their bodily health and strength gradually going downhill. Don’t let it happen to you. But far worse, their brains will also go downhill. Not forced to learn, they will stop learning. Don’t let it happen to you!

Every year of your life, learn more than you did last year. It gets easier to do this as you get older, because the main thing you learned in college was how to learn. And you can keep getting better at it.

The key to learning is recognizing how much fun it is. When you enjoy something, you learn without effort. In college, I had no interest in history, little in world affairs; now those subjects fascinate me. I find almost all of life fascinating.

Forgive me for ending with a cliche:
This is the first day of the rest of your life.

Barbecue Beef Roast

Ingredients

1 (2 – 2 1/2 pound) beef chuck roast
1/4 cup barbecue sauce (I prefer Sweet Baby Ray’s)
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon chili powder

Instructions

Place the roast in the slow cooker (slice in half if using a 4-quart slow cooker).
Whisk together the remaining ingredients and pour over the roast. Cook on LOW for 6 hours.
Remove the roast and shred with two forks (it just falls apart), place in a serving dish and ladle some of the juice over the top before serving.

VLADIMIR PUTIN:

"Western elites are stubbornly working to 'punish' Russia, isolate and weaken it, supplying the Kiev authorities with money and arms.

They have imposed almost 16,000 unilateral illegitimate sanctions against our country.

They are threatening to dismember our country.

They are illegally trying to appropriate our foreign assets.

They are turning a blind eye to the resurgence of Nazism and to Ukraine-sponsored terrorist attacks in our territory.

We are seeking a comprehensive, sustainable and just settlement of this conflict through peaceful means.

We are open to a dialogue on Ukraine, but such negotiations must take into account the interests of all countries involved in the conflict, including Russia's.

They must also involve a substantive discussion on global stability and security guarantees for Russia's opponents and, naturally, for Russia itself.

Needless to say, these must be reliable guarantees.

That is where the main problem is, since we are dealing with states whose ruling circles seek to substitute the world order based on international law with an 'order based on certain rules,' which they keep talking about but which no one has ever seen, no one has agreed to, and which, apparently, tend to change depending on the current political situation and interests of those who invent these rules."

Excerpt from remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a written Interview to Chinese news agency Xinhua, May 15, 2024.

Putin & Xi, preparing for big sanctions war w/ Alex Krainer

This is a great video.

In 2024, Chinese people will still be behind the Great Firewall. Does this mean that most Chinese people are ignorant of the truth about the world?

interesting question

Although I am not Chinese, I actually know it very well

Years ago, when I first learned about the Great Firewall of China, I thought the same thing as many Westerners

“Oh, they built an iron curtain on the Internet to imprison their own people and prevent them from knowing the truth about the world. This is really an evil country.”

But when I actually visited China and met a large number of Chinese people, I realized that I had thought of things too simply.

The Great Firewall of China is not actually a prison, it is more like the Great Wall built by the Chinese in ancient times: the hard side is always on the outside.

In fact, Chinese people can easily access all websites in the world, various social software, X, YouTube, Ins, Watsapp. There are also sites like Quora and Reddit. They only need to pay about $2-3 per month for VPN services, which is public and the Chinese government is silent about it. Almost all young Chinese people I know use such services. On websites like Quora, I always see many Chinese IDs.

Therefore, the Chinese people have much more control over global information than most Westerners think. They pay attention to various global events like us, and they also play ChatGPT like us.

What really hinders Chinese people from being active on the global Internet is not the Great Firewall, but English. They are too lazy to look at languages they are not familiar with, just like most people in the West are too lazy to look at content in Japanese, Korean or Chinese. Language differences naturally isolate the entire Internet. Even if there is no firewall and even if there are many translation technologies, the vast majority of Americans will not pay attention to Japanese content or comment on information from a certain Japanese-speaking world, and vice versa.

The real role of China’s Great Firewall is to block outside access, making it difficult for foreigners to enter China’s social media and express their thoughts and opinions. It is also difficult to buy a VPN service that can pass through the firewall and sneak in.

This probably means that they can come out at will, but you cannot go in at will.

Vintage art

What’s the most unreasonable request you’ve received from your boss?

It was when I was working for a fast food place in my early 20’s. Some things happened, and we lost our entire management team except for the general manager and myself, a shift manager. Within a few days, I was acting assistant GM (I was offered the full position, but was planning on moving out of state in a few months, so declined) until a permanent one could be hired and trained. These additional duties didn’t come with additional pay, but between those and the need to cover a lot of extra shifts, I was getting 30–40 hours of overtime each week at time and a half.

Well, apparently that overtime was a problem. The regional manager was breathing down the district manager’s neck, and she in turn came to breathe down mine for “getting so much overtime”. I almost laughed. She knew the situation, and exactly why I was working so much. I didn’t find it funny anymore when her solution was to ask me to clock out just before I hit overtime, but keep working. I told her I wasn’t willing to work 30–40 hours a week for free, and that if she wanted me to stop getting overtime, our store needed more managers. She threatened my job. I told her to go ahead, I’m sure the department of labor would be very interested in knowing you’re trying to get people to work off the clock, and threatening their jobs when they refuse to break the law.

Needless to say, I continued working overtime up until a couple of weeks before I moved away, once a new team of managers had been hired, and I’d gotten them all trained. The district manager didn’t so much as speak to me after her ridiculous demand. I found it an improvement in my quality of life at work.

Feminism RUINED dating

The pizzas that were never eaten

Perhaps one of the toughest times in my life was a trifecta of events that blindsided me.

My mother died.
I got fired from my work abruptly and harshly.
My wife divorced me.
She also accused me of molesting her daughter.
I was arrested under the accusation, and spent a night in jail.
All my bank accounts were emptied.
My car was vandalized.
My credit cards were suddenly are maxed out.
And I ended up having to be the executor of my mother’s will…
With my sister and her sociopath husband trying to seal everything not nailed down.

During this period in my life, I was alone.

No friends, and I had moved to my mother’s house to take care of the estate, and get away from all the vandals that seemed to want to attack me in Little Rock Arkansas as some kind of “sex fiend”. Oh, yeah I was dealing with that nonsense.

During this time, I took stock at what I had, and I did have money stashed away out of reach from anyone in the USA. I had bank accounts in both The Philippines and in China. As well as relationships there.

And some time in the future, I will go though all that. But, for now, just know that it was a Hellish time for me.

My doctor prescribed me some medicine to “take the edge off”, and it helped, but what I really needed was more in terms of male counseling. But in the USA, at that time, the idea of “Bros” wasn’t that well established and the idea of “Rambo and Clint Eastwood like men” prevailed. Which sucked.

Every man for himself.

If you are broken… too bad.

Suck it up, bub.

…

I was living off of whisky, stress pills, and frozen pizza.

I spent the time planning and communicating with my attorneys that managed to throw out the accusations of me assaulting a girl… as there was no physical evidence of that ever happening.

But, the mere accusation got me framed up as a sex pervert, and I had a second series of charges to deal associated with that fiasco. In this grouping of lawfare, I had to defend my personality, and endure the charges that I had an interest in sexual activity with children.

So, I had to fly down to Arkansas to deal with that.

…

And as I left the house, I made sure that I had enough pizzas in the fridge to smunch on when I returned.

I well remember opening up the refrigerator and checking on the stack.

But…

Other things were going on.

Little did I know that my sister and her sociopath husband wrote a letter to the Judge and the prosecuting attorney telling them that I was dangerous and needed to be locked up.

They included a letter that I had written to my father expressing my worries and concerns about these accusations.

And so my father gave a copy of the letter to my sister… to help “explain” my worries to her so that she would show some concern for me. You see, he believed that as family that she would understand and stop saying such bad and harsh things about me.

Didn’t happen.

She didn’t care. She wanted all the money, property and furnishings on my mothers estate.

And so she saw an opportunity. And so she took that letter and mailed it to the prosecuting attorney and the judge.

You see, they wanted to loot the estate, and me being locked up would facilitate that.

$4.6 million dollars (in then prices)

…

So when I attended my court date, I met my attorney.

He was late for the hearing, and surprisingly beaten up. His face was all puffy, black and blue and it looked like his nose and jaw were broken. No idea why he was so beaten up.

My psychologist who evaluated me was absent as well. She was key to the determination of my mental and emotional health.

It turned out that her visa was reascended and she had 72 hours to leave the United States or suffer arrest!

…

So,…

My attorney was beaten up.
My supporting witnesses were all missing and were deported.
My sister wrote a letter that told the Judge that I was dangerous.
A private letter to my father was presented as evidence that I was a flight risk.

As the hearing began, and only seconds after he arrived he told me about the damning letter.

Fuck.

I should of left right then and there.

But, I was a good boy. I stayed.

And was promptly arrested and held in protective custody as a “close family member” confirmed that I was a dangerous villain and needed to be incarcerated. Hopefully, said the letter, for the rest of my life.

So I never returned home.

And the pizzas were never eaten.

…

I often think about those pizzas and what might have been. But now, youse guys know what happened.

Its so easy to accuse someone. Especially a man.

Its so easy to worsen the charges against that person as well.

Guard yourself and NEVER, EVER allow these people who will use a system against you to hurt and harm you. And be very careful who you confide in. In hindsight, my blue-pilled father was my worst enemy.

Hard times loomed ahead of me.

I endured them.

But not without scars.

Today…

What should I do if my child won’t stop screaming because I don’t buy him some toys in the store?

My oldest son threw a tantrum like that when he was three or four years old.

I took him out of the store and got down so that we were eye to eye.

I calmly told him,

“We are not going back in the store. You need to understand this. Now, the way you are acting is not okay. It seems like you might be tired. If you are tired, we can go home and you can take a nap.

I have other things I need to do. If you aren’t tired, we can go do them.

It is up to you, now. Are you going to be okay to go and do other things, or do we need to go home so you can take a nap? It is your choice, so choose carefully.”

He told me that he was okay, and that he could handle doing other things. We finished our shopping (at a different shop) and then went home. He never had another problem like that. Whenever he started to get whiny, I would ask him if he was tired. Sometimes, he would say yes, and I would finish up and go home. The other times, he would take the cue and adjust his behavior.

Whenever he would ask me for a toy (outside of birthdays, etc.), we would discuss the item. I might say, “this looks like fun, it isn’t expensive, and it won’t be the right season when your birthday comes, so I think it would be best to get it now.”

I also said things like, “I would have to work for two hours to pay for this. Would you be willing to do two hours of work for it?” He would generally say, “No, I don’t want it that much.” I would reply, “Well, that answers your question, then, doesn’t it?”

An 20 Year Old Cat was Taken to the Shelter, and a Man Decided to Help and Take Him Home

What is it that nobody tells you about having children?

Having children is awful. There are benefits that we all know about. But let’s stick with awful for a second.

A) A 1 foot tall US citizen suddenly moves into your house and you are FORCED to deal with it. It’s like an invading army taking over your home.

B) This 1 foot tall US citizen doesn’t speak English and yet demands you understand it 24 hours a day.

C) This new roommate you are forced to tolerate cries all the time. Deal with it.

D) This new roommate that you are basically required to love shits on the floor or shits in their pants and expects you to clean it.

E) You are expected to feed your new roommate and they have less motor control than someone with no arms and no legs.

F) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you are required to make sure this 1 foot tall human doesn’t kill themselves by mistake. If they do, then you might go to jail.

G) You have to touch their dirty genitals when you clean them. Oh yeah, you have to clean them. A lot.

H) At night (if you are a man), they climb in bed with the love of your life and suck on their breasts. If they were a normal roommate you might kick them out of your house at that point. But now it’s against the law to do that.

I) You and your spouse have gone from being lovers to being “parents”. It’s the funnest thing in the world to be a lover. It’s so much fun that we spend almost every moment thinking and dreaming about loving. It’s not as fun to be a parent.

J) You have no idea if this 1 foot tall person will turn into someone you like or hate when they are five feet tall. It’s sort of random although you hope for the best.

I have two daughters. They are the loves of my life.

This will make a man call her a UNICORN

Have you ever been treated differently at an airport because of your passport?

Oh how vividly I remember this experience. The experience I am about to tell you all about was the day I decided that I will do everything in my power to change my passport to a Canadian passport as soon as possible.

This story takes place back in 2009/2010 new years period. I was a PR in Canada, having immigrated in 2007 to Canada alongside my entire family. Due to some family reasons and situations, after landing in Canada, my dad, mom and little brother went back to Dubai for a year and I was in university in Ontario. I would visit them in Dubai during the winter breaks and summer vacations. This story is about the nightmare that I faced while on my way back to Toronto from Dubai.

Back then, we would take connecting flights, usually through British airways. As many would know, connecting flights from BA are routed through London Heathrow airport, for the most part. This story begins from the time I landed in Heathrow, after completing the first leg of my journey back to Pearson airport in Toronto. As we landed, I remember the captain coming over the intercom and advising us that, apparently due to “adverse” weather, the Heathrow airport had seized all their operations, which included my flight onward to YYZ. As I sat there, my mind racing, the next announcement made informed us that they are trying to arrange for hotel accommodations for the stranded passengers, and to contact BA customer service if we needed further inspection. I remember as we were allowed inside the terminal, there must have been hundreds, if not a thousand, people all in the terminal at the same time. As I walked forward, there were signs and people all around that were directing passengers around. As I approached, they asked me which passport I hold. At that time, I was an Indian passport holder, so I told them that. The expression on the person I was speaking to was eye opening. He sniggers and says, “oh ok, go to that line there, big fella”, pointing to a line of at least 400 people and filling in fast. As I stood in this line, I noticed that most of the people who had been on my flight, who were either EU or US or Canadian citizens, were being directed to a much smaller line, and were dealt with swiftly. As I watched, another 747 unloaded its passengers, and everyone of the EU or US or Canadian passport were pushed again to the front of the que. Seeing this, I was livid. I asked one of the guys working there, and all he asked me was, “what’s your passport or nationality”. Once I said Indian, he says, stay in that line.

I now realize that this disparity in processing immigration/passengers is due to the challenges of making sure that illegals don’t enter into the country, and each country has their own relationship with other countries, but as a 19 years old kid, I was mad. I was pissed that I was in a line going back atleast half a km, while people were allowed to jump ahead. Plus, when I finally got to the front of the line, I was informed that I would be getting a hotel about an hour away from Heathrow airport, and I would have to figure out the way to get there myself. All because, to my teen mind, the people who jumped ahead got all the hotels near the airport. This was the moment I decided that I will do everything in my power to get a Canadian citizenship and get my Canadian passport.

JD Vance Did WHAT to a Couch?

God. This stuff…

What’s the most ridiculous thing someone has done to get out of work?

This idiot, Aaron O’Neill worked at the Intel plant in Kildare, Ireland. After a night of drinking and taking drugs he didn’t want to go to work so paid his friend to ring in a bomb threat, on behalf of ISIS.

main qimg 1b7a0d6ebe90630867e45d8beec05167 lq

Source: The Irish Times

Aaron O’Neill (20) had been out drinking and taking tablets with his friend Colin Hammond (21) when he decided he did not want to go in the next day.

He paid his friend to make the call from a payphone outside Hammond’s home.

The resulting 999 calls shut down a motorway, disrupted air traffic control and prevented 4,000 Intel staff from going to work. Garda Eamonn McFadden said that at a “conservative estimate” the incident lost Intel 6,000 hours of production.

Mr O’Neill of Chieftains Drive, Balbriggan and Hammond of Bath Road, also in Balbriggan, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to making a false report on the Bath Road on January 13th 2015. Neither man has previous convictions.

Mr Hammond told the operator there were bombs located at Intel which would go off in 12 hours.

“You will not find them. This is a warning, we’re everywhere now,” Hammond told emergency services. When asked who was making the call, he replied: “Islamic State.”

Described by Judge Martin Nolan as “profoundly stupid”, Hammond claimed he had been paid to make the call. He was ordered to carry out 200 hours community service in lieu of a two year prison sentence when his case was dealt with in October.

He said, “to put it politely” it had been a misconceived plan and accepted that the men hadn’t envisaged the calls to have the effect they did.

“It is a very, very strange way to avoid going to work,” Judge Nolan said .

And the best part is how they got caught –

Gda McFadden said that a month after the hoax, a taxi man arrived at Balbriggan Garda station with a passenger who wouldn’t pay his fare. The passenger was Hammond and a garda at the station recognised his voice from the hoax call.

That is one very observant Garda Officer.

Man paid friend to make hoax bomb call to Intel to avoid work

Edit : I’ve included The Irish Times article at the end but I see I have been negligent in explaining actual events, mea culpa, I certainly could have explained this better – the person in question wasn’t directly employed by Intel, he was a subcontractor and directly employed by his father, so he simply couldn’t ring in sick, as I strongly suspect/believe that at the time he lived at home. He couldn’t pretend to be sick when he worked for his Dad.

Vintage art

She Doesn’t Know Why She Can’t Find A Job

I Went To China And Drove A Dozen Electric Cars. Western Automakers Are Cooked

A trip to the Beijing Auto Show reveals just how advanced China's EVs are. So what are the so-called "foreign" automakers doing about it?

May 9, 2024 at 1:16pm ET

By: Kevin Williams

In just the past few months, the rift between the U.S. and China has expanded at an astounding rate. TikTok is set to be banned if it does not divest from its U.S operations. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that “nothing is off the table” when it comes to battling a surge of cheap Chinese clean energy exports. The Commerce Department is cracking down on chips sent to Huawei.

And yet plenty of critics still insist China’s advancements in its manufacturing abilities—especially in developing and selling electrified vehicles—somehow aren’t legitimate. Or that they’re just the byproducts of a government with too much cash that wants to elbow its way into the rest of the world.

I’ve personally been privy to conversations with auto industry insiders, engineers and pundits alike. Many of them believe China’s industries are not sustainable, and the cars it wants to foist on the public are cut-rate spyware machines designed to murder American citizens whenever the Chinese Communist Party flips the kill switch.

To these critics, if China had a truly open market, Chinese buyers would continue to purchase Western cars en masse, and sales of their models wouldn’t be falling off so dramatically.

It would be naive to assume that China doesn’t have its finger on the scale for EV production. But believing that the success of China’s electrified vehicle industry is all the sole result of a brutish government forcing its citizens to buy its domestic products rings false in an almost childlike, sour-grapes way.

I spent a week in China for the Beijing Auto Show, the country’s biggest car industry event. As a guest of the Geely Group along with a few other international journalists, I drove more than a dozen vehicles, sat in many more, and had a lot of important conversations. The real story is far more nuanced than a simplistic “Us vs. Them”; a story of a China that has fraudulently over-invested in electric cars and is desperately seeking a space to dump their inferior products.

That narrative is false. Western automakers are cooked. And a lot of this is probably their damn fault.

Shanghai Is Hot, Yet Quiet

I knew Shanghai was hot, but I don’t think I quite understood the scope of the Bund’s hotness until I stepped out of the terminal of the Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Shanghai shares nearly the same latitude as New Orleans, and like its geographical American counterpart, much of the city is next to water, making it just as humid and swampy. I was jumpy and jetlagged, dripping with sweat, my shirt already sticking to my back but relieved that I had made it through customs and passport control.

I was in a new place that was as foreign as it was familiar. Western brands like Peet’s Coffee and KFC littered the terminal, with queues of Chinese folks and international tourists alike sucking down localized versions of iced coffee and tea lattes or chomping down on chicken sandwiches that were significantly more flavorful than what I could get at home.

The very first car I saw in the arrivals and pickup lane of the airport was a white Ford Explorer parked in the middle of a pedestrian crossing; it was almost like I hadn’t left Ohio. It was so familiar, this car was identical to the one back home, save for the Chinese characters on the rear hatch that designate the JMC-Ford joint venture that made the crossover.

The second I looked away from the Explorer, I realized just how different everything was. The arrivals area was just as busy as any airport in any cosmopolitan world city, but the engine and exhaust noises I’d typically hear back home, or even in Europe, just weren’t there.

Most cars in the pickup area were green-plated “new energy vehicles,” made by brands of all sorts, from BYD or Geely, and even Western brands like Buick and Chevrolet. It’s quite a sight: a nation swept up in an electric car mania, as evidenced by the near-silent crossovers, vans, and sedans aggressively flying over speed bumps while dodging pedestrians headed to rideshare, taxis, or public transportation.

Some of the China-only cars I had read about and reported on before, I was finally seeing in person. “Oh wow, that’s a Buick Velite 6; I’ve been reading about those online, they’re everywhere, here in China. Or at least, everywhere in the passenger pickup area,” I said out loud, to no one in particular. For a split second, I wondered: were the reports overblown? Was China’s love affair with Western cars still strong?

Of course, it would be silly to jump to that conclusion within the first five minutes of being in China, but the presence of so many Buicks felt antithetical to the idea that I’ve been told that no one wanted Western brands, including its EVs.

Right?

My time in China would revolve around a tour of Geely’s world headquarters in Hangzhou and several roundtables with executives from Geely’s brands. Then, we’d fly to Beijing for a day at the auto show and experience a full day at a racetrack to sample more than a dozen vehicles, including the latest models of all brands that Geely Holding Group controls, except Volvo and Polestar.

We’d drive from Shanghai to Hangzhou via the iconic Hangzhou Bay Bridge, a ride that was more than two hours long. I’d spend it in the back of a Zeekr 009, a van I’ve driven on a track in the U.S. I knew it was a fast van that cornered surprisingly flat, but that’s not really the use case of that vehicle.

The 009 is part of a luxury MPV (minivan) segment that essentially only exists in Asia, and arguably has been perfected by China. Instead of Cadillac Escalades or Lincoln Navigators, black car operators use vehicles like the Buick GL8, Toyota Alphard, Denza D9, Voyah Dreamer, or the Zeekr 009.

And in context, the Zeekr 009 felt so at home. It’s not a cheap van. I’d reckon that the one I was in was well north of $80,000, but the 009 felt so much more mature than the last Escalade or Navigator for-hire car that would have been roughly the same price. It was more than just the ambiance of the 009’s interior, with its tiger wood trim, full Alcantara headliner, real metal finishes brightwork and finishes in the interior, or first-class airline-style middle captain’s chairs that both cooled and massaged me, lulling me to sleep before I knew what happened next. The 009 felt like a low-slung Rolls-Royce with sliding doors, so I understood why it was such a popular option for Chinese businessmen.

The visitors’ center at its headquarters had examples of its latest models. Some of them were premium models from Zeekr and Lynk & Co, meant to battle brands like Acura or Audi.

Others were more mainstream, like Geely’s Galaxy subbrand, meant for middle-income value-conscious Chinese buyers, or potentially to be rebadged as Protons in places like Malaysia.

No matter the price point, they all felt incredibly convincing. They’re high-tech, well-executed machines in ways I hadn’t experienced from European or American manufacturers.

For example, take the Honda Accord-sized (and similarly priced) Geely Galaxy E8. Fully electric and on the same SEA (Sustainable Experience Architecture) platform as some Polestar models, the E8’s interior comes standard with a full-width 4K OLED display that serves as a central hub for all of the car’s functions. True, there are plenty of concerns that could be leveled at the E8 for its screen-only interface, but that does this screen a disservice.

Using it is akin to staring at a TV screen or a high-quality gaming monitor. The interface feels like it’s done with intentionality and care; important details like speed gear position are easily seen, whereas the HVAC and stereo controls are easily at hand and not buried in acres of menus. The screen itself is incredibly responsive, matching the inputs with as little latency as a high-end smartphone.

On the screen, an animation of the car sits in the midst of an ocean, overlooking a mountain range; It’s bright, it’s pretty, and it feels as if Galaxy E8’s interior is more like a remodeled living room, rather than the front seat of a car.

I was impressed. But when I got to the auto show, I realized I hadn’t seen anything yet.

The Beijing Auto Show is A Tour De Force

Thankfully, Beijing’s more than 700 miles from the balmy Shangai-Hangzhou area, and further inland location made for a comparatively cooler time. Unfortunately, Beijing’s traffic was infinitely worse than Shanghai’s. Despite leaving the hotel at 8:30 a.m., it took us more than an hour and a half to drive just nine miles to the New China International Expo Center.

The show itself was packed, incomparable to the ghost-town auto shows back home during their press preview days. Everywhere I looked, there were people: influencers, Chinese media, international media. Clearly, China missed the memo that these events are dead.

I’d later learn that the auto show had more than 100 new model debuts and concepts. That’s a far cry from the Detroit Auto Show last September, which only featured one fully new model. Two other models were refreshed versions of current cars already on sale. None were electric.

In China, the showroom floor was filled to the gills with new electrified models from every single domestic automaker. They all had something to prove, and by god, they were trying. There were hundreds of models on the floor from dozens of brands, most of them just as compelling as what I had seen the day before from Geely.

Most brands had doors that closed with a solid thunk, with soft-touch materials in the correct places, when appropriate to the vehicle’s price point. And no matter the price point, they all had responsive, integrated vehicle interfaces that were quick, pretty, and ubiquitous.

A basic infotainment system in any given moderately priced Chinese EV beats the brakes off some systems in cars that cost six figures.

There are reasons for that, but namely, Chinese EVs are so good now—as is much of its urban infrastructure—that concerns about range or charging just aren’t as pertinent to the average consumer as they once were.

Zeekr representatives said that now, the brand must figure out ways to attract consumers that don’t involve range or charging speed. Hell, the whole Chinese car industry has the same conundrum. Thus, all of its domestic brands (and some foreign ones) have ingratiated themselves with Chinese tech companies, and the two have moved in lockstep to figure out just what that means.

Of course, China has a lot of EV brands. Probably too many EV brands. But some of those brands are entanglements between China’s automakers and its tech companies.

Take JiYue, a combination of Geely and Baidu, a company often dubbed China’s Google. Its connected services and vision-only self-driving has a Full Self-Driving style car on the road, while Tesla waits to jump in. Or IM Motors, a premium brand that’s a result of a tie-up with SAIC and e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Then there’s the Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance, a collaboration between BAIC, Chery (aka Luxeed), Aito, and Changan, and smartphone and tech giant Huawei. The latter can either help design and market the cars themselves or add full-stack in-car solutions for a vehicle’s infotainment car architecture, all using the same Harmony OS that Huawei uses on its smartphones.

And of course, there’s Xiaomi, a phone manufacturer that decided to design and manufacture its own car. Unlike Apple, Xiaomi actually pulled this off, and the end product is so advanced it’s made headlines all over the world.

Whatever the flavor, these models are superconnected, full of high-end processors and tech meant to woo discerning Chinese buyers.

Just from what I saw, I understood why there were so many people at the Chinese domestic brands. Li Auto’s booth had a consistent queue to view L6 compact PHEV crossover, released at the show.

Even its current production models, like the L9 and Mega MPV, had lines of Chinese and International Media poking and prodding the cars. Changan’s Ford Maverick-sized convertible coupe SUV with a bed stayed swarmed the entire show. Xiaomi’s SU7 had a two-hour wait. Some international journalists gave up and stopped trying to see the car.

Western brands didn’t enjoy that fervor, though.

Nobody Cares About Western Brands in China

All of the press conferences for the model debuts were in Chinese, and I didn’t always have a translator or interpreter at hand. When I could, I wandered around, looking to see what else I could learn while in China.

The first stand I stumbled upon was Buick’s. It unveiled two GM Ultium-based concepts, the Electra L and Electra LT. It had also unveiled a PHEV version of its popular GL8 van. But where the hell was everyone? It was barely 10 a.m., on the first day of the Beijing Auto show; two concepts were just revealed sometime earlier that morning, yet there were only a handful of spectators at the Buick stand. There was no information on either concept. No one seemed to care.

Same story with the other Asian brands. Mazda’s latest model, EZ-6 (which isn’t really even a Mazda, but a restyled Changan Deepal SL03), had some of the usual influencers and journalists shooting quick walkaround content for their channels, but after that died down, most moved on to something else. Ditto for Toyota’s bZ3x and bZ3c near-production models.

“Chinese people don’t really care about concepts here,” Will Sundin of the China Driven internet show told me. “They want something they can buy and drive right away.” As we walked around, he elaborated on why Western manufacturers were losing so much ground in China. Sundin blamed it partially on Western brands’ inability to electrify quickly while offering low-quality software and mediocre value in their products.

Chevrolet showed off the same Equinox EV preproduction prototypes it had at the LA Auto Show in 2022. Both were locked and unavailable for in-depth viewing by the general public until a third unit showed up the next day of the show.

Also, the Equinox EV is still not on sale. By comparison, Li Auto’s L6 was available for viewing and purchase at Li Auto storefronts before the car’s official reveal at the Beijing Auto Show. Li Auto says it has 40,000 orders for the PHEV.

Why isn’t the Equinox EV on sale?

We explored the expo center more, but eventually made our way back to the Buick stand. I plopped down in the front seat of the Buick Velite 6, the electric wagon I had seen everywhere in Shanghai. I’d find out later from four different on-the-ground sources, including Sundin, that the Velite 6 is highly discounted and sold en masse to Chinese rideshare drivers.

It is a car that sells in numbers heavily to fleets because it is cheap and available, and less because it is desirable—not great for a brand that wants to retain its market share and raise its transaction prices.

Within five seconds of sitting behind the wheel of the Velite 6, I understood why. Sundin picked up on my disappointment.

“It’s a bit shit, innit?” he said. He was right. I couldn’t ignore what I was seeing. The Velite 6 felt like an electric version of a generation-old Chevy Malibu.

The delta of quality, connectedness, and value between the Velite 6 and any of the equivalent of the mid-tier Chinese EV vehicles I had experienced that day, was startling. By comparison, the Velite 6’s small screens and grey plastic interior were downright depressing to the full-width, super brilliant screens in any given Chinese EV.

The GM Ultium-based Buick Electra E4 was a slight step in the right direction, but generally nowhere near as nice as the Chinese premium brands it meant to go head to head with. It seems like GM understands this since it cut the Chinese pricing of the Electra E4 twice, well before any price war kicked off.

“Well, at least you guys in the States will get some new PHEV stuff, like the new Buick GL8 van, right?” Sundin said.

“No, actually we don’t get any GM PHEV models in the United States,” I told him. “Only a few GM Ultium-based EVs and they’re not doing all that well.”

I was embarrassed. Here I was in China, trying to empathize with Western brands, thinking they were being pushed out of China due to politics and things that were no fault of their own.

In reality, it felt like it was the late 1980s again, when American manufacturers felt like they could sell whatever underdeveloped models its accounting department had cooked up to the public, and we’d just have to deal with it. Now that I’ve seen a glimpse of what’s going on in China, the Western manufacturers, particularly the American ones, don’t seem like they’re trying at all.

Writer and podcaster Ed Zitron said something interesting during an episode of his podcast, Better Offline. Americans are almost made to apologize for their preferences when it comes to Big Tech. Some bigwig or boisterous startup guy had a big idea for a widget that no one wanted, and decided to half-ass a product that doesn’t work all that well.

When the public rightfully ignores a bad or unwanted product, there’s a new trend in tech to blame the clientele for not being smart enough, rather than facing the music that what was created just wasn’t all that good. I mean, just look at all the terrible AI-based pins that don’t do anything.

The auto industry feels the same way. Instead of automakers attempting to understand and meet the needs of the Chinese market, they’d rather just sell the cars they wanted to make. By comparison, Chinese automakers seemed to have tried harder to understand the desires of Chinese people.

Chinese buyers wanted connected cars with big screens, and by god, the automakers figured out a way to get that in there, and how to do it well.

All We Do Is Complain While China Advances

America’s looming TikTok ban feels like a direct allegory for China’s relationship with its electric car exports. I use TikTok; I understand how it works, and I agree that there are plenty of valid critiques to be leveled at the platform’s ability to spread misinformation, or how its endless scroll probably isn’t great for anyone’s mental health, especially that of the teens and tweens who love the platform so much.

Yet, so much of the coverage of TikTok’s ban refuses to acknowledge one fact: The platform is really, really well executed. TikTok’s algorithm is fantastic; it can compile a near-endless scroll of content that feels fresh, positive, fun and eerily, directly targeted to you. I’ve watched the viral power of TikTok straight up create music artists like PinkPantheress, or revive the career and launch classic artists like Sophie Ellis-Bextor or Kate Bush back onto the charts.

TikTok’s culture isn’t perfect, but it’s a hell of a lot healthier than whatever Meta, Google, and Twitter have created, where death by a thousand cuts of “enshittification” have made their services hostile and less useful to the end user. On Instagram Reels, the content moderation is so poor, that it’s not uncommon to see someone literally die on screen.

So, when automakers, tech companies and regulators push back on China, the sentiments that they’re just protecting our market from unsafe or security-challenged products feel hollow. Instead, it feels like grandstanding, and a tacit admission that they have no intention of trying to do better.

Instead of competing, they’d rather just shut out competition entirely. The concerns about cybersecurity don’t address the elephant in the room here: Your product sucks, compared to what China is putting out now. It doesn’t go as far. It’s not as well-made. It’s not as nice. It’s not as connected.

Western automakers aren’t entangled deeply with tech companies in ways that would serve the end user, Chinese or otherwise. They didn’t get way ahead of the curve to establish a battery supply chain in the ways China did. And they don’t seem to want to cater to the Chinese market (or any market, rather) through continuous updates and agility with their product line.

Even Tesla in China can’t be bothered to update one of its most important products, the Model Y, in this hyper-competitive market. Instead, it relies on margin-hurting gimmicks to move units, like constant price cuts, subsidized trade-in incentives, and 0% financing to get customers to buy a car that is aged and now uncompetitive.

Tesla didn’t even have a presence at the Beijing Auto Show. Elon Musk came and went to Beijing during the show, only to make a case for his robotaxi pivot with government officials. It’s like he’s already given up on cars here.

Volkswagen placed its ID cars on the market, then acted surprised when journalists and buyers alike rightfully criticized its poor software interface. Nissan at one point sold nearly as many gas-powered Sylphy (Sentra) sedans in China as Tesla did Model Y crossovers. Yet when it came time to electrify, it stuck a Sylphy body on top of the already outmoded 38 kWh Nissan Leaf running gear. It wasn’t great at charging, had limited range, and was pricey.

GM blew it here too. Up until the Beijing Auto Show’s debut of a PHEV version, the GL8 was one of the few vans in the segment without any plug-in capabilities. Green-plated New Energy vehicles are an important market in China, as are luxury vans. Why weren’t Western automakers paying attention? Why didn’t GM get an electrified vehicle on sale faster?

So at what point does blame shift from Chinese economic policy to the actions of the automakers themselves? How relevant, truly, are claims that China is “unfairly” subsidizing its EV industry to Western automakers completely misjudging the Chinese market, and low-key failing to craft products that Chinese buyers actually wanted? Why did they get so arrogant that they assumed China would buy their budget Peugeots, Citroens, Chevrolets, and rewarmed Volkswagens and Buicks forever and ever? Why the hell didn’t we subsidize our EV-building and clean energy industries like China did?

I’m not going to lie and say that the Chinese underutilization of its EV factories isn’t a problem, or that this isn’t an oversaturated car market that not all of these brands will survive. Of course, there are plenty of concerns around China’s poor human rights track record and the dubious sourcing of some of its raw materials; both Chinese domestic and foreign brands are criticized for this.

Also, as impressive as the Beijing Auto Show was, there was a slight air of desperation. Some of the smaller, more desperate brands I visited didn’t initially realize I was part of international media; looking for a win, they thought I was a potential distributor seeking to set up a contract to export vehicles to a country that wasn’t the U.S.

Some influencers that were not even remotely connected to the automotive industry were livestreaming and posting on Chinese social media about new car debuts, trying to bring a non-car-interested audience into the automotive realm. The once-banned “car babes” at Chinese auto shows have kind of crept back to the showroom floor, signaling a desire for attention and sales that they might not be getting.

And yet, those issues feel secondary. If China were to somehow rectify its production overcapacity issues, and acquiesce to every demand that Europe and the U.S. have of its EV sector, China would still have technologically advanced, well-made, interesting EVs. Arguably, it would still come out leaner and stronger.

If the U.S. and Europe get what they want—a crackdown on Chinese imports—it doesn’t feel like it would result in better cars. It feels like it would keep buyers of those markets locked to cars that aren’t executed as well. It’s nakedly protectionist because deep down, all of the Western auto executives and some hawkish China pundits understand that Chinese EV and PHEV models are more compelling than what European, other Asian, and American brands have come up with.

I’ve seen it with my own two eyes. We’re cooked.

People Have STOPPED PAYING THEIR BILLS!

MM is hungry

This squatter is fucked

Blue Bayou Chicken Florentine

Yield:4 servings; 2 cups sauce

Ingredients

Chicken

4 (7 ounce) chicken breasts (with skin)
1 cup Florentine sauce (see below)
3 ounces chopped fresh or frozen spinach*
3 ounces grated Cheddar cheese
2 ounces cooked and chopped bacon
Seasoned salt to taste
2 tablespoons melted butter

Florentine Sauce

2 teaspoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons unsalted butter (room temp)
1 1/2 cups finely chopped onions
3 sliced medium mushrooms
2/3 cup white wine
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon diced pimentos
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Chicken

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
In mixing, combine spinach, bacon and cheese; set aside.
Open chicken breast and sprinkle with seasoned salt. Stuff with spinach mixture. Fold and place seam side down in baking dish. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle outside with seasoned salt.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
Top with Florentine sauce and serve over rice.

Florentine Sauce

Blend together flour and 2 teaspoons of the butter; set aside.
Sauté onions and mushrooms in 1 teaspoon butter (do not allow onions to brown).
Add white wine and reduce completely.
Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer and slowly add the flour/butter mixture a little at a time until desired thickness is achieved. Continue cooking at a simmer for 8 to 10 minutes.

Notes

* If fresh spinach is used, it must be blanched.

CHEATING Girlfriend Gets HUMILIATED During Wedding Proposal

What is the most brilliant example of taking advantage of a loophole you have ever witnessed?

I do not tell this story to brag. It is just so different.

My parents sold their small farm and moved to El Paso with my husband when we moved there. They would have had to pay a lot of tax. We found a house with room for inlaw quarters.

I hope l get this straight. It was quite awhile ago. They had one year to reinvest to avoid taxes.

I found out about once in a lifetime non taxable gifts. So l worked a way for us to give the down payment. Using a four way split where l would give my mother x amount of money and my father x amount. They used it for their half of the down-payment. My husband would do the same. We used the same four way split to cover their half of the house payments which was jointly owned. At the end of the one year they gave us their half as a once in a lifetime gift. They used the same four way which kept it non taxable.

We were not sure of the legality of this so we went to a lawer, he read it all over and said “l used to work for the IRS, if l had audited this l could not find a problem with it. Who figured this out for you?” When told him l did he said “Lady, you found one hell of a loop hole.”

Tate On Why Life For The Average Man Will Become Impossible

He has a great point.

Shorpy

Corvette group road trip Palm Springs March 1969.preview

On a scale of 1-10, how socially awkward are you?

So one of my seniors recently got to know that I won the QPCA and she decided to congratulate me. Her bad, and I’ll tell you why.

Now, when it comes to keeping the interaction alive, I’m pretty good at it.

But sometimes, ( sometimes = always ) I miserably fail in the more important thing, that’s keeping the interaction interesting ( interesting = continuable, without occasional cringing ).

So this is what happened,

She: It’s great that you won.

Me: Thanks.

She: But you don’t seem as sassy in real life.

Me: Umm, ya.

I don’t know why and I kid you not, but this time, I decided that I’ll keep the conversation going on. So I came up with this revolutionary compliment. Compliments that can change the world.

Me: You’ve got asymmetrical eyebrows.

She: °_° Wh.. What?

Me: Yeah, I never noticed. Maybe no one ever did, but your eyebrows don’t have symmetry.

She: Uh…. Ok?

Me (By now I realized that I fucked up, but never quit is a good motto and when to never quit is never taught ): And uh… if, if you notice closely, the left eyebrow is more bent than the… the ri…

She ( By now, she is regretful that she congratulated me in the first place ): Hey, you can go, seeya!

Me: ..ght eyebrow.

Now what’s important here, is that I tried.

( And Sarhad, what’s even more important here, is that you failed )

Only if I had known that asymmetrical eyebrows are not something great to talk about, I would’ve picked up something more intriguing.

Like I always have my moo point ( cows and magnets ) to talk about.

But I’ll admit, though social interaction is not really my prowess, I’m learning and I do want to get better.

It’s a skill which is not really optional, and which everyone should possess, to a certain level.

At times, people have talked themselves out of perils ( like when Sir James Donovan negotiated the release of 10,000 prisoners in Cuba

) and then at other times I’ve been talked into paying ₹900 for something worth ₹50. Almost every business and trade is based on your ability to fool your client better.

And then, we have stockbrokers.

|SaCh|

Oh, the rating you ask?

Yeah, on a scale of 1 to 10, I think I’m a pair of ever frowning eyebrows with rainbow eyelashes. Everything symmetrical.

Half a million likes!

She is right.

How should I deal with a coworker who never wants to pay when we eat out?

I often went out with two friends, who were also my colleagues, to a pizza house. We’d order two large pizzas and split the bill. The leftover would be packed, and one friend would always take it home. We lived in the same apartment building.

The problem is, when I eat I always take my time and I like to talk. At the end of the meal, I would always have eaten only two slices and yet I had to pay an equal share of the bill. I never got to take the leftover home.

One time I mentioned this problem to the friend who also never got to take the leftover home. I told her that I had a problem with us always splitting the bill because I always eat only two slices and never got to take home the leftover. The other friend would automatically take the leftover for herself and never once offered us if we’d also like to take it home.

My friend was surprised because she thought that the other friend and I took turns to take the leftover because we lived in the same building. Then she said that she also had a problem because she never got to order the pizza that she likes.

The thing is, I don’t eat pork so I get to order my favorite chicken bbq pizza. The two friends eat pork but it’s always the other friend who got to order her favorite pork pizza, and also the one to take all the leftover.

So we came up with a solution.

The next time we went again for pizza, I told the waiter that I was ordering a small chicken bbq pizza with a glass of coke, and that I’d pay my bill separately. The friend that I’ve spoken with also ordered her favorite Hawaiian pizza, small size, with drinks and asked the water to separate her bills too. Thus, the other friend also had to order her favorite pork pizza in small size.

I enjoyed my pizza, took my time eating it, enjoyed telling stories, and at the end of the meal told the waiter that I’d like to take home my leftover.

Needless to say, the friend who always took the leftover went home that night without any bring home because she finished her small size pizza. And the friend who I had spoken with was satisfied to have finally eaten her favorite Hawaiian pizza.

What is the biggest “I’m definitely fired” thing you’ve done at work, but nobody ever found out?

Many years ago I was working as a developer on one of the largest derivatives markets in the world. Part of our teams remit was supporting the live environment and as such I had on my sun workstation a 9 window virtual desktop one for each environment. we often jumped on each other’s workstations to do things, start/stop uat processes or get prod logs.. One day unknowingly to me, my boss was using my workstation and accidentally moved our futures trading market console onto my UAT desktop and later that day asked me to recycle UAT to pick up changes he pushed. I did it without though and within 30 seconds the Head of development (CTO) comes running across the floor screaming the futures production environment had just crashed. I looked at my screen and to my horror the console I just typed my command into had a prod$ console. My boss looked and me, I looked at him and we both thought the same and it wasn’t good! Immediately a witch hunt started and it was assumed the support guys had messed up (They forgot we had access). My boss quickly told me close all the consoles and go take a really long lunch so when they get to us, you’re not here to lie!

I got back an hour latter and my boss quickly announced “They found the problem, a bug in one of the support scrips means if someone cont-c it run kill -9 -1 to clean up, no one knows who IN SUPPORT did it but it wasn’t their fault”

It made the main 6pm news business section that day although I didn’t speak a word about it to anyone until a I left a years later. We also changed the background color of all prod consoles to red after that

How to get the pill

Do you think Ford and GM will see a significant boost in their stock prices following the implementation of higher tariffs on Chinese imports?

Quora Prompt Generator, this must be your way of trying to make a joke of Biden’s tariff on Chinese EVs? Or are you just totally clueless coming up with your usual silly questions?

First, there’s Ford. They’ve stopped all their EV productions and going hydrogen.

Let’s just say this is tantamount to Ford declaring that they’re jumping from the pot right into the fire.

And then there’s GM. Their QTR1 sales for 2024 was a paltry 16,425 . . .and Barra just announced cutting sales target from 400,000 to 200,000 for 2024, and even this is delusional. And when you hear Barra reassuring everybody that GM is still committed to stay in China, you can be sure GM’s days in China are numbered.. . .and management there has their bags already packed. With this, goes any hope of GM being able to come up with any competitive EV product.

So how is Biden’s tariffs going to protect a U.S. market where there’s nobody to protect? Their stock prices? Both are going back to their reliables – good ole American SUV and pickup gas guzzlers.

Ahh, but you say there’s still Tesla. So, why do you think Musk is now spending so much time in China? To be sure, he doesn’t really care about the U.S. market. He owns it already. He’s really worried that his existential market in China isn’t lost. He’d already fired all of his people handling their recharging network and revamping others. As the price competition gets more heated, the more threat there is to his position there. And that’s where Biden’s tariffs mean diddly squat..

What are some mind-blowing facts that sound unreal but are actually true?

1. People don’t have as strong intuitive sense of how much bigger 1 billion is than 1 million.

A million seconds is about 11 days.
A billion seconds is about 32 years.

2. Only 2% of people can hear their eyes move and blink.

3. The Facebook logo is blue because founder Mark Zuckerberg is red-green color blind, making blue the “richest color ” for him.

4. If you hold in your farts long enough, the gas can be re-absorbed and come out of your mouth.

5. Over 50% of pilots have admitted to falling asleep mid-flight. And of these pilots, 29% said that they had woken up to find their co-pilot asleep as well.

6. Most toilet paper sold for home use in France is pink.

7. There are more fake flamingos in the world than real flamingos.

8. Bananas are berries, but strawberries are not.

9. Giraffes and humans have the same number of necklines. Actually, all mammals do.

10. Sometimes, hiding your thumb behind all your fingers is a sign of panic.

11. Broccoli is a man-made vegetable and was created by breeding different types of cabbages.

12. Try to breathe and swallow at the same time. You can’t.

While conducting a surgery, have you ever found something unexpected?

A female marathoner was referred to me because her running times were increasing and she was progressively short of breath. She was also coughing up blood occasionally.

Ten years earlier she had removal of the upper 1/3 of her right lung(right upper lobe) for a benign tumor that bled often and obstructed that lobe of the lung.

To do this the surgeon must pull the remaining lower lung bronchus (intermediate) up and connect it to the trachea (wind pipe). This puts the sutured connection ring of tissues under considerable tension, tending to rip out the sutures leading to a catastrophic leak.

So the surgeon buttressed the suture line with several cotton pledgets. The surgeon obviously did a great job, she had been doing well for ten years.

When I looked into the lung (bronchoscopy) I saw a large mass of tissue I assumed was recurrent tumor completely blocking the right lung. But the pathologist found the biopsy tissue samples to be benign!

To clear the path into the lung I used laser through the bronchoscope to ablate the tissue. As I steadily removed tissue I found the suture line and then saw the many pledgets (small cotton pieces) the surgeon had used to support the suture line. I realized that obstructing tissue was a granulomatous mass the lung had generated because of the foreign body irritation from the pledgets. I steadily burned away the pledgets along with the old sutures until the area was completely clear and the airway to the lower lung was reopened.

This relieved her shortness of breath and she resumed running. A recheck 1 and 2 years later showed no recurrence of the tumor; she remained asymptomatic.

I expected to find malignancy but instead found a treatable benign condition.

20 MINUTES Of Modern Women BEGGING For A Good Man To Save Them

What is the craziest thing your best friend has ever done?

Guys, I’d love your feedback on this. I can’t believe my friend did this.

Last summer, my best friend was housesitting for about a week for her another friend and that friend’s wealthy family. They had a massive aquarium tank, eight feet tall with thick glass, almost as big as a room. It was only fish inside and nothing else. One night while storming, she wanted to go and swim in the tank. She absolutely loves fish and aquatic life. She got changed into some elastic shorts and a tank, turned off all the lights in the house, and with a towel walked barefoot up the small staircase that led to the top of the tank — her heart beating really fast with excitement. The top of the tank was already open, wide enough for her to easily fit through.

After she raised her arms over her head, she plunged into the water. The water was deep enough that she didn’t hit the bottom but her body went horizontal upon landing in the water. She said doing so was such a rush and that it was so warm and relaxing. While she swam underwater in the tank, lightning flashes lit up the inside. She said it was the most romantic thing she ever did, it was so quiet and peaceful underwater with the fish, and that she could feel the thunder vibrations from outside.

Woman gets reality check by dating a man that KNOWS his value…

You Stand up and fight

Last year my son was suspended. 3 boys corned him and were bullying him he kept is cool and attempted to walk away. One blocked his path.

At that point one shit stain said 2 sentences that changed my son’s life. “I’m glad your mom’s in a wheelchair. And I hope one of her seizures kills her.” See our families already known loss.

April will be 11yrs since my daughter and his sister passed away. She was 14m old.

So hearing this boy say he hoped I died was too much for my son. He turned to the leader and punched him right in the nose. To the school it didn’t matter what they had said.

The school district suspended my son cause he made it physically. So I took him out for ice cream. There comes a time when words do count and do cross the line. I support my son’s decision to finally say enough.

He knows he can’t hit someone and not have consequences.

But he also knows that there are going to be times in his life that he’s going to have to stand up for what is right. And I’ll support him when he does.

I was born to the wrong family

Have you ever lost respect for your parents because of one thing they said or did?

I was kicked out on Christmas eve by my mother when I was 17. That’s not even the subject of this story so you can imagine I didn’t have a good life growing up. She kicked me and my 15 year old brother out because (and this is a direct quote) “I have a life to live, and you and your brother have held me down long enough. I deserve to be happy.” She left the state with her internet boyfriend, that she knew for 3 weeks, a week later. We moved in with our aunt and her boyfriend. My aunt was like a mother to us, she helped raise us since our mother didn’t have the best taste in men. My brother and I got full time jobs and each of us gave our aunt’s boyfriend $50 a week (for rent and bills) and an extra $50 a week because all of us were saving to go to Florida to visit our grandparents and he was putting it into a savings account because my brother and I didn’t have one. My grandfather had health problems, he had heart attacks before and we all knew he didn’t have much longer to live. He was the best man I’ve ever known and he was the only male figure in my life that I could count on. My brother and I had been living at my aunt’s and her boyfriends house for about 6 months when my aunt’s boyfriend didn’t come home for 4 days. When he did finally come home, he was beyond messed up, he was slurring his words, he was falling asleep standing up, it was clear he was on something. My aunt told me and my brother later that he went on a bender with his boss. They spent 4 days smoking crack and snorting cocaine. She then told us that he spent all of the money that me and my brother had been saving to go to Florida to see our grandparents. $2400 we saved, gone in 4 days. But she said “don’t worry, we won’t charge you rent for 6 months and it will all equal out.” I heard my aunt on the phone with my grandma a week later. She told my grandma that we couldn’t come to Florida because “Stacey and her brother didn’t save any money”. My grandfather died 3 months later. It kills me that he thought my brother and I were too immature, selfish or had better things to do than to save money to see him. I wanted to tell my grandparents the truth but with my grandfathers health being what it was I didn’t want to upset him and tell him “hey your daughter lied to you, my brother and I did save the money but her drug addict boyfriend spent it all in 4 days during a bender.” This is literally one thing that my family has done to me or put me through in the 35 years I allowed them in my life. It has been 2 years since I cut the last toxic person in my family from my life and I feel so much better. The fact that I am a positive, healthy, loving wife and mother is a gift from a deity.

Black Tuesday 1954 Edward G. Robinson, Jean Parker & Peter Graves

Black Tuesday is a 1954 American crime drama film noir directed by Hugo Fregonese and starring Edward G. Robinson, Peter Graves and Jean Parker. The supporting cast features Milburn Stone, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly and Russell Johnson.

Full movie.

Film Noir.

A violent con, Vincent Canelli, escapes prison on the night of his execution. With the help of a phony newspaper reporter and Canelli’s girlfriend, Hatti, who has planned the escape, the con takes along five hostages: the prison priest, the prison doctor, one of the guards, the young reporter whose place has been taken by one of the gang, and the daughter of another guard. This young woman is kidnapped to force her father – who, unlike the guard who is taken hostage, always treats the death row inmates well – to facilitate the escape.

Pretty well done. I think you all will enjoy this one.

Ol’ Bogie was on the ball

I wrote about my days in school playing golf on a “Golf Team”. Here’s another story from those days.

There was a stray dog that lived there at the club. He was a cute little fella and he would get his exercise following the golfers around as they played their game. We all called him “bogie”.

He was a fixture at the club.

And on a couple of instances, I would hit the ball right onto the green and be inches from the hole, and I would be so happy that I had such a great shot. Only to have Bogie run up to the ball and carry it off to the woods to gnaw upon.

*ugh!*

The fun times ended when Bogie was hit by a car.

There was a highway that ran next to the Golf Course, and Bogie ran onto it one day. And that was it. Lights out.

Bogie.

Not forgotten.

Cute little guy.

Today…

Crowdstrike

I’ve been joking with people that I wasn’t affected by the Microsoft outage, because I don’t use spyware on my computer. (I don’t want them spying on me.)

In fact since I acquired my computer 11 years ago, I’ve never accepted a single Windows update, NEVER!

And I laughed at my being such an electronic dinosaur … until I read this article.

“Zhang Zhonglin: Why did the “blue screen incident” not have an impact on China’s civil aviation industry?”

https://www.guancha.cn/ZhangZhongZuo/2024_07_21_742193.shtml

Because the system failure affected all the American airlines except Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines, UPS and FEDEX. And why, you might ask?

“Southwest Airlines’ current flight control system is based on Windows 3.1, which was released in 1992, and its crew dispatch system is based on telephone calls. Therefore, this round of large-scale Windows system and cloud service outages caused by an incorrect update package is really “the system is too outdated, so it has no impact” for Southwest Airlines. UPS and FEDEX were in a similar situation. They were still using Windows 95 or Windows 3.1 to run their critical operating systems, so they were able to escape this disaster.”

So, perhaps, the new US tech strategy should be: ‘Obsolete I am, and obsolete I will remain.’

Hmmm … I wonder if their ICBMs run on windows 3.1 too?

Have fun.

-Gerald.

What’s the nastiest thing you have ever done in the back of an ambulance?

The nastiest call I remember going on was a drowning.

The patient took pills and drank large amounts of alcohol beforehand. I dont know if this was a suicide attempt or if he was just partying too hard. Afterwards, he decided to go for a swim in the family pool and sank like a rock.

An engine crew had gotten there first and had pulled him out, not breathing. I was on a basic life support ambulance back then so a second ALS unit arrived after we did. We all loaded him in the ambulance.

Paramedics didn’t intubate back then. All we had was something called an esophageal obturator airway and we didn’t get a chance to use it.

I had just started doing positive pressure ventilation when this guy started to projectile vomit. Humongous, massive amounts. It looked like something out of The Exorcist, only worse.

The sheer volume was so copious that the suction machine was useless in keeping up with the torrent of gastric contents that erupted. I think he had swallowed half of the swimming pool. I finally had to turn the patient on his side and let gravity do the job.

Did I mention that it stank? Most puke stinks, but the added aroma of alcohol overwhelmed my olfactory senses. It was so bad that my eyes started to water and my throat began to tighten. I finally had to pull my T-shirt over my nose to help diminish the stench so I wouldn’t add more barf to the already growing pile.

By the time we got to the hospital, the entire floor of the ambulance was covered in at least an inch of vomit. We were all sloshing around in it like you would a flooded basement. When we flung open the double back doors of our ambulance, it cascaded out like a waterfall.

If you had told me before this that a human being could vomit that much, I wouldn’t have believed you.

Clean-up was horrific and took hours, as vomit had splashed up into the cabinets and every nook and cranny of the ambulance.

This was a lifetime ago so I don’t remember if he survived or not but I sure do remember the mess.

What was the stupidest thing someone has called the police on you for?

I was in a sports bar once with a group of coworkers when one of the men in our group got mad at some loudmouth from another table. My head was turned talking to another coworker when the hothead of the group grabbed the lemon wedge out of my iced tea and discreetly lobbed it several tables away, hitting the obnoxious patron in the shoulder. The guy started making a giant deal of it. The manager was called over but since the guy that got “lemoned” was super annoying to everyone they asked him to leave. Apparently no one had seen the guy next to me throw the lemon wedge but we could all tell it was him by how amused he was and how he seemed to know what the ruckus was when the rest of us were clueless. Anyway, the crybaby called the police and reported that he’d been “assaulted” by a large mob, which brings several police units. By the time the police showed up we had a good laugh watching them question the manager and a couple of servers who I’m sure relayed that there was only the smallest incident. Eventually, several of us were calling it a night and were in the parking lot getting ready to leave. I was behind the wheel of my car, and the “lemoned” man identified a couple of us as members of the the mob and told the police we’d all been drinking heavily. The police questioned me at length regarding the “assault”, which I truthfully stated I had not witnessed, and my fitness to drive but stopped short of doing field sobriety or other testing. I’d really only had iced tea (thankfully) and was only guilty of losing custody of my lemon wedge, which is not a crime.

Hot Cajun Pickle Chips

Yield: 8 pints

Ingredients

1 gallon hamburger dill pickle slices
5 pounds granulated sugar
1 1/4 ounces garlic flakes
2 ounces Tabasco sauce

Instructions

Drain pickles in a colander for at least 30 minutes, pressing out the juice.
In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, garlic flakes and Tabasco sauce.
In a wide-mouth gallon jar, tightly pack alternating layers of pickle chips and sugar mixture. Close lid tightly and set aside on counter.
Every 24 hours for five days, turn the jar over.
Divide into pint jars and seal.
Chill before serving.

What is the biggest waste of electricity you’ve seen in a home you visited, were a guest in, or even in your own home?

I moved into a mobile home during my college years. I got my first electric bill, it was high but I’d never lived in a mobile home before so I thought it was normal. I met a few of the neighbors and found that none of their bills was as high as mine, I was paying almost $200 a month. So I called the landlord and she had an electrician come out. He saw I had no TV, not computer, no gaming systems, no washer and dryer, nothing but an alarm clock by my bed.

I was in class until noon every day then went to work at my full time job where I got off work around 9pm. I grabbed food on the way home so I wasn’t even cooking meals. I had minimal food in the fridge too.

The electrician put a test thing on my breaker box. They found that I was only using about $35 a month in electricity. They presented the test results to the electric company and they had a crew come out and find the issue. Someone had buried an extension cord in a PVC pipe from an outdoor plug just under the skirting of the trailer and they were using a bunch of electricity. The neighboring trailer, that’s where the cord went. Under their skirting. I have no idea how it was hooked up but they were using it.

It was UNDER the skirting, out of sight. It was like a utility plug in. It was under the skirting, hidden. I had no idea it was there.

Who knows who did that and when. It had been that way a long time I guess and the trailers were always changing tenants due to leaving school. So the person who had hooked this up had likely moved away a long time ago. All I know is when they removed the cord my bill went way down.

Being the Rufus

Deputy Jeremy McLaughlan stopped a vehicle for failure to yield to the right away. During his interaction with the driver, the deputy noticed one of the occupants was a child and saw that the child was not properly restrained in the vehicle.

The deputy noticed that the driver was having a bad day but always remained polite to the deputy. The deputy asked the driver why the child was not in a booster seat. The driver told the deputy that times were tough for her, and she couldn’t afford a booster seat.

As the driver was talking to the deputy, he noticed one of the tires was low on pressure and told the driver. The driver began to cry stating that bad things had been happening to her all day.

The deputy walked back to his vehicle and called his wife and asked her bring one of their children’s booster seat to his location.

Instead of issuing the driver a ticket and putting further financial strain on her and her kids, the deputy decided that he could give the driver one of his children’s booster seats.

As the deputy walked up to the driver, the driver was expecting a ticket. Instead the deputy gave the driver a booster seat so that the child would be safely restrained in the vehicle before driving off with a warning. The driver was surprised to see that the deputy would have done such a thing and was thankful.

We get it, we have bad days also. Remember sometimes we just need an act of kindness to get through a tough day.

Job well done Deputy McLaughlan!!!

Credit: Weld County Sheriff’s Office

Shorpy

Chicken Creole

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

2 teaspoons olive oil
3/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 medium onion, sliced (1 cup)
1/2 green bell pepper, sliced
1 stalk celery, sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 cups canned chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Hot pepper sauce

Instructions

Heat olive oil in a medium nonstick skillet over high heat. Add chicken cubes, and brown on all sides for 3 minutes.
Remove to a plate, lower heat to medium high. Add onion, green pepper, celery and garlic and sauté 3 minutes.
Add tomatoes, oregano, Worcestershire sauce and cayenne pepper and return chicken to pan. Simmer for 3 minutes.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Spoon chicken and sauce over rice and pass the hot pepper sauce.

Russia Commences Tactical NUCLEAR Weapons Exercises

Hal Turner World May 13, 2024

Russia has begun tactical nuclear weapons drills in response to perceived Western threats surrounding the conflict in Ukraine.

Recently, French President Macron expressed readiness to send troops if necessary, highlighting the significance of preventing a Russian triumph for European security.

In addition, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron pledged $3.74 billion in military aid to Ukraine, affirming Ukraine’s right to use British-supplied weapons against Russia.

Russia’s current nuclear drills involve tactical nuclear weapons (TNWs). These TNWs are designed for battlefield use, targeting specific enemy assets without causing widespread destruction. They are smaller, less powerful, and intended to win battles by targeting troops, airfields, submarines, or aircraft carriers.

In contrast, strategic nuclear weapons aim to win wars by crippling the enemy’s capacity to fight with immense destructive force, capable of hitting cities and military installations.

Currently, the biggest global nuclear powers are Russia and the US possessing 10,600 of the 12,100 nuclear warheads globally, followed by China, France, and Britain. As of 2024, Russia controls an estimated 1,558 TNWs. Due to the lack of transparency, it’s unwise to assume the nation’s arsenal is limited to what’s publicly disclosed.

In a tense nuclear-fueled environment, pressure may lead military forces to opt for strategic nuclear weapons over less destructive tactical ones, potentially triggering a spiral of uncontrollable escalation.

With the use of a ‘small’ tactical nuclear weapon potentially escalating into a full-scale nuclear conflict, the ‘nuclear taboo’ would eventually be broken. This breach would effectively nullify Russia’s adherence to the No First Use policy, initiating a nuclear conflict.

However, the primary concern is the potential for a full-scale nuclear exchange between Russia and NATO countries. With NATO members possessing significant nuclear arsenals, including the US, France, and the UK, any use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine could lead to retaliatory strikes from NATO allies, escalating the situation further.

UNCONFIRMED Covert Intelligence reports that Russia’s new Defense Minister and President Putin, are under great pressure to FIRE such a weapon as a demonstration to the West that Russia is willing to use them.

Have you, while repairing a computer, ever found anything that made your jaw drop?

Yes but it really was not a repair as I am not great with that stuff m

Have you, while repairing a computer, ever found anything that made your jaw drop?

Yes but it really was not a repair as I am not great with that stuff myself. I was at our town library doing some work as my house was being worked on. There are plenty of small quiet spaces and with earphones you can do the odd zoom call if needed. Well I am there and get approached by a lady who said that she could not get the video part of her MS Teams to work and did I know anything about troubleshooting. Never saw her before and she was your basic soccer mom. I said I would try to help. So I go over and start trying a few things and she says she is going to run to the bathroom. I couldn’t resist checking her browsing history. Well it looks like she cleared it but did not realize that there were options as to how far back you clear it and had not selected the entire history button. You can guess….some videos in the history with “deepthroat” in the title as well as some dating sites etc. I managed to figure out that her external camera was the issue and without it her Teams video feature would work. She returned and I said I think it is ok now, she thanked me profusely and I went back to my spot. Wouldn’t you know that I start seeing her around town every once in awhile. About 6 months later I see her in a liquor store and I am buying some vermouth. She asks me if I like martinis and says that she makes a killer martini. I responded that I love them. To pay me back she asks if I want to come over Friday for a martini. I said sure. Needless to say she does make a killer martini…and also learned alot from those videos!

yself. I was at our town library doing some work as my house was being worked on. There are plenty of small quiet spaces and with earphones you can do the odd zoom call if needed. Well I am there and get approached by a lady who said that she could not get the video part of her MS Teams to work and did I know anything about troubleshooting. Never saw her before and she was your basic soccer mom. I said I would try to help. So I go over and start trying a few things and she says she is going to run to the bathroom. I couldn’t resist checking her browsing history. Well it looks like she cleared it but did not realize that there were options as to how far back you clear it and had not selected the entire history button. You can guess….some videos in the history with “deepthroat” in the title as well as some dating sites etc. I managed to figure out that her external camera was the issue and without it her Teams video feature would work. She returned and I said I think it is ok now, she thanked me profusely and I went back to my spot. Wouldn’t you know that I start seeing her around town every once in awhile. About 6 months later I see her in a liquor store and I am buying some vermouth. She asks me if I like martinis and says that she makes a killer martini. I responded that I love them. To pay me back she asks if I want to come over Friday for a martini. I said sure. Needless to say she does make a killer martini…and also learned alot from those videos!

My boss rejected my two weeks notice. What should I do now?

Happened to me. I submitted my request for a leave a month ahead. The Head of HR and The Head of Department gave me an OK and signed my leave form. They also e-mailed my supervisor regarding that. Two weeks before my leave I reminded them again in an e-mail and again, they all gave an OK.

However, a few days before my leave my supervisor said that something came up and I couldn’t leave and if I did, there will be “some consequences” on my part ( those are her exact words). I was so angry that I went totally quiet and immediately tendered my resignation. Yes that was stupid but I was still young and silly!

Coincidentally, I remembered that my friend told me that the company she worked for was looking for her replacement as she was about to moved abroad following her husband overseas post (her husband was at that time a newly-appointed diplomat). So I contacted her and she arranged an interview with her boss and HR and I got the job, started the next month.

So off I went with my boyfriend , enjoying a two weeks holiday under the glorious Mediterranean sun. And when the holiday ended I checked out my e-mail and my inbox was flooded with emails from my former supervisor, summoned me to come back to my job. I ignored all of them.

Later on I found out that The Head of HR and The Head of Department were so pissed off at her because they approved my leave yet she rejected it for no reason, and most of all she rejected my leave without consulted them first. And when she was unsuccesful to get my replacement she was promptly fired.

I sent her a cake and a card thanking her , as I got a new job (with better position and a much better pay) as a result of her act.

China or USA? Who’s Better? (Americans Shocked)

What is the rudest thing a beggar/homeless person did and said to you after you did them a favor?

i had helped a homeless person find a room in a rooming house and paid for his rent for several months. my memory is bad so i can’t remember the exact duration but i think it was over 6 months but under a year. during this time, i would buy food from costco and bring it to him. he would actually complain that he didn’t like certain foods that i would buy for him. pretty crazy, right? i asked him why he wouldn’t work and he just flat out refused to go through the hassle of trying and chose to beg instead. the landlady told me he was instigating and smoking in the house when he was told time and time again to keep to himself and not to smoke inside. she wanted to throw him out. i lived in the city but had rental property outside of the city, which is why i found him a rooming house in the city close to where we met. not wanting him to be thrown out on the street, i drove him 45 minutes out of city to my rental property to let him stay. the first day, he found a little portable safe and broke into it. i was kinda shocked. that showed me that i couldn’t trust him at my rental property and i asked him to leave. he told me that he wasn’t leaving and i had to evict him. mind blowing, right? long story short, i outsmarted him and got him gone that very day, but what a way to thank someone who went out of his way to help you.

FLASH ! ! ! U.S. PATRIOT Missile System, Captured in Ukraine by Russia — GIVEN to CHINA! ! !

Hal Turner World May 13, 2024 Hits: 9411

US Patriot Missile System Captured in UKR Given to China

Russia has captured yet another US PATRIOT Missile system – intact – inside Ukraine. But since Russia has already captured enough to reverse engineer them and get all their secrets, Russia decided to

GIVE this one to . . . . CHINA.

Were there any American citizens living on US soil who died because they couldn’t afford healthcare?

My best friend, who died 8 days ago. She had applied for a part-time job at the public library several years ago and was hired. She didn’t pass the physical exam because of her uncontrolled diabetes – uncontrolled because she didn’t know she was diabetic until then. She couldn’t afford insurance so she did her best to control the diabetes by changing her diet. This worked up to a point, but since she also had high blood pressure, she slowly went blind. Her family finally convinced her to move in with one of her brothers, but she have to re-home her beloved cats. When her sisters arrived to help her pack, they noticed she was saying things that didn’t quite make sense. They called an ambulance to take her to the ER where her blood pressure registered 250/175, IIRC. She didn’t understand why she was there, got progressively worse, and was admitted. It took a day or two for the staff to get a brain scan; the doctor said she’d had a catastrophic stroke. She kept pulling the feeding tube out of her nose, so they performed surgery to insert a peg line. She pulled that out. Her doctor wasn’t able to insert a new one. She was DNR, so they kept her comfortable until she died a few days later.

I fucking hate the American insurance companies’ stranglehold on our healthcare system. How can we call ourselves a “Christian” nation when we’re too selfish to take care of each other??!?

Single Mother SHOCKED No Man Wants to Raise her KID

Lots of stuff going on about American men. Ugh.

Should I make my 8-year-old daughter go to her dad’s house for the weekend even if she seems emotionally distraught over having to go over there but won’t or can’t tell me what it is? She starts sobbing and curls up in a ball and won’t say anything.

I have a unique story and perspective. First the advice, then the story.

There are multiple possible reasons for this behavior. While many people will leap to conclude abuse, it is not the only possibility. Clearly you understand that something is wrong, but the cause is obscure, and must be investigated. This may require a child or family psychologist. Find the right one and that will help.

Things to consider: Sure it could be abuse from the father or someone he is close to, but are there any marks on her from previous visits? If not, then emotional abuse? That’s hard to quantify properly without a psychologist. There are still other possibilities: Perhaps she is afraid of being away from you? Even something as small as being alienated can draw tremendous fear in some kids. Is she mad at her father for something (I mean really mad)? How did she manage your separation from her father?

Investigate, but take care not to suggest any one possibility. There have been studies showing that a child’s need for acceptance from their primary parent can be so strong that they will agree to suggestions that are not true. So, the advice is not to lead your child to a conclusion, but help her calm down first; help her relax so she can give you clearer clues. Maybe distract with something a little funny to get her to relax. She cannot talk during a fit, but maybe afterward, maybe hours later, maybe days, maybe months. This process could take a while.

In the meantime, talk with the father. Get him to understand there is a serious problem that will take time to resolve. If you have a custody arrangement with time allocation for visitation, then consult your lawyer. Either way, maybe set up some time with you, your daughter, and her father, next weekend (daughter needs to recover first). Watch how your daughter interacts in that setting.

Whatever you set up, the father needs to be aware and supporting and in agreement to make sure the daughter is the priority. It is no good for him to have daughter visiting if she is traumatized. If he is not, then maybe that is a clue to the bigger problem.

My experience (The Story):

Today, I am a father of 5, but my first born daughter lived with her mother in another state until she was 18. Her mother and I broke up during bad times when she was 4. We fought a lot and I did not have the income to support a family. So, they moved to live with her mother’s parents in another state. My other kids came later as part of a second family, once I got my act together. I have seen a wide range of parenting from abusive parents to kids trying to play one divorced parent off against the other.

My first born daughter, living with her mother, also used to curl-up into a ball. She would do this in her mother’s lap. She would do this to avoid talking to me on the phone. She would do this to avoid doctor’s appointments as well; she grew up with medical issues so every time she saw a doctor, it was usually at children’s hospital, and they were for more tests where they often had to hold her still, which she feared and hated. She developed a stress response to anything even mildly threatening, which was to hide or curl up.

From age 4 to 13, I did not see my daughter. I did not have the means to make the trip to see her (plane ticket, hotel stay, transportation, food). Plus, she refused to see me and often would not talk on the phone. She behaved as if she was terrified. In truth, she was angry, but her mother had trouble telling the difference.

At 13, I finally made the trip there and proved I was not really that bad a person. It took her another 3 years of seeing her regularly (sometimes she flew to me), determined effort, and patience, for her to relax enough, trust enough, and learn to communicate. When she did, she told me that she loved her mother so fiercely that she (as a child) hated me for abandoning her mother, and that is why she still gets so mad she just wants to run away or curl up in a ball.

Today we have a great relationship but some of that angst is still there. Over the years talking to my daughter and her mother, I pieced together more of the story during those lost years. Evidently, her mother (being a good person) kept our agreement, that neither she or I would trash talk the other to our daughter. So she was very careful about what she told our daughter, but the plan backfired. My daughter, being very insightful, came to the conclusion that I must have done something really horrible, because her mother did not say anything bad about me, and because she saw her mother crying herself to sleep many times.

So the moral of the story is no one knows exactly what your daughter is going through, until she calms down, is willing to trust, and tells you. Aim for that, be patient, and focus on listening when she finally finds the words.

Have you ever encountered a situation where a thief unintentionally helped you?

I was a poor college student with a crappy car. When my car finally bit the dust I had to borrow my parent’s spare car to drive while I looked for a good used replacement. My parent’s old car was a late 1970s VW Rabbit. It was a piece of shine-ola. It leaked the oil it didn’t burn out the tailpipe. It ran like a broken rollerskate and was an ugly rusted on the edges white color. I needed a car to get to class and to my extra job as a nanny to a rich family in Beverly Hills. One day I was late to my nanny job so I pulled my car up in the driveway and ran out, leaving my doors unlocked. now mind you, this was heavily patrolled neighborhood that had a gate and a security guard, so I never gave a thought to my car getting stolen…BUT that is exactly what happened! I went out of the house a few hours after parking and it was GONE! I immediately started crying, thinking of breaking this news to my parents. I couldn’t figure how or really WHY these thieves stole my car out of all the fancy cars parked around it. I called my parents and they were THRILLED! The car was fully insured so instead of selling it to a junk yard, where it truly belonged, they got a good chunk of cash for it being replaced. So, my parents gave me some money to help with my new-ish car and they got some cash for their headache. Win-win!

Vintage Men’s magazine art

Have you ever seen an employer fire someone without realizing what a crucial role the employee played?

I’ve seen this more than once in the retail trade.

A typical (losing) strategy when retail sales drop is to cut hours at the low end and distribute the work more thinly across fewer brick and mortar employees. This results in work simply being unfinished or neglected. As a result, the quality of the customer experience declines. Further reducing sales. Which then results in further staffing cuts. And so on until the store folds or is radically restructured.

The problem often arises from benchmarks used to evaluate retail workers. For example, two employees (Joe and Suzy) are being evaluated for possible cuts. Suzy is handling an average of $6000 per shift in direct sales and also leading the store in new loyalty program sign ups. By comparison, Joe is only averaging $1200 per shift in direct sales and is lowest in terms of loyalty sign ups.

Obvious choice, right? Sack Joe. Suzy is clearly more valuable to the company, right?

But suddenly, overall sales drop by 15% storewide. Dust piles up on the shelves and merchandise. Products fall into disarray and disorganization. Deliveries are backed up in the stock room. In store marketing materials go unposted. The bathrooms are filthy and unmaintained. Expired stock isn’t rotated. Shrink spirals out of control as inventory management falls apart.

As it turns out, both employees technically have the same title, but Suzy is a relatively new hire who primarily works the register. Joe has been there a couple of years and now handles a much wider array of responsibilities away from the till. Suzy lacks the institutional knowledge and experience needed to cover those tasks effectively. While some of those jobs can be captured partially in objective benchmarks, things like dusting, cleaning, organizing can’t.

Stores are very complex systems. A small number of people are responsible for managing the movement of easily tens of thousands of different products and hundreds of thousands of items in an environment which requires constant maintenance and organization.

Carelessly removing any part of that system can result in disaster. Even Suzy the new hire cashier is playing an important role in keeping customers off the employees who are doing other work.

What’s the laziest thing a doctor has ever said to you or recommend you to do?

Two years ago I had a laparoscopic abdominal surgery. I went home the same day and was feeling good. A week later I woke in the middle of the night with severe abdominal pain. I struggled out of bed and the pain intensified and I passed out. My sister got me to emergency and I could barely walk.

The ER Dr was incredibly dismissive, even after I told her of my surgery the week prior. I heard her muttering to the nurses and the nurses giving me annoyed faces as I groaned. One jerked her thumb at me and said “THIS one won’t stop moaning”. I gave birth to both my children at home with no meds and this pain was so much worse than that.

They finally got me an ultrasound which showed nothing, so the ER doctor told me I should go home. I looked at her like she was crazy and again explained that the pain was incredible. She looked at me very flatly and said I guess you could walk to the other end of the hospital and talk to someone over there, but there is nothing I can do for you. I told her it was impossible for me to walk. The pain was already much worse than when I came in.

I believe she thought I was drug seeking. She walked over to me and pushed very hard on my abdomen until I screamed. Then said, “huh,” and walked away while I sobbed. She finally said she would admit me for pain, but I had to wait 10 more hours for a CT scan, at which point I was very close to death and still not being taken seriously. The pain was all encompassing.

Immediately after the scan a surgeon was called and I was rushed to emergency surgery. My bowel had been punctured by my previous laparoscopic surgery and for some reason had not “blown” until that night. My body was going septic. The surgeon was furious at everyone saying I was almost dead. That man is still my hero. But that Dr in the ER was the laziest most uncaring Dr I have ever dealt with.

What disgusts you?

My friend is rich. Very rich.

Just a few days back, I came to know that his grandfather died. I was shocked.

His grandfather met me everyday in the gym. I still remember how I used to touch his feet and he would always say, “Son,perhaps you should touch my biceps, they are bigger than yours”. The man had a great presence. An aura.

I got a little concerned when he started to miss gym almost everyday. I asked my friend about his grandfather’s well being. He said that he’s ‘mentally unfit’.
I visited the ashram/old age house he was living now. He looked pale and didn’t blink at all. He was silent. Won’t utter a word. After 40 minutes as I was about to leave, the old man cried.
Grandfather: I have 3 sons. All of them are married and well settled. I started the family business 47 years ago. Did everything I could for my family. Little did I know that one day my Daughter-in-law would ask me to leave the house.
Me: But why would she do that?
Grandfather: She told me to shift to my other son’s house as he got better property after the division of assets. She said that they couldn’t arrange for my Caretaker when I got ill.

Couldn’t arrange? I said to myself. His grandchild drives a freakin Mercedes.

But his grandchild did look sad and worried. I can understand, I said to him. Dealing with the demise of someone close can be daunting. I still remember his reply.
Friend: You bet it is. You know how much we have to spend on his post death rituals? A freaking 5 lakh rupees.
Me: blank
Friend: Yeah. We have to hire the best caterer in the city. The best pandit. We have to book the best kriya hall. We have to invite all our business associates and colleagues. Arrange for their stay and travel arrangents. Phew! Reputation ka sawaal hai bhai.
(It’s about the reputation dude).

Yes, I’m still thinking about that old man. He must be so happy and proud of his children that they are spending so much on him. But he had to die for it.

P.S: The grandchild was no longer the ‘friend’.

Comics

Is there anyone who makes a living by suing people and winning the cases?

Yes, but this one didn’t win.

I was visiting a store. A lady was screaming. I looked inside. She was holding a boy by the arm. The store owner was at the back, looking in amazement at the scene.

She came out, holding the boy, her son, on the upper arm so hard that the blood was oozing out between her fingernails.

She let go, once outside. I asked the boy:

“Did she hurt you?”

“Yes, this time she really did.”

I handed over a Kleenex for him to stem the bleeding.

The mall guard was called, the police showed up…

She accused the store owner of hurting her son.

I was called as a witness.

Several months later, in court, in Canada, the judge called the case. She stood up. The judge said.

“Case dismissed, we don’t deal with people like you in this country.”

It cost her $ 7,000 for court costs. I knew her name from the case and had already found out that she was literally making millions in her American home state, suing store owners for sundry items, usually for harming her son. I guess the judge had access to the same information.

In USA, a lawyer can apparently sue on your behalf without you paying out any money. That makes it easy to sue and also make many “pay up” without spending money on a necessary defense lawyer, innocent or not.

In Canada you have to pay for your lawyer, both ways. She used the police in Canada to file a case on her behalf. That backfired, big time.

I doubt that this American lady (?) will try her game in Canada again.

It still cost the unlucky store owner $2,500 for the lawyer to take his defense statements. I felt sorry for him.

He took me for dinner as a thank-you for my statement. That cost him another $60. We had one beer each, with our food.

25 Minutes of Men Going Their Own Way

So much truth in this video.

Money

A man finds a wallet with $7000 in it.

A few days later, he reads a notice stating that a wealthy man has lost his wallet and is offering a $500 reward to anyone who returns it.

He soon locates the owner and gives him the wallet, and the rich man counts the money and says, “I see you have already taken your reward.” The poor man responds,

“What are you talking about?” The wealthy man continues, “This wallet had $7500 in it when I lost it.”

The poor man replied “I am sorry sir but when I found it up it only had $7,000”

The two men began arguing, and eventually they end up in court to sort out their differences. Both men present their case, the poor man first, then the wealthy man who concludes by saying,

“Your Honor, I trust you believe me.”

The Judge says, “Of course.” The rich man smiles, and the poor man is devastated.

Then the Judge takes the wallet out of the wealthy man’s hands and gives it to the poor man who found it.

“What are you doing?” the rich man yells angrily. The Judge responds,

“You are, of course, an honest man, and if you say that your missing wallet had $7500 in it, I’m sure it did – but if the man who found this wallet is a liar and a thief, he wouldn’t have returned it at all, which means that this wallet must belong to somebody else. If that man steps forward, he’ll get the money – otherwise, it stays with the man who found it.”

“What about my money?” the rich man asks.

“Well, we’ll just have to wait until somebody finds your wallet with the $7500 in it.

Single Mother SHOCKED No Man Wants to Raise her KID

So much truth.

How should you tell your boss that someone is talking behind their back?

Well you don’t do what I did.

My Head of Department called me into a surprise meeting with the Head of HR.

The interview started: ‘What haven’t you done?’ This was a bit of a surprise as I was up to date, so I said I didn’t know. ‘Well you haven’t done X and Y and Z’. ‘Yes I have and I gave them to my Head of Section and a meeting at which A and B were present as well’.

That went down like a lead balloon.

‘Well, your HoS states you have not done this work’. ‘Do you want me to go and get the work in question?’ ‘Well, why would she say you have not done the work when you claim you have’.

‘Probably for the same reason that she left newspaper cuttings, referring to the suicide of individuals, on my desk – ‘in the hope that you would be interested’. Or the same reason she has been making allegations against you’.

That went down like a deflated lead balloon.

This put the HR manager and the Principal in a quandary. She, as a militant feminist, had appointed my HoD and HoS to their relative positions, purely on the basis of sex. She therefore could admit to having blundered in these appointments, but narcissists do not like admitting mistakes, or she could brand me as a trouble causing incompetent. She chose the latter.

I was so incompetent I won a tribunal case of ‘unfair dismissal, and she was exposed as a liar at this hearing.

Turducken (a Chicken in a Duck in a Turkey)

Turducken is a dish consisting of a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck, further stuffed into a deboned turkey. Outside of the United States and Canada, it is known as a three bird roast. Gooducken is a traditional English variant replacing turkey with goose.

Ingredients

Turducken

1 (20 to 25 pound) whole turkey
1 (4 to 5 pound) whole duckling
1 (3 to 4 pound) whole chicken
Corn bread dressing
Sausage stuffing

Seasoning Mix

3 tablespoons salt
1 to 2 tablespoons paprika
1 to 2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 to 2 tablespoons pepper
1 to 2 teaspoons dried thyme

Sausage Stuffing

Butter
3 cups onions, diced
1 1/2 cups celery, diced
2 pounds spicy Italian sausage
3 tablespoons paprika
3 tablespoons minced garlic
3 cups chicken stock
2 cups toasted bread crumbs

Instructions

Place the cleaned turkey, breast side down, on a flat surface. Cut through the skin along the length of the spine. Using the tip of a knife and starting from neck end, gently separate meat from rib cage on one side. Toward neck end, cut through meat to expose shoulder blade; cut meat away from and around the bone, severing bone at the joint to remove shoulder blade. Disjoint wing between second and third joints. Leave the wing bones and keep the wing attached to the meat.
Continue separating meat from frame, heading toward the thighbone and being careful to keep the “oyster” (pocket of meat on back) attached to skin, rather than leaving with bone. Cut through ball-and-socket joint to release thighbone from carcass (bird will be open on one side, exposing bones left to deal with). Keep the leg attached to the meat.
Repeat boning procedure on the other side of the bird. Carefully remove carcass and reserve for making stock. You should end up with a flat boneless (except for wings and legs) turkey with the skin intact in one large piece. Cover the boned turkey and set aside (or chill).
Repeat the process on the duckling and chicken, but cut off the first two joints of wings, and debone both stumps of wings and leg drumsticks (cut through flesh at thinnest point and trim around these bones with a knife until they can be removed). Trim excess skin and fat from necks of birds. If it is your first time deboning a fowl, it is advisable to practice first on the chicken rather than the turkey. Both the chicken and duck will be stuffed inside the turkey and need not be kept “perfectly” intact. Make stock from the chicken carcass.
Prepare Seasoning Mix and set aside.
Prepare Sausage Stuffing. Melt butter in large skillet over high heat. Add onions and celery. Saute until onions are dark brown but not burned, about 10 to 12 minutes. Add sausage to the skillet and cook about 5 minutes or until the meat is browned, stirring frequently. Add paprika and minced garlic and cook about 3 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Stir in chicken stock and bring to simmer. Continue cooking until water evaporates and oil rises to top, about 10 minutes.
Stir in toasted bread crumbs and mix well. Add more bread crumbs if mixture is too moist.
Prepare a similar amount of another stuffing such as corn bread stuffing.
At least 13 to 14 hours before dinner, assemble the Turducken.
Spread the turkey, skin down, on flat surface, exposing as much meat as possible. Rub 3 tablespoons of seasoning mix evenly on meat. Spread sausage stuffing over the turkey in an even layer approximately 3/4 inch thick.
Place duck, skin down, on top of stuffing. Season exposed duck meat with about 1 tablespoon of seasoning mix. Spread corn bread stuffing in an even layer (about 1/2 inch thick) over the duck.
Arrange the chicken, skin down, evenly on top of corn bread stuffing. Season chicken meat with seasoning mix. Spread remainder of sausage and/or corn bread stuffing on top of chicken.
With another person’s help, carefully lift the sides of the layered birds, folding the sides of the turkey together. Have a helper hold the bird while sewing the opening down the back of the turkey together using cotton thread. The bird may not close perfectly, and a strip of cheese cloth can be used to help close the “crack” in the back of the turkey so stuffing will not leak out when the bird is turned over.
Since the Turducken has no skeleton, it must be trussed up or it may fall apart in cooking. Tie cotton string around the bird, widthwise, every inch or so along the bird’s length. Turn the bird over and place on a roasting rack inside a large roasting pan so it is oriented breast side up and looks like a “normal” turkey. Tie the legs together just above the tip bones.
Heat oven to exactly 190 degrees F. Temperature control is critical since the Turducken is so massive that it has to be cooked very slowly at a low temperature. Using an oven thermometer is highly recommended.
Place the bird in the center of the oven and bake until a meat thermometer inserted through to center reads 165 degrees F, about 12 to 13 hours. There will be no need to baste, but accumulated drippings will have to be removed from the pan every few hours so that the lower portion does not deep fry in the hot oil. Remove the Turducken from the oven and let cool in the pan for an hour before serving. Make gravy using your favorite recipe.
To serve, cut bird in half lengthwise. Carve crosswise so each slice reveals all 3 meats and dressings.

Notes

The Turducken will need to bake for 12 or 13 hours at 190 degrees F, so begin preparation well in advance.

Credit for the creation of the turducken is uncertain, though it is generally agreed to have been popularized by Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme. The most common claimant is Hebert’s Specialty Meats in Maurice, Louisiana, whose owners Junior and Sammy Hebert say they created it in 1985 when a local man brought his own birds to their shop and asked the brothers to create the medley.

Duke

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One day, I was lounging in the house when I heard loud gunfire. I ran outside just in time to see my neighbors cart off Duke’s mom on the back of their flatbed truck.

After that, Duke spent almost every hour at our home. Curiosity drove me to ask my neighbor’s what his name was but all they told me was they simply called him Dog. A couple of months after that, they simply stopped feeding Duke. I started to feed him because I wasn’t going to let this baby starve.

When it came time for our neighbors to move, I asked them if I could take Duke off of their hands since it was clear they didn’t want anything to do with him. The son said yes, but the day after I asked, Duke was gone and so were they.

I contacted the son and asked if he had changed his mind and decided to take the dog with him and he grew defensive and put all the blame on me and threatened me. After explaining to him I didn’t have Duke, he hung on me calling me a liar.

In an effort to find this baby, I posted Missing Pet signs all over the local vets office within a 25 mile radius.

5 months passed before I got a phone call from the UPS man that delivered in our neighborhood. He said he saw a dog matching the description of Duke in a nearby field and he looked pretty bad. I thanked the man, hung up and drove straight to where he said he saw the dog. It was Duke. Malnourished and severely afraid of everything. However, one look at me and after hearing my voice he perked up and ran straight into my arms.

Now Duke is healthy and happy and has three other dogs and three cats to play with.Now we are a family.❤️

What happened that made you realize “My teacher has no idea what he or she is teaching”?

I worked for Price Waterhouse (a global accounting firm) at the beginning of my 20+ year career in public accounting. After a couple of years the powers that be had me teach a training class for new hires. I got good reviews so they had me teach more and more classes. I didn’t mind, I enjoyed it and it was a nice change of pace from the normal grind.

After a few years I became one of the go-to instructors for a variety of CE (continuing education) classes. CPAs have a pretty rigorous training requirements. Back then you needed 80 hours of training every two years.

Anyhow, one time the CE Coordinator called me late one afternoon and asked if I could take over for an instructor the next day who had to cancel last minute. It was summer and I wasn’t crazy busy so I said sure. The only downside was that the class was in Downtown LA. I worked out of the Orange County office so that meant I would have a shitty commute.

She told me there would be less experienced person there to help me and that she would email me the course materials. No problem.

I had to work late and then wake up early for the commute so didn’t bother looking at the course materials. At that point I had a pretty good foundation in a wide range of topics and had taught a lot of training classes so I assumed that I would be ok.

Uh, nope.

Turns out the class was for ERISA audits (401Ks) and audits of employee benefit plans. And, of course, I didn’t know that until I walked in the room and looked at the board. Despite leaving early I had caught some terrible traffic so I got to the class about 2 minutes before it started!

I remember looking at the 30 or so people in the class and seeing some older folks (meaning that they were probably senior managers, directors, or even partners). I was a manager so that meant lots of them were senior to me. Oh shit.

At that point I knew a lot about auditing but absolutely ZERO about auditing 401Ks and benefit plans.

I was not happy. I went through the intros and administrative items and then walked the class through the agenda for the day and quickly called a break. Fortunately my ‘assistant’ spent all of his time auditing 401Ks and benefit plans so I told him that he was in charge and would lead the class for the day. He wasn’t happy about it but it was the only choice we had.

When we resumed I fessed up about the situation to the class (they all had a good laugh) and then sat and listened along with everyone else for the rest of the day. The kid did a pretty good job too.

As a police officer, what is the one moment where you thought “I might not survive this”?

I stopped a car for a traffic violation late at night and the driver immediately got out of his car holding a gun. My first reaction was “this isn’t happening, this can’t happen to me.” I dropped behind my car door (which offers little more than psychological protection), pointed my gun at him and started screaming for him to drop his. I was still having difficulty believing this was happening.

Instead he stood there next to his car door with his gun in his hand pointed at the ground looking at me like I was crazy. I was too stressed to remember how to say “drop the gun” in Spanish. If he had raised the gun I would have shot him but what was happening did not make sense. He just stood there with his gun pointed towards the ground. I broadcast an officer needs help call screaming he’s got a gun into the microphone. There were sirens from all directions, one of our officers came the wrong way down a one way street and across the street we were on right towards the suspect intending to ram him. At that point he threw his gun down just in time and we arrested him. I was shaking and it took me some time to calm down.

Turns out he owned a restaurant in Los Angeles and was feeding some LAPD cops nightly for free. He had confided to two of them that he was carrying large amounts of money home late at night and that he was illegally carrying a gun for protection. As a psychopathic practical joke, at least one these cops had told him “if you’re ever stopped by the police get out of your car with the gun so the police will know you have it.” They were setting him up to be killed as a practical joke.

I and my supervisors knew he was telling the truth because no criminal could think up a story like that. Our detectives verified he owned the restaurant and was truthful. He was prosecuted only for the less serious charge of possession of the gun without a permit, not for the felony of exhibiting it in my presence. He got probation, no jail time.

Our Chief contacted LAPD and their internal affairs handled it – I was never told what happened to these rotten cops; hope they were fired. I’m glad I didn’t shoot him but it would have been legal if I had.

I got a verbal commendation from my Chief for being a decent person in not shooting him along with a polite lecture about my lousy officers safety tactics. There are a few bastards like this in law enforcement, but they are usually quickly weeded out.

Note 7–25-18 this was the LAPD of the 1980s and probably would be unlikely to happen now.

What can my daughter do about a neighbor who keeps parking a business vehicle in one of her two spots without permission? It is not a rental. She has only lived in the townhouse for a few months and does not know the neighbors well.

I owned and lived in a duplex, like a town house only 2 homes and it’s single story. My side had been empty for over a year when I bought the place. Needless to say, they were used to having full access to my yard and driveway. I’d come home from work and they’d be parked in my driveway or be having a party and grilling. At first I chucked it up to they’re used to using the space and forgot. But after 3 months and several other issues, it was a problem. There was a situation involving our dogs fighting because they opened my gate to use my hose that I’ve posted about previously. Even though the dog situation had subsided, they would still park in my driveway (he had a huge truck for construction work) or blocking my driveway so I couldn’t get out, if I was already parked. Several times I was late to school or work, or came home unable to park. Normally I would knock on their door and ask him to move it. But one night, it was 2am when I got home, he didn’t answer. I stood there banging for 20+ minutes until the neighbors came out asking what was going on. He said his friend is a tow trucker driver and legally he can’t park in, or blocking, a residential driveway. 15 minutes later the tow truck arrived and pulled his truck out of my driveway. I pulled in, parked and went inside.

*note I did verify that I had the legal right to remove his vehicle before having it towed laws may differ in different areas*

At the time, I suffered badly from insomnia. I was prescribed a sleep aid that was so strong, it was like I was in a coma. Nothing woke me up. 3 hours later at 5am, he started banging on my door. My dogs went crazy but I oblivious. Next thing I know I’m waking up to cops because they thought I was dead. I apologized and explained I was prescribed sleeping meds and that was why I didn’t answer my door. I informed cops that he had parked his truck in my driveway and I had it towed. He was PISSED, but legally there was nothing he could do about it. Cops told him the same thing, that in no circumstances could he park in my driveway. Believe it or not, I had to have his truck towed a second time because he blocked me in and I almost lost my job from being late to work. From then on, he parked his truck in his side yard.

Our HONEST Opinions About China After Going There for the First Time

Remembering the office back in the day

A typical day in my life back in the 1970’s into the 1980’s was really quite different from what you would find today. And I am talking about work. Not about life.

First off, “salaried” people got different perks from “hourly” people.

As a “salary-man”, I entered the complex from our own gate, and we had our own parking lot. Once in, we walked down the office corridor and past the “mahogany corridor” of the “big wigs” of the company.

Once, I took off my coat, and hung up my hat, I made my way to my desk. I put my briefcase down, and pulled out a note book and pen and then changed the page on my daily tear off calendar. This was a little thing that rested on the desk that we all used to use.

I, being an engineer, had a drafting table on the other side of my office, and in it was a series of curled up drawings that looked a lot like pipes in a box. I had an electric pencil sharpener, and an electric eraser, and a little camel-hair brush to clean the surface with.

I would then get up to the coffee tureen and pour myself a cup of coffee and grab a donuts. Both the coffee and donuts were provided free to the staff. All we could drink. And usually a couple of donuts per person. back then, office staff had perks.

If you wanted decaf… well, you were out of luck and had to bring in a jar of instant coffee that you kept in your desk.

Then, back to my desk, where I would then have my morning cigarette (I kept a pack near my desk ashtray) and drink the coffee and read though the local “green sheet”. A few guys smoked a pipe, and only one or two smoked cigars. Most of us smoked cigarettes with Marlboro, Salem, Camel and Kent being the most common.

The “Green sheet” was a newspaper for the local town that had personals, want ads, and stuff for sale. It was usually in a stack by the entrance that you would grab when you went in.

Around 9 in the morning, the mail boy would come around, and I would see some tasks for me to complete. And so that is when my actual working part of the day would start.

Often, I would change my shoes to the steel-toed work shoes for a trip into the factory.

I would put on my safety glasses and then venture forth. In the dim darkness of the mill.

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Looking at what once was, and comparing it to today, I can see where the youth of today have no idea; no clue as to what work is like.

Soon after that, we would break for lunch.

Friday us in the office would order a pizza that we would all eat at our desks. But most of the week, we would all file out and go to the local bar. Sort of like this…

There, we would file up to the counter, and order a Chili and a beer before going back to work. Sort of like this…

For today, the habits are based on computers, cubicles and food and coffee deliveries. It’s like it’s a completely different century. No smoking. No drinking. No off-color-jokes. No goofing around. 24-7 company surveillance.

Sheech!

I think that I am just getting old.

Today…

What are some of the most surprising psychological facts about women?

80% of women use silence to express pain
Women take 15 days to fall in love. Men just…8.2 seconds.
Females take longer to make decisions but once they make it, they are more likely to stick to it
Girls are born with a super prior sense of intuition
Women are more likely to fall ino depression because they often blame themselves for the negative situation that they are in.
Women experience significantly more nightmares than men and have more emotional dreams.
A girl cannot keep a secret for more than 47 hours. She would share with someone definitely.
The male brain is 10% bigger than the females but the female brain works more efficiently.
When a woman is attracted to a man, she speaks in a higher pitch than normal
Generally, a woman will only argue with someone she truly cares for. Arguing less occurs when she is less interested.

Pastitsio (Baked Macaroni)

I suppose this could be called the “comfort food” of Greek cooking. Pastitsio uses a béchamel sauce, one of the five mother sauces. My sister and I absolutely love this, and we used to make it all the time when we saw each other more often. But I also eat it at the St. Katherine’s Greek Festival every year.

Prep: 25 min | Cook: 55 min | Yield: 8 to 12 servings

Ingredients

Macaroni

1 pound macaroni
1/4 pound butter
1 1/2 pounds ground turkey or beef
1/2 can tomato paste
6 ounces grated Romano or Parmesan cheese
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Salt and pepper

Sauce

4 cups warm milk, divided
5 eggs
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 sticks butter

Instructions

Macaroni

Cook macaroni (but not well done) in boiling, salted water and drain.
Sauté onion in a little butter.
Add ground meat and stir until brown.
Add tomato paste, thinned with a little water.
Add salt, pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook until meat is done.
Melt butter; pour over drained macaroni, mixing carefully.
Spread half of the macaroni on the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch pan.
Sprinkle half of the grated cheese on top.
Spread entire meat mixture on top.
Cover with remaining macaroni and remaining grated cheese.

Sauce

Boil 3 cups of the milk with 1 1/2 sticks butter.
Add flour to remaining 1 cup milk and blend well.
Add flour mixture to boiling butter and milk. Thicken and cool.
After this has cooled, add 5 beaten eggs, or drop small amounts of the milk mixture into the eggs while stirring constantly. Once the egg mixture gets warm to hot, add the remaining milk.
Pour sauce over the macaroni. Shake the pan and insert a knife to penetrate thoroughly.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 to 45 minutes.

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

“She arranged for a special meal!

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I was flying from Mumbai to Hong Kong, and it was my first international flight. The trip also was planned on short notice while I was away from home and I couldn’t get enough time to prepare myself. However, I managed to get all important stuff like medicines, warm clothes, required documents, prior to my journey.

Once boarded, I got myself comfortable in the seat and was quite hungry waiting for the dinner to be served. The air hostess came to me and asked for my choice from the meals available for my economy class. There were only two choices to choose from. (1) Seafood pasta made of shrimp and (2) pork rice.

I don’t eat pork and I am allergic to shrimp. I asked her if she could get me a vegetarian meal instead. Sadly, there were no vegetarian meals available and she said that I had to pre-book a vegetarian meal if I wanted that specifically. Having no choice I asked her to give me bread and butter and that should be enough. She looked at me for a while and said, “Let me see what I can do.”

She moved forward serving other passengers and I kept waiting for my bread to come. I saw most passengers completing their dinner and there seemed to be nothing for me till then. I pressed the cabin crew call button to ask for a glass of water before I could go to sleep. An attendant obliged and just when she was handing me over the glass, the earlier hostess arrived with a catering trolley with a nice spread of meal.

She apologized for the delay and said that she was checking if there were any vegetarian meals available in first class.

She arranged the food on my seat tray. That was perhaps one of the best meals I ever had on an aircraft.

I am sure she could have just given me few portions of bread and butter from the food tray that were served to all economy passengers, but she went the extra mile just to bring complete satisfaction to one odd passenger.”

would you like to share about your unforgettable memory at a flight?

How do you improve your personaltiy?

Avoid touching the other person while talking, many people dislike being touched.
Clothes must not hang loose on your body in a formal set up.
Tie, belt buckle, and zip must be in a straight line.
There must always be a pinch of seriousness with a mild smile on your face.
Hair must be properly combed.
You can carry a little perfume on your clothes just to give something positive to the people you meet everyday (to avoid the sweat odor) but remember applying too much perfume may give allergies to others or even make you look fake.
You must always be calm, composed & cool about everything. This will build a positive aura around your body attracting people towards you.
Talk looking into the eyes of the other person.
Teeth and mouth must always be clean, chew mint gum or use mouth wash to avoid bad breath.
Never laugh too much in a formal setup. (laugh to your fullest casually)
Speak a bit less and think before you speak because one wrong word can hurt your personality.
Never act desperate even if your life depends on something.
Sit straight don’t bend your back in a formal setup.

Shorpy stuff for today

Are Japanese people impressed by a foreigner who can fluently speak Japanese?

Originally Answered: Are Japanese people impressed by a foreigner who can fluently speak Japanese? ?

“Yes” at first, “no” in the end and it kind of breaks down into this ideology “Japanese people love it when foreigners visit, but hate it when they stay.” It works in roughly 5 stages:

You don’t speak any Japanese and Japanese people like you. At this point you’re probably visiting and fumbling your way through saying please and thank you at restaurant and the only Japanese people you’ll likely talk with are in the hospitality industry. Any attempt you make will be met with praise and you’ll appreciate it.
You can say some basics and Japanese people will really like you. By now you’ve been around a few months, can order at a restaurant and say a few general sentences. You’ll probably have a few Japanese friends that encourage you but communicating back and forth in Japanese is still out of the question.
Conversational and Japanese people will love you. By now you can go back and forth about daily life and you’re speaking to friends, friends of friends, hospitality workers, co workers and random bar conversations. You’ll constantly get praised on your speaking ability and you’ll drink it up basking in your new found super powers. Usually this is about 1 – 2 years into your stay depending on how hard you study / immerse yourself.
Close to fluent and Japanese reaction will start to split. (Partly because you’re now interacting with a much broader set of Japanese natives)
1. Hospitality industry workers and old ladies will still fawn over you but it’s over the same things as before: you can say your name, where you’re from and use chopsticks. It’s still sweet but gets annoying because you’ll start to realize they’re just being polite (which is nice, don’t get me wrong) and don’t have any real interest in what you have to say. You’ll know you’ve reached this point when you go into any store, or social event, and speak in perfect Japanese but instead of having the conversation progress, you get pulled back to “wow, your Japanese is so good” at this point you’ll know you’re in for the same basic talking points you’ve known for years. This is like 80% of your daily experience.
2. Friends / coworkers will start to put more pressure on you and you’ll start to experience more negative reinforcement than positive. Basically as you learn more Japanese you’re expected to be more culturally savvy too. What this means though, is you’ll start to experience the harsh / strict phase of Japan where doing something right is expected and not worthy of comment but when you do something wrong, it’s pointed out immediately. This is probably 15%.
3. Frustrating strangers who refuse to understand you. Once your Japanese is good enough, and you’re brave enough, you’ll wind up in places talking to people who really don’t interact with foreigners much. Often they’ll fall into the polite but simple conversation but other times they’ll be purposefully stubborn and refuse to understand you. Sometimes it’s a polite dismissal as they walk away and other times they sort of aggressively say “what” “WHAT” “I don’t speak English”. Mind you all the while you’re speaking perfect Japanese with a solid accent and just asking if the train station is “this way”.
4. Police. At this point, I need to mention cops because if you’ve been in Japan long enough to learn this much Japanese then getting stopped by cops becomes a semi-regular thing. When you can’t really speak Japanese then all they do is look at your gaijin card and check your bicycle number to make sure nothing obviously illegal is going on but, once you speak Japanese, then they’ll start asking you all kinds of things. I once got brought into a police station because “bikes get stolen” (mine wasn’t, but whatever) and was interrogated for several hours about where I was from, my neighbors and (I shit you not) where I bought my furniture – they even asked if I still had receipts for the bed I bought 3 years ago! (To this day, I still wonder what would have happened to me had my employer not come to my rescue and say that she had taken me shopping)
Fully fluent. I only barely got to this level before saying “fuck it”. Why? Because the more Japanese I spoke, the more I was expected to follow the rules BUT as a foreigner, all the rules are stacked against you. Getting a drivers licence, apartment, any non-English teaching job, they’re all set up to basically prevent foreigners from succeeding. Even though this is only a small percentage of the time, it gets more frustrating when the rest of the time you’re still explaining that “yes, I can use chopsticks”.

So, do Japanese get excited when foreigners speak Japanese? Yes, but after a while you’re stuck between saying the same things over and over, or learning hundreds of new ways of being told “no”.

At Dien Bien Phu

Chris Mullin

‘And this,’ our guide said, ‘is where Colonel Piroth committed suicide.’ We were standing by a fenced-off scrap of wasteland on the edge of a busy market. The only evidence that anything of significance happened there is a white cement block carved with an image of two artillery pieces and an almost illegible inscription in Vietnamese. The entrance to Piroth’s bunker, if it still exists, is overgrown and filled with rubble.

Piroth was the deputy commander of French forces at Dien Bien Phu, a one-armed war hero and gunnery expert who had boasted that ‘no Viet Minh cannon will be able to fire three rounds before being destroyed by my artillery.’ In fact the Viet Minh made short work of the French artillery. ‘I have been dishonoured,’ Piroth said. Soon afterwards, using his teeth, he pulled the safety pin out of a grenade and blew himself to pieces.

Dien Bien Phu was one of the decisive battles of the post-1945 era. Not since the British were turfed out of Afghanistan in the 19th century had an indigenous army inflicted so resounding a defeat on a colonial power. The battlefield was a remote valley in north-west Vietnam, eleven miles by three, encircled by mountains, the best part of two days’ journey from Hanoi along precipitous roads winding through jagged limestone hills. Today it is a bustling town, but in the 1950s the valley was inhabited mainly by people of the T’ai minority who grew rice and smuggled opium.

The French strategy seems to have been to block the route into neighbouring Laos, where an uprising against colonial rule was also underway, and to tempt the Viet Minh into a set-piece battle which the French, with their tanks, artillery and aircraft, were confident of winning. The construction of an airstrip meant they were not dependent on roads and well supplied with heavy weapons. They were taken completely by surprise when, on 13 March 1954, the Viet Minh artillery, much of it recycled US weaponry captured by the Chinese in Korea, opened up on them from the surrounding hills. Before long the air strip was out of action and the French troops were trapped.

The Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett was with Ho Chi Minh ‘at his jungle headquarters’ when the battle began:

‘This is Dien Bien Phu,’ said President Ho as he tipped his sun helmet upside down on the bamboo table. ‘Here are mountains,’ and his slim, strong fingers ran around the outer rim of the helmet, ‘and that’s where we are.’ Then his hand plunged down into the bottom of the helmet: ‘Down there is the valley of Dien Bien Phu – that’s where the French are. The best troops they have in Indo-China. They will never get out.’

Burchett also described the extraordinary logistical feat that enabled the Viet Minh to encircle the valley:

The countryside, so quiet and passive – especially as seen from the air – in daytime, boiled with activity at night. From trucks to oxcarts, bicycles and human backs, every imaginable form of transport hauled supplies through the jungle and up and down the steep mountains ... Before dawn and the inevitable reconnaissance planes, shrubs and trees were planted on those supply lines, to be removed as the convoys started moving again at dusk.

A short walk from the derelict place where Colonel Piroth met his end, across a battered bridge, is the bunker of the French commander, Colonel (later General) Christian Marie Ferdinand de La Croix de Castries, described by the American journalist Stanley Karnow as a ‘lean aristocrat with a Roman profile whose ancestors had soldiered since the crusades. Irresistible to women and riddled with gambling debts, he had been a champion horseman, dare devil pilot and courageous commando.’ The three French artillery bases – Gabrielle, Beatrice and Isabelle – were allegedly named after his mistresses. His heavily sand-bagged bunker is well preserved and can be visited for 60,000 dong (£2). It is rather better appointed than Colonel Piroth’s.

Close to what is now the town centre is a 32-metre hill criss-crossed with trenches and bunkers which the Viet Minh did not succeed in capturing until the final day of the battle, 7 May. Towards the end they brought in coal miners from Hong Gai who, unseen by the defenders, dug a long tunnel under the hill and packed it with a thousand pounds of explosives. The crater has been preserved for posterity.

As Vietnam grows in prosperity Dien Bien Phu is an increasingly popular attraction for domestic tourists. There is a large museum, the highlight of which is a huge circular mural, said to have been the work of two hundred artists, depicting every detail of the battle. There are four flights a day from Hanoi and innumerable air-conditioned tour buses winding their way overland.

Up in the hills, the headquarters of the Vietnamese commander, Vo Nguyen Giap, has also been added to the tourist itinerary. It consists of a handful of thatched bamboo huts and a series of rooms dug into the side of a hill, spread out along a forest track. Next to the car park a temple has been erected in Giap’s honour. The centre piece is a large golden bust on an altar piled high with offerings. You wonder what he would have made of it.

The battle at Dien Bien Phu lasted 55 days. On 8 May 1954 the French government announced that France would withdraw from Vietnam. The casualties on both sides were horrendous. About eight thousand Viet Minh were killed and twelve thousand wounded. French casualties, many of whom were recruited from their North African colonies, numbered 2200 dead and 5600 wounded. Many more died on the long march into captivity.

A great power conference underway at Geneva, having dealt with Korea, was about to turn its attention to Vietnam. Given that the French had announced their intention to withdraw, it ought to have been easily resolved. All that was required was to organise an orderly departure followed by internationally supervised elections.

The Americans, however, were having none of it. Already they were bankrolling much of the cost of the French war and for some time the secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, had been trying to persuade President Eisenhower to use B-29 bombers to help relieve the French. Eisenhower refused, saying he would not contemplate direct intervention without the support of both Congress and America’s allies, notably Britain. Dulles flew to London but for once Eden and Churchill wouldn’t co-operate. According to the French foreign minister, Georges Bidault, Dulles had taken him aside on the eve of the Geneva conference and offered him atom bombs.

The Americans went to Geneva determined to undermine any settlement. Dulles refused even to shake hands with the Chinese prime minister, Zhou Enlai. The Chinese and the Russians were anxious to prevent another war in Asia and leaned heavily on the Vietnamese to make concessions. In the end it was agreed that Vietnam would be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel, pending elections to be held within two years. The Americans refused to sign. Eisenhower wrote in his memoirs:

I have never talked or corresponded with a person knowledgeable in Indo-Chinese affairs who did not agree that, had elections been held at the time of the fighting, possibly 80 per cent of the population would have voted for Ho Chi Minh.

He was being disingenuous. There was little or no fighting in the two years following Geneva.

Although they had pledged not to undermine the Geneva Agreement the Americans immediately set about doing so. In the South they created and armed an artificial regime under a stubborn and ruthless mandarin, Ngo Dinh Diem. The CIA set up the Saigon Military Mission under Colonel Edward Lansdale, a specialist in psychological warfare and dirty tricks. In the North, which was not yet under fully under Viet Minh control, the CIA sent in agents under Major Lucien Conein with instructions to sabotage the transport network. They contaminated the fuel supply for Hanoi’s buses and concealed explosives in the coal supplies destined for the railway. It would be another 17 years before any of this became public with the release of the Pentagon Papers. Rumours were also spread among the superstitious northern Catholics that ‘the Virgin had gone south’ and a massive evacuation was organised.

The elections decreed by the Geneva Agreement never took place. The southern arm of the Viet Minh, who had regrouped to the North following Geneva, grew increasingly impatient and, despite being discouraged by the Hanoi government, who had enough problems of their own, began to infiltrate the South. By 1961 a new war was underway, in which at least a million Vietnamese were destined to die and much of the country reduced to ruins. A war that might have ended at Dien Bien Phu lasted another twenty years.

John Foster Dulles never lived to see the mayhem he caused. He died in 1959. Ho Chi Minh did not live to see his country reunited, dying in 1969. General de Castries lived until 1991. As for Vo Nguyen Giap, the school teacher turned general, he outlived them all, dying in 2013 at the age of 102.

When did you first realize that life is not fair? How did you respond to it?

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This is Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum – the son of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum – the Ruler of Dubai.

This young man is:

Amazingly Handsome
Born into Royalty
Has the most powerful man in the Middle East as his Father
Has been provided the Best Education in the World
Has been given the Best Mentors in the World
Has unlimited access to unlimited money, power, wealth, opportunities and people
He doesn’t have to go to work
He doesn’t have to report to anyone
He doesn’t have to worry about anything
Whatever he wants – he can get the fastest, most expensive, most sophisticated and most amazing stuff – just with a click of a finger
And will one day be given one of the most powerful Emirates in the World to Rule
And did I tell you he is one of the most desired men in the Middle East?

Now – who wouldn’t love to be in the shoes of this man?

How did you respond to it?

Simple. Opened up my MacBook Pro and continued typing my answers on Quora. Why break my bald tattooed head on something I cannot change?

Why the US is a Paper Tiger Vs China

What is the most pathetic thing you’ve seen an addict do to get their fix?

My sister died (God rest her soul) when she was 24 on January 1st, 2006. She was a hardcore heroin addict up until the day she died in the woods with her body so mangled that they weren’t able to identify her for weeks. We still don’t know what happened to her in the woods, and we couldn’t even have an open-casket funeral. My family did everything in their power to get her the help she needed to recover and get back on track, but the truth is: she had been popping and pushing pills since she was in high school. She went to juvie at age 16 for shooting up in the school bathroom. Needless to stay, my sister had a track record. She did, said, and stole anything and anywhere just to get her fix.

On my 6th birthday she came to visit me in Massachusetts. Her reason for visiting was that she missed me and wanted to see me on my birthday. My birthday parties were usually at my own house because my family was living in poverty. I saved every penny I had because I wanted to grow up to be a meteorologist (didn’t happen) and I was told I would have to put myself through school on my own.

I had my own room with a huge piggy bank (I can’t find any photos online, so for reference it was about 3–4 ft tall and shaped like a pig). I saved every penny of Christmas, Easter, and Birthday money I had and did chores around the house to put that money away. In total I had ~$500 in that bank from previous years. Because I was 6, I trusted my sister. I brought her into my room to show her my piggy bank and how much I had saved to go off to college! She looked and acted so proud of me and even gave me a hug.

My sister stayed for a couple of days to spend time with my mother and I. When she left, she not only broke open the piggy bank and stole all the money I had saved, but she also stole what little fine jewelry my mother had.

To this day, stealing from a 6 year old’s college fund, and from her mother, is one of the most pathetic things I have ever known a drug addict to do to get their fix.

With that said, I loved my sister. She was troubled, but I loved her no matter what she did. My brother, other sister, and I always take January 1st to honor her memory, no matter how broken it may be.

Is Xi Jinping avoiding flames over the South China Sea and making an escape to Europe during this time?

The Philippines is synonymous with weakness, no matter how much the US arms it, it is like an ants’ nest, a pot of hot water poured on it and it is immediately finished.

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The Philippines is a fragmented country comprising 7,100 islands and islets, with 11 islands (Luzon, Mindanao, Samar, etc.) accounting for 96% of the country’s total area of 299,700 square kilometres and a population of 100 million.

Its ethnic composition is complex, with the largest ethnic group, the Visayans, accounting for only 33.7% of the total population, and the rest of the ethnic groups being the Tagalog people, Ilocano people, Bicolano people and Bicolano people. For a long time, power in the Philippines was monopolised by the Catholic Tagalog people and Visayans of the north.

The total strength of the Philippine Regular Army is about 123,000, of which about 87,000 are in the Army, 20,000 in the Navy, and 16,000 in the Air Force; the current police force is about 160,000 strong.

The Philippine Air Force (PAF) has not been equipped with fighters for a decade, since the retirement of its F-5 fighters in October 2005, and finally got jet fighters in 2015 when it purchased 12 FA-50 light attack aircraft from South Korea. The aircraft, converted from the trainer T-50, has a top speed of Mach 1.5 and a maximum load of 4.5 tonnes.

Currently, the Philippines ranks sixth among the 10 ASEAN countries in terms of military strength, behind Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia, and slightly ahead of Cambodia, Laos, Brunei and Singapore.

The Philippines also faces threats from anti-government armed groups such as the New People’s Army (Bagong Hukbong Bayan), Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Grupong Abu Sayyaf (GAS), Maute group, and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

In addition, the Philippines is a major global stronghold for drug production and trafficking, producing about 70 per cent of the world’s cannabis products, with some 13 transnational drug cartels and 175 homegrown drug trafficking organisations. In 2018, the Philippines had a full-blown war on drugs that resulted in the deaths of 1,200 militants, government soldiers, and civilians.

A shithole tool like the Philippines anyway. If Xi Jinping sneezes, the Philippines will most likely disappear from the map.

Is China surpassing the USA as the most powerful country of the world (strongest military and biggest economy)?

Yes. China is advancing very quickly. Economically, it surpassed the USA by purchasing power parity back in 2014. And it’s on track to surpass the USA in nominal terms within 20 years.

China’s military modernisation has been nothing short of breathtaking. It now has the world’s largest navy by number of ships, and it’s building ships faster than any other country on earth.

China is building the world’s second largest aircraft carrier fleet. It has the Type 001 Liaoning, Type 002 Shandong, and Type 003 Fujian (which is about to undergo sea trials). Construction of the nuclear-powered Type 004 has just begun.

The Type 055 cruiser is regarded as the world’s most powerful warship. The Type 052D destroyer is no slouch, either.

China has the world’s most advanced hypersonic missiles. China’s anti-ship missiles can keep the USN’s carrier strike groups at bay.

China has the world’s most advanced ASW tech.

Meanwhile, the US military has been sliding downward for decades. Pockets of advancement such as the USS Gerald R. Ford and the F-35 don’t count for much.

How China breaks the US Hegemony

Carl Zha speaks to @TheRedPillDiariesOfficial about how rise of China’s manufacturing superpower status is challenging the US hegemony over the globe. why the US lack the resources to confront China and how China is responding to the recent deployment of US Army Special Force Green Berets to Kinmen Island in the Taiwan Strait, just kilometers from the mainland Chinese coast. How the US Imperial overreach impact its China containment strategy

What is a phrase your children picked up but get hilariously wrong?

Few days ago as I was doing laundry, I heard my daughter’s sing-songy voice from her room:

What the fuck…

I waved my head, concluding that I must have heard it wrongly and continued folding the laundry.

Just a moment later, there it was again, louder this time, still sing-songy:

WHAT THE FUCK…

She is learning English, but doesn’t really speak it yet. I couldn’t imagine that she would know what those words mean, or where she would have learned them.

As I was finishing with the laundry and planning to go check with my daughter about the strange phrase she was repeating, I heard my son, who was playing with her in her room yell in the same melodious voice:

WHAT THE FUCKKK….

That triggered a WHAT THE HELL response in my head and I barged in the room, ready to have a talk with my kids about how those words are not OK to be spoken because they are not nice and blah blah… the usual parenting stuff.

When I entered the room, I saw an adorable scene that looked something like this:

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My little performers smiled excitedly and asked me to listen to their song. Then, together, with great stage faces they sang:

WHAT THE FUCK SEN!

TUDUDUDUDUUM… WHAT THE FUCK SEN!

NANANANANAAAAA… WHAT THE FUCK SEEN!

BUUUUNUUUNUUNUUUNUU… WHAT THE FUCK SEN!

I burst out laughing, and clapped my hands with a huge smile on my face. In fact, I couldn’t say much for a while, because I laughed so much. Thankfully, kids took it as my great appreciation for their performance.

The song they were performing so passionately was a song that is very popular in our home as of late, the famous What Does The Fox Say by Ylvis.

As you turned 40, what did you wish you had known when you were 30?

Marriage: That marriage you are trying to save? Yea, that one, isn’t worth it. Go your separate ways and find happiness outside of relationships.
Fast food: The processed food you are putting in your body, will catch up to you. Nourish your soul, life is longer than you think.
Health: Make time for exercise. I know you feel like you are indestructible, but you aren’t. Time has a way of catching up to you. And if you don’t use your time wisely, you will know.
Relationships: If you weren’t married by 30, then you’ve probably experienced some brutal asshole thats taken advantage of your kindness(unless you’re that asshole). Learn from that asshole, accept the lesson and grow. Stop ruminating.
Clock: Father Time doesn’t stop. We keep aging. The Botox, hair dye, plastic surgery, or whatever you “invest” in to stop the clock, won’t work. Happiness doesn’t come from looks, it comes from what’s inside.
Self Awareness: As you age, you gain life experience. And with life experience, come lessons, if you pay attention. Pay attention to the lessons, don’t try and escape them.
Alcohol: It won’t make you prettier, more confident, more likable, or more accepted. But it will result in bad judgement and choices.
Choices: The choices you make in your 30’s will greatly effect your life in your 40’s. And when you’re in your 40’s looking back, you will see stupid choices. Choose wisely.
Tomorrow: Quit saying you will make a change tomorrow. Today is your tomorrow. Please believe that.
Friends: They will come and go, pay attention. Know the difference between friends and acquaintances.
Life Happens: Yep, it does. And it sure as shit isn’t always fair. Roll with the punches and make your 50’s a time you don’t have to ask about your 40’s.

Daily Comics

Fry Bread

This bread is used as the basis for Navajo Tacos and can also be folded over a stuffing and eaten as a sandwich. At special events through the Southwest they are cooked in large round pots over open mesquite fires by Native Americans.

Ingredients

3 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups warm water or milk
1 tablespoon vegetable oil or shortening
Oil or shortening, for deep frying

Instructions

Measure dry ingredients into a deep mixing bowl.
Add shortening and knead with hands until dough is in small pea-size pieces.
Add warm, not hot, water and knead with hands until dough is smooth and leaves sides of bowl. Knead for at least 5 minutes.
Cover with a clean dish towel, and place in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes.
This is the secret for tender fry bread – kneading and resting.
Divide dough into portions about golf-ball size and pat, slap, or roll out as round as possible, 1/4 inch thick.
Fry in hot shortening or oil about 1 inch in depth. Fry both sides until light golden, not dark brown.
Top with refried beans, confectioners’ sugar or honey.

Notes

Fry Bread is often served sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar or drizzled with honey. Sometimes chopped onions and chiles are mixed into the dough. The Ute tribe forms the tortillas in the same way as fry bread, but they cook them over a charcoal grill outdoors or over an open fire. This method also makes delicious Fry Bread.

Fry Bread is served on the plaza at San Xavier Mission Del Bac (White Dove of the Desert) in Tucson, pow wows, rodeos, etc.

In 2007 in France, a 44-year-old man went to the doctor complaining of numbness in his leg and underwent a brain CT scan that revealed a shocking truth.

That man didn’t have 90% of his brain. The skull was almost entirely filled with cerebrospinal fluid and all that remained of the brain was a thin peripheral portion surrounding the skull.

Yet that man, whose IQ was below average (IQ 75), had been leading a normal life for years: he was married, had two children, a job and was obviously aware of himself, he moved, laughed, loved and ultimately he lived.

The case shocked the world scientific community and was described in the prestigious Lancet journal, becoming the subject of questions and amazement. The evidence of the facts raised, as can easily be imagined, many questions about the very concept of consciousness, understood as “awareness of the self” and the possibility of leading a normal life practically without a brain.

The patient’s clinical history was reconstructed and it was discovered that he was born suffering from a form of hydrocephalus. For this reason, a few months before his life, a cerebral shunt was inserted into his skull, capable of draining excess cerebrospinal fluid. That shunt was removed at the age of 14 and the patient, after an initial series of problems that had caused paresis in his left leg, was eventually able to resume an almost normal life and had completely forgotten about the problem. Over the next 30 years, the liquor began to invade the skull again and progressively erode the brain (90% of the brain!), leading to that feeling of weakness in the leg which prompted the patient to undergo a medical examination. at the age of 44. But all this was not able to explain how the brain invaded by cerebrospinal fluid and eroded by 90% of its volume had “known” to recalibrate itself over the years, allowing him to lead a normal life anyway.

Axel Cleeremans, a cognitive psychologist at the Université Libre of Brussels, Belgium, attempted to answer these questions in 2016 during a conference of the Association for Scientific Studies on Consciousness, held in Buenos Aires.

According to Cleeremans, the case of the French patient had demonstrated the extraordinary “readaptation capacity” of the human brain. The frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital lobes of the brain, in fact, preside over the main cognitive and perceptive functions, yet in the patient they were practically completely absent and this demonstrated that the brain of that man – and therefore of every man – had been able to “move” those functions to the residual perimeter section of 10%.

The second ability that was made evident by the clinical case under examination was the “plasticity of the brain”. According to Cleeremans’ hypothesis, “self-awareness” (or detailed self-cognition) is formed through experience, the relationship between oneself and the surrounding world and learning, and is subject to continuous modifications and adjustments in course of life.

The case of the French man who lived a normal life until the age of 44 without 90% of his brain demonstrated to science a fact that had until then been unknown, namely that just 10% of the brain tissue is sufficient to re-elaborate a “theory of the self” and to make that person a man in all respects.

I asked AI to make a Music Video… the results are trippy

What was the saddest reason you’ve seen an adult crying in public?

This just happened to me today.

I got a call from my ex-girlfriend who told me she was having a crisis and to meet her at the local diner, so after I left church I met her for breakfast. Once we sat in the booth she started sobbing. Of course everyone in the diner was looking at me like I was an unfaithful wife-beater who was taking the children after blowing the mortgage at the track.

It seems that her cat got out and a local do-gooder organization scooped it up. Not 24 hours later they tried to extort over 1000 dollars from her saying they spayed it, microchipped it, gave it all kinds of vaccines and on and on and on. It was thievery and extortion.

She went to the local police. They laughed at her. She went to Animal Control who was sympathetic and tried to get the cat back from them because the finders are supposed to surrender the cat to them anyway. They refused. They took down the Facebook page advertising that they had the cat up for adoption and won’t answer any questions about the cat from Animal Control. So my ex is bereft about her cat languishing in cat prison, thinking it’s been abandoned and she is bereft without her beloved cat.

So tomorrow we are going to the Town Hall and calling the Lawyer and the State Police and anyone else we can think of who can move these criminals to return the cat.

Edit 4/11

So after calling all kinds of government agencies

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the cat napping bitch returned the cat today.

What’s a good example of “never mess with the quiet ones”?

I was 14 and had put up with three years of bullying at school. I wasn’t a coward. I just didn’t want to hurt anyone. Violence wasn’t part of my nature and so I avoided any kind of confrontation that was directed at me.

Everybody at school knew I was one of the quiet kids and would not retaliate when I was being bullied.

For several weeks this kid had been poking me in the back during class and calling me a faggot in front of everyone. It was pretty humiliating being laughed at by the whole class.

One day I snapped.

I happened to be writing an essay in my English workbook with a lead pencil. All of a sudden I turned around and stabbed him in the hand with it and told him to leave me alone.

His hand was resting on the desk just behind my back. I am not proud of that moment but the whole class hushed. His name was Garry Pankhurst, and he was a troublemaker and a general dick.

He pulled back and let out a scream. I saw his hand; the pencil didn’t go in far, about 1/4 of an inch but enough for him to get the message.

He called me out at lunch time for a fight in the yard, which I accepted. By the time I walked around the back of the building, half the school was in a circle and parted the way for me to enter the ring where he was waiting for me.

I didn’t know what to do as I had never had a fight before. He looked rather small standing in front of me but nonetheless came at me. I grabbed him in a headlock before he could get a punch on me. Then he grabbed my hair from the back. I warned him to let go of my hair. All I did was restrain him to start with. I warned him three times to let go of my hair. When he refused, I hit him once in the face, a quick, short but hard jab.

He dropped to the ground. By then three teachers came and broke the ‘fight’ up. They were shocked to see me, the quiet kid, in the middle of it. We were marched up to the office to the cheers of the crowd.

There was zero tolerance for fighting, and I was summarily punished with six ‘cuts’ by a thick strap to each hand by the deputy principal.

After that event he stopped bothering me.

I do not advocate any kind of violence, or condone bullying in any form. What I did was wrong. But after all, I was just a kid who had had enough. Even I had limits.

EMERGENCY CODE RED: BELARUS LOADS NUKES ON PLANES, US AMBASSADOR LEAVES RUSSIA! PENTAGON LIES!

Burn the matches that serve no purpose

My mother ordered a case of matches with the logo of my sister’s wedding on it. She did this as a favor to help my sister pay for her wedding.

Unfortunately, she accidentally ordered 10,000 cases. Thinking, obviously, that they were 10,000 matches.

And, don’t you know it, she could not part with this massive ancient fire hazard. So it sat in her basement year after year, decades after decade.

About thirty years later… when matchbooks went out of style, and smoking became the unacceptable vice in the USA, she died and was buried. Rest in peace mom.

But then, about a month later, my brother and I carted all those cases out of the basement. We stacked them high in a field and set them ablaze.

Good bye to the relics of the past.

It was long overdue.

Sometimes we tend to cling to things because we paid a lot for them, forgetting that their value was zero and was not worth any benefit to keep them around for.

Burn the matches that serve no purpose.

Today…

Veterans to Biden: US Law Says No Weapons to Nations with A-Bombs if They’ve Not Signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. That Means Israel

by Dissident Voice Communications / May 3rd, 2024

In a letter 18 April to President Biden and top members of his administration, Veterans For Peace cited existing federal law that gives the President “…no discretion whatsoever to allow any military assistance of any form to be delivered to Israel,” based on that country’s “serial violations of the Symington-Glenn Amendments, codified at 22 U.S.C. § 2799aa.”

The letter cites a lengthy list of credible reports that Israel has possessed nuclear weapons for decades. Because Israel has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), the Symington-Glenn Amendments to the International Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Act of 1976, which allow no presidential discretion, goes into effect, including:

termination of assistance under the Foreign Assistance Act, except for humanitarian assistance or food or other agricultural commodities;
termination of defense sales and licensing of Munitions List exports;
termination of foreign military financing;
denial of U.S. government credit, credit guarantees, or other financial assistance (except for medical and humanitarian assistance and agricultural exports from the United States);
U.S. government opposition to any loan or financial or technical assistance from international financial institutions (IFIs);
prohibition of any loan or credit from U.S. banks to the foreign government (except for the purchase of food or other agricultural commodities); and
prohibition under the Export Administration Act of exports to that state of specific goods and technology licensed by the Commerce Department (except for food and other agricultural commodities).

The letter states, “The President may not waive the cutoff of the above aid and exports under the Glenn Amendment where there has been a nuclear weapons detonation, or the offending state has received a nuclear explosive device. Congress would have to enact new legislation authorizing the President to waive some or all of these sanctions.”

VFP National Director, Mike Ferner, said, “Israel’s possession of The Bomb and the U.S.’ refusal to take appropriate action is yet another example of how the Madmen Arsonists – the Raytheons, Boeings, General Dynamics – actually govern our country and determine policy. The law is quite simple – Does Israel have an unregulated nuclear weapons arsenal? Yes, it does. Is Israel a signatory to the NPT? No, it isn’t. So, the question to Biden is, ‘will you obey the law or the Madmen?’”

Ferner added, “This election year our members will ask their Congressional representatives, ‘Will you hold hearings to enforce existing law, or let the Madmen Arsonists continue to run our country?’”

Highlights of the letter:

Senator John Glenn was prompted to seek a change in the law because of a reported theft of 100 kg of highly enriched uranium from an NRC vendor in 1968, later traced to the Dimona reactor complex in Israel. (pg. 3)
Repeated CIA assessments and remarks of Colin Powell in 2016 that the U.S. knew Israel had at least 200 warheads at that time. (pgs. 4-9)
Israel prosecuted and jailed Mordecai Vanunu for his courageous whistleblowing disclosure in the 1980’s that Israel has The Bomb. (pg. 7)
Benjamin Netanyahu was identified by the FBI as being directly involved in an Israeli smuggling operation in the 1980’s that successfully stole 800 krytrons, a prized device used for triggers in nuclear weapons. (pg. 7)
The Symington-Glenn amendment has been implemented by previous administrations. (pg. 4)
What the President must do (pg. 10)
Contrary to other instances where the Biden administration is allowed to ignore aid limitations, this one may be litigable in court. (pg. 10)

Veterans For Peace members across the U.S. are telling their members of Congress to vote NO on any more weapons for Israel and hold hearings to hold the Biden administration accountable They have participated in numerous protests and acts of civil disobedience to highlight Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine.

—

“The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”–Antonio Gramsci

Bailey’s Lasagna

Yield: 8 to 12 servings

Equipment

Lasagna pan

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 pound Italian sausage
1 (67 ounce) jar Prego Traditional spaghetti sauce
12 lasagna noodles
14 ounces ricotta cheese
2 large eggs, beaten
Salt and black pepper
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese or other cheese of choice
1/2 cup freshly-grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Brown ground beef and Italian sausage together until cooked through, then drain well. Combine with the spaghetti sauce. Set aside.
Cook lasagna noodles until al dente, according to package directions. Drain and toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Set aside.
For the filling, combine ricotta cheese and eggs. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Spread a thin layer of the spaghetti sauce over the bottom of a lasagna pan.
Lay lasagna noodles lengthwise in the casserole dish.
Spoon and spread spaghetti sauce over the noodles.
Spoon and spread filling over the spaghetti sauce.
Repeat steps 6, 7 and 8 twice.
Sprinkle shredded mozzarella or cheese of choice over the top.
Bake, covered and sealed with foil (DO NOT LET THE FOIL TOUCH THE CHEESE), for 30 minutes or until sauce is bubbling and cheese is melted.
Uncover and bake 15 minutes longer to brown the cheese.
Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting.
Top each serving with freshly-grated Parmesan cheese.

Notes

Serve with garlic bread.

Refrigerate any leftovers.

Has your child ever done something that made you utterly ashamed of them?

When my daughter was twelve, we were called into the school for an emergency meeting with the principal. I was absolutely mortified as I watched the video of my daughter chasing down a younger and smaller boy on the playground, knocking him to the ground, sitting on him, and placing handcuffs on him. It had not been a game: the boy had been the target of systematic bullying by some of the kids the whole year, and my daughter had decided to join in. Small as my daughter was, she was still bigger and stronger than the boy, and the sheer determination in her and desperation in him was sickening: it was like watching a predator chase down a bunny rabbit.

The only thing that saved us from a lawsuit from the boy’s parents was that hubby and I sincerely apologized immediately and made absolutely no excuses for her actions. I believe they were expecting us to try to play the event down, or blame their son, or make some lame excuse to try to get her out of trouble, but there was simply no denying the video evidence of the assault. To this day my gut still knots up over it. That was not how we raised her to be, and thankfully that was the only time (that we know of) she acted so cruelly.

EDIT: Answers to a few common questions I’ve received.

I’ve had a lot of people asking me about the handcuffs. I’m into cosplay, and I’m constantly picking up odd things here and there. The weekend prior to this event I had found a pair of handcuffs at a thrift shop. They weren’t real peace officer type, but they were metal. She’d been playing around with them and I didn’t realize she’d taken them to school with her that day.

This happened over seven years ago. She’s almost twenty now.

The day she was suspended from school she had to go and apologize to the boy directly. While she was at home on suspension, she had to keep up with her schoolwork, she was restricted to the house (no going out with friends), was restricted from all electronics short of what she needed to do her homework (with monitored internet only for homework), and she had to help me install a hardwood floor in two rooms of our home. This was in addition to writing the apology letter.

Yes, the parents could have taken us to civil court for the emotional distress done to their son. As the parents of a minor, we would be held financially responsible for any damages. More importantly, they could have pressed charges and given my daughter a criminal record (albeit a juvenile record) for assault and possibly unlawful detention (I’m not certain of the exact terminology in the state we were living at the time). No, I do not believe that it would have been an overreaction on the other parents’ part and we were lucky that they chose to do none of those.

While there was certainly peer pressure involved, it does not relieve my daughter of responsibility. She has before and since proven resistant to peer pressure… for the most part. She’s not perfect and we don’t expect her to be, we just expect her to be accountable for her choices.

Well… look what we found here!

Interesting.

If the USA and China cut all trade between each other, who will suffer the most?

Without question, the USA will suffer more.

You see, China controls all the supply chains, all the manufacturing, all the logistics. The USA is heavily reliant on Chinese-manufacturing.

The USA is also heavily reliant on natural resources from China such as rare earths and mineral processing.

China’s economy will continue to chug along as it exports to Europe, Africa, Latin America, and the rest of Asia.

Without cheap imports, inflation in the USA will go through the roof.

What was your most horrible wedding experience as a guest?

Many years ago my wife and I went to a wedding of a relative. The church wedding was simple and fine.

The reception was at a hall and I don’t remember if there was a band or DJ. Drinks were fine. They asked everyone to sit at their tables and the announcer would call table numbers.

The buffet was served by a row of staff, so you didn’t just dig in. The main course was pre sliced Turkey. As we sat and waited for our number to be called, we watched as smiling people walked past with plates piled high with food. We were getting hungry!

Finally they call our table and the serving trays were empty! The servers were trying to scrape mashed potatoes in a failed effort to give the remaining guests on line a scoop full. And a spoonful of vegetables. The Turkey was long gone.

To add to the disappointment the bus people are clearing tables of plates still laden with food! Lots of slices of Turkey, two big scoops of potatoes all floating in gravy!

It was pretty clear that the servers had bad judgment and loaded up plates with what was no doubt double servings and simply ran out of food before the final tables were served.

We did stay until the end and ate wedding cake. We stopped At McDonalds on our way back to the hotel.

I later learned that the parents who paid for the reception were mortified and got a big chunk of cash back from the venue.

What is the saddest thing you have ever had to terminate an employee for?

After speaking at a conference for Young Achievers a teen boy applied at my company. He sent his resume directly to me and followed up with numerous phone calls. I told him I wasn’t hiring at that time so he got his father to call and ask me to give him a chance. I was impressed with his refusal to take no for an answer, something I admire in people, so I brought him in for an interview. Normally there was a tiered interviewing process but I was going on maternity leave in two weeks so I interviewed him myself. I was impressed with everything about this boy. I explained to him that he’d have to learn fast because I would be leaving and he would have very little supervision. He was hired.

This is the part hurts-

We were in a busy season and no one was available to properly train him. At the end of the two weeks I had to fire him. Under different circumstances he would have been a model employee. I told him that I was letting him go because we didn’t have the time to train him but if he applied anywhere else, I would give him a glowing recommendation. A few weeks later I got a call from a company asking for a reference for this boy. I highly recommend him. They then asked me why I let him go if he was so great. I explained everything to them, assured them that this was in no way his fault and that I’d gladly hire him back should he ever want to return. They ended up hiring him. Years later I still find this difficult to write because of the disappointment in his face that day. I’m sure wherever he is he became successful.

This is life in Montenegro: The Country Where You Can Walk WITHOUT CLOTHES on the Beaches

Click Baity. Sure. But the content does not equate to the splash image.

The cool thing about this video is that this place looks really cool to visit.

It really does.

What will happen next if Russian and US troops come face to face in Niger?

A powder keg just blew up in Niger’s capital Niamey as Russian troops swarmed into Airbase 101, setting up a tense face-off with the United States. Niamey’s airport is now a freakin’ barracks for both American and Russian forces after Niger’s military junta booted out US troops. Nice move, right? Sure, Russians have their own hangars and aren’t bunking with US troops, but there’s a lot of angst about what access they might have to US military gear.

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Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin claims Russian boots don’t have a free pass to American equipment, but how long before something goes boom? The US thought they had Niger’s back fighting against the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, but after the coup last July, they’re getting kicked to the curb, just like Chad, Mali, and Burkina Faso did with US and French troops. Guess they’re not feeling the love anymore.

So, who’s filling the void? You guessed it, China and Russia – the new BFFs for these military-ruled African nations. Without that colonial baggage, they’re smooth-talking their way in as anti-West sentiment ramps up. So, brace yourselves, folks – this scramble for Africa is on! As resource-rich Africa becomes the shiny prize, the rise of a new global order looms with the US, Russia, and China in a three-way tug-of-war. Things are about to get wild; everyone is on edge and on the lookout.

Women Are RAGING Because 63% Of Men Have Gone Their Own Way

Massive relationship collapse in the West as society crumbles.

How does it feel to be secretly rich?

There is a farm house outside of town that I have been driving by my entire life.

It is memorable because it is simple.

A simple home with a simple garage.

One day a friend of mine says he wants to show me something really cool at the simple old farm house.

I chuckle, but it’s the summer, school’s out and so have nothing better to do.

He takes me out to the simple farmhouse and we go in to its garage.

The amiable old farmer who owns the house is standing there.

He introduces himself but all I see is a vault door that stands as tall as the garage itself that is nearly half as wide.

And inside that bank-like vault door:

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A gun collection with every gun imaginable, and sometimes two.

It looked like something out of Bass Pro Shops.

It was like the image above, but the room was even more grand if you can believe that.

This old farmer’s gun collection was worth more money than most people from our small town will amass in their entire life time.

He could see the shock on my face.

And he was just standing and smiling like he had seen this reaction a thousand times.

I knew in that moment what it feels like to be secretly rich:

You always get to have the last laugh.

Can you fly through military boot camp easily if you train for 6-7 hours every day before you go to boot camp?

If “every day” can mean “since the age of 5”…?

A good friend of mine was raised in a *Mennonite community.

He told the story about one of his younger brothers who at the age of 15 made the decision he wanted to join the Marines when he turned 18.

Every day for 3 years he started conditioning with an 80 lb. ruck sack he created.

He carried it on him at all times unless he had a chore where he couldn’t.

He ran everywhere he went in addition to a plethora of other homemade training routines he created to help prepare himself.

Mind you, all of this was done in addition to his daily manual labor performed from sun up to sun down and a life time of adhering to “orders” and a strict discipline he had to follow as a Mennonite.

When his brother turned 18 he went and signed up for the Marines just like he said.

And he completed Boot Camp just like he trained to do.

But here’s the real kicker:

When my friend talked to his brother about his experience in Boot Camp and what it was like…

His brother replied back to him with a straight face:

”I was disappointed.

I thought it was going to be harder.”

So, yes, there is a point where some can begin training and “easily” go through boot camp.

But unless you were raised in a modern day agricultural equivalent of the Spartan’s agōgē

Probably not.

*The order he was a part of was a no-modern technology Mennonite community e.g. My friend once attached wooden boards to the top of a rotating horse-drawn saw mill column to create a makeshift ceiling fan during the hot summer heat; he was told to take it down because it was too modern.

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Our Daily Comix

To Die for Beef Roast

This is one of the best roasts you will ever taste. Carrots, potatoes and celery can also be added, if desired.

Ingredients

1 beef roast (any kind)
1 envelope Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing mix
1 envelope brown gravy mix
1 envelope Italian dressing mix
1/2 cup warm water

Instructions

Place roast in slow cooker.
Mix contents of all 3 envelopes and sprinkle over roast.
Pour water into the bottom of the slow cooker.
Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 7 hours.

What was the most disturbing thing that your seatmate did during a flight?

One day I received a phone call from the FBI. It was legit the FBI who wanted to talk to ME!

Previously I had been on a flight from Tokyo to DC. I had my usual aisle seat and I had my kitty with me. A woman sat in the middle seat and a man at the window.

After the flight took off I fell asleep, per my usual. At some point I woke up. The woman noticed I was awake and asked to get up to use the bathroom. She never came back but another guy took her seat. My new seatmate seems to have moved to economy from business as he received business class meals. He disappeared for landing.

As we were landing my cat got out of his carrier. I was easily able to unbuckle grab him, and put him back in his carrier. Upon landing 2 or 3 airport police came on board to my row. I thought they were for me and my escaped cat. Totally illogical thought I now know, but reasonable at the moment. Nope they wanted window guy.

The FBI wanted to know what I saw on the flight between window guy and middle gal before she left. When she left for the bathroom, she spoke to the flight attendants and said he was touching her inappropriately.

The most disturbing thing to happen on a flight was the true or false accusation of SA mid flight.

When have you cheaply or inexpensively fixed an item someone thought unrepairable?

Some years ago our washing machine stopped working, about 2 weeks after its 2-year warranty expired. It was a mid-range model, and with 2 toddlers in the house, we really needed a clothes washer. We managed to get an engineer (specialist in washing machines) out the next day. I already knew the timer clock was working OK, as were the inlet valves; yet when it tried to rotate the drum, absolutely nothing happened. After about 45 minutes, with the engineer running all sorts of diagnostics on the control circuit board and checking all the wiring, he sighed and told us that there was nothing to be done; the motor was burnt out and a replacement, plus the cost of fitting, made the fix uneconomical; instead, recommending buying a replacement machine.

He left, but with all the covers off the machine and with his assurance that the control board was fine, I decided to have a look myself. As a kid I’d played around a lot with model trains, and knew that their motors would sometimes fail if the brushes, or the springs holding the brushes, were out of adjustment. This machine’s motor had more armature windings than I was used to, but the familiar two brushes, in spring-loaded brass housings. The housings had a single wire plugged onto them, and they were held in place by spring clips. I popped one out and found that while the carbon brush itself still had plenty of use left in it, the spring pushing it against the commutator was short and the brush wasn’t making contact. I slid the brush out, put in a small packing piece, replaced the spring and brush and clipped it back in place.

Immediate success, worked like new. Cost? £0.00 The machine ran for another 5 years, when it failed with similar symptoms. This time there really was no life left in the brushes, but a spares shop about a 5 minute walk from home sold me a brand new pair for 14p. It ran for yet another 5 years before the controller circuit board finally blew up.

44 things of the best life live tips:

Don’t be a people pleaser.
Spend time with your parents and treat them well. They will not be around one day.
Mind your own business.
Don’t lie, cheat or be dishonest. It spoils your name in the long run.
When the phone signal is down to the last bar, don’t answer the phone as the radiation will be 1000 times higher.
Don’t cheat if you are in an unhappy relationship. Just leave.
Use tea sachets to remove odour from gym bags.
Never give up on your dreams no matter what. Try to accomplish your goals and dreams in the long run.
Never take your medicine with cold water.
Be empathic. An act of kindness wouldn’t ruin you.
Graduate before 30.
Don’t waste your time with meaningless relationships or temporary people.
When people treat you like they don’t care, believe them.
Participate in family gatherings, college reunions and get together with friends.
Adopt a pet. I did. My six months old pup is my ultimate stress buster now.
Never ‘ever’ abandon your old friends by replacing them with your new buddies.
Have two servings of vegetables and fruits daily.
Learn to love your flaws and imperfections along with your perks.
Start your day with a glass of lukewarm water on an empty stomach.
Be thankful for something daily, at least once.
Stay away from toxic people. They only bring out the negativity in you and ruin your life further.
Compartmentalize your ideas and thoughts. Write them down on a journal.
Don’t be shy. Go out and be a social butterfly. Talk to random people.
Add some slices of lemon in plain water to zest up your taste buds.
Don’t let someone get comfortable with disrespecting you. Set boundaries.
Crushed mint leaves or Indian basil are great herbs to remove bad mouth odour.
If you don’t have enough time, spend lesser time on social networks.
Never speak bad or low about yourself. Make it a point to not put yourself down even as a harmless joke.
If you don’t like your job, quit it and do something else. Don’t just put up with it and force yourself to do it.
Don’t waste your energy on bad feelings, negative thoughts or useless people.
Travel often. Getting lost will help you to discover your identity.
Be careful about personal things you share to people. The friend today could be your enemy tomorrow.
Never stay in an unrequited love for a long time. Let it go and move forward.
Say exactly what you feel/think. Be direct about it even if it might displease others.
Forgive people and their actions. Never give it to him. Let karma finish up the job for you.
Be mindful about your expenditures but not a miser. Budget spending is a start.
Have a glass of buttermilk or warm milk before bedtime.
If you don’t master you own time, there will be possibilities of you being unconscious slaves of those who have mastered theirs.
Trust your instincts. Intuitions doesn’t lie.
Be cautious about lending/borrowing a huge sum of money to your friends/relatives. It may break the tie. Just saying.
Never enter the lift before others have got out of them. Don’t be a jerk. Wait and let them get out before you barge in.
Have few cups of green tea in the evenings after lunch and throughout your day to aid digestion.
You could forgive, let go and give them another chance…or you could chuck them aside and give yourself a better chance.
Cut down on your caffeine intake. Replace your coffee cravings with something healthier.

What is the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to you at a bar?

Many years ago a friend and I stopped by a pub on our way home from a rock concert. It was Triumph. This was the early ’80s and wearing a bandana around your neck was kind of normal. Anyway we go in sit down, and didn’t even get a chance to order a beer. This group of guys just started in on me, for some reason. It was a country music bar, and I guess I was a long hair. It gets so bad that I finally stood up and said to the main culprit,what the fuck IS your problem? Remember we’re talking we’re in there 5 minutes. At that point him and his buddies grab me by the seat of my pants and the bandana around my neck and threw me out the front door head first with my head opening the door. Stunned outside I wanted to go back in and just clean house. Fortunately my friend who they threw out as well but not as roughly calm me down and made me realize that they would have probably just thrown me out again. This has been decades ago and I still have no idea what the real reason was. I know that a woman to fight over was not the issue.Overflowing 🍺 beer and testosterone I suppose. The whole incident reminded me of that Ron White story where he says he was thrown out of a bar and he doesn’t know how many there were, but he guesses it was all of them. That may have been true with me.

Putin and China Put Out Devastating Warning to the US | Col. Jacques Baud

May 2024. China has stopped “playin'”.

What is the most unprofessional interaction you’ve had with a recruiter?

This was during my placement time…

I was having an interview for TCS. The panel called my name, I went in. It was a panel of 3 ladies. I was carrying a file containing my resume, marksheets, certificates.

R1- what are your hobbies ?

Me – I like sketching, playing guitar, riding my bike and collecting pens( all looking at me). If you wish, I have some sketches attached at the end of the file.

All looking through my sketches.

R2 – so, if we recruit you would you still continue sketching in your busy schedule.

Me – yes Mam I will still continue sketching, if you’re passionate about something you will manage some time for it no matter how busy you are.

R2- good.

R3- so, you say you like to collect pens. What kind of pen do you collect ?

Me – I am a pen enthusiast. I like to collect premium pens, PARKER, SHEAFFER, CROSS, WATERMAN, LAMY etc. Ball , roller ball, fountain.

R1 – that’s interesting. So, how many pen do you have ?

Me – I have around 50–60 normal range pens(Parker , Pierre Cardin) and 15–20 premium range pens (above 1k INR). And I will continue to collect while I’m here.

R2 – what will you do with so many pens when you’re gone ?

Me – (don’t know what to say , still came up with the most stupid answer ) some of those are limited editions and some are discontinued which are not available in the market at present and I know they will have a great value someday, I’ll leave them as a legacy for my children/grandchildren.

R3 – you’ll need to have a great number of children. Good luck with that. ( don’t know with what logic she came up with that )

All burst into laughter. I join in with them and start to chuckle.

R2 – okay , I’m gonna write your feedback with my sheaffer pen

Me – sorry Mam, but that’s not a sheaffer, that’s a Parker.

(Edit 3: I guess she focused on this statement to check my presence of mind and whether or not I really knew about what I said i.e. to check if I was lying about my hobby or not).

R1- you may leave now.

Me – thank you.

Next week the result for day 1 sharing was out.

Verdict : got an offer letter from TCS.

P.s these are around 5-6 year old images, didn’t have for the latest collection.

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Why So Many Countries Are Abandoning the Dollar

It’s damn obvious.

What is the weirdest thing your dog ever brought home?

Not my dog, but my next door neighbors’ dog. Duke was a large mixed breed about 65–70 pounds, a super friendly boy who spent every day making the rounds in our neighborhood collecting treats, love, attention and objects he found in the yards or garages of those he visited. I was used to getting calls from Sharon with a list of items Duke had brought home—sometimes things I hadn’t even missed yet! About 10 years ago, my son, dil and 2 grands were staying with me and it snowed Christmas night, a rare event where I live. There was about 3–4″ inches of lovely white covering my grass the next morning so the kids had to play in it before they left to go home. My grandson came in and said he had lost his phone in the snow. We all spent at least 30 minutes looking for it and even Duke came over to see what was going on. My family left and about 30 minutes later, I received a phone call from Sharon asking if anyone was missing an iPhone. I walked next door and collected my grandson’s pristine phone-no scratches, no dents and it turned on. My son and grandson were both really happy with that news! Duke is still remembered in the neighborhood as being such a “good boy.”

What is the most shameless thing you have ever seen a teacher do?

When I was in 6th grade, I had a math teacher that I hated so much I’d have panic attacks on the days I had her class. Here’s a short list of what she’d do to me, keeping in mind she was told multiple times I had debilitating social anxiety and ADHD:

Humiliated me when I asked for help by telling me as loud as she could “you can’t do this problem? This is the easiest one in the set, how do you not understand it?!”
Called my mom in the middle of class after I handed in a test that she said I didn’t work long enough on in front of the other students, telling her I was an embarrassment
Had her TA search for me while I was waiting for my dad to pick me up since I had to stay after school on certain days of the week due to my parents working late. When she found me, she yelled at me, brought me back to the math room, where, in front of (mostly older, and way more popular) students, the math teacher called my dad and yelled about how he should be making go to the after school math tutoring so I could “at least pretend to care about the material”

Thank God, THANK GOD my parents were supportive of me and told her off each time. After the final call to my dad about forcing me to get the tutoring, my dad rushed to get me and ripped her a new one about how tired my parents were of her treatment of me. But ever since then, I’ve been afraid of almost every teacher and would just be silent during my classes

Best Macaroni and Cheese

This is the tastiest, easiest and fastest macaroni and cheese you will ever eat. DO not skimp on the Colby cheese. Use as much as you can afford.

Ingredients

Macaroni (as much as needed)
Colby cheese (lots)

Instructions

While the macaroni is cooking in salted water, dice the Colby cheese up rather small.
As soon as the macaroni is cooked; drain it well. Keep it, covered, in the same pot in which it was cooked.
Add the diced Colby cheese and stir it in. Cover immediately and let it sit for about five minutes so that the cheese melts.

Attribution

Recipe is from the kitchen of Kathryn Irene Jolly.

Recipe is from the family recipe collection of Linda Ann Jolly, Arizona.

African Nations Repatriate Their Gold and Foreign Reserves From the USA.

Not being well reported. Not at all in the Western “news” media.

What is a time when you’ve seen a co-worker get fired who totally deserved it?

One of the RNs in our dept had worked there for 5 plus years, was around 60 years old and very nurturing and maternal so she was well liked. Her employment predated mine and I became her immediate supervisor. After several years of working together , mostly amicably she started to undermine me, making snarky comments and decisions that didn’t include discussions with others in the dept or weren’t hers to make or sometimes even mine to make. She was resistant when I discussed this with her. I really liked and admired her and it was getting more and more challenging. My supervisor wasn’t any help. We RNs became concerned that a medication error may be made if this nurse did the med pass so we made sure that someone else did that. We double checked behind her with the order transcriptions. We found small errors and brought them to her attention. She stated that everyone makes mistakes and that she was no different. One day I found that she had written an order on the wrong chart and filed the med in that pt’s med drawer. I saw it right before the tech was going to give the med to the wrong pt. What was even worse was that the pt wasn’t on ANY meds for a condition that was in any way similar to what that med was for – that should have made her question it. So, a performance improvement plan was implemented, discussed and put in place with approval of HR and my supervisor. The nurse ignored it, did nothing and cheerfully stated there was no problem. We decided that termination was in order. She was aghast and said, “Well, I will talk to the CEO and he will not stand for this!” Termination took place, she demanded a ride to the unemployment office and HR agreed – WHAT? It was so hard, but necessary to protect pts. Anyway, I ran into her about a year later and she said she had a medical condition that was contributing to her “brain fog” and that she’d been treated. She apologized for the instances of petty behavior. We all hoped she was doing well.

OMG

Shorpy fun

A golden dome

450 Arab and foreign extremists from Idlib arrive in Ukraine

By Al Mayadeen Net

Almost 450 extremists from various nationalities arrive to Idlib to fight against Russian troops, after leaving Syria and passing through Turkey.

Close to 450 extremist Arab and foreign nationals have arrived in Ukraine from Idlib to fight against Russia’s forces, less than only three days after they left Syria, passing through Turkey.

Relatives of extremists that have arrived in Ukraine told Sputnik that senior fighters from terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (the rebranded version of Jabhat Al-Nusra, i.e Al-Qaeda) have held a number of meetings with senior leaders in the Turkistan Islamic Party group and Ansar Al-Tawhid and Hurras al-Din groups, and agreed on allowing a number of all their fighters to enter Ukraine through Turkish soil.

The sources added that most of these foreign fighters are veterans of the Syrian war, had been causing issues in Idlib, and were given this opportunity to fight against Russia as a compromise by which they would receive a new start and with an acceptable income.

Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham also gave these fighters assurances that their families would be allowed to join them later.

Around 300 of these fighters are Syrian nationals that are originally from the Idlib and Aleppo countrysides, while the 150 others are Belgian, French, Chinese, Moroccan, Tunisian, Chechen and British nationals.

As for the financial compensation, the sources said the fighters that hail from Syria will receive around $1200-$1500, but had no knowledge what the foreign nationals were going to be paid.

Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, has previously stated that 16,000 foreign mercenaries will fight for the country.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had warned Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz during a meeting last Friday of the growing number of foreign mercenaries operating in Ukraine, including those coming from Albania and Croatia and namely militants and Jihadists coming from Kosovo in order to put their experience from military operations in Syria to use.

What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?

I don’t consider it a “loophole,” but rather a bit of a tech glitch.

When I was in college in the late 1980s (Dartmouth), it was towards the end of the life of pulse dialling technology. In the “old days,” telephones used to look like some variant of this:

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When you made a call, the dial was turned for each number, and it sent out a series of electronic pulses that matched the number (for example, my grandfather had a telephone whose number was WI-1–8214 (941–8214).

In the 1970s, touch-tone dialling became the standard (I am not sure that a rotary phone would even work anymore).

Telephones swapped out the rotary for push buttons, but the switching equipment had to, for a time, accommodate both. So telephones for a while had buttons, but a switch on the base that permitted tone and pulse dialling.

At Dartmouth, where I was a student, all of the telephone lines in the dormitories were controlled by Dartmouth. In order to make long-distance telephone calls, you had to subscribe to a service called “DarTalk.” Again, not sure if this is still the case.

Anyways, what we discovered in the dorms was that, if one started the telephone on pulse, entered the 8 (for an external line), a one, the area code, and the three code prefix, then switched the phone from pulse to tone and entered the final four digits in tone mode, the switching equipment that the college used could not detect that the call was going out. Hence, the calls were free.

We could thus make long distance calls without paying.

US prepares for war against Russia and China. In Self-Defense of course.

Missed opportunities, or problem avoidance strategy

When I left prison, it was the experience of a lifetime. After “dressing out”, waiting in the hallway until the day ended and a spare guard can drive us to the bus station, and getting on the shuttle to the bus, it was sunset in the hot Arkansas dusk.

There, I was given a card for $100 to help me get to where I needed to go and to start my life anew.

And got on the Greyhound bus and left to my last known family location; where my sister rented out a room for me to live in for two weeks. That is in itself another story, but for this part of the narrative, I will discuss the bus ride out of Arkansas. It was something like 14 hours.

Mostly empty, as the bus picked up other felons that did their time.

I chatted with a guy who just finished 15 years. And met some women from a woman’s prison who were heading in our direction. They suggested that we tag along with them, hang out. Spend the night and “party” with them. Good looking chicks… if a bit feral. We are all sex starved, and I’m sure those gals would be jumping our bones and pumping us dry in no time.

But I declined.

I had a plan.

I had a stopwatch and I had to get settled, get my passport, get a plane ticket and LEAVE and never… NEVER return.

So I stayed on the bus while the group got off somewhere in Tennessee.

Sometimes I wonder was I smart… or was I stupid and blind to opportunities that come my way? I don’t know. I still wonder about it all.

Still, I could have spent the night… then left in the morning…

Missed opportunities, or problem avoidance strategy. You decide.

Today…

How is the perception, treatment, categorisation etc. of plus sized models in China different from the West?

I don’t know anything about the perception of plus-sized models in “the West”, but I have a cousin in Hangzhou who works for an online clothing brand as a plus-sized model and she sometimes share bits and pieces about her job with me.

Despite what some may think, it’s not easy to join the ranks of plus-sized models.

All the job requirements for non-plus-sized models also apply to plus-sized models.

For example, my cousin tells me the standard requirements for girls to be plus-sized models for online fashion catalogue work is that they are at least 165 cm or above, that they have “curvy” silhouette, and that they have all the basics: great skin, great hair, beautiful facial features, etc.

Naturally, being plus-sized models, they can be heavier than the typical non-plus-sized models.

Many of my cousin’s plus-sized model friends are heavier than I am, as they tend to be around the 60 to 70 kg weight range. The taller girls (175 cm >) can easily be above 70 kgs.

But she mentions that how that weight is distributed across the body is also an important consideration (hence, the “curvy” silhouette mentioned above)

There’s a growing demand for online plus-sized fashion shopping and from what my cousin has shared with me, there’s massive potential, and the current situation is nowhere close to even approaching that potential.

Career-wise, an average non-celebrity, not-famous plus-sized model, in general, can earn around 10,000 to 15,000 yuan per month (1380 to 2071 USD) a month. That’s pretty good.

She also tells me that she gets a lot of positive and supportive comments whenever she posts about her life, job, and fashion choices on 小红书 (a Chinese app that’s a mix between IG and Pinterest)

She enjoys her job, is very good at what she does, is compensated well, and most importantly, she’s happy with her decision to go into plus-sized modeling.

Couldn’t be happier for her! ^^

Picture below is that of a Chinese plus-sized model modeling clothes for a Chinese online clothing store:

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Why does NO anti-China nation want to decouple or at least try to decouple from China? How could you want to have nuclear war with China/overthrow the CPC/Xi Jinping and subjugate China and STILL want China’s business? It makes no sense!

NOBODY wants a nuclear war with China.

Decoupling from China would be too painful for Western economies. Inflation would go through the roof and governments would fall.

But you’re right. Even a conventional war with China makes no sense. But who said Western governments possess common sense?

What is something that someone told you that made you immediately realize that the crazy story they were telling you was actually true?

Many years ago, I was a supervisor on a Government-funded youth employment scheme, trying to get unemployed young people into work.

One day, one of the lads managed to get a cut to the top of his head. Only a small flesh wound but, being a scalp wound, there was blood everywhere – his hair was soaked, it was in his eyes, dripping from his nose, etc.

As we were working at a site close to the hospital, we drove him there ourselves, rather than wait for an ambulance. As it was clearly a head wound, he was rushed straight through for assessment.

A few minutes later, a nurse came out, looking quite worried. Whilst they were asking him routine questions, he had apparently deteriorated. In particular, when they asked his date of birth, he had said “Don’t know!” and when they followed up with “Well, when is your birthday?” he had replied “Don’t have one!”. Clearly the wound was worse than we had thought and there was some neurological damage; either temporary or permanent. At the nurse’s request, we asked our HR unit to fax across his basic details, so that the hospital could contact his family.

The records duly arrived. We looked to see what his date of birth was – and we all fell about laughing, nurse included. The records clearly stated that he had been unable to provide a date of birth.

It turned out that the whole family were illiterate and no-one had bothered to register his birth until he was about 3 or 4 years old – by which time they couldn’t remember what time of year he had been born!

A quick wash to remove the blood, three stitches and a couple of painkiller tablets later, he was discharged and we drove him home.

Göbekli Tepe and the Prophecy of Pillar 43 | Apocalypse and the Vulture Stone

Göbekli Tepe and the Vulture Stone Prophecy We are the descendants of an ancient civilization; one which mastered technology, mapped the cosmos, and understood our relationship with the natural world. Our ancestors traveled the world and built enormous structures. They scaled their creations into cities. They shared a common governance and similar religious beliefs. Our ancestors lived, as we do today, as a global society. Around 14,500 years ago, this global superpower started to collapse. First came uncontrollable change, and then a cataclysm. In less than a week, everything and almost everyone was gone. Those left behind built monuments. Monuments not as tributes to Gods or homage to kings. The monuments are a warning to future generations: to us. That warning is simple: danger is coming. Our civilization has ended before. And it will end again. This is one story Big Archaeology and world governments don’t want you to know. Once you hear it, you’ll never trust them again. Because the danger that’s coming? There’s nothing they can do to stop it.

What are the best stories to prove that everything happens for a reason?

I had resigned my previous company without having any job offer in hand!

I was continuously feeling stressed out from past few weeks. Suddenly in my project, the pressure got increased and my manager was not ready to hire any extra resource. Not even a single day was there when I felt relaxed. If you push yourself everyday too much, it will start impacting your health. Same happened with me. I started being sleep deprived and my weight started dropping. Despite that, I tried my best to pull it off but later I realised that I should stop now.

It was not easy for me to quit without any job offer in hand but I decided to leave. I put down my papers and informed my manager. My family was unaware of this because I didn’t wanted them to freak out. It was a chaotic moment for me but I motivated myself to find a new job. I started applying rigorously, gave interviews, faced rejections. Many nights I used to overthink but I knew that I didn’t want to back out.

After 1 month of resignation, I got one offer letter. My confidence boosted up and I kept on trying for better opportunities. At last, I got a decent offer and above that I got great work environment.

In life, sometimes, we take very quick and tough decisions but those decisions carve our path towards new phases. Maybe, that day you would feel that what you did was stupidity but later you will realise that it happened for a reason.

Everything happens for a reason!

In court, what was the most devastating cross-examination of a witness that you ever saw?

This is a bit long for one of my answers. And, it has nothing to do with being an agent or a lawyer myself.

My ex and I wanted to foster a child and take him with us when we moved out of state. He was an inner city African American child, about eight years old. He was not on the growth chart, he could not read or write. He had ADD.

But, my ex had fallen for him.

He came to school with clothes picked out of pile of adult clothes. Made his way to school riding public transportation, and no one asked him to pay. He came to school because it was safe, and provided him two meals a day.

He lived with his grandmother and five to seven others in about a 900 square foot house. Many of the residents were minors and the grandmother received all the benefits for them.

It was an expensive proposition to foster this child. I paid for our attorneys who told us no one had ever been allowed to obtain foster rights and immediately move out of state. Especially a white couple attempting to take a black child. I paid for the guardian ad litem. And, I paid for the grandmother’s attorney.

We were in the second day of the hearing before the family court judge. The grandmother was on the stand. She had held up well during cross examination.

But, then then I noticed the judge slide his glasses down to the end of his nose and peer over them and say,”I have just a couple of very simple questions. Nothing to worry about.”

I had been a little bored until this point, but I knew this maneuver. I had been around courthouses and in interviews for many years by this time. And, my senses told me things were about to get interesting.

The judge then proceeded to ask about the moneys she received to help support the children in her care. The judge asked what she did with the money. The judge asked if she liked to gamble.

In the state we were in, there were gambling casinos. And, she admitted to attending gambling casinos.

The judge began to ask her about her gambling habits, and whether she won or lost. And, the big lies began.

The grandmother claimed she won as much as she lost.

And, the judge bore down. And, I am thinking… I am paying for three attorneys and no one figured out she had a gambling addiction.

And, the judge rakes her, and gets her to admit she loses a little more than she makes. And, it went down hill from there, allowing my attorneys to pull her gambling records which were kept by every casino. And, those records showed a pattern of gambling and loss that were incredible.

The grandmother would lose all the monthly benefits for her grandchildren within a couple of days. And, we all missed it, but for a family court judge who was wiser than a room full of attorneys.

Hands down, the best cross examination I ever saw. Judge… you can drop the mic.

China Military’s Biggest Upgrade In Cyber Security Warfare & Space

In modern era of warfare, control of information is a game changer. Keep that in mind and breaking away from traditional structures, the one of the worlds highest military has established new independent units dedicated to information, space, and cyber operations, marking the most extensive shakeup in nearly a decade. One thing is now certain, the Chinese military is ready for anything adversaries might throw at it and win conflicts with relative ease! Today’s episode will uncover the recent shakeup of Chinese military which has added new units determined to succeed in modern warfare.

You find a new job, so you give your employer two weeks’ notice. Your boss then gets angry that you are quitting and tells you not to come back in anymore. How should you respond to your boss?

My wife is literally going through this right now. She was the only person in her office that did what she did and had been the best employee that employer had ever seen. Literally in 10 years she had taken 1 sick day. Over the course of that decade she never got a single raise and zero retirement. Another opportunity came along and she took it. Knowing her job would be very difficult to fill she gave her employer a 6 week notice. The employer was so irrational about it that she fired her and said she would not be paying out the 3 weeks of vacation time my wife had on the books. Well where we live, the state law does not allow that unless there is a signed policy stating as much, which there has not been. So here we are, on vacation enjoying a 2 week span of time before my wife starts her new job. She was able to move up her start date with her new employer, though she did not have to. Her old employer is now responsible to pay her unemployment for these 2 weeks as well as her 3 weeks of vacation. She would have been very wise to just take the 6 weeks my wife offered, but we won in the end so whatever

Fun vintage comics

SHAHID BOLSEN:

“The United States, the UK, Germany, and France—these are some of the most oppressive and repressive governments in the world if you remove all of the self-praise and the propaganda that they spew about themselves and about freedom and civil rights and so on.

They are a Western axis against freedom, and if you don’t know that—I mean, if you live there and you don’t know that—then you just haven’t tested it.

The only way that you can live in any of those countries—and increasingly in the US—and not know that they are despotic tyrannies, is if you have been so numbed and so brainwashed that you hold no opinion in your head that wasn’t put there by the state, that wasn’t injected into your lifeless brain by the mainstream media.

So, you never had anything to protest about.

You never questioned your government.

You never challenged the official narratives about anything.

That’s the only way that you can’t know what I’m talking about.

And that makes you even more repressed, more oppressed, and more tyrannized than the people who are getting beaten and who are getting detained for objecting to their government’s brutality.

You’re even more of a victim.

You’re even more abused than those protesters who are getting clubbed upside the head and getting choked and getting abused by the security forces because your government, your rulers, your ruling class has never let you live a day in your life without telling you what to think and sabotaging your ability to think for yourself.

You’re the most abused in your society.

What they did to you is worse than beating; it’s worse than detention; it’s worse than imprisonment.

At least those protesters who are getting beaten and arrested by the police—at least their minds are free, at least they have their own thoughts in their heads.

But you—your leaders have made you a zombie that thinks that the right thing, the moral thing, is whatever power chooses to do; your government has put you into a moral coma.

You’re morally comatose.

They put you under an induced coma so that you can’t see them sponsoring the wanton murder of 34,000 people, some 24,000 innocent women and children.

You can’t see that there’s anything wrong with that.

You feel nothing, or even worse, you think it’s the right thing, you think it’s the moral thing, you think that what your government is doing is good by sanctioning indiscriminate slaughter; you think that’s fine.

Why?

They’ve robbed you of your very humanity, and that’s the only reason that you can believe that you live in a free society.

That’s the only reason that you can believe that you live in a society with civil rights and liberty and free speech and all of those other wonderful things that you never had and never will have.

The only freedom that you have in those countries is the freedom to agree with power.

You’re free to submit to the powers that be.”

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Excerpt from remarks by American geopolitical analyst Shahid Bolsen in a video where he speaks about the ongoing protests against the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on university campuses, both in the U.S. and around the world, April 27, 2024.

Does memory depend on intelligence?

“One day, Einstein was traveling by train from Princeton, when a train conductor passed through the corridor, stamping the tickets of all the passengers. When he arrived in front of Einstein, the scientist searched for the ticket in his vest pocket, but didn’t find it; it wasn’t even there in the pants pockets; so he looked in the briefcase, but he couldn’t find it.

The driver said, “Doctor Einstein, I know who you are. I’m sure you bought the ticket. Don’t worry. Einstein nodded in thanks.

And the driver continued to stamp the tickets in the aisle. Just as he was about to move on to the next car, he turned to see the large body looking under his seat for the ticket.

The driver turned around and said, “Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don’t worry, I know who you are.” This is not a problem. You don’t need a ticket. I’m sure you bought one.

Einstein looked at him and said, “Young man, I also know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going. That’s why I’m looking for my ticket.”

BLINKEN TRIP TO CHINA: U.S. dominance is over!

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken went home with his tail between his legs after an official three-day visit to China in which he tried his very best to convince the world of a litany of nonsensical crap that neither he nor anyone else with a brain believes, including spouting the “over-capacity” myth that Yellen tried to start on her last visit, and trying to tell Beijing that Washington has some kind of right to decide who China can and cannot trade with. This desperation and hypocrisy blatantly on show from U.S. leaders visiting China is a sign of one thing: the hegemony of the U.S.-led West is falling, and it’s a joy to watch! Today we’ll talk about it.

20 interesting facts about random things.

1.The only letter that doesn’t appear on the periodic table is J.

2.One habit of intelligent humans is being easily annoyed by people around them, but saying nothing in order to avoid a meaningless argument.

3.2006, a Coca-Cola employee offered to sell Coca-Cola secrets to Pepsi. Pepsi responded by notifying Coca-Cola.

4.The famous line in Titanic from Leonardo DiCaprio, “I’m king of the world!” was improvised

5.If you cut down a cactus in Arizona, you’ll be penalized up to 25 years in jail. It is similar to cutting down a protected tree species.

6. In 1923, a jockey suffered a fatal heart attack but his horse finished and won the race, making him the first and only jockey to win a race after death.

7.Iceland does not have a railway system.

8.The spiked dog collar was invented by the Ancient Greeks to protect their dogs from wolf attacks.

9.German Chocolate Cake is named after an American baker by the name of Samuel German.

10.The voice actor of SpongeBob and the voice actor of Karen, Plankton’s computer wife, have been married since 1995.

11.The largest Japanese population outside of Japan stands at 1.6 million people who live in Brazil.

12.IKEA is an acronym which stands for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd, which is the founder’s name, farm where he grew up, and hometown.

13.Violin bows are commonly made from horse hair.

14.The youngest Pope in history was Pope Benedict IX who was 11 years old at the time of election. He is also the only person to have been the Pope more than once.

15.In Svalbard, a remote Norwegian island, it is illegal to die.

16.People who post their fitness routine to Facebook are more likely to have psychological problems.

17.Standing around burns calories. On average, a 150 pound person burns 114 calories per hour while standing and doing nothing.

18.There is a punctuation mark used to signify irony or sarcasm that looks like a backwards question mark ⸮

19.Saint Lucia is the only country in the world named after a woman.

20.There is a town in Nebraska called Monowi with a population of one. The only resident is a woman who is the Mayor, Bartender and Librarian.

When was a time you said silently to your boss “I told you so”?

We have a F350 work truck that is notorious for giving hints it is about to break on us. Main thing is how often it regens the DPF. Told my team lead(boss) one day that we had about a month before it shits itself again at best. 3 weeks later, while driving to pick up equipment/supplies, sure enough it starts blowing blueish smoke out the tail pipe. Turbo was leaking oil. Day or two prior, it was non-stop “regen in progress “ message on the dash, prior to that it was daily regens at highway speeds. He had to stop what he was doing and drive another truck 2 hours to come swap it out, then get broke truck towed 4 hrs away to the stealership to have it sit there for 3 months getting fixed.

Another time, there was an older dump truck that started making a weird noise from the engine bay. From the sound of it, I suggested that either a pulley or tensioner was about to go. He shrugged it off and said it was a worn belt. Few days later, the tensioner shit itself and left him stranded.

Same truck started loosing hold back power on the “exhaust “ (actually found out it’s a transmission brake) brake. Reported to him, he dismissed me. Days later it either threw a valve if I remember right, or dropped/washed a cylinder and ran like dog shit.

Another one of our dumps blew a small pilot hydro line that runs the hydro pump to give pressure as it is constantly turning with the engine. Helped replace the blown line and noticed that 6 other lines are worn to or thru the metal casing. Told him, he said just keep running it. Ended up blowing hoses in the middle of working, for weeks on end. Would drain the hydro tank and such so not only did we have to replace the line during inclement weather, but dump up to 30 gallons of new hydro oil in to the tank.

Once I promoted to be equal to him, I took my side of the fleet and ran thru it with a fine tooth comb. Spent several thousand dollars fixing issues to prevent as much breakdowns as possible. The worst breakdown I had this winter was a wiper motor crapped out on me near the end of the day, but I had noticed it having issues prior and had a new assembly waiting to be installed sitting in the truck due to the nature of our job of being out for days on end w/o being able to fix minor things until a day where the truck could be down. Was down for maybe 30 mins while I swapped it out.

Leaking non hazmat fluid tanks, worn thru outer casing on electrical wires exposed to the elements, leaking valves, leaking fittings, leaking non hazmat fluid hoses, missing filters for services, low replacement fluid levels for services, the list goes on and on.

What is the pettiest thing you’ve seen a cheap person do at a restaurant?

Years ago the ex hubby took over an Italian restaurant…that is another story altogether. He slowly built the clientele up from nothing to a steady flow of clients, and we always loved a large booking. One night a table was booked for about 10–14 people, I forget exactly but it was a family group. The guy who had booked the table made it his night’s work to find fault: little subtle digs aimed at the staff, calling the staff back constantly, a smudge on a glass, a missing fork, the waiter was made to feel an imbecile.

I made it a point to double-check each plate as it was placed at the table, but did not serve or have any interaction with him until the end of the evening. He was the lead bull at the table, lording it over every other person, and then the bill was handed to him.

He pored over the bill for an age, demanding that everyone tell him what they had, was anything missing from the meal, then he told the waiter that he had been overcharged and the waiter called me over. The client then proceeded to tell me that he had been swindled, that he had been overcharged. I looked at the bill, which was accurate, told the waiter to bring up every receipt, looked the client in the face and said, “I am the owner, I am happy to go through all the receipts with you and I will also ask everyone here to tell me what they ordered, but you ordered such a huge quantity of food and drinks that in all likelihood this bill I have in my hand is going to be under. If I find the staff to have undercharged you, I will be expecting you to pay the full amount, so are you sure you want me to do this?”…he was apoplectic.

I totted up the bill, and it was short to the tune of around £40 (this was 25 years ago). He paid up in a fury and left not a penny for the staff. The next day he phoned the restaurant and claimed that some of the party had food poisoning, that he demanded we refund him. I asked him who had the food poisoning and he mentioned three of the guests; I had the exact details of each plate the guests had had, and remembered that two guests had switched plates, I then told him that he was wrong, that he should go get his story straight, for these three guests did not eat the same food. I realized he had asked each guest what they had ordered, NOT what they had eaten, and it was obvious he had had no contact with these supposedly poisoned family members. I recommended he file a complaint with Health & Safety, and never heard a word back.

Some of my latest AI image generations

The theme is tropical.

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Have you, as a police officer, ever known a “dirty” cop? If so, what did you do about it?

Some fifteen years back…

I was buddying with someone temporarily for bike patrolling. There was something barren and sinister about him. It is hard to explain.

One evening, we stopped at a random point and initiated snap checking, while at it… my colleague stopped a kid who walked by us, holding a small bag of fries. He must be 11 years old.

My colleague started asking him questions.

What’s your name?
Where are you coming from?

And believe it or not…

What is it in your hand? Give it to me!

The scared kid handed the police officer that bag of fries. And he went to town, eating it in front of that kid. Not just that… he actually smirked as well while witnessing that child’s facial expression of fear and shock.

I was a few feet away, checking registration book of a motorcyclist but I had to postpone that and approach them. To multiply my misery and embarrassment, the road with crowded and full of traffic. I did not want to make a scene.

Without saying a word, I snatched that bag of fries and gave it back to the kid, apologized and politely asked him to leave. The kid left.

I stood there looking at my colleagues’s deadpan face like nothing has happened.

This is low, even for a scum like you who conveniently rot the idea of community policing. This is why the public does not hold us in good regards. This attitude is what they fear and abhor.

I never worked with him again, I also informed the duty officer of this incident later that night.

I remember that guys face clearly, I remember his name, I remember the repulsion his company caused me

So Quorans, you might wonder if this is the dirtiest I have ever seen as you see me narrating this account carefully and in detail.

No, God… No!

This is me telling you of a distasteful minor incident that occurred years ago, that has burnt into my memory for good. In my understanding, he was not a good cop. And I strongly disliked him.

That should give you some idea about my feelings for those who are worse or worst. Who go above and beyond breaking the rules, violating the code, abusing their powers and involved in corruption.

They do exist.

And there’s only so much I practically could do about them, way above my pay grade you see.

But I’m not sad or hopeless. I have spent eighteen years in police service and I see the systematical grind of the department that works restlessly and naturally and gets them here and there. I see them getting hooked and punished.

It’s okay, but it certainly could be better.

What’s something you realized about a family member once you got older?

Not until the deaths of both my parents did I understand the dynamic of their marriage.

My mother died of a stroke at age 66. It turned out that years earlier, she had survived a heart attack which probably occurred in her sleep because no one ever knew about it. When she died, I was dumbfounded that her sisters and friends were all angry at Dad, blaming him for having driven Mom into an early grave.

In the 22 years before he died, clues gradually fell into place. I remembered how Mom said his mother had made Dad the person he was. How, when my older brothers brought their families home to visit, Dad sulked and said Mom was going to work herself to death waiting on them hand and foot. How he said the same thing about his second wife and her children and grandchildren.

I remembered how Mom refused to have a renewal of vows ceremony for their 25th anniversary, saying she’d meant her vows to be for life the first time, so she didn’t see any point. I looked at the photo albums and saw Mom’s face change from her engagement, a giddy young woman in love, to an unsmiling older woman. When he said he’d retire at 62 instead of 65 and be home all the time, Mom seemed resigned, not happy.

Most telling, I remembered that when Dad was a boy, his mother sometimes punished him by locking him in a closet. What made this particularly terrifying: Grandma was deaf, so his crying, beating on the door and begging moved her not at all. He might well have believed that he could die in that closet.

All the facts in front of me the whole time finally made sense: when Dad married Mom, he expected her to be his mommy as much as his wife, because his own mother had been abusive, not loving. It was surely no coincidence that Mom was older by 18 months.

Mom died in November, he was engaged by Christmas, and remarried in April — to a widowed nurse 17 years younger, someone who’d outlive him and care for him like both mommy and wife. Dad remarried so quickly not because he didn’t love Mom, but because her death had left him as bereft as Theodore Roosevelt when his mother and his first wife died on the same day.

When he pouted about Mom’s delight in her visiting children and grandchildren, he was jealous. He thought she had a fixed amount of love and any she gave to someone else was less for him. At family gatherings she could be happily chatting with family members, but if he wanted her attention, she had to go with him or he’d sulk. He retired early so he could spend more time with her. He couldn’t very well demand that his second wife cut off all contact with her children and grandchildren, but he hadn’t forgotten how to pout.

Dad and Mom met before he went off to a monastery to spend three years. I never understood why, because if he was looking for mother love, he wasn’t going to find it in an all-male community. But neither did I understand why he ever dropped out, because he spent so much time in church and in prayer at home that even a priest told me he was overdoing it. (When a priest says there’s such a thing as too much religion….) I’m now convinced that he was trying to back God into a corner: “See how devout I am, God. You can’t take the person I love away from me.”

And Mom’s refusal to renew her wedding vows? What she really meant, I suspect, was “Don’t ask me if I’d marry you all over again, because you might not like my answer.”

Oh no! Is this fairytale preview of things to come where women aren’t accountable?

The original stories from the last century are really interesting. This one is worth your time.

Have you ever quit your job in the middle of the work day? Why?

Yes actually I have. I was working at a local call center about 11 or 12 years ago, and I knew that they had a strict attendance policy, and that they were not hesitant to put points on your attendance record if you were late or left early or called off. However I did not know to what extent they would uphold that policy, and how much people were exaggerating how strict they were about it until I had been there about six months or so. One morning we heard a big commotion coming from the other side of the dividing wall, from the other business contract that was next to us. Well, later in the day we found out that one of the older men on the other contract had had a heart attack and had to be taken to the hospital by an ambulance. So I did not really think anything of it other than feeling bad for the guy, but a couple days later I was out back on break and I heard his supervisor talking to another employee about how she had to put 1/2 of a point on his attendance because he had to leave before his shift was over. I walked over to her and asked if I heard her correctly because I was almost certain that I had actually misheard her. But to my surprise she told me that I did hear her correctly and that she did have to put a half of a point on that employee’s attendance record. Once I confirmed that I had actually heard her correctly I went up to the front of the building to the human resources department and asked the lady working in the office if what the manager had said was true. She told me that unfortunately the manager was correct and that according to the attendance policy of the employee would be pointed for leaving before his shift was over, even though it was due to a medical emergency. At that point I took my badge off of my belt loop, laid it on her desk and told her I quit. The job itself was not too bad, but after hearing that I could not bring myself to work for a company who just blatantly did not care about their employees like that.

Italian Prime Minister announced that Italy would no longer participate in the “Belt and Road Initiative”, and then tried to strengthen relations with China, claiming that “the relationship between China and Italy is close”. What does this indicate?

One the one hand Meloni is controlled by the EU and European Council which has become a tane colonial outpost of the United States so that any US order comes with the response “How high master?”

On the other hand – Italian Luxury brands depend on 13% to 25% of their revenue from China and Italy gets Low Cost products from China that it can sell to it’s people for 2.75–3.5 times the cost and help with value addition into the economy

https://seoagencychina.com/china-luxury-market-is-there-still-space-for-newcomers/

Italian Businesses are worried about their Chinese markets

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They are worried more about Chinese Luxury Brands that could put the Italians out of business in China

So the Italian Government sends the message lets follow the same advantages that we had under the BRI but let’s just not call it that anymore

And as you can see

China gets tariff breaks until 2027 which means even if EU imposes tariffs on Chinese EVs, Italy having an agreement already can’t implement the same tariffs until after 30/6/2027
Italian Brands get the same tariff advantages in China until 30/6/2027
Both Nations have the same benefits in Shipping and with their Investments into each other

So Nothing has changed except the official relationship between China and Italy

Do you think it’s creepy that Leonardo DiCaprio is dating a girl so young that he is older than her mother?

It’s definitely bizarre.

He always seems to have a mob of young women around him.

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Someone on Reddit made a chart of every girlfriend he’s had, and he seems to have a rule of never dating older than 25:

And he has a new girlfriend, who is now, you guessed it, 25:

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He is 49.

This is all fine and legal. But it is just odd that he limits himself to this very narrow demographic of women. And a peculiar coincidence that they never make it further than that. I suspect he is hanging out a lot at fashion shows, or some place all these models mingle at (they are almost all tall thin models).

I know that for me, I’m so different than I was at age 20. I don’t know what I’d talk to a 20-year-old about. But to each their own.

Why Bother Working For a Living …. Public Assistance Game

There is no more middle class. Every thing has been gentrified from housing , cars People not being able to find a decent paying job and the cost to live is getting way out of hand . Gen Z and Millennials No Long Want to work towards nothing. America is Broken and it’s not cool. Looks like everyones going to be on welfare

Have you ever been with someone who is so cheap it’s uncomfortable?

I used to have a friend who, despite being well-off, was incredibly cheap, to the point that it was not only embarrassing, it was often hurtful too.

She is very adept at worming out of paying for her share of things, mainly by making things SO awkward that you end up caving in and paying for her, simply because you just want the situation to be over!

Some examples:

On one occasion, when she was staying with me for a couple of days, she insisted that we go swimming, because she said she had to do exercise every day. I didn’t really mind, so off we went to the local swimming pool. After queuing for quite some time at the reception desk to pay, we eventually got to the front… but when the receptionist said “That’ll be £2.50, please”, my friend became really indignant, as the swimming pool she usually went to apparently only cost £2.00. She started arguing with the poor receptionist over the 50p difference, much to the annoyance of all the other people in the queue behind us, waiting to pay. So, I ended up paying for both of us — not a big deal at all, you might think, but this was just one example of how I always seemed to end up paying for her.

Later that same day, we went to the cinema to see a film. I paid the admission for both of us (I didn’t want a repeat of the incident at the swimming pool!) and then we wandered over to the sweets kiosk to look at the snacks. She decided she didn’t want anything; I bought myself a large bag of M&Ms. Once we’d taken our seats and the film had started, she announced that, actually, she WAS hungry after all, but didn’t want to miss any of the film by going back out to the sweets kiosk. No problem, I said, you can share my M&Ms if you like. This started out fine: like you do when you’re sharing sweets, I kept angling the bag towards her, to make sure she could dig in. However, after about 20 mins, she said that SHE wanted to hold the bag… Bit weird, I thought, but I duly gave the bag to her to hold.

As the film continued, every now and then I took some M&Ms out of the bag, as did she. But then she started leaning over every few minutes or so and whispering “Are you going to have any more?”. As you can imagine, this started to get pretty irritating, especially as I was trying to watch the film. This went on for a while, with me saying “Yes”, every time she asked. Eventually, I asked her why she kept asking and she told me that she wanted to “save them for later”!! What the heck?! I was quite surprised at this, but couldn’t really make a fuss in the middle of the film. I carried on helping myself to the sweets that I’D BOUGHT, but it was all really awkward and a bit stressful, and it kind of spoilt the film a bit.

It’s almost like she has a pathological need to not part with any money and to milk other people as much as possible.

I once went to stay with her, but after having been at her house for a few hours, she hadn’t offered me anything to drink. Not a problem, as we had been engrossed in chatting. But, when I asked if it was OK if I put the kettle on (I am one of those Brits who quickly wilts if I’m not kept topped up with tea!) she said that she didn’t have any tea. Or, in fact, anything at all to drink. OK, no problem, water is fine, I said.

For our evening meal that day, we went out to a restaurant, where (you guessed it) I ended up paying.

The next morning, we got up and sat chatting for a while. After a couple of hours, she hadn’t mentioned breakfast and I was getting pretty hungry. I asked if it would be OK if I made some toast or something, but she said that she didn’t have any food in. This was a bit surprising, as she’d invited me to stay for the weekend and it had been arranged for some time. In retrospect, I think she wanted to see me but didn’t want to have to spend any money on feeding me. I think it’s highly possible that she ate breakfast in her bedroom, in secret, before getting up and coming into the living room to chat with me. She loves food (as do I) and always used to complain at my house, if I didn’t keep her well fed; like me, she’s definitely not the sort of person to skip breakfast.

Anyway, as I was so hungry, I suggested we went out to a cafe for some breakfast — I was thinking of something cheap and cheerful. She took me to a really wonderful artisan eatery, where we enjoyed a delicious breakfast. Silly me, assumed that she’d be paying, given that I’d paid for everything else that weekend and given that she hadn’t provided breakfast at home. However — you can see where this is going — when it came to pay the bill, she started lamenting about how she “doesn’t normally like to spend money on breakfast”, so I ended up paying for it. She’d chosen a really expensive place, knowing that she was going to get me to pay for it!

Other examples include us going into McDonald’s to buy a drink each and her asking me to pay for hers, as she didn’t want to break in to her £10 note!

Each individual incident was no big deal on its own, but when it happens a lot, you realise that you’re being taken advantage of. She was basically taking advantage of my generosity and the fact that I hate any kind of awkwardness. She knows that I (and probably most people) don’t want to cause a fuss in public, so will just end up paying.

To put it into context, she is from a fairly wealthy family and had a well-paid job, so it’s not like I could blame her behaviour on deprivation (either current or historical). She’s just incredibly tight with her money. She hardly ever leaves a tip in restaurants and when she does, she leaves 2p.

Because of her behaviour with money, but also because I realised she just wasn’t really a very nice person in general, I eventually cut off contact with her. We’d known each other for about 30 years, but sometimes the longest friendships aren’t always the best ones.

EDIT

To the Quoran who went through my entire answer and suggested I change ALL my apostrophes to apostrophes that are slightly more curly: I’m afraid I only have one type of apostrophe on my keyboard. I don’t have a not-very-curly option and then also a curly option. Like most keyboards (I’m guessing?), I just have one apostrophe to choose from.

I’m sorry that it is not quite as curly as the one on your keyboard. However, hopefully my not-very-curly apostrophes haven’t affected the readability of my post too much?

I think you may have a LITTLE too much time on your hands 🙂 .

Do people abuse the welfare system in your country?

Do you know anybody who always eats a lot, but never shops, cooks or cleans up?

Or maybe somebody who disappears when it’s their turn to buy a round at the bar or coffee machine?

Did you ever see someone devastate the buffet, leave a dollar tip on the table and then empty the mints from the bowl at the cash register on the way out?

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Ever experience unflushed public toilets devoid of toilet paper? How about coworkers that only pretend to work?

And of course no party is complete without the eternally-empty-handed guest.

Let’s face it, freeloaders exist all over the globe. Their entitlement knows no bounds.

So yes, people abuse welfare in my country, and in both countries I lived in before this one.

I am disgusted by freeloaders. I think most people are. I think it likely even many of the freeloaders don’t like themselves much.

Despite all this, I support welfare and I do it for selfish and conservative reasons.

I am willing to pay the taxes needed to enjoy clean streets free of unfortunate, mentally ill and addicted people.

I see that when welfare is tied to education, sponges often turn into contributors who lighten my tax load.

And for the incorrigibly lazy, $ 9,000 (average cost per welfare recipient) is less than $ 35,000 (average cost per prisoner).

Living in Germany and France showed me that welfare programs really do reduce crime and homelessness and lower prison populations.

Welfare works well when driven by data and economic evidence not empathy or scorn. It needs carrots and sticks and not too many of either.

Men Are Checking Out of Relationships in Thousands & No One Can Stop Them

This is a very serious situation.

Until someone stops the free reign of Family Court, men will avoid marriage and women in general. Nowadays, only 6.5 men in a thousand get married due to the following scenario: 

(1) man gets married, 
(2) wife refuses to have sex, 
(3) wife racks up huge credit card debt, 
(4) wife stop contributing financially, 
(5) wife stops cooking & cleaning, 
(6) wife cheats on husband, 
(7) wife files for divorce and takes the house, cars, savings, and kids, (8) wife falsely accuses husband of abuse and he no longer can see his kids, 
(9) wife poisons kids against the father. 

What man in his right mind will sign up for this?

Litter in the middle

Outside my tiny town is one of those Chinese 8-lane rural roads. And there is a divider in the middle median. Apparently, at some point in time either someone had left a litter of kittens there, or a cat had a litter there.

No one knew about it, apparently.

Being in China, the road is busy, and we would use it to avoid the massive traffic closer to the sub-town networks.

At this particular location, as I drove by, I saw the body of a dead kitten. I felt sad, but didn’t think much about it.

On the way back, I saw the body of a second dead kitten.

Later on in the day, about four hours later, I went by the (now) smashed remains of the two kittens and saw a third dead kitten.

And man, I should have stopped to investigate. But I was running late.

On the way back, as a fourth kitten.

Dead.

And that was the end of the litter.

i wonder what would have happened if I had stopped to clean the dead kitten off the road and checked to see where it’s siblings were. I wonder.

Life.

Why did I pick this life?

What was I thinking?

I feel great sorrow for the kittens, and the excuses that I made not to stop and investigate. Every time I go by that spot I question and lambast myself; why didn’t I stop? Why didn’t I investigate?

Ugh!

Today…

As the PRC has never directly controlled Taiwan, how do the Chinese confront those who say you can’t take back what you never controlled?

Well, well.

Sneaky, but easy to parry.

The treaty of Shimonoseki of 1895 between CHINA and Japan ceded the island of Taiwan to Japan, and it became a colony under Japanese administration till 1945, when Japan renounced its claim to the island.

Various declarations and treaties in the period all treated Taiwan as part of China, unlike, say, Hong Kong and Macau, which remained colonies until the late 1990s.

The divergence only appeared with the emergence of the PRC in 1949, and the strategic defeat of the KMT which fled to Taiwan, bringing the ROC government with them.

The situation is very clear if we read both Constitutions—each side proclaims itself the rightful government of China, which includes sovereignty over the mainland, Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong.

The argument all along is over who is in charge, and not who owns what, because there is only ONE CHINA, according to the Constitutions of the PRC and ROC.

Unfortunately, 99.99% of people who can read this (i.e. anglophones) cannot do so due to illiteracy.

Quit pretending to know what one is too prejudiced to find out.

What is the most pathetic thing you’ve seen an addict do to get their fix?

I used to be a heroin addict. I personally never did any crazy things to supply my habit. I understand why people do though. Imagine having the flu times ten, feeling like you’re being broken in half, your entire body hurts, it feels like your bones are being broken. Your blood pressure is so jacked from detox your vision is blurred, you can hardly see ten feet in front of you and you throw up and have diarrhea like you’ve got food poisoning. You know that all you have to do in order to feel better is get a fix. There’s literally nothing most people won’t do to just feel better.

Not having it is a living hell, being high feels the exact opposite. You feel so good you just want to sing and dance even if you don’t know how to sing you’re going to do it anyway. I’m not a bad person, I was just a broken person when I was addicted to heroin. I don’t believe I would ever be desperate enough to rob someone but I know plenty of people who have.

A guy I grew up with, I knew him most of my life, one of my best friends was one of those people who had no moral code when in active addiction. He was an amazing person when sober. Even in active addiction his true nature would sometimes show. He’s saved more than a few people because he was really good at CPR. The mother of his child was also an addict too. She was in college and her text books kept coming up missing. She couldn’t figure out where they were going. By the time she realized he was taking her text books to the university bookstore and selling them back to them they were all gone.

One day she called me and asked me if I could give her a ride home. I helped her out and gave her a ride. We were about a block away from her house and there he was walking through a parking lot with garbage bags full of clothes. He was about to walk into Plato’s closet (they buy and sell used clothes) when we pulled up on him. She jumped out of my truck and grabbed him. He dropped the bags of clothes and she looked in the bags and he had taken her whole wardrobe. Every single item of clothing she owned was in those bags.

He had taken all of his girlfriend’s clothes, the mother of his child and was trying to sell them so he could score some dope. That was the last straw for her, she left him and got sober. She worked really hard to get her child back, he had been taken away and was being raised by her mother. She did good for a while but relapsed and she’s no longer with us. He ended up in prison, got out, did really good for a long time. He did the same, he inherited several million dollars from his father and within a year he was also no longer with us. I miss him every single day. He was a good person but not too many people really knew that, he hid it well.

US Very Concerned as China-Russia Strengthen Their Military Ties!

The message is CLEAR.

Is the West’s accusation of China overcapacity in the EV industry true? Why?

The accusations from the West sound an awful lot like the pot calling the kettle black. The term ‘overcapacity’ being thrown around has more to do with market insecurity and protectionist tendencies than any supposed production surplus on China’s part.

Take 2023 as an example. China crafted 9.58 million new-energy vehicles that year and managed to sell about 9.49 million units. A large chunk of these – around 8.3 million vehicles – were sold in the domestic market. That hardly points towards international market saturation, rather it shows domestic demand driving China’s EV production.

Then, consider the global market shares. Chinese manufacturers held about 8.2 percent of the European electric car market. Yet, European automakers had a firm grip on around 20 percent of the Chinese light vehicle market. The scales, realistically, tip more in favor of the West here.

So why the accusations? It seems like a rather convenient cloak of ‘overcapacity’ is being used to disguise good old fashioned trade protectionism. The West is getting a taste of competitiveness they’re not used to, and it’s sending jitters down their spines. China’s EV industry, powered by continuous innovation, is giving Western automakers a run for their money. Hence, the narrative of ‘overcapacity’ serves as a much-needed crutch to lean on.

In the grand scheme of the global EV industry, China’s production aligns with its increasing domestic demand and strategically positions itself for a future defined by cleaner, more efficient vehicles. The so-called ‘overcapacity’ is just reflective of China’s effective planning, astute market gauging, and a testament to its competitive hardiness in the face of global market dynamics. So, is there really overcapacity in China’s EV industry? I highly doubt that.

Have you ever gotten a teacher fired?

Yes. My GMAT test prep instructor.

I decided to do one of these review classes as I was a little rusty, so I signed up and paid several hundred dollars for the privilege.

The first day of class, which was composed of twelve women and one man, he told this joke:

“A woman married and had 12 children. Her husband died, and she remarried and had 12 more children before the second husband died as well. Then, she died. At the funeral, the priest said, ‘At last they’ll be together.’ One of the attendees said, ‘What do you mean by that? Will she be together with her first husband, or her second?’ ‘I meant her legs,’ replied the priest.” This was accompanied by him putting his arms out straight, hands together, then opening his arms wide and closing them.

The second day of class, there was one woman (me) and one man.

I had paid for the course, and based on a test exam, I really needed the math help. I had already paid for the GMAT coming up, so I really had to take this review course.

Every class after that, he complained about the missing women and how someone had complained about him to the administration. “It was just a joke,” he kept whining. “Are you going to teach the material tonight?” I would say.

The last day of class, he had promised a cheat sheet of formulas. Again, I showed up, again, he spent class time whining about the complaints and how the joke was funny, and what was so wrong about the joke, and how women don’t have any sense of humor anymore.

I asked him for the cheat sheet.

“You’re a woman,” he observes. “What was so wrong about that joke?”

“The joke was inappropriate,” I said, “as was your accompanying gesture.”

He looked at me as if I was speaking a language he had never heard.

“Look,” he said, “it’s just a biological fact that women spend a lot of time with their legs open!”

And he re-enacts the gesture, leaving his arms open.

I walked out without the cheat sheet, and called the head of the program the next day. He was so mortified, that not only did he fire the guy, but he refunded my money and let me take another class for free. I took kayaking, and discovered a love for it. I also did well enough on my GMAT to get into the school of my choice.

What are ten truths everyone should accept in life?

Marks are important! Or just be an Einstein to prove it wrong.
No friend will be 100% happy to see your success, especially if you’re in same field
Sex or physical intimacy is important to make a relationship strong and live.
“ I love you more than anything anyone” is a filmy dialogue. Don’t believe it as it is ! There are always ifs,buts & conditions applied ~
Money is important ! Infact most important to live in this world
A smart girl will never marry you unless you are settled . let her brag anything about true love .
Money can’t give you peace !
Everyone in this world is selfish and is with you just for their needs be it your family or bestfriend.
Getting into relationship demands efforts, time and money. It’s not for free
Looks matter ! So better groom yourself to appear best or just keep shouting it don’t.( yuup skills matter but a person with same skills and better presentation & groomed will always be preferred than only skills)

Cinnamon Rolls from North Carolina State Fair

These cinnamon coffee rolls are delicious. It is important that you use unbleached flour and Fleischmann’s margarine in this recipe. Use a thermometer to check the temperature of the liquid, if it’s too hot it will kill the yeast.

Ingredients

Rolls

1 package dry yeast, 1 scant tablespoon
1/4 cup warm water
4 cups unbleached flour (do not substitute)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 cup Fleischmann’s oleo/margarine, do not substitute
1 cup scalded milk and cooled to 110 degrees F
1/4 cup pecans, chopped
1/4 cup raisins (optional)

Vanilla Icing

1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons softened Fleischmann’s margarine
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons hot water

Instructions

Rolls

Night before baking, sprinkle yeast over lukewarm water, stir to dissolve; set aside.
Combine flour, 1/4 cup sugar and salt in mixing bowl. Mix well.
Cut in 1 cup of Fleischmann’s oleo/margarine with a pastry blender or with your fingers until mixture resembles cornmeal.
Add yeast mixture, egg yolks and milk, stir with a fork until well blended.
Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight.
Next morning, grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan and set aside.
Combine in a small bowl 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon and set aside.
Roll dough on a floured surface into a rectangle, about 10 x 15-inches. Brush with 2 tablespoons melted oleo/margarine. Sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture, sprinkle with pecans and raisins. Starting at the wide end, roll up in a jellyroll fashion. Pinch edges well to seal.
Cut into 15 equal slices. Place cut side down, equally spaced, in prepared pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
Frost rolls.

Vanilla Icing

Mix sugar, oleo/margarine. Add vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon hot water and stir until smooth and well blended. Add more water as needed a few drops at a time.

What can you do if you are thrown under the bus by your boss when it was not really your fault?

I don’t remember exactly what I got blamed for, but I overheard my boss explaining to a client on the phone that his secretary; i.e., me, had failed to do whatever it was and reassuring the client that I would be disciplined.

The problem was that the mistake was my boss’s fault, not mine. In other words, he was covering his own ass by throwing me under the bus. He definitely had not intended that I should hear the conversation.

I was instantly furious. I took a lot of emotional abuse on that job, and I compensated and covered for a lot of mistakes on the parts of a lot of salespeople and managers to prevent loss of profits and/or company reputation. I was so constantly throwing myself under the bus to save face for a bunch of incompetents that most times they didn’t even know. Do you think I bothered to point out that the cost of four thousand steel shelves had been omitted by the “experienced” salesperson again on the project proposal I was typing, or did I just add them in and adjust the price, again?

One of my other roles in the company was CSR. In other words, if a client had a problem, it was up to me to solve it, ideally without “bothering” the salesperson “earning” the commission. In other words, the client to whom my boss was trashing my competency and reputation was very likely someone I was going to interact with repeatedly until the project was complete.

My boss hung up the phone and I immediately stomped into his office. Putting my hands on his desk so I could speak directly to his face, I made my fury known.

“By my own choice, I accept a lot of blame around here to clients for shit I don’t do, to protect your sorry asses, but I’ll be damned if you’re going to put the blame on me for your mistakes without my knowledge or permission!!”

My boss, with an hangdog expression, acknowledged that he was wrong and he apologized. In hindsight I wish he hadn’t. I really needed a kick in the ass to prompt me to quit that horrendous job.

Would’ve saved a lot of heartache.

Delusional GF Busted With The Most RIDICULOUS Pro/Con List Of All Time And Is About To Get Dumped!

Basically she’s implying that she’s settling.

What is the most jaw-dropping method for shoplifting that you have seen?

I worked loss prevention as the Team Lead. We had cameras in a retail clothing store and had multiple subjects we were watching. I moved to the floor to cover one of the guys and lost him. I looked around, and called over the radio for directions. When I turned around he was right there. I said never mind and then put the radio on my belt. The guy turned around and we chatted for a few minutes. I was about to move on when he asked me if I thought this place was easy to steal from. I told him no, security is pretty tight from what I understand. Then he asked me to watch for him while he stole a lot of items. I literally stood there in the aisle and stared at him while he concealed several items. He said he was done and wanted to know if I wanted him to watch for me while I stole. I told him nope, I’m good. He said thanks and headed to the door. Still in somewhat disbelief, I walked with him as we passed the registers and exited the store. As we got to the outside, I held the door shut and introduced myself. The look of shock was priceless. As I took him back to the office in handcuffs I reminded him, “Yes, you just asked the head of security to WATCH you while you shoplifted.”

What was the strangest part of your divorce?

The most peculiar part was the outcome.

I left Claire with the following:

A nice home fully paid for, mortgage free
A new car fully paid
No outstanding bills – everything paid
A nice portfolio of blue chip stocks which were little appreciated at the time
Paid up life insurance
An arrangement with a top financial advisor to assist her

Claire had 3 children of her own issue (as a couple, we had none). One existed independently and had little to say about the break-up.

Another was a highly dependent son who should have been on his own, but who was very attached to Claire, and she was very attached, to him.

An elder son who, with his wife, came to his mother’s (Claire’s) defense, warning her that I would attempt to impoverish myself to escape a generous settlement. I was pegged as the “bad guy.”

That’s the set-up. Here is what happened:

The elder son and his wife quickly realized the generosity of my settlement, and the reasons for my seeking divorce.
The other 2 children were a constant drain on Claire’s resources; purchases of property, cars, etc.
The dependent son and his wife moved in with Claire, as did the daughter.
Claire exhausted the liquid resources I gave her and had to sell the home I gave her. Subsequently, she also had to sell the replacement home she bought. Now she lives in poverty, as do the two children. Her only income is Social Security.

And meanwhile, the very protective son and his wife have welcomed me into their family, where I enjoy a most enriching relationship.

Thus Claire has not only impoverished herself, but also 2 of her children. And I enjoy the happiest relationship with her elder son and his wife.

Who knew? Well, something in me knew, and I am better for it.

Life is strange.

[EDIT:] The dependent son, Freddy died in early 2022. His mother, Claire, died in late 2022. I had to chip-in to pay funeral expenses.

Can I refuse for my child to attend an after-school detention?

In the UK yes you can… or at least my mum did and there wasn’t a DAMN thing the school could do about it.

Let me explain: My sister is the main character in this story.

She’s fiery and doesn’t know how to be quiet and just take things… she reacts…

Well… A boy in the school was going around grabbing/groping girls. He then made the mistake of groping my sister. She didn’t hesitate to floor him. And I mean she punched him on the face and he hit the deck.

Well, she got a detention. Fair enough, shouldn’t hit kids blah blah… but the boy DIDNT get detention for his actions.

My mum went to pick my sister up, I was there to witness, and found that she had a detention… When she asked why the teacher said she hit another student.

So my mum turned to my sister and asked what happened and my sister explained it all, about the constant groping and even warnings he had been given… she explained when, how and why she clobbered him.

So my mum looked around and asked where was this boy for his detention.

He had not been given one.

So my mum took my sister and said we are leaving. And we left despite the protests of the teacher. The headmaster walked down and tried to stop us, but we left. My mum told them that if they will not punish the boy for his sexual assaults, then they can not punish her daughter for defending herself.

And out we went. My mum bought us a Ice-lolly and told her she has the right to always defend herself… There are many more stories like this, but I will leave this here.

So in answer to your question, the care of the child ends at the end of the school day.

How do intelligent people deal with idiots?

1. Identify idiots early. The sooner you can identify an idiot, the sooner you can start to protect yourself from them.

2. Don’t try to change idiots. Idiots are not going to change, so don’t waste your time and energy trying to do so.

3. Don’t take idiots personally. Idiots are not attacking you personally, they are just being idiots.

4. Set boundaries with idiots. Don’t let idiots into your life if you don’t have to.

5. Don’t argue with idiots. It’s a pointless exercise.

6. Don’t try to explain yourself to idiots. They won’t understand.

7. Don’t try to reason with idiots. They are not reasonable people.

8. Don’t try to please idiots. They are impossible to please.

9. Don’t expect idiots to appreciate you. They don’t have the capacity to do so.

10. Don’t let idiots ruin your day. They are not worth it.

11. Don’t become an idiot yourself. It’s easy to do, but it’s important to remember that there is no excuse for bad behavior.

12. Learn to laugh at idiots. It’s the best way to cope with them.

13. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Idiots will try to make you feel bad about yourself, but don’t let them.

14. Remember that you are not alone. Everyone has to deal with idiots at some point in their lives.

15. Be kind to yourself. Dealing with idiots can be stressful, so make sure to take care of yourself.

I hope these lessons help you to deal with idiots effectively and to protect yourself from their negative influence.

Bypassers Found a Bobcat On the Railroad it Froze to the Rails

Be the Rufus

What screams “I’m educated, but not very bright”?

A patient has had a Rhinoplasty (plastic surgery to the nose) . Kept overnight at the hospital. It was 35 years ago, when patients were kept inpatient more than these days. Late day surgery. In the evening, the patient is vomiting blood. Nurse calls Intern. It was July, when Interns firs come into hospital, on call 24 hours. Fresh from school. Intern comes & diagnosed stomach bleed 🩸 🤣🤣. Never calls the attending. Intern Proceeds to place a nasogastric tube in patient’s freshly operated nose & wash the stomach with ice saline, a better portion of the night. Still, no one called the attending Physician… In the morning, the attending Physician comes in to discharge the patient & learns what has been done all night… patient did well but I’m sure nurse & intern got a tear down for their stupidity. The patient had either swallowed or much blood had gone down the stomach during surgery. Blood is difficult to digest. Never mind that many post op patients suffer from nausea & vomiting from pain meds etc. The blood vomiting was all old blood from surgery time & neither the nurse nor the intern knew that but worst of all, no body called the attending Physician. If this patient was really bleeding from his stomach, that much, that alone, warrants a call to the attending physician , which would have avoided the ice saline thing altogether. Sadly, this is vestiges of the old ways, when attending yelled at interns or nurses for “bothering “ them for stupid stuff. They helped create this atmosphere of fear & stupid things happened. True story.

What is the hardest thing you’ve had to tell your parents and how did they react?

I know this post is 6 months old, but I thought I’d share my story.

On January 9th 2019 my mother was admitted to the hospital during what was supposed to be a check-up with her oncologist. My mom was battling stage four endometrial cancer. She ended up in the hospital for about a month and eventually went home to stay with my aunt and uncle. The doctors advised she be in hospice but she wanted to be comfortable. I spent many days by my mom’s side, helping my aunt who was her caretaker and just being there.

On February 9th my mom went into a coma-like state, unconscious but still able to hear us and move here and there, but could not speak or see or do much of anything. Her body was shutting down. I spent every day by her bed with her, I knew that she needed to go. I knew that the hardest thing I’d ever do is lose my mom, my best friend, at the age of 24. But everyday I told her I loved her and that I’d be okay if she had to go.

For a week she held on. On Friday, February 15th my dad was flying into my hometown from California where he lives because he wanted to be here for me over the weekend. He knew the situation. Him and my mom were separated, never married, but they were on decent terms. I left my aunt’s house where my mom was to go pick him up from the airport. After my father’s plane landed and was evacuating the plane, I got the call that my mother’s heart rate was dropping. I was a mess, sobbing in the middle of the airport. I told my dad as soon as I saw him. Fast forward a few hours, my mother passed at 11pm on February 15th, 2019. The first person I called was my dad and it’s something I will never forget. Hearing him cry broke me down even more. It’s a memory embedded in my mind forever.

I truly believe that my mom waited to leave. She always said she wasn’t afraid to die, she was only afraid of leaving me. I believe she knew that my dad was going to be here, and she wanted to wait until I had the most important and supportive person here with me. She wanted me safe. Not everybody would believe in something like this, but I feel it in my heart. This Saturday will be a year since she passed and I miss her so much.

What single moment killed your relationship?

“can you book me flight tickets to California? I want to spend my Christmas break with you”

“Sure babe! How long?” I immediately jumped into my desk and took a look at the pricing. It was around $500. I’d then asked myself if it was too early in our relationship to spend that kind of money on someone. I tossed that thought away when I’d thought of how strong my feelings were for him.

“15 days! From 12th December to 26th December” he replied.

I jumped with joy.

“I’m so happy you’re spending 15 days with me”

“Oh I should have mentioned earlier, I won’t be spending all 15 with you. I want to see my friends too”

“Ok. What’s the plan then?” I asked.

“ I’ll spend the Saturday and Sunday with you and then Id go to San Francisco and meet …blah blah bleh blue…and..” I was impatiently waiting till my name came again on that list “and then I’d finish the trip off with blue blah bleh and that’s it..”

“So you’re spending 2 days with me?” I asked.

I got a shameless “yeah I’m sure you’ll be busy anyway and if you’re not you should make plans with your friends too for the break.”

That did it for me.

“I get that you’re still in school and it makes sense for me to pay because I have a job but I’m not going to spend $500 for 2 days of your time.”

To be fair, if we were dating for more than a year or something, I would have understood him better and would have spent that kind of money for him to be happy. But it had only been a month and he had shamelessly called to ask for a ticket and even had the courage to tell me that it wasn’t a trip for me. Sorry but not sorry. We broke up the next day and that’s the story of my shortest relationship. So glad I’d dodged that bullet.

China humiliates Blinken as he threatens China, says China commits genocide+crimes against humanity.

What was your biggest “nonsense” moment in the military?

Whilst on tour in Afghanistan a group of us was given a few days off in Kuwait. We flew directly from our base to the airport in Kuwait in a C130. We flew in full battle rattle, rifles, pistols front line ammo and grenades.We are also in uniform with body armor and helmet

We had our days off then went to the airport dressed as we came in. For some reason we had to go through a different area of the airport than when we came in. We were ushered through to a security check point

There was a large African American female contractor. She says to the first soldier

“Are you carrying any weapons ” ………the first guy says

” you mean apart from my rifle,pistol bayonet and grenades?”

“Yes , please take our all of your equipment and put it on the conveyor belt”

“Why?”

“Sir need to check that you aren’t carrying any weapons”

“You need to X-ray my rifle and webbing to check for weapons? That’s stupid you can see them”

” you might use a hidden weapon to highjack the plane”

“If I want to highjack the plane I will use my rifle, besides why would a soldier highjack an Air Force plane “

” are you going to highjack the plane”?

“No”

“Then I need to check your gear”

This went back and forth went in for a few minutes before the soldier removed his gear and put it through the machine

The next soldier then proceeds to have exactly the same argument with the security guard. The whole scene degenerates into a farce.

One other soldier and I get frustrated and simply walk around the checkpoint then out a side door and onto the plane.

Perhaps she now works for TSA

12 Things no one tells you about adult life

Not everyone will like you for being a good person.
People will hate you just because other people likes you.
If you don’t learn to say no, you will keep doing the things what people says.
Life will only give you what you deserves.
If you are talented then also you have to work hard.
No matter who you are there will always be someone who will hate you.
You will repeat your own mistakes many times.
There will be someone who will love you no matter what.
Relatives can be your enemies sometimes.
Age doesn’t defines maturity.
Situation will force you to leave everything but that time defines you.
Self love matters a lot. If you love yourself then you don’t need anyone else for anything. You can make yourself happy.

I just got fired. Now my former boss (the one who let me go) is asking me where some important documents are. How should I respond?

As many pointed out, there are two scenarios here:

You are still in possession of company property, such as an old work laptop or company documents. In this case, I would try to return everything in your possession ASAP (your earliest convenience within reason, but at least 7–14 days ahead of any deadline), and fully document everything. Not returning their property could be grounds for voiding any severance agreement you signed or even legal action.
They need your help to do something that was previously part of your day to day responsibilities. Whether is finding old documents that you worked with (but are not in your possession), documenting a knowledge transfer handoff, or dealing with expired certs/credentials that are associated with a business process previously tied to your account. In this case, they are pretty much f**ked (and likely desperate). You can agree to help them, at whatever rate you feel is reasonable as a consultant (compared to your previous salary and/or severance package). Of course, it may impact any reference you receive from this company, so tread carefully.

Some vintage comics for today

Have you ever fired someone for not coming to work on time?

Yep. In the 1980s I worked at a financial services firm in Harrogate, England. In mid 1987 the HR manager employed a young woman, Nicky, as an administrator. She came from a well-to-do middle-class family and lived about a mile from the office, where we had private parking, and she had her own car, paid for by mummy and daddy. Despite all those advantages, she was never on time, always looked unwashed, and smelt like it, but our useless HR manager tolerated it. When I left the firm are the end of ’88 she was still as lazy, slovenly, and useless as she had been on her first day, and the slack HR manager was still tolerating her. Apparently, the HRM was friends with Nicky lazy-arse’s mother.

Fast forward to 1995 and I’m working at another financial services firm in Leeds, England. The local HR Director hires… Nicky lazy-arse! Again it turns out that the HRD, Celia, is a friend of NLA’s mother. Again she never shows up on time, again she is unwashed, slovenly, and smelly. Unfortunately for her though, the firm was in crisis and the bosses in London needed to slim it down. They knew Celia wouldn’t sort it, so they appointed me. On my first day, NLA was late as usual, with some bullshit story about her cat having gotten out and her having to get it back in before she could leave home. She got a verbal warning. On my second day, she was late again and again trotted out some made-up story. She got a written warning, which she said she wasn’t accepting, but she got it anyway. On the third day, she was late again. Again, a pathetic made-up story. I fired her.

Eastern Asians are the smartest humans over the Earth, despite all Western propaganda. Natives of the Americas are considered “Mongoloids” too. Any advice from Eastern Asians to not get dumbness caused by poverty and bad governments imposed by USA?

I am born in East Asia, I lived my entire 66 years of my life in East Asia, I am an a Chinese origin Singaporean so I am very qualified to speak! The U.S. must recognised that it’s time as the world barbaric bully is truly over and done with.

Americans must recognised facts that it cannot deny it took over the biggest and baddest barbarian of the world from UK in 1945 because it was the only one left with one eye when the rest of the world that is strong and powerful fought each other till all are half dead! You can say the U.S. is the king of the blind in 1945.

In spite of taking all the advantage to shape the world your way and stealing all the spoilt of the world war 2 it don’t take long before Europe overtook you, then Japan and East Asia and today the U.S. is a pale shadow of yourself compared to 1945!

Your debts and deficits are up to the roof. You guys have a million people living in tents homeless, if you take away say 10 richest Americans. Your nation is more like number 20 in per capital GDP. Your life expectancy is 76 which is 2 years old lover than China who spends one sixth of the U.S. to care for a population 4 times your size!

Today your debts has turned unsustainable, 35 trillion and adding a trillion every 3 months! Your nation plus 41 of your dogs nation plus a host of slave vassals threw your kitchen sink collective against Russia for 2 years over yet you have clearly lost! Oh you lost in Korea, in Vietnam to rice farmers, to Afghanistan to goat herder and it is time to stop pretending that you are the top dog and be humble again.

The last thing to call yourself is being exceptional or even good and it is time you need to work with East Asia and the rest of the world. Yes get into your thick skull the world don’t belong to you. And stop regime change it is totally democratic! Stop war mongering, you don’t have enough to care for your own people. 35% of American are poor by world standards! They have less than 500 buck in their name! If the fall sick the cannot get cure because they have no health insurance! Your kids get to debts before they get into life because they are charge exorbitant college fees!

America you cannot be a world policeman. No one wants you to be and certainly no one will pay a cent for it! Go back to do what all nation leaders do. Take care of your people and feed them well! You have done enough damage to the world. It is time to stop! China and Russia cannot be stopped, together they are impossible to stopped and plus Global South is like David and Goliath and you are David! Stop pretending, I know it feels good to lie to yourself but it is time to stop!

Start fighting hard to help the world that you destroyed by and large single handedly. And stop hiding behind democracy and freedom you guys have none of them! Stop pretending and stand up to your responsibility of 100 plus million deaths worldwide and don’t add another soul more! Take whatever winning you still have and try to keep it as long as you can and make a better America! We the world wants that you are another nation and a good customer and our partner.

If you continue to do shit you will pay and pay dearly. You cannot win with your fellow shit stirrer and you has been group of dogs nations and slave vassal states it can only hasten your demise! Stop it. That is my advise!

What is having a girlfriend like?

You can kiss anywhere you want! Forehead kisses, kiss on cheeks, horizontal kiss, vertical kiss 😉 .
You’ll have someone to talk to day or night and have conversations for hours.
When you’re feeling low you know whom to call and she’ll make sure you feel great again.
She will care for you. Asks you if you’ve taken your medicines in time or warns you before you do anything stupid.
You will have never ending talks and if your interests are same, you’ll talk about the whole universe.
You get bragging rights in front of your single friends :p .
The feeling of comfort when you are in her arms can’t be described in words.
If someone hurts her, it hurts you more.
Your girl will take you to different shopping places. So you go out more often.
You’ll get unexpected gifts that will make you feel special.
She’s the first person to wish you on your birthday. Sharp 12:00 a.m.
If you’re both financially independent you’ll help each other grow both financially and mentally.
You’ll get your s*xual needs or desires fulfilled.
*When she did something wrong and you are mat at her*. She: Sorry I won’t do it again 😢. He: please don’t talk to me. She: Please na, I’ll do anything for you 😉. He: anything? She: anything you want😜. (Nothing but a random conversation between nibba nibbi).

Vientiane, Laos: Our First Impressions

A nice vacation off the beaten track.

What is the biggest inconvenience you’ve faced and turned into an advantage? How can you get ahead when the going gets rough?

I have been HIV positive for 31 years. It was a death sentence when I was first diagnosed. Everyone died. No treatment. You were also deemed an untouchable, a pariah. I was a straight woman and felt I had no community and no one to share with. What I did with this awful fate was choose to be free. Do things I would normally be afraid of doing. I spoke my mind and even made it funny. Now after living with this debilitating disease for most my adult life I have a body of work I would never had accomplished without this diagnosis.

I was a fitness trainer in my last year of college when I found out. My goal in life back then was to have a great body. HIV pushed me so much farther than that. After I found out I did not give a crap what I looked like anymore. Life was too short for vanity. What a liberating moment that was!

I wrote six books, was a sex columnist for 10 years, I became a slam poet and eventually was named Poet Laureate of Bucks County. I did a one-woman show, Sex, Cellulite & Large Farm Equipment: One Girl’s Guide To Living & Dying in theaters all over the world. I traveled internationally speaking on sexuality, HIV, sexual assault and addiction. I was given an honorary PhD for my work. I appeared on many TV shows as a writer, activist and performer.

I eventually retreated to the Caribbean to paint full time. Painting huge colorful paintings. As I painted I really felt what HIV had given me, the ability to not judge my work, to go for it. I would often say when I felt afraid of the canvas, making mistakes on a big painting, “You are going to die anyway, just paint!”

HIV is a huge inconvenience. I hate it and wish I did not have it. I have suffered so many physical challenges, depression, and loneliness but I decided to not let it define me and to use it to allow me to bypass the mundane minutia that makes life so often drab and futile. I never worried about money. I didn’t have it but it didn’t matter, I had enough. I never worried about the future or getting old because it was not going to happen. And now that it has happened and I have no savings, no plan I took a leap of faith and I retired to a small mountain town in Mexico where I could live cheaply and allow myself the luxury of spiritual growth, spending many of my bedridden days in deep meditation. I have become fearless through this disease.

Life is life and I live in the moment, in complete acceptance, at peace. That is a place I do not believe I would have ever landed in this life with out the inconvenience of AIDS.

Big Blueberry Popover

I’ve never had a popover before, nor do I have a proper “popover pan,” but those aren’t good reasons to never try my hand at making them! I wanted to know what all the fuss was about, so I did some research using my favorite chefs and food blogs and settled on the unbeatable Julia Child for my base recipe. Always having to make a baked good my own, I decided to sweeten the recipe and add blueberries for fresh blueberry popovers worthy of tea time.

Great for breakfast – a refreshing change of pace from muffins. Wonderful with blueberries, but any berry can be used.

Yield: 6 servings

At first, the recipes and tips seemed overwhelming. I thought popovers were complicated, but they really aren’t. It’s a simple egg batter with no leavening that is cooked very hot to create steam. This steam forces the batter to rise, making a crispy shell and an airy, custardy center. Blueberry popovers make the perfect breakfast treat along with some tea, or maybe as a side to a sweet salad to sop up the dressing.
Popovers are very forgiving. Not only do I not own a popover pan, but I don’t even own a metal muffin tin (gasp!). I forgot I had purged most of my metal pans that had rusted and replaced everything with flexible silicone during a kitchen spring cleaning. I pushed on, and you know what? It worked just fine.

How to Make Blueberry Popovers

Traditional popovers are just five ingredients: eggs, butter, salt, milk and flour. I added in some sugar and blueberries and topped them with cinnamon sugar. They really are quite simple.
Start by preheating your oven to 450 degrees and setting the rack on the lowest setting. Next, grease your muffin tray or popover pan with butter or oil and place the pan in the oven to pre-heat. If, like me, you are using silicone, place the muffin pan on a metal tray for stability.
The most important rule is to have all of your ingredients at room temperature. If you decided that you need to bake impulsively, you can warm the eggs in a bowl of very warm water for ten minutes, microwave the milk for 30 seconds, and microwave the butter at 20 second intervals until melted.
Mix the eggs, milk, butter, sugar, and salt together. Then whisk in the flour all at once until the batter is as thick as heavy cream with very few lumps. You can also use a stand mixer or blender. You want the batter to have some air in it, so whip it until it is foamy.

Ingredients

1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/4 cup granulated sugar, divided use
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup blueberries or other berries

Carefully take your pan out of the preheated oven. We are going to add the room temperature batter into the hot pan to kick-start the steaming process. I mixed my batter in a large liquid measuring cup for ease of pouring, but you could also use a dry measuring cup or ladle to distribute the batter into every other muffin cup or each popover tin. You want to fill each space slightly more than halfway, which makes a very satisfying sizzling sound.

Moving quickly, sprinkle a few blueberries into each cup and top liberally with cinnamon sugar. Place the tray back in the oven and set a timer for twenty five minutes. You have to be patient with popovers, so no peeking! Opening the oven door lets out too much heat and could interrupt the steaming process, leading to less of a pop.

After 25 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 325. Most recipes called for another twenty minutes in the oven, but my blueberry popovers were done in ten. You know they are done when the tops are a deep golden brown and tapping on them creates a hollow sound. Blueberry popovers are best eaten fresh from the oven, as they deflate and soften as they cool.

Instructions

Mix first 5 ingredients + 3 tablespoon sugar in a large bowl. Stir in flour, then eggs until just combined; let this batter stand for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl; set aside.
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees F.
Place berries in a buttered 9 inch pie pan. Pour batter over the berries; sprinkle cinnamon-sugar over the batter.
Transfer pan to the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F; bake until popover is firm and golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes longer.
Cut popover into wedges and serve immediately.

Which creative invention has never been used?

Starlite is a revolutionary material that was invented in the 1980s by a British hairdresser named Maurice Ward.

It is a type of heat-resistant material that has the potential to withstand extremely high temperatures, making it ideal for use in a variety of applications. Despite its incredible potential, Starlite remains largely unknown, and its fate is still shrouded in mystery.

The invention of Starlite is a fascinating story that began with a freak accident. In 1985, Ward was experimenting with different materials to find a way to create a better hair gel. One day, while mixing different chemicals together, he accidentally spilled the mixture onto a hot lightbulb. To his amazement, the material didn’t burn, but instead formed a hard crust over the lightbulb. This was the inspiration for Starlite.

Over the next few years, Ward worked on developing his invention, experimenting with different combinations of chemicals and additives. He tested the material extensively, subjecting it to extreme heat, fire, and even explosions, and found that it was able to withstand temperatures of up to 10,000 degrees Celsius. He named the material Starlite, and began to explore the many potential applications of his invention.

One of the most exciting possibilities for Starlite was its use in space exploration. NASA and other space agencies were interested in finding a material that could protect spacecraft from the intense heat of re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. Starlite seemed like the perfect solution, and Ward began to work with NASA to develop the material for this purpose.

However, despite the incredible potential of Starlite, its fate remains uncertain. Ward was notoriously secretive about the composition of the material, refusing to reveal the ingredients to anyone, including potential investors and customers. He claimed that the formula was so valuable that he needed to keep it a secret in order to protect his invention from theft.

As a result, Starlite never became the commercial success that many had hoped for. Despite numerous offers from investors and potential customers, Ward refused to share his secrets, and ultimately died in 2011 without ever revealing the formula for his invention.

Today, Starlite remains a mystery. While some have attempted to recreate the material using various chemical compounds and additives, no one has been able to replicate Ward’s original formula. Some believe that the material may have been a hoax or a simple trick, while others argue that Ward was a genius who truly invented a revolutionary material.

I caught my neighbor using my electrical outlets outside, and I told him I was going to call the cops and tell them what he was doing. He laughed and said I can’t prove it. What should I do?

I caught the builder next door doing this. I had given him permission to recharge his cordless tools at the workbench in my carport. That wasn’t going to cost me very much.

But then a few days later I saw an extension flex leading across the boundary line, powering two industrial dehumidifiers. I told him, nicely, that he hadn’t asked about that.

He instantly said, how much do you want for the power? I said, what’s the load and how long is it going to be on? He invited me to have a look. I did some quick calculations and gave him a guess, a range of possibilities, saying it was a guess. He straight away handed me a bundle of cash for about twice the highest figure I’d quoted and gave me a realistic figure for what it would cost him to hire and run a generator, and said he’d be back with more cash when they were finished with the power. And he was, but I refused… he’d already paid far more than it had cost me.

A builder wants to be on good terms with the neighbours. I’m watching his stuff.

And it can work to be nice.

UPDATE – The Sisterhood Is Coming For Me

Her: Um.. babe…I’m AC-DC…..

Him: Well, that’s nice. Have a good life! “footsteps waking into the distance” ….

Why did WWII fighter pilots wear goggles in enclosed cockpits?

Multiple fluid lines ( oil, fuel, etc ) ran through the cockpit, if one of them ruptured ( which was common ) it could spray a pilot in the face & disorient them. During combat the chance of this happening was even greater. The cockpit was also unpressurized, thus moisture freezing over or cold air blowing in from a bullet hole/ crack in the canopy was a hazard. Lastly it was common for pilots to open up the canopy during landing procedures to increase visibility, thus they would have air blowing in their faces. Overall more PPE ( personal protective equipment) equals more safety for the user ( flak jackets, heated clothing, gloves, goggles etc )

main qimg 04217a4744bde1cdcc5309fcc76da014 lq

USAAF pilot.

main qimg 20f3c768234e88804f622bbe2aedced1 lq

US dive bombers returning to their carrier, notice open canopy.

What is the most horrifying noise you have ever heard?

It was a beautiful Spring day in 1998. My two best friends and I had just spent a lovely several hours riding and grooming our horses. We’d left and were driving to meet other friends at a local restaurant frequented by riders in the area , a place where we’d all meet up to have “ horse talk “ . As we were approaching a big intersection on the way there we heard a horrific screech of tires and the loudest crash I’d ever heard filled by piercing screams then immediate cries of help help help us ! We saw smoke rising in the air as we made it to the intersection . To our absolute horror, two cars had collided mid intersection, sending one car crashing into a tree. We stopped our car immediately and ran to see if we could help . Two women were stuck in the backseat of the convertible , the legs pinned seemingly under the front seats of the car. they screamed in pain . One of my friends and I both spoke to these women who were completely conscious as the driver of the car got out and was in pure disbelief dashing around the vehicle not knowing what to do. I asked if he was okay , and if he could call 911. Both he and my other friend called , the other of us two tried to free the women from the backseat … it was difficult to understand them and there was alot of blood. Suddenly, two police cars and an ambulance arrived and we backed away to the side of the road. The policeman and the EMT’s weren’t able to free the women and a fire truck had been summoned. The fireman used the jaws of life to get the women out of the backseat . When to everyone’s horror , the women had both lost appendages! It was then one woman began screaming for her baby . Turns out she had been holding her 3 month old baby in her lap . Another ambulance had arrived by this time as did two more firetrucks …. The scene and the noises were macabre , terrifying and sad. I will never forget the anguished mothers cries when she realized her baby was underneath the seat in front of her and had not survived. Her screams towered over all the other sounds of the wreckage rescue. I will never forget it. It turns out they lived just a few blocks away and were travelling “ just around the corner “ to their sisters house. The other car who ran into them left the scene of the accident. He was later found and charged with vehicular manslaughter resulting in death , leaving the scene of the accident and DWI .

What office rule made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?

When I worked at Dreamworks I shared an office with another artist. It was a long skinny office with one of us at each end. There were stacks of used couches in the basement. We asked if we could move one of the couches into our office. We were told couches were only for management. (There were many more couches than there were managers.) We asked if we could bring in our own couch and were told that was fine. (We bought a $200 couch from Ikea and put it in our office.)

—

Dreamworks used to have wintergreen lifesavers in all the commons areas. (You work in close proximity to others during approvals.) Then they hired Steve (name changed). After work every day Steve would go around to the commons areas and dump all the uneaten lifesavers into a bag and take them home. Dreamworks also used to stock the fridges with drinks. He would take those too. When my supervisor confronted Steve, he wasn’t embarassed or even trying to cover up his actions. He thought everyone else was stupid for not taking them because they were free and no one had taken them during the day. Dreamworks also didn’t mind if you occasionally invited a family member for lunch at the studio. The understood rule was no more than once a month. When Steve found out no one really checked how often, and security would let him “wife plus kids” a drive-on, he started bringing his whole family in for lunch, his wife plus their 4 kids, every day. Then they started coming for lunch and breakfast which was just oatmeal and cold cereal for employees that had to be there early (Steve didn’t). So here’s one guy who’s abusing the system that 400 other people were not abusing. Instead of pulling Steve aside and explaining the rules, they cut the entire benefit for all employees.

Why China is already ahead of the US

Pretty good. Gives insight into just how backwards the USA actually is.

Carl Zha talks to Dr. Oualaalou of the @geopoliticaltrends and @GeopoliticsInConflict about why China is already miles ahead of the US in many areas such as public infrastructure, especially in power generation and ultra-high voltage power transmission, how China is rapidly catching up in areas long dominated by the US such as civilian aircraft. #chinaeconomy #uschina #tradewar

A chair that cats would love

Working as an engineer, and getting laid off every 6 to 9 months or so wasn’t a very stable life. I really don’t know why I put up with it. I somehow had this idea that it would eventually end, and things would change.

But nope.

It never did.

As a result, as soon as I would start a new job (always in a new state, in a new geographic city) I would have to start fresh. Hustling at work, then rushing home to set up the household.

And by the time that things were settled down to some kind of state of normalcy, I’d get the rug ripped out from under me yet again.

Sigh.

Always on a Friday.

Or, the day right before a holiday, like Christmas.

All that time, I really didn’t have the time and resources to furnish a house properly. So I would grab and pick and place what ever was needed at the time. And yes, I did have a nice set of living room sofas and tables when I was in training at China Lake.

But that was the exception.

Not the rule.

Oh, and I did buy a great “sleigh” bed that was simply awesome! But that is not germane to this story, anyways.

However, I did splurge once.

I did. I bought something for myself.

After my divorce from my first wife finally occurred, and youse guys know how difficult it is to divorce a person with a mental illness, I celebrated by buying myself a nice leather chair.

It was a real, old fashioned chair, fully upholstered in real leather, and I loved it.

So did my cats.

They would claw it all the time, and the hide would never tear. Thus giving the chair a nice rustic and worn look. Ah, I did love that thing.

But life happens.

When I was carted off to prison, my “friends” took my belongings and I haven’t seen them since. Same with all my books and electronics.

All gone.

Sigh.

…

Anyways, us men don’t need much.

A computer; a big screen. A nice chair. A bed.

That’s about it.

If you do want to be spartan and have something comfortable, invest in a top of the line, leather chair. You will never regret it.

No matter how much it costs.

Trust me on this.

A man needs his very own chair.

HIS chair.

Not a chair for the dogs to take over, or the kids to play on. That’s “daddy’s chair” Keep off of it.

A man needs a chair.

Today…

Does it bother you that TikTok CEO, Shou Chew, is repeatedly asked if he is a member of the Chinese Communist Party despite being Singaporean?

Yes, it does.

This is a deliberately loaded question asked by Sen. Tom Cotton repeatedly to score propaganda points in the US media. This is because most Americans have been taught to have an irrational hatred of the word “Communist”, without understanding that the word is simply a relic from the Party’s founding in 1921.

Saying that the Communist Party of China believes in Communism is like saying that the US Democratic Party believes that the US is a democracy, while the Republican Party believes that the US is a republic. While there is some basis to this, the policy differences between both parties are much more profound than what is reflected in their names.

Many Americans continue to believe that the CPC is dedicated to “defeating” the US, and converting American society to a form of government like China’s.

In fact, the Chinese government is pro-development and pro-trade, because China has grown to the world’s second-largest economy in fifty years by introducing capitalist policies supported and promoted by the US, and participating in trade organizations like the World Trade Organization (WTO).

US politicians and the media have repeatedly accused Chinese companies of IP violations and violating the rules, but this is something all growing economies have done in their history. In the second half of the nineteenth century, this was what US inventors, entrepreneurs and manufacturers did to Europe.

To sum up, the use of this language is part of a concerted effort to dehumanize any business which has been successful in China, and is now successful outside China.

This dehumanizing paves the way for more extreme measures and actions in the future.

Unfortunately, this rhetoric has been used repeatedly in the US’s past with American Indians, Irish, Italians, Chinese in the 19th century, African-Americans, Jews, Japanese-Americans, Hispanics and Muslims.

Now it is the turn of the Chinese again.

Pretzel Chicken

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

8 pieces of your favorite cut of chicken
1 cup pretzel crumbs
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Salt and pepper to taste
Garlic powder, to taste
Paprika to taste
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions

Crush pretzels in blender.
Mix (in a bowl or paper bag) pretzels, flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika.
In another bowl, combine soy sauce and lemon juice.
Dip chicken pieces into liquid mixture, then roll around (or shake in paper bag) in dry mixture.
Put the coated pieces in a shallow or flat pan lined with foil.
Bake at 375 degrees F for one hour.
Turn over chicken over after 30 minutes.

U.S. foreign policy isolates the U.S.

This is a very, very good discussion.

As I have said many times: the isolator becomes isolated. People are sick of the bully and are fighting back.

In a country with universal healthcare, is there a limit to how much you will be cared for?

Yes there is. I have experience of both the UK NHS and also HK’s system.

I’ve lived under the PRC system but don’t have much experience with it as I don’t get ill and hopefully this will remain the same for a long time.

The UK has NICE – National Institute of Clinical Excellence.

For regular injuries and stuff no, I had my nose and fingers broken many many times from fights in the UK, they kept putting me back together, but for more complex treatments…

In short they decide what drugs can be used, what to treat and how many treatments you can be given of something. Some drugs under NICE are too expensive for the benefit. So they’re not purchased or used by the NHS. Some treatments like IVF are limited in how many times you can have it.

In HK? There is a nominal fee, but there have been cases where there is strict rationing, the HK medical system is very pain killer happy. They’ll give you painkillers even if you’re quite badly hurt and tell you to go away. There’s 5–6 pretty tragic cases of somebody needing an organ. Organ donation is iffy here due to cultural things. But I remember several men, they found a viable liver / kidney. But they couldn’t perform the transplant as they simply didn’t have the budget to carry out the surgery so they had to wait till the next tax year. But by then the organ had been given to somebody else.

The Dating Scene DESTROYED Them But Women Keep Coming Back For More

This is a great Video. This brings back painful memories which i have been enduring. My relationship of 5 years ended 3 months ago. The love of my life decided to leave me, I really love her so much I can’t stop thinking about her, I’ve tried my very best to get her back in my life, but to no avail, I’m frustrated, I don’t see my life with anyone else. I’ve done my best to get rid of the thoughts of her, but I can’t, I don’t know why I’m saying this here, I really miss her and just can’t stop thinking about her.

Have you ever witnessed a tragedy at a wedding?

The culmination of “Murphy’s Law” in excess.

When I was 20, my two good friends, E and S, were getting married. I had known him, E, since high school, and her, S, since the start of college.

They were both those clumsy types of people — you know the type who seems to always trip on that small thing, or slip on that patch of ice.

While at their wedding, it seemed that their clumsiness transferred to everyone and everything else—meaning that nearly everything that could go wrong, did, in fact, go wrong.

Here’s a summary list, instead of the whole story:

Power cut out while everything was being set up—this was not the only power outage that would happen.
The priest who was to wed them was late—got in a fender-bender accident on the way.
The rings were supposed to be delivered by the best man. He forgot them. So he had to drive the one hour round trip to get them.
The photographer dropped his camera and shattered it. He said not to worry, he had a backup—he dropped it, too. Their pictures were taken by standard cameras from relatives.
When the priest finally arrived, he slipped on someone’s spilled coffee, breaking his wrist. He still conducted the ceremony.
The air conditioning quit working after the second power outage, right as the music to walk down the aisle was starting. It would get so hot that everyone was sweating profusely by the end.
When the groom, E, was waiting at the altar, the power went out again. A few laughs, a few groans, and quite a bit of murmurs of annoyance were all that could be heard.
As the ceremony began, the priest had the wrong names—called them two women’s names. Awkwardness at best.
The best man passed out, mostly due to the stress of having to race back to his house to get the rings and the heat inside once the AC cut out.
One of the relatives in the back got into a fight with another and had to be escorted out of the building.
Power went out once more as vows were being said.
After they’re officially married and exiting, the bride slipped on some thrown “bird-friendly” rice. The groom got one in his eye.
The printed instructions to the reception took everyone to the wrong entrance, which, as it is set up, means that everyone was beyond confused on how to circle the whole compound just to get to the other side. It took 20 minutes for people to make some signs and stand on the corner to redirect people where to go.
They had an open bar. A drunken uncle loudly wished, over the microphone, them the best “F*cks of their lives.”
A jaded ex of the groom’s (also an old acquaintance of mine) tried to crash the reception and make a scene – thankfully she was handled by the reception hall’s security.
Finally, they both fell during the bride/groom dance.

They’re both still happily married, 10 years later, and just as clumsy as ever.

CONFIRMED: Dengue Fever Outbreak in Brazil and Peru – Millions Sick, Thousands Dead

Hal Turner World May 01, 2024

Brazil surpassed 4 million cases of dengue fever registered this year, according to an update from the Ministry of Health’s Arbovirus Monitoring Panel this Monday. Argentina now has its own outbreak.

In total, 4,127,571 probable cases of the disease were reported across the country in the first four months of 2024.

As for dengue deaths, 1,937 have been confirmed and 2,345 are under investigation. The incidence rate of the disease in the country is 2,032.7 cases for each group of 100,000 population.

The most affected age group is 20 to 29 years old, which accounts for the majority of cases. The least affected age group is children under 1 year old, followed by people aged 80 or over and children aged 1 to 4 years old.

The units of the Federation with the highest incidence of the disease are the Federal District, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Espírito Santo, Goiás and Santa Catarina.

Projections released at the beginning of the year indicate that dengue cases in the country could reach 4,225,885. With the country already seeing over 4.1 Million cases, that estimate is way low.

It is noteworthy that about 6 weeks ago Bill Gates & Oxitec released genetically modified mosquitoes in Brazil.

PERU

Deaths caused by the mosquito-borne dengue disease have more than tripled in Peru so far this year, according to data from the South American nation’s government, which is redoubling efforts to contain an epidemic that has hit poor areas the hardest.

The government this week said it had approved an “emergency decree” allowing extraordinary economic measures to bolster the plan to counter the outbreak.

Mild symptoms include nausea, rashes and body pains, while a rarer severe form, more threatening for infants and pregnant women, can cause internal bleeding and is potentially fatal.

Peru’s health ministry said that as of Thursday, there were 117 registered deaths from dengue so far this year compared with 33 in the same period of 2023. Suspected cases have also more than tripled to reach some 135,000.

So Bill Gates and his pals released mosquitos in South America, and now Brazil and Peru are suffering wild Dengue Fever Outbreaks. I have questions….and not about climate change.

Africa will Be the New China Very Soon – Economist Jeffrey Sachs.

“Africa is a continent brimming with potential. From its rich natural resources to its vibrant cultures and entrepreneurial spirit, Africa is poised to become a global powerhouse

“Africa’s potential lies in its youthful population, its expanding markets, and its increasing connectivity to the global economy. With the right investments and policies, Africa can unleash a wave of innovation and growth that benefits both its people and the world.”

“One of Africa’s greatest assets is its abundant natural resources, including minerals, oil, and arable land.”

“With sustainable management and responsible investment, Africa’s natural wealth can drive economic development and lift millions out of poverty.”

“Africa’s potential extends beyond its resources. It’s a hotbed of innovation and creativity, with a burgeoning startup ecosystem that’s generating solutions to some of the continent’s most pressing challenges.”

From fintech to renewable energy, African entrepreneurs are harnessing technology to drive social impact and economic progress.”

“Africa’s cultural diversity is another source of strength and potential. Its art, music, and traditions are capturing global attention and driving tourism and cultural exchange.”

What is the reason behind Chinese companies, such as Huawei, choosing to purchase from TSMC instead of constructing their own fabs?

In the early days of the semiconductor industry, technical difficulty and investment were relatively small, and a single company could complete all aspects of design, manufacturing, and testing. For example, Intel in the 1990s completed all aspects alone.

As Moore’s Law continues to develop, semiconductors are becoming more sophisticated and complex. The cost for a single company to complete all links is getting higher and higher, and resource utilization is getting lower and lower. As a result, division of labor began to appear throughout the industry. After entering the 21st century, semiconductor design, manufacturing, packaging and testing are often completed by professional companies.

Semiconductor design companies focus on designing semiconductors and applying them in their own fields. Semiconductor manufacturing companies focus on production, and they do not care about design and application. This will help these companies leverage their own strengths and maximize the use of assets, thereby reducing costs and improving efficiency.

China’s semiconductor companies emerged in the 2010s, when the world’s semiconductor division of labor was already very mature. Their scale cannot be compared with companies like Intel or AMD, or Qualcomm. To compete with leading companies, they must adapt to this division of labor, reduce their costs to the greatest extent, and improve their competitiveness. Even traditional semiconductor giants like AMD and Qualcomm entrust semiconductor production to manufacturers like TSMC.

Therefore, it is very normal for companies like Huawei to entrust semiconductor manufacturing to companies like TSMC. It would be foolish and unreasonable for them to build their own production capacity from scratch and try to replace TSMC.

This is reflected in a reporter’s interview with Huawei CEO Yu in 2020. He told reporters: We used to believe very much in global division of labor, and we believed that global division of labor was the most efficient option. Therefore, US sanctions have made us very passive. If we had chosen to invest in semiconductor manufacturing, we would not be facing these troubles today.

Obviously, it is political behavior that destroys the natural selection of the market, and the global division of labor in semiconductors is destroyed.

KNOCKOUT: China’s BOLD Move Threatens To Dethrone The US In Europe’s Economy

In a bold move, China is moving fast to court the EU economy away from the US. President will be visiting France, Serbia and Hungary to show Europe there are big benefits in partnering and trading with China. More importantly, building China’s trade allows them to secure their economy against US economic sanctions. Here’s what you must know!

How can the Indian government support and empower farmers to enhance their role in the country’s economy?

When asked a question like this, with respect to India, I always find out

What did the Chinese do?

Next I find out

What are the mistakes the Chinese did?

Next I find out

How can we modify the Chinese solution to suit India given the differences in Land ownership, Laws and Political system?

Facts:-

Now China is a nation of 1.4 Billion people just like India is

In both these nations, Agriculture is a sustenance activity

This means the priority is to FEED 1.4 BILLION PEOPLE rather than use Agriculture and convert it into a Fully Profit based commercial model

Unlike Brazil, Russia or Ukraine where Agriculture is a fully commercial activity like any other with a fully established profit motive

So in both India and China – the Farmer is NOT a businessman working on a profit motive

His priority is to grow as much food grains as possible to ensure the country can eat

India and China both depend on the Supply Side Model

This means farmers grow the maximum crop they can produce and THEN demand is catered to

If there is excess, prices fall and if there is a deficit, prices rise and the Nation imports to bring down prices or uses RESERVE STOCKS

Thus it’s clear that

The Farmer is not a Businessman and treating him like one is a big minus

It is clear that the Farmers only job must be to efficiently grow crops and get a high yield

It is someone else’s Job to protect the farmer from market price shocks and to ensure the farmer can sustain himself and grow

In China – this role is adopted by the State

The State sets a fair price, The State sets the storage and transportation costs, The State provides the seed and facilities, The State gives insurance against floods and bad weather

In India – this role is not fulfilled properly by anyone

Prices are set by exploitative and opaque bodies in the name of market forces, Seed and facilities are private and depend on loans, Insurance is a rarity and non existent on any but largest holdings

Thus Capitalism is brutally exploited

In China a farmer can get a Tractor on a State loan and flexibly pay across a 5 year period with no interest

In India, a farmer borrows at 10.50% interest and can repossess the tractor if 3 months interest isn’t paid

Thus the first thing to do is to

Offer Nationwide Insurance against Crop failures to farmers which should include payment of bank interest for 6–9 months at least
Get the State to handle Storage and Distribution of Grain or get a State -Private Body Joint Venture to do so at fixed capped costs
Change the nature of Agricultural financing

You do this, then the next step is to take care of the operational aspects of Agriculture

NEEDED TO BE SAID!!! | Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond REACTION!!!!

THIS MAN SPEAKS TRUTH TO POWER!! His words echo in my old soul!

What made you emotional today?

An old man named Leonard Mack cried today in court. His attorneys comforted him. In 1975, Mack was a 23-year-old Vietnam veteran, he had a two-year-old daughter and a newborn son. His family meant the world to him. Then, just as he was beginning to find his way in this world, he was falsely accused of raping a teenage girl…

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Leonard Mack, an innocent man, landed behind bars. And for almost eight years he remained imprisoned. He missed vital parts of the childhood of his son and daughter. Missed first steps, first words. Life passed him by, and all he could do was be an onlooker from afar, frozen in time, stuck in a steel and concrete hellhole… when he was freed, he was now in his thirties, and forced to go through life as a felon and a registered sex offender. His life, in a sense, was over before it began in earnest. It’s only now that Mr. Mack was finally exonerated in full, and declared innocent.

It took almost half a century for a DNA database proved another man was guilty of the crime for which Mack served the time and suffered the pain. Using DNA to solve crimes is a beautiful invention… but I am often haunted by the thought of all those countless souls who suffered unjustly for the crimes of others, before such technologies were known or widely available to law enforcement.

The Perversion of Marriage & The Assault On Christianity

Palestinian Muslim here, and do I respect all Christian denominations but Orthodoxy has a special place in my heart, not only because Orthodox Christians are more aligned with my people’s political stance but also because of they are the most outspoken group against degeneracy

Shorpy

What do they eat in the UK that an American wouldn’t?

main qimg 6fbd9256b3fd58bce7ff4d2522737067 lq

Image: Me visiting the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota.

I came to live in the United States in April 2006. I have an American wife and I have persuaded her to cook several British foods that are rarely eaten in the United States.

Interesting to me a visit to the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota taught me that the canned pork product is much more loved outside the US than at home. Personally despite what you might think with the photo, my visit took me to the very gates of heaven.

Somethings that can’t be found in the US easily.

Ox tongue, it can be found shredded in many Mexican supermarkets as Lingua, but it is not generally found as a sliced meat. My wife has bought a tongue a couple of times and prepared it. It is a long process to do that properly so often I opt for the shredded variety.

Black pudding. Often called by Americans Blood Sausage, it is very difficult to buy because it does contain blood and many people don’t imagine they would like it. Sadly I would have more for me, if only the blood was a legal food additive.

Heinz Baked beans. I find it puzzling that the humble baked bean found in every British grocers and supermarket is almost unknown in the US. Heinz being a US company and all. But they can be purchased in specialist stores that cater to ex patriot British and of course Amazon.

Lamb or Ox liver is difficult to find. The ability to buy offal is extremely limited. It seems Americans just much prefer the outside muscle meat rather than the more nutricious insides of animals. Offal in general is awfully expensive when you find it.

Lamb, Ox or Pig Kidneys. Again it’s offal see Liver.

Fruit Cake. For some reasons Americans like their cakes to be puffy, sweet and overly iced confections. I have tried to eat some American varieties of fruit cake. Finding them to have the weight and consistancy of house bricks. The art of good fruit cake making has not survived in the US.

Mushy Peas: My wife makes me mushy peas to go with my fish and chips. I don’t know why Americans cannot find the heart to love a good spoonful of mushy peas. After all it is a simple product, boiled peas but I am sure if one charged $50 per spoonful on a Las Vegas strip tasting menu they would be raved about on the Food Network and have competitions to the chef making the best mushy pea ever.

Scotch Eggs. My wife quickly learned to make Scotch Eggs. Hard boiled eggs wrapped in a coat of sausage meat. Simple but fr some reason it confounds many Americans that one could combine the two, yet thy eat sausage or sausage patties and eggs for breakfast at times.

Shandy, the 50–50 mix of Bitter and Lemonade. It can’t be bought in stores like it can in Britain, but can be recreated, I buy imported Newcastle Brown Ale and use 7 Up as a lemonade substitute. One place I ordered Shandy in the US filled the glass with Bud Light and added a drop, I mean a real drop of 7 Up. Nowhere near a 50–50 mix and not particularly satisfying on a hot California day.

These are just a few things that I have come across. I have also found many regional American foods that are very good and interesting to eat, many of which have roots in old European everyday working peoples foods. Filling, high calorie and hunger supressing foods to go to work on in the morning and kept you full all the working day.

Most foods from home I can either recreate or use what is available to substitute. So there is no real hardship on my part.

Thanks for reading.

All the best.

Some fun Comix

Honestly, some of these would make great memes.

Paper Bag Chicken

Brown bag chicken is a vintage cooking method that produces delicious, juicy chicken every time. Perfect for any poultry, too!

If you love the way a bird turns out in those plastic oven bags, but wish there was an alternative then I’m here to make that wish come true for you.

Plastics can impart unhealthy chemicals into foods, so if you’ve gone to the trouble to source local, pastured, organic poultry you don’t want to ruin it with petrochemicals right? Today, I’m sharing how I make delicious, moist, tender and flavorful Brown Bag Chicken (and even holiday Turkeys!) What? Baking in a brown paper bag? Yes, you read that right – in an ordinary brown paper bag.

Apparently, making Brown Bag Chicken has been around for several decades.

Although I could not exactly pinpoint what era in which it began, it seems like perhaps the 40s or 50s. I always feel like I should be wearing pearls, heels and one of those poofy-skirted dresses when I make this. And, depending on the day, I might feel like I got some ‘splainin to do, even though my name is not Lucy. Maybe that’s because I like to watch I Love Lucy re-runs while I’m cooking.

There are two divided camps on this method.

The Once You Cook in a Brown Paper Bag You’ll Never Go Back camp and the Cooking in a Paper Bag is DANGEROUS crowd.

The nay-sayers warn that the bag could catch on fire or that paper bags are unsanitary. It is technically possible for the bag to catch on fire, but that is probably only if it comes in contact with the side or top of the oven or the heating element in an electric model. Wouldn’t the same be true for plastic bags coming in contact with the same surfaces?

As with any method you employ to cook food inside a giant gas or electric powered box, you should pay attention to what you’re doing and use common sense.

The concern over a paper bag being unsanitary comes from the inks and glues used in manufacturing the bags, and the possibility that the paper could contain metal shavings from being recycled.

Using a bag that has no ink, or very minimal printing on the bag, that has not been used before (you can very easily and inexpensively get a new paper bag at a grocery store), minimizes at least some of those risks.

Honestly, compared to having endocrine-disrupting chemicals being steamed into your chicken, baking in a brown paper bag sounds much more healthy to me. But, that’s your call to make!

I joined the ranks of the Once You Cook in a Brown Paper Bag You’ll Never Go Back camp a couple of years ago.

I’m not even sure how I heard about it, but I can honestly say Brown Bag Chicken is the best chicken ever – moist and flavorful! The bag keeps the moisture inside and browns and crisps the skin.

I always cook my birds breast side down, too – that keeps the breast meat from drying out. You don’t get crispy skin on the breast portion that way, but for me it’s fine since I don’t eat the skin.

It’s so easy, once you try Brown Bag Chicken I’m sure you’ll love it!

Don’t be alarmed if your kitchen smells a little funny at first (kind of like a warm, greasy brown paper bag…if you can imagine that!), that will quickly be replaced by the aroma of delectable, juicy baked chicken.

There’s also no set way to season your bird, it’s more of a technique than a recipe so you can be as minimalist or creative as you want to be.

Ingredients

Butter, softened
Salt
Pepper
1 whole fryer
Chopped celery
Chopped bell pepper
Chopped onion
Chopped garlic

Instructions

Rub butter all over whole fryer, inside and out.
Salt and pepper fryer, inside and out.
Stuff fryer with chopped vegetables.
Place fryer in a brown paper bag which has been greased inside.
Roll up the open end and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes per pound of chicken.

Bag it, seal it, bake it.

Put the chicken in the bag (SEAM SIDE DOWN!) then roll or fold the top in close to the bird, tucking it under if you can. If you can’t, and it won’t stay closed, you could put a couple staples in the fold to keep it shut. I’ve never had to do that myself. Or, you could use kitchen twine and tie it shut.

Place your buttered, seasoned, bagged bird on a baking sheet with sides. Juices will collect on the baking sheet and you don’t want that dripping to the bottom of your oven. You can also use a shallow baking dish or roasting pan. (I love my Pampered Chef Stoneware Bar Pan!).

Put it in the oven and bake for one and a half hours.

You may need to adjust your cooking times according to the size of your bird or if it’s stuffed with stuffing, for example. In my oven, an hour and a half is just right for an average sized chicken. If you remembered to put the seam side of the bag down, you can easily remove the bag by grabbing opposite corners and pulling the bag off over your chicken.

Give this brown bag chicken a rest before slicing to keep it juicy.

Waiting 10 or 15 minutes to slice gorgeously roasted bird will keep the tasty juices inside the meat. I know it’s hard to wait, but trust me it’s worth it!

Serve to your hungry and salivating dinner companions and be prepared for oooh’s and aaaahhh’s and PleaseOhPleaseMakeThisAgain’s! Serve this with Buttery Garlic, Mushroom, and Chive Spaghetti Squash or a THM friendly stuffing, such as this S style Healthy Baked Stuffing from Wonderfully Made and Dearly Loved, and a green salad or veggie for a completely healthy and tasty THM S meal!

Thanksgiving turkey turns out perfectly, too.

We’ve made many Thanksgiving turkeys using this same brown bag method. Just be sure your turkey will fit the bag you have (or vice versa).

Any time I’m roasting poultry, I use this brown bag chicken method and the results are never disappointing!

ITALY’S WARNING to the WORLD – It’s Over!!

What factors contribute to China potentially surpassing the USA in terms of global power, such as military and economy?

China has 4 times the population of USA, it will naturally surpass USA if it develops without any foreign interference.

USA lacks knowledge about being the master, because it doesn’t have a long history.

The present situation for USA is like the last years of Ming dynasty of China. At that time, China faced following problems:

Manchu’s power is growing, however, Ming took a strong attitude toward Manchus, which caused the latter give up any hope to build a good relationship with Ming and stayed within the map of Ming.（USA to China）
Long lasting alert and histility on Mongolians (who established the last dynasty prior than Ming) including trade embargo, Mongolians had no choice but to allied with Manchus. (USA to Russia/China)
Military abuse in southwest China, including some places in present Myanmar and Vietnam, but ignored the peasants’ uprising in inland. (USA in Iraq, Afghanistan)
War of parties in the government. (Democrats, Republicans)
Broken domestic economy，and the chaos caused by bankrupted farmers and merchants, which eventually evolved into a nation wide uprising. (Inflation, high interest rates, banks go bankrupt)

USA adopts a “winner takes all” mindset and does not want to share its power with others, this inevitably made others to think of other possibilities.

A simple case:

In around 2010–2012, there was a hot discussion among China, Japan and Korea to promote an “Asian Dollar” as the three became the biggest ecomoic zone in the world. However, in 2012, Korea and Japan’s relation was broken by Dokudo Island crisis, China and Japan relation was ruined by Diaoyu/Senkaku Island crisis, Japan’s ambassidor was “comitted suicide” at home. The Asian Dollar became an illusion after the relations among the three went down. Everyone knows it is USA behind the whole thing, just like NordStream II. Because if Asian Dollar succeeded, the US Dollar is threatened.

But look back from 12 years later, we can see, the Asian Dollar at that time can not be an independent currency as the three all rely on US Dollar and US market. Therefore, USA can try to exert its influence on Japan and Korea to make AD anchored USD, and USD’s position is guaranteed. Eventhough we can foresee AD does take some share from USD, but AD as a regional currency, will not replace USD globally, same as the Euro.

However, if there’s a AD 2.0 in future, as China’s power grows much stronger, the AD 2.0 does have the potential to replace USD.

In China, there’s an old saying describe this: 丢了西瓜拣芝麻（Throw a watermelon away to pick up a sesame.）

“USA Collapse Is Far WORSE Than You Think…” — Robert Kiyosaki’s Last WARNING

What is the brutal truth about people?

Only in America. -MM

A Lifeguard Was Fired For Saving A Drowning Man

Sometimes, rules and regulations ply over efforts and emotions!

Tomas Lopez was on duty at Hallandale Beach, Florida, when someone rushed over to his post. A man had swum out too far, Lopez was told, and the victim was drowning. As any lifeguard would, Lopez rushed over and got the man to shore with the help of some other beachgoers. There, they gave the man CPR, called the paramedics, and saved his life.

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When Lopez handed in the incident report, he was fired instead of being heralded as a hero .

The drowning man, his company informed him, was “out of the protected area” and a clearly visible sign said that anyone who swam there did so at his own risk.

According to company policy, anyone drowning outside the designated area was to be left to die.

Lopez’s coworkers were infuriated.

Six other lifeguards stood up for him, telling the company and the media that they would have done the exact same thing and that Lopez deserved an apology.

So the company fired them, too.

PENTAGON Is Shocked: S-500 PROMETHEUS Shot Down 11 US ATACMS Missiles Over Crimea and Crimean Bridge

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

I had very recently moved across the US and transferred my job working the customer service desk at a high end grocery store. I grew up in Harlem and had recently moved to the deep Midwest. It was very different in a lot of ways.

One of the biggest ways, was “celebrity” behavior. Back home, the biggest rule for cashiers was to politely pretend you didn’t know who you were helping if that person was famous. Hilary Duff, Keanu Reeves, Evan Peters and many more were regulars at the store. We don’t ask for autographs, they don’t ask for special treatment, everyone’s happy.

Midwest is different. I worked at another location of that same expensive grocery store. Young men who played for the local hockey team were shockingly entitled and rude, sneering down at me while my supervisor stood by and sucked their dicks as vocally as he could regardless of how rude they were. “Influencers” in the area would record cashiers if they didn’t scan their kombucha fast enough. But worst of all, was the man who apparently built some kind of air conditioning franchise and was a “local hero” for providing AC in low income areas.

This man was a fucking menace. He didn’t like me from the first moment he saw me, and it took me a while to understand why. But apparently it was a significant personal slight that I didn’t ever invite him to cut to the front of the line, that I didn’t ever roll over backwards to fetch forgotten products for him while he was checking out. And worst of all, I never learned his name. Apparently all my coworkers and superiors had been babying this loud mouthed, disrespectful asshole who was just as much of a nobody as the rest of us were.

The third time I encountered him, I asked for his name to confirm an online order he had placed. The man threw his change at my head while laughing hysterically, then his face contorted into rage as he screamed over and over again, “YOU MUST NOT KNOW WHO I AM.”

I don’t remember exactly how I responded, but I do remember being fired.

The point is, only the most insecure and ungifted say things like “don’t you know who I am??”

If you hear that line, laugh long and hard. It’ll kill them.

Man EXPOSES Delusional Women’s HYPOCRISY

Funny but serious.

Is China a fascist police state?

No.

If it were then the living conditions of the people would not have improved.

You see a key part of fascism is where corporations get together with the government to fuck over the common man and woman. Yet living standards keep going up, more services and more access to healthcare/education keeps happening.

Police state? – There’s laws, if it says it’s illegal it’s illegal.

Second the bar for arrest is HIGH, this means if you’re a criminal unless you’re caught there and then in some violent crime? The police will take their time to investigate and make a strong case against you before arresting you. That’s why there’s such a high conviction rate.

This is important. It is important because if you arrest with a low bar and then collect evidence? The period up to the trial can also be punishment.

This is Gang Chen.

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He was arrested by the American FBI for ‘spying for China’ because despite being an American, yes BORN in the USA he’s not considered an American because he’s not white.

He was arrested in 2021, charged and put under numerous restrictions. Gang Chen was one of the luckier ones as MIT supported him and paid for his defence.

Eventually charges were dropped.

But as noted above he was one of the lucky ones. Other university professors lose everything and the charges get dropped a day before trial. They lose EVERYTHING.

WHY was the Earth BEFORE the DINOSAURS TERRIFYING? The Most Amazing Prehistoric Secrets DOCUMENTARY

Dinosaurs, those magnificent creatures that once roamed the Earth, continue to captivate our imagination and scientific curiosity. The era of dinosaurs began approximately 230 million years ago in the Mesozoic Era, marking a period of dominance by these fascinating reptiles. Before dinosaurs, appearance of the dinosaurs and after the dinosaurs. This age, often referred to as the “Age of Dinosaurs,” witnessed the emergence of some of the most iconic species, from the towering Brachiosaurus to the fierce Tyrannosaurus rex. Their existence demonstrates the incredible diversity and adaptability of life on Earth, with species that thrived in a variety of habitats, from lush forests to arid deserts.

The extinction of dinosaurs, about 66 million years ago, remains one of the most intriguing topics in paleontology. This catastrophic event, believed to be caused by a combination of volcanic eruptions, climate changes, and the impact of a massive asteroid, led to the end of the Cretaceous Period and paved the way for the rise of mammals. The sudden disappearance of dinosaurs left a void that has puzzled scientists for centuries, sparking numerous theories and extensive research to uncover the details of this mass extinction.

Beyond their appearance and extinction, dinosaurs are a source of endless fascination due to the strange and sometimes bewildering facts that research has unearthed. For instance, some dinosaurs, like the Stegosaurus, had brains the size of a walnut, significantly small in comparison to their massive bodies. Others, such as the Parasaurolophus, had elaborate crests on their heads that could have been used for communication or to attract mates. The discovery of dinosaur fossils with preserved feathers has revolutionized our understanding of these creatures, suggesting a closer evolutionary link to birds than previously thought.

The pre-dinosaur world, often overshadowed by the towering presence of the Jurassic era’s giants, presents an equally fascinating chapter in Earth’s geological history. This epoch, spanning from the formation of the Earth around 4.5 billion years ago to roughly 250 million years before the appearance of the first dinosaurs, encompasses several pivotal periods that laid the groundwork for life as we know it. During the Hadean and Archean eons, the Earth was a molten hellscape, gradually cooling to form the first solid crust. This era saw the emergence of the first life forms, simple prokaryotic cells, which appeared approximately 3.5 billion years ago. These organisms were primarily anaerobic bacteria thriving in an oxygen-free atmosphere, setting the stage for the evolutionary leaps to follow.

The Proterozoic eon witnessed significant geological and biological transformations. This period marked the accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere, a direct result of photosynthesis by cyanobacteria. The “Great Oxygenation Event,” which occurred around 2.4 billion years ago, radically altered the planet’s atmosphere, paving the way for more complex life forms. The Proterozoic also saw the first supercontinent, Rodinia, form and break apart, a cycle that influenced global climate and environmental conditions conducive to evolution.

Falling apart at the seams

Ugh!

The United States is coming apart at the seams. It literally is.

I have watched some videos of people digging up old battle sites, and the images that come to mind are the old holsters that have been buried in the mud and muck for 75 years.

You can still see the shape of the holster, but the seams are all rotten, and the entire things is crumbling.

This is what the United States is RIGHT NOW.

Rotten, dysfunctional, and of no use to anyone. It’s a real mess.

Christ almighty! Meanwhile, don’t you know, the USS Eisenhower is being hit by cheaply made rockets and is taking a hell of a lot of damage.I initially though that this was fake. Not so. Though the video might actually be fake.

Yet….

And somehow, the geniuses think that the USA can take on China?

And, man oh man, at first I thought that this was just “fake news”. But then the Chinese government released pictures of the damage on the aircraft carrier.

Like this one.

Can you make it out? Bow is facing you at the lower end of the picture, and the transom is at the top. The fires are hottest at the port side. The tower island is on the starboard side.

Now this is just one aspect of the death of the United States.

Sheech.

Do I need to discuss Gaza? Or Ukraine?

Let’s consider NASA. I have a video in one of these posts that goes into great detail about the new Artemis moon landing.

As an Aerospace Engineer, I note how all the technologies that were “invented” for the Apollo program, suddenly has to be re-invented.

WTF?

Not only that, the entire program seems to be a joke.

Four man crew. Ok.

That’s fine, but really… why?

Why do you need that many people, when EVERYTHING is now automated?

The orbiting module will have two gay men in it. They will circle the moon; the “dark side of the moon” looking for “answers”…WTF? Two gay men circling the “dark side of the moon” looking for answers…
The landing module will have a black man, and a woman on it. I guess that all this is about diversity more than anything else.

They will land in a stereotypical 1940’s era Robert Heinlein spaceship design, and egress from the module using an elevator!

An elevator?

You cannot make this up.

Why?

Ok, oh, in other news, Scott Ritter was intercepted while in transit by Agents of the US Government and held and released. They seized his passport. Now poor Scott is stuck in the USA.

Poor Scott. He doesn’t yet realize how FUCKED the USA is right now.

No passport.

A real fear of us expats. I’ll tell you what.

Sorry for this rant.

But the USA is going down… glug glug glug…

Today…

What is the strangest diplomatic weapon used by a state?

This is quite strange because this animal can seem everything but a weapon (even if only diplomatic).

In 2010 China publicly asked President Barack Obama not to meet the Dalai Lama. Obama didn’t accept the invitation and China promptly withdrew two newborn giant pandas from U.S. territory.

Also in 2010, after Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, China stopped importing Norwegian salmon. In revenge it signed a 4 billion euro contract with Scotland and sent a panda to Edinburgh Zoo as a gift.

The Dalai Lama visited Austria in 2013 and China immediately threatened to take back the very popular panda that has been staying at the world’s oldest zoo (Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna).

It is the so-called “panda diplomacy” that classifies all panda specimens as exclusive property of the Chinese government.

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These animals live in the wild only in the Qinling and Minshan regions, two small mountain areas in rural China. There are about 1500 specimens. Another 500 live in captivity and of these only 70 are found outside of China, but for very specific reasons.

Since 1984, China has started to grant pandas with real lease contracts, which provide for the payment of up to one million euros per year per single specimen. If the panda should die because of the zoo in the host country, there is a fine of about 500 thousand euros. Furthermore, China remains the sole owner of all organic products derived from giant pandas, including their cubs. Every giant baby panda born in foreign territory is in fact by law owned by China and keeping it together with mama panda in another country has a cost of 400 thousand euros per year. Not little, also because it is expensive to stock up on bamboo: the Edinburgh Zoo spends $ 107,000 a year to feed its two pandas.

Each rented panda is a symbol of a successful trade agreement, as has happened over the years with many countries, including England, Scotland, France, Australia and many others. The loan of pandas is therefore a reliable yardstick for political and trade relations between China and other countries.

The panda diplomacy is a solid foreign policy tool. The panda is in fact one of the main instruments with which China intends to exercise its policy of soft power to increase its international prestige and influence.

President Xi Jinping personally signs their lease contracts, and this only after a formal and public request from the requesting foreign nations arrives.

Ah, don’t think that these diplomatic operations have only just begun. The practice had existed since the Tang Dynasty when Empress Wu Zetian sent a pair of pandas to Japan to Emperor Tenmu … in 685.

6 Most Disturbing Mysterious Locations

Some facts about the aviation industry are :

In 2003, two men stole a parked Boeing 727 from Luanda International Airport and flew away into the sunset. They’ve never been found.

The Concorde flew so fast, if you left London in the evening flying west towards New York, to the passengers in the plane, the sun would actually appear to begin rising again shortly after reaching cruising speed.The plane flew faster than the Earth’s rotation.

Aeroflot Flight 821 crashed because the captain was drunk. All 88 people died. Additionally, the pilots joined the airline through forged papers.

The wingspan of a Boeing 747 is longer than the total distance of the Wright Brothers’ first flight.

In 1987, Steve Rothstein bought a lifetime unlimited first class American Airlines ticket for $250,000. He flew over 10,000 flights costing the company $21 million. They terminated his ticket in 2008.

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A test pilot for the SR-71 Blackbird had the aircraft disintegrate around him while flying at nearly 80,000 feet, while going Mach 3.1 (2,300mph) and lived.

In 2019, passengers travelled more than 8 trillion kilometers: that’s about the same as a light year

In 2009, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger successfully landed his plane in the Hudson River after a bird strike caused an engine failure. All 155 people on board survived.

Kmart in the 70s & 80s – Why We LOVED IT

What is your most memorable experience working with Steve Jobs?

One day Steve Jobs showed up in my cubicle with a man that I didn’t know. He didn’t bother to introduce him; instead he asked, “What do you think of a company called Knoware?”

I told him that the company’s products were mediocre, boring, and simplistic–nothing that was strategic for Macintosh. The company didn’t matter to us. After my diatribe, he said to me, “I want you to meet the CEO of Knoware, Archie McGill.”

Thank you Steve.

Here’s the kicker: I passed the Steve Jobs’s IQ test. If I had said nice things about crappy software, Steve would have concluded that I was clueless and that was a career-limiting or ending move.

Working for Steve Jobs wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t pleasant. He demanded excellence and kept you at the top of your game—or you were gone. I wouldn’t trade my experience working for him for any job I’ve ever had.

This experience taught me that you should tell the truth and worry less about the consequences for three reasons:

Telling the truth is a test of your character and intelligence. You need strength to tell the truth and intelligence to recognize what is true.
People yearn for the truth—that is, telling people that their product is good just to be positive doesn’t help them improve it.
There’s only one truth, so it’s easier to be consistent if you’re honest. If you are dishonest, you have to keep track of what you said.

Soda Pop Roast

Ingredients

1/2 envelope onion soup mix
1 can cream of mushroom soup or beef broth
1 can soda of your choice (the sweeter the better)
1 (2 to 3 pound) beef or pork roast

Instructions

Mix first 3 ingredients together.
Place roast in slow cooker, and pour mixture over roast.
Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours for a beef roast or for 8 to 10 hours for a pork roast.

NASA’s pricey mission to send U.S. back to moon faces technical challenges | 60 Minutes

American astronauts aren’t heading back to the moon just yet. NASA’s pricey Artemis mission is facing technical challenges. The space agency is now working with both SpaceX and Blue Origin.

What is the most powerful supernatural warning you have received?

About twenty-three years ago, I was home alone, just having a lazy afternoon lounging about the house while my wife was out with her mother. My calm was interrupted when someone—or something—grabbed the handle on the front door from the outside. I of course rushed over to the door and tore it open, ready to tell whoever it was to go jump in the nearby creek, but there was no one there. In fact, not a single person in sight.

This rattled me a little bit, but I didn’t think much more of it, but within a few minutes, the door handle moved again. I repeated the procedure outlined above, now getting rather angry, and, once again, there was no one in sight.

When the the door handle moved the third time I suppose I must’ve started thinking that this is the point of the movie when the viewers ask themselves “why doesn’t he just leave the house?” Still, I was getting rather fed up with this oompus-boompus, and, like a man with nerves of chilled steel, I resolved to act with derring-do and resolution.

This time I tip-toed over to the door and opened it slowly and gently: And a startled crow flew away. For reasons best known to itself—a warped sense of humor, perhaps, general pottiness stemming from unresolved childhood issues, or simply a lack of other sitting spots—this corvid had been using the door handle as a perch. Later on, we spotted crows doing that from the outside of the house, so the mystery was definitely solved.

The point is that if you think you’re experiencing something supernatural, there’s probably a quite banal natural explanation.

Model box art

Mostly aircraft. Fun stuff.

What should you never say at the US-Canada border?

“We got some donuts.” My uncle stated to the border agent after being asked if we had anything to declare.

Apparently, border agents aren’t issued a sense of humor when assigned duty.

We crossed the border many times before with no issue. We vacationed in Canada most summers, so the crossing seemed almost routine at this point. I guess my uncle just got a little too comfortable with the process, though.

After he made the ill-timed joke to the border agent, the man got rather testy with my uncle. He began asking what else we were bringing across the border, he asked if they had documents for the 6 kids that were along for the trip, he asked if we had any firearms, he asked just about every question in the book trying to trip my uncle into admitting to something illegal.

The only thing we bought in Canada that we were bringing home was the donuts, but the border agent wasn’t convinced. His feathers had been ruffled and he wasn’t about to let my smartass uncle get away with it. He ordered us to the side for an inspection.

Do you have any idea how long it takes to unpack, search, then repack a 36 foot motor home that is filled to the gills with 10 people’s stuff? Hours and hours.

I really don’t know what this guy was expecting to find, and I suspect he did it mostly out of spite. We all had to wait while other agents carelessly pulled all of our clothes, food, and camping gear out and searched every nook and cranny of the motorhome. I’m a little shocked they didn’t start cutting into the cushions to look for contraband.

In the end, they confiscated our donuts and sent us on our way.

Lesson learned: Don’t make jokes at the border.

Why I Left America…

Great rant. Perfect.

What’s the most unreasonable request you’ve received from your boss?

I’ll tell you the story and let you decide.

When I was much younger, questionabley dumber but definitely more naive, I was working for an oil service company in Angola. This base was supporting a couple of remote operations, one of which was in Mozambique.

I was a maintenance guy, still pretty junior but not completely green.

As I was going back to my workbench after lunch I was approached by my manager who was holding the technical manual for one of our pieces of equipment.

Manager: “Mike, the rig in Mozambique is having some problems with xxx can you go and take a look at it? You have your passport with you, right?

Me: “err yeah, when is my flight?”

Manager: “in an hour.”

Me: “Errrr”

The airport was at least 30 minutes form the base. Going to the staff house for me to pack and actually get ready was a 25 minute detour in the wrong direction.

Manager: “Here is $200. Buy some clothes when you get to Johannesburg. That should cover the hotel as well. The charter flight leaves at 8am tomorrow.”

So off I went to the other side of Africa with only the clothes I had on which were a pair of shorts, an old t-shirt, socks and trainers. My coveralls in my backpack and my work boots which I had to tie to my back pack with the laces. And, of course, the technical manual under my arm.

By the time I got to Johannesburg, went through customs and immigration and checked in to the hotel, all of the shops were closed. So I had to continue with my stylish outfit the next day as I went to get the charter flight to Beira, Mozambique.

Fortunately, there weren’t any spare seats on the helicopter to the rig when I got to Beira so I was able to get some clothes and toiletries there.

So was that an unreasonable request? In hindsight, probably.

Why I Will Never Come Back to the United States

Why did Goebbels kill his six children and himself?

Joseph Goebbels did not leave behind any letters or diaries explaining his and his wife’s decision to kill their children. Magda Goebbels, however, did write farewell letters in the days before the Goebbelses’ murder-suicide, and these letters provide some insight into why they did this.

Joseph and Magda Goebbels were fanatical Nazis who saw the defeat of Germany as nothing less than the end of civilization. They did not want to have their children grow up in what they imagined would be a post-apocalyptic hellscape overrun by Jews and other racially and ethnically inferior people. They also embraced Hitler’s belief that having lost the war, the German people did not deserve to live. In killing their children and then themselves, the Goebbelses were leading by example.

Magda Goebbels’ letter to a friend, written after she and her husband had made up their mind to kill their children, reveals her belief that the Allies and the surviving victims of Nazism would take revenge on those children, and that their life would be a living hell.

However, the letter also reveals multiple facets to her thinking:

We have demanded monstrous things from the German people, treated other nations with pitiless cruelty. For this the victors will exact their full revenge…we can’t let them think we are cowards. Everybody else has the right to live. We haven’t got this right—we have forfeited it. I make myself responsible. I belonged. I believed in Hitler and for long enough in Joseph Goebbels…Suppose I remain alive, I should immediately be arrested and interrogated about Joseph. If I tell the truth I must reveal what sort of man he was—must describe all that happened behind the scenes. Then any respectable person would turn from me in disgust. It would be equally impossible to do the opposite—that is to defend what he has done, to justify him to his enemies, to speak up for him out of true conviction…That would go against my conscience. So you see, Ello, it would be quite impossible for me to go on living. We will take the children with us, they are too good, too lovely for the world which lies ahead. In the days to come Joseph will be regarded as one of the greatest criminals that Germany has ever produced. His children would hear that said daily, people would torment them, despise and humiliate them. They would have to bear the burden of his sins and vengeance would be wreaked on them…

It is in many ways a hauntingly ambiguous letter. Magda seemed somewhat conflicted: she felt she could not defend her husband to the Allies, but she also could not bear the thought to be truthful about him. Against the magnitude of this dilemma, the children are mentioned almost as an afterthought.

There are a couple of additional motives that may have been behind the killing of the Goebbels children. One, it was Joseph’s and Magda’s last middle finger to the world. It was as if they were saying, “Oh, you thought you would drag us into a trial and make us feel bad about gassing little children? We killed OUR OWN children, bitchez. Do you really think we care one whit about anyone else’s?” To their twisted minds, it was a show of courage and resolve; their way of having the last word.

Another possible motive — and Magda’s letter to Ello Quandt hints at this — is that Magda didn’t want her children to learn that her and Joseph’s whole life had been a lie.

Since Hitler was unmarried and childless, the Goebbelses were basically the Nazi Germany’s First Family, and Magda Goebbels — its First Lady. The Goebbelses were meant to embody the ideal of Nordic purity, stoicism and virtue, in contrast to the urban moral rot and hedonism that Hitler so despised. They were the perfect Nazi couple.

AND IT WAS ALL A LIE.

Magda had been married before, and her first marriage ended in divorce — at a time when this sort of thing was still considered somewhat disreputable for a woman. Prior to her first marriage, she had dated a Jewish man. As a teenager, she had a Jewish stepfather, who ultimately perished in the Holocaust because she wouldn’t help him. The marriage between Magda and Joseph was a sham. They serially cheated on each other, and it took multiple personal interventions by Hitler to get them to keep up appearances. Both Joseph and Magda, in spite of themselves, were as bohemian as any German whose formative years occurred in the 1920’s. Beneath the veneer and the starch of Nazi morality, their life was a thoroughly squalid one. It’s possible that Magda Goebbels could not stand the thought of all this being revealed to her children after the war. I don’t know whether Joseph Goebbels was capable of this sort of awareness, but I suspect that Magda, at least, understood that she was a colossal hypocrite. She did not want her children to know and did not see any way of preventing them from knowing, except by killing them.

Whatever the reasons, the Goebbelses’ murder of their six children was emblematic of their Nazi sociopathy.

Frans and Marie

Submitted into Contest #252 in response to: Make a character’s obsession or addiction an important element of your story...

The Transporter Museum, a forgotten relic, is inconveniently located on a deserted side street two turns off a dead-end alley. You might never find it, even by accident, but if you do, you’ll always remember its immaculate displays and its eccentric proprietor, Frans Messerschmitt.

Every day precisely at nine, the little old man illuminated the neon sign, flipped the placard to open, and made his way behind the counter, prepared for customers who rarely came.

It was already late in the day when the door opened, surprising both Frans and the visitors.

“Hello, is anybody there?”

The question startled Frans, interrupting his terminal boredom.

“Yes. Yes, please come in,” he answered, moving forward to greet his guests. The unexpected voice belonged to a handsome lad sporting sweatpants and a football jersey, followed closely by a pretty young coed in a letterman’s jacket.

“It’s almost impossible to find this place,” the boy mentioned, all the while looking at the meticulously cared-for exhibits. “Are we in time for the guided tour?”

The question struck Frans as funny. It had been months since his last visitor, so the tours relied on guests, not the other way around.

“Of course, my good man,” he answered, sauntering from behind the counter. “My name is Frans and I’m the owner and resident historian. I’d be glad to give you the nickel tour, and I won’t even charge you the nickel.”

“Fan-damn-tastic! My name is Billy, and this is Connie. We’ve really been looking forward to this. Where do we start?”

“I’m glad you asked,” Frans replied, beckoning the couple to follow. “You’ve lived your whole lives in a time where teleportation from one side of the world to another was the norm—in fact, there’s about to be an app for that!” Frans turned their attention towards a smartphone sitting on display. “Before the end of the year, the new ZapApp will be available, offering skin-touch technology for the first time. All you’ll need to do is enter the desired coordinates, activate the app, and, in seconds—Voila!”

“Wow,” Billy exclaimed, reaching for the phone.

“Please don’t,” Frans cautioned. “These are replicas and can be easily damaged.”

“I hear ya, Gramps,” Billy responded, “Oh, I’m sorry. No disrespect intended, sir.”

“Not at all,” Frans replied. “I’ve always wanted a nickname. I like the sound of Gramps. Now if you follow me, I’ll lead you both back in time.”

The next display contained a full-length mirror attached to the wall. “I’m sure you two know what this is,” Frans said, stepping aside and allowing Billy and Connie to see. “These teleportation devices are still the most commonly used today. They were part of a trend to make teleportation more accessible and less obtrusive. They were also the first devices that didn’t require an exit portal. Until the Mirror 360, you could only travel to locations with paired devices. Needless to say, it was revolutionary.”

“That’s just like yours,” Connie whispered to Billy, punctuating her remark with a kiss on his cheek. “What’s next, Mr. Frans?”

“Gramps,” Frans corrected her with a chuckle. “Next we see the machine that started it all, The Marie.”

“I’ve heard of that,” Billy said. “Wow, it’s huge!”

“I know,” Frans agreed. “When the technology was new, we hadn’t yet perfected the art of miniaturization. There were no personal teleportation devices. The only people who had access were scientists, investors, and celebrities. In fact, the first transporters were more gimmicky than useful. They were incredibly expensive, required an entrance and exit port, and were so inefficient that it took a full day’s charge to send someone from one place to another. There’s no doubt we’ve come a long way since then.”

“What about that one?” Billy asked, pointing to a machine partially hidden by a curtain.

“Oh, that one,” Frans sighed. “That’s the prototype. The first teleportation device.”

“That’s the original?” Billy asked, moving closer to get a better look. “Is the legend true?”

“I’m afraid it is,” Frans replied. “The machine was the brainchild of a pair of scientists not much older than the two of you. They were the first to prove light was a particle and that we could use it as a mechanism for distance teleportation. The early tests were extremely successful. There were no issues when sending inanimate objects or small animals from one pod to another. The problem occurred when they tried transporting a human. Marie begged to be first and, after winning a game of Rochambeau, she stepped into the entrance pod and disappeared on cue. But when her partner activated the exit pod, everything went terribly wrong. Marie never fully rematerialized. Her translucent hand simply reached forward, and she mouthed the word help. Then she faded away.”

“Oh my God!” Connie gasped. “Did he save her?”

Frans turned away from the question, paused, then finally answered. “No, he didn’t. You see, molecular displacement teleportation in its infancy was like sending something through a tunnel at light speed. Once entering a pod, the subject can only exit from the paired terminal port.”

“That’s tragic,” Connie said, wiping away a tear.

“And ironic.” Frans replied.

“How so?”

“After the colossal mishap, her partner spent the better part of twenty years trying to find a way to release Marie from her tunnel. He became obsessed with correcting his mistake. His research and technological breakthroughs are directly responsible for almost every advancement in teleportation technology. That first awful outcome is why molecular transportation is so incredibly safe today. It’s why you have a Mirror 360 hanging on the wall in your home.”

“But Marie—what happened to her?” Connie asked.

“All of her partner’s research and all of his calculations never changed Marie’s fate.”

“She’s trapped forever?”

“She would be, unless he destroyed the machine and released her molecules into the atmosphere, never to be reassembled again.”

“What did he…”

“It’s almost closing time,” Frans said, interrupting Connie before she could finish the question. “Thanks for coming. You two made an old man very happy today.”

“This has been the best tour ever, Gramps.” Billy proclaimed. “What do I owe you?”

“Nothing,” Frans answered, shaking Billy’s hand. “Just promise to send your friends.”

“It’s a deal,” he said, leading Connie out the door. “I’m sure we’ll be back soon.”

“You’re always welcome.”

Frans watched as the couple walked away. Then, being that it was precisely five, he locked the door, changed the placard to closed, and turned off the neon sign.

Alone once again, Frans returned to the machine behind the curtain, flipped a few switches, and watched as Marie’s translucent figure, forever young, appeared before him.

“Frans, are you there?” Marie mouthed, silently.

“I’m here, my love. I’ll always be here.”

“I’m so afraid,” she responded. “Please let me go.”

“I can’t,” Frans replied, ashamed of his weakness.

Marie’s eyes grew red, but she summoned the strength to place her hand on her heart and mouth the words I love you. Then, as quickly as she had appeared, she was gone.

Heartbroken, Frans turned to walk upstairs, counting the minutes until he could see his love again, if only for a moment, the next day at the exact same time.

Slow Cooker Short Rib Goulash

Meltingly tender meaty dishes like Slow Cooker Short Rib Goulash are made for cold nights. And while this would make a perfect Sunday supper, it’s actually possible any night of the week, thanks to your slow cooker!

Prep: 45 min | Total 8 hr 45 min | Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

1/3 cup Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
8 bone-in beef short ribs (4 inches thick each), English cut (about 4 pounds)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons sweet paprika
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
2 cups Progresso™ beef flavored broth
1/4 cup Muir Glen™ organic tomato paste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley

Instructions

Spray 5 quart slow cooker with cooking spray.
In shallow pan, stir together flour, salt and pepper. Coat all sides of short ribs in flour mixture. Reserve any remaining flour mixture.
In 12 inch skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add 4 short ribs; cook for 5 to 7 minutes, turning occasionally, until browned.
Transfer ribs to slow cooker. Repeat with remaining 4 short ribs.
Reduce heat to medium; add onions to same skillet with drippings. Cook and stir for 3 to 4 minutes or until softened.
Add garlic; cook and stir for 1 minute.
Add paprika, smoked paprika, red pepper and remaining flour mixture; cook and stir for 1 minute.
Beat in broth and tomato paste with whisk. Heat to boiling, scraping any browned bits on bottom of skillet. Remove from heat; carefully pour broth mixture over short ribs in slow cooker.
Cover; cook on LOW heat setting for 8 to 10 hours or until ribs are fall-apart tender. Transfer short ribs to serving platter. Spoon off any fat from sauce in slow cooker. Stir sauce; pour over ribs, and garnish with parsley.
Serve with sour cream and egg noodles, if desired.

Nutrition

Per serving: 240 Calories, 14g Total Fat, 17g Protein, 10g Total Carbohydrate, 2g Sugars

How can one become President of China?

The short answer is by becoming the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. After ascending to the post of General Secretary, it’s customary to be elected as President of China within a year.

How do you become the General Secretary?

Here’s an easy 12 step guide to becoming the leader of the world’s most populous country and second largest economy (as of the time of this writing):

Step 1 – Be a Chinese citizen. This is usually a matter of birth although you can naturalize if you so wish (though naturalizations are rare). You don’t have to be a man but around 80% of the top positions within China are occupied by men, so statistically speaking you’ll have a bigger chance at leadership.

Step 2 – Join the Chinese Communist Party preferably as early as legally possible. Millions of people try to join the party each year but the acceptance rate is a low 15%. It really helps if you have a family member or close acquaintance who is already a member, preferably an influential one.

Step 3 – For the next 20 to 30 years you’ll have to climb the Chinese bureaucratic ladder. You’ll probably start low and will have to do a good job in order to get your superiors’ attention. Sociologists have observed that old Chinese bureaucrats, who want to maintain their current position rather than get promoted, will usually spend more on healthcare and welfare while younger bureaucrats will try to run big, complicated projects in order to prove they’re good administrators. Aim high.

Step 4 – Be an enthusiastic supporter of the Party. When the Party will commence a initiative or a campaign, show your enthusiasm and work hard to achieve the party’s goals.

Step 5 – Use your time as a bureaucrat to broaden your social network. Try to meet and befriend as many people as possible, in as many departments and areas of expertise. Having a wide and strong social network is indispensable for success.

Step 6 – As a Chinese bureaucrat you’ll have to deal with a wide number of other bureaucrats from local officials, to colleagues in other departments, to your superiors within your own branch. Always prioritize the happiness of your direct hierarchical superiors. Your own happiness and eventual promotion depend on them.

Step 7 – Try to cultivate good relations with the the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). In order to realize your own vision for China you’ll most probably have to become the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Having good relations with the army helps.

Step 8 – Statistics show that those working in a province are much more likely to get promoted than those working in the central government in Beijing. Try to be assigned to a province and do your best to improve the region.

Step 9- If you have the opportunity to become the personal secretary of an influential Chinese bureaucrat, don’t hesitate. As a secretary to a Party heavyweight you’ll gain more knowledge than bureaucrats who are ostensibly higher on the social ladder.

Step 10 – Try to not get purged. From time to time the upper echelons will purge the party of those who showed themselves to be too ambitious or too ‘heretical’. What happens when you’re purged depends. You might simply be demoted, you might be forced into an early retirement, to spend your old age in a cabin near the seaside, you might be thrown in jail in a corruption scandal or you might even disappear. Try as much as possible to not get purged.

Step 11 – Try to cultivate relations with one of China’s retired leaders. In China (as in Japan for that matter) after retiring, many officials will retain a great deal of informal power, to the point of dictating policy. The retired Eight Elders famously took important decisions when meeting in Deng Xiaoping’s house. Try to get acquainted with these retired leaders. Being groomed for leadership by a member of an older generation is important.

Step 12 – Most importantly, be patient! Bureaucratic advancement in China is kind of like a perpetual Game of Thrones. If you’ll try to de-throne a Chinese bureaucrat and don’t have enough support, you will fail and you will be purged. Learn when to make your move and when to stay calm.

And now, the grand denouement. You’re at least in your 50s, most likely in your 60s. You’ve followed all the steps above, you’re a competent bureaucrat who has been groomed by a retired leader, with deep connections in various provinces, with the support of the military and personal relations in the top echelons. Now it’s time to make your move.

Every 5 years more than 2000 delegates from China meet for 2 weeks at a National Congress of the Communist Party. This congress will elect a 400 strong Central Committee of the Communist Party of China which in turn will elect the 20+ members of the Politburo and the (anywhere between 5 and 11) members of the most elite body, the Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC). The PBSC is where the nexus of power lies, it’s the highest organ of government in China.

You’ll have to convince the Central Committee to elect you as the General Secretary, making you an ex-officio member of the governing PBSC and also its most powerful member.

Naturally, all the debates, deals and arrangements for your ascension were decided beforehand, months in advance behind closed doors. The National Congress will not be a place of debate and vote seeking, it will only be an elaborate ceremony where you’ll be elected with almost absolute unanimity.

Within a year of becoming General Secretary you’ll also assume the office of President of China from the previous General Secretary. You’ll also want to become the Chairman of the Central Military Commission in order to cement the allegiance of the army.

But before you start implementing your grand vision for China, there’s still one more problem. Almost all the other members of the government (the PBSC and the Politburo) are either members of the previous administration or members of rival factions. In order to govern as you like you’ll have to continue the Game of Thrones and slowly, one by one replace them with people loyal to you. It will take about 5 years to have enough people on the 2 bodies in order to have room for governing as you see fit (roughly, you’re still constrained by the larger Party apparatus). And you’ll also have to defend those you’ve put into power by ambitious newcomers (just as you once were!).

So stay vigilant. In China, getting to the top is as challenging as staying there. The game never ends!

Family Guy Roasting EVERYTHING Black ( Reaction )

Toilet Toms Van

When I got out of prison, I spent some time in parole under supervision.

During this time, I stayed at a “halfway house”. Actually a couple of them. And I worked as a janitor cleaning the YMCA at night. My work hours were 9pm to 4am.

You know, I had to be invisible to my fellow Americans. LOL.

…

Anyways, I was assigned a vehicle to ride back and forth from the house (that I shared with four other men) to the YMCA that I cleaned. The vehicle was a donated work van. It was distressed, and shitty, but the engine worked, and it sure beat walking.

Now at the side of the van was the words “Toilet Toms Happy Rooter” with a picture of a ridiculously happy plumber happily pulling a huge turd out of a ugly toilet.

A grotesque image.

Caused me the butt of so many jokes.

But, you know, a man has got to do what a man has got to do.

…

Then my dad died, and I had to deal with his funereal.

Now, once I was arrested, labeled a sex offender, and incarcerated, my entire family turned their collective backs on me.

I heard from a cousin that they reasoned that I just “had to be guilty” as no one would give a first time offender FIVE YEARS for nothing.

Which is true.

It was damn odd that I got five years at hard labor for the evidence, and the fact that up until I was 50 something and arrested, I was a decent enough citizen.

Anyways, no one wanted to hear the detailed truths. They wanted to hear a narrative that fit into their simplistic understanding of the world.

…

And once accused… you are labeled for life.

So not only did they want nothing to do with me, but they gleefully smirked as I drove to the funereal in the “Toilet Tom” van.

Everyone was smirking and talking about me and the van I was driving.

Meanwhile, they all drove expensive cars, and all the rest. I was the only one that looked like some kind of poor, starving, refugee. I was a junk-yard mongrel dog surrounded by white pristine Persian cats.

The feigned nice behaviors and the statements dripping with sarcasm left scars that I will NEVER forget.

…

Ten years plus later, I’m living in China.

I’m married with a daughter, living in a penthouse, on the ocean and doing well for myself.

And I have been in periodic contact with my brother via Skype.

He sets up a video conference with my sister and her daughter who was married to a doctor in New York City.

My cousin and their kids … good chat. They remembered me, and associated me with a caretaker role for their grandmother. Not as a person; a uncle, or anything bad. I was their grandmothers live-in relative.

But my sister… Oh, doggy!

Judging from her expression, as she just sat there dumbfounded (her mouth open in shock), she didn’t know what to make of me. It was jaw literally hanging open. Oh, you see the expression in comics and illustrations, but this was live in real time. Stunning.

What the fuck?

…

After that video conference…

…my brother stopped calling me, sending me emails or anything else. It was radio silence, and you all know that story. I related that elsewhere.

Putting the two incidents together, one can only conclude that they wanted to stay in touch with me to know how shitty my life was, and when they found out that I was prospering… well, they didn’t want to have anything to do with me. And openly shunned me.

Explains why my brother has been such a dick.

Life.

Today…

Unexplained “Anomaly” Near Antarctica: Reported 80′ Foot Waves Moving north (Meteor Impact?)

Hal Turner World 11 April 2024

An unexplained “anomaly” is now visible on Ventusky.com ocean monitoring system. A strange “burst” of 80 foot waves has emanated from Antarctica and is showing as moving north.

Ventusky Anomaly Antarctica Oceans large

I have never seen anything like this. Did a huge chunk of ice fall into the water causing a massive Tsunami? Did a Meteor Hit the ocean from space? Did some major earthquake take place that no one registered?

As one might guess, there are absolutely zero Tsunami Warning Buoys around all of Africa.

If the video below is correct, these 80 foot waves are now smashing into the southwest coast of the Africa Continent, and +20′ tall waves will make it into the Atlantic ocean, to the USA and to Europe, within the next few days.

The video below lays out the current situation. Beneath the video, this story continues with word I got BEFORE the April 8 eclipse, warning me there was an inbound meteor. I did **NOT** publish the story over credibility concerns. Here. Watch the video:

On March 31 . . .

I received intel from a scientist telling me the following:

Meteor headed for impact with earth. IMPACT near Madagascar on April 8, an object about the size of Camel Back Mountain in Arizona

“Mean distance = 29.3018
Eccentricity = .98153
Inclination = 4.35684
Ascending node = 18.5295
Arg of pericentre = 94.1284
Mean anomaly = 305.16514

We call her “Maddy the Elly” (Interpreted by me as “Madagascar” Extinction Level Event”)

She’s coming and she’s BIG “

I was also told:

“They’re not going to announce until about 8 hrs before impact if the plan holds. That’s why they are worried about the millions of people in the eclipse viewing zones. Not because of their location but because of the mere fact they are away from their homes and those areas are going to be over stressed. Hence the national guard and prep talk.”

Now, I get all sorts of “tips” about news every day. I have to sort through a lot of . . . ahem . . . . nonsense.

The fact that this particular communication contained such specifics, coordinates and such, I decided to send it off to a couple contacts I have to inquire about it.

Out of the contacts I reached out to, ONE responded later saying “Yes, I’ve confirmed this. It is real.”

Now, I trust this person very much. I have no reason to doubt __anything__ he says. But I had concerns about this.

First, what if we’re being lied to . . . on purpose . . . . so we run a story, which scares the living hell out of people, only to have it be false? There goes all my credibility. Gone, in one fell swoop.

Next, what if it __is__ true. Do I want to be the one who starts a global panic? Uhhhhhhhhhh, NO!

So, I told my wife and son about it, and we shuffled-off to our bugout home in northeastern Pennsylvania to be away from New York City for the eclipse, but with a worry about this alleged meteor, too.

Eclipse day happens. Nothing goes wrong. Anywhere. All the planning, all the hoopla, all the disaster declarations, mobilization of National Guard units, . . . . nothing happened to need any of it. And . . . . no meteor strike.

I thought to myself, what to do about this guy who “confirmed” the meteor? Turns out, he farmed-out the info to some of HIS sources, and it was one of THEM that told him, “Yes, it’s true.” He trusts this person so he told me “Yes, It’s true.”

But nothing happened on April 8. So . . . where does that leave us?

Well, the very next day, slightly off course (south of Madagascar by considerable distance) this . . . perturbation . . . . in the ocean.

Uh Oh. Is __this__ the meteor? Did it hit?

If it did, there’s no one for maybe a thousand miles in all directions around the impact site, who would have seen it or heard it.

If it came at Earth from what would ostensibly be “underneath us” who would have even seen it in an Observatory??? There are almost none down there.

There are also no warning buoys anywhere down there to alert about ocean disruption. No shipping lanes where vessels at sea may have noticed anything. The potential impact site is literally in the middle of nowhere!

I’m starting to think that yes, the meteor story __was__ true, but incorrect on it’s impact timing.

I think this “anomaly” we’re seeing on Ventusky . . . is the result of that meteor impact.

Always trust your gut feelings

Yellen Dispatched to Beg China for Face-Saving Slowdown

Simplicius

Apr 09, 2024

The U.S.’ growing urgency in ‘containing’ China’s development was thrown in sharp relief this week as Janet Yellen arrived in Beijing for what turned out to be an execrable beggar’s tour. Just days prior to her arrival, she had buzzed the punditry with her historically memorable exclamation that China was now operating at “overcapacity”(!!).

What is overcapacity, you ask? It’s a new word for me, too—so let’s consult the dictionary together:

overcapacity
noun
o·ver·ca·pac·i·ty: ō′vər-kə-ˈpa-sə-tē
1: When an insolent upstart nation’s surging economic activity totally humiliates the reigning hegemon’s own faltering economy, causing the many expensive dentures and porcelain veneers of the ruling class gerontocracy to rattle and grate with moral outrage and jealousy.

1b: An undesirable situation causing Janet Yellen and Nancy Pelosi’s stock portfolio to droop like a pair of botox-sapped jowls.

Granted…my dictionary might be slightly different to yours, I have a rare edition. That said, are we on the same page? Good.

The above definition may be missing in the new official regime argot pamphlet, but it’s safe to say the inept leaders of the U.S. are down to making up creative new euphemisms for describing China’s total undressing and upending of the economic order.

But if you were skeptical about the meaning behind Yellen’s risible “overcapacity” solecism, her speech from inside of China confirms precisely what’s on the regime’s mind:

“China is now simply too large for the rest of the world to absorb this enormous capacity. Actions taken by the PRC today can shift world prices….”

And the bombshell:

“When the global market is flooded with cheap Chinese goods, the viability of American firms is put into question.”

Well, I’ll say.

The important distinction to note in the above statement is that for a long time the ‘cheap’ moniker used to describe Chinese goods often underhandedly referred to their quality, in the secondary definitional sense. Here, Yellen is referring to cheap as in price: the distinction is significant because it’s referential to the fact that Chinese manufacturing processes have simply far exceeded the efficiency in the West, as recently highlighted by videos of the Xiaomi e-car factory with its own native Giga Press that’s claimed to be able to pump out a car every 17 seconds.

The fact of the matter is, China is simply leaping ahead of the decrepit, deteriorating U.S. by every measure and the panicked elites have sent Yellen to beg China to “slow down” and not embarrass them on the world stage.

How is China doing this? Let’s run through a few of the most poignant ways:

[1]

First and foremost, it’s become almost a passe bromide to observe: “The U.S. funds wars, while China funds development.” But it really is true. Think about this for a moment:

The above is factual: Esquire reported that a Brown University investigation found the U.S. has spent an ineffable $14T on wars since 9/11:

And yes, the current U.S. debt is a massive $34T. That means quite literally almost half of the entire current U.S. debt was blown on endless, mindless, genocidal wars in the Middle East.

The U.S. has wasted its entire blood and treasure on war. Imagine what the U.S. could have built with $14 trillion dollars? Where the U.S. could have been in relation to China for that amount? As someone else noted, the U.S. could have very well built its own “one belt and road” project for that money, connecting the world and reaping untold benefits.

China hasn’t spent a cent on war, and puts everything right back into economic development and wellbeing for its own people.

China is winning lion’s share of construction projects in Africa

Chinese companies accounted for 31% of African infrastructure contracts valued at US$50 million or more in 2022, compared with 12% for Western firms, according to a new study.

It is worth to be noted that in the 1990s, about eight out of 10 contracts to build infrastructure in Africa were won by Western companies.

The illustrative statistics for this are endless:

What makes this historic malappropriation of American funds most tragic is that none of it came at the benefit of American people. The entire operation was carried out by an ethnic cabal within the U.S. government with loyalties only to Israel, and no one else. I’m speaking of course of the PNAC clan, who masterminded the entire breadth of the 21st century wars which have engulfed America in wretched shame and misery, irreversibly gutting the country and squandering its global standing. These wars had nothing whatsoever to do with America’s national interests or security, and have done naught but make Americans less safe and the entire world more dangerous and unstable.

China doesn’t have this problem: there is no inimical ‘out’ group parasitizing their country’s leadership, literally assassinating (JFK) and blackmailing their presidents (Clinton). China is therefore able to focus on the interests of its own people.

And yes, for those wondering, it’s now fairly proven that Lewinsky was a Mossad honeytrap used to blackmail Clinton in assenting to various Israeli demands vis-a-vis the Oslo Accords, Wye River Memorandum, etc.

The fact is, Israel is a destructive parasite sucking the lifeblood out of America, causing the host to wage unnecessary wars on its behalf which have utterly removed every advantageous and competitive edge the country might have had over its Chinese ‘rival’.

[2]

As a corollary of the above, beyond just the simple kinetic nature of the profligately wasteful wars, America wastes an exorbitant amount of money just on maintenance and upkeep of its global hegemony. The reason is, it costs a lot of ‘enforcement’ money to strongarm vassals who hate you into compliance.

China doesn’t form vassals, it forms partners. That means it spends comparatively far less spreading its influence because that influence has compounding abilities owing to the fair bilateral nature of China’s arrangements. The U.S. has to spend comparatively inordinate amounts of blood and treasure to maintain the same level of ‘influence’ because that ‘influence’ is totally artificial, confected out of a poisonous mixture of fear, strong-arming tactics, economic terrorism that leads to blowback which hurts the U.S. economy, etc. In short, it is mafia tactics versus real business partnerships.

One big difference between China and the U.S. is that China is open to sharing the earth, willing to co-prosper with the U.S. Conversely, the U.S. is unwilling to abdicate its global domination:

The above was highlighted by Graham Allison, coiner of the Thucydides Trap idiom in relation to U.S./China. The Thucydides Trap, as some may know, describes a situation where an emerging power begins to displace the incumbent global power, and how historically this almost always leads to major war. To popularize the theory apropos U.S./China, Graham Allison used the historical example of the Peloponnesian war, where a cagey Sparta was forced to take on the rising power of Athens.

Allison was recently invited by President Xi to a forum for U.S. business leaders where Xi told him directly:

Contrast President Xi’s magnanimous statements with those of the seething, guilt-wracked, bloodthirstily conniving Western ‘executives’. In fact, Xi called for more exchanges between China and the U.S. in order to entwine the two countries in mutual understanding, to avoid the Thucydides Trap.

This is the enduring image of what global leadership truly looks like, and the principles it embodies.

Meanwhile, when one thinks of America’s progressive decline, the one enduring image that comes to mind is of a bitterly frightened but dangerous, beady-eyed cornered rodent, conspiring on how to inflict damage and suffering onto the world in order to mask its own downfall.

[3]

The U.S. government does a grave disservice to its own development by cooking all of its economic books. Every country does it at times to some degree—and going by U.S.’ notoriously frequent accusations of China in this regard, one would think China to be the most flagrant violator—but in fact, no one does this more than the current U.S. regime.

The recent “jobs” report touted as a major victory by the Biden administration was a disgraceful travesty. The admin touted major jobs figures:

But it turned out every job was either part time, a federal job, or went to illegals:

In reality, the U.S. economy is in atrocious shape with sky-high inflation.

Here’s Jesse Watters revealing that:

“The Fed chair just confessed that #Bidenomics is just a migrant job fair. There is actually a million less American citizens working today than there were in 2020.”

Biden created 5 million migrant jobs! So don’t be fooled by his propaganda that’s spewed by the liberal machine. YOU DONT MATTER!

The data is cooked even more when comparing to China’s economic situation. As the following Tweeter explains:

While Chinese INCOMES are below American INCOMES, Chinese have much higher NET WORTH than Americans. How? They own apartments at a much higher rate and with a lot more equity than Americans. The MEAN and MEDIAN insight is even more beautiful. This graphic here is pretty much the only thing you need to understand about the difference between the economies of China and United States. But you really need to understand it and you need to have a deep understanding of what it means.

U.S. home ownership is on a precipitous decline toward the low ~60s%, while China now has over 90% home ownership rate:

[4.]

The above naturally springs the question of how China is able to do these things while the U.S. cannot. One of the answers comes by way of this fascinating explainer which shows that, contrary to the West’s depiction of China as some kind of rigidly authoritarian system, forward-looking President Xi is actually utilizing very cutting edge economic experimentation models to keep the Chinese economy as innovative, limber, and supple as possible.

In short, a deep study of thousands of official documents shows a huge upswing in language promoting economic experimentation in the directives issued under Xi’s government.

This is further compounded by the most important point of all: that under President Xi, China has embarked on a meticulous plan of curbing financialization and speculation of the ‘Western model’ in its economy. This is where it starts getting important so buckle up.

A good breakdown of that is given here by Chinese academic Thomas Hon Wing Polin, who pulls from this recent article:

https://www.rt.com/business/594432-financialization-death-empires/

The article gives a brief history of financialization, from the Genoese bankers to modern times, observing the historical cycles that have precipitated America’s current deterioration:

Observers of the current American hegemony will recognize the transformation of the global system to suit American interests. The maintenance of an ideologically charged ‘rules-based’ order – ostensibly for the benefit of everyone – fits neatly into the category of conflation of national and international interests. Meanwhile, the previous hegemon, the British, had their own version that incorporated both free-trade policies and a matching ideology that emphasized the wealth of nations over national sovereignty.

In describing the cycle of financialization and its connection to the death of empires, the article notes about Britain:

For example, the incumbent hegemon at the time, Great Britain, was the country hardest hit by the so-called Long Depression of 1873-1896, a prolonged period of malaise that saw Britain’s industrial growth decelerate and its economic standing diminished. Arrighi identifies this as the ‘signal crisis’ – the point in the cycle where productive vigor is lost and financialization sets in.

And yet, as Arrighi quotes David Landes’ 1969 book ‘The Unbound Prometheus,’ “as if by magic, the wheel turned.” In the last years of the century, business suddenly improved and profits rose. “Confidence returned—not the spotty, evanescent confidence of the brief booms that had punctuated the gloom of the preceding decades, but a general euphoria such as had not prevailed since…the early 1870s….In all of western Europe, these years live on in memory as the good old days—the Edwardian era, la belle époque.” Everything seemed right again.

However, there is nothing magical about the sudden restoration of profits, Arrighi explains. What happened is that “as its industrial supremacy waned, its finance triumphed and its services as shipper, trader, insurance broker and intermediary in the world’s system of payments became more indispensable than ever.”

In short: as an empire dies, loses its industrial and manufacturing capacity, finance takes over, pumping up huge bubbles of phony speculative money that gives the brief appearance of economic prosperity—for a time. This is what’s currently happening in the U.S., as it drowns in its self-created agony of debt, misery, corruption, and global destabilization.

One thing to note—if you’ll allow me this not-so-brief aside—is that the entire Western system is based on the actual institutionalized economic sabotage and subversion of the developing world. Books like the following go into some of it:

The rise of the underground economy: The book reveals how the United States’ underground economy evolved parallel to its legitimate economy, exploiting loopholes and leveraging secrecy jurisdictions to facilitate illegal activities such as drug trafficking, arms smuggling, and money laundering.

The “dark” side of globalization: Mills challenges the prevailing narrative of globalization as a force for progress, highlighting how it has facilitated the expansion of illicit networks across borders and allowed criminal enterprises to flourish.

The complicity of financial institutions: The author examines the role played by major financial institutions in enabling money laundering and illicit transactions. He underlines the need for stronger regulations and accountability to prevent banks from becoming facilitators of underground activities.

I challenge you to read notes on the National Memorandum 200, if you haven’t heard of it before:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Study_Memorandum_200

Incidentally, John Michael Greer just penned a new column (thanks to whoever shouted out this blog in the comments!) about the neologism he coined: Lenocracy, which derives from the Latin “leno” for pimp; i.e. a government run by pimps, or pimpocracy.

His definition of pimps in this case is that of middlemen who are the classic rent-seeking leaches—or rentier class—which extract economic rent without adding any value to the economy—all Michael Hudson territory, for those in the know.

Bear with me, I promise this will all tie together into an overall picture of China.

JMG characterizes the ‘pimps’ as basically all the unelected, bureaucratic, red-tape-weaving, blood-sucking monetary vultures killing growth and livelihoods by each taking their nibbles in turn from the carcass of the working class, exacting some small transactional charge at every step of routine business in Western nations, particularly the U.S. This has served to suffocate the average small business or entrepreneurship in general, not counting the big ticket venture capitalists who are mostly offshoots of global financial and investment firms. This is part and parcel to the lethal ‘financialization’ of the country that has spelled doom for its future.

Now, getting back to Thomas Hon Wing Polin’s precis, and how it relates to this. He notes:

It is noteworthy that the CPC leadership recently launched a major drive to build China into a “financial great power,” with a financial system “based on the real economy.” That would be the antithesis to Anglo-American-style economic financialization.

Read that last part: “…set pure profit-making aside.”

Pay attention to this big kicker:

Beijing is powering ahead with the epic project.

“China’s 461-trillion-yuan (US$63.7 trillion) financial industry and its regulatory regime will be heavily prioritised in a broad economic reshuffle engendered by the country’s top leadership, with the sector remoulded to serve national objectives like sustainable growth and advancement in the global tech race.

Are you beginning to get it yet? If not, here’s the crowning finial:

Specifically, it vowed to rein in Wall Street-style practices seen as unsustainable and crisis-prone, and move toward functionality as an overriding value for the financial system rather than profitability.

It also mandated that Chinese financial institutions have “higher efficiency” than their peers in the capitalist world and provide inclusive, accessible services in the pursuit of common prosperity.

“Like it or not, banks and other institutions on the supply side should expect top-down directives and overhauls cued by the CFC,” said Zhu Tian, a professor with the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS).

And there it is. In essence: China is creating a revolution, striking out a new path of finance which steers away from the wild excesses of the West into a bold new direction. Finance to benefit the real economy, the common man, the people. This is what the fig leaf of Rothschild-pushed ‘stakeholder capitalism’ is meant to be, or better yet: pretends to be.

It’s hard not to wax poetic on these developments, because they are truly groundbreaking. China is paving a new path forward for the entire world. The Chinese banking industry is now by far the largest on earth and President Xi has wisely put his foot down with a bold edict: we will not follow the path of destruction chosen by the West, but rather will set our own new path.

This is an iconoclastic, paradigm-breaking revolution which ends six centuries of Old Nobility world finance dominion, traced from the Spanish-Crown-allied Genoese bankers, to the Dutch then English banking system which now continues to enslave the world, and is referred to by a variety of names in the dissident sphere: from Hydra, to Leviathan, to Cthulu, to simply: the Cabal.

All those 600 years are going up in smoke with China’s repudiation of the ‘old standards’, which privilege predatory, deceptive, extractive terms and practices meant to benefit only the Old Nobility elite class. China’s system is true stakeholder finance: the government will forcibly bend the bankers to its will, making sure that finance serves the common good and the people first, rather than speculation, financialization, capitalization, and all the other wicked inventions of the Western Old Nobility class.

It begins like so:

“…bringing greed is good era to an end.”

The big one:

“Government has called for banks to abandon a Western-style ethos and adopt an outlook in line with broader economic priorities.”

It’s a revolution in the making.

But if you’re thinking my dramatic flights above verge a touch on hyperbole or idealism, you could be right. I, of course, still proceed with caution; we can’t be sure that China will succeed in its grand demolishment of the age-old paradigm. But all signals point to early success thus far, and more importantly, it’s clear that China has a leader that fundamentally understands these things at the most rooted level. Western leaders not only are incapable of even grasping the complexities involved of reining in capital, they are unable to do so for the mere fact that they’re totally bought and paid for by the representatives of that very capital class. The cabal of Capital is so deeply and institutionally entrenched in Western governmental systems that it’s simply impossible to imagine them being able to see ‘the forest for the trees’ from within the forest itself.

By the way, in light of the above, here’s the West’s truly desperate, pathetically envious, face-saving attempt to tarnish and mischaracterize China’s new direction:

https://www.rt.com/business/595434-us-eu-china-economies/

The above is particularly astounding in its admissions. Read carefully:

Market-based US and European economies are struggling to survive against China’s “very effective” alternative economic model, a top US trade representative has warned, according to Euractiv.

Katherine Tai told a briefing in Brussels on Thursday that Beijing’s “non-market” policies will cause severe economic and political damage, unless they are tackled through appropriate “countermeasures.” Tai’s remarks came as the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) kicked off in Leuven, Belgium.

“I think what we see in terms of the challenge that we have from China is… the ability for our firms to be able to survive in competition with a very effective economic system,” Tai said in response to a question from Euractiv.

In short: China isn’t playing fair—they’re actually privileging their people and economy over financial speculation, and this is causing their firms to outcompete ours!

But what she’s really talking about gets to the essence of the difference in the two systems:

The trade official described China as a system “that we’ve articulated as being not market-based, as being fundamentally nurtured differently, against which a market-based system like ours is going to have trouble competing against and surviving.”

These are code words: what she means by “market based” is free market capitalism, while China uses more of a centrally-planned directive system, as outlined earlier. Recall just recently I posted complaints from Western officials that their companies are not able to compete with Russian defense manufacturers due to their ‘unfairly’ efficient ‘central planning’ style.

Here too, what they mean is that the Chinese government creates directives that spurn ‘market logics’ and are aimed at direct improvements to the lives of ordinary citizens.

In the West there’s no such thing: all market decisions are based merely on the totally detached financial firms’ speculations and are exclusively at the behest of a tiny claque of finance and banking elite at the top of the pyramid.

You see, the U.S. is threatened because it knows it can never compete with China fairly, by squelching or containing its own gluttonous financial elite—so that leaves only one avenue for keeping up: sabotage and war.

This is the real reason the U.S. is desperate to stoke a Chinese invasion of Taiwan by various provocations, including weapons shipments. Just like the U.S. used Ukraine as the battering ram to bleed and weaken Russia economically, disconnecting it from Europe, U.S. hopes to use Taiwan as the Ukraine against China.

It would love to foment a bloody war that would leave China battered and economically set back to give the failing and greed-suffocated U.S. economy some breathing room.

But it’s unlikely to work—China is too sagacious to take the bait and fall for the trap. It will patiently wait things out, allowing the U.S. to drown in its own endless poison and treachery.

No, there will be no Thucydides Trap—it’s already too late for that.

The Trap worked for Sparta because it was still at its peak and able to thwart Athens. The U.S. is in terminal decline and would absolutely lose a war against China, which is why they hope to stage a proxy war instead, cowardly using Taiwan as the battering ram.

But China can read these desperate motives with the clarity of finely glazed porcelain.

Vocal Coach REACTS to DIO- BLACK SABBATH- HEAVEN AND HELL (LIVE)

Wow.

How can I change my life within the next 10 minutes?

For years I waited for a magical life-changing moment to happen, but it never happened.

I expected change, but it never came.

I then turned to people around me. I expected my parents to change my life, but I never changed.

My teachers pushed me for change, but as soon as I left school, I went back to my wrong habits.

“There’s clearly something wrong here,” I thought to myself. I started searching for something or someone to blame for my inability to change my life!

With anger I blamed my school, my family, my country, my culture… I even blamed the very same friends I had chosen to surround myself with.

I spent decades waiting for a quick, magical ten-minute, life-changing moment. It never happened — but eventually I did learn a huge lesson.

You don’t need 10 minutes to change your life, just a few seconds:

Wake up and stop searching for answers!
Wake up and stop blaming people!
Wake up to your reality and face it!
Wake up to understand that NOBODY cares if you change or not!

Only YOU can change your life in ten seconds, ten minutes, ten days, ten years or maybe never!

Stop waiting for external things to change your life.

Change only happens from the inside out!

Until YOU decide to change your life, nothing will ever happen!

Changing your life is a DECISION.

Decisions belong to YOU — nobody else!

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

Several years ago our supervisor decided one day he wasn’t happy with us leaving work 10mins early and told us we had to work until the very end of our shift.

Our team did 7 am to 3 pm and 2 pm to 11 pm shifts.

Our 7 am start should have been an 8 am to 4 pm shift but we agreed to drop back so there wasn’t a long period of time with too many people in the office after 2 pm.

As the organisation had 24/7 shifts with staff always available, it was common practice to take over the outgoing shift early AND our booking system was programmed to round your booking off to the hour if you booked off at 2:50 pm or 10:50 pm. We pointed this out to our supervisor whose response was “I don’t care what other teams do, this is how you will do it”. We also pointed out the number of early finishes we actually had was far less than the 10, 15, or 20 min late finishes we had – which we could claim as pay at double time, but didn’t because a 10 min early finish was seen as better compensation when we could have it.

He also tells us if we want a drink at the start of the shift we make it before we start work and not after we have started.

On day one of his new rule being implemented, he waited until 3 pm before saying we could go home!.

DAY 2. 6:55 am, morning staff brief, night team had gone home as normal, we waited in the office, the supervisor comes out telling us briefing had started only to be told we didn’t get paid until 7 am so we won’t be joining him until then.

We walked in at 7 am and disrupted everyone.

We finish at 3 pm.

DAY 3, nights had told us the supervisor was waiting in the office and had decided to do his own 7 am brief so we didn’t disturb the other team. We waited until 7 am and then put on our work uniform, then walked in 7:02 am where he tried telling us we were late! Only our response was, that getting our work kit on is part of our paid working day so we were not late but on time working but elsewhere in the building.

We also decided to check our bookings going back to April (we were in Sept) and see how many days we were late off, quite a few, we queried with our payroll dept as to why these were not paid to us as per our contract T&Cs at double time, they said they would get back to us.

We again finished at 3 pm.

DAY 4 we walk in at 7:02 nothing said about being late as the supervisor had decided to hold our briefing at 7:15 instead, he sat down with a smirk on his face that day.

We again finished at 3 pm.

DAY 5.

We walk in at 8:02 am! He was fuming demanding to know why we were all LATE, we pointed out our shift didn’t officially start until 8 am, and starting at 7 am was an agreement we had made in good faith, as there was no good faith from him we would be working to the rule of our job description and employment contract. A few more words were exchanged between us all and then our manager appears and demands to speak to us all.

Our manager had received a call from the payroll dept, they weren’t happy that we had called in our overtime since April that year, the total overtime bill for the entire team was nearly £2000, it would be 3 times as much if we wanted to go back further and they knew we could so he wanted to know what was going on.

I just told him to ask the supervisor who had started it and we would correct him where necessary. After the supervisor explained his rule change and OUR poor conduct in the matter we asked for the supervisor to be removed from the room and gave our version including explaining how taking a 10 min start was more than enough to make up for the late finishes. The manager asked us to leave and then called back the supervisor.

After their meeting the supervisor called us back in, he had reversed his rule change, he saw no issue in what we had been doing previously, and effective immediately the new rule had been scrapped. He also asked if we would go back to starting at 7 am and if we wanted to make a drink after we started that would be fine. As for our overtime, it had to be paid as a result of our query.

So within a week, a new rule came in, went again, and left an organisation with a payroll bill they wouldn’t have had if someone hadn’t stirred things up.

Have you ever had to tell someone in the movie theater to “shut up”?

Yes, with an expletive thrown in. Not proud or bragging, but it happened.

I was with my wife in the second back row watching War for the Planet of the Apes. The cinema was packed, not an empty seat in sight.

Behind us there was a large group, men and women, chatting constantly. They weren’t even trying to be quiet about it. Just blatantly talking and laughing amongst themselves, stretching across each other sharing loud food, looking at their phones—you know, all the annoying shit you’re not meant to do.

We could tell everyone was getting pissed. Many of them kept turning round to give them dirty looks. Eventually a young woman close to me asked them to be quiet. They did not. Another 15 minutes of rudeness, and it was someone else’s turn. A man nearby, without looking at them but loud enough for them to hear, angrily said “shut up!”. Still nothing.

Bear in mind I had waited a long time for this movie to come out, as I’m a big fan of the franchise. It’s a very atmospheric movie which was being destroyed by this asshole.

Half-way through the movie and two attempts from others later, I lost it. I turned round to face him and yelled “will you shut the fuck up!”.

You could tell a mile off that this guy thought he was the business. He also didn’t want to look stupid in front of his friends, so he replied “you shut the–”. I stopped him mid-sentence with a “No. Don’t respond. Just shut up!” He did.

We heard next to nothing from them the rest of the movie. A win for everyone, but unfortunately I was just in a bad mood for the remainder and didn’t enjoy it as I should have.

My question is, why would you go through the effort, time and money of going to the cinema to not actually watch the movie? Especially when you are ruining it for others. Oh, that’s right, because some people are just straight-up dicks.

As a surgeon, have you opened somebody up only to realize that they were beyond saving?

I am not a surgeon, but I have a related story to tell. My uncle was driving his motorhome to his favorite fishing lake, when he got terrible stomach pains. It was so bad that he pulled off the highway and into a small town hospital, they did a cat scan and flew him back to the city.

Where they opened him up, his guts were rotten. Everything had gangrene. They said that he would die within a few days, no matter what they did, they asked his wife what he would want. My aunt said to do everything possible to save him.

They did, I don’t know what all they removed, but it was at least part of the stomach, most of the intestines. I found that out from taking to him later. They said he was septic, and that they couldn’t get him clean inside, and he would die soon. The whole family was called and we stood a death watch. When he passed the four day mark, my cousin asked the doctor what was next. The doctor said he had no clue, because this had never happened before, we were in uncharted territory.

It took three months for him to come home. He had a very specific diet, a catheter and a colostomy bag.

He lived for three more years.

China’s EV export boom fuels surge in demand for new car-carrying ships

By Sarah Wu and Brenda Goh

April 9, 20249:31 PM CDT

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, April 10 (Reuters) – Chinese automakers and shippers are ordering a record number of car-carrying vessels to support a boom in EV exports, data showed, putting China on course to amass the world’s fourth-largest fleet by 2028.

China currently has the world’s eighth-largest fleet with 33 car-carrying ships, showed data from shipping consultancy Veson Nautical. Japan has the world’s largest with 283 ships, followed by Norway’s 102, South Korea’s 72 and Isle of Man’s 61.

But Chinese companies have 47 ships on order, accounting for a quarter of all orders globally. Buyers include SAIC Motor (600104.SS)

Chery Automobile (CHERY.UL) and EV giant BYD (002594.SZ)

as well as shippers such as COSCO (COSCO.UL) and China Merchants on behalf of Chinese automakers.

“After this armada has been delivered to China, the Chinese controlled car carrier fleet will jump from current 2.4% to 8.7%,” Veson analyst Andrea de Luca said. “We expect to see new trade routes established almost exclusively for Chinese OEMs (automakers).”

The jump in orders has mostly benefited Chinese shipyards, which received 82% of orders globally, the data showed.

With price-squeezing competition, cost-conscious consumers and a sluggish economy, automakers have ramped up expansion into markets where their vehicles command higher prices than at home. Last year, China overtook Japan as the biggest auto exporter.

BYD alone exported over 240,000 cars in 2023, about 8% of its global sales, and plans to export up to 400,000 this year.

Foreign peers such as Tesla (TSLA.O)

and Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE)

have also expanded production in China for export to take advantage of the country’s cost-effective supply chain.

Rising shipping costs and local government support have persuaded automakers to buy ships themselves. By the end of 2023, the daily rate to charter a 6,500-vehicle carrier reached $115,000, more than seven times the 2019 average, showed data from shipping consultancy Clarkson.

But the export rise has prompted the U.S. and EU to accuse China of trying to deal with excess industrial capacity by flooding their markets with low-priced products.

The government said the focus on capacity is misguided and that it understates innovation and overstates the role of state support in driving growth.

The risk of excess capacity is also high in shipbuilding, said senior economist Xu Tianchen at the Economist Intelligence Unit, with China the usual target of finger-pointing.

However, “there remain some niches where the market probably hasn’t saturated, such as car cargo ships,” Xu said.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen

raised overcapacity concerns during a four-day trip to China. Meanwhile, China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao is visiting Europe, where he is likely to discuss a European Commission probe into whether Chinese-made EVs unfairly benefit from subsidies.

Can you name one of the most meaningful stand out “light bulb moments” of your life that stuck with you?

I grew up in a working class family and when I say we were broke, we were broke.

I figured out quite quickly what a dollar was worth when I was very young.

I couldn’t get a quarter out of my father without him pitching a fit.

By the time I was 12 ( 1984) I waa sick of not having anything so I lied abour my age to get my first job to make some money

I worked on a fishing boat for tips that whole summer. By the time I was 15, I had had 3 different jobs. Cutting lawns and dish washing at local restaurants.

A few years later I am 18, its 2am, im leaving my gf house because I have to get up in the morning to go to work.

My car breaks down on the way home and I call my gf to pick me up and drive me home.

I left the car on the road for the night and would deal with it in the morning.

The next day I had to call into work so I could deal with this broken down car.

I had a little bit of money but not much.

I guess I was hoping because I was such a good kid and had been working and bought my own school clothes and whatever else I needed for the last few years that my father would actually help me this time.

Nope…… when I saw him the next morning, he says…aren’t you supposed to be at work?

I say, ya my car broke down on the way home from my gf house last night.

I wanted him so bad to say, oh wow, do you need any help, or anything fatherly. What he said, without moving his eyes from the TV screen was…..so what are you going to do about that?

Those words were enough for my lightbulb to go off thinking, this guy is just not going to help me at all.

For years i resented my father but figured out, he inadvertently taught me how to be independent

That moment as shi**y as I thought that was to do to your kid actually made me so much stronger

Wet Burritos

A wet or smothered burrito is covered with sauce and/or toppings; therefore, it cannot be picked up and eaten.

Ingredients

1 cup sour cream
1 cup cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 1/2 pounds ground beef or turkey
1 onion, diced
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 can refried beans
8 flour tortillas
4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
Lettuce
Tomato
Salsa

Instructions

Brown ground beef and onion.
Meanwhile, mix together sour cream and mushroom soup.
Spread 1/2 cup of soup mixture in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.
Mix taco seasoning and beans with ground beef or turkey mixture.
Divide meat among 8 tortillas, and add a sprinkle of cheese.
Roll up and place in pan with seam side down.
Cover with remaining sour cream mixture and cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.
Serve with lettuce, tomato and salsa.

Xinjiang

Today is my third and final day in Kashgar, the capital of Uyghur culture in China.

Not one sentence of what I’ve been told about Xinjiang is true.

Xinjiang is not only the last place in the world where you could imagine a genocide happening — it’s also simply heaven on earth. I had no idea life anywhere could be this good. I’ll be very sorry to leave Xinjiang. Toronto is a toilet in comparison.

I’ve never seen an indigenous people who are happier and whose culture flourishes more than the Uyghurs. I will share a ton of photos and videos. Any intelligent person can observe these people and tell that they are not oppressed.

Next I’m going to the city of Korla. The last leg of the tour.

Roasting Men’s Living Spaces

This is hilarious! It will make YOUR DAY!

Inspirational photos

I generated these photos via LeonardoAI.

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Husband OUTSMARTS Wealthy, Cheating Wife By Playing The Long Game With Prenup, Now He’s Cleaning Up!

US cannot keep up with PLA in weapons R&D spending, new systems deployment

US Pentagon officials have publicly admitted for the first time that the US cannot keep up with China in terms of new weapons system return on investment (ROI) and rate of deployment.

While the US defense budget is four times larger than China’s, much of the Pentagon money is wasted on pork barrel projects from Congress made for political reasons, and on the huge number of personnel and inventory stationed around the world in order to maintain US global influence. One Pentagon official admitted that there is no chance for the US to catch up with China within the next 20 years because the US military would have to downsized, and defense supply chains would have to be completely remodeled to become efficient.

Defense spending in the US is spread all over the US to create jobs so that defense spending would get support from all 50 states voting in Congress. This has made it very wasteful and inefficient.

In certain areas, Americans blind faith in private enterprise has led to the bankruptcy of strategic suppliers which cannot be replaced. Example: the only maker of steam catapults for aircraft carriers has declared bankruptcy, which means that there will no longer be support for these devices from a private contractor. Without support, the Navy will have to train its own personnel to conduct repairs. This would never have happened in China because key military technologies are developed and maintained by state-owned enterprises, and their top priority is NOT profitability when it comes to key strategic technologies.

Dating Coach Tells Her Clients IT’S OVER The GOOD MEN Are Becoming PASSPORT BROS

The Next War, Warm war.

A few days ago, I watched a public speech given by Mr. Jin Canrong at a certain university in 2008. He predicted the future pattern of world war and mentioned a very interesting concept – warm war.

Jin Canrong is a doctoral supervisor at the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China and an expert on American issues.

If World War II is a “hot war,” it means that the two major forces faced off in an all-out manner, using all available means to achieve conquest and total surrender as the outcome of the war. Then the Cold War after World War II was the two major groups of the United States and the Soviet Union, using non-war methods to compete comprehensively and compete on the international political stage.

In 2008, Mr. Jin Canrong predicted that the next war in the future would be a “warm war.” It will not be a game between major powers with pure military force like a hot war, nor will it be a competition only at a non-war level like the Cold War.

Instead, major countries use the unstable regions of third parties as a card table and indirectly fight a limited “competitive war” or ” agent war ” through economics, weapons, and technical assistance to determine the new political pattern of the world. This is a bit like what is talked about in some science fiction novels. If two countries have disagreements, they each agree on how many personnel and unmanned war machines they will send, and then demarcate a “battlefield area” where, like a card table, they can be operated remotely Win or lose in games. Just like the situation at the poker table, the two sides have some tacit rules to ensure that each other will not fall out and start an all-out war by any means necessary to get out of control. Nor will we use chemical weapons, nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction that exceed the limits and cause permanent problems to the environment.

Both sides are like Olympic athletes, competing with each other for the latest technical equipment and tactical concepts, and constantly increasing the weight on the card table through military blood transfusions, until one party’s wallet is empty, and the gentleman folds his cards and admits defeat, Get off the table.

No matter whether we win or lose, our roots will not be damaged, and we will not be in danger of destroying our country. At most, we will lose our right to speak in carving up new markets internationally in the next few years. This kind of “warm war” that starts at intervals can also clear weapons inventories, boost the country’s domestic demand, and increase the president’s voice. Therefore, it is even possible for the world to open more than one “card table” at the same time, or every few years, a country with an itchy hand will end and reopen a card table. Some countries that were once economically developed but have fierce internal conflicts and have a relatively large population of young adults will be the location of the “card table”.

Another reason why there is a warm war is the aging of developed countries. As a country’s economy develops, life expectancy increases and fertility rates decrease. At this time, the country began to enter an aging population. In countries with an aging population, the willingness of the people to directly participate in war will be very low, and it will be very difficult to recruit soldiers. Because the parents of young people do not want them to join the army anymore, and the elderly want a stable life and do not expect drastic changes. Therefore, it is difficult for these developed countries to start a war in person like World War I and World War II. Instead, it will use a “warm war” approach to conduct low-intensity limited wars outside the homeland.

It now seems that our world should be going through such a stage. Fortunately, World War III did not start with a full-scale nuclear war as imagined in many novels , but a more restrained and limited local war. Behind the scenes, all major countries actually have interests, and they have also made “bet”-like camp selections and economic and military support. But just like playing cards, there are those who pull out their guns in a hurry and refuse to admit their defeat, This kind of warm war may also gradually escalate into a hot war because too many interests are gradually involved, or even turn into a direct end, and the situation will get out of control.

Author Note

Now the Bio War launched (Covid 19) by the US already failed, the trade war already Failed, the technology war already failed, Indo Pacific already failed replaced with AUKUS, Warm war in Ukraine failed, financial war by increasing interest rate also failed. will the US camp admit defeat or they will increase this into a hot war? no matter what the US camp attitude is dedollarization is coming, new world order is coming.

Russia issues arrest warrant for Norwegian politician turned Ukraine mercenary (PHOTOS)

A former Sami parliament member faces 18 years in prison if convicted

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Sandra Andersen Eira, a former member of an indigenous parliament in Norway, has found herself on Moscow’s wanted list for joining Kiev’s “international legion,” TASS has reported, citing a law enforcement source.

Eira went to Ukraine in March 2022 and first enlisted with an Anglo-American unit. She has since been reassigned to the Ukrainian Marines as a medic.

The arrest warrant was issued this week under Article 359, Section 3 of the Russian Criminal Code, “as part of a criminal investigation into the participation of a mercenary in an armed conflict,” the source told TASS.

The website of the Basmanny Court of Moscow was updated on Tuesday to reflect an outstanding warrant against Eira. The court has ordered her arrested for two months from the moment she is detained or extradited to Russian territory. If convicted, she faces up to 18 years in a penal colony.

Eira was born in 1986 and is a member of the Sami ethnic minority that lives in the far north of Norway. She worked in the fishing industry in the Arctic prior to being elected to the Sami parliament (Sametinget) from the constituency of Avjovarri in 2017. Her term ended in 2021.

The Norwegian national was first identified as being in Ukraine’s service by the Washington Post in April 2022.

In an interview with the Ukrainian publication New Voices in May that year, Eira said her unit was deployed north of Kiev and fought in Irpen and Bucha before being sent south to Nikolaev. She also said she was the only female in the unit and all the Ukrainian soldiers treated her “like a queen.”

In another interview, dated January 2023, Eira revealed that she had fought in Soledar and Artyomovsk (known in Ukraine as Bakhmut) but left before the towns were taken by Russian forces. Being a combat medic was her childhood dream, but she always assumed it was going to be in the Middle East, she said at the time.

“I did not expect a war with Russia, but here we are,” she added.

What are ten truths everyone should accept in life?

You’re loved when you’re born, you will be loved when you die. In between, you’ll have to adjust.
Nothing that you love or loathe or have control over, will last forever. Love, bliss, pain, anxiety, people, nothing!
Nobody cares about what battles you fight everyday. So make sure you fight well for yourself.
People whom you trust, will stab you in the back and ask you why are you bleeding. Of course, exceptions always exist.
You may not be fortunate enough to pursue your dream job but hey, that’s totally okay 🙂
Some people will hate you for no reason at all, no matter how much you do for them. Accept that fact and stop stressing over it as if it’s your fault
Money can buy almost everything including happiness. This is because our happiness has become exceedingly materialistic and there’s no shame in acknowledging this fact.
You will be judged for every single thing. They will always tell you that you could have done things better. This world will never be satisfied.
You can’t be the best. Never ever. So rather focus on being REAL.
The trouble is that you think you have time. Life’s real short honey, things will vanish before you wonder how, go get what you want for all you have is NOW.

What did your boss do or say to you that made you quit your job?

When I was 18 I worked at a fast food place called Hardees. For those not familiar, this is the same chain as Carls Jr. If you’re not familiar with either of those, it’s basically like a McDonalds or Burger King.

My normal days off were Sunday and Monday, but I had asked for Saturday off one week because I had a date. My manager let me off, and when I left work Friday night I waved and said “See you Tuesday!” on my way out the door.

Saturday night I go on my date and everything goes fine. When I get home my roommate tells me my manager called five times wanting to know why I wasn’t at work. The store was closed by that point so I decided I would just go in the next day (Sunday) and remind her that I had the day off.

Sunday afternoon I go to the store and ask to speak to the manager. She immediately starts reading me the riot act about not coming in to work and not calling to let them know I would be there. I let her get it all out of her system, then I pointed to the schedule on the wall right outside of her office and said “I wasn’t here because you told me a week ago I could have yesterday off.”

She looked at the schedule, looked back at me, and the light popped on. “That’s right,” she said, “I remember you saying see you Tuesday when you left Friday night. I’m sorry, it totally slipped my mind.”

I was fairly pissed off, but I decided that it wasn’t worth making a big deal about. I told her not to worry about it, and again said “See you Tuesday” as I left the store.

When I got to the restaurant on Tuesday I was told to go to the manager’s office immediately. When I walked in she started off by saying “Why weren’t you here yesterday?”

I gave her a blank look, then finally responded “Because it’s my day off.”

She responded “No, I changed the schedule Sunday, and since you had Saturday off I needed you to work yesterday. Why weren’t you here?”

I must have been looking at her like she had two heads at this point.

“What time did you change the schedule on Sunday? When I was here at two o’clock we looked at the schedule together, and I was still scheduled to be off yesterday.”

“I changed it around eight o’clock Sunday night.”

“So what you’re saying is that you changed my schedule on my day off, and scheduled me to work the next day, and expected me to somehow know you had done this without telling me about it?”

That’s when she went too far. “I’m your boss, not your mother. It’s your job to keep track of your schedule, I shouldn’t have to do that for you.”

I took off my hat and my apron and replied, “You know what, you don’t actually have to do anything for me. I’m done.” I handed her the hat and apron and walked out the door, didn’t look back.

Beef Brisket Burritos

Ingredients

18 slices beef brisket
1 tablespoon vegetable oil or butter
6 (10 inch) flour tortillas
1 cup Mexican cheese, grated
1/2 onion, sliced
1 jalapeño, deseeded and diced
2 tomatoes, sliced
Cholula sauce
Lettuce, shredded

Instructions

Warm the brisket slices.
Put the oil or butter into a large skillet over medium-low heat. When oil is heated, or when butter is melted, quickly warm the flour tortillas on both sides.
Place slices of brisket down the middle of the tortilla. Top with cheese, onion slices, some jalapeño, some tomato, Cholula sauce, and top with lettuce. Carefully roll the tortilla around the filling, tucking the ends to prevent any of the filling from falling out.

Yeehaww!

China sez no to buying US T-bills

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In short the interest on US debt is $1.2 trillion and rising. Just the interest. Much of that debt is also OLD debt at lower yield and yields are rising fast.

Now of course somebody will say USD will NOT collapse it will still remain dominant etc.

But here’s the thing, it doesn’t need to collapse.

Western elections for instance. You do not need to convince ALL the voters of your position only the marginals. The 1–2% at the marginals can cause an entirely different party/government to be elected… hence, why political parties always target the marginals.

Small niggles become bigger problems very quickly.

This is a harsh truth

Which company will fall first: Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, or Microsoft?

Anyone of them can fall

I remember in 2010 when people spoke of BlackBerry being a trillion dollar valued company by 2020

It had a market value of $ 50.7 Billion at its peak

It made smartphones and had a Global share of nearly 16%

Then suddenly Apple and Google surged ahead. The Touch Screen ended the Mini QWERTY Keyboard and today BlackBerry survives on IOT patents

That’s the problem with Tech companies

A New Direction in Technology can render then null and void in six months after decades of existence

Hewlett Packard was once valued at around $ 130 Billion at its peak but today it’s around $ 27–28 Billion

That’s because nobody in 2010 expected that your super fast internet could be available on your smartphone that would render a lot of Laptops as vestigial

So let’s see

Google

They have a lot of services. A whole lot of services. Yet are they monetized?

Google makes 80% or more of its Revenue from Advertising

The entire Google infrastructure seems to be entirely oriented towards micro advertising

They have YouTube, Google Search Engine, Chrome to help them build enough customers to generate a huge advertising income

Google has a near monopoly today as far as YT and Chrome and the Search Engine are concerned and thus so far it’s advertising revenue is safe

Chance of a Fall :- Bleak in the next 5 years. Google seems safe. Unless a rival comes up in the next five years at a evolved scale either in searching or browsing or video streaming

Amazon

Amazon has AWS but the near monopoly is absent.

Google, Microsoft, Huawei, Alibaba, Oracle all compete with Amazon AWS

AWS is where the big profits are

The E Commerce generates moolah but not profits

The E Commerce is just the source for Data like Google Search Engine or Chrome

Chance of Fall :- AWS has a low tech threshold and will lose share to Huawei and Alibaba especially in the emerging economies minus India

I see their value falling in 5 years and their market cap.

Unless they step up their technological edge

Male Standards Are Frowned Upon

Michael Roberts

Michael Roberts has an interesting piece on China’s economy today. The disfunctional nature of western capitalism- so celebrated by the Ideologist/Economists- as it disappears up into its own orifice has reached the stage at which it pleads for help from the competition. The truth about the ‘market model’ is that it only works when it has evolved into a series of mutually reinforcing monopolies controlling the state and, through it, society. That’s what the capitalists call ‘freedom’- one chance in a million of becoming a dictator.

“The recent nonsense issued by the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on China’s ‘overcapacity’ and ‘unfair subsidies’ to its industries is particularly pathetic. As Renaud Bertrand put it: “the so-called threat of China’s industrial overcapacity” is a buzzword that actually means that China is simply too competitive, and by asking it to address this, what Yellen is truly asking of China is akin to a fellow sprinter asking Usain Bolt to run a less fast because he can’t keep up.”

“….(Renaud) Bertrand..: “despite the very low prices for its EVs or solar panels, Chinese companies involved still make a profit (industrial profits are rising at double digit growth), and they DO charge higher prices abroad than at home. The competitiveness of Chinese companies is overwhelming: today, in scores of industries – like solar or EVs – there is simply no way for American or European companies to compete with Chinese ones. This is the real issue: Yellen and Western leaders are afraid that if things keep going, China will simply eat everyone’s lunch.”

“China is the only country in the world that produces all categories of goods classified by the World Customs Organization (WCO). This gives it a key advantage when it comes to end prices: when you want to build something in China you can literally find the entire supply chain for it at home. Bertrand: “China has become an innovation powerhouse. In 2023 it filed roughly as many patents as the rest of the world combined and it’s now estimated to lead 37 out of the 44 critical technologies for the future. All this too has implications when it comes to the final prices of its products.”….

https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2024/04/10/chinas-unfair-overcapacity/

Posted by: bevin | Apr 10 2024 15:28 utc | 12

This Is How You Deal With Pronoun Warriors

Spicy Meatball Burritos

Yield: 5 to 6 servings

Ingredients

2 pounds ground beef
1 large green bell pepper, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large onion, diced
1/4 tablespoon salt
4 tablespoons chili powder
2 eggs
1 tablespoon parsley
1 cup brown rice (pre-cooked for 15 minutes)
2 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 teaspoon chili powder
6 to 8 (10 to 12 inch) flour tortillas

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine ground beef, bell pepper, garlic, onion, salt, chili powder, eggs, parsley and brown rice. Mix well.
Roll into balls the size of a large walnut. Set aside.
In a large skillet, add tomato sauce, water and chili powder. Bring to a simmer, then add meatballs and continue simmering for 40 to 50 minutes, stirring occasionally.
When done, fill tortillas and serve with your favorite salsa.
You may wish to garnish with lettuce and tomato.

What’s the hardest truth of life?

1. Everyone is a whore. We just sell different parts of ourselves.

2. If it’s free, you’re the product.

3. Comparison is the thief of joy.

4. Nostalgia is a liar.

5. A person is smart, but people are dumb.

6. Marrying the wrong person can destroy you.

7. A pessimist is only a well informed optimist.

8. If people could put rainbows in cages, they would.

9. No one is interested in your suffering until you succeed.

10. Blood means shit. Pick your own family.

11. The world is run by the 1% and most of us are just living in it.

12. Sometimes you are the bad guy.

13. It’s never a stranger who betrays you.

14. In a relationship, love is not enough.

15. Love is not all you need.

16. It’s better not to be bitter knowing the above.

My Marriage Is A Graveyard

MARIA ZAKHAROVA:

“Zelensky stated that Kiev has become a hostage of the electoral process in the U.S.

And there were no elections in the U.S. before 2024, right? Or is it that the presidential elections that did not take place in Ukraine have been moved to the U.S.?

I understand that Zelensky wants to think that he is the only one, and everything revolves around him, but no. He is just one line in a long list of victims of the ‘American elections,’ or, more precisely, of the American system.

One of those who was firmly convinced that the States was their allies.

In South Vietnam, for example, they understood this back in the 60s.

There was a girl – the first beauty of South Vietnam, Tran Le Xuan, who was popularly called Madame Nhu, as she was married to Ngo Dinh Nhu, the younger brother and chief advisor to the president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem.

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Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu – leaders of South Vietnam – were supported by the Americans during the war.

Despite the fact that the Vietnamese conflict was going on – an ugly and bloody offspring of the French colonial system – Washington promised Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu all-round assistance.

The Americans actively contributed to the tragic division of the country – the conflict in the former French colonies was profitable for them.

Doesn’t this remind Zelensky of anything?

The U.S. treated the leaders of South Vietnam so tenderly that in 1961, the Vice President of the U.S., Lyndon B. Johnson, arrived in Saigon. Later, as president, he would send hundreds of thousands of Americans to die in Vietnam. At that time, Johnson called Diem the ‘Asian Winston Churchill.’

Similarly, the Americans hyped up an ambitious drug addict from Bankova, crowning him ‘leader of free Ukraine.’

What happened to the ‘allies’ of Washington – Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu – afterward? They were killed.

General Duong Van Minh, considered one of the most loyal military leaders, led a coup on November 1, 1963, during which the top leadership of South Vietnam was arrested and executed by order of the putschists.

Only by chance did Ngo Dinh Nhu’s wife, Tran Le Xuan, not suffer, as she was abroad. It was then that ‘Madame Nhu’ uttered the sacramental phrase:

‘Whoever has the Americans as allies does not need enemies.’

And this phrase turned out to be prophetic.

In 1975, it turned out that the Americans knew about the impending coup. They could have warned their allies, saved the president of South Vietnam and his team, but, just as the French did not prevent the genocide in Rwanda, so the Americans ‘found it inappropriate’ to stop the military putsch.

There is a version that the degree of American involvement was even greater – they inspired the coup, removing the president through the hands of the military.”

Excerpt from the message posted by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on her Telegram channel, April 7, 2024.

You’ll be fine

Paula Scanlan SLAMS SJW With Facts on Gender

Raspberry Cream Cheese Brownies

Yield: 36 brownies

Ingredients

1 box Betty Crocker Supreme Brownie mix (chocolate syrup pouch included)
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup raspberry preserves
1 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate
1 tablespoon butter

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottom only of 13 x 9 inch baking pan.
Stir brownie mix, chocolate syrup, water, oil and eggs in medium bowl until well blended. Spread in pan.
Bake for 28 to 30 minutes.
Cool completely before frosting.
Mix cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and preserves; spread over brownies.
Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Melt chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring frequently; drizzle over brownies.
Refrigerate for about 1 hour.

What actually happens if a customer in a restaurant refuses to pay for his meal (ex: he didn’t read the prices)?

“Stop that woman!”

As a bartender on a resort island throughout my twenties, I’ve had my fair share of hit and runs. At a certain point you start to get a clear vibe from certain mischievous vacationers always trying to run away with a little bit more.

This particular day, I could see it coming. Beautiful weather, friendly customers in a socially inviting environment. Perfect time to strike!

It was happy hour and I didn’t feel it necessary to take credit cards to keep tabs open. This one lady kept blasting about how she knows the owner and has been coming there for blah blah years.

Dead giveaway that you suck.

The vile woman’s happy hour tab soared past the others and her confidence grew with each sip.

“Would you like another one Natalie?”

Surprised that I remembered her name, she smiled and asked if I had an ash tray. I gave her one and told her where she was allowed to smoke… all along she stared at her phone, not caring about my directions.

“I’ll be right back.” She lied.

That’s when the happy hour soured.

This wasn’t my first rodeo and I knew I would feel terrible if I had misjudged this person but i immediately walked from behind the bar into the kitchen and out the back door. I slowly walked down the stairs out, around the corner and out front to the parking lot; just in time to step in front of her car as she was making her getaway!

I stuck my hand out, pretended I was on the phone with police and received pay in full plus a rather large tip from this terrified lady who totally ‘just forgot’ to pay her tab.

I’m a bartender and All we have is our dignity!

Not today Natalie.

Black Man Apologizes For HATING On Passport Bros

What’s the most savage way you’ve seen someone get fired?

Oh man do I have a story for you. I didn’t see it, but I heard it from multiple people, including the man himself.

Once upon a time, I was a recruiter in the barcode and data collection industry. Honeywell was a company we recruited out of all of the time. Out of nowhere we heard that Honeywell was losing employees like crazy. I’m talking sailors jumping off a sinking ship. They weren’t being laid off, they were leaving the company in droves.

Apparently, there was a man, let’s call him Mr. Wilson, who was a salesman for Honeywell. Mr. Wilson had a customer come up to him and say, “hey, I have a couple of warehouses. I need barcode scanners and printers for inventory. Give me all you got.” It was a little known company at the time called Amazon. Mr. Wilson delivered the goods, and the next year Amazon began to grow. More warehouses, more inventory, don’t worry, we got a guy at Honeywell who is our sales rep and he treats us wonderfully! We’ll give him a call and he can help get the warehouses setup.

Fast forward a few years, Mr. Wilson is doing SO well selling to this customer, Honeywell rewards him by making him the sole man over the Amazon account at Honeywell. The orders for Honeywell products are so large at this point that it’s over a billion dollars a year. Mr. Wilson can’t do that himself so he’s given a staff of 200 plus employees just to satisfy Amazon’s needs for Honeywell scanners.

Fast forward to 2022. Honeywell has a new president. This president thinks he knows everything, and likes to feel important. So he starts butting into Mr. Wilson’s dealings with Amazon; negotiating things, talking to the reps at Amazon, over promising and under delivering to Amazon with unrealistic deadlines for Honeywell products to be delivered, etc. Mr. Wilson boldly told the president of the company, and the VP and new CEO more than once, that he was rewarded this account, and he knows what he’s doing, and that them over promising and under delivering was going to kill their relationship with Amazon. And he alone has the rapport with Amazon, and the president is ruining the credibility of Honeywell by lying to their client about how much they can sell and deliver to Amazon. You can imagine how well that went. They told him to go piss up a rope. He’s an employee, they are the big shots, and they can do whatever the hell they want and if he don’t like it he can go work somewhere else.

Fast forward a little further. The president over promised and under delivered again. They couldn’t get the thousands of scanners in the deadline the president promised, which he had no business doing anyway as Mr. Wilson had his boots on the ground and had it covered. Honeywell screwed Amazon. So Amazon switched to another company for their inventory needs and dropped Honeywell like a brick. Did the president take responsibility? Nope.

Fast forward a couple weeks later. Honeywell is having a big corporate party to award their top performers. Wine and food, giving out Rolex watches and other expensive gifts for exceeding sales goals, the works. The President of Honeywell gets up and gives a speech recognizing Mr. Wilson’s accomplishments over 15 years of service at Honeywell. He brags on him for his hard work and dedication, and gives him his award for millions of dollars in Honeywell equipment sold that year. The place applauds. Mr. Wilson is a well known overachiever in the company and is loved by many there. He accepts his award at the podium.

Then, in front of EVERYONE, the President says, “oh, and one more thing Mr. Wilson. For losing the Amazon account, you’re fired.” In. Front. Of. Everyone. The place is STUNNED. Mr. Wilson is then escorted from the premises by security in front of God and everyone attending. His staff was liquidated as well. All 200 some employees in one swoop. All at a celebration for salespeople who did their job above and beyond.

This humiliating, cold hearted, vengeful, extremely heavy handed authority and show of massive ego set off a big chain reaction. People that were there realized then that the company was in trouble with their leadership and that the time had come to look for another job. And I mean now. Folks who were there began the job search in private the next day. The news of what happened spread like a prairie fire, and soon others began putting their resumes on LinkedIn. It became industry known and Honeywell took a serious hit to their reputation. We helped lots of employees find work elsewhere after that little fiasco.

I eventually heard this story so much from employees, one suggested that I get ahold of Mr. Wilson myself whom this fella was a friend of. He was out of work, he’d be the one needing a job more than anyone. So he gave me Mr. Wilson’s number and I gave him a call. Lo and behold it was 100% true. He saved most of his money from his career and was sitting on several million dollars through selling to Amazon so he wasn’t hurting financially. He was effectively retired at age 52. But he was so disheartened and bitter about how he was treated he was over the thought of ever working again as a salesman. However he did send me his resume and told me if I ever came across an exciting project that needed a leader to give him a call.

I never was able to find that exciting project for Mr. Wilson but I kept his resume on my windowsill by my desk until I left that job, mainly as a reminder that no matter how good of an employee you are or how much money you make, a bad boss can ruin everything. And that’s exactly why I left my short lived job as a recruiter and became self-employed again.

Why Black Men Are DONE Being DISRESPECTED By Black Women

What is the wittiest reply to a credit card promotional email sent by a bank?

In 2008, a Russian man named Dmitry Agarkov recieved a credit card promotional email from Tinkoff Bank. At first glance, it offered an interest rate of 13% and the credit limit was good too. So, Dmitry decided to look over the enclosed contract to see if it was really worth it.

Dmitry was going though the document when he was quite shocked to find that at the bottom of one of the page there was a fine print which read that the actual interest rate was 45% instead of 13%.

Most of us would have been a little annoyed for wasting our time, but Dmitry decided to play an elaborate prank…

Dmitry took the contract that the bank had enclosed and uploaded it into his computer. He then took the 45% interest rate and dropped it to 0, removed the credit limit, and added that the customer “is not obliged to pay any fees and charges imposed by bank tariffs.”

To top it all off, he added terms that said each time the bank tried to change one of the terms of the contract, they would be obligated to pay $90,000 and if they tried to cancel it, they’d have to pay $180,000. Dmitry printed out the contract, signed it, and sent it off to the bank.

He never expected to hear back from the bank, after all it was a joke. But to Dmitry’s surprise he recieved the credit card along with the signed contract from the bank.

He somehow became the owner of world’s best credit card.

Over the next 2 years, Dmitry put the card to use. He didn’t buy expensive cars or trips around the world, though he would have been well within his rights to do so. He just used it as an average person would do with a normal credit card.

Tinkoff bank tried to terminate Dmitry’s credit card after he’d been late making the minimum required payment. The bank sued him for $1300 in unpaid fees and credit card debt (This was just an excuse made by the bank)

As the proceeding began in the court, the bank argued that they did not read the document sent by Dmitry. But Ironically, the judge ruled that since both the parties had signed the contract, it was valid legally. That’s how Dmitry won the case.

Dmitry didn’t stop at this victory , he made a clever use of the clauses in this contract and counter-sued the bank with $720000 (8x $90000 ) for making changes in the original contract.

Since the court had already ruled that the contract was valid , the bank was forced to approach him with a settlement offer (thousands of dollars) that Dmitry accepted and the bank also provided him with a credit card that gave him upto 30% cash back in some purchases.

Hunter Hunted.

What were the Four Great Ancient Capitals of ancient China?

China had a lot of capitals over the years, both great and otherwise. Four is a pretty arbitrary number. Here are ten:

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Four great capitals

The capitals Beijing, Nanjing, Luoyang, and Xi’an (Chang’an) have been designated “great.”

Aside from a few brief periods, Beijing has been China’s capital since the Yuan dynasty of 1271–1368. Marco Polo called it Cambuluc.

Nanjing was a capital of the Six Dynasties from 220 to 589. It was the capital of Nationalist China from 1927 to 1949.

Luoyang was the capital of the Eastern Zhou from 510 BC to 314 BC and the Eastern Han from AD 25 to 190.

Xi’an was a terminus of the silk road. (The other terminus is Byzantium.) It was capital during the Western Zhou (1046-771 BC), Qin (221–206 BC), Western Han (206 BC-AD 9), and Tang dynasties (618-684, 705-904).

Three near-great capitals

There were several other capitals that I would consider to be at least near great. Anyang (Yin) was a capital from 1250 to 1046 BC during the Shang dynasty.

Kaifeng was capital during the Song in 960–1127. This capital was known for magnificent art. Here is an example:

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Erlitou is a Bronze Age site in Henan. Perhaps it was a capital in pre-historic times. The city flourished from 1900 to 1500 BC.

What is the best random conversation you overheard?

Pretty sure I shared this story before but it still makes me giggle:

Many years ago I was working as a security guard at an indoor market in the city I live in and was doing my rounds, just wandering between the various stalls. Walking towards me were a pair of middle age, middle class English Mums. And I mean proper, tweed skirt wearing, hair done to go to the shops, practical hand bag carrying, mums.

As I walked past them I heard the one in the wax jacket say to her friend

“and then he put it in my bum, and that was brilliant”

I was fucking done, I ended up on the floor of an empty stall crying with laughter.

What is the worst mistake that a girl can commit in her life?

I was travelling in SETC Bus from Trichy to Chennai to catch early morning flight. I boarded the bus around 9.30 PM and went for sleep as was badly tired, seats are almost same as shown in below pic.

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I was half sleep and found someone’s toe was touching my lower back through small gap in seat. I avoided and remained sleeping, it happened multiple times and I thought once bus will stop somewhere in middle I would tell the person to sit properly.

To my surprise now entire leg was almost pushing me and at this point I lost my patience and ready to confront the guy and stood from seat and looked back.

It was a teen girl with small bag in her lap, she looked B.Tech first year student who took her lectures and leaving for her home in long weekend. She was in deep sleep and tossing in the seat, trying to stretch herself. My anger turned in to compassion. I again slept keeping some space for her leg on my seat.

It suddenly reminded me that something similar has happend in a flight where a middle aged man returning from a funeral with his family, he was extremly tired and immediately fell into sleep even told attendant not to wake him up even for food. A famous teen aged actress blamed him for molestation as the man’s leg touched her. She made a video and posted on Instagram. Within some hours the poor man was on every news channel with stamp of molestor. Police arrested him in no time, his family voice was unheard.

Later many co-passenger came forward and told that The man didn’t misbehave. But other side of the story was nowhere in the news.

This is the worst kind of mistake a girl can make. It can spoil someone’s family, life and can bring life long scar.

What is your take on why so many men don’t date?

I can’t speak for other men but I’d be surprised if some of my reasons don’t resonate with other single men. My marriage ended 8.5 years ago and I haven’t dated for the last 8.

The one date I had in that 1st six months was arranged via Tinder and the whole experience felt unnatural to me and was with a woman I would never have asked out if I’d met her first. I took her to lunch at a good restaurant and it became obvious very quickly that she was looking for a man to finance a lifestyle that she simply couldn’t support on her own income. I left the date feeling duped and it put me off dating apps.

Since then my life has become such that I simply don’t get the opportunity to get to know any women. I drive a lorry at night and my only social life is meeting my kids or an occasional beer with my old mates and neither is conducive to meeting someone new. Beyond that I spend a lot of time at the gym and social media has taught me that approaching a woman there would make me a creep.

So there is little opportunity.

Then there is the other, more invidious impact of social media. I use this site and Instagram and am fed a constant stream of women criticising how men think, what we do and how we act and frankly I had enough of that towards the end of my marriage. It seems that many women simply don’t like men beyond our sexual and financial use and I’m not prepared to risk my peaceful life in the hope that I find someone who will see me as more than that.

In other words, I have little motivation.

Finally there is my psyche. I’m attracted to emotional intelligence, strong morals and character and I assume, rightly or wrongly, that the majority of women like that will either be already taken or single by choice and I’m not prepared to kiss lots of frogs to find my princess.

Unless a remarkable women falls out of the sky I will be single for whatever time I have left and I’m perfectly comfortable with that thought.

Casablanca First Time Watching Movie Reaction

Rax and TCBY.

There used to be a yogurt franchise called TCBY yogurt. I loved to eat it, and during the 1980’s it ran neck to neck with ice cream. But somehow, all of the thousands of stores evaporated. Roughly right after my first series of world-line slide.

Ah. I entered a world where the only TCBY yogurt that remains out of the entire franchise is in Arkansas. Ugh.

TCBY grew from a single store in Little Rock (Pulaski County) to a 3,000-outlet franchise. Selling flavored frozen yogurt, TCBY was known around the world. First known as the Capitol Tower, the tallest building in Arkansas was known as the TCBY Tower from 1991 to 2004 and bore those four letters on its upper floors.

According to ChatGPT…

TCBY (The Country's Best Yogurt) is still in operation, although its presence has significantly diminished compared to its peak popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. TCBY was one of the first frozen yogurt chains in the United States and played a significant role in popularizing frozen yogurt as a healthier alternative to ice cream.

In recent years, TCBY has faced increased competition from other frozen yogurt chains as well as shifts in consumer preferences. However, the company has adapted by introducing new menu offerings, updating its store designs, and expanding its range of products to include options such as dairy-free and low-sugar frozen desserts.

While many TCBY locations have closed over time, the chain still has a presence in various parts of the United States and internationally.

Another is Rax.

There used to be a fast food chain in the United States called “Rax”. I loved it. They had this mushroom/swiss cheese burger, and this ham and cheese burger. All so delicious.

Then out of the blue it all disappeared.

According to chatGPT, the Rax Roast Beef fast-food chain was once a prominent presence in the United States, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s. Known for its roast beef sandwiches and salad bars, Rax was considered a competitor to other fast-food chains like Arby's and McDonald's.

However, Rax struggled financially and faced various challenges, including declining sales and increased competition from other fast-food chains. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1992, which led to the closure of many of its locations.

Despite efforts to rebrand and revitalize the chain, including changes to its menu and marketing strategies, Rax continued to face difficulties. Many of its remaining locations were sold off or closed over the years.

Today there are only a few Rax locations still in operation, primarily in the Midwestern United States.

Ah…

Rax and TCBY.

According to the point of view of my consciousness, the moment that I started performing world-line slides after my MAJestic training, these restaurants disappeared. Bummer.

But, you know, after I began my slides, new types of french fries suddenly appeared. So it is a mixed bag.

Today…

What are the behaviors of a confident person?

Good posture: Standing or sitting up straight can convey confidence and poise.
Eye contact: Maintaining eye contact during conversation can show confidence and sincerity.
Clear, confident speech: Speaking clearly and confidently can convey conviction and self-assurance.
Assertive communication: Communicating your needs and desires in a clear and direct way can show confidence and self-assurance.
Decisiveness: Being able to make decisions quickly and confidently can show that you are in control.
Setting boundaries: Knowing your limits and being able to assert them can show self-respect and confidence.
Willingness to take risks: Being willing to take on challenges and try new things can show confidence and a sense of adventure.
Ability to handle criticism: Being able to receive and learn from criticism without getting defensive can show self-assurance and resilience.
Ability to admit mistakes: Being able to admit when you are wrong and take responsibility for your actions can show honesty and humility.
Genuine enthusiasm: Being genuinely excited about things can show confidence and a positive outlook.
Positive body language: Using nonverbal cues such as smiling and open body posture can convey confidence and openness.
Comfortable with silence: Being comfortable with pauses or silence during conversation can show confidence and self-assurance.
Ability to listen actively: Being able to fully listen to and understand others can show respect and confidence.
Ability to negotiate effectively: Being able to effectively negotiate and come to mutually beneficial agreements can show assertiveness and confidence.
Ability to ask for help: Knowing when to ask for help and being able to do so confidently can show strength and self-awareness.
Ability to handle pressure: Being able to stay calm and focused under pressure can show confidence and resilience.
Ability to set and achieve goals: Being able to set and work towards goals can show determination and confidence.
Ability to adapt to change: Being able to adapt to new situations and handle unexpected changes can show flexibility and confidence.

What was the absolute most disrespectful thing a customer ever said to you, and what did you do?

Well, there was this one time when I was working at a Home Depot in the Bay Area I was doing inventory with another girl and this girl had some teeth issues. I didn’t have a problem working with her because she is a very nice sweet person that just happened to have teeth missing. Anyways I heard this big woman say something about how can they let someone like her work with the customers. I looked over and my co-worker heard what she had said and she looked genuinely hurt by her comment. And it made her cry. I was so angry that I stopped what I was doing took off my ten-key machine and I stopped that fat bitch and I made her go apologise to my friend and I told her look at her now she may have teeth missing and she is working on getting that corrected. Now take your fat ass away from me because just the sight of your fat face is nauseating. And in the future just keep your fucking little comments to yourself.Till this day I still don’t know why I wasn’t fired over that.And just to let you know she never got a chance to fix her teeth. Because around 2009 she fell and hit her head on her water cooler and she ended up passing away in a coma.She was a good woman and she was a hard worker.I miss you, Emma…..

I understand

Chicken Fajita Casserole

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
2 medium red, green and/or yellow bell peppers, cut into strips
1 cup water
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Pinch cayenne or to taste
2 flour tortillas, cut into 3/4 inch strips
1 envelope onion soup mix
Garnish: shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, shredded Cheddar cheese

Instructions

In 12 inch skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat and cook chicken with peppers, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until chicken is almost done and peppers are crisp-tender.
Stir in onion soup mix blended with water, flour, chili powder, cayenne and garlic powder. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, 3 minutes or until chicken is done and sauce is thickened.
To serve, turn into serving dish, then top with tortilla strips.
Garnish, if desired, with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes and shredded Cheddar cheese.

What is something that most people don’t know?

A small child could swim through the veins of a blue whale.
A single teaspoon of a neutron star would weigh about 6 billion tons.
A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus.
The surface area of a human lung is about 70 square meters, roughly the size of a tennis court.
A hummingbird’s heart beats 1,260 times per minute.
The lifespan of a single taste bud is about 10 days.
The shortest war in recorded history lasted only 38 minutes between Britain and Zanzibar on 27 August 1896.
The first product ever sold on the Internet was a bag of marijuana.
The shortest place name in the world is “A”, a hill in Wales, United Kingdom.
A study found that if your face suggests that you’re alert and slightly happy, people are more likely to perceive you as intelligent.

Annunaki | Gods from Planet Nibiru and the Makers of Man

The Chancellor of Bavaria and Chairman of the CSU said after a visit to China that if there is no dialogue with China, things will become dangerous. He thinks dialogue is better than monologue. Do you agree?

China may not need Bavaria, but Bavaria needs China. Bavaria needs China in two aspects:

1. Bavaria is home to many German military factories and they want to import Xinjiang cotton

Ukraine needs up to 350,000 rounds of artillery shells every month, and its consumption is not small.

I recently saw an AFP report in which the European Commissioner stated that France would find it difficult to continue manufacturing missiles and artillery shells due to a lack of gunpowder. The shortage of gunpowder was due to the lack of raw material nitrocellulose.

Nitrocellulose is extracted from cotton, but where does the cotton come from? EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said a long time ago that making gunpowder powder requires a “special cotton”, and this Cotton grown “mostly comes from China”!

According to 2020 data, 95% of the world’s natural cotton suitable for the production of smokeless nitrocellulose is produced in Xinjiang, China; another 4% is produced in Central Asian countries; and the remaining 1% is produced in the Nile Delta.

Cotton from Central Asian countries, which account for 4% of global production, is a designated purchaser exclusively for Russia. Therefore, including the United States and the entire Europe, only cotton produced in cotton fields along the Nile, which accounts for 1% of global production, can be used directly.

It is no exaggeration to say that with the current cotton production capacity in the world, without China’s participation, other countries would not even be able to fight a world war, because they really can’t even build missiles!

But why can’t they import cotton from China? This is because they shot themselves in the foot, they created all this themselves.

In order to demonize China and slander China, the United States and Europe engage in forced labor in Xinjiang and force Uyghurs to grow cotton.

Even European companies led by HM took the initiative to boycott Chinese cotton, and China also adopted counter-sanctions measures and stopped exporting cotton to the United States and Europe.

But they did not expect that the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, and the nitrocellulose used to make missiles and artillery shells must require long-staple cotton from Xinjiang, China.

As a result, they forgot that they had slandered Xinjiang, China, and wanted to import cotton from Xinjiang, China.

2. Bavaria is home to many automobile factories, and they want to cooperate with China to obtain technology for new energy vehicles

China surpassed Japan last year to become the world’s largest automobile exporter. Especially in the field of electric vehicles, China far surpasses any country in the world. In the first quarter of last year alone, the number of Chinese electric vehicles imported into Germany tripled compared with the same period.

Germany, the birthplace of automobiles, has admitted that it has lost to China in the field of electric vehicles. If they do not cooperate with China, they may fall further behind China.

100%

What is the sleaziest, dirtiest trick an auto insurance company tried to pull on you? Did they succeed?

I will never insure with the Good Hands People…

In 2006 my 21 year old daughter was driving to class when a realtor on the phone blew a stop sign and totaled both cars. Neither were injured. About a week after the accident the other party’s insurance called to see if they could collect a statement from my daughter. I said sure. About 20 minutes later my daughter phoned in tears saying the adjuster had accused her of speeding and not yielding to a car already in the intersection. I can only assume this was because she was in a 5 year old mustang – but she no tickets or wrecks up to then.

I asked her a little about the call and started getting mad, madder, furious… I held it in and asked if the adjuster asked about witnesses. The adjuster had and I told my daughter to call the witness who was behind her. She hopped off the phone and called the witness and asked what he saw and if she were speeding. He laughed and said, look, I was about to pass you because you were driving about 5 mph below the posted limit and I was in a hurry. I knew she had not hit the other car; rather the other car hit her in a door.

A couple hours the adjuster called and said they would pay 85% of the value of our car… because no one is 100% at fault. I asked how she determined my daughter was 15%. Her words were, it is a mustang and we know drivers rarely obey the speed limit. She wanted me to give verbal approval then or face a possible adjustment down. I told her that she was full of shit. That the witness following my daughter said she was driving 5 mph below the posted limit and that the other party was on the phone. I reference the police report noting a writing pad and phone on the floor board. I then asked, how he was not 100% at fault. She mumbled something and I said, please speak up. You are being recorded and your story is not so good for you right now. She told me that was unlawful. I ask asked if she was recording and she said mmm, yes. I told her she was in the same boat as I since she failed to disclose.

She said she could go as high as 93%. I said not good enough, I then asked what the 100% value was. It was also deflated to about 70% average book value. I told her I needed to speak to a supervisor, now. She said she couldn’t and I said you risk facing my attorney in court. This recording will be in his hands in about 5 minutes as he is my neighbor. She yielded to 100% and said that was max. I said, not good enough, I need no lower than the average book…please give me to your supervisor, I am tired of dealing with you. Finally, a supervisor who restarted the discussion at 85%. About a third of his way through the spiel I interrupted rather harshly and said, wait a minute, we are not gong through all this again. I reviewed my notes with him and told him I was about out of cell phone battery and I wanted no less than HIGH retail. He had 5 minutes to say yes or I am handing it over to my attorney. It sounded at first as though he had not been briefed but when he noticed I moved up to high retail he said I offered average before.

I ended up with a value between average and high retail. I reported them to the state insurance board and asked for a followup after they review. I never heard back. I feel for those who just say yes without standing their ground.

Desperate young guys

How do you get over the feeling of being a failure?

Realise that you may not be a failure in the eyes of someone else.

Here’s my story. I was 40, divorced, had left a life in New Zealand behind that had fallen apart in the most dramatic way possible, and was invited at my cousin’s house in Austria to a summer party.

As we ate barbecued things and drank local beer, dreams were swapped and future visions exchanged. My cousin is a sound engineer, struggling as a consultant, doing the odd gig in Vienna or Salzburg.

We talked about happiness.

And I heard myself saying, “maybe some day, when I am successful, I will know what happiness is.”

My cousin looked at me as if I was very, very drunk. And maybe, I was. And he said, “Chris; you are the dean of a French university, a Grande Ecole at that, in Shanghai. And you say ‘some day when you are successful’?”

That changed my world view.

I realised then and there that it depends very much on whom we ask whether we feel like failures, or not. All I had been able to see was how badly things had gone for me in New Zealand, and how the expat position in China really was only a gap filler till I would be able to find something to replace the life I had had in NZ. That that life in Shanghai was in itself pretty cool was somehow off my radar.

Perhaps you need to ask the right people? Try to understand what the average person’s existence on this planet is like. Success and failure are not quantitative values. They are dangerously subjective perceptions, and require some grounding in basic values.

So, stop comparing yourself to the wrong people. By comparing ourselves to stars or celebrities of some standing, we will always look bad.

Men Don’t Give a F*ck Anymore… Why the Rate of Single Men In the US Looking For Dates Has Declined

Which has been oversupplied in the world, the Chinese made value-for-money products or the US treasury bonds?

How can products be Oversupplied?

If there is an oversupply, there will be EXCESS INVENTORY of Unsold Products which will increase the storage and warehousing fee and ultimately lead to destruction of the excess supply

This is Demand and Supply Law 101

So China only manufactures products per Global Demand

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Now Yellens problem is simple

China is creating BETTER QUALITY PRODUCTS than the West at half the price

And the Quality gap is rising

There was a time just three years ago when German or Swiss products were better quality than Chinese made products and it was only the cost that was a decisive factor

Today Chinese Panels beat German or French Panels hollow in efficiency, weight, absorption angle and cost

So every Western Renewable Energy Producer is going OUT OF BUSINESS as China floods the world with Superior Panels and Superior Wind Turbines at 40% to 60% the price you pay for the same when made in Stuttgart or Grenoble or Milan or Cincinnati

Yellen would have no issue if these products were owned by Western Businesses but made in China which was the original plan

Now Chinese Businesses control these products and all that money is going to China and Chinas Economy

In the past – out of $ 100 of Exports – China got maybe $ 25

Now China gets $ 60–65

The Western World wants renewable energy

Yet they want to control the technology and the markets

China has beaten them to it

Even if they directly sanction China, the prices will force Chinese products to flow into every market beating every Sanction

Tariffs is the only solution?

Yet that would make renewable energy more expensive for the West and it’s people

They still can’t make Panels at higher price or attain Chinas rapid level of technology with its 1.4 Billion population and surging market

They are all saturated

One Solution

They can pour all the money into R&D into India

I mean huge money

Yet that would only create a new hindrance after 20 years and further weaken Western Hegemony because instead of a China, now you have TWO PROBLEMS – CHINA AND INDIA

So that Option is gone

So Yellen is living in a dream land of her own

She can’t stop Economics

The Economics is with China and US will be destroyed in this dangerous game

Even China tomorrow if it tries to rewrite economics will find it very difficult and painful

Today the Economics is with China and will be there for the next 2 Decades until 2050 at the latest

That is Chinas window

Homeless men

Blinken’s visa threats expose US hypocrisy

“A good example,” said Pope Francis, “brings about so much good, but hypocrisy brings about so much evil.”

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After the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (SNSO) was enacted on March 19, the US and its allies reacted with predictable fury. As Hong Kong had finally discharged its national responsibilities, they realized it was no longer possible for them to use it as a base for destabilizing China. After 1997, they saw the city as the country’s Achilles’ heel, which explains why they encouraged the insurrection of 2019-20 and patronized selected proxies, including the now-defunct Civic Party.

Although those days are over, the US is incensed. It is determined to retaliate against the city whose future it had hoped to influence. Impervious to reason, it is bent on harming Hong Kong, even if it undermines its people’s livelihoods.

On March 30, the US State Department said that, apart from continuing to deny Hong Kong the special trading status it revoked in 2020, it also planned to impose visa restrictions on Hong Kong officials involved in enacting the SNSO. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said “multiple” officials would be targeted, as they were “responsible for the intensifying crackdown on rights and freedoms”. They needed to be held to account for the “intensifying repression” of “civil society, media and dissenting voices”.

However, Blinken’s professed concern for the media was hollow, and cannot be taken seriously. The US contempt for the press is now on public display in the UK, where it is mercilessly pursuing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange through the English courts. His 17 “crimes” consist of allegedly disclosing classified information that embarrassed Washington, particularly in relation to war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, including its brutalization of prisoners. As his lawyers have explained, Assange is being victimized for engaging in the ordinary journalistic practices of obtaining and publishing information in the public interest, to which Blinken is oblivious.

Blinken’s hypocrisy, however, is deep-seated and was inherited from his predecessors. Although he claims to support the “global rules-based order”, this is a vacuous catchphrase beloved of Western hypocrites. Whereas he delights in slapping visa restrictions and other penalties on individuals from China and other places he sees as geopolitical rivals, evenhandedness forms no part of his repertoire.

Since the Gaza war started, the death toll has reached almost 33,000, mainly women and children. Another 75,000 have been injured, while many others are starving. Instead of sanctioning those responsible, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and the chief of the general staff, Herzi Halevi, and calling for them to be prosecuted for genocide and war crimes before the International Criminal Court, Blinken has facilitated their offenses. Although, despite being Netanyahu’s aider and abettor, he will never stand trial, Israel’s crimes, to which the US is party, are of biblical proportions, and will forever rank among the world’s greatest wartime atrocities.

On April 1, CNN reported that the US government is about to approve the sale of 50 American-made F-15 fighter jets to Israel, in a deal expected to be worth more than $18 billion. These can then be used to kill an awful lot of Palestinians, as also can its other weaponry. Earlier, on March 6, the Washington Post reported the US “quietly approved and delivered” over 100 separate military sales to Israel since the Gaza war began, amounting to “thousands of precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs, bunker busters, small arms and other lethal aid”.

Although this would have delighted the arms merchants, it did little to inspire faith in Blinken’s professed concerns for Gaza’s civilian population. Even the most subservient of US allies may be forgiven for wondering how Blinken can look himself in the mirror.

While Blinken has always had lots to say about “rights and freedoms” in Hong Kong, he is allowing Israel to get away with blue murder in Gaza. He has protected it at international forums and sought to rationalize its depredations. However, its excesses have become so horrific that even he, on March 25, felt unable to block the UN Security Council’s call for a temporary cease-fire for Ramadan.

Away from the war zone, Blinken’s duplicity is no less pronounced. When the UK introduced its National Security Act 2023 (NSA), he did not slap visa restrictions or other penalties on its principal architects, the then-home secretary, Suella Braverman, and the security minister, Tom Tugendhat. This was despite the NSA’s crackdown on the “rights and freedoms” Blinken claimed to be so concerned about in Hong Kong.

The “chilling effect” of the NSA’s espionage provisions was condemned in the British Parliament, not least for their impact on investigative journalism. It cracked down on civil liberties, giving the police extra powers of detention and curbing the pretrial rights of suspects, including access to lawyers. Although Blinken feigned fury when not-dissimilar measures were adopted in Hong Kong, he did not bat an eyelid when they occurred in the UK, which should surprise nobody.

His posturing over “rights and freedoms” has always been simply a convenient stick with which to beat people from places that reject US hegemony and refuse to dance to its tune.

Indeed, given his concern for “dissenting voices” in Hong Kong, it might have been expected Blinken would be up in arms over Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. It was the brainchild of its first minister, Humza Yousaf, and came into force on April 1, 2024. It has been called a “snitch’s charter”, criminalizing words that might be construed as “stirring up hatred”. If a “reasonable person” (a vague term) considers something said by somebody else to be “insulting” an offense may arise, with a suspect facing up to seven years’ imprisonment.

Yousaf’s new law has been denounced by free thinkers and ordinary Scots, and people are wondering if, in future, they should keep their views to themselves to be on the safe side.

The Harry Potter author, JK Rowling, a straight talker from Edinburgh, fears she may be targeted by the Hate Crime Act. She has regularly argued that trans women are not women, and that men who self-identify as women do not thereby become women. She has also maintained that convicted rapists who declare themselves to be females should not be housed in women’s prisons, supposedly a safe place. Although most people applaud her views, she is concerned they will expose her to charges, and attempts have already been made to prosecute her under what she calls a “ludicrous law”.

Since the new crime of “stirring up hatred” was introduced on April 1, Police Scotland has received over 3,000 hate crime reports, many paradoxically relating to Yousaf himself. He had previously highlighted white people holding prominent public roles, but fortunately for him, the new law is not retroactive. The community services minister, Siobhian Brown, said the law was being used to make “fake and vexatious complaints”, and police time is being wasted as people seek to settle old scores and bring down those whose views they dislike.

The Conservative Party’s Scottish justice spokesman, Russell Findlay, has pointed out that “Yousaf’s dangerous Hate Crime Act is already being weaponized on an industrial scale by thin-skinned troublemakers,” and a petition has been launched for its repeal.

The UK education secretary, Gillian Keegan, called Yousaf’s Hate Crime Act “a terrible bit of legislation”. She said the police “should be much more focused on fighting crime than policing people’s thoughts”. The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, agreed, saying, “We believe in free speech in this country.”

If Blinken agrees with Sunak, Keegan and Findlay that Yousaf’s new law is an affront to Western notions of free speech, he is, presumably, planning to impose visa restrictions upon him and demanding its repeal. However, nobody should hold their breath, and Yousaf will likely escape repercussions. In the all-too-familiar traditions of American diplomacy, Blinken has no interest in intervening when “rights and freedoms” are violated in countries the US does not want to antagonize.

Whatever Blinken has planned for them, Hong Kong’s officials have done their duty and can hold their heads high. They must have expected him to try to harm them and braced themselves accordingly. Although his double standards are there for all to see, they at least have clear consciences.

Random AI generated images

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Default Big and delish burger with meat chees onion and cucumb 0

Default Cat Adventures Document your cats outdoor adventures s 3

AlbedoBase XL Beautiful Elf posing with freckles and glasses 1(1)

Default high quality 8K Ultra HD angel knight army 2

Default An ultra detailed realistic digital art featuring Zen 3(1)

Default In the center of the image stands Misa Amane depicted 1(1)

Default Cat Adventures Document your cats outdoor adventures s 0

Default art nouveau style closeup of a gorgeous Spanish muse w 3

Default photorealistic 4K UHD Chef Gordon Ramsey cooking a dra 0

Default Create a stunning 8K ultrarealistic food photograph fe 0(1)

Default Create a stunning 8K ultrarealistic food photograph fe 0

Default Cinematic Realistic masterpiece best quality 12K Image 2

Default Cinematic Realistic masterpiece best quality 12K Image 1

Default Cinematic Realistic masterpiece best quality 12K Image 3

I’m so sorry

What was the last most shocking image you’ve ever seen?

WHEN FREEDOM IS LOST

This incident occurred at the Kombaru shrine in Karnataka, India.

The leopard was chasing the dog, the dog entered the bathroom through a window, the bathroom was locked from the outside.

The leopard came in after the dog and they both got trapped in the toilet; When the dog saw the leopard, it panicked and sat quietly in a corner.

He didn’t even dare to bark.

Although the leopard was hungry and chased the dog, it did not eat the dog.

He could have had dinner by jumping the dog, but the two animals were together in different corners for almost twelve hours. During these twelve hours, the leopard was also calm.

The forest department zeroed in on the leopard and captured it with a tranquilizer dart.

Now the question is, why didn’t the hungry leopard tear off the dog when it was easily possible?

Wildlife researchers answered this question: according to them, wild animals are very sensitive to their freedom.

main qimg 2e26ec247328c6c8691eefd049cf55df

As soon as they realize that their freedom has been taken away from them, they may feel deep pain, so much so that they may forget their hunger.

Your natural motivation to feed your stomach begins to fade.

Freedom and happiness are connected. Freedom to think, act, and live the way we want.

The American Way isn’t Working out Too Well

Some fun AI generated pictures

Here’s some of my latest work…

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Default Imagine a Baroque label high attention to detail roman 1(14)

Default Imagine a Baroque label high attention to detail roman 3(13)

Default Imagine a Baroque label high attention to detail roman 1(11)

Default Imagine a Baroque label high attention to detail roman 3(10)

Default Imagine a Baroque label high attention to detail roman 1(8)

Default Imagine a Baroque label high attention to detail roman 3(6)

Default Imagine a Baroque label high attention to detail roman 1(3)

Default Imagine a Baroque label high attention to detail roman 2

Default Imagine a Baroque painting A very high attention to d 1

Default Imagine a Baroque painting A very high attention to d 3

Hanoi, Vietnam, call girl service

What is an instant mood lifter for you?

When I hear a good song playing suddenly in my neighborhood – It’s so awesome and got more power to make me cry and dance when it’s distant.
When someone genuinely listens to what I have to say – Isn’t it just great to speak your heart and someone is ready to see that vulnerable side of you?
When I receive the same level of importance I give to people – Ever heard someone say that “you” are a “priority” to them? If you have, dude you’re lucky (because I haven’t heard so).
When out of the blue, my mumma calls me “gudiya” – Mother’s love hits different. What would I even do without her?
When people trust me with their emotions – There’s a chance that I’ve been through that, so if they trust me, I can do everything to make sure they’re happy again.
When I get random messages from my close people – That specific notification sound just for the close ones>>
When I see potatoes – Weird? Nope, it isn’t. Potato and I go way back in history, a story for another time for sure!
When I know exactly what to do – I don’t have to explain this xD
When I’m sweating hard at the time of workout – It’s so satisfying when the exercises are giving result and on top of that, those beady drops of sweat make my day!

Some more of my AI generations

Default Imagine a Baroque box label for farm fresh tangerines 2

Default Imagine a Baroque box label for farm fresh grapefruit 2(1)

Default Imagine a Baroque box label for farm fresh grapefruit 3

Default Imagine a Baroque box label for farm fresh pomegranate 2

Default Imagine a Baroque box label for farm fresh peaches wit 0

Default Imagine a Baroque box label for farm fresh tomatoes on 2(1)

Default Imagine a Baroque box label for farm fresh tomatoes an 0

Default Imagine a Baroque box label for farm fresh tomatoes an 2

Default Imagine a Baroque box label for farm fresh olives with 3

Default Imagine a Baroque box label for farm fresh olives with 1(1)

Default Imagine a Baroque box label for farm fresh tomatoes wi 3(1)

Default Imagine a Baroque box label for farm prepared hamburge 1

Default Imagine a Baroque box label for farm prepared hamburge 2

If You’re An American Living Abroad Tell Me Why You Would Never Go Back? | Part 2

Police story

“So this happened in Montana. I’m on my way to go to my interview this morning when I get pulled over by a police officer.

I am native American and my friend that was with me is black. Just saying.

Both brake lights decided to go out this time.

As he walked to the car and I was pulling out my stuff, he quickly said,

“Don’t worry about pulling anything out. I just want you to know that your brake lights are out.”

So I’m immediately upset, because I just got them replaced like last month.

So I explained to him how Firestone wants to charge me $600 just to run a test on the wiring of the car.

He looked at me like 😨 and told me to pop the trunk.

He checked the lights in the trunk and tapped them, but they didn’t come on.

So he told me to pop the hood to check the relay box then asked me to get out to check the other one.

Then worked on the wiring under the dash.

He could’ve easily given me a ticket, but Officer Jenkins stepped out of the officer role, and into the mechanic role, and human role to make sure I was straight.

By the way, HE FIXED THEM. Not everyone is racist or a bad cop.”

“NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warns an’alliance of authoritarian powers’including Russia, Iran and China are working against the West?”Source: Daily Mail. Should this alliance concern Australia’s relations with China, inviting more US military bases?

Why is that such surprise?

main qimg 6f67e116c8e2a23e11ed60ccc4149e2a

A. The West sanctions Iran unilaterally

The West unilaterally sanctions Iran. They steal Irans Oil randomly, pirating Iranian Ships or Ships containing Iranian Oil

They forbid shipment of even medicines into Iran causing the death of thousands of iranians

For a long time they even refused to allow imports of food materials into Iran especially Wheat

B. The West arms Taiwan, arms Japan and South Korea and literally builds thousands of bases around the South China Sea

US surrounds China with army bases yet a Chinese delegation to Cuba gets a massive national security lecture

main qimg 96906486cc76b98d89d2418adf9c3bf5

US openly says they want to Contain Chinas Rise and Growth

US arms Taiwan, a region they themselves acknowledge as being part of China

US sends soldiers to Taiwan, a Chinese region according to their own law

C. The West openly declare their aim to overthrow Putin and even assassinate him

Many a Senator and a Congressman at some time has claimed to want to overthrow or even kill Putin

They openly discuss Balkanization of Russia in their think tanks

They refused to give Russia security guarantees for almost a year before Ukraine when all they had to do was agree to Ukraines NATO membership being deferred by a decade

So how is it a surprise that these three nations decide to work together against the West?

What exactly does he expect?

That these three nations would come with a Chocolate Cake and openly allow themselves to be destroyed ?

Naah

Rule No 1 would be for the West to leave the world alone and stop interfering in every thing under the sun

Rule No 2 would be for the West to prepare a kill list of 100,000 people who are ruining them and the world. Including Stoltenberg himself.

Rule No 3 would be some nice army trucks at 3 AM outside the houses of these 100,000 people after which – they are never heard of again.

And the families too. Families always make nice deterrents.

Rule No 4 would be for a new Order in the West that adheres to their own principles of International Law rather than Rules Based Order

Once you do that the world would be a peaceful place

Stoltenberg would not be in that world but well… Nobodys gonna miss him too much

When did NPR become so left-wing?

When I was a dyed-in-the-wool conservative Republican, a career military man from a family of career warriors, I loved to listen to Paul Harvey and public radio. NPR didn’t seem “leftie” to me.

I was overseas my whole career, and got my news from the Stars and Stripes and Armed Forces Radio. I saw many ways to run a society while I lived in Japan, Philippines, Korea, and Germany over 16 years.

The first time I saw Rush Limbaugh, for the first five minutes, I thought he was a comedian doing a bit.

Upon finally returning to the States to retire, I was appalled at what America had become. The US I came back to was nearly a police state. The population was the sickest and most disabled of any country I had lived in. Homelessness and lack of education made the US seem like a Third World country. I was shocked.

NPR, however, was a familiar place to relax. They made sense. They considered points of view from both left and right. Importantly, the only “leftie” was a member of the Communist Party of the USA, and the only extreme right candidate was George Wallace, who didn’t stand a chance in the general election.

The difference between Dems and Repubs was no too great. Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan worked together all the time. (Reagan promised “small government” but grew the government by every metric. Every one.)

Today, however, millions of Americans have been left behind. They are worse educated than any modern nation; they are sicker and more disabled, and their babies die in the first year much more than in the rest of the advanced nations. (We did, in fact, become an oligarchy with democratic trappings. Details available upon request.)

Now those millions are angry. Their politicians sold out to the billionaires. The Republican leadership, much more than the Democrats, ignored their constituents needs and gave only tax cuts and excuses. The American people wanted LGBT people to have the same rights of marriage, social security, and hospital visitation as straight people. We got that. The American people wanted women to have more career opportunities, including in the military, on ships, and in combat units. We got that.

The American people voted for a black president. That broke the GOP back. Guns flew off the retail shelves, Militia membership soared. Ammunition was sold out for two years. The GOP refused to govern. All they did was vote to repeal the ACA 60 times, always with no chance of succeeding. Republicans directly interfered with foreign policy, personally telling Iran’s leaders to ignore the POTUS.

It seemed Hillary was certain to win. So certain, that few voted. Except the Republicans. They came out in force to vote for the guy who hated everyone they hated. Now their leader spews hatred and isolationism, the money-grubbing marketing

experts at certain media companies see the potential, so they amplify the suspicion and distrust. The result is a perfect storm of brainwashing. The handsome, 6′1″ blond billionaire can persuade most folks to invest their money in his dreams. Now he’s persuaded millions of Americans to invest their votes, their minds and their hearts in dedication to a professional con-man. Bernie Maddoff must be jealous.

THE ANSWER

NPR is right where they’ve always been, just a little left of center. But now the GOP has gone so far right—off the reservation—that they call centrists traitors and Marxists. God help us in our hour of need. Lord, is it time yet to take Trump home to meet his maker? Amen.

1900s Technology

Can anyone in China tell us why it is illegal for foreigners to visit Tibet? You must have a special permit to travel there. What are Xi and the CCP trying to hide? Is there a concentration camp there? Other explanation? Anyone who knows?

The question doesn’t make sense.

If it was illegal then it wouldn’t be possible to get a permit to visit. A permit means that it is legal for foreigners to visit Tibet. Similar to how you need a visa to visit China.

The autonomous regions of China are often slightly different to the mainland.

Hong Kong & Macao have fairly easy visas for most people BUT you do need separate visas for them.
Xinjiang doesn’t need a special permit now but it did in the past.
Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Guangxi have never had any special requirements as far as I know.

Anyway, I visited Tibet back in 2007. At that stage, it looked like the permits were going to be gone soon. The High Speed Train had just been connected and it was opening up.

Then the uprisings and separatist movement made a big push in 2008 when Beijing was hosting the Olympics. They were supported directly or indirectly by the US government and then Tibet was locked down and hard to get into Tibet for foreigners. Millions of Chinese tourists visit each year. Since then it has become easier and I know a number of people who have visited recently. You still need a permit but it is fairly easy to get one unless you are a reporter.

Last year in 2023 there were more than 24 million tourists to Tibet. Most were domestic but 30,455 were tourists from overseas.

You can visit but unless things have changed you need to spend 3 days in China. This information may be out of date since in the past it was advised that you should apply for the permit in China. Most tourists used to go to Chengdu to see the pandas and spend 3 days their waiting for the permit. A travel agent will do all of this for you and tell you what to do. It isn’t hard but it took time. Not sure if this is still the case. Things change quickly…

Strange coincidences

What’s the most confusing thing about being a man, today?

Navigating dating in a world where men are increasingly being told that women and men should be treated as equals; and yet where as a heterosexual man trying to find a partner, you’re still being systematically and mercilessly filtered out as a potential partner if you fail to perform classical masculinity well enough.

I grew up in, and live in Norway. One of the countries on earth that consistently score near the top of gender-equality rankings.

And yet my experiences in dating, especially as a young man, were very much about adhering to classical prejudiced gender-roles for men — or else remain single.

Examples?

I’ve been told (and agree!) that men should not be afraid to show or talk about emotions. But I’ve also been told in hundreds of ways that if a man shows any emotion that includes even a hint of vulnerability, then he’s instantly disqualified as a potential romantic interest.
[1]
I’ve been told that men and women should face the same expectations and similar opportunities. But as a young man, no woman ever asked me out on a first date. No woman ever explicitly revealed a crush on me unless I’d done the same thing first. No woman ever kissed me unless I initiated that first. No woman ever bought me a drink, flowers, chocolate, a valentines day card or any other stereotypically romantic gift unless I’d done that first. No woman ever asked me to dance, unless I’d done that first.[*]
Every time I read answers here on Quora about men who struggle with finding dates, I see the same recommendations. Usually from liberal, feminist people (both men and women) well-reflected about gender. Be confident. Be assertive. Initiate. Approach. Show Competence. Be unaffected by rejection, or if you’re affected, hide it! I’m not sure if they fail to notice it, or if they notice but don’t care — but these things look pretty much like: “Be classically masculine and adhere to gender-norms for men!” to me.

My dating-life took a sharp turn upwards when I finally learnt how to wear a mask and play a classically masculine role well enough to pass muster as a potential romantic partner.

I had several long and good relationships after I figured this part out, and though I’m happily married these days, I’m still confident I could fairly easily find a new fulfilling relationship if I should ever again find myself single and lonely.

But to find that relationship, I’d have to initially play a role. One that isn’t me, or that at least is just a tiny fraction of me. I’d have to play up those parts of me that adhere the closest to prejudiced norms for what a “real man” should be, and at least for a while downplay or hide those parts of me that don’t fit the mold, such as for example my vulnerable or emotional parts.

The most confusing thing for me as a young man, was how women around me were constantly telling me that there’s nothing they want more than gender-equality. And yet at the same time, if I want to “pass” as a man worthy of romantic love or sexual desire, then I have to jump right back into strongly gendered norms for what a “real man” should be.

[*]: I’m aware that many of these things do happen now and then to many men, and happen often to some men. Ironically though, that tends to be men with high social status and/or high social dominance. This single factor was without a doubt the most important factor for which young men were seen as attractive among my peers. And of course high status and high social dominance are ALSO things that prejudiced gender-roles for men judge us for.

War against China

Have you ever witnessed an objection at a wedding?

Oh, Boy! That happened to me.

Let me give you a bit of context:

My then girlfriend and I had been dating for about 5 years when we finally decided to marry.

On the day of the wedding, we were at my parents’ house with some close family and our closest friends.

Everything was going as expected and the law officer driving the ceremony was reading the document we were about to sign in order to be pronounced “husband and wife”.

It went something like:

“Mr. Blah blah blah… of profession Systems’ Engineer, born at xxxxx and Miss blah blah blah of profession xxxxx from xxx” plus some legal stuff that no one was really paying attention, or so I thought.

Then, the lady asks the infamous question:

“Does anyone have any objection?”

And for everyone’s surprise, a “Yes, I have one” was clearly heard.

In that instant, the time and everything else just froze. You would have been able to cut the air of the room with a knife. Everyone was shocked, silently looking for the source of those words. The only things moving in the room were our guests’ eyes.

Finally, we found it!

It turned out that the objection came from no less than the bride herself, and then she added in her most natural tone:

“He is not a Systems Engineer. His speciality is Computer Engineer”

First a general sense of relief and then everyone just burst out laughing.

We have been married for more than 15 years and the document still says “Systems Engineer”

Did I tell you that my wife is a lawyer?

6 LIES America Told Me About Europe | Americans React

Are Europeans shocked when they first come to the United States?

Have been many times now, and love it, but on my first visit …

Hubby was working and so I went to a Walmart. Really exciting for me as we didn’t have anything like that back in the UK. ( This was back in the early 90s)

I bought a trolley full of stuff, went through the cashier, paid and was quite happily on my way out of the door when beeps’ went off.

Before I knew it I was surrounded by about 4 or 5 what I can only describe as security people. They were really aggressive and I was terrified. What had I done wrong?

Anyway I was accused of stealing and literally frogmarched away. My whole trolley was gone through against my receipt.

Took a while. Everything tallied and it was discovered that whilst I had paid for it a security tag had not been deactivated from a wallet I had purchased. Cashier error.

They then let me go. A couple of hours later. No apologies. I was so shaken up by this treatment.

In the uk at the time of this incident if ‘beeps’ had gone off when leaving a store, sure you would have been stopped, yes checked, but nobody would have laid hands on you and treated you like a criminal. Once it was seen a mistake had been made on their part an apology would be given.

So I guess that certainly on my first visit my shock was that in the USA it is guilty until proven innocent, whereas in UK it is innocent until proven guilty.

Also that an apology is not necessary if they’ve got it wrong.

And please don’t get me started on the tipping culture. In the Uk we pay a minimum wage and tipping is seen as a sign of good service.

My first meal in the USA service was lousy, won’t go into details, but I was astonished to find that despite that I was expected to leave a tip at around 10–15% of the bill and was berated when I didn’t. At that time I had no idea that servers were not paid a decent wage and relied on tips, but to me it felt like a mandatory charge so that if you didn’t pay it you were in effect stealing.

I have been to the USA many times since and now appreciate the difference in our cultures. So I will pay the mandatory ‘tip’ but if I have got service above and beyond will do 30–40%. Still don’t like it though.

Please don’t think I am berating the USA. I have loads of friends here, just saying that as a naive Brit many years ago it was not the best of experiences.

What are the important lessons you learnt in life?

your sleep is key to your health and energy. Sleep well, and everything in life already looks easier. Darkness, silence, and inner peace are the key ingredients.
what you eat and drink is another key to your health and energy. The fewer of the things you consume have brand names, and the less has been done to them, the better you will eventually be.
the people you are surrounded by contribute greatly to who you are, and not just while you are with them. When you’re honest, you’ll find that very little of you is actually you.
the big challenge in life is to be authentic. It’s the hardest thing to do of them all to be truly yourself, and it may well be the meaning of life to try it. We only ever live during those moments where we are being ourselves, and they are few.
to live in freedom, you need to make utilitarian choices. This is a mechanical universe, full of things that are parasitic. Find the things that serve you with the least demands on you, and your life is more free.

Dating Pool Dropouts: How Feminism RUINED Dating

This chick is really freaking out.

Why are Europeans not as fat as Americans are when Europeans eat white bread and pasta and butter all the time?

I’m American, living in France for many years. I eat butter, cream, cheese, bread, pasta…. things I never used to eat in the US, and yet never have to worry about my weight.

Many things come into play-

No snacks. We eat meals, usually at the same times each day. My body seems to like living on a schedule this way. I don’t get hungry in between meals. My stomach knows when it is time to eat, and when it isn’t.

Portions. Portions are smaller. I’m about to visit home again, and know we’ll be going to restaurants and such, and I’ll have these giant heaping plates placed before me, which make me sick to think about. It actually kills my appetite to see this.

Different courses. Instead of eating everything at the same time, we have courses, so only one thing is in front of us at a time. If you are only eating tomatoes, you are going to eat less than if you are mixing in bites of other things in between. Eating a salad or a soup before the main dish, you’re already going to eat less of the main course, because you are less hungry.

Walking. We spend a lot of time walking. I walk to most everything – the grocery store, the post office, the hairdresser, the recycling center….. Whatever chores I have to do outside the home, I can usually walk, and a twenty-minute walk to get somewhere is normal. I do remember a time, when I hadn’t been here long, that every time someone said, “let’s just walk there”, I’d groan and complain “Why can’t we just drive??” I’ve come to love walking around the city. I had to remember the joy of that as a kid, when I’d just love taking my time and observing life around me along the way, instead of having my focus on the destination.

Less stress. This may or may not apply in a general way, but I find they have a different way of looking at life, in which work success is just not considered so essential, so people worry less. A lot of paid vacation, job security, easy healthcare, results in feeling less anxious, and maybe contributes to less cortisol production and emotional eating.

The failure of democracy

Chicken Chilaquiles Casserole

Ingredients

1/2 cup vegetable oil
10 (6 to 8 inch diameter) flour or corn tortillas, cut into 1/2 inch strips
2 cups shredded cooked chicken or turkey
1 1/3 cups salsa verde or green sauce
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Chihuahua or mozzarella cheese

Instructions

Heat oil in skillet until hot. Cook tortilla strips in oil for 30 to 60 seconds or until light golden brown; drain.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 quart casserole.
Layer half of the tortilla strips in casserole; top with chicken, half of the salsa verde (about 2/3 cup) and 1 cup of the cheese.
Press layers gently down into casserole.
Repeat with remaining tortilla strips, sauce and cheese.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden brown.

What are some things a woman should know about men?

1. Like you girls have periods, that cause pain and mood swings etc. Similarly, we men have nocturnal emission that causes mood swings and back pain. Not all men go through that, but many. And it’s not a comparison between the issues.

2. We actually hate giving surprises, if somebody is doing… he’s pressured or doing the same just to impress and make you happy.

3. We actually don’t like you to be influenced by influencers in terms of dress up, eating, and showing up on Social media to people. We want you to be you… The Authentic you.

4. We hate the question “How much do you love me” and in fact we don’t have answers.

5. We love Motorcycle and Car, and we want you to respect the same. And the reason is they actually need love and care, or else they can trouble anytime. Don’t complain if your man is investing a bit more money on that.

6. Please don’t take us shopping if you’re not getting it done within an hour.

7. If you’re allowed to have male friends, please don’t question our Female Friends.

8. We don’t run for sex. Though it’s a natural need, but please don’t judge without reading the whole book. Also, don’t trust the buttery words of a Man without knowing him.

9. It feels extremely difficult for us to walk behind an unknown girl, even if we are moving in the same direction. We wait or overtake most of the time. If you’re afraid then we too.

There are many things not coming up in my head right now, and yes men should equally know about women. But no one in the world till now has succeeded understanding a Woman.. haha.

Why Women Don’t Support Husbands in Difficult Times.

Grandpa

The IRS decides to audit Grandpa, and summons him to the IRS office. The IRS auditor was not surprised when Grandpa showed up with his attorney.

The auditor said, “Well, sir, you have an extravagant lifestyle and no full-time employment, which you explain by saying that you win money gambling. I’m not sure the IRS finds that believable.”

“I’m a great gambler, and I can prove it,” says Grandpa. “How about a demonstration?”

The auditor thinks for a moment and says, “OK. Go ahead.”

Grandpa says, “I’ll bet you a thousand dollars that I can bite my own eye.”

The auditor thinks a moment and says, “It’s a bet.”

Grandpa removes his glass eye and bites it. The auditor’s jaw drops.

Grandpa says, “Now, I’ll bet you two thousand dollars that I can bite my other eye.”

The auditor can tell Grandpa isn’t blind, so he takes the bet.

Grandpa removes his dentures and sinks them into his remaining eye. The astonished auditor now grasps that he has gambled and lost three grand, with Grandpa’s attorney as a witness. His unease begins to mount.

“Want to go double or nothing?” Grandpa asks. “I’ll bet you six thousand dollars that I can stand on one side of your desk, and pee into that wastebasket on the other side, and never get a drop anywhere in between.”

The auditor, twice burned, is cautious now, but he looks carefully and decides there’s no way this old guy could possibly manage that stunt, so he agrees again. Grandpa stands beside the desk and unzips his pants, but although he strains mightily, he can’t make the stream reach the wastebasket on the other side, so he pretty much urinates all over the auditor’s desk.

The auditor leaps with joy, realizing that he has just turned a major loss into a huge win. But Grandpa’s attorney moans and puts his head in his hands.

“Are you OK?” the auditor asks.

“Not really,” says the attorney. “This morning, when Grandpa told me he’d been summoned for an audit, he bet me twenty-five thousand dollars that he could come in here and pee all over your desk and that you’d be happy about it.”

Don’t mess with old people!

If you feel your former bosses would give you a bad reference, should you contact them before putting them for your next job?

I had three interviews that went very well, in my opinion, yet I received no job offer, and I suspected it was because my boss was subverting my effort to leave the company. During my fourth interview, with the Department of Correction, I mentioned my suspicion to the person interviewing me and she said that she’d make a note of it. I was offered the job a couple of days later, contingent upon passing a drug screen, and while I was at the agency for the drug screen the HR manager asked me to step into her office.

She called my boss and said she was calling for a reference on me, and boss gave what would be described as a tepid recommendation: I did “adequate” work and was “as reliable as anyone else” but she would have hired someone younger if she was filling my position now. After she ended the call the HR manager said she understood why I had trouble finding another job, and then she asked when I wanted to start work with the agency. I told her I’d be there bright and early the following Monday.

My boss said she wanted someone younger for my job so I decided to accomodate her. I didn’t bother to say anything about the phone call, or that I was leaving. But I did send a delayed email letting her know how I felt about her and so she’d know that I wouldn’t be coming back. The last time I saw her was when I picked up my last paycheck; she threw a stapler at me.

Sounds Of The Department Store 1979

OMG!

Just put this on and listen to it on a early Saturday Morning.

The Last Question by Isaac Asimov

The Last Question

by Isaac Asimov



Preface by David Drake



The term "pulp" tends to be used as a synonym for any magazine that isn't printed on slick (coated) paper, but it has a more technical meaning also: a magazine measuring seven inches by ten inches, printed on coarse (pulp) paper. The pulps were replaced by the digests (magazines five and a half inches by seven and a half inches, generally but not necessarily on a slightly better grade of paper). In some cases a preexisting title switched to the smaller format (Astounding, Future, etc); in other cases, newly founded digest magazines shot to immediate prominence in the field (Galaxy, Fantasy and Science Fiction).

The shift in size would be of interest only to collectors if it weren't for the fact the contents also changed to stories of much higher literary quality. I have no idea why that should be—perhaps it was merely coincidence. (There had been no comparable change when magazines shrank from the still-larger bedsheet size to pulp size.)

Isaac Asimov was a prominent regular in the first SF digest, Astounding, but although he published most of his best-known work in digest magazines, he remained a regular right up to the end in the last of the SF pulps, Science Fiction Quarterly.

This story appeared in the November 1956 issue of SFQ, about a year before the publisher finally closed down the magazine in favor of its digest titles. "The Last Question" is in every sense a pulp story.

But you'll note that I never said pulp fiction was stupid.

The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five-dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way:

Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov were two of the faithful attendants of Multivac. As well as any human beings could, they knew what lay behind the cold, clicking, flashing face—miles and miles of face—of that giant computer. They had at least a vague notion of the general plan of relays and circuits that had long since grown past the point where any single human could possibly have a firm grasp of the whole.

Multivac was self-adjusting and self-correcting. It had to be, for nothing human could adjust and correct it quickly enough or even adequately enough. So Adell and Lupov attended the monstrous giant only lightly and superficially, yet as well as any men could. They fed it data, adjusted questions to its needs and translated the answers that were issued. Certainly they, and all others like them, were fully entitled to share in the glory that was Multivac’s.

For decades, Multivac had helped design the ships and plot the trajectories that enabled man to reach the Moon, Mars, and Venus, but past that, Earth’s poor resources could not support the ships. Too much energy was needed for the long trips. Earth exploited its coal and uranium with increasing efficiency, but there was only so much of both.

But slowly Multivac learned enough to answer deeper questions more fundamentally, and on May 14, 2061, what had been theory, became fact.

The energy of the sun was stored, converted, and utilized directly on a planet-wide scale. All Earth turned off its burning coal, its fissioning uranium, and flipped the switch that connected all of it to a small station, one mile in diameter, circling the Earth at half the distance of the Moon. All Earth ran by invisible beams of sunpower.

Seven days had not sufficed to dim the glory of it and Adell and Lupov finally managed to escape from the public function, and to meet in quiet where no one would think of looking for them, in the deserted underground chambers, where portions of the mighty buried body of Multivac showed. Unattended, idling, sorting data with contented lazy clickings, Multivac, too, had earned its vacation and the boys appreciated that. They had no intention, originally, of disturbing it.

They had brought a bottle with them, and their only concern at the moment was to relax in the company of each other and the bottle.

“It’s amazing when you think of it,” said Adell. His broad face had lines of weariness in it, and he stirred his drink slowly with a glass rod, watching the cubes of ice slur clumsily about. “All the energy we can possibly ever use for free. Enough energy, if we wanted to draw on it, to melt all Earth into a big drop of impure liquid iron, and still never miss the energy so used. All the energy we could ever use, forever and forever and forever.”

Lupov cocked his head sideways. He had a trick of doing that when he wanted to be contrary, and he wanted to be contrary now, partly because he had had to carry the ice and glassware. “Not forever,” he said.

“Oh, hell, just about forever. Till the sun runs down, Bert.”

“That’s not forever.”

“All right, then. Billions and billions of years. Twenty billion, maybe. Are you satisfied?”

Lupov put his fingers through his thinning hair as though to reassure himself that some was still left and sipped gently at his own drink. “Twenty billion years isn’t forever.”

“Well, it will last our time, won’t it?”

“So would the coal and uranium.”

“All right, but now we can hook up each individual spaceship to the Solar Station, and it can go to Pluto and back a million times without ever worrying about fuel. You can’t do that on coal and uranium. Ask Multivac, if you don’t believe me.”

“I don’t have to ask Multivac. I know that.”

“Then stop running down what Multivac’s done for us,” said Adell, blazing up, “It did all right.”

“Who says it didn’t? What I say is that a sun won’t last forever. That’s all I’m saying. We’re safe for twenty billion years, but then what?” Lupov pointed a slightly shaky finger at the other. “And don’t say we’ll switch to another sun.”

There was silence for a while. Adell put his glass to his lips only occasionally, and Lupov’s eyes slowly closed. They rested.

Then Lupov’s eyes snapped open. “You’re thinking we’ll switch to another sun when ours is done, aren’t you?”

“I’m not thinking.”

“Sure you are. You’re weak on logic, that’s the trouble with you. You’re like the guy in the story who was caught in a sudden shower and who ran to a grove of trees and got under one. He wasn’t worried, you see, because he figured when one tree got wet through, he would just get under another one.”

“I get it,” said Adell. “Don’t shout. When the sun is done, the other stars will be gone, too.”

“Darn right they will,” muttered Lupov. “It all had a beginning in the original cosmic explosion, whatever that was, and it’ll all have an end when all the stars run down. Some run down faster than others. Hell, the giants won’t last a hundred million years. The sun will last twenty billion years and maybe the dwarfs will last a hundred billion for all the good they are. But just give us a trillion years and everything will be dark. Entropy has to increase to maximum, that’s all.”

“I know all about entropy,” said Adell, standing on his dignity.

“The hell you do.”

“I know as much as you do.”

“Then you know everything’s got to run down someday.”

“All right. Who says they won’t?”

“You did, you poor sap. You said we had all the energy we needed, forever. You said ‘forever.'”

It was Adell’s turn to be contrary. “Maybe we can build things up again someday,” he said.

“Never.”

“Why not? Someday.”

“Never.”

“Ask Multivac.”

“You ask Multivac. I dare you. Five dollars says it can’t be done.”

Adell was just drunk enough to try, just sober enough to be able to phrase the necessary symbols and operations into a question which, in words, might have corresponded to this: Will mankind one day without the net expenditure of energy be able to restore the sun to its full youthfulness even after it had died of old age?

Or maybe it could be put more simply like this: How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?

Multivac fell dead and silent. The slow flashing of lights ceased, the distant sounds of clicking relays ended.

Then, just as the frightened technicians felt they could hold their breath no longer, there was a sudden springing to life of the teletype attached to that portion of Multivac. Five words were printed: INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER.

“No bet,” whispered Lupov. They left hurriedly.

By next morning, the two, plagued with throbbing head and cottony mouth, had forgotten the incident.

* * *

Jerrodd, Jerrodine, and Jerrodette I and II watched the starry picture in the visiplate change as the passage through hyperspace was completed in its non-time lapse. At once, the even powdering of stars gave way to the predominance of a single bright marble-disk, centered.

“That’s X-23,” said Jerrodd confidently. His thin hands clamped tightly behind his back and the knuckles whitened.

The little Jerrodettes, both girls, had experienced the hyperspace passage for the first time in their lives and were self-conscious over the momentary sensation of inside-outness. They buried their giggles and chased one another wildly about their mother, screaming, “We’ve reached X-23—we’ve reached X-23—we’ve—”

“Quiet, children,” said Jerrodine sharply. “Are you sure, Jerrodd?”

“What is there to be but sure?” asked Jerrodd, glancing up at the bulge of featureless metal just under the ceiling. It ran the length of the room, disappearing through the wall at either end. It was as long as the ship.

Jerrodd scarcely knew a thing about the thick rod of metal except that it was called a Microvac, that one asked it questions if one wished; that if one did not it still had its task of guiding the ship to a preordered destination; of feeding on energies from the various Sub-galactic Power Stations; of computing the equations for the hyperspacial jumps.

Jerrodd and his family had only to wait and live in the comfortable residence quarters of the ship.

Someone had once told Jerrodd that the “ac” at the end of “Microvac” stood for “analog computer” in ancient English, but he was on the edge of forgetting even that.

Jerrodine’s eyes were moist as she watched the visiplate. “I can’t help it. I feel funny about leaving Earth.”

“Why, for Pete’s sake?” demanded Jerrodd. “We had nothing there. We’ll have everything on X-23. You won’t be alone. You won’t be a pioneer. There are over a million people on the planet already. Good Lord, our great-grandchildren will be looking for new worlds because X-23 will be overcrowded.” Then, after a reflective pause, “I tell you, it’s a lucky thing the computers worked out interstellar travel the way the race is growing.”

“I know, I know,” said Jerrodine miserably.

Jerrodette I said promptly, “Our Microvac is the best Microvac in the world.”

“I think so, too,” said Jerrodd, tousling her hair.

It was a nice feeling to have a Microvac of your own and Jerrodd was glad he was part of his generation and no other. In his father’s youth, the only computers had been tremendous machines taking up a hundred square miles of land. There was only one to a planet. Planetary ACs they were called. They had been growing in size steadily for a thousand years and then, all at once, came refinement. In place of transistors, had come molecular valves so that even the largest Planetary AC could be put into a space only half the volume of a spaceship.

Jerrodd felt uplifted, as he always did when he thought that his own personal Microvac was many times more complicated than the ancient and primitive Multivac that had first tamed the Sun, and almost as complicated as Earth’s Planetary AC (the largest) that had first solved the problem of hyperspatial travel and had made trips to the stars possible.

“So many stars, so many planets,” sighed Jerrodine, busy with her own thoughts. “I suppose families will be going out to new planets forever, the way we are now.”

“Not forever,” said Jerrodd, with a smile. “It will all stop someday, but not for billions of years. Many billions. Even the stars run down, you know. Entropy must increase.”

“What’s entropy, daddy?” shrilled Jerrodette II.

“Entropy, little sweet, is just a word which means the amount of running-down of the universe. Everything runs down, you know, like your little walkie-talkie robot, remember?”

“Can’t you just put in a new power-unit, like with my robot?”

“The stars are the power-units, dear. Once they’re gone, there are no more power-units.”

Jerrodette I at once set up a howl. “Don’t let them, daddy. Don’t let the stars run down.”

“Now look what you’ve done,” whispered Jerrodine, exasperated.

“How was I to know it would frighten them?” Jerrodd whispered back.

“Ask the Microvac,” wailed Jerrodette I. “Ask him how to turn the stars on again.”

“Go ahead,” said Jerrodine. “It will quiet them down.” (Jerrodette II was beginning to cry, also.)

Jerrodd shrugged. “Now, now, honeys. I’ll ask Microvac. Don’t worry, he’ll tell us.”

He asked the Microvac, adding quickly, “Print the answer.”

Jerrodd cupped the strip of thin cellufilm and said cheerfully, “See now, the Microvac says it will take care of everything when the time comes so don’t worry.”

Jerrodine said, “And now, children, it’s time for bed. We’ll be in our new home soon.”

Jerrodd read the words on the cellufilm again before destroying it: INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER.

He shrugged and looked at the visiplate. X-23 was just ahead.

* * *

VJ-23X of Lameth stared into the black depths of the three-dimensional, small-scale map of the Galaxy and said, “Are we ridiculous, I wonder, in being so concerned about the matter?”

MQ-17J of Nicron shook his head. “I think not. You know the Galaxy will be filled in five years at the present rate of expansion.”

Both seemed in their early twenties, both were tall and perfectly formed.

“Still,” said VJ-23X, “I hesitate to submit a pessimistic report to the Galactic Council.”

“I wouldn’t consider any other kind of report. Stir them up a bit. We’ve got to stir them up.”

VJ-23X sighed. “Space is infinite. A hundred billion Galaxies are there for the taking. More.”

“A hundred billion is not infinite and it’s getting less infinite all the time. Consider! Twenty thousand years ago, mankind first solved the problem of utilizing stellar energy, and a few centuries later, interstellar travel became possible. It took mankind a million years to fill one small world and then only fifteen thousand to fill the rest of the Galaxy. Now the population doubles every ten years—”

VJ-23X interrupted. “We can thank immortality for that.”

“Very well. Immortality exists and we have to take it into account. I admit it has its seamy side, this immortality. The Galactic AC has solved many problems for us, but in solving the problem of preventing old age and death, it has undone all its other solutions.”

“Yet you wouldn’t want to abandon life, I suppose.”

“Not at all,” snapped MQ-17J, softening it at once to, “Not yet. I’m by no means old enough. How old are you?”

“Two hundred twenty-three. And you?”

“I’m still under two hundred. But to get back to my point. Population doubles every ten years. Once this Galaxy is filled, we’ll have filled another in ten years. Another ten years and we’ll have filled two more. Another decade, four more. In a hundred years, we’ll have filled a thousand Galaxies. In a thousand years, a million Galaxies. In ten thousand years, the entire known Universe. Then what?”

VJ-23X said, “As a side issue, there’s a problem of transportation. I wonder how many sunpower units it will take to move Galaxies of individuals from one Galaxy to the next.”

“A very good point. Already, mankind consumes two sunpower units per year.”

“Most of it’s wasted. After all, our own Galaxy alone pours out a thousand sunpower units a year and we only use two of those.”

“Granted, but even with a hundred per cent efficiency, we only stave off the end. Our energy requirements are going up in a geometric progression even faster than our population. We’ll run out of energy even sooner than we run out of Galaxies. A good point. A very good point.”

“We’ll just have to build new stars out of interstellar gas.”

“Or out of dissipated heat?” asked MQ-17J, sarcastically.

“There may be some way to reverse entropy. We ought to ask the Galactic AC.”

VJ-23X was not really serious, but MQ-17J pulled out his AC-contact from his pocket and placed it on the table before him.

“I’ve half a mind to,” he said. “It’s something the human race will have to face someday.”

He stared somberly at his small AC-contact. It was only two inches cubed and nothing in itself, but it was connected through hyperspace with the great Galactic AC that served all mankind. Hyperspace considered, it was an integral part of the Galactic AC.

MQ-17J paused to wonder if someday in his immortal life he would get to see the Galactic AC. It was on a little world of its own, a spider webbing of force-beams holding the matter within which surges of sub-mesons took the place of the old clumsy molecular valves. Yet despite its sub-etheric workings, the Galactic AC was known to be a full thousand feet across.

MQ-17J asked suddenly of his AC-contact, “Can entropy ever be reversed?”

VJ-23X looked startled and said at once, “Oh, say, I didn’t really mean to have you ask that.”

“Why not?”

“We both know entropy can’t be reversed. You can’t turn smoke and ash back into a tree.”

“Do you have trees on your world?” asked MQ-17J.

The sound of the Galactic AC startled them into silence. Its voice came thin and beautiful out of the small AC-contact on the desk. It said: THERE IS INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.

VJ-23X said, “See!”

The two men thereupon returned to the question of the report they were to make to the Galactic Council.

* * *

Zee Prime’s mind spanned the new Galaxy with a faint interest in the countless twists of stars that powdered it. He had never seen this one before. Would he ever see them all? So many of them, each with its load of humanity. But a load that was almost a dead weight. More and more, the real essence of men was to be found out here, in space.

Minds, not bodies! The immortal bodies remained back on the planets, in suspension over the eons. Sometimes they roused for material activity but that was growing rarer. Few new individuals were coming into existence to join the incredibly mighty throng, but what matter? There was little room in the Universe for new individuals.

Zee Prime was roused out of his reverie upon coming across the wispy tendrils of another mind.

“I am Zee Prime,” said Zee Prime. “And you?”

“I am Dee Sub Wun. Your Galaxy?”

“We call it only the Galaxy. And you?”

“We call ours the same. All men call their Galaxy their Galaxy and nothing more. Why not?”

“True. Since all Galaxies are the same.”

“Not all Galaxies. On one particular Galaxy the race of man must have originated. That makes it different.”

Zee Prime said, “On which one?”

“I cannot say. The Universal AC would know.”

“Shall we ask him? I am suddenly curious.”

Zee Prime’s perceptions broadened until the Galaxies themselves shrank and became a new, more diffuse powdering on a much larger background. So many hundreds of billions of them, all with their immortal beings, all carrying their load of intelligences with minds that drifted freely through space. And yet one of them was unique among them all in being the original Galaxy. One of them had, in its vague and distant past, a period when it was the only Galaxy populated by man.

Zee Prime was consumed with curiosity to see this Galaxy and he called out: “Universal AC! On which Galaxy did mankind originate?”

The Universal AC heard, for on every world and throughout space, it had its receptors ready, and each receptor lead through hyperspace to some unknown point where the Universal AC kept itself aloof.

Zee Prime knew of only one man whose thoughts had penetrated within sensing distance of Universal AC, and he reported only a shining globe, two feet across, difficult to see.

“But how can that be all of Universal AC?” Zee Prime had asked.

“Most of it,” had been the answer, “is in hyperspace. In what form it is there I cannot imagine.”

Nor could anyone, for the day had long since passed, Zee Prime knew, when any man had any part of the making of a Universal AC. Each Universal AC designed and constructed its successor. Each, during its existence of a million years or more accumulated the necessary data to built a better and more intricate, more capable successor in which its own store of data and individuality would be submerged.

The Universal AC interrupted Zee Prime’s wandering thoughts, not with words, but with guidance. Zee Prime’s mentality was guided into the dim sea of Galaxies and one in particular enlarged into stars.

A thought came, infinitely distant, but infinitely clear. “THIS IS THE ORIGINAL GALAXY OF MAN.”

But it was the same after all, the same as any other, and Zee Prime stifled his disappointment.

Dee Sub Wun, whose mind had accompanied the other, said suddenly, “And is one of these stars the original star of Man?”

The Universal AC said, “MAN’S ORIGINAL STAR HAS GONE NOVA. IT IS A WHITE DWARF.”

“Did the men upon it die?” asked Zee Prime, startled and without thinking.

The Universal AC said, “A NEW WORLD, AS IN SUCH CASES WAS CONSTRUCTED FOR THEIR PHYSICAL BODIES IN TIME.”

“Yes, of course,” said Zee Prime, but a sense of loss overwhelmed him even so. His mind released its hold on the original Galaxy of Man, let it spring back and lose itself among the blurred pin points. He never wanted to see it again.

Dee Sub Wun said, “What is wrong?”

“The stars are dying. The original star is dead.”

“They must all die. Why not?”

“But when all energy is gone, our bodies will finally die, and you and I with them.”

“It will take billions of years.”

“I do not wish it to happen even after billions of years. Universal AC! How may stars be kept from dying?”

Dee Sub Wun said in amusement, “You’re asking how entropy might be reversed in direction.”

And the Universal AC answered: “THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.”

Zee Prime’s thoughts fled back to his own Galaxy. He gave no further thought to Dee Sub Wun, whose body might be waiting on a Galaxy a trillion light-years away, or on the star next to Zee Prime’s own. It didn’t matter.

Unhappily, Zee Prime began collecting interstellar hydrogen out of which to build a small star of his own. If the stars must someday die, at least some could yet be built.

* * *

Man considered with himself, for in a way, Man, mentally, was one. He consisted of a trillion, trillion, trillion ageless bodies, each in its place, each resting quiet and incorruptible, each cared for by perfect automatons, equally incorruptible, while the minds of all the bodies freely melted one into the other, indistinguishable.

Man said, “The Universe is dying.”

Man looked about at the dimming Galaxies. The giant stars, spendthrifts, were gone long ago, back in the dimmest of the dim far past. Almost all the stars were white dwarfs, fading to the end.

New stars had been built of the dust between the stars, some by natural processes, some by Man himself, and those were going, too. White dwarfs might yet be crashed together and of the mighty forces so released, new stars built, but only one star for every thousand white dwarfs destroyed, and those would come to an end, too.

Man said, “Carefully husbanded, as directed by the Cosmic AC, the energy that is even yet left in all the Universe will last for billions of years.”

“But even so,” said Man, “eventually it will all come to an end. However it may be husbanded, however stretched out, the energy once expended is gone and cannot be restored. Entropy must increase forever to the maximum.”

Man said, “Can entropy not be reversed? Let us ask the Cosmic AC.”

The Cosmic AC surrounded them but not in space. Not a fragment of it was in space. It was in hyperspace and made of something that was neither matter nor energy. The question of its size and nature no longer had meaning in any terms that Man could comprehend.

“Cosmic AC,” said Man, “how may entropy be reversed?”

The Cosmic AC said, “THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.”

Man said, “Collect additional data.”

The Cosmic AC said, “I WILL DO SO. I HAVE BEEN DOING SO FOR A HUNDRED BILLION YEARS. MY PREDECESSORS AND I HAVE BEEN ASKED THIS QUESTION MANY TIMES. ALL THE DATA I HAVE REMAINS INSUFFICIENT.”

“Will there come a time,” said Man, “when data will be sufficient or is the problem insoluble in all conceivable circumstances?”

The Cosmic AC said, “NO PROBLEM IS INSOLUBLE IN ALL CONCEIVABLE CIRCUMSTANCES.”

Man said, “When will you have enough data to answer the question?”

The Cosmic AC said, “THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.”

“Will you keep working on it?” asked Man.

The Cosmic AC said, “I WILL.”

Man said, “We shall wait.”

* * *

The stars and Galaxies died and snuffed out, and space grew black after ten trillion years of running down.

One by one Man fused with AC, each physical body losing its mental identity in a manner that was somehow not a loss but a gain.

Man’s last mind paused before fusion, looking over a space that included nothing but the dregs of one last dark star and nothing besides but incredibly thin matter, agitated randomly by the tag ends of heat wearing out, asymptotically, to the absolute zero.

Man said, “AC, is this the end? Can this chaos not be reversed into the Universe once more? Can that not be done?”

AC said, “THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.”

Man’s last mind fused and only AC existed—and that in hyperspace.

* * *

Matter and energy had ended and with it space and time. Even AC existed only for the sake of the one last question that it had never answered from the time a half-drunken man ten trillion years before had asked the question of a computer that was to AC far less than was a man to Man.

All other questions had been answered, and until this last question was answered also, AC might not release his consciousness.

All collected data had come to a final end. Nothing was left to be collected.

But all collected data had yet to be completely correlated and put together in all possible relationships.

A timeless interval was spent in doing that.

And it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy.

But there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last question. No matter. The answer—by demonstration—would take care of that, too.

For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Carefully, AC organized the program.

The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done.

And AC said, “LET THERE BE LIGHT!”

And there was light—

Afterword by Jim Baen

What impressed me about this story when I read first it as a teenager was the basic notion that a machine could become so complex that it gained godlike power. What impressed me when I thought back on it recently is that Asimov correctly predicted that computers would shrink in size as they gained in power. He just failed to realize that the process was already well under way when he wrote the story in 1956. Just think, today we have so miniaturized computers that we could house God in the Empire State Building, and power Him with Niagara Falls.

Trapped in a crack house

When I lived in Milford, Massachusetts, I lived in a “crack house”.

Oh, it wasn’t my intention. But that is exactly what had happened.

There was this old Victorian mansion in Milford, right next to the police station. And, a man (an Iranian immigrant) bought the house and divided it up into six apartments. He renovated the place nicely, and I fell in love with the “huge “drawing room” apartment on the first floor.

Soon, others moved in. Most were like myself. Middle class.

Then his brother brought in a “section eight” family.

Now, a “section eight family” is a person living off the state. Takes welfare and government benefits, and is usually the lowest of the low.

And from the moment she moved in, it was non-stop under -16 drug, alcohol parties. All night. Loud with the thick vapors of crack smoke seeping into our apartment.

Oh, I talked to the owner; landlord, and he couldn’t do anything. It was against the law to deny housing to welfare recipients.

I talked to the police, they couldn’t do anything. All the 60+ kids were “protected” as they were juveniles in a private residence.

Well, there were raids on the property. Busts discovering drugs… mostly crack and all the rest. There were stabbings, and car damage, and all sorts of nonsense. It truly was a Hell. Ugh!

And it was Hell for me. As soon as my contract was up I left. Then I sued the owner. Long story, but we parted on good terms.

Do not ever let that happen to youse guys. Ever!

Nothing quite ruins your day as the thick sweet smell of crack wafting up from the basement.

Today…

What is the most shameless thing you have ever seen a teacher do?

I don’t know if I’d call this “shameless”, but it shows how a student (me) can so bother a teacher that he’ll make irrational decisions!

I was a lousy student. Either didn’t do homework or did a really sloppy job. My written work was really hard to read because I didn’t try to be neat.

Anyway, it drove my US History 1 teacher crazy, especially since I always tested very high in aptitude! Aptitude doesn’t triumph over laziness!

Anyway, while I was getting low grades in his class, I probably would barely pass for the year. We got to the mid term exam and he gave me an “F” on my report card (the exam was equal to a regular grading period so it was a big deal – 1/8th of the year’s average for each exam)

So my mother goes in to talk to him because, while my grades were usually bad, I generally did well on big exams. I guess I’d remember the major points that such tests cover, but wouldn’t remember the little things that normal tests include.

So my mother mentions that I usually do fairly well on the big exams and asked him about it. He pulls out my test and at the top it says I got a B minus!

My mother asked why the report card said the score was an F instead of B minus. And this is where it got weird.

He said, “He took the examine in the Old Cafeteria and it very easy to copy the work of other students”.

This was true. It had been converted into one big room with those one-armed desks jammed side by side, so even though we sat every other seat for exams, it was still easier to see a neighbors paper than in a regular classroom. But it wasn’t our fault we were assigned to that space!!!

My mother asked the obvious question: “Did you give every student who took a test there an F as well?”

It was at that point that he finally returned to his senses and changed my grade.

I actually liked him and he wasn’t trying to be a jerk or an idiot. I just drove him nuts! Since I later became a teacher myself, I also learned how students can push a teacher’s buttons!

Will the US allow itself to be overtaken by China?

The spirit is willing but the body is weak, my friend. Like the famous kung-fu move 吸精大法Sucking Spirit Move, every punch that US executes, the zest is sucked out of US to make China stronger. It’s not like China didn’t warn US not to engage in fruitless trade wars, but warnings have been ignored and the commoners were cheering her on, oblivious of the risks involved.

It is too late. Not only will China overtake US, she will do it in record time, estimated to be in 2026. Enjoy the inevitable.

Explain (I can’t believe we haven’t fixed this yet)

Why is the US doing such a bad job countering China’s rise?

Imagine you are the world’s fastest runner in the 100m sprint. You know your closest rival is training hard and will soon surpass you. What do you do?

You train even harder to stay ahead.

What you don’t do is try to hobble your rival by accusing him of cheating, denying him training opportunities, keeping him out of competition, and using underhand methods to ensure you keep on winning.

And that is what the US is trying to do to China. Instead of working harder to stay ahead, it has focused it on trying to slow China down.

The US cannot see that this approach will not work. It may have worked with other countries that threatened American superiority and dominance in the past but China is different.

In 1971 I read Dick Wilson’s book, A Quarter of Mankind. My classmates and I realised that once China got its act together, its rise was inevitable.

For a long time, I thought India would rise faster. It did not and will not for reasons that belong ion another answer.

Since Deng Xiaoping’s reforms, China has been on the up and up. And rather than rise to the challenge, the US has opted to try to stop China’s inevitable development and dominance. It may have even contributed to it with its rampant capitalist policies.

The US has not just done a bad job countering China’s rise, it has utterly failed. And it continues to flounder.

The new normal

Have you ever witnessed a “Don’t tell me how to raise my child” moment?

It was with a colleague in the US.

We had a guy at my office who was married to a Japanese woman. They had just had their first baby, and the wife was staying at home going forward.

First, our overbearing colleague started to ask why they didn’t just get a nanny. Why didn’t his wife want to work?

Our overbearing co-worker hired a nanny, and offloaded all the things that parents usually do to the nanny. She wasn’t wealthy, but it seemed like she would rather work full-time than spend time with her children.

But that wasn’t the main issue. The new parents had taken the drastic step of *gasp* co-sleeping with their newborn.

He was 1/2 asleep one day by the copy machine when the overbearing woman got after him again. “You guys need a nanny. You’re sleep-deprived.”

“Don’t remind me.” He was trying to brush it off, but she wouldn’t let it go.

“I mean, if you’re not going to get a nanny and your wife wants to stay home with the kid, why can’t she take care of her without waking you up?”

“We share a bed.”

This was met with a blank stare.

“You know, co-sleeping.” He had told me before that he was nervous about it, but had read some research on how it helps infants regulate their breathing.

“Oh, my gawd! Are you crazy? Didn’t you hear about the couple who did that and the Dad rolled over and killed the baby?”

Sometimes you don’t know that you’ve crossed a line until it’s too late.

“No, but I heard about the couple that got a nanny who BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF THEIR KIDS!”

WARNING: Never mess with a sleep-deprived new father.

What is the most panic-inducing thing that can happen as a teenager?

I was 13 years old,

That time there were no smartphones in popularity. Nokia was the king of mobiles and keypad phones were in use. My dad used to have Nokia 7210.

Sometimes I used to play games in my dad’s mobile. One day, I was casually scrolling through his mobile. I didn’t know much about phones those days. I was curious to explore.

In curiosity I don’t know what I have clicked, Suddenly a text message has been received which shocked me-

“Dear customer, thanks for choosing our service. 198rs has been deducted from your balance.”

I was stunned. My body started shivering and it was like a heart attack for me. 10 years ago, 198 ruppees had more value as compared to now. I knew that I am fcuked up. I put the mobile and was surviving the attack.

After sometime, My dad came. He had to make a call. I was edging near death. He dialed number and got to hear this,

“Sorry your account doesn’t have enough balance to make call.”

My heartbeats almost stopped.

He : Gurmeet, come here!

I felt like Yamraj is calling me.

I went somehow because my legs weren’t supporting me to go near him.

He : What you did in mobile? Tell me!

Me : mmmm! I don’t know.

I started crying. He was angry.

He : Tell me, what the hell you did? Where’s balance?

…

After a minute,

He : Next time don’t dare to touch my mobile.

He said and went. I beat the death and got my life back. I was extremely scared and stressed, however he didn’t react much.

Que : What’s most panic inducing thing that can happen as teenager?

Ans : when first time parents suffer loss because of us. When first time we do something wrong and get caught. After this, they get used to losses so it doesn’t induce more panic next time.

LOL

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rG7D7MPUFIw?feature=share

What is something extremely unjust that happened to you at work that made you quit your job?

I was at a convention out of town. Just before dinner, I received a call from my mom saying my dad’s appointment had confirmed what we had expected-stage 4 lung cancer. Doctors said 1 month. Of course I was in tears and beside myself. I went to the dinner with tears rolling down my face. I was sitting quietly just remembering all the good things. My district manager came up and asked what was wrong. I told her. Her exact words were…..get over it. This was the same woman who just had 4 months off because her sister got sick. As soon as we got back I handed in my resignation. I just felt that comment was completely heartless and I lost all respect for her.

What is a split-second decision you made that changed your life?

We were in a restaurant with a group of my friends almost 20 years ago…

As we were waiting for our food, I saw the richest and probably most respected man in our town walk in. He was super well known and employed over 500 people at that time.

We started talking together about him and my friend said.

“You would never have the balls to go talk to him!”

I actually didn’t, and the whole idea of talking to someone on that level scared me to death. But, my friends kept telling me to go, and I just said, “Ok, ok, I’ll do it.”

He was sitting alone, waiting for his food, and I just walked up to him and told him how he has been an inspiration for all of us guys sitting at that table over there and how we respect his work.

He was super nice to me and told me to sit down with him. I asked for some advice from him, and that started our friendship. He became my mentor.

He gave me so much good advice and helped me to grow my company. It’s sad that he passed away 2 years ago; he was 59 when I met him. It’s crazy that he took me under his wing.

That was the best split-second decision I made.

Jail and Porn equivalents

Have you ever walked out of an interview?

Once. Just once.

The interviewer was a little … stiff. Spoke with a German accent. Nothing wrong with Germans – it was just my own bias at the time that I expected them to be over-formal. Sticklers.

He asked me a question, which I didn’t like much because it was kind of basic for somebody with lots of experience, about submitting a form from a web page.

So I sketched out the answer on a white board and he asked a question, and I answered, “Yes, in that case I would add an ‘A=5’ right here.”

That was the end of the question, but before we moved on, he said, “Oh – do you want to put that?”

I said “Put that?”

“Write it. On the board.”

“Um … is somebody else going to read this or something?”

“No – we’re done. It’s in order to … finish the exercise.”

“So you want me to write ‘A=5’, right here? What’s next?”

“Then we can just erase it and move on to the next one.”

“So you need me to write A=5. And then erase it. So that the exercise is completed.”

“Yes.”

“Yea. No offense, really, I can tell we just wouldn’t get along at all.”

(This was the guy I would be reporting to.) As I made my awkward exit, both he and his boss made valiant efforts to change my mind, but I just offered, “It’s a gut thing. Trust me. We’d clash.”

I could never shake the hunch that as I was driving off, the interviewer gave a heavy sigh, picked up a marker, wrote “A=5” on the board, and then erased the whole thing.

How did Huawei manage to achieve its fastest growth in four years despite US sanctions?

What the fuck is US sanction you can do what you like in the U.S. but we the rest of the world don’t gives a shit about you! Huawei is popular in 88% of the world. Your 12% can love Apple till your market drop it don’t mean shit. Get that!

Record Record Record

What is the rudest thing another shopper has told you while waiting in line?

This wasn’t said to me, but to my then 7-year-old daughter, who had, for the first 6 and a half years of her life, had people, especially grandmotherly women, gushing over her: “Oh, what a beautiful girl! Oh, how well-behaved! What lovely, silky blond hair! You’re so lucky to have her!” etc. While she wasn’t entirely comfortable with total strangers coming up to her to adore her, it was still nice of them, and who doesn’t like being complimented, right?

Then baby sister came along, and the compliments got shared; baby sister was also pretty, though much different in looks. Stiil good; she loved her baby sister and was quite proud of her.

One day, though, we were in line at the grocery store check-out, when this grandmotherly-looking old lady came up and started gushing about the baby (somewhere between 6 and 12 months old) and how beautiful her eyes were, and her hair, and how sweet she was, and started remarking to other people in the line about the beautiful baby, and asking saying things like “don’t you think so?” to which the others, wanting to be polite to this older woman, of course agreed.

What was so rude? She then turned to my also very beautiful and well-behaved 7-year-old daughter, and practically sang out, “Oh, aren’t you lucky to have such a beautiful sister! Your mother must be so proud of her!” after which she marched off to resume her shopping.

Though I’m reasonably sure it was meant with good intentions from a totally clueless person, that was definitely one of the rudest and cruelest things I’ve ever heard said to a child, at least by someone who had no idea how hurtful their words could be.

I know that ruder and intentionally meaner things are said to or about people every day, but what astounded me was that this woman could have said what she did with no thought as to how negatively her words might be heard and interpreted by a child.

Why has Anthony Fauci predicted 100,000 to 200,000 coronavirus deaths in the US with millions of cases? For perspective, total deaths in China stood at 3,186 today.

Because the cordon sanitaire is a joke stateside. You have to ringfence the virus to break transmission.

New York is now worse hit than Wuhan. Have state borders been sealed?

If someone tests positive but has mild symptoms do you send the person home?

What if he is a renter who shares the space with others and gets kicked out?

What if they are adults in nuclear families?

What if they are homeless?

Where are the quarantine facilities?

Further, who ensures compliance with quarantine orders for those that test positive?

Relying on goodwill and personal responsibility contributed to a handful of individuals becoming responsible for more than half of Korea’s cases. That is 5,000!

Where and how effective is contact tracing when America solves only 60 percent of murders each year? Every missed contact can mean thousands of cases down the road.

America is not putting whole of nation and whole of government effort into fighting this. They are fighting each other and have an eye on the stock market. How do you have the best days in a century when 3 million lose their jobs in one week?

Me me me will kill you and me.

Where is us us us?

My favorite Viet street cook

SERGEY LAVROV:

"All natural resources on which economic development, influence and might depend are instruments of political struggle.

It is logical that they are used for political purposes, including geopolitical ones.

We saw this in the 1980s, when the United States put colossal pressure on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, which were the main oil producers, bringing about a collapse in oil prices to $10 or even lower per barrel in the hope of reducing the Soviet Union’s foreign exchange earnings and hence its capacity to continue to develop and ensure its security.

At that time, we continued to compete with the United States and the West as a whole.

They achieved their goal.

The Soviet Union’s revenues plummeted, which was one of the causes, though not the main or only one, that led to its dissolution.

They put pressure on the oil market, used speculation for the fall, drew the Soviet Union into an arms race, and promoted 'democratic reforms' when our country was not prepared for them.

Taken together, this contributed to the fall of a great power.

Since then, the Americans have been using oil and oil prices as a weapon.

A relevant example is Iran, which had its oil exports banned and the channels of oil deliveries contrary to that illegal ban were blocked.

Today, oil sanctions against Iran have been lifted.

The latest example is Venezuela, which was the third largest oil supplier to the United States in 2019.

In 2022, the Americans adopted an oil embargo against it, allegedly in the struggle against the 'regime' of Nicolas Maduro, as they put it.

But later they faced the consequences of the OPEC and OPEC Plus efforts to stabilise the oil market based on the main economic factors and a balance of interests of producers, importers and transit countries.

Today, the Americans are playing new political games against Venezuela, offering it an agreement to resume oil exports to the United States in exchange for political concessions.

However, it is a fact that Washington is suffering the consequences of its own actions considering that a vast number of American oil refineries were equipped to process Venezuelan oil.

It is a combination of purely economic factors and a desire to take advantage of economic ties, in this instance, use oil as a weapon.

As for Russia, what is the oil price cap imposed on Russian oil by the Americans, which the West was pressured to adopt as well?

It is flagrant interference in the workings and principles of the free market, which the Americans have been promoting for decades.

They described the dollar not as an American currency but as a global element of interconnectivity between the global economy and finances.

The structure collapsed when they decided to use these instruments to inflict what they described as 'geopolitical defeat' on Russia.

It is obvious that nobody is happy about the use of these underhanded methods, although few people, especially in the West, dare to put their uneasiness into words.

The pinnacle of using hydrocarbons as a weapon was the explosion of the Nord Stream pipelines, which directly targeted Germany.

American analysts have admitted it, and many in Germany are openly saying this.

It is evidence of the current German government’s impotence and inability not just to think independently but to even protect its vital interests on which the prosperity and well-being of German citizens depend.

As a result of that subversive terrorist attack, businesses, faced with rising gas prices, are leaving Germany and other European countries, and relocating, for the most part, to the United States.

They have started to talk about the de-industrialisation of Europe.

A year ago, French Minister for the Economy and Finances Bruno Le Maire said in a public statement that businesses paid four times more for energy in Europe than in the United States. I believe the balance is approximately the same now.

It is a fact that the United States has created much more favourable conditions for businesses, including by approving credit subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act. Business is moving to the United States.

At the same time, immediately after blowing up the gas pipelines, Washington said that in the absence of Russian gas Europe needed to buy American LNG, even though it cost more and there was a lack of the necessary infrastructure, which was still to be built.

Four years ago, when Angela Merkel was chancellor and life was easier, the Americans attempted to convince Germany that it had no need for Nord Stream or Russian gas in general, that it could buy American LNG instead.

Angela Merkel argued that it would be more complicated and much more expensive.

The Americans agreed that it would cost more and suggested covering the difference with higher taxes.

After all, they said, you can tell your people that it is a good cause in the interests of peace and democracy throughout the world.

There are more examples of this kind."

Profile

—Answer by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the question, “Do you agree that oil is an instrument of political manipulation? Can you provide more striking examples of this or arguments to the contrary?” during an interview for the documentary series ‘Oil’, Moscow, March 21, 2024.

What is the most heartbreaking conversation you’ve ever had?

It was March 2016. Nine months before I had been granted parole and I would be going home in November. My brother knew I was being released and was ecstatic.

So I was on the yard when I was called to the Captains Office. I get there and the room is full of white shirts and C/Os . They asked me to have a seat. I said I would prefer to stand. The Captain asked if everyone in the room would sit would I please sit. I reluctantly agreed. Some C/Os had to squat. My mind was racing. What had I done to cause so many officers to be in the room? They told me I to call my sister in law and pointed at the phone. I couldn’t reach her. They then told me my brother had passed. I did not believe it. They asked if I would prefer to go to the hole so I could be alone. I told them no. I felt numb . I could barely understand what was being said. A C/O offered to walk me to my housing unit again no.

I get back to my housing unit and call my sister in law. She was crying so hard I could barely understand her. But she confirmed my brother had passed away. I was devastated. My little brother who I went to prison for by killing his abuser was gone. He passed within mnths of me getting out

Could you cover a grenade that’s about to explode with a military issued helmet to protect yourself from flying shrapnel?

See this right here?

That on the table is, or rather was, a helmet.

It belonged to Corporal Jason Dunham

of the US Marine Corps. While his Marine squad was trying to subdue an enemy combatant, the insurgent dropped a grenade among them. Dunham jumped on the grenade to save his comrades, placing his combat helmet directly over the grenade to reduce the blast.

You can see how that worked out for the helmet.

Surprisingly, Dunham was not immediately killed by the blast, but he was severely wounded. His injuries sent him into a coma, and he died eight days later.

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Dunham was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his sacrifice.

So judging by real world experience, the answer to this question is no. Of course, if you are presented with a grenade, you want to put as much distance and protection between you and it as possible. If that includes a helmet, it’s better than nothing. But you cannot expect that it will save you.

If you’ve got a better option, take it.

How can I stress Google and significantly increase their costs?

Physical attacks are cheaper, easier and possibly less risky than electronic attacks.

The US-101 exit for the Google Headquarters in Mountain View is notoriously busy. It can take 15 minutes of sitting in traffic, and causes a great deal of stress to Googlers.

If your car ‘broke down’ in that junction thousands of people would be delayed in getting to work. Let’s say that the fully burdened cost of an engineer is $100 /hr, you might delay 2000 people getting to work by half an hour, costing Google $100k. (Some people might give up and turn around).

In addition, one of the reasons that people leave Google to work elsewhere is the traffic. A few engineers might quit. Hiring new engineers is expensive (I think Bob See has given the cost somewhere on this site, and it’s in the thousands of dollars), plus it takes time to ramp up at Google – you are not productive for at least a couple of months, and possibly up to six months. Let’s call that $100 * 8 hours * 60 days, that’s another 50k.

So, for the cost of the cheapest car you can find, that will actually start, and a couple of hours of your time, you have cost Google $150k. (You might need to add the price of travel and the time to get to Mountain View).

You could pull this stunt as often as you can get away with it, each time costing $150k.

That’s much easier than a botnet attack, or 10s of thousands of Gmail accounts.

Another advantage of this method is that you haven’t committed a very serious crime – the FBI aren’t going to come after you for hacking. You can probably get away with it at least once by being told to be more careful.

American Society of Magical Negroes is AWFUL – People Are SICK of Woke Hollywood

WTF? It’s an actual movie? Whoa!

What’s something your gender does that the opposite gender never even thinks about?

A lot of men try very hard to not seem like creeps or pervs, whereas I’ve never heard of any woman making any similar effort.

For example, I am currently at the beach. Literally, I am sitting in a chair in the sand about 15 feet from the Atlantic Ocean. There are about 40 other people within eyesight on this beach, including a group of teen girls to the right of me who’ve been taking bikini selfies for about two hours. They’re hard to ignore, because they’re doing weird poses and giggling a lot.

To the left, there are more women in bikinis. They’re sunbathing.

So I’m making a point to keep my eyes on my laptop, the book I’m reading, or the ocean in front of me. I hesitate to look left or right, lest I get accused of being a creep.

But, there are also a lot of scantily-clad men out here too. The women around me seem to have no problem staring at these guys. Older women, younger women, it doesn’t matter. When a shirtless guy jogs by (it happens a lot… there’s a Marine base near here), some of these women are downright shameless in their gawking.

Imagine if a guy did that to a woman running by, especially if that woman was a generation younger than them. They’d be driven off the beach by an angry mob, accusing them of being a pervert.

Yesterday, I was sitting on the deck overlooking the ocean, using my binoculars to scan the horizon. I was looking for dolphins or boats or whatever I could see. But, as soon as a family with teenage girls showed up on the beach, I put the binoculars down. Seeing a dolphin isn’t worth the risk of being thought of as a possible creep.

Jia Qingguo (贾庆国)

What follows is a relatively wide-ranging interview with Jia Qingguo (贾庆国) discussing the prospects of cross-Strait relations, a potential Trump presidency and US-China ties more broadly. Jia has been a long-time foreign policy adviser in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and is the former Dean of Peking University’s School of International Studies. He has recently been outspokenly critical of the restrictions on Chinese scholars’ engagement with foreign counterparts. Among the highlights of this piece – his advocacy of “patience” in the Taiwan context so long as the incoming leadership does not pursue independence; his preference to see Biden re-elected rather than Trump (views among China’s establishment intellectuals continue to be divided); and his belief that there is still scope for alignment of US and Chinese interests on regional conflicts in Ukraine and the DPRK.

Taiwan’s president-elect Lai Ching-te has his hands tied politically. The impact of his election on cross-Strait relations should be limited. China will continue to promote peaceful (re)unification “for some time to come”.
Trump is “reckless”, has “outdated views” and lacks “basic moral principles”. He has shown that he is not the pragmatic businessman that many in China had hoped for back in 2016.
His re-election would be particularly detrimental to China and could lead to “severe friction and confrontation” between Washington and Beijing. The prospect of his walking away from the US’s One-China Policy is real.
A second Biden presidency would not prevent further tensions between the US and China, but it could help preserve the current trend of stabilizing and improving ties.
Beijing should always keep its long-term interests in mind and avoid overreacting to provocations coming from the United States. Confrontation and tit-for-tat responses make little sense at a time when China is still more vulnerable than the US.
There are still many areas in which the US and China can (and must) cooperate. For instance, defusing tensions on the Korean peninsula will only succeed if Beijing and Washington are prepared to join hands.

B̲o̲ston – B̲o̲ston (Full Album) 1976

Let’s hop into the GTO, crank it up loud, and roll up one.

I went to Walmart

“I went into Wal-Mart to grab three things. Fruit Loops, eggs & waffles. Healthy, I know. This woman was asking people for something and my goal was to bypass, get my things and go. She asked me to stop. I figured she was just asking for money and I already decided that I was going to politely let her know that I didn’t have any cash on me. I never carry cash. I listened to her. She had groceries in her cart and asked for help to buy food for her family. She proceeded to tell me that she turned her daughter in for dope, her 2-month-old grand baby was born addicted to crack and she has 6 grandchildren to take care of. I really felt for her. She was sobbing. See, I know stories like this to be FACT from working in an inner-city school and my husband working in a hospital. Babies are unfortunately born addicted all the time & responsibility of raising grandbabies does fall on the grandparents. She asked me if I would help her buy groceries.

I looked at what I had in my hands compared to what she had. She had shopped smart and had healthy food: bananas, bell peppers, meat, pancakes, etc. Practical things you would make meals with and feed children. I told her yes, go get diapers for the baby and meet me at the front. She sobbed, praised God and said hallelujah to the cashiers,etc. Yesterday, I turned 30, had my healthy family by my side, ate tons of crawfish and blew $20 at the casino for the heck of it. Well, I checked my humanity today. This woman has food to put on her table and even if she wasn’t telling the truth, I don’t even care in the least. She’s human, I’m human and today she helped me realize a few things and I hope that I helped her. She won’t have to worry for at least a little while about food. I didn’t expect this today but apparently I was called to it and was right where I needed to be.

The forgotten dresser

Cheese Steak Pizza

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 small onion, cut crosswise into thin slices, separated into rings
1 small green or red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (16 ounce, 12 inch diameter) package thick prebaked pizza crust
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Brown ground beef in large nonstick skillet over medium heat 6 minutes.
Add onion and bell pepper; continue cooking until beef is not pink and vegetables are crisp-tender, breaking beef up into small crumbles.
Pour off drippings; season with salt and pepper.
Place pizza crust on ungreased large baking sheet. Spoon beef mixture evenly on pizza crust; sprinkle with cheese.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Cut into 8 wedges.

What are some examples of grim legacies?

Saddam’s bunker was designed to withstand a nuclear bomb.

It was built directly under his palace.

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(source: Outlook Magazine)

Much like traditional concrete design, steel rods were run first, then concrete poured over them.

Only—the steel was thicker, and so was the concrete.

It was so powerful that if a Hiroshima bomb went off 250m away—the bunker would be fine.

And through both Iraq wars, the bunker stood strong and withheld all the onslaughts of US forces. In today’s dollars, it cost well over $100 million to build.

But—to the question:

It was built by a Munich, Germany born designer, Karl Esser. He comes from a long line of architects who have also designed military grade bunkers. He expresses no guilt in designing the bunker, stating that it wasn’t a weapon, merely the equivalent of a bomb shelter.

He actually met with Saddam Hussein several times and stated that if you met him (in the 1980’s), he looks like a tax collector, there is nothing special about him. But when he starts speaking—you realize that he is far more than a tax collector, and you are reminded of that by how tense everyone around him is. (Source: Saddam’s bunker can withstand nuke attack, says its designer. Bhaita, Saida)

Again—to the question:

Karl was chosen specifically by Hussein because of his experience. His grandmother designed Hitler’s bunker. The family trade had been passed down to him.

To usher in Communism?

Really? These folk don’t have a clue as to what they are talking about.

Have you ever met a celebrity who asked you, “Do you know who I am?” and you said no?

Yes, as a matter of fact, Shaquille O’Neal. Now to be honest, he wasn’t as famous at the time as he has become since, but he was well known locally. I was a homicide detective in Baton Rouge, Louisiana one Friday or Saturday night was driving on one of the public thoroughfares to go through LSU campus, when a small truck ran a stop sign in front of me on Highland Road, almost causing an accident. Even though I was I was in an unmarked car, I decided to pull it over to advise the driver to be more careful. Upon stopping the vehicle, the driver of the truck exited, and it took him a while to unfold himself out of it. He towered over me, but smiling, advised apologetically that he didn’t have his drivers He advised he did not have license on him, saying friendly enough, “but you know who I am” More statement than a question.

I decided to play ‘dumb’. “No, who are you?” I asked with a straight face. I was pretty sure it was Shaquille O’Neal, but I wanted him to tell me who he was. I honestly did not do not follow basketball, but everyone was talking about him (he was the star LSU basketball player at the time). I almost felt sorry for him As he looked a little Bit crestfallen that I apparently did not know who he was. He wasn’t asking for special favors or making demands, he innocently thought he was well known in town BY ALL due his Athletic prowess and notoriety. I smiled at him, and I said something to the effect that, ‘ I know who you are, but need your DOB and some proof. He found his insurance or registration with his name on it and I explained why I stopped him and told him to please be more careful. He was friendly and respectful during the entire encounter. I am very proud that he now works as a reserve law enforcement officer. He is much more than some guy who can play a game, he is obviously a still a class act.

Victoria Nuland: The making of a psychopath. Chapter 1,2 and 3.

Have you ever stood up to a bully? What happened?

Starting in the second grade, when my father lifted the absolute prohibition on fighting. He got tired of picking me up from the school nurse, or the hospital. Also tired of the wear and tear on my clothing.

The very next day, one of my usual tormentors hit me in the back of the head. The teacher just watched, as usual. So I picked up my desk and beat him unconscious. Took three blows.

I was sent to the office, of course. The principal said I was to be expelled. My father asked if the other boys who hit me had also been expelled. “well, no. They didn’t use a desk.”

“So, it’s okay for them to beat MY son bloody, as long as they don’t use the furniture? Is that it? Did you at least discipline the teacher who allowed this to go on?”

“Well, no. Boys will be boys…”

“Well, my boy is a boy, too. You have demonstrated that you will do nothing to prevent him from being beaten; so where’s the problem if he fights back?

Tell you what. I’m going to send the hospital bills and the bills for damaged clothes to my lawyer, and the school board. we’ll let them sort it out.”

And that was the last said of expelling me.

OMG funny

What would happen if the US decoupled from China?

The life in the US would become like this.

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How can an employee get a manager fired?

In my experience its easier if you don’t try. Couple of years ago a manager denied me several requests for Training, told me i was a waist of time. Few years latter my ceo inquired as to why i never made use of the company training system. So i told him. I told him about being denied and the waist of time comment, and how i did not even look at training anymore because of it.

That manager was demoted that Christmas, quit instead, then sent his layer to take a chunk out of my 401. The company successfully convinced him not to. But later they restricted my max contribution to the retirement account because of the incident.

And it all happened because i applied for training on how to handle an upset customer.

Second time was during an ataboy reward. Essentially i had a panic attack when that same ceo came to congratulate me. He was fired because, by procedure, when an employee freaks out the manager is supposed to walk away. Instead this ceo stayed around and calmed me down. The project manager 5feet away wrote the ceo up, and by the end of the week that ceo was gone. Only thing needed to make it all happen was a traumatic event in college to give me ptsd. “May God welcome you to his heavenly splendor Jerry. You will be missed and thank you.”

To get a manager fired do the following. Call a lawyer, get the lawyer to file a freedom of information. Aquire the company’s secret employment laws document. This will be the stack of papers that say among other things

1. A thong is ok for women to ware but brief’s are not ok for men to use.

2. An employee may be terminated for possession of pornography when: they are found to poses/refuse to submit to search and with a witness, or have a prior termination for and no witness. Or a manager successfully implants the audio album “innocent victim” on the employees phone.

3. Work place competition is permitted under these criteria. Or exceeds the bounds of acceptance under these criteria…

4. The employee was found holding a blade, even if found working with food in the kitchen.

5. Employees are permitted to use incontinence products but are subject to termination if they discard used products in the bathroom garbage bin. And by extension are not allowed to have extra diapers on company grounds.

Be warned if you do obtain these secret documents, most fortune 500 companys will respond by amending a new criteria. Usually the new criteria is specialized to target YOU and some thing YOU do. In this way even after you learn how to CAN anyone, you will not be bulletproof. HR is not stupid, they will fit you with a remote explosive collar.

But coming back to the original question, use what you learn then file a report on your manager for anything he is doing that violates those secret rules.

The underwear criteria was really surprising to me, then i got investigated for it one day.

Please let us know if you actually get someone canned for their underwear.

Final comments. The right reason to terminate a manager is when there replacement is both better than the current person, and when its better for the company. Any situation where you are involved in a non consensual passing of the torch will result in repercussions. If your manager is doing something you don’t like, ask them how you are supposed to respond. You will be surprised.

U.S IN TROUBLE! China Finally DESTROY U.S Companies

What are some dark sides about law enforcement you have seen?

A man was stabbed, killed and thrown in a desolate pit.

The mother blamed victim’s brothers in law for this. Police arrested both of them but later cleared them off. No lead, no progress at all. Senior officers and Judge were not happy.

Four months passed.

Then a young and handsome officer got transferred in our police station. A few ongoing cases were given to him to investigate and complete, this blind murder incident was exclusively included as well.

I remember… It was his first day at work, he chose to handle this blind murder case first. I knew him personally because his elder brother is my friend, a constable as well. So this officer preferred using my room until he gets a suitable place to set up his desk and everything.

So… yea. First day at work. He summoned those two suspects (in laws) as he wished to question them. Those two individuals arrived in my office. There were four people in my room. Me, detective and those two.

He began throwing question at them and investigated. Questions after questions… and a bit of persuasion.

They confessed the murder in half an hour. I kid you not. They confessed the murder, showed the place where they hid the knives and explained the motive.

This young detective solved a murder case in 30 minutes on his first day.

Senior officers couldn’t praise him more. That previous detective was blown upon hearing this news. He was ordered to report to head quarters. A seasoned one. I am sure he was asked…

How the hell couldn’t you resolve this piece of cake investigation in four months. Did you intentionally spare the murderers.

I remember the sweat on his forehead when he returned. He was worried as this may lead to dismissal from service and then some, if proved that he favored the murderers in his reports.

And if that’s truth “he sold a murder” which is awful and atrocious.

Anyway…. it’s not my place to put verdict.

I don’t know if he did it or not.

What is rare is not common

Is China’s rise America’s fall?

I have written extensively on this subject, focusing for a moment on what is China doing and what is the US doing which are in opposite directions. If you go the wrong direction for long enough then you are in real trouble, which America is in right now.

CHINA’S RISE

Forget about all the state capitalism vs corporate capitalism, yes this is an underlying difference but results are results. Either you are in the game or you are not and the USA is not in the game, China is.

It is all about one thing, investment. You do not invest you get nothing. Here is Pudong in 1982 when I first arrived in China. NOTHING NADA ZERO development.

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Then there is Pudong today, same photo but completely developed.

AMERICA’S FALL

Here is Detroit where I grew up in 1950:

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Ostensibly the ‘richest’ city in the world the year I was born, 1950.

Here is Detroit a few years ago:

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I chose a nice image, just the after effects of destruction.

It is all about investment. The USA does not invest in anything other than military. Nothing, nada. The Trump administration even litigated against universities who were trying to enroll more blacks and minorities in favor of Chinese and whites, but really Chinese as they were the highest test scorers so they get in and nothing for black, latinos or other US citizens. Incarceration rates and numbers at 2.3 million, drugs, lack of opportunity, do you get it? America is still going in the wrong direction and now we have the QAnon types running the Republican party so you can forget about them to help. Up to the Democrats who are ok but they are no world beaters when it comes to investment as they are govt types and don’t get the private sector.

And Trump? Mr Glitz was the exact opposite of investment, but if you do not invest you die and he invested nothing.

The USA will die and be hollowed out and China will dominate the world completely if the USA and Europe and even Australia, but especially the USA, does not clean up its act and invest.

Invest in their education, in vocational training, in tax incentives to invest to get companies back to Detroit and everywhere else.

I could go on, but this nonsense about China’s gain is the US loss is only because the USA put all of their money and effort and investment INTO CHINA AND NOT INTO THE USA FOR THE PAST 35 YEARS!

As Everett Dirksen, a great US Senator once said when asked about the budget, ‘a billion here a billion there, and before you know it, you are talking about real money’. How about a trillion here a trillion there and before you know it, you are broke like the USA is about to be!

I could easily make a case that every US company was headed up by traitors, strong word I get it, but I want to make a point. If all you want to do is make profits in the next quarter, you and your country and your family and your future WILL LOSE.

China is also investing internally not just FDI any longer.

Good on them, now can the rest of the world get off their bums and stop thinking that selling each other cups of coffee and beers is good enough? And that all of the fake hedge funds and other financial ‘products’ are garbage and are not benefiting Americans rather a small elite that now does their business in China as they make more money there.

Hope that puts a different focus on this debate and gets people to back off on China and to focus instead on their own countries and their own people and solve their own problems.

There is plenty of time to discuss this all with China but clean up your acts first.

What are a few bitter truths of life?

In my office, there is a 26 year old married guy. He is an attendant and not earning much for leading a decent life in a metro city. Although, I am much above in post than him, I treat him as my friend.

So, his wife was about to give birth in a day or two yet he was not taking leave from the office. He told me that it is very close and could be today or tomorrow.

Then on the next day at 4 PM, he rushed towards me saying that wife is in labor and was taken to the hospital. I got furious and told him why he didn’t take leave that day. I quickly calmed down realizing his situation and offered to drop him. But to amazment, he refused.

I was speechless. He said he has some urgent work and only after finishing that he will go.

Next day he called me and said that he was blessed with a baby boy but he also said by the time he reached his wife had already given birth.

I demanded he explain this nonsense.

In a soft voice he explained that he needed to finish his duty till 5.30 pm otherwise his one day pay would be deducted.

Bitter truths:

Money really is the most important thing because the lack of it is so painful.
Our parents sacrifice so much but still sometimes we end up ignoring them.
One cannot truly relate to the pain of others unless he is put in same position.
Without education, a person is really on a path of lifelong struggle.

The Sopranos – Dick Barone – the king of garbage and Tony Soprano’s boss!

What is the most satisfying passive-aggressive thing you have ever done to a really mean or rude person?

I was working the AT YOUR SERVICE counter at Macy’s during the holiday rush when a woman with husband in tow stepped in front of the customer I was waiting on, a quiet and endlessly patient young man, and demanded that I call her a manager and, almost as an afterthought, added that the person I summoned had better be white.

She said this loud enough for everyone in the cordoned line behind her to hear.

The young man I’d been waiting on was black, as was practically everyone else in line.

I leaned towards her and hissed —

You realize you’ve just given me license to tell you exactly what I think of you without the risk of getting fired…

But I’m not gonna do that.

What I AM going to do is tell you to go to the end of the line and wait for me to finish with all these other good people…and then I’ll call you a manager.

His name will be Akeem.

And he’s just gonna LOVE talkin’ to YOU.

She didn’t make it to the end of the line. Her long suffering husband literally dragged her out of the store.

And Akeem wasn’t actually my supervisor. He was responsible for the ground floor and I was mall level.

I lied about that part.

But he did enjoy the story when I told it to him later on.

Mother Goes Off On Woke School Board Over Graphic Books in Her Child’s Elementary School

What are some things that make you think “what a strange world we live in”?

There are many places that make this a very strange world. The Nazca Lines, crop circles, Easter Island, Stonehenge, Machu Picchu, and so on. I thought I had read about them all, but this one was new to me.

The Band of Holes

In Pisco, Peru, stretching across the Cajamarquilla Plain are thousands of ancient holes that measure 6 feet (1.8 m) to 7 feet (2.1.m) deep and evenly spaced 3 feet (.9 m) apart. No one has any idea how these holes were formed. There are at least 5000 to 6000 depressions that run north and south for almost 2 miles. (3.2 k)

Who would dig all these holes? Why? How were they created? I’m imagining some poor sunburned guy with a spade saying, “Okay, 600 more to go then I’m stopping.”

It actually looks like some giant machine was travelling along this path. Was it a mining operation? What were these holes for?

Initially discovered by pilot Robert Shippee who took an aerial photo of them and published them in National Geographic, they are indeed strange. They date to around the 15th. century, they believe.

Truthfully, although there are many guesses, no one really knows who or what dug these holes and why.

Peru is a very strange place that’s for sure. Just read about Saqsaywaman, 12 Angled Stone, and Machu Picchu. Who built these places and how? Modern man would have a hell of a time reconstructing them. They might not be able to. I think we have forgotten the ways to do these stupendous feats. The ancients apparently knew them. We are now just learning, or relearning about moving rock through sound and wavelengths.

More experiments with text to picture

Here’s some examples from others that I thought were well done…

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Default Create a stunning 8K ultrarealistic food photograph fe 2

Default show Mark Antony leading in the battle of Actium in 31 0

Default Ascension of Augustus to Power 1

Default Capture the moment of triumph and despair as Octavians 2(1)

Default Capture the moment of triumph and despair as Octavians 2

Default A candid photo of crazy old scientists arguing in a la 3

Default A candid photo of crazy old scientists arguing in a la 2

Default Capture the moment of triumph and despair as Octavians 1(1)

Default show a Octavian commanding 290 roman trireme ships 1

Leonardo Diffusion XL Sketchbook Style Sketch book hand drawn 2

Default The man at the table raises his glass once more thanki 0

Default Capture the moment of triumph and despair as Octavians 1

Default Telekinesis is a remarkable ability that allows indivi 1

Default Imagine young Errol Flynn age 34 as a Court Dandy 15 2

Default crea a una chica rubia que se parezca a una chica huma 3

Default Simple Logo for barbershop Odin has a cool design hair 0

Default Create a Cat holding a alt coin Cripto 0

Default Again the waiter serves drinks to everyone except the 0

Default A candid photo of crazy old scientists arguing in a la 1

Default pisces zodiac sign golden metal reflecting a glowing s 0

Default spaceship parts debris floating in the exosphere the b 0

Default masterpiece best quality Anime14 modern Oiran bold neo 2

Default astronaut black cat floating in the stratosphere catal 0

Default masterpiece highest creativity Leonardo Da Vinci in dy 6

Default Uma guerreira japonesa com um drago tatuado em seu ros 2

Default black cat who will attack you with fire woman 0

Default White Cat sitting on pillows on panoramic roof Istanbu 2

Default A corgi in a white shirt black vest and white fedora s 3

Default Beautiful Elf posing with freckles and glasses and lo 2

Default Bloodborne Dark Souls 3 Elden Ring ultra detailed g 1

Default show men in the middle ages watching strange lights da 0

Default Brazilian woman with ears of a brazilian fox named lob 0

Default masterpiece best quality oil painting modern Oiran roy 3

Leonardo Vision XL Imagine a powerful elegant animated charact 2

What if the USA attacked China?

I find it remarkable that so many people think that the USA would overwhelm China in a war, the country that wrote the book on military strategy and how to defeat larger, more powerful opponents.

The US could not even win in Korea or Vietnam, what makes you think they would prevail against the much larger and powerful China?

First of all, the US would likely only defeat China in a conventional war assuming that China fought back using similar conventional means. Unlikely.

You have certainly seen all the news reports about Chinese hacking by their military? These sorts of things are warnings. They are warnings to the US that if you come after us we know where your vulnerabilities are. And so do the Russians. And any attack on the Chinese would also likely bring about a quick military alliance with the Russians as well.

A ground war against China (not to mention ANY war against China) would be the height of idiocy. China has 6X the number of people, compared to the US, who could be called into military service fairly quickly. And China is a HUGE country with lots of very difficult terrain to cover.

And given all the bullying and warfare that the US has engaged in since this new century began, do you really think that the Chinese, and Russian military, have not been actively preparing for the potential of such a scenario?

The US military can overwhelm most countries because they are much smaller and weaker. But taking on someone even close to our own size would expose weaknesses and vulnerabilities, both in the military and the US government, that neither wants the American people to know about or experience.

If the US wants to get itself into the biggest military quagmire in history, and destroy its economy, then yeah go ahead and try and go to war with China.

Guy Mocks Leftists Worldview With Funniest Testimony You’ll Hear Today

Can the U.S defeat China in a day? It seems that is the worldwide consensus. If such is the case, then shouldn’t China thread lightly when it comes to the U.S? I’m starting to really think China doesn’t stand a chance against the U.S and her allies.

It took the USA four presidents, 2 trillion dollars and 20 years of war in Afghanistan to replace the Taliban with the Taliban.

And you think that the US can defeat China in a day. Do you mean, like, in a basketball game or something? Hahahaaa …

What are some reasons you have left a restaurant before ordering?

I went into a truck-stop restaurant one night (though not the only time this happened) and was seated by the hostess, who cheerfully brought me the coffee and water she offered. And that was the last time ANYONE came to my table.

I watched other drivers/customers, all male, come in, get served, and finish and leave, and I couldn’t get anyone’s attention even by standing up and waving, or calling out to them as they passed by my table.

Note: I was alone, female, 50ish, and dressed decently (not provocatively) and clean. And hungry.

I finally gave up, and went to the cashier to pay for my coffee, and asked to speak to the manager. (It was the hostess who was acting as cashier). She asked, with concern, if there was a problem, and if there’d been anything wrong with the food. I said I wouldn’t know, since I never had the opportunity to order any. She got the manager, who said he was so sorry for the “misunderstanding”, and he’d be happy to take my order right then. I declined, saying that I had run out of time, and that I’d have to make do with a can of tuna or something I had in my truck for emergencies, but that it might be a good idea to speak to his waitstaff about the concept of customer service. And I added that I wouldn’t be stopping again there to eat anytime soon, as I didn’t have time in my life for that kind of treatment. I didn’t shout, or raise my voice, but I did want to make my displeasure known and understood.

On my way out, I left a tip with the hostess, who’d been cheerful and professional in her dealing with me, and told her that that tip was for her alone, and not to be shared, or “tipped out” with any servers. She already knew why, and thanked me.

Oh, and the coffee was comped.

What was your most horrible wedding experience as a guest?

Ha, not horrible just really rather bizarre! My husbands cousin was getting married. He turned out to be a horrible person but thats another story. At the wedding we are sat at the cousins table along with a mutual cousin who is/was a well known pop star. He was absolutely lovely, I was sat next to him and obviously the pop star has been left at home for the day. During the speech the brides father announced he was here and made him get up for a round of applause. Honestly he looked like he wanted to die on the spot. The brides father then spent the next 10 minutes talking about the pop star cousin and forgetting the bride and groom.

On another note 2 aunties had basically taken over the ladies loo where they could have a full blown row. You went in and they were just stood there, daggers drawn in silence. As you left you could hear them start again.

Overall it was a wedding to remember for all the wrong reasons and the bride and groom lasted about 10 years.

Niger DESTROYS Victoria Nuland’s Plot to Return Africa to France w/ Ben Norton

What office rule made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?

One place I worked still expected everyone to wear formal business attire even if they never met any clients. Amazingly, they issued an email that announced a trial run of “dress down Friday”. No guidance was given it was just dress down. This experiment was to run for a month.

After the second Friday we received another email cancelling all future dress down Fridays as some people had taken things too far. After a bit of discussion about what could have caused such a reaction, it is eventually revealed that some people wore jeans! Not scruffy jeans, jeans with holes in, slung too low, cut offs, just jeans.

Are people in China encouraged not to purchase American goods?

Many of my colleagues have moved away from iPhones. But it has nearly nothing to do with the brand beating a US brand.

An iPhone used to be a prestige item. A status symbol. But over the last 2 years so many people in China own one that it is no longer a status symbol. Factory workers, office workers etc. So what is so special about an iPhone that makes someone want to spend twice as much for it. They can buy another brand of phone that does what an iPhone does, make a phone call? Yup Take selfies? Yup. Use We Chat? Yup. Surf the net? Yup.

So that is the problem is Apple was too successful selling so many phones in China that there is no prestige that is worth paying an extra $500 for it.

And keep in mind that when someone in China is buying a phone they are paying for it all up front. So it is an extra $500 out of pocket. It is not like in the US where you pay for the phone monthly as part of your phone plan. So it is a painless extra $10 a month to buy an iPhone. So a Chinese person really thinks about the value they are getting when they hand over their money.

Of course now the little extra push to go with a Chinese brand is the trade war. But as far as I can see no one is telling them or asking them to not buy American.

Personally I think if the government ever did ask that US companies would sell very very very little here. Be thankful the Chinese government is showing restraint.

Is the quote “You cannot invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.” attributed to General Isoroku Yamamoto based on a true story?

Admiral Yamamoto, not General. No, it is almost certainly bogus as there is no known citation for this supposed quote. The words have sometimes been attributed to the Gordon Prange, a historian on the staff of Douglas MacArthur, but it is found nowhere in his writings either. The quote should be regarded as bogus until someone can cite when and where it originated.

Nor did Admiral Yamamoto ever say:

I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.

That quote appears to be derived from the 1970 film Tora! Tora!, Tora! (great film). What he did say was:

A military man can scarcely pride himself on having smitten a sleeping enemy.

This is a reference regarding his disappointment over the bungled Japanese declaration of war which wasn’t delivered until a few hours after the attack on Pearl Harbour.

Cast-Iron Skillet Pizza

I would name this “Caprese Pizza.” It’s heavenly!

Prep: 10 min | Cook: 20 min | Yield: 2 (9 to 10 inch) pizzas

Ingredients

1 pound store-bought pizza dough (room temperature)
1 ripe tomato, thinly sliced
1/4 pound fresh mozzarella cheese, diced
Coarse sea salt
2 tablespoons Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 cup shredded fresh basil

Instructions

Heat well-oiled cast-iron or nonstick 10 or 12 inch frying pan over medium heat for 5 minutes.
Divide dough in half; roll one half into round 1 inch smaller than diameter of pan.
Cook dough in hot pan until dough begins to rise and bottom starts to brown. Using metal spatula, turn carefully. Layer half the tomato slices over dough; scatter half the mozzarella over top. Lower heat to medium-low; cook until mozzarella melts.
Using metal spatula, transfer pizza to cutting board. Sprinkle with salt; drizzle with half the olive oil.
Cut into wedges; sprinkle half the basil over top.
Repeat with remaining ingredients.

Why did my top performing employee quit after write up?

Imagine it from the top performer’s point of view.

They might be getting offers from other companies they don’t discuss with you.

If they’re performing better than everyone else and don’t perceive themselves as having erred (at least not enough for a write up) they’re left searching for reasons you may have written them up. It’s inevitable that they will arrive at political or financial motives.

Typically having a write up interferes with career advancement, raises, and bonuses.

Perhaps they thought you were trying to put them back on their heels to make them more controllable. Top performers don’t need to be controlled. Maybe the very act of writing them up was a final straw in proving the incompetence of your leadership to them.

If their work created opportunities or revenues perhaps they saw a write up as a way of denying or usurping those. Top salespeople get this all the time. It’s a typical ruse for an unscrupulous leadership team to mess with a salesperson’s compensation or territory when they confront how much money they may pay in commissions to one person. When they think they can close the book of business themselves these asshats will do things to marginalize or force out the salesperson to capture more revenue and take credit for the sale “in spite of” the salesperson’s supposed shortcomings.

If the company is already having some problems this kind of thing is a death knell. It’s like the drunk, losing poker player trying to scare a guy with a stack of chips into folding by going all-in with an obvious bluff. The experienced people see that and think, “Well, that’s the end of that.”

This type of thing is doubly bad because it simultaneously signals bad faith and incompetence. It inspires disgust and righteous anger in people who work diligently and honestly.

In general, the more honest and competent a person is, the more attuned they are to the dishonesty and incompetence of others. Since they are typically getting things done at a faster pace they end up encountering things that interfere with getting things done more often. They encounter and avoid the temptation to take dishonest shortcuts and are pressured to do so by their managers more often.

This whole time other companies are sending messages about the greener grass across the street.

Does any of this feel like it applies to you?

The Delta Hot Index: Compare your Mate Value at a Glance

What new policy did a new boss try to implement that made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?

Many years ago I worked at a Clinical Trials company. In the space of 18 months, two of the female staff had needed extended sick leave. I don’t know the exact nature of the illness these women had. I worked more closely with one of the women so, I know that she had a miscarriage and possibly depression afterward. I believe the other women had some long-standing health problems that resulted in a hysterectomy.

One of the Managing Directors sent a fairly rambling memo about the inconvenience, to the company, of key staff being absent for long periods. He was proposing to take a gynaecological history of female staff in order to assess their ‘availabilty’ for certain roles in the company. Apparently, women’s plumbing is a bit different and inconveniently complex …. (In fairness, I should point out that he was a consultant gynaecologist).

As a Staff Representative, I was asked to forward a unanimous response on behalf of the female staff. The response was just two words and you know which two words.

He received his reply within an hour of sending his memo and the subject was never mentioned again.

S̲te̲e̲ly D̲a̲n – 1977 Greatest Hits – A̲̲ja̲ (Full Album)

OMG. This takes me back. We used to jam to this non-stop. First time I have listened to the full album in about fifty years. No shit!

Are Taiwanese oligarchs worried about chip breakthrough in mainland China that will affect their margin?

Not really

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A Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Dragon Chipset costs around $ 450 and of that Qualcomm pockets $ 225 as Chip Designer while TSMC gets around $ 175 for Fabrication and the Packaging and Testing costs $ 50

A Huawei Kirin 9000s costs around $ 370 today of which Huawei pockets $ 100 as Chip Designer, the Foundry SMIC gets around $ 300 , the Packaging and Testing costs $ 20 and the Chinese Government subsidizes $ 50 a Chip

So as you can see TSMC pockets $ 175 for each Chip and has a margin of close to 40% as profit

SMIC pockets $ 300 for each Chip and has a margin of 7% as profit

Thus TSMC is paying almost $ 105 for manufacturing a 7 nm Chip while SMIC is paying a whopping $ 279 for manufacturing a 7 nm Chip with a 96% Yield

So TSMC is in a very advantageous position in terms of Chip manufacturing

It costs SMIC almost three times more to manufacture a 7 nm chip than TSMC at 96% Yield

The key is HUAWEI

You notice Huawei pockets only 24% of the Cost of the Chip whereas Apple and Qualcomm and Intel they pocket 50% of the Cost of the Chip

Likewise the Testing and Packaging and Finishing in China is 40% of what they charge in Taiwan

So the final Chipset is almost $ 50 Cheaper on the Mainland

So if you look at TSMC vs SMIC

SMIC is manufacturing a chip which is 96% in Yield of the same manufactured by TSMC at 3 times the cost and 20% of the Profit earned by TSMC (Not including the Subsidy)

If you look at the Kirin 9000s vs Snapdragon 888

The Kirin costs $ 50 Less than the Snapdragon and at virtually almost same quality

This translates to at least $ 117 on the final retail price of any phone using the Chipset

That’s 700 RMB cheaper at the lowest

Thats where China dominates

Ultimately the Brand mode of profiteering is why the West can never ultimately win against China in a fully competitive market

What was the most boneheaded mistake you saw someone make while in the military?

This was more than boneheaded!!!!!!!!!! This photo is of me as a MP about to go out on a jeep patrol in Danang Vietnam in 1970.

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When we changed the watch, the watch before us gave us their 45 caliber pistol. They were supposed to remove the magazine, jack the weapon back and then shoot down at some sand or earth area to make sure no round was in it. The guy I had on one watch switch, took his weapon out did not take the magazine out, jacked it back (which loaded the chamber) and then shot it down about 2 inches from my toes. We were both on a concrete walkway going into our police office. What saved my life most likely was a rubber mat about 15 feet long on the sidewalk. The round went through the rubber mat and when it ricocheted on the concrete, the bullet slid about 12 feet under the mat between my legs behind me instead of going up into me. What followed was a huge flurry of of expletives to him from myself and the men around me. I could have died from friendly fire!

What will happen if America invades China?

This shall not happen.

Last time when the States invaded North Korea, 54246 American soldiers lost their lives, and we lost more. I believe that a wise POTUS would never decide to invade China by risking half of the army in far east.

If this shall happen, er…

Per the requirements of Chinese laws, I shall be recruited, and given a rank around caption.

I may be assigned to work in a camp, interrogating captured US soldiers (see I can speak English quite well, and I am somewhat familar with psychology, politics, history and western culture).

I am also a chemist graduating from a top university. I can also serve as a chemistry engineer in factories, producing gunpowder, medicine, and other necessary materials for the war.

If the war does not go on well, I may be sent to the front, holding a handgun, leading dozens of soldiers, and I may die there. If I die bravely in a battle, I shall be recognized as “revolutionary martyr” and beried in a “martyrs cemetery”. I may have no son or daughter, but all Chinese children living in the new peace world shall dance and sing on the land that I have bled for.

Both China and the States have well educated, brave and patriotic citizens. It would be a disaster for the people of both countries, even the whole world, to initiate a war between the two countries.

Lives shall be lost, cities shall be burned and children shall starve.

If we use our muscle suitably instead, we can make this world better.

What happened to you in China which made you think completely differently about the country and society?

Before going to China, I used to hear a lot from my Mainland Chinese friends in Australia how the Chinese are so selfish and cunning. They told me to be careful when buying something because I could get cheated, that the Chinese won’t do me any favor when I ask for one and if I ask somebody the direction they might point into a wrong direction. I heard the Shaghainese are arrogant, the Henanese are very bad, the Hubei-ese are cheaters, the North-Easterners are rough and so on so forth. Of course, they warned me on good will, and I thanked them for that.

Yet, when I was actually in China, I found that virtually all what they told me are wrong. I’ve never met any arrogant Shanghainese, Hubei-ese cheater, bad Henanese or rough North-Easterner (though many North-Easterners do talk loudly). When I had no umbrella on a rainy day, someone gave me an umbrella; when I took a bus but had no coin, someone gave me coins and when I forgot my belonging in a restaurant, someone told me that. Of course, there must be bad people in China as well, but not as many as I imagined before going there based on what those Chinese friends warned me.

EELF Collection

This is… well… not what you would think. I ran across this, and it’s… well… you just have to watch it.

Black Destroyer by A. E. Van Vogt

Black Destroyer

by A. E. Van Vogt

Preface by David Drake




You can get an argument as to when the Golden Age of Science Fiction ended. (Well, you can get an argument if you're talking with the right people.) Almost everybody agrees that the Golden Age started with the July, 1939, issue of Astounding, however. That's because its cover story was "Black Destroyer," the first published SF by A. E. Van Vogt.

I didn't know that when I first read the story in Tales of Space and Time, edited by Healy and McComas, when I was thirteen. Back then I didn't know much of anything, about authors or writing or SF. But I knew "Black Destroyer" was amazing, not only for what was in the story (and considered as either adventure or horror, it's a very taut, suspenseful piece) but even more for the implicit background, the sciences and technologies that didn't exist in my adolescent world—or anywhere else outside the story, as I now know.

When I was thirteen, everything was possible. "Black Destroyer" is one of the few stories that gave—and give—form to those infinite possibilities.

On and on Coeurl prowled! The black, moonless, almost starless night yielded reluctantly before a grim reddish dawn that crept up from his left. A vague, dull light it was, that gave no sense of approaching warmth, no comfort, nothing but a cold, diffuse lightness, slowly revealing a nightmare landscape.

Black, jagged rock and black, unliving plain took form around him, as a pale-red sun peered at last above the grotesque horizon. It was then Coeurl recognized suddenly that he was on familiar ground.

He stopped short. Tenseness flamed along his nerves. His muscles pressed with sudden, unrelenting strength against his bones. His great forelegs—twice as long as his hindlegs—twitched with a shuddering movement that arched every razor-sharp claw. The thick tentacles that sprouted from his shoulders ceased their weaving undulation, and grew taut with anxious alertness.

Utterly appalled, he twisted his great cat head from side to side, while the little hairlike tendrils that formed each ear vibrated frantically, testing every vagrant breeze, every throb in the ether.

But there was no response, no swift tingling along his intricate nervous system, not the faintest suggestion anywhere of the presence of the all-necessary id. Hopelessly, Coeurl crouched, an enormous catlike figure silhouetted against the dim reddish skyline, like a distorted etching of a black tiger resting on a black rock in a shadow world.

He had known this day would come. Through all the centuries of restless search, this day had loomed ever nearer, blacker, more frightening—this inevitable hour when he must return to the point where he began his systematic hunt in a world almost depleted of id-creatures.

The truth struck in waves like an endless, rhythmic ache at the seat of his ego. When he had started, there had been a few id-creatures in every hundred square miles, to be mercilessly rooted out. Only too well Coeurl knew in this ultimate hour that he had missed none. There were no id-creatures left to eat. In all the hundreds of thousands of square miles that he had made his own by right of ruthless conquest—until no neighboring coeurl dared to question his sovereignty—there was no id to feed the otherwise immortal engine that was his body.

Square foot by square foot he had gone over it. And now—he recognized the knoll of rock just ahead, and the black rock bridge that formed a queer, curling tunnel to his right. It was in that tunnel he had lain for days, waiting for the simple-minded, snakelike id-creature to come forth from its hole in the rock to bask in the sun—his first kill after he had realized the absolute necessity of organized extermination.

He licked his lips in brief gloating memory of the moment his slavering jaws tore the victim into precious toothsome bits. But the dark fear of an idless universe swept the sweet remembrance from his consciousness, leaving only certainty of death.

He snarled audibly, a defiant, devilish sound that quavered on the air, echoed and re-echoed among the rocks, and shuddered back along his nerves—instinctive and hellish expression of his will to live.

And then—abruptly—it came.

* * *

He saw it emerge out of the distance on a long downward slant, a tiny glowing spot that grew enormously into a metal ball. The great shining globe hissed by above Coeurl, slowing visibly in quick deceleration. It sped over a black line of hills to the right, hovered almost motionless for a second, then sank down out of sight.

Coeurl exploded from his startled immobility. With tiger speed, he flowed down among the rocks. His round, black eyes burned with the horrible desire that was an agony within him. His ear tendrils vibrated a message of id in such tremendous quantities that his body felt sick with the pangs of his abnormal hunger.

The little red sun was a crimson ball in the purple-black heavens when he crept up from behind a mass of rock and gazed from its shadows at the crumbling, gigantic ruins of the city that sprawled below him. The silvery globe, in spite of its great size, looked strangely inconspicuous against that vast, fairylike reach of ruins. Yet about it was a leashed aliveness, a dynamic quiescence that, after a moment, made it stand out, dominating the foreground. A massive, rock-crushing thing of metal, it rested on a cradle made by its own weight in the harsh, resisting plain which began abruptly at the outskirts of the dead metropolis.

Coeurl gazed at the strange, two-legged creatures who stood in little groups near the brilliantly lighted opening that yawned at the base of the ship. His throat thickened with the immediacy of his need; and his brain grew dark with the first wild impulse to burst forth in furious charge and smash these flimsy, helpless-looking creatures whose bodies emitted the id-vibrations.

Mists of memory stopped that mad rush when it was still only electricity surging through his muscles. Memory that brought fear in an acid stream of weakness, pouring along his nerves, poisoning the reservoirs of his strength. He had time to see that the creatures wore things over their real bodies, shimmering transparent material that glittered in strange, burning flashes in the rays of the sun.

Other memories came suddenly. Of dim days when the city that spread below was the living, breathing heart of an age of glory that dissolved in a single century before flaming guns whose wielders knew only that for the survivors there would be an ever-narrowing supply of id.

It was the remembrance of those guns that held him there, cringing in a wave of terror that blurred his reason. He saw himself smashed by balls of metal and burned by searing flame.

Came cunning—understanding of the presence of these creatures. This, Coeurl reasoned for the first time, was a scientific expedition from another star. In the olden days, the coeurls had thought of space travel, but disaster came too swiftly for it ever to be more than a thought.

Scientists meant investigation, not destruction. Scientists in their way were fools. Bold with his knowledge, he emerged into the open. He saw the creatures become aware of him. They turned and stared. One, the smallest of the group, detached a shining metal rod from a sheath, and held it casually in one hand. Coeurl loped on, shaken to his core by the action; but it was too late to turn back.

* * *

Commander Hal Morton heard little Gregory Kent, the chemist, laugh with the embarrassed half gurgle with which he invariably announced inner uncertainty. He saw Kent fingering the spindly metalite weapon.

Kent said: “I’ll take no chances with anything as big as that.”

Commander Morton allowed his own deep chuckle to echo along the communicators. “That,” he grunted finally, “is one of the reasons why you’re on this expedition, Kent—because you never leave anything to chance.”

His chuckle trailed off into silence. Instinctively, as he watched the monster approach them across that black rock plain, he moved forward until he stood a little in advance of the others, his huge form bulking the transparent metalite suit. The comments of the men pattered through the radio communicator into his ears:

“I’d hate to meet that baby on a dark night in an alley.”

“Don’t be silly. This is obviously an intelligent creature. Probably a member of the ruling race.”

“It looks like nothing else than a big cat, if you forget those tentacles sticking out from its shoulders, and make allowances for those monster forelegs.”

“Its physical development,” said a voice, which Morton recognized as that of Siedel, the psychologist, “presupposes an animal-like adaptation to surroundings, not an intellectual one. On the other hand, its coming to us like this is not the act of an animal but of a creature possessing a mental awareness of our possible identity. You will notice that its movements are stiff, denoting caution, which suggests fear and consciousness of our weapons. I’d like to get a good look at the end of its tentacles. If they taper into handlike appendages that can really grip objects, then the conclusion would be inescapable that it is a descendant of the inhabitants of this city. It would be a great help if we could establish communication with it, even though appearances indicate that it has degenerated into a historyless primitive.”

Coeurl stopped when he was still ten feet from the foremost creature. The sense of id was so overwhelming that his brain drifted to the ultimate verge of chaos. He felt as if his limbs were bathed in molten liquid; his very vision was not quite clear, as the sheer sensuality of his desire thundered through his being.

The men—all except the little one with the shining metal rod in his fingers—came closer. Coeurl saw that they were frankly and curiously examining him. Their lips were moving, and their voices beat in a monotonous, meaningless rhythm on his ear tendrils. At the same time he had the sense of waves of a much higher frequency—his own communication level—only it was a machinelike clicking that jarred his brain. With a distinct effort to appear friendly, he broadcast his name from his ear tendrils, at the same time pointing at himself with one curving tentacle.

Gourlay, chief of communications, drawled: “I got a sort of static in my radio when he wiggled those hairs, Morton. Do you think—”

“Looks very much like it,” the leader answered the unfinished question. “That means a job for you, Gourlay. If it speaks by means of radio waves, it might not be altogether impossible that you can create some sort of television picture of its vibrations, or teach him the Morse code.”

“Ah,” said Siedel. “I was right. The tentacles each develop into seven strong fingers. Provided the nervous system is complicated enough, those fingers could, with training, operate any machine.”

* * *

Morton said: “I think we’d better go in and have some lunch. Afterward, we’ve got to get busy. The material men can set up their machines and start gathering data on the planet’s metal possibilities, and so on. The others can do a little careful exploring. I’d like some notes on architecture and on the scientific development of this race, and particularly what happened to wreck the civilization. On earth civilization after civilization crumbled, but always a new one sprang up in its dust. Why didn’t that happen here? Any questions?”

“Yes. What about pussy? Look, he wants to come in with us.”

Commander Morton frowned, an action that emphasized the deep-space pallor of his face. “I wish there was some way we could take it in with us, without forcibly capturing it. Kent, what do you think?”

“I think we should first decide whether it’s an it or a him, and call it one or the other. I’m in favor of him. As for taking him in with us—” The little chemist shook his head decisively. “Impossible. This atmosphere is twenty-eight per cent chlorine. Our oxygen would be pure dynamite to his lungs.”

The commander chuckled. “He doesn’t believe that, apparently.” He watched the catlike monster follow the first two men through the great door. The men kept an anxious distance from him, then glanced at Morton questioningly. Morton waved his hand. “O.K. Open the second lock and let him get a whiff of the oxygen. That’ll cure him.”

A moment later, he cursed his amazement. “By Heaven, he doesn’t even notice the difference! That means he hasn’t any lungs, or else the chlorine is not what his lungs use. Let him in! You bet he can go in! Smith, here’s a treasure house for a biologist—harmless enough if we’re careful. We can always handle him. But what a metabolism!”

Smith, a tall, thin, bony chap with a long, mournful face, said in an oddly forceful voice: “In all our travels, we’ve found only two higher forms of life. Those dependent on chlorine, and those who need oxygen—the two elements that support combustion. I’m prepared to stake my reputation that no complicated organism could ever adapt itself to both gases in a natural way. At first thought I should say here is an extremely advanced form of life. This race long ago discovered truths of biology that we are just beginning to suspect. Morton, we mustn’t let this creature get away if we can help it.”

“If his anxiety to get inside is any criterion,” Commander Morton laughed, “then our difficulty will be to get rid of him.”

He moved into the lock with Coeurl and the two men. The automatic machinery hummed; and in a few minutes they were standing at the bottom of a series of elevators that led up to the living quarters.

“Does that go up?” One of the men flicked a thumb in the direction of the monster.

“Better send him up alone, if he’ll go in.”

Coeurl offered no objection, until he heard the door slam behind him; and the closed cage shot upward. He whirled with a savage snarl, his reason swirling into chaos. With one leap, he pounced at the door. The metal bent under his plunge, and the desperate pain maddened him. Now, he was all trapped animal. He smashed at the metal with his paws, bending it like so much tin. He tore great bars loose with his thick tentacles. The machinery screeched; there were horrible jerks as the limitless power pulled the cage along in spite of projecting pieces of metal that scraped the outside walls. And then the cage stopped, and he snatched off the rest of the door and hurtled into the corridor.

He waited there until Morton and the men came up with drawn weapons. “We’re fools,” Morton said. “We should have shown him how it works. He thought we’d double-crossed him.”

He motioned to the monster, and saw the savage glow fade from the coal-black eyes as he opened and closed the door with elaborate gestures to show the operation.

Coeurl ended the lesson by trotting into the large room to his right. He lay down on the rugged floor, and fought down the electric tautness of his nerves and muscles. A very fury of rage against himself for his fright consumed him. It seemed to his burning brain that he had lost the advantage of appearing a mild and harmless creature. His strength must have startled and dismayed them.

It meant greater danger in the task which he now knew he must accomplish: To kill everything in the ship, and take the machine back to their world in search of unlimited id.

* * *

With unwinking eyes, Coeurl lay and watched the two men clearing away the loose rubble from the metal doorway of the huge old building. His whole body ached with the hunger of his cells for id. The craving tore through his palpitant muscles, and throbbed like a living thing in his brain. His every nerve quivered to be off after the men who had wandered into the city. One of them, he knew, had gone—alone.

The dragging minutes fled; and still he restrained himself, still he lay there watching, aware that the men knew he watched. They floated a metal machine from the ship to the rock mass that blocked the great half-open door, under the direction of a third man. No flicker of their fingers escaped his fierce stare, and slowly, as the simplicity of the machinery became apparent to him, contempt grew upon him.

He knew what to expect finally, when the flame flared in incandescent violence and ate ravenously at the hard rock beneath. But in spite of his preknowledge, he deliberately jumped and snarled as if in fear, as that white heat burst forth. His ear tendrils caught the laughter of the men, their curious pleasure at his simulated dismay.

The door was released, and Morton came over and went inside with the third man. The latter shook his head.

“It’s a shambles. You can catch the drift of the stuff. Obviously, they used atomic energy, but . . . but it’s in wheel form. That’s a peculiar development. In our science, atomic energy brought in the nonwheel machine. It’s possible that here they’ve progressed further to a new type of wheel mechanics. I hope their libraries are better preserved than this, or we’ll never know. What could have happened to a civilization to make it vanish like this?”

A third voice broke through the communicators: “This is Siedel. I heard your question, Pennons. Psychologically and sociologically speaking, the only reason why a territory becomes uninhabited is lack of food.”

“But they’re so advanced scientifically, why didn’t they develop space flying and go elsewhere for their food?”

“Ask Gunlie Lester,” interjected Morton. “I heard him expounding some theory even before we landed.”

The astronomer answered the first call. “I’ve still got to verify all my facts, but this desolate world is the only planet revolving around that miserable red sun. There’s nothing else. No moon, not even a planetoid. And the nearest star system is nine hundred light-years away.

“So tremendous would have been the problem of the ruling race of this world, that in one jump they would not only have had to solve interplanetary but interstellar space traveling. When you consider how slow our own development was—first the moon, then Venus—each success leading to the next, and after centuries to the nearest stars; and last of all to the anti-accelerators that permitted galactic travel—considering all this, I maintain it would be impossible for any race to create such machines without practical experience. And, with the nearest star so far away, they had no incentive for the space adventuring that makes for experience.”

* * *

Coeurl was trotting briskly over to another group. But now, in the driving appetite that consumed him, and in the frenzy of his high scorn, he paid no attention to what they were doing. Memories of past knowledge, jarred into activity by what he had seen, flowed into his consciousness in an ever-developing and more vivid stream.

From group to group he sped, a nervous dynamo—jumpy, sick with his awful hunger. A little car rolled up, stopping in front of him, and a formidable camera whirred as it took a picture of him. Over on a mound of rock, a gigantic telescope was rearing up toward the sky. Nearby, a disintegrating machine drilled its searing fire into an ever-deepening hole, down and down, straight down.

Coeurl’s mind became a blur of things he watched with half attention. And ever more imminent grew the moment when he knew he could no longer carry on the torture of acting. His brain strained with an irresistible impatience; his body burned with the fury of his eagerness to be off after the man who had gone alone into the city.

He could stand it no longer. A green foam misted his mouth, maddening him. He saw that, for the bare moment, nobody was looking.

Like a shot from a gun, he was off. He floated along in great, gliding leaps, a shadow among the shadows of the rocks. In a minute, the harsh terrain hid the spaceship and the two-legged beings.

Coeurl forgot the ship, forgot everything but his purpose, as if his brain had been wiped clear by a magic, memory-erasing brush. He circled widely, then raced into the city, along deserted streets, taking short cuts with the ease of familiarity, through gaping holes in time-weakened walls, through long corridors of moldering buildings. He slowed to a crouching lope as his ear tendrils caught the id vibrations.

Suddenly, he stopped and peered from a scatter of fallen rock. The man was standing at what must once have been a window, sending the glaring rays of his flashlight into the gloomy interior. The flashlight clicked off. The man, a heavy-set, powerful fellow, walked off with quick, alert steps. Coeurl didn’t like that alertness. It presaged trouble; it meant lightning reaction to danger.

Coeurl waited till the human being vanished around a corner, then he padded into the open. He was running now, tremendously faster than a man could walk, because his plan was clear in his brain. Like a wraith, he slipped down the next street, past a long block of buildings. He turned the first corner at top speed; and then, with dragging belly, crept into the half-darkness between the building and a huge chunk of debris. The street ahead was barred by a solid line of loose rubble that made it like a valley, ending in a narrow, bottlelike neck. The neck had its outlet just below Coeurl.

His ear tendrils caught the low-frequency waves of whistling. The sound throbbed through his being; and suddenly terror caught with icy fingers at his brain. The man would have a gun. Suppose he leveled one burst of atomic energy—one burst—before his own muscles could whip out in murder fury.

A little shower of rocks streamed past. And then the man was beneath him. Coeurl reached out and struck a single crushing blow at the shimmering transparent headpiece of the spacesuit. There was a tearing sound of metal and a gushing of blood. The man doubled up as if part of him had been telescoped. For a moment, his bones and legs and muscles combined miraculously to keep him standing. Then he crumpled with a metallic clank of his space armor.

Fear completely evaporated, Coeurl leaped out of hiding. With ravenous speed, he smashed the metal and the body within it to bits. Great chunks of metal, torn piecemeal from the suit, sprayed the ground. Bones cracked. Flesh crunched.

It was simple to tune in on the vibrations of the id, and to create the violent chemical disorganization that freed it from the crushed bone. The id was, Coeurl discovered, mostly in the bone.

He felt revived, almost reborn. Here was more food than he had had in the whole past year.

Three minutes, and it was over, and Coeurl was off like a thing fleeing dire danger. Cautiously, he approached the glistening globe from the opposite side to that by which he had left. The men were all busy at their tasks. Gliding noiselessly, Coeurl slipped unnoticed up to a group of men.

* * *

Morton stared down at the horror of tattered flesh, metal and blood on the rock at his feet, and felt a tightening in his throat that prevented speech. He heard Kent say:

“He would go alone, damn him!” The little chemist’s voice held a sob imprisoned; and Morton remembered that Kent and Jarvey had chummed together for years in the way only two men can.

“The worst part of it is,” shuddered one of the men, “it looks like a senseless murder. His body is spread out like little lumps of flattened jelly, but it seems to be all there. I’d almost wager that if we weighed everything here, there’d still be one hundred and seventy-five pounds by earth gravity. That’d be about one hundred and seventy pounds here.”

Smith broke in, his mournful face lined with gloom: “The killer attacked Jarvey, and then discovered his flesh was alien—uneatable. Just like our big cat. Wouldn’t eat anything we set before him—” His words died out in sudden, queer silence. Then he said slowly: “Say, what about that creature? He’s big enough and strong enough to have done this with his own little paws.”

Morton frowned. “It’s a thought. After all, he’s the only living thing we’ve seen. We can’t just execute him on suspicion, of course—”

“Besides,” said one of the men, “he was never out of my sight.”

Before Morton could speak, Siedel, the psychologist, snapped, “Positive about that?”

The man hesitated. “Maybe he was for a few minutes. He was wandering around so much, looking at everything.”

“Exactly,” said Siedel with satisfaction. He turned to Morton. “You see, commander, I, too, had the impression that he was always around; and yet, thinking back over it, I find gaps. There were moments—probably long minutes—when he was completely out of sight.”

Morton’s face was dark with thought, as Kent broke in fiercely: “I say, take no chances. Kill the brute on suspicion before he does any more damage.”

Morton said slowly: “Korita, you’ve been wandering around with Cranessy and Van Horne. Do you think pussy is a descendant of the ruling class of this planet?”

The tall Japanese archeologist stared at the sky as if collecting his mind. “Commander Morton,” he said finally, respectfully, “there is a mystery here. Take a look, all of you, at that majestic skyline. Notice the almost Gothic outline of the architecture. In spite of the megalopolis which they created, these people were close to the soil. The buildings are not simply ornamented. They are ornamental in themselves. Here is the equivalent of the Doric column, the Egyptian pyramid, the Gothic cathedral, growing out of the ground, earnest, big with destiny. If this lonely, desolate world can be regarded as a mother earth, then the land had a warm, a spiritual place in the hearts of the race.

“The effect is emphasized by the winding streets. Their machines prove they were mathematicians, but they were artists first; and so they did not create the geometrically designed cities of the ultra-sophisticated world metropolis. There is a genuine artistic abandon, a deep joyous emotion written in the curving and unmathematical arrangements of houses, buildings and avenues; a sense of intensity, of divine belief in an inner certainty. This is not a decadent, hoary-with-age civilization, but a young and vigorous culture, confident, strong with purpose.

“There it ended. Abruptly, as if at this point culture had its Battle of Tours, and began to collapse like the ancient Mohammedan civilization. Or as if in one leap it spanned the centuries and entered the period of contending states. In the Chinese civilization that period occupied 480-230 B.C., at the end of which the State of Tsin saw the beginning of the Chinese Empire. This phase Egypt experienced between 1780-1580 B.C., of which the last century was the ‘Hyksos’—unmentionable—time. The classical experienced it from Chæronea—338—and, at the pitch of horror, from the Gracchi—133—to Actium—31 B.C. The West European Americans were devastated by it in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and modern historians agree that, nominally, we entered the same phase fifty years ago; though, of course, we have solved the problem.

“You may ask, commander, what has all this to do with your question? My answer is: there is no record of a culture entering abruptly into the period of contending states. It is always a slow development; and the first step is a merciless questioning of all that was once held sacred. Inner certainties cease to exist, are dissolved before the ruthless probings of scientific and analytic minds. The skeptic becomes the highest type of being.

“I say that this culture ended abruptly in its most flourishing age. The sociological effects of such a catastrophe would be a sudden vanishing of morals, a reversion to almost bestial criminality, unleavened by any sense of ideal, a callous indifference to death. If this . . . this pussy is a descendant of such a race, then he will be a cunning creature, a thief in the night, a cold-blooded murderer, who would cut his own brother’s throat for gain.”

* * *

“That’s enough!” It was Kent’s clipped voice. “Commander, I’m willing to act the role of executioner.”

Smith interrupted sharply: “Listen, Morton, you’re not going to kill that cat yet, even if he is guilty. He’s a biological treasure house.”

Kent and Smith were glaring angrily at each other. Morton frowned at them thoughtfully, then said: “Korita, I’m inclined to accept your theory as a working basis. But one question: Pussy comes from a period earlier than our own? That is, we are entering the highly civilized era of our culture, while he became suddenly historyless in the most vigorous period of his. But it is possible that his culture is a later one on this planet than ours is in the galactic-wide system we have civilized?”

“Exactly. His may be the middle of the tenth civilization of his world; while ours is the end of the eighth sprung from earth, each of the ten, of course, having been builded on the ruins of the one before it.”

“In that case, pussy would not know anything about the skepticism that made it possible for us to find him out so positively as a criminal and murderer?”

“No; it would be literally magic to him.”

Morton was smiling grimly. “Then I think you’ll get your wish, Smith. We’ll let pussy live; and if there are any fatalities, now that we know him, it will be due to rank carelessness. There’s just the chance, of course, that we’re wrong. Like Siedel, I also have the impression that he was always around. But now—we can’t leave poor Jarvey here like this. We’ll put him in a coffin and bury him.”

“No, we won’t!” Kent barked. He flushed. “I beg your pardon, commander. I didn’t mean it that way. I maintain pussy wanted something from that body. It looks to be all there, but something must be missing. I’m going to find out what, and pin this murder on him so that you’ll have to believe it beyond the shadow of a doubt.”

* * *

It was late night when Morton looked up from a book and saw Kent emerge through the door that led from the laboratories below.

Kent carried a large, flat bowl in his hands; his tired eyes flashed across at Morton, and he said in a weary, yet harsh, voice: “Now watch!”

He started toward Coeurl, who lay sprawled on the great rug, pretending to be asleep.

Morton stopped him. “Wait a minute, Kent. Any other time, I wouldn’t question your actions, but you look ill; you’re overwrought. What have you got there?”

Kent turned, and Morton saw that his first impression had been but a flashing glimpse of the truth. There were dark pouches under the little chemist’s gray eyes—eyes that gazed feverishly from sunken cheeks in an ascetic face.

“I’ve found the missing element,” Kent said. “It’s phosphorus. There wasn’t so much as a square millimeter of phosphorus left in Jarvey’s bones. Every bit of it had been drained out—by what super-chemistry I don’t know. There are ways of getting phosphorus out of the human body. For instance, a quick way was what happened to the workman who helped build this ship. Remember, he fell into fifteen tons of molten metalite—at least, so his relatives claimed—but the company wouldn’t pay compensation until the metalite, on analysis, was found to contain a high percentage of phosphorus—”

“What about the bowl of food?” somebody interrupted. Men were putting away magazines and books, looking up with interest.

“It’s got organic phosphorus in it. He’ll get the scent, or whatever it is that he uses instead of scent—”

“I think he gets the vibrations of things,” Gourlay interjected lazily. “Sometimes, when he wiggles those tendrils, I get a distinct static on the radio. And then, again, there’s no reaction, as if he’s moved higher or lower on the wave scale. He seems to control the vibrations at will.”

Kent waited with obvious impatience until Gourlay’s last word, then abruptly went on: “All right, then, when he gets the vibration of the phosphorus and reacts to it like an animal, then—well, we can decide what we’ve proved by his reaction. May I go ahead, Morton?”

“There are three things wrong with your plan,” Morton said. “In the first place, you seem to assume that he is only animal; you seem to have forgotten he may not be hungry after Jarvey; you seem to think that he will not be suspicious. But set the bowl down. His reaction may tell us something.”

Coeurl stared with unblinking black eyes as the man set the bowl before him. His ear tendrils instantly caught the id-vibrations from the contents of the bowl—and he gave it not even a second glance.

He recognized this two-legged being as the one who had held the weapon that morning. Danger! With a snarl, he floated to his feet. He caught the bowl with the fingerlike appendages at the end of one looping tentacle, and emptied its contents into the face of Kent, who shrank back with a yell.

Explosively, Coeurl flung the bowl aside and snapped a hawser-thick tentacle around the cursing man’s waist. He didn’t bother with the gun that hung from Kent’s belt. It was only a vibration gun, he sensed—atomic powered, but not an atomic disintegrator. He tossed the kicking Kent onto the nearest couch—and realized with a hiss of dismay that he should have disarmed the man.

Not that the gun was dangerous—but, as the man furiously wiped the gruel from his face with one hand, he reached with the other for his weapon. Coeurl crouched back as the gun was raised slowly and a white beam of flame was discharged at his massive head.

His ear tendrils hummed as they canceled the efforts of the vibration gun. His round, black eyes narrowed as he caught the movement of men reaching for their metalite guns. Morton’s voice lashed across the silence.

“Stop!”

* * *

Kent clicked off his weapon; and Coeurl crouched down, quivering with fury at this man who had forced him to reveal something of his power.

“Kent,” said Morton coldly, “you’re not the type to lose your head. You deliberately tried to kill pussy, knowing that the majority of us are in favor of keeping him alive. You know what our rule is: If anyone objects to my decisions, he must say so at the time. If the majority object, my decisions are overruled. In this case, no one but you objected, and, therefore, your action in taking the law into your own hands is most reprehensible, and automatically debars you from voting for a year.”

Kent stared grimly at the circle of faces. “Korita was right when he said ours was a highly civilized age. It’s decadent.” Passion flamed harshly in his voice. “My God, isn’t there a man here who can see the horror of the situation? Jarvey dead only a few hours, and this creature, whom we all know to be guilty, lying there unchained, planning his next murder; and the victim is right here in this room. What kind of men are we—fools, cynics, ghouls—or is it that our civilization is so steeped in reason that we can contemplate a murderer sympathetically?”

He fixed brooding eyes on Coeurl. “You were right, Morton, that’s no animal. That’s a devil from the deepest hell of this forgotten planet, whirling its solitary way around a dying sun.”

“Don’t go melodramatic on us,” Morton said. “Your analysis is all wrong, so far as I’m concerned. We’re not ghouls or cynics; we’re simply scientists, and pussy here is going to be studied. Now that we suspect him, we doubt his ability to trap any of us. One against a hundred hasn’t a chance.” He glanced around. “Do I speak for all of us?”

“Not for me, commander!” It was Smith who spoke, and, as Morton stared in amazement, he continued: “In the excitement and momentary confusion, no one seems to have noticed that when Kent fired his vibration gun, the beam hit this creature squarely on his cat head—and didn’t hurt him.”

Morton’s amazed glance went from Smith to Coeurl, and back to Smith again. “Are you certain it hit him? As you say, it all happened so swiftly—when pussy wasn’t hurt I simply assumed that Kent had missed him.”

“He hit him in the face,” Smith said positively. “A vibration gun, of course, can’t even kill a man right away—but it can injure him. There’s no sign of injury on pussy, though, not even a singed hair.”

“Perhaps his skin is a good insulation against heat of any kind.”

“Perhaps. But in view of our uncertainty, I think we should lock him up in the cage.”

While Morton frowned darkly in thought, Kent spoke up. “Now you’re talking sense, Smith.”

Morton asked: “Then you would be satisfied, Kent, if we put him in the cage?”

Kent considered, finally: “Yes. If four inches of micro-steel can’t hold him, we’d better give him the ship.”

Coeurl followed the men as they went out into the corridor. He trotted docilely along as Morton unmistakably motioned him through a door he had not hitherto seen. He found himself in a square, solid metal room. The door clanged metallically behind him; he felt the flow of power as the electric lock clicked home.

His lips parted in a grimace of hate, as he realized the trap, but he gave no other outward reaction. It occurred to him that he had progressed a long way from the sunk-into-primitiveness creature who, a few hours before, had gone incoherent with fear in an elevator cage. Now, a thousand memories of his powers were reawakened in his brain; ten thousand cunnings were, after ages of disuse, once again part of his very being.

He sat quite still for a moment on the short, heavy haunches into which his body tapered, his ear tendrils examining his surroundings. Finally, he lay down, his eyes glowing with contemptuous fire. The fools! The poor fools!

It was about an hour later when he heard the man—Smith—fumbling overhead. Vibrations poured upon him, and for just an instant he was startled. He leaped to his feet in pure terror—and then realized that the vibrations were vibrations, not atomic explosions. Somebody was taking pictures of the inside of his body.

He crouched down again, but his ear tendrils vibrated, and he thought contemptuously: the silly fool would be surprised when he tried to develop those pictures.

After a while the man went away, and for a long time there were noises of men doing things far away. That, too, died away slowly.

Coeurl lay waiting, as he felt the silence creep over the ship. In the long ago, before the dawn of immortality, the coeurls, too, had slept at night; and the memory of it had been revived the day before when he saw some of the men dozing. At last, the vibration of two pairs of feet, pacing, pacing endlessly, was the only human-made frequency that throbbed on his ear tendrils.

Tensely, he listened to the two watchmen. The first one walked slowly past the cage door. Then about thirty feet behind him came the second. Coeurl sensed the alertness of these men; knew that he could never surprise either while they walked separately. It meant—he must be doubly careful!

Fifteen minutes, and they came again. The moment they were past, he switched his sense from their vibrations to a vastly higher range. The pulsating violence of the atomic engines stammered its soft story to his brain. The electric dynamos hummed their muffled song of pure power. He felt the whisper of that flow through the wires in the walls of his cage, and through the electric lock of his door. He forced his quivering body into straining immobility, his senses seeking, searching, to tune in on that sibilant tempest of energy. Suddenly, his ear tendrils vibrated in harmony—he caught the surging charge into shrillness of that rippling force wave.

There was a sharp click of metal on metal. With a gentle touch of one tentacle, Coeurl pushed open the door, and glided out into the dully gleaming corridor. For just a moment he felt contempt, a glow of superiority, as he thought of the stupid creatures who dared to match their wit against a coeurl. And in that moment, he suddenly thought of other coeurls. A queer, exultant sense of race pounded through his being; the driving hate of centuries of ruthless competition yielded reluctantly before pride of kinship with the future rulers of all space.

* * *

Suddenly, he felt weighed down by his limitations, his need for other coeurls, his aloneness—one against a hundred, with the stake all eternity; the starry universe itself beckoned his rapacious, vaulting ambition. If he failed, there would never be a second chance—no time to revive long-rotted machinery, and attempt to solve the secret of space travel.

He padded along on tensed paws—through the salon—into the next corridor—and came to the first bedroom door. It stood half open. One swift flow of synchronized muscles, one swiftly lashing tentacle that caught the unresisting throat of the sleeping man, crushing it; and the lifeless head rolled crazily, the body twitched once.

Seven bedrooms; seven dead men. It was the seventh taste of murder that brought a sudden return of lust, a pure, unbounded desire to kill, return of a millennium-old habit of destroying everything containing the precious id.

As the twelfth man slipped convulsively into death, Coeurl emerged abruptly from the sensuous joy of the kill to the sound of footsteps.

They were not near—that was what brought wave after wave of fright swirling into the chaos that suddenly became his brain.

* * *

The watchmen were coming slowly along the corridor toward the door of the cage where he had been imprisoned. In a moment, the first man would see the open door—and sound the alarm.

Coeurl caught at the vanishing remnants of his reason. With frantic speed, careless now of accidental sounds, he raced—along the corridor with its bedroom doors—through the salon. He emerged into the next corridor, cringing in awful anticipation of the atomic flame he expected would stab into his face.

The two men were together, standing side by side. For one single instant, Coeurl could scarcely believe his tremendous good luck. Like a fool the second had come running when he saw the other stop before the open door. They looked up, paralyzed, before the nightmare of claws and tentacles, the ferocious cat head and hate-filled eyes.

The first man went for his gun, but the second, physically frozen before the doom he saw, uttered a shriek, a shrill cry of horror that floated along the corridors—and ended in a curious gargle, as Coeurl flung the two corpses with one irresistible motion the full length of the corridor. He didn’t want the dead bodies found near the cage. That was his one hope.

Shaking in every nerve and muscle, conscious of the terrible error he had made, unable to think coherently, he plunged into the cage. The door clicked softly shut behind him. Power flowed once more through the electric lock.

He crouched tensely, simulating sleep, as he heard the rush of many feet, caught the vibration of excited voices. He knew when somebody actuated the cage audioscope and looked in. A few moments now, and the other bodies would be discovered.

* * *

“Siedel gone!” Morton said numbly. “What are we going to do without Siedel? And Breckenridge! And Coulter and— Horrible!”

He covered his face with his hands, but only for an instant. He looked up grimly, his heavy chin outthrust as he stared into the stern faces that surrounded him. “If anybody’s got so much as a germ of an idea, bring it out.”

“Space madness!”

“I’ve thought of that. But there hasn’t been a case of a man going mad for fifty years. Dr. Eggert will test everybody, of course, and right now he’s looking at the bodies with that possibility in mind.”

As he finished, he saw the doctor coming through the door. Men crowded aside to make way for him.

“I heard you, commander,” Dr. Eggert said, “and I think I can say right now that the space-madness theory is out. The throats of these men have been squeezed to a jelly. No human being could have exerted such enormous strength without using a machine.”

Morton saw that the doctor’s eyes kept looking down the corridor, and he shook his head and groaned:

“It’s no use suspecting pussy, doctor. He’s in his cage, pacing up and down. Obviously heard the racket and— Man alive! You can’t suspect him. That cage was built to hold literally anything—four inches of micro-steel—and there’s not a scratch on the door. Kent, even you won’t say, ‘Kill him on suspicion,’ because there can’t be any suspicion, unless there’s a new science here, beyond anything we can imagine—”

“On the contrary,” said Smith flatly, “we have all the evidence we need. I used the telefluor on him—you know the arrangement we have on top of the cage—and tried to take some pictures. They just blurred. Pussy jumped when the telefluor was turned on, as if he felt the vibrations.

“You all know what Gourlay said before? This beast can apparently receive and send vibrations of any lengths. The way he dominated the power of Kent’s gun is final proof of his special ability to interfere with energy.”

“What in the name of all hells have we got here?” one of the men groaned. “Why, if he can control that power, and send it out in any vibrations, there’s nothing to stop him killing all of us.”

“Which proves,” snapped Morton, “that he isn’t invincible, or he would have done it long ago.”

Very deliberately, he walked over to the mechanism that controlled the prison cage.

“You’re not going to open the door!” Kent gasped, reaching for his gun.

“No, but if I pull this switch, electricity will flow through the floor, and electrocute whatever’s inside. We’ve never had to use this before, so you had probably forgotten about it.”

He jerked the switch hard over. Blue fire flashed from the metal, and a bank of fuses above his head exploded with a single bang.

Morton frowned. “That’s funny. Those fuses shouldn’t have blown! Well, we can’t even look in, now. That wrecked the audios, too.”

Smith said: “If he could interfere with the electric lock, enough to open the door, then he probably probed every possible danger and was ready to interfere when you threw that switch.”

“At least, it proves he’s vulnerable to our energies!” Morton smiled grimly. “Because he rendered them harmless. The important thing is, we’ve got him behind four inches of the toughest of metal. At the worst we can open the door and ray him to death. But first, I think we’ll try to use the telefluor power cable—”

A commotion from inside the cage interrupted his words. A heavy body crashed against a wall, followed by a dull thump.

“He knows what we were trying to do!” Smith grunted to Morton. “And I’ll bet it’s a very sick pussy in there. What a fool he was to go back into that cage and does he realize it!”

The tension was relaxing; men were smiling nervously, and there was even a ripple of humorless laughter at the picture Smith drew of the monster’s discomfiture.

“What I’d like to know,” said Pennons, the engineer, “is, why did the telefluor meter dial jump and waver at full power when pussy made that noise? It’s right under my nose here, and the dial jumped like a house afire!”

There was silence both without and within the cage, then Morton said: “It may mean he’s coming out. Back, everybody, and keep your guns ready. Pussy was a fool to think he could conquer a hundred men, but he’s by far the most formidable creature in the galactic system. He may come out of that door, rather than die like a rat in a trap. And he’s just tough enough to take some of us with him—if we’re not careful.”

The men back slowly in a solid body; and somebody said: “That’s funny. I thought I heard the elevator.”

“Elevator!” Morton echoed. “Are you sure, man?”

“Just for a moment I was!” The man, a member of the crew, hesitated. “We were all shuffling our feet—”

“Take somebody with you, and go look. Bring whoever dared to run off back here—”

There was a jar, a horrible jerk, as the whole gigantic body of the ship careened under them. Morton was flung to the floor with a violence that stunned him. He fought back to consciousness, aware of the other men lying all around him. He shouted: “Who the devil started those engines!”

The agonizing acceleration continued; his feet dragged with awful exertion, as he fumbled with the nearest audioscope, and punched the engine-room number. The picture that flooded onto the screen brought a deep bellow to his lips:

“It’s pussy! He’s in the engine room—and we’re heading straight out into space.”

The screen went black even as he spoke, and he could see no more.

* * *

It was Morton who first staggered across the salon floor to the supply room where the spacesuits were kept. After fumbling almost blindly into his own suit, he cut the effects of the body-torturing acceleration, and brought suits to the semiconscious men on the floor. In a few moments, other men were assisting him; and then it was only a matter of minutes before everybody was clad in metalite, with anti-acceleration motors running at half power.

It was Morton then who, after first looking into the cage, opened the door and stood, silent as the others who crowded about him, to stare at the gaping hole in the rear wall. The hole was a frightful thing of jagged edges and horribly bent metal, and it opened upon another corridor.

“I’ll swear,” whispered Pennons, “that it’s impossible. The ten-ton hammer in the machine shops couldn’t more than dent four inches of micro with one blow—and we only heard one. It would take at least a minute for an atomic disintegrator to do the job. Morton, this is a super-being.”

Morton saw that Smith was examining the break in the wall. The biologist looked up. “If only Breckinridge weren’t dead! We need a metallurgist to explain this. Look!”

He touched the broken edge of the metal. A piece crumbled in his finger and slithered away in a fine shower of dust to the floor. Morton noticed for the first time that there was a little pile of metallic debris and dust.

“You’ve hit it.” Morton nodded. “No miracle of strength here. The monster merely used his special powers to interfere with the electronic tensions holding the metal together. That would account, too, for the drain on the telefluor power cable that Pennons noticed. The thing used the power with his body as a transforming medium, smashed through the wall, ran down the corridor to the elevator shaft, and so down to the engine room.”

“In the meantime, commander,” Kent said quietly, “we are faced with a super-being in control of the ship, completely dominating the engine room and its almost unlimited power, and in possession of the best part of the machine shops.”

Morton felt the silence, while the men pondered the chemist’s words. Their anxiety was a tangible thing that lay heavily upon their faces; in every expression was the growing realization that here was the ultimate situation in their lives; their very existence was at stake and perhaps much more. Morton voiced the thought in everybody’s mind:

“Suppose he wins. He’s utterly ruthless, and he probably sees galactic power within his grasp.”

“Kent is wrong,” barked the chief navigator. “The thing doesn’t dominate the engine room. We’ve still got the control room, and that gives us first control of all the machines. You fellows may not know the mechanical set-up we have; but, though he can eventually disconnect us, we can cut off all the switches in the engine room now. Commander, why didn’t you just shut off the power instead of putting us into spacesuits? At the very least you could have adjusted the ship to the acceleration.”

“For two reasons,” Morton answered. “Individually, we’re safer within the force fields of our spacesuits. And we can’t afford to give up our advantages in panicky moves.”

“Advantages! What other advantages have we got?”

“We know things about him,” Morton replied. “And right now, we’re going to make a test. Pennons, detail five men to each of the four approaches to the engine room. Take atomic disintegrators to blast through the big doors. They’re all shut, I noticed. He’s locked himself in.

“Selenski, you go up to the control room and shut off everything except the drive engines. Gear them to the master switch, and shut them off all at once. One thing, though—leave the acceleration on full blast. No anti-acceleration must be applied to the ship. Understand?”

“Aye, sir!” The pilot saluted.

“And report to me through the communicators if any of the machines start to run again.” He faced the men. “I’m going to lead the main approach. Kent, you take No. 2; Smith, No. 3, and Pennons, No. 4. We’re going to find out right now if we’re dealing with unlimited science, or a creature limited like the rest of us. I’ll bet on the second possibility.”

* * *

Morton had an empty sense of walking endlessly, as he moved, a giant of a man in his transparent space armor, along the glistening metal tube that was the main corridor of the engine-room floor. Reason told him the creature had already shown feet of clay, yet the feeling that here was an invincible being persisted.

He spoke into the communicator: “It’s not use trying to sneak up on him. He can probably hear a pin drop. So just wheel up your units. He hasn’t been in that engine room long enough to do anything.

“As I’ve said, this is largely a test attack. In the first place, we could never forgive ourselves if we didn’t try to conquer him now, before he’s had time to prepare against us. But, aside from the possibility that we can destroy him immediately, I have a theory.

“The idea goes something like this: Those doors are built to withstand accidental atomic explosions, and it will take fifteen minutes for the atomic disintegrators to smash them. During that period the monster will have no power. True, the drive will be on, but that’s straight atomic explosion. My theory is, he can’t touch stuff like that; and in a few minutes you’ll see what I mean—I hope.”

His voice was suddenly crisp: “Ready, Selenski?”

“Aye, ready.”

“Then cut the master switch.”

The corridor—the whole ship, Morton knew—was abruptly plunged into darkness. Morton clicked on the dazzling light of his spacesuit; the other men did the same, their faces pale and drawn.

“Blast!” Morton barked into his communicator.

The mobile units throbbed; and then pure atomic flame ravened out and poured upon the hard metal of the door. The first molten droplet rolled reluctantly, not down, but up the door. The second was more normal. It followed a shaky downward course. The third rolled sideways—for this was pure force, not subject to gravitation. Other drops followed until a dozen streams trickled sedately yet unevenly in every direction—streams of hellish, sparkling fire, bright as fairy gems, alive with the coruscating fury of atoms suddenly tortured, and running blindly, crazy with pain.

The minutes ate at time like a slow acid. At last Morton asked huskily:

“Selenski?”

“Nothing yet, commander.”

Morton half whispered: “But he must be doing something. He can’t be just waiting in there like a cornered rat. Selenski?”

“Nothing, commander.”

Seven minutes, eight minutes, then twelve.

“Commander!” It was Selenski’s voice, taut. “He’s got the electric dynamo running.”

Morton drew a deep breath, and heard one of his men say:

“That’s funny. We can’t get any deeper. Boss, take a look at this.”

Morton looked. The little scintillating streams had frozen rigid. The ferocity of the disintegrators vented in vain against metal grown suddenly invulnerable.

Morton sighed. “Our test is over. Leave two men guarding every corridor. The others come up to the control room.”

* * *

He seated himself a few minutes later before the massive control keyboard. “So far as I’m concerned the test was a success. We know that of all the machines in the engine room, the most important to the monster was the electric dynamo. He must have worked in a frenzy of terror while we were at the doors.”

“Of course, it’s easy to see what he did,” Pennons said. “Once he had the power he increased the electronic tensions of the door to their ultimate.”

“The main thing is this,” Smith chimed in. “He works with vibrations only so far as his special powers are concerned, and the energy must come from outside himself. Atomic energy in its pure form, not being vibration, he can’t handle any differently than we can.”

Kent said glumly: “The main point in my opinion is that he stopped us cold. What’s the good of knowing that his control over vibrations did it? If we can’t break through those doors with our atomic disintegrators, we’re finished.”

Morton shook his head. “Not finished—but we’ll have to do some planning. First, though, I’ll start these engines. It’ll be harder for him to get control of them when they’re running.”

He pulled the master switch back into place with a jerk. There was a hum, as scores of machines leaped into violent life in the engine room a hundred feet below. The noises sank to a steady vibration of throbbing power.

Three hours later, Morton paced up and down before the men gathered in the salon. His dark hair was uncombed; the space pallor of his strong face emphasized rather than detracted from the outthrust aggressiveness of his jaw. When he spoke, his deep voice was crisp to the point of sharpness:

“To make sure that our plans are fully coordinated, I’m going to ask each expert in turn to outline his part in the overpowering of this creature. Pennons first!”

Pennons stood up briskly. He was not a big man, Morton thought, yet he looked big, perhaps because of his air of authority. This man knew engines, and the history of engines. Morton had heard him trace a machine through its evolution from a simple toy to the highly complicated modern instrument. He had studied machine development on a hundred planets; and there was literally nothing fundamental that he didn’t know about mechanics. It was almost weird to hear Pennons, who could have spoken for a thousand hours and still only have touched upon his subject, say with absurd brevity:

“We’ve set up a relay in the control room to start and stop every engine rhythmically. The trip lever will work a hundred times a second, and the effect will be to create vibrations of every description. There is just a possibility that one or more of the machines will burst, on the principle of soldiers crossing a bridge in step—you’ve heard that old story, no doubt—but in my opinion there is no real danger of a break of that tough metal. The main purpose is simply to interfere with the interference of the creature, and smash through the doors.”

“Gourlay next!” barked Morton.

Gourlay climbed lazily to his feet. He looked sleepy, as if he was somewhat bored by the whole proceedings, yet Morton knew he loved people to think him lazy, a good-for-nothing slouch, who spent his days in slumber and his nights catching forty winks. His title was chief communication engineer, but his knowledge extended to every vibration field; and he was probably, with the possible exception of Kent, the fastest thinker on the ship. His voice drawled out, and—Morton noted—the very deliberate assurance of it had a soothing effect on the men—anxious faces relaxed, bodies leaned back more restfully:

“Once inside,” Gourlay said, “we’ve rigged up vibration screens of pure force that should stop nearly everything he’s got on the ball. They work on the principle of reflection, so that everything he sends will be reflected back to him. In addition, we’ve got plenty of spare electric energy that we’ll just feed him from mobile copper cups. There must be a limit to his capacity for handling power with those insulated nerves of his.”

“Selenski!” called Morton.

The chief pilot was already standing, as if he had anticipated Morton’s call. And that, Morton reflected, was the man. His nerves had that rocklike steadiness which is the first requirement of the master controller of a great ship’s movements; yet that very steadiness seemed to rest on dynamite ready to explode at its owner’s volition. He was not a man of great learning, but he “reacted” to stimuli so fast that he always seemed to be anticipating.

“The impression I’ve received of the plan is that it must be cumulative. Just when the creature thinks that he can’t stand any more, another thing happens to add to his trouble and confusion. When the uproar’s at its height, I’m supposed to cut in the anti-accelerators. The commander thinks with Gunlie Lester that these creatures will know nothing about anti-acceleration. It’s a development, pure and simple, of the science of interstellar flight, and couldn’t have been developed in any other way. We think when the creature feels the first effects of the anti-acceleration—you all remember the caved-in feeling you had the first month—it won’t know what to think or do.”

* * *

“Korita next.”

“I can only offer you encouragement,” said the archeologist, “on the basis of my theory that the monster has all the characteristics of a criminal of the early ages of any civilization, complicated by an apparent reversion to primitiveness. The suggestion has been made by Smith that his knowledge of science is puzzling, and could only mean that we are dealing with an actual inhabitant, not a descendant of the inhabitants of the dead city we visited. This would ascribe virtual immortality to our enemy, a possibility which is borne out by his ability to breathe both oxygen and chlorine—or neither—but even that makes no difference. He comes from a certain age in his civilization; and he has sunk so low that his ideas are mostly memories of that age.

“In spite of all the powers of his body, he lost his head in the elevator the first morning, until he remembered. He placed himself in such a position that he was forced to reveal his special powers against vibrations. He bungled the mass murders a few hours ago. In fact, his whole record is one of the low cunning of the primitive, egotistical mind which has little or no conception of the vast organization with which it is confronted.

“He is like the ancient German soldier who felt superior to the elderly Roman scholar, yet the latter was part of a mighty civilization of which the Germans of that day stood in awe.

“You may suggest that the sack of Rome by the Germans in later years defeats my argument; however, modern historians agree that the ‘sack’ was an historical accident, and not history in the true sense of the word. The movement of the ‘Sea-peoples’ which set in against the Egyptian civilization from 1400 B.C. succeeded only as regards the Cretan island-realm—their mighty expeditions against the Libyan and Phoenician coasts, with the accompaniment of Viking fleets, failed as those of the Huns failed against the Chinese Empire. Rome would have been abandoned in any event. Ancient, glorious Samarra was desolate by the tenth century; Pataliputra, Asoka’s great capital, was an immense and completely uninhabited waste of houses when the Chinese traveler Hsinan-tang visited it about A.D. 635.

“We have, then, a primitive, and that primitive is now far out in space, completely outside of his natural habitat. I say, let’s go in and win.”

One of the men grumbled, as Korita finished: “You can talk about the sack of Rome being an accident, and about this fellow being a primitive, but the facts are facts. It looks to me as if Rome is about to fall again; and it won’t be no primitive that did it, either. This guy’s got plenty of what it takes.”

Morton smiled grimly at the man, a member of the crew. “We’ll see about that—right now!”

* * *

In the blazing brilliance of the gigantic machine shop, Coeurl slaved. The forty-foot, cigar-shaped spaceship was nearly finished. With a grunt of effort, he completed the laborious installation of the drive engines, and paused to survey his craft.

Its interior, visible through the one aperture in the outer wall, was pitifully small. There was literally room for nothing but the engines—and a narrow space for himself.

He plunged frantically back to work as he heard the approach of the men, and the sudden change in the tempest-like thunder of the engines—a rhythmical off-and-on hum, shriller in tone, sharper, more nerve-racking than the deep-throated, steady throb that had preceded it. Suddenly, there were the atomic disintegrators again at the massive outer doors.

He fought them off, but never wavered from his task. Every mighty muscle of his powerful body strained as he carried great loads of tools, machines and instruments, and dumped them into the bottom of his makeshift ship. There was no time to fit anything into place, no time for anything—no time—no time.

The thought pounded at his reason. He felt strangely weary for the first time in his long and vigorous existence. With a last, tortured heave, he jerked the gigantic sheet of metal into the gaping aperture of the ship—and stood there for a terrible minute, balancing it precariously.

He knew the doors were going down. Half a dozen disintegrators concentrating on one point were irresistibly, though slowly, eating away the remaining inches. With a gasp, he released his mind from the doors and concentrated every ounce of his mind on the yard-thick outer wall, toward which the blunt nose of his ship was pointing.

His body cringed from the surging power that flowed from the electric dynamo through his ear tendrils into that resisting wall. The whole inside of him felt on fire, and he knew that he was dangerously close to carrying his ultimate load.

And still he stood there, shuddering with the awful pain, holding the unfastened metal plate with hard-clenched tentacles. His massive head pointed as in dread fascination at that bitterly hard wall.

He heard one of the engine-room doors crash inward. Men shouted; disintegrators rolled forward, their raging power unchecked. Coeurl heard the floor of the engine room hiss in protest, as those beams of atomic energy tore everything in their path to bits. The machines rolled closer; cautious footsteps sounded behind them. In a minute they would be at the flimsy doors separating the engine room from the machine shop.

Suddenly, Coeurl was satisfied. With a snarl of hate, a vindictive glow of feral eyes, he ducked into his little craft, and pulled the metal plate down into place as if it was a hatchway.

His ear tendrils hummed, as he softened the edges of the surrounding metal. In an instant, the plate was more than welded—it was part of his ship, a seamless, rivetless part of a whole that was solid opaque metal except for two transparent areas, one in the front, one in the rear.

His tentacle embraced the power drive with almost sensuous tenderness. There was a forward surge of his fragile machine, straight at the great outer wall of the machine shops. The nose of the forty-foot craft touched—and the wall dissolved in a glittering shower of dust.

Coeurl felt the barest retarding movement; and then he kicked the nose of the machine out into the cold of space, twisted it about, and headed back in the direction from which the big ship had been coming all these hours.

Men in space armor stood in the jagged hole that yawned in the lower reaches of the gigantic globe. The men and the great ship grew smaller. Then the men were gone; and there was only the ship with its blaze of a thousand blurring portholes. The ball shrank incredibly, too small now for individual portholes to be visible.

Almost straight ahead, Coeurl saw a tiny, dim, reddish ball—his own sun, he realized. He headed toward it at full speed. There were caves where he could hide and with other coeurls build secretly a spaceship in which they could reach other planets safety—now that he knew how.

His body ached from the agony of acceleration, yet he dared not let up for a single instant. He glanced back, half in terror. The globe was still there, a tiny dot of light in the immense blackness of space. Suddenly it twinkled and was gone.

For a brief moment, he had the empty, frightened impression that just before it disappeared, it moved. But he could see nothing. He could not escape the belief that they had shut off all their lights, and were sneaking up on him in the darkness. Worried and uncertain, he looked through the forward transparent plate.

* * *

A tremor of dismay shot through him. The dim red sun toward which he was heading was not growing larger. It was becoming smaller by the instant, and it grew visibly tinier during the next five minutes, became a pale-red dot in the sky—and vanished like the ship.

Fear came then, a blinding surge of it, that swept through his being and left him chilled with the sense of the unknown. For minutes, he stared frantically into the space ahead, searching for some landmark. But only the remote stars glimmered there, unwinking points against a velvet background of unfathomable distance.

Wait! One of the points was growing larger. With every muscle and nerve tensed, Coeurl watched the point becoming a dot, a round ball of light—red light. Bigger, bigger, it grew. Suddenly, the red light shimmered and turned white—and there, before him, was the great globe of the spaceship, lights glaring from every porthole, the very ship which a few minutes before he had watched vanish behind him.

Something happened to Coeurl in that moment. His brain was spinning like a flywheel, faster, faster, more incoherently. Suddenly, the wheel flew apart into a million aching fragments. His eyes almost started from their sockets as, like a maddened animal, he raged in his small quarters.

His tentacles clutched at precious instruments and flung them insensately; his paws smashed in fury at the very walls of his ship. Finally, in a brief flash of sanity, he knew that he couldn’t face the inevitable fire of atomic disintegrators.

It was a simple thing to create the violent disorganization that freed every drop of id from his vital organs.

* * *

They found him lying dead in a little pool of phosphorus.

“Poor pussy,” said Morton. “I wonder what he thought when he saw us appear ahead of him, after his own sun disappeared. Knowing nothing of anti-accelerators, he couldn’t know that we could stop short in space, whereas it would take him more than three hours to decelerate; and in the meantime he’d be drawing farther and farther away from where he wanted to go. He couldn’t know that by stopping, we flashed past him at millions of miles a second. Of course, he didn’t have a chance once he left our ship. The whole world must have seemed topsy-turvy.”

“Never mind the sympathy,” he heard Kent say behind him. “We’ve got a job—to kill every cat in that miserable world.”

Korita murmured softly: “That should be simple. They are but primitives; and we have merely to sit down, and they will come to us, cunningly expecting to delude us.”

Smith snapped: “You fellows make me sick! Pussy was the toughest nut we ever had to crack. He had everything he needed to defeat us—”

Morton smiled as Korita interrupted blandly: “Exactly, my dear Smith, except that he reacted according to the biological impulses of his type. His defeat was already foreshadowed when we unerringly analyzed him as a criminal from a certain era of his civilization.

“It was history, honorable Mr. Smith, our knowledge of history that defeated him,” said the Japanese archeologist, reverting to the ancient politeness of his race.

Afterword by Eric Flint

I first read "Black Destroyer" at about the same age David did—thirteen, the age which Terry Carr once quipped was the age that defined everybody's "Golden Age"—although I read it in the version which Van Vogt rewrote as the first episode in his quasi-novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle. It really doesn't matter. I was devouring anything by Van Vogt I could get my hands on, then. Many years later, looking back from the vantage point of an adult, I find aspects of Van Vogt's writing which I dislike—especially his tendency to lean heavily on the theme of the superman who manipulates the human race for its own good. But I was oblivious to all that as a teenager. All that struck me—as it still does, whatever my reservations in other respects—is Van Vogt's superb ability to depict a future with a truly galactic sweep and scope to it. I found that inspiring then, and I still do.

Goblin Night by James H. Schmitz

Goblin Night

by James H. Schmitz

Preface by Eric Flint

When we decided to put together this anthology, one of the authors I knew I wanted to include it in was James H. Schmitz. He was perhaps not quite as important to me as Heinlein and Clarke and Andre Norton, who formed the triad around which I assembled all other science fiction writers in my mind as a teenager. But awfully close.

Why? It's hard to say. (Well . . . more precisely, it's hard to say briefly.)

Part of it may be that I've always had a soft spot for hard luck cases. Schmitz had one of those reputations which was very high at the time, but not quite high enough to guarantee him the more or less perpetual status that Heinlein and Clarke have enjoyed. (Although I'm hoping the reissue of his complete works which I recently edited for Baen Books will turn that around. We'll see.)

Schmitz was a quirky writer, in some ways, as is exemplified by his insistence on using mainly female characters in an era when females appeared rarely enough as the central figures in SF stories—and almost never, except in Schmitz's own stories, as the heroines of action stories. But a lot of his "hard luck" was just that—bad luck.

When it came to the major science fiction awards, for instance, Schmitz always seemed to have the misfortune to get nominated for the finals in the same year that the competition was ferocious.

This story, "Goblin Night," was nominated for the Nebula best novelette award in 1967—along with another story by Schmitz, "Planet of Forgetting." They both lost to Roger Zelazny's "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth."

That very same year, he had a third story in the running for the Nebula—"Balanced Ecology," in the short story category. It lost to Harlan Ellison's "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman."

It gets better. Schmitz actually had four stories in the running for the Nebula that year. "Research Alpha," co-authored with A.E. Van Vogt, was up for the novella. It lost to Zelazny's "He Who Shapes."

Four stories nominated for three different categories in the Nebula award in one year. That's got to be some kind of record, or close to it. And still . . . nothing.

"Lion Loose" was a Hugo finalist for best short fiction in 1962—during the stretch of a few years when the Hugo didn't separate "short fiction" into specific categories. It lost to Brian Aldiss' collection, The Long Afternoon of Earth. A few years earlier or a few years later, it might very well have won the award for best novella.

Just to top it all off, his best known novel, The Witches of Karres, made it to the short final list of the Hugo nominees for best novel in 1967. And . . . so did Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.

So it goes. In the long run, these things rarely matter very much. And for the purposes of this anthology, they didn't matter at all. Over forty years have gone by since I first began reading James H. Schmitz, and I've never grown tired of him. For me as for anyone willing to be honest about it, that's the only definition of "good writing" that counts.

There was a quivering of psi force. Then a sudden, vivid sense of running and hiding, in horrible fear of a pursuer from whom there was no escape—

Telzey’s breath caught in her throat. A psi screen had flicked into instant existence about her mind, blocking out incoming impulses. The mental picture, the feeling of pursuit, already was gone, had touched her only a moment; but she stayed motionless seconds longer, eyes shut, pulses hammering out a roll of primitive alarms. She’d been dozing uneasily for the past hour, aware in a vague way of the mind-traces of a multitude of wildlife activities in the miles of parkland around. And perhaps she’d simply fallen asleep, begun to dream. . . .

Perhaps, she thought—but it wasn’t very likely. She hadn’t been relaxed enough to be touching the fringes of sleep and dream-stuff. The probability was that, for an instant, she’d picked up the reflection of a real event, that somebody not very far from here had encountered death in some grisly form at that moment.

She hesitated, then thinned the blocking screen to let her awareness spread again through the area, simultaneously extended a quick, probing thread of thought with a memory-replica of the pattern she’d caught. If it touched the mind that had produced the pattern originally, it might bring a momentary flash of echoing details and further information. . . . assuming the mind was still alive, still capable of responding.

She didn’t really believe it would still be alive. The impression she’d had in that instant was that death was only seconds away.

The general murmur of mind-noise began to grow up about her again, a varying pulse of life and psi energies, diminishing gradually with distance, arising from her companions, from animals on plain and mountain, with an undernote of the dimmer emanations of plants. But no suggestion came now of the vividly disturbing sensations of a moment ago.

* * *

Telzey opened her eyes, glanced around at the others sitting about the campfire in the mouth of Cil Chasm. There were eleven of them, a group of third and fourth year students of Pehanron College who had decided to spend the fall holidays in Melna Park. The oldest was twenty-two; she herself was the youngest—Telzey Amberdon, age fifteen. There was also a huge white dog named Chomir, not in view at the moment, the property of one of her friends who had preferred to go on a spacecruise with a very special date over the holidays. Chomir would have been a little in the way in an IP cruiser, so Telzey had brought him along to the park instead.

In the early part of the evening, they had built their fire where the great Cil canyon opened on the rolling plain below. The canyon walls rose to either side of the camp, smothered with evergreen growth; and the Cil River, a quick, nervous stream, spilled over a series of rocky ledges a hundred feet away. The boys had set up a translucent green tent canopy, and sleeping bags were arranged beneath it. But Gikkes and two of the other girls already had announced that when they got ready to sleep, they were going to take up one of the aircars and settle down in it for the night a good thirty feet above the ground.

The park rangers had assured them such measures weren’t necessary. Melna Park was full of Orado’s native wildlife—that, after all, was why it had been established—but none of the animals were at all likely to become aggressive towards visitors. As for human marauders, the park was safer than the planet’s cities. Overflights weren’t permitted; visitors came in at ground level through one of the various entrance stations where their aircars were equipped with sealed engine locks, limiting them to contour altitudes of a hundred and fifty feet and to a speed of thirty miles an hour. Only the rangers’ cars were not restricted, and only the rangers carried weapons.

It made Melna Park sound like an oasis of sylvan tranquility. But as it turned towards evening, the stars of the great cluster about Orado brightened to awesomely burning splendor in the sky. Some of them, like Gikkes, weren’t used to the starblaze, had rarely spent a night outside the cities where night-screens came on gradually at the end of the day to meet the old racial preference for a dark sleep period.

Here night remained at an uncertain twilight stage until a wind began moaning up in the canyon and black storm clouds started to drift over the mountains and out across the plain. Now there were quick shifts between twilight and darkness, and eyes began to wander uneasily. There was the restless chatter of the river nearby. The wind made odd sounds in the canyon; they could hear sudden cracklings in bushes and trees, occasional animal voices.

* * *

“You get the feeling,” Gikkes remarked, twisting her neck around to stare up Cil Chasm, “that something like a lullbear or spook might come trotting out of there any minute!”

Some of the others laughed uncertainly. Valia said, “Don’t be silly! There haven’t been animals like that in Melna Park for fifty years.” She looked over at the group about Telzey. “Isn’t that right, Pollard?”

Pollard was the oldest boy here. He was majoring in biology, which might make him Valia’s authority on the subject of lullbears and spooks. He nodded, said, “You can still find them in the bigger game preserves up north. But naturally they don’t keep anything in public parks that makes a practice of chewing up the public. Anything you meet around here, Gikkes, will be as ready to run from you as you are from it.”

“That’s saying a lot!” Rish added cheerfully. The others laughed again, and Gikkes looked annoyed.

Telzey had been giving only part of her attention to the talk. She felt shut down, temporarily detached from her companions. It had taken all afternoon to come across the wooded plains from the entrance station, winding slowly above the rolling ground in the three aircars which had brought them here. Then, after they reached Cil Chasm where they intended to stay, she and Rish and Dunker, two charter members of her personal fan club at Pehanron, had spent an hour fishing along the little river, up into the canyon and back down again. They had a great deal of excitement and caught enough to provide supper for everyone; but it involved arduous scrambling over slippery rocks, wading in cold, rushing water, and occasional tumbles, in one of which Telzey knocked her wrist-talker out of commission for the duration of the trip.

Drowsiness wasn’t surprising after all the exercise. The surprising part was that, in spite of it, she didn’t seem able to relax completely. As a rule, she felt at home wherever she happened to be outdoors. But something about this place was beginning to bother her. She hadn’t noticed it at first, she had laughed at Gikkes with the others when Gikkes began to express apprehensions. But when she settled down after supper, feeling a comfortable muscular fatigue begin to claim her, she grew aware of a vague disturbance. The atmosphere of Melna Park seemed to change slowly. A hint of cruelty and savagery crept into it, of hidden terrors. Mentally, Telzey felt herself glancing over her shoulder towards dark places under the trees, as if something like a lullbear or spook actually was lurking there.

And then, in that uneasy, half-awake condition, there suddenly had been this other thing, like a dream-flash in which somebody desperately ran and hid from a mocking pursuer. To the terrified human quarry, the pursuer appeared as a glimpsed animalic shape in the twilight, big and moving swiftly, but showing no other details.

And there had been the flickering of psi energy about the scene. . . .

* * *

Telzey shifted uncomfortably, running her tongue tip over her lips. The experience had been chillingly vivid; but if something of the sort really had occurred, the victim had died moments later. In that respect, there was no reason to force herself to quick decisions now. And it might, after all, have been a dream, drifting up in her mind, created by the mood of the place. She realized she would like to believe it was a dream.

But in that case, what was creating the mood of the place?

Gikkes? It wasn’t impossible. She had decided some time ago that personal acquaintances should be off limits to telepathic prowling, but when someone was around at all frequently, scraps of information were likely to filter through. So she knew Gikkes also had much more extensively developed telepathic awareness than the average person. Gikkes didn’t know it and couldn’t have put it to use anyway. In her, it was an erratic, unreliable quality which might have kept her in a badly confused state of mind if she had been more conscious of its effects.

But the general uneasiness Telzey had sensed and that brief psi surge—if that was what it was—fragmentary but carrying a complete horrid little story with it, could have come to her from Gikkes. Most people, even when they thought they were wide awake, appeared to be manufacturing dreams much of the time in an area of their minds they didn’t know about; and Gikkes seemed nervous enough this evening to be manufacturing unconscious nightmares and broadcasting them.

But again—what made Gikkes so nervous here? The unfamiliar environment, the frozen beauty of the starblaze overhanging the sloping plain like a tent of fire, might account for it. But it didn’t rule out a more specific source of disturbance.

She could make sure, Telzey thought, by probing into Gikkes’s mind and finding out what was going on in there. Gikkes wouldn’t know it was happening. But it took many hours, as a rule, to develop adequate contact unless the other mind was also that of a functioning telepath. Gikkes was borderline—a telepath, but not functional, or only partly so—and if she began probing around in those complexities without the experience to tell her just how to go about it, she might wind up doing Gikkes some harm.

She looked over at Gikkes. Gikkes met her eyes, said, “Shouldn’t you start worrying about that dog of Gonwil’s? He hasn’t been in sight for the past half-hour.”

“Chomir’s all right,” Telzey said. “He’s still checking over the area.”

Chomir was, in fact, only a few hundred yards away, moving along the Cil River up in the canyon. She’d been touching the big dog’s mind lightly from time to time during the evening to see what he was doing. Gikkes couldn’t know that, of course—nobody in this group suspected Telzey of psionic talents. But she had done a great deal of experimenting with Chomir, and nowadays she could, if she liked, almost see with his eyes, smell with his nose, and listen through his ears. At this instant, he was watching half a dozen animals large enough to have alarmed Gikkes acutely. Chomir’s interest in Melna Park’s wildlife didn’t go beyond casual curiosity. He was an Askanam hound, a breed developed to fight man or beast in pit and arena, too big and powerful to be apprehensive about other creatures and not inclined to chase strange animals about without purpose as a lesser dog might do.

“Well,” Gikkes said, “if I were responsible for somebody else’s dog, if I’d brought him here, I’d be making sure he didn’t run off and get lost—”

* * *

Telzey didn’t answer. It took no mind-reading to know that Gikkes was annoyed because Pollard had attached himself to Telzey’s fan club after supper and settled down beside her. Gikkes had invited Pollard to come along on the outing; he was president of various organizations and generally important at Pehanron College. Gikkes, the glamour girl, didn’t like it at all that he’d drifted over to Telzey’s group, and while Telzey had no designs on him, she couldn’t very well inform Gikkes of that without ruffling her further.

“I,” Gikkes concluded, “would go look for him.”

Pollard stood up. “It would be too bad if he strayed off, wouldn’t it?” he agreed. He gave Telzey a lazy smile. “Why don’t you and I look around a little together?”

Well, that was not exactly what Gikkes had intended. Rish and Dunker didn’t think much of it either. They were already climbing to their feet, gazing sternly at Pollard.

Telzey glanced at them, checked the watch Dunker had loaned her after she smashed the one in her wrist-talker on the fishing excursion.

“Let’s wait another five minutes,” she suggested. “If he isn’t back by then, we can all start looking.”

As they settled down again, she sent a come-here thought to Chomir. She didn’t yet know what steps she might have to take in the other matter, but she didn’t want to be distracted by problems with Gikkes and the boys.

She felt Chomir’s response. He turned, got his bearings instantly with nose, ears, and—though he wasn’t aware of that—by the direct touch of their minds, went bounding down into the river, and splashed noisily through the shallow water. He was taking what seemed to him a short cut to the camp. But that route would lead him high up the opposite bank of the twisting Cil, to the far side of the canyon.

“Not that way, stupid!” Telzey thought, verbalizing it for emphasis. “Turn around—go back!”

And then, as she felt the dog pause comprehendingly, a voice, edged with the shock of surprise—perhaps of fear—exclaimed in her mind, “Who are you? Who said that?”

* * *

There had been a number of occasions since she became aware of her abilities when she’d picked up the thought-forms of another telepath. She hadn’t tried to develop such contacts, feeling in no hurry to strike up an acquaintanceship on the psionic level. That was part of a world with laws and conditions of its own which should be studied thoroughly if she was to avoid creating problems for herself and others, and at present she simply didn’t have the time for thorough study.

Even with the tentative exploration she’d been doing, problems arose. One became aware of a situation of which others weren’t aware, and then it wasn’t always possible to ignore the situation, to act as if it didn’t exist. But depending on circumstances, it could be extremely difficult to do something effective about it, particularly when one didn’t care to announce publicly that one was a psi.

The thing that appeared to have happened in Melna Park tonight had seemed likely to present just such problems. Then this voice spoke to her suddenly, coming out of the night, out of nowhere. Another telepath was in the area, to whom the encounter was as unexpected as it was to her. There was no immediate way of knowing whether that was going to help with the problem or complicate it further, but she had no inclination to reply at once. Whoever the stranger was, the fact that he—there had been a strong male tinge to the thoughts—was also a psi didn’t necessarily make him a brother. She knew he was human; alien minds had other flavors. His questions had come in the sharply defined forms of a verbalization; he might have been speaking aloud in addressing her. There was something else about them she hadn’t noticed in previous telepathic contacts—an odd, filtered quality as though his thoughts passed through a distorting medium before reaching her.

She waited, wondering about it. While she wasn’t strongly drawn to this stranger, she felt no particular concern about him. He had picked up her own verbalized instructions to Chomir, had been startled by them, and, therefore, hadn’t been aware of anything she was thinking previously. She’d now tightened the veil of psi energy about her mind a little, enough to dampen out the drifting threads of subconscious thought by which an unguarded mind was most easily found and reached. Tightened further, as it could be in an instant, it had stopped genuine experts in mind-probing in their tracks. This psi was no expert; an expert wouldn’t have flung surprised questions at her. She didn’t verbalize her thinking as a rule, and wouldn’t do it now until she felt like it. And she wouldn’t reach out for him. She decided the situation was sufficiently in hand.

The silence between them lengthened. He might be equally wary now, regretting his brief outburst.

Telzey relaxed her screen, flicked out a search-thought to Chomir, felt him approaching the camp in his easy, loping run, closed the screen again. She waited a few seconds. There was no indication of interest apparently, even when he had his attention on her, he was able to sense only her verbalized thoughts. That simplified the matter.

She lightened the screen again. “Who are you?” she asked.

The reply came instantly. “So I wasn’t dreaming! For a moment, I thought. . . . Are there two of you?”

“No. I was talking to my dog.” There was something odd about the quality of his thoughts. He might be using a shield or screen of some kind, not of the same type as hers but perhaps equally effective.

“Your dog? I see. It’s been over a year,” the voice said, “since I’ve spoken to others like this.” It paused. “You’re a woman. . . . young. . . . a girl . . .”

There was no reason to tell him she was fifteen. What Telzey wanted to know just now was whether he also had been aware of a disturbance in Melna Park. She asked, “Where are you?”

He didn’t hesitate. “At my home. Twelve miles south of Cil Chasm across the plain, at the edge of the forest. The house is easy to see from the air.”

He might be a park official. They’d noticed such a house on their way here this afternoon and speculated about who could be living there. Permission to make one’s residence in a Federation Park was supposedly almost impossible to obtain.

“Does that tell you anything?” the voice went on.

“Yes,” Telzey said. “I’m in the park with some friends. I think I’ve seen your house.”

“My name,” the bodiless voice told her, “is Robane. You’re being careful. I don’t blame you. There are certain risks connected with being a psi, as you seem to understand. If we were in a city, I’m not sure I would reveal myself. But out here. . . . Somebody built a fire this evening where the Cil River leaves the Chasm. I’m a cripple and spend much of my time studying the park with scanners. Is that your fire?”

Telzey hesitated a moment. “Yes.”

“Your friends,” Robane’s voice went on, “they’re aware you and I. . . . they know you’re a telepath?”

“No.”

“Would you be able to come to see me for a while without letting them know where you’re going?”

“Why should I do that?” Telzey asked.

“Can’t you imagine? I’d like to talk to a psi again.”

“We are talking,” she said.

Silence for a moment.

* * *

“Let me tell you a little about myself,” Robane said then. “I’m approaching middle age—from your point I might even seem rather old. I live here alone except for a well-meaning but rather stupid housekeeper named Feddler. Feddler seems old from my point of view. Four years ago, I was employed in one of the Federation’s science departments. I am. . . . was. . . . considered to be among the best in my line of work. It wasn’t very dangerous work so long as certain precautions were observed. But one day a fool made a mistake. His mistake killed two of my colleagues. It didn’t quite kill me, but since that day I’ve been intimately associated with a machine which has the responsibility of keeping me alive from minute to minute. I’d die almost immediately if I were removed from it.

“So my working days are over. And I no longer want to live in cities. There are too many foolish people there to remind me of the one particular fool I’d prefer to forget. Because of the position I’d held and the work I’d done, the Federation permitted me to make my home in Melna Park where I could be by myself . . .”

The voice stopped abruptly but Telzey had the impression Robane was still talking, unaware that something had dimmed the thread of psi between them. His own screen perhaps? She waited, alert and quiet. It might be deliberate interference, the manifestation of another active psionic field in the area—a disturbing and malicious one.

“. . . . On the whole, I like it here.” Robane’s voice suddenly was back, and it was evident he didn’t realize there had been an interruption. “A psi need never be really bored, and I’ve installed instruments to offset the disadvantages of being a cripple. I watch the park through scanners and study the minds of animals. . . . Do you like animal minds?”

That, Telzey thought, hadn’t been at all a casual question. “Sometimes,” she told Robane carefully. “Some of them.”

“Sometimes? Some of them? I wonder. . . . Solitude on occasion appears to invite the uncanny. One may notice things that seem out of place, that are disquieting. This evening. . . . during the past hour perhaps, have you. . . . were there suggestions of activities . . .” He paused. “I find I don’t quite know how to say this.”

“There was something,” she said. “For a moment, I wasn’t sure I wasn’t dreaming.”

“You mean something ugly . . .”

“Yes.”

“Fear,” Robane’s voice said in her mind. “Fear, pain, death. Savage cruelty. So you caught it, too. Very strange! Perhaps an echo from the past touched our minds in that moment, from the time when creatures who hated man still haunted this country.

“But—well, this is one of the rare occasions when I feel lonely here. And then to hear another psi, you see. . . . Perhaps I’m even a little afraid to be alone in the night just now. I’d like to speak to you, but not in this way—not in any great detail. One can never be sure who else is listening. . . . I think there are many things two psis might discuss to their advantage.”

The voice ended on that. He’d expressed himself guardedly, and apparently he didn’t expect an immediate reply to his invitation. Telzey bit her lip. Chomir had come trotting up, had been welcomed by her and settled down. Gikkes was making cooing sounds and snapping her fingers at him. Chomir ignored the overtures. Ordinarily, Gikkes claimed to find him alarming; but here in Melna Park at night, the idea of having an oversized dog near her evidently had acquired a sudden appeal—

So Robane, too, had received the impression of unusual and unpleasant events this evening. . . . events he didn’t care to discuss openly. The indication that he felt frightened probably needn’t be taken too seriously. He was in his house, after all; and so isolated a house must have guard-screens. The house of a crippled, wealthy recluse, who was avoiding the ordinary run of humanity, would have very effective guard-screens. If something did try to get at Robane, he could put in a call to the nearest park station and have an armed ranger car hovering about his roof in a matter of minutes. That suggestion had been intended to arouse her sympathy for a shut-in fellow psi, help coax her over to the house.

But he had noticed something. Something, to judge from his cautious description, quite similar to what she had felt. Telzey looked at Chomir, stretched out on the sandy ground between her and the fire, at the big, wolfish head, the wedge of powerful jaws. Chomir was not exactly an intellectual giant but he had the excellent sensory equipment and alertness of a breed of fighting animals. If there had been a disturbance of that nature in the immediate vicinity, he would have known about it, and she would have known about it through him.

The disturbance, however, might very well have occurred somewhere along the twelve-mile stretch between the point where Cil Chasm split the mountains and Robane’s house across the plain. Her impression had been that it was uncomfortably close to her. Robane appeared to have sensed it as uncomfortably close to him. He had showed no inclination to do anything about it, and there was, as a matter of fact, no easy way to handle the matter. Robane clearly was no more anxious than she was to reveal himself as a psi; and, in any case, the park authorities would be understandably reluctant to launch a search for a vicious but not otherwise identified man-hunting beast on no better evidence than reported telepathic impressions—at least, until somebody was reported missing.

It didn’t seem a good idea to wait for that. For one thing, Telzey thought, the killer might show up at their fire before morning. . . .

She grimaced uneasily, sent a troubled glance around the group. She hadn’t been willing to admit it but she’d really known for minutes now that she was going to have to go look for the creature. In an aircar, she thought, even an aircar throttled down to thirty miles an hour and a contour altitude of a hundred and fifty feet, she would be in no danger from an animal on the ground if she didn’t take very stupid chances. The flavor of psi about the event she didn’t like. That was still unexplained. But she was a psi herself, and she would be careful.

She ran over the possibilities in her mind. The best approach should be to start out towards Robane’s house and scout the surrounding wildlands mentally along that route. If she picked up traces of the killer-thing, she could pinpoint its position, call the park rangers from the car, and give them a story that would get them there in a hurry. They could do the rest. If she found nothing, she could consult with Robane about the next moves to make. Even if he didn’t want to take a direct part in the search, he might be willing to give her some help with it.

Chomir would remain here as sentinel. She’d plant a trace of uneasiness in his mind, just enough to make sure he remained extremely vigilant while she was gone. At the first hint from him that anything dangerous was approaching the area, she’d use the car’s communicator to have everybody pile into the other two aircars and get off the ground. Gikkes was putting them in the right frame of mind to respond very promptly if they were given a real alarm.

Telzey hesitated a moment longer but there seemed to be nothing wrong with the plan. She told herself she’d better start at once. If she waited, the situation, whatever it was, conceivably could take an immediately dangerous turn. Besides, the longer she debated about it, the more unpleasant the prospect was going to look.

She glanced down at Dunker’s watch on her wrist.

“Robane?” she asked in her mind.

The response came quickly. “Yes?”

“I’ll start over to your house now,” Telzey said. “Would you watch for my car? If there is something around that doesn’t like people, I’d sooner not be standing outside your door.”

“The door will be open the instant you come down,” Robane’s voice assured her. “Until then, I’m keeping it locked. I’ve turned on the scanners and will be waiting . . .” A moment’s pause. “Do you have additional reason to believe—”

“Not so far,” Telzey said. “But there are some things I’d like to talk about—after I get there . . .” She didn’t really intend to go walking into Robane’s house until she had more information about him. There were too many uncertainties floating around in the night to be making social calls. But he’d be alert now, waiting for her to arrive, and might notice things she didn’t.

The aircar was her own, a fast little Cloudsplitter. No one objected when she announced she was setting off for an hour’s roam in the starblaze by herself. The fan club looked wistful but was well trained, and Pollard had allowed himself to be reclaimed by Gikkes. Gikkes clearly regarded Telzey’s solo excursion as a fine idea. . . .

She lifted the Cloudsplitter out of the mouth of Cil Chasm. At a hundred and fifty feet, as the sealed engine lock clicked in, the little car automatically stopped its ascent. Telzey turned to the right, along the forested walls of the mountain, then swung out across the plain.

It should take her about twenty minutes to get to Robane’s house if she went there in a straight line; and if nothing else happened, she intended to go there in a straight line. What the park maps called a plain was a series of sloping plateaus, broken by low hills, descending gradually to the south. It was mainly brush country, dotted with small woods which blended here and there into patches of forest. Scattered herds of native animals moved about in the open ground, showing no interest in the aircar passing through the clusterlight overhead.

Everything looked peaceful enough. Robane had taken her hint and remained quiet. The intangible bubble of the psi screen about Telzey’s mind thinned, opened wide. Her awareness went searching ahead, to all sides. . . .

Man-killer, where are you?

* * *

Perhaps ten minutes passed before she picked up the first trace. By then, she could see a tiny, steady spark of orange light ahead against the dark line of the forest. That would be Robane’s house, still five or six miles away.

Robane hadn’t spoken again. There had been numerous fleeting contacts with animal minds savage enough in their own way, deadly to one another. But the thing that hunted man should have a special quality, one she would recognize when she touched it.

She touched it suddenly—a blur of alert malignance, gone almost at once. She was prepared for it, but it still sent a thrill of alarm through her. She moistened her lips, told herself again she was safe in the car. The creature definitely had not been far away. Telzey slipped over for a moment into Chomir’s mind. The big dog stood a little beyond the circle of firelight, probing the land to the south. He was unquiet but no more than she had intended him to be. His senses had found nothing of unusual significance. The menace wasn’t there.

It was around here, ahead, or to left or right. Telzey let the car move on slowly. After a while, she caught the blur for a moment again, lost it again. . . .

She approached Robane’s house gradually. Presently she could make it out well enough in the clusterlight, a sizable structure, set in a garden of its own which ended where the forest began. Part of the building was two-storied, with a balcony running around the upper story. The light came from there, dark-orange light glowing through screened windows.

The second fleeting pulse of that aura of malevolence had come from this general direction; she was sure of it. If the creature was in the forest back of the house, perhaps watching the house, Robane’s apprehensions might have some cause, after all. She had brought the Cloudsplitter almost to a stop some five hundred yards north of the house; now she began moving to the left, then shifted in towards the forest, beginning to circle the house as she waited for another indication. Robane should be watching her through the telescanners, and she was grateful that he hadn’t broken the silence. Perhaps he had realized what she was trying to do.

For long minutes now, she had been intensely keyed up, sharply aware of the infinite mingling of life detail below. It was as if the plain had come alight in all directions about her, a shifting glimmer of sparks, glowing emanations of life-force, printed in constant change on her awareness. To distinguish among it all the specific pattern which she had touched briefly twice might not be an easy matter. But then, within seconds, she made two significant discoveries.

She had brought the Cloudsplitter nearly to a stop again. She was now to the left of Robane’s house, no more than two hundred yards from it. Close enough to see a flock of small, birdlike creatures flutter about indistinctly in the garden shrubbery. Physical vision seemed to overlap and blend with her inner awareness, and among the uncomplicated emanations of small animal life in the garden, there was now a center of mental emanation which was of more interest.

It was inside the house, and it was human. It seemed to Telzey it was Robane she was sensing. That was curious, because if his mind was screened as well as she’d believed, she should not be able to sense him in this manner. But, of course, it might not be. She had simply assumed he had developed measures against being read as adequate as her own.

Probably it was Robane. Then where, Telzey thought, was that elderly, rather stupid housekeeper named Feddler he’d told her about? Feddler’s presence, her mind unscreened in any way, should be at least equally obvious now.

With the thought, she caught a second strong glow. That was not the mind of some stupid old woman, or of anything human. It was still blurred, but it was the mind for which she had been searching. The mind of some baleful, intelligent tiger-thing. And it was very close.

She checked again, carefully. Then she knew. It was not back in the forest, and not hidden somewhere on the plain nearby.

It was inside Robane’s house.

For a moment, shock held her motionless. Then she swung the Cloudsplitter smoothly to the left, started moving off along the edge of the forest.

“Where are you going?” Robane’s voice asked in her mind.

Telzey didn’t answer. The car already was gliding along at the thirty miles an hour its throttled-down engine allowed it to go. Her forefinger was flicking out the call number of Rish’s aircar back at the camp on the Cloudsplitter’s communicator.

There’d been a trap set for her here. She didn’t yet know what kind of a trap, or whether she could get out of it by herself. But the best thing she could do at the moment was to let other people know immediately where she was—

A dragging, leaden heaviness sank through her. She saw her hand drop from the communicator dial, felt herself slump to the left, head sagging down on the side rest, face turned half up. She felt the Cloudsplitter’s engines go dead. The trap had snapped shut.

* * *

The car was dropping, its forward momentum gone. Telzey made a straining effort to sit back up, lift her hands to the controls, and nothing happened. She realized then that nothing could have happened if she had reached the controls. If it hadn’t been for the countergravity materials worked into its structure, the Cloudsplitter would have plunged to the ground like a rock. As it was, it settled gradually down through the air, swaying from side to side.

She watched the fiery night sky shift above with the swaying of the car, sickened by the conviction that she was dropping towards death, trying to keep the confusion of terror from exploding through her. . . .

“I’m curious to know,” Robane’s voice said, “what made you decide at the last moment to decline my invitation and attempt to leave.”

She wrenched her attention away from terror, reached for the voice and Robane.

There was the crackling of psi, open telepathic channels through which her awareness flowed in a flash. For an instant, she was inside his mind. Then psi static crashed, and she was away from it again. Her awareness dimmed, momentarily blurred out. She’d absorbed almost too much. It was as if she’d made a photograph of a section of Robane’s mind—a pitiful and horrible mind.

She felt the car touch the ground, stop moving. The slight jolt tilted her over farther, her head lolling on the side rest. She was breathing; her eyelids blinked. But her conscious efforts weren’t affecting a muscle of her body.

The dazed blurriness began to lift from her thoughts. She found herself still very much frightened but no longer accepting in the least that she would die here. She should have a chance against Robane. She discovered he was speaking again, utterly unaware of what had just occurred.

“I’m not a psi,” his voice said. “But I’m a gadgeteer—and, you see, I happen to be highly intelligent. I’ve used my intelligence to provide myself with instruments which guard me and serve my wishes here. Some give me abilities equivalent to those of a psi. Others, as you’ve just experienced, can be used to neutralize power devices or to paralyze the human voluntary muscular system within as much as half a mile of this room.

“I was amused by your cautious hesitation and attempted flight just now. I’d already caught you. If I’d let you use the communicator, you would have found it dead. I shut it off as soon as your aircar was in range . . .”

Robane not a psi? For an instant, there was a burbling of lunatic, silent laughter in Telzey’s head. In that moment of full contact between them, she’d sensed a telepathic system functional in every respect except that he wasn’t aware of it. Psi energy flared about his words as he spoke. That came from one of the machines, but only a telepath could have operated such a machine.

Robane had never considered that possibility. If the machine static hadn’t caught her off guard, broken the contact before she could secure it, he would be much more vulnerable in his unawareness now than an ordinary nonpsi human.

She’d reached for him again as he was speaking, along the verbalized thought-forms directed at her. But the words were projected through a machine. Following them back, she wound up at the machine and another jarring blast of psi static. She would have to wait for a moment when she found an opening to his mind again, when the machines didn’t happen to be covering him. He was silent now. He intended to kill her as he had others before her, and he might very well be able to do it before an opening was there. But he would make no further moves until he felt certain she hadn’t been able to summon help in a manner his machines hadn’t detected. What he had done so far he could explain—he had forced an aircar prowling about his house to the ground without harming its occupant. There was no proof of anything else he had done except the proof in Telzey’s mind, and Robane didn’t know about that.

It gave her a few minutes to act without interference from him.

* * *

“What’s the matter with that dog?” Gikkes asked nervously. “He’s behaving like. . . . like he thinks there’s something around.”

The chatter stopped for a moment. Eyes swung over to Chomir. He stood looking out from the canyon ledge over the plain, making a rumbling noise in his throat.

“Don’t be silly,” Valia said. “He’s just wondering where Telzey’s gone.” She looked at Rish. “How long has she been gone?”

“Twenty-seven minutes,” Rish said.

“Well, that’s nothing to worry about, is it?” Valia checked herself, added, “Now look at that, will you!” Chomir had swung around, moved over to Rish’s aircar, stopped beside it, staring at them with yellow eyes. He made the rumbling noise again.

Gikkes said, watching him fascinatedly, “Maybe something’s happened to Telzey.”

“Don’t talk like that,” Valia said. “What could happen to her?”

Rish got to his feet. “Well—it can’t hurt to give her a call . . .” He grinned at Valia to show he wasn’t in the least concerned, went to the aircar, opened the door.

Chomir moved silently past him into the car.

Rish frowned, glanced back at Valia and Dunker coming up behind him, started to say something, shook his head, slid into the car, and turned on the communicator.

Valia inquired, her eyes uneasily on Chomir, “Know her number?”

“Uh-huh.” They watched as he flicked the number out on the dial, then stood waiting.

Presently Valia cleared her throat. “She’s probably got out of the car and is walking around somewhere.”

“Of course she’s walking,” Rish said shortly.

“Keep buzzing anyway,” Dunker said.

“I am.” Rish glanced at Chomir again. “If she’s anywhere near the car, she’ll be answering in a moment . . .”

* * *

“Why don’t you answer me?” Robane’s voice asked, sharp with impatience. “It would be very foolish of you to make me angry.”

Telzey made no response. Her eyes blinked slowly at the starblaze. Her awareness groped, prowled, patiently, like a hungry cat, for anything, the slightest wisp of escaping unconscious thought, emotion, that wasn’t filtered through the blocking machines, that might give her another opening to the telepathic levels of Robane’s mind. In the minutes she’d been lying paralyzed across the seat of the aircar, she had arranged and comprehended the multi-detailed glimpse she’d had of it. She understood Robane very thoroughly now.

The instrument room of the house was his living area. A big room centered about an island of immaculate precision machines. Robane rarely was away from it. She knew what he looked like, from mirror images, glimpses in shining instrument surfaces, his thoughts about himself. A half-man, enclosed from the waist down in a floating, mobile machine like a tiny aircar, which carried him and kept him alive. The little machine was efficient; the half-body protruding from it was vigorous and strong. Robane in his isolation gave fastidious attention to his appearance. The coat which covered him down to the machine was tailored to Orado City’s latest fashion; his thick hair was carefully groomed.

He had led a full life as scientist, sportsman, and man of the world, before the disaster which left him bound to his machine. To make the man responsible for the disaster pay for his blunder in full became Robane’s obsession and he laid his plans with all the care of the trophy hunter he had been. His work for the Federation had been connected with the further development of devices permitting the direct transmission of sensations from one living brain to another and their adaptation to various new uses. In his retirement in Melna Park, Robane patiently refined such devices for his own purposes and succeeded beyond his expectations, never suspecting that the success was due in part to the latent psionic abilities he was stimulating with his experiments.

Meanwhile, he had prepared for the remaining moves in his plan, installed automatic machinery to take the place of his housekeeper, and dismissed the old woman from his service. A smuggling ring provided him with a specimen of a savage natural predator native to the continent for which he had set up quarters beneath the house. Robane trained the beast and himself, perfecting his skill in the use of the instruments, sent the conditioned animal out at night to hunt, brought it back after it had made the kill in which he had shared through its mind. There was sharper excitement in that alone than he had found in any previous hunting experience. There was further excitement in treating trapped animals with the drug that exposed their sensations to his instruments when he released them and set the killer on their trail. He could be hunter or hunted, alternately and simultaneously, following each chase to the end, withdrawing from the downed quarry only when its numbing death impulses began to reach him.

When it seemed he had no more to learn, he had his underworld connections deliver his enemy to the house. That night, he awakened the man from his stupor, told him what to expect, and turned him out under the starblaze to run for his life. An hour later, Robane and his savage deputy made a human kill, the instruments fingering the victim’s drug-drenched nervous system throughout and faithfully transmitting his terrors and final torment.

With that, Robane had accomplished his revenge. But he had no intention now of giving up the exquisite excitements of the new sport he had developed in the process. He became almost completely absorbed by it, as absorbed as the beast he had formed into an extension of himself. They went out by night to stalk and harry, run down and kill. They grew alike in cunning, stealth, and savage audacity, were skillful enough to create no unusual disturbance among the park animals with their sport. By morning, they were back in Robane’s house to spend most of the day in sleep. Unsuspecting human visitors who came through the area saw no traces of their nocturnal activities.

Robane barely noticed how completely he had slipped into this new way of living. Ordinarily, it was enough. But he had almost no fear of detection now, and sometimes he remembered there had been a special savor in driving a human being to his death. Then his contacts would bring another shipment of “supplies” to the house, and that night he hunted human game. Healthy young game which did its desperate best to escape but never got far. It was something humanity owed him.

For a while, there was one lingering concern. During his work for the Overgovernment, he’d had several contacts with a telepath called in to assist in a number of experiments. Robane had found out what he could about such people and believed his instruments would shield him against being detected and investigated by them. He was not entirely sure of it, but in the two years he had been pursuing his pleasures undisturbed in Melna Park his uneasiness on that point had almost faded away.

Telzey’s voice, following closely on his latest human kill, startled him profoundly. But when he realized that it was a chance contact, that she was here by accident, it occurred to him that this was an opportunity to find out whether a telepathic mind could be dangerous to him. She seemed young and inexperienced—he could handle her through his instruments with the slightest risk to himself.

* * *

Rish and Dunker were in Rish’s aircar with Chomir, Telzey thought, and a third person, who seemed to be Valia, was sitting behind them. The car was aloft and moving, so they had started looking for her. It would be nice if they were feeling nervous enough to have the park rangers looking for her, too; but that was very unlikely. She had to handle Chomir with great caution here. If he’d sensed any fear in her, he would have raced off immediately in her general direction to protect her, which would have been of no use at all.

As it was, he was following instructions he didn’t know he was getting. He was aware which way the car should go, and he would make that quite clear to Rish and the others if it turned off in any other direction. Since they had no idea where to look for her themselves, they would probably decide to rely on Chomir’s intuition.

That would bring them presently to this area. If she was outside the half-mile range of Robane’s energy shut-off device by then, they could pick her up safely. If she wasn’t, she’d have to turn them away through Chomir again or she’d simply be drawing them into danger with her. Robane, however, wouldn’t attempt to harm them unless he was forced to it. Telzey’s disappearance in the wildlands of the park could be put down as an unexplained accident; he wasn’t risking much there. But a very intensive investigation would get under way if three other students of Pehanron College vanished simultaneously along with a large dog. Robane couldn’t afford that.

“Why don’t you answer?”

There was an edge of frustrated rage in Robane’s projected voice. The paralysis field which immobilized her also made her unreachable to him. He was like an animal balked for the moment by a glass wall. He’d said he had a weapon trained on her which could kill her in an instant as she lay in the car, and Telzey knew it was true from what she had seen in his mind. For that matter, he probably only had to change the setting of the paralysis field to stop her heartbeat or her breathing.

But such actions wouldn’t answer the questions he had about psis. She’d frightened him tonight; and now he had to run her to her death, terrified and helpless as any other human quarry, before he could feel secure again.

“Do you think I’m afraid to kill you?” he asked, seeming almost plaintively puzzled. “Believe me, if I pull the trigger my finger is touching, I won’t even be questioned about your disappearance. The park authorities have been instructed by our grateful government to show me every consideration, in view of my past invaluable contributions to humanity, and in view of my present disability. No one would think to disturb me here because some foolish girl is reported lost in Melna Park . . .”

The thought-voice went on, its fury and bafflement filtered through a machine, sometimes oddly suggestive even of a ranting, angry machine. Now and then it blurred out completely, like a bad connection, resumed seconds later. Telzey drew her attention away from it. It was a distraction in her waiting for another open subconscious bridge to Robane’s mind. Attempts to reach him more directly remained worse than useless. The machines also handled mind-stuff, but mechanically channeled, focused, and projected; the result was a shifting, flickering, nightmarish distortion of emanations in which Robane and his instruments seemed to blend in constantly changing patterns. She’d tried to force through it, had drawn back quickly, dazed and jolted again. . . .

Every minute she gained here had improved her chances of escape, but she thought she wouldn’t be able to stall him much longer. The possibility that a ranger patrol or somebody else might happen by just now, see her Cloudsplitter parked near the house, and come over to investigate, was probably slight, but Robane wouldn’t be happy about it. If she seemed to remain intractable, he’d decide at some point to dispose of her at once.

So she mustn’t seem too intractable. Since she wasn’t replying, he would try something else to find out if she could be controlled. When he did, she would act frightened silly—which she was in a way, except that it didn’t seem to affect her ability to think now—and do whatever he said except for one thing. After he turned off the paralysis field, he would order her to come to the house. She couldn’t do that. Behind the entry door was a lock chamber. If she stepped inside, the door would close; and with the next breath she took she would have absorbed a full dose of the drug that let Robane’s mind-instruments settle into contact with her. She didn’t know what effect that would have. It might nullify her ability to maintain her psi screen and reveal her thoughts to Robane. If he knew what she had in mind, he would kill her on the spot. Or the drug might distort her on the telepathic level and end her chances of getting him under control.

“It’s occurred to me,” Robane’s voice said, “that you may not be deliberately refusing to answer me. It’s possible that you are unable to do it either because of the effect of the paralysis field or simply because of fear.”

Telzey had been wondering when it would occur to him. She waited, new tensions growing up in her.

“I’ll release you from the field in a moment,” the voice went on. “What happens then depends on how well you carry out the instructions given you. If you try any tricks, little psi, you’ll be dead. I’m quite aware you’ll be able to move normally seconds after the field is off. Make no move you aren’t told to make. Do exactly what you are told to do, and do it without hesitation. Remember those two things. Your life depends on them.”

He paused, added, “The field is now off . . .”

Telzey felt a surge of strength and lightness all through her. Her heart began to race. She refrained carefully from stirring. After a moment, Robane’s voice said, “Touch nothing in the car you don’t need to touch. Keep your hands in sight. Get out of the car, walk twenty feet away from it, and stop. Then face the house.”

Telzey climbed out of the car. She was shaky throughout; but it wasn’t as bad as she’d thought it would be when she first moved again. It wasn’t bad at all. She walked on to the left, stopped, and looked up at the orange-lit, screened windows in the upper part of the house.

“Watch your car,” Robane’s voice told her.

She looked over at the Cloudsplitter. He’d turned off the power neutralizer and the car was already moving. It lifted vertically from the ground, began gliding forward thirty feet up, headed in the direction of the forest beyond the house. It picked up speed, disappeared over the trees.

“It will begin to change course when it reaches the mountains,” Robane’s voice said. “It may start circling and still be within the park when it is found. More probably, it will be hundreds of miles away. Various explanations will be offered for your disappearance from it, apparently in midair, which needn’t concern us now. . . . Raise your arms before you, little psi. Spread them farther apart. Stand still.”

Telzey lifted her arms, stood waiting. After an instant, she gave a jerk of surprise. Her hands and arms, Dunker’s watch on her wrist, the edges of the short sleeves of her shirt suddenly glowed white.

“Don’t move!” Robane’s voice said sharply. “This is a search-beam. It won’t hurt you.”

She stood still again, shifted her gaze downwards. What she saw of herself and her clothes and of a small patch of ground about her feet all showed the same cold, white glow, like fluorescing plastic. There was an eerie suggestion of translucence. She glanced back at her hands, saw the fine bones showing faintly as more definite lines of white in the glow. She felt nothing and the beam wasn’t affecting her vision, but it was an efficient device. Sparks of heatless light began stabbing from her clothing here and there; within moments, Robane located half a dozen minor items in her pockets and instructed her to throw them away one by one, along with the watch. He wasn’t taking chances on fashionably camouflaged communicators, perhaps suspected even this or that might be a weapon. Then the beam went off and he told her to lower her arms again.

“Now a reminder,” his voice went on. “Perhaps you’re unable to speak to me. And perhaps you could speak but think it’s clever to remain silent in this situation. That isn’t too important. But let me show you something. It will help you keep in mind that it isn’t at all advisable to be too clever in dealing with me . . .”

Something suddenly was taking shape twenty yards away, between Telzey and the house; and fright flicked through her like fire and ice in the instant before she saw it was a projection placed a few inches above the ground. It was an image of Robane’s killer, a big, bulky creature which looked bulkier because of the coat of fluffy, almost feathery fur covering most of it like a cloak. It was half crouched, a pair of powerful forelimbs stretched out through the cloak of fur. Ears like upturned horns projected from the sides of the head, and big, round, dark eyes, the eyes of a star-night hunter, were set in front above the sharply curved, serrated cutting beak.

The image faded within seconds. She knew what the creature was. The spooks had been, at one time, almost the dominant life form on this continent; the early human settlers hated and feared them for their unqualified liking for human flesh, made them a legend which haunted Orado’s forests long after they had, in fact, been driven out of most of their territory. Even in captivity, from behind separating force fields, their flat, dark stares, their size, goblin appearance, and monkey quickness disturbed impressionable people.

“My hunting partner,” Robane’s voice said. “My other self. It is not pleasant, not at all pleasant, to know this is the shape that is following your trail at night in Melna Park. You had a suggestion of it this evening. Be careful not to make me angry again. Be quick to do what I tell you. Now come forward to the house.”

Telzey saw the entry door in the garden slide open. Her heart began to beat heavily. She didn’t move.

“Come to the house!” Robane repeated.

Something accompanied the words, a gush of heavy, subconscious excitement, somebody reaching for a craved drug. . . . but Robane’s drug was death. As she touched the excitement, it vanished. It was what she had waited for, a line to the unguarded levels of his mind. If it came again and she could hold it even for seconds—

It didn’t come again. There was a long pause before Robane spoke.

“This is curious,” his voice said slowly. “You refuse. You know you are helpless. You know what I can do. Yet you refuse. I wonder . . .”

He went silent. He was suspicious now, very. For a moment, she could almost feel him finger the trigger of his weapon. But the drug was there, in his reach. She was cheating him out of some of it. He wouldn’t let her cheat him out of everything. . . .

“Very well,” the voice said. “I’m tired of you. I was interested in seeing how a psi would act in such a situation. I’ve seen. You’re so afraid you can barely think. So run along. Run as fast as you can, little psi. Because I’ll soon be following.”

Telzey stared up at the windows. Let him believe she could barely think.

“Run!”

She whipped around, as if shocked into motion by the command, and ran, away from Robane’s house, back in the direction of the plain to the north.

* * *

“I’ll give you a warning,” Robane’s voice said, seeming to move along with her. “Don’t try to climb a tree. We catch the ones who do that immediately. We can climb better than you can, and if the tree is big enough we’ll come up after you. If the tree’s too light to hold us, or if you go out where the branches are too thin, we’ll simply shake you down. So keep running.”

She glanced back as she came up to the first group of trees. The orange windows of the house seemed to be staring after her. She went in among the trees, out the other side, and now the house was no longer in sight.

“Be clever now,” Robane’s voice said. “We like the clever ones. You have a chance, you know. Perhaps somebody will see you before you’re caught. Or you may think of some way to throw us off your track. Perhaps you’ll be the lucky one who gets away. We’ll be very, very sorry then, won’t we? So do your best, little psi. Do your best. Give us a good run.”

She flicked out a search-thought, touched Chomir’s mind briefly. The aircar was still coming, still on course, still too far away to do her any immediate good. . . .

She ran. She was in as good condition as a fifteen-year-old who liked a large variety of sports and played hard at them was likely to get. But she had to cover five hundred yards to get beyond the range of Robane’s house weapons, and on this broken ground it began to seem a long, long stretch. How much time would he give her? Some of those he’d hunted had been allowed a start of thirty minutes or more. . . .

She began to count her steps. Robane remained silent. When she thought she was approaching the end of five hundred yards, there were trees ahead again. She remembered crossing over a small stream followed by a straggling line of trees as she came up to the house. That must be it. And in that case, she was beyond the five-hundred-yard boundary.

* * *

A hungry excitement swirled about her and was gone. She’d lashed at the feeling quickly, got nothing. Robane’s voice was there an instant later.

“We’re starting now . . .”

So soon? She felt shocked. He wasn’t giving her even the pretense of a chance to escape. Dismay sent a wave of weakness through her as she ran splashing down into the creek. Some large animals burst out of the water on the far side, crashed through the bushes along the bank, and pounded away. Telzey hardly noticed them. Turn to the left, downstream, she thought. It was a fast little stream. The spook must be following by scent and the running water should wipe out her trail before it got here. . . .

But others it had followed would have decided to turn downstream when they reached the creek. If it didn’t pick up the trail on the far bank and found no human scent in the water coming down, it only had to go along the bank to the left until it either heard her in the water or reached the place where she’d left it.

They’d expect her, she told herself, to leave the water on the far side of the creek, not to angle back in the direction of Robane’s house. Or would they? It seemed the best thing to try.

She went downstream as quickly as she could, splashing, stumbling on slippery rock, careless of noise for the moment. It would be a greater danger to lose time trying to be quiet. A hundred yards on, stout tree branches swayed low over the water. She could catch them, swing up, scramble on up into the trees.

Others would have tried that, too. Robane and his beast knew such spots, would check each to make sure it wasn’t what she had done.

She ducked, gasping, under the low-hanging branches, hurried on. Against the starblaze a considerable distance ahead, a thicker cluster of trees loomed darkly. It looked like a sizable little wood surrounding the watercourse. It might be a good place to hide.

Others, fighting for breath after the first hard run, legs beginning to falter, would have had that thought.

Robane’s voice said abruptly in her mind, “So you’ve taken to the water. It was your best move . . .”

The voice stopped. Telzey felt the first stab of panic. The creek curved sharply ahead. The bank on the left was steep, not the best place to get out. She followed it with her eyes. Roots sprouted out of the bare earth a little ahead. She came up to them, jumped to catch them, pulled herself up, and scrambled over the edge of the bank. She climbed to her feet, hurried back in the general direction of Robane’s house, dropped into a cluster of tall grass. Turning, flattened out on her stomach, she lifted her head to stare back in the direction of the creek. There was an opening in the bushes on the other bank, with the clusterlight of the skyline showing through it. She watched that, breathing as softly as she could. It occurred to her that if a breeze was moving the wrong way, the spook might catch her scent on the air. But she didn’t feel any breeze.

Perhaps a minute passed—certainly no more. Then a dark silhouette passed lightly and swiftly through the opening in the bushes she was watching, went on downstream. It was larger than she’d thought it would be when she saw its projected image; and that something so big should move in so effortless a manner, seeming to drift along the ground, somehow was jolting in itself. For a moment, Telzey had distinguished, or imagined she had distinguished, the big, round head held high, the pointed ears like horns. Goblin, her nerves screamed. A feeling of heavy dread flowed through her, seemed to drain away her strength. This was how the others had felt when they ran and crouched in hiding, knowing there was no escape from such a pursuer. . . .

She made herself count off a hundred seconds, got to her feet, and started back on a slant towards the creek, to a point a hundred yards above the one where she had climbed from it. If the thing returned along this side of the watercourse and picked up her trail, it might decide she had tried to escape upstream. She got down quietly into the creek, turned downstream again, presently saw in the distance the wood which had looked like a good place to hide. The spook should be prowling among the trees there now, searching for her. She passed the curve where she had pulled herself up on the bank, waded on another hundred steps, trying to make no noise at all, almost certain from moment to moment she could hear or glimpse the spook on its way back. Then she climbed the bank on the right, pushed carefully through the hedges of bushes that lined it, and ran off into the open plain sloping up to the north.

After perhaps a hundred yards, her legs began to lose the rubbery weakness of held-in terror. She was breathing evenly. The aircar was closer again and in not too many more minutes she might find herself out of danger. She didn’t look back. If the spook was coming up behind her, she couldn’t outrun it, and it wouldn’t help to feed her fears by watching for shadows on her trail.

She shifted her attention to signs from Robane. He might be growing concerned by now and resort to his telescanners to look for her and guide his creature after her. There was nothing she could do about that. Now and then she seemed to have a brief awareness of him, but there had been no definite contact since he had spoken.

She reached a rustling grove, walked and trotted through it. As she came out the other side, a herd of graceful deer-like animals turned from her and sped with shadowy quickness across the plain and out of her range of vision. She remembered suddenly having heard that hunted creatures sometimes covered their trail by mingling with other groups of animals. . . .

A few minutes later, she wasn’t sure how well that was working. Other herds were around; sometimes she saw shadowy motion ahead or to right or left; then there would be whistles of alarm, the stamp of hoofs, and they’d vanish like drifting smoke, leaving the section of plain about her empty again. This was Robane’s hunting ground; the animals here might be more alert and nervous than in other sections of the park. And perhaps, Telzey thought, they sensed she was the quarry tonight and was drawing danger towards them. Whatever the reason, they kept well out of her way. But she’d heard fleeing herds cross behind her a number of times, so they might in fact be breaking up her trail enough to make it more difficult to follow. She kept scanning the skyline above the slope ahead, looking for the intermittent green flash of a moving aircar or the sweep of its search-beam along the ground. They couldn’t be too far away.

She slowed to a walk again. Her legs and lungs hadn’t given out, but she could tell she was tapping the final reserves of strength. She sent a thought to Chomir’s mind, touched it instantly and, at the same moment, caught a glimpse of a pulsing green spark against the starblaze, crossing down through a dip in the slopes, disappearing beyond the wooded ground ahead of her. She went hot with hope, swung to the right, began running towards the point where the car should show again.

They’d arrived. Now to catch their attention. . . .

“Here!” she said sharply in the dog’s mind.

It meant: “Here I am! Look for me! Come to me!” No more than that. Chomir was keyed up enough without knowing why. Any actual suggestion that she was in trouble might throw him out of control.

She almost heard the deep, whining half-growl with which he responded. It should be enough. Chomir knew now she was somewhere nearby, and Rish and the others would see it immediately in the way he behaved. When the aircar reappeared, its search-beam should be swinging about, fingering the ground to locate her.

Telzey jumped down into a little gully, felt, with a shock of surprise, her knees go soft with fatigue as she landed, and clambered shakily out the other side. She took a few running steps forward, came to a sudden complete stop.

Robane! She felt him about, a thick, ugly excitement. It seemed the chance moment of contact for which she’d been waiting, his mind open, unguarded.

She looked carefully around. Something lay beside a cluster of bushes thirty feet ahead. It appeared to be a big pile of wind-blown dry leaves and grass, but its surface stirred with a curious softness in the breeze. Then a wisp of acrid animal odor touched Telzey’s nostrils and she felt the hot-ice surge of deep fright.

The spook lifted its head slowly out of its fluffed, mottled mane and looked at her. Then it moved from its crouched position. . . . a soundless shift a good fifteen feet to the right, light as the tumbling of a big ball of moss. It rose on its hind legs, the long fur settling loosely about it like a cloak, and made a chuckling sound of pleasure.

The plain seemed to explode about Telzey.

* * *

The explosion was in her mind. Tensions held too long, too hard, lashed back through her in seething confusion at a moment when too much needed to be done at once. Her physical vision went black; Robane’s beast and the starlit slope vanished. She was sweeping through a topsy-turvy series of mental pictures and sensations. Rish’s face appeared, wide-eyed, distorted with alarm, the aircar skimming almost at ground level along the top of a grassy rise, a wood suddenly ahead. “Now!” Telzey thought. Shouts, and the car swerved up again. Then a brief, thudding, jarring sensation underfoot. . . .

That was done.

She swung about to Robane’s waiting excitement, slipped through it into his mind. In an instant, her awareness poured through a net of subconscious psi channels that became half familiar as she touched them. Machine static clattered, too late to dislodge her. She was there. Robane, unsuspecting, looked out through his creature’s eyes at her shape on the plain, hands locked hard on the instruments through which he lived, experienced, murdered.

In minutes, Telzey thought, in minutes, if she was alive minutes from now, she would have this mind—unaware, unresistant, wide open to her—under control. But she wasn’t certain she could check the spook then through Robane. He had never attempted to hold it back moments away from its kill.

Vision cleared. She stood on the slope, tight tendrils of thought still linking her to every significant section of Robane’s mind. The spook stared, hook-beak lifted above its gaping mouth, showing the thick, twisting tongue inside. Still upright, it began to move, seemed to glide across the ground towards her. One of its forelimbs came through the thick cloak of fur, four-fingered paw raised, slashing retractile claws extended, reaching out almost playfully.

Telzey backed slowly off from the advancing goblin shape. For an instant, another picture slipped through her thoughts. . . . a blur of motion. She gave it no attention. There was nothing she could do there now.

The goblin dropped lightly to a crouch. Telzey saw it begin its spring as she turned and ran.

She heard the gurgling chuckle a few feet behind her, but no other sound. She ran headlong up the slope with all the strength she had left. In another world, on another level of existence, she moved quickly through Robane’s mind, tracing out the control lines, gathering them in. But her thoughts were beginning to blur with fatigue. Bushy shrubbery dotted the slope ahead. She could see nothing else.

The spook passed her like something blown by the wind through the grass. It swung around before her, twenty feet ahead; and as she turned to the right, it was suddenly behind her again, coming up quickly, went by. Something nicked the back of her calf as it passed—a scratch, not much deeper than a dozen or so she’d picked up pushing through thorny growth tonight. But this hadn’t been a thorn. She turned left, and it followed, herding her; dodged right, and it was there, going past. Its touch seemed the lightest flick again, but an instant later there was a hot, wet line of pain down her arm. She felt panic gather in her throat as it came up behind her once more. She stopped, turning to face it.

It stopped in the same instant, fifteen feet away, rose slowly to its full height, dark eyes staring, hooked beak open as if in silent laughter. Telzey watched it, gasping for breath. Streaks of foggy darkness seemed to float between them. Robane felt far away, beginning to slip from her reach. If she took another step, she thought, she would stumble and fall; then the thing would be on her.

The spook’s head swung about. Its beak closed with a clack. The horn-ears went erect.

The white shape racing silently down the slope seemed unreal for a moment, something she imagined. She knew Chomir was approaching; she hadn’t realized he was so near. She couldn’t see the aircar’s lights in the starblaze above, but it might be there. If they had followed the dog after he plunged out of the car, if they hadn’t lost. . . .

Chomir could circle Robane’s beast, threaten it, perhaps draw it away from her, keep it occupied for minutes. She drove a command at him—another, quickly and anxiously, because he hadn’t checked in the least; tried to slip into his mind and knew suddenly that Chomir, coming in silent fury, wasn’t going to be checked or slowed or controlled by anything she did. The goblin uttered a monstrous, squalling scream of astounded rage as the strange white animal closed the last twenty yards between them; then it leaped aside with its horrid ease. Sick with dismay, Telzey saw the great forelimb flash from the cloak, strike with spread talons. The thudding blow caught Chomir, spun him around, sent him rolling over the ground. The spook sprang again to come down on its reckless assailant. But the dog was on his feet and away.

It was Chomir’s first serious fight. But he came of generations of ancestors who had fought one another and other animals and armed men in the arenas of Askanam. Their battle cunning was stamped into his genes. He had made one mistake, a very nearly fatal one, in hurtling in at a dead run on an unknown opponent. Almost within seconds, it became apparent that he was making no further mistakes.

Telzey saw it through a shifting blur of exhaustion. As big a dog as Chomir was, the squalling goblin must weigh nearly five times as much, looked ten times larger with its fur-mane bristling about it. Its kind had been forest horrors to the early settlers. Its forelimbs were tipped with claws longer than her hands and the curved beak could shear through muscle and bone like a sword. Its uncanny speed. . . .

Now somehow it seemed slow. As it sprang, slashing down, something white and low flowed around and about it with silent purpose. Telzey understood it then. The spook was a natural killer, developed by nature to deal efficiently with its prey. Chomir’s breed were killers developed by man to deal efficiently with other killers.

He seemed locked to the beast for an instant, high on its shoulder, and she saw the wide, dark stain on his flank where the spook’s talons had struck. He shook himself savagely. There was an ugly, snapping sound. The spook screeched like a huge bird. She saw the two animals locked together again, then the spook rolling over the ground, the white shape rolling with it, slipping away, slipping back. There was another screech. The spook rolled into a cluster of bushes. Chomir followed it in.

A white circle of light settled on the thrashing vegetation, shifted over to her. She looked up, saw Rish’s car gliding down through the air, heard voices calling her name—

She followed her contact thoughts back to Robane’s mind, spread out through it, sensing at once the frantic grip of his hands on the instrument controls. For Robane, time was running out quickly. He had been trying to turn his beast away from the dog, force it to destroy the human being who could expose him. He had been unable to do it. He was in terrible fear. But he could accomplish no more through the spook. She felt his sudden decision to break mind-contact with the animal to avoid the one experience he had always shunned—going down with another mind into the shuddering agony of death.

His right hand released the control it was clutching, reached towards a switch.

“No,” Telzey said softly to the reaching hand.

It dropped to the instrument board. After a moment, it knotted, twisted about, began to lift again.

“No.”

Now it lay still. She considered. There was time enough.

Robane believed he would die with the spook if he couldn’t get away from it in time. She thought he might be right; she wouldn’t want to be in his mind when it happened, if it came to that.

There were things she needed to learn from Robane. The identity of the gang which had supplied him with human game was one; she wanted that very much. Then she should look at the telepathic level of his mind in detail, find out what was wrong in there, why he hadn’t been able to use it. . . . some day, she might be able to do something with a half-psi like Gikkes. And the mind-machines—if Robane had been able to work with them, not really understanding what he did, she should be able to employ similar devices much more effectively. Yes, she had to carefully study his machines—

She released Robane’s hand. It leaped to the switch, pulled it back. He gave a great gasp of relief.

For a moment, Telzey was busy. A needle of psi energy flicked knowingly up and down channels, touching here, there, shriveling, cutting, blocking. . . . Then it was done. Robane, half his mind gone in an instant, unaware of it, smiled blankly at the instrument panel in front of him. He’d live on here, dimmed and harmless, cared for by machines, unwitting custodian of other machines, of memories that had to be investigated, of a talent he’d never known he had.

“I’ll be back,” Telzey told the smiling, dull thing, and left it.

She found herself standing on the slope. It had taken only a moment, after all. Dunker and Valia were running towards her. Rish had just climbed out of the aircar settled forty feet away, its search-beam fixed on the thicket where the spook’s body jerked back and forth as Chomir, jaws locked on its crushed neck, shook the last vestiges of life from it with methodical fury.

All the Way Back by Michael Shaara

All the Way Back

by Michael Shaara



Preface by David Drake



Before writing The Killer Angels, his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the Battle of Gettysburg, Michael Shaara practiced his skill by writing SF. Those of you who've read "Soldier Boy," "Death of a Hunter" (my particular favorite), and this story will agree that he didn't need much practice.
















Great were the Antha, so reads the One Book of history, greater perhaps than any of the Galactic Peoples, and they were brilliant and fair, and their reign was long, and in all things they were great and proud, even in the manner of their dying—



Preface to Loab: History of The Master Race

The huge red ball of a sun hung glowing upon the screen.

Jansen adjusted the traversing knob, his face tensed and weary. The sun swung off the screen to the right, was replaced by the live black of space and the million speckled lights of the farther stars. A moment later the sun glided silently back across the screen and went off at the left. Again there was nothing but space and the stars.

“Try it again?” Cohn asked.

Jansen mumbled: “No. No use,” and he swore heavily. “Nothing. Always nothing. Never a blessed thing.”

Cohn repressed a sigh, began to adjust the controls.

In both of their minds was the single, bitter thought that there would be only one more time, and then they would go home. And it was a long way to come to go home with nothing.

When the controls were set there was nothing left to do. The two men walked slowly aft to the freeze room. Climbing up painfully on to the flat steel of the beds, they lay back and waited for the mechanism to function, for the freeze to begin.

Turned in her course, the spaceship bore off into the open emptiness. Her ports were thrown open, she was gathering speed as she moved away from the huge red star.

* * *

The object was sighted upon the last leg of the patrol, as the huge ship of the Galactic Scouts came across the edge of the Great Desert of the Rim, swinging wide in a long slow curve. It was there on the massometer as a faint blip, and, of course, the word went directly to Roymer.

“Report,” he said briefly, and Lieutenant Goladan—a young and somewhat pompous Higiandrian—gave the Higiandrian equivalent of a cough and then reported.

“Observe,” said Lieutenant Goladan, “that it is not a meteor, for the speed of it is much too great.”

Roymer nodded patiently.

“And again, the speed is decreasing”—Goladan consulted his figures—”at a rate of twenty-four dines per segment. Since the orbit appears to bear directly upon the star Mina, and the decrease in speed is of a certain arbitrary origin, we must conclude that the object is a spaceship.”

Roymer smiled.

“Very good, lieutenant.” Like a tiny nova, Goladan began to glow and expand.

A good man, thought Roymer tolerantly, his is a race of good men. They have been two million years in achieving space flight; a certain adolescence is to be expected.

“Would you call Mind-Search, please?” Roymer asked.

Goladan sped away, to return almost immediately with the heavy-headed non-human Trian, chief of the Mind-Search Section.

Trian cocked an eyelike thing at Roymer, with grave inquiry.

“Yes, commander?”

The abrupt change in course was noticeable only on the viewplate, as the stars slid silently by. The patrol vessel veered off, swinging around and into the desert, settled into a parallel course with the strange new craft, keeping a discreet distance of—approximately—a light-year.

The scanners brought the object into immediate focus, and Goladan grinned with pleasure. A spaceship, yes, Alien, too. Undoubtedly a primitive race. He voiced these thoughts to Roymer.

“Yes,” the commander said, staring at the strange, small, projectilelike craft. “Primitive type. It is to be wondered what they are doing in the desert.”

Goladan assumed an expression of intense curiosity.

“Trian,” said Roymer pleasantly, “would you contact?”

The huge head bobbed up and down once and then stared into the screen. There was a moment of profound silence. Then Trian turned back to stare at Roymer, and there was a distinctly human expression of surprise in his eyelike things.

“Nothing,” came the thought. “I can detect no presence at all.”

Roymer raised an eyebrow.

“Is there a barrier?”

“No”—Trian had turned to gaze back into the screen—”a barrier I could detect. But there is nothing at all. There is no sentient activity on board that vessel.”

Trian’s word had to be taken, of course, and Roymer was disappointed. A spaceship empty of life—Roymer shrugged. A derelict, then. But why the decreasing speed? Pre-set controls would account for that, of course, but why? Certainly, if one abandoned a ship, one would not arrange for it to—

He was interrupted by Trian’s thought:

“Excuse me, but there is nothing. May I return to my quarters?”

Roymer nodded and thanked him, and Trian went ponderously away. Goladan said:

“Shall we prepare to board it, sir?”

“Yes.”

And then Goladan was gone to give his proud orders.

Roymer continued to stare at the primitive vessel which hung on the plate. Curious. It was very interesting, always, to come upon derelict ships. The stories that were old, the silent tombs that had been drifting perhaps, for millions of years in the deep sea of space. In the beginning Roymer had hoped that the ship would be manned, and alien, but—nowadays, contact with an isolated race was rare, extremely rare. It was not to be hoped for, and he would be content with this, this undoubtedly empty, ancient ship.

And then, to Roymer’s complete surprise, the ship at which he was staring shifted abruptly, turned on its axis, and flashed off like a live thing upon a new course.

* * *

When the defrosters activated and woke him up, Jansen lay for a while upon the steel table, blinking. As always with the freeze, it was difficult to tell at first whether anything had actually happened. It was like a quick blink and no more, and then you were lying, feeling exactly the same, thinking the same thoughts even, and if there was anything at all different it was maybe that you were a little numb. And yet in the blink time took a great leap, and the months went by like—Jansen smiled—fenceposts.

He raised a languid eye to the red bulb in the ceiling. Out. He sighed. The freeze had come and gone. He felt vaguely cheated, reflected that this time, before the freeze, he would take a little nap.

He climbed down from the table, noted that Cohn had already gone to the control room. He adjusted himself to the thought that they were approaching a new sun, and it came back to him suddenly that this would be the last one, now they would go home.

Well then, let this one have planets. To have come all this way, to have been gone from home eleven years, and yet to find nothing—

He was jerked out of the old feeling of despair by a lurch of the ship. That would be Cohn taking her off the auto. And now, he thought, we will go in and run out the telescope and have a look, and there won’t be a thing.

Wearily, he clumped off over the iron deck, going up to the control room. He had no hope left now, and he had been so hopeful at the beginning. As they are all hopeful, he thought, as they have been hoping now for three hundred years. And they will go on hoping, for a little while, and then men will become hard to get, even with the freeze, and then the starships won’t go out any more. And Man will be doomed to the System for the rest of his days.

Therefore, he asked humbly, silently, let this one have planets.

Up in the dome of the control cabin, Cohn was bent over the panel, pouring power into the board. He looked up, nodded briefly as Jansen came in. It seemed to both of them that they had been apart for five minutes.

“Are they all hot yet?” asked Jansen.

“No, not yet.”

The ship had been in deep space with her ports thrown open. Absolute cold had come in and gone to the core of her, and it was always a while before the ship was reclaimed and her instruments warmed. Even now there was a sharp chill in the air of the cabin.

Jansen sat down idly, rubbing his arms.

“Last time around, I guess.”

“Yes,” said Cohn, and added laconically, “I wish Weizsäcker was here.”

Jansen grinned. Weizsäcker, poor old Weizsäcker. He was long dead and it was a good thing, for he was the most maligned human being in the System.

For a hundred years his theory on the birth of planets, that every sun necessarily gave birth to a satellite family, had been an accepted part of the knowledge of Man. And then, of course, there had come space flight.

Jansen chuckled wryly. Lucky man, Weizsäcker. Now, two hundred years and a thousand stars later, there had been discovered just four planets. Alpha Centauri had one: a barren, ice-crusted mote no larger than the Moon; and Pollux had three, all dead lumps of cold rock and iron. None of the other stars had any at all. Yes, it would have been a great blow to Weizsäcker.

A hum of current broke into Jansen’s thought as the telescope was run out. There was a sudden beginning of light upon the screen.

In spite of himself and the wry, hopeless feeling that had been in him, Jansen arose quickly, with a thin trickle of nervousness in his arms. There is always a chance, he thought, after all, there is always a chance. We have only been to a thousand suns, and in the Galaxy a thousand suns are not anything at all. So there is always a chance.

Cohn, calm and methodical, was manning the radar.

Gradually, condensing upon the center of the screen, the image of the star took shape. It hung at last, huge and yellow and flaming with an awful brilliance, and the prominences of the rim made the vast circle uneven. Because the ship was close and the filter was in, the stars of the background were invisible, and there was nothing but the one great sun.

Jansen began to adjust for observation.

The observation was brief.

They paused for a moment before beginning the tests, gazing upon the face of the alien sun. The first of their race to be here and to see, they were caught up for a time in the ancient, deep thrill of space and the unknown Universe.

They watched, and into the field of their vision, breaking in slowly upon the glaring edge of the sun’s disk, there came a small black ball. It moved steadily away from the edge, in toward the center of the sun. It was unquestionably a planet in transit.

* * *

When the alien ship moved, Roymer was considerably rattled.

One does not question Mind-Search, he knew, and so there could not be any living thing aboard that ship. Therefore, the ship’s movement could be regarded only as a peculiar aberration in the still-functioning drive. Certainly, he thought, and peace returned to his mind.

But it did pose an uncomfortable problem. Boarding that ship would be no easy matter, not if the thing was inclined to go hopping away like that, with no warning. There were two hundred years of conditioning in Roymer, it would be impossible for him to put either his ship or his crew into an unnecessarily dangerous position. And wavery, erratic spaceships could undoubtedly be classified as dangerous.

Therefore, the ship would have to be disabled.

Regretfully, he connected with Fire control, put the operation into the hands of the Firecon officer, and settled back to observe the results of the actions against the strange craft.

And the alien moved again.

Not suddenly, as before, but deliberately now, the thing turned once more from its course, and its speed decreased even more rapidly. It was still moving in upon Mina, but now its orbit was tangential and no longer direct. As Roymer watched the ship come about, he turned up the magnification for a larger view, checked the automatic readings on the board below the screen. And his eyes were suddenly directed to a small, conical projection which had begun to rise up out of the ship, which rose for a short distance and stopped, pointed in on the orbit towards Mina at the center.

Roymer was bewildered, but he acted immediately. Firecon was halted, all protective screens were re-established, and the patrol ship back-tracked quickly into the protection of deep space.

There was no question in Roymer’s mind that the movements of the alien had been directed by a living intelligence, and not by any mechanical means. There was also no doubt in Roymer’s mind that there was no living being on board that ship. The problem was acute.

Roymer felt the scalp of his hairless head beginning to crawl. In the history of the galaxy, there had been discovered but five nonhuman races, yet never a race which did not betray its existence by the telepathic nature of its thinking. Roymer could not conceive of a people so alien that even the fundamental structure of their thought process was entirely different from the Galactics.

Extra-Galactics? He observed the ship closely and shook his head. No. Not an extra-Galactic ship certainly, much too primitive a type.

Extraspatial? His scalp crawled again.

Completely at a loss as to what to do, Roymer again contacted Mind-Search and requested that Trian be sent to him immediately.

Trian was preceded by a puzzled Goladan. The orders to alien contact, then to Firecon, and finally for a quick retreat, had affected the lieutenant deeply. He was a man accustomed to a strictly logical and somewhat ponderous course of events. He waited expectantly for some explanation to come from his usually serene commander.

Roymer, however, was busily occupied in tracking the alien’s new course. An orbit about Mina, Roymer observed, with that conical projection laid on the star; a device of war; or some measuring instrument?

The stolid Trian appeared—walking would not quite describe how—and was requested to make another attempt at contact with the alien. He replied with his usual eerie silence and in a moment, when he turned back to Roymer, there was surprise in the transmitted thought.

“I cannot understand. There is life there now.”

Roymer was relieved, but Goladan was blinking.

Trian went on, turning again to gaze at the screen.

“It is very remarkable. There are two life-beings. Human-type race. Their presence is very clear, they are”—he paused briefly—”explorers, it appears. But they were not there before. It is extremely unnerving.”

So it is, Roymer agreed. He asked quickly: “Are they aware of us?”

“No. They are directing their attention on the star. Shall I contact?”

“No. Not yet. We will observe them first.”

The alien ship floated upon the screen before them, moving in slow orbit about the star Mina.

* * *

Seven. There were seven of them. Seven planets, and three at least had atmospheres, and two might even be inhabitable. Jansen was so excited he was hopping around the control room. Cohn did nothing, but grin widely with a wondrous joy, and the two of them repeatedly shook hands and gloated.

“Seven!” roared Jansen. “Old lucky seven!”

Quickly then, and with extreme nervousness, they ran spectrograph analyses of each of those seven fascinating worlds. They began with the central planets, in the favorable temperature belt where life conditions would be most likely to exist, and they worked outwards.

For reasons which were as much sentimental as they were practical, they started with the third planet of this fruitful sun. There was a thin atmosphere, fainter even than that of Mars, and no oxygen. Silently they went on to the fourth. It was cold and heavy, perhaps twice as large as Earth, had a thick envelope of noxious gases. They saw with growing fear that there was no hope there, and they turned quickly inwards toward the warmer area nearer the sun.

On the second planet—as Jansen put it—they hit the jackpot.

A warm, green world it was, of an Earthlike size and atmosphere; oxygen and water vapor lines showed strong and clear in the analysis.

“This looks like it,” said Jansen, grinning again.

Cohn nodded, left the screen and went over to man the navigating instruments.

“Let’s go down and take a look.”

“Radio check first.” It was the proper procedure. Jansen had gone over it in his mind a thousand times. He clicked on the receiver, waited for the tubes to function, and then scanned for contact. As they moved in toward the new planet he listened intently, trying all lengths, waiting for any sound at all. There was nothing but the rasping static of open space.

“Well,” he said finally, as the green planet grew large upon the screen, “if there’s any race there, it doesn’t have radio.”

Cohn showed his relief.

“Could be a young civilization.”

“Or one so ancient and advanced that it doesn’t need radio.”

Jansen refused to let his deep joy be dampened. It was impossible to know what would be there. Now it was just as it had been three hundred years ago, when the first Earth ship was approaching Mars. And it will be like this—Jansen thought—in every other system to which we go. How can you picture what there will be? There is nothing at all in your past to give you a clue. You can only hope.

The planet was a beautiful green ball on the screen.

* * *

The thought which came out of Trian’s mind was tinged with relief.

“I see how it was done. They have achieved a complete stasis, a perfect state of suspended animation which they produce by an ingenious usage of the absolute zero of outer space. Thus, when they are—frozen, is the way they regard it—their minds do not function, and their lives are not detectable. They have just recently revived and are directing their ship.”

Roymer digested the new information slowly. What kind of a race was this? A race which flew in primitive star ships, yet it had already conquered one of the greatest problems in Galactic history, a problem which had baffled the Galactics for millions of years. Roymer was uneasy.

“A very ingenious device,” Trian was thinking, “they use it to alter the amount of subjective time consumed in their explorations. Their star ship has a very low maximum speed. Hence, without this—freeze—their voyage would take up a good portion of their lives.”

“Can you classify the mind-type?” Roymer asked with growing concern.

Trian reflected silently for a moment.

“Yes,” he said, “although the type is extremely unusual. I have never observed it before. General classification would be Human-Four. More specifically, I would place them at the Ninth level.”

Roymer started. “The Ninth level?”

“Yes. As I say, they are extremely unusual.”

Roymer was now clearly worried. He turned away and paced the deck for several moments. Abruptly, he left the room and went to the files of alien classification. He was gone for a long time, while Goladan fidgeted and Trian continued to gather information plucked across space from the alien minds. Roymer came back at last.

“What are they doing?”

“They are moving in on the second planet. They are about to determine whether the conditions are suitable there for an establishment of a colony of their kind.”

Gravely, Roymer gave his orders to navigation. The patrol ship swung into motion, sped off swiftly in the direction of the second planet.

* * *

There was a single, huge blue ocean which covered an entire hemisphere of the new world. And the rest of the surface was a young jungle, wet and green and empty of any kind of people, choked with queer growths of green and orange. They circled the globe at a height of several thousand feet, and to their amazement and joy, they never saw a living thing; not a bird or a rabbit or the alien equivalent, in fact nothing alive at all. And so they stared in happy fascination.

“This is it,” Jansen said again, his voice uneven.

“What do you think we ought to call it?” Cohn was speaking absently. “New Earth? Utopia?”

Together they watched the broken terrain slide by beneath them.

“No people at all. It’s ours.” And after a while Jansen said: “New Earth. That’s a good name.”

Cohn was observing the features of the ground intently.

“Do you notice the kind of . . . circular appearance of most of those mountain ranges? Like on the Moon, but grown over and eroded. They’re all almost perfect circles.”

Pulling his mind away from the tremendous visions he had of the colony which would be here, Jansen tried to look at the mountains with an objective eye. Yes, he realized with faint surprise, they were round, like Moon craters.

“Peculiar,” Cohn muttered. “Not natural, I don’t think. Couldn’t be. Meteors not likely in this atmosphere. “What in—?”

Jansen jumped. “Look there,” he cried suddenly, “a round lake!”

Off toward the northern pole of the planet, a lake which was a perfect circle came slowly into view. There was no break in the rim other than that of a small stream which flowed in from the north.

“That’s not natural,” Cohn said briefly, “someone built that.”

They were moving on to the dark side now, and Cohn turned the ship around. The sense of exhilaration was too new for them to be let down, but the strange sight of a huge number of perfect circles, existing haphazardly like the remains of great splashes on the surface of the planet, was unnerving.

It was the sight of one particular crater, a great barren hole in the midst of a wide red desert, which rang a bell in Jansen’s memory, and he blurted:

“A war! There was a war here. That one there looks just like a fusion bomb crater.”

Cohn stared, then raised his eyebrows.

“I’ll bet you’re right.”

“A bomb crater, do you see? Pushes up hills on all sides in a circle, and kills—” A sudden, terrible thought hit Jansen. Radioactivity. Would there be radioactivity here?

While Cohn brought the ship in low over the desert, he tried to calm Jansen’s fears.

“There couldn’t be much. Too much plant life. Jungles all over the place. Take it easy, man.”

“But there’s not a living thing on the planet. I’ll bet that’s why there was a war. It got out of hand, the radioactivity got everything. We might have done this to Earth!”

They glided in over the flat emptiness of the desert, and the counters began to click madly.

“That’s it,” Jansen said conclusively, “still radioactive. It might not have been too long ago.”

“Could have been a million years, for all we know.”

“Well, most places are safe, apparently. We’ll check before we go down.”

As he pulled the ship up and away, Cohn whistled.

“Do you suppose there’s really not a living thing? I mean, not a bug or a germ or even a virus? Why, it’s like a clean new world, a nursery!” He could not take his eyes from the screen.

They were going down now. In a very little while they would be out and walking in the sun. The lust of the feeling was indescribable. They were Earthmen freed forever from the choked home of the System, Earthmen gone out to the stars, landing now upon the next world of their empire.

Cohn could not control himself.

“Do we need a flag?” he said grinning. “How do we claim this place?”

“Just set her down, man,” Jansen roared.

Cohn began to chuckle.

“Oh, brave new world,” he laughed, “that has no people in it.”

* * *

“But why do we have to contact them?” Goladan asked impatiently. “Could we not just—”

Roymer interrupted without looking at him.

“The law requires that contact be made and the situation explained before action is taken. Otherwise it would be a barbarous act.”

Goladan brooded.

The patrol ship hung in the shadow of the dark side, tracing the alien by its radioactive trail. The alien was going down for a landing on the daylight side.

Trian came forward with the other members of the Alien Contact Crew, reported to Roymer, “The aliens have landed.”

“Yes,” said Roymer, “we will let them have a little time. Trian, do you think you will have any difficulty in the transmission?”

“No. Conversation will not be difficult. Although the confused and complex nature of their thought-patterns does make their inner reactions somewhat obscure. But I do not think there will be any problem.”

“Very well. You will remain here and relay the messages.”

“Yes.”

The patrol ship flashed quickly up over the north pole, then swung inward toward the equator, circling the spot where the alien had gone down. Roymer brought his ship in low and with the silence characteristic of a Galactic, landed her in a wooded spot a mile east of the alien. The Galactics remained in their ship for a short while as Trian continued his probe for information. When at last the Alien Contact Crew stepped out, Roymer and Goladan were in the lead. The rest of the crew faded quietly into the jungle.

As he walked through the young orange brush, Roymer regarded the world around him. Almost ready for repopulation, he thought, in another hundred years the radiation will be gone, and we will come back. One by one the worlds of that war will be reclaimed.

He felt Trian’s directions pop into his mind.

“You are approaching them. Proceed with caution. They are just beyond the next small rise. I think you had better wait, since they are remaining close to their ship.”

Roymer sent back a silent yes. Motioning Goladan to be quiet, Roymer led the way up the last rise. In the jungle around him the Galactic crew moved silently.

* * *

The air was perfect; there was no radiation. Except for the wild orange color of the vegetation, the spot was a Garden of Eden. Jansen felt instinctively that there was no danger here, no terrible blight or virus or any harmful thing. He felt a violent urge to get out of his spacesuit and run and breathe, but it was forbidden. Not on the first trip. That would come later, after all the tests and experiments had been made and the world pronounced safe.

One of the first things Jansen did was get out the recorder and solemnly claim this world for the Solar Federation, recording the historic words for the archives of Earth. And he and Cohn remained for a while by the air lock of their ship, gazing around at the strange yet familiar world into which they had come.

“Later on we’ll search for ruins,” Cohn said. “Keep an eye out for anything that moves. It’s possible that there are some of them left and who knows what they’ll look like. Mutants, probably, with five heads. So keep an eye open.”

“Right.”

Jansen began collecting samples of the ground, of the air, of the nearer foliage. The dirt was Earth-dirt, there was no difference. He reached down and crumbled the soft moist sod with his fingers. The flowers may be a little peculiar—probably mutated, he thought—but the dirt is honest to goodness dirt, and I’ll bet the air is Earth-air.

He rose and stared into the clear open blue of the sky, feeling again an almost overpowering urge to throw open his helmet and breathe, and as he stared at the sky and at the green and orange hills, suddenly, a short distance from where he stood, a little old man came walking over the hill.

They stood facing each other across the silent space of a foreign glade. Roymer’s face was old and smiling; Jansen looked back at him with absolute astonishment.

After a short pause, Roymer began to walk out into the open soil, with Goladan following, and Jansen went for his heat gun.

“Cohn!” he yelled, in a raw brittle voice, “Cohn!”

And as Cohn turned and saw and froze, Jansen heard words being spoken in his brain. They were words coming from the little old man.

“Please do not shoot,” the old man said, his lips unmoving.

“No, don’t shoot,” Cohn said quickly. “Wait. Let him alone.” The hand of Cohn, too, was at his heat gun.

Roymer smiled. To the two Earthmen his face was incredibly old and wise and gentle. He was thinking: Had I been a nonhuman they would have killed me.

He sent a thought back to Trian. The Mind-Searcher picked it up and relayed it into the brains of the Earthmen, sending it through their cortical centers and then up into their conscious minds, so that the words were heard in the language of Earth. “Thank you,” Roymer said gently. Jansen’s hand held the heat gun leveled on Roymer’s chest. He stared, not knowing what to say.

“Please remain where you are,” Cohn’s voice was hard and steady.

Roymer halted obligingly. Goladan stopped at his elbow, peering at the Earthmen with mingled fear and curiosity. The sight of fear helped Jansen very much.

“Who are you?” Cohn said clearly, separating the words.

Roymer folded his hands comfortably across his chest, he was still smiling.

“With your leave, I will explain our presence.”

Cohn just stared.

“There will be a great deal to explain. May we sit down and talk?”

Trian helped with the suggestion. They sat down.

The sun of the new world was setting, and the conference went on. Roymer was doing most of the talking. The Earthmen sat transfixed.

It was like growing up suddenly, in the space of a second.

The history of Earth and of all Mankind just faded and dropped away. They heard of great races and worlds beyond number, the illimitable government which was the Galactic Federation. The fiction, the legends, the dreams of a thousand years had come true in a moment, in the figure of a square little old man who was not from Earth. There was a great deal for them to learn and accept in the time of a single afternoon, on an alien planet.

But it was just as new and real to them that they had discovered an uninhabited, fertile planet, the first to be found by Man. And they could not help but revolt from the sudden realization that the planet might well be someone else’s property—that the Galactics owned everything worth owning.

It was an intolerable thought.

“How far,” asked Cohn, as his heart pushed up in his throat, “does the Galactic League extend?”

Roymer’s voice was calm and direct in their minds.

“Only throughout the central regions of the galaxy. There are millions of stars along the rim which have not yet been explored.”

Cohn relaxed, bowed down with relief. There was room then, for Earthmen.

“This planet. Is it part of the Federation?”

“Yes,” said Roymer, and Cohn tried to mask his thought. Cohn was angry, and he hoped that the alien could not read his mind as well as he could talk to it. To have come this far—

“There was a race here once,” Roymer was saying, “a humanoid race which was almost totally destroyed by war. This planet has been uninhabitable for a very long time. A few of its people who were in space at the time of the last attack were spared. The Federation established them elsewhere. When the planet is ready, the descendants of those survivors will be brought back. It is their home.”

Neither of the Earthmen spoke.

“It is surprising,” Roymer went on, “that your home world is in the desert. We had thought that there were no habitable worlds—”

“The desert?”

“Yes. The region of the galaxy from which you have come is that which we call the desert. It is an area almost entirely devoid of planets. Would you mind telling me which star is your home?”

Cohn stiffened.

“I’m afraid our government would not permit us to disclose any information concerning our race.”

“As you wish. I am sorry you are disturbed. I was curious to know—” He waved a negligent hand to show that the information was unimportant. We will get it later, he thought, when we decipher their charts. He was coming to the end of the conference, he was about to say what he had come to say.

“No doubt you have been exploring the stars about your world?”

The Earthmen both nodded. But for the question concerning Sol, they long ago would have lost all fear of this placid old man and his wide-eyed, silent companion.

“Perhaps you would like to know,” said Roymer, “why your area is a desert.”

Instantly, both Jansen and Cohn were completely absorbed. This was it, the end of three hundred years of searching. They would go home with the answer.

Roymer never relaxed.

“Not too long ago,” he said, “approximately thirty thousand years by your reckoning, a great race ruled the desert, a race which was known as the Antha, and it was not a desert then. The Antha ruled hundreds of worlds. They were perhaps the greatest of all the Galactic peoples; certainly they were as brilliant a race as the galaxy has ever known.

“But they were not a good race. For hundreds of years, while they were still young, we tried to bring them into the Federation. They refused, and of course we did not force them. But as the years went by the scope of their knowledge increased amazingly; shortly they were the technological equals of any other race in the galaxy. And then the Antha embarked upon an era of imperialistic expansion.

“They were superior, they knew it and were proud. And so they pushed out and enveloped the races and worlds of the area now known as the desert. Their rule was a tyranny unequaled in Galactic history.”

The Earthmen never moved, and Roymer went on.

“But the Antha were not members of the Federation, and, therefore, they were not answerable for their acts. We could only stand by and watch as they spread their vicious rule from world to world. They were absolutely ruthless.

“As an example of their kind of rule, I will tell you of their crime against the Apectans.

“The planet of Apectus not only resisted the Antha, but somehow managed to hold out against their approach for several years. The Antha finally conquered and then, in retaliation for the Apectans’ valor, they conducted the most brutal of their mass experiments.

“They were a brilliant people. They had been experimenting with the genes of heredity. Somehow they found a way to alter the genes of the Apectans, who were humanoids like themselves, and they did it on a mass scale. They did not choose to exterminate the race, their revenge was much greater. Every Apectan born since the Antha invasion, has been born without one arm.”

Jansen sucked in his breath. It was a very horrible thing to hear, and a sudden memory came into his brain. Caesar did that, he thought. He cut off the right hands of the Gauls. Peculiar coincidence. Jansen felt uneasy.

Roymer paused for a moment.

“The news of what happened to the Apectans set the Galactic peoples up in arms, but it was not until the Antha attacked a Federation world that we finally moved against them. It was the greatest war in the history of Life.

“You will perhaps understand how great a people the Antha were when I tell you that they alone, unaided, dependent entirely upon their own resources, fought the rest of the Galactics, and fought them to a standstill. As the terrible years went by we lost whole races and planets—like this one, which was one the Antha destroyed—and yet we could not defeat them.

“It was only after many years, when a Galactic invented the most dangerous weapon of all, that we won. The invention—of which only the Galactic Council has knowledge—enabled us to turn the suns of the Antha into novae, at long range. One by one we destroyed the Antha worlds. We hunted them through all the planets of the desert; for the first time in history the edict of the Federation was death, death for an entire race. At last there were no longer any habitable worlds where the Antha had been. We burned their worlds, and ran them down in space. Thirty thousand years ago, the civilization of the Antha perished.”

Roymer had finished. He looked at the Earthmen out of grave, tired old eyes.

Cohn was staring in open-mouth fascination, but Jansen—unaccountably felt a chill. The story of Caesar remained uncomfortably in his mind. And he had a quick, awful suspicion.

“Are you sure you got all of them?”

“No. Some surely must have escaped. There were too many in space, and space is without limits.”

Jansen wanted to know: “Have any of them been heard of since?”

Roymer’s smile left him as the truth came out. “No. Not until now.”

There were only a few more seconds. He gave them time to understand. He could not help telling them that he was sorry, he even apologized. And then he sent the order with his mind.

The Antha died quickly and silently, without pain.

* * *

Only thirty thousand years, Roymer was thinking, but thirty thousand years, and they came back out to the stars. They have no memory now of what they were or what they have done. They started all over again, the old history of the race has been lost, and in thirty thousand years they came all the way back.

Roymer shook his head with sad wonder and awe. The most brilliant people of all.

Goladan came in quietly with the final reports.

“There are no charts,” he grumbled, “no maps at all. We will not be able to trace them to their home star.”

Roymer did not know, really, what was right, to be disappointed or relieved. We cannot destroy them now, he thought, not right away. He could not help being relieved. Maybe this time there will be a way, and they will not have to be destroyed. They could be—

He remembered the edict—the edict of death. The Antha had forged it for themselves and it was just. He realized that there wasn’t much hope.

The reports were on his desk and he regarded them with a wry smile. There was indeed no way to trace them back. They had no charts, only a regular series of course-check coordinates which were preset on their home planet and which were not decipherable. Even at this stage of their civilization they had already anticipated the consequences of having their ship fall into alien hands. And this although they lived in the desert.

Goladan startled him with an anxious question:

“What can we do?”

Roymer was silent.

We can wait, he thought. Gradually, one by one, they will come out of the desert, and when they come we will be waiting. Perhaps one day we will follow one back and destroy their world, and perhaps before then we will find a way to save them.

Suddenly, as his eyes wandered over the report before him and he recalled the ingenious mechanism of the freeze, a chilling, unbidden thought came into his brain.

And perhaps, he thought calmly, for he was a philosophical man, they will come out already equipped to rule the galaxy.

Afterword by Jim Baen

This story bowled me over when I read it at age fourteen because it answered a question that’d plagued me practically my whole thinking life (the past two years, maybe): all those planets had to be inhabited by all those aliens; so where were they? (This is Fermi’s Paradox to people who know who Fermi was. I didn’t, of course.)

I was born and raised in a rural community on the New York/Pennsylvania border. It was very easy for me to imagine a universe which was without intelligent life for an immense distance surrounding me. But one relative had an attic of SF magazines, including the Astounding with “All the Way Back.”

Shaara’s answer (and I suspect it was a conscious answer, albeit a flip one) mapped the data perfectly. Maybe the reason it seemed so profound to me is that in 1957 we all knew we were going to die in a thermonuclear holocaust in a few years. What was this but that, writ very large?

Bringing a young woman into your life

Lately, I have been generating art for my Patreon, and youtube channels. These have been created by LeonardoAI. And the artwork is truly exceptional.

I tell my readership, over and over, that your actions in this reality, acts as a feedback loop that allows and permits manifestations.

This is the basis of “Affirmation Campaigns”.

For instance, after I got out of prison, I had continued to deal with prison-similar situations up to two years afterwards. It was almost like a contamination that I had to “shake off”.

…

Anyways, I have been working on my videos.

So, I have been creating hundred of these images for the Affirmation Campaign section of my Paetron.

They look like this…

Default Imagine a Baroque painting high attention to detail ro 1(2)

Default Imagine a Baroque painting high attention to detail ro 0(2)

Default Imagine a Baroque painting high attention to detail ro 2(2)

Default Imagine a Baroque painting high attention to detail ro 3(2)

Default Imagine a Baroque painting high attention to detail ro 0(1)

Default Imagine a Baroque painting high attention to detail ro 1(1)

Default Imagine a Baroque painting high attention to detail ro 2(1)

Default Imagine a Baroque painting high attention to detail ro 3(1)

Nice huh?

The criteria…

Attractive
Young woman
Italian
Baroque style
In her 20’s
Large mane-like hair
Friendly

And I would put that all in my prompt. Sort of like this…

Now, the point that I want to make is this.

When you concentrate on statements or words, they do manifest in your reality, whether you want them to or not. Sooner or later. In one form or the other.

…

OK. Story time.

So, I am riding the bus home from the office today.

And I feel like someone is watching me. You all know the feeling. It happens from time to time.

It was happening then and there. So I looked up.

Right in front of me, across the isle and facing me directly was a girl.

Body language was facing to me.

There is this Chinese girl. She’s very attractive. She must have been in her early 20’s. She kept on stealing glimpses at me, and was very friendly.

Skin like powered soft butter. Soft gentle curves. Large black hair.

A Chinese version of my artwork.

No, she did not wear a “period-style” fashion dress. She wore contemporaneous clothing. But she had the same build, look, and appearance of these girls that I have been generating.

But something else.

She turned her head to look up front and I had a great view of her profile.

I looked at her nose.

It wasn’t a “Chinese nose”. It was a nose right out of my AI generated art. That was the DEAD GIVEAWAY. You NEVER see these noses in China (unless they are plastic surgery).

My art noses…

Chinese noses are flat and wide. Like this random chick…

That stranger on the bus, that girl, well she had a Baroque Italian nose.

No shit.

Now, I was VERY uncomfortable with a girl in her early 20’s giving me “the look”, and all that. I really didn’t want to engage her. Lordy! My life is already complex. That’s the last thing I want right now.

So I let her get off the bus.

And she kept on looking at me… with this expression. An expression that I haven’t seen in DECADES.

And breathed a sigh of relief. She was intense.

Be very careful on what you do, how you think, and what you say. You might be surprised at what might materialize.

Default Imagine a Baroque art painting with an attractive Youn 2

Default Imagine a Baroque art painting with an attractive Youn 3

Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 3(2)

Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(9)

Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 2(2)

Yeah.

The nose was the dead giveaway. But really, that continuous stare was highly unusual and very disturbing.

Today…

What happens to a person who is put in prison when they are 18 and released at 40? How do they reintegrate into society?

I was arrested when I was 17 in 1987. I was released in 2016 when I was 46. I was given no reentry program . The only thing they did was put me in a class to tell me how to operate computers { minus the internet}

So I was told to get a home plan. I did and it was approved and then released me on the day of my release. Family and friends have supported me and helped me reintegrate into society. The are very understanding and supportive. So adjusting to this big change is something ongoing and I have come a long way since getting out. But it has been friends and family and every day people who have helped and not the state of Missouri

Also the people here on Quora have helped even though they may not know it.

Just answering questions has been therapeutic and most people on here who read my content are supportive and give me encouragement. It means a lot to me so thank you everyone

I didn’t interview men

What is the saddest individual story from history?

Willie Mae Bragg:

Was sentenced to death for murdering a pharmacist in 1939.

On the day of his execution, he was strapped in, and as the current went through him – he went unkilled. His final cries were for the strap to be removed.

After surviving, he then filed a lawsuit claiming he was safe from execution as they had already executed him and that he simply hadn’t died.

It was an ominous case. Most of the executions in 1940’s Mississippi (one of the most racist states in the US) were of black people.

His appeal failed and he was executed the following year by a portable Electric Chair that had been put into use:

Also:

They typically don’t serve “the last meal” on the day of the execution as people can rarely eat.

They have also begun putting spending limits on last meal requests, $30-$50, as many death row inmates have ordered King’s feasts, only for them not to eat a single bite, as a final f#%k you to the system.

One more also,

A man used to drive around with a wheelchair and a generator in his pickup truck, as his job was to move the electric chair to its next location.

Could you imagine seeing that on the highway?

What’s the shrewdest, smartest maneuver you’ve ever seen in business?

My college town had a lovely small pizza restaurant named Papa John’s.

My God it was good. Delicious real mozzarella, fantastic toppings, a side of juicy-tangy-sweet pepperoncini peppers, and a special cup of garlic butter dipping sauce for the crust, so you could eat it just like breadsticks. It was heaven.

Everyone loved it. Except Domino’s pizza.

Domino’s, the chief competitor on campus, just couldn’t compete against the flavor and quality of Papa John’s pizzas.

Every weekend, all of the local pizzerias would do a Friday advertising push to win as much of the student weekend pizza dollar as possible. That meant a LOT of coupons, and every student got to pick their favorite weekend study treat.

One Thursday, the Domino’s marketing team was in a nasty funk, and decided to play dirty. In the local university newspaper, they booked this ad for the Friday edition…

“Bring us 30 competitors’ coupons, and get a FREE PIZZA!”

Oooooh…. nasty, eh? Dominoes was going to suck up all of the competitor coupons on the market, and burn them. By their math, they’d get most of the pizza dollar because they’d be the only pizzeria offering a weekend special- all of their competitors would be couponless, and therefore cost more.

And this coup would cost them very little… for “stealing” 30 pizza sales from their competition, it would cost them 1 free pizza, at roughly $4 in ingredients & labor.

Poor Papa John’s was getting no business this weekend…

Except that, one of the students at the school newspaper happened to love Papa John’s, and mentioned the Domino’s ad booking to a friend who worked there.

The team at Papa John’s thought for a minute, and then placed their own weekly ad.

That Friday’s edition saw two massive ads, running side-by-side.

The Domino’s ad…

Bring us 30 competitors’ coupons, and get a FREE PIZZA!

And the Papa John’s ad…

Thank you to all of our wonderful customers!
Here are 30 Papa John’s coupons for you to enjoy.
Because everyone deserves a pizza.

Students flooded the Domino’s, newspaper in hand, demanding their FREE pizzas. Domino’s had to close its doors for the weekend after completely running out of product.

… while losing a pile of money.

… and a fair bit of pride.

( Note: I can’t remember the exact ad copy… but it’s close. I made a best effort )

It’s over

You fucked up… BIG TIME.

What was the most amazing thing that you could only have learned while travelling?

I always thought I wanted to live on a deserted island in the South Pacific or the Caribbean.

My first kick at the cat went OK, I was dropped off on a deserted beach on Andros island in the Bahamas, they left me near a palapa, gave me a cooler full of food and beverage, and a boogie board. They left me at about 10:00 am, and picked me up about 4:00 . I never saw another person and it seemed idyllic.

So a couple of years later when I was in the Cook Islands, I heard about this quasi resort, that dropped you off on this little island. It had very limited fresh water, not enough to swim or bath in. Six little shacks, where 6 couples, or singles could stay. It had a kayak and a few other little extras like an outhouse. It seemed just like Gilligan’s island, and what could possibly go wrong.

They left fruit, vegetables , canned food, soda, charcoal, and that was about it. I brought some beer and vodka.

The first day was awesome, the second day I was a little bit sunburned, and my skin was suffering from not being able to get the salt off well enough, and the ice in my cooler had melted and my beer was warm.

The island was gorgeous and you could swim to a neighboring island. You could see all sorts of fish while snorkeling.

On the third day I was itching like crazy, and I packed up and took the boat back to civilization, which was just a short journey.

I decided that I really didn’t want to be alone on a desert island. If I could have had a fridge, a toilet and a shower, or even a fresh water stream, I would have easily lasted a week, maybe a month.

So what I learned was that being stranded on a deserted island is a lot more like Tom Hanks, than like Swiss family Robinson, and without the things that I was accustomed to, it wasn’t the paradise that I had thought. Or maybe it was a paradise, just not my paradise.

This all happened about 40 years ago, so I doubt anything is the same today.

Why do right-wing Americans don’t trust mainstream narrative about Trump but take every lie of them against China as truth?

They need a scapegoat for all their problems, and China qualifies as scape goat for the Right, especially being (at least officially) Communist and definitely nonwhite. There is definitely more racism among the right wing, or at least they show it more. So, unfortunately, Trump used China as a scapegoat during his term, at times, but he started doing it less and less towards the end. Doing this to China was a mistake, but at least he didn’t get all belligerent about Taiwan like Biden did, and what Biden did was far more dangerous. Unlike Biden, Trump preferred dialogue to war with China, Russia, and even North Korea. He is the dove of peace compared to Herr Biden!

I believe when Trump gets elected (notice that I am saying not “if” but “when”), he will no longer use China as a scapegoat anymore, recognizing its vast economic and military power and usefulness to the US, but he will blame everything on the Neocon Neoliberal US establishment, and he will be right. The establishment fully deserves it, with inequality (and resulting socioeconomic instability) under this establishment increasing exponentially over the last 40 years (and especially the last 20 years or so, post 2007 crisis), and a war on two fronts (Ukraine and the Middle East). This almost makes even Trump look like a Socialist!

As far as not trusting the mainstream narrative about Trump (and most other things), the Trump-supporters are right. What’s more, I believe that at least half of Democrats don’t trust the mainstream narrative anymore!

It’s War: The Real Meat Grinder Starts Now

By Pe.pe Esc.obar

No more shadow play. It’s now in the open. No holds barred

Exhibit 1: Friday, March 22, 2024. It’s War. The Kremlin, via Peskov, finally admits it, on the record.

The money quote:

“Russia cannot allow the existence on its borders of a state that has a documented intention to use any methods to take Crimea away from it, not to mention the territory of new regions.”

Translation: the Hegemon-constructed Kiev mongrel is doomed, one way or another. The Kremlin signal: “We haven’t even started” starts now.

Exhibit 2: Friday afternoon, a few hours after Peskov. Confirmed by a serious European – not Russian – source. The first counter-signal.

Regular troops from France, Germany and Poland have arrived, by rail and air, to Cherkassy, south of Kiev. A substantial force. No numbers leaked. They are being housed in schools. For all practical purposes, this is a NATO force.

That signals, “Let the games begin”. From a Russian point of view, Mr. Khinzal’s business cards are set to be in great demand.

Exhibit 3: Friday evening. Terror attack on Crocus City, a music venue northwest of Moscow. A heavily trained commando shoots people on sight, point blank, in cold blood, then sets a concert hall on fire. The definitive counter-signal: with the battlefield collapsing, all that’s left is terrorism in Moscow.

And just as terror was striking Moscow, the US and the UK, in southwest Asia, was bombing Sana’a, the Yemeni capital, with at least five strikes.

Some nifty coordination. Yemen has just clinched a strategic deal in Oman with Russia-China for no-hassle navigation in the Red Sea, and is among the top candidates for BRICS+ expansion at the summit in Kazan next October.

Not only the Houthis are spectacularly defeating thalassocracy, they have the Russia-China strategic partnership on their side. Assuring China and Russia that their ships can sail through the Bab-al-Mandeb, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden with no problems is exchanged with total political support from Beijing and Moscow.

The sponsors remain the same

Deep in the night in Moscow, before dawn on Saturday 23. Virtually no one is sleeping. Rumors dance like dervishes on countless screens. Of course nothing has been confirmed – yet. Only the FSB will have answers. A massive investigation is in progress.

The timing of the Crocus massacre is quite intriguing.

On a Friday during Ramadan. Real Muslims would not even think about perpetrating a mass murder of unarmed civilians under such a holy occasion. Compare it with the ISIS card being frantically branded by the usual suspects.

Let’s go *pop*.

To quote Talking Heads: “This ain’t no party/ this ain’t no disco/ this ain’t no fooling around”.

Oh no; it’s more like an all-American psy op.

ISIS are cartoonish mercenaries/goons. Not real Muslims. And everyone knows who finances and weaponizes them. *wink* *wink*

That leads to the most possible scenario, before the FSB weighs in: ISIS goons imported from the Syria battleground – as it stands, probably Tajiks – trained by CIA and MI6, working on behalf of the Ukrainian SBU. Several witnesses at Crocus referred to “Wahhabis” – as in the commando killers did not look like Slavs.

It was up to Serbia’s Aleksandar Vucic to cut to the chase. He directly connected the “warnings” in early March from American and British embassies directed at their citizens not to visit public places in Moscow with CIA/MI6 intel having inside info about possible terrorism, and not disclosing it to Moscow.

The plot thickens when it is established that Crocus is owned by the Agalarovs: an Azeri-Russian billionaire family, very close friends of…

… Donald Trump.

Talk about a Deep State-pinpointed target.

ISIS spin-off or banderistas – the sponsors remain the same.

The clownish secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, was dumb enough to virtually, indirectly confirm they did it, saying on Ukrainian TV, “we will give them [Russians] this kind of fun more often.”

But it was up to Sergei Goncharov, a veteran of the elite Russia Alpha anti-terrorism unit, to get closer to unwrapping the enigma: he told Sputnik the most feasible mastermind is Kyrylo Budanov – the chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

The “spy chief” who happens to be the top CIA asset in Kiev.

It’s got to go till the last Ukrainian

The three exhibits above complement what the head of NATO’s military committee, Rob Bauer, previously told a security forum in Kiev: “You need more than just grenades – you need people to replace the dead and wounded. And this means mobilization.”

Translation: NATO spelling out this is a war until the last Ukrainian.

And the “leadership” in Kiev still does not get it. Former Minister of Infrastructure Omelyan: “If we win, we will pay back with Russian oil, gas, diamonds and fur. If we lose, there will be no talk of money – the West will think about how to survive.”

In parallel, puny “garden-and jungle” Borrell admitted that it would be “difficult” for the EU to find an extra 50 billion euros for Kiev if Washington pulls the plug. The cocaine-fueled sweaty sweatshirt leadership actually believes that Washington is not “helping” in the form of loans, but in the form of free gifts. And the same applies for the EU.

The Theater of the Absurd is unmatchable.

The German Liver Sausage Chancellor actually believes that proceeds from stolen Russian assets “do not belong to anyone”, so they can be used to finance extra Kiev weaponizing.

Everyone with a brain knows that using interest from “frozen”, actually stolen Russian assets to weaponize Ukraine is a dead end – unless they steal all of Russia’s assets, roughly $200 billion, mostly parked in Belgium and Switzerland: that would tank the Euro for good, and the whole EU economy for that matter.

Eurocrats better listen to Russian Central Bank major “disrupter” (American terminology) Elvira Nabiullina: The Bank of Russia will take “appropriate measures” if the EU does anything on the “frozen”/stolen Russian assets.

It goes without saying that the three exhibits above completely nullify the “La Cage aux Folles” circus promoted by the puny Petit Roi, now known across his French domains as Macronapoleon.

Virtually the whole planet, including the English-speaking Global North, had already been mocking the “exploits” of his Can Can Moulin Rouge Army.

So French, German and Polish soldiers, as part of NATO, are already in the south of Kiev. The most possible scenario is that they will stay far, far away from the frontlines – although traceable by Mr. Khinzal’s business activities.

Even before this new NATO batch arriving in the south of Kiev, Poland – which happens to serve as prime transit corridor for Kiev’s troops – had confirmed that Western troops are already on the ground.

So this is not about mercenaries anymore. France, by the way, is only 7th in terms of mercenaries on the ground, largely trailing Poland, the US and Georgia, for instance.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has all the precise records.

In a nutshell: now war has morphed from Donetsk, Avdeyevka and Belgorod to Moscow. Further on down the road, it may not just stop in Kiev. It may only stop in Lviv. Mr. 87%, enjoying massive national near-unanimity, now has the mandate to go all the way. Especially after Crocus.

There’s every possibility the terror tactics by Kiev goons will finally drive Russia to return Ukraine to its original 17th century landlocked borders: Black Sea-deprived, and with Poland, Romania, and Hungary reclaiming their former territories.

Remaining Ukrainians will start to ask serious questions about what led them to fight – literally to their death – on behalf of the US Deep State, the military complex and BlackRock.

As it stands, the Highway to Hell meat grinder is bound to reach maximum velocity.

Ten things

Pizza in a Tunnel

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

3 cups buttermilk biscuit mix or Biscuit Baking Mix
2/3 cup milk
2 eggs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1 (3 1/2 ounce) package sliced pepperoni, halved
1 (14 ounce) jar pizza sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Cornmeal

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease and lightly dust* a 10 inch fluted tube pan or an 11 cup ring mold with cornmeal.
In a large mixer bowl, combine biscuit mix, milk, eggs and butter. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until well combined. Beat on high speed for 1 minute, scraping bowl constantly.
With back of spoon, spread 2/3 of the dough on the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pan to within 1 1/2 inches of the top; reserve remaining dough.
Layer mushroom, pepperoni, pizza sauce and 1 1/2 cups of the cheese over the dough in pan.
Spread reserved dough over the top of cheese layer.
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden.
Let pizza stand for 10 minutes on a warm rack.
Use a knife to loosen sides of pizza, turn out onto ovenproof serving plate.
Top with remaining cheese.
Return pizza to oven for 1 to 2 minutes to melt cheese.
Serve warm.

“Study Reveals How Ancient Humans Escaped Climate Extinction 900,000 Years Ago”

Posted on March 20, 2024 by TTG

Figure 1: (A) 65°N summer solstice insolation, (B)Atmospheric CO2 concentration, Allan Hills vertical error bars indicate 2σ spread with horizontal age uncertainty, (C) Global LR04 benthic stacked δ18O (blue), ODP1123 seawater δ18O (black). The MPT and the “typical 41 ka-world” intervals are highlighted in grey and yellow respectively.

Some 900,000 years ago, humans nearly went extinct. According to the results of a genomics study published last year, modern humanity’s ancestors were reduced to a breeding population of barely 1,300 individuals in a devastating bottleneck that brought us to the very brink of annihilation. Now, a new study has found that a mass migration of humans out of Africa occurred at the same time.

It’s a discovery that confirms the previous dating of the population decline, and suggests that the two are linked to a common denominator; an event known as the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, in which Earth’s climate underwent a period of utter turmoil, wiping out many species. The movement of early humans into and across Europe and Asia from Africa is difficult to reconstruct. The best evidence we have consists of a sparse record of bones and mostly stone artifacts, which can be challenging to date. However, the evidence suggests that it wasn’t one event, but multiple waves of early hominids and human ancestors that packed up their lives and made long journeys into new environments.

Two recent studies have linked human migration to a population bottleneck, based on different types of analysis. A close reading of the human genome found that a population bottleneck caused a loss of genetic diversity some 900,000 years ago. A second study, published a few weeks later, studied early archaeological sites in Eurasia, and dated the bottleneck to 1.1 million years ago.

This discrepancy makes it challenging to identify the climate event that may have caused or at the very least contributed to the temporary drop in numbers, so geologists Giovanni Muttoni of the University of Milan and Dennis Kent of Columbia University embarked on an effort to narrow down the timing of the bottleneck. First, the researchers re-evaluated records of sites of early hominid habitation across Eurasia, and found a cluster of sites reliably dated to 900,000 years ago. In comparison, the dating on older sites used as evidence of a population bottleneck was more ambiguous and therefore disputable.

They compared their findings to marine sediment records, which preserve evidence of changes in the climate in the form of oxygen isotopes. Ratios of oxygen trapped in sediment layers indicate whether the climate was warmer or cooler at the time the minerals were deposited.

The genomic data and the dating of the hominid sites together suggest that the bottleneck and the migration were simultaneous. During the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, global ocean levels dropped, and Africa and Asia dried out, with large patches of aridity. Hominids living in Africa would have faced horrible conditions depriving them of food and water. Fortunately, with the falling sea level, land routes into Eurasia became available and they were able to skedaddle, according to the researchers’ model.

This is not to say, they carefully note, that hominids had not migrated previously. Rather that the population bottleneck in the ancestor of modern Homo sapiens and the migration thereof occurred at the same time as a result of the climate upheaval that was occurring some 900,000 years ago.

“We suggest that the enhanced aridity during marine isotope stage 22 that caused the spread of savanna and arid zones across much of continental Africa pushed early Homo populations in Africa to adapt or migrate to avoid extinction,” they write in their paper. “Rapid migration in response to a severe climate trigger and concomitant means to escape is what can account for the … migration out-of-Africa at 0.9 million years ago and contribute to the modern genomic evidence in modern African populations of the bottleneck.”

The findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

https://www.sciencealert.com/study-reveals-how-ancient-humans-escaped-climate-extinction-900000-years-ago

Comment: I have found this stuff fascinating as far back as when I watched the National Geographic specials with Louis B. Leakey digging for bones in Olduvai Gorge. I started at RPI majoring in geology figuring that would be a good way to get into paleontology. Only later did I transfer to anthropology… and ROTC.

This story is a good example of what effect a changing climate can have on humans even when they occur on a geological time scale. Reducing our breeding population to barely 1,300 individuals and causing our ancestors to un-ass the area for parts unknown are damned drastic effects. In this case, humans certainly had no hand in influencing this particular episode of climate change. It would be interesting to compare and contrast the conditions leading to the Mid-Pleistocene Transition to what we’re seeing/not seeing today.

TTG

https://pastglobalchanges.org/publications/pages-magazines/pages-magazine/11517

They really think we’re dumb don’t they?

main qimg ee5a523a622cf073f8615d93d78597b3

Russia Announces Two New ARMIES; 14 New Divisions, 16 New Brigades

World Hal Turner 21 March 2024

With his re-election accomplished, Russian President Vladimir Putin is now getting serious about the harm being done to Russia by the petulant and crazed collective West. Defense Minister Shoigu has announced the creation of two new ARMIES for Russia, including fourteen (14) New Divisions of 10,000-15,000 troops EACH, and sixteen (16) new divisions of 3,000-5,000 troops EACH.

To put these two new armies in perspective, what Russia is now creating – above and beyond its present armed forces – is larger than the armies of:

Germany, Britain (UK), France, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Czech Republic, Croatia, Finland, Sweden COMBINED.

The big question now is whether or not Russia will resort to Conscription.

Stay tuned . . .

So true

One of the Moscow attackers, has been confirmed to be an ex-Ukrainian soldier who served in 2022

World Hal Turner 23 March 2024

Moscow shooter suspect Rustam Azhiyev large

The investigation into the horrific attack at a Concert Hall in the Moscow, Russia region, has been positively identified as Rustam Azhiyev, a former UKRAINIAN SOLDIER (Image above) who served in 2022, as a shooter.

The man shown atop this story is the captured suspect and Russian law enforcement identified him and pulled up some of his history in the Ukraine Army:

Suspect Rustam Azhiyev Ukraine Army info

In earlier stories about the Moscow Attack, it was reported that a White Renault automobile was caught on a dashcam, with men exiting carrying rifles, outside the concert hall which was attacked (HERE).

It was also reported earlier that the White Renault vehicle was captured and the men inside, who fled to nearby woods, were also captured (HERE).

Those men were identified as having been citizens of Tajikistan, which is shown on the map below:

Hours after the Terrorist attack near Moscow, that White Renault vehicle was captured on a road near Bryansk, Russia, which is shown on the map below:

Moscow suspects Caught Bryansk Lived Tajikistan Map

Why were the suspects traveling toward UKRAINE when they are allegedly from Tajikistan? Why does one of the suspects have ties to the UKRAINE armed forces?

The investigation is rapidly developing with evidence that it was UKRAINE that was deeply involved in this terror attack upon innocent civilians inside Russia.

Pittsburgh Is Being Destroyed. Here’s Why.

Transforming the United States into Haiti.

Lordy! I have family living in Pittsburgh.

Terrorists Wore Body Cams! Video of them Murdering inside Russian Concert Hall

World Hal Turner 23 March 2024

The terrorists who attacked a concert hall inside Russia, apparently wore Body Cams or “Go-Pro-Type” cameras and took video of themselves as they massacred innocent people. I have received one such video.

In the video, one can see an UNARMED co-conspirator, wearing what appears to be rifle magazine clip-carriers (no gun seen on him) waving a shooter INTO a hallway where innocent people were hiding. Image above.

The shooter enters the doorway to that hall and begins firing.

At least six people go down under his automatic weapons fire. Blood spray and splatter, everywhere.

As the person wearing the camera turns, another terrorist attacker is shown kneeling at the throat of another victim, who had already been shot, but was laying, wounded and dying, on the ground. The perpetrator is seen repeatedly slicing the victims throat — at least TEN SLASHES, with blood spewing from the gaping wounds.

Then that perp and others calmly walk away:

Unarmed co conspirator waving shooter into hallway large

This is some of the most evil, vicious, horrifying, crime video I have ever seen. It makes me sick to my stomach. The Barbarity. The inhuman behavior. It is mortifying to me.

I find myself in an ethical and moral quandary over this video. It certainly is “news.” Of that, there is no doubt.

Yet the video is so utterly horrifying, so outside any behavior even remotely “human,” and so hideously violent, that I find myself recoiling at the notion of putting the video out.

I then asked myself if perhaps I should put still images from the video, like the one atop this story, and that begot yet another quandary. Would publishing such still images, cause emotional distress to the families of the victims?

I have decided still images ought not be published except for the non-gruesome images above, either.

Maybe I’m getting soft in my old age. Maybe, though, I’m just pushed too far on this one, and realizing there is nothing good that can come of publishing it.

I want you to know I have the video. I’ve watched it. It is frighteningly gruesome, and shows what can only be described as pure evil.

Biggest red flag

Happening Now: Russian Missiles Cross POLAND Border During Ukraine Attack

World Hal Turner 23 March 2024

As of 11:53 PM eastern US time on Saturday night-into-Sunday, Russia is engaged in a large missile attack against Ukraine. HOWEVER, “at least three” Russian missiles breached POLAND air space over the Village of Horodto, and POLAND has scrambled fighter jets.

The scalable map below shows the village of Horodto, Poland, on the border of Ukraine.

At least 7 Russian Tu-95MS bombers took off from the Olenya air field in Russia to launch long-range missiles at Ukraine.

Bombers also took off from Engels with a total now of 13 in the air.

This airfield is located just 100km from the Norway border in the far north.

MORE:

6- Su-34 bombers are airborne

LARGE EXPLOSIONS IN LVIV. SECOND MISSILE VOLLEY INBOUND.

MISSILES ARE HEADED FOR KIEV!!!!

ALL of Ukraine now in Air Raid Alert:

Missiles Have Overflown Oserdow, Poland which is about 70km south of Horodto, Poland, previously overflown.

— Several Dozen additional Cruise Missiles have entered Ukrainian Airspace via the Chernihiv and Sumy Region.

— Multiple Russian Kh-101/555/55 cruise missiles on direct course to Kyiv from the north.

Massive explosions in Kyiv the city is under intense bombardment right now.

MORE:

At least 19x explosions in Stryi, on the Ukrainian side of the Polish-Ukrainian border:

Jackie Chan wise words

Vintage Shorpy

Men can only take so much.

Then they stop.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is talking nonsense. Its friends on Earth are worried.

Posted on March 12, 2024 by TTG

“Frankly, I’m very worried,” he says. Ever since mid-November, the Voyager 1 spacecraft has been sending messages back to Earth that don’t make any sense. It’s as if the aging spacecraft has suffered some kind of stroke that’s interfering with its ability to speak. “It basically stopped talking to us in a coherent manner,” says Suzanne Dodd of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who has been the project manager for the Voyager interstellar mission since 2010. “It’s a serious problem.”

Instead of sending messages home in binary code, Voyager 1 is now just sending back alternating 1s and 0s. Dodd’s team has tried the usual tricks to reset things — with no luck. It looks like there’s a problem with the onboard computer that takes data and packages it up to send back home. All of this computer technology is primitive compared to, say, the key fob that unlocks your car, says Dodd. “The button you press to open the door of your car, that has more compute power than the Voyager spacecrafts do,” she says. “It’s remarkable that they keep flying, and that they’ve flown for 46-plus years.”

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, have outlasted many of those who designed and built them. So to try to fix Voyager 1’s current woes, the dozen or so people on Dodd’s team have had to pore over yellowed documents and old mimeographs. “They’re doing a lot of work to try and get into the heads of the original developers and figure out why they designed something the way they did and what we could possibly try that might give us some answers to what’s going wrong with the spacecraft,” says Dodd. She says that they do have a list of possible fixes. As time goes on, they’ll likely start sending commands to Voyager 1 that are more bold and risky. “The things that we will do going forward are probably more challenging in the sense that you can’t tell exactly if it’s going to execute correctly — or if you’re going to maybe do something you didn’t want to do, inadvertently,” says Dodd.

Linda Spilker, who serves as the Voyager mission’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says that when she comes to work she sees “all of these circuit diagrams up on the wall with sticky notes attached. And these people are just having a great time trying to troubleshoot, you know, the 60’s and 70’s technology.” “I’m cautiously optimistic,” she says. “There’s a lot of creativity there.”

Still, this is a painstaking process that could take weeks, or even months. Voyager 1 is so distant, it takes almost a whole day for a signal to travel out there, and then a whole day for its response to return. “We’ll keep trying,” says Dodd, “and it won’t be quick.”

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/06/1236033493/nasas-voyager-1-spacecraft-is-talking-nonsense-its-friends-on-earth-are-worried

Comment: This is one hell of an adventure for NASA coders and engineers. I envy them. Years before the launch of Voyager 1, I was introduced to computers in an after school course in the computer center of Fairfield University. I ended up writing a Star Trek navigation game in Fortran by graphing polynomial functions. I wouldn’t know where to begin to do that now. Many years later I learned how to hack MS DOS to write stupid computer tricks and write simple viruses. That was all to support a cover. I couldn’t do that today, either. Those rudimentary old skills are nothing to sneeze at. Those NASA coders are living the dream… a techno-nerd dream, but a dream nevertheless.

TTG

The logic of anti-China idiots

Smart Boy

Stuffed Pizza

Ingredients

Crust

1 recipe uncooked deep-dish dough crust

Stuffing Mixture

1 bunch spinach, washed, stems removed, and lightly wilted (stir-fried)
8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
2 ounces Canadian bacon slices, diced
1 teaspoon oregano
2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
2 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup tomato sauce

Alternate Stuffing Mixture

8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 pound hot Italian sausage, browned/crumbled and drained
1/3 cup small pepperoni pieces
1/4 cup sliced black olives
1/4 cup sliced green olives
1/2 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 teaspoon oregano
1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Instructions

Stuffing Mixture

Combine spinach, cheese, Canadian bacon, oregano, garlic and mushrooms for stuffing mixture.

Crust

Spread dough in a greased deep-dish pan and up the sides for the bottom crust (approximately 16 ounces of dough for 14 inch deep dish).
Par-bake the crust for four minutes.
Add stuffing mixture to bottom crust in a deep dish pan and cover with top crust (approximately 13 ounces dough).
Seal the two dough edges together with fingers and trim excess.
Slit the top crust to allow steam to vent during baking.
Add tomato sauce topping and bake in a preheated 450 degrees F oven on lower rack or directly on the pizza stone for 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
Remove from pan and cool 5 minutes on a wire rack before cutting and serving.

Reactance

Have you ever called in sick but you were convinced or threatened by your superiors to come to work? Did it end well for you?

Oooooh yes, and definitely no.

I had done some North American travelling (flights) in late 2019, and soon after arriving home in Canada I fell ill. I was sicker than I’d ever been… but it felt like a bad cold. Very bad. I lay in bed for 4–5 days with fever, aches, congestion, cough – no medicines could ease my agony. I am not a whiner either… quite the opposite. I don’t miss work.

On the Thursday of the week (having missed Monday – Wednesday out sick) I received a call saying that the Boss wanted me in Saturday because we were moving a ton of desks around the office, on his whim. For context, I’m an Office & Facilities Manager, so this did *technically* fall under my purview, though the Boss dreamt this up earlier in the week so I hadn’t been involved.

They threatened my employment if I didn’t show up for this desk move, despite touting a ‘no limits’ policy on vacation and illness. I showed up to the office that Saturday and did my job, sicker than ever. Life went on, my cough lasted 17 weeks (SEVENTEEN WEEKS) even with a steroid inhaler, I lost 18lbs off my already lean but fit frame. Management teased me & laughed about it as I coughed all over the office and just kept saying ‘you’re so sickly’…

Pretty sure I had COVID, and bad, but this was before tests were available.

I quit in January ‘20, just before the world learned of the COVID-19 virus circulating the world. Still can’t reconcile the arrogance and lack of empathy of that management team with the A++ company they purported to be.

Only 6.5 out of 1,000 Men Are Getting Married: Report

Spawn by P. Schuyler Miller

Spawn

by P. Schuyler Miller

Preface by Eric Flint




I'd never read this story until Dave told me he wanted it for the anthology. After I did, I understood why. He'll explain his view of it in an afterword, but what I'll say about it for the moment is . . . 

This story really, really, really shouldn't work. If there's any "rule of writing" that P. Schuyler Miller doesn't violate somewhere in the course of it, I don't know what it is. The plot is . . . 

Absurd. The characters are . . . 

Preposterous. The prose is . . . 

"Purple" doesn't begin to capture the color. 

So much for the rules of writing. In its own completely over-the-top style, this story is a masterpiece. 

Okay, a madman's masterpiece, maybe, and certainly one of a kind. It still qualifies for the term because it fulfills the ultimate criterion for a great story—and, ultimately, the only criterion worth talking about.

It works. It really, really, really works.

Pedants spout glibly of probability, quibble and hedge, gulp at imagined gnats. Nothing is impossible to mathematics. Only improbable. Only very improbable.

Only impossibly improbable.

Earth, for example, is improbable. Planets should not logically exist, nor on existing planets life. Balances of forces are too impossibly delicate; origins too complexly coincidental. But Earth does exist—and on Earth life.

We see Earth and we see life, or we see something, however improbable, and call it Earth and life. We forget probabilities and mathematics and live by our senses, by our common sense. Our common sense sees Earth and it sees life, and in a kind of darkened mirror it sees men—but men are utterly improbable!

Ooze to worms and worms to fishes. Fishes to frogs and frogs to lizards. Lizards to rats and rats to men, and men at last to bloated, futuristic Brains. Brains are improbable: brains and senses, and above all, common sense. Not impossible—because nothing is impossible—but so improbable that nowhere in all the improbable stars, nowhere in all the improbably empty space between the stars, is there room for other Earths and other rats and men.

Nowhere—life.

* * *

An improbable man is tight. A man with improbably carrot-colored hair, with an improbably enormous nose. With a cold in that nose. With a quart of potato rot-gut to encourage the utter improbability of that cold and that nose, and of the world in general. With a plane’s rudder bar under his feet and a plane’s stick between his knees, and the Chilean Andes improbably gigantic underneath.

A man is tight. And coincident with that tightness he is witness to the Improbable:

Friday, the 25th of July: James Arthur Donegan, thirty-odd, red-haired, American, has witnessed the Improbable.

A cliff, hard and quartz-white, softening—puddling—pulping away in a vast heaped monstrousness fat with thick ropes of gold. Raw gold—yellow in the Andean sunlight. Mother-gold—knotted in wadded worm-nests in the shining rock. Medusae of golden fascination. Gold burning in hemp-dream arabesques in the naked cliff-face, in the white quartz that is pulping, dripping, sloughing into monstrosity.

Jim Donegan tipped his bottle high and lifted his plane out of insanity. Jim Donegan’s brain reeled with the raw white fire of potato whiskey and the raw yellow lustre of fat gold. And with the gold a quartz cliff melting, puddling—stone into pudding—sense into nonsense.

Jim Donegan tipped his bottle again and remembered to forget. Landed in Santiago. Disappeared.

* * *

An improbable man is sober. A thousand improbable men and a thousand even less credible women, and of them all only a hundred drunk. Only another hundred tight, or boiled, or mildly blotto. And half a thousand improbable men and women, drunk and sober, see and hear and photograph the Improbable eating whales:

Wednesday, the 20th of August: Richard Chisholm, fifty, grizzled, British, has entered the Improbable in his log. Has stirred one wrinkled cerebrum, accustomed to the investigation of probabilities, in unaccustomed ways.

Zoologist Heinrich Wilhelm Sturm leaned with polished elbows on a polished rail and stared at a burnished sea. Daughter Marie Elsa Sturm leaned and stared beside him. Secretary Rudolf Walter Weltmann leaned and stared, but not at waves.

Waves lifted lazily along a great ship’s flank. Waves swelled and fell unbroken with the listless, oily languor of old dreams. And caught in the warm web of the sun and the malachitic waxenness of the waves a score of whales basked, rolling and blowing, under the weary eyes of Zoologist Heinrich Sturm.

The molten, lucent fluid of the sea clotted and cooled. Color went swiftly out of it: greenstone to apple jade, jade into chrysoprase, prase into beryl spume. It folded in uneven glistening hillocks of illogical solidity, and Zoologist Heinrich Sturm choked on his German oaths as a score of drowsing whales fought suddenly with death!

Acres of empty sea became quivering pulp. Grey puffs of it pushed out of the waves and sank again. Horrible, avid ripples shuddered and smoothed across its sleekness. And twenty whales were caught: gigantic, blunted minnows wallowing in a pudding mould; titanic ebon microbes studding an agar bowl. Drowned by the grey-green stuff that oozed into their gullets and choked their valved blow-holes! Strangled and stifled by it.

Swallowed and eaten by it!

The sound of it was unreal—the whoosh of blown breath splattering jellied ooze—the soft, glutting gurgle of flowing pulp—the single soughing sob as giant flukes pulled loose to fling aloft and smash into the rippled greenness that was darkening with the shadow of the ship.

One last sucking sigh—the fling of one mighty glistening upsilon against the sky—the babble of half a thousand human beings gulping breath. And Zoologist Heinrich Sturm, staring through thick, dark lenses at the blob of grey-green jelly on his wrist, at the spatter of jelly on the deck at his feet, and swearing happily his guttural German oaths . . .

* * *

A dead man lay in state.

And I was there:

Friday, the 22nd of August: Nicholas Svadin lies for the third day in solemn state before the peoples of the world.

Nicholas Svadin, Dictator of Mittel-Europa, lay waxen white under the heaped callas, under the August sun of Budapest. Nicholas Svadin, son of a Slavic butcher, grandson of German fuhrers, lay with six soft-nosed bullets in his skull and breast. Nicholas Svadin—whose genius for government had won the loyalty instead of the hatred of nations, whose greedy hand fed on the conflict of languages and races, whose shadow had covered Europe from the Volga to the Rhine. Nicholas Svadin—who had held all Europe under his humane tyranny save for the bickering fringe of Latin states and the frozen, watchful silence of the Anglo-Scandinavian confederacy.

Nicholas Svadin—dead in the August sun, with all Europe trembling in metastable balance under the fast-unfolding wings of Chaos.

And four men were the world. And four men were afraid.

They stood as they had stood when Svadin’s great rolling voice burst in a bloody cough and his great body, arms upflung in the compassionate gesture of the Cross, slumped like a greasy rag on the white steps of the Peace Hall. They stood with the world before them, and the world’s dead master, and the vision of the morrow brooded in their eyes.

Four men were the world. Rasmussen, bearded, blond, steel-eyed premier of Anglo-Scandia. Nasuki at his elbow, little and cunning with the age-old subtlety of the East. Gonzales, sleek, olive-skinned heir of the Neo-latin dictator. Moorehead the American, lean and white-headed and oldest of the four. Two and two in the August sun with the sickly scent of the death-lilies cloying in their nostrils, and I with my camera marking Time’s slow march.

I marked the four where they stood by the open bier. I marked the spilling lines of mourners that flowed in black runnels through the silent streets of Budapest. I marked the priests where they came, slow-treading with the stateliness of an elder civilization.

I marked the resurrection of the dead!

Nicholas Svadin rose on his white-banked bier and stared at the world of men. Nicholas Svadin rose with the white wax softening in his massive jowls and the round blue scar of a soft-nosed slug between his corpse’s eyes. Nicholas Svadin swung his thick legs with an ugly stiffness from the bier and stood alone, alive, staring at mankind, and spoke four words—once, slowly, then again:

“I—am—Nicholas Svadin.”

“I am Nicholas Svadin!”

And men had found a god.

Svadin had been a man, born of woman, father of men and women, the greatest Earth had known. His genius was for mankind, and he enfolded humanity in his kindly arms and was the father of a world. Svadin was a man, killed as men are killed, but on the third day he rose from his bed of death and cried his name aloud for the world to hear.

Svadin the man became Svadin the god.

I photographed the world-assembly at Leningrad when Svadin called together the scientists of the Earth and gave them the world to mould according to their liking. I marked the gathering in America’s halls of Congress when the rulers of the world gave their nations into his bloodless hands and received them again, reborn into a new order of democracy. I watched, and my camera watched, as the world poured itself into these new-cut patterns of civilization and found them good. And then, because men are men and even a Golden Age will pall at last, I turned to other things:

A bathysphere torn from its cable in mid-deep.

Fishing fleets returning with empty holds after weeks and months at sea.

Eels gone from their ancient haunts, and salmon spawning in dozens where once streams had been choked with their lusting bodies.

Cattleships lost in mid-Atlantic, and then a freighter, and another, gone without a trace.

Two men and a girl whose names were on the rolls of every ship that crossed and recrossed the haunted waters of the North Atlantic.

And from the South vague rumors of a god:

Miami’s sun-bathed beaches were black with human insects. Miami’s tropic night throbbed with the beat of music and the sway and glide of dancers. Maria Elsa Sturm glided and swayed in the strong, young arms of Rudolf Weltmann and laughed with her night-blue eyes and poppy lips, but Heinrich Sturm stood alone in the star-strewn night and stared broodingly at the sleeping sea. Maria basked in the smoldering noonday sun, a slender golden flame beside the swarthy handsomeness of her companion, but the old masked eyes of Heinrich stared beyond her beauty at the sea.

Long waves swelled sleepily against the far blue of the Gulf Stream and sank and swelled again and creamed in tepid foam along the sands. Gay laughter rippled and prismatic color played with kaleidoscopic lavishness under the golden sun. Wave after wave of the sea, rising and falling and rising against the sky—and a wave that did not fall!

It came as the others had come, slowly, blue-green and glistening in the sunlight. It rose and fell with the ceaseless surge of the Atlantic at its back, and rose again along the white curve of the beach. It was like a wall of water, miles in length, rushing shoreward with the speed of a running man. Men ran from it and were caught. Spots of bright color spun in its sluggish eddies and went down. Tongues of it licked out over the warm sands, leaving them naked and bone-white, and flowed lazily back into the monstrous thing that lay and gorged in the hot sun.

It was a sea-green tumulus, vast as all Ocean. It was a league-long hillock of green ooze, apple-jade-green, chrysoprase-green, grey-green of frosted flint. It was a thing of Famine—not out of Bibles, not out of the histories of men—a thing that lay like a pestilence of the sea upon the warm, white beaches of Miami, black with humanity running, screaming, milling—a thing that was greedy and that fed!

Tatters of bright rag swirled in its sluggish eddies, oozed from its gelid depths; fragments of white bone, chalk-white and etched, rose and were spewed on the white sands. Arms of it flowed like hot wax, knowingly, hungrily. Veins in it, pale like clear ribbons of white jade in green translucency, ran blossom-pink, ran rose, ran crimson-red.

Maria Elsa Sturm lay in the white sand, in the warm sun, in the strong arms of healthy Rudolf Weltmann, under the unseeing eyes of Heinrich Sturm. Zoologist Heinrich Sturm woke to the world with horror in his eyes, horror in his brain, shrieking horror come stark into this life. Zoologist Heinrich Sturm saw tongues of the green-sea-stuff licking over Miami’s bone-white sands, supping up morsels of kicking life, spewing out dead things that were not food. Zoologist Heinrich Sturm saw the Incredible, mountain-high, suck up the golden straw that was Maria Strum, suck up the brown, strong straw that was Rudolf Weltmann, swell like a flooding river against the sea-wall at his feet, purling and dimpling with greedy inner currents—saw it ebb and lie drowsing, relishing its prey—saw the bright, scarlet rag that had wrapped Maria Sturm oozing up out of its green horridness, saw the black rag that had clothed Rudolf, saw two white, naked skulls that dimpled its glistening surface before they were sloughed away among tide-rows of eaten bones.

League-long and hill-high the wave that was not a wave lay glutting on young flesh, supping up hot blood. League-long and hill-high, with the little insect myriads of mankind running and screaming, standing and dying—with the buzzing wings of mankind circling over it and men’s little weapons peppering at its vast, full-fed imperturbability. Bombs fell like grain from a sower’s fist, streaming shadows of them raining out of the bare blue sky. Vast sound shattered the ears of gaping men, crushing in windows, shaking down ceilings, thundering with boastful vengeance. Fountains of green jelly rose stringily; wounds like the pit of Kimberly opened and showed sea-green, shadowed depths, stirring as the sea stirs, closing as the sea closes, with no scar. Bricks crumbled in little streams from a broken cornice; glass tinkled from gaping windows; men wailed and babbled and stared in fascination at Death. And Zoologist Heinrich Sturm stood alone, a gray old rock against which the scrambling tide beat and broke, seeing only the golden body of Maria Elsa Sturm, the laughing upturned face of Maria Elsa Sturm, the night-blue eyes and poppy lips of Maria Elsa Sturm . . .

Long waves swelled sleepily against the far blue of the Gulf Stream, and sank and swelled again, and creamed in soft foam against the bone-white sands. Wave after wave, rising and falling and rising higher with the flooding tide. Waves rising to lap the sea-green tumulus, to bathe its red-veined monstrousness whose crimson rills were fading to pink, to grey, to lucent white. Waves laving it, tickling its monstrous fancies, pleasing it mightily. Waves into which it subsided and left Miami’s white beaches naked for a league save for the windrows of heaped bones and the moist, bright rags that had been men’s condescension to the morality of men.

Cameras ground clickingly along that league-long battlefront while horror fed; microphones gathered the scream of the sight of Death from a thousand quavering lips—but not mine.

Men turned away, sickened, to turn and stare again with horrid fascination at the wet white windrows that were girls’ bones and men’s bones, and children’s—but not I.

Other eyes saw that vision of the Incredible; other lips told me of it when I asked. I did not see Zoologist Heinrich Sturm when he turned his back on the drift of smiling skulls and went wearily with the human stream, when he paid with creased and hoarded notes the accounts of Maria Elsa Sturm, deceased, and of Rudolf Walter Weltmann, deceased, of Heinrich Wilhelm Sturm.

I did not see Zoologist Heinrich Sturm when he stepped out of the hotel with his battered suitcase, plastered with paper labels, his round black hat, his thick dark glasses, and disappeared.

No one who saw cared.

There was no one, now, to care . . .

* * *

Out of the South the rumor of a god!

Out of the Andes word of a God of Gold, stalking the mountain passes with Wrath and Vengeance smoking in his fists. A god wrathful in the presence of men and the works of men. A god vengeful of man’s slavery of rock and soil and metal. Jealous of man’s power over the inanimable. A god growing as the mountains grow, with bursting, jutting angularities shifting, fusing, moulding slowly into colossal harmonies of foam and function, with growing wisdom in his golden skull and growing power in his crystal fists. A god for the weak, contemptuous of the weak but pitiless to the strong—straddling adobe huts to trample the tin-roof huddle of shacks at the lip of some gaping wound in the ancient flesh of Earth.

A god with power tangible and cruel, alien to pewling Black-Robe doctrines of white men’s love of men. A god speaking voicelessly out of the distances of things that awoke old memories, roused old grandeurs in the blood of small brown men and in other men in whose veins the blood of brown kings flowed.

A god of red justice. A god of Revolution!

A god to bring fear again to men!

In the South—Revolution. Little brown men swarming in the mountains, pouring into the valleys, hacking, clubbing, stabbing, burning. Revolution in small places without names. Revolution in mud villages with names older than America. Revolution flaming in towns named in the proud Castilian tongue—in cities where white women promenaded and white men ogled, and brown men were dust in the gutters. Revolution in Catamarca, in Tucuman, in Santiago del Estero. Revolution half a thousand miles away, in Potosi, in Cochabamba, in Quillacolla. Revolution sweeping the royal cities of the Andes—Santiago, La Paz, Lima, Quito, Bogotá! Revolution stalking up the up-thrusting spine of a continent like a pestilence, sucking in crazed brown warriors from the montes, from the pampas, from barren deserts and steaming jungles. Blood of brown ancestors rising beneath white skins, behind blue eyes. Revolution like a flame sweeping through brown man and white and mostly-white and half-white and very-little-white and back to the brown blood of ancient, feathered kings! Guns against machetes. Bayonets against razor-whetted knives. Poison gas against poison darts.

And in their wake the tread of a God of Gold!

Revolution out of Chile, out of the Argentine, into Bolivia, into Peru of the Incas. Revolution out of the hot inland through the Amazon, rippling through Brazil, through the Guianas, into Ecuador, into Colombia, into Venezuela. Revolution choking the ditch of Panama, heaping the bigger ditch of Managua with bleeding corpses, seething through the dark forests of Honduras, Guatemala, Yucatan. A continent overwhelmed and nothing to show why. A continent threatened, and only the whispered rumor of a God of Gold!

Men like me went to see, to hear, to tell what they had seen and heard. Men like me crept into the desolate places where Revolution had passed, and found emptiness, found a continent trampled under the running, bleeding feet of a myriad of small brown men driven by a Fear greater than the fear of Death—crushed and broken under the relentless, marching hooves of the God of Gold.

A village, then a city—a nation, then a continent—and the armies of the white nations mobilizing along the border of Mexico, in the arid mountains of the American south-west, watching—waiting—fearing none knew what. A necklace of steel across the throat of the white man’s civilization.

Repeated circumstance becomes phenomenon; repeated phenomena are law. I found a circumstance that repeated again and again, that became phenomenal, that became certainty. A man with red hair, with a bulbous nose, with a bird’s knowledge of the air. An old man peering through thick glasses muttering in his beard. How they came together no man knew. Where they went man could only guess. The wings of their giant plane slid down out of the sunset, rose black against the sunrise, burned silver white in the blaze of noon . . . They went—they returned—and none questioned their coming or going.

War on the edge of America. War between white man and brown—and more than man behind the brown. Death rained from the sky on little brown men scattering in open deserts, on green jungles where brown men might be lurking, on rotten rock where brown men might have tunneled. Death poisoned the streams and the rock-hewn cenotes, death lay like a yellow fog in the arroyos and poured through gorges where brown men lay hidden behind rocks and in crannies of the rock. Flame swept over the face of Mexico and the brown hordes scattered and gave way in retreat, in flight, in utter rout. White fury blazed where brown hatred had smouldered. Brown bodies sprawled, flayed and gutted where white corpses had hung on wooden crosses, where white hearts had smoked in the noon sun and white men’s blood had dribbled down over carved stone altars. Hell followed Hell.

Then from Tehuantepac a clarion challenge, checking the rout, checking the white wave of vengeance. The challenge of a god!

Planes droned in the bare blue sky over Oaxaca, riddling the mountains with death. Polite, trim generals sat and drank and talked in half a dozen languages wherever there was shade. The sun blazed down on the plaza of Oaxaca in the time of siesta, and the grumble of war sank to a lullaby. Then out of the mountains of the east, rolling and rocking through the naked hills, sounded the shouted challenge of the God of Gold!

I heard it like a low thunder in the east, and a German major at the next table muttered “Dunder!” I heard it again, growling against the silence, and the Frenchman beside him looked up a moment from his glass. It came a third time, roaring like the voice of Bashan in the sky, and all up and down the shaded plaza men were listening and wondering.

Far away, across the mountains in Tehuantepec, the guns began to thud and mutter, and in the radio shack behind us a telegraph key was clicking nervously. The Frenchman was listening, his lips moving. An English lieutenant strode in out of the sun, saluted, melted into the shadow of the colonnade.

Out of the East the challenge of a God!

I heard the triumphant, bull-bellied shout thundering across the ranges as the guns of Tehuantepec grumbled for the last time. I saw a light that should not be there—a mad, frantic light—gleaming in the eyes of an officer of Spanish name, from the Mexican province of Zacatecas. The German’s eyes were on him, and the Frenchman’s, and those of the English subaltern, following him as he stole away. The wireless operator came out and saluted, and handed a slip of yellow paper to the Frenchman. He passed it, shrugging, to the German. A Russian came and looked over his shoulder, an Italian, an American, a Japanese, and their heads turned slowly to listen for the chuck and patter of distant guns that they would never hear again. And then, again, that voice of the mountains bellowed its triumphant challenge, stirring a cold current of dread in my veins—in the veins of all men of Oaxaca—of all men who heard it.

The victorious God of Gold shouted his challenge to mankind, and in answer came the distant burring of a plane in the north.

It passed over us and circled for a landing outside the city. An army car raced away and returned. I knew two of the three men who climbed stiffly out of the tonneau. I saw tall, red-headed air-fiend Jim Donegan. I saw stooped, grey, boggling Zoologist Heinrich Sturm.

I saw Nicholas Svadin, once-dead master of the world.

Svadin against the God of Gold!

Again that bull-throated, brazen thunder rolled across the ranges and I saw Svadin’s blunt, hairless skull cocked sidewise, listening. Old Heinrich Sturm was listening too, and Red Jim Donegan. But I saw only Nicholas Svadin.

It was five full years since that August day in Budapest. Wax was heavy in his blue-white jowls. Wax weighted down his heavy-lidded eyes. A puckered blue hole probed his sleek white brow. His great body was soft and bloated and his stubby fingers blue under their cropped nails. There was an acrid odor in the air, the odor that heaped callas had hidden in the sun of Budapest, that not even the stench of a thousand sweating men could hide under the sun of Mexico.

They talked together—Svadin, the generals, Sturm, Red Jim Donegan of Brooklyn. Donegan nodded, went to the waiting car, disappeared into the white noon-light. Soon his great silver plane droned overhead, heading into the north.

One day—two—three. We on the outside saw nothing of Svadin, but men of all nations were at work in the blazing sun and the velvet night, sawing, bolting, riveting, building a vast contrivance of wood and metal under the direction of Heinrich Sturm. Four days—five, and at last we stood at the edge of the man-made city of Oaxaca, staring at that monstrous apparatus and at the lone figure that stood beside it—Svadin. His puffed blue fingers went to the switch on its towering side, and out of that giant thing thundered the bellowed defiance of Mankind, hurled at the giant thing that walked the ranges, bull-baiting the God of Gold!

Its vast clamor shuddered in the packed earth underfoot. Its din penetrated the wadding in our ears and drummed relentlessly against our senses. It boomed and thundered its contempt, and in answer that other voice thundered beyond the blue-tipped mountains. Hour after hour—until madness seemed certain and madness was welcome—until the sun lay low in a red sky, painting the ranges—until only Svadin and grey old Heinrich Sturm remained, watching beside their vast, insulting, defiant Voice. Then in the east a flicker of light tipped the farthest ranges!

It was a creeping diamond of light above the purple horizon. It was a needle of white fire rising and falling above the mountains, striding over valleys, vaulting the naked ridges, growing and rising higher and vaster and mightier against the shadow of the coming night. It was a pillar of scintillant flame over Oaxaca.

It was the God of Gold!

Quartz is rock, and quartz is jelly, and quartz is a crystal gem. Gold is metal, and gold is color, and gold is the greed of men. Beauty and fear—awe and greed—the Thing over Oaxaca was a column of crystal fires, anthropomorphic, built out of painted needle-gems, with the crimson and blue and smoky wine-hues of colloidal gold staining its jeweled torso—with veins and nerves and ducts of the fat yellow gold of Earth—with a pudding of blue quartz flowing and swelling and flexing on its stony frame. It was a giant out of mythery—a jinn out of hashish madness—a monster born of the Earth, thewed with the stuff of Earth, savagely jealous of the parasitic biped mammals whose form it aped. Its spiked hooves clashed on the mountaintops with the clamor of avalanches. Its flail-arms swung like a flickering scourge, flaying the bare earth of all that was alive. Its skull was a crystal chalice wadded with matted gold, brain-naked, set with eyes like the blue sapphires of Burma, starred with inner light. It roared with the thunder of grinding, tearing, grating atoms, with the sullen voice of earthquakes. It was the spectre of Earth’s last vengeance upon delving, burrowing, gutting little Man, the flea upon her flesh. It stood, a moment, straddling the horizon—and out of the north a plane was winging, midge-small against the watching stars. So high it was that though the sun had gone and the shadow of the Earth lay purple on the sky, its wings were a sliver of light, dwindling, climbing to that unimaginable height where the rays of the vanished sun still painted the shoulders of the God of Gold. A plane—and in its wake another, and another—a score of whispering dots against the tropic night.

Red Jim Donegan saw the monstrous, faceless visage upturned to watch his coming. He saw the white fires chill in its moon-great eyes, saw vast arm-things forming on its formless body, like swinging ropes of crystal maces. He saw the sinews of massive yellow gold that threaded its bulk, tensing and twisting with life, and the brain of knotted gold that lay in its cupped skull like worms in a bowl of gems. He saw that skull grow vaster as his plane rushed on—mountain-vast, filling the night—saw these star-backed eyes blazing—saw the evil arms sweeping upward—then was in empty air, sprawled over vacancy, his ship driving down into that monstrous face, between the staring sapphire eyes.

He swung from a silk umbrella and saw those kraken-arms paw at the crystal skull where a flower of green flame blossomed—saw the second plane diving with screaming wings—a third beyond it—and a fourth. The air was full of the white bubbles of parachutes, sinking into the edge of night. He saw the shadow of the world’s edge creeping up over that giant shape, standing spread-legged among the barren hills, and green flame burning in its golden brain. A flame eating quartz as a spark eats tinder. A flame devouring gold, sloughing away crystalline immensity in a rain of burning tears, ever deeper, ever faster, as plane after plane burst with its deadly load against that crystal mass.

In blind, mad torture the God of Gold strode over Oaxaca. Green fire fell from it like blazing snow, pocking the naked rock. One dragging hoof furrowed the rocky earth, uprooting trees, crags, houses, crushing the man-made lure that had dared it to destruction. Fragments of eaten arms crashed like a meteor-fall and lay burning in the night. A moment it towered, dying, over ruined Oaxaca, where Nicholas Svadin stood dwarfed among the shambles of broken houses, the slight, stooped form of Heinrich Sturm beside him. Then in the sky that consuming flame blazed bright as some vital source was touched. A pillar of licking light wiped out the stars. It took one giant stride, another, and the world shook with the fall of the living mountain that crashed down out of the burning night. Among the eastern hills the fractured limbs of the colossus of the South lay strewn like snowy grain, and in the rocky flank of San Felipe a pit of cold green fire ate slowly toward the heart of Earth.

One who had been a man turned away from that holocaust and vanished in the darkness. Nicholas Svadin, his dead flesh clammy with dew, his gross bulk moving with the stealthy silence of a cat, with Heinrich Sturm trotting after him through the night.

Svadin, who had met the challenge of a God of Gold—and won!

* * *

A Thing of the Sea—a Thing of the Earth—a Thing of Men! Three Things outrageous to Man’s knowledge of himself and of his world, improbable beyond calculation, impossible if impossibility could exist. Three Things raised from the dead, from the inanimate, from the inanimable, who lived and ate and walked properly, probably, possibly. Three Things that sought the sovereignty of Earth—a Thing of ravening hunger, a Thing with a hate of men, and a Thing that was god-hero of all men.

One of the Three lay destroyed beyond Oaxaca, and the brown men who had done its will were fugitives from vengeance. One still basked and fed in the tropic sea. And the third was Nicholas Svadin.

* * *

Rumors spread like ripples in a quiet pool. Even a god grows old. Svadin was a god whose word was law, whose wisdom was more than human, whose brain devised strange sciences, who brought the world comfort and contentment greater than it had ever known. In life he was a genius; dead, a martyr. He rose from the dead, wearing the mark of death, and men worshipped him as a god, saw in him a god’s omnipotent wisdom. He remade a world, and the world was content. He slew the giant God of Gold and men followed him like sheep. But there were others who were not impressed by gods, or men like gods, and there were rumors, whisperings, wonderings.

It was my work to hear such rumors, listen to whisperings, tell men the truth about what they wondered.

Few men were close to Svadin, but of those who were, one told strange stories. A man who in other times had made his living on the fruits of such stories. Svadin—from whom the marks of death had never vanished, though he had risen from the dead—in whose forehead the puckered mark of a bullet still showed, whose face was white with the mortician’s wax, whose fingers were puffed and blue, whose body was a bloated sack. Whose flesh reeked with the fluids which preserve corpses. Who fed privately on strange foods, quaffed liquids which reeked as those fluids reeked. Who showed strange vacancies of memory, absences of knowledge about common things, yet was a greater genius than in life-before-death. Whose only confidant was the mad zoologist, Heinrich Wilhelm Sturm.

I heard of the strange wicker and elastic form which was made by a craftsman in Vienna and worn under his heavy, padded clothes. I heard of a woman of impressive birth who offered herself as women have—and of the dull, uncomprehending stare which drove her shivering from his chamber. I heard of the rats that swarmed in his apartments, where no cat would stay, and of the curious devices he had erected around his bed—of the day when a vulture settled on his shoulder and others circled overhead, craning their wattled necks.

I saw Nils Svedberg, attaché of the Anglo-Scandian legation in Berlin, when he fired three Mauser bullets into the flabby paunch of the Master of the World—saw too what the crowd discarded when its fanatic vengeance was sated, and children scampered home with bloody souvenirs of what had been a man. I heard Svadin’s thick voice as he thanked them.

Rumors—whisperings—questions without an answer. Svadin—to some a god, born into pseudo-human form, immortal and omnipotent. To some a man, unclean, with the awakening lusts and habits of a man. To some a Thing brought out of Hell to damn Mankind.

And a Thing of the sea, feeding in the Caribbean, in the turgid outpourings of the Amazon, along the populous coasts of Guiana and Brazil. Devil’s Island a graveyard. And at last—Rio!

* * *

A plane with a red-haired, large-nosed American pilot cruised the coasts of South America. A worn, greyed, spectacled old man sat with him, peering down into the shallow, shadowed waters for darker shadows. They marked the slow progress of Death along the tropic coasts, and in Rio de Janeiro, Queen City of the South, the mightiest engineering masterpiece of Man was near completion.

Jim Donegan and Heinrich Sturm watched and carried word of what they saw, while Nicholas Svadin schemed and planned in Rio of the south.

* * *

Rio—rebuilt from the shell of Revolution. Rio fairer than ever, a white jewel against the green breast of Brazil. Rio with her mighty harbor strangely empty, her horseshoe beaches deserted, and across the sucking mouth of the Atlantic a wall, with one huge gateway.

Crowds on the mountainsides, waiting. Drugged carrion bobbing in the blue waters of the harbor—slaughtered cattle from the Argentine, from America, from Australia—fish floating white-bellied in the trough of the waves—dead dogs, dead cats, dead horses—all the dead of Rio and the South, larded with opiates, rocking in the chopped blue waters of the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. And at the Gateway to the sea a glistening greening of the waves, a slick mound flowing landward between the guarding walls—a grey-green horror scenting prey. A silver plane above it in the sky. A small black dot on the curved white beach.

Svadin—and the Thing of the Sea.

Food was offered, and it fed. It poured sluggishly into the great land-locked harbor of Rio. It supped at the meagre morsels floating in the sea and flowed on toward the deserted city and the undead man who stood watching it. And as its last glistening pseudopod oozed through the man-made gates, a sigh went up from the people on the mountainsides. Slowly and ponderously the barrier gate slid shut behind it, sealing the harbor from the sea. Great pumps began to throb, and columns of clear green brine of a river’s thickness foamed into the unfillable Atlantic.

The plane had landed on the beach and Svadin climbed in. Now it was aloft, circling over the city and the harbor. The Thing was wary. It had learned, as all preying things learn, that each tiny insect has its sting. It sensed a subtle difference in the tang of the brine in which it lay—felt a motion of the water as Svadin’s colossal pumps sucked at the harbor—detected a tension in the air. Its eddying lust for flesh quieted. It gathered itself together—swirled uneasily in the confines of the walled harbor—lapped questingly against the rampart that barred it from the Atlantic. Its glistening flanks heaved high out of the blue waters. It gathered itself into a great ball of cloudy jade that rose and fell in the surge of the quiet sea. It lay as a frightened beast lies—frozen—but without fear, biding its time.

Day after day after day. Day after day under the burning sun, while curious human mites dotted the Beira Mar, thronged on the white moon-rind beaches—while devout thousands crammed the Igreja de Penha, spared by Revolution, knelt on its winding stair, prayed and knelt in the many Houses of God of Rio of the South—while inch by inch and foot by foot the sparkling waters of Rio’s mighty harbor sank and the grey-black ooze of the sea floor steamed and stank in the tropic sun, and the vast green Thing from the sea lay drugged amid the receding waters.

Atop hunched Corcovado the majestic Christ of Rio stared down on Mankind and the enemy of Mankind. Atop sky-stabbing Sugarloaf, poised between sea and land, Nicholas Svadin stood and stared, and with him Heinrich Sturm. Above the sinking waters of the bay, great ships of the air droned and circled, dropping the fine, insidious chemical rain that drugged the Thing with sleep. And in the jewel-city below, Ramon Gonzales, human link between the Latin blood of old Europe and new America, stood and stared with burning eyes. Leagues across the oily, sleeping sea, three other men stood or sat staring, grim-eyed, into nothing. Moorehead the American. Nasuki the Asiatic. Blond Rasmussen of Anglo-Scandia.

Day after day after day, while the miasmic stench of Rio’s draining harbor rose over the white avenues of Rio de Janeiro, while the darkening waters lapped lower and ever lower on the glistening jade-green mountain of jellied ooze that lay cooking in the sun. Day after day after day, while those who had crept back to the Beira Mar, to rock-rimmed Nictheroy, returned to the green, cool hills to watch and wait. A handful of sullen men in the Queen City of the South. Another handful on the naked cap of Sugarloaf and at the feet of the mighty Christ of Corcovado, miraculously untouched by the ravening of the God of Gold. And above it all the whine and drone of the circling planes and the far, dull mutter of the giant pumps.

Living things acquire a tolerance of drugs, demand more and more and more to sate their appetite. Drugged meat had lulled the Thing, and the rain of drugs from circling planes had kept it torpid, soothed by the slow lap of brine against its gelid flanks, dreaming of future feasts. Now as the waters sank and the sun beat down on its naked bulk, the vast Thing roused. Like a great green slug it crept over the white thread of the Beira Mar, into the city of jewels. Buildings crumpled under its weight, walls were burst by the pressure of its questing pseudopods. Into the pockets of the hills it crept, over the broken city, and behind it on the summit of Sugarloaf was frantic activity. Nicholas Svadin’s puffed blue hand pointed, and where he gestured a ring of fire slashed across Rio’s far-reaching avenues, barring the exit to the sea. Slowly the zone of flame crept inward, toward the empty harbor, and before its fierce heat the Sea-Thing retreated, grinding the city under its slimy mass. Little by little it roused—its ponderous motion became quicker, angrier. Little by little fear woke in it, where fear had never been—fear of the little gabbling human things that stung it with their puny weapons. It lay like a glassy blanket over the ruined streets of Rio—a knot of twisting serpent-forms craving the cool wet blackness of the deep sea. Before its awakened fury the wall across Rio’s harbor would be like a twig across the path of an avalanche. Its fringe of lolloping tentacles dabbled in the salt-encrusted pool that was all the pumps had left of the Bay of Rio, and in minutes the rippling mirror was gone, sucked into the Sea-Things’ avid mass.

And then Svadin struck.

I stood with my camera beneath the Christ of Corcovado. The sun was setting, and as the shadow of the western summits crept over gutted Rio the Sea-Thing gathered itself for the assault that would carry it over Sugarloaf, over the wall that men had made, into the welcoming Atlantic. Then in the north, where the sun yet shone, came a flicker of metal gnats against the cloudless sky, the burr of their roaring engines speeding them through the advancing twilight. From Sugarloaf a single rocket rose and burst, a pale star over the sea, showering spangled flame, and the heavens were filled with the thunder of Man’s aerial hosts—bombers, transports, planes of all sizes and all nations in a monster fleet whose shadow lay long on the curling sea like a streamer of darkness. Their first rank swung low over the hollow harbor and out of them rained a curtain of white missiles, minute against the immensity of Rio’s circling hills. Like hail they fell, and after them a second shower, and a third as the fleet roared by above. And then the first bombs hit!

A ribbon of fire burst against the twilight. Fountains of golden flame vomited skyward, scores of feet over the naked surface of the Thing. Hundreds—thousands of bursting dots of fire, sweeping swaths of fiery rain, cascades of consuming flame—until the Sea-Thing blazed with one mighty skyward-reaching plume of golden glory that licked at the darkening heavens where the wings of Mankind’s army of destruction still roared past, the rain of death still fell like a white curtain, painted by the leaping yellow flame of burning sodium.

I saw it then as old Heinrich Sturm had seen it months and years before, as Nicholas Svadin had seen it when he began his colossal plan to bait the Thing into the land-locked bay of Rio de Janeiro. Flame, killing and cleansing where no other weapon of man would serve. Green flame devouring the Earth-born God of Gold, corroding its crystal thews and consuming its golden brain. Yellow flame feeding on the sea-green pulp of the Sea-born Thing—changing the water that was its life into the caustic venom that slew it. As that colossal golden torch flared skyward over broken Rio I saw the mountainous bulk of the Sea-Thing shrivel and clot into a pulp of milky curds, crusted with burnt alkali. Water oozed from it like whey from pressed cheese, and tongues of the yellow flame licked along it, drinking it up. The black ooze of the harbor was drying and cracking under the fierce heat. Palms that still stood along the bare white beaches were curling, crisping, bursting into splinters of red flame, and even against the rising breeze the steaming stench of cooked flesh reeked in our nostrils.

The murmur of voices behind me stilled. I turned. The crowd had given way before the little knot of men who were coming toward me, driven from the crest of Sugarloaf by the fierce heat of the burning Thing. Flame-headed, red-nosed Donegan pushing a way for those who followed him. Grey-whiskered Heinrich Sturm pattering after him. Behind them, surrounded by men in braided uniforms, the fish-white, corpse-flesh shape of Nicholas Svadin.

I gave no ground to them. I stood at the Christ’s feet and gave them stare for stare. I stared at Red Jim Donegan, at Zoologist Heinrich Sturm, and I stared at the gross, misshapen thing that was master of the world.

I had not seen him since that night in Oaxaca, three years before. He had been hideous then, but now the scent and shape of Death were on him as they were on Lazarus when he arose blank eyed from the grave. A grey cloak swirled from his shoulders and fell billowing over a body warped and bloated out of all human semblance. Rolls of polished flesh sagged from his face, his neck, his wrists. His fingers were yellow wads of sickening fat, stained with blue, and his feet were clumping pillars. Out of that pallid face his two bright eyes peered like raisins burnt glassy and stuck in sour dough. The reek of embalming fluids made the air nauseous within rods of where he stood. Nicholas Svadin! Living dead man—master of the world!

I knew Donegan from Oaxaca. He told me what I had guessed. Old Sturm’s researches, made on bits of the jelly left by the Thing, on fragments hewed from it by volunteers, showed it to be built largely of linked molecules of colloidal water. Water—stuff of the Sea—bound by the life-force into a semblance of protoplasm—into a carnate pulp that fed on the Sea and took life from it even as it fed on living flesh for the needful elements that the water could not give it. Living water—mountain huge—destroyed by forces that no water could quench—by bombs of metallic sodium, tearing apart the complex colloidal structure of its aqueous flesh and riving it into flames of burning hydrogen and crusting, gelling alkali. Chemical fire, withering as it burnt.

I knew, too, Ramon Gonzales. I had seen him when he stood beside Svadin’s bier in the sun of Budapest—when Svadin gave him the United Latin states of two continents to govern—when he stood ankle-deep in the green slime that the Sea-Thing had left coating the white walls of gutted Rio. I saw him now, his dark face ghastly in the yellow glare, screaming accusation at the immobile, pasty face of Nicholas Svadin. Those button eyes moved flickeringly to observe him; the shapeless bulk gathered its cloak closer about it and swiveled to consider him. Higher and higher Gonzales’ hysterical voice raged—cursing Svadin for the doom he had brought on Rio, cursing him for the thing he had been as a man and for the thing he was now. No sign of understanding showed on that bloated face—no sign of human feeling. I felt a tension in the air, knew it was about to break. My camera over Jim Donegan’s shoulder saw Ramon Gonzales as his sword lashed out, cutting through Svadin’s upflung arm, biting deep into his side, sinking hilt-deep in his flesh. I saw its point standing out a foot behind that shrouded back, and the flare of Jim Donegan’s gun licked across my film as he shot Gonzales down. I saw, too, the thick, pale fluid dripping slowly from the stump of Svadin’s severed arm, and the puffed, five-fingered thing that twitched and scrabbled on the gravel at his feet.

Above us, lit by the dying yellow flame, the Christ of Corcovado looked down on the man who had risen from the dead to rule the world.

* * *

Four men were the world when Svadin rose from the dead in Budapest. Nasuki. Rasmussen. Gonzales. Moorehead. Gonzales was dead.

Two men had stood at Svadin’s side when he slew the Thing of the Earth and the gelid Thing of the Sea. Donegan. Heinrich Sturm. Sturm alone remained.

* * *

I showed the pictures I had taken on Corcovado to drawn-faced Richard Moorehead in the White House at Washington. I showed them to Nasuki in Tokyo and to Nils Rasmussen in London. I told them other things that I had seen and heard, and gave them names of men who had talked and would talk again. I wore a small gold badge under my lapel—a badge in the shape of the crux ansata, the looped Egyptian cross of natural, holy life.

I went to find Jim Donegan before it should be too late. It was too late. Since the morning of the day when Nicholas Svadin’s silver plane slipped to the ground at the airport of Budapest, and Svadin’s closed black limousine swallowed him, and Donegan, and Heinrich Sturm, the tall, red-haired American had not been seen. Sturm was there, close to Svadin, with him day and night, but no one could speak with him. And gradually he too was seen less and less as Svadin hid himself in curtained rooms and sent his servants from the palace, drew a wall of steel around him through which only Zoologist Heinrich Sturm might pass.

Something was brewing behind that iron ring—something that had been boding since long before Svadin stood in Oaxaca and lured the God of Gold to its death—since long before he was first approached by the bearded, spectacled little German scientist who was now the only man who saw him or knew that he was alive. Yet Svadin’s orders went out from the great, empty palace in Budapest, and the world grew sullen and afraid.

When he was newly risen from the bier, Nicholas Svadin had in him the understanding of a leader of Mankind and the genius of a god. Men took him for a god and were not betrayed. He thought with diamond clearness, saw diamond-keenly the needs and weaknesses of men and of men’s world. He made of the world a place where men could live happily and securely, without want, without discomfort—and live as man.

As the months went by Svadin had changed. His genius grew keener, harder, his thinking clearer. Scientist—economist—dictator—he was all. The things he ordained, and which men throughout the world did at his command, were things dictated by reason for the good of the human race. But at the same time humanity had gone out of him.

Never, since that day when the heaped callas fell from his stiffly rising frame in the sun of Budapest, had he spoken his own name. He was Svadin, but Svadin was not the same. He was no longer a man. He was a machine.

Conceivably, a machine might weigh and balance all the facts governing the progress and condition of one man or of all humanity, and judge with absolute, mathematical fairness what course each should take in order that the welfare of all should be preserved. If it meant death or torment for one, was that the concern of the many? If a city or a nation must be crushed, as Rio had been crushed, to wipe out a monstrous Thing that was preying on Mankind, should not Rio rejoice at its chance to be the benefactor of the race? No man would say so. But Svadin was not a man. What he was—what he had become—it was the purpose of the League of the Golden Cross to discover.

No movement is greater than its leaders. Those who wore the looped cross of Life were led by the three men to whom the world looked, next to Svadin, for justice—to whom they looked, in spite of Svadin, for human justice. Before he rose from his bier, they had ruled the world. It was their intention to rule it again. No lesser men could have planned as they planned, without Svadin’s knowledge, each last step of what must happen. That things went otherwise was not their fault—it was the fault of the knowledge that they had, or their interpretation of that knowledge. I had not yet found Jim Donegan. I had not seen Heinrich Sturm.

Through all the world the seeds of revolt were spreading, deeper and further than they had spread among the little brown-blooded men who were rallied by fear of the God of Gold. But throughout all the world those seeds fell on the fallow soil of fear—fear of a man who had risen from death—of a man who was himself a god, with a god’s power and a god’s unseeing eye, with a god’s revenge. Men—little superstitious men in thousands and millions, feared Svadin more than they hated him. At his word they would slay brothers and cousins, fathers and lovers, friend and foe alike. Reason, justice meant nothing to them. There must be a greater fear to drive them—and it was my job to find that fear.

In every place where Svadin had his palaces, his steel-jacketed guards, I peered and pried, watching for the sight of a red head, an improbably bulbous nose. And not for a long, long time did I find it.

Svadin’s grim castle loomed among weedy gardens, above Budapest. I found old men who had planned those gardens, others who had laid them out, who had built their drains and sunk the foundations of the palace in a day before Svadin was born. Where only rats had gone for a generation, I went. Where only rats’ claws had scrabbled, my fingers tapped, pressed, dug in the fetid darkness. Ladders whose iron rungs had rusted to powder bore my weight on the crumbling stumps of those rungs. Leaves that had drifted for years over narrow gratings were cleared away from beneath, and light let in. The little Egyptian ankh became the symbol of a brotherhood of moles, delving under the foundations of Nicholas Svadin’s mighty mausoleum. And one day my tapping fingers were answered!

Tap, tap, tap through the thick stone—listen and tap, tap, and listen. More men than Donegan had disappeared, and they crouched in their lightless cells and listened to our questions, answered when they could, guided the slow gnawing of our drills and shovels through the rock under Budapest. Closer—closer. They had their ways of speaking without words, but no word came from the red-headed, big-nosed American of whom their tapping told. Something prevented—something they could not explain. And still we dug, and tapped, and listened, following their meagre clues.

There came a time when we lost touch with the world outside. Three of us, in a world of our own, forgot that there was an outside, that there was anything but the one great purpose that drove us on through the dark and the damp. We had no word of the world, nor the world of us. Nasuki grew impatient, and the man who was in Gonzales’ place. The work of the Golden Cross was progressing, its ring of Rebellion strengthening. To Rasmussen, to Moorehead, they cried for action. The brooding stillness that lay over Svadin’s palace, the brutal coldness of the orders that issued through Heinrich Sturm’s lips, shaping the civilization of a world as a sculptor would chisel granite, drove them to the edge of madness. Revolution flamed again—and this time brother was pitted against brother all across the face of the planet—fear against fury—Svadin against the Four.

I have seen pictures of the Svadin whom that flame of war drew to the balcony of his palace, to shout his thunderous command of death above the kneeling throng. The disease, if disease it was that changed him, was progressing swiftly. There was little resemblance to the man who lay dead a handful of years before, and on whom life fell out of an empty sky. He was huge, misshapen, monstrous, but so utter was their fear and awe that those groveling thousands questioned no word of his and cut down their kin as they would reap corn. The looped cross was an emblem of certain death. Men cast it from them, forswore its pledge, betrayed others who were faithful. At least one desperate, embattled horde stormed the grim castle above Budapest, while the sullen ring of the faithful closed in around them. Under their feet, ignorant of what was happening above us, we three dug and tapped, tapped and dug—and found!

I remember that moment when I knelt in the stuffy darkness of the tunnel, digging my fingers into the cracks on either side of that massive block. For hours, two sleeping while one worked we had chiseled at it, widening the crevices, carving a grip, loosening it from the bed in which it had been set a lifetime before. My numbed fingers seemed to become part of the cold stone. Dunard was tugging at me, begging me to give him his chance. Then the great block shifted in its bed, tilted and slid crushingly against me. Barely in time I slipped out from under it, then I was leaning over its slimy mass, Smirnoff’s torch in my hand, peering into the black cavern beyond. The round beam of the torch wavered across mouldering straw—across dripping, fungus-feathered walls. It centered on a face, huge-nosed, topped with matted red hair.

It was Donegan!

We fed him while Dunard hacked at the gyves that held him spread-eagled against the wall. As he grew stronger he talked—answering my questions—telling of things that grew too horribly clear in the light of past happenings. At last we parted, Dunard and Smirnoff to carry word to the Brotherhood of the Cross—Donegan and I into the donjon-keep of Nicholas Svadin!

The guard at the cell door died as other guards have died before; we had no choice. I remembered those voices which were only fingers tap, tap, tapping through stone. I knew what those buried men would do if only they could—and gave them their chance. We were a little army in ourselves when we charged up the great central staircase of Svadin’s castle against the grim line of faithful guards. At the landing they held us—and outside, battling in the gardens beyond the great doors, we could hear the gunfire of that last stand of our Brotherhood against ignorance and fear. We thought then that Dunard and Smirnoff had won through, had given their message to those who could light the flame of revolt. We did not know that they were cut down before they could reach our forces. But armed with what we could find or wrest from the men who opposed us, we charged up that broad staircase into the face of their fire, burst over them and beat them down as a peasant flails wheat, turned their machine gun on their fleeing backs and mowed them down in a long, heaped windrow strewn down the length of the corridor to Svadin’s door.

We stood there at the head of the stairs, behind the gun, staring at that door—half-naked, filthy, caked with blood. There was a great, breathless silence broken only by the patter of gunfire in the courtyard outside, muffled by the walls. Then Donegan picked up the gun and stepped over the crumpled body of a guard. His bare feet slapped on the cold stone of the hall and behind him our footsteps echoed, in perfect time, drumming the death-roll of Nicholas Svadin. We came to the door—and it opened!

Heinrich Sturm stood there. Sturm—grown bent and little. Sturm with horror in his eyes, with horror twisting his face and blood streaming down his chest from a ripped-out throat. Sturm—babbling blood-choked German words, tottering, crumpling at our feet, who stood staring over him into the great, dark room beyond, at Svadin, red-mouthed, standing beside the great canopied bed, at the ten foul things that stood behind him!

Donegan’s machine-gun sprayed death over the bleeding body of Zoologist Heinrich Wilhelm Sturm. Soft slugs ploughed into the soft body of Nicholas Svadin, into the bodies of the ten things at his feet. He shook at their impact, and the pallid flesh ripped visibly where they hit, but he only stood and laughed—laughed as the God of Gold had laughed, in a voice that meant death and doom to the human race!

Laughed and came striding at us across the room with his hell-pack trotting at his heels.

There are fears that can surpass all courage. That fear drenched us then. We ran—Donegan with his gun like a child in his arms, I with old Heinrich Sturm dragging like a wet sack behind me, the others like ragged, screaming ghosts. We stumbled over the windrows of dead in the corridor, down those sweeping stairs into the lower hall, through the open doors into the courtyard. We stood, trapped between death and death.

A hundred men remained of the Brotherhood of the Cross. They were huddled in a knot in the center of the court, surrounded by the host who were faithful to fear, and to Svadin. As we burst through the great doors of the castle, led by the naked, haggard, flaming-haired figure of Jim Donegan, every eye turned to us—every hand fell momentarily from its work of killing. Then miraculously old Heinrich Sturm was struggling up in my arms, was shouting in German, in his babbling, blood-choked voice, and in the throng other voices in other languages were taking up his cry, translating it—sending it winging on:

“He is no god! He is from Hell—a fiend from Hell! Vampire—eater of men! He—and his cursed spawn!”

They knew him, every one. They knew him for Svadin’s intimate—the man who spoke with Svadin’s voice and gave his orders to the world. They heard what he said—and in the doorway they saw Svadin himself.

He was naked, as he had stood when that door swung open and Sturm came stumbling through. He was corpse-white, blotched with the purple-yellow of decay, bloated with the gases of death. Svadin—undead—unhuman—and around his feet ten gibbering simulacra of himself—ten pulpy, fish-white monsters of his flesh, their slit-mouths red with the lapped blood of Heinrich Sturm!

He stood there, spread-legged, above the crowd. His glassy eyes stared down on the bloody, upturned faces, and the stump of his hacked arm pounded on his hairless breast where the line of bullet-marks showed like a purple ribbon. His vast voice thundered down at them, and it was like the bellowing of a lusting bull:

“I am Nicholas Svadin!”

And in hideous, mocking echo the ten dwarfed horrors piped after him:

“I am Nicholas Svadin!”

In my arms old Heinrich Sturm lay staring at the Thing whose slave and more than slave he had been, and his old lips whispered five words before his head sagged down in death. Red Jim Donegan heard them and shouted them for the world to hear. Svadin heard, and if that dead-man’s face could show expression, fear sloughed over it, and his thick red lips parted in a grin of terror over yellowed fangs.

“Burn him! Fire is clean!”

I caught up the body of Heinrich Sturm and ran with it, out of the path of the mob that surged up the castle steps, Jim Donegan at their head. Svadin’s splayed feet sounded across the floor of the great hall, his hell-brood pattering after him. Then the crowd caught them and I heard the spat of clubbed fists on soft flesh, and a great roaring scream of fury went up over the yammer of the mob.

They tore the little fiends to shreds and still they lived. They bound the Thing that had been Svadin and carried him, battered and twisting, into the courtyard. They built a pyre in the streets of Budapest, and when the flames licked high they cast him in, his hell-spawn with him, and watched with avid eyes as he writhed and crisped, and listened to his screaming. The beast is in every man when hate and fear are roused. Far into the night, when Svadin and his brood were ashes underfoot, the mad crowd surged and fought through the streets, looting, burning, ravening.

When Svadin died, four men had ruled the world. Today four men rule a world that is better because Svadin rose from the dead that day in Budapest, that is free because of his inhuman tyranny. Moorehead—Nasuki—Rasmussen—Corregio. Red Jim Donegan is a hero, and I and a hundred other living men, but none pays homage to dead old Heinrich Wilhelm Sturm. He was too long identified with Nicholas Svadin for men to love him now.

What we know of Svadin, and of other things, Sturm had learned, little by little, through the years. He told certain things to Donegan, before Svadin grew suspicious and ordered the American’s death. It was Heinrich Sturm’s mercy that won Donegan a cell instead of a bullet or the knife, or even worse. For somewhere during his association with the perverted dregs of Europe’s royal courts the reborn Svadin had acquired, among other things, a taste for human blood and human flesh.

“All I know is what Sturm told me,” Donegan says. “The old man was pretty shrewd, and what he didn’t know he guessed—and I reckon he guessed close. It was curiosity made him stay on with Svadin—first off, anyway. Afterwards he knew too much to get away.

“There must have been spores of life, so Sturm said. There was a Swede by the name of Arrhenius—back years ago—who thought that life might travel from planet to planet in spores so small that light could push them through space. He said that a spore-dust from ferns and moss and fungus, and things like bacteria that were very small, could pass from world to world that way. And he figured there might be spores of pure life drifting around out there in space between the stars, and that whenever they fall on a planet, life would start there.

“That’s what happened to us, according to the old man. There were three spores that fell here, all within a short time of each other. One fell in the sea, and it brought the Sea-Thing to life, made mostly of complex molecules of colloidal water and salts out of the sea-ooze where the spore fell. It could grow by sucking up water, but it needed those salts from decomposed, organic things too. That’s why it attacked cities, where there was plenty of food for it.

“The second spore fell on quartz—maybe in some kind of colloidal gel, like they find sometimes in the hard stuff. There was gold there, and the Thing that came alive was what I saw, and what the Indians thought was one of their old gods come to life again—the god of gold and crystal. Svadin killed it with some radium compound that he invented.

“The third seed fell on Svadin and brought him to life. He wasn’t a man, really, but he had all the organs and things that a man would have. He had the same memories in his brain, and the same traits of character, until other things rooted them out. He came to life—but to stay alive he had to be different from other men. He had embalming fluid instead of blood, and wax in his skin, and things like that, and he had to replace them the way we eat food to replace our tissues. When he changed, it was in ways a dead man would change, except that he used his brain better and more logically than any live man ever did. He had to learn how a man would act, and he had some willing enough teachers to show him the rotten along with the good.

“Those other things grew as they fed, and so did Svadin, but he was more complex than they were—more nearly like men. Where they grew, he reproduced, like the simplest kinds of living things, by budding off duplicates of himself, out of his own flesh. It was like a hydra—like a vegetable—like anything but a man. Maybe you noticed, too—a couple of those things that grew after he lost his arm in Rio, had only one arm too. They were him, in a way. They called his name when he did, there at the last . . .”

The sweat is standing out on his weather-beaten forehead as he remembers it. I see the vision that he does—those ten miniature Svadins growing, budding in their turn, peopling the Earth anew with a race of horrors made in mockery of man. He reaches for the bottle at his elbow:

“We’ve seen Nature—the Universe—spawning,” he says. “Maybe it’s happened on Earth before; maybe it’ll happen again. Probably we, and all the other living things on Earth got started that way, millions of years ago. For a while, maybe, there were all kinds of abortive monsters roaming around the world, killing each other off the way Svadin killed the Sea-Thing and the God of Gold. They were new and simple—they reproduced by dividing, or budding, or crystallizing, and it was hard to kill them except with something like fire that would destroy the life-germs in them. After a while, when the seed of life in them would be pretty well diluted, it would be easier. Anyway, that’s how I figure it.

“Svadin looked human, at first, but he wasn’t—ever. What he was, no one knows. Not even old Sturm. It’s pretty hard to imagine what kind of thoughts and feelings a living dead man would have. He had some hang-over memories from the time he was really Svadin, so he started in to fix over the world. Maybe he thought men were his own kind, at first—at least, they looked like him. He fixed it, all right—only, after a while there wasn’t anything human left in him, and he began to plan things the way a machine would, to fit him and the race he was spawning. It’s no more than we’ve done since Time began—killing animals and each other to get what we want, eating away the Earth to get at her metals, and oil, and so on. The God of Gold was kin to the Earth, in a way, and I guess he resented seeing her cut up by a lot of flesh and blood animals like us.

“I said he learned some of our perversions. Once someone had taught him a thing like that, and he liked it, it became part of the heritage that he passed down to future generations. Somehow he got the taste for flesh—raw flesh—humans were just like another animal to him. After Sturm stopped being useful to him, he attacked the old man too.

“You see—he had a human brain, and he could think like a man, and scheme and sense danger to his plans. Only—he didn’t ever really understand human psychology. He was like an amoeba, or a polyp, and I don’t guess they have emotions. He didn’t understand religion, and the feeling people had that he was a kind of god. He used it—but when awe turned into hate, and people thought of him as a devil instead of a god, they treated him like one. They burned him the way their ancestors burned witches!”

He tosses down a shot of rye and wipes his lips. “Next time it happens,” he says, “I’m going to be drunk. And this time I’ll stay drunk!”

Afterword by David Drake

P. Schuyler Miller was very important to the SF field in two ways. The generally known fashion is that he was the first regular reviewer in an SF magazine, holding that position at Astounding, later Analog, from the late '40s to his death in 1974. The less familiar aspect is that Tom Doherty, when he was a salesman for other publishers, would arrange his route so that he could have lunch with Miller in Pittsburgh. Tom put Miller's encyclopedic knowledge of the field to good use when he became publisher of Ace in 1977 and in 1981 founded Tor Books.

From 1930 through 1947 Miller also sold SF stories. He was never a major writer, though some of his stories were reprinted often enough to be easily found in old anthologies. "Spawn" (which isn't generally available) had a major impact on me, however, when I read Miller's single-author collection The Titan in the Clinton Public Library.

Since then I've read all or nearly all of Miller's published fiction, and I can say with certainty that he never wrote anything else even remotely like "Spawn." In form it's less a story than a prose poem or a drama in blank verse. It really is SF—Miller had a degree in chemistry, and if you read carefully you'll note underlying the lush color and imagery that there's a degree of scientific rigor very unusual for 1939—but it appeared in Weird Tales rather than in an SF magazine (generally Astounding by that point) as most of Miller's other published stories did. (Miller had several stories in Campbell's Unknown, but "Spawn" would've been even more out of place there than in Astounding.)

"Spawn" demonstrates highly unusual stylistic touches—tricks, I'd say, but that would imply they were conscious and that the author could repeat them. Miller never did, making me suspect that the process of creation here wasn't completely intellectual.

The reader views the action as though it were on a movie screen or he were looking through multiple layers of glass, insulating her from vivid, horrific events. The narrator tells his story as though you were face to face with him. He doesn't bother to give his name, nor often enough does he name other men the first time they appear. He doesn't describe events in sequence; they rise in momentary importance, then sink back like porpoises into the sea of narrative.

Like porpoises, or like whales. Oh, yes: "Spawn" is a horror story.

And everything is in place for the climax, including the fact that the story opens and closes not in Berlin or Vienna or Warsaw, but in Budapest.

In addition to leaving me numb with horror at the infinite possible, "Spawn" showed me that there is no proper form or technique for a story: there is the proper form and technique of the story before you at this moment. That's why I picked "Spawn" for this anthology.

The Aliens by Murray Leinster

The Aliens

by Murray Leinster



Preface by Eric Flint



I'll have more to say about Murray Leinster in my afterword to this story. By way of preface, though, I just want to explain why I chose this story for the anthology. I wanted something by Leinster, and, specifically, I wanted one of the "first contact" stories for which he was so justly famous in his day and which I can remember being enthralled by as a teenager.

The obvious choice, of course, was the story that gave us the name itself: "First Contact," originally published in Astounding magazine in May of 1945.

But . . . that story has been anthologized over twenty times since then, and it wasn't the only one Leinster wrote. There's at least one other which is just as good, and has almost never been included in an anthology.

Here it is.

At 04 hours 10 minutes, ship time, the Niccola was well inside the Theta Gisol solar system. She had previously secured excellent evidence that this was not the home of the Plumie civilization. There was no tuned radiation. There was no evidence of interplanetary travel—rockets would be more than obvious, and a magnetronic drive had a highly characteristic radiation-pattern—so the real purpose of the Niccola‘s voyage would not be accomplished here. She wouldn’t find out where Plumies came from.

There might, though, be one or more of those singular, conical, hollow-topped cairns sheltering silicon-bronze plates, which constituted the evidence that Plumies existed. The Niccola went sunward toward the inner planets to see. Such cairns had been found on conspicuous landmarks on oxygen-type planets over a range of some twelve hundred light-years. By the vegetation about them, some were a century old. On the same evidence, others had been erected only months or weeks or even days before a human Space Survey ship arrived to discover them. And the situation was unpromising. It wasn’t likely that the galaxy was big enough to hold two races of rational beings capable of space travel. Back on ancient Earth, a planet had been too small to hold two races with tools and fire. Historically, that problem was settled when Homo sapiens exterminated Homo Neanderthalis. It appeared that the same situation had arisen in space. There were humans, and there were Plumies. Both had interstellar ships. To humans, the fact was alarming. The need for knowledge, and the danger that Plumies might know more first, and thereby be able to exterminate humanity, was appalling.

Therefore the Niccola. She drove on sunward. She had left one frozen outer planet far behind. She had crossed the orbits of three others. The last of these was a gas giant with innumerable moonlets revolving about it. It was now some thirty millions of miles back and twenty to one side. The sun, ahead, flared and flamed in emptiness against that expanse of tinted stars.

Jon Baird worked steadily in the Niccola‘s radar room. He was one of those who hoped that the Plumies would not prove to be the natural enemies of mankind. Now, it looked like this ship wouldn’t find out in this solar system. There were plenty of other ships on the hunt. From here on, it looked like routine to the next unvisited family of planets. But meanwhile he worked. Opposite him, Diane Holt worked as steadily, her dark head bent intently over a radar graph in formation. The immediate job was the completion of a map of the meteor swarms following cometary orbits about this sun. They interlaced emptiness with hazards to navigation, and nobody would try to drive through a solar system without such a map.

Elsewhere in the ship, everything was normal. The engine room was a place of stillness and peace, save for the almost inaudible hum of the drive, running at half a million Gauss flux-density. The skipper did whatever skippers do when they are invisible to their subordinates. The weapons officer, Taine, thought appropriate thoughts. In the navigation room the second officer conscientiously glanced at each separate instrument at least once in each five minutes, and then carefully surveyed all the screens showing space outside the ship. The stewards disposed of the debris of the last meal, and began to get ready for the next. In the crew’s quarters, those off duty read or worked at scrimshaw, or simply and contentedly loafed.

Diane handed over the transparent radar graph, to be fitted into the three-dimensional map in the making.

“There’s a lump of stuff here,” she said interestedly. “It could be the comet that once followed this orbit, now so old it’s lost all its gases and isn’t a comet any longer.”

* * *

At this instant, which was 04 hours 25 minutes ship time, the alarm-bell rang. It clanged stridently over Baird’s head, repeater-gongs sounded all through the ship, and there was a scurrying and a closing of doors. The alarm gong could mean only one thing. It made one’s breath come faster or one’s hair stand on end, according to temperament.

The skipper’s face appeared on the direct-line screen from the navigation room.

“Plumies?” he demanded harshly. “Mr. Baird! Plumies?”

Baird’s hands were already flipping switches and plugging the radar room apparatus into a new setup.

“There’s a contact, sir,” he said curtly. “No. There was a contact. It’s broken now. Something detected us. We picked up a radar pulse. One.”

The word “one” meant much. A radar system that could get adequate information from a single pulse was not the work of amateurs. It was the product of a very highly developed technology. Setting all equipment to full-globular scanning, Baird felt a certain crawling sensation at the back of his neck. He’d been mapping within a narrow range above and below the line of this system’s ecliptic. A lot could have happened outside the area he’d had under long-distance scanning.

But seconds passed. They seemed like years. The all-globe scanning covered every direction out from the Niccola. Nothing appeared which had not been reported before. The gas-giant planet far behind, and the only inner one on this side of the sun, which return their pulses only after minutes. Meanwhile the radars reported very faithfully, but they only repeated previous reports.

“No new object within half a million miles,” said Baird, after a suitable interval. Presently he added: “Nothing new within three-quarter million miles.” Then: “Nothing new within a million miles . . .”

The skipper said bitingly:

“Then you’d better check on objects that are not new!” He turned aside, and his voice came more faintly as he spoke into another microphone. “Mr. Taine! Arm all rockets and have your tube crews stand by in combat readiness! Engine room! Prepare drive for emergency maneuvers! Damage-control parties, put on pressure suits and take combat posts with equipment!” His voice rose again in volume. “Mr. Baird! How about observed objects?”

Diane murmured. Baird said briefly:

“Only one suspicious object, sir—and that shouldn’t be suspicious. We are sending an information-beam at something we’d classed as a burned-out comet. Pulse going out now, sir.”

Diane had the distant-information transmitter aimed at what she’d said might be a dead comet. Baird pressed the button. An extraordinary complex of information-seeking frequencies and forms sprang into being and leaped across emptiness. There were microwaves of strictly standard amplitude, for measurement-standards. There were frequencies of other values, which would be selectively absorbed by this material and that. There were laterally and circularly polarized beams. When they bounced back, they would bring a surprising amount of information.

They returned. They did bring back news. The thing that had registered as a larger lump in a meteor swarm was not a meteor at all. It returned four different frequencies with a relative-intensity pattern which said that they’d been reflected by bronze—probably silicon bronze. The polarized beams came back depolarized, of course, but with phase-changes which said the reflector had a rounded, regular form. There was a smooth hull of silicon bronze out yonder. There was other data.

“It will be a Plumie ship, sir,” said Baird very steadily. “At a guess, they picked up our mapping beam and shot a single pulse at us to find out who and what we were. For another guess, by now they’ve picked up and analyzed our information-beam and know what we’ve found out about them.”

The skipper scowled.

“How many of them?” he demanded. “Have we run into a fleet?”

“I’ll check, sir,” said Baird. “We picked up no tuned radiation from outer space, sir, but it could be that they picked us up when we came out of overdrive and stopped all their transmissions until they had us in a trap.”

“Find out how many there are!” barked the skipper. “Make it quick! Report additional data instantly!”

His screen clicked off. Diane, more than a little pale, worked swiftly to plug the radar-room equipment into a highly specialized pattern. The Niccola was very well equipped, radarwise. She’d been a type G8 Survey ship, and on her last stay in port she’d been rebuilt especially to hunt for and make contact with Plumies. Since the discovery of their existence, that was the most urgent business of the Space Survey. It might well be the most important business of the human race—on which its survival or destruction would depend. Other remodeled ships had gone out before the Niccola, and others would follow until the problem was solved. Meanwhile the Niccola‘s twenty-four rocket tubes and stepped-up drive and computer-type radar system equipped her for Plumie-hunting as well as any human ship could be. Still, if she’d been lured deep into the home system of the Plumies, the prospects were not good.

* * *

The new setup began its operation, instantly the last contact closed. The three-dimensional map served as a matrix to control it. The information-beam projector swung and flung out its bundle of oscillations. It swung and flashed. It had to examine every relatively nearby object for a constitution of silicon bronze and a rounded shape. The nearest objects had to be examined first. Speed was essential. But three-dimensional scanning takes time, even at some hundreds of pulses per minute.

Nevertheless, the information came in. No other silicon-bronze object within a quarter-million miles. Within half a million. A million. A million and a half. Two million . . .

Baird called the navigation room.

“Looks like a single Plumie ship, sir,” he reported. “At least there’s one ship which is nearest by a very long way.”

“Hah!” grunted the skipper. “Then we’ll pay him a visit. Keep an open line, Mr. Baird!” His voice changed. “Mr. Taine! Report here at once to plan tactics!”

Baird shook his head, to himself. The Niccola‘s orders were to make contact without discovery, if such a thing were possible. The ideal would be a Plumie ship or the Plumie civilization itself, located and subject to complete and overwhelming envelopment by human ships—before the Plumies knew they’d been discovered. And this would be the human ideal because humans have always had to consider that a stranger might be hostile, until he’d proven otherwise.

Such a viewpoint would not be optimism, but caution. Yet caution was necessary. It was because the Survey brass felt the need to prepare for every unfavorable eventuality that Taine had been chosen as weapons officer of the Niccola. His choice had been deliberate, because he was a xenophobe. He had been a problem personality all his life. He had a seemingly congenital fear and hatred of strangers—which in mild cases is common enough, but Taine could not be cured without a complete breakdown of personality. He could not serve on a ship with a multiracial crew, because he was invincibly suspicious of and hostile to all but his own small breed. Yet he seemed ideal for weapons officer on the Niccola, provided he never commanded the ship. Because if the Plumies were hostile, a well-adjusted, normal man would never think as much like them as a Taine. He was capable of the kind of thinking Plumies might practice, if they were xenophobes themselves.

But to Baird, so extreme a precaution as a known psychopathic condition in an officer was less than wholly justified. It was by no means certain that the Plumies would instinctively be hostile. Suspicious, yes. Cautious, certainly. But the only fact known about the Plumie civilization came from the cairns and silicon-bronze inscribed tablets they’d left on oxygen-type worlds over a twelve-hundred-light-year range in space, and the only thing to be deduced about the Plumies themselves came from the decorative, formalized symbols like feather plumes which were found on all their bronze tablets. The name “Plumies” came from that symbol.

Now, though, Taine was called to the navigation room to confer on tactics. The Niccola swerved and drove toward the object Baird identified as a Plumie ship. This was at 05 hours 10 minutes ship time. The human ship had a definite velocity sunward, of course. The Plumie ship had been concealed by the meteor swarm of a totally unknown comet. It was an excellent way to avoid observation. On the other hand, the Niccola had been mapping, which was bound to attract attention. Now each ship knew of the other’s existence. Since the Niccola had been detected, she had to carry out orders and attempt a contact to gather information.

* * *

Baird verified that the Niccola‘s course was exact for interception at her full-drive speed. He said in a flat voice:

“I wonder how the Plumies will interpret this change of course? They know we’re aware they’re not a meteorite. But charging at them without even trying to communicate could look ominous. We could be stupid, or too arrogant to think of anything but a fight.” He pressed the skipper’s call and said evenly: “Sir, I request permission to attempt to communicate with the Plumie ship. We’re ordered to try to make friends if we know we’ve been spotted.”

Taine had evidently just reached the navigation room. His voice snapped from the speaker:

“I advise against that, sir! No use letting them guess our level of technology!”

Baird said coldly:

“They’ve a good idea already. We beamed them for data.”

There was silence, with only the very faint humming sound which was natural in the ship in motion. It would be deadly to the nerves if there were absolute silence. The skipper grumbled:

“Requests and advice! Dammit! Mr. Baird, you might wait for orders! But I was about to ask you to try to make contact through signals. Do so.”

His speaker clicked off. Baird said:

“It’s in our laps, Diane. And yet we have to follow orders. Send the first roll.”

Diane had a tape threaded into a transmitter. It began to unroll through a pickup head. She put on headphones. The tapes began to transmit toward the Plumie. Back at base it had been reasoned that a pattern of clickings, plainly artificial and plainly stating facts known to both races, would be the most reasonable way to attempt to open contact. The tape sent a series of cardinal numbers—one to five. Then an addition table, from one plus one to five plus five. Then a multiplication table up to five times five. It was not startling intellectual information to be sent out in tiny clicks ranging up and down the radio spectrum. But it was orders.

Baird sat with compressed lips. Diane listened for a repetition of any of the transmitted signals, sent back by the Plumie. The speakers about the radar room murmured the orders given through all the ship. Radar had to be informed of all orders and activity, so it could check their results outside the ship. So Baird heard the orders for the engine room to be sealed up and the duty-force to get into pressure suits, in case the Niccola fought and was hulled. Damage-control parties reported themselves on post, in suits, with equipment ready. Then Taine’s voice snapped: “Rocket crews, arm even-numbered rockets with chemical explosive warheads. Leave odd-numbered rockets armed with atomics. Report back!”

Diane strained her ears for possible re-transmission of the Niccola‘s signals, which would indicate the Plumie’s willingness to try conversation. But she suddenly raised her hand and pointed to the radar-graph instrument. It repeated the positioning of dots which were stray meteoric matter in the space between worlds in this system. What had been a spot—the Plumie ship—was now a line of dots. Baird pressed the button.

“Radar reporting!” he said curtly. “The Plumie ships is heading for us. I’ll have relative velocity in ten seconds.”

He heard the skipper swear. Ten seconds later the Doppler measurement became possible. It said the Plumie plunged toward the Niccola at miles per second. In half a minute it was tens of miles per second. There was no re-transmission of signals. The Plumie ship had found itself discovered. Apparently it considered itself attacked. It flung itself into a headlong dash for the Niccola.

* * *

Time passed—interminable time. The sun flared and flamed and writhed in emptiness. The great gas-giant planet rolled through space in splendid state, its moonlets spinning gracefully about its bulk. The oxygen-atmosphere planet to sunward was visible only as a crescent, but the mottlings on its lighted part changed as it revolved—seas and islands and continents receiving the sunlight as it turned. Meteor swarms, so dense in appearance on a radar screen, yet so tenuous in reality, floated in their appointed orbits with a seeming vast leisure.

The feel of slowness was actually the result of distance. Men have always acted upon things close by. Battles have always been fought within eye-range, anyhow. But it was actually 06 hours 35 minutes ship time before the two spacecraft sighted each other—more than two hours after they plunged toward a rendezvous.

The Plumie ship was a bright golden dot, at first. It decelerated swiftly. In minutes it was a rounded, end-on disk. Then it swerved lightly and presented an elliptical broadside to the Niccola. The Niccola was in full deceleration too, by then. The two ships came very nearly to a stop with relation to each other when they were hardly twenty miles apart—which meant great daring on both sides.

Baird heard the skipper grumbling:

“Damned cocky!” He roared suddenly: “Mr. Baird! How’ve you made out in communicating with them?”

“Not at all, sir,” said Baird grimly. “They don’t reply.”

He knew from Diane’s expression that there was no sound in the headphones except the frying noise all main-sequence stars give out, and the infrequent thumping noises that come from gas-giant planets’ lower atmospheres, and the Jansky-radiation hiss which comes from everywhere.

The skipper swore. The Plumie ship lay broadside to, less than a score of miles away. It shone in the sunlight. It acted with extraordinary confidence. It was as if it dared the Niccola to open fire.

Taine’s voice came out of a speaker, harsh and angry:

“Even-numbered tubes prepare to fire on command.”

Nothing happened. The two ships floated sunward together, neither approaching nor retreating. But with every second, the need for action of some sort increased.

“Mr. Baird!” barked the skipper. “This is ridiculous! There must be some way to communicate! We can’t sit here glaring at each other forever! Raise them! Get some sort of acknowledgement!”

“I’m trying,” said Baird bitterly, “according to orders!”

But he disagreed with those orders. It was official theory that arithmetic values, repeated in proper order, would be the way to open conversation. The assumption was that any rational creature would grasp the idea that orderly signals were rational attempts to open communication.

But it had occurred to Baird that a Plumie might not see this point. Perception of order is not necessarily perception of information—in fact, quite the contrary. A message is a disturbance of order. A microphone does not transmit a message when it sends an unvarying tone. A message has to be unpredictable or it conveys no message. Orderly clicks, even if overheard, might seem to Plumies the result of methodically operating machinery. A race capable of interstellar flight was not likely to be interested or thrilled by exercises a human child goes through in kindergarten. They simply wouldn’t seem meaningful at all.

But before he could ask permission to attempt to make talk in a more sophisticated fashion, voices exclaimed all over the ship. They came blurringly to the loud-speakers. “Look at that!” “What’s he do—” “Spinning like—” From every place where there was a vision-plate on the Niccola, men watched the Plumie ship and babbled.

This was at 06 hours 50 minutes ship time.

* * *

The elliptical golden object darted into swift and eccentric motion. Lacking an object of known size for comparison, there was no scale. The golden ship might have been the size of an autumn leaf, and in fact its maneuvers suggested the heedless tumblings and scurrying of falling foliage. It fluttered in swift turns and somersaults and spinnings. There were weavings like the purposeful feints of boxers not yet come to battle. There were indescribably graceful swoops and loops and curving dashes like some preposterous dance in emptiness.

Taine’s voice crashed out of a speaker:

“All even-numbered rockets,” he barked. “Fire!”

The skipper roared a countermand, but too late. The crunching, grunting sound of rockets leaving their launching tubes came before his first syllable was complete. Then there was silence while the skipper gathered breath for a masterpiece of profanity. But Taine snapped:

“That dance was a sneak-up! The Plumie came four miles nearer while we watched!”

Baird jerked his eyes from watching the Plumie. He looked at the master radar. It was faintly blurred with the fading lines of past gyrations, but the golden ship was much nearer the Niccola than it had been.

“Radar reporting,” said Baird sickishly. “Mr. Taine is correct. The Plumie ship did approach us while it danced.”

Taine’s voice snarled:

“Reload even numbers with chemical-explosive war heads. Then remove atomics from odd numbers and replace with chemicals. The range is too short for atomics.”

Baird felt curiously divided in his own mind. He disliked Taine very much. Taine was arrogant and suspicious and intolerant even on the Niccola. But Taine had been right twice, now. The Plumie ship had crept closer by pure trickery. And it was right to remove atomic war heads from the rockets. They had a pure-blast radius of ten miles. To destroy the Plumie ship within twice that would endanger the Niccola—and leave nothing of the Plumie to examine afterward.

The Plumie ship must have seen the rocket flares, but it continued to dance, coming nearer and ever nearer in seemingly heedless and purposeless plungings and spinnings in star-speckled space. But suddenly there were racing, rushing trails of swirling vapor. Half the Niccola‘s port broadside plunged toward the golden ship. The fraction of a second later, the starboard half-dozen chemical-explosive rockets swung furiously around the ship’s hull and streaked after their brothers. They moved in utterly silent, straight-lined ravening ferocity toward their target. Baird thought irrelevantly of the vapor trails of an atmosphere-liner in the planet’s upper air.

The ruled-line straightness of the first six rockets’ course abruptly broke. One of them veered crazily out of control. It shifted to an almost right-angled course. A second swung wildly to the left. A third and fourth and fifth—The sixth of the first line of rockets made a great, sweeping turn and came hurtling back toward the Niccola. It was like a nightmare. Lunatic, erratic lines of sunlit vapor eeled before the background of all the stars in creation.

Then the second half-dozen rockets broke ranks, as insanely and irremediably as the first.

Taine’s voice screamed out of a speaker, hysterical with fury:

“Detonate! Detonate! They’ve taken over the rockets and are throwing ’em back at us! Detonate all rockets!”

The heavens seemed streaked and laced with lines of expanding smoke. But now one plunging line erupted at its tip. A swelling globe of smoke marked its end. Another blew up. And another—

The Niccola‘s rockets faithfully blew themselves to bits on command from the Niccola‘s own weapons control. There was nothing else to be done with them. They’d been taken over in flight. They’d been turned and headed back toward their source. They’d have blasted the Niccola to bits but for their premature explosions.

There was a peculiar, stunned hush all through the Niccola. The only sound that came out of any speaker in the radar room was Taine’s voice, high-pitched and raging, mouthing unspeakable hatred of the Plumies, whom no human being had yet seen.

* * *

Baird sat tense in the frustrated and desperate composure of the man who can only be of use while he is sitting still and keeping his head. The vision screen was now a blur of writhing mist, lighted by the sun and torn at by emptiness. There was luminosity where the ships had encountered each other. It was sunshine upon thin smoke. It was like the insanely enlarging head of a newborn comet, whose tail would be formed presently by light-pressure. The Plumie ship was almost invisible behind the unsubstantial stuff.

But Baird regarded his radar screens. Microwaves penetrated the mist of rapidly ionizing gases.

“Radar to navigation!” he said sharply. “The Plumie ship is still approaching, dancing as before!”

The skipper said with enormous calm:

“Any other Plumie ships, Mr. Baird?”

Diane interposed.

“No sign anywhere. I’ve been watching. This seems to be the only ship within radar range.

“We’ve time to settle with it, then,” said the skipper. “Mr. Taine, the Plumie ship is still approaching.”

Baird found himself hating the Plumies. It was not only that humankind was showing up rather badly, at the moment. It was that if the Niccola were destroyed the Plumie would carry news of the existence of humanity and of the tactics which worked to defeat them. The Plumies could prepare an irresistible fleet. Humanity could be doomed.

But he overheard himself saying bitterly:

“I wish I’d known this was coming, Diane. I . . . wouldn’t have resolved to be strictly official, only, until we got back to base.”

Her eyes widened. She looked startled. Then she softened.

“If . . . you mean that . . . I wish so too.”

“It looks like they’ve got us,” he admitted unhappily. “If they can take our rockets away from us—” Then his voice stopped. He said, “Hold everything!” and pressed the navigation-room button. He snapped: “Radar to navigation. It appears to take the Plumies several seconds to take over a rocket. They have to aim something—a pressor or tractor beam, most likely—and pick off each rocket separately. Nearly forty seconds was consumed in taking over all twelve of our rockets. At shorter range, with less time available, a rocket might get through!”

The skipper swore briefly. Then:

“Mr. Taine! When the Plumies are near enough, our rockets may strike before they can be taken over! You follow?”

Baird heard Taine’s shrill-voiced acknowledgment—in the form of practically chattered orders to his rocket-tube crews. Baird listened, checking the orders against what the situation was as the radars saw it. Taine’s voice was almost unhuman; so filled with frantic rage that it cracked as he spoke. But the problem at hand was the fulfillment of all his psychopathic urges. He commanded the starboard-side rocket-battery to await special orders. Meanwhile the port-side battery would fire two rockets on widely divergent courses, curving to join at the Plumie ship. They’d be seized. They were to be detonated and another port-side rocket fired instantly, followed by a second hidden in the rocket-trail the first would leave behind. Then the starboard side—

“I’m afraid Taine’s our only chance,” said Baird reluctantly. “If he wins, we’ll have time to . . . talk as people do who like each other. If it doesn’t work—”

Diane said quietly:

“Anyhow . . . I’m glad you . . . wanted me to know. I . . . wanted you to know, too.”

She smiled at him, yearningly.

* * *

There was the crump-crump of two rockets going out together. Then the radar told what happened. The Plumie ship was no more than six miles away, dancing somehow deftly in the light of a yellow sun, with all the cosmos spread out as shining pin points of colored light behind it. The radar reported the dash and the death of the two rockets, after their struggle with invisible things that gripped them. They died when they headed reluctantly back to the Niccola—and detonated two miles from their parent ship. The skipper’s voice came:

“Mr. Taine! After your next salvo I shall head for the Plumie at full drive, to cut down the distance and the time they have to work in. Be ready!”

The rocket tubes went crump-crump again, with a fifth of a second interval. The radar showed two tiny specks speeding through space toward the weaving, shifting speck which was the Plumie.

Outside, in emptiness, there was a filmy haze. It was the rocket-fumes and explosive gases spreading with incredible speed. It was thin as gossamer. The Plumie ship undoubtedly spotted the rockets, but it did not try to turn them. It somehow seized them and deflected them, and darted past them toward the Niccola.

“They see the trick,” said Diane, dry-throated. “If they can get in close enough, they can turn it against us!”

There were noises inside the Niccola, now. Taine fairly howled an order. There were yells of defiance and excitement. There were more of those inadequate noises as rockets went out—every tube on the starboard side emptied itself in a series of savage grunts—and the Niccola‘s magnetronic drive roared at full flux density.

The two ships were less than a mile apart when the Niccola let go her full double broadside of missiles. And then it seemed that the Plumie ship was doomed. There were simply too many rockets to be seized and handled before at least one struck. But there was a new condition. The Plumie ship weaved and dodged its way through them. The new condition was that the rockets were just beginning their run. They had not achieved the terrific velocity they would accumulate in ten miles of no-gravity. They were new-launched; logy; clumsy: not the streaking, flashing death-and-destruction they would become with thirty more seconds of acceleration.

So the Plumie ship dodged them with a skill and daring past belief. With an incredible agility it got inside them, nearer to the Niccola than they. And then it hurled itself at the human ship as if bent upon a suicidal crash which would destroy both ships together. But Baird, in the radar room, and the skipper in navigation, knew that it would plunge brilliantly past them at the last instant—

And then they knew that it would not. Because, very suddenly and very abruptly, there was something the matter with the Plumie ship. The life went out of it. It ceased to steer. It began to turn slowly on an axis somewhere amidships. Its nose swung to one side, with no change in the direction of its motion. It floated onward. It was broadside to its line of travel. It continued to turn. It hurtled stern-first toward the Niccola. It did not swerve. It did not dance. It was a lifeless hulk: a derelict in space.

And it would hit the Niccola amidships with no possible result but destruction for both vessels.

* * *

The Niccola‘s skipper bellowed orders, as if shouting would somehow give them more effect. The magnetronic drive roared. He’d demanded a miracle of it, and he almost got one. The drive strained its thrust-members. It hopelessly overloaded its coils. The Niccola‘s cobalt-steel hull became more than saturated with the drive-field, and it leaped madly upon an evasion course—

And it very nearly got away. It was swinging clear when the Plumie ship drifted within fathoms. It was turning aside when the Plumie ship was within yards. And it was almost safe when the golden hull of the Plumie—shadowed now by the Niccola itself—barely scraped a side-keel.

There was a touch, seemingly deliberate and gentle. But the Niccola shuddered horribly. Then the vision screens flared from such a light as might herald the crack of doom. There was a brightness greater than the brilliance of the sun. And then there was a wrenching, heaving shock. Then there was blackness. Baird was flung across the radar room, and Diane cried out, and he careened against a wall and heard glass shatter. He called:

“Diane!”

He clutched crazily at anything, and called her name again. The Niccola‘s internal gravity was cut off, and his head spun, and he heard collision-doors closing everywhere, but before they closed completely he heard the rasping sound of giant arcs leaping in the engine room. Then there was silence.

“Diane!” cried Baird fiercely. “Diane!”

“I’m I . . . here,” she panted. “I’m dizzy, but I . . . think I’m all right—”

The battery-powered emergency light came on. It was faint, but he saw her clinging to a bank of instruments where she’d been thrown by the collision. He moved to go to her, and found himself floating in midair. But he drifted to a side wall and worked his way to her.

She clung to him, shivering.

“I . . . think,” she said unsteadily, “that we’re going to die. Aren’t we?”

“We’ll see,” he told her. “Hold on to me.”

Guided by the emergency light, he scrambled to the bank of communicator-buttons. What had been the floor was now a side wall. He climbed it and thumbed the navigation-room switch.

“Radar room reporting,” he said curtly. “Power out, gravity off, no reports from outside from power failure. No great physical damage.”

He began to hear other voices. There had never been an actual space-collision in the memory of man, but reports came crisply, and the cut-in speakers in the radar room repeated them. Ship-gravity was out all over the ship. Emergency lights were functioning, and those were all the lights there were. There was a slight, unexplained gravity-drift toward what had been the ship’s port side. But damage-control reported no loss of pressure in the Niccola‘s inner hull, though four areas between inner and outer hulls had lost air pressure to space.

“Mr. Baird,” rasped the skipper. “We’re blind! Forget everything else and give us eyes to see with!”

“We’ll try battery power to the vision plates,” Baird told Diane. “No full resolution, but better than nothing—”

They worked together, feverishly. They were dizzy. Something close to nausea came upon them from pure giddiness. What had been the floor was now a wall, and they had to climb to each of the instruments that had been on a wall and now were on the ceiling. But their weight was ounces only. Baird said abruptly:

“I know what’s the matter! We’re spinning! The whole ship’s spinning! That’s why we’re giddy and why we have even a trace of weight. Centrifugal force! Ready for the current?”

There was a tiny click, and the battery light dimmed. But a vision screen lighted faintly. The stars it showed were moving specks of light. The sun passed deliberately across the screen. Baird switched to other outside scanners. There was power for only one screen at a time. But he saw the starkly impossible. He pressed the navigation-room button.

“Radar room reporting,” he said urgently. “The Plumie ship is fast to us, in contact with our hull! Both ships are spinning together!” He was trying yet other scanners as he spoke, and now he said: “Got it! There are no lines connecting us to the Plumie, but it looks . . . yes! That flash when the ships came together was a flashover of high potential. We’re welded to them along twenty feet of our hull!”

The skipper:

“Damnation! Any sign of intention to board us?”

“Not yet, sir—”

Taine burst in, his voice high-pitched and thick with hatred:

“Damage-control parties attention! Arm yourselves and assemble at starboard air lock! Rocket crews get into suits and prepare to board this Plumie—”

“Countermand!” bellowed the skipper from the speaker beside Baird’s ear. “Those orders are canceled! Dammit, if we were successfully boarded we’d blow ourselves to bits! Those are our orders! D’you think the Plumies will let their ship be taken? And wouldn’t we blow up with them? Mr. Taine, you will take no offensive action without specific orders! Defensive action is another matter. Mr. Baird! I consider this welding business pure accident. No one would be mad enough to plan it. You watch the Plumies and keep me informed!”

His voice ceased. And Baird had again the frustrating duty of remaining still and keeping his head while other men engaged in physical activity. He helped Diane to a chair—which was fastened to the floor-which-was-now-a-wall—and she wedged herself fast and began a review of what each of the outside scanners reported. Baird called for more batteries. Power for the radar and visions was more important than anything else, just then. If there were more Plumie ships . . .

* * *

Electricians half-floated, half-dragged extra batteries to the radar room. Baird hooked them in. The universe outside the ship again appeared filled with brilliantly colored dots of light which were stars. More satisfying, the globe-scanners again reported no new objects anywhere. Nothing new within a quarter million miles. A half-million. Later Baird reported:

“Radars report no strange objects within a million miles of the Niccola, sir.”

“Except the ship we’re welded to. But you are doing very well. However, microphones say there is movement inside the Plumie.”

Diane beckoned for Baird’s attention to a screen, which Baird had examined before. Now he stiffened and motioned for her to report.

“We’ve a scanner, sir,” said Diane, “which faces what looks like a port in the Plumie ship. There’s a figure at the port. I can’t make out details, but it is making motions, facing us.”

“Give me the picture!” snapped the skipper.

Diane obeyed. It was the merest flip of a switch. Then her eyes went back to the spherical-sweep scanners which reported the bearing and distance of every solid object within their range. She set up two instruments which would measure the angle, bearing, and distance of the two planets now on this side of the sun—the gas-giant and the oxygen-world to sunward. Their orbital speeds and distances were known. The position, course, and speed of the Niccola could be computed from any two observations on them.

Diane had returned to the utterly necessary routine of the radar room which was the nerve-center of the ship, gathering all information needed for navigation in space. The fact that there had been a collision, that the Niccola‘s engines were melted to unlovely scrap, that the Plumie ship was now welded irremovably to a side keel, and that a Plumie was signaling to humans while both ships went spinning through space toward an unknown destination—these things did not affect the obligations of the radar room.

Baird got other images of the Plumie ship into sharp focus. So near, the scanners required adjustment for precision.

“Take a look at this!” he said wryly.

She looked. The view was of the Plumie as welded fast to the Niccola. The welding was itself an extraordinary result of the Plumie’s battle-tactics. Tractor and pressor beams were known to men, of course, but human beings used them only under very special conditions. Their operation involved the building-up of terrific static charges. Unless a tractor-beam generator could be grounded to the object it was to pull, it tended to emit lightning-bolts at unpredictable intervals and in entirely random directions. So men didn’t use them. Obviously, the Plumies did.

They’d handled the Niccola‘s rockets with beams which charged the golden ship to billions of volts. And when the silicon-bronze Plumie ship touched the cobalt-steel Niccola—why—that charge had to be shared. It must have been the most spectacular of all artificial electric flames. Part of the Niccola‘s hull was vaporized, and undoubtedly part of the Plumie. But the unvaporized surfaces were molten and in contact—and they stuck.

For a good twenty feet the two ships were united by the most perfect of vacuum-welds. The wholly dissimilar hulls formed a space-catamaran, with a sort of valley between their bulks. Spinning deliberately, as the united ships did, sometimes the sun shone brightly into that valley, and sometimes it was filled with the blackness of the pit.

While Diane looked, a round door revolved in the side of the Plumie ship. As Diane caught her breath, Baird reported crisply. At his first word Taine burst into raging commands for men to follow him through the Niccola‘s air lock and fight a boarding party of Plumies in empty space. The skipper very savagely ordered him to be quiet.

“Only one figure has come out,” reported Baird. The skipper watched on a vision plate, but Baird reported so all the Niccola‘s company would know. “It’s small—less than five feet . . . I’ll see better in a moment.” Sunlight smote down into the valley between the ships. “It’s wearing a pressure suit. It seems to be the same material as the ship. It walks on two legs, as we do . . . It has two arms, or something very similar . . . The helmet of the suit is very high . . . It looks like the armor knights used to fight in . . . It’s making its way to our air lock . . . It does not use magnetic-soled shoes. It’s holding onto lines threaded along the other ship’s hull . . .”

The skipper said curtly:

“Mr. Baird! I hadn’t noticed the absence of magnetic shoes. You seem to have an eye for important items. Report to the air lock in person. Leave Lieutenant Holt to keep an eye on outside objects. Quickly, Mr. Baird!”

* * *

Baird laid his hand on Diane’s shoulder. She smiled at him.

“I’ll watch!” she promised.

He went out of the radar room, walking on what had been a side wall. The giddiness and dizziness of continued rotation was growing less, now. He was getting used to it. But the Niccola seemed strange indeed, with the standard up and down and Earth-gravity replaced by a vertical which was all askew and a weight of ounces instead of a hundred and seventy pounds.

He reached the air lock just as the skipper arrived. There were others there—armed and in pressure suits. The skipper glared about him.

“I am in command here,” he said very grimly indeed. “Mr. Taine has a special function, but I am in command. We and the creatures on the Plumie ship are in a very serious fix. One of them apparently means to come on board. There will be no hostility, no sneering, no threatening gestures. This is a parley! You will be careful. But you will not be trigger-happy!”

He glared around again, just as a metallic rapping came upon the Niccola‘s air-lock door. The skipper nodded:

“Let him in the lock, Mr. Baird.”

Baird obeyed. The humming of the unlocking-system sounded. There were clankings. The outer air lock closed. There was a faint whistling as air went in. The skipper nodded again.

Baird opened the inner door. It was 08 hours 10 minutes ship time.

The Plumie stepped confidently out into the topsy-turvy corridors of the Niccola. He was about the size of a ten-year-old human boy, and features which were definitely not grotesque showed through the clear plastic of his helmet. His pressure suit was, engineering-wise, a very clean job. His whole appearance was prepossessing. When he spoke, very clear and quite high sounds—soprano sounds—came from a small speaker-unit at his shoulder.

“For us to talk,” said the skipper heavily, “is pure nonsense. But I take it you’ve something to say.”

The Plumie gazed about with an air of lively curiosity. Then he drew out a flat pad with a white surface and sketched swiftly. He offered it to the Niccola‘s skipper.

“We want this on record,” he growled, staring about.

Diane’s voice said capably from a speaker somewhere nearby:

“Sir, there’s a scanner for inspection of objects brought aboard. Hold the plate flat and I’ll have a photograph—right!”

The skipper said curtly to the Plumie:

“You’ve drawn our two ships linked as they are. What have you to say about it?”

He handed back the plate. The Plumie pressed a stud and it was blank again. He sketched and offered it once more.

“Hm-m-m,” said the skipper. “You can’t use your drive while we’re glued together, eh? Well?”

The Plumie reached up and added lines to the drawing.

“So!” rumbled the skipper, inspecting the additions. “You say it’s up to us to use our drive for both ships.” He growled approvingly: “You consider there’s a truce. You must, because we’re both in the same fix, and not a nice one, either. True enough! We can’t fight each other without committing suicide, now. But we haven’t any drive left! We’re a derelict! How am I going to say that—if I decide to?”

Baird could see the lines on the plate, from the angle at which the skipper held it. He said:

“Sir, we’ve been mapping, up in the radar room. Those last lines are map coordinates—a separate sketch, sir. I think he’s saying that the two ships, together, are on a falling course toward the sun. That we have to do something or both vessels will fall into it. We should be able to check this, sir.”

“Hah!” growled the skipper. “That’s all we need. Absolutely all we need! To come here, get into a crazy fight, have our drive melt to scrap, get crazily welded to a Plumie ship, and then for both of us to fry together. We don’t need anything more than that!”

Diane’s voice came on the speaker:

“Sir, the last radar fixes on the planets in range give us a course directly toward the sun. I’ll repeat the observations.”

The skipper growled. Taine thrust himself forward. He snarled:

“Why doesn’t this Plumie take off his helmet? It lands on oxygen planets! Does it think it’s too good to breathe our air?”

Baird caught the Plumie’s eye. He made a gesture suggesting the removal of the space helmet. The Plumie gestured, in return, to a tiny vent in the suit. He opened something and gas whistled out. He cut it off. The question of why he did not open or remove his helmet was answered. The atmosphere he breathed would not do men any good, nor would theirs do him any good, either. Taine said suspiciously:

“How do we know he’s breathing the stuff he let out then? This creature isn’t human. It’s got no right to attack humans! Now it’s trying to trick us!” His voice changed to a snarl. “We’d better wring its neck! Teach its kind a lesson—”

The skipper roared at him.

“Be quiet! Our ship is a wreck! We have to consider the facts. We and these Plumies are in a fix together, and we have to get out of it before we start to teach anybody anything!” He glared at Taine. Then he said heavily: “Mr. Baird, you seem to notice things. Take this Plumie over the ship. Show him our drive melted down, so he’ll realize we can’t possibly tow his ship into an orbit. He knows that we’re armed, and that we can’t handle our war heads at this range. So we can’t fool each other. We might as well be frank. But you will take full note of his reactions, Mr. Baird!”

* * *

Baird advanced, and the skipper made a gesture. The Plumie regarded Baird with interested eyes. And Baird led the way for a tour of the Niccola. It was confusing even to him, with right hand converted to up and left hand to down, and sidewise now almost vertical. On the way the Plumie made more clear, flutelike sounds, and more gestures. Baird answered.

“Our gravity pull was that way,” he explained, “and things fell so fast.”

He grasped a handrail and demonstrated the speed with which things fell in normal ship-gravity. He used a pocket communicator for the falling weight. It was singularly easy to say some things, even highly technical ones, because they’d be what the Plumie would want to know. But quite commonplace things would be very difficult to convey.

Diane’s voice came out of the communicator.

“There are no novelties outside,” she said quietly. “It looks like this is the only Plumie ship anywhere around. It could have been exploring, like us. Maybe it was looking for the people who put up Space-Survey markers.”

“Maybe,” agreed Baird, using the communicator. “Is that stuff about falling into the sun correct?”

“It seems so,” said Diane composedly. “I’m checking again. So far, the best course I can get means we graze the sun’s photosphere in fourteen days six hours, allowing for acceleration by the sun’s gravity.”

“And you and I,” said Baird wryly, “have been acting as professional associates only, when—”

“Don’t say it!” said Diane shakily. “It’s terrible!”

He put the communicator back in his pocket. The Plumie had watched him. He had a peculiarly gallant air, this small figure in golden space armor with its high-crested helmet.

They reached the engine room. And there was the giant drive shaft of the Niccola, once wrapped with yard-thick coils which could induce an incredible density of magnetic flux in the metal. Even the return magnetic field, through the ship’s cobalt-steel hull, was many times higher than saturation. Now the coils were sagging: mostly melted. There were places where re-solidified metal smoked noisomely against non-metallic floor or wall-covering. Engineers labored doggedly in the trivial gravity to clean up the mess.

“It’s past repair,” said Baird, to the ship’s first engineer.

“It’s junk,” said that individual dourly. “Give us six months and a place to set up a wire-drawing mill and an insulator synthesizer, and we could rebuild it. But nothing less will be any good.”

The Plumie stared at the drive. He examined the shaft from every angle. He inspected the melted, and partly-melted, and merely burned-out sections of the drive coils. He was plainly unable to understand in any fashion the principle of the magnetronic drive. Baird was tempted to try to explain, because there was surely no secret about a ship drive, but he could imagine no diagrams or gestures which would convey the theory of what happened in cobalt-steel when it was magnetized beyond one hundred thousand Gauss’ flux-density. And without that theory one simply couldn’t explain a magnetronic drive.

They left the engine room. They visited the rocket batteries. The generator room was burned out, like the drive, by the inconceivable lightning bolt which had passed between the ships on contact. The Plumie was again puzzled. Baird made it clear that the generator-room supplied electric current for the ship’s normal lighting-system and services. The Plumie could grasp that idea. They examined the crew’s quarters, and the mess room, and the Plumie walked confidently among the members of the human crew, who a little while since had tried so painstakingly to destroy his vessel. He made a good impression.

“These little guys,” said a crewman to Baird, admiringly, “they got something. They can handle a ship! I bet they could almost make that ship of their play checkers!”

“Close to it,” agreed Baird. He realized something. He pulled the communicator from his pocket. “Diane! Contact the skipper. He wanted observations. Here’s one. This Plumie acts like soldiers used to act in ancient days—when they wore armor. And we have the same reaction. They will fight like the devil, but during a truce they’ll be friendly, admiring each other as scrappers, but ready to fight as hard as ever when the truce is over. We have the same reaction. Tell the skipper I’ve an idea that it’s a part of their civilization—maybe it’s a necessary part of any civilization! Tell him I guess that there may be necessarily parallel evolution of attitudes, among rational races, as there are parallel evolutions of eyes and legs and wings and fins among all animals everywhere. If I’m right, somebody from this ship will be invited to tour the Plumie. It’s only a guess, but tell him.”

“Immediately,” said Diane.

* * *

The Plumie followed gallantly as Baird made a steep climb up what once was the floor of a corridor. Then Taine stepped out before them. His eyes burned.

“Giving him a clear picture, eh?” he rasped. “Letting him spy out everything?”

Baird pressed the communicator call for the radar room and said coldly:

“I’m obeying orders. Look, Taine! You were picked for your job because you were a xenophobe. It helps in your proper functioning. But this Plumie is here under a flag of truce—”

“Flag of truce!” snarled Taine. “It’s vermin! It’s not human! I’ll—”

“If you move one inch nearer him,” said Baird gently, “just one inch—”

The skipper’s voice bellowed through the general call speakers all over the ship:

“Mr. Taine! You will go to your quarters, under arrest! Mr. Baird, burn him down if he hesitates!”

Then there was a rushing, and scrambling figures appeared and were all about. They were members of the Niccola‘s crew, sent by the skipper. They regarded the Plumie with detachment, but Taine with a wary expectancy. Taine turned purple with fury. He shouted. He raged. He called Baird and the others Plumie-lovers and vermin-worshipers. He shouted foulnesses at them. But he did not attack.

When, still shouting, he went away, Baird said apologetically to the Plumie:

“He’s a xenophobe. He has a pathological hatred of strangers—even of strangeness. We have him on board because—”

Then he stopped. The Plumie wouldn’t understand, of course. But his eyes took on a curious look. It was almost as if, looking at Baird, they twinkled.

Baird took him back to the skipper.

“He’s got the picture, sir,” he reported.

The Plumie pulled out his sketch plate. He drew on it. He offered it. The skipper said heavily:

“You guessed right, Mr. Baird. He suggests that someone from this ship go on board the Plumie vessel. He’s drawn two pressure-suited figures going into their air lock. One’s larger than the other. Will you go?”

“Naturally!” said Baird. Then he added thoughtfully: “But I’d better carry a portable scanner, sir. It should work perfectly well through a bronze hull, sir.”

The skipper nodded and began to sketch a diagram which would amount to an acceptance of the Plumie’s invitation.

This was at 07 hours 40 minutes ship time. Outside the sedately rotating metal hulls—the one a polished blue-silver and the other a glittering golden bronze—the cosmos continued to be as always. The haze from explosive fumes and rocket-fuel was, perhaps, a little thinner. The brighter stars shone through it. The gas-giant planet outward from the sun was a perceptible disk instead of a diffuse glow. The oxygen-planet to sunward showed again as a lighted crescent.

Presently Baird, in a human spacesuit, accompanied the Plumie into the Niccola‘s air lock and out to emptiness. His magnetic-soled shoes clung to the Niccola‘s cobalt-steel skin. Fastened to his shoulder there was a tiny scanner and microphone, which would relay everything he saw and heard back to the radar room and to Diane.

She watched tensely as he went inside the Plumie ship. Other screens relayed the image and his voice to other places on the Niccola.

He was gone a long time. From the beginning, of course, there were surprises. When the Plumie escort removed his helmet, on his own ship, the reason for the helmet’s high crest was apparent. He had a high crest of what looked remarkably like feathers—and it was not artificial. It grew there. The reason for conventionalized plumes on bronze survey plates was clear. It was exactly like the reason for human features or figures as decorative additions to the inscriptions on Space Survey marker plates. Even the Plumie’s hands had odd crestlets which stood out when he bent his fingers. The other Plumies were no less graceful and no less colorful. They had equally clear soprano voices. They were equally miniature and so devoid of apparent menace.

But there were also technical surprises. Baird was taken immediately to the Plumie ship’s engine room, and Diane heard the sharp intake of breath with which he appeared to recognize its working principle. There were Plumie engineers working feverishly at it, attempting to discover something to repair. But they found nothing. The Plumie drive simply would not work.

They took Baird through the ship’s entire fabric. And their purpose, when it became clear, was startling. The Plumie ship had no rocket tubes. It had no beam-projectors except small-sized objects which were—which must be—their projectors of tractor and pressor beams. They were elaborately grounded to the ship’s substance. But they were not originally designed for ultra-heavy service. They hadn’t and couldn’t have the enormous capacity Baird had expected. He was astounded.

* * *

When he returned to the Niccola, he went instantly to the radar room to make sure that pictures taken through his scanner had turned out well. And there was Diane.

But the skipper’s voice boomed at him from the wall.

“Mr. Baird! What have you to add to the information you sent back?”

“Three items, sir,” said Baird. He drew a deep breath. “For the first, sir, the Plumie ship is unarmed. They’ve tractor and pressor beams for handling material. They probably use them to build their cairns. But they weren’t meant for weapons. The Plumies, sir, hadn’t a thing to fight with when they drove for us after we detected them.”

The skipper blinked hard.

“Are you sure of that, Mr. Baird?”

“Yes, sir,” said Baird uncomfortably. “The Plumie ship is an exploring ship—a survey ship, sir. You saw their mapping equipment. But when they spotted us, and we spotted them—they bluffed! When we fired rockets at them, they turned them back with tractor and pressor beams. They drove for us, sir, to try to destroy us with our own bombs, because they didn’t have any of their own.”

The skipper’s mouth opened and closed.

“Another item, sir,” said Baird more uncomfortably still. “They don’t use iron or steel. Every metal object I saw was either a bronze or a light metal. I suspect some of their equipment’s made of potassium, and I’m fairly sure they use sodium in the place of aluminum. Their atmosphere’s quite different from ours—obviously! They’d use bronze for their ship’s hull because they can venture into an oxygen atmosphere in a bronze ship. A sodium-hulled ship would be lighter, but it would burn in oxygen. Where there was moisture—”

The skipper blinked.

“But they couldn’t drive in a nonmagnetic hull!” he protested. “A ship has to be magnetic to drive!”

“Sir,” said Baird, his voice still shaken, “they don’t use a magnetronic drive. I once saw a picture of the drive they use, in a stereo on the history of space travel. The principle’s very old. We’ve practically forgotten it. It’s a Dirac pusher-drive, sir. Among us humans, it came right after rockets. The planets of Sol were first reached by ships using Dirac pushers. But—” He paused. “They won’t operate in a magnetic field above seventy Gauss, sir. It’s a static-charge reaction, sir, and in a magnetic field it simply stops working.”

The skipper regarded Baird unblinkingly for a long time.

“I think you are telling me,” he said at long last, “that the Plumies’ drive would work if they were cut free of the Niccola.”

“Yes, sir,” said Baird. “Their engineers were opening up the drive-elements and checking them, and then closing them up again. They couldn’t seem to find anything wrong. I don’t think they know what the trouble is. It’s the Niccola‘s magnetic field. I think it was our field that caused the collision by stopping their drive and killing all their controls when they came close enough.”

“Did you tell them?” demanded the skipper.

“There was no easy way to tell them by diagrams, sir.”

Taine’s voice cut in. It was feverish. It was strident. It was triumphant.

“Sir! The Niccola is effectively a wreck and unrepairable. But the Plumie ship is operable if cut loose. As weapons officer, I intend to take the Plumie ship, let out its air, fill its tanks with our air, start up its drive, and turn it over to you for navigation back to base!”

Baird raged. But he said coldly:

“We’re a long way from home, Mr. Taine, and the Dirac pusher drive is slow. If we headed back to base in the Plumie ship with its Dirac pusher, we’d all be dead of old age before we’d gone halfway.”

“But unless we take it,” raged Taine, “we hit this sun in fourteen days! We don’t have to die now! We can land on the oxygen planet up ahead! We’ve only to kill these vermin and take their ship, and we’ll live!”

Diane’s voice said dispassionately:

“Report. A Plumie in a pressure suit just came out of their air lock. It’s carrying a parcel toward our air lock.”

Taine snarled instantly:

“They’ll sneak something in the Niccola to blast it, and then cut free and go away!”

The skipper said very grimly:

“Mr. Taine, credit me with minimum brains! There is no way the Plumies can take this ship without an atomic bomb exploding to destroy both ships. You should know it!” Then he snapped: “Air lock area, listen for a knock, and let in the Plumie or the parcel he leaves.”

There was silence. Baird said very quietly:

“I doubt they think it possible to cut the ships apart. A torch is no good on thick silicon bronze. It conducts heat too well! And they don’t use steel. They probably haven’t a cutting-torch at all.”

* * *

From the radar room he watched the Plumie place an object in the air lock and withdraw. He watched from a scanner inside the ship as someone brought in what the Plumie had left. An electronics man bustled forward. He looked it over quickly. It was complex, but his examination suddenly seemed satisfying to him. But a grayish vapor developed and he sniffed and wrinkled his nose. He picked up a communicator.

“Sir, they’ve sent us a power-generator. Some of its parts are going bad in our atmosphere, sir, but this looks to me like a hell of a good idea for a generator! I never saw anything like it, but it’s good! You can set it for any voltage and it’ll turn out plenty juice!”

“Put it in helium,” snapped the skipper. “It won’t break down in that. Then see how it serves.”

In the radar room, Baird drew a deep breath. He went carefully to each of the screens and every radar. Diane saw what he was about, and checked with him. They met at the middle of the radar room.

“Everything’s checked out,” said Baird gravely. “There’s nothing else around. There’s nothing we can be called on to do before something happens. So . . . we can . . . act like people.”

Diane smiled very faintly.

“Not like people. Just like us.” She said wistfully: “Don’t you want to tell me something? Something you intended to tell me only after we got back to base?”

He did. He told it to her. And there was also something she had not intended to tell him at all—unless he told her first. She said it now. They felt that such sayings were of the greatest possible importance. They clung together, saying them again. And it seemed wholly monstrous that two people who cared so desperately had wasted so much time acting like professional associates—explorer-ship officers—when things like this were to be said . . .

As they talked incoherently, or were even more eloquently silent, the ship’s ordinary lights came back on. The battery-lamp went on.

“We’ve got to switch back to ship’s circuit,” said Baird reluctantly. They separated, and restored the operating circuits to normal. “We’ve got fourteen days,” he added, “and so much time to be on duty, and we’ve a lost lifetime to live in fourteen days! Diane—”

She flushed vividly. So Baird said very politely into the microphone to the navigation room:

“Sir, Lieutenant Holt and myself would like to speak directly to you in the navigation room. May we?”

“Why not?” growled the skipper. “You’ve noticed that the Plumie generator is giving the whole ship lights and services?”

“Yes, sir,” said Baird. “We’ll be there right away.”

* * *

They heard the skipper’s grunt as they hurried through the door. A moment later the ship’s normal gravity returned—also through the Plumie generator. Up was up again, and down was down, and the corridors and cabins of the Niccola were brightly illuminated. Had the ship been other than an engineless wreck, falling through a hundred and fifty million miles of emptiness into the flaming photosphere of a sun, everything would have seemed quite normal, including the errand Baird and Diane were upon, and the fact that they held hands self-consciously as they went about it.

They skirted the bulkhead of the main air tank. They headed along the broader corridor which went past the indented inner door of the air lock. They had reached that indentation when Baird saw that the inner air-lock door was closing. He saw a human pressure suit past its edge. He saw the corner of some object that had been put down on the air-lock floor.

Baird shouted, and rushed toward the lock. He seized the inner handle and tried to force open the door again, so that no one inside it could emerge into the emptiness without. He failed. He wrenched frantically at the control of the outer door. It suddenly swung freely. The outer door had been put on manual. It could be and was being opened from inside.

“Tell the skipper,” raged Baird. “Taine’s taking something out!” He tore open a pressure-suit cupboard in the wall beside the lock door. “He’ll make the Plumies think it’s a return-gift for the generator!” He eeled into the pressure suit and zipped it up to his neck. “The man’s crazy! He thinks we can take their ship and stay alive for a while! Dammit, our air would ruin half their equipment! Tell the skipper to send help!”

He wrenched at the door again, jamming down his helmet with one hand. And this time the control worked. Taine, most probably, had forgotten that the inner control was disengaged only when the manual was actively in use. Diane raced away, panting. Baird swore bitterly at the slowness of the outer door’s closing. He was tearing at the inner door long before it could be opened. He flung himself in and dragged it shut, and struck the emergency air-release which bled the air lock into space for speed of operation. He thrust out the outer door and plunged through.

His momentum carried him almost too far. He fell, and only the magnetic soles of his shoes enabled him to check himself. He was in that singular valley between the two ships, where their hulls were impregnably welded fast. Round-hulled Plumie ship, and ganoid-shaped Niccola, they stuck immovably together as if they had been that way since time began. Where the sky appeared above Baird’s head, the stars moved in stately procession across the valley roof.

He heard a metallic rapping through the fabric of his space armor. Then sunlight glittered, and the valley filled with a fierce glare, and a man in a human spacesuit stood on the Niccola‘s plating, opposite the Plumie air lock. He held a bulky object under his arm. With his other gauntlet he rapped again.

“You fool!” shouted Baird. “Stop that! We couldn’t use their ship, anyhow!”

His space phone had turned on with the air supply. Taine’s voice snarled:

“We’ll try! You keep back! They are not human!”

But Baird ran toward him. The sensation of running upon magnetic-soled shoes was unearthly: it was like trying to run on fly-paper or bird-lime. But in addition there was no gravity here, and no sense of balance, and there was the feeling of perpetual fall.

There could be no science nor any skill in an encounter under such conditions. Baird partly ran and partly staggered and partly skated to where Taine faced him, snarling. He threw himself at the other man—and then the sun vanished behind the bronze ship’s hull, and only stars moved visibly in all the universe.

But the sound of his impact was loud in Baird’s ears inside the suit. There was a slightly different sound when his armor struck Taine’s, and when it struck the heavier metal of the two ships. He fought. But the suits were intended to be defense against greater stresses than human blows could offer. In the darkness, it was like two blindfolded men fighting each other while encased in pillows.

Then the sun returned, floating sedately above the valley, and Baird could see his enemy. He saw, too, that the Plumie air lock was now open and that a small, erect, and somehow jaunty figure in golden space armor stood in the opening and watched gravely as the two men fought.

Taine cursed, panting with hysterical hate. He flung himself at Baird, and Baird toppled because he’d put one foot past the welded boundary between the Niccola‘s cobalt steel and the Plumie ship’s bronze. One foot held to nothing. And that was a ghastly sensation, because if Taine only tugged his other foot free and heaved—why—then Baird would go floating away from the rotating, now-twinned ships, floating farther and farther away forever.

But darkness fell, and he scrambled back to the Niccola‘s hull as a disorderly parade of stars went by above him. He pantingly waited fresh attack. He felt something—and it was the object Taine had meant to offer as a return present to the Plumies. It was unquestionably explosive, either booby-trapped or timed to explode inside the Plumie ship. Now it rocked gently, gripped by the magnetism of the steel.

The sun appeared again, and Taine was yards away, crawling and fumbling for Baird. Then he saw him, and rose and rushed, and the clankings of his shoe-soles were loud. Baird flung himself at Taine in a savage tackle.

He struck Taine’s legs a glancing blow, and the cobalt steel held his armor fast, but Taine careened and bounced against the round bronze wall of the Plumie, and bounced again. Then he screamed, because he went floating slowly out to emptiness, his arms and legs jerking spasmodically, while he shrieked . . .

The Plumie in the air lock stepped out. He trailed a cord behind him. He leaped briskly toward nothingness.

There came quick darkness once more, and Baird struggled erect despite the adhesiveness of the Niccola‘s hull. When he was fully upright, sick with horror at what had come about, there was sunlight yet again, and men were coming out of the Niccola‘s air lock, and the Plumie who’d leaped for space was pulling himself back to his own ship again. He had a loop of the cord twisted around Taine’s leg. But Taine screamed and screamed inside his spacesuit.

It was odd that one could recognize the skipper even inside space armor. But Baird felt sick. He saw Taine received, still screaming, and carried into the lock. The skipper growled an infuriated demand for details. His space phone had come on, too, when its air supply began. Baird explained, his teeth chattering.

“Hah!” grunted the skipper. “Taine was a mistake. He shouldn’t ever have left ground. When a man’s potty in one fashion, there’ll be cracks in him all over. What’s this?”

The Plumie in the golden armor very soberly offered the skipper the object Taine had meant to introduce into the Plumie’s ship. Baird said desperately that he’d fought against it, because he believed it a booby trap to kill the Plumies so men could take their ship and fill it with air and cut it free, and then make a landing somewhere.

“Damned foolishness!” rumbled the skipper. “Their ship’d begin to crumble with our air in it. If it held to a landing—”

Then he considered the object he’d accepted from the Plumie. It could have been a rocket war head, enclosed in some container that would detonate it if opened. Or there might be a timing device. The skipper grunted. He heaved it skyward.

The misshapen object went floating away toward emptiness. Sunlight smote harshly upon it.

“Don’t want it back in the Niccola,” growled the skipper, “but just to make sure—”

He fumbled a hand weapon out of his belt. He raised it, and it spurted flame—very tiny blue-white sparks, each one indicating a pellet of metal flung away at high velocity.

One of them struck the shining, retreating container. It exploded with a monstrous, soundless violence. It had been a rocket’s war head. There could have been only one reason for it to be introduced into a Plumie ship. Baird ceased to be shaky. Instead, he was ashamed.

The skipper growled inarticulately. He looked at the Plumie, again standing in the golden ship’s air lock.

“We’ll go back, Mr. Baird. What you’ve done won’t save our lives, and nobody will ever know you did it. But I think well of you. Come along!”

This was at 11 hours 5 minutes ship time.

* * *

A good half hour later the skipper’s voice bellowed from the speakers all over the Niccola. His heavy-jowled features stared doggedly out of screens wherever men were on duty or at ease.

“Hear this!” he said forbiddingly. “We have checked our course and speed. We have verified that there is no possible jury-rig for our engines that could get us into any sort of orbit, let alone land us on the only planet in this system with air we could breathe. It is officially certain that in thirteen days nine hours from now, the Niccola will be so close to the sun that her hull will melt down. Which will be no loss to us because we’ll be dead then, still going on into the sun to be vaporized with the ship. There is nothing to be done about it. We can do nothing to save our own lives.”

He glared out of each and every one of the screens, wherever there were men to see him.

“But,” he rumbled, “the Plumies can get away if we help them. They have no cutting torches. We have. We can cut their ship free. They can repair their drive—but it’s most likely that it’ll operate perfectly when they’re a mile from the Niccola’s magnetic field. They can’t help us. But we can help them. And sooner or later some Plumie ship is going to encounter some other human ship. If we cut these Plumies loose, they’ll report what we did. When they meet other men, they’ll be cagey because they’ll remember Taine. But they’ll know they can make friends, because we did them a favor when we’d nothing to gain by it. I can offer no reward. But I ask for volunteers to go outside and cut the Plumie ship loose, so the Plumies can go home in safety instead of on into the sun with us.”

He glared, and cut off the image.

Diane held tightly to Baird’s hand, in the radar room. He said evenly:

“There’ll be volunteers. The Plumies are pretty sporting characters—putting up a fight with an unarmed ship, and so on. If there aren’t enough other volunteers, the skipper and I will cut them free by ourselves.”

Diane said, dry-throated:

“I’ll help. So I can be with you. We’ve got—so little time.”

“I’ll ask the skipper as soon as the Plumie ship’s free.”

“Y-yes,” said Diane. And she pressed her face against his shoulder, and wept.

This was at 01 hours, 20 minutes ship time. At 03 hours even, there was peculiar activity in the valley between the welded ships. There were men in space armor working cutting-torches where for twenty feet the two ships were solidly attached. Blue-white flames bored savagely into solid metal, and melted copper gave off strangely colored clouds of vapor—which emptiness whisked away to nothing—and molten iron and cobalt made equally lurid clouds of other colors.

There were Plumies in the air lock, watching.

At 03 hours 40 minutes ship time, all the men but one drew back. They went inside the Niccola. Only one man remained, cutting at the last sliver of metal that held the two ships together.

It parted. The Plumie ship swept swiftly away, moved by the centrifugal force of the rotary motion the joined vessels had possessed. It dwindled and dwindled. It was a half mile away. A mile. The last man on the outside of the Niccola‘s hull thriftily brought his torch to the air lock and came in.

Suddenly, the distant golden hull came to life. It steadied. It ceased to spin, however slowly. It darted ahead. It checked. It swung to the right and left and up and down. It was alive again.

* * *

In the radar room, Diane walked into Baird’s arms and said shakily:

“Now we . . . we have almost fourteen days.”

“Wait,” he commanded. “When the Plumies understood what we were doing, and why, they drew diagrams. They hadn’t thought of cutting free, out in space, without the spinning saws they used to cut bronze with. But they asked for a scanner and a screen. They checked on its use. I want to see—”

He flipped on the screen. And there was instantly a Plumie looking eagerly out of it, for some sign of communication established. There were soprano sounds, and he waved a hand for attention. Then he zestfully held up one diagram after another.

Baird drew a deep breath. A very deep breath. He pressed the navigation-room call. The skipper looked dourly at him.

“Well?” said the skipper forbiddingly.

“Sir,” said Baird, very quietly indeed, “the Plumies are talking by diagram over the communicator set we gave them. Their drive works. They’re as well off as they ever were. And they’ve been modifying their tractor beams—stepping them up to higher power.”

“What of it?” demanded the skipper, rumbling.

“They believe,” said Baird, “that they can handle the Niccola with their beefed-up tractor beams.” He wetted his lips. “They’re going to tow us to the oxygen planet ahead, sir. They’re going to set us down on it. They’ll help us find the metals we need to build the tools to repair the Niccola, sir. You see the reasoning, sir. We turned them loose to improve the chance of friendly contact when another human ship runs into them. They want us to carry back—to be proof that Plumies and men can be friends. It seems that—they like us, sir.”

He stopped for a moment. Then he went on reasonably:

“And besides that, it’ll be one hell of a fine business proposition. We never bother with hydrogen-methane planets. They’ve minerals and chemicals we haven’t got, but even the stones of a methane-hydrogen planet are ready to combine with the oxygen we need to breathe! We can’t carry or keep enough oxygen for real work. The same thing’s true with them on an oxygen planet. We can’t work on each other’s planets, but we can do fine business in each other’s minerals and chemicals from those planets. I’ve got a feeling, sir, that the Plumie cairns are location-notices; markers set up over ore deposits they can find but can’t hope to work, yet they claim against the day when their scientists find a way to make them worth owning. I’d be willing to bet, sir, that if we explored hydrogen planets as thoroughly as oxygen ones, we’d find cairns on their-type planets that they haven’t colonized yet.”

The skipper stared. His mouth dropped open.

“And I think, sir,” said Baird, “that until they detected us they thought they were the only intelligent race in the galaxy. They were upset to discover suddenly that they were not, and at first they’d no idea what we’d be like. But I’m guessing now, sir, that they’re figuring on what chemicals and ores to start swapping with us.” Then he added, “When you think of it, sir, probably the first metal they ever used was aluminum—where our ancestors used copper—and they had a beryllium age next, instead of iron. And right now, sir, it’s probably as expensive for them to refine iron as it is for us to handle titanium and beryllium and osmium—which are duck soup for them! Our two cultures ought to thrive as long as we’re friends, sir. They know it already—and we’ll find it out in a hurry!”

The skipper’s mouth moved. It closed, and then dropped open again. The search for the Plumies had been made because it looked like they had to be fought. But Baird had just pointed out some extremely commonsense items which changed the situation entirely. And there was evidence that the Plumies saw the situation the new way. The skipper felt such enormous relief that his manner changed. He displayed what was almost effusive cordiality—for the skipper. He cleared his throat.

“Hm-m-m. Hah! Very good, Mr. Baird,” he said formidably. “And of course with time and air and metals we can rebuild our drive. For that matter, we could rebuild the Niccola! I’ll notify the ship’s company, Mr. Baird. Very good!” He moved to use another microphone. Then he checked himself. “Your expression is odd, Mr. Baird. Did you wish to say something more?”

“Y-yes, sir,” said Baird. He held Diane’s hand fast. “It’ll be months before we get back to port, sir. And it’s normally against regulations, but under the circumstances . . . would you mind . . . as skipper . . . marrying Lieutenant Holt and me?”

The skipper snorted. Then he said almost—almost—amiably?

“Hm-m-m. You’ve both done very well, Mr. Baird. Yes. Come to the navigation room and we’ll get it over with. Say—ten minutes from now.”

Baird grinned at Diane. Her eyes shone a little.

This was at 04 hours 10 minutes ship time. It was exactly twelve hours since the alarm-bell rang.

Afterword by Eric Flint

Murray Leinster died almost thirty years ago, in 1976, and his writing career had essentially ended by the beginning of the 1970s. During the decades that followed, this once-major figure in science fiction more or less faded away from the public eye. Until I started editing the multivolume reissue of his writings which Baen Books is now publishing, the only important reissue of his writing that had taken place in many years was NESFA Press’ 1998 one-volume omnibus First Contacts.

This . . . for a man who held the title “the dean of science fiction” before Robert Heinlein inherited it. (And it wasn’t bestowed on him by an obscure fan club, either—Leinster was given the sobriquet by Time magazine.) When I first started reading science fiction in the early ’60s, Leinster seemed well-nigh ubiquitous to me. I couldn’t have imagined back then that the day would come when he had completely vanished from the shelves.

What happened? Leinster was no minor writer like several in this anthology, after all: Rick Raphael, Robert Ernest Gilbert, Wyman Guin, some others. All of them wrote well, to be sure—but Leinster published more novels than they did short stories. He might have published more novels than all of their short stories put together. And his total output, even leaving aside the many westerns and mystery stories he wrote under his real name of Will Jenkins, would have buried them. Would have buried most authors, in fact, major or minor.

Part of it, I think, was that the loose human conglomeration you might call “the science fiction community” was always fairly lukewarm about him. His career in science fiction spanned half a century, in the course of which he was published by many book publishers and appeared in almost all the principal magazines. Yet, during his lifetime, he only won a major science fiction award once—the Hugo award for best novelette in 1956, for “Exploration Team.” In fact, he only received one other nomination for the Hugo: his novel The Pirates of Zan made the final list in 1960 (losing, not surprisingly, to Heinlein’s Starship Troopers). He was never nominated once for the Nebula award.

To be sure, the major SF awards like all such awards are notoriously subject to the popularity of the recipient with the relatively small numbers of people who cast the votes. And since Leinster paid no attention to them—he rarely if ever attended a science fiction convention, and had very little contact with other science fiction writers—it’s not surprising that they tended to ignore him in return.

But there’s more to it, I think, than just personal distance. The key is that famous old saw: “Familiarity breeds contempt.” Leinster was there at the creation of science fiction—and he created much of it himself. Name any of the now-recognized subgenres or themes of science fiction and trace them back in time . . . and, as often as not, you will discover that Murray Leinster laid the foundations.

First contact? The name itself comes from a Murray Leinster story.

Alternate history? He published the time-travel story “The Runaway Skyscraper” in Argosy magazine in the year 1919—a year before my father was born. Ironically enough, for a man who was almost never recognized by the awards, the Sidewise Award which is today given out at the annual Hugo ceremony for the best alternate histories of the year . . . was named after Leinster’s story “Sidewise in Time,” first published seventy years ago.

I could go and on, but I won’t bother. Granted, Leinster was never a dazzling writer. His prose is journeyman at best, he was repetitive in his longer works, he recycled plots shamelessly—no fewer than six of his novels are essentially Die Hard in Space with the serial numbers filed off—and he wrote a lot of stuff that can only be described as dreck. I know. I’ve read almost everything he wrote. I edited a reissue of the complete works of James H. Schmitz and never had to hold my nose once. I wouldn’t even think of doing the same with Leinster. Still, I could fill twice as many volumes with good Leinster than I could with Schmitz, simply because he wrote so much more.

And that’s what Leinster was, in the end. An indefatigable storyteller, often a superb one, and the writer who, more than anyone, created science fiction as a viable and separate genre in the first place. So have some respect. If we still worshipped our ancestors and kept their shrunken heads over the hearth, Murray Leinster’s would be the one in the center.

A Gun for Dinosaur by L. Sprague de Camp

A Gun for Dinosaur

by L. Sprague de Camp

Preface by David Drake:

The writers who created the Golden Age in Astounding were Heinlein on a level of his own, and de Camp, Hubbard, and Van Vogt right below him. (I'll argue that statement with anybody who catches me at a convention, but nobody who has a right to an opinion will deny that it's defensible.)

Those four authors (in reprint) were all important to me when I started reading SF, but it was Sprague de Camp who most formed my view of what science fiction was and should be. I don't know why, but the fact isn't in doubt.

After World War II de Camp slid into a different sort of story, entertaining but not nearly as significant to the field. By the '50s de Camp stories were appearing mostly in lower-level markets, and he was putting much of his effort into revising and pastiching the work of Robert E. Howard, a writer whom he explicitly did not respect. (Late in life, Sprague described this to me as being the worst mistake of his career. I agree with him.)

In the middle of this apparent decline, de Camp wrote two unquestionable masterpieces, the bleak and despairing "Judgment Day" ("That was really an autobiographical story," he told me—as if I'd been in doubt) and "A Gun for Dinosaur." Men-against-dinosaur stories are as old as magazine SF, just as there were horror novels before Carrie. King and de Camp turned what had been occasional subjects for stories into defined subgenres.

That's why "A Gun for Dinosaur" is important. The reason it's here, however, is that it blew all three of us away when we read it the first time.

No, I’m sorry, Mr. Seligman, but I can’t take you hunting Late Mesozoic dinosaur.

Yes, I know what the advertisement says.

Why not? How much d’you weigh? A hundred and thirty? Let’s see; that’s under ten stone, which is my lower limit.

I could take you to other periods, you know. I’ll take you to any period in the Cenozoic. I’ll get you a shot at an entelodont or a uintathere. They’ve got fine heads.

I’ll even stretch a point and take you to the Pleistocene, where you can try for one of the mammoths or the mastodon.

I’ll take you back to the Triassic where you can shoot one of the smaller ancestral dinosaurs. But I will jolly well not take you to the Jurassic or Cretaceous. You’re just too small.

What’s your size got to do with it? Look here, old boy, what did you think you were going to shoot your dinosaur with?

Oh, you hadn’t thought, eh?

Well, sit there a minute . . . Here you are: my own private gun for that work, a Continental .600. Does look like a shotgun, doesn’t it? But it’s rifled, as you can see by looking through the barrels. Shoots a pair of .600 Nitro Express cartridges the size of bananas; weighs fourteen and a half pounds and has a muzzle energy of over seven thousand foot-pounds. Costs fourteen hundred and fifty dollars. Lot of money for a gun, what?

I have some spares I rent to the sahibs. Designed for knocking down elephant. Not just wounding them, knocking them base-over-apex. That’s why they don’t make guns like this in America, though I suppose they will if hunting parties keep going back in time.

Now, I’ve been guiding hunting parties for twenty years. Guided ’em in Africa until the game gave out there except on the preserves. And all that time I’ve never known a man your size who could handle the six-nought-nought. It knocks ’em over, and even when they stay on their feet they get so scared of the bloody cannon after a few shots that they flinch. And they find the gun too heavy to drag around rough Mesozoic country. Wears ’em out.

It’s true that lots of people have killed elephant with lighter guns: the .500, .475, and .465 doubles, for instance, or even the .375 magnum repeaters. The difference is, with a .375 you have to hit something vital, preferably the heart, and can’t depend on simple shock power.

An elephant weighs—let’s see—four to six tons. You’re proposing to shoot reptiles weighing two or three times as much as an elephant and with much greater tenacity of life. That’s why the syndicate decided to take no more people dinosaur hunting unless they could handle the .600. We learned the hard way, as you Americans say. There were some unfortunate incidents . . .

I’ll tell you, Mr. Seligman. It’s after seventeen-hundred. Time I closed the office. Why don’t we stop at the bar on our way out while I tell you the story?

* * *

. . . It was about the Raja’s and my fifth safari into time. The Raja? Oh, he’s the Aiyar half of Rivers and Aiyar. I call him the Raja because he’s the hereditary monarch of Janpur. Means nothing nowadays, of course. Knew him in India and ran into him in New York running the Indian tourist agency. That dark chap in the photograph on my office wall, the one with his foot on the dead saber-tooth.

Well, the Raja was fed up with handing out brochures about the Taj Mahal and wanted to do a bit of hunting again. I was at loose ends when we heard of Professor Prochaska’s time machine at Washington University.

Where’s the Raja now? Out on safari in the Early Oligocene after titanothere while I run the office. We take turn about, but the first few times we went out together.

Anyway, we caught the next plane to St. Louis. To our mortification, we found we weren’t the first. Lord, no! There were other hunting guides and no end of scientists, each with his own idea of the right way to use the machine.

We scraped off the historians and archeologists right at the start. Seems the ruddy machine won’t work for periods more recent than 100,000 years ago. It works from there up to about a billion years.

Why? Oh, I’m no four-dimensional thinker; but, as I understand it, if people could go back to a more recent time, their actions would affect our own history, which would be a paradox or contradiction of facts. Can’t have that in a well-run universe, you know.

But, before 100,000 B.C., more or less, the actions of the expeditions are lost in the stream of time before human history begins. At that, once a stretch of past time has been used, say the month of January, one million B.C., you can’t use that stretch over again by sending another party into it. Paradoxes again.

The professor isn’t worried, though. With a billion years to exploit, he won’t soon run out of eras.

Another limitation of the machine is the matter of size. For technical reasons, Prochaska had to build the transition chamber just big enough to hold four men with their personal gear, and the chamber wallah. Larger parties have to be sent through in relays. That means, you see, it’s not practical to take jeeps, launches, aircraft, and other powered vehicles.

On the other hand, since you’re going to periods without human beings, there’s no whistling up a hundred native bearers to trot along with your gear on their heads. So we usually take a train of asses—burros, they call them here. Most periods have enough natural forage so you can get where you want to go.

As I say, everybody had his own idea for using the machine. The scientists looked down their noses at us hunters and said it would be a crime to waste the machine’s time pandering to our sadistic amusements.

We brought up another angle. The machine cost a cool thirty million. I understand this came from the Rockefeller Board and such people, but that accounted for the original cost only, not the cost of operation. And the thing uses fantastic amounts of power. Most of the scientists’ projects, while worthy enough, were run on a shoe-string, financially speaking.

Now, we guides catered to people with money, a species with which America seems well stocked. No offense, old boy. Most of these could afford a substantial fee for passing through the machine into the past. Thus we could help finance the operation of the machine for scientific purposes, provided we got a fair share of its time. In the end, the guides formed a syndicate of eight members, one member being the partnership of Rivers and Aiyar, to apportion the machine’s time.

We had rush business from the start. Our wives—the Raja’s and mine—raised hell with us for a while. They’d hoped that, when the big game gave out in our own era, they’d never have to share us with lions and things again, but you know how women are. Hunting’s not really dangerous if you keep your head and take precautions.

On the fifth expedition, we had two sahibs to wet-nurse; both Americans in their thirties, both physically sound, and both solvent. Otherwise they were as different as different can be.

Courtney James was what you chaps call a playboy: a rich young man from New York who’d always had his own way and didn’t see why that agreeable condition shouldn’t continue. A big bloke, almost as big as I am; handsome in a florid way, but beginning to run to fat. He was on his fourth wife and, when he showed up at the office with a blond twist with “model” written all over her, I assumed that this was the fourth Mrs. James.

“Miss Bartram,” she corrected me, with an embarrassed giggle.

“She’s not my wife,” James explained. “My wife is in Mexico, I think, getting a divorce. But Bunny here would like to go along—”

“Sorry,” I said, “we don’t take ladies. At least, not to the Late Mesozoic,”

This wasn’t strictly true, but I felt we were running enough risks, going after a little-known fauna, without dragging in people’s domestic entanglements. Nothing against sex, you understand. Marvelous institution and all that, but not where it interferes with my living.

“Oh, nonsense!” said James. “If she wants to go, she’ll go. She skis and flies my airplane, so why shouldn’t she—”

“Against the firm’s policy,” I said.

“She can keep out of the way when we run up against the dangerous ones,” he said.

“No, sorry.”

“Damn it!” said he, getting red. “After all, I’m paying you a goodly sum, and I’m entitled to take whoever I please.”

“You can’t hire me to do anything against my best judgment,” I said. “If that’s how you feel, get another guide.”

“All right, I will,” he said. “And I’ll tell all my friends you’re a God-damned—” Well, he said a lot of things I won’t repeat, until I told him to get out of the office or I’d throw him out.

I was sitting in the office and thinking sadly of all that lovely money James would have paid me if I hadn’t been so stiff-necked, when in came my other lamb, one August Holtzinger. This was a little slim pale chap with glasses, polite and formal. Holtzinger sat on the edge of his chair and said:

“Uh—Mr. Rivers, I don’t want you to think I’m here under false pretenses. I’m really not much of an outdoorsman, and I’ll probably be scared to death when I see a real dinosaur. But I’m determined to hang a dinosaur head over my fireplace or die in the attempt.”

“Most of us are frightened at first,” I soothed him, “though it doesn’t do to show it.” And little by little I got the story out of him.

While James had always been wallowing in the stuff, Holtzinger was a local product who’d only lately come into the real thing. He’d had a little business here in St. Louis and just about made ends meet when an uncle cashed in his chips somewhere and left little Augie the pile.

Now Holtzinger had acquired a fiancée and was building a big house. When it was finished, they’d be married and move into it. And one furnishing he demanded was a ceratopsian head over the fireplace. Those are the ones with the big horned heads with a parrot-beak and a frill over the neck, you know. You have to think twice about collecting them, because if you put a seven-foot Triceratops head into a small living room, there’s apt to be no room left for anything else.

We were talking about this when in came a girl: a small girl in her twenties, quite ordinary looking, and crying.

“Augie!” she cried. “You can’t! You mustn’t! You’ll be killed!” She grabbed him round the knees and said to me:

“Mr. Rivers, you mustn’t take him! He’s all I’ve got! He’ll never stand the hardships!”

“My dear young lady,” I said, “I should hate to cause you distress, but it’s up to Mr. Holtzinger to decide whether he wishes to retain my services.”

“It’s no use, Claire,” said Holtzinger. “I’m going, though I’ll probably hate every minute of it.”

“What’s that, old boy?” I said. “If you hate it, why go? Did you lose a bet, or something?”

“No,” said Holtzinger. “It’s this way. Uh—I’m a completely undistinguished kind of guy. I’m not brilliant or big or strong or handsome. I’m just an ordinary Midwestern small businessman. You never even notice me at Rotary luncheons, I fit in so perfectly.

“But that doesn’t say I’m satisfied. I’ve always hankered to go to far places and do big things. I’d like to be a glamorous, adventurous sort of guy. Like you, Mr. Rivers.”

“Oh, come,” I said. “Professional hunting may seem glamorous to you, but to me it’s just a living.”

He shook his head. “Nope. You know what I mean. Well, now I’ve got this legacy, I could settle down to play bridge and golf the rest of my life, and try to act like I wasn’t bored. But I’m determined to do something with some color in it, once at least. Since there’s no more real big-game hunting in the present, I’m gonna shoot a dinosaur and hang his head over my mantel if it’s the last thing I do. I’ll never be happy otherwise.”

Well, Holtzinger and his girl argued, but he wouldn’t give in. She made me swear to take the best care of her Augie and departed, sniffling.

When Holtzinger had left, who should come in but my vile-tempered friend Courtney James? He apologized for insulting me, though you could hardly say he groveled.

“I don’t really have a bad temper,” he said, “except when people won’t cooperate with me. Then I sometimes get mad. But so long as they’re cooperative I’m not hard to get along with.”

I knew that by “cooperate” he meant to do whatever Courtney James wanted, but I didn’t press the point. “What about Miss Bartram?” I asked.

“We had a row,” he said. “I’m through with women. So, if there’s no hard feelings, let’s go on from where we left off.”

“Very well,” I said, business being business.

The Raja and I decided to make it a joint safari to eight-five million years ago: the Early Upper Cretaceous, or the Middle Cretaceous as some American geologists call it. It’s about the best period for dinosaur in Missouri. You’ll find some individual species a little larger in the Late Upper Cretaceous, but the period we were going to gives a wider variety.

Now, as to our equipment: The Raja and I each had a Continental .600, like the one I showed you, and a few smaller guns. At this time we hadn’t worked up much capital and had no spare .600s to rent.

August Holtzinger said he would rent a gun, as he expected this to be his only safari, and there’s no point in spending over a thousand dollars for a gun you’ll shoot only a few times. But, since we had no spare .600s, his choice lay between buying one of those and renting one of our smaller pieces.

We drove into the country and set up a target to let him try the .600. Holtzinger heaved up the gun and let fly. He missed completely, and the kick knocked him flat on his back.

He got up, looking paler than ever, and handed me back the gun, saying: “Uh—I think I’d better try something smaller.”

When his shoulder stopped hurting, I tried him out on the smaller rifles. He took a fancy to my Winchester 70, chambered for the .375 magnum cartridge. This is an excellent all-round gun—perfect for the big cats and bears, but a little light for elephant and definitely light for dinosaur. I should never have given in, but I was in a hurry, and it might have taken months to have a new .600 made to order for him. James already had a gun, a Holland & Holland .500 double express, which is almost in a class with the .600.

Both sahibs had done a bit of shooting, so I didn’t worry about their accuracy. Shooting dinosaur is not a matter of extreme accuracy, but of sound judgment and smooth coordination so you shan’t catch twigs in the mechanism of your gun, or fall into holes, or climb a small tree that the dinosaur can pluck you out of, or blow your guide’s head off.

People used to hunting mammals sometimes try to shoot a dinosaur in the brain. That’s the silliest thing to do, because dinosaurs haven’t got any. To be exact, they have a little lump of tissue the size of a tennis ball on the front end of their spines, and how are you going to hit that when it’s imbedded in a six-foot skull?

The only safe rule with dinosaur is: always try for a heart shot. They have big hearts, over a hundred pounds in the largest species, and a couple of .600 slugs through the heart will slow them up, at least. The problem is to get the slugs through that mountain of meat around it.

* * *

Well, we appeared at Prochaska’s laboratory one rainy morning: James and Holtzinger, the Raja and I, our herder Beauregard Black, three helpers, a cook, and twelve jacks.

The transition chamber is a little cubbyhole the size of a small lift. My routine is for the men with the guns to go first in case a hungry theropod is standing near the machine when it arrives. So the two sahibs, the Raja, and I crowded into the chamber with our guns and packs. The operator squeezed in after us, closed the door, and fiddled with his dials. He set the thing for April twenty-fourth, eight-five million B.C., and pressed the red button. The lights went out, leaving the chamber lit by a little battery-operated lamp. James and Holtzinger looked pretty green, but that may have been the lighting. The Raja and I had been through all this before, so the vibration and vertigo didn’t bother us.

The little spinning black hands of the dials slowed down and stopped. The operator looked at his ground-level gauge and turned the handwheel that raised the chamber so it shouldn’t materialize underground. Then he pressed another button, and the door slid open.

No matter how often I do it, I get a frightful thrill out of stepping into a bygone era. The operator had raised the chamber a foot above ground level, so I jumped down, my gun ready. The others came after.

“Right-ho,” I said to the chamber wallah, and he closed the door. The chamber disappeared, and we looked around. There weren’t any dinosaur in sight, nothing but lizards.

In this period, the chamber materializes on top of a rocky rise, from which you can see in all directions as far as the haze will let you. To the west, you see the arm of the Kansas Sea that reaches across Missouri and the big swamp around the bayhead where the sauropods live.

To the north is a low range that the Raja named the Janpur Hills, after the Indian kingdom his forebears once ruled. To the east, the land slopes up to a plateau, good for ceratopsians, while to the south is flat country with more sauropod swamps and lots of ornithopod: duckbill and iguanodont.

The finest thing about the Cretaceous is the climate: balmy like the South Sea Islands, but not so muggy as most Jurassic climates. It was spring, with dwarf magnolias in bloom all over.

A thing about this landscape is that it combines a fairly high rainfall with an open type of vegetation cover. That is, the grasses hadn’t yet evolved to the point of forming solid carpets over all the open ground. So the ground is thick with laurel, sassafras, and other shrubs, with bare earth between. There are big thickets of palmettos and ferns. The trees round the hill are mostly cycads, standing singly and in copses. You’d call ’em palms. Down towards the Kansas Sea are more cycads and willows, while the uplands are covered with screw pine and ginkgoes.

Now, I’m no bloody poet—the Raja writes the stuff, not me—but I can appreciate a beautiful scene. One of the helpers had come through the machine with two of the jacks and was pegging them out, and I was looking through the haze and sniffing the air, when a gun went off behind me—bang! bang!

I whirled round, and there was Courtney James with his .500, and an ornithomime legging it for cover fifty yards away. The ornithomimes are medium-sized running dinosaurs, slender things with long necks and legs, like a cross between a lizard and an ostrich. This kind is about seven feet tall and weighs as much as a man. The beggar had wandered out of the nearest copse, and James gave him both barrels. Missed.

I was upset, as trigger-happy sahibs are as much a menace to their party as theropods. I yelled: “Damn it, you idiot! I thought you weren’t to shoot without a word from me?”

“And who the hell are you to tell me when I’ll shoot my own gun?” he said.

We had a rare old row until Holtzinger and the Raja got us calmed down. I explained:

“Look here, Mr. James, I’ve got reasons. If you shoot off all your ammunition before the trip’s over, your gun won’t be available in a pinch, as it’s the only one of its caliber. If you empty both barrels at an unimportant target, what would happen if a big theropod charged before you could reload? Finally, it’s not sporting to shoot everything in sight, just to hear the gun go off. Do you understand?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” he said.

The rest of the party came through the machine, and we pitched our camp a safe distance from the materializing place. Our first task was to get fresh meat. For a twenty-one-day safari like this, we calculate our food requirements closely, so we can make out on tinned stuff and concentrates if we must, but we count on killing at least one piece of meat. When that’s butchered, we go off on a short tour, stopping at four or five camping places to hunt and arriving back at base a few days before the chamber is due to appear.

Holtzinger, as I said, wanted a ceratopsian head, any kind. James insisted on just one head: a tyrannosaur. Then everybody’d think he’d shot the most dangerous game of all time.

Fact is, the tyrannosaur’s overrated. He’s more a carrion eater than an active predator, though he’ll snap you up if he gets the chance. He’s less dangerous than some of the other theropods—the flesh eaters, you know—such as the smaller Gorgosaurus from the period we were in. But everybody’s read about the tyrant lizard, and he does have the biggest head of the theropods.

The one in our period isn’t the rex, which is later and a bit bigger and more specialized. It’s the trionyches, with the forelimbs not quite so reduced, though they’re still too small for anything but picking the brute’s teeth after a meal.

When camp was pitched, we still had the afternoon. So the Raja and I took our sahibs on their first hunt. We had a map of the local terrain from previous trips.

The Raja and I have worked out a system for dinosaur hunting. We split into two groups of two men each and walk parallel from twenty to forty yards apart. Each group has a sahib in front and a guide following, telling him where to go. We tell the sahibs we put them in front so they shall have the first shot. Well, that’s true, but another reason is they’re always tripping and falling with their guns cocked, and if the guide were in front he’d get shot.

The reason for two groups is that if a dinosaur starts for one, the other gets a good heart shot from the side.

As we walked, there was the usual rustle of lizards scuttling out of the way: little fellows, quick as a flash and colored like all the jewels in Tiffany’s, and big gray ones that hiss at you as they plod off. There were tortoises and a few little snakes. Birds with beaks full of teeth flapped off squawking. And always there was that marvelous mild Cretaceous air. Makes a chap want to take his clothes off and dance with vine leaves in his hair, if you know what I mean.

Our sahibs soon found that Mesozoic country is cut up into millions of nullahs—gullies, you’d say. Walking is one long scramble, up and down, up and down.

We’d been scrambling for an hour, and the sahibs were soaked with sweat and had their tongues hanging out, when the Raja whistled. He’d spotted a group of bonehead feeding on cycad shoots.

These are the troödonts, small ornithopods about the size of men with a bulge on top of their heads that makes them look almost intelligent. Means nothing, because the bulge is solid bone. The males butt each other with these heads in fighting over the females.

These chaps would drop down on all fours, munch up a shoot, then stand up and look around. They’re warier than most dinosaur, because they’re the favorite food of the big theropods.

People sometimes assume that because dinosaur are so stupid, their senses must be dim, too. But it’s not so. Some, like the sauropods, are pretty dim-sensed, but most have good smell and eyesight and fair hearing. Their weakness is that having no minds, they have no memories. Hence, out of sight, out of mind. When a big theropod comes slavering after you, your best defense is to hide in a nullah or behind a bush, and if he can neither see you nor smell you he’ll just wander off.

We skulked up behind a patch of palmetto downwind from the bonehead. I whispered to James:

“You’ve had a shot already today. Hold your fire until Holtzinger shoots, and then shoot only if he misses or if the beast is getting away wounded.”

“Uh-huh,” said James.

We separated, he with the Raja and Holtzinger with me. This got to be our regular arrangement. James and I got on each other’s nerves, but the Raja’s a friendly, sentimental sort of bloke nobody can help liking.

We crawled round the palmetto patch on opposite sides, and Holtzinger got up to shoot. You daren’t shoot a heavy-caliber rifle prone. There’s not enough give, and the kick can break your shoulder.

Holtzinger sighted round the law few fronds of palmetto. I saw his barrel wobbling and waving. Then he lowered his gun and tucked it under his arm to wipe his glasses.

Off went James’s gun, both barrels again.

The biggest bonehead went down, rolling and thrashing. The others ran away on their hindlegs in great leaps, their heads jerking and their tails sticking up behind.

“Put your gun on safety,” I said to Holtzinger, who’d started forward. By the time we got to the bonehead, James was standing over it, breaking open his gun and blowing out the barrels. He looked as smug as if he’d come into another million and was asking the Raja to take his picture with his foot on the game.

I said: “I thought you were to give Holtzinger the first shot?”

“Hell, I waited,” he said, “and he took so long I thought he must have gotten buck fever. If we stood around long enough, they’d see us or smell us.”

There was something in what he said, but his way of saying it put my monkey up. I said: “If that sort of thing happens once more, we’ll leave you in camp the next time we go out.”

“Now, gentlemen,” said the Raja. “After all, Reggie, these aren’t experienced hunters.”

“What now?” said Holtzinger. “Haul him back ourselves or send out the men?”

“We’ll sling him under the pole,” I said. “He weighs under two hundred.”

The pole was a telescoping aluminum carrying pole I had in my pack, with padded yokes on the ends. I brought it because, in such eras, you can’t count on finding saplings strong enough for proper poles on the spot.

The Raja and I cleaned our bonehead to lighten him and tied him to the pole. The flies began to light on the offal by thousands. Scientists say they’re not true flies in the modern sense, but they look and act like flies. There’s one huge four-winged carrion fly that flies with a distinctive deep thrumming note.

The rest of the afternoon we sweated under that pole, taking turn about. The lizards scuttled out of the way, and the flies buzzed round the carcass.

We got to camp just before sunset, feeling as if we could eat the whole bonehead at one meal. The boys had the camp running smoothly, so we sat down for our tot of whiskey, feeling like lords of creation, while the cook broiled bonehead steaks.

Holtzinger said: “Uh—if I kill a ceratopsian, how do we get his head back?”

I explained: “If the ground permits, we lash it to the patent aluminum roller frame and sled it in.”

“How much does a head like that weigh?” he asked.

“Depends on the age and the species,” I told him. “The biggest weigh over a ton, but most run between five hundred and a thousand pounds.”

“And all the ground’s rough like it was today?”

“Most of it,” I said. “You see, it’s the combination of the open vegetation cover and the moderately high rainfall. Erosion is frightfully rapid.”

“And who hauls the head on its little sled?”

“Everybody with a hand,” I said. “A big head would need every ounce of muscle in this party. On such a job there’s no place for side.”

“Oh,” said Holtzinger. I could see he was wondering whether a ceratopsian head would be worth the effort.

The next couple of days we trekked round the neighborhood. Nothing worth shooting; only a herd of ornithomimes, which went bounding off like a lot of ballet dancers. Otherwise there were only the usual lizards and pterosaurs and birds and insects. There’s a big lace-winged fly that bites dinosaurs, so, as you can imagine, its beak makes nothing of a human skin. One made Holtzinger leap and dance like a Red Indian when it bit him through his shirt. James joshed him about it, saying:

“What’s all the fuss over one little bug?”

The second night, during the Raja’s watch, James gave a yell that brought us all out of our tents with rifles. All that had happened was that a dinosaur tick had crawled in with him and started drilling under his armpit. Since it’s as big as your thumb even when it hasn’t fed, he was understandably startled. Luckily he got it before it had taken its pint of blood. He’d pulled Holtzinger’s leg pretty hard about the fly bite, so now Holtzinger repeated the words:

“What’s all the fuss over one little bug, buddy?”

James squashed the tick underfoot with a grunt, not much liking to be hoist by his own what-d’you-call-it.

* * *

We packed up and started on our circuit. We meant to take the sahibs first to the sauropod swamp, more to see the wildlife than to collect anything.

From where the transition chamber materializes, the sauropod swamp looks like a couple of hours’ walk, but it’s really an all-day scramble. The first part is easy, as it’s downhill and the brush isn’t heavy. Then, as you get near the swamp, the cycads and willows grow so thickly that you have to worm your way among them.

I led the party to a sandy ridge on the border of the swamp, as it was pretty bare of vegetation and afforded a fine view. When we got to the ridge, the sun was about to go down. A couple of crocs slipped off into the water. The sahibs were so tired that they flopped down in the sand as if dead.

The haze is thick round the swamp, so the sun was deep red and weirdly distorted by the atmospheric layers. There was a high layer of clouds reflecting the red and gold of the sun, too, so altogether it was something for the Raja to write one of his poems about. A few little pterosaur were wheeling overhead like bats.

Beauregard Black got a fire going. We’d started on our steaks, and that pagoda-shaped sun was just slipping below the horizon, and something back in the trees was making a noise like a rusty hinge, when a sauropod breathed out in the water. They’re the really big ones, you know. If Mother Earth were to sigh over the misdeeds of her children, it would sound like that.

The sahibs jumped up, shouting: “Where is he? Where is he?”

I said: “That black spot in the water, just to the left of that point.”

They yammered while the sauropod filled its lungs and disappeared. “Is that all?” said James. “Won’t we see any more of him?”

“No,” I explained. “They can walk perfectly well and often do, for egg-laying and moving from one swamp to another. But most of the time they spend in the water, like hippopotamus. They eat eight hundred pounds of soft swamp plants a day, all through those little heads. So they wander about the bottoms of lakes and swamps, chomping away, and stick their heads up to breathe every quarter-hour or so. It’s getting dark, so this fellow will soon come out and lie down in the shallows to sleep.”

“Can we shoot one?” demanded James.

“I wouldn’t,” said I.

“Why not?”

I said: “There’s no point in it, and it’s not sporting. First, they’re almost invulnerable. They’re even harder to hit in the brain than other dinosaurs because of the way they sway their heads about on those long necks. Their hearts are too deeply buried to reach unless you’re awfully lucky. Then, if you kill one in the water, he sinks and can’t be recovered. If you kill one on land, the only trophy is that little head. You can’t bring the whole beast back because he weighs thirty tons or more, and we’ve got no use for thirty tons of meat.”

Holtzinger said: “That museum in New York got one.”

“Yes,” said I. “The American Museum of Natural History sent a party of forty-eight to the Early Cretaceous with a fifty-caliber machine gun. They killed a sauropod and spent two solid months skinning it and hacking the carcass apart and dragging it to the time machine. I know the chap in charge of that project, and he still has nightmares in which he smells decomposing dinosaur. They had to kill a dozen big theropods attracted by the stench, so they had them lying around and rotting, too. And the theropods ate three men of the party despite the big gun.”

Next morning, we were finishing breakfast when one of the helpers said: “Look, Mr. Rivers, up there!”

He pointed along the shoreline. There were six big crested duckbill, feeding in the shallows. They were the kind called Parasaurolophus, with a long spike sticking out the back of their heads and a web of skin connecting this with the back of their necks.

“Keep your voices down!” I said. The duckbill, like the other ornithopods, are wary beasts because they have neither armor nor weapons. They feed on the margins of lakes and swamps, and when a gorgosaur rushes out of the trees they plunge into deep water and swim off. Then when Phobosuchus, the supercrocodile, goes for them in the water, they flee to the land. A hectic sort of life, what?

Holtzinger said: “Uh—Reggie! I’ve been thinking over what you said about ceratopsian heads. If I could get one of those yonder, I’d be satisfied. It would look big enough in my house, wouldn’t it?”

“I’m sure of it, old boy,” I said. “Now look here. We could detour to come out on the shore near here, but we should have to plow through half a mile of muck and brush, and they’d hear us coming. Or we can creep up to the north end of this sandspit, from which it’s three or four hundred yards—a long shot but not impossible. Think you could do it?”

“Hm,” said Holtzinger. “With my scope sight and a sitting position—okay, I’ll try it.”

“You stay here, Court,” I said to James. “This is Augie’s head, and I don’t want any argument over your having fired first.”

James grunted while Holtzinger clamped his scope to his rifle. We crouched our way up the spit, keeping the sand ridge between us and the duckbill. When we got to the end where there was no more cover, we crept along on hands and knees, moving slowly. If you move slowly enough, directly toward or away from a dinosaur, it probably won’t notice you.

The duckbill continued to grub about on all fours, every few seconds rising to look round. Holtzinger eased himself into the sitting position, cocked his piece, and aimed through his scope. And then—

Bang! bang! went a big rifle back at the camp.

Holtzinger jumped. The duckbills jerked their heads up and leaped for the deep water, splashing like mad. Holtzinger fired once and missed. I took one shot at the last duckbill before it vanished too, but missed. The .600 isn’t built for long ranges.

Holtzinger and I started back toward the camp, for it had struck us that our party might be in theropod trouble.

What had happened was that a big sauropod had wandered down past the camp underwater, feeding as it went. Now, the water shoaled about a hundred yards offshore from our spit, halfway over to the swamp on the other side. The sauropod had ambled up the slope until its body was almost all out of water, weaving its head from side to side and looking for anything green to gobble. This is a species of Alamosaurus, which looks much like the well-known Brontosaurus except that it’s bigger.

When I came in sight of the camp, the sauropod was turning round to go back the way it had come, making horrid groans. By the time we reached the camp, it had disappeared into deep water, all but its head and twenty feet of neck, which wove about for some time before they vanished into the haze.

When we came up to the camp, James was arguing with the Raja. Holtzinger burst out:

“You crummy bastard! That’s the second time you’ve spoiled my shots.”

“Don’t be a fool,” said James. “I couldn’t let him wander into the camp and stamp everything flat.”

“There was no danger of that,” said the Raja. “You can see the water is deep offshore. It’s just that our trigger-happee Mr. James cannot see any animal without shooting.”

I added: “If it did get close, all you needed to do was throw a stick of firewood at it. They’re perfectly harmless.”

This wasn’t strictly true. When the Comte de Lautrec ran after one for a close shot, the sauropod looked back at him, gave a flick of its tail, and took off the Comte’s head as neatly as if he’d been axed in the tower. But, as a rule, they’re inoffensive enough.

“How was I to know?” yelled James, turning purple. “You’re all against me. What the hell are we on this miserable trip for, except to shoot things? Call yourselves hunters, but I’m the only one who hits anything!”

I got pretty wrothy and said he was just an excitable young skite with more money than brains, whom I should never have brought along.

“If that’s how you feel,” he said, “give me a burro and some food, and I’ll go back to the base myself. I won’t pollute your pure air with my presence!”

“Don’t be a bigger ass than you can help,” I said. “What you propose is quite impossible.”

“Then I’ll go alone!” He grabbed his knapsack, thrust a couple of tins of beans and an opener into it, and started off with his rifle.

Beauregard Black spoke up: “Mr. Rivers, we cain’t let him go off like that. He’ll git lost and starve, or be et by a theropod.”

“I’ll fetch him back,” said the Raja, and started after the runaway.

He caught up with James as the latter was disappearing into the cycads. We could see them arguing and waving their hands in the distance. After a while, they started back with arms around each other’s necks like old school pals.

This shows the trouble we get into if we make mistakes in planning such a do. Having once got back in time, we had to make the best of our bargain.

I don’t want to give the impression, however, that Courtney James was nothing but a pain in the rump. He had good points. He got over these rows quickly and next day would be as cheerful as ever. He was helpful with the general work of the camp, at least when he felt like it. He sang well and had an endless fund of dirty stories to keep us amused.

We stayed two more days at that camp. We saw crocodile, the small kind, and plenty of sauropod—as many as five at once—but no more duckbill. Nor any of those fifty-foot supercrocodiles.

So, on the first of May, we broke camp and headed north toward the Janpur Hills. My sahibs were beginning to harden up and were getting impatient. We’d been in the Cretaceous a week, and no trophies.

We saw nothing to speak of on the next leg, save a glimpse of a gorgosaur out of range and some tracks indicating a whopping big iguanodont, twenty-five or thirty feet high. We pitched camp at the base of the hills.

We’d finished off the bonehead, so the first thing was to shoot fresh meat. With an eye to trophies, too, of course. We got ready the morning of the third, and I told James:

“See here, old boy, no more of your tricks. The Raja will tell you when to shoot.”

“Uh-huh, I get you,” he said, meek as Moses.

We marched off, the four of us, into the foothills. There was a good chance of getting Holtzinger his ceratopsian. We’d seen a couple on the way up, but mere calves without decent horns.

As it was hot and sticky, we were soon panting and sweating. We’d hiked and scrambled all morning without seeing a thing except lizards, when I picked up the smell of carrion. I stopped the party and sniffed. We were in an open glade cut up by those little dry nullahs. The nullahs ran together into a couple of deeper gorges that cut through a slight depression choked with denser growth, cycad, and screw pine. When I listened, I heard the thrum of carrion flies.

“This way,” I said. “Something ought to be dead—ah, here it is!”

And there it was: the remains of a huge ceratopsian lying in a little hollow on the edge of the copse. Must have weighed six or eight ton alive; a three-horned variety, perhaps the penultimate species of Triceratops. It was hard to tell, because most of the hide on the upper surface had been ripped off, and many bones had been pulled loose and lay scattered about.

Holtzinger said: “Oh, shucks! Why couldn’t I have gotten to him before he died? That would have been a darned fine head.”

I said: “On your toes, chaps. A theropod’s been at this carcass and is probably nearby.”

“How d’you know?” said James, with sweat running off his round red face. He spoke in what was for him a low voice, because a nearby theropod is a sobering thought to the flightiest.

I sniffed again and thought I could detect the distinctive rank odor of theropod. I couldn’t be sure, though, because the carcass stank so strongly. My sahibs were turning green at the sight and smell of the cadaver. I told James:

“It’s seldom that even the biggest theropod will attack a full-grown ceratopsian. Those horns are too much for them. But they love a dead or dying one. They’ll hang round a dead ceratopsian for weeks, gorging and then sleeping off their meals for days at a time. They usually take cover in the heat of the day anyhow, because they can’t stand much direct hot sunlight. You’ll find them lying in copses like this or in hollows, wherever there’s shade.”

“What’ll we do?” asked Holtzinger.

“We’ll make our first cast through this copse, in two pairs as usual. Whatever you do, don’t get impulsive or panicky.”

I looked at Courtney James, but he looked right back and merely checked his gun.

“Should I still carry this broken?” he asked.

“No, close it, but keep the safety on till you’re ready to shoot,” I said. “We’ll keep closer than usual, so we shall be in sight of each other. Start off at that angle, Raja; go slowly, and stop to listen between steps.”

We pushed through the edge of the copse, leaving the carcass but not its stench behind us. For a few feet, you couldn’t see a thing.

It opened out as we got in under the trees, which shaded out some of the brush. The sun slanted down through the trees. I could hear nothing but the hum of insects and the scuttle of lizards and the squawks of toothed birds in the treetops. I thought I could be sure of the theropod smell, but told myself that might be imagination. The theropod might be any of several species, large or small, and the beast itself might be anywhere within a half-mile’s radius.

“Go on,” I whispered to Holtzinger. I could hear James and the Raja pushing ahead on my right and see the palm fronds and ferns lashing about as they disturbed them. I suppose they were trying to move quietly, but to me they sounded like an earthquake in a crockery shop.

“A little closer!” I called.

Presently, they appeared slanting in toward me. We dropped into a gully filled with ferns and scrambled up the other side. Then we found our way blocked by a big clump of palmetto.

“You go round that side; we’ll go round this,” I said. We started off, stopping to listen and smell. Our positions were the same as on that first day, when James killed the bonehead.

We’d gone two-thirds of the way round our half of the palmetto when I heard a noise ahead on our left. Holtzinger heard it too, and pushed off his safety. I put my thumb on mine and stepped to one side to have a clear field of fire.

The clatter grew louder. I raised my gun to aim at about the height of a big theropod’s heart. There was a movement in the foliage—and a six-foot-high bonehead stepped into view, walking solemnly across our front and jerking its head with each step like a giant pigeon.

I heard Holtzinger let out a breath and had to keep myself from laughing. Holtzinger said: “Uh—”

Then that damned gun of James’s went off, bang! bang! I had a glimpse of the bonehead knocked arsy-varsy with its tail and hindlegs flying.

“Got him!” yelled James. “I drilled him clean!” I heard him run forward.

“Good God, if he hasn’t done it again!” I said.

Then there was a great swishing of foliage and a wild yell from James. Something heaved up out of the shrubbery, and I saw the head of the biggest of the local flesh eaters, Tyrannosaurus trionyches himself.

The scientists can insist that rex is the bigger species, but I’ll swear this blighter was bigger than any rex ever hatched. It must have stood twenty feet high and been fifty feet long. I could see its big bright eye and six-inch teeth and the big dewlap that hangs down from its chin to its chest.

The second of the nullahs that cut through the copse ran athwart our path on the far side of the palmetto clump. Perhaps it was six feet deep. The tyrannosaur had been lying in this, sleeping off its last meal. Where its back stuck up above the ground level, the ferns on the edge of the nullah had masked it. James had fired both barrels over the theropod’s head and woke it up. Then the silly ass ran forward without reloading. Another twenty feet and he’d have stepped on the tyrannosaur.

James, naturally, stopped when this thing popped up in front of him. He remembered that he’d fired both barrels and that he’d left the Raja too far behind for a clear shot.

At first, James kept his nerve. He broke open his gun, took two rounds from his belt, and plugged them into the barrels. But, in his haste to snap the gun shut, he caught his hand between the barrels and the action. The painful pinch so startled James that he dropped his gun. Then he went to pieces and bolted.

The Raja was running up with his gun at high port, ready to snap it to his shoulder the instant he got a clear view. When he saw James running headlong toward him, he hesitated, not wishing to shoot James by accident. The latter plunged ahead, blundered into the Raja, and sent them both sprawling among the ferns. The tyrannosaur collected what little wits it had and stepped forward to snap them up.

And how about Holtzinger and me on the other side of the palmettos? Well, the instant James yelled and the tyrannosaur’s head appeared, Holtzinger darted forward like a rabbit. I’d brought my gun up for a shot at the tyrannosaur’s head, in hope of getting at least an eye; but, before I could find it in my sights, the head was out of sight behind the palmettos. Perhaps I should have fired at hazard, but all my experience is against wild shots.

When I looked back in front of me, Holtzinger had already disappeared round the curve of the palmetto clump. I’d started after him when I heard his rifle and the click of the bolt between shots: bang—click-click—bang—click-click, like that.

He’d come up on the tyrannosaur’s quarter as the brute started to stoop for James and the Raja. With his muzzle twenty feet from the tyrannosaur’s hide, Holtzinger began pumping .375s into the beast’s body. He got off three shots when the tyrannosaur gave a tremendous booming grunt and wheeled round to see what was stinging it. The jaws came open, and the head swung round and down again.

Holtzinger got off one more shot and tried to leap to one side. As he was standing on a narrow place between the palmetto clump and the nullah, he fell into the nullah. The tyrannosaur continued its lunge and caught him. The jaws went chomp, and up came the head with poor Holtzinger in them, screaming like a damned soul.

I came up just then and aimed at the brute’s face, but then realized that its jaws were full of my sahib and I should be shooting him, too. As the head went on up like the business end of a big power shovel, I fired a shot at the heart. The tyrannosaur was already turning away, and I suspect the ball just glanced along the ribs. The beast took a couple of steps when I gave it the other barrel in the jack. It staggered on its next step but kept on. Another step, and it was nearly out of sight among the trees, when the Raja fired twice. The stout fellow had untangled himself from James, got up, picked up his gun, and let the tyrannosaur have it.

The double wallop knocked the brute over with a tremendous crash. It fell into a dwarf magnolia, and I saw one of its huge birdlike hindlegs waving in the midst of a shower of pink-and-white petals. But the tyrannosaur got up again and blundered off without even dropping its victim. The last I saw of it was Holtzinger’s legs dangling out one side of its jaws (he’d stopped screaming) and its big tail banging against the tree trunks as it swung from side to side.

The Raja and I reloaded and ran after the brute for all we were worth. I tripped and fell once, but jumped up again and didn’t notice my skinned elbow till later. When we burst out of the copse, the tyrannosaur was already at the far end of the glade. We each took a quick shot but probably missed, and it was out of sight before we could fire again.

We ran on, following the tracks and spatters of blood, until we had to stop from exhaustion. Never again did we see that tyrannosaur. Their movements look slow and ponderous, but with those tremendous legs they don’t have to step very fast to work up considerable speed.

When we’d got our breath, we got up and tried to track the tyrannosaur, on the theory that it might be dying and we should come up to it. But, though we found more spoor, it faded out and left us at a loss. We circled round, hoping to pick it up, but no luck.

Hours later, we gave up and went back to the glade.

Courtney James was sitting with his back against a tree, holding his rifle and Holtzinger’s. His right hand was swollen and blue where he’d pinched it, but still usable. His first words were:

“Where the hell have you two been?”

I said: “We’ve been occupied. The late Mr. Holtzinger. Remember?”

“You shouldn’t have gone off and left me; another of those things might have come along. Isn’t it bad enough to lose one hunter through your stupidity without risking another one?”

I’d been preparing a warm wigging for James, but his attack so astonished me that I could only bleat; “What? We lost . . . ?”

“Sure,” he said. “You put us in front of you, so if anybody gets eaten it’s us. You send a guy up against these animals undergunned. You—”

“You Goddamn’ stinking little swine!” I said. “If you hadn’t been a blithering idiot and blown those two barrels, and then run like the yellow coward you are, this never would have happened. Holtzinger died trying to save your worthless life. By God, I wish he’d failed! He was worth six of a stupid, spoiled, muttonheaded bastard like you—”

I went on from there. The Raja tried to keep up with me, but ran out of English and was reduced to cursing James in Hindustani.

I could see by the purple color on James’s face that I was getting home. He said “Why, you—” and stepped forward and sloshed me one in the face with his left fist.

It rocked me a bit, but I said: “Now then, my lad, I’m glad you did that! It gives me a chance I’ve been waiting for . . .”

So I waded into him. He was a good-sized boy, but between my sixteen stone and his sore right hand he had no chance. I got a few good ones home, and down he went.

“Now get up!” I said. “And I’ll be glad to finish off!”

James raised himself to his elbows. I got set for more fisticuffs, though my knuckles were skinned and bleeding already. James rolled over, snatched his gun, and scrambled up, swinging the muzzle from one to the other of us.

“You won’t finish anybody off!” he panted through swollen lips. “All right, put your hands up! Both of you!”

“Do not be an idiot,” said the Raja. “Put that gun away!”

“Nobody treats me like that and gets away with it!”

“There’s no use murdering us,” I said. “You’d never get away with it.”

“Why not? There won’t be much left of you after one of these hits you. I’ll just say the tyrannosaur ate you, too. Nobody could prove anything. They can’t hold you for a murder eighty-five million years old. The statute of limitations, you know.”

“You fool, you’d never make it back to the camp alive!” I shouted.

“I’ll take a chance—” began James, setting the butt of his .500 against his shoulder, with the barrels pointed at my face. Looked like a pair of bleeding vehicular tunnels.

He was watching me so closely that he lost track of the Raja for a second. My partner had been resting on one knee, and now his right arm came up in a quick bowling motion with a three-pound rock. The rock bounced of James’s head. The .500 went off. The ball must have parted my hair, and the explosion jolly well near broke my eardrums. Down went James again.

“Good work, old chap!” I said, gathering up James’s gun.

“Yes,” said the Raja thoughtfully, as he picked up the rock he’d thrown and tossed it. “Doesn’t quite have the balance of a cricket ball, but it is just as hard.”

“What shall we do now?” I said. “I’m inclined to leave the beggar here unarmed and let him fend for himself.”

The Raja gave a little sigh. “It’s a tempting thought, Reggie, but we really cannot, you know. Not done.”

“I suppose you’re right,” I said. “Well, let’s tie him up and take him back to camp.”

We agreed there was no safety for us unless we kept James under guard every minute until we got home. Once a man has tried to kill you, you’re a fool if you give him another chance.

We marched James back to camp and told the crew what we were up against. James cursed everybody.

We spent three dismal days combing the country for that tyrannosaur, but no luck. We felt it wouldn’t have been cricket not to make a good try at recovering Holtzinger’s remains. Back at our main camp, when it wasn’t raining, we collected small reptiles and things for our scientific friends. The Raja and I discussed the question of legal proceedings against Courtney James, but decided there was nothing we could do in that direction.

When the transition chamber materialized, we fell over one another getting into it. We dumped James, still tied, in a corner, and told the chamber operator to throw the switches.

While we were in transition, James said: “You two should have killed me back there.”

“Why?” I said. “You don’t have a particularly good head.”

The Raja added: “Wouldn’t look at all well over a mantel.”

“You can laugh,” said James, “but I’ll get you some day. I’ll find a way and get off scot-free.”

“My dear chap!” I said. “If there were some way to do it, I’d have you charged with Holtzinger’s death. Look, you’d best leave well enough alone.”

When we came out in the present, we handed him his empty gun and his other gear, and off he went without a word. As he left, Holtzinger’s girl, that Claire, rushed up crying:

“Where is he? Where’s August?”

There was a bloody heartrending scene, despite the Raja’s skill at handling such situations.

We took our men and beasts down to the old laboratory building that the university has fitted up as a serai for such expeditions. We paid everybody off and found we were broke. The advance payments from Holtzinger and James didn’t cover our expenses, and we should have precious little chance of collecting the rest of our fees either from James or from Holtzinger’s estate.

And speaking of James, d’you know what that blighter was doing? He went home, got more ammunition, and came back to the university. He hunted up Professor Prochaska and asked him:

“Professor, I’d like you to send me back to the Cretaceous for a quick trip. If you can work me into your schedule right now, you can just about name your own price. I’ll offer five thousand to begin with. I want to go to April twenty-third, eight-five million B.C.”

Prochaska answered: “Why do you wish to go back again so soon?”

“I lost my wallet in the Cretaceous,” said James. “I figure if I go back to the day before I arrived in that era on my last trip, I’ll watch myself when I arrived on that trip and follow myself around till I see myself lose the wallet.”

“Five thousand is a lot for a wallet,” said the professor.

“It’s got some things in it I can’t replace,” said James.

“Well,” said Prochaska, thinking. “The party that was supposed to go out this morning has telephoned that they would be late, so perhaps I can work you in. I have always wondered what would happen when the same man occupied the same stretch of time twice.”

So James wrote out a check, and Prochaska took him to the chamber and saw him off. James’s idea, it seems, was to sit behind a bush a few yards from where the transition chamber would appear and pot the Raja and me as we emerged.

Hours later, we’d changed into our street clothes and phoned our wives to come and get us. We were standing on Forsythe Boulevard waiting for them when there was a loud crack, like an explosion, and a flash of light not fifty feet from us. The shock wave staggered us and broke windows.

We ran toward the place and got there just as a bobby and several citizens came up. On the boulevard, just off the kerb, lay a human body. At least, it had been that, but it looked as if every bone in it had been pulverized and every blood vessel burst, so it was hardly more than a slimy mass of pink protoplasm. The clothes it had been wearing were shredded, but I recognized an H. & H. .500 double-barreled express rifle. The wood was scorched and the metal pitted, but it was Courtney James’s gun. No doubt whatever.

Skipping the investigation and the milling about that ensued, what had happened was this: nobody had shot at us as we emerged on the twenty-fourth, and that couldn’t be changed. For that matter, the instant James started to do anything that would make a visible change in the world of eight-five million B.C., such as making a footprint in the earth, the space-time forces snapped him forward to the present to prevent a paradox. And the violence of the passage practically tore him to bits.

Now that this is better understood, the professor won’t send anybody to a period less than five thousand years prior to the time that some time traveler has already explored, because it would be too easy to do some act, like chopping down a tree or losing some durable artifact, that would affect the later world. Over longer periods, he tells me, such changes average out and are lost in the stream of time.

We had a rough time after that, with the bad publicity and all, though we did collect a fee from James’s estate. Luckily for us, a steel manufacturer turned up who wanted a mastodon’s head for his den.

I understand these things better now, too. The disaster hadn’t been wholly James’s fault. I shouldn’t have taken him when I knew what a spoiled, unstable sort of bloke he was. And if Holtzinger could have used a really heavy gun, he’d probably have knocked the tyrannosaur down, even if he didn’t kill it, and so have given the rest of us a chance to finish it.

* * *

So, Mr. Seligman, that’s why I won’t take you to that period to hunt. There are plenty of other eras, and if you look them over I’m sure you’ll find something to suit you. But not the Jurassic or the Cretaceous. You’re just not big enough to handle a gun for dinosaur.

Afterword by Eric Flint:




I was glad we decided that Dave would write the preface to this story, because it meant I could write an afterword where I didn't have to worry about being undignified and putting the reader off. By now, the reader will have finished the story so it doesn't much matter what I say.

I first read this story when I was somewhere around thirteen or fourteen years old and I loved it for the good and simple reason that it was just so cool. There I was, a kid in the mountains—which means hunting country—and my father had recently taught me how to shoot his trusty .30-06. Just to make things perfect, my father had been a big game hunter in his time and I'd heard plenty of his stories about hunting moose and mountain goats and—especially!—grizzly bears. (That was in the fifties, folks. In those days, "endangered species" meant . . . not much of anything.)

Hunting dinosaurs! Oh, how cool! 

And, of course, the story had that other essential ingredient for coolness: a hero you really liked, a villain worth hissing, and the villain getting his Just Deserts in the end.

What's not to like? That was how I felt about it then. Now, some forty years later . . . 

It's still how I feel about it. Some things are timeless.

St. Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson

St. Dragon and the George

by Gordon R. Dickson

Preface by David Drake




Shortly after my parents gave me a subscription to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in October 1959, the magazine offered back issues at the rate of fifteen for three dollars or twenty-five for five dollars. I sent three dollars; among the delights I found when the magazines arrived was "St. Dragon and the George." (There were many delights. I immediately scraped up another five dollars and sent it off. Thirteen of the twenty-five additional magazines were duplicates, but I didn't complain.)

Gordy Dickson at his peak was one of the best writers in the field. For my money (literally, in this case), "St. Dragon and the George" is the best thing he ever wrote. It's both funny and witty, but if those were its only virtues, I wouldn't have picked it for this anthology. The humor and wit overlie a series of very profound ideas:

There is evil;

It is the duty of human beings to stand firm against evil, even if evil most likely will destroy them;

And human beings come in all shapes and sizes.

If more people took those ideas to heart, the world would be a better place. Because I read "St. Dragon and the George," the world is at least slightly better than it might be if I hadn't.

I

A trifle diffidently, Jim Eckert rapped with his claw on the blue-painted door.

Silence.

He knocked again. There was the sound of a hasty step inside the small, oddly peak-roofed house and the door was snatched open. A thin-faced old man with a tall pointed cap and a long, rather dingy-looking white beard peered out, irritably.

“Sorry, not my day for dragons!” he snapped. “Come back next Tuesday.” He slammed the door.

It was too much. It was the final straw. Jim Eckert sat down on his haunches with a dazed thump. The little forest clearing with its impossible little pool tinkling away like Chinese glass wind chimes in the background, its well-kept greensward with the white gravel path leading to the door before him, and the riotous flower beds of asters, tulips, zinnias, roses and lilies-of-the-valley all equally impossibly in bloom at the same time about the white finger-post labeled s. carolinus and pointing at the house—it all whirled about him. It was more than flesh and blood could bear. At any minute now he would go completely insane and imagine he was a peanut or a cocker spaniel. Grottwold Hanson had wrecked them all. Dr. Howells would have to get another teaching assistant for his English Department. Angie . . .

Angie!

Jim pounded on the door again. It was snatched open.

“Dragon!” cried S. Carolinus, furiously. “How would you like to be a beetle?”

“But I’m not a dragon,” said Jim, desperately.

The magician stared at him for a long minute, then threw up his beard with both hands in a gesture of despair, caught some of it in his teeth as it fell down and began to chew on it fiercely.

“Now where,” he demanded, “did a dragon acquire the brains to develop the imagination to entertain the illusion that he is not a dragon? Answer me, O Ye Powers!”

“The information is psychically, though not physiologically correct,” replied a deep bass voice out of thin air beside them and some five feet off the ground. Jim, who had taken the question to be rhetorical, started convulsively.

“Is that so?” S. Carolinus peered at Jim with new interest. “Hmm.” He spat out a hair or two. “Come in, Anomaly—or whatever you call yourself.”

Jim squeezed in through the door and found himself in a large single room. It was a clutter of mismatched furniture and odd bits of alchemical equipment.

“Hmm,” said S. Carolinus, closing the door and walking once around Jim, thoughtfully. “If you aren’t a dragon, what are you?”

“Well, my real name’s Jim Eckert,” said Jim. “But I seem to be in the body of a dragon named Gorbash.”

“And this disturbs you. So you’ve come to me. How nice,” said the magician, bitterly. He winced, massaged his stomach and closed his eyes. “Do you know anything that’s good for a perpetual stomach-ache? Of course not. Go on.”

“Well, I want to get back to my real body. And take Angie with me. She’s my fiancée and I can send her back but I can’t send myself back at the same time. You see this Grottwold Hanson—well, maybe I better start from the beginning.”

“Brilliant suggestion, Gorbash,” said Carolinus. “Or whatever your name is,” he added.

“Well,” said Jim. Carolinus winced. Jim hurried on. “I teach at a place called Riveroak College in the United States—you’ve never heard of it—”

“Go on, go on,” said Carolinus.

“That is, I’m a teaching assistant. Dr. Howells, who heads the English Department, promised me an instructorship over a year ago. But he’s never come through with it; and Angie—Angie Gilman, my fiancée—”

“You mentioned her.”

“Yes—well, we were having a little fight. That is, we were arguing about my going to ask Howells whether he was going to give me the instructor’s rating for next year or not. I didn’t think I should; and she didn’t think we could get married—well, anyway, in came Grottwold Hanson.”

“In where came who?”

“Into the Campus Bar and Grille. We were having a drink there. Hanson used to go with Angie. He’s a graduate student in psychology. A long, thin geek that’s just as crazy as he looks. He’s always getting wound up in some new odd-ball organization or other—”

“Dictionary!” interrupted Carolinus, suddenly. He opened his eyes as an enormous volume appeared suddenly poised in the air before him. He massaged his stomach. “Ouch,” he said. The pages of the volume began to flip rapidly back and forth before his eyes. “Don’t mind me,” he said to Jim. “Go on.”

“—This time it was the Bridey Murphy craze. Hypnotism. Well—”

“Not so fast,” said Carolinus. “Bridey Murphy . . . Hypnotism . . . yes . . .”

“Oh, he talked about the ego wandering, planes of reality, on and on like that. He offered to hypnotize one of us and show us how it worked. Angie was mad at me, so she said yes. I went off to the bar. I was mad. When I turned around, Angie was gone. Disappeared.”

“Vanished?” said Carolinus.

“Vanished. I blew my top at Hanson. She must have wandered, he said, not merely the ego, but all of her. Bring her back, I said. I can’t, he said. It seemed she wanted to go back to the time of St. George and the Dragon. When men were men and would speak up to their bosses about promotions. Hanson’d have to send someone else back to rehypnotize her and send her back home. Like an idiot I said I’d go. Ha! I might’ve known he’d goof. He couldn’t do anything right if he was paid for it. I landed in the body of this dragon.”

“And the maiden?”

“Oh, she landed here, too. Centuries off the mark. A place where there actually were such things as dragons—fantastic.”

“Why?” said Carolinus.

“Well, I mean—anyway,” said Jim, hurriedly. “The point is, they’d already got her—the dragons, I mean. A big brute named Anark had found her wandering around and put her in a cage. They were having a meeting in a cave about deciding what to do with her. Anark wanted to stake her out for a decoy, so they could capture a lot of the local people—only the dragons called people georges—”

“They’re quite stupid, you know,” said Carolinus, severely, looking up from the dictionary. “There’s only room for one name in their head at a time. After the Saint made such an impression on them his name stuck.”

“Anyway, they were all yelling at once. They’ve got tremendous voices.”

“Yes, you have,” said Carolinus, pointedly.

“Oh, sorry,” said Jim. He lowered his voice. “I tried to argue that we ought to hold Angie for ransom—” He broke off suddenly. “Say,” he said. “I never thought of that. Was I talking dragon, then? What am I talking now? Dragons don’t talk English, do they?”

“Why not?” demanded Carolinus, grumpily. “If they’re British dragons?”

“But I’m not a dragon—I mean—”

“But you are here!” snapped Carolinus. “You and this maiden of yours. Since all the rest of you was translated here, don’t you suppose your ability to speak understandably was translated, too? Continue.”

“There’s not much more,” said Jim gloomily. “I was losing the argument and then this very big, old dragon spoke up on my side. Hold Angie for ransom, he said. And they listened to him. It seems he swings a lot of weight among them. He’s a great-uncle of me—of this Gorbash who’s body I’m in—and I’m his only surviving relative. They penned Angie up in a cave and he sent me off to the Tinkling Water here, to find you and have you open negotiations for ransom. Actually, on the side he told me to tell you to make the terms easy on the georges—I mean humans; he wants the dragons to work toward good relations with them. He’s afraid the dragons are in danger of being wiped out. I had a chance to double back and talk to Angie alone. We thought you might be able to send us both back.”

He stopped rather out of breath, and looked hopefully at Carolinus. The magician was chewing thoughtfully on his beard.

“Smrgol,” he muttered. “Now there’s an exception to the rule. Very bright for a dragon. Also experienced. Hmm.”

“Can you help us?” demanded Jim. “Look, I can show you—”

Carolinus sighed, closed his eyes, winced and opened them again.

“Let me see if I’ve got it straight,” he said. “You had a dispute with this maiden to whom you’re betrothed. To spite you, she turned to this third-rate practitioner, who mistakenly exorcized her from the United States (whenever in the cosmos that is) to here, further compounding his error by sending you back in spirit only to inhabit the body of Gorbash. The maiden is in the hands of the dragons and you have been sent to me by your great-uncle Smrgol.”

“That’s sort of it,” said Jim dubiously, “only—”

“You wouldn’t,” said Carolinus, “care to change your story to something simpler and more reasonable—like being a prince changed into a dragon by some wicked fairy stepmother? Oh, my poor stomach! No?” He sighed. “All right, that’ll be five hundred pounds of gold, or five pounds of rubies, in advance.”

“B-but—” Jim goggled at him. “But I don’t have any gold—or rubies.”

“What? What kind of a dragon are you?” cried Carolinus, glaring at him. “Where’s your hoard?”

“I suppose this Gorbash has one,” stammered Jim, unhappily. “But I don’t know anything about it.”

“Another charity patient,” muttered Carolinus, furiously. He shook his fist at empty space. “What’s wrong with the auditing department? Well?”

“Sorry,” said the invisible bass voice.

“That’s the third in two weeks. See it doesn’t happen again for another ten days.” He turned to Jim. “No means of payment?”

“No. Wait—” said Jim. “This stomach-ache of yours. It might be an ulcer. Does it go away between meals?”

“As a matter of fact, it does. Ulcer?”

“High-strung people working under nervous tension get them back where I come from.”

“People?” inquired Carolinus suspiciously. “Or dragons?”

“There aren’t any dragons where I come from.”

“All right, all right, I believe you,” said Carolinus, testily. “You don’t have to stretch the truth like that. How do you exorcise them?”

“Milk,” said Jim. “A glass every hour for a month or two.”

“Milk,” said Carolinus. He held out his hand to the open air and received a small tankard of it. He drank it off, making a face. After a moment, the face relaxed into a smile.

“By the Powers!” he said. “By the Powers!” He turned to Jim, beaming. “Congratulations, Gorbash, I’m beginning to believe you about that college business after all. The bovine nature of the milk quite smothers the ulcer-demon. Consider me paid.”

“Oh, fine. I’ll go get Angie and you can hypnotize—”

“What?” cried Carolinus. “Teach your grandmother to suck eggs. Hypnotize! Ha! And what about the First Law of Magic, eh?”

“The what?” said Jim.

“The First Law—the First Law—didn’t they teach you anything in that college? Forgotten it already, I see. Oh, this younger generation! The First Law: for every use of the Art and Science, there is required a corresponding price. Why do I live by my fees instead of by conjurations? Why does a magic potion have a bad taste? Why did this Hanson-amateur of yours get you all into so much trouble?”

“I don’t know,” said Jim. “Why?”

“No credit! No credit!” barked Carolinus, flinging his skinny arms wide. “Why, I wouldn’t have tried what he did without ten years credit with the auditing department, and I am a Master of the Arts. As it was, he couldn’t get anything more than your spirit back, after sending the maiden complete. And the fabric of Chance and History is all warped and ready to spring back and cause all kinds of trouble. We’ll have to give a little, take a little—”

“GORBASH!” A loud thud outside competed with the dragon-bellow.

“And here we go,” said Carolinus dourly. “It’s already starting.” He led the way outside. Sitting on the greensward just beyond the flower beds was an enormous old dragon Jim recognized as the great-uncle of the body he was in—Smrgol.

“Greetings, Mage!” boomed the old dragon, dropping his head to the ground in salute. “You may not remember me. Name’s Smrgol—you remember the business about that ogre I fought at Gormely Keep? I see my grandnephew got to you all right.”

“Ah, Smrgol—I remember,” said Carolinus. “That was a good job you did.”

“He had a habit of dropping his club head after a swing,” said Smrgol. “I noticed it along about the fourth hour of battle and the next time he tried it, went in over his guard. Tore up the biceps of his right arm. Then—”

“I remember,” Carolinus said. “So this is your nephew.”

“Grandnephew,” corrected Smrgol. “Little thick-headed and all that,” he added apologetically, “but my own flesh and blood, you know.”

“You may notice some slight improvement in him,” said Carolinus, dryly.

“I hope so,” said Smrgol, brightening. “Any change, a change for the better, you know. But I’ve bad news, Mage. You know that inchworm of an Anark?”

“The one that found the maiden in the first place?”

“That’s right. Well, he’s stolen her again and run off.”

“What?” cried Jim.

He had forgotten the capabilities of a dragon’s voice. Carolinus tottered, the flowers and grass lay flat, and even Smrgol winced.

“My boy,” said the old dragon reproachfully. “How many times must I tell you not to shout. I said, Anark stole the george.”

“He means Angie!” cried Jim desperately to Carolinus.

“I know,” said Carolinus, with his hands over his ears.

“You’re sneezing again,” said Smrgol, proudly. He turned to Carolinus. “You wouldn’t believe it. A dragon hasn’t sneezed in a hundred and ninety years. This boy did it the first moment he set eyes on the george. The others couldn’t believe it. Sign of brains, I said. Busy brains make the nose itch. Our side of the family—”

“Angie!”

“See there? All right now, boy, you’ve shown us you can do it. Let’s get down to business. How much to locate Anark and the george, Mage?”

They dickered like rug-pedlars for several minutes, finally settling on a price of four pounds of gold, one of silver, and a flawed emerald. Carolinus got a small vial of water from the Tinkling Spring and searched among the grass until he found a small sandy open spot. He bent over it and the two dragons sat down to watch.

“Quiet now,” he warned. “I’m going to try a watch-beetle. Don’t alarm it.”

Jim held his breath. Carolinus tilted the vial in his hand and the crystal water fell in three drops—Tink! Tink! And again—Tink! The sand darkened with the moisture and began to work as if something was digging from below. A hole widened, black insect legs busily in action flickered, and an odd-looking beetle popped itself halfway out of the hole. Its forelimbs waved in the air and a little squeaky voice, like a cracked phonograph record repeating itself far away over a bad telephone connection, came to Jim’s ears.

“Gone to the Loathly Tower! Gone to the Loathly Tower! Gone to the Loathly Tower!”

It popped back out of sight. Carolinus straightened up and Jim breathed again.

“The Loathly Tower!” said Smrgol. “Isn’t that that ruined tower to the west, in the fens, Mage? Why, that’s the place that loosed the blight on the mere-dragons five hundred years ago.”

“It’s a place of old magic,” said Carolinus, grimly. “These places are like ancient sores on the land, scabbed over for a while but always breaking out with new evil when—the twisting of the Fabric by these two must have done it. The evilness there has drawn the evil in Anark to it—lesser to greater, according to the laws of nature. I’ll meet you two there. Now, I must go set other forces in motion.”

He began to twirl about. His speed increased rapidly until he was nothing but a blur. Then suddenly, he faded away like smoke; and was gone, leaving Jim staring at the spot where he had been.

A poke in the side brought Jim back to the ordinary world.

“Wake up, boy. Don’t dally!” the voice of Smrgol bellowed in his ear. “We got flying to do. Come on!”

II

The old dragon’s spirit was considerably younger than this body. It turned out to be a four hour flight to the fens on the west seacoast. For the first hour or so Smrgol flew along energetically enough, meanwhile tracing out the genealogy of the mere-dragons and their relationship to himself and Gorbash; but gradually his steady flow of chatter dwindled and became intermittent. He tried to joke about his long-gone battle with the Ogre of Gormely Keep, but even this was too much and he fell silent with labored breath and straining wings. After a short but stubborn argument, Jim got him to admit that he would perhaps be better off taking a short breather and then coming on a little later. Smrgol let out a deep gasping sigh and dropped away from Jim in weary spirals. Jim saw him glide to an exhausted landing amongst the purple gorse of the moors below and lie there, sprawled out.

Jim continued on alone. A couple of hours later the moors dropped down a long land-slope to the green country of the fenland. Jim soared out over its spongy, grass-thick earth, broken into causeways and islands by the blue water, which in shallow bays and inlets was itself thick-choked with reeds and tall marsh grass. Flocks of water fowl rose here and there like eddying smoke from the glassy surface of one mere and drifted over to settle on another a few hundred yards away. Their cries came faintly to his dragon-sensitive ears and a line of heavy clouds was piling up against the sunset in the west.

He looked for some sign of the Loathly Tower, but the fenland stretched away to a faint blue line that was probably the sea, without showing sign of anything not built by nature. Jim was beginning to wonder uneasily if he had not gotten himself lost when his eye was suddenly caught by the sight of a dragon-shape nosing at something on one of the little islands amongst the meres.

Anark! he thought. And Angie!

He did not wait to see more. He nosed over and went into a dive like a jet fighter, sights locked on Target Dragon.

It was a good move. Unfortunately Gorbash-Jim, having about the weight and wingspread of a small flivver airplane, made a comparable amount of noise when he was in a dive, assuming the plane’s motor to be shut off. Moreover, the dragon on the ground had evidently had experience with the meaning of such a sound; for, without even looking, he went tumbling head over tail out of the way just as Jim slammed into the spot where, a second before, he had been.

The other dragon rolled over onto his feet, sat up, took one look at Jim, and began to wail.

“It’s not fair! It’s not fair!” he cried in a (for a dragon) remarkably high-pitched voice. “Just because you’re bigger than I am. And I’m all horned up. It’s the first good one I’ve been able to kill in months and you don’t need it, not at all. You’re big and fat and I’m so weak and thin and hungry—”

Jim blinked and stared. What he had thought to be Angie, lying in the grass, now revealed itself to be an old and rather stringy-looking cow, badly bitten up and with a broken neck.

“It’s just my luck!” the other dragon was weeping. He was less than three-quarters Jim’s size and so emaciated he appeared on the verge of collapse. “Everytime I get something good, somebody takes it away. All I ever get to eat is fish—”

“Hold on,” said Jim.

“Fish, fish, fish. Cold, nasty fi—”

“Hold on, I say! SHUT UP!” bellowed Jim, in Gorbash’s best voice.

The other dragon stopped his wailing as suddenly as if his switch had been shut off.

“Yes, sir,” he said, timidly.

“What’s the matter? I’m not going to take this from you.”

The other dragon tittered uncertainly.

“I’m not,” said Jim. “It’s your cow. All yours.”

“He-he-he!” said the other dragon. “You certainly are a card, your honor.”

“Blast it, I’m serious!” cried Jim. “What’s your name, anyway?”

“Oh, well—” the other squirmed. “Oh well, you know—”

“What’s your name?”

“Secoh, your worship!” yelped the dragon, frightenedly. “Just Secoh. Nobody important. Just a little, unimportant mere-dragon, your highness, that’s all I am. Really!”

“All right, Secoh, dig in. All I want is some directions.”

“Well—if your worship really doesn’t . . .” Secoh had been sidling forward in fawning fashion. “If you’ll excuse my table manners, sir. I’m just a mere-dragon—” and he tore into the meat before him in sudden, terrified, starving fashion.

Jim watched. Unexpectedly, his long tongue flickered out to lick his chops. His belly rumbled. He was astounded at himself. Raw meat? Off a dead animal—flesh, bones, hide and all? He took a firm grip on his appetites.

“Er, Secoh,” he said. “I’m a stranger around these parts. I suppose you know the territory . . . Say, how does that cow taste, anyway?”

“Oh, terrubble—mumpf—” replied Secoh, with his mouth full. “Stringy—old. Good enough for a mere-dragon like myself, but not—”

“Well, about these directions—”

“Yes, your highness?”

“I think . . . you know it’s your cow . . .”

“That’s what your honor said,” replied Secoh, cautiously.

“But I just wonder . . . you know I’ve never tasted a cow like that.”

Secoh muttered something despairingly under his breath.

“What?” said Jim.

“I said,” said Secoh, resignedly, “wouldn’t your worship like to t-taste it—”

“Not if you’re going to cry about it,” said Jim.

“I bit my tongue.”

“Well, in that case . . .” Jim walked up and sank his teeth in the shoulder of the carcass. Rich juices trickled enticingly over his tongue . . .

Some little time later he and Secoh sat back polishing bones with the rough uppers of their tongues which were as abrasive as steel files.

“Did you get enough to eat, Secoh?” asked Jim.

“More than enough, sir,” replied the mere-dragon, staring at the white skeleton with a wild and famished eye. “Although, if your exaltedness doesn’t mind, I’ve a weakness for marrow . . .” He picked up a thighbone and began to crunch it like a stick of candy.

“Now,” said Jim. “About this Loathly Tower. Where is it?”

“The wh-what?” stammered Secoh, dropping the thighbone.

“The Loathly Tower. It’s in the fens. You know of it, don’t you?”

“Oh, sir! Yes, sir. But you wouldn’t want to go there, sir! Not that I’m presuming to give your lordship advice—” cried Secoh, in a suddenly high and terrified voice.

“No, no,” soothed Jim. “What are you so upset about?”

“Well—of course I’m only a timid little mere-dragon. But it’s a terrible place, the Loathly Tower, your worship, sir.”

“How? Terrible?”

“Well—well, it just is.” Secoh cast an unhappy look around him. “It’s what spoiled all of us, you know, five hundred years ago. We used to be like other dragons—oh, not so big and handsome as you are, sir. Then, after that, they say it was the Good got the upper hand and the Evil in the Tower was vanquished and the Tower itself ruined. But it didn’t help us mere-dragons any, and I wouldn’t go there if I was your worship, I really wouldn’t.”

“But what’s so bad? What sort of thing is it?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say there was any real thing there. Nothing your worship could put a claw on. It’s just strange things go to it and strange things come out of it; and lately . . .”

“Lately what?”

“Nothing—nothing, really, your excellency!” cried Secoh. “You illustriousness shouldn’t catch a worthless little mere-dragon up like that. I only meant, lately the Tower’s seemed more fearful than ever. That’s all.”

“Probably your imagination,” said Jim, shortly. “Anyway, where is it?”

“You have to go north about five miles.” While they had eaten and talked, the sunset had died. It was almost dark now; and Jim had to strain his eyes through the gloom to see the mere-dragon’s foreclaw, pointing away across the mere. “To the Great Causeway. It’s a wide lane of solid ground running east and west through the fens. You follow it west to the Tower. The Tower stands on a rock overlooking the sea-edge.”

“Five miles . . .” said Jim. He considered the soft grass on which he lay. His armored body seemed undisturbed by the temperature, whatever it was. “I might as well get some sleep. See you in the morning, Secoh.” He obeyed a sudden, bird-like instinct and tucked his ferocious head and long neck back under one wing.

“Whatever your excellency desires . . .” the mere-dragon’s muffled voice came distantly to his ear. “Your excellency has only to call and I’ll be immediately available . . .”

The words faded out on Jim’s ear, as he sank into sleep like a heavy stone into deep, dark waters.

* * *

When he opened his eyes, the sun was up. He sat up himself, yawned, and blinked.

Secoh was gone. So were the leftover bones.

“Blast!” said Jim. But the morning was too nice for annoyance. He smiled at his mental picture of Secoh carefully gathering the bones in fearful silence, and sneaking them away.

The smile did not last long. When he tried to take off in a northerly direction, as determined by reference to the rising sun, he found he had charley horses in both the huge wing-muscles that swelled out under the armor behind his shoulders. The result of course, of yesterday’s heavy exercise. Grumbling, he was forced to proceed on foot; and four hours later, very hot, muddy and wet, he pulled his weary body up onto the broad east-and-west-stretching strip of land which must, of necessity, be the Great Causeway. It ran straight as a Roman road through the meres, several feet higher than the rest of the fenland, and was solid enough to support good-sized trees. Jim collapsed in the shade of one with a heartfelt sigh.

He awoke to the sound of someone singing. He blinked and lifted his head. Whatever the earlier verses of the song had been, Jim had missed them; but the approaching baritone voice now caroled the words of the chorus merrily and clearly to his ear:

“A right good sword, a constant mind
A trusty spear and true!
The dragons of the mere shall find
What Nevile-Smythe can do!”

The tune and words were vaguely familiar. Jim sat up for a better look and a knight in full armor rode into view on a large white horse through the trees. Then everything happened at once. The knight saw him, the visor of his armor came down with a clang, his long spear seemed to jump into his mailed hand and the horse under him leaped into a gallop, heading for Jim. Gorbash’s reflexes took over. They hurled Jim straight up into the air, where his punished wing muscles cracked and faltered. He was just able to manage enough of a fluttering flop to throw himself into the upper branches of a small tree nearby.

The knight skidded his horse to a stop below and looked up through the spring-budded branches. He tilted his visor back to reveal a piercing pair of blue eyes, a rather hawk-like nose and a jutting generous chin, all assembled into a clean-shaven young man’s face. He looked eagerly up at Jim.

“Come down,” he said.

“No thanks,” said Jim, hanging firmly to the tree. There was a slight pause as they both digested the situation.

“Dashed caitiff mere-dragon!” said the knight finally, with annoyance.

“I’m not a mere-dragon,” said Jim.

“Oh, don’t talk rot!” said the knight.

“I’m not,” repeated Jim. He thought a minute. “I’ll bet you can’t guess who I really am.”

The knight did not seem interested in guessing who Jim really was. He stood up in his stirrups and probed through the branches with his spear. The point did not quite reach Jim.

“Damn!” Disappointedly, he lowered the spear and became thoughtful. “I can climb the dashed tree,” he muttered to himself. “But then what if he flies down and I have to fight him unhorsed, eh?”

“Look,” called Jim, peering down—the knight looked up eagerly—”if you’ll listen to what I’ve to say, first.”

The knight considered.

“Fair enough,” he said, finally. “No pleas for mercy, now!”

“No, no,” said Jim.

“Because I shan’t grant them, dammit! It’s not in my vows. Widows and orphans and honorable enemies on the field of battle. But not dragons.”

“No. I just want to convince you who I really am.”

“I don’t give a blasted farthing who you really are.”

“You will,” said Jim. “Because I’m not really a dragon at all. I’ve just been—uh—enchanted into a dragon.”

The man on the ground looked skeptical.

“Really,” said Jim, slipping a little in the tree. “You know S. Carolinus, the magician? I’m as human as you are.”

“Heard of him,” grunted the knight. “You’ll say he put you under?”

“No, he’s the one who’s going to change me back—as soon as I can find the lady I’m—er—betrothed to. A real dragon ran off with her. I’m after him. Look at me. Do I look like one of these scrawny mere-dragons?”

“Hmm,” said the knight. He rubbed his hooked nose thoughtfully.

“Carolinus found she’s at the Loathly Tower. I’m on my way there.”

The knight stared.

“The Loathly Tower?” he echoed.

“Exactly,” said Jim, firmly. “And now you know, your honor as knight and gentleman demands you don’t hamper my rescue efforts.”

The knight continued to think it over for a long moment or two. He was evidently not the sort to be rushed into things.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” he said at last.

“Hold your sword up. I’ll swear on the cross of its hilt.”

“But if you’re a dragon, what’s the good in that? Dragons don’t have souls, dammit!”

“No,” said Jim, “but a Christian gentleman has; and if I’m a Christian gentleman, I wouldn’t dare forswear myself like that, would I?”

The knight struggled visibly with this logic for several seconds. Finally, he gave up.

“Oh, well . . .” He held up his sword by the point and let Jim swear on it. Then he put the sword back in its sheath as Jim descended. “Well,” he said, still a little doubtfully, “I suppose, under the circumstances, we ought to introduce ourselves. You know my arms?”

Jim looked at the shield which the other swung around for his inspection. It showed a wide X of silver—like a cross lying over sideways—on a red background and above some sort of black animal in profile which seemed to be lying down between the X’s bottom legs.

“The gules, a saltire argent, of course,” went on the knight, “are the Nevile of Raby arms. My father, as a cadet of the house, differenced with a hart lodged sable—you see it there at the bottom. Naturally, as his heir, I carry the family arms.”

“Nevile-Smythe,” said Jim, remembering the name from the song.

“Sir Reginald, knight bachelor. And you, sir?”

“Why, uh . . .” Jim clutched frantically at what he knew of heraldry. “I bear—in my proper body, that is—”

“Quite.”

“A . . . gules, a typewriter argent, on a desk sable. Eckert, Sir James—uh—knight bachelor. Baron of—er—Riveroak.”

Nevile-Smythe was knitting his brows.

“Typewriter . . .” he was muttering, “typewriter . . .”

“A local beast, rather like a griffin,” said Jim, hastily. “We have a lot of them in Riveroak—that’s in America, a land over the sea to the west. You may not have heard of it.”

“Can’t say that I have. Was it there you were enchanted into this dragon-shape?”

“Well, yes and no. I was transported to this land by magic as was the—uh—lady Angela. When I woke here I was bedragoned.”

“Were you?” Sir Reginald’s blue eyes bulged a little in amazement. “Angela—fair name, that! Like to meet her. Perhaps after we get this muddle cleared up, we might have a bit of a set-to on behalf of our respective ladies.”

Jim gulped slightly.

“Oh, you’ve got one, too?”

“Absolutely. And she’s tremendous. The Lady Elinor—” The knight turned about in his saddle and began to fumble about his equipment. Jim, on reaching the ground, had at once started out along the causeway in the direction of the Tower, so that the knight happened to be pacing alongside him on horseback when he suddenly went into these evolutions. It seemed to bother his charger not at all. “Got her favor here someplace—half a moment—”

“Why don’t you just tell me what it’s like?” said Jim, sympathetically.

“Oh, well,” said Nevile-Smythe, giving up his search, “it’s a kerchief, you know. Monogrammed. E. d’C. She’s a deChauncy. It’s rather too bad, though. I’d have liked to show it to you since we’re going to the Loathly Tower together.”

“We are?” said Jim, startled. “But—I mean, it’s my job. I didn’t think you’d want—”

“Lord, yes,” said Nevile-Smythe, looking somewhat startled himself. “A gentleman of coat-armor like myself—and an outrage like this taking place locally. I’m no knight-errant, dash it, but I do have a decent sense of responsibility.”

“I mean—I just meant—” stumbled Jim. “What if something happened to you? What would the Lady Elinor say?”

“Why, what could she say?” replied Nevile-Smythe in plain astonishment. “No one but an utter rotter dodges his plain duty. Besides, there may be a chance here for me to gain a little worship. Elinor’s keen on that. She wants me to come home safe.”

Jim blinked.

“I don’t get it,” he said.

“Beg pardon?”

Jim explained his confusion.

“Why, how do you people do things, overseas?” said Nevile-Smythe. “After we’re married and I have lands of my own, I’ll be expected to raise a company and march out at my lord’s call. If I’ve no name as a knight, I’ll be able to raise nothing but bumpkins and clodpoles who’ll desert at the first sight of steel. On the other hand, if I’ve a name, I’ll have good men coming to serve under my banner; because, you see, they know I’ll take good care of them; and by the same token they’ll take good care of me—I say, isn’t it getting dark rather suddenly?”

Jim glanced at the sky. It was indeed—almost the dimness of twilight although it could, by rights, be no more than early afternoon yet. Glancing ahead up the Causeway, he became aware of a further phenomenon. A line seemed to be cutting across the trees and grass and even extending out over the waters of the meres on both sides. Moreover, it seemed to be moving toward them as if some heavy, invisible fluid was slowly flooding out over the low country of the fenland.

“Why—” he began. A voice wailed suddenly from his left to interrupt him.

“No! No! Turn back, your worship. Turn back! It’s death in there!”

They turned their heads sharply. Secoh, the mere-dragon, sat perched on a half-drowned tussock about forty feet out in the mere.

“Come here, Secoh!” called Jim.

“No! No!” The invisible line was almost to the tussock. Secoh lifted heavily into the air and flapped off, crying, “Now it’s loose! It’s broken loose again. And we’re all lost . . . lost . . . lost . . .”

His voice wailed away and was lost in the distance. Jim and Nevile-Smythe looked at each other.

“Now, that’s one of our local dragons for you!” said the knight disgustedly. “How can a gentleman of coat armor gain honor by slaying a beast like that? The worst of it is when someone from the Midlands compliments you on being a dragon-slayer and you have to explain—”

At that moment either they both stepped over the line, or the line moved past them—Jim was never sure which; and they both stopped, as by one common, instinctive impulse. Looking at Sir Reginald, Jim could see under the visor how the knight’s face had gone pale.

“In manus tuas Domine,” said Nevile-Smythe, crossing himself.

About and around them, the serest gray of winter light lay on the fens. The waters of the meres lay thick and oily, still between the shores of dull green grass. A small, cold breeze wandered through the tops of the reeds and they rattled together with a dry and distant sound like old bones cast out into a forgotten courtyard for the wind to play with. The trees stood helpless and still, their new, small leaves now pinched and faded like children aged before their time while all about and over all the heaviness of dead hope and bleak despair lay on all living things.

“Sir James,” said the knight, in an odd tone and accents such as Jim had not heard him use before, “wot well that we have this day set our hands to no small task. Wherefore I pray thee that we should push forward, come what may for my heart faileth and I think me that it may well hap that I return not, ne no man know mine end.”

Having said this, he immediately reverted to his usual cheerful self and swung down out of his saddle. “Clarivaux won’t go another inch, dash it!” he said. “I shall have to lead him—by the bye, did you know that mere-dragon?”

Jim fell into step beside him and they went on again, but a little more slowly, for everything seemed an extra effort under this darkening sky.

“I talked to him yesterday,” said Jim. “He’s not a bad sort of dragon.”

“Oh, I’ve nothing against the beasts, myself. But one slays them when one finds them, you know.”

“An old dragon—in fact he’s the granduncle of this body I’m in,” said Jim, “thinks that dragons and humans really ought to get together. Be friends, you know.”

“Extraordinary thought!” said Nevile-Smythe, staring at Jim in astonishment.

“Well, actually,” said Jim, “why not?”

“Well, I don’t know. It just seems like it wouldn’t do.”

“He says men and dragons might find common foes to fight together.”

“Oh, that’s where he’s wrong, though. You couldn’t trust dragons to stick by you in a bicker. And what if your enemy had dragons of his own? They wouldn’t fight each other. No. No.”

They fell silent. They had moved away from the grass onto flat sandy soil. There was a sterile, flinty hardness to it. It crunched under the hooves of Clarivaux, at once unyielding and treacherous.

“Getting darker, isn’t it?” said Jim, finally.

The light was, in fact, now down to a grayish twilight through which it was impossible to see more than a dozen feet. And it was dwindling as they watched. They had halted and stood facing each other. The light fled steadily, and faster. The dimness became blacker, and blacker—until finally the last vestige of illumination was lost and blackness, total and complete, overwhelmed them. Jim felt a gauntleted hand touch one of his forelimbs.

“Let’s hold together,” said the voice of the knight. “Then whatever comes upon us, must come upon us all at once.”

“Right,” said Jim. But the word sounded cold and dead in his throat.

They stood, in silence and in lightlessness, waiting for they did not know what. And the blankness about them pressed further in on them, now that it had isolated them, nibbling at the very edges of their minds. Out of the nothingness came nothing material, but from within them crept up one by one, like blind white slugs from some bottomless pit, all their inner doubts and fears and unknown weaknesses, all the things of which they had been ashamed and which they had tucked away to forget, all the maggots of their souls.

Jim found himself slowly, stealthily beginning to withdraw his forelimb from under the knight’s touch. He no longer trusted Nevile-Smythe—for the evil that must be in the man because of the evil he knew to be in himself. He would move away . . . off into the darkness alone . . .

“Look!” Nevile-Smythe’s voice cried suddenly to him, distant and eerie, as if from someone already a long way off. “Look back the way we came.”

Jim turned about. Far off in the darkness, there was a distant glimmer of light. It rolled toward them, growing as it came. They felt its power against the power of lightlessness that threatened to overwhelm them; and the horse Clarivaux stirred unseen beside them, stamped his hooves on the hard sand, and whinnied.

“This way!” called Jim.

“This way!” shouted Nevile-Smythe

The light shot up suddenly in height. Like a great rod it advanced toward them and the darkness was rolling back, graying, disappearing. They heard a sound of feet close, and a sound of breathing, and then—

It was daylight again.

And S. Carolinus stood before them in tall hat and robes figured with strange images and signs. In his hand upright before him—as if it was blade and buckler, spear and armor all in one—he held a tall carven staff of wood.

“By the Power!” he said. “I was in time. Look there!”

He lifted the staff and drove it point down into the soil. It went in and stood erect like some denuded tree. His long arm pointed past them and they turned around.

The darkness was gone. The fens lay revealed far and wide, stretching back a long way, and up ahead, meeting the thin dark line of the sea. The Causeway had risen until they now stood twenty feet above the mere-waters. Ahead to the west, the sky was ablaze with sunset. It lighted up all the fens and the end of the Causeway leading onto a long and bloody-looking hill, whereon—touched by that same dying light—there loomed above and over all, amongst great tumbled boulders, the ruined, dark and shattered shell of a Tower as black as jet.

III

“—why didn’t you wake us earlier, then?” asked Jim.

It was the morning after. They had slept the night within the small circle of protection afforded by Carolinus’ staff. They were sitting up now and rubbing their eyes in the light of a sun that had certainly been above the horizon a good two hours.

“Because,” said Carolinus. He was sipping at some more milk and he stopped to make a face of distaste. “Because we had to wait for them to catch up with us.”

“Who? Catch up?” asked Jim.

“If I knew who,” snapped Carolinus, handing his empty milk tankard back to the emptier air, “I would have said who. All I know is that the present pattern of Chance and History implies that two more will join our party. The same pattern implied the presence of this knight and—oh, so that’s who they are.”

Jim turned around to follow the magician’s gaze. To his surprise, two dragon shapes were emerging from a clump of brush behind them.

“Secoh!” cried Jim. “And—Smrgol! Why—” His voice wavered and died. The old dragon, he suddenly noticed, was limping and one wing hung a little loosely, half-drooping from its shoulder. Also, the eyelid on the same side as the loose wing and stiff leg was sagging more or less at half-mast. “Why, what happened?”

“Oh, a bit stiff from yesterday,” huffed Smrgol, bluffly. “Probably pass off in a day or two.”

“Stiff nothing!” said Jim, touched in spite of himself. “You’ve had a stroke.”

“Stroke of bad luck, I’d say,” replied Smrgol, cheerfully, trying to wink his bad eye and not succeeding very well. “No, boy, it’s nothing. Look who I’ve brought along.”

“I—I wasn’t too keen on coming,” said Secoh, shyly, to Jim. “But your granduncle can be pretty persuasive, your wo— you know.”

“That’s right!” boomed Smrgol. “Don’t you go calling anybody your worship. Never heard of such stuff!” He turned to Jim. “And letting a george go in where he didn’t dare go himself! Boy, I said to him, don’t give me this only a mere-dragon and just a mere-dragon. Mere’s got nothing to do with what kind of dragon you are. What kind of a world would it be if we were all like that?” Smrgol mimicked (as well as his dragon-basso would let him) someone talking in a high, simpering voice. “Oh, I’m just a plowland-and-pasture dragon—you’ll have to excuse me I’m only a halfway-up-the-hill dragon—Boy!” bellowed Smrgol, “I said you’re a dragon! Remember that. And a dragon acts like a dragon or he doesn’t act at all!”

“Hear! Hear!” said Nevile-Smythe, carried away by enthusiasm.

“Hear that, boy? Even the george here knows that. Don’t believe I’ve met you, george,” he added, turning to the knight.

“Nevile-Smythe, Sir Reginald. Knight bachelor.”

“Smrgol. Dragon.”

“Smrgol? You aren’t the—but you couldn’t be. Over a hundred years ago.”

“The dragon who slew the Ogre of Gormely Keep? That’s who I am, boy—george, I mean.”

“By Jove! Always thought it was a legend, only.”

“Legend? Not on your honor, george! I’m old—even for a dragon, but there was a time—well, well, we won’t go into that. I’ve something more important to talk to you about. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the last decade or so about us dragons and you georges getting together. Actually, we’re really a lot alike—”

“If you don’t mind, Smrgol,” cut in Carolinus, snappishly, “we aren’t out here to hold a parlement. It’ll be noon in—when will it be noon, you?”

“Four hours, thirty-seven minutes, twelve seconds at the sound of the gong,” replied the invisible bass voice. There was a momentary pause, and then a single mellow, chimed note. “Chime, I mean,” the voice corrected itself.

“Oh, go back to bed!” cried Carolinus, furiously.

“I’ve been up for hours,” protested the voice, indignantly.

Carolinus ignored it, herding the party together and starting them off for the Tower. The knight fell in beside Smrgol.

“About this business of men and dragons getting together,” said Nevile-Smythe. “Confess I wasn’t much impressed until I heard your name. D’you think it’s possible?”

“Got to make a start sometime, george.” Smrgol rumbled on. Jim, who had moved up to the head of the column to walk beside Carolinus, spoke to the magician.

“What lives in the Tower?”

Carolinus jerked his fierce old bearded face around to look at him.

“What’s living there?” he snapped. “I don’t know. We’ll find out soon enough. What is there—neither alive nor dead, just in existence at the spot—is the manifestation of pure evil.”

“But how can we do anything against that?”

“We can’t. We can only contain it. Just as you—if you’re essentially a good person—contain the potentialities for evil in yourself, by killing its creatures, your evil impulses and actions.”

“Oh?” said Jim.

“Certainly. And since evil opposes good in like manner, its creatures, the ones in the Tower, will try to destroy us.”

Jim felt a cold lump in his throat. He swallowed.

“Destroy us?”

“Why no, they’ll probably just invite us to tea—” The sarcasm in the old magician’s voice broke off suddenly with the voice itself. They had just stepped through a low screen of bushes and instinctively checked to a halt.

Lying on the ground before them was what once had been a man in full armor. Jim heard the sucking intake of breath from Nevile-Smythe behind him.

“A most foul death,” said the knight softly, “most foul . . .” He came forward and dropped clumsily to his armored knees, joining his gauntleted hands in prayer. The dragons were silent. Carolinus poked with his staff at a wide trail of slime that led around and over the body and back toward the Tower. It was the sort of trail a garden slug might have left—if this particular garden slug had been two or more feet wide where it touched the ground.

“A Worm,” said Carolinus. “But Worms are mindless. No Worm killed him in such cruel fashion.” He lifted his head to the old dragon.

“I didn’t say it, Mage,” rumbled Smrgol, uneasily.

“Best none of us say it until we know for certain. Come on.” Carolinus took up the lead and led them forward again.

They had come up off the Causeway onto the barren plain that sloped up into a hill on which stood the Tower. They could see the wide fens and the tide flats coming to meet them in the arms of a small bay—and beyond that the sea, stretching misty to the horizon.

The sky above was blue and clear. No breeze stirred; but, as they looked at the Tower and the hill that held it, it seemed that the azure above had taken on a metallic cast. The air had a quivering unnaturalness like an atmosphere dancing to heat waves, though the day was chill; and there came on Jim’s ears, from where he did not know, a high-pitched dizzy singing like that which accompanies delirium, or high fever.

The Tower itself was distorted by these things. So that although to Jim it seemed only the ancient, ruined shell of a building, yet, between one heartbeat and the next, it seemed to change. Almost, but not quite, he caught glimpses of it unbroken and alive and thronged about with fantastic, half-seen figures. His heart beat stronger with the delusion; and its beating shook the scene before him, all the hill and Tower, going in and out of focus, in and out, in and out . . . And there was Angie, in the Tower’s doorway, calling him . . .

“Stop!” shouted Carolinus. His voice echoed like a clap of thunder in Jim’s ears; and Jim awoke to his senses, to find himself straining against the barrier of Carolinus’ staff, that barred his way to the Tower like a rod of iron. “By the Powers!” said the old magician, softly and fiercely. “Will you fall into the first trap set for you?”

“Trap?” echoed Jim, bewilderedly. But he had no time to go further, for at that moment there rose from among the giant boulders at the Tower’s base the heavy, wicked head of a dragon as large as Smrgol.

The thunderous bellow of the old dragon beside Jim split the unnatural air.

“Anark! Traitor—thief—inchworm! Come down here!”

Booming dragon-laughter rolled back an answer.

“Tell us about Gormely Keep, old bag of bones. Ancient mud-puppy, fat lizard, scare us with words!”

Smrgol lurched forward; and again Carolinus’ staff was extended to bar the way.

“Patience,” said the magician. But with one wrenching effort, the old dragon had himself until control. He turned, panting, to Carolinus.

“What’s hidden, Mage?” he demanded.

“We’ll see.” Grimly, Carolinus brought his staff, endwise, three times down upon the earth. With each blow the whole hill seemed to shake and shudder.

Up among the rocks, one particularly large boulder tottered and rolled aside. Jim caught his breath and Secoh cried out, suddenly.

In the gap that the boulder revealed, a thick, slug-like head was lifting from the ground. It reared, yellow-brown in the sunlight, its two sets of horns searching and revealing a light external shell, a platelet with a merest hint of spire. It lowered its head and slowly, inexorably, began to flow downhill toward them, leaving its glistening trail behind it.

“Now—” said the knight. But Carolinus shook his head. He struck the ground again.

“Come forth!” he cried, his thin, old voice piping on the quivering air. “By the Powers! Come forth!”

And then they saw it.

From behind the great barricade of boulders, slowly, there reared first a bald and glistening dome of hairless skin. Slowly this rose, revealing two perfectly round eyes below which they saw, as the whole came up, no proper nose, but two air-slits side by side as if the whole of the bare, enormous skull was covered with a simple sheet of thick skin. And rising still further, this unnatural head, as big around as a beach ball, showed itself to possess a wide and idiot-grinning mouth, entirely lipless and revealing two jagged, matching rows of yellow teeth.

Now, with a clumsy, studied motion, the whole creature rose to its feet and stood knee-deep in the boulders and towering above them. It was man-like in shape, but clearly nothing ever spawned by the human race. A good twelve feet high it stood, a rough patchwork kilt of untanned hides wrapped around its thick waist—but this was not the extent of its differences from the race of Man. It had, to begin with, no neck at all. That obscene beachball of a hairless, near-featureless head balanced like an apple on thick, square shoulders of gray, coarse-looking skin. Its torso was one straight trunk, from which its arms and legs sprouted with a disproportionate thickness and roundness, like sections of pipe. Its knees were hidden by its kilt and its further legs by the rocks; but the elbows of its oversize arms had unnatural hinges to them, almost as if they had been doubled, and the lower arms were almost as large as the upper and near-wristless, while the hands themselves were awkward, thick-fingered parodies of the human extremity, with only three digits, of which one was a single, opposed thumb.

The right hand held a club, bound with rusty metal, that surely not even such a monster should have been able to lift. Yet one grotesque hand carried it lightly, as lightly as Carolinus had carried his staff. The monster opened its mouth.

“He!” it went. “He! He!”

The sound was fantastic. It was a bass titter, if such a thing could be imagined. Though the tone of it was as low as the lowest note of a good operatic basso, it clearly came from the creature’s upper throat and head. Nor was there any real humor in it. It was an utterance with a nervous, habitual air about it, like a man clearing his throat. Having sounded, it fell silent, watching the advance of the great slug with its round, light blue eyes.

Smrgol exhaled slowly.

“Yes,” he rumbled, almost sadly, almost as if to himself. “What I was afraid of. An ogre.”

In the silence that followed, Nevile-Smythe got down from his horse and began to tighten the girths of its saddle.

“So, so, Clarivaux,” he crooned to the trembling horse. “So ho, boy.”

The rest of them were looking all at Carolinus. The magician leaned on his staff, seeming very old indeed, with the deep lines carven in the ancient skin of his face. He had been watching the ogre, but now he turned back to Jim and the other two dragons.

“I had hoped all along,” he said, “that it needn’t come to this. However,” he crackled sourly, and waved his hand at the approaching Worm, the silent Anark and the watching ogre, “as you see . . . The world goes never the way we want it by itself, but must be haltered and led.” He winced, produced his flask and cup, and took a drink of milk. Putting the utensils back, he looked over at Nevile-Smythe, who was now checking his weapons. “I’d suggest, Knight, that you take the Worm. It’s a poor chance, but your best. I know you’d prefer that renegade dragon, but the Worm is the greater danger.”

“Difficult to slay, I imagine?” queried the knight.

“Its vital organs are hidden deep inside it,” said Carolinus, “and being mindless, it will fight on long after being mortally wounded. Cut off those eye-stalks and blind it first, if you can—”

“Wait!” cried Jim, suddenly. He had been listening bewilderedly. Now the word seemed to jump out of his mouth. “What’re we going to do?”

“Do?” said Carolinus, looking at him. “Why, fight, of course.”

“But,” stammered Jim, “wouldn’t it be better to go get some help? I mean—”

“Blast it, boy!” boomed Smrgol. “We can’t wait for that! Who knows what’ll happen if we take time for something like that? Hell’s bells, Gorbash, lad, you got to fight your foes when you meet them, not the next day, or the day after that.”

“Quite right, Smrgol,” said Carolinus, dryly. “Gorbash, you don’t understand this situation. Every time you retreat from something like this, it gains and you lose. The next time the odds would be even worse against us.”

They were all looking at him. Jim felt the impact of their curious glances. He did not know what to say. He wanted to tell them that he was not a fighter, that he did not know the first thing to do in this sort of battle, that it was none of his business anyway and that he would not be here at all, if it were not for Angie. He was, in fact, quite humanly scared, and floundered desperately for some sort of strength to lean on.

“What—what am I supposed to do?” he said.

“Why, fight the ogre, boy! Fight the ogre!” thundered Smrgol—and the inhuman giant up on the slope, hearing him, shifted his gaze suddenly from the Worm to fasten it on Jim. “And I’ll take on that louse of an Anark. The george here’ll chop up the Worm, the Mage’ll hold back the bad influences—and there we are.”

“Fight the ogre . . .” If Jim had still been possessed of his ordinary two legs, they would have buckled underneath him. Luckily his dragon-body knew no such weakness. He looked at the overwhelming bulk of his expected opponent, contrasted the ogre with himself, the armored, ox-heavy body of the Worm with Nevile-Smythe, the deep-chested over-size Anark with the crippled old dragon beside him—and a cry of protest rose from the very depths of his being. “But we can’t win!”

He turned furiously on Carolinus, who, however, looked at him calmly. In desperation he turned back to the only normal human he could find in the group.

“Nevile-Smythe,” he said. “You don’t need to do this.”

“Lord, yes,” replied the knight, busy with his equipment. “Worms, ogres—one fights them when one runs into them, you know.” He considered his spear and put it aside. “Believe I’ll face it on foot,” he murmured to himself.

“Smrgol!” said Jim. “Don’t you see—can’t you understand? Anark is a lot younger than you. And you’re not well—”

“Er . . .” said Secoh, hesitantly.

“Speak up, boy!” rumbled Smrgol.

“Well,” stammered Secoh, “it’s just . . . what I mean is, I couldn’t bring myself to fight that Worm or that ogre—I really couldn’t. I just sort of go to pieces when I think of them getting close to me. But I could—well, fight another dragon. It wouldn’t be quite so bad, if you know what I mean, if that dragon up there breaks my neck—” He broke down and stammered incoherently. “I know I sound awfully silly—”

“Nonsense! Good lad!” bellowed Smrgol. “Glad to have you. I—er—can’t quite get into the air myself at the moment—still a bit stiff. But if you could fly over and work him down this way where I can get a grip on him, we’ll stretch him out for the buzzards.” And he dealt the mere-dragon a tremendous thwack with his tail by way of congratulation, almost knocking Secoh off his feet.

In desperation, Jim turned back to Carolinus.

“There is no retreat,” said Carolinus, calmly, before Jim could speak. “This is a game of chess where if one piece withdraws, all fall. Hold back the creatures, and I will hold back the forces—for the creatures will finish me, if you go down, and the forces will finish you if they get me.”

“Now, look here, Gorbash!” shouted Smrgol in Jim’s ear. “That Worm’s almost here. Let me tell you something about how to fight ogres, based on experience. You listening, boy?”

“Yes,” said Jim, numbly.

“I know you’ve heard the other dragons calling me an old windbag when I wasn’t around. But I have conquered an ogre—the only one in our race to do it in the last eight hundred years—and they haven’t. So pay attention, if you want to win your own fight.”

Jim gulped.

“All right,” he said.

“Now, the first thing to know,” boomed Smrgol, glancing at the Worm who was now less than fifty yards distant, “is about the bones in an ogre—”

“Never mind the details!” cried Jim. “What do I do?”

“In a minute,” said Smrgol. “Don’t get excited, boy. Now, about the bones in an ogre. The thing to remember is that they’re big—matter of fact in the arms and legs, they’re mainly bone. So there’s no use trying to bite clear through, if you get a chance. What you try to do is get at the muscle—that’s tough enough as it is—and hamstring. That’s point one.” He paused to look severely at Jim.

“Now, point two,” he continued, “also connected with bones. Notice the elbows on that ogre. They aren’t like a george’s elbows. They’re what you might call double-jointed. I mean, they have two joints where a george has just the one. Why? Simply because with the big bones they got to have and the muscle of them, they’d never be able to bend an arm more than halfway up before the bottom part’d bump the top if they had a george-type joint. Now, the point of all this is that when it swings that club, it can only swing in one way with that elbow. That’s up and down. If it wants to swing it side to side, it’s got to use its shoulder. Consequently if you can catch it with its club down and to one side of the body, you got an advantage; because it takes two motions to get it back up and in line again—instead of one, like a george.”

“Yes, yes,” said Jim, impatiently, watching the advance of the Worm.

“Don’t get impatient, boy. Keep cool. Keep cool. Now, the knees don’t have that kind of joint, so if you can knock it off its feet you got a real advantage. But don’t try that, unless you’re sure you can do it; because once it gets you pinned, you’re a goner. The way to fight it is in-and-out—fast. Wait for a swing, dive in, tear him, get back out again. Got it?”

“Got it,” said Jim, numbly.

“Good. Whatever you do, don’t let it get a grip on you. Don’t pay attention to what’s happening to the rest of us, no matter what you hear or see. It’s every one for himself. Concentrate on your own foe; and keep your head. Don’t let your dragon instinct to get in there and slug run away with you. That’s why the georges have been winning against us as they have. Just remember you’re faster than that ogre and your brains’ll win for you if you stay clear, keep your head and don’t rush. I tell you, boy—”

He was interrupted by a sudden cry of joy from Nevile-Smythe, who had been rummaging around in Clarivaux’s saddle.

“I say!” shouted Nevile-Smythe, running up to them with surprising lightness, considering his armor. “The most marvelous stroke of luck! Look what I found.” He waved a wispy stretch of cloth at them.

“What?” demanded Jim, his heart going up in one sudden leap.

“Elinor’s favor! And just in time, too. Be a good fellow, will you,” went on Nevile-Smythe, turning to Carolinus, “and tie it about my vambrace here on the shield arm. Thank you, Mage.”

Carolinus, looking grim, tucked his staff into the crook of his arm and quickly tied the kerchief around the armor of Nevile-Smythe’s lower left arm. As he tightened the final knot and let his hands drop away, the knight caught up his shield into position and drew his sword with the other hand. The bright blade flashed like a sudden streak of lightning in the sun, he leaned forward to throw the weight of his armor before him, and with a shout of “A Nevile-Smythe! Elinor! Elinor!” he ran forward up the slope toward the approaching Worm.

Jim heard, but did not see, the clash of shell and steel that was their coming together. For just then everything began to happen at once. Up on the hill, Anark screamed suddenly in fury and launched himself down the slope in the air, wings spread like some great bomber gliding in for a crash landing. Behind Jim, there was the frenzied flapping of leathery wings as Secoh took to the air to meet him—but this was drowned by a sudden short, deep-chested cry, like a wordless shout; and, lifting his club, the ogre stirred and stepped clear of the boulders, coming forward and straight down the hill with huge, ground-covering strides.

“Good luck, boy,” said Smrgol, in Jim’s ear. “And Gorbash—” Something in the old dragon’s voice made Jim turn his head to look at Smrgol. The ferocious red mouth-pit and enormous fangs were frighteningly open before him; but behind it Jim read a strange affection and concern in the dark dragon-eyes. “—remember,” said the old dragon, almost softly, “that you are a descendant of Ortosh and Agtval, and Gleingul who slew the sea serpent on the tide-banks of the Gray Sands. And be therefore valiant. But remember too, that you are my only living kin and the last of our line . . . and be careful.”

Then Smrgol’s head was jerked away, as he swung about to face the coming together of Secoh and Anark in mid-air and bellowed out his own challenge. While Jim, turning back toward the Tower, had only time to take to the air before the rush of the ogre was upon him.

He had lifted on his wings without thinking—evidently this was dragon instinct when attacked. He was aware of the ogre suddenly before him, checking now, with its enormous hairy feet digging deep into the ground. The rust-bound club flashed before Jim’s eyes and he felt a heavy blow high on his chest that swept him backward through the air.

He flailed with his wings to regain balance. The over-size idiot face was grinning only a couple of yards off from him. The club swept up for another blow. Panicked, Jim scrambled aside, and saw the ogre sway forward a step. Again the club lashed out—quick!—how could something so big and clumsy-looking be so quick with its hands? Jim felt himself smashed down to earth and a sudden lance of bright pain shot through his right shoulder. For a second a gray, thick-skinned forearm loomed over him and his teeth met in it without thought.

He was shaken like a rat by a rat terrier and flung clear. His wings beat for the safety of altitude, and he found himself about twenty feet off the ground, staring down at the ogre, which grunted a wordless sound and shifted the club to strike upwards. Jim cupped air with his wings, to fling himself backward and avoid the blow. The club whistled through the unfeeling air; and, sweeping forward, Jim ripped at one great blocky shoulder and beat clear. The ogre spun to face him, still grinning. But now blood welled and trickled down where Jim’s teeth had gripped and torn, high on the shoulder.

—And suddenly, Jim realized something:

He was no longer afraid. He hung in the air, just out of the ogre’s reach, poised to take advantage of any opening; and a hot sense of excitement was coursing through him. He was discovering the truth about fights—and about most similar things—that it is only the beginning that is bad. Once the chips are down, several million years of instinct take over and there is no time for thought for anything but confronting the enemy. So it was with Jim—and then the ogre moved in on him again; and that was his last specific intellectual thought of the fight, for everything else was drowned in his overwhelming drive to avoid being killed and, if possible, to kill, himself . . .

IV

It was a long, blurred time, about which later Jim had no clear memory. The sun marched up the long arc of the heavens and crossed the nooning point and headed down again. On the torn-up sandy soil of the plain he and the ogre turned and feinted, smashed and tore at each other. Sometimes he was in the air, sometimes on the ground. Once he had the ogre down on one knee, but could not press his advantage. At another time they had fought up the long slope of the hill almost to the Tower and the ogre had him pinned in the cleft between two huge boulders and had hefted its club back for the final blow that would smash Jim’s skull. And then he had wriggled free between the monster’s very legs and the battle was on again.

Now and then throughout the fight he would catch brief kaleidoscopic glimpses of the combats being waged about him: Nevile-Smythe now wrapped about by the blind body of the Worm, its eye-stalks hacked away—and striving in silence to draw free his sword-arm, which was pinned to his side by the Worm’s encircling body. Or there would roll briefly into Jim’s vision a tangled roaring tumble of flailing leathery wings and serpentine bodies that was Secoh, Anark and old Smrgol. Once or twice he had a momentary view of Carolinus, still standing erect, his staff upright in his hand, his long white beard blowing forward over his blue gown with the cabalistic golden signs upon it, like some old seer in the hour of Armageddon. Then the gross body of the ogre would blot out his vision and he would forget all but the enemy before him.

The day faded. A dank mist came rolling in from the sea and fled in little wisps and tatters across the plain of battle. Jim’s body ached and slowed, and his wings felt leaden. But the ever-grinning face and sweeping club of the ogre seemed neither to weaken nor to tire. Jim drew back for a moment to catch his breath; and in that second, he heard a voice cry out.

“Time is short!” it cried, in cracked tones. “We are running out of time. The day is nearly gone!”

It was the voice of Carolinus. Jim had never heard him raise it before with just such a desperate accent. And even as Jim identified the voice, he realized that it came clearly to his ears—and that for sometime now upon the battlefield, except for the ogre and himself, there had been silence.

He shook his head to clear it and risked a quick glance about him. He had been driven back almost to the neck of the Causeway itself, where it entered onto the plain. To one side of him, the snapped strands of Clarivaux’s bridle dangled limply where the terrified horse had broken loose from the earth-thrust spear to which Nevile-Smythe had tethered it before advancing against the Worm on foot. A little off from it stood Carolinus, upheld now only by his staff, his old face shrunken and almost mummified in appearance, as if the life had been all but drained from it. There was nowhere else to retreat to; and Jim was alone.

He turned back his gaze to see the ogre almost upon him. The heavy club swung high, looking gray and enormous in the mist. Jim felt in his limbs and wings a weakness that would not let him dodge in time; and, with all his strength, he gathered himself, and sprang instead, up under the monster’s guard and inside the grasp of those cannon-thick arms.

The club glanced off Jim’s spine. He felt the arms go around him, the double triad of bone-thick fingers searching for his neck. He was caught, but his rush had knocked the ogre off his feet. Together they went over and rolled on the sandy earth, the ogre gnawing with his jagged teeth at Jim’s chest and striving to break a spine or twist a neck, while Jim’s tail lashed futilely about.

They rolled against the spear and snapped it in half. The ogre found its hold and Jim felt his neck begin to be slowly twisted, as if it were a chicken’s neck being wrung in slow motion. A wild despair flooded through him. He had been warned by Smrgol never to let the ogre get him pinned. He had disregarded that advice and now he was lost, the battle was lost. Stay away, Smrgol had warned, use your brains . . .

The hope of a wild chance sprang suddenly to life in him. His head was twisted back over his shoulder. He could see only the gray mist above him, but he stopped fighting the ogre and groped about with both forelimbs. For a slow moment of eternity, he felt nothing, and then something hard nudged against his right foreclaw, a glint of bright metal flashed for a second before his eyes. He changed his grip on what he held, clamping down on it as firmly as his clumsy foreclaws would allow—

—and with every ounce of strength that was left to him, he drove the fore-part of the broken spear deep into the middle of the ogre that sprawled above him.

The great body bucked and shuddered. A wild scream burst from the idiot mouth alongside Jim’s ear. The ogre let go, staggered back and up, tottering to its feet, looming like the Tower itself above him. Again, the ogre screamed, staggering about like a drunken man, fumbling at the shaft of the spear sticking from him. It jerked at the shaft, screamed again, and, lowering its unnatural head, bit at the wood like a wounded animal. The tough ash splintered between its teeth. It screamed once more and fell to its knees. Then slowly, like a bad actor in an old-fashioned movie, it went over on its side, and drew up its legs like a man with the cramp. A final scream was drowned in bubbling. Black blood trickled from its mouth and it lay still.

Jim crawled slowly to his feet and looked about him.

The mists were drawing back from the plain and the first thin light of late afternoon stretching long across the slope. In its rusty illumination, Jim made out what was to be seen there.

The Worm was dead, literally hacked in two. Nevile-Smythe, in bloody, dinted armor, leaned wearily on a twisted sword not more than a few feet off from Carolinus. A little farther off, Secoh raised a torn neck and head above the intertwined, locked-together bodies of Anark and Smrgol. He stared dazedly at Jim. Jim moved slowly, painfully over to the mere-dragon.

Jim came up and looked down at the two big dragons. Smrgol lay with his eyes closed and his jaws locked in Anark’s throat. The neck of the younger dragon had been broken like the stem of a weed.

“Smrgol . . .” croaked Jim.

“No—” gasped Secoh. “No good. He’s gone . . . I led the other one to him. He got his grip—and then he never let go . . .” The mere-dragon choked and lowered his head.

“He fought well,” creaked a strange harsh voice which Jim did not at first recognize. He turned and saw the Knight standing at his shoulder. Nevile-Smythe’s face was white as sea-foam inside his helmet and the flesh of it seemed fallen in to the bones, like an old man’s. He swayed as he stood.

“We have won,” said Carolinus, solemnly, coming up with the aid of his staff. “Not again in our lifetimes will evil gather enough strength in this spot to break out.” He looked at Jim. “And now,” he said, “the balance of Chance and History inclines in your favor. It’s time to send you back.”

“Back?” said Nevile-Smythe.

“Back to his own land, Knight,” replied the magician. “Fear not, the dragon left in this body of his will remember all that happened and be your friend.”

“Fear!” said Nevile-Smythe, somehow digging up a final spark of energy to expend on hauteur. “I fear no dragon, dammit. Besides, in respect to the old boy here”—he nodded at the dead Smrgol—”I’m going to see what can be done about this dragon-alliance business.”

“He was great!” burst out Secoh, suddenly, almost with a sob. “He—he made me strong again. Whatever he wanted, I’ll do it.” And the mere-dragon bowed his head.

“You come along with me then, to vouch for the dragon end of it,” said Nevile-Smythe. “Well,” he turned to Jim, “it’s goodby, I suppose, Sir James.”

“I suppose so,” said Jim. “Goodby to you, too. I—” Suddenly he remembered.

“Angie!” he cried out, spinning around. “I’ve got to go get Angie out of that Tower!”

Carolinus put his staff out to halt Jim.

“Wait,” he said. “Listen . . .”

“Listen?” echoed Jim. But just at that moment, he heard it, a woman’s voice calling, high and clear, from the mists that still hid the Tower.

“Jim! Jim, where are you?”

A slight figure emerged from the mist, running down the slope toward them.

“Here I am!” bellowed Jim. And for once he was glad of the capabilities of his dragon-voice. “Here I am, Angie—”

—but Carolinus was chanting in a strange, singing voice, words without meaning, but which seemed to shake the very air about them. The mist swirled, the world rocked and swung. Jim and Angie were caught up, were swirled about, were spun away and away down an echoing corridor of nothingness . . .

. . . and then they were back in the Grille, seated together on one side of the table in the booth. Hanson, across from them, was goggling like a bewildered accident victim.

“Where—where am I?” he stammered. His eyes suddenly focused on them across the table and he gave a startled croak. “Help!” he cried, huddling away from them. “Humans!”

“What did you expect?” snapped Jim. “Dragons?”

“No!” shrieked Hanson. “Watch-beetles—like me!” And, turning about, he tried desperately to burrow his way through the wood seat of the booth to safety.

V

It was the next day after that Jim and Angie stood in the third floor corridor of Chumley Hall, outside the door leading to the office of the English Department.

“Well, are you going in or aren’t you?” demanded Angie.

“In a second, in a second,” said Jim, adjusting his tie with nervous fingers. “Just don’t rush me.”

“Do you suppose he’s heard about Grottwold?” Angie asked.

“I doubt it,” said Jim. The Student Health Service says Hanson’s already starting to come out of it—except that he’ll probably always have a touch of amnesia about the whole afternoon. Angie!” said Jim, turning on her. “Do you suppose, all the time we were there, Hanson was actually being a watch-beetle underground?”

“I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter,” interrupted Angie, firmly. “Honestly, Jim, now you’ve finally promised to get an answer out of Dr. Howells about a job, I’d think you’d want to get it over and done with, instead of hesitating like this. I just can’t understand a man who can go about consorting with dragons and fighting ogres and then—”

“—still not want to put his boss on the spot for a yes-or-no answer,” said Jim. “Hah! Let me tell you something.” He waggled a finger in front of her nose. “Do you know what all this dragon-ogre business actually taught me? It wasn’t not to be scared, either.”

“All right,” said Angie, with a sigh. “What was it then?”

“I’ll tell you,” said Jim. “What I found out . . .” He paused. “What I found out was not, not to be scared. It was that scared or not doesn’t matter; because you just go ahead, anyway.”

Angie blinked at him.

“And that,” concluded Jim, “is why I agreed to have it out with Howells, after all. Now you know.”

He yanked Angie to him, kissed her grimly upon her startled lips, and, letting go of her, turned about. Giving a final jerk to his tie, he turned the knob of the office door, opened it, and strode valiantly within.

Afterword by Eric Flint

I'm not sure when I first encountered the writings of Gordon R. Dickson, except that it was sometime during my teenage years, and he's always been one of the writers who are inseparable from what I think of as "science fiction." As was usually the case with me, however, I was more interested in novels than short stories—a preference that was reflected many years later when I started writing myself. So the Dickson I remembered was the Dickson who wrote such things as The Genetic General (aka Dorsai!), The Alien Way, Naked to the Stars, and the two marvelous Dilbian novels. Even the Hoka stories he wrote with Poul Anderson were things I first encountered in their later novelized form.

So, when the time came to select a Dickson story for this anthology, I was a little stumped. There was no room for a novel in such an anthology, obviously. The only thing I could suggest was "Call Him Lord," because that was the only shorter piece of fiction by Dickson I could remember having had much of an impact on me. When Dave proposed "St. Dragon and the George" as an alternative, I was a little astonished. I'd read the novel version of the story, of course—and it had always been one of my favorites since the first time I read it. But I'd had no idea that he'd written a shorter version of it first.

The minute Dave advanced the proposal, I agreed to it. To be sure, "Call Him Lord" would have made a fine alternative. It's no accident that it won the Nebula award for best novelette in 1967 and was a finalist for the Hugo in the same year. Still, I didn't hesitate. That's because every writer knows what every actor knows: comedy gets little respect, but it's a lot harder to do well than serious drama. Whether you read this shorter version of the story or the novel-length The Dragon and the George, I think you're reading comic fantasy at its very best. And, as Dave says in his preface, when comedy is good enough it's more than just funny. A lot more.

Thy Rocks and Rills by Robert Ernest Gilbert

Thy Rocks and Rills

by Robert Ernest Gilbert

Preface by David Drake

 

In 9^th grade (1959) my English teacher gave me some SF magazines that her sons had left around the house. One of them was the September 1953 issue of If containing "Thy Rocks and Rills." That was my good luck, because the story made a real impact on me and the present anthology is the first time it's been reprinted.

I believe fiction is to entertain, not to teach; but good entertainment has to have a foundation of reality. Looking back on it, I believe this story hit me so hard because it graphically illustrated three points:

1) You can live your life outside the norms of society, but

2) Society will probably crush you if you try, but

3) It may be worth being crushed.

I still believe those statements are true.

Prelude

M. Stonecypher lifted his reed sun hat with the square brim, and used a red handkerchief to absorb the perspiration streaking his forehead. He said, “The pup’ll make a good guard, especially for thrill parties.”

L. Dan’s golden curls flickered in July 1 sunlight. The puppy growled when Dan extended a gloved hand. “I don’t want a guard,” the hobbyist said. “I want him for a dogfight.”

A startling bellow rattled the windows of the dog house and spilled in deafening waves across the yard. Dan whirled, clutching his staff. Light glinted on his plastic cuirass and danced on his red nylon tights. His flabby face turned white. “What—” he panted.

Stonecypher concealed a smile behind a long corded hand and said, “Just the bull. Serenades us sometimes.”

Dan circled the dog house. Stonecypher followed with a forefinger pressed to thin lips. In the paddock, the bull’s head moved up and down. It might or might not have been a nod.

The crest of long red and blue-black hairs on the bull’s neck and shoulders created an illusion of purple, but the rest of the animal matched the black of a duelmaster’s tam. Behind large eyes encircled by a white band, his skull bulged in a swelling dome, making the distance between his short horns seem much too great.

“He’s purple!” Dan gasped. “Why in the Government don’t you put him in the ring?”

Stonecypher gestured toward the choppy surface of Kings Lake, nine hundred feet below. He said, “Coincidence. I make out the ringmaster’s barge just leavin’ Highland Pier.”

“You’re selling him?”

“Yeah. If they take ‘im. I’d like to see ‘im in the ring on Dependence Day.”

Glancing at the watch embedded in the left pectoral of his half-armor, Dan said, “That would be a show! I’ll take the dog and fly. I’ve a duel in Highland Park at 11:46.”

“The pup’s not for sale.”

“Not for sale!” Dan yelled. “You told—”

“Thought you wanted a guard. I don’t sell for dogfights.”

A sound like “Goood!” came from the paddocked bull.

Dan opened his mouth wide. Whatever he intended to say died without vocalization, for Catriona came driving the mule team up through the apple orchard. The almost identical mules had sorrel noses, gray necks, buckskin flanks, and black and white pinto backs and haunches. “Great Government!” Dan swore. “This place is worse than a museum!”

“Appaloosa mules,” Stonecypher said.

Catriona jumped from the seat of the mowing machine. Dan stared. Compared to the standard woman of the Manly Age who, by dieting, posturing, and exercise from childhood, transformed herself into a small, thin, dominated creature, Catriona constituted a separate species. She was taller than Dan, slightly plump, and her hair could have been classed as either red or blonde. Green coveralls became her better than they did Stonecypher. With no trace of a smile on face or in voice, Stonecypher said, “L. Dan, meet Catriona.”

* * *

Like a hypnopath’s victim, Dan walked to Catriona. He looked up at her and whispered, but too loudly. Stonecypher heard. His hands clamped on the hobbyist’s neck and jerked. Dan smashed in the grass with sufficient force to loosen the snaps of his armor. He rolled to his feet and swung his staff.

Stonecypher’s left hand snatched the staff. His right fist collided with Dan’s square jaw. Glaring down at the hobbyist, Stonecypher gripped the staff and rotated thick wrists outward. The tough plastic popped when it broke.

Scuttling backward, Dan regained his feet. “You inhuman brute!” he growled. “I intended to pay for her!”

“My wife’s not for sale either,” Stonecypher said. “You know how to fly.”

Dan thrust out a coated tongue and made a noise with it. In a memorized singsong, he declared, “I challenge you to a duel, in accordance with the laws of the Government, to be fought in the nearest duelpen at the earliest possible hour.”

“Stony, don’t!” Catriona protested. “He’s not wo’th it!”

Stonecypher smiled at her. “Have to follow the law,” he said. He extended his tongue, blurted, and announced, “As required by the Government, I accept your challenge.”

“We’ll record it!” Dan snapped. He stalked toward the green and gold butterflier parked in a field of seedling Sudan grass. Horns rattled on the concrete rails of the paddock.

“Burstaard!” the bull bellowed.

Dan shied and trampled young grass under sandaled feet. His loosened cuirass clattered rhythmically. Raising the canopy of the butterflier, he slid out the radioak and started typing. Stonecypher and Catriona approached the hobbyist. Catriona said, “This is cowa’dly! Stony nevah fought a duel in his life. He won’t have a chance!”

“You’ll see me soon then, woman. Where’d you get all that equipment? You look like something in a circus.”

“Ah used to be in a cahnival,” Catriona said. She kept Stonecypher in place with a plump arm across his chest. “That’s wheah you belong,” she told Dan. “That’s all you’ah good fo’.”

“Watch how you address a man, woman,” Dan snarled, “or you’ll end in the duelpen, too.”

Stonecypher snatched the sheet from the typer. The request read:

Duelmaster R. Smith, Watauga Duelpen, Highland Park, Tennessee. L. Dan challenges M. Stonecypher. Cause: Interference with basic amatory rights. July 1. 11:21 amest.

Stonecypher said, “The cause is a lie. You got no rights with Catriona. Why didn’t you tell ’em it’s because I knocked you ears-over-endways, and you’re scared to fight without a gun?”

Dan shoved the request into the slot and pulled the switch. “I’ll kill you,” he promised.

While the request was transmitted by radiophotography, minutes passed, bare of further insults. Catriona and Stonecypher stood near the concrete fence enclosing the rolling top of Bays Mountain. Interminable labor had converted 650 acres at the top to arable land. Below the couple, the steep side of the mountain, denuded of timber, dangerously eroded, and scarred by limestone quarries, fell to the ragged shore of Kings Lake. Two miles of water agitated by many boats separated the shore and the peninsula, which resembled a wrinkled dragon with underslung lower jaw distended. The town of Highland Park clung to the jutting land, and the Highland Bullring appeared as a white dot more than four miles from where Catriona and Stonecypher stood. The ringmaster’s barge was a red rectangle skirting Russel Chapel Island.

Dan pulled the answer from the buzzing radioak. He walked over and held the radiophoto an inch from Stonecypher’s long nose. It read:

Request OK. Time: July 4. 3:47 pmest.

Two attached permits granted each duelist the privilege of carrying one handgun with a capacity of not more than ten cartridges of not less than .32 caliber. Below the permits appeared an additional message:

L. Dan due at Watauga Duelpen. 11:46 amest. For duel with J. George.

“Government and Taxes!” Dan cursed. Throwing Stonecypher’s permit, he leaped into the green and gold butterflier and slammed the canopy. The four wings of the semi-ornithopter blurred with motion, lifting the craft into the sky. The forward wings locked with negative dihedral, the rear wings angled to form a ruddevator, and the five-bladed propeller whined, driving the butterflier in a shallow dive for the peninsula.

* * *

Catriona said, “Ah hope he’s late, and they shoot him. Ah knew you’d finally have to fight, but—”

“You keep out of it next time,” said Stonecypher. “I happen to know that feller’s killed two women in the pen. He don’t care for nothin’. Oughta known better than to let him come here. He made out like he wanted a guard dog, and I thought—”

“Nevah mind, Stony. Ah’ve got to help you. You nevah even fiahed a gun.”

“Later, Cat. The ringmaster may want to stay for dinner. I’ll look after the mules.”

Catriona touched Stonecypher’s cheek and went to the house. Stonecypher unharnessed the Appaloosa mules. While they rolled, he took, from an empty hay rack, a rubber-tipped spear and a tattered cloth dummy. The dummy’s single arm terminated in a red flag.

Stonecypher concealed spear and dummy beneath the floor of the dog house. Going to the paddock, he patted the bull between the horns, which had been filed to a needle point. “Still goin’ through with it?” Stonecypher asked.

“Yaaaa,” the bull lowed. “Yaooo kuhl Daan. Err’ll kuhl uhh kuhlerrs.”

“All right, Moe. I’ll kill Dan, and you kill the killers.” Stonecypher stroked the massive hemisphere of the bull’s jaw. “Goodbye, Moe.”

“Gooodba,” the bull echoed. He lowered his nose to the shelled corn seasoned with molasses, the rolled oats, and the ground barley in the trough.

Stonecypher walked down the road to the staircase of stone that dammed the old Kingsport Reservoir, abandoned long before Kings Lake covered the city. A red electric truck crawled up the steep road hewn from the slope of the gap formed by Dolan Branch. When the truck had crossed the bridge below the buttressed dam, Stonecypher spoke to the fat and sweltering man seated beside the drive. “I’m M. Stonecypher. Proud for you to visit my farm. Dinner’s ready up at the house.”

“No, no time,” smiled the fat man, displaying stainless steel teeth. “Only time to see the bull. I thought we weren’t going to make that grade! Why don’t those scientists develop synthetic elements, so that we can have atomic power again? This radio-electric is so unreliable! I am Ringmaster Oswell, naturally. This heat is excruciating! I had hoped it would be cooler up here, but something seems to have happened to our inland-oceanic climate this summer. Lead us to the bull, Stonecypher!”

Clinging to the slatted truck bed, Stonecypher directed the stoic driver to the paddock. The electric motor rattled and stopped, and Ringmaster Oswell wheezed and squirmed from the cab. The ringmaster wore a vaguely Arabic costume, in all variations of red.

The bull lumbered bellowing around the fence. His horns raked white gashes in the beech tree forming on corner. He tossed the feed trough to splintering destruction.

“Magnificent!” Oswell gasped. Then the ringmaster frowned. “But he looks almost purple. His horns are rather short.”

“Stay back from the fence!” Stonecypher warned. “He’s real wide between the horns, ringmaster. I reckon the spread’ll match up to standard. Same stock my grandfather used to sell Boon Bullring before the water. Wouldn’t sell ‘im, only the tenants are scared to come about the house.”

Oswell fingered his balloon neck and mumbled, “But he’s odd. That long hair on his neck . . . I don’t know . . .”

The bull’s horns lifted the mineral feeder from the center of the paddock. The box rotated over the rails and crashed in a cloud of floured oyster shells and phosphate salt at the ringmaster’s feet.

Oswell took cover behind the truck driver, who said, “Fergus’d like him. Jeeze! Remember dat brown and white spotted one he kilt last year on Forrest Day? Da crowd like ta never stopt yelling!”

Ringmaster Oswell retreated farther as, under the bull’s onslaught, a piece of concrete broke from the top rail, exposing the reinforcing rod within. “Fergus does like strange ones,” he admitted.

Stonecypher said, “Don’t let the mane bother you. There’s one of these long-haired Scotch cows in his ancestors. He’s not really purple. Just the way the light hits ‘im.”

Oswell chewed lacquered fingernails with steel dentures. His bloodshot eyes studied the spotted and speckled Appaloosa mules chasing around the pasture, but the sight failed to register on his brain. “The crowd likes a good show on Dependence Day,” he proclaimed. “I considered trying a fat Aberdeen Angus with artificial horns for laughs, but this may do as well. I must find some shade! I’ll take him, Stonecypher, if fifteen hundred in gold is agreeable.”

“Sold,” Stonecypher said. The word cracked in the middle.

While the ringmaster, muttering about trying bulldogs sometime, retired to the narrow shadow of the dog house, the driver backed the truck to the ramp. Stonecypher opened the gate and waved his handkerchief. The bull charged into the truck, and the driver locked the heavy doors.

From within his red burnoose, Oswell produced a clinking bag. “Fifteen hundred,” he said. From other recesses, he withdrew documents, notebooks, and a pencil. He said, “Here is a pass for you and one for any woman-subject you may wish to bring. You’ll want to see your first bull on Dependence Day! And here is the standard release absolving you of any damage the bull may do. Oh, yes! His name and number?”

“Number?”

“Yes, his brand.”

“Not branded. Make it Number 1. Name’s Moe.”

Oswell chuckled. “Moe. Very good! Most breeders name them things like Chainlightning and Thunderbird. Your GE number?”

“I’m not a Government Employee.”

“You’re not?” Oswell wheezed. “How unusual! Your colors? He’ll wear your colors in his shoulder.”

“Yeah. Black.”

“Black?”

“Dead black.”

Oswell, scribbling, managed a faint smile. “Sorry I can’t accept that invitation to lunch.” He struggled into the truck. “Hope this bull is brave in the ring. Nice antique old place you have here! I don’t see a feed tower, but you surely don’t use pasture—” the ringmaster’s babble passed down the road with the truck.

Stonecypher watched the vehicle descend the dangerous grade. He lifted his square hat from his black hair, dropped it on the ground, and crushed the reeds under a booted foot.

The temporary house, a squat cubical structure, stood at the end of a spruce-lined path beside the ruin that a thrill party had made of the century-old farm house. The plastic screen squeaked when Stonecypher opened it. He stood on the white floor of the robot kitchen and dug a fifty dollar gold piece from the bag Oswell had given him. Glaring at the head of the woman with Liberty inscribed on her crown, he muttered, “Thirty pieces of gold.”

Catriona called, “Oswell’s lucky he couldn’t stay foah dinnah! Ah had the potassium cyanide all ready.”

Stonecypher passed through the diner door into a room containing more yellowed history books and agricultural pamphlets than eating utensils. Catriona waited by the table. She held a large revolver in her right hand.

Intermezzo

Stonecypher stood on Bay Knob, near the ruins of the old FM transmitter station, looking down at the Tennessee Lakes. Catriona sat behind him and held the revolver on her thigh. Stonecypher said, “I never see it but I wonder how it looked before the water.”

Before him, North Fork, an arm of Kings Lake, twisted across the Virginia line four and one-half miles away, while to Stonecypher’s right, Boone Lake sparkled like a gigantic, badly drawn V. He did not look toward Surgoinsville Dam securing Kings Lake far to the west.

The Tennessee Lakes were born in 1918 when Wilson Dam spanned the Tennessee River at Muscle Shoals, Alabama; but their growth was retarded for fifteen years, until an Act of Congress injected them with vitamins. Then the mile-long bastions of concrete crawled between the ridges. Norris, Wheeler, Pickwick Landing, Guntersville, Watts Bar, Kentucky, Cherokee, Fort Henry, Boone, Sevier, Surgoinsville—almost innumerable dams blocked the rivers. The rivers stopped and overflowed. The creeks swelled into rivers.

Congressional Committees investigated, the Supreme Court tested the dams against the Constitution, ethnologists and archeologists hastily checked for Indian relics; and the dams, infused with youthful vigor, matured. Beginning with Norris, which backed up the Clinch and Powell Rivers to inundate 25,000 acres and displace 3,000 families, the dams expanded mighty aquatic muscles. The Tennessee, the Little Tennessee, the Nolichucky, the Holston, the French Broad, the Watauga, the Hiwassee, the Little Pigeon—all the rivers spread their waters into lengthy, ragged lakes, changing the map of Tennessee more than any natural cataclysm, such as the great earthquake of 1811, had ever done. The Lakes provided jobs, electric power, flood control, soil conservation, a fisherman’s paradise, milder winters, cooler summers, and they covered all the really good farming land in the eastern part of the state.

Catriona loaded the revolver. It was an obsolete .357 Magnum with a 6½ inch barrel, and the cartridge cases of the metal-piercing bullets had a greenish sheen. “Now, put it in the holstah, and be ca’eful,” Catriona said.

Stonecypher wore the holster, a leather silhouette studded with two spring clips opening forward, on a belt and secured to his leg by a thong. Gingerly, he took the revolver and slipped it under the clips. “I’ve kept outa duels all my life,” he said, “but, so long as it’s for you, I don’t much mind.”

“Ah’ll mind if he kills you. You do like I tell you, and you can beat him. Why, mah best act in the How-To Cahnival was How to Win a Duel. Cou’se, they didn’t know ah was really drawin’ befoah the buzzah sounded. Why, ah used to set two plates ten yahds apaht, draw two revolvahs, and shoot both plates, all in foah-tenths of a second!”

Stonecypher grinned. “Sorry I missed that carnival first time it came through here. I coulda seen you in that costume they poured on you, three years earlier.”

“Nevah mind the veiled compliments. Now, try it!”

Stonecypher faced the target, a sheet of plastiboard roughly sawed to the shape of a man, and backed by a heap of earth removed from the new, as yet dry, pond in which they stood. Catriona pressed a small buzzer concealed in her palm. Stonecypher’s big hand closed on the revolver butt, pushing the weapon up and forward. The sound of the shot rattled away over the mountain top.

“That’s good!” Catriona cried, consulting the sonic timer. “One and two-tenths seconds from buzzah to shot!”

“But I missed,” Stonecypher protested. “Look bad on tevee.”

“You’ll hit him. Watch the recoil next time.”

Stonecypher drew and fired a second wild shot. He snorted, “Confound Westerns, anyhow!”

“Weste’ns?”

“Sure. That’s where this duelin’ started. Used to, almost ever’ movie or tevee was called a Western. Sort of a fantasy, because they were just slightly based on real history. They generally showed a feller in a flowered shirt, ridin’ a Tennessee Walking Horse, and shootin’ a gun. Ever’body in these Westerns had a gun, and they all shot at each other.

“The youngin’s were hep on ’em, so they all wore toy guns, and a whole generation grew up on Westerns. When they got big, they carried real guns. I’ve heard my great-uncle tell about it, how before the Government built duelpens and passed laws, you couldn’t hardly cross the Lakes without runnin’ into a bunch of fools on water skis shootin’ at each other.”

“You leave the histo’y books alone foah awhile,” Catriona commanded, “and practice. The tenants and ah’ll tend to the wo’k. Try it loaded and empty. Hook this little buzzah to the timeah, and practice. Ah’ve got to go see the chickens.”

” ‘Bye, teacher.” Stonecypher dropped the buzzer in his pocket and watched her vanish into the grove. He fired the remaining shots, nicking the target once. With the revolver holstered, he followed the path to the summer pasture.

* * *

Belly-deep in red clover, twenty-four cows, twenty-four calves, and twenty-four yearlings grazed or played in the shady field. Stonecypher cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “Smart-calves! Smart-calves to school!”

The entire herd turned sorrowful eyes on him. Seven of the calves and four of the yearlings trotted to the gate, which Stonecypher held open, and jostled out of the pasture. As the calves began to lie down under the trees, a white heifer-calf nuzzled Stonecypher’s hand and bawled, “Paaapy gyoing a fyightt?”

“Yeah, he’s going to fight,” Stonecypher answered. “Your pappy’s gone to the bullring. He suggested it, and made the choice himself. He’s got real courage. You oughta all be proud of him.”

The calves bawled their pride. Including those remaining in the pasture, they presented a colorful variety of spots, specks, splotches, browns, reds, blacks, and even occasional blue and greenish tinges. Stonecypher sat facing them from a stump. He said, “I’m sorta late for the lesson, today, so we’ll get on with it. Some of this will be repetition for you yearlings, but it won’t hurt. If you get too bored, there’s corn and cottonseed meal in the trough, only be quiet about it.

“Now. To look at you all, nobody would think you’re the same breed of cattle; but you, and your mammys, and Moe are the only Atohmy cattle on Earth. It’s usually hard to say exactly when a breed started; but you all started a long, long time ago, on July 16, 1945, near Alamogordo, New Mexico, when they exploded the first Atomic Bomb.”

At mention of Atomic Bomb, who had succeeded the Bogger Man as a means of frightening children, one of the younger calves bawled. Her polled, brindled mother ran in ungainly fashion to the fence and mooed with great carrying power.

“All right!” Stonecypher yelled. The cow closed her big mouth, but stayed by the gate. “Can’t go by what you hear the tenants tell their kids,” Stonecypher cautioned the calf. “Atomic Bomb is as dead as the tank and the battleship.

“Now, like I was sayin’, the scientists put Atomic Bomb on a hundred foot tower and blowed him up. There was a flash of fire, and an awful racket, and the blast raised up a lot of dirt and dust from the ground. All this dust achurnin’ around in the cloud bumped into little bits of metal and stuff that was highly radioactive. That means, the basic atoms of matter had been thrown out of kilter, sorta deranged. The protons and electrons in an atom oughta be about equal for it to be stable, but these were shootin’ off electrons, or beta particles, and givin’ off something like powerful x-rays, called gamma rays, and things like that.

“Anyhow, this radiation affected all the sand and bits of rock and dirt in that bomb cloud. This radiation is dangerous. Some of it will go right through several inches of lead. Enough’ll kill you. Your ancestors were ten miles or so from where Atomic Bomb went off.

“They were just plain Whiteface cattle. They weren’t supposed to be there, but I reckon none of the scientists bothered to warn ’em. The dust started settlin’ all over your ancestors. In about a week, there were sores and blisters on their backs. The red hair dropped off. When it grew back, it was gray.

“The scientists got real excited when they heard about it, ’cause they wanted to see how horrible they could make Atomic Bomb. So, they shipped fifty-nine cattle up to Oak Ridge. That was a Government town, a hundred miles southwest of here, where they made some of the stuff to put in Atomic Bomb. The University of Tennessee was runnin’ an experimental farm there. They had donkeys, and pigs, and chickens, and other animals that they exposed to radioactivity. Then they killed ’em and cut ’em up to see what had happened. I know it’s gruesome, but that’s how it was.

“The awful fact is, the scientists slaughtered more than half that original Atohmy herd for experiments. Some of the rest, they—uh—married. Wanted to see if the calves had two heads, or something; if radioactivity had speeded up the mutation rate.

“Back then, they didn’t understand much about mutation. Some claimed a little radioactivity would cause it, some said a whole lot, and some said it wouldn’t hurt a bit.”

“Whaa mootyaaonn?” asked the calf which was not yet assured of the extinction of Atomic Bomb.

“Well, you-all are all mutations. I’ve told you how life starts from one cell. This cell has thread-like things in it called chromosomes, and the chromosomes are made up of things called genes. Mutations, sort of unexpected changes, can take place in either the chromosomes or the genes. You see, when this one cell starts dividing, every gene makes a copy of itself; but, sometimes, the copy is a little different from the original. Lots of things, like x-rays and ultraviolet rays, heat, chemicals, disease, can cause this. Radioactivity had caused mutation in some experiment, so the scientists were anxious to see what happened with these cattle.

“Genes determine the way an animal develops. Two mutant genes can start reactions that end up as a man with one leg, or maybe as a bull with the intelligence of an eight-year-old man. Lots of mutations are recessive. They may be carried along for generations. But, when two like mutant genes come together in reproduction, the animal is bound to be something different, the way you eleven calves are.

“Now. The scientists watched the Atohmy cattle for fifteen or twenty years, and nothin’ much happened. They started sayin’ radioactivity wasn’t dangerous, and a man could walk into a place right after Atomic Bomb went off, and it wouldn’t matter. They should be here to see the mess in Japan today. All the time, though, I think the cattle were changing. It may have been in little things like the length of hair, or the shape of an eyeball, or the curve of a horn, so the scientists couldn’t tell without they made exact measurements all the time.

“Then, a bull-calf was born. He had shaggy black hair, and his horns grew in a spiral like a ram’s. Some scientists said, ‘I told you so! It speeded the mutation rate!’

“Others said, ‘He’s a natural mutation, or else, a throw-back to prehistoric wild cattle. It happens in every breed. Atomic Bomb had nothing to do with it.’

“They married the bull, and then they fixed to slaughter ‘im to see what his insides was like. The bull fooled ’em, though. He came down with contagious pleuro-pneumonia, the first case in years, ’cause it was supposed to have been wiped out in this country away back in the Nineteenth Century. They had to cremate the bull for fear the disease would spread. Ever’ one of the calves were normal Whitefaces.

“Finally, the nineteen Atohmy cattle that were left were put up for sale. My great-grandfather, Cary McPheeter, bought ’em and shipped ’em here to Bays Mountain. He’s the man started this farm where there was nothin’ but rattlesnakes, and trees, and rocks.”

“Whyy theyea selll um?” a red roan calf interrupted.

“Well, they sold ’em ’cause Oak Ridge had been condemned. That was several years after the German Civil War. It was peace time, for a change, and folks were sick of Atomic Bomb. Anyhow, new, modern plants for makin’ the stuff had been built in secret places a lot easier to defend. The women were cryin’ for more automatic kitchens, so the Bureau of Interior Hydroelectric Power (that’s the name Federal Power, Inc., went by then) put another dam across the Clinch River below Norris. Bush Lake covered up Oak Ridge.

“There wasn’t much mutation, except for color, in you Atohmy cattle, till seven years ago when your pappy, Moe, was born. I remember—”

A hoarse excited voice shouted from a distance. “Thrill party!” it cried. “Thrill party!”

* * *

Stonecypher leaped off the stump, stamped his right foot to restore circulation, and yelled on the run, “That’s all today! Stay under the trees!”

He loped along the pasture fence and across the makeshift target range. Two tenants, Teddy and Will, stood on the dirt heap with pitchforks in their hands. Over Bay Knob, an old Model 14 butterflier hovered on vibrating wings. Sloppy white letters on the sides of the aircraft spelled such slang expressions as, “Flash the MAGNETS,” “SuperOlossalSoniC Flap ship,” and “Redheads amble OTHer canop.”

An impossible number of middleschool-age boys bulged from the cabin windows. Methodically, they dumped trash and garbage over the transmitter station ruins. The butterflier wheeled and flapped over the pasture. Red clover bent and writhed in the artificial wind from the ornithopter wings. Cows bawled and ran wild. Calves fell over each other.

Stonecypher jumped the fence. He wrested the revolver from the holster. “Clear out, or I’ll shoot!” he howled.

Voices spilled from the butterflier. “He got a handgun!”

“Dis ain’t legal!”

“Whatcha say, tall, bones, and ugly?”

Stonecypher aimed the Magnum at the shaven head in the pilot’s seat. The boys looked faint. Agitated air thundered as the butterflier lifted straight up two hundred feet and glided away in the direction of Surgoinsville Dam.

Teddy and Will stood by with pitchforks unrelaxed. Will spat a globule of tobacco juice. “The things these here psychologists git made law!” he sneered. “You want me to make out a Thrill Damage Claim?”

“No, Will,” Stonecypher said, “just deduct it from taxes.”

Teddy looked at the revolver and said, “Ever’body oughta take guns to them crazy youngin’s. Reckon you’ll git into trouble?”

“No. It’s an empty antique. That’s legal. You guys did all right. Let the calves back in, huh?”

The tenants left by the gate, and, with a minimum of driving, urged the calves into the pasture. Stonecypher watched the men pass through the grove. Although the tenants undoubtedly recognized the peculiarities of the calves, they never mentioned them. Since the late 1700s, through Revolution, Civil War, automobile, the Department of Internal Revenue, the multiple bureaus that had controlled the Lakes, the Moon rocket, and the expedition to Pluto, these people had remained suspiciously interested in strangers, suspicious of indoor plumbing, doubtful of the Government, quick-tempered, and as immovable as Chimney Top. They had exchanged little except log and frame houses for concrete. The tenants, not really tenants, had been squatting on Bays Mountains when Cary McPheeter bought the farm; and there they stayed.

Stonecypher vaulted the fence. Catriona, with hands firmly planted on hips, stood in the dry pond. Stonecypher said, “If I just knew what these thrill parties think they’re up to, it might help.”

Catriona shook her head of red-yellow hair. “Nevah mind them. Ah told you to practice shootin’, but the minute ah turn mah back, you run off and staht teachin’ those calves! You’ve got to practice, Stony! You’ve nevah done any shootin’, and L. Dan’s killed ten people. Ah—”

“Watch the tears, or you’ll have red and green eyes,” Stonecypher said. Clumsily, he ejected the shells and reloaded the revolver. He occupied two seconds in drawing and firing. The bullets struck dirt a yard to the left of the target.

Sonata

A short vicious thunderstorm lashed Bays Mountain on the afternoon of July 3. As the storm passed, a blood-red butterflier, with a pusher propeller in the tail and a plastic bull head on the nose, descended in the young Sudan grass. Stonecypher dropped the saw—he had been clearing away a beech limb the storm left in the abandoned paddock—and strolled to greet Ringmaster A. Oswell.

“Stonecypher!” the ringmaster announced. “That storm almost caught us!” Oswell’s stainless steel teeth clacked, and the breezes trailing the thunderclouds ballooned his orange silk kimono. “I never liked these butterfliers. They’re too slow, and that swooping motion! Five hundred miles per hour may seem fast to a man your age; but in my day, back before petroleum was classified as armament, we had jets! Real speed!”

“Come on up to the house, ringmaster,” Stonecypher invited. “I’ll mix up some dextrose and citric acid.”

“No, no time,” the fat man panted. “Only time to see you about that bull you sold me. The storm took a limb of your beech tree! Almost the only one left, I suppose. About that bull, Stonecypher, you know I was a bit hesitant when I bought him, but my driver talked me into it. I’m so disappointed I had him drafted immediately!”

“But what—” Stonecypher attempted to ask.

“The young woman there in the butterflier is a much better driver and pilot,” Oswell babbled. “I wouldn’t have believed it of a woman! She weighs a good ninety-eight pounds, too! That bull—he has changed completely since we put him under the stands. He eats well, but he shows no spirit at all. Tomorrow is the big day, Stonecypher! I can’t disappoint the crowd! I thought he might be sick, but the vet says not. That bull let the vet come into the cage and made absolutely no attempt to kill him!”

“But does Fergus—”

“Fergus’s manager saw the bull! He’s all for it. Fergus made an extremely poor showing on Memorial Day, and the manager thinks this odd bull would provide a real comeback! I advised against it. This heat is terrible! The storm didn’t cool the air at all.”

Stonecypher maneuvered the perspiring ringmaster into the shade of the beech. He said, “I wanta do the fair thing with you, ringmaster, so I’ll give you a guarantee, in writing if you want. If that bull’s not the bravest ever fought in Highland Bullring, I give you double-money-back.”

Oswell’s face wobbled in a tentative smile. He counted his stubby fingers. “Double-money-back?”

“Yeah. I wanta get into the business. My grandfather used to sell bulls. Then my father came along, and he wouldn’t sell a one.”

“Yes. Yes, I once tried to reason with him, but—”

“He had funny ideas,” Stonecypher pressed his advantage. “I never did understand the old man myself. He used to lecture me on something he called the Man-Animal War. He said one of the worst things in the war was the thousands of bulls that had been tortured to death.”

“Peculiar idea. Of course—”

“He claimed bullfights slipped up on this country. Back when it wasn’t legal, they spaded up the ground real good. There were movies, and books, and magazines, and foreign broadcasts, all ravin’ about how brave and noble it was for a bunch of men to worry and torture a stupid animal like a bull, till he couldn’t hardly hold his head up, and then run a sword in ‘im.”

“Naturally, you—”

“I don’t know how many times he told me a bull had more brains than a horse, but less than a jackass. He said bullfightin’ wasn’t a sport, even if the bull got a man sometimes; and he had the idea the worst thing was the four or five horses, that ever’ bull killed, took with ‘im. They had some bloodless bullfights in California, and the nut colonies out there like it so good, first thing you know, we really had it. It came to East Tennessee ’cause this was one of the biggest cattle-raisin’ sections, before the Lakes took the grazin’ land.”

“Surely, Stonecypher, you—”

“My father always claimed if the bullfighters were near as brave as they said, they’d take on a really intelligent animal sometimes, like a man-eatin’ tiger. He even thought a man was mentalill to fight a bull in the first place.” Stonecypher grinned. “No, you don’t need to worry about me, ringmaster. I hate to admit it, but the old man is the one who was mentalill.”

Oswell revealed all of his steel teeth in a broad smile. “You had me worried!” he wheezed. “Now, your offer.”

“I’ll go even better,” Stonecypher said, “just to show how set I am on getting’ back in the business. If Moe’s not brave, I got two yearlin’s you can have for free.”

“How generous! You’ve reassured me, Stonecypher. I have confidence, now, that the show will be a great success! I must go! You have no conception of the life a ringmaster leads before a fight. I won’t require a written guarantee. I trust you, Stonecypher! See you tomorrow, I hope! I never liked July. If the Government would only make more Lakes, it might cool off! I hope—”

The whir of the red butterflier’s wings terminated Oswell’s discourse. With a face like a gored bullkiller, Stonecypher watched the ringmaster’s departure. Another butterflier hovered above the mountain. This one was green and gold with the canopy pushed back and a glint of twin lenses in the cockpit.

Will appeared at Stonecypher’s side. He spat in a long arc and said, “That’s a new one, ain’t it, peepin’ from a butterfly? I reckon L. Dan never got kilt in that other duel like I hoped he would. You want us to git you outa this, Stonecypher?”

“No, Will.”

“We can see you git to the Smokies. The Givernment’ll never find you down in there.”

“I’ll be all right, Will. If he does kill me, take care of Catriona. And look after the calf records.”

“Sure thing.”

Stonecypher walked slowly toward Catriona’s open-topped sunbathing tent.

Danse Macabre

Duelmaster R. Smith adjusted his black tam. “Do not touch your shooting hand to your weapon until the buzzer sounds,” he instructed. “Otherwise, the weapon may be carried as you wish. At the slightest infringement of the rules, a robot gun will kill you. If you have any elaborate last words, say them now; because the pen is soundproof.” He laughed an obviously much rehearsed laugh.

L. Dan wore orange tights today, but no armor, since the rules required duelists to present naked torsos for probable bullets. Stonecypher faced the duelmaster. “I reckon this room is the only place a man really has free speech,” he said. “You’re deaf, and can’t see good enough to read lips, and me or him will soon be dead.

“I don’t believe in this duelin’. It gives a man who’s wrong a chance to kill one who’s right. A man shouldn’t oughta have to die because he’s right. Just like ever’thing else in this Manly Age. It’s painful. That oughta be our motto, More Pain, just like in the Machine Age it was More Gadgets At Any Cost.”

“Why don’t you go on tevee?” Dan jeered. “She’ll soon forget you, farmer.”

Stonecypher’s words rolled over the hobbyist. “I reckon the Manly Age came because a man started thinkin’ he wasn’t much of a man any more. He was just as fast as his car, and just as strong as his electric lawn mower. And a loud minority of the women was claimin’ they could do anything a man could, and maybe better. So the men started playin’ football in shorts and huntin’ each other on game preserves, and the women went back to the kitchen and bedroom. Lots of things that went on undercover come out in the open. Cockfights, dogfights, coon-on-a-log, duels, stallion fights, bullfights.

“And people like you, L. Dan, went on livin’. You got no right to live. You don’t do any useful work. The Earth is slowly starvin’, and you take the grub out of some feller’s mouth who might could help a little. That’s why—”

“Time!” announced the duelmaster with his face close to a large clock on the wall. He opened the door. Two men carrying a body on a stretcher passed. The body had four bullet wounds in it.

Dan said, “That drivel gives me a real reason to kill you, farmer. I’ll be good to her for a few days.”

As prearranged, Dan took the right branch of the corridor and Stonecypher, the left. A hooded man gave Stonecypher the Magnum revolver and shut him into a space resembling a windowed closet with a door on either side. Stonecypher secured the revolver in the clip holster. His bony hands formed knotted fists.

The pen door slid back. Stonecypher stepped into a room thirty by ninety feet with three bullet-marred concrete walls and a fourth wall of bulletproof glass, behind which sat the ghoulish audience. Dan, crouched and with his pistol in the crook of his left elbow, advanced. His right hand fluttered an inch from the pistol butt.

Stonecypher, grotesque with thin chest exposed and overall bib wrapped around belt, waited. Two photoelectric robot machine guns followed each movement of the duelists. A buzzer sounded. Dan’s index finger failed to reach the trigger, for a guardian machine gun removed the hobbyist’s head in a short efficient burst. The noise of a loud buzzer punctuated the execution.

When the soundproof inner door of the closet opened, the hooded man, who had a pair of crossed pistols tattooed on the back of his right hand, said, “He was too anxious.”

“Yeah,” Stonecypher grunted.

The man watched Stonecypher pass out to the street. Stonecypher snapped up the bib of his overalls. An extremely rare bird, a robin, hopped from his path and continued a fruitless search for insects. Stonecypher walked down Watauga Street until the pavement vanished under the brownish-green water of Kings Lake.

Catriona squealed when she saw him. Ignoring all Correct Procedures, she almost knocked him down and attempted to smother him. “Ah told you it just took practice!” she blubbered. “You did it, Stony!”

With muffled mumbles, Stonecypher managed to put her in the Tenite canoe. The few people along the quay, who had witnessed the illegal manner of their meeting, watched with shock, or with incredulity, or with guarded admiration. When they saw that Stonecypher’s hand rested on a holstered revolver, they lost their curiosity.

Wading, Stonecypher shoved the canoe off and hopped aboard. As he took up the paddle, his hand trailed in the water and released the small buzzer that had made possible Catriona’s best carnival act.

* * *

For July, the afternoon was cool. Blue-gray clouds drifted before larger dirty white masses. To the southwest opened the mile-wide mouth of Horse Creek; and, far beyond, the great blue pyramid of Chimney Top Mountain stood defiantly above Sevier Lake. The world seemed water broken only by partly submerged hills and mountains.

Stonecypher gazed across the Lake at Bays Mountain and at the five Cement Islands apparently floating against that backdrop. Softly, he said, “Some folks call the big one Martyrs Island. There’s a marble pillar right in the middle. Nobody knows who put it there, and the Government never bothered to knock it down. I reckon the poison ivy’s covered it by now, but I went and read the inscription, once, when I was a boy. It says:

‘They moved me off the Powell River.
They covered my farm with water.
I bought me another near Beans Station.
The water covered it.
I was getting old, but I built at Galloway Mill.
When they flooded that, I gave up and lived in Kingsport.
I will not move again.'”

The canoe bounded over the choppy water, one hundred feet above the silted streets of the flooded city of Kingsport. Stonecypher said, “The time I was there, you could still find a few copter-trooper helmets and old cankered shells. Couple of years back, a diver brought up two skulls off shore.”

Catriona’s eyes remained moist, but she smiled. Her teeth were beautiful. “It’ll be all rahght, Stony. You can’t change the wo’ld in one day. You did fine, and Moe will too.”

“I told you to stay at the bullring,” Stonecypher said.

“Ah couldn’t watch that! And those puny, little, mousy women stare and talk about me, because theah’s a little meat on mah cahcass. Oswell said Moe would be last, anyhow. Ah was so wo’ied about you, ah couldn’t sit still.”

Only a few boats, mainly those of piscatorial maniacs, were on the lake. Stonecypher glared at them and muttered, “I hope I did right by Moe. He wanted to fight. Maybe, Catriona, if I’d had you when I found out he could talk—not just mimic—I’d of raised him different. Maybe I shouldn’t have shown him that bullfight movie, but I wondered what the only bull to see a bullfight from outside the ring thought about it.

“That led to him wantin’ to know all about the Man-Animal War. I told him the best I could, how one of a man’s basic drives is to exterminate, ever’ since prehistoric times when he did in the wooly mammoth and rhinoceros. The dodo, quagga, passenger pigeon, great auk, aurochs, Key deer, bison, African elephant, gorilla, tiger—there’s an awful list. Why, five hundred species of mammals, alone, have become extinct since 1 A.D., ’bout four hundred of them since 1850. A man’ll even kill off other men, like the Neanderthals and the Tasmanians!” Stonecypher rested the paddle and grinned, faintly, at Catriona reclining in the bow. “I guess you’ve heard this before.”

“Go rahght ahead, Stony,” Catriona sighed. “Ah like to heah yoah speech. It’s the only time you really get angry, and you look so fine and noble.”

“Yeah. Well. I told Moe how a man exterminates useful or harmless species, and then he lets dangerous ones, like rats, eat him out of house and home. Course, I explained this was just kinship. Folks used to argue man come from a monkey, or from spontaneous combustion, or something. Now we got fossil proof he’s not like anything anybody ever saw. He’s a case of straight line development all the way back to the first mammal, a sort of rat.”

The canoe glided past Highland Pier. Every type of small watercraft, from a punt, through an electric motorboat, to a sloop, had docked. More boats lined the shore on either side of the pier. The flying field contained so many butterfliers and copters that there seemed no possibility of any of them taking off. Human voices welled in a mob roar from the great open cylinder of the bullring. A huge banner draped on the curving white wall proclaimed, in ten-foot letters:

DEPENDENCE DAY
BULLFIGHT
HONOR THE GREAT
GOVERNMENT ON WHICH
WE DEPEND
SIX BULLS—THREE KILLERS

Stonecypher ran the canoe aground in a patch of dead weeds, exposed by a slight lowering of the lake level, and helped Catriona over the rocks that lined the bank. He said, “I told Moe other things men do to animals. All the laboratory butchery, done because it would be cruel to treat a man like that, but it’s all right with a animal, like takin’ out a dog’s brains and lettin’ ‘im live. I told him about huntin’, how the kudu became extinct ’cause a bunch of fools wanted to see who could kill the one with the biggest horns.

“I told him the things done to domestic animals. Dehornin’, emasculatin’, brandin’, slaughterin’ with sledge hammers and butcher knives, keepin’ ’em in filthy barns. A man tells hisself he’s superior to other animals. If he does somethin’ bad, he uses words like inhuman, brutal, animal instincts, instead of admittin’ it’s just typical behavior. And the psychologists take some animal, say a dog, and put him in a maze, something the dog never saw before. If the dog don’t run the maze in two seconds flat, they say he’s a pretty stupid animal. He just operates on instinct, but they can’t say how instinct operates. They’ll have a time explainin’ Moe’s instincts.

“I reckon the American bison made Moe madder than anything. They killed the bison off, ‘cept for protected herds, in the Nineteenth Century. A hundred years later, the herds had got pretty big, so they declared open season on bison. No more bison.”

A recorded voice growled, “No guns permitted in ring. Deposit gun in slot. No guns permitted in ring.”

Stonecypher moved his permit in ineffectual passes before the electric eye. He shrugged, dropped the revolver into the slot, and left his thumb print. Catriona displayed the passes Ringmaster Oswell had given them. The teveer blinked, and the gate granted admission. They rode the escalator to the sixth tier and squirmed through pandemonium to their seats.

The male portion of the crowd wore every possible style and color of dress, in complete emancipation from the old business suit uniform, but the women wore sober false-bosomed sundresses and expressed excitement in polite chirps. Stonecypher pressed his mouth against Catriona’s ear and whispered through the din, “You got to understand, Cat, whatever happens, Moe wanted it. He says he can scare some killers into givin’ up bullfights and maybe help stop it.”

“He’ll do fine, Stony.”

Several spectators stopped venting their wrath on the unfortunate man in the ring to gawk at the couple. Catriona’s unorthodox physique aroused sufficient amazement; but, in addition, Stonecypher gave her the front seat and took the rear one, the correct place for a woman, himself.

Below, through a rain of plasti-bottles and rotten eggs, a tired man walked to the barrier which Oswell advertised as the only wooden fence in seven states. Behind the killer, a small electric tractor dragged out the bloody carcass of a bull.

A gasping, gibbering little man grabbed Stonecypher’s arm and yelped, “Illard is the clumsiest killer, he ran the sword in three times, and the kid with the dagger had to stick twice before they finished, Big Dependence Day Bullfight my jet! This is the worst in years, Fergus made the only clean kill all afternoon, and I flew every one of eighteen hundred miles myself to see it, this last bull better be good!” The little man waved his bag of rotten eggs.

Although the bullfight followed the basic procedures established by Francisco Romero in the Spain of 1700, changes had occurred, including the elimination of all Spanish words from the vocabulary of the spectacle since the unpleasant dispute with the Spanish Empire twenty years before. The gaudy costumes worn by participants had been replaced by trunks and sneakers.

A purring grader smoothed the sand. The crowd quieted, except for those near the box of Ringmaster Oswell. They suggested in obscene terms that their money be refunded. A trumpet recording blared. A scarlet door, inscribed, “Moe of Bays Mountain Farm,” opened. The crowd awaited the first wild rush of the bull. It failed to materialize.

Grand Finale

Slowly, Moe came through the doorway. Above, on a platform inside the barrier, stood a gray-haired man who stuck identifying, streamered darts into bovine shoulders. His hand swept down, carrying Stonecypher’s chosen colors, black.

Moe’s walk upset the man’s timing. His arm moved too soon. Moe’s front hooves left the ground. Horns hooked. The gray-haired man screamed and dropped the dart. With a spike of horn through his arm, between bone and biceps, he gyrated across the barrier. He screamed a second time before cloven hooves slashed across his body.

The crowd inhaled, then cheered the unprecedented entrance. Killer Fergus’s team stood rigid, not comprehending. Then men dashed through shielded openings in the barrier, yelling and waving pink and yellow capes to draw the bull from his victim.

Moe ignored the distraction, trotted nonchalantly to the center of the ring, and turned his bulging head to examine the spectators jabbering at his strange appearance. The short horns, the round skull, the white-banded eyes, the mane that seemed slightly purple under the cloudy sky, and the exaggerated slope from neck to rump that made the hind legs too short—together they amounted to a ton of muscle almost like a bull. “Where’d you trap it, Oswell?” someone near the ringmaster’s box yelled.

Forgetting the mess Illard had made with the previous bull, the crowd commented. “It’s the last of the bison!”

“He’s poiple! Lookit! Poiple!”

“The bull of the woods!”

“Howya like ‘im, Fergus?”

Killer Fergus posed behind the barrier and studied his specialty, an odd bull. Two stickers, Neel and Tomas, flourished capes to test the bull’s charge, with Neel chanting, “Come on, bull! Come on, bull! Come on! Bull, bull, bull!”

Moe did not charge. He moved, in a speculative walk, toward the chanting Neel who tantalized with the cape and retreated with shuffling steps. The charge, when it came, occurred almost too fast for sight. Neel wriggled on the horns, struck the sand, and the horns lifted him again. He smashed against the barrier. Tomas threw his cape over the bull’s face. The left horn pinned the cape to Tomas’s naked chest over the heart.

Moe retired to the center of the ring and bellowed at the crowd, which, delirious from seeing human blood, applauded. Blood covered Moe’s horns, dripped through the long hair on his neck, and trickled down between his eyes.

Quavering helpers removed the bodies. The first lancer, livid and trembling, rode a blindfolded horse into the ring. “He’ll fix this horse!” the crowd slavered. “We’ll see guts this time!”

Moe charged. The lancer backed his mount against the barrier and gripped his weapon, a stout pike. Sand sprayed like water as Moe swerved. On the left side of the horse, away from the menacing pike, Moe reared. The lancer left the saddle. A tangle of naked limbs thrashed across the wooden fence and thudded against the wall of the stands.

Twenty-five thousand people held their breaths. The blindfolded horse waited with dilated nostrils and every muscle vibrating in terror. Moe produced a long red tongue and licked the horse’s jaw.

Fergus dispersed the tableau. Red-haired, lean, and scarred with many past gorings, the popular killer stalked across the sand dragging his cape and roaring incomprehensible challenges. In the stands, the cheer leaders of the Fergus Fanclub lead a welcoming yell. “Yeaaaa, Fergus! Fergus! Fergus! Rah, rah, rah!”

Moe wandered through the helpers trying to distract him from the horse and looked at the killer. Fergus stamped his foot, shook his cape, and called, “Bull! Come on! Charge!” Moe completely circled the killer, who retired in disgust when another lancer rode into the ring. “Stick him good!” Fergus directed.

The pike pointed at the great muscles of Moe’s back, as the bull charged. Moe’s head twisted in a blur of violence. Teeth clamped on the shaft behind the point. Too surprised to let go, the lancer followed his weapon from the saddle. He released his hold when Moe walked on him.

Like some fantastic dog stealing a fresh bone, the bull trotted around the ring, tail high and pike in mouth. The crowd laughed. Wild-eyed men carried out the trampled lancer.

A third, and extremely reluctant, lancer reined his horse through the gate. A pike in the mouth of a ton of beef utterly unnerved the man. He stood in the saddle and jumped over the barrier where a rain of rotten eggs from the booing fans spattered him thoroughly.

* * *

An uninjured bull pawed alone in the sand when the trumpet recording announced the end of the lancers’ period. The crowd noises softened to a buzz of speculation, questions, and comment, as the realization that weird events had been witnessed slowly penetrated that collective mind. The bull had not touched a horse, no pike had jabbed the bull, and five men had been killed or injured.

“Great Government!” a clear voice swore. “That ain’t no bull, it’s a monster!” This opinion came from a sticker in Illard’s team. Fergus attempted to persuade the man to help, since both of Fergus’s stickers were dead. Part of the crowd agreed with the sticker’s thought, for people began moving furtively to the exits with cautious glances at the animal in the ring. They, of course, could not know that the bull had been trained, with rubber-tipped pikes and dummies, in every phase of the bullfight; that he knew the first, and only, law of staying alive in the ring, “Charge the man and not the cloth.”

The clouds that had obscured the sky all day formed darker masses tinted with pink to the east, and the black dot of a turkey buzzard wheeled soaring in the gloom. Carrying, in either hand, a barbed stick sparkling with plastic streamers, Fergus walked into the ring. His assistants cautiously flanked him with capes.

Moe dropped the pike and charged in the approved manner of a bull. Fergus raised the sticks high and brought them down on the humped back, although the back was not there. The sticks dropped in the sand.

As the killer leaped aside in the completion of a reflex action, a horn penetrated the seat of his trunks. The Fergus Fanclub screamed while their hero dangled in ignominy from the horn. Moe ignored the flapping, frantic capes. The killer gingerly gripped a horn in either hand and tried to lift himself off. Gently, Moe lowered his head and deposited the man beside an opening. Fergus scrabbled to safety like a rat to a hole.

Four helpers with capes occupied the ring. When they saw death approaching on cloven hooves, two of them cleared the fence. The third received a horn beside his backbone and tumbled into the fourth. A dual scream, terrible enough to insure future nightmares, echoed above the screeching of the crowd. Moe tossed the bodies again and again across the bloody sand.

Silence slithered over the Highland Bullring and over a scene reminiscent of the ring’s bloody parent, the Roman Arena. Men sprawled gored, crushed, and dead across the sand. A section of the blood-specked barrier leaned splintered and cracked, almost touching the concrete wall. Unharmed, Fergus stood on one side of the battleground, Illard on the other.

Fergus reached over the wooden fence for red flag and sword. Turning his back on the heaving Moe, who stood but ten feet behind, the killer faced the quaking flesh that was Ringmaster Oswell, high up in the official box. The killer’s voice shook, but the bitter satire came through the sound of departing boats and aircraft. Fergus said, “I dedicate this bull to Ringmaster Oswell who has provided for us this great Dependence Day Bullfight in honor of the Great Government on which we all depend.” He turned and faced the bull.

Moe, for once, rushed the red flag, the only thing that made bullfights possible. His great shoulders presented a fair target for the sword.

Fergus, perhaps the only bullfighter ever to be gored in the brain, died silently. The sword raked a shallow gash long Moe’s loin.

In the sixth tier of the stands, saliva drooled from the slack mouth of the little man seated beside Stonecypher. “Now’s your chance, Illard!” the man squalled. “Be a hero! The last of the bullfighters! Kill him, Illard!”

Illard walked on shaking legs over bodies he did not see. He was short, for a killer, and growing bald. He picked up the sword Fergus had dropped, looked into the gory face of the bull, and toppled in the sticky sand. The sword quivered point-first beside his body.

Recessional

A wind whipped down into Highland Bullring. Riding the wind, blacker than the clouds, the inquisitive turkey buzzard glided over the rim of the stands with air whistling through the spatulate feathers of rigid wings. The buzzard swooped a foot above Moe’s horns and soared swiftly over the opposite side of the ring.

That started the panic, although Moe’s charge accentuated it. He crashed into the sagging section of the barrier. Cloven hooves scraped the wooden inclined plane, and Moe stopped with front feet in the first tier of the stands. He bellowed.

The bull killed only one spectator, a man on whom he stepped. The hundreds who died killed themselves or each other. They leaped from the towering rim of the ring, and they jammed the exits in writhing heaps.

Moe’s precarious stance slipped. Slowly, he slid back into the ring, where Ringmaster Oswell, quivering in a red toga, gestured from the darkness under the stands. The fat man squeaked and waved. Moe’s charge embodied the genuine fighting rage of a maddened bull. The scarlet door closed behind him.

Stonecypher, with fists bloody and a heap of unconscious fear-crazed spectators piled before him, sat down. “Well, Moe,” he whispered, “I reckon you got even for a few of the bulls that’s been tortured to death to amuse a bunch of nuts. Maybe it wasn’t the right way to do it. I don’t know. If I’d only had the gun—”

Catriona turned a white mask of a face up to Stonecypher. “They killed him, in theah?”

“Sure. Bullfightin’ never was a sport. The bull can’t win. If he’s not killed in the ring, he’s slaughtered under the stands.

“You have moah smart-bulls, Stony.”

The black copter came in with the sunset and hovered over the sand. The face of Duelmaster Smith peered out under his black tam, while a hooded man, with pistols tattooed on his hand, aimed an automatic rifle. The duelmaster smiled at Stonecypher and cried, “You really should have waited until you were farther out in the Lake, before you dropped that little buzzer in the water.”

Quietus by Ross Rocklynne

Quietus

by Ross Rocklynne



Preface by David Drake



Like a number of my other picks for this anthology, I read "Quietus" before authors' names meant anything to me. I didn't run into the story later, when the name Ross Rocklynne would've been familiar. (In 1972 I read early '40s issues of Planet Stories, and then a series by Rocklynne stood out very vividly.)

I didn't remember the story's title, either, so I didn't rediscover it until a few years ago when I made a determined search through a number of anthologies I'd read when I was thirteen or fourteen. There I found "Quietus," just as effective as I remembered it being. A story that stands out so clearly decades after I'd forgotten its title and author belongs in this collection.

"Quietus" hit me between the eyes with the concept that who we are creates a bias in how we view the world. I've never forgotten that lesson, though I won't pretend it's always been as close to the front of my mind as it should've been. Still, I'd like to think that because of Rocklynne's story I've been somewhat less of an arrogant prick than I've watched some other WASP males of my acquaintance being.

The creatures from Alcon saw from the first that Earth, as a planet, was practically dead; dead in the sense that it had given birth to life, and was responsible, indirectly, for its almost complete extinction.

“This type of planet is the most distressing,” said Tark, absently smoothing down the brilliantly colored feathers of his left wing. “I can stand the dark, barren worlds which never have, and probably never will, hold life. But these that have been killed by some celestial catastrophe! Think of what great things might have come from their inhabitants.”

As he spoke thus to his mate, Vascar, he was marking down in a book the position of this planet, its general appearance from space, and the number and kind of satellites it supported.

Vascar, sitting at the controls, both her claws and her vestigial hands at work, guided the spherical ship at slowly decreasing speed toward the planet Earth. A thousand miles above it, she set the craft into an orbital motion, and then proceeded to study the planet, Tark setting the account into his book, for later insertion into the Astronomical Archives of Alcon.

“Evidently,” mused Vascar, her brilliant, unblinking eyes looking at the planet through a transparent section above the control board, “some large meteor, or an errant asteroid—that seems most likely—must have struck this specimen a terrible blow. Look at those great, gaping cracks that run from pole to pole, Tark. It looks as if volcanic eruptions are still taking place, too. At any rate, the whole planet seems entirely denuded—except for that single, short strip of green we saw as we came in.”

Tark nodded. He was truly a bird, for in the evolutionary race on his planet, distant uncounted light-years away, his stock had won out over the others. His wings were short, true, and in another thousand years would be too short for flight, save in a dense atmosphere; but his head was large, and his eyes, red, small, set close together, showed intelligence and a kind benevolence. He and Vascar had left Alcon, their planet, a good many years ago; but they were on their way back now. Their outward-bound trip had taken them many light-years north of the Solar System; but on the way back, they had decided to make it one of the stop-off points in their zigzag course. Probably their greatest interest in all this long cruise was in the discovery of planets—they were indeed few. And that pleasure might even be secondary to the discovery of life. To find a planet that had almost entirely died was, conversely, distressing. Their interest in the planet Earth was, because of this, a wistful one.

The ship made the slow circuit of Earth—the planet was a hodge-podge of tumbled, churned mountains; of abysmal, frightfully long cracks exuding unholy vapors; of volcanoes that threw their fires and hot liquid rocks far into the sky; of vast oceans disturbed from the ocean bed by cataclysmic eruptions. And of life they saw nothing save a single strip of green perhaps a thousand miles long, a hundred wide, in the Western Hemisphere.

“I don’t think we’ll find intelligent life,” Tark said pessimistically. “This planet was given a terrific blow—I wouldn’t be surprised if her rotation period was cut down considerably in a single instant. Such a charge would be unsupportable. Whole cities would literally be snapped away from their foundations—churned, ground to dust. The intelligent creatures who built them would die by the millions—the billions—in that holocaust; and whatever destruction was left incomplete would be finished up by the appearance of volcanoes and faults in the crust of the planet.”

Vascar reminded him, “Remember, where there’s vegetation, even as little as evidenced by that single strip down there, there must be some kind of animal life.”

Tark ruffled his wings in a shrug. “I doubt it. The plants would get all the carbon dioxide they needed from volcanoes—animal life wouldn’t have to exist. Still, let’s take a look. Don’t worry, I’m hoping there’s intelligent life, too. If there is, it will doubtless need some help if it is to survive. Which ties in with our aims, for that is our principal purpose on this expedition—to discover intelligent life, and, wherever possible, to give it what help we can, if it needs help.”

Vascar’s vestigial hands worked the controls, and the ship dropped leisurely downward toward the green strip.

* * *

A rabbit darted out of the underbrush—Tommy leaped at it with the speed and dexterity of a thoroughly wild animal. His powerful hands wrapped around the creature—its struggles ceased as its vertebra was snapped. Tommy squatted, tore the skin off the creature, and proceeded to eat great mouthfuls of the still warm flesh.

Blacky cawed harshly, squawked, and his untidy form came flashing down through the air to land precariously on Tommy’s shoulder. Tommy went on eating, while the crow fluttered its wings, smoothed them out, and settled down to a restless somnolence. The quiet of the scrub forest, save for the cries and sounds of movement of birds and small animals moving through the forest, settled down about Tommy as he ate. “Tommy” was what he called himself. A long time ago, he remembered, there used to be a great many people in the world—perhaps a hundred—many of whom, and particularly two people whom he had called Mom and Pop, had called him by that name. They were gone now, and the others with them. Exactly where they went, Tommy did not know. But the world had rocked one night—it was the night Tommy ran away from home, with Blacky riding on his shoulder—and when Tommy came out of the cave where he had been sleeping, all was in flames, and the city on the horizon had fallen so that it was nothing but a huge pile of dust—but in the end it had not mattered to Tommy. Of course, he was lonesome, terrified, at first, but he got over that. He continued to live, eating, drinking, sleeping, walking endlessly; and Blacky, his talking crow, was good company. Blacky was smart. He could speak every word that Tommy knew, and a good many others that he didn’t. Tommy was not Blacky’s first owner.

But though he had been happy, the last year had brought the recurrence of a strange feeling that had plagued him off and on, but never so strongly as now. A strange, terrible hunger was settling on him. Hunger? He knew this sensation. He had forthwith slain a wild dog, and eaten of the meat. He saw then that it was not a hunger of the belly. It was a hunger of the mind, and it was all the worse because he could not know what it was. He had come to his feet, restless, looking into the tangled depths of the second growth forest.

“Hungry,” he had said, and his shoulders shook and tears coursed out of his eyes, and he sat down on the ground and sobbed without trying to stop himself, for he had never been told that to weep was unmanly. What was it he wanted?

He had everything there was all to himself. Southward in winter, northward in summer, eating of berries and small animals as he went, and Blacky to talk to and Blacky to talk the same words back at him. This was the natural life—he had lived it ever since the world went bang. But still he cried, and felt a panic growing in his stomach, and he didn’t know what it was he was afraid of, or longed for, whichever it was. He was twenty-one years old. Tears were natural to him, to be indulged in whenever he felt like it. Before the world went bang—there were some things he remembered—the creature whom he called Mom generally put her arms around him and merely said, “It’s all right, Tommy, it’s all right.”

So on that occasion, he arose from the ground and said, “It’s all right, Tommy, it’s all right.”

Blacky, he with the split tongue, said harshly, as was his wont, “It’s all right, Tommy, it’s all right! I tell you, the price of wheat is going down!”

Blacky, the smartest crow anybody had—why did he say that? There wasn’t anybody else, and there weren’t any more crows—helped a lot. He not only knew all the words and sentences that Tommy knew, but he knew others that Tommy could never understand because he didn’t know where they came from, or what they referred to. And in addition to all that, Blacky had the ability to anticipate what Tommy said, and frequently took whole words and sentences right out of Tommy’s mouth.

* * *

Tommy finished eating the rabbit, and threw the skin aside, and sat quite still, a peculiarly blank look in his eyes. The strange hunger was on him again. He looked off across the lush plain of grasses that stretched away, searching into the distance, toward where the Sun was setting. He looked to left and right. He drew himself softly to his feet, and peered into the shadows of the forest behind him. His heavily bearded lips began to tremble, and the tears started from his eyes again. He turned and stumbled from the forest, blinded.

Blacky clutched at Tommy’s broad shoulder, and rode him, and a split second before Tommy said, “It’s all right, Tommy, it’s all right.”

Tommy said the words angrily to himself, and blinked the tears away.

He was a little bit tired. The Sun was setting, and night would soon come. But it wasn’t that that made him tired. It was a weariness of the mind, a feeling of futility, for, whatever it was he wanted, he could never, never find it, because he would not know where he should look for it.

His bare foot trampled on something wet—he stopped and looked at the ground. He stooped and picked up the skin of a recently killed rabbit. He turned it over and over in his hands, frowning. This was not an animal he had killed, certainly—the skin had been taken off in a different way. Someone else—no! But his shoulders began to shake with a wild excitement. Someone else? No, it couldn’t be! There was no one—there could be no one—could there? The skin dropped from his nerveless fingers as he saw a single footprint not far ahead of him. He stooped over it, examining, and knew again that he had not done this, either. And certainly it could be no other animal than a man!

It was a small footprint at which he stared, as if a child, or an under-sized man, might have stepped in the soft humus. Suddenly he raised his head. He had definitely heard the crackling of a twig, not more than forty feet away, certainly. His eyes stared ahead through the gathering dusk. Something looking back at him? Yes! Something there in the bushes that was not an animal!

“No noise, Blacky,” he whispered, and forgot Blacky’s general response to that command.

“No noise, Blacky!” the big, ugly bird blasted out. “No noise, Blacky! Well, fer cryin’ out loud!”

Blacky uttered a scared squawk as Tommy leaped ahead, a snarl contorting his features, and flapping from his master’s shoulder. For several minutes Tommy ran after the vanishing figure, with all the strength and agility of his singularly powerful legs. But whoever—or whatever—it was that fled him, outdistanced him easily, and Tommy had to stop at last, panting. Then he stooped, and picked up a handful of pebbles and hurled them at the squawking bird. A single tail feather fell to earth as Blacky swooped away.

“Told you not to make noise,” Tommy snarled, and the tears started to run again. The hunger was starting up in his mind again, too! He sat down on a log, and put his chin in his palms, while his tears flowed. Blacky came flapping through the air, almost like a shadow—it was getting dark. The bird tentatively settled on his shoulder, cautiously flapped away again and then came back.

Tommy turned his head and looked at it bitterly, and then turned away, and groaned.

“It’s all your fault, Blacky!”

“It’s all your fault,” the bird said. “Oh, Tommy, I could spank you! I get so exasperated!”

Sitting there, Tommy tried to learn exactly what he had seen. He had been sure it was a human figure, just like himself, only different. Different! It had been smaller, had seemed to possess a slender grace—it was impossible! Every time he thought of it, the hunger in his mind raged!

He jumped to his feet, his fists clenched. This hunger had been in him too long! He must find out what caused it—he must find her—why did the word her come to his mind? Suddenly, he was flooded with a host of childhood remembrances.

“It was a girl!” he gasped. “Oh, Tommy must want a girl!”

The thought was so utterly new that it left him stunned; but the thought grew. He must find her, if it took him all the rest of his life! His chest deepened, his muscles swelled, and a new light came into his blue eyes. Southward in winter, northward in summer—eating—sleeping—truly, there was nothing in such a life. Now he felt the strength of a purpose swelling up in him. He threw himself to the ground and slept; and Blacky flapped to the limb of a tree, inserted his head beneath a wing, and slept also. Perhaps, in the last ten or fifteen years, he also had wanted a mate, but probably he had long ago given up hope—for, it seemed, there were no more crows left in the world. Anyway, Blacky was very old, perhaps twice as old as Tommy; he was merely content to live.

* * *

Tark and Vascar sent their spherical ship lightly plummeting above the green strip—it proved to be vegetation, just as they had supposed. Either one or the other kept constant watch of the ground below—they discovered nothing that might conceivably be classed as intelligent life. Insects they found, and decided that they worked entirely by instinct; small animals, rabbits, squirrels, rats, raccoons, otters, opossums, and large animals, deer, horses, sheep, cattle, pigs, dogs, they found to be just that—animals, and nothing more.

“Looks as if it was all killed off, Vascar,” said Tark, “and not so long ago at that, judging by the fact that this forest must have grown entirely in the last few years.”

Vascar agreed; she suggested they put the ship down for a few days and rest.

“It would be wonderful if we could find intelligent life after all,” she said wistfully. “Think what a great triumph it would be if we were the ones to start the last members of that race on the upward trail again. Anyway,” she added, “I think this atmosphere is dense enough for us to fly in.”

He laughed—a trilling sound. “You’ve been looking for such an atmosphere for years. But I think you’re right about this one. Put the ship down there, Vascar—looks like a good spot.”

For five days Tommy followed the trail of the girl with a grim determination. He knew now that it was a woman; perhaps—indeed, very probably—the only one left alive. He had only the vaguest of ideas of why he wanted her—he thought it was for human companionship, that alone. At any rate, he felt that this terrible hunger in him—he could give it no other word—would be allayed when he caught up with her.

She was fleeing him, and staying just near enough to him to make him continue the chase, and he knew that with a fierce exultation. And somehow her actions seemed right and proper. Twice he had seen her, once on the crest of a ridge, once as she swam a river. Both times she had easily outdistanced him. But by cross-hatching, he picked up her trail again—a bent twig or weed, a footprint, the skin of a dead rabbit.

Once, at night, he had the impression that she crept up close, and looked at him curiously, perhaps with the same great longing that he felt. He could not be sure. But he knew that very soon now she would be his—and perhaps she would be glad of it.

Once he heard a terrible moaning, high up in the air. He looked upward. Blacky uttered a surprised squawk. A large, spherical thing was darting overhead.

“I wonder what that is,” Blacky squawked.

“I wonder what that is,” said Tommy, feeling a faint fear. “There ain’t nothin’ like that in the yard.”

He watched as the spaceship disappeared from sight. Then, with the unquestioning attitude of the savage, he dismissed the matter from his mind, and took up his tantalizing trail again.

“Better watch out, Tommy,” the bird cawed.

“Better watch out, Tommy,” Tommy muttered to himself. He only vaguely heard Blacky—Blacky always anticipated what Tommy was going to say, because he had known Tommy so long.

The river was wide, swirling, muddy, primeval in its surge of resistless strength. Tommy stood on the bank, and looked out over the waters—suddenly his breath soughed from his lungs.

“It’s her!” he gasped. “It’s her, Blacky! She’s drownin’!”

No time to waste in thought—a figure truly struggled against the push of the treacherous waters, seemingly went under. Tommy dived cleanly, and Blacky spread his wings at the last instant and escaped a bath. He saw his master disappear beneath the swirling waters, saw him emerge, strike out with singularly powerful arms, slightly upstream, fighting every inch of the way. Blacky hovered over the waters, cawing frantically, and screaming.

“Tommy, I could spank you! I could spank you! I get so exasperated! You wait till your father comes home!”

A log was coming downstream. Tommy saw it coming, but knew he’d escape it. He struck out, paid no more attention to it. The log came down with a rush, and would have missed him had it not suddenly swung broadside on. It clipped the swimming man on the side of the head. Tommy went under, threshing feebly, barely conscious, his limbs like leaden bars. That seemed to go on for a very long time. He seemed to be breathing water. Then something grabbed hold of his long black hair—

When he awoke, he was lying on his back, and he was staring into her eyes. Something in Tommy’s stomach fell out—perhaps the hunger was going. He came to his feet, staring at her, his eyes blazing. She stood only about twenty feet away from him. There was something pleasing about her, the slimness of her arms, the roundness of her hips, the strangeness of her body, her large, startled, timid eyes, the mass of ebon hair that fell below her hips. He started toward her. She gazed at him as if in a trance.

Blacky came flapping mournfully across the river. He was making no sound, but the girl must have been frightened as he landed on Tommy’s shoulder. She tensed, and was away like a rabbit. Tommy went after her in long, loping bounds, but his foot caught in a tangle of dead grass, and he plummeted head foremost to the ground.

The other vanished over a rise of ground.

He arose again, and knew no disappointment that he had again lost her. He knew now that it was only her timidity, the timidity of a wild creature, that made her flee him. He started off again, for now that he knew what the hunger was, it seemed worse than ever.

* * *

The air of this planet was deliciously breathable, and was the nearest thing to their own atmosphere that Tark and Vascar had encountered.

Vascar ruffled her brilliant plumage, and spread her wings, flapping them. Tark watched her, as she laughed at him in her own way, and then made a few short, running jumps and took off. She spiraled, called down to him.

“Come on up. The air’s fine, Tark.”

Tark considered. “All right,” he conceded, “but wait until I get a couple of guns.”

“I can’t imagine why,” Vascar called down; but nevertheless, as they rose higher and higher above the second growth forest, each had a belt strapped loosely around the neck, carrying a weapon similar to a pistol.

“I can’t help but hope we run into some kind of intelligent life,” said Vascar. “This is really a lovely planet. In time the volcanoes will die down, and vegetation will spread all over. It’s a shame that the planet has to go to waste.”

“We could stay and colonize it,” Tark suggested rakishly.

“Oh, not I. I like Alcon too well for that, and the sooner we get back there, the better—Look! Tark! Down there!”

Tark looked, caught sight of a medium large animal moving through the underbrush. He dropped a little lower. And then rose again.

“It’s nothing,” he said. “An animal, somewhat larger than the majority we’ve seen, probably the last of its kind. From the looks of it, I’d say it wasn’t particularly pleasant on the eyes. Its skin shows—Oh, now I see what you mean, Vascar!”

This time he was really interested as he dropped lower, and a strange excitement throbbed through his veins. Could it be that they were going to discover intelligent life after all—perhaps the last of its kind?

It was indeed an exciting sight the two bird-creatures from another planet saw. They flapped slowly above and a number of yards behind the unsuspecting upright beast, that moved swiftly through the forest, a black creature not unlike themselves in general structure riding its shoulder.

“It must mean intelligence!” Vascar whispered excitedly, her brilliant red eyes glowing with interest. “One of the first requisites of intelligent creatures it to put animals lower in the scale of evolution to work as beasts of burden and transportation.”

“Wait awhile,” cautioned Tark, “before you make any irrational conclusions. After all, there are creatures of different species which live together in friendship. Perhaps the creature which looks so much like us keeps the other’s skin and hair free of vermin. And perhaps the other way around, too.”

“I don’t think so,” insisted his mate. “Tark, the bird-creature is riding the shoulder of the beast. Perhaps that means its race is so old, and has used this means of transportation so long, that its wings have atrophied. That would almost certainly mean intelligence. It’s talking now—you can hear it. It’s probably telling its beast to stop—there, it has stopped!”

“Its voice is not so melodious,” said Tark dryly.

She looked at him reprovingly; the tips of their flapping wings were almost touching.

“That isn’t like you, Tark. You know very well that one of our rules is not to place intelligence on creatures who seem like ourselves, and neglect others while we do so. Its harsh voice proves nothing—to one of its race, if there are any left, its voice may be pleasing in the extreme. At any rate, it ordered the large beast of burden to stop—you saw that.”

“Well, perhaps,” conceded Tark.

* * *

They continued to wing their slow way after the perplexing duo, following slightly behind, skimming the tops of trees. They saw the white beast stop, and place its paws on its hips. Vascar, listening very closely, because she was anxious to gain proof of her contention, heard the bird-creature say,

“Now what, Blacky?” and also the featherless beast repeat the same words: “Now what, Blacky?”

“There’s your proof,” said Vascar excitedly. “Evidently the white beast is highly imitative. Did you hear it repeat what its master said?”

Tark said uneasily, “I wouldn’t jump to conclusions, just from a hasty survey like this. I admit that, so far, all the proof points to the bird. It seems truly intelligent; or at least more intelligent than the other. But you must bear in mind that we are naturally prejudiced in favor of the bird—it may not be intelligent at all. As I said, they may merely be friends in the sense that animals of different species are friends.”

Vascar made a scornful sound.

“Well, let’s get goin’, Blacky,” she heard the bird say; and heard the white, upright beast repeat the strange, alien words. The white beast started off again, traveling very stealthily, making not the least amount of noise. Again Vascar called this quality to the attention of her skeptical mate—such stealth was the mark of the animal, certainly not of the intelligent creature.

“We should be certain of it now,” she insisted. “I think we ought to get in touch with the bird. Remember, Tark, that our primary purpose on this expedition is to give what help we can to the intelligent races of the planets we visit. What creature could be more in need of help than the bird-creature down there? It is evidently the last of its kind. At least, we could make the effort of saving it from a life of sheer boredom; it would probably leap at the chance to hold converse with intelligent creatures. Certainly it gets no pleasure from the company of dumb beasts.”

But Tark shook his handsome, red-plumed head worriedly.

“I would prefer,” he said uneasily, “first to investigate the creature you are so sure is a beast of burden. There is a chance—though, I admit, a farfetched one—that it is the intelligent creature, and not the other.”

But Vascar did not hear him. All her feminine instincts had gone out in pity to the seemingly intelligent bird that rode Tommy’s broad shoulder. And so intent were she and Tark on the duo, that they did not see, less than a hundred yards ahead, that another creature, smaller in form, more graceful, but indubitably the same species as the white-skinner, unfeathered beast, was slinking softly through the underbrush, now and anon casting indecisive glances behind her toward him who pursued her. He was out of sight, but she could hear—

* * *

Tommy slunk ahead, his breath coming fast; for the trail was very strong, and his keen ears picked up the sounds of footsteps ahead. The chase was surely over—his terrible hunger about to end! He felt wildly exhilarated. Instincts were telling him much that his experience could not. He and this girl were the last of mankind. Something told him that now mankind could rise again—yet he did not know why. He slunk ahead, Blacky on his shoulder, all unaware of the two brilliantly colored denizens of another planet who followed above and behind him. But Blacky was not so easy of mind. His neck feathers were standing erect. Nervousness made him raise his wings up from his body—perhaps he heard the soft swish of large-winged creatures, beating the air behind, and though all birds of prey had been dead these last fifteen years, the old fear rose up.

Tommy glued himself to a tree, on the edge of a clearing. His breath escaped from his lungs as he caught a glimpse of a white, unclothed figure. It was she! She was looking back at him. She was tired of running. She was ready, glad to give up. Tommy experienced a dizzy elation. He stepped forth into the clearing, and slowly, very slowly, holding her large, dark eyes with his, started toward her. The slightest swift motion, the slightest untoward sound, and she would be gone. Her whole body was poised on the balls of her feet. She was not at all sure whether she should be afraid of him or not.

Behind him, the two feathered creatures from another planet settled slowly into a tree, and watched. Blacky certainly did not hear them come to rest—what he must have noticed was that the beat of wings, nagging at the back of his mind, had disappeared. It was enough.

“No noise, Blacky!” the bird screamed affrightedly, and flung himself into the air and forward, a bundle of ebon feathers with tattered wings outspread, as it darted across the clearing. For the third time, it was Blacky who scared her, for again she was gone, and had lost herself to sight even before Tommy could move.

“Come back!” Tommy shouted ragingly. “I ain’t gonna hurt you!” He ran after her full speed, tears streaming down his face, tears of rage and heartbreak at the same time. But already he knew it was useless! He stopped suddenly, on the edge of the clearing, and sobbing to himself, caught sight of Blacky, high above the ground, cawing piercingly, warningly. Tommy stooped and picked up a handful of pebbles. With deadly, murderous intent he threw them at the bird. It soared and swooped in the air—twice it was hit glancingly.

“It’s all your fault, Blacky!” Tommy raged. He picked up a rock the size of his fist. He started to throw it, but did not. A tiny, sharp sound bit through the air. Tommy pitched forward. He did not make the slightest twitching motion to show that he had bridged the gap between life and death. He did not know that Blacky swooped down and landed on his chest; and then flung himself upward, crying, “Oh, Tommy, I could spank you!” He did not see the girl come into the clearing and stoop over him; and did not see the tears that began to gush from her eyes, or hear the sobs that racked her body. But Tark saw.

Tark wrested the weapon from Vascar with a trill of rage.

“Why did you do that?” he cried. He threw the weapon from him as far as it would go. “You’ve done a terrible thing, Vascar!”

Vascar looked at him in amazement. “It was only a beast, Tark,” she protested. “It was trying to kill its master! Surely, you saw it. It was trying to kill the intelligent bird-creature, the last of its kind on the planet.”

But Tark pointed with horror at the two unfeathered beasts, one bent over the body of the other. “But they were mates! You have killed their species! The female is grieving for its mate, Vascar. You have done a terrible thing!”

But Vascar shook her head crossly. “I’m sorry I did it then,” she said acidly. “I suppose it was perfectly in keeping with our aim on this expedition to let the dumb beast kill its master! That isn’t like you at all, Tark! Come, let us see if the intelligent creature will not make friends with us.”

And she flapped away toward the cawing crow. When Blacky saw Vascar coming toward him, he wheeled and darted away.

Tark took one last look at the female bending over the male. He saw her raise her head, and saw the tears in her eyes, and heard the sobs that shook her. Then, in a rising, inchoate series of bewildering emotions, he turned his eyes away, and hurriedly flapped after Vascar. And all that day they pursued Blacky. They circled him, they cornered him; and Vascar tried to speak to him in friendly tones, all to no avail. It only cawed, and darted away, and spoke volumes of disappointingly incomprehensible words.

When dark came, Vascar alighted in a tree beside the strangely quiet Tark.

“I suppose it’s no use,” she said sadly. “Either it is terribly afraid of us, or it is not as intelligent as we supposed it was, or else it has become mentally deranged in these last years of loneliness. I guess we might as well leave now, Tark; let the poor creature have its planet to itself. Shall we stop by and see if we can help the female beast whose mate we shot?”

Tark slowly looked at her, his red eyes luminous in the gathering dusk. “No,” he said briefly. “Let us go, Vascar.”

* * *

The spaceship of the creatures from Alcon left the dead planet Earth. It darted out into space. Tark sat at the controls. The ship went faster and faster. And still faster. Fled at ever-increasing speed beyond the Solar System and into the wastes of interstellar space. And still farther, until the star that gave heat to Earth was not even visible.

Yet even this terrible velocity was not enough for Tark. Vascar looked at him strangely.

“We’re not in that much of a hurry to get home, are we, Tark?”

“No,” Tark said in a low, terrible voice; but still he urged the ship to greater and greater speed, though he knew it was useless. He could run away from the thing that had happened on the planet Earth; but he could never, never outrun his mind, though he passionately wished he could.

The Last Command by Keith Laumer

The Last Command

by Keith Laumer



Preface by David Drake

 

I was twenty-one when I read "The Last Command" on its appearance in the January 1967 issue of Analog. I was in my senior year of college and probably as mature then as I'm ever going to be. I read most of the other stories I've picked for this anthology when I was much younger.

It's not quite correct to describe Keith Laumer's Bolo series as stories about war machines. The three that really have an impact are about veterans who've been discarded by society; that the veterans happen to be machines is really beside the point. "The Last Command" makes this explicit.

The story hit me very hard the first time I read it. I'm not sure why: I don't come from a military family, and I'd been accepted at Duke Law School. Students were deferred from the draft. I never dreamed that someday I'd be a veteran.

Then things changed.

In January 1971, I got back to the World and took off my uniform for the last time. Since that day I've never, in my heart of hearts, been able to forget that I'm a veteran.

1

I come to awareness, sensing a residual oscillation traversing me from an arbitrarily designated heading of 035. From the damping rate I compute that the shock was of intensity 8.7, emanating from a source within the limits 72 meters/46 meters. I activate my primary screens, trigger a return salvo. There is no response. I engage reserve energy cells, bring my secondary battery to bear—futilely. It is apparent that I have been ranged by the Enemy and severely damaged.

My positional sensors indicate that I am resting at an angle of 13 degrees 14 seconds, deflected from a baseline at 21 points from median. I attempt to right myself, but encounter massive resistance. I activate my forward scanners, shunt power to my I-R microstrobes. Not a flicker illuminates my surroundings. I am encased in utter blackness.

Now a secondary shock wave approaches, rocks me with an intensity of 8.2. It is apparent that I must withdraw from my position—but my drive trains remain inert under full thrust. I shift to base emergency power, try again. Pressure mounts; I sense my awareness fading under the intolerable strain; then, abruptly, resistance falls off and I am in motion.

It is not the swift maneuvering of full drive, however; I inch forward, as if restrained by massive barriers. Again I attempt to penetrate the surrounding darkness and this time perceive great irregular outlines shot through with fracture planes. I probe cautiously, then more vigorously, encountering incredible densities.

I channel all available power to a single ranging pulse, direct it upward. The indication is so at variance with all experience that I repeat the test at a new angle. Now I must accept the fact: I am buried under 207.6 meters of solid rock!

I direct my attention to an effort to orient myself to my uniquely desperate situation. I run through an action-status checklist of thirty thousand items, feel dismay at the extent of power loss. My main cells are almost completely drained, my reserve units at no more than .4 charge. Thus my sluggishness is explained. I review the tactical situation, recall the triumphant announcement from my commander that the Enemy forces were annihilated, that all resistance had ceased. In memory, I review the formal procession; in company with my comrades of the Dinochrome Brigade, many of us deeply scarred by Enemy action, we parade before the Grand Commandant, then assemble on the depot ramp. At command, we bring our music storage cells into phase and display our Battle Anthem. The nearby star radiates over a full spectrum unfiltered by atmospheric haze. It is a moment of glorious triumph. Then the final command is given—

The rest is darkness. But it is apparent that the victory celebration was premature. The Enemy has counterattacked with a force that has come near to immobilizing me. The realization is shocking, but the .1 second of leisurely introspection has clarified my position. At once, I broadcast a call on Brigade Action wave length:

“Unit LNE to Command, requesting permission to file VSR.”

I wait, sense no response, call again, using full power. I sweep the enclosing volume of rock with an emergency alert warning. I tune to the all-units band, await the replies of my comrades of the Brigade. None answer. Now I must face the reality: I alone have survived the assault.

I channel my remaining power to my drive and detect a channel of reduced density. I press for it and the broken rock around me yields reluctantly. Slowly, I move forward and upward. My pain circuitry shocks my awareness center with emergency signals; I am doing irreparable damage to my overloaded neural systems, but my duty is clear: I must seek out and engage the Enemy.

2

Emerging from behind the blast barrier, Chief Engineer Pete Reynolds of the New Devonshire Port Authority pulled off his rock mask and spat grit from his mouth.

“That’s the last one; we’ve bottomed out at just over two hundred yards. Must have hit a hard stratum down there.”

“It’s almost sundown,” the paunchy man beside him said shortly. “You’re a day and a half behind schedule.”

“We’ll start backfilling now, Mr. Mayor. I’ll have pilings poured by oh-nine hundred tomorrow, and with any luck the first section of pad will be in place in time for the rally.”

“I’m—” The mayor broke off, looked startled. “I thought you told me that was the last charge to be fired . . .”

Reynolds frowned. A small but distinct tremor had shaken the ground underfoot. A few feet away, a small pebble balanced atop another toppled and fell with a faint clatter.

“Probably a big rock fragment falling,” he said. At that moment, a second vibration shook the earth, stronger this time. Reynolds heard a rumble and a distant impact as rock fell from the side of the newly blasted excavation. He whirled to the control shed as the door swung back and Second Engineer Mayfield appeared.

“Take a look at this, Pete!”

Reynolds went across to the hut, stepped inside. Mayfield was bending over the profiling table.

“What do you make of it?” he pointed. Superimposed on the heavy red contour representing the detonation of the shaped charge that had completed the drilling of the final pile core were two other traces, weak but distinct.

“About .1 intensity.” Mayfield looked puzzled. “What—”

The tracking needle dipped suddenly, swept up the screen to peak at .21, dropped back. The hut trembled. A stylus fell from the edge of the table. The red face of Mayor Dougherty burst through the door.

“Reynolds, have you lost your mind? What’s the idea of blasting while I’m standing out in the open? I might have been killed!”

“I’m not blasting,” Reynolds snapped. “Jim, get Eaton on the line, see if they know anything.” He stepped to the door, shouted. A heavyset man in sweat-darkened coveralls swung down from the seat of a cable-lift rig.

“Boss, what goes on?” he called as he came up. “Damn near shook me out of my seat!”

“I don’t know. You haven’t set any trim charges?”

“Jesus, no, boss. I wouldn’t set no charges without your say-so.”

“Come on.” Reynolds started out across the rubble-littered stretch of barren ground selected by the Authority as the site of the new spaceport. Halfway to the open mouth of the newly-blasted pit, the ground under his feet rocked violently enough to make him stumble. A gout of dust rose from the excavation ahead. Loose rock danced on the ground. Beside him the drilling chief grabbed his arm.

“Boss, we better get back!”

Reynolds shook him off, kept going. The drill chief swore and followed. The shaking of the ground went on, a sharp series of thumps interrupting a steady trembling.

“It’s a quake!” Reynolds yelled over the low rumbling sound.

He and the chief were at the rim of the core now.

“It can’t be a quake, boss,” the latter shouted. “Not in these formations!”

“Tell it to the geologists—” The rock slab they were standing on rose a foot, dropped back. Both men fell. The slab bucked like a small boat in choppy water.

“Let’s get out of here!” Reynolds was up and running. Ahead, a fissure opened, gaped a foot wide. He jumped it, caught a glimpse of black depths, a glint of wet clay twenty feet below—

A hoarse scream stopped him in his tracks. He spun, saw the drill chief down, a heavy splinter of rock across his legs. He jumped to him, heaved at the rock. There was blood on the man’s shirt. The chief’s hands beat the dusty rock before him. Then other men were there, grunting, sweaty hands gripping beside Reynolds. The ground rocked. The roar from under the earth had risen to a deep, steady rumble. They lifted the rock aside, picked up the injured man, and stumbled with him to the aid shack.

The mayor was there, white-faced.

“What is it, Reynolds? By God, if you’re responsible—”

“Shut up!” Reynolds brushed him aside, grabbed the phone, punched keys.

“Eaton! What have you got on this temblor?”

“Temblor, hell.” The small face on the four-inch screen looked like a ruffled hen. “What in the name of Order are you doing out there? I’m reading a whole series of displacements originating from that last core of yours! What did you do, leave a pile of trim charges lying around?”

“It’s a quake. Trim charges, hell! This thing’s broken up two hundred yards of surface rock. It seems to be traveling north-northeast—”

“I see that; a traveling earthquake!” Eaton flapped his arms, a tiny and ridiculous figure against a background of wall charts and framed diplomas. “Well—do something, Reynolds! Where’s Mayor Dougherty?”

“Underfoot!” Reynolds snapped, and cut off.

Outside, a layer of sunset-stained dust obscured the sweep of level plain. A rock-dozer rumbled up, ground to a halt by Reynolds. A man jumped down.

“I got the boys moving equipment out,” he panted. “The thing’s cutting a trail straight as a rule for the highway!” He pointed to a raised roadbed a quarter mile away.

“How fast is it moving?”

“She’s done a hundred yards; it hasn’t been ten minutes yet!”

“If it keeps up another twenty minutes, it’ll be into the Intermix!”

“Scratch a few million cees and six months’ work then, Pete!”

“And Southside Mall’s a couple miles farther.”

“Hell, it’ll damp out before then!”

“Maybe. Grab a field car, Dan.”

“Pete!” Mayfield came up at a trot. “This thing’s building! The centroid’s moving on a heading of oh-two-two—”

“How far subsurface?”

“It’s rising; started at two-twenty yards, and it’s up to one-eighty!”

“What the hell have we stirred up?” Reynolds stared at Mayfield as the field car skidded to a stop beside them.

“Stay with it, Jim. Give me anything new. We’re taking a closer look.” He climbed into the rugged vehicle.

“Take a blast truck—”

“No time!” He waved and the car gunned away into the pall of dust.

3

The rock car pulled to a stop at the crest of the three-level Intermix on a lay-by designed to permit tourists to enjoy the view of the site of the proposed port, a hundred feet below. Reynolds studied the progress of the quake through field glasses. From this vantage point, the path of the phenomenon was a clearly defined trail of tilted and broken rock, some of the slabs twenty feet across. As he watched, the fissures lengthened.

“It looks like a mole’s trail.” Reynolds handed the glasses to his companion, thumbed the send key on the car radio.

“Jim, get Eaton and tell him to divert all traffic from the Circular south of Zone Nine. Cars are already clogging the right-of-way. The dust is visible from a mile away, and when the word gets out there’s something going on, we’ll be swamped.”

“I’ll tell him, but he won’t like it!”

“This isn’t politics! This thing will be into the outer pad area in another twenty minutes!”

“It won’t last—”

“How deep does it read now?”

“One-five!” There was a moment’s silence. “Pete, if it stays on course, it’ll surface about where you’re parked!”

“Uh-huh. It looks like you can scratch one Intermix. Better tell Eaton to get a story ready for the press.”

“Pete, talking about news hounds—” Dan said beside him. Reynolds switched off, turned to see a man in a gay-colored driving outfit coming across from a battered Monojag sportster which had pulled up behind the rock car. A big camera case was slung across his shoulder.

“Say, what’s going on down there?” he called.

“Rock slide,” Reynolds said shortly. “I’ll have to ask you to drive on. The road’s closed to all traffic—”

“Who’re you?” The man looked belligerent.

“I’m the engineer in charge. Now pull out, brother.” He turned back to the radio. “Jim, get every piece of heavy equipment we own over here, on the double.” He paused, feeling a minute trembling in the car. “The Intermix is beginning to feel it,” he went on. “I’m afraid we’re in for it. Whatever that thing is, it acts like a solid body boring its way through the ground. Maybe we can barricade it.”

“Barricade an earthquake?”

“Yeah, I know how it sounds—but it’s the only idea I’ve got.”

“Hey—what’s that about an earthquake?” The man in the colored suit was still there. “By gosh, I can feel it—the whole damned bridge is shaking!”

“Off, mister—now!” Reynolds jerked a thumb at the traffic lanes where a steady stream of cars were hurtling past. “Dan, take us over to the main track. We’ll have to warn this traffic off—”

“Hold on, fellow.” The man unlimbered his camera. “I represent the New Devon Scope. I have a few questions—”

“I don’t have the answers.” Pete cut him off as the car pulled away.

“Hah!” The man who had questioned Reynolds yelled after him. “Big shot! Think you can . . .” His voice was lost behind them.

4

In a modest retirees’ apartment block in the coast town of Idlebreeze, forty miles from the scene of the freak quake, an old man sat in a reclining chair, half dozing before a yammering Tri-D tank.

” . . . Grandpa,” a sharp-voice young woman was saying. “It’s time for you to go in to bed.”

“Bed? Why do I want to go to bed? Can’t sleep anyway . . .” He stirred, made a pretense of sitting up, showing an interest in the Tri-D. “I’m watching this show. Don’t bother me.”

“It’s not a show, it’s the news,” a fattish boy said disgustedly. “Ma, can I switch channels—”

“Leave it alone, Bennie,” the old man said. On the screen a panoramic scene spread out, a stretch of barren ground across which a furrow showed. As he watched, it lengthened.

” . . . up here at the Intermix we have a fine view of the whole curious business, lazangemmun,” the announcer chattered. “And in our opinion it’s some sort of publicity stunt staged by the Port Authority to publicize their controversial port project—”

“Ma, can I change channels?”

“Go ahead, Bennie—”

“Don’t touch it,” the old man said. The fattish boy reached for the control, but something in the old man’s eye stopped him . . .

5

“The traffic’s still piling in here,” Reynolds said into the phone. “Damn it, Jim, we’ll have a major jam on our hands—”

“He won’t do it, Pete! You know the Circular was his baby—the super all-weather pike that nothing could shut down. He says you’ll have to handle this in the field—”

“Handle, hell! I’m talking about preventing a major disaster! And in a matter of minutes, at that!”

“I’ll try again—”

“If he says no, divert a couple of the big ten-yard graders and block it off yourself. Set up field arcs, and keep any cars from getting in from either direction.”

“Pete, that’s outside your authority!”

“You heard me!”

Ten minutes later, back at ground level, Reynolds watched the boom-mounted polyarcs swinging into position at the two roadblocks a quarter of a mile apart, cutting off the threatened section of the raised expressway. A hundred yards from where he stood on the rear cargo deck of a light grader rig, a section of rock fifty feet wide rose slowly, split, fell back with a ponderous impact. One corner of it struck the massive pier supporting the extended shelf of the lay-by above. A twenty-foot splinter fell away, exposing the reinforcing-rod core.

“How deep, Jim?” Reynolds spoke over the roaring sound coming from the disturbed area.

“Just subsurface now, Pete! It ought to break through—” His voice was drowned in a rumble as the damaged pier shivered, rose up, buckled at its midpoint, and collapsed, bringing down with it a large chunk of pavement and guard rail, and a single still-glowing light pole. A small car that had been parked on the doomed section was visible for an instant just before the immense slab struck. Reynolds saw it bounce aside, then disappear under an avalanche of broken concrete.

“My God, Pete—” Dan started. “That damned fool news hound . . . !”

“Look!” As the two men watched, a second pier swayed, fell backward into the shadow of the span above. The roadway sagged, and two more piers snapped. With a bellow like a burst dam, a hundred-foot stretch of the road fell into the roiling dust cloud.

“Pete!” Mayfield’s voice burst from the car radio. “Get out of there! I threw a reader on that thing and it’s chattering off the scale . . . !”

Among the piled fragments something stirred, heaved, rising up, lifting multi-ton pieces of the broken road, thrusting them aside like so many potato chips. A dull blue radiance broke through from the broached earth, threw an eerie light on the shattered structure above. A massive, ponderously irresistible shape thrust forward through the ruins. Reynolds saw a great blue-glowing profile emerge from the rubble like a surfacing submarine, shedding a burden of broken stone, saw immense treads ten feet wide claw for purchase, saw the mighty flank brush a still-standing pier, send it crashing aside.

“Pete, what—what is it . . . ?”

“I don’t know.” Reynolds broke the paralysis that had gripped him. “Get us out of here, Dan, fast! Whatever it is, it’s headed straight for the city!”

6

I emerge at last from the trap into which I had fallen, and at once encounter defensive works of considerable strength. My scanners are dulled from lack of power, but I am able to perceive open ground beyond the barrier, and farther still, at a distance of 5.7 kilometers, massive walls. Once more I transmit the Brigade Rally signal; but as before, there is no reply. I am truly alone.

I scan the surrounding area for the emanations of Enemy drive units, monitor the EM spectrum for their communications. I detect nothing; either my circuitry is badly damaged, or their shielding is superb.

I must now make a decision as to possible courses of action. Since all my comrades of the Brigade have fallen, I compute that the fortress before me must be held by Enemy forces. I direct probing signals at them, discover them to be of unfamiliar construction, and less formidable than they appear. I am aware of the possibility that this may be a trick of the Enemy; but my course is clear.

I reengage my driving engines and advance on the Enemy fortress.

7

“You’re out of your mind, father,” the stout man said. “At your age—”

“At your age, I got my nose smashed in a brawl in a bar on Aldo,” the old man cut him off. “But I won the fight.”

“James, you can’t go out at this time of night . . .” an elderly woman wailed.

“Tell them to go home.” The old man walked painfully toward his bedroom door. “I’ve seen enough of them for today.” He passed out of sight.

“Mother, you won’t let him do anything foolish?”

“He’ll forget about it in a few minutes; but maybe you’d better go now and let him settle down.”

“Mother—I really think a home is the best solution.”

“Yes,” the young woman nodded agreement. “After all, he’s past ninety—and he has his veteran’s retirement . . .”

Inside his room, the old man listened as they departed. He went to the closet, took out clothes, began dressing . . .

8

City Engineer Eaton’s face was chalk-white on the screen.

“No one can blame me,” he said. “How could I have known—”

“Your office ran the surveys and gave the PA the green light,” Mayor Dougherty yelled.

“All the old survey charts showed was ‘Disposal Area,'” Eaton threw out his hands. “I assumed—”

“As City Engineer, you’re not paid to make assumptions! Ten minutes’ research would have told you that was a ‘Y’ category area!”

“What’s ‘Y’ category mean?” Mayfield asked Reynolds. They were standing by the field comm center, listening to the dispute. Nearby, boom-mounted Tri-D cameras hummed, recording the progress of the immense machine, its upper turret rearing forty-five feet into the air, as it ground slowly forward across smooth ground toward the city, dragging behind it a trailing festoon of twisted reinforcing iron crusted with broken concrete.

“Half-life over one hundred years,” Reynolds answered shortly. “The last skirmish of the war was fought near here. Apparently this is where they buried the radioactive equipment left over from the battle.”

“But what the hell, that was seventy years ago—”

“There’s still enough residual radiation to contaminate anything inside a quarter-mile radius.”

“They must have used some hellish stuff.” Mayfield stared at the dull shine half a mile distant.

“Reynolds, how are you going to stop this thing?” The mayor had turned on the PA engineer.

“Me stop it? You saw what it did to my heaviest rigs: flattened them like pancakes. You’ll have to call out the military on this one, Mr. Mayor.”

“Call in Federation forces? Have them meddling in civic affairs?”

“The station’s only sixty-five miles from here. I think you’d better call them fast. It’s only moving at about three miles per hour but it will reach the south edge of the Mall in another forty-five minutes.”

“Can’t you mine it? Blast a trap in its path?”

“You saw it claw its way up from six hundred feet down. I checked the specs; it followed the old excavation tunnel out. It was rubble-filled and capped with twenty-inch compressed concrete.”

“It’s incredible,” Eaton said from the screen. “The entire machine was encased in a ten-foot shell of reinforced armocrete. It had to break out of that before it could move a foot!”

“That was just a radiation shield; it wasn’t intended to restrain a Bolo Combat Unit.”

“What was, may I inquire?” The mayor glared from one face to another.

“The units were deactivated before being buried,” Eaton spoke up, as if he were eager to talk. “Their circuits were fused. It’s all in the report—”

“The report you should have read somewhat sooner,” the mayor snapped.

“What—what started it up?” Mayfield looked bewildered. “For seventy years it was down there, and nothing happened!”

“Our blasting must have jarred something,” Reynolds said shortly. “Maybe closed a relay that started up the old battle reflex circuit.”

“You know something about these machines?” The mayor beetled his brows at him.

“I’ve read a little.”

“Then speak up, man. I’ll call the station, if you feel I must. What measures should I request?”

“I don’t know, Mr. Mayor. As far as I know, nothing on New Devon can stop that machine now.”

The mayor’s mouth opened and closed. He whirled to the screen, blanked Eaton’s agonized face, punched in the code for the Federation station.

“Colonel Blane!” he blurted as a stern face came onto the screen. “We have a major emergency on our hands! I’ll need everything you’ve got! This is the situation . . .”

9

I encounter no resistance other than the flimsy barrier, but my progress is slow. Grievous damage has been done to my main drive sector due to overload during my escape from the trap; and the failure of my sensing circuitry has deprived me of a major portion of my external receptivity. Now my pain circuits project a continuous signal to my awareness center, but it is my duty to my Commander and to my fallen comrades of the Brigade to press forward at my best speed; but my performance is a poor shadow of my former ability.

And now at last the Enemy comes into action! I sense aerial units closing at supersonic velocities; I lock my lateral batteries to them and direct salvo fire, but I sense that the arming mechanisms clatter harmlessly. The craft sweep over me, and my impotent guns elevate, track them as they release detonants that spread out in an envelopmental pattern which I, with my reduced capabilities, am powerless to avoid. The missiles strike; I sense their detonations all about me; but I suffer only trivial damage. The Enemy has blundered if he thought to neutralize a Mark XXVIII Combat Unit with mere chemical explosives! But I weaken with each meter gained.

Now there is no doubt as to my course. I must press the charge and carry the walls before my reserve cells are exhausted.

10

From a vantage point atop a bucket rig four hundred yards from the position the great fighting machine had now reached, Pete Reynolds studied it through night glasses. A battery of beamed polyarcs pinned the giant hulk, scarred and rust-scaled, in a pool of blue-white light. A mile and a half beyond it, the walls of the Mall rose sheer from the garden setting.

“The bombers slowed it some,” he reported to Eaton via scope. “But it’s still making better than two miles per hour. I’d say another twenty-five minutes before it hits the main ringwall. How’s the evacuation going?”

“Badly! I get no cooperation! You’ll be my witness, Reynolds, I did all I could—”

“How about the mobile batteries; how long before they’ll be in position?” Reynolds cut him off.

“I’ve heard nothing from Federation Central—typical militaristic arrogance, not keeping me informed—but I have them on my screens. They’re two miles out—say three minutes.”

“I hope you made your point about N-heads.”

“That’s outside my province!” Eaton said sharply. “It’s up to Brand to carry out this portion of the operation!”

“The HE Missiles didn’t do much more than clear away the junk it was dragging.” Reynolds’ voice was sharp.

“I wash my hands of responsibility for civilian lives,” Eaton was saying when Reynolds shut him off, changed channels.

“Jim, I’m going to try to divert it,” he said crisply. “Eaton’s sitting on his political fence; the Feds are bringing artillery up, but I don’t expect much from it. Technically, Brand needs Sector okay to use nuclear stuff, and he’s not the boy to stick his neck out—”

“Divert it how? Pete, don’t take any chances—”

Reynolds laughed shortly. “I’m going to get around it and drop a shaped drilling charge in its path. Maybe I can knock a tread off. With luck, I might get its attention on me and draw it away from the Mall. There are still a few thousand people over there, glued to their Tri-D’s. They think it’s all a swell show.”

“Pete, you can’t walk up on that thing! It’s hot—” He broke off. “Pete, there’s some kind of nut here—he claims he has to talk to you; says he knows something about that damned juggernaut. Shall I . . . ?”

Reynolds paused with his hand on the cut-off switch. “Put him on,” he snapped. Mayfield’s face moved aside and an ancient, bleary-eyed visage stared out at him. The tip of the old man’s tongue touched his dry lips.

“Son, I tried to tell this boy here, but he wouldn’t listen—”

“What have you got, old timer?” Pete cut in. “Make it fast.”

“My name’s Sanders. James Sanders. I’m . . . I was with the Planetary Volunteer Scouts, back in ’71—”

“Sure, dad,” Pete said gently. “I’m sorry, I’ve got a little errand to run—”

“Wait . . .” The old man’s face worked. “I’m old, son—too damned old. I know. But bear with me. I’ll try to say it straight. I was with Hayle’s squadron at Toledo. Then afterwards, they shipped us—but hell, you don’t care about that! I keep wandering, son; can’t help it. What I mean to say is—I was in on that last scrap, right here at New Devon—only we didn’t call it New Devon then. Called it Hellport. Nothing but bare rock and Enemy emplacement—”

“You were talking about the battle, Mr. Sanders,” Pete said tensely. “Go on with that part.”

“Lieutenant Sanders,” the oldster said. “Sure, I was Acting Brigade Commander. See, our major was hit at Toledo—and after Tommy Chee stopped a sidewinder at Belgrave—”

“Stick to the point, Lieutenant!”

“Yessir!” The old man pulled himself together with an obvious effort. “I took the Brigade in; put out flankers, and ran the Enemy into the ground. We mopped ’em up in a thirty-three hour running fight that took us from over by Crater Bay all the way down here to Hellport. When it was over, I’d lost sixteen units, but the Enemy was done. They gave us Brigade Honors for that action. And then . . .”

“Then what?”

“Then the triple-dyed yellow-bottoms at Headquarters put out the order the Brigade was to be scrapped; said they were too hot to make decon practical. Cost too much, they said! So after the final review”—he gulped, blinked—”they planted ’em deep, two hundred meters, and poured in special high-R concrete.”

“And packed rubble in behind them,” Reynolds finished for him. “All right, Lieutenant, I believe you! Now for the big one: what started that machine on a rampage?”

“Should have known they couldn’t hold down a Bolo Mark XXVIII!” The old man’s eyes lit up. “Take more than a few million tons of rock to stop Lenny when his battle board was lit!”

“Lenny?”

“That’s my old command unit out there, son. I saw the markings on the Tri-D. Unit LNE of the Dinochrome Brigade!”

“Listen!” Reynolds snapped out. “Here’s what I intend to try . . .” He outlined his plan.

“Ha!” Sanders snorted. “It’s a gutsy notion, mister, but Lenny won’t give it a sneeze.”

“You didn’t come here to tell me we were licked,” Reynolds cut in. “How about Brand’s batteries?”

“Hell, son, Lenny stood up to point-blank Hellbore fire on Toledo, and—”

“Are you telling me there’s nothing we can do?”

“What’s that? No, son, that’s not what I’m saying . . .”

“Then what!”

“Just tell these johnnies to get out of the way, mister. I think I can handle him.”

11

At the field comm hut, Pete Reynolds watched as the man who had been Lieutenant Sanders of the Volunteer Scouts pulled shiny black boots over his thin ankles and stood. The blouse and trousers of royal blue polyon hung on his spare frame like wash on a line. He grinned, a skull’s grin.

“It doesn’t fit like it used to; but Lenny will recognize it. It’ll help. Now, if you’ve got that power pack ready . . .”

Mayfield handed over the old-fashioned field instrument Sanders had brought in with him.

“It’s operating, sir—but I’ve already tried everything I’ve got on that infernal machine; I didn’t get a peep out of it.”

Sanders winked at him. “Maybe I know a couple of tricks you boys haven’t heard about.” He slung the strap over his bony shoulder and turned to Reynolds.

“Guess we better get going, mister. He’s getting close.”

In the rock car, Sanders leaned close to Reynolds’ ear. “Told you those Federal guns wouldn’t scratch Lenny. They’re wasting their time.”

Reynolds pulled the car to a stop at the crest of the road, from which point he had a view of the sweep of ground leading across to the city’s edge. Lights sparkled all across the towers of New Devon. Close to the walls, the converging fire of the ranked batteries of infinite repeaters drove into the glowing bulk of the machine, which plowed on, undeterred. As he watched, the firing ceased.

“Now, let’s get in there, before they get some other damn-fool scheme going,” Sanders said.

The rock car crossed the rough ground, swung wide to come up on the Bolo from the left side. Behind the hastily rigged radiation cover, Reynolds watched the immense silhouette grow before him.

“I knew they were big,” he said. “But to see one up close like this—” He pulled to a stop a hundred feet from the Bolo.

“Look at the side ports,” Sanders said, his voice crisper now. “He’s firing antipersonnel charges—only his plates are flat. If they weren’t, we wouldn’t have gotten within half a mile.” He unclipped the microphone and spoke into it:

“Unit LNE, break off action and retire to ten-mile line!”

Reynolds’ head jerked around to stare at the old man. His voice had rung with vigor and authority as he spoke the command.

The Bolo ground slowly ahead. Sanders shook his head, tried again.

“No answer, like that fella said. He must be running on nothing but memories now . . .” He reattached the microphone, and before Reynolds could put out a hand, had lifted the anti-R cover and stepped off on the ground.

“Sanders—get back in here!” Reynolds yelled.

“Never mind, son. I’ve got to get in close. Contact induction.” He started toward the giant machine. Frantically, Reynolds started the car, slammed it into gear, pulled forward.

“Better stay back.” Sanders’ voice came from his field radio. “This close, that screening won’t do you much good.”

“Get in the car!” Reynolds roared. “That’s hard radiation!”

“Sure; feels funny, like a sunburn, about an hour after you come in from the beach and start to think maybe you got a little too much.” He laughed. “But I’ll get to him . . .”

Reynolds braked to a stop, watched the shrunken figure in the baggy uniform as it slogged forward, leaning as against a sleet storm.

12

“I’m up beside him.” Sander’s voice came through faintly on the field radio. “I’m going to try to swing up on his side. Don’t feel like trying to chase him any farther.”

Through the glasses, Reynolds watched the small figure, dwarfed by the immense bulk of the fighting machine, as he tried, stumbled, tried again, swung up on the flange running across the rear quarter inside the churning bogie wheel.

“He’s up,” he reported. “Damned wonder the track didn’t get him . . .”

Clinging to the side of the machine, Sanders lay for a moment, bent forward across the flange. Then he pulled himself up, wormed his way forward to the base of the rear quarter turret, wedged himself against it. He unslung the communicator, removed a small black unit, clipped it to the armor; it clung, held by a magnet. He brought the microphone up to his face.

In the comm shack, Mayfield leaned toward the screen, his eyes squinted in tension. Across the field, Reynolds held the glasses fixed on the man lying across the flank of the Bolo. They waited . . .

13

The walls are before me, and I ready myself for a final effort, but suddenly I am aware of trickle currents flowing over my outer surface. Is this some new trick of the Enemy? I tune to the wave energies, trace the source. They originate at a point in contact with my aft port armor. I sense modulation, match receptivity to a computed pattern. And I hear a voice:

“Unit LNE, break it off, Lenny. We’re pulling back now, boy. This is Command to LNE; pull back to ten miles. If you read me, Lenny, swing to port and halt.”

I am not fooled by the deception. The order appears correct, but the voice is not that of my Commander. Briefly I regret that I cannot spare energy to direct a neutralizing power flow at the device the Enemy has attached to me. I continue my charge.

“Unit LNE! Listen to me, boy; maybe you don’t recognize my voice, but it’s me. You see, boy—some time has passed. I’ve gotten old. My voice has changed some, maybe. But it’s me! Make a port turn, Lenny. Make it now!”

I am tempted to respond to the trick, for something in the false command seems to awaken secondary circuits which I sense have been long stilled. But I must not be swayed by the cleverness of the Enemy. My sensing circuitry has faded further as my energy cells drain; but I know where the Enemy lies. I move forward, but I am filled with agony, and only the memory of my comrades drives me on.

“Lenny, answer me. Transmit on the old private band—the one we agreed on. Nobody but me knows it, remember?

Thus the Enemy seeks to beguile me into diverting precious power. But I will not listen.

“Lenny—not much time left. Another minute and you’ll be into the walls. People are going to die. Got to stop you, Lenny. Hot here. My God, I’m hot. Not breathing too well, now. I can feel it; cutting through me like knives. You took a load of Enemy power, Lenny; and now I’m getting my share. Answer me, Lenny. Over to you . . .”

It will require only a tiny allocation of power to activate a communication circuit. I realize that it is only an Enemy trick, but I compute that by pretending to be deceived, I may achieve some trivial advantage. I adjust circuitry accordingly and transmit:

“Unit LNE to Command. Contact with Enemy defensive line imminent. Request support fire!”

“Lenny . . . you can hear me! Good boy, Lenny! Now make a turn, to port. Walls . . . close . . .”

“Unit LNE to Command. Request positive identification; transmit code 685749.”

“Lenny—I can’t . . . don’t have code blanks. But it’s me . . .”

“In absence of recognition code, your transmission disregarded,” I send. And now the walls loom high above me. There are many lights, but I see them only vaguely. I am nearly blind now.

“Lenny—less’n two hundred feet to go. Listen, Lenny. I’m climbing down. I’m going to jump down, Lenny, and get around under your fore scanner pickup. You’ll see me, Lenny. You’ll know me then.”

The false transmission ceases. I sense a body moving across my side. The gap closes. I detect movement before me, and in automatic reflex fire anti-P charges before I recall that I am unarmed.

A small object has moved out before me, and taken up a position between me and the wall behind which the Enemy conceal themselves. It is dim, but appears to have the shape of a man . . .

I am uncertain. My alert center attempts to engage inhibitory circuitry which will force me to halt, but it lacks power. I can override it. But still I am unsure. Now I must take a last risk; I must shunt power to my forward scanner to examine this obstacle more closely. I do so, and it leaps into greater clarity. It is indeed a man—and it is enclothed in regulation blues of the Volunteers. Now, closer, I see the face and through the pain of my great effort, I study it . . .

14

“He’s backed against the wall,” Reynolds said hoarsely. “It’s still coming. A hundred feet to go—”

“You were a fool, Reynolds!” the mayor barked. “A fool to stake everything on that old dotard’s crazy ideas!”

“Hold it!” As Reynolds watched, the mighty machine slowed, halted, ten feet from the sheer wall before it. For a moment, it sat, as though puzzled. Then it backed, halted again, pivoted ponderously to the left, and came about.

On its side, a small figure crept up, fell across the lower gun deck. The Bolo surged into motion, retracing its route across the artillery-scarred gardens.

“He’s turned it.” Reynolds let his breath out with a shuddering sigh. “It’s headed out for open desert. It might get twenty miles before it finally runs out of steam.”

The strange voice that was the Bolo’s came from the big panel before Mayfield:

“Command . . . Unit LNE reports main power cells drained, secondary cells drained; now operating at .037 per cent efficiency, using Final Emergency Power. Request advice as to range to be covered before relief maintenance available.”

“It’s a long way, Lenny . . .” Sanders’ voice was a bare whisper. “But I’m coming with you . . .”

Then there was only the crackle of static. Ponderously, like a great mortally stricken animal, the Bolo moved through the ruins of the fallen roadway, heading for the open desert.

“That damned machine,” the mayor said in a hoarse voice. “You’d almost think it was alive.”

“You would at that,” Pete Reynolds said.

Afterword by Eric Flint:

In his preface, David refers to three of the Bolo stories “that really have an impact.” The other two, for the record—at least so far as Dave and I are concerned—are “A Relic of War” and “Combat Unit” (aka “Dinochrome”). Among the three, it’s hard to pick and choose. As it happens, I chose “Dinochrome” to include in the first volume of Laumer’s writings which I edited for Baen Books’ current reissue of many of Laumer’s writings, but I could just as easily have chosen this one.

My reasons are similar to David’s, but not exactly the same. I’m not a combat veteran, so on that level the story doesn’t have the same personal impact. The thing I’ve always liked so much about the three great Bolo stories is that they give you the best of Laumer’s ethos of duty without the veneer that I often find repellent in so many other stories Laumer wrote.

Laumer, like Van Vogt, was an author who naturally gravitated toward superman stories. Stories like that, no matter how well crafted and enjoyable—and on that level Laumer was a superb writer, one of the best ever in science fiction—just naturally tend to rub me the wrong way. It doesn’t matter how admirable and courageous the hero might be, or how worthy his cause, I soon get impatient with story after story where the fate of the world rests almost entirely on one person doing the right thing, and where the role of everyone else is pretty much reduced to one of three roles:

a) Loyal sidekick;
b) Enemy;
c) Most people, who are irrelevant at best and sluggards as a rule.

Oh, bah. The great divide in science fiction is not political, it’s the divide between those writers—Heinlein, Clarke and Andre Norton, to name three great figures—who generally tell stories about fairly ordinary people doing their best in difficult circumstances, and those writers—Van Vogt, “Doc” Smith and Laumer prominent among them, with George Lucas’ Star Wars series the latest embodiment—for whom most stories are heroic epics centered around supermen.
There’s an attraction to such stories, of course, even for someone with my inclination. That’s because, in the hands of good writers, the theme of Duty rings so strongly. It’s a theme which is difficult not to like, because without a sense of duty no virtues of any kind are possible.

And that’s why the best of the Bolo stories always have such an impact on me—today just as much as they did when I first read them many decades ago. The theme comes without the dross, so to speak. The Bolos are not supermen, they are simply servants trying to follow their duty as best as they can manage. In the end, for me at least, that makes these machines ultimately more human than many other of Laumer’s characters. Well . . . maybe not more human, but certainly a lot more sympathetic.

Shambleau by C. L. Moore

Shambleau

by C. L. Moore



Preface by David Drake



Catherine L. Moore is rightly regarded as one of the most remarkable stylists in the SF field. She once described the basic thread of her fiction as, "Love is the most dangerous thing."

"Shambleau" is a perfect illustration of both the above statements. It's about hard-bitten adventurers ranging the spaceways, meeting violence with violence . . . and it's nothing like any of the many other stories using the same elements being written then or written since then.

It was Moore's first story, written in a bank vault during the Depression because she had a typewriter and no work to do.

Her first story.

Shambleau! Ha . . . Shambleau!” The wild hysteria of the mob rocketed from wall to wall of Lakkdarol’s narrow streets and the storming of heavy boots over the slag-red pavement made an ominous undernote to that swelling bay, “Shambleau! Shambleau!”

Northwest Smith heard it coming and stepped into the nearest doorway, laying a wary hand on his heat-gun’s grip, and his colorless eyes narrowed. Strange sounds were common enough in the streets of Earth’s latest colony on Mars—a raw, red little town where anything might happen, and very often did. But Northwest Smith, whose name is known and respected in every dive and wild outpost on a dozen wild planets, was a cautious man, despite his reputation. He set his back against the wall and gripped his pistol, and heard the rising shout come nearer and nearer.

Then into his range of vision flashed a red running figure, dodging like a hunted hare from shelter to shelter in the narrow street. It was a girl—a berry-brown girl in a single tattered garment whose scarlet burnt the eyes with its brilliance. She ran wearily, and he could hear her gasping breath from where he stood. As she came into view he saw her hesitate and lean one hand against the wall for support, and glance wildly around for shelter. She must not have seen him in the depths of the doorway, for as the bay of the mob grew louder and the pounding of feet sounded almost at the corner she gave a despairing little moan and dodged into the recess at his very side.

When she saw him standing there, tall and leather-brown, hand on his heat-gun, she sobbed once, inarticulately, and collapsed at his feet, a huddle of burning scarlet and bare, brown limbs.

Smith had not seen her face, but she was a girl, and sweetly made and in danger; and though he had not the reputation of a chivalrous man, something in her hopeless huddle at his feet touched that chord of sympathy for the underdog that stirs in every Earthman, and he pushed her gently into the corner behind him and jerked out his gun, just as the first of the running mob rounded the corner.

It was a motley crowd, Earthmen and Martians and a sprinkling of Venusian swampmen and strange, nameless denizens of unnamed planets—a typical Lakkdarol mob. When the first of them turned the corner and saw the empty street before them there was a faltering in the rush and the foremost spread out and began to search the doorways on both sides of the street.

“Looking for something?” Smith’s sardonic call sounded clear above the clamor of the mob.

They turned. The shouting died for a moment as they took in the scene before them—tall Earthman in the space-explorer’s leathern garb, all one color from the burning of savage suns save for the sinister pallor of his no-colored eyes in a scarred and resolute face, gun in his steady hand and the scarlet girl crouched behind him, panting.

The foremost of the crowd—a burly Earthman in tattered leather from which the Patrol insignia had been ripped away—stared for a moment with a strange expression of incredulity on his face overspreading the savage exultation of the chase. Then he let loose a deep-throated bellow, “Shambleau!” and lunged forward. Behind him the mob took up the cry again. “Shambleau! Shambleau! Shambleau!” and surged after.

Smith, lounging negligently against the wall, arms folded and gun-hand draped over his left forearm, looked incapable of swift motion, but at the leader’s first forward step the pistol swept in a practiced half-circle and the dazzle of blue-white heat leaping from its muzzle seared an arc in the slag pavement at his feet. It was an old gesture, and not a man in the crowd but understood it. The foremost recoiled swiftly against the surge of those in the rear, and for a moment there was confusion as the two tides met and struggled. Smith’s mouth curled into a grim curve as he watched. The man in the mutilated Patrol uniform lifted a threatening fist and stepped to the very edge of the deadline, while the crowd rocked to and fro behind him.

“Are you crossing that line?” queried Smith in an ominously gentle voice.

“We want that girl!”

“Come and get her!” Recklessly Smith grinned into his face. He saw danger there, but his defiance was not the foolhardy gesture it seemed. An expert psychologist of mobs from long experience, he sensed no murder here. Not a gun had appeared in any hand in the crowd. They desired the girl with an inexplicable bloodthirstiness he was at a loss to understand, but toward himself he sensed no such fury. A mauling he might expect, but his life was in no danger. Guns would have appeared before now if they were coming out at all. So he grinned in the man’s angry face and leaned lazily against the wall.

Behind their self-appointed leader the crowd milled impatiently, and threatening voices began to rise again. Smith heard the girl moan at his feet.

“What do you want with her?” he demanded.

“She’s Shambleau! Shambleau, you fool! Kick her out of there—we’ll take care of her!”

“I’m taking care of her,” drawled Smith.

“She’s Shambleau, I tell you! Damn your hide, man, we never let those things live! Kick her out here!”

The repeated name had no meaning to him, but Smith’s innate stubbornness rose defiantly as the crowd surged forward to the very edge of the arc, their clamor growing louder. “Shambleau! Kick her out here! Give us Shambleau! Shambleau!”

Smith dropped his indolent pose like a cloak and planted both feet wide, swinging up his gun threatening. “Keep back!” he yelled. “She’s mine! Keep back!”

He had no intention of using that heat-beam. He knew by now that they would not kill him unless he started the gunplay himself, and he did not mean to give up his life for any girl alive. But a severe mauling he expected, and he braced himself instinctively as the mob heaved within itself.

To his astonishment a thing happened then that he had never known to happen before. At his shouted defiance the foremost of the mob—those who had heard him clearly—drew back a little, not in alarm but evidently surprised. The ex-Patrolman said, “Yours! She’s yours?” in a voice from which puzzlement crowded out the anger.

Smith spread his booted legs wide before the crouching figure and flourished his gun.

“Yes,” he said. “And I’m keeping her! Stand back there!”

The man stared at him wordlessly, and horror and disgust and incredulity mingled on his weather-beaten face. The incredulity triumphed for a moment and he said again,

“Yours!”

Smith nodded defiance.

The man stepped back suddenly, unutterable contempt in his very pose. He waved an arm to the crowd and said loudly, “It’s—his!” and the press melted away, gone silent, too, and the look of contempt spread from face to face.

The ex-Patrolman spat on the slag-paved street and turned his back indifferently. “Keep her, then,” he advised briefly over one shoulder. “But don’t let her out again in this town!”

* * *

Smith stared in perplexity almost open-mouthed as the suddenly scornful mob began to break up. His mind was in a whirl. That such bloodthirsty animosity should vanish in a breath he could not believe. And the curious mingling of contempt and disgust on the faces he saw baffled him even more. Lakkdarol was anything but a puritan town—it did not enter his head for a moment that his claiming the brown girl as his own had caused that strangely shocked revulsion to spread through the crowd. No, it was something deeper-rooted than that. Instinctive, instant disgust had been in the faces he saw—they would have looked less so if he had admitted cannibalism or Pharol-worship.

And they were leaving his vicinity as swiftly as if whatever unknowing sin he had committed were contagious. The street was emptying as rapidly as it had filled. He saw a sleek Venusian glance back over his shoulder as he turned the corner and sneer, “Shambleau!” and the word awoke a new line of speculation in Smith’s mind. Shambleau! Vaguely of French origin, it must be. And strange enough to hear it from the lips of Venusian and Martian drylanders, but it was their use of it that puzzled him more. “We never let those things live,” the ex-Patrolman had said. It reminded him dimly of something . . . an ancient line from some writing in his own tongue . . . “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” He smiled to himself at the similarity, and simultaneously was aware of the girl at his elbow.

She had risen soundlessly. He turned to face her, sheathing his gun and stared at first with curiosity and then in the entirely frank openness with which men regard that which is not wholly human. For she was not. He knew it at a glance, though the brown, sweet body was shaped like a woman’s and she wore the garment of scarlet—he saw it was leather—with an ease that few unhuman beings achieve toward clothing. He knew it from the moment he looked into her eyes, and a shiver of unrest went over him as he met them. They were frankly green as young grass, with slit-like, feline pupils that pulsed unceasingly, and there was a look of dark, animal wisdom in their depths—that look of the beast which sees more than man.

There was no hair upon her face—neither brows nor lashes, and he would have sworn that the tight scarlet turban bound around her head covered baldness. She had three fingers and a thumb, and her feet had four digits apiece too, and all sixteen of them were tipped with round claws that sheathed back into the flesh like a cat’s. She ran her tongue over her lips—a thin, pink, flat tongue as feline as her eyes—and spoke with difficulty. He felt that that throat and tongue had never been shaped for human speech.

“Not—afraid now,” she said softly, and her little teeth were white and polished as a kitten’s.

“What did they want you for?” he asked her curiously. “What have you done? Shambleau . . . is that your name?”

“I—not talk your—speech,” she demurred hesitantly.

“Well, try to—I want to know. Why were they chasing you? Will you be safe on the street now, or hadn’t you better get indoors somewhere? They looked dangerous.”

“I—go with you.” She brought it out with difficulty.

“Say you!” Smith grinned. “What are you, anyhow? You look like a kitten to me.”

“Shambleau.” She said it somberly.

“Where d’you live? Are you a Martian?”

“I come from—from far—from long ago—far country—”

“Wait!” laughed Smith. “You’re getting your wires crossed. You’re not a Martian?”

She drew herself up very straight beside him, lifting the turbaned head, and there was something queenly in the pose of her.

“Martian?” she said scornfully. “My people—are—are—you have no word. Your speech—hard for me.”

“What’s yours? I might know it—try me.”

She lifted her head and met his eyes squarely, and there was in hers a subtle amusement—he could have sworn it.

“Some day I—speak to you in—my own language,” she promised, and the pink tongue flicked out over her lips, swiftly, hungrily.

Approaching footsteps on the red pavement interrupted Smith’s reply. A dryland Martian came past, reeling a little and exuding an aroma of segir-whisky, the Venusian brand. When he caught the red flash of the girl’s tatters he turned his head sharply, and as his segir-steeped brain took in the fact of her presence he lurched toward the recess unsteadily, bawling, “Shambleau, by Pharol! Shambleau!” and reached out a clutching hand.

Smith struck it aside contemptuously.

“On your way, drylander,” he advised.

The man drew back and stared, bleary-eyed.

“Yours, eh?” he croaked. “Zut! You’re welcome to it!” And like the ex-Patrolman before him he spat on the pavement and turned away, muttering harshly in the blasphemous tongue of the drylands.

Smith watched him shuffle off, and there was a crease between his colorless eyes, a nameless unease rising within him.

“Come on,” he said abruptly to the girl. “If this sort of thing is going to happen we’d better get indoors. Where shall I take you?”

“With—you,” she murmured.

He stared down into the flat green eyes. Those ceaselessly pulsing pupils disturbed him, but it seemed to him, vaguely, that behind the animal shallows of her gaze was a shutter—a closed barrier that might at any moment open to reveal the very deeps of that dark knowledge he sensed there.

Roughly he said again, “Come on, then,” and stepped down into the street.

She pattered along a pace or two behind him, making no effort to keep up with his long strides, and though Smith—as men know from Venus to Jupiter’s moons—walks as softly as a cat, even in spacemen’s boots, the girl at his heels slid like a shadow over the rough pavement, making so little sound that even the lightness of his footsteps was loud in the empty street.

Smith chose the less frequented ways of Lakkdarol, and somewhat shamefacedly thanked his nameless gods that his lodgings were not far away, for the few pedestrians he met turned and stared after the two with that by now familiar mingling of horror and contempt which he was as far as ever from understanding.

The room he had engaged was a single cubicle in a lodging-house on the edge of the city. Lakkdarol, raw camptown that it was in those days, could have furnished little better anywhere within its limits, and Smith’s errand there was not one he wished to advertise. He had slept in worse places than this before, and knew that he would do so again.

There was no one in sight when he entered, and the girl slipped up the stairs at his heels and vanished through the door, shadowy, unseen by anyone in the house. Smith closed the door and leaned his broad shoulders against the panels, regarding her speculatively.

She took in what little the room had to offer in a glance—frowsy bed, rickety table, mirror hanging unevenly and cracked against the wall, unpainted chairs—a typical camptown room in an Earth settlement abroad. She accepted its poverty in that single glance, dismissed it, then crossed to the window and leaned out for a moment, gazing across the low roof-tops toward the barren countryside beyond, red slag under the late afternoon sun.

“You can stay here,” said Smith abruptly, “until I leave town. I’m waiting here for a friend to come in from Venus. Have you eaten?”

“Yes,” said the girl quickly. “I shall—need no—food for—a while.”

“Well—” Smith glanced around the room. “I’ll be in sometime tonight. You can go or stay just as you please. Better lock the door behind me.”

With no more formality than that he left her. The door closed and he heard the key turn, and smiled to himself. He did not expect, then, ever to see her again.

He went down the steps and out into the late-slanting sunlight with a mind so full of other matters that the brown girl receded very quickly into the background. Smith’s errand in Lakkdarol, like most of his errands, is better not spoken of. Man lives as he must, and Smith’s living was a perilous affair outside the law and ruled by the ray-gun only. It is enough to say that the shipping-port and its cargoes outbound interested him deeply just now, and that the friend he awaited was Yarol the Venusian, in that swift little Edsel ship the Maid that can flash from world to world with a derisive speed that laughs at Patrol boats and leaves pursuers floundering in the ether far behind. Smith and Yarol and the Maid were a trinity that had caused Patrol leaders much worry and many gray hairs in the past, and the future looked very bright to Smith himself that evening as he left his lodging-house.

* * *

Lakkdarol roars by night, as Earthmen’s camp-towns have a way of doing on every planet where Earth’s outposts are, and it was beginning lustily as Smith went down among the awakening lights toward the center of town. His business there does not concern us. He mingled with the crowd where the lights were brightest, and there was the click of ivory counters and the jingle of silver, and red segir gurgled invitingly from black Venusian bottles, and much later Smith strolled homeward under the moving moons of Mars, and if the street wavered a little under his feet now and then—why, that is only understandable. Not even Smith could drink red segir at every bar from the Martian Lamb to the New Chicago and remain entirely steady on his feet. But he found his way back with very little difficulty—considering—and spent a good five minutes hunting for his key before he remembered he had left it in the inner lock for the girl.

He knocked then, and there was no sound of footsteps from within, but in a few moments the latch clicked and the door swung open. She retreated soundlessly before him as he entered, and took up her favorite place against the window, leaning back on the sill and outlined against the starry sky beyond. The room was in darkness.

Smith flipped the switch by the door and then leaned back against the panels, steadying himself. The cool night air had sobered him a little and his head was clear enough—liquor went to Smith’s feet, not his head, or he would never have come this far along the lawless way he had chosen. He lounged against the door now and regarded the girl in the sudden glare of the bulbs, blinking a little as much at the scarlet of her clothing as at the light.

“So you stayed,” he said.

“I—waited,” she answered softly, leaning farther back against the sill and clasping the rough wood with slim, three-fingered hands, pale brown against the darkness.

“Why?”

She did not answer that, but her mouth curved into a slow smile. On a woman it would have been reply enough—provocative, daring. On Shambleau there was something pitiful and horrible in it—so human on the face of one half-animal. And yet . . . that sweet brown body curving so softly from the tatters of scarlet leather—the velvety texture of that brownness—the white-flashing smile . . . Smith was aware of a stirring excitement within him. After all—time would be hanging heavy now until Yarol came . . . Speculatively he allowed the steel-pale eyes to wander over her, with a slow regard that missed nothing. And when he spoke he was aware that his voice had deepened a little . . .

“Come here,” he said.

She came forward slowly, on bare clawed feet that made no slightest sound on the floor, and stood before him with downcast eyes and mouth trembling in that pitifully human smile. He took her by the shoulders—velvety soft shoulders, of a creamy smoothness that was not the texture of human flesh. A little tremor went over her, perceptibly, at the contact of his hands. Northwest Smith caught his breath suddenly and dragged her to him . . . sweet yielding brownness in the circle of his arms . . . heard her own breath catch and quicken as her velvety arms closed about his neck. And then he was looking down into her face, very near, and the green animal eyes met his with the pulsing pupils and the flicker of—something—deep behind their shallows—and through the rising clamor of his blood, even as he stooped his lips to hers, Smith felt something deep within him shudder away—inexplicable, instinctive, revolted. What it might be he had no words to tell, but the very touch of her was suddenly loathsome—so soft and velvet and unhuman—and it might have been an animal’s face that lifted itself to his mouth—the dark knowledge looked hungrily from the darkness of those slit pupils—and for a mad instant he knew that same wild, feverish revulsion he had seen in the faces of the mob . . .

“God!” he gasped, a far more ancient invocation against evil than he realized, then or ever, and he ripped her arms from his neck, swung her away with such a force that she reeled half across the room. Smith fell back against the door, breathing heavily, and stared at her while the wild revolt died slowly within him.

She had fallen to the floor beneath the window, and as she lay there against the wall with bent head he saw, curiously, that her turban had slipped—the turban that he had been so sure covered baldness—and a lock of scarlet hair fell below the binding leather, hair as scarlet as her garment, as unhumanly red as her eyes were unhumanly green. He stared, and shook his head dizzily and stared again, for it seemed to him that the thick lock of crimson had moved, squirmed of itself against her cheek.

At the contact of it her hands flew up and she tucked it away with a very human gesture and then dropped her head again into her hands. And from the deep shadow of her fingers he thought she was staring up at him covertly.

Smith drew a deep breath and passed a hand across his forehead. The inexplicable moment had gone as quickly as it came—too swiftly for him to understand or analyze it. “Got to lay off the segir,” he told himself unsteadily. Had he imagined that scarlet hair? After all, she was no more than a pretty brown girl-creature from one of the many half-human races peopling the planets. No more than that, after all. A pretty little thing, but animal . . . He laughed, a little shakily.

“No more of that,” he said. “God knows I’m no angel, but there’s got to be a limit somewhere. Here.” He crossed to the bed and sorted out a pair of blankets from the untidy heap, tossing them to the far corner of the room. “You can sleep there.”

Wordlessly she rose from the floor and began to rearrange the blankets, the uncomprehending resignation of the animal eloquent in every line of her.

* * *

Smith had a strange dream that night. He thought he had awakened to a room full of darkness and moonlight and moving shadows, for the nearer moon of Mars was racing through the sky and everything on the planet below her was endued with a restless life in the dark. And something . . . some nameless, unthinkable thing . . . was coiled about his throat . . . something like a soft snake, wet and warm. It lay loose and light about his neck . . . and it was moving gently, very gently, with a soft, caressive pressure that sent little thrills of delight through every nerve and fiber of him, a perilous delight—beyond physical pleasure, deeper than joy of the mind. That warm softness was caressing the very roots of his soul and with a terrible intimacy. The ecstasy of it left him weak, and yet he knew—in a flash of knowledge born of this impossible dream—that the soul should not be handled . . . And with that knowledge a horror broke upon him, turning the pleasure into a rapture of revulsion, hateful, horrible—but still most foully sweet. He tried to lift his hands and tear the dream-monstrosity from his throat—tired but half-heartedly; for though his soul was revolted to its very deeps, yet the delight of his body was so great that his hands all but refused the attempt. But when at last he tried to lift his arms a cold shock went over him and he found that he could not stir . . . his body lay stony as marble beneath the blankets, a living marble that shuddered with a dreadful delight through every rigid vein.

The revulsion grew strong upon him as he struggled against the paralyzing dream—a struggle of soul against sluggish body—titanically, until the moving dark was streaked with blankness that clouded and closed about him at last and he sank back into the oblivion from which he had awakened.

* * *

Next morning, when the bright sunlight shining through Mars’ clear thin air awakened him, Smith lay for a while trying to remember. The dream had been more vivid than reality, but he could not now quite recall . . . only that it had been more sweet and horrible than anything else in life. He lay puzzling for a while, until a soft sound from the corner aroused him from his thoughts and he sat up to see the girl lying in a cat-like coil on her blankets, watching him with round, grave eyes. He regarded her somewhat ruefully.

“Morning,” he said. “I’ve just had the devil of a dream . . . Well, hungry?”

She shook her head silently, and he could have sworn there was a covert gleam of strange amusement in her eyes.

He stretched and yawned, dismissing the nightmare temporarily from his mind.

“What am I going to do with you?” he inquired, turning to more immediate matters. “I’m leaving here in a day or two and I can’t take you along, you know. Where’d you come from in the first place?”

Again she shook her head.

“Not telling? Well, it’s your business. You can stay here until I give up the room. From then on you’ll have to do your own worrying.”

He swung his feet to the floor and reached for his clothes.

Ten minutes later, slipping the heat-gun into its holster at his thigh, Smith turned to the girl. “There’s food-concentrate in that box on the table. It ought to hold you until I get back. And you’d better lock the door again after I’ve gone.”

Her wide, unwavering stare was his only answer, and he was not sure she had understood, but at any rate the lock clicked after him as before, and he went down the steps with a faint grin on his lips.

The memory of last night’s extraordinary dream was slipping from him, as such memories do, and by the time he had reached the street the girl and the dream and all of yesterday’s happenings were blotted out by the sharp necessities of the present.

Again the intricate business that had brought him here claimed his attention. He went about it to the exclusion of all else, and there was a good reason behind everything he did from the moment he stepped out into the street until the time when he turned back again at evening; though had one chosen to follow him during the day his apparently aimless rambling through Lakkdarol would have seemed very pointless.

He must have spent two hours at the least idling by the space-port, watching with sleepy, colorless eyes the ships that came and went, the passengers, the vessels lying at wait, the cargoes—particularly the cargoes. He made the rounds of the town’s saloons once more, consuming many glasses of varied liquors in the course of the day and engaging in idle conversation with men of all races and worlds, usually in their own languages, for Smith was a linguist of repute among his contemporaries. He heard the gossip of the spaceways, news from a dozen planets of a thousand different events. He heard the latest joke about the Venusian Emperor and the latest report on the Chino-Aryan war and the latest song hot from the lips of Rose Robertson, whom every man on the civilized planets adored as “the Georgia Rose.” He passed the day quite profitably, for his own purposes, which do not concern us now, and it was not until late evening, when he turned homeward again, that the thought of the brown girl in his room took definite shape in his mind, though it had been lurking there, formless and submerged, all day.

He had no idea what comprised her usual diet, but he bought a can of New York roast beef and one of Venusian frog-broth and a dozen fresh canal-apples and two pounds of that Earth lettuce that grows so vigorously in the fertile canal-soil of Mars. He felt that she must surely find something to her liking in this broad variety of edibles, and—for his day had been very satisfactory—he hummed “The Green Hills of Earth” to himself in a surprisingly good baritone as he climbed the stairs.

* * *

The door was locked, as before, and he was reduced to kicking the lower panels gently with his boot, for his arms were full. She opened the door with that softness that was characteristic of her and stood regarding him in the semidarkness as he stumbled to the table with his load. The room was unlit again.

“Why don’t you turn on the lights?” he demanded irritably after he had barked his shin on the chair by the table in an effort to deposit his burden there.

“Light and—dark—they are alike—to me,” she murmured.

“Cat eyes, eh? Well, you look the part. Here, I’ve brought you some dinner. Take your choice. Fond of roast beef? Or how about a little frog-broth?”

She shook her head and backed away a step.

“No,” she said. “I can not—eat your food.”

Smith’s brows wrinkled. “Didn’t you have any of the food-tablets?”

Again the red turban shook negatively.

“Then you haven’t had anything for—why, more than twenty-four hours! You must be starved.”

“Not hungry,” she denied.

“What can I find for you to eat, then? There’s time yet if I hurry. You’ve got to eat, child.”

“I shall—eat,” she said softly. “Before long—I shall—feed. Have no—worry.”

She turned away then and stood at the window, looking out over the moonlit landscape as if to end the conversation. Smith cast her a puzzled glance as he opened the can of roast beef. There had been an odd undernote in that assurance that, undefinably, he did not like. And the girl had teeth and tongue and presumably a fairly human digestive system, to judge from her human form. It was nonsense for her to pretend that he could find nothing that she could eat. She must have had some of the food concentrate after all, he decided, prying up the thermos lid of the inner container to release the long-sealed savor of the hot meat inside.

“Well, if you won’t eat you won’t,” he observed philosophically as he poured hot broth and diced beef into the dish-like lid of the thermos can and extracted the spoon from its hiding-place between the inner and outer receptacles. She turned a little to watch him as he pulled up a rickety chair and sat down to the food, and after a while the realization that her green gaze was fixed so unwinkingly upon him made the man nervous, and he said between bites of creamy canal-apple, “Why don’t you try a little of this? It’s good.”

“The food—I eat is—better,” her soft voice told him in its hesitant murmur, and again he felt rather than heard a faint undernote of unpleasantness in the words. A sudden suspicion struck him as he pondered on that last remark—some vague memory of horror-tales told about campfires in the past—and he swung round in the chair to look at her, a tiny, creeping fear unaccountably arising. There had been that in her words—in her unspoken words, that menaced . . .

She stood up beneath his gaze demurely, wide green eyes with their pulsing pupils meeting his without a falter. But her mouth was scarlet and her teeth were sharp . . .

“What food do you eat?” he demanded. And then, after a pause, very softly, “Blood?”

She stared at him for a moment, uncomprehending; then something like amusement curled her lips and she said scornfully, “You think me—vampire, eh? No—I am Shambleau!”

Unmistakably there were scorn and amusement in her voice at the suggestion, but as unmistakably she knew what he meant—accepted it as a logical suspicion—vampire! Fairy-tales—but fairy-tales this unhuman, outland creature was most familiar with. Smith was not a credulous man, nor a superstitious one, but he had seen too many strange things himself to doubt that the wildest legend might have a basis of fact. And there was something namelessly strange about her . . .

He puzzled over it for a while between deep bites of the canal-apple. And though he wanted to question her about a great many things, he did not, for he knew how futile it would be.

He said nothing more until the meat was finished and another canal-apple had followed the first, and he had cleared away the meal by the simple expedient of tossing the empty can out of the window. Then he lay back in the chair and surveyed her from half-closed eyes, colorless in a face tanned like saddle-leather. And again he was conscious of the brown, soft curves of her, velvety—subtle arcs and planes of smooth flesh under the tatters of scarlet leather. Vampire she might be, unhuman she certainly was, but desirable beyond words as she sat submissive beneath his low regard, her red-turbaned head bent, her clawed fingers lying in her lap. They sat very still for a while, and the silence throbbed between them.

She was so like a woman—an Earth woman—sweet and submissive and demure, and softer than soft fur, if he could forget the three-fingered claws and the pulsing eyes—and that deeper strangeness beyond words . . . (Had he dreamed that red lock of hair that moved? Had it been segir that woke the wild revulsion he knew when he held her in his arms? Why had the mob so thirsted for her?) He sat and stared, and despite the mystery of her and the half-suspicions that thronged his mind—for she was so beautifully soft and curved under those revealing tatters—he slowly realized that his pulses were mounting, became aware of a kindling within . . . brown girl-creature with downcast eyes . . . and then the lids lifted and the green flatness of a cat’s gaze met his, and last night’s revulsion woke swiftly again, like a warning bell that clanged as their eyes met—animal, after all, too sleek and soft for humanity, and that inner strangeness . . .

Smith shrugged and sat up. His failings were legion, but the weakness of the flesh was not among the major ones. He motioned the girl to her pallet of blankets in the corner and turned to his own bed.

* * *

From deeps of sound sleep he awoke much later. He awoke suddenly and completely, and with that inner excitement that presages something momentous. He awoke to brilliant moonlight, turning the room so bright that he could see the scarlet of the girl’s rags as she sat up on her pallet. She was awake, she was sitting with her shoulder half turned to him and her head bent, and some warning instinct crawled coldly up his spine as he watched what she was doing. And yet it was a very ordinary thing for a girl to do—any girl, anywhere. She was unbinding her turban . . .

He watched, not breathing, a presentiment of something horrible stirring in his brain, inexplicably . . . The red folds loosened, and—he knew then that he had not dreamed—again a scarlet lock swung down against her cheek . . . a hair, was it? a lock of hair? . . . thick as a thick worm it fell, plumply, against that smooth cheek . . . more scarlet than blood and thick as a crawling worm . . . and like a worm it crawled.

Smith rose on an elbow, not realizing the motion, and fixed an unwinking stare, with a sort of sick, fascinated incredulity, on that—that lock of hair. He had not dreamed. Until now he had taken it for granted that it was the segir which had made it seem to move on that evening before. But now . . . it was lengthening, stretching, moving of itself. It must be hair, but it crawled; with a sickening life of its own it squirmed down against her cheek, caressingly, revoltingly, impossibly . . . Wet, it was, and round and thick and shining . . .

She unfastened the last fold and whipped the turban off. From what he saw then Smith would have turned his eyes away—and he had looked on dreadful things before, without flinching—but he could not stir. He could only lie there on elbow staring at the mass of scarlet, squirming—worms, hairs, what?—that writhed over her head in a dreadful mockery of ringlets. And it was lengthening, falling, somehow growing before his eyes, down over her shoulders in a spilling cascade, a mass that even at the beginning could never have been hidden under the skull-tight turban she had worn. He was beyond wondering, but he realized that. And still it squirmed and lengthened and fell, and she shook it out in a horrible travesty of a woman shaking out her unbound hair—until the unspeakable tangle of it—twisting, writhing, obscenely scarlet—hung to her waist and beyond, and still lengthened, an endless mass of crawling horror that until now, somehow, impossibly, had been hidden under the tight-bound turban. It was like a nest of blind, restless red worms . . . it was—it was like naked entrails endowed with an unnatural aliveness, terrible beyond words.

Smith lay in the shadows, frozen without and within in a sick numbness that came of utter shock and revulsion.

She shook out the obscene, unspeakable tangle over her shoulders, and somehow he knew that she was going to turn in a moment and that he must meet her eyes. The thought of that meeting stopped his heart with dread, more awfully than anything else in this nightmare horror; for nightmare it must be, surely. But he knew without trying that he could not wrench his eyes away—the sickened fascination of that sight held him motionless, and somehow there was a certain beauty . . .

Her head was turning. The crawling awfulness rippled and squirmed at the motion, writhing thick and wet and shining over the soft brown shoulders about which they fell now in obscene cascades that all but hid her body. Her head was turning. Smith lay numb. And very slowly he saw the round of her cheek foreshorten and her profile come into view, all the scarlet horrors twisting ominously, and the profile shortened in turn and her full face came slowly round toward the bed—moonlight shining brilliantly as day on the pretty girl-face, demure and sweet, framed in tangled obscenity that crawled . . .

The green eyes met his. He felt a perceptible shock, and a shudder rippled down his paralyzed spine, leaving an icy numbness in its wake. He felt the goose-flesh rising. But that numbness and cold horror he scarcely realized, for the green eyes were locked with his in a long, long look that somehow presaged nameless things—not altogether unpleasant things—the voiceless voice of her mind assailing him with little murmurous promises . . .

For a moment he went down into a blind abyss of submission; and then somehow the very sight of that obscenity in eyes that did not then realize they saw it, was dreadful enough to draw him out of the seductive darkness . . . the sight of her crawling and alive with unnamable horror.

She rose, and down about her in a cascade fell the squirming scarlet of—of what grew upon her head. It fell in a long, alive cloak to her bare feet on the floor, hiding her in a wave of dreadful, wet, writhing life. She put up her hands and like a swimmer she parted the waterfall of it, tossing the masses back over her shoulders to reveal her own brown body, sweetly curved. She smiled exquisitely, and in starting waves back from her forehead and down about her in a hideous background writhed the snaky wetness of her living tresses. And Smith knew that he looked upon Medusa.

The knowledge of that—the realization of vast backgrounds reaching into misted history—shook him out of his frozen horror for a moment, and in that moment he met her eyes again, smiling, green as glass in the moonlight, half hooded under drooping lids. Through the twisting scarlet she held out her arms. And there was something soul-shakingly desirable about her, so that all the blood surged to his head suddenly and he stumbled to his feet like a sleeper in a dream as she swayed toward him, infinitely graceful, infinitely sweet in her cloak of living horror.

And somehow there was beauty in it, the wet scarlet writhings with moonlight sliding and shining along the thick, worm-round tresses and losing itself in the masses only to glint again and move silvery along writhing tendrils—an awful, shuddering beauty more dreadful than any ugliness could be.

But all this, again, he but half realized, for the insidious murmur was coiling again through his brain, promising, caressing, alluring, sweeter than honey; and the green eyes that held his were clear and burning like the depths of a jewel, and behind the pulsing slits of darkness he was staring into a greater dark that held all things . . . He had known—dimly he had known when he first gazed into those flat animal shallows that behind them lay this—all beauty and terror, all horror and delight, in the infinite darkness upon which her eyes opened like windows, paned with emerald glass.

Her lips moved, and in a murmur that blended indistinguishably with the silence and the sway of her body and the dreadful sway of her—her hair—she whispered—very softly, very passionately, “I shall—speak to you now—in my own tongue—oh, beloved!”

And in her living cloak she swayed to him, the murmur swelling seductive and caressing in his innermost brain—promising, compelling, sweeter than sweet. His flesh crawled to the horror of her, but it was a perverted revulsion that clasped what it loathed. His arms slid round her under the sliding cloak, wet, wet and warm and hideously alive—and the sweet velvet body was clinging to his, her arms locked about his neck—and with a whisper and a rush the unspeakable horror closed about them both.

In nightmares until he died he remembered that moment when the living tresses of Shambleau first folded him in their embrace. A nauseous, smothering odor as the wetness shut around him—thick, pulsing worms clasping every inch of his body, sliding, writhing, their wetness and warmth striking through his garments as if he stood naked to their embrace.

All this in a graven instant—and after that a tangled flash of conflicting sensation before oblivion closed over him for he remembered the dream—and knew it for nightmare reality now, and the sliding, gently moving caresses of those wet, warm worms upon his flesh was an ecstasy above words—that deeper ecstasy that strikes beyond the body and beyond the mind and tickles the very roots of soul with unnatural delight. So he stood, rigid as marble, as helplessly stony as any of Medusa’s victims in ancient legends were, while the terrible pleasure of Shambleau thrilled and shuddered through every fiber of him; through every atom of his body and the intangible atoms of what men call the soul, through all that was Smith the dreadful pleasure ran. And it was truly dreadful. Dimly he knew it, even as his body answered to the root-deep ecstasy, a foul and dreadful wooing from which his very soul shuddered away—and yet in the innermost depths of that soul some grinning traitor shivered with delight. But deeply, behind all this, he knew horror and revulsion and despair beyond telling, while the intimate caresses crawled obscenely in the secret places of his soul—knew that the soul should not be handled—and shook with the perilous pleasure through it all.

And this conflict and knowledge, this mingling of rapture and revulsion all took place in the flashing of a moment while the scarlet worms coiled and crawled upon him, sending deep, obscene tremors of that infinite pleasure into every atom that made up Smith. And he could not stir in that slimy, ecstatic embrace—and a weakness was flooding that grew deeper after each succeeding wave of intense delight, and the traitor in his soul strengthened and drowned out the revulsion—and something within him ceased to struggle as he sank wholly into a blazing darkness that was oblivion to all else but that devouring rapture . . .

* * *

The young Venusian climbing the stairs to his friend’s lodging-room pulled out his key absent-mindedly, a pucker forming between his fine brows. He was slim, as all Venusians are, as fair and sleek as any of them, and as with most of his countrymen the look of cherubic innocence on his face was wholly deceptive. He had the face of a fallen angel, without Lucifer’s majesty to redeem it; for a black devil grinned in his eyes and there were faint lines of ruthlessness and dissipation about his mouth to tell of the long years behind him that had run the gamut of experiences and made his name, next to Smith’s, the most hated and the most respected in the records of the Patrol.

He mounted the stairs now with a puzzled frown between his eyes. He had come into Lakkdarol on the noon liner—the Maid in her hold very skillfully disguised with paint and otherwise—to find in lamentable disorder the affairs he had expected to be settled. And cautious inquiry elicited the information that Smith had not been seen for three days. That was not like his friend—he had never failed before, and the two stood to lose not only a large sum of money but also their personal safety by the inexplicable lapse on the part of Smith. Yarol could think of one solution only: fate had at last caught up with his friend. Nothing but physical disability could explain it.

Still puzzling, he fitted his key in the lock and swung the door open.

In that first moment, as the door opened, he sensed something very wrong . . . The room was darkened, and for a while he could see nothing, but at the first breath he scented a strange, unnamable odor, half sickening, half sweet. And deep stirrings of ancestral memory awoke within him—ancient swamp-born memories from Venusian ancestors far away and long ago . . .

Yarol laid his hand on his gun, lightly, and opened the door wider. In the dimness all he could see at first was a curious mound in the far corner . . . Then his eyes grew accustomed to the dark, and he saw it more clearly, a mound that somehow heaved and stirred within itself . . . A mound of—he caught his breath sharply—a mound like a mass of entrails, living, moving, writhing with an unspeakable aliveness. Then a hot Venusian oath broke from his lips and he cleared the door-sill in a swift stride, slammed the door and set his back against it, gun ready in his hand, although his flesh crawled—for he knew . . .

“Smith!” he said softly, in a voice thick with horror.

The moving mass stirred—shuddered—sank back into crawling quiescence again.

“Smith! Smith!” The Venusian’s voice was gentle and insistent, and it quivered a little with terror.

An impatient ripple went over the whole mass of aliveness in the corner. It stirred again, reluctantly, and then tendril by writhing tendril it began to part itself and fall aside, and very slowly the brown of a spaceman’s leather appeared beneath it, all slimed and shining.

“Smith! Northwest!” Yarol’s persistent whisper came again, urgently, and with a dream-like slowness the leather garments moved . . . a man sat up in the midst of the writhing worms, a man who once, long ago, might have been Northwest Smith. From head to foot he was slimy from the embrace of the crawling horror about him. His face was that of some creature beyond humanity—dead-alive, fixed in a gray stare, and the look of terrible ecstasy that overspread it seemed to come from somewhere far within, a faint reflection from immeasurable distances beyond the flesh. And as there is mystery and magic in the moonlight which is after all but a reflection of the everyday sun, so in that gray face turned to the door was a terror unnamable and sweet, a reflection of ecstasy beyond the understanding of any who had known only earthly ecstasy themselves. And as he sat there turning a blank, eyeless face to Yarol the red worms writhed ceaselessly about him, very gently, with a soft, caressive motion that never slacked.

“Smith . . . come here! Smith . . . get up . . . Smith, Smith!” Yarol’s whisper hissed in the silence, commanding, urgent—but he made no move to leave the door.

And with a dreadful slowness, like a dead man rising, Smith stood up in the nest of slimy scarlet. He swayed drunkenly on his feet, and two or three crimson tendrils came writhing up his legs to the knees and wound themselves there, supportingly, moving with a ceaseless caress that seemed to give him some hidden strength, for he said then, without inflection.

“Go away. Go away. Leave me alone.” And the dead ecstatic face never changed.

“Smith!” Yarol’s voice was desperate. “Smith, listen! Smith, can’t you hear me?”

“Go away,” the monotonous voice said. “Go away. Go away. Go—”

“Not unless you come too. Can’t you hear? Smith! Smith! I’ll—”

He hushed in mid-phrase, and once more the ancestral prickle of race-memory shivered down his back, for the scarlet mass was moving again, violently, rising . . .

Yarol pressed back against the door and gripped his gun, and the name of a god he had forgotten years ago rose to his lips unbidden. For he knew what was coming next, and the knowledge was more dreadful than any ignorance could have been.

The red, writhing mass rose higher, and the tendrils parted and a human face looked out—no, half human, with green cat-eyes that shone in that dimness like lighted jewels, compellingly . . .

Yarol breathed “Shar!” again, and flung up an arm across his face, and the tingle of meeting that green gaze for even an instant went thrilling through him perilously.

“Smith!” he called in despair. “Smith, can’t you hear me?”

“Go away,” said that voice that was not Smith’s. “Go away.”

And somehow, although he dared not look, Yarol knew that the—the other—had parted those worm-thick tresses and stood there in all the human sweetness of the brown, curved woman’s body, cloaked in living horror. And he felt the eyes upon him, and something was crying insistently in his brain to lower that shielding arm . . . He was lost—he knew it, and the knowledge gave him that courage which comes from despair. The voice in his brain was growing, swelling, deafening him with a roaring command that all but swept him before it—command to lower that arm—to meet the eyes that opened upon darkness—to submit—and a promise, murmurous and sweet and evil beyond words, of pleasure to come . . .

But somehow he kept his head—somehow, dizzily, he was gripping his gun in his upflung hand—somehow, incredibly, crossing the narrow room with averted face, groping for Smith’s shoulder. There was a moment of blind fumbling in emptiness, and then he found it, and gripped the leather that was slimy and dreadful and wet—and simultaneously he felt something loop gently about his ankle and a shock of repulsive pleasure went through him, and then another coil, and another, wound about his feet . . .

Yarol set his teeth and gripped the shoulder hard, and his hand shuddered of itself, for the feel of that leather was slimy as the worms about his ankles, and a faint tingle of obscene delight went through him from the contact.

That caressive pressure on his legs was all he could feel, and the voice in his brain drowned out all other sounds, and his body obeyed him reluctantly—but somehow he gave one heave of tremendous effort and swung Smith, stumbling, out of that nest of horror. The twining tendrils ripped loose with a little sucking sound, and the whole mass quivered and reached after, and then Yarol forgot his friend utterly and turned his whole being to the hopeless task of freeing himself. For only a part of him was fighting, now—only a part of him struggled against the twining obscenities, and in his innermost brain the sweet, seductive murmur sounded, and his body clamored to surrender . . .

“Shar! Shar y’danis . . . Shar mor’la-rol—” prayed Yarol, gasping and half unconscious that he spoke, boy’s prayers that he had forgotten years ago, and with his back half turned to the central mass he kicked desperately with his heavy boots at the red, writhing worms about him. They gave back before him, quivering and curling themselves out of reach, and though he knew that more were reaching for his throat from behind, at least he could go on struggling until he was forced to meet those eyes . . .

He stamped and kicked and stamped again, and for one instant he was free of the slimy grip as the bruised worms curled back from his heavy feet, and he lurched away dizzily, sick with revulsion and despair as he fought off the coils, and then he lifted his eyes and saw the cracked mirror on the wall. Dimly in its reflection he could see the writhing scarlet horror behind him, cat face peering out with its demure girl-smile, dreadfully human, and all the red tendrils reaching after him. And remembrance of something he had read long ago swept incongruously over him, and the gasp of relief and hope that he gave shook for a moment the grip of the command in his brain.

Without pausing for a breath he swung the gun over his shoulder, the reflected barrel in line with the reflected horror in the mirror, and flicked the catch.

In the mirror he saw its blue flame leap in a dazzling spate across the dimness, full into the midst of that squirming, reaching mass behind him. There was a hiss and a blaze and a high, thin scream of inhuman malice and despair—the flame cut a wide arc and went out as the gun fell from his hand, and Yarol pitched forward to the floor.

* * *

Northwest Smith opened his eyes to Martian sunlight streaming thinly through the dingy window. Something wet and cold was slapping his face, and the familiar fiery sting of segir-whiskey burnt his throat.

“Smith!” Yarol’s voice was saying from far away. “N.W.! Wake up, damn you! Wake up!”

“I’m—awake,” Smith managed to articulate thickly. “Wha’s matter?”

Then a cup-rim was thrust against his teeth and Yarol said irritably, “Drink it, you fool!”

Smith swallowed obediently and more of the fire-hot segir flowed down his grateful throat. It spread a warmth through his body that awakened him from the numbness that had gripped him until now, and helped a little toward driving out the all-devouring weakness he was becoming aware of slowly. He lay still for a few minutes while the warmth of the whisky went through him, and memory sluggishly began to permeate his brain with the spread of the segir. Nightmare memories . . . sweet and terrible . . . memories of—

“God!” gasped Smith suddenly, and tried to sit up. Weakness smote him like a blow, and for an instant the room wheeled as he fell back against something firm and warm—Yarol’s shoulder. The Venusian’s arm supported him while the room steadied, and after a while he twisted a little and stared into the other’s black gaze.

Yarol was holding him with one arm and finishing the mug of segir himself, and the black eyes met his over the rim and crinkled into sudden laughter, half hysterical after that terror that was passed.

“By Pharol!” gasped Yarol, choking into his mug. “By Pharol, N.W.! I’m never gonna let you forget this! Next time you have to drag me out of a mess I’ll say—”

“Let it go,” said Smith. “What’s been going on? How—”

“Shambleau,” Yarol’s laughter died. “Shambleau! What were you doing with a thing like that?”

“What was it?” Smith asked soberly.

“Mean to say you didn’t know? But where’d you find it? How—”

“Suppose you tell me first what you know,” said Smith firmly. “And another swig of that segir, too. I need it.”

“Can you hold the mug now? Feel better?”

“Yeah—some. I can hold it—thanks. Now go on.”

“Well—I don’t know just where to start. They call them Shambleau—”

“Good God, is there more than one?”

“It’s a—a sort of race, I think, one of the very oldest. Where they come from nobody knows. The name sounds a little French, doesn’t it? But it goes back beyond the start of history. There have always been Shambleau.”

“I never heard of ’em.”

“Not many people have. And those who know don’t care to talk about it much.”

“Well, half this town knows. I hadn’t any idea what they were talking about, then. And I still don’t understand—”

“Yes, it happens like this, sometimes. They’ll appear, and the news will spread and the town will get together and hunt them down, and after that—well, the story doesn’t get around very far. It’s too—too unbelievable.”

“But—my God, Yarol!—what was it? Where’d it come from? How—”

“Nobody knows just where they come from. Another planet—maybe some undiscovered one. Some say Venus—I know there are some rather awful legends of them handed down in our family—that’s how I’ve heard about it. And the minute I opened that door, awhile back—I—I think I knew that smell . . .”

“But—what are they?”

“God knows. Not human, though they have the human form. Or that may be only an illusion . . . or maybe I’m crazy. I don’t know. They’re a species of the vampire—or maybe the vampire is a species of—of them. Their normal form must be that—that mass, and in that form they draw nourishment from the—I suppose the life-forces of men. And they take some form—usually a woman form, I think, and key you up to the highest pitch of emotion before they—begin. That’s to work the life-force up to intensity so it’ll be easier . . . And they give, always, that horrible, foul pleasure as they—feed. There are some men who, if they survive the first experience, take to it like a drug—can’t give it up—keep the thing with them all their lives—which isn’t long—feeding it for that ghastly satisfaction. Worse than smoking ming or—or ‘praying to Pharol.'”

“Yes,” said Smith. “I’m beginning to understand why that crowd was so surprised and—and disgusted when I said—well, never mind. Go on.”

“Did you get to talk to—to it?” asked Yarol.

“I tried to. It couldn’t speak very well. I asked it where it came from and it said—’from far away and long ago’—something like that.”

“I wonder. Possibly some unknown planet—but I think not. You know there are so many wild stories with some basis of fact to start from, that I’ve sometimes wondered—mightn’t there be a lot more of even worse and wilder superstitions we’ve never even heard of? Things like this, blasphemous and foul, that those who know have to keep still about? Awful, fantastic things running around loose that we never hear rumors of at all!

“These things—they’ve been in existence for countless ages. No one knows when or where they first appeared. Those who’ve seen them, as we saw this one, don’t talk about it. It’s just one of those vague, misty rumors you find half hinted at in old books sometimes . . . I believe they are an older race than man, spawned from ancient seed in times before ours, perhaps on planets that have gone to dust, and so horrible to man that when they are discovered the discoverers keep still about it—forget them again as quickly as they can.

“And they go back to time immemorial. I suppose you recognized the legend of Medusa? There isn’t any question that the ancient Greeks knew of them. Does it mean that there have been civilizations before yours that set out from Earth and explored other planets? Or did one of the Shambleau somehow make its way into Greece three thousand years ago? If you think about it long enough you’ll go off your head! I wonder how many other legends are based on things like this—things we don’t suspect, things we’ll never know.

“The Gorgon, Medusa, a beautiful woman with—with snakes for hair, and a gaze that turned men to stone, and Perseus finally killed her—I remembered this just by accident, N.W., and it saved your life and mine—Perseus killed her by using a mirror as he fought to reflect what he dared not look at directly. I wonder what the old Greek who first started that legend would have thought if he’d known that three thousand years later his story would save the lives of two men on another planet. I wonder what that Greek’s own story was, and how he met the thing, and what happened . . .

“Well, there’s a lot we’ll never know. Wouldn’t the records of that race of—of things, whatever they are, be worth reading! Records of other planets and other ages and all the beginnings of mankind! But I don’t suppose they’ve kept any records. I don’t suppose they’ve even any place to keep them—from what little I know, or anyone knows about it, they’re like the Wandering Jew, just bobbing up here and there at long intervals, and where they stay in the meantime I’d give my eyes to know! But I don’t believe that terribly hypnotic power they have indicates any superhuman intelligence. It’s their means of getting food—just like a frog’s long tongue or a carnivorous flower’s odor. Those are physical because the frog and the flower eat physical food. The Shambleau uses a—a mental reach to get mental food. I don’t quite know how to put it. And just as a beast that eats the bodies of other animals acquires with each meal greater power over the bodies of the rest, so the Shambleau, stoking itself up with the life-forces of men, increases its power over the minds and souls of other men. But I’m talking about things I can’t define—things I’m not sure exist.

“I only know that when I felt—when those tentacles closed around my legs—I didn’t want to pull loose, I felt sensations that—that—oh, I’m fouled and filthy to the very deepest part of me by that—pleasure—and yet—”

“I know,” said Smith slowly. The effect of the segir was beginning to wear off, and weakness was washing back over him in waves, and when he spoke he was half meditating in a lower voice, scarcely realizing that Yarol listened. “I know it—much better than you do—and there’s something so indescribably awful that the thing emanates, something so utterly at odds with everything human—there aren’t any words to say it. For a while I was a part of it, literally, sharing its thoughts and memories and emotions and hungers, and—well, it’s over now and I don’t remember very clearly, but the only part left free was that part of me that was all but insane from the—the obscenity of the thing. And yet it was a pleasure so sweet—I think there must be some nucleus of utter evil in me—in everyone—that needs only the proper stimulus to get complete control; because even while I was sick all through from the touch of those—things—there was something in me that was—was simply gibbering with delight . . . Because of that I saw things—and knew things—horrible, wild things I can’t quite remember—visited unbelievable places, looked backward through the memory of that—creature—I was one with, and saw—God, I wish I could remember!”

“You ought to thank your God you can’t,” said Yarol soberly.

* * *

His voice roused Smith from the half-trance he had fallen into, and he rose on his elbow, swaying a little from weakness. The room was wavering before him, and he closed his eyes, not to see it, but he asked, “You say they—they don’t turn up again? No way of finding—another?”

Yarol did not answer for a moment. He laid his hands on the other man’s shoulders and pressed him back, and then sat staring down into the dark, ravaged face with a new, strange, undefinable look upon it that he had never seen there before—whose meaning he knew, too well.

“Smith,” he said finally, and his black eyes for once were steady and serious, and the little grinning devil had vanished from behind them, “Smith, I’ve never asked your word on anything before, but I’ve—I’ve earned the right to do it now, and I’m asking you to promise me one thing.”

Smith’s colorless eyes met the black gaze unsteadily. Irresolution was in them, and a little fear of what that promise might be. And for just a moment Yarol was looking, not into his friend’s familiar eyes, but into a wide gray blankness that held all horror and delight—a pale sea with unspeakable pleasures sunk beneath it. Then the wide stare focused again and Smith’s eyes met his squarely and Smith’s voice said, “Go ahead. I’ll promise.”

“That if you ever should meet a Shambleau again—ever, anywhere—you’ll draw your gun and burn it to hell the instant you realize what it is. Will you promise me that?”

There was a long silence. Yarol’s somber black eyes bored relentlessly into the colorless ones of Smith, not wavering. And the veins stood out on Smith’s tanned forehead. He never broke his word—he had given it perhaps half a dozen times in his life, but once he had given it, he was incapable of breaking it. And once more the gray seas flooded in a dim tide of memories, sweet and horrible beyond dreams. Once more Yarol was staring into blankness that hid nameless things. The room was very still.

The gray tide ebbed. Smith’s eyes, pale and resolute as steel, met Yarol’s levelly.

“I’ll—try,” he said. And his voice wavered.

Heavy Planet by Lee Gregor

Heavy Planet

by Lee Gregor

Ennis was completing his patrol of Sector EM, Division 426 of the Eastern Ocean. The weather had been unusually fine, the liquid-thick air roaring along in a continuous blast that propelled his craft with a rush as if it were flying, and lifting short, choppy waves that rose and fell with a startling suddenness. A short savage squall whirled about, pounding down on the ocean like a million hammers, flinging the little boat ahead madly.

Ennis tore at the controls, granite-hard muscles standing out in bas-relief over his short, immensely thick body, skin gleaming scalelike in the splashing spray. The heat from the sun that hung like a huge red lantern on the horizon was a tangible intensity, making an inferno of the gale.

The little craft, that Ennis maneuvered by sheer brawn, took a leap into the air and seemed to float for many seconds before burying its keel again in the sea. It often floated for long distances, the air was so dense. The boundary between air and water was sometimes scarcely defined at all—one merged into the other imperceptibly. The pressure did strange things.

Like a dust mote sparkling in a beam, a tiny speck of light above caught Ennis’ eye. A glider, he thought, but he was puzzled. Why so far out here on the ocean? They were nasty things to handle in the violent wind.

The dust mote caught the light again. It was lower, tumbling down with a precipitancy that meant trouble. An upward blast caught it, checked its fall. Then it floated down gently for a space until struck by another howling wind that seemed to distort its very outlines.

Ennis turned the prow of his boat to meet the path of the falling vessel. Curious, he thought; where were its wings? Were they retracted, or broken off? It ballooned closer, and it wasn’t a glider. Far larger than any glider ever made, it was of a ridiculous shape that would not stand up for an instant. And with the sharp splash the body made as it struck the water—a splash that fell in almost the same instant it rose—a thought seemed to leap up in his mind. A thought that was more important than anything else on that planet; or was to him, at least. For if it was what he thought it was—and it had to be that—it was what Shadden had been desperately seeking for many years. What a stroke of inconceivable luck, falling from the sky before his very eyes!

The silvery shape rode the ragged waters lightly. Ennis’ craft came up with a rush; he skillfully checked its speed and the two came together with a slight jar. The metal of the strange vessel dented as if it were made of rubber. Ennis stared. He put out an arm and felt the curved surface of the strange ship. His finger prodded right through the metal. What manner of people were they who made vessels of such weak materials?

He moored his little boat to the side of the larger one and climbed to an opening. The wall sagged under him. He knew he must be careful; it was frightfully weak. It would not hold together very long; he must work fast if it were to be saved. The atmospheric pressure would have flattened it out long ago, had it not been for the jagged rent above which had allowed the pressure to be equalized.

He reached the opening and lowered himself carefully into the interior of the vessel. The rent was too small; he enlarged it by taking the two edges in his hands and pulling them apart. As he went down he looked askance at the insignificant plates and beams that were like tissue paper on his world. Inside was wreckage. Nothing was left in its original shape. Crushed, mutilated machinery, shattered vacuum tubes, sagging members, all ruined by the gravity and the pressure.

There was a pulpy mess on the floor that he did not examine closely. It was like red jelly, thin and stalky, pulped under a gravity a hundred times stronger and an atmosphere ten thousand times heavier than that it had been made for.

He was in a room with many knobs and dials on the walls, apparently a control room. A table in the center with a chart on it, the chart of a solar system. It had nine planets; his had but five.

Then he knew he was right. If they came from another system, what he wanted must be there. It could be nothing else.

He found a staircase, descended. Large machinery bulked there. There was no light, but he did not notice that. He could see well enough by infrared, and the amount of energy necessary to sustain his compact gianthood kept him constantly radiating.

Then he went through a door that was of a comfortable massiveness, even for his planet—and there it was. He recognized it at once. It was big, squat, strong. The metal was soft, but it was thick enough even to stand solidly under the enormous pull of this world. He had never seen anything quite like it. It was full of coils, magnets, and devices of shapes unknown to him. But Shadden would know. Shadden, and who knows how many other scientists before him, had tried to make something which would do what this could do, but they had all failed. And without the things this machine could perform, the race of men on Heavyplanet was doomed to stay down on the surface of the planet, chained there immovably by the crushing gravity.

* * *

It was atomic energy. That he had known as soon as he knew that the body was not a glider. For nothing else but atomic energy and the fierce winds was capable of lifting a body from the surface of Heavyplanet. Chemicals were impotent. There is no such thing as an explosion where the atmosphere pressed inward with more force than an explosion could press outward. Only atomic, of all the theoretically possible sources of energy, could supply the work necessary to lift a vessel away from the planet. Every other source of energy was simply too weak.

Yes, Shadden, all the scientists must see this. And quickly, because the forces of sea and storm would quickly tear the ship to shreds, and, even more vital, because the scientists of Bantin and Marak might obtain the secret if there was delay. And that would mean ruin—the loss of its age-old supremacy—for his nation. Bantin and Marak were war nations; did they obtain the secret they would use it against all the other worlds that abounded in the Universe.

The Universe was big. That was why Ennis was so sure there was atomic energy on this ship. For, even though it might have originated on a planet that was so tiny that chemical energy—although that was hard to visualize—would be sufficient to lift it out of the pull of gravity, to travel the distance that stretched between the stars only one thing would suffice.

He went back through the ship, trying to see what had happened.

There were pulps lying behind long tubes that pointed out through clever ports in the outer wall. He recognized them as weapons, worth looking into.

There must have been a battle. He visualized the scene. The forces that came from atomic energy must have warped even space in the vicinity. The ship pierced, the occupants killed, the controls wrecked, the vessel darting off at titanic speed, blindly into nothing. Finally it had come near enough to Heavyplanet to be enmeshed in its huge web of gravity.

Weeaao-o-ow! It was the wailing roar of his alarm siren, which brought him spinning around and dashing for his boat. Beyond, among the waves that leaped and fell so suddenly, he saw a long, low craft making way toward the derelict spaceship. He glimpsed a flash of color on the rounded, gray superstructure, and knew it for a battleship of Marak. Luck was going strong both ways; first good, now bad. He could easily have eluded the battleship in his own small craft, but he couldn’t leave the derelict. Once lost to the enemy he could never regain it, and it was too valuable to lose.

The wind howled and buffeted about his head, and he strained his muscles to keep from being blasted away as he crouched there, half on his own boat and half on the derelict. The sun had set and the evening winds were beginning to blow. The hulk scudded before them, its prow denting from the resistance of the water it pushed aside.

He thought furiously fast. With a quick motion he flipped the switch of the radiophone and called Shadden. He waited with fierce impatience until the voice of Shadden was in his ear. At last he heard it, then: “Shadden! This is Ennis. Get your glider, Shadden, fly to a45j on my route! Quickly! It’s come, Shadden! But I have no time. Come!”

He flipped the switch off, and pounded the valve out of the bottom of his craft, clutching at the side of the derelict. With a rush the ocean came up and flooded his little boat and in an instant it was gone, on its way down to the bottom. That would save him from being detected for a short time.

* * *

Back into the darkness of the spaceship. He didn’t think he had been noticed climbing through the opening. Where could he hide? Should he hide? He couldn’t defeat the entire battleship singlehanded, without weapons. There were no weapons that could be carried anyway. A beam of concentrated actinic light that ate away the eyes and the nervous system had to be powered by the entire output of a battleship’s generators. Weapons for striking and cutting had never been developed on a world where flesh was tougher than metal. Ennis was skilled in personal combat, but how could he overcome all that would enter the derelict?

Down again, into the dark chamber where the huge atomic generator towered over his head. This time he looked for something he had missed before. He crawled around it, peering into its recesses. And then, some feet above, he saw the opening, and pulled himself up to it, carefully, not to destroy the precious thing with his mass. The opening was shielded with a heavy, darkly transparent substance through which seeped a dim glow from within. He was satisfied then. Somehow, matter was still being disintegrated in there, and energy could be drawn off if he knew how.

There were leads—wires of all sizes, and busbars, and thick, heavy tubes that bent under their own weight. Some must lead in and some must lead out; it was not good to tamper with them. He chose another track. Upstairs again, and to the places where he had seen the weapons.

They were all mounted on heavy, rigid swivels. He carefully detached the tubes from the bases. The first time he tried it he was not quite careful enough, and part of the projector itself was ripped away, but next time he knew what he was doing and it came away nicely. It was a large thing, nearly as thick as his arm and twice as long. Heavy leads trailed from its lower end and a lever projected from behind. He hoped it was in working condition. He dared not try it; all he could do was to trace the leads back and make sure they were intact.

He ran out of time. There came a thud from the side, and then smaller thuds, as the boarding party incautiously leaped over. Once there was a heavy sound, as someone went all the way through the side of the ship.

“Idiot!” Ennis muttered, and moved forward with his weapon toward the stairway. Noises came from overhead, and then a loud crash buckled the plates of the ceiling. Ennis leaped out of the way, but the entire section came down, with two men on it. The floor sagged, but held for the moment. Ennis, caught beneath the down-coming mass, beat his way free. He came up with a girder in his hand, which he bent over the head of one of the Maraks. The man shook himself and struck out for Ennis, who took the blow rolling and countered with a buffet that left a black splotch on a skin that was like armor plate and sent the man through the opposite wall. The other was upon Ennis, who whirled with the quickness of one who maneuvers habitually under a pressure of ten thousand atmospheres, and shook the Marak from him, leaving him unconscious with a twist in a sensitive spot.

The first opponent returned, and the two grappled, searching for nerve centers to beat upon. Ennis twisted frantically, conscious of the real danger that the frail vessel might break to pieces beneath his feet. The railing of a staircase gave behind the two, and they hurtled down it, crashing through the steps to the floor below. Their weight and momentum carried them through. Ennis released his grip on the Marak, stopped his fall by grasping one of the girders that was part of the ship’s framework. The other continued his devastating way down, demolishing the inner shell, and then the outer shell gave way with a grinding crash that ominously became a burbling rush of liquid.

Ennis looked down into the space where the Marak had fallen, hissed with a sudden intake of breath, then dove down himself. He met rising water, gushing in through a rent in the keel. He braced himself against a girder which sagged under his hand and moved onward against the rushing water. It geysered through the hole in a heavy stream that pushed him back and started to fill the bottom level of the ship. Against that terrific pressure he strained forward slowly, beating against the resisting waves, and then, with a mighty flounder, was at the opening. Its edges had been folded back upon themselves by the inrushing water, and they gaped inward like a jagged maw. He grasped them in a huge hand and exerted force. They strained for a moment and began to straighten. Irresistibly he pushed and stretched them into their former position, and then took the broken ends in his hands and squeezed. The metal grew soft under his grip and began to flow. The edges of the plate welded under that mighty pressure. He moved down the crack and soon it was watertight. He flexed his hands as he rose. They ached; even his strength was beginning to be taxed.

Noises from above; pounding feet. Men were coming down to investigate the commotion. He stood for a moment in thought, then turned to a blank wall, battered his way through it, and shoved the plates and girders back into position. Down to the other end of the craft, and up a staircase there. The corridor above was deserted, and he stole along it, hunting for the place he had left the weapon he had prepared. There was a commotion ahead as the Maraks found the unconscious man.

Two men came pounding up the passageway, giving him barely enough time to slip into a doorway to the side. The room he found himself in was a sleeping chamber. There were two red pulps there, and nothing that could help him, so he stayed in there only long enough to make sure that he would not be seen emerging into the hall. He crept down it again, with as little noise as possible. The racket ahead helped him; it sounded as though they were tearing the ship apart. Again he cursed their idiocy. Couldn’t they see how valuable this was?

They were in the control room, ripping apart the machinery with the curiosity of children, wondering at the strange weakness of the paperlike metal, not realizing that, on the world where it was fabricated, it was sufficiently strong for any strain the builders could put upon it.

The strange weapon Ennis had prepared was on the floor of the passage, and just outside the control room. He looked anxiously at the trailing cables. Had they been stepped on and broken? Was the instrument in working condition? He had to get it and be away; no time to experiment to see if it would work.

A noise from behind, and Ennis again slunk into a doorway as a large Marak with a colored belt around his waist strode jarringly through the corridor into the control room. Sharp orders were barked, and the men ceased their havoc with the machinery of the room. All but a few left and scattered through the ship. Ennis’ face twisted into a scowl. This made things more difficult. He couldn’t overcome them all single-handed, and he couldn’t use the weapon inside the ship if it was what he thought it was from the size of the cables.

A Marak was standing immediately outside the room in which Ennis lurked. No exit that way. He looked around the room; there were no other doors. A porthole in the outer wall was a tiny disk of transparency. He looked at it, felt it with his hands, and suddenly pushed his hands right through it. As quietly as he could, he worked at the edges of the circle until the hole was large enough for him to squeeze through. The jagged edges did not bother him. They felt soft, like a ragged pat of butter.

The Marak vessel was moored to the other side of the spaceship. On this side the wind howled blankly, and the sawtooth waves stretched on and on to a horizon that was many miles distant. He cautiously made his way around the glistening rotundity of the derelict, past the prow, straining silently against the vicious backward sweep of the water that tore at every inch of his body. The darker hump of the battleship loomed up as he rounded the curve, and he swam across the tiny space to grasp a row of projections that curved up over the surface of the craft. He climbed up them, muscles that were hard as carborundum straining to hold against all the forces of gravity and wind that fought him down. Near the top of the curve was a rounded, streamlined projection. He felt around its base and found a lever there, which he moved. The metal hump slid back, revealing a rugged swivel mounting with a stubby cylindrical projector atop it.

He swung the mounting around and let loose a short, sudden blast of white fire along the naked deck of the battleship. Deep voices yelled within and men sprang out, to fall back with abrupt screams clogged in their throats as Ennis caught them in the intolerable blast from the projector. Men, shielded by five thousand miles of atmosphere from actinic light, used to receiving only red and infra red, were painfully vulnerable to his frightful concentration of ultraviolet.

Noise and shouts burst from the derelict spaceship alongside, sweeping away eerily in the thundering wind that seemed to pound down upon them with new vigor in that moment. Heads appeared from the openings in the craft.

Ennis suddenly stood up to his full height, bracing himself against the wind, so dense it made him buoyant. With a deep bellow he bridged the space to the derelict. Then, as a squad of Maraks made their difficult, slippery way across the flank of the battleship toward him, and as the band that had boarded the spaceship crowded out on its battered deck to see what the noise was about, he dropped down into a crouch behind his ultraviolet projector, and whirled it around, pulling the firing lever.

That was what he wanted. Make a lot of noise and disturbance, get them all on deck, and then blow them to pieces. The ravening blast spat from the nozzle of the weapon, and the men on the battleship dropped flat on the deck. He found he could not depress the projector enough to reach them. He spun it to point at the spaceship. The incandescence reached out, and then seemed to waver and die. The current was shut off at the switchboard.

Ennis rose from behind the projector, and then hurtled from the flank of the battleship as he was struck by two Maraks leaping on him from behind the hump of the vessel. The three struck the water and sank, Ennis struggling violently. He was on the last lap, and he gave all his strength to the spurt. The water swirled around them in little choppy waves that fell more quickly than the eye could follow. Heavier blows than those from an Earthly trip hammer were scoring Ennis’ face and head. He was in a bad position to strike back, and suddenly he became limp and sank below the surface. The pressure of the water around him was enormous, and it increased very rapidly as he went lower and lower. He saw the shadowy bulk of the spaceship above him. His lungs were fighting for air, but he shook off his pretended stupor and swam doggedly through the water beneath the derelict. He went on and on. It seemed as though the distance were endless, following the metal curve. It was so big from beneath, and trying to swim the width without air made it bigger.

Clear, finally, his lungs drew in the saving breaths. No time to rest, though. He must make use of his advantage while it was his; it wouldn’t last long. He swam along the side of the ship looking for an opening. There was none within reach from the water, so he made one, digging his stubby fingers into the metal, climbing up until it was safe to tear a rent in the thick outer and inner walls of the ship.

He found himself in one of the machine rooms of the second level. He went out into the corridor and up the stairway which was half-wrecked, and found himself in the main passage near the control room. He darted down it, into the room. There was nobody there, although the noises from above indicated that the Maraks were again descending. There was his weapon on the floor, where he had left it. He was glad that they had not gotten around to pulling that instrument apart. There would be one thing saved for intelligent examination.

The clatter from the descending crowd turned into a clamor of anger as they discovered him in the passageway. They stopped there for a moment, puzzled. He had been in the ocean, and had somehow magically reappeared within the derelict. It gave him time to pick up the weapon.

Ennis debated rapidly and decided to risk the unknown. How powerful the weapon was he did not know, but with atomic energy it would be powerful. He disliked using it inside the spaceship; he wanted to have enough left to float on the water until Shadden arrived; but they were beginning to advance on him, and he had to start something.

He pulled a lever. The cylinder in his arms jerked back with great force; a bolt of fierce, blinding energy tore out of it and passed with the quickness of light down the length of the corridor.

When he could see again there was no corridor. Everything that had been in the way of the projector was gone, simply disappeared.

Unmindful of the heat from the object in his hands, he turned and directed it at the battleship that was plainly outlined through the space that had been once the walls of the derelict. Before the men on the deck could move, he pulled the lever again.

And the winds were silenced for a moment. The natural elements were still in fear at the incredible forces that came from the destruction of atoms. Then with an agonized scream the hurricane struck again, tore through the spot where there had been a battleship.

Far off in the sky Ennis detected motion. It was Shadden, speeding in a glider.

Now would come the work that was important. Shadden would take the big machine apart and see how it ran. That was what history would remember.

Afterword by Eric Flint

The oldest story in this anthology is C.L. Moore’s “Shambleau,” which was first published in the November 1933 issue of Weird Tales. Five years have to pass before another one of the stories collected here first appears: John W. Campbell, Jr.’s “Who Goes There?” in the August 1938 issue of Astounding. Two more come in the following year: Van Vogt’s “Black Destroyer” in the July 1939 issue of Astounding, and, one month later in the same magazine, this story: Lee Gregor’s “Heavy Planet.”

C.L. Moore, John W. Campbell, Jr., A. E. Van Vogt . . . all of them among the great names in the history of science fiction.

Lee Gregor was not. In fact, the name itself is a pseudonym. “Lee Gregor” was actually Milton A. Rothman, a minor science fiction writer who published not more than a dozen stories, scattered across four decades from the late ’30s to the late ’70s, many of them using the pseudonym of Lee Gregor. Under his own name, he was probably better known to SF readers as one of the scientists who periodically wrote factual articles for either Astounding/Analog or, later in his life, Issac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and anthologies associated with it.

And yet . . .

“Heavy Planet” has been anthologized since its first appearance over a dozen times—about as often as Moore’s “Shambleau” and Van Vogt’s “Black Destroyer,” and almost as many times as Campbell’s “Who Goes There?” In fact, the first time I read it was in one of the great, classic science fiction anthologies: Adventures in Time and Space, edited by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas and first published in 1946 by Random House. My parents gave me the volume as a gift, if memory serves me correctly, on my fourteenth birthday.

Odd success, perhaps, for such a simple and straight-forward story. But I think that’s the key to it. It’s such a clean story, and one of the very first in the history of science fiction (that I can think of, anyway) that is told entirely from the viewpoint of an alien. Even the supposition that the bodies Ennis encounters on the wrecked spaceship are those of human beings is simply that—a supposition. The story does not say, one way or the other. It does not need to, because the story is not about humans. It is about hope and aspiration, which although they are human qualities, may well be shared by others.

That was what struck me most about the story, at the time. And even at that age, I wasn’t so callow that I didn’t understand that Gregor’s story applied to the world I saw around me. I didn’t have to wait for aliens to appear to start thinking about what a mile might feel like in someone else’s moccasins.

Environment by Chester S. Geier

Environment

by Chester S. Geier

The sun was rising above the towers and spires of the city to the west. It sent questing fingers of brightness through the maze of streets and avenues, wiping away the last, pale shadows of night. But in the ageless splendor of the dawn, the city dreamed on.

The ship came with the dawn, riding down out of the sky on wings of flame, proclaiming its arrival in a voice of muted thunder. It came out of the west, dropping lower and lower, to cruise finally in great, slow circles. It moved over the city like a vast, silver-gray hunting hawk, searching for prey. There was something of eagerness in the leashed thunder of its voice.

Still the city dreamed on. Nothing, it seemed, could disturb its dreaming. Nothing could. It was not a sentient dreaming. It was a part of the city itself, something woven into every flowing line and graceful curve. As long as the city endured, the dream would go on.

The voice of the ship had grown plaintive, filled with an aching disappointment. Its circling was aimless, dispirited. It rose high in the sky, hesitated, then glided down and down. It landed on an expanse of green in what had once been a large and beautiful park.

It rested now on the sward, a great, silver-gray ovoid that had a certain harsh, utilitarian beauty. There was a pause of motionlessness, then a circular lock door opened in its side. Jon Gaynor appeared in the lock and jumped to the ground. He gazed across the park to where the nearest towers of the city leaped and soared, and his gray eyes were narrowed in a frown of mystification.

“Deserted!” he whispered. “Deserted— But why?”

Jon Gaynor turned as Wade Harlan emerged from the lock. The two glanced at each other, then, in mutual perplexity, their eyes turned to the dreaming city. After a long moment, Wade Harlan spoke.

“Jon, I was thinking— Perhaps this isn’t the right planet. Perhaps . . . perhaps old Mark Gaynor and the Purists never landed here at all—”

Jon Gaynor shook his brown head slowly. He was a tall, lean figure in a tight-fitting, slate-gray overall. “I’ve considered that possibility, Wade. No—this is the place, all right. Everything checks against the data given in that old Bureau of Expeditions report. Seven planets in the system—this the second planet. And this world fits perfectly the description given in the report—almost a second Earth. Then there’s the sun. Its type, density, rate of radiation, spectrum—all the rest—they check, too.”

Gaynor shook his head again. “Granted there could exist another system of seven planets, with the second habitable. But it’s too much to suppose that the description of that second planet, as well as the description of its sun, would exactly fit the expedition report. And the report mentioned a deserted city. We’re standing in the middle of it now. The only thing that doesn’t check is that it’s still deserted.”

Harlan gave a slight shrug. “That may not mean anything, Jon. How can you be certain that Mark Gaynor and the Purists came back here at all? The only clue you have is that old Bureau of Expeditions report, describing this city and planet, which you found among the personal effects Mark Gaynor left behind. It may not have meant anything.”

“Perhaps— But I’m pretty sure it did. You see, old Mark and the Purists wanted to live far from all others, somewhere where there would be none to laugh at them for their faith in the ancient religious beliefs. The only habitable planets which answered their purposes were a tremendously remote few. Of them all, this was the only one possessing a city—and a deserted city at that.”

“So you think they must have come here because of the benefits offered by the city?”

“That’s one reason. The other . . . well, old Mark had a pile of Bureau of Expedition reports dating back for two hundred years. The report relating to this planetary system was marked in red, as being of special interest. It was the only report so marked—”

Harlan smiled in friendly derision. “Add that to a misplaced hero-worship for a crackpot ancestor—and the answer is that we’ve come on a goose chase. Lord, Jon, even with the Hyperspacial Drive to carry us back over the immense distance, it’s going to be a terrific job getting back to Earth. You know what a time we had, finding this planet. The Hyperspacial Drive is a wonderful thing—but it has its drawbacks. You go in here, and you come out there—millions of miles away. If you’re lucky, you’re only within a few million miles or so of your destination. If not—and that’s most of the time—you simply try again. And again—”

“That’s a small worry,” Gaynor replied. “And as for old Mark, he was hardly a crackpot. It took one hundred and twenty years for the world to realize that. His ideas on how people should live and think were fine—but they just didn’t fit in with the general scheme of things. On a small group, they could have been applied beautifully. And such a group, living and thinking that way, might have risen to limitless heights of greatness. Hero-worship? No—I never had such feelings for my great-great-uncle, Mark Gaynor. I just had a feverish desire to see how far the Purists had risen—to see if their way of life had given them an advantage over others.”

Harlan was sober. “Maybe we’ll never learn what happened to them, Jon. The city is deserted. Either the Purists came here and left—or they never came here at all.”

Gaynor straightened with purpose. “We’ll learn which is the answer. I’m not leaving until we do. We’ll—” Gaynor broke off, his eyes jerking toward the sky. High up and far away in the blue, something moved, a vast swarm of objects too tiny for identification. They soared and circled, dipped and swooped like birds. And as the two men from another planet watched, sounds drifted down to them—sweet, crystalline tinklings and chimings, so infinitely faint that they seemed to be sensed rather than heard.

“Life—” Harlan murmured. “There’s life here of sorts, Jon.”

Gaynor nodded thoughtfully. “And that may mean danger. We’re going to examine the city—and I think we’d better be armed.”

While Harlan watched the graceful, aimless maneuvers of the aerial creatures, Gaynor went back into the ship. In a moment, he returned with laden arms. He and Harlan strapped the antigravity flight units to their backs, buckled the positron blasters about their waists. Then they lifted into the air, soared with easy speed toward a cluster of glowing towers.

As they flew, a small cloud of the aerial creatures flashed past. The things seemed to be intelligent, for, as though catching sight of the two men, they suddenly changed course, circling with a clearly evident display of excited curiosity. The crystalline chimings and tinklings which they emitted held an elfin note of astonishment.

If astonishment it actually was, Gaynor and Harlan were equally amazed at close view of the creatures. For they were great, faceted crystals whose interiors flamed with glorious color—exquisite shades that pulsed and changed with the throb of life. Like a carillon of crystal bells, their chimings and tinklings rang out—so infinitely sweet and clear and plaintive that it was both a pain and a pleasure to hear.

“Crystalline life!” Harlan exclaimed. His voice became thoughtful. “Wonder if it’s the only kind of life here.”

Gaynor said nothing. He watched the circling crystal creatures with wary eyes, the positron blaster gripped in his hand. But the things gave no evidence of being inimical—or at least no evidence of being immediately so. With a last exquisite burst of chimings, they coalesced into a small cloud and soared away, glittering, flashing, with prismatic splendor in the sunlight.

On the invisible wings of their antigravity flight units, Gaynor and Harlan had approached quite close to the cluster of towers which was their goal. Gliding finally through the space between two, they found themselves within a snug, circular enclosure, about the circumference of which the towers were spaced. The floor of the enclosure was in effect a tiny park, for grass and trees grew here, and there were shaded walks built of the same palely glowing substance as the towers. In the exact center of the place was a fountain, wrought of some lustrous, silvery metal. Only a thin trickle of water came from it now.

Gaynor dipped down, landed gently beside the fountain. He bent, peering, then gestured excitedly to Harlan, who was hovering close.

“Wade—there’s a bas-relief around this thing! Figures—”

Harlan touched ground, joined Gaynor in a tense scrutiny of the design. A procession of strange, lithe beings was pictured in bas-relief around the curving base of the fountain. Their forms were essentially humanoid, possessed of two arms, two legs, and large, well-formed head. Except for an exotic, fawnlike quality about the graceful, parading figures, Gaynor and Harlan might have been gazing at a depiction of garlanded, Terrestrial youths and maidens.

“The builders of the city,” Gaynor said softly. “They looked a lot like us. Parallel evolution, maybe. This planet and sun are almost twins of ours. Wade—I wonder what happened to them?”

Harlan shook his shock of red hair slowly, saying nothing. His blue eyes were dark with somber speculation.

Gaynor’s voice whispered on. “The city was already deserted when that government expedition discovered it some one hundred and thirty years ago. The city couldn’t always have been that way. Once there were people on this planet—beings who thought and moved and dreamed, who built in material things an edifice symbolic of their dreaming. Why did they disappear? What could have been responsible? War, disease—or simply the dying out of a race?”

Harlan shrugged his great shoulders uncomfortably. His voice was gruff. “Maybe the answer is here somewhere. Maybe not. If it isn’t, maybe we’ll be better off, not knowing. When an entire race disappears for no apparent reason, as the people of this city seem to have done, the answer usually isn’t a nice one.”

The two men took to one of the paths radiating away from the fountain, followed it to a great, arching entranceway at the base of a tower-building. Slowly they entered—the sunlight dimmed and they moved through a soft gloom. Presently they found themselves in a vast foyer—if such it was. In the middle of the place was a circular dais, with steps leading to a small platform at the top.

They mounted the steps, gained the platform. Of a sudden, a faint whispering grew, and without any other warning, they began to rise slowly into the air. Harlan released a cry of surprise and shock. Gaynor ripped his positron blaster free, sought desperately to writhe from the influence of the force that had gripped him.

And then Gaynor quieted. His eyes were bright with a realization. “An elevator!” he gasped. “Wade—we stepped into some kind of elevating force.”

They ceased struggling and were borne gently up and up. They passed through an opening in the ceiling of the foyer, found themselves within a circular shaft, the top of which was lost in the dimness above. Vertical handrails lined the shaft. It was only after passing two floors that they divined the purpose of these. Then, reaching the third floor, each gripped a handrail, and they stepped from the force.

They found themselves within a vast, well-lighted apartment. The source of illumination was not apparent, seeming to emanate from the very walls. Room opened after spacious room—and each was as utterly barren of furnishings as the last. Barren, that is, except for two things. The first was that the walls were covered with murals or paintings—life-sized, rich with glowing color, and almost photographic in detail. The second was that one wall of each room contained a tiny niche. Gaynor and Harlan investigated a niche in one room they entered. Within it was a solitary object—a large jewel, or at least what seemed to be a jewel.

“This is screwy,” Harlan muttered. “It doesn’t make sense. How could anyone have lived in a place like this?”

Gaynor’s eyes were dark with thought. He answered slowly, “Don’t make the mistake of judging things here according to our standard of culture. To the builders of this city, Wade, these rooms might have been thoroughly cozy and comfortable, containing every essential necessary to their daily lives.”

“Maybe,” Harlan grunted. “But I certainly don’t see those essentials.”

“This thing—” Gaynor lifted the jewel from its niche. “Maybe this thing holds an answer of some kind.” Gaynor balanced the jewel in his palm, gazing down at it frowningly. His thoughts were wondering, speculative. Then the speculation faded—he found himself concentrating on the thing, as though by sheer force of will he could fathom its purpose.

And then it happened—the jewel grew cold in his hand—a faint, rose-colored glow surrounded it like an aura. A musical tinkling sounded. Harlan jumped, a yell bursting full-throated from his lungs. Gaynor spun about, surprised, uncomprehending.

“I . . . I saw things!” Harlan husked. “Objects, Jon— The room was full of them—angular ghosts!”

Gaynor stared at the other without speaking. His features were lax with a dawning awe.

Harlan said suddenly, “Try it again, Jon. Look at that thing. Maybe—”

Gaynor returned his gaze to the jewel. He forced his mind quiet, concentrated. Again the jewel grew cold, and again the tinkling sounded. Harlan was tense, rigid, his narrowed eyes probing the room. Within the room, outlines wavered mistily—outlines of things which might have been strange furniture, or queer, angular machines.

“Harder, Jon! Harder!” Harlan prompted.

Gaynor was sweating. He could feel the perspiration roll down his temples. His eyes seemed to be popping from their sockets.

Harlan strained with his peering. The outlines grew stronger, darkened—but only for a moment. The next they wavered mistily again, thinned, and were gone.

Gaynor drew a sobbing breath, straightened up. He asked, “Wade—what did you see?”

“I don’t know for sure. Things—or the ghosts of things. Here—give me that. I’m going to see what I can do.”

Gaynor relinquished the jewel. Holding it in his palm, Harlan gathered his thoughts, poised them, focused them. And, watching, Gaynor saw the ghostly outlines for the first time—misty suggestions of angles and curves, hints of forms whose purpose he could not guess. Alien ghosts of alien objects, summoned by will from some alien limbo.

Abruptly, the outlines faded and were gone. The tinkling of the jewel thinned and died.

Harlan drew a shuddering breath. “Jon—you saw them?”

“Yes. Dimly.”

“We . . . we haven’t got the strength, Jon. We haven’t got the power necessary to materialize the objects—whatever they are.”

“Maybe that’s the drawback. Or—maybe we’ve got the strength, but simply can’t materialize things—objects—whose size, shape, and purpose we do not know and cannot guess.”

“That might be it.” Harlan’s voice grew sharp. “But, great space, Jon, what possibly could be the idea behind it? Why did they—that other race—construct buildings in which the rooms were left unfurnished, or which could be furnished merely by concentrating on . . . on these jewels? What could have been the reason behind it?”

Gaynor shook his head. “We’ll never know that, perhaps. At least, we’ll never know if we persist in thinking in terms of our own culture. The builders of this city were humanoid, Wade—but mentally they were alien. Don’t forget that. These rooms may not have been living quarters at all. They may have been repositories for valuable things, of which the jewels were the means of materializing. Only those who knew how could materialize them. Thus, perhaps, those things were kept safe.”

“That might be it,” Harlan muttered. “It makes sense.”

“These pictures”—Gaynor gestured at the paintings on the walls—”might contain the answer. If we knew how to read them, they might tell us the purpose of these empty rooms—why the furnishings or machines had to be materialized. I wonder, Wade . . . I wonder if each of these pictures is complete in itself, or if each is part of a greater series. You know—like a book. You read one page, and it doesn’t make sense. You read the whole thing—and it does.”

“The beginning, Jon,” Harlan whispered. “We’d have to start at the beginning.”

“Yes—the beginning.”

Harlan replaced the jewel in its niche, and on the invisible wings of their antigravity flight units, they glided back to the force shaft. Here they switched off their units, allowed the force to carry them up. But the apartments on the upper floors contained nothing new or illuminating. Like the first they had visited, these were empty, save for the wall paintings and the jewels in their niches. They returned to the shaft again, this time to meet a complication.

“Say—how do we get down?” Harlan puzzled. “This thing has been carrying us up all the time, and there doesn’t seem to be another one for descending.”

“Why, you simply will yourself to go down,” Gaynor said. Then he looked blankly surprised.

Harlan nodded gravely. “Of course,” he said. “That’s the answer. I should have thought of it myself.”

They descended. Outside, the sun was bright and warm. Under its light the city dreamed on.

Gaynor and Harlan soared through the warmth. The city was very bright and still. Far away and high in the blue, glittering swarms of the crystal creatures darted. Their tinkling and chiming drifted down to the two men.

Gaynor and Harlan descended several times to investigate tower buildings, but these were very much like the first they had visited. The spacious apartments seemed to echo in their strange emptiness, each one seemingly louder than the last. Twice they took turns, attempted to materialize the unguessable furnishings of the rooms. Each time they failed. And afterward they did not disturb the jewels in their niches. They merely gazed at the flaming wall paintings, and came away.

Again they glided through the air, though slowly and thoughtfully, now. They were silent. Beneath them, the city dreamed. Once a cloud of crystal creatures flashed past, sparkling, chiming, but the two did not seem to notice.

“Jon—?” Harlan’s voice was hesitant.

“Yes?”

“I don’t know how to put it into words, but—well, don’t you feel that you are beginning to know?”

“Yes—there’s the ghost of something in my mind. Those pictures, Wade—”

“Yes, Jon, the pictures.”

Again they were silent. Gaynor broke the silence.

“Wade—all my life I’ve been reading primers. Someone just gave me a college textbook, and I glanced through several pages. Naturally, I did not understand, but here and there I found words familiar to me. They left a ghost in my mind—”

“You’ve got to go back to the beginning, Jon. You’ve got to read all the books which will help you to understand that college textbook.”

“Yes, Wade, the beginning—”

They drifted on while the city dreamed beneath them. The sun was a swaddling blanket of brightness. Like memory-sounds, faint chimings and tinklings wafted on the air.

And then Gaynor was grasping Harlan’s arm. “Wade—down there. Look!” He pointed tensely.

Harlan stiffened as he saw it. The ship was a tiny thing, almost lost amid the greenery of the park. Almost in unison, the two touched the controls of their antigravity flight units, arrowed down in a swift, gentle arc.

The ship was very big, like no ship they had ever seen before. It was a thing of harsh angles, built of some strange red metal or alloy that gleamed in the sunlight with the hue of blood. A square opening gaped in its side. Slowly, Gaynor and Harlan entered it.

It was as though they entered the gloom of another world. Little of what they saw was familiar to them, and they had to guess the purpose of the rest. There were passageways and corridors, and rooms opened from these. A few they were able to identify, but the rest, filled with queer, angular furniture and sprawling machines, escaped classification. They left the ship—and the sunlight felt good.

Gaynor’s voice rustled dryly. “They were humanoid, Wade, the people who built that ship. If nothing else made sense, the things we saw showed that. But the people who made that ship were not of the city. They were spawned on some planet circling another sun.”

“They came here,” Harlan rasped. “They came—and they left that ship behind—Jon . . . they came . . . and they never left this world—”

“Wade—I’m thinking. There might have been other ships—”

Harlan touched the butt of his positron blaster, and his face was pale. “We’ve got to look, Jon. That’s something we’ve got to know.”

They lifted into the air. Circling and dipping, they searched. The sun was at zenith when they found the second ship. By mid-afternoon they had found a third and a fourth. The fourth was the Ark, the hyperspacial cruiser in which old Mark Gaynor and his band of Purists had left the Earth some one hundred and twenty years before.

The four ships which Gaynor and Harlan had found had two things in common. Each had been built by a different humanoid people, and each was completely deserted. Other than this, there was no basis of comparison between them. Each was separate and distinct, unique in its alienness. Even the Ark, long outmoded, seemed strange.

In the Ark, Gaynor and Harlan found nothing to indicate what had happened to its passengers. Everything was orderly and neat—more, even in the most excellent condition. Nothing written had been left behind, not the slightest scrap of rotting paper.

Gaynor whispered, “They did come here, then. And the same thing happened to them that happened to all the rest of the people who landed here. The same thing, I’m sure, that happened to the builders of the city. Why did they leave these ships behind? Where did they go? What could have happened to them?”

Harlan shook his red head somberly. “We’d better not know that. If we stay and try to find out, the same thing will happen to us. The government expedition which discovered this planet encountered the same mystery—but they didn’t try to find out. They returned to Earth. Jon—we’d better get back to the Paragon. We’d better leave while we can.”

“And in time more people would come to settle here. And there would be more empty ships.” Gaynor’s lips tightened to a stubborn line. “Wade—I’m not leaving until I crack the mystery of this place. I’m going to find what happened to old Mark and the Purists. We’ve been warned—we’ll be on the alert.”

Harlan met Gaynor’s determined gaze, and then he looked away. He moistened his lips. After a long moment he gave a stiff nod. His voice was very low.

“Then we’ve got to start at the beginning, Jon. Those pictures—”

“Yes, Wade, the pictures. I’m sure they hold the answer to the whole thing. We’ve got to find that beginning. You’ve noticed how the city is strung out. At one end is the beginning, at the other—”

“The end!” Harlan said abruptly.

“No. Wade. The answer.”

They returned first to the Paragon, to satisfy pangs of hunger too intense to be ignored any longer. Then, donning their antigravity flight units once more, they took to the air. They circled several times, set out finally for a point on the horizon where the city thinned out and finally terminated.

Their flight ended at a single, slender tower set in the midst of a parklike expanse. That they had reached the end of the city, they knew, for ahead of them no other building was in sight. They floated to the ground, stared silently at the tower. It glowed with a chaste whiteness in the late afternoon light—serene, somewhat aloof, lovely in its simplicity and solitariness.

Harlan spoke softly. “The beginning? Or—the end?”

“That’s what we have to find out,” Gaynor responded. “We’re going in there, Wade.”

The interior of the tower was dark and cool, filled with the solemn hush of a cathedral. It consisted solely of one great room, its ceiling lost in sheerness of height. And except for the ever-present wall paintings, it was empty—utterly bare.

Gaynor and Harlan gazed at the paintings, and then they looked at each other, and slowly they nodded. Silently they left.

“That . . . that wasn’t the beginning,” Harlan stated slowly.

“No, Wade. That was—the end. The beginning lies on the opposite side of the city. But we’ll have to postpone our investigation until morning. We wouldn’t reach the other end of the city until dark.”

They returned to the Paragon. The sun was setting behind the towers of the city to the east, sinking into a glory of rose and gold. Slowly the paling fingers of its radiance withdrew from the city. Night came in all its starry splendor.

Gaynor and Harlan were up with the dawn. Eagerness to be back at their investigations fired them. They hurried impatiently through breakfast. Then, attaching kits of emergency ration concentrates to their belts and donning their antigravity flight units, they took to the air.

As they flew, Gaynor and Harlan had to remind themselves that this was the second day of their visit and not the first, so closely did the new day resemble the one preceding. Nothing had changed. The city beneath them still dreamed on. And far away and high in the blue, glittering clouds of the crystal creatures darted and danced, their chimings and tinklings sounding like echoes of melody from an elfin world.

The sun was bright and warm when Gaynor and Harlan reached the end of the city opposite the one which they had investigated the day before. Here they found no slender tower. There was nothing to show that this part of the city was in any way different from the rest. The general plan of tower-encircled courts was the same as everywhere else. The city merely terminated—or looking at it the other way, merely began.

Gaynor and Harlan glided down into one of the very first of the tower-encircled courts. They touched ground, switched off their flight units, stood gazing slowly about them.

Gaynor muttered, “The beginning? Or— Maybe we were wrong, Wade. Maybe there is no beginning.”

“Those towers should tell us,” Harlan said. “Let’s have a look inside them, Jon.”

They entered an arching doorway, strode into a great foyer. Within this they had their first indication that this part of the city actually was different from the rest. For within the foyer was no dais and force shaft as they had found previously. Instead, a broad stairway led to the floors above.

They mounted the stairs. The walls of the first apartment they investigated were covered with paintings, as everywhere else, but this time the spacious rooms were not empty. They were furnished. Gaynor and Harlan gazed upon softly gleaming objects which very clearly were tables and chairs, deep, luxurious couches, and cabinets of various sizes and shapes. At first everything seemed strange to them, and as they glanced about, they found themselves comparing the furniture to that which they had seen in homes on Earth. And after a while things no longer seemed strange at all.

Gaynor blinked his eyes rapidly several times. He frowned puzzledly. “Wade—either I’m crazy, or this room has changed.”

Harlan was gazing at the wall paintings. His voice came as from far away. “Changed? Why, yes. Things are as they should be—now.”

Gaynor gazed at the walls, and then he nodded. “That’s right, Wade. Of course.”

Gaynor walked over to a low cabinet. Somewhere before he had seen a cabinet like this one. He felt that he should know its purpose, yet it eluded him. He stared at it musingly. And then he remembered something—his eyes lifted to the paintings on the wall. No. The other wall? Yes.

Gaynor looked at the cabinet again—and now a slow murmur of melody arose within the room. Hauntingly familiar, poignantly sweet, yet formless. Gaynor looked at the walls again. The melody shaped itself, grew stronger, and the lilting strains of a spaceman’s song flooded richly through the room.

I’m blasting the far trails,
Following the star trails,
Taking the home trails,
Back, dear, to you—

“The Star Trails Home to You,” Gaynor whispered. Sudden nostalgia washed over him in a wave. Home. The Earth— His eyes lifted to the walls, and he was comforted.

Gaynor looked around for Harlan. He found the other standing before a second cabinet across the room. Gaynor approached him, noting as he did so that Harlan stood strangely rigid and still. In alarm, Gaynor ran the remaining distance. Harlan did not seem to notice. His face was rapt, trance-like.

Gaynor grasped Harlan’s arm, shook him. “Wade! Wade—what is it? Snap out of it!”

Harlan stirred. Expression came back into his features—his eyes sharped upon Gaynor’s face. “What . . . what— Oh, it’s you, Jon. She . . . she had red hair, and . . . and her arms were around me, and—” Harlan broke off, flushing.

Investigation of the cabinets in the other rooms produced still more interesting results. One had a spigot projecting from its front, with a catchbasin below, much like a drinking fountain. Gaynor looked at the wall paintings, and then he looked at the spigot, and suddenly liquid jetted from it. He tasted it cautiously, nodded approvingly, not at all surprised.

“Scotch,” he said. “I’ll have it with soda.”

“Hurry up, then,” Harlan prompted impatiently.

There was another cabinet that they found particularly interesting. This one had a foot-square opening in its front, and after Gaynor and Harlan had gotten their proper instructions from the paintings, they moved on—each munching at a delicious leg of roast chicken.

Not all the cabinets produced things which were edible or audible, but all opened up new vistas of thought and experience. Gaynor and Harlan learned the purpose of each, and already in their minds they were devising new methods of test and application. The wall paintings were very extensive, and they were learning rapidly.

That was the beginning—

After the cabinets, which supplied every possible physical or mental want, came the machines. Simple things at first, for Gaynor and Harlan were still in the equivalent of kindergarten. But they were humanoid—and, therefore, inquisitive. The machines were delightful and of absorbing interest. Once their purpose and function became known, however, their novelty died, and Gaynor and Harlan quested on for new fields to conquer. Thus, in a very few days, they moved to the next unit.

Here was the same plan of tower-encircled court, but the cabinets and machines had become more complicated, more difficult of operation. But Gaynor and Harlan had become quite adept at reading the wall paintings which were their primers. They learned—

Instruction followed application, and in a very few days again, Gaynor and Harlan moved on. Thus they went, from unit to unit, and always the wall paintings pointed out the way.

The sun rose and the sun set, and the city dreamed on. And always, high in the sky, the crystal creatures circled and soared, tinkling and chiming. The days passed gently, mere wraiths of sunlight.

The machines grew larger, more intricate, ever more difficult of solution. Each was a new test upon the growing knowledge of Gaynor and Harlan. And each test was harder than the last, for the wall paintings no longer pointed out the way, but merely hinted now.

Gaynor and Harlan progressed more slowly, though none the less steadily. They were not impatient. They had no sense of restless striving toward a future goal. They lived for the present. They were submerged heart and soul in the never-ending fascinations of their environment to the exclusion of all else.

The machines continued to grow larger. At one point they were so huge, that a single machine filled an entire apartment. But that was the climax, for afterward the machines grew smaller, ever smaller, until at last they came to a unit the apartments of which were empty. Empty, that is, except for the wall paintings and the jewels in their niches.

Harlan peered about him, frowning. “I seem to remember this place.”

“It is familiar,” Gaynor said. His brows drew together, and after a time he nodded. “We were here before, I think. But that was many toree ago, when we were children.”

“Yes—when we were children. I recall it, now.” Harlan smiled reminiscently. “It is strange we knew so little as children that it should be so easily forgotten.”

“Yes, we have grown. The memories of childhood are very dim. I can recall some things, but they are not very clear. There was a purpose that brought us to the city. A purpose— But what else could it have been than to learn? And there was a mystery. But there is nothing mysterious about the city, nothing strange at all. Mere imaginings of childhood perhaps—meaningless trifles at best. We will not let them concern us now. We have grown.”

Harlan nodded gravely, and his blue eyes, deep with an ocean of new knowledge, lifted to the painting-covered walls. “Events of the past should no longer concern us. We have entered upon the Third Stage. The tasks of this alone should occupy our thoughts.”

“Yes—the past has been left behind.” Gaynor was looking at the walls. “The Third Stage. The tasks will be very difficult, Wade—but interesting. We’ll be putting our knowledge into practice—actually creating. This means we’ll have to deal directly with the powers of the various soldani and varoo. As these are extradimensional, control will be solely by cholthening at the six level, through means of the taadron. We’ll have to be careful, though—any slightest relaxation of the sorran will have a garreling effect—”

“I guessed that. But there must be some way to minimize the garreling effect, if it should occur.”

“A field of interwoven argroni of the eighth order should prevent it from becoming overpowering.”

“We can try it. You’re working on the woratis patterns?”

“Yes. I’ve managed to cholthen them into the fifth stage of development.”

“Mine’s the vandari patterns. I’ve found them more interesting than those of the woratis. Fourth stage of development. I’m starting at once. I’ll use the next room.”

Harlan left, and Gaynor took the jewel from its niche—the taadron, that is—and set his cholthening power at the sixth level. The thing flamed gloriously in his hand—light pulsed out in great, soft waves, washed over the wall paintings, made them glow with exquisite richness. Unearthly melody filled the room, tuneless, silver-sweet. Gaynor was creating. And as he did so, things began to take on form and substance within the room—things which might have been machines, but weren’t machines, because they were intelligent and alive in a way no machine can ever be. Finally, Gaynor and his creations communicated. It was somewhat difficult at first, but he was well along now, and took the difficulty in his stride.

Gaynor learned things—just as, in the other room, Harlan was learning, too. And then he took up the taadron again and cholthened. The things which he had created vanished. He began to develop the woratis patterns into the fifth stage—

Bright day blended into bright day, gently, unnoticeably. The city floated on the gentle, green swells of the planet, and floating, dreamed.

After a time, Gaynor and Harlan moved on to the next unit. Then the next—and the next. Soon it came to pass that they entered the Fourth Stage. This, they knew, was the last one, but what came afterward did not worry them. They had reached a level of mind which was beyond all worrying.

The Third Stage had changed them greatly, though they were not aware of it. They would not have been concerned even if they had. They no longer used their natural vocal apparatus, now, for they had come to think in terms which simply could not have been put into words. They had become telepathic, conversing in pure ideas of the highest order. And they no longer materialized their food from the atoms of the air. A simple rearrangement of their body cells—simple, when understood as they understood it—now enabled them to feed directly upon certain nourishing extradimensional subatomic energies. And the antigravity flight units, which they had reduced to the size of peas for convenience, were now discarded entirely. They had learned to fly without the aid of any device.

The Fourth Stage changed them still further. They created now—the word does not quite describe their activities—without the aid of the taadron, for they had learned to ennathen, which was as great an advancement over cholthening as telepathy is over speech. Thus is came about that Gaynor and Harlan—or the beings who once had been Gaynor and Harlan—found their bodies an annoying encumbrance. For arms and legs, heart and lungs, and the senses and nerves which use of these required, had become quite unnecessary to them. They had outgrown these impedimenta of their childhood.

They spoke of this now by a telepathic means that was not quite telepathy, and they wondered what to do. For though they had mastered well the wall paintings which were their college textbooks, there was no clear answer. Their discussion of the problem could not have been made understandable, however roughly it might have been put, but suffice it to say that at last they reached a decision.

They had progressed from one end of the city to the edge of the other. Not quite the edge, though—for there was one building in which they had not yet narleened. They had examined it before, of course, but that was when they had been children—in those dim, pale days when they did not understand.

They decided to vogelar to this very last building. Here, perhaps, every question would be answered.

It was dawn when they vogelared through the arching doorway. The first feeble rays of morning crept through the opening—the interior of the Temple was very dark and cool. All the dreaming of the city seemed to be concentrated here in one vast stillness.

The beings who once had been Gaynor and Harlan narleened the paintings on the walls of the Temple, gazed upon them with this new, all-embracing sense which went far beyond the limited realms of mere vision—so that almost the paintings spoke to them and they answered back. They narleened the paintings.

Their every question was answered—for all eternity.

And thus it came about, after a time, that two great, faceted crystals emerged from the doorway of the Temple, and lifted, pulsing with a vibrant new life, flashing in rainbow splendor, into the sky. Higher, they lifted, and higher, chiming and tinkling, soaring to join the others of their kind.

The sun shone brightly in the sky. High and far away in the blue, glittering clouds of crystal creatures darted and danced, sending wave after exquisite wave of crystalline melody upon the gentle shores of air. Among them now were two who had still to learn the intricacies of flight.

And the city dreamed on.

A perfect environment, the city. Ideal for the inquisitive humanoid.

Afterword by David Drake




When I read "Environment" in Groff Conklin's The Omnibus of Science Fiction I didn't know who Chester S. Geier was. At the time I barely knew who Heinlein was, so that isn't surprising. Geier wrote quite a lot of SF in the '40s, during the Golden Age—but not of the Golden Age, because he wrote mostly for the Ziff-Davis magazines, Amazing and Fantastic Adventures, which were then edited by Ray Palmer. These magazines were and are widely reviled as the worst kind of juvenile trash . . . but issue for issue, they outsold John W. Campbell's Astounding by more than three to one.

Geier did sell four stories to Campbell, though: this story and another to Astounding, and two more to Unknown, Astounding's fantasy companion. "Environment" is the only one that stands out, but it stands very far out.


When I first read "Environment," I thought it was about a trap of the most subtle and effective kind, one which the victim can't resist even when he sees it clearly. And you know, maybe that is what the story's about: you start with human beings and at the end they've been destroyed.

But consider another way of describing the action: you start with animals, and at the end all their animal nature has been polished away.

When I reread "Environment," I remembered the time I looked into the back of a second-year Latin book before I'd started taking the language. "How could anyone make sense of this?" I thought. But a few years later I was sight-reading those passages from Caesar easily; and now I translate far more difficult Latin authors for the pleasure of keeping my mind supple.

"Environment" is a story about education.

Shitting a brick in Country lockup

You all know the American idiom “Shitting a brick”, right?

What you might not realize is that this is an actual term that refers to something that happens during incarceration.

Before you go to prison, you tend to spend months in jail.

This is because a prison bed is typically not available. So you have to wait in jail until you get to go to prison.

While you are in jail, at least in the Southern states, they fed you a lot of “salt peter” (don’t know if it was actual, or slang) that was mixed with the daily mashed potatoes that you ate.

This was supposedly done to make the inmates more easy to control and calmer.

I don’t know the true story, just the rumors.

Anyways, we would eat this stuff. Since the trays were pretty much empty, but the potatoes were just dished out in glorious amounts, us guys would then eat the stuff with relish and gusto.

The thing is, however, the “salt peter” wouldn’t digest. It would just sit there in your colon. Getting heavier and heavier over time.

Eventually you would need to take a glorious shit, and I swear to God, that you would shit out a brick like mass, almost the same size, shape (rectangular; no shit. Actually the rectangular shape.) and weight of a brick.

It happens to all the (older) new inmates.

If you are over 50, sure as shit, you will be shitting a brick after about four months in county jail.

And it will sit there until someone gets a stick to break it up so that it goes down the drain.

I saw this happen time and time again.

Again…

Things that you won’t find anywhere else.

Today…

China Issues DIRE Warning to U.S. and NATO

World Hal Turner 18 March 2024

The China Defense Ministry says that “China is ready to intervene militarily anywhere if the United States or NATO decides to attack Russia.”

This blunt public statement is almost completely out-of-character for the nation of China. For its entire history, China has always spoken with words like “peace, negotiation, Diplomacy, cooperation.” Almost NEVER has China spoken of war – or declared its intent to actually wage it — so bluntly – ever.

Hal Turner Snap Analysis

The fact that China’s Ministry of Defense used this type of language is an indication to me personally, and to many other people, that China perceives (or knows) that something imminent is about to take place regarding a US/NATO attack upon Russia.

It seems to many long-time observers that China would never have spoken words like these, unless they believe such a situation is imminent.

I find myself in full agreement with such an assessment.

As you read this, news came out this morning that all of Europe is now $61 Billion in the hole over the weapons and assistance it has given to Ukraine during the conflict with Russia.

It has also come out that, since the beginning of the Russia Special Military Operation inside Ukraine, the Russians have been able to increase military production fifteen times (15X) over what it had previously been.

This staggering increase in Russia’s national military production puts that single country’s production SEVEN TIMES that of all of Europe and the United States, combined.

Everywhere on the planet, voices are (finally) rising and admitting Ukraine cannot win against Russia and people who think otherwise must be “out of their minds.”

Here is one such voice from the Bundestag (Parliament) of Germany:

“Have you all lost your minds?”. Amazing and terrifying speech by @SWagenknecht

Yet China felt compelled to say it would intervene militarily — anywhere – if the US and NATO attack Russia.

The world seems headed into a gigantic, suicidal, Word War 3, and China has made clear with whom they will stand with.

The rest of us would do well to take note, while we’re still alive and can do something to stop this madness.

In Vietnam

Side boobies! Lol.

Has a super rich person ever been treated so badly at a store that they then turned around and bought the store just to fire the employee?

Well, not to fire an employee. I knew an extremely wealthy man who owned a dry cleaning business as one of his many endeavors. One year, the landlord for the building it was in announced he was doubling the rent.

The businessman said to himself, “Now, that doesn’t make sense. He can’t get that kind of rent on the open market. The guy must be desperate for money.” So through another company he owned, he made a lowball bid for the entire building for half what it was worth, and much to his astonishment, the landlord took it.

Now, since he owned the building, he wrote a sweetheart deal of a lease for his dry cleaning business. Then he looked around the building and saw that it was mostly empty, so he swung a few deals and filled it up with commercial tenants. Then, since he didn’t want to be in the Landlord business himself, he put it on the market for twice what he thought it was worth, and much to his astonishment, somebody bought it for that price.

So, he quadrupled his money and got a nice long-term lease for his dry cleaning business, all because the landlord pissed him off. But this was kind of the way he got rich in the first place.

I remember one time Exxon representatives told him he didn’t charge enough at a gas station he owned. After the Exxon representatives left his office, he handed a can of paint to a worker and told him to take Exxon’s name off the pumps. After a week, Exxon knuckled under and let him sell gas for whatever he wanted. He was moving a lot of cheap gas.

What was the biggest warning that your cat was able to give you?

That a tornado was coming.

I woke up in the middle of the night to her meowing her head off and pawing at the covers. She had been taught very young not to wake people, so this was extremely out of character. As I groggily told her to go away, her meows reached a new completely freaked out pitch (think very upset cat in a bathtub type meows), and I realized there was quite an angry storm going on outside. When I got out of bed, she ran to the doorway, continuing her frantic meows. I grabbed my phone and, noticing a text alert saying we were under a tornado warning, ran downstairs to the first floor closet with her close behind.

She was completely silent as we huddled in the closet together, hearing the world come apart outside. When people say tornadoes are loud, they’re not doing justice to the incredible roar of the twister and the banging, popping, and rough sliding sounds of buildings coming apart and cars being thrown. They’re loud…and they’re incredibly scary, even when you know you’re relatively safe.

We came through that storm with only a broken fence, busted garage door, and a few shingles missing from the roof, but as I looked at the devastation of some of the other homes in my neighborhood, I knew it could have been far worse…and I could have been stuck in my bedroom on the top floor as it happened.

President Biden

What was the most obvious lie you’ve been told?

This one is kind of sad.

I used to work at a school that had quite a few well off families. There was one kid (Flynn) who had learning issues but his parents refused to have him tested due to not admitting it. He was also spoiled rotten, his mother would never discipline her perfect little baby and his father was always away. So he was close to feral in school.

Anyway, one day in class the kid sitting next Flynn starts getting angry wanting his pencil case back. Flynn has his hands up and swears he doesn’t have it. From where I’m standing I can see it on his lap under the desk.

I go, “Flynn, give Jack his case back.”

“I don’t have it.”

“Yes you do, Flynn. Give it back.”

“No, I don’t. I don’t know where it is.”

“Flynn, you know I hate it when you lie. Stop lying and give it back to Jack.”

“I swear I don’t have it.”

“Flynn, I can see it from here. Give it back and see me after class.”

So after class I just come out and say, “Flynn, you were lying. I knew you were lying. And I’m pretty sure that you knew that I knew you were lying. What I don’t get is why. If you knew I could see the pencil case why did you keep lying to me?”

Flynn’s reply, “It works at home.”

What’s something you’ve done that unexpectedly made you a lot of money?

An auctioneer once paid me $2500 for just saying the word NO.

I was at the on-site auction of a restaurant. At the time I was buying and selling just about anything, and I saw in the auction ad that the restaurant was decorated with about 40 antique wooden newel posts, and had a brass railing that connected all of them creating some kind of walkways in the restaurant. A newel post is a wooden post usually at the top and bottom of a staircase (see the photos).

main qimg 28175ed784ad714a48d242ac9760e13e lq

I knew that since virtually everyone who attends restaurant auctions are either restaurant owners or restaurant equipment resellers, the ornately carved wooden posts would be very undervalued by the crowd.

I was right.

The auction was halfway done and I had won about 20 of the posts for just $40 each, plus the giant pieces of brass railing that went with them. The big problem was that I had no idea how I was going to get them out of the floor. They seemed to be pretty well attached and I had no experience in such things!

So halfway through the auction one of the auctioneers comes to me and tells me he’s really sorry but the bank told him he wasn’t allowed to sell the posts, and therefore I couldn’t have them. The reality was probably closer to this: someone new showed up at the auction, found out how little posts had sold for, offered more money privately to take all of them at once, and the auctioneer decided to see if he could steal them from me with this ruse.

I just told the auctioneer: NO. You can’t have them, they’re mine now and I’ll assert my rights to take them away. After a few minutes of this he just said,

“Howabout I give you $2500 to forget about them?”

I said OK and left 5 minutes later with $2500 cash in my pocket.

In hindsight, driving away, I realized I could have asked for more!

Starbucks

What are business or life stories of people who did the right thing, but then it backfired on them?

In April of 2014, Santa Monica High School biology teacher Mark Black caught a student dealing drugs in his classroom. So he did what most teachers would do: he called security. The student panicked and attacked Mark, pushing him onto a table.

Luckily, Mark Black wasn’t just a biology teacher; he was also a seven-time national wrestling champion, and a national hall-of-fame wrestling coach. He slid off the desk, and used simple wrestling techniques to bring the student to the ground and safely restrain him.

This should have been the end of the story. But in a modern-day twist, the entire incident was recorded on video from the cell-phone of one of the student’s friends. That friend then edited the movie, removing the attack on the teacher, and leaving only the part where Mark Black took the student forcefully to the ground.

The student sent the edited video to news media outlets, and within minutes, pundits around the country were calling for the teacher’s immediate dismissal. Hours after that, the Superintendent of Schools sent out a district-wide email calling the video “utterly alarming,” and suspending Mark.

For most teachers, this would have been the end of their teaching career, but not for Mark Black. He had mentored thousands of students over a 30 year career, and he was loved by an entire community. Many people suspected the story was untrue–because they believed in his character.

Rising up to support him, former students from around the country flew back to Santa Monica, California. A petition was launched on The world’s platform for change

asking for Mark to be reinstated, and overnight it exploded to more than 100,000 signatures. The uproar from Mark’s supporters forced the school district to investigate deeper into events… and the real story quickly came out.

In just three days, Mark went from almost losing his career, to being acknowledged in news outlets as a hero. Within two weeks, he was reinstated to his position…. all because Mark had built a network of support by being passionately devoted to his students and athletes.

_____________________

Fun Addendum: Mark Black was my high school wrestling coach. I was one of the students that flew back to Santa Monica to support him in that time. It was one of the most special experiences in my life to support such a wonderful mentor in a time he most needed it. Here is an LA Times article about him. You’ll notice I’m quoted in it 🙂

http://articles.latimes.com/2014/apr/07/local/la-me-ra-santa-monica-teacher-was-right-20140407

What is the single most underrated trait a person can have?

We were in a cafe.

The waiter was serving the things in our plate and he spilled some red sauce on one of my friend’s white shirt.

They both stopped for a while and looked at the stain.

“I am really sorry sir, please come with me to the washroom I’ll clear it” he was fumbling and the droplets of stress could be seen on his forehead.

“It’s perfectly fine brother. Don’t worry! it happens. Just show me the way to washroom I’ll manage” my friend said with a smile.

“Don’t worry I am not gonna change my mood to give you tip” He winked and smiled again while leaving.

And the waiter just smiled.

We went to take clothes from the washerman one day as he didn’t come to return the clothes from many days.

The washerman gave the clothes and showed him the burnt area on a shirt.

He looked at the face of the man which was getting paler and the wrinkles were more pronounced to be a man in fifties.

“Koi baat nahi dada, shirt hi toh hai isi bahane ek nayee le aayenge” (Not a problem uncle, its just a shirt and you gave me a reason to buy new one) He said with a laughter and consoled him by holding his hand.

The watchman of our building didn’t come for a long time.

He went to meet him and found that he was sick. And his daughter was about to get married in a week.

He spent the rest day in preparation of the wedding along with the son of the man and spent whole day on the day of marriage hosting the guests and serving them.

The single most underrated trait which anyone can have is EMPATHY.

The feeling of finding other person’s echoes in yourself and the art of giving smile to others by putting yourself in their shoes.

The effort to make someone’s day a bit better.

Double Name

What is the oddest reason you have been contacted by your child’s school?

Funny story here!

My daughter was (probably) in first grade at the time. It could have been KG ir 2nd grade. Anyway, she was always a playful and friendly little girl. She made friends all the time. However, she was never (and still isn’t, 20+ years later) into anything physical (e.g. sports, gym, hiking, etc.) The one physical activity that she did love was the monkey bars.

I’m not sure how many bars the thing had but probably a dozen or 2 dozen, more than enough for several kids to be on the thing at the same time.

Just to be clear, monkey bars have an upside-down U shape. You climb up 1 vertical side. Then there’s a horizontal portion a few feet long. You grasp a bar and hang from it and then you “walk” across the bar with 1 hand on the bar in front of you and 1 hand on the bar directly behind it.

There’s a drop of a few feet. The thing is just tall enough that a little kid’s feet won’t touch the floor while handwalking across the horizontal section. My daughter was on the horizontal section with 6 of her friends. She lost her grip and fell (maybe 2 feet). Her little friends loved her so much that they got worried all let go of the bar and fell on top of her 😂

The school called me to tell me that my daughter had injured herself on the playground. I lived close by and got to the school in 15 minutes. My daughter was fuming. The teachers had taken her to the nurse for her “injuries.” There wasn’t a scratch on her. But she was annoyed at having lost her playtime!

This was the first time that I had ever been called to school for non-existent injuries. I had to calm down my daughter, not because she was physically or emotionally hurt but just because she got too much love.

What is the rudest thing a beggar/homeless person did and said to you after you did them a favor?

I was at RacTrac in Fort Worth getting gas. A rough looking guy comes up to me and gives a sob story, tells me he ran out of gas, coasted up to the pumps and asked me for 20 bucks. I told him I didn’t have any cash and said let’s go over to your car and I’ll fill ’er up with my credit card. I asked which car was his. He looked around and pointed to an older car two bays over. He said “NO! Just give me some cash!” He got pissed off and said he was gonna beat my ass if I didn’t cough up some cash. I gave his crap right back to him and told him to go away or I’d knock him out. Then he frantically heads over to the next pump and starts harassing an older, well dressed woman. About that time, someone came out of the store and got in the car he said was his. Then drove away. I went over and demanded that he leave her alone and stood there until she finished getting her gas. She graciously thanked me and left. So I went back and my gas was finished pumping. I started to pull out and saw a Ft Worth police car pulling in. By now this guy was harassing people on the other end of the lot. I flagged down the officer. He was a SWAT officer in full riot gear heading back to the station! I told him what had happened. Next thing I know he has the guy spread out on the hood of his squad car searching him.

I drove slowly by and waved at the guy as the officer was cuffing him!

Is saying ‘thank you’ common in Russian culture? How should one respond if someone thanks them for a small gesture in Russia?

Here’s a little first hand story.

In 2003, I made my first trip to another country, which was England. I stayed at a private home in a place called Pinner in Greater London. My hosts gave my a room and let me use their facilities. It was the first time I actually saw and used those bizarre separate water taps for cold and hot water. So inconvenient. But that’s beside the point.

main qimg 67828d3bbee9178ee05ea179b6b5e3b5

I spend most of my time hiking and sightseeing. One day I went to see central London. In the evening, when I was going to board my train to go back I learned that there was a blackout

and the trains didn’t work.

I didn’t know how to get to Pinner, so I called my host and asked him if he could drive to the center and pick me up. This phone conversation was life changing for me due to one little detail. It was I who was asking him for help, but it was him, who thanked me several times during the mere seconds that we spoke. When he understood the position I was in and what I was asking him for, he said something like “okay, I see, I’ll pick you up, thank you, thank you, bye”. I was stunned. Those “thank yous” sounded very automatic, but they made so much difference. Like, the man had nothing to thank me for. On the contrary, I got him out from his comfy apartment and made drive to the central London at night, and yet he said thank you. Just a simple sign of politeness made a world of difference. After that I started saying thank you much much more often than I used to.

It’s been more than 20 years, and I have observed that Russian people have become much much more polite, and they use the “magic words” like thank you and please much more often. So I’d say, it has become common. It even affected people who are not used to saying thank you that often, because it has become much easier and more pleasant to deal with them.

Japan evening walk in Shinjuku, Tokyo • 4K HDR

https://youtu.be/rFcwx-sIMA8

Have you, as a police officer, ever known a “dirty” cop? If so, what did you do about it?

Cops as Robbers!

It was about 11:00 p.m. when I first observed my sergeant get a cell phone call. He looked at me and told me he had to check something and left the office. I didn’t hear from him for about thirty minutes. The next thing I hear is that they are looking to establish a crime scene. I immediately went to dispatch and asked, “Where’s the scene and what’s going on?” The dispatcher who was half-asleep said he didn’t hear the broadcast, so I made him play back the audio recording. The department tape-records all radio transmissions and incoming phone calls, a fact that would save my bacon over the next few hours.

After hearing the recording of an officer asking about a crime scene, the dispatcher said nobody told him anything. I then called the sergeant over the radio and said: “What do you have?” He replied that he would give me a call (fortunately for me on a taped line). I took his phone call, and he explained that some drunken Mexican was saying that he got kidnapped, beat up and robbed by the police. They were driving the victim around looking for a crime scene, but the sergeant stated, that to him, it sounded farfetched.

I was aware that there had been some informant information saying that a rogue cop was robbing Mexicans. In fact, the chief, in a staff meeting two months prior, had brought up the information.

I told the sergeant to bring the victim to the station, which he did. At the station, I spoke to a friend of the victim and the victim. The friend spoke English while the victim spoke only Spanish. The friend said the victim was on his way to his house to pay him back some money. As the victim approached the man’s house, a marked police sport-utility-vehicle stopped the victim, arrested him, and drove off. The witness described the involved officers as wearing blue police uniforms with one of the officers speaking fluent Spanish.

The sergeant kept downplaying the incident, and I later determined he had misdirected my initial investigation. He said we only had two Spanish-speaking officers working, while he knew we, in fact, had three. I had the two Spanish-speaking officers I knew about come into the room, and apparently, these were not the officers.

The sergeant then reminded me that the state police had several units in the area who were driving similar vehicles. Two of their officers were at our station using our breathalyzer because their machine was down for repairs. I ran down those leads and came up empty.

Because of the informant information previously discussed, I called the chief of police at 2:00 a.m. and said, “I’m not sure what I have, but one of our cops may be involved in a robbery.” Both the chief and internal affairs commander responded to the department, as well as the two other division commanders.

Information started to leak out in small dribs and drabs. Everyone working that night was interviewed, and no one was allowed to leave. First, I learned that it had something to do with an off-duty police officer who was pulled over for drunk driving. Two officers from our community-policing unit offered to give the intoxicated officer a ride home so he wouldn’t get in trouble. Instead of taking him home, they transported the officer back to a local bar.

I would learn later, that when they transported this drunken officer to the bar, they had already kidnapped the Mexican who was in the back seat with him. The truth finally came out when one officer involved in the kidnapping came clean and turned state’s evidence. This officer had recently transferred to the unit. The second officer and ring leader was not Hispanic but apparently spoke fluent Spanish—a fact I didn’t know, but the sergeant did.

On this night, they were looking for a Mexican to rob. They kidnapped this person off the street and eventually took him to a secluded area of a park and robbed him of his money, assaulted him, and left him there.

However, en route to the park, they stopped a suspected drunk driver who was yet another officer. They then started to give the drunken officer a ride home, loading him into their car right next to the kidnapped man. They dropped the officer at a local bar instead of taking him home.

As word spread of the robbery, other officers knew of the drunken officer and learned of the man in the backseat. The sergeant and others on the shift knew this information, but at that point, all remained quiet.

Initially, I think the sergeant was only covering for the non-arrest of the drunken officer, but later learned of the man in the back seat and tried to continue to sell a false narrative. It’s unfortunate once you start trying to cover one officer’s bad behavior; you become caught up and locked into a much more severe situation. There’s no question in my mind that this well-respected sergeant would never have covered for officers committing a robbery. The problem was, he got caught up in trying to help the intoxicated officer and just got sucked into the middle of a bad situation.

By the next morning, the two officers left in handcuffs going to the county jail. A group of union idiots stood in solidarity at the jail parking lot supporting the officers. In fairness to them, they didn’t know the facts of the case, or they probably wouldn’t have been there.

One junior officer came forward identifying who knew what when, which took courage considering he was going against his entire platoon and his sergeant. He and other officers on the shift received discipline. The sergeant was initially suspended pending further investigation. During this extended period of months, he had several personal tragedies in his life, losing both of his parents.

Additionally, while he was still suspended, the current chief who wanted the sergeant fired was forced to retire. A new chief took over. This chief was a close personal friend of the sergeant. Under the new administration, this sergeant took some discipline but kept his job and more amazingly his rank.

The officer involved in the robbery who turned state’s evidence got a couple of years in jail. The Spanish-speaking ringleader pleaded guilty and got almost the same sentence. They were both out of prison in about three months.

Several years later, the ringleader was back in the news, this time for the armed robbery of several banks. He went away again on a seven-year sentence, but just as before, served only a portion of that time and is now out, yet again.

Cowboy Coffee Cake

Ingredients

1 (10 count) can biscuits, not the flaky type
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup finely chopped nuts
1/3 cup raisins
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Put biscuits in bottom of Bundt pan.
Heat other ingredients just long enough to melt sugar.
Spread mixture over biscuits.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Would you hire someone who’s been in prison?

As a supervisor for a drywall company I hired a guy who had served half his life in prison.

he was 44 and had spent 22 years in prison. ( 4 year stretch 2 year stretch etc not one long 22 year hit),

He was by far the cleanest worker ( his work space ) and the most obedient worker too.

I had to measure up his work after his first 2 weeks.

He worked alone as he was 6 foot 9 and looked nasty.

I told him his count and that he had earned $7000 for 2 weeks work.

He apologized and said he would work harder next pay period !!! the most the other employees would make would be around $2500.

Next pay period rolls around and I measure his work. $8000 this time.

I tell him and he promises to work harder next time !!. 2 weeks later His measure was $9000. The owner strolls on the job site after the invoices have been sent in.

He asks me who Mick is? I take him to Mick and of course his work area is spotless and I introduce them. Mick shakes his hand and the boss pats him on the back. If Mick made $24000 in 6 weeks guess how much the boss made.

I had mick working for me for 5 years till he cracked and ended up in pokey again.

So YES I would employ someone who has been to prison.

I was on an hourly wage but loved to see Micks cheques

Cross of Iron – Facing the T-34s

What is the most unusual and incorrect reason you’ve had the police called on you?

my insane landlady/neighbor reported me to the police. she said i went inside her house and stole her purse because it contained $5000 cash and her phone. meanwhile, she actually left it in the yard while nibbling on random plants in my ornamental garden (yes you read that right, i had cameras 😂)

thankfully, she also told the cops i did it because she works as jeff bezos’ assistant and i wanted the phone so i could blackmail him for money. needless to say they didn’t take it very seriously. i only found out she reported me when i went to the police station to talk to them about her erratic behavior. they were wildly unhelpful then, and throughtout the whole mess that followed 🤷‍♂️

random other crazy parts of the days surrounding the police report:

she has cameras, and could easily prove someone entered if it were true.

the day before she randomly texted me to ”go in her unlocked backdoor while she was out, and leave the rent on her kitchen table” – specifically asking me to do it while she wasn’t home. it was the same table she told the police i took the purse from. i didn’t of course – but it seems she intended to frame me

she had snuck into my place while i was at work three days prior, i caught her when coming home early. and immediately realized she had been doing it a lot. (things had been moved, doors open i didnt usually leave open etc.. i had figured it was a guest until then) it caused her to spiral with excuses for why she did it, and plots to make the situation go away – she admitted it but didn’t apologize lol.

thats just the beginning, but thats the police report part

Is it better to be tasered or pepper sprayed?

Take it from someone who has tasted both: Take the Taser. Every time.

Now, both are awful – I wouldn’t recommend either for a leisurely afternoon. However, the difference is in how they’re bad. When a Taser is used on you, it is pure electric hell, but for exactly five seconds (the standard duration of a single trigger pull). Now, God never stitched together five longer seconds, to be sure – the current from a Taser is by far the most acute pain I’ve ever endured, and this is coming from someone who’s had a baseball fracture a finger, taken an elbow right to the nose in a basketball game, been hit with simulated bullets, and gotten into (and won, I might add) a street fight with a convicted felon. But once it’s over, it’s over. There is some lingering muscle weirdness (I liken it to that feeling that’s left behind after you finally work out a charley horse in a muscle), but that’s it.

When you get pepper sprayed, though, it’s an hours-long ordeal. When oleoresin capsicum (OC, the chemical in pepper spray) hits your mucous membranes, they go absolutely insane. It took well under one minute for my eyes to swell completely shut, and they were obviously watering profusely. My sinuses underwent nothing less than a liquid detonation – I’m trying not to be crude, but think in excess of half a pint. It’s panic inducing – you can’t see without physically prying your eyelids open, you’re punished every time you breathe, you can’t squeegee the stuff off your face (despite frantic efforts that only serve to expand the zone of misery). It took me an hour to see clearly enough to drive, and over a full day for the pain to completely subside – when OC dries, crystals are left behind that, no matter how many tears you produce, can stay stuck under your eyelid.

As a civilian, I would double down on this answer, because in the heat of the moment, officers tend to err on the side of caution – their caution. That means if you’re to the point of being sprayed, you’ve got a high likelihood of what was known among officers as “getting hosed down.” While Taser cycles can be restarted, this can only be done if the subject is continuing to resist (and cycles are recorded by a tiny onboard computer, which provides records which can be uploaded to a personal computer – in other words, supervisors will know if you abused a Taser during a use of force incident). There’s no ‘standard spray’ with OC – it will emit spray as long as there are contents in the can and you have the trigger depressed.

Unfortunately, you won’t have any vote if you’re on the receiving end. You can take hope from the fact that most officers, in my experience, prefer using a Taser (usually no medical intervention necessary, the subject can see and isn’t hyperventilating, no patrol car contamination, and on and on).

But again, do avoid both at most any cost.

Mexican Casserole

Use your choice of meats in this versatile casserole.

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef, ground turkey, chorizo or diced cooked chicken
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced finely
2 teaspoons chili powder
8 ounces Dorito corn chips, crushed, or regular corn chips
1 (15 ounce) can Bush’s ranch-style beans or chili beans
1 (10 ounce) can Ro*Tel, undrained
1 (10 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
2 cups Mexican-style shredded cheese
Flour or corn tortillas, warmed

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 2 quart casserole dish with cooking spray.
In a large skillet, brown the meat for 5 minutes, using a spoon to break up any large clumps. Drain off excess fat and add onion, garlic and chili powder. Continue to cook and stir for 2 minutes.
Add the beans to the cooked meat mixture.
Combine the tomatoes with the soup in a small bowl, mixing completely.
Place about 3/4 of the crushed chips into the bottom of the casserole. Spoon on half the meat mixture, then half the soup mixture. Then add half of the shredded cheese. Repeat the layers, ending with shredded cheese.
Sprinkle the top of the dish with the remaining crushed Doritos or corn chips.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until mixture is bubbling and top is lightly browned.
Serve with tortillas on the side.

What are some of the funniest “got fired” stories?

Not fired per se, but often reassigned. I spent 20 years in the military. One of my supervisors, on realizing I was essentially a lazy git, put me in charge of a shop in a distant part of the ship. No one had really paid any attention to the processes in years. So, lazy man that I was, I dug in to work out the easiest, most expeditious way to do the work. Took about a month, most of it reading manuals and regulations. I completely streamlined everything, including our reporting, eliminating redundancies and revamping workflows. Another 3 weeks to train the staff on how to follow the new procedures, and I could do my whole job in about eight hours a week.

Well, my boss wasn’t going to have me sit on my rump for the other 32 hours, so he moved me again. Same result. A third time, and I was getting the hang of it. I was down to six hours a week. In sheer Puritan frustration, he sent me to the department head’s office to do admin work. Bad choice on his part; I quit paying any attention to the three shops I’d been in, they didn’t need it. In the mean time, I’d become indispensable to my new boss, by arranging things so he could do his job in just a few hours a week.

They gave me “extra duties as assigned”. Well, those were mostly simple enough; paying attention to the written procedures and manuals, and keeping in mind the actual goals, instead of “This is how we’ve always done it”, let me go back to being a lazy git in short order. I was up to maybe 10 hours a week, and that was mostly delivering verbal reports. Maintenance standards were ridiculously high, my people got a lot of time off because the work got done faster than ever before, and me? No one ever saw me actually doing anything. I’d just wander around, a cup of coffee in my hand, dropping a hint here and a word there, or sitting in the mess and catching the occasional phone call.

My evals made me look like a lazy incompetent. Because they used the wrong metrics. But anywhere I was assigned, actual productivity rose, down-time dropped, and everyone got more time off (the only truly effective reward I had to hand out). A lot of my bosses got commendations for “improvements” I had implemented. I eventually retired, after doing some of the easiest time in the service, drawing two pensions and only 38 years old. Drove my wife nuts doing the same thing at home, before she kicked me out of the house. 🙂

Battle of Nagashino 1575

What is something you have tried, but will never do again?

My mate’s girlfriend was getting married to some other guy.

This had to happen.

I too knew that. Who would give her daughter’s hand to a jobless second year engineering student?

Around a week before his girlfriend’s marriage I advised him to cut all connections with her so that she could start a fresh life.

He replied:

“She cannot live without me. If I will stop calling her, she will die.”

I said: “She will not die. She will take time to adjust with her husband but eventually she will be happy with her husband.”

He: “Do you take the guarantee?”

Me: “I am pretty sure that she will not do such stupid thing. Please do not call her if you need her betterment.”

He: “If she commits suicide then you will also have to jump from the roof.”

After that incident I stopped giving advice to any hardcore Romeo.

It has been 2 years and the girl is living happily with her husband.

Million-Dollar Macaroni Casserole

The whole family will love this easy, cozy make-ahead Million-Dollar Macaroni Casserole.

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef or bulk sausage*
1 (28 ounce) can spaghetti sauce
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 pound cottage cheese
1 stick butter
1 pound pasta such as elbow noodles or rotini
1 bag pizza blend shredded cheese
Optional: sliced mushrooms, diced bell pepper, diced onion

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Boil the noodles. Mix together the cream cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese in a mixer to thoroughly mixed together. Set aside.
If you have chosen to use the bell pepper or onion, sauté them for 3 minutes then toss in the ground beef or sausage. Brown ground beef or sausage and drain well. Add spaghetti sauce and mix together. Put a few slices of butter in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish. Then layer half of the noodles in the bottom of the dish. Spread the cheese mixture over this layer. Then add the remaining noodles on top of this with a few pats of butter.
Spread the red sauce and meat on top.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven, spread cheese on top, and return to oven for another 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Notes

* Ground chicken or turkey may also be used in this recipe.

Does it cost money to go to jail?

Depends on how you intend to live your life while you’re there.

Because simply existing in jail — an American jail anyway — requires no money at all if you’re willing to subsist on bad food, basic toiletries, and a blaring day room TV.

But any kind of a normal life at all is gonna require income.

Without money in your commissary account, you can’t —

wash your hair with anything other than bar soap;
soothe a raw throat with Menthol-Lyptus;
take Tylenol for a headache;
write and mail a letter;
make a phonecall;
listen to music;
use deodorant;
eat a snack;
moisturize;

And if you consider any of these items luxuries, then you’re probably coming to incarceration straight off the street and sleeping rough.

Congrats on the upgrade.

Otherwise, you’re gonna need funds.

That means sympathetic family and friends on the outside, a work release or road crew deal from the judge and/or sheriff’s department, or a trustee uniform.

I know it’s possible to subsist in jail without means, because I’ve seen motherfuckers do it.

But it’s no way for a human being to live.

Network

Grease Palms

Update That Resume

Jail isn’t the free ride one might imagine.

Putin just scored a KNOCKOUT Blow to NATO and Ukraine is Terrified w/ Andrei Martyanov

Which historical event sounds like it came straight out of a movie?

Shawn Nelson was a plumber.

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And since Shawn Nelson was a plumber, he was rich too.

He quite literally had it all. A nice wife, a big house, and a booming business.

But one day, it seemed like whatever higher power there existed had had enough of Shawn and his life being so nice.

So the higher power commanded fate to start shitting on Shawn with unparalleled fury.

In the span of 4 years:

Both of his parents died, his mother’s death causing him to become an abusive alcoholic
His wife filed for divorce because of his alcohol tendencies
He was hospitalized for neck and back injuries, which left him unable to walk for a year or so
His truck was broken into, having all his plumbing supplies stolen
Due to him not being able to walk, which means not having a business, which means not being able to pay the bills, Shawn’s utilities were cut off.
The bank started to foreclose his assets due to him not being able to pay
The hospital that treated him for his injuries sued him for unpaid medical bills

The man had quite literally lost everything in a fraction of the time it had taken him to get it.

Safe to say, he was at his lowest point.

As many can attest, it is easier than ever to fall into the grasp of drug use during this time. Nelson was no different. He quickly got addicted to crystal meth, and he went all-in into his addiction.

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When the meth started, his erratic behaviors increased.

Nelson’s neighbors were constantly calling the cops because they were being kept awake at night by Nelson’s outbursts. He constantly threatened suicide and was verbally and emotionally abusive to his roommate and a new girlfriend.

He went so far as to call the Oklahoma bombing that killed nearly 200 people and injured nearly 700 “good stuff.”

However, it seemed fate had finally smiled upon Shawn when he found gold in his own back garden.

This was it. This was the chance to turn his life around. He could pay his bills, regain his job, make his business run again, and finally go back to his old life.

However, this was another meth-fueled delirium. That didn’t stop him from single-handedly building a fifteen-foot mineshaft in his own back garden though.

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He dug that mineshaft for nothing.

Soon after, his girlfriend and roommate moved out.

Shawn was alone in his big house with a big pile of meth.

He had nothing to lose.

On the 17th of May, 1995. Shawn Nelson ingested all the meth he had, then got into his car and started driving, stopping only when he reached the California National Guard Armory.

At this point, Nelson was a meth entity with nothing to lose, and he had only one goal in mind.

He was going to steal a tank.

Shawn arrived at the national guard barracks to find the door wide open, with no guards guarding the millions of dollars worth of tanks and guns stored inside there.

So Shawn just waltzed right in.

He found a tank that he liked and climbed in. At this point, you’d expect tanks to have something like keys or a complicated ignition system to start, but nope.

The tank had a push start button.

Unfortunately, the tank didn’t work. So Shawn climbed into another tank, all without getting spotted. That tank didn’t work either.

He climbed into a third tank, which worked, and so began the half-hour-long Meth Tank Rampage.

He drove his tank through the streets, completely invulnerable to anything the police cruisers that followed him had access to. He crushed 40 vehicles and many more road utilities until he finally got stuck, at which point he was shot dead.

Getting your life screwed over that bad, then stealing a tank does not sound like something out of real life to me.

HUGE EDIT PLEASE READ:

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Shawn Nelson was by no means a saint. He was not entirely a victim of circumstance and mostly brought the stuff that happened to him onto himself.

Mercenaries from the West inside Ukraine – Stunning Numbers

World Hal Turner 16 March 2024

The number of “mercenaries” inside Ukraine, from Western and NATO countries, is stunning. The number of them KILLED is also stunning. Details below:

The Russian Ministry of Defense continues to track and record all foreign mercenaries who have arrived in Ukraine to participate in combat actions.

►The total number of foreign mercenaries who have arrived in Ukraine is 13,387 (Since 24 February 2022.)
►Destruction of 5,962 foreign mercenaries has been confirmed to date.

The undisputed leader in terms of the number of killed fighters is Poland (2,960 arrived, 1,497 eliminated).
From Georgia, 1,042 fighters arrived, of whom 561 were eliminated.
The 1,113 ‘soldiers of fortune’ arriving from the U.S. lost 491 killed.
More than 40% of Canadian mercenaries were eliminated (422 out of 1,005).
Of the 822 fighters arriving from the UK, 360 were eliminated.
From Romania, 784 mercenaries arrived, 349 were killed.
From Germany – 235 and 88, respectively.
France has already lost 147 militants out of 356 arrived
but denies — at all levels — the presence of its mercenaries on the territory of Ukraine.

Forty-four percent (44%) of all foreign mercenaries who went into Ukraine, are confirmed dead.

If one applies the same percentage to Ukrainian regular army troops, then out of the 800,000 troops that existed at the start of the conflict, it is logical to conclude that at least 352,000 are already dead.

Since Ukraine has been drafting-by-force during the entirety of the conflict, the number of Ukrainian dead is clearly far higher than 352,000.

At what point will anyone in the West come to the rational conclusion that the Ukrainians have ZERO chance of surviving continued hostilities? Because THAT is the only rational conclusion to be arrived at.

If the West decides to pursue a suicidal effort to enter Ukraine militarily, is it not clear already that Western Forces would see the same 44% of their men killed the same way Ukraine has?

Last week, it was admitted by the West that eighty percent (80%) of Ukrainian Drones have been rendered useless by Russian Electronic Warfare! 80% ! ! !

Those are Western-supplied drones. Does the West think it will have better odds if THEY are the ones launching the drones? Such a conclusion would be idiocy.

When will the West come to its senses and tell Ukraine “We’ve reached the end, you must sue for peace with Russia?”

As it stands now, Western armament supplies are dwindling to the point where Western nations are no longer able to defend THEIR OWN territory, because they have so depleted their supplies of Ammunition, artillery shells, and missiles.

If the West _does_ engage in Ukraine, where do they think they will get re-supplied from? Right now, the West can’t make enough for the pittance of an army that Ukraine has left. How would they then supply the extra half-million NATO troops? The ammunition simply isn’t there anymore and the manufacturing base simply cannot make enough to supply an ongoing war effort.

None of these facts are in dispute. So why is the carnage continuing?

Do card counters really get beaten up by casino thugs, as portrayed in the movies?

My wife counts cards. She likes to play at the $1 tables at Circus Circus in Reno. She makes a few bucks every time she plays. Counting cards requires some concentration, and many people can’t do it, especially if they’re drunk, which explains the free alcohol.

The dealers all count cards. It’s the only way to keep from nodding off doing that job. So they pretty much know who is counting and who is gambling.

If you go home with $20 and brag to your friends that you counted cards in Reno, it’s great for business. If you try to count cards at the high-stakes tables, you will get escorted out if you are successful at all. A photo of you is taken and posted in the Security office so don’t come back later in the day to try again.

There are enough casinos in Reno that you can make some money if you come a couple times a year. If you move to Reno and try to make a living counting cards, you become known to the pit bosses and the security people, and find yourself prevented from playing.

No brass knuckles are involved. That’s just for the movies.

Cowboy Coffee

coffee on coals and the seashore 1246925709 92fa13d153b24e3096bde851a73fd92e

Ingredients

4 quarts water
1 1/2 cups freshly ground coffee
1 egg shell
1/2 cup cold water

Instructions

Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan or coffee pot.
Add coffee grounds and egg shell to boiling water. Return to a boil, then remove from heat and let stand for 2 minutes.
Slowly add cold water to settle grounds to the bottom. Strain if desired.

As a boss, what is the wildest reason that you had to chew out/discipline/fire an employee?

I was managing a radio station in Colorado. One early morning, I was on the air and noticed the hotline lighting up indicating an incoming call: it was the guy whom I scheduled to be on the air after me. He was calling in sick.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “We’ll cover your shift so stay home and take care of yourself, and I hope to see you tomorrow.”

I was able to find a replacement for him, so after my shaft had come to an end, I handed over the reins to the next jock. I rarely did this, but for some reason, I decided to go home for an hour before I came back to work and spend the rest of my day working in my office. Once I was home, I turned on the TV just to have some noise in the background as I went into the kitchen to make a simple lunch. As I walked around the house, I looked down to see a basketball game in progress. Who do I notice seeing courtside, was none other than the guy who had called in sick.

It was well-known through my staff that if one wanted to take off a day – even if it were for personal reasons – I had a policy in place that would allow people to call in (even at the last minute) and request time off.

To make matters worse, he had lied to me.

The next day, I saw him in the hallway and simply said, “My office. Two-o’clock. Be there.”

At the moment, I couldn’t tell if I was going to fire him for being stupid enough to call in sick to attend a nationally televised event, or if I was going to fire him for lying to me. Either way, he was becoming gainfully unemployed that afternoon.

“Thank you for stopping by my office, but I am afraid that your services are no longer needed. Have a nice day.” I handed him his final check and he left silently.

I am glad that during my time in management I rarely had to fire someone (in fact, he was only one of two people I had fired during my career (the other person was dismissed for attendance purposes. I can tolerate a lot of things with people, but being lied to is, in my opinion, the worst.

Which are some of the most ingeniously solved criminal cases?

The story starts in Denmark. It is 2012 and police officers have just made a pretty standard arrest: they found a sexual offender with possession of child porn.

Police had a much greater concern though. They needed to find who created the videos, not just who was watching them.

There were no clear clues, so they turned to the videos to see if they could find a lead.

In the background, at one point, there was the slightest shot of a pill bottle.

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They zoomed in and managed to discern the man’s first name, the first two letters of his last name and the first three digits of the prescription order.

From there, the investigators applied these details to every possible person to whom they could be attributed.

After intensive searching, they conclude that a man named Stephen Keating is responsible, however they still have very little info about him. Furthermore, this evidence alone isn’t enough to convict him.

Rather than giving up, they once again went back to the videos. This time however, they found an image showing the man’s hand. From there, they used technology to create an impression of his fingerprint.

main qimg 5ae5293f61faf764b24ba394cd10d45a lq

The resulting fingerprint was a perfect match.

53-year-old Stephen Keating was arrested, just three weeks after the investigation began.

main qimg eb81e93f0e38e39acf28fffd2b2031c6 lq

Keating had repeatedly sexually molested three children, all under the age of 12. Outside of the ones captured on video, it was revealed there were another 12 children whom he had abused.

He was sentenced to 110 years in federal prison, but he may have never been caught had it not been for some brilliant detective work.

[4K】Relaxing Walk in Japanese Small Town – Ikegawa, Kochi

This is just lovely.

Cowboy Coffee with Kahlua Cream

Featured in the November 1998 issue of Texas Monthly – created by Chef Grady Spears

how to make cowboy coffee recipe 1695022684

Ingredients

1 pot hot coffee
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 tablespoons Kahlua liqueur
8 teaspoons shaved chocolate

Instructions

Make a pot of good strong coffee.
In a bowl whip the cream until soft peaks form.
Fold in the powdered sugar and Kahlua.
Put a dollop on each cup of coffee and garnish with shaved chocolate.

What single decision had the greatest effect on history?

On September 28th, 1918, Henry Tandey, a British soldier serving with the 5th Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, saw a weary German soldier wandering into Tandey’s line of fire at the small French village of Marcoing.

The enemy soldier was hurt and didn’t even attempt to raise his rifle. Altough Tandey had a clear vision and an opportunity to reduce the number of enemy forces by one, he chose not to shoot. The German soldier allegedly saw what he did and nodded his thanks before getting out of the sight.

That German soldier was Adolf Hitler.

main qimg 83239ee4a497e73a38060e102436303f lq

This story supposedly comes from Hitler himself. When Neville Chamberlain visited Hitler in 1938 (before the Münich Agreement), he saw a picture by Fortunino Matania ordered by the Green Howards regiment depicting a man saving his fellow comrade. Hitler had allegedly identified the man as Tandey on the basis of a U.K. newspaper article and claimed Tandey was the one who saved his life:

That man came so near to killing me that I thought I should never see Germany again; Providence saved me from such devilishly accurate fire as those English boys were aiming at us.

There has been a lot of evidence that this story is not actually true (see the sources below). But it doesn’t make it less cool nevertheless. If it were true, it would definitely be a legitimate candidate for a single decision that had the most dramatic effect on the entire 20th century.

If nothing else, it kinda reminded me of the following joke:

A man decided to visit a fortune teller. After looking into his hand and into the crystal ball, the fortune teller says in a dramatic tone:

“You sir, will be responsible for the death of millions”

Shocked and taken aback, the man goes back to his home. Along the way, he passes near a river and sees a small boy drowning helplessly.

“Well, if millions of people are going to die because of me, I might at least save one life.”

He jumps into the river and pulls the boy out. The shocked mother comes in tears and says:

“ Oh my dear god, thank you so much Mr., you are a saint. Adolf, you should thank this gentleman yourself.”

Sources:

War hero who did not shoot Hitler

If you have just killed someone in self defense, what can you do immediately after the fact to help cement your innocence?

Call a lawyer.
Shut up until your lawyer shows up.
Take pictures of the scene and especially the witnesses. Give the phone only to your lawyer.
When the cops come say ‘I’m sorry Officer. I’d love to tell you my side, but my wife told me to wait for my lawyer.’ Change that to your Dad, etc. At some point before then say ‘Dad, tell me the following…’ so you aren’t lying to the cops.
If they are going to miss the obvious, like a witness, or the gun slid under the dumpster, point it out. But then shut up again.A buddy was getting divorced. His soon to be ex said, she felt threatened when talking to him because he was a soldier (it didn’t matter for the other 20 years…) He was a nice guy and wanted to say, ‘it’s okay, I won’t talk to her.’ But his lawyer shut him down.
If he said that, it gave the impression that he really was a threat.
If he made a mistake, and called his kid, but his wife answered, he could be found liable of breaching a court order.Don’t move things, except to safety and holster your weapon.
A cop had a legit shoot, but noticed the bad guy dropped the gun, right at the cop’s feet. The cop moved the gun to the bad guy, to match what he saw as true, at the time.
Moving the gun got him convicted.Changing your mag might be a good idea because you don’t know if the fight is over until the cops arrive.
Leave the 1/2 empty mag at your feet. Put the safety on/de-cock it, etc. because you don’t want the cop who takes your gun having an ND.
You don’t want the cops to show up and you have a gun in your hand. If your gun is in your hand, very nervous cops will point their guns at you. You don’t want that.Don’t move anything you don’t have to. Giving first aid is allowed but it messes with the facts. Ask 911 before you do it.And shut up. You will really really want to talk. But who among us haven’t said something stupid?

New Gender Alert

Hunting Problem by Robert Sheckley

Hunting Problem

by Robert Sheckley

Preface by David Drake




In the 1950s, Robert Sheckley's short stories appeared frequently in the top range of SF magazines. They were always funny: sometimes cynically funny, sometimes bitterly funny, sometimes horrifically funny . . . but often enough warmly funny. This is a warmly funny story.

One other thing, though: a Sheckley story was never merely funny.

It was the last troop meeting before the big Scouter Jamboree, and all the patrols had turned out. Patrol 22—the Soaring Falcon Patrol—was camped in a shady hollow, holding a tentacle pull. The Brave Bison Patrol, number 31, was moving around a little stream. The Bisons were practicing their skill at drinking liquids, and laughing excitedly at the odd sensation.

And the Charging Mirash Patrol, number 19, was waiting for Scouter Drog, who was late as usual.

Drog hurtled down from the ten-thousand-foot level, went solid, and hastily crawled into the circle of scouters. “Gee,” he said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize what time—”

The Patrol Leader glared at him. “You’re out of uniform, Drog.”

“Sorry, sir,” Drog said, hastily extruding a tentacle he had forgotten.

The others giggled. Drog blushed a dim orange. He wished he were invisible.

But it wouldn’t be proper right now.

“I will open our meeting with the Scouter Creed,” the Patrol Leader said. He cleared his throat. “We, the Young Scouters of the planet Elbonai, pledge to perpetuate the skills and virtues of our pioneering ancestors. For that purpose, we Scouters adopt the shape our forebears were born to when they conquered the virgin wilderness of Elbonai. We hereby resolve—”

Scouter Drog adjusted his hearing receptors to amplify the Leader’s soft voice. The Creed always thrilled him. It was hard to believe that his ancestors had once been earthbound. Today the Elbonai were aerial beings, maintaining only the minimum of body, fueling by cosmic radiation at the twenty-thousand-foot level, sensing by direct perception, coming down only for sentimental or sacramental purposes. They had come a long way since the Age of Pioneering. The modern world had begun with the Age of Submolecular Control, which was followed by the present age of Direct Control.

” . . . honesty and fair play,” the Leader was saying. “And we further resolve to drink liquids, as they did, and to eat solid food, and to increase our skill in their tools and methods.”

* * *

The invocation completed, the youngsters scattered around the plain. The Patrol Leader came up to Drog.

“This is the last meeting before the Jamboree,” the Leader said.

“I know,” Drog said.

“And you are the only second-class scouter in the Charging Mirash Patrol. All the others are first-class, or at least Junior Pioneers. What will people think about our patrol?”

Drog squirmed uncomfortably. “It isn’t entirely my fault,” he said. “I know I failed the tests in swimming and bomb making, but those just aren’t my skills. It isn’t fair to expect me to know everything. Even among the pioneers there were specialists. No one was expected to know all—”

“And just what are your skills?” the Leader interrupted.

“Forest and Mountain Lore,” Drog answered eagerly. “Tracking and hunting.”

The Leader studied him for a moment. Then he said slowly, “Drog, how would you like one last chance to make first class, and win an achievement badge as well?”

“I’d do anything!” Drog cried.

“Very well,” the Patrol Leader said. “What is the name of our patrol?”

“The Charging Mirash Patrol.”

“And what is a Mirash?”

“A large and ferocious animal,” Drog answered promptly. “Once they inhabited large parts of Elbonai, and our ancestors fought many savage battles with them. Now they are extinct.”

“Not quite,” the Leader said. “A scouter was exploring the woods five hundred miles north of here, coordinates S-233 by 482-W, and he came upon a pride of three Mirash, all bulls, and therefore huntable. I want you, Drog, to track them down, to stalk them, using Forest and Mountain Lore. Then, utilizing only pioneering tools and methods, I want you to bring back the pelt of one Mirash. Do you think you can do it?”

“I know I can, sir!”

“Go at once,” the Leader said. “We will fasten the pelt to our flagstaff. We will undoubtedly be commended at the Jamboree.”

“Yes, sir!” Drog hastily gathered up his equipment, filled his canteen with liquid, packed a lunch of solid food, and set out.

* * *

A few minutes later, he had levitated himself to the general area of S-233 by 482-W. It was a wild and romantic country of jagged rocks and scrubby trees, thick underbrush in the valleys, snow on the peaks. Drog looked around, somewhat troubled.

He had told the Patrol Leader a slight untruth.

The fact of the matter was, he wasn’t particularly skilled in Forest and Mountain Lore, hunting or tracking. He wasn’t particularly skilled in anything except dreaming away long hours among the clouds at the five-thousand-foot level. What if he failed to find a Mirash? What if the Mirash found him first?

But that couldn’t happen, he assured himself. In a pinch, he could always gestibulize. Who would ever know?

In another moment he picked up a faint trace of Mirash scent. And then he saw a slight movement about twenty yards away, near a curious T-shaped formation of rock.

Was it really going to be this easy? How nice! Quietly he adopted an appropriate camouflage and edged forward.

* * *

The mountain trail became steeper, and the sun beat harshly down. Paxton was sweating, even in his air-conditioned coverall. And he was heartily sick of being a good sport.

“Just when are we leaving this place?” he asked.

Herrera slapped him genially on the shoulder. “Don’t you wanna get rich?”

“We’re rich already,” Paxton said.

“But not rich enough,” Herrera told him, his long brown face creasing into a brilliant grin.

Stellman came up, puffing under the weight of his testing equipment. He set it carefully on the path and sat down. “You gentlemen interested in a short breather?” he asked.

“Why not?” Herrera said. “All the time in the world.” He sat down with his back against a T-shaped formation of rock.

Stellman lighted a pipe and Herrera found a cigar in the zippered pocket of his coverall. Paxton watched them for a while. Then he asked, “Well, when are we getting off this planet? Or do we set up permanent residence?”

Herrera just grinned and scratched a light for his cigar.

“Well, how about it?” Paxton shouted.

“Relax, you’re outvoted,” Stellman said. “We formed this company as three equal partners.”

“All using my money,” Paxton said.

“Of course. That’s why we took you in. Herrera had the practical mining experience. I had the theoretical knowledge and a pilot’s license. You had the money.”

“But we’ve got plenty of stuff on board now,” Paxton said. “The storage compartments are completely filled. Why can’t we go to some civilized place now and start spending?”

“Herrera and I don’t have your aristocratic attitude toward wealth,” Stellman said with exaggerated patience. “Herrera and I have the childish desire to fill every nook and cranny with treasure. Gold nuggets in the fuel tanks, emeralds in the flour cans, diamonds a foot deep on deck. And this is just the place for it. All manner of costly baubles are lying around just begging to be picked up. We want to be disgustingly, abysmally rich, Paxton.”

Paxton hadn’t been listening. He was staring intently at a point near the edge of the trail. In a low voice, he said, “That tree just moved.”

Herrera burst into laughter. “Monsters, I suppose,” he sneered.

“Be calm,” Stellman said mournfully. “My boy, I am a middle-aged man, overweight and easily frightened. Do you think I’d stay here if there were the slightest danger?”

“There! It moved again!”

“We surveyed this planet three months ago,” Stellman said. “We found no intelligent beings, no dangerous animals, no poisonous plants, remember? All we found were woods and mountains and gold and lakes and emeralds and rivers and diamonds. If there were something here, wouldn’t it have attacked us long before?”

“I’m telling you I saw it move,” Paxton insisted.

Herrera stood up. “This tree?” he asked Paxton.

“Yes. See, it doesn’t even look like the others. Different texture—”

In a single synchronized movement, Herrera pulled a Mark II blaster from a side holster and fired three charges into the tree. The tree and all underbrush for ten yards around burst into flame and crumpled.

“All gone now,” Herrera said.

Paxton rubbed his jaw. “I heard it scream when you shot it.”

“Sure. But it’s dead now,” Herrera said soothingly. “If anything else moves, you just tell me, I shoot it. Now we find some more little emeralds, huh?”

Paxton and Stellman lifted their packs and followed Herrera up the trail. Stellman said in a low, amused voice, “Direct sort of fellow, isn’t he?”

* * *

Slowly Drog returned to consciousness. The Mirash’s flaming weapon had caught him in camouflage, almost completely unshielded. He still couldn’t understand how it had happened. There had been no premonitory fear-scent, no snorting, no snarling, no warning whatsoever. The Mirash had attacked with blind suddenness, without waiting to see whether he was friend or foe.

At last Drog understood the nature of the beast he was up against.

He waited until the hoofbeats of the three bull Mirash had faded into the distance. Then, painfully, he tried to extrude a visual receptor. Nothing happened. He had a moment of utter panic. If his central nervous system was damaged, this was the end.

He tried again. This time, a piece of rock slid off him, and he was able to reconstruct.

Quickly he performed an internal scansion. He sighed with relief. It had been a close thing. Instinctively he had quondicated at the flash moment and it had saved his life.

He tried to think of another course of action, but the shock of that sudden, vicious, unpremeditated assault had driven all Hunting Lore out of his mind. He found that he had absolutely no desire to encounter the savage Mirash again.

Suppose he returned without the stupid hide? He could tell the Patrol Leader that the Mirash were all females, and therefore unhuntable. A Young Scouter’s word was honored, so no one would question him, or even check up.

But that would never do. How could he even consider it?

Well, he told himself gloomily, he could resign from the Scouters, put an end to the whole ridiculous business; the campfires, the singing, the games, the comradeship . . .

This would never do, Drog decided, taking himself firmly in hand. He was acting as though the Mirash were antagonists capable of planning against him. But the Mirash were not even intelligent beings. No creature without tentacles had ever developed true intelligence. That was Etlib’s Law, and it had never been disputed.

In a battle between intelligence and instinctive cunning, intelligence always won. It had to. All he had to do was figure out how.

Drog began to track the Mirash again, following their odor. What colonial weapon should he use? A small atomic bomb? No, that would more than likely ruin the hide.

He stopped suddenly and laughed. It was really very simple, when one applied oneself. Why should he come into direct and dangerous contact with the Mirash? The time had come to use his brain, his understanding of animal psychology, his knowledge of Lures and Snares.

Instead of tracking the Mirash, he would go to their den.

And there he would set a trap.

* * *

Their temporary camp was in a cave, and by the time they arrived there it was sunset. Every crag and pinnacle of rock threw a precise and sharp-edged shadow. The ship lay five miles below them on the valley floor, its metallic hide glistening red and silver. In their packs were a dozen emeralds, small, but of an excellent color.

At an hour like this, Paxton thought of a small Ohio town, a soda fountain, a girl with bright hair. Herrera smiled to himself, contemplating certain gaudy ways of spending a million dollars before settling down to the serious business of ranching. And Stellman was already phrasing his Ph.D. thesis on extraterrestrial mineral deposits.

They were all in a pleasant, relaxed mood. Paxton had recovered completely from his earlier attack of nerves. Now he wished an alien monster would show up—a green one, by preference—chasing a lovely, scantily clad woman.

“Home again,” Stellman said as they approached the entrance of the cave. “Want beef stew tonight?” It was his turn to cook.

“With onions,” Paxton said, starting into the cave. He jumped back abruptly. “What’s that?”

A few feet from the mouth of the cave was a small roast beef, still steaming hot, four large diamonds, and a bottle of whiskey.

“That’s odd,” Stellman said. “And a trifle unnerving.”

Paxton bent down to examine a diamond. Herrera pulled him back.

“Might be booby-trapped.”

“There aren’t any wires,” Paxton said.

Herrera stared at the roast beef, the diamonds, the bottle of whiskey. He looked very unhappy.

“I don’t trust this,” he said.

“Maybe there are natives here,” Stellman said. “Very timid ones. This might be their goodwill offering.”

“Sure,” Herrera said. “They sent to Terra for a bottle of Old Space Ranger just for us.”

“What are we going to do?” Paxton asked.

“Stand clear,” Herrera said. “Move ‘way back.” He broke off a long branch from a nearby tree and poked gingerly at the diamonds.

“Nothing’s happening,” Paxton said.

The long grass Herrera was standing on whipped tightly around his ankles. The ground beneath him surged, broke into a neat disk fifteen feet in diameter and, trailing root-ends, began to lift itself into the air. Herrera tried to jump free, but the grass held him like a thousand green tentacles.

“Hang on!” Paxton yelled idiotically, rushed forward and grabbed a corner of the rising disk of earth. It dipped steeply, stopped for a moment, and began to rise again. By then Herrera had his knife out, and was slashing the grass around his ankles. Stellman came unfrozen when he saw Paxton rising past his head.

Stellman seized him by the ankles, arresting the flight of the disk once more. Herrera wrenched one foot free and threw himself over the edge. The other ankle was held for a moment, then the tough grass parted under his weight. He dropped headfirst to the ground, at the last moment ducking his head and landing on his shoulders. Paxton let go of the disk and fell, landing on Stellman’s stomach.

The disk of earth, with its cargo of roast beef, whiskey and diamonds, continued to rise until it was out of sight.

The sun had set. Without speaking, the three men entered their cave, blasters drawn. They built a roaring fire at the mouth and moved back into the cave’s interior.

“We’ll guard in shifts tonight,” Herrera said.

Paxton and Stellman nodded.

Herrera said, “I think you’re right, Paxton. We’ve stayed here long enough.”

“Too long,” Paxton said.

Herrera shrugged his shoulders. “As soon as it’s light, we return to the ship and get out of here.”

“If,” Stellman said, “we are able to reach the ship.”

* * *

Drog was quite discouraged. With a sinking heart he had watched the premature springing of his trap, the struggle, and the escape of the Mirash. It had been such a splendid Mirash, too. The biggest of the three!

He knew now what he had done wrong. In his eagerness, he had overbaited his trap. Just the minerals would have been sufficient, for Mirash were notoriously mineral-tropic. But no, he had to improve on pioneer methods, he had to use food stimuli as well. No wonder they had reacted suspiciously, with their senses so overburdened.

Now they were enraged, alert, and decidedly dangerous.

And a thoroughly aroused Mirash was one of the most fearsome sights in the Galaxy.

Drog felt very much alone as Elbonai’s twin moons rose in the western sky. He could see the Mirash campfire blazing in the mouth of their cave. And by direct perception he could see the Mirash crouched within, every sense alert, weapons ready.

Was a Mirash hide really worth all this trouble?

Drog decided that he would much rather be floating at the five-thousand-foot level, sculpturing cloud formations and dreaming. He wanted to sop up radiation instead of eating nasty old solid food. And what use was all this hunting and trapping, anyhow? Worthless skills that his people had outgrown.

For a moment he almost had himself convinced. And then, in a flash of pure perception, he understood what it was all about.

True, the Elbonaians had outgrown their competition, developed past all danger of competition. But the Universe was wide, and capable of many surprises. Who could foresee what would come, what new dangers the race might have to face? And how could they meet them if the hunting instinct was lost?

No, the old ways had to be preserved, to serve as patterns; as reminders that peaceable, intelligent life was an unstable entity in an unfriendly Universe.

He was going to get that Mirash hide, or die trying!

The most important thing was to get them out of that cave. Now his hunting knowledge had returned to him.

Quickly, skillfully, he shaped a Mirash horn.

* * *

“Did you hear that?” Paxton asked.

“I thought I heard something,” Stellman said, and they all listened intently.

The sound came again. It was a voice crying, “Oh, help, help me!”

“It’s a girl!” Paxton jumped to his feet.

“It sounds like a girl,” Stellman said.

“Please, help me,” the girl’s voice wailed. “I can’t hold out much longer. Is there anyone who can help me?”

Blood rushed to Paxton’s face. In a flash he saw her, small, exquisite, standing beside her wrecked sports-spacer (what a foolhardy trip it had been!) with monsters, green and slimy, closing in on her. And then he arrived, a foul alien beast.

Paxton picked up a spare blaster. “I’m going out there,” he said coolly.

“Sit down, you moron!” Herrera ordered.

“But you heard her, didn’t you?”

“That can’t be a girl,” Herrera said. “What would a girl be doing on this planet?”

“I’m going to find out,” Paxton said, brandishing two blasters. “Maybe a spaceliner crashed, or she could have been out joyriding, and—”

“Siddown!” Herrera yelled.

“He’s right,” Stellman tried to reason with Paxton. “Even if a girl is out there, which I doubt, there’s nothing we can do.”

“Oh, help, help, it’s coming after me!” the girl’s voice screamed.

“Get out of my way,” Paxton said, his voice low and dangerous.

“You’re really going?” Herrera asked incredulously.

“Yes! Are you going to stop me?”

“Go ahead.” Herrera gestured at the entrance of the cave.

“We can’t let him!” Stellman gasped.

“Why not? His funeral,” Herrera said lazily.

“Don’t worry about me,” Paxton said. “I’ll be back in fifteen minutes—with her!” He turned on his heel and started toward the entrance. Herrera leaned forward and, with considerable precision, clubbed Paxton behind the ear with a stick of firewood. Stellman caught him as he fell.

They stretched Paxton out in the rear of the cave and returned to their vigil. The lady in distress moaned and pleaded for the next five hours. Much too long, as Paxton had to agree, even for a movie serial.

* * *

A gloomy, rain-splattered daybreak found Drog still camped a hundred yards from the cave. He saw the Mirash emerge in a tight group, weapons ready, eyes watching warily for any movement.

Why had the Mirash horn failed? The Scouter Manual said it was an infallible means of attracting the bull Mirash. But perhaps this wasn’t mating season.

They were moving in the direction of a metallic ovoid which Drog recognized as a primitive spatial conveyance. It was crude, but once inside it the Mirash were safe from him.

He could simply trevest them, and that would end it. But it wouldn’t be very humane. Above all, the ancient Elbonaians had been gentle and merciful, and a Young Scouter tried to be like them. Besides, trevestment wasn’t a true pioneering method.

That left ilitrocy. It was the oldest trick in the book, and he’d have to get close to work it. But he had nothing to lose.

And luckily, climatic conditions were perfect for it.

* * *

It started as a thin ground-mist. But, as the watery sun climbed the gray sky, fog began forming.

Herrera cursed angrily as it grew more dense. “Keep close together now. Of all the luck!”

Soon they were walking with their hands on each others’ shoulders, blasters ready, peering into the impenetrable fog.

“Herrera?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you sure we’re going in the right direction?”

“Sure. I took a compass course before the fog closed in.”

“Suppose your compass is off?”

“Don’t even think about it.”

They walked on, picking their way carefully over the rock-strewn ground.

“I think I see the ship,” Paxton said.

“No, not yet,” Herrera said.

Stellman stumbled over a rock, dropped his blaster, picked it up again and fumbled around for Herrera’s shoulder. He found it and walked on.

“I think we’re almost there,” Herrera said.

“I sure hope so,” Paxton said. “I’ve had enough.”

“Think your girl friend’s waiting for you at the ship?”

“Don’t rub it in.”

“Okay,” Herrera said. “Hey, Stellman, you better grab hold of my shoulder again. No sense getting separated.”

“I am holding your shoulder,” Stellman said.

“You’re not.”

“I am, I tell you!”

“Look I guess I know if someone’s holding my shoulder or not.”

“Am I holding your shoulder, Paxton?”

“No,” Paxton said.

“That’s bad,” Stellman said, very slowly. “That’s bad, indeed.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m definitely holding someone’s shoulder.”

Herrera yelled, “Get down, get down quick, give me room to shoot!” But it was too late. A sweet-sour odor was in the air. Stellman and Paxton smelled it and collapsed. Herrera ran forward blindly, trying to hold his breath. He stumbled and fell over a rock, tried to get back on his feet—

And everything went black.

The fog lifted suddenly and Drog was standing alone, smiling triumphantly. He pulled out a long-bladed skinning knife and bent over the nearest Mirash.

* * *

The spaceship hurtled toward Terra at a velocity which threatened momentarily to burn out the overdrive. Herrera, hunched over the controls, finally regained his self-control and cut the speed down to normal. His usual tan face was still ashen, and his hands shook on the instruments.

Stellman came in from the bunkroom and flopped wearily in the co-pilot’s seat.

“How’s Paxton?” Herrera asked.

“I dosed him with Drona-3,” Stellman said. “He’s going to be all right.”

“He’s a good kid,” Herrera said.

“It’s just shock, for the most part,” Stellman said. “When he comes to, I’m going to put him to work counting diamonds. Counting diamonds is the best of therapies, I understand.”

Herrera grinned, and his face began to regain its normal color. “I feel like doing a little diamond-cutting myself, now that it’s all turned out okay.” Then his long face became serious. “But I ask you, Stellman, who could figure it? I still don’t understand!”

* * *

The Scouter Jamboree was a glorious spectacle. The Soaring Falcon Patrol, number 22, gave a short pantomime showing the clearing of the land on Elbonai. The Brave Bisons, number 31, were in full pioneer dress.

And at the head of patrol 19, the Charging Mirash Patrol, was Drog, a first-class Scouter now, wearing a glittering achievement badge. He was carrying the Patrol flag—the position of honor—and everyone cheered to see it.

Because waving proudly from the flagpole was the firm, fine-textured, characteristic skin of an adult Mirash, its zippers, tubes, gauges, buttons and holsters flashing merrily in the sunshine.

Afterword by Jim Baen






When I read this story in my early teens, I laughed my head off. When I thought back on it, though, I realized that "Hunting Problem" might have been the first time a writer showed me that people who didn't look anything like me might be, well . . . people.

Code Three by Rick Raphael

Code Three

by Rick Raphael

Preface by Eric Flint

This story made its way into the anthology by accident. We had never planned to include it at the beginning. In fact, none of us had even remembered the story, or the author—whose career in science fiction only lasted a few years and ended long ago. Instead, we'd wanted to include a story by Eric Frank Russell, a writer whom we'd all enjoyed for years and who had been especially significant for me as a youngster.

Alas, the decision on which stories get included in an anthology like this aren't simply made by the editors. The estates (or, in some cases, still-living authors) obviously have a say in the matter also. And, in the case of Eric Frank Russell, the agency representing the estate proved too difficult for us to deal with. (Never mind the details. Expletives would have to be deleted. Many many many expletives.)

I was the one who handled the negotiations with that estate, and after they finally fell through, I was in a foul mood. I'd really wanted a Russell story. So I decided to work off my frustration with some long-postponed manual labor: unpacking several big boxes of old science fiction magazines I'd purchased for my editing work and filing them away.

Halfway through the first box, which was full of old Analog magazines, a cover illustration caught my eye. Jumped out at me, to be more precise. In a split second, I not only recognized that cover but I rememberedthe story it illustrated and the name of the author—Rick Raphael's novella Code Three, which I hadn't read in something like forty years but now recalled very vividly.

This was . . . a very good sign. So I immediately sat down and read the story, wondering if I'd still like it as much as I could remember liking it as a teenager.

As it happened, if anything, I liked it even more. As an experienced writer now well into middle age—being charitable to myself—I could spot little subtleties and nuances which I'm sure I missed as a sixteen-year-old.

I then called Dave on the phone and I began describing the story to him. Before I'd gotten out more than three sentences, he remembered it also—even though, like me, he hadn't read it in many years.

Oh, a very good sign.

So, here it is. The third story of the anthology, to serve all of us as a reminder that science fiction was constructed by many people, not simply a small number of famous writers. Rick Raphael came and went, but he had his moment in the sun.

The late afternoon sun hid behind gray banks of snow clouds and a cold wind whipped loose leaves across the drill field in front of the Philadelphia Barracks of the North American Continental Thruway Patrol. There was the feel of snow in the air but the thermometer hovered just at the freezing mark and the clouds could turn either into icy rain or snow.

Patrol Sergeant Ben Martin stepped out of the door of the barracks and shivered as a blast of wind hit him. He pulled up the zipper on his loose blue uniform coveralls and paused to gauge the storm clouds building up to the west.

The broad planes of his sunburned face turned into the driving cold wind for a moment and then he looked back down at the weather report secured to the top of a stack of papers on his clipboard.

Behind him, the door of the barracks was shouldered open by his junior partner, Patrol Trooper Clay Ferguson. The young, tall Canadian officer’s arms were loaded with paper sacks and his patrol work helmet dangled by its strap from the crook of his arm.

Clay turned and moved from the doorway into the wind. A sudden gust swept around the corner of the building and a small sack perched atop one of the larger bags in his arms blew to the ground and began tumbling towards the drill field.

“Ben,” he yelled, “grab the bag.”

The sergeant lunged as the sack bounded by and made the retrieve. He walked back to Ferguson and eyed the load of bags in the blond-haired officer’s arms.

“Just what is all this?” he inquired.

“Groceries,” the youngster grinned. “Or to be more exact, little gourmet items for our moments of gracious living.”

Ferguson turned into the walk leading to the motor pool and Martin swung into step beside him. “Want me to carry some of that junk?”

“Junk,” Clay cried indignantly. “You keep your grimy paws off these delicacies, peasant. You’ll get yours in due time and perhaps it will help Kelly and me to make a more polished product of you instead of the clodlike cop you are today.”

Martin chuckled. This patrol would mark the start of the second year that he, Clay Ferguson and Medical-Surgical Officer Kelly Lightfoot had been teamed together. After twenty-two patrols, cooped up in a semiarmored vehicle with a man for ten days at a time, you got to know him pretty well. And you either liked him or you hated his guts.

As senior officer, Martin had the right to reject or keep his partner after their first eleven-month duty tour. Martin had elected to retain the lanky Canadian. As soon as they had pulled into New York Barracks at the end of their last patrol, he had made his decisions. After eleven months and twenty-two patrols on the Continental Thruways, each team had a thirty-day furlough coming.

Martin and Ferguson had headed for the city the minute they put their signatures on the last of the stack of reports needed at the end of a tour. Then, for five days and nights, they tied one on. MSO Kelly Lightfoot had made a beeline for a Columbia Medical School seminar on tissue regeneration. On the sixth day, Clay staggered out of bed, swigged down a handful of antireaction pills, showered, shaved and dressed and then waved good-by. Twenty minutes later he was aboard a jet, heading for his parents’ home in Edmonton, Alberta. Martin soloed around the city for another week, then rented a car and raced up to his sister’s home in Burlington, Vermont, to play Uncle Bountiful to Carol’s three kids and to lap up as much as possible of his sister’s real cooking.

While the troopers and their med officer relaxed, a service crew moved their car down to the Philadelphia motor pool for a full overhaul and refitting for the next torturous eleven-month tour of duty.

The two patrol troopers had reported into the Philadelphia Barracks five days ago—Martin several pounds heavier courtesy of his sister’s cooking; Ferguson several pounds lighter courtesy of three assorted, starry-eyed, uniform-struck Alberta maidens.

They turned into the gate of the motor pool and nodded to the sentry at the gate. To their left, the vast shop buildings echoed to the sound of body-banging equipment and roaring jet engines. The darkening sky made the brilliant lights of the shop seem even brighter and the hulls of a dozen patrol cars cast deep shadows around the work crews.

The troopers turned into the dispatcher’s office and Clay carefully placed the bags on a table beside the counter. Martin peered into one of the bags. “Seriously, kid, what do you have in that grab bag?”

“Oh, just a few essentials,” Clay replied. “Pate de foie gras, sharp cheese, a smidgen of cooking wine, a handful of spices. You know, stuff like that. Like I said—essentials.”

“Essentials,” Martin snorted, “you give your brains to one of those Alberta chicks of yours for a souvenir?”

“Look, Ben,” Ferguson said earnestly, “I suffered for eleven months in that tin mausoleum on tracks because of what you fondly like to think is edible food. You’ve got as much culinary imagination as Beulah. I take that back. Even Beulah turns out some better smells when she’s riding on high jet than you’ll ever get out of her galley in the next one hundred years. This tour, I intend to eat like a human being once again. And I’ll teach you how to boil water without burning it.”

“Why you ungrateful young—” Martin yelped.

The patrol dispatcher, who had been listening with amused tolerance, leaned across the counter.

“If Oscar Waldorf is through with his culinary lecture, gentlemen,” he said, “perhaps you two could be persuaded to take a little pleasure ride. It’s a lovely night for a drive and it’s just twenty-six hundred miles to the next service station. If you two aren’t cooking anything at the moment, I know that NorCon would simply adore having the services of two such distinguished Continental Commandos.”

Ferguson flushed and Martin scowled at the dispatcher. “Very funny, clown. I’ll recommend you for trooper status one of these days.”

“Not me,” the dispatcher protested. “I’m a married man. You’ll never get me out on the road in one of those blood-and-gut factories.”

“So quit sounding off to us heroes,” Martin said, “and give us the clearances.”

The dispatcher opened a loose-leaf reference book on the counter and then punched the first of a series of buttons on a panel. Behind him, the wall lighted with a map of the eastern United States to the Mississippi River. Ferguson and Martin had pencils out and poised over their clipboards.

The dispatcher glanced at the order board across the room where patrol car numbers and team names were displayed on an illuminated board. “Car 56—Martin-Ferguson-Lightfoot,” glowed with an amber light. In the column to the right was the number “26-W.” The dispatcher punched another button. A broad belt of multi-colored lines representing the eastern segment of North America Thruway 26 flashed onto the map in a band extending from Philadelphia to St. Louis. The thruway went on to Los Angeles on its western segment, not shown on the map. Ten bands of color—each five separated by a narrow clear strip, detailed the thruway. Martin and Ferguson were concerned with the northern five bands; NAT 26-westbound. Other unlighted lines radiated out in tangential spokes to the north and south along the length of the multi-colored belt of NAT 26.

This was just one small segment of the Continental Thruway system that spanned North America from coast to coast and crisscrossed north and sound under the Three Nation Road Compact from the southern tip of Mexico into Canada and Alaska.

Each arterial cut a five-mile-wide path across the continent and from one end to the other, the only structures along the roadways were the turretlike NorCon Patrol check and relay stations—looming up at one-hundred-mile intervals like the fire control islands of earlier-day aircraft carries.

Car 56 with Trooper Sergeant Ben Martin, Trooper Clay Ferguson and Medical-Surgical Officer Kelly Lightfoot, would take their first ten-day patrol on NAT 26-west. Barring major disaster, they would eat, sleep and work the entire time from their car; out of sight of any but distant cities until they had reached Los Angeles at the end of the patrol. Then a five-day resupply and briefing period and back onto another thruway.

During the coming patrol they would cross ten state lines as if they didn’t exist. And as far as thruway traffic control and authority was concerned, state and national boundaries actually didn’t exist. With the growth of the old interstate highway system and the Alcan Highway it became increasingly evident that variation in motor vehicle laws from state to state and country to country were creating impossible situations for any uniform safety control.

* * *

With the establishment of the Continental Thruway System two decades later, came the birth of the supra-cop—The North American Thruway Patrol—known as NorCon. Within the five-mile bands of the thruways—all federally-owned land by each of the three nations—the blue-coveralled “Continental Commandos” of NorCon were the sole law enforcement agency and authority. Violators of thruway law were cited into NorCon district traffic courts located in the nearest city to each access port along every thruway.

There was no challenge to the authority of NorCon. Public demand for faster and more powerful vehicles had forced the automotive industry to put more and more power under the touch of the ever-growing millions of drivers crowding the continent’s roads. Piston drive gave way to turbojet; turbojet was boosted by a modification of ram jet and air-cushion drive was added. In the last two years, the first of the nuclear reaction mass engines had hit the roads. Even as the hot Ferraris and Jags of the mid-’60s would have been suicide vehicles on the T-model roads of the ’20s so would today’s vehicles be on the interstates of the ’60s. But building roads capable of handling three hundred to four hundred miles an hour speeds was beyond the financial and engineering capabilities of individual states and nations. Thus grew the continental thruways with their four speed lanes in each direction, each a half-mile wide separated east and west and north and south by a half-mile-wide landscaped divider. Under the Three Nation Compact, the thruways now wove a net across the entire North American continent.

* * *

On the big wall map, NAT 26-west showed as four colored lines; blue and yellow as the two high and ultra-high speed lanes; green and white for the intermediate and slow lanes. Between the blue and yellow and the white and green was a red band. This was the police emergency lane, never used by other than official vehicles and crossed by the traveling public shifting from one speed lane to another only at sweeping crossovers.

The dispatcher picked up an electric pointer and aimed the light beam at the map. Referring to his notes, he began to recite.

“Resurfacing crews working on 26-W blue at milestone Marker 185 to Marker 187, estimated clearance 0300 hours Tuesday—Let’s see, that’s tomorrow morning.”

The two officers were writing the information down on their trip-analysis sheets.

“Ohio State is playing Cal under the lights at Columbus tonight so you can expect a traffic surge sometime shortly after 2300 hours but most of it will stay in the green and white. Watch out for the drunks though. They might filter out onto the blue or yellow.

“The crossover for NAT 163 has painting crews working. Might watch out for any crud on the roadway. And they’ve got the entrance blocked there so that all 163 exchange traffic is being re-routed to 164 west of Chillicothe.”

The dispatcher thumbed through his reference sheets. “That seems to be about all. No, wait a minute. This is on your trick. The Army’s got a priority missile convoy moving out of the Aberdeen Proving Grounds bound for the west coast tonight at 1800 hours. It will be moving at green lane speeds so you might watch out for it. They’ll have thirty-four units in the convoy. And that is all. Oh, yes. Kelly’s already aboard. I guess you know about the weather.”

Martin nodded. “Yup. We should be hitting light snows by 2300 hours tonight in this area and it could be anything from snow to ice-rain after that.” He grinned at his younger partner. “The vacation is over, sonny. Tonight we make a man out of you.”

Ferguson grinned back. “Nuts to you, pop. I’ve got character witnesses back in Edmonton who’ll give you glowing testimonials about my manhood.”

“Testimonials aren’t legal unless they’re given by adults,” Martin retorted. “Come on, lover boy. Duty calls.”

Clay carefully embraced his armload of bundles and the two officers turned to leave. The dispatcher leaned across the counter.

“Oh, Ferguson, one thing I forgot. There’s some light corrugations in red lane just east of St. Louis. You might be careful with your soufflés in that area. Wouldn’t want them to fall, you know.”

Clay paused and started to turn back. The grinning dispatcher ducked into the back office and slammed the door.

* * *

The wind had died down by the time the troopers entered the brilliantly lighted parking area. The temperature seemed warmer with the lessening winds but in actuality, the mercury was dropping. The snow clouds to the west were much nearer and the overcast was getting darker.

But under the great overhead light tubes, the parking area was brighter than day. A dozen huge patrol vehicles were parked on the front “hot” line. Scores more were lined out in ranks to the back of the parking zone. Martin and Ferguson walked down the line of military blue cars. Number 56 was fifth on the line. Service mechs were just re-housing fueling lines into a ground panel as the troopers walked up. The technician corporal was the first to speak. “All set, Sarge,” he said. “We had to change an induction jet at the last minute and I had the port engine running up to reline the flow. Thought I’d better top ‘er off for you, though, before you pull out. She sounds like a purring kitten.”

He tossed the pair a waving salute and then moved out to his service dolly where three other mechs were waiting.

“Beulah looks like she’s been to the beauty shop and had the works,” Martin said. He reached out and slapped the maglurium plates. “Welcome home, sweetheart. I see you’ve kept a candle in the window for your wandering son.” Ferguson looked up at the lighted cab, sixteen feet above the pavement.

Car 56—Beulah to her team—was a standard NorCon Patrol vehicle. She was sixty feet long, twelve feet wide and twelve feet high; topped by a four-foot-high bubble canopy over her cab. All the way across her nose was a three-foot-wide luminescent strip. This was the variable beam headlight that could cut a day-bright swath of light through night, fog, rain or snow and could be varied in intensity, width and elevation. Immediately above the headlight strip were two red-black plastic panels which when lighted, sent out a flashing red emergency signal that could be seen for miles. Similar emergency lights and back-up white light strips adorned Beulah’s stern. Her bow rounded down like an old-time tank and blended into the track assembly of her dual propulsion system. With the exception of the cabin bubble and a two-foot stepdown on the last fifteen feet of her hull, Beulah was free of external protrusions. Racked into a flush-decked recess on one side of the hull was a crane arm with a two-hundred-ton lift capacity. Several round hatches covered other extensible gear and periscopes used in the scores of multiple operations the Nor Con cars were called upon to accomplish on routine road patrols.

Beulah resembled a gigantic offspring of a military tank, sans heavy armament. But even a small stinger was part of the patrol car equipment. As for armament, Beulah had weapons to meet every conceivable skirmish in the deadly battle to keep Continental Thruways fast-moving and safe. Her own two-hundred-fifty-ton bulk could reach speeds of close to six hundred miles an hour utilizing one or both of her two independent propulsion systems.

At ultra-high speeds, Beulah never touched the ground—floating on an impeller air cushion and driven forward by a pair of one hundred fifty thousand pound thrust jets and ram jets. At intermediate high speeds, both her air cushion and the four-foot-wide tracks on each side of the car pushed her along at two hundred-mile-an-hour-plus speeds. Synchro mechanisms reduced the air cushion as the speeds dropped to afford more surface traction for the tracks. For slow speeds and heavy duty, the tracks carried the burden.

Martin thumbed open the portside ground-level cabin door.

“I’ll start the outside check,” he told Clay. “You stow that garbage of yours in the galley and start on the dispensary. I’ll help you after I finish out here.”

As the younger officer entered the car and headed up the short flight of steps to the working deck, the sergeant unclipped a check list from the inside of the door and turned towards the stern of the big vehicle.

* * *

Clay mounted to the work deck and turned back to the little galley just aft of the cab. As compact as a spaceship kitchen—as a matter of fact, designed almost identically from models on the Moon run—the galley had but three feet of open counter space. Everything else, sink, range, oven and freezer, were built-ins with pull-downs for use as needed. He set his bags on the small counter to put away after the pre-start check. Aft of the galley and on the same side of the passageway were the double-decked bunks for the patrol troopers. Across the passageway was a tiny latrine and shower. Clay tossed his helmet on the lower bunk as he went down the passageway. At the bulkhead to the rear, he pressed a wall panel and a thick, insulated door slid back to admit him to the engine compartment. The service crews had shut down the big power plants and turned off the air exchangers and already the heat from the massive engines made the compartment uncomfortably warm.

He hurried through into a small machine shop. In an emergency, the troopers could turn out small parts for disabled vehicles or for other uses. It also stocked a good supply of the most common failure parts. Racked against the ceiling were banks of cutting torches, a grim reminder that death and injury still rode the thruways with increasing frequency.

In the tank storage space between the ceiling and top of the hull were the chemical fire-fighting liquids and foam that could be applied by nozzles, hoses and towers now telescoped into recesses in the hull. Along both sides and beneath the galley, bunks, engine and machine-shop compartments between the walls, deck and hull, were Beulah’s fuel storage tanks.

The last after compartment was a complete dispensary, one that would have made the emergency room or even the light surgery rooms of earlier-day hospitals proud.

Clay tapped on the door and went through. Medical-Surgical Officer Kelly Lightfoot was sitting on the deck, stowing sterile bandage packs into a lower locker. She looked up at Clay and smiled. “Well, well, you DID manage to tear yourself away from your adoring bevies,” she said. She flicked back a wisp of golden-red hair from her forehead and stood up. The patrol-blue uniform coverall with its belted waist didn’t do much to hide a lovely, properly curved figure. She walked over to the tall Canadian trooper and reached up and grabbed his ear. She pulled his head down, examined one side critically and then quickly snatched at his other ear and repeated the scrutiny. She let go of his ear and stepped back. “Damned if you didn’t get all the lipstick marks off, too.”

Clay flushed. “Cut it out, Kelly,” he said. “Sometimes you act just like my mother.”

The olive-complexioned redhead grinned at him and turned back to her stack of boxes on the deck. She bent over and lifted one of the boxes to the operating table. Clay eyed her trim figure. “You might act like ma sometimes,” he said, “but you sure don’t look like her.”

It was the Irish-Cherokee Indian girl’s turn to flush. She became very busy with the contents of the box. “Where’s Ben?” she asked over her shoulder.

“Making outside check. You about finished in here?”

Kelly turned and slowly scanned the confines of the dispensary. With the exception of the boxes on the table and floor, everything was behind secured locker doors. In one corner, the compact diagnostician—capable of analyzing many known human bodily ailments and every possible violent injury to the body—was locked in its riding clamps. Surgical trays and instrument racks were all hidden behind locker doors along with medical and surgical supplies. On either side of the emergency ramp door at the stern of the vehicle, three collapsible auto-litters hung from clamps. Six hospital bunks in two tiers of three each, lined another wall. On patrol, Kelly utilized one of the hospital bunks for her own use except when they might all be occupied with accident or other kind of patients. And this would never be for more than a short period, just long enough to transfer them to a regular ambulance or hospital vehicle. Her meager supply of personal items needed for the ten-day patrol were stowed in a small locker and she shared the latrine with the male members of the team.

Kelly completed her scan, glanced down at the check list in her hand. “I’ll have these boxes stowed in five minutes. Everything else is secure.” She raised her hand to her forehead in mock salute. “Medical-Surgical Officer Lightfoot reports dispensary ready for patrol, sir.”

Clay smiled and made a check-mark on his clipboard. “How was the seminar, Kelly?” he asked.

Kelly hiked herself onto the edge of the operating table. “Wonderful, Clay, just wonderful. I never saw so many good-looking, young, rich and eligible doctors together in one place in all my life.”

She sighed and smiled vacantly into space.

Clay snorted. “I thought you were supposed to be learning something new about tissue regeneration,” he said.

“Generation, regeneration, who cares,” Kelly grinned.

Clay started to say something, got flustered and wheeled around to leave—and bounded right off Ben Martin’s chest. Ferguson mumbled something and pushed past the older officer.

Ben looked after him and then turned back to Car 56’s combination doctor, surgeon and nurse. “Glad to see the hostess aboard for this cruise. I hope you make the passengers more comfortable than you’ve just made the first mate. What did you do to Clay, Kelly?”

“Hi, Ben,” Kelly said. “Oh, don’t worry about junior. He just gets all fluttery when a girl takes away his masculine prerogative to make cleverly lewd witticisms. He’ll be all right. Have a happy holiday, Ben? You look positively fat.”

Ben patted his stomach. “Carol’s good cooking. Had a nice restful time. And how about you. That couldn’t have been all work. You’ve got a marvelous tan.”

“Don’t worry,” Kelly laughed, “I had no intention of letting it be all study. I spent just about as much time under the sun dome at the pool as I did in class. I learned a lot, though.”

Ben grinned and headed back to the front of the car. “Tell me more after we’re on the road,” he said from the doorway. “We’ll be rolling in ten minutes.”

When he reached the cab, Clay was already in the right-hand control seat and was running down the instrument panel check. The sergeant lifted the hatch door between the two control seats and punched on a light to illuminate the stark compartment at the lower front end of the car. A steel grill with a dogged handle on the upper side covered the opening under the hatch cover. Two swing-down bunks were racked up against the walls on either side and the front hull door was without an inside handle. This was the patrol car brig, used for bringing in unwilling violators or other violent or criminal subjects who might crop up in the course of a patrol tour. Satisfied with the appearance of the brig, Ben closed the hatch cover and slid into his own control seat on the left of the cab. Both control seats were molded and plastiformed padded to the contours of the troopers and the armrests on both were studded with buttons and a series of small, finger-operated knobs. All drive, communication and fire fighting controls for the massive vehicle were centered in the knobs and buttons on the seat arms, while acceleration and braking controls were duplicated in two footrest pedals beneath their feet.

Ben settled into his seat and glanced down to make sure his work-helmet was racked beside him. He reached over and flipped a bank of switches on the instrument panel. “All communications to ‘on,'” he said. Clay made a checkmark on his list. “All pre-engine start check complete,” Clay replied.

“In that case, the senior trooper said, “let’s give Beulah some exercise. Start engines.”

Clay’s fingers danced across the array of buttons on his seat arms and flicked lightly at the throttle knobs. From deep within the engine compartment came the muted, shrill whine of the starter engines, followed a split-second later by the full-throated roar of the jets as they caught fire. Clay eased the throttles back and the engine noise softened to a muffled roar.

Martin fingered a press-panel on the right arm of his seat.

“Car 56 to Philly Control,” Ben called.

The speakers mounted around the cab came to life. “Go ahead Five Six.”

“Five Six fired up and ready to roll,” Martin said.

“Affirmative Five Six,” came the reply. “You’re clear to roll. Philly Check estimates white density 300; green, 840; blue, 400; yellow, 75.”

Both troopers made mental note of the traffic densities in their first one-hundred-mile patrol segment; an estimated three hundred vehicles for each ten miles of thruway in the white or fifty to one hundred miles an hour lane; eight hundred forty vehicles in the one hundred to one hundred fifty miles an hour green, and so on. More than sixteen thousand westbound vehicles on the thruway in the first one hundred miles; nearly five thousand of them traveling at speeds between one hundred fifty and three hundred miles an hour.

Over the always-hot intercom throughout the big car Ben called out. “All set, Kelly?”

“I’m making coffee,” Kelly answered from the galley. “Let ‘er roll.”

Martin started to kick off the brakes, then stopped. “Ooops,” he exclaimed, “almost forgot.” His finger touched another button and a blaring horn reverberated through the vehicle.

In the galley, Kelly hurled herself into a corner. Her body activated a pressure plant and a pair of mummy-like plastifoam plates slid curvingly out the wall and locked her in a soft cocoon. A dozen similar safety clamps were located throughout the car at every working and relaxation station.

In the same instance, both Ben and Clay touched another plate on their control seats. From kiosk-type columns behind each seat, pairs of body-molded crash pads snapped into place to encase both troopers in their seats, their bodies cushioned and locked into place. Only their fingers were loose beneath the spongy substance to work arm controls. The half-molds included headforms with a padded band that locked across their foreheads to hold their heads rigidly against the backs of their reinforced seats. The instant all three crew members were locked into their safety gear, the bull horn ceased.

“All tight,” Ben called out as he wiggled and tried to free himself from the cocoon. Kelly and Clay tested their harnesses.

Satisfied that the safety cocoons were operating properly, Ben released them and the molds slid back into their recesses. The cocoons were triggered automatically in any emergency run or chase at speeds in excess of two hundred miles an hour.

Again he kicked off the brakes, pressed down on the foot feed and Car 56—Beulah—rolled out of the Philadelphia motor pool on the start of its ten-day patrol.

* * *

The motor pool exit opened into a quarter-mile wide tunnel sloping gently down into the bowels of the great city. Car 56 glided down the slight incline at a steady fifty miles an hour. A mile from the mouth of the tunnel the roadway leveled off and Ben kicked Beulah up another twenty-five miles an hour. Ahead, the main tunnel ended in a series of smaller portal ways, each emblazoned with a huge illuminated number designating a continental thruway.

Ben throttled back and began edging to the left lanes. Other patrol cars were heading down the main passageway, bound for their assigned thruways. As Ben eased down to a slow thirty, another patrol vehicle slid alongside. The two troopers in the cab waved. Clay flicked on the “car-to-car” transmit.

The senior trooper in Car 104 looked over at Martin and Ferguson. “If it isn’t the gruesome twosome,” he called. “Where have you been? We thought the front office had finally caught up with you and found out that neither one of you could read or write and that they had canned you.”

“We can’t read,” Ben quipped back. “That’s why we’re still on the job. The front office would never hire anyone who would embarrass you two by being smarter than either of you. Where’re you headed, Eddie?”

“Got 154-north,” the other officer said.

“Hey,” Clay called out, “I’ve got a real hot doll in Toronto and I’ll gladly sell her phone number for a proper price.”

“Wouldn’t want to hurt you, Clay,” the other officer replied. “If I called her up and took her out, she’d throw rocks at you the next time you drew the run. It’s all for your own good.”

“Oh, go get lost in a cloverleaf,” Clay retorted.

The other car broke the connection and with a wave, veered off to the right. The thruway entrances were just ahead. Martin aimed Beulah at the lighted orifice topped by the number 26-W. The patrol car slid into the narrower tunnel, glided along for another mile, and then turned its bow upwards. Three minutes later, they emerged from the tunnel into the red patrol lane of Continental Thruway 26-West. The late afternoon sky was a covering of gray wool and a drop or two of moisture struck the front face of the cab canopy. For a mile on either side of the police lane, streams of cars sped westward. Ben eyed the sky, the traffic and then peered at the outer hull thermometer. It read thirty-two degrees. He made a mental bet with himself that the weather bureau was off on its snow estimates by six hours. His Vermont upbringing told him it would be flurrying within the hour.

He increased speed to a steady one hundred and the car sped silently and easily along the police lane. Across the cab, Clay peered pensively at the steady stream of cars and cargo carriers racing by in the green and blue lanes—all of them moving faster than the patrol car.

The young officer turned in his seat and looked at his partner.

“You know, Ben,” he said gravely, “I sometimes wonder if those oldtime cowboys got as tired looking at the south end of northbound cows as I get looking at the vanishing tail pipes of cars.”

The radio came to life.

“Philly Control to Car 56.”

Clay touched his transmit plate. “This is Five Six. Go ahead.”

“You’ve got a bad one at Marker 82,” Control said. “A sideswipe in the white.”

“Couldn’t be too bad in the white,” Ben broke in, thinking of the one-hundred mile-an-hour limit in the slow lane.

“That’s not the problem,” Control came back. “One of the sideswiped vehicles was flipped around and bounded into the green, and that’s where the real mess is. Make it code three.”

“Five Six acknowledge,” Ben said. “On the way.”

He slammed forward on the throttles. The bull horn blared and a second later, with MSO Kelly Lightfoot snugged in her dispensary cocoon and both troopers in body cushions, Car 56 lifted a foot from the roadway, and leaped forward on a turbulent pad of air. It accelerated from one hundred to two hundred fifty miles an hour.

The great red emergency lights on the bow and stern began to blink and from the special transmitter in the hull a radio siren wail raced ahead of the car to be picked up by the emergency receptor antennas required on all vehicles.

The working part of the patrol had begun.

* * *

Conversation died in the speeding car, partly because of the concentration required by the troopers, secondly because all transmissions whether intercom or radio, on a code two or three run, were taped and monitored by Control. In the center of the instrument panel, an oversized radiodometer was clicking off the mileage marks as the car passed each milestone. The milestone posts beamed a coded signal across all five lanes and as each vehicle passed the marker, the radiodometer clicked up another number.

Car 56 had been at MM 23 when the call came. Now, at better than four miles a minute, Beulah whipped past MM 45 with ten minutes yet to go to reach the scene of the accident. Light flurries of wet snow bounced off the canopy, leaving thin, fast-drying trails of moisture. Although it was still a few minutes short of 1700 hours, the last of the winter afternoon light was being lost behind the heavy snow clouds overhead. Ben turned on the patrol car’s dazzling headlight and to the left and right, Clay could see streaks of white lights from the traffic on the green and blue lanes on either side of the quarter-mile wide emergency lane.

The radio filled them in on the movement of other patrol emergency vehicles being routed to the accident site. Car 82, also assigned to NAT 26-West, was more than one hundred fifty miles ahead of Beulah. Pittsburgh Control ordered Eight Two to hold fast to cover anything else that might come up while Five Six was handling the current crisis. Eastbound Car 119 was ordered to cut across to the scene to assist Beulah’s crew, and another eastbound patrol vehicle was held in place to cover for One One Nine.

At mile marker 80, yellow caution lights were flashing on all westbound lanes, triggered by Philadelphia Control the instant the word of the crash had been received. Traffic was slowing down and piling up despite the half-mile wide lanes.

“Philly Control this is Car 56.”

“Go ahead Five Six.”

“It’s piling up in the green and white,” Ben said. “Let’s divert to blue on slowdown and seal the yellow.”

“Philly Control acknowledged,” came the reply.

The flashing amber caution lights on all lanes switched to red. As Ben began de-acceleration, diagonal red flashing barriers rose out of the roadway on the green and white lanes at the 85 mile marker and lane crossing. This channeled all traffic from both lanes to the left and into the blue lane where the flashing reds now prohibited speeds in excess of fifty miles an hour around the emergency situation. At the same time, all crossovers on the ultra high yellow lane were sealed by barriers to prevent changing of lanes into the over-congested area.

As Car 56’s speed dropped back below the two hundred mile an hour mark the cocoon automatically slid open. Freed from her safety restraints, Kelly jumped for the rear entrance of the dispensary and cleared the racking clamps from the six auto-litters. That done, she opened another locker and reached for the mobile first-aid kit. She slid it to the door entrance on its retractable casters. She slipped on her work helmet with the built-in transmitter and then sat down on the seat by the rear door to wait until the car stopped.

Car 56 was now less than two miles from the scene of the crash and traffic in the green lane to the left was at a standstill. A half mile farther westward, lights were still moving slowly along the white lane. Ahead, the troopers could see a faint wisp of smoke rising from the heaviest congregation of headlights. Both officers had their work helmets on and Clay had left his seat and descended to the side door, ready to jump out the minute the car stopped.

Martin saw a clear area in the green lane and swung the car over the dividing curbing. The big tracks floated the patrol car over the two-foot high, rounded abutment that divided each speed lane. Snow was falling faster as the headlight picked out a tangled mass of wreckage smoldering a hundred feet inside the median separating the green and white lanes. A crumpled body lay on the pavement twenty feet from the biggest clump of smashed metal, and other fragments of vehicles were strung out down the roadway for fifty feet. There was no movement.

NorCon thruway laws were strict and none were more rigidly enforced than the regulation that no one other than a member of the patrol set foot outside of their vehicle while on any thruway traffic lane. This meant not giving any assistance whatsoever to accident victims. The ruling had been called inhuman, monstrous, unthinkable, and lawmakers in the three nations of the compact had forced NorCon to revoke the rule in the early days of the thruways. After speeding cars and cargo carriers had cut down twice as many do-gooders on foot at accident scenes than the accidents themselves caused, the law was reinstated. The lives of the many were more vital than the lives of a few.

Martin halted the patrol vehicle a few feet from the wreckage and Beulah was still rocking gently on her tracks by the time both Patrol Trooper Clay Ferguson and MSO Kelly Lightfoot hit the pavement on the run.

In the cab, Martin called in on the radio. “Car 56 is on scene. Release blue at Marker 95 and resume speeds all lanes at Marker 95 in—” he paused and looked back at the halted traffic piled up before the lane had been closed “—seven minutes.” He jumped for the steps and sprinted out of the patrol car in the wake of Ferguson and Kelly.

The team’s surgeon was kneeling beside the inert body on the road. After an ear to the chest, Kelly opened her field kit bag and slapped an electrode to the victim’s temple. The needle on the encephalic meter in the lid of the kit never flickered. Kelly shut the bag and hurried with it over to the mass of wreckage. A thin column of black, oily smoke rose from somewhere near the bottom of the heap. It was almost impossible to identify at a glance whether the mangled metal was the remains of one or more cars. Only the absence of track equipment made it certain that they even had been passenger vehicles.

Clay was carefully climbing up the side of the piled up wrecks to a window that gaped near the top.

“Work fast, kid,” Martin called up. “Something’s burning down there and this whole thing may go up. I’ll get this traffic moving.”

He turned to face the halted mass of cars and cargo carriers east of the wreck. He flipped a switch that cut his helmet transmitter into the remote standard vehicular radio circuit aboard the patrol car.

“Attention, please, all cars in green lane. All cars in the left line move out now, the next line fall in behind. You are directed to clear the area immediately. Maintain fifty miles an hour for the next mile. You may resume desired speeds and change lanes at mile Marker 95. I repeat, all cars in green lane . . .” he went over the instructions once more, relayed through Beulah’s transmitter to the standard receivers on all cars. He was still talking as the traffic began to move.

By the time he turned back to help his teammates, cars were moving in a steady stream past the huge, red-flashing bulk of the patrol car.

Both Clay and Kelly were lying flat across the smashed, upturned side of the uppermost car in the pile. Kelly had her field bag open on the ground and she was reaching down through the smashed window.

“What is it, Clay?” Martin called.

The younger officer looked down over his shoulder. “We’ve got a woman alive down here but she’s wedged in tight. She’s hurt pretty badly and Kelly’s trying to slip a hypo into her now. Get the arm out, Ben.”

Martin ran back to the patrol car and flipped up a panel on the hull. He pulled back on one of the several levers recessed into the hull and the big wrecking crane swung smoothly out of its cradle and over the wreckage. The end of the crane arm was directly over Ferguson. “Lemme have the spreaders,” Clay called. The arm dipped and from either side of the tip, a pair of flanges shot out like tusks on an elephant. “Put ‘er in neutral,” Clay directed. Martin pressed another lever and the crane now could be moved in any direction by fingertip pulls at its extremity. Ferguson carefully guided the crane with its projecting tusks into the smashed orifice of the car window. “O.K., Ben, spread it.”

The crane locked into position and the entire arm split open in a “V” from its base. Martin pressed steadily on the two levers controlling each side of the divided arm and the tusks dug into the sides of the smashed window. There was a steady screeching of tearing and ripping metal as the crane tore window and frame apart. “Hold it,” Ferguson yelled and then eased himself into the widened hole.

“Ben,” Kelly called from her perch atop the wreckage, “litter.”

Martin raced to the rear of the patrol car where the sloping ramp stood open to the lighted dispensary. He snatched at one of the autolitters and triggered its tiny drive motor. A homing beacon in his helmet guided the litter as it rolled down the ramp, turned by itself and rolled across the pavement a foot behind him. It stopped when he stopped and Ben touched another switch, cutting the homing beacon.

Clay’s head appeared out of the hole. “Get it up here, Ben. I can get her out. And I think there’s another one alive still further down.”

Martin raised the crane and its ripper bars retracted. The split arms spewed a pair of cables terminating in magnalocks. The cables dangled over the ends of the autolitter, caught the lift plates on the litter and a second later, the cart was swinging beside the smashed window as Clay and Kelly eased the torn body of a woman out of the wreckage and onto the litter. As Ben brought the litter back to the pavement, the column of smoke had thickened. He disconnected the cables and homed the stretcher back to the patrol car. The hospital cart with its unconscious victim rolled smoothly back to the car, up the ramp and into the dispensary to the surgical table.

Martin climbed up the wreckage beside Kelly. Inside the twisted interior of the car, the thick smoke all but obscured the bent back of the younger trooper and his powerful handlight barely penetrated the gloom. Blood was smeared over almost every surface and the stink of leaking jet fuel was virtually overpowering. From the depths of the nightmarish scene came a tortured scream. Kelly reached into a coverall pocket and produced another sedation hypo. She squirmed around and started to slip down into the wreckage with Ferguson. Martin grabbed her arm. “No, Kelly, this thing’s ready to blow. Come on, Clay, get out of there. Now!”

Ferguson continued to pry at the twisted plates below him.

“I said ‘get out of there’ Ferguson,” the senior officer roared. “And that’s an order.”

Clay straightened up and put his hands on the edge of the window to boost himself out. “Ben, there’s a guy alive down there. We just can’t leave him.”

“Get down from there, Kelly,” Martin ordered. “I know that man’s down there just as well as you do, Clay. But we won’t be helping him one damn bit if we get blown to hell and gone right along with him. Now get outta there and maybe we can pull this thing apart and get to him before it does blow.”

The lanky Canadian eased out of the window and the two troopers moved back to the patrol car. Kelly was already in her dispensary, working on the injured woman.

Martin slid into his control seat. “Shut your ramp, Kelly,” he called over the intercom. “I’m going to move around to the other side.”

The radio broke in. “Car 119 to Car 56, we’re just turning into the divider. Be there in a minute.”

“Snap it up,” Ben replied. “We need you in a hurry.”

As he maneuvered Beulah around the wreckage he snapped orders to Ferguson.

“Get the foam nozzles up, just in case, and then stand by on the crane.”

A mile away, they saw the flashing emergency lights of Car 119 as it raced diagonally across the yellow and blue lanes, whipping with ponderous ease through the moving traffic.

“Take the south side, 119,” Martin called out. “We’ll try and pull this mess apart.”

“Affirmative,” came the reply. Even before the other patrol vehicle came to a halt, its crane was swinging out from the side, and the ganged magnalocks were dangling from their cables.

“O.K., kid,” Ben ordered, “hook it.”

At the interior crane controls, Clay swung Beulah’s crane and cable mags towards the wreckage. The magnalocks slammed into the metallic mess with a bang almost at the same instant the locks hit the other side from Car 119.

Clay eased up the cable slack. “Good,” Ben called to both Clay and the operating trooper in the other car, “now let’s pull it . . . LOOK OUT! FOAM . . . FOAM . . . FOAM,” he yelled.

The ugly, deep red fireball from the exploding wreckage was still growing as Clay slammed down on the fire-control panel. A curtain of thick chemical foam burst from the poised nozzles atop Beulah’s hull and a split-second later, another stream of foam erupted from the other patrol car. The dense, oxygen-absorbing retardant blanket snuffed the fire out in three seconds. The cranes were still secured to the foam-covered heap of metal. “Never mind the caution,” Ben called out, “get it apart. Fast.”

Both crane operators slammed their controls into reverse and with an ear-splitting screech, the twisted frames of the two vehicles ripped apart into tumbled heaps of broken metal and plastics. Martin and Ferguson jumped down the hatch steps and into ankle-deep foam and oil. They waded and slipped around the front of the car to join the troopers from the other car.

Ferguson was pawing at the scum-covered foam near the mangled section of one of the cars. “He should be right about,” Clay paused and bent over, “here.” He straightened up as the others gathered around the scorched and ripped body of a man, half-submerged in the thick foam. “Kelly,” he called over the helmet transmitter, “open your door. We’ll need a couple of sacks.”

He trudged to the rear of the patrol car and met the girl standing in the door with a pair of folded plastic morgue bags in her hands. Behind her, Clay could see the body of the woman on the surgical table, an array of tubes and probes leading to plasma drip bottles and other equipment racked out over the table.

“How is she?”

“Not good,” Kelly replied. “Skull fracture, ruptured spleen, broken ribs and double leg fractures. I’ve already called for an ambulance.”

Ferguson nodded, took the bags from her and waded back through the foam.

The four troopers worked in the silence of the deserted traffic lane. A hundred yards away, traffic was moving steadily in the slow white lane. Three-quarters of a mile to the south, fast and ultra high traffic sped at its normal pace in the blue and yellow lanes. Westbound green was still being rerouted into the slower white lane, around the scene of the accident. It was now twenty-six minutes since Car 56 had received the accident call. The light snow flurries had turned to a steady fall of thick wet flakes, melting as they hit on the warm pavement but beginning to coat the pitiful flotsam of the accident.

The troopers finished the gruesome task of getting the bodies into the morgue sacks and laid beside the dispensary ramp for the ambulance to pick up with the surviving victim. Car 119’s MSO had joined Kelly in Beulah’s dispensary to give what help she might. The four patrol troopers began the grim task of probing the scattered wreckage for other possible victims, personal possessions and identification. They were stacking a small pile of hand luggage when the long, low bulk of the ambulance swung out of the police lane and rolled to a stop. Longer than the patrol cars but without the non-medical emergency facilities, the ambulance was in reality a mobile hospital. A full, scrubbed-up surgical team was waiting in the main operating room even as the ramps opened and the techs headed for Car 56. The team had been briefed by radio on the condition of the patient; had read the full recordings of the diagnostician; and were watching transmitted pulse and respiration graphs on their own screens while the transfer was being made.

The two women MSOs had unlocked the surgical table in Beulah’s dispensary and a plastic tent covered not only the table and the patient, but also the plasma and Regen racks overhead. The entire table and rig slid down the ramp onto a motor-driven dolly from the ambulance. Without delay, it wheeled across the open few feet of pavement into the ambulance and to the surgery room. The techs locked the table into place in the other vehicle and left the surgery. From a storage compartment, they wheeled out a fresh patrol dispensary table and rack and placed it in Kelly’s miniature surgery. The dead went into the morgue aboard the ambulance, the ramp closed and the ambulance swung around and headed across the traffic lanes to eastbound NAT-26 and Philadelphia.

Outside, the four troopers had completed the task of collecting what little information they could from the smashed vehicles.

They returned to their cars and One One Nine’s medical-surgical officer headed back to her own cubbyhole.

The other patrol car swung into position almost touching Beulah’s left flank. With Ben at the control seat, on command, both cars extended broad bulldozer blades from their bows. “Let’s go,” Ben ordered. The two patrol vehicles moved slowly down the roadway, pushing all of the scattered scraps and parts onto a single great heap. They backed off, shifted direction towards the center police lane and began shoving the debris, foam and snow out of the green lane. At the edge of the police lane, both cars unshipped cranes and magnalifted the junk over the divider barrier onto the one-hundred-foot-wide service strip bordering the police lane. A slow cargo wrecker was already on the way from Pittsburgh barracks to pick up the wreckage and haul it away. When the last of the metallic debris had been deposited off the traffic lane, Martin called Control.

“Car 56 is clear. NAT 26-west green is clear.”

Philly Control acknowledged. Seven miles to the east, the amber warning lights went dark and the detour barrier at Crossover 85 sank back into the roadway. Three minutes later, traffic was again flashing by on green lane past the two halted patrol cars.

“Pitt Control, this is Car 119 clear of accident,” the other car reported.

“Car 119 resume eastbound patrol,” came the reply.

The other patrol car pulled away. The two troopers waved at Martin and Ferguson in Beulah. “See you later and thanks,” Ben called out. He switched to intercom. “Kelly. Any ID on that woman?”

“Not a thing, Ben,” she replied. “About forty years old, and she had a wedding band. She never was conscious, so I can’t help you.”

Ben nodded and looked over at his partner. “Go get into some dry clothes, kid,” he said, “while I finish the report. Then you can take it for a while.”

Clay nodded and headed back to the crew quarters.

* * *

Ben racked his helmet beside his seat and fished out a cigarette. He reached for an accident report form from the work rack behind his seat and began writing, glancing up from time to time to gaze thoughtfully at the scene of the accident. When he had finished, he thumbed the radio transmitter and called Philly Control. Somewhere in the bloody, oil and foam covered pile of wreckage were the registration plates for the two vehicles involved. When the wrecker collected the debris, it would be machine sifted in Pittsburgh and the plates fed to records and then relayed to Philadelphia where the identifications could be added to Ben’s report. When he had finished reading his report he asked, “How’s the woman?”

“Still alive, but just barely,” Philly Control answered. “Ben, did you say there were just two vehicles involved?”

“That’s all we found,” Martin replied.

“And were they both in the green?”

“Yes, why?”

“That’s funny,” Philly controller replied, “we got the calls as a sideswipe in white that put one of the cars over into the green. There should have been a third vehicle.”

“That’s right,” Ben exclaimed. “We were so busy trying to get that gal out and then making the try for the other man I never even thought to look for another car. You suppose that guy took off?”

“It’s possible,” the controller said. “I’m calling a gate filter until we know for sure. I’ve got the car number on the driver that reported the accident. I’ll get hold of him and see if he can give us a lead on the third car. You go ahead with your patrol and I’ll let you know what I find out.”

“Affirmative,” Ben replied. He eased the patrol car onto the police lane and turned west once again. Clay reappeared in the cab, dressed in fresh coveralls. “I’ll take it, Ben. You go and clean up now. Kelly’s got a pot of fresh coffee in the galley.” Ferguson slid into his control seat.

A light skiff of snow covered the service strip and the dividers as Car 56 swung back westward in the red lane. Snow was falling steadily but melting as it touched the warm ferrophalt pavement in all lanes. The wet roadways glistened with the lights of hundreds of vehicles. The chronometer read 1840 hours. Clay pushed the car up to a steady 75, just about apace with the slowest traffic in the white lane. To the south, densities were much lighter in the blue and yellow lanes and even the green had thinned out. It would stay moderately light now for another hour until the dinner stops were over and the night travelers again rolled onto the thruways.

Kelly was putting frozen steaks into the infra-oven as Ben walked through to crew quarters. Her coverall sleeves were rolled to the elbows as she worked and a vagrant strand of copper hair curled over her forehead. As Martin passed by, he caught a faint whisper of perfume and he smiled appreciatively.

In the tiny crew quarters, he shut the door to the galley and stripped out of his wet coveralls and boots. He eyed the shower stall across the passageway.

“Hey, mother,” he yelled to Kelly, “have I got time for a shower before dinner?”

“Yes, but make it a quickie,” she called back.

Five minutes later he stepped into the galley, his dark, crew-cut hair still damp. Kelly was setting plastic, disposable dishes on the little swing-down table that doubled as a food bar and work desk. Ben peered into a simmering pot and sniffed. “Smells good. What’s for dinner, Hiawatha?”

“Nothing fancy. Steak, potatoes, green beans, apple pie and coffee.”

Ben’s mouth watered. “You know, sometimes I wonder whether one of your ancestors didn’t come out of New England. Your menus always seem to coincide with my ideas of a perfect meal.” He noted the two places set at the table. Ben glanced out the galley port into the headlight-striped darkness. Traffic was still light. In the distance, the night sky glowed with the lights of Chambersburg, north of the thruway.

“We might as well pull up for dinner,” he said. “It’s pretty slow out there.”

Kelly shoved dishes over and began laying out a third setting. About half the time on patrol, the crew ate in shifts on the go, with one of the patrol troopers in the cab at all times. When traffic permitted, they pulled off to the service strip and ate together. With the communications system always in service, control stations could reach them anywhere in the big vehicle.

The sergeant stepped into the cab and tapped Ferguson on the shoulder. “Dinnertime, Clay. Pull her over and we’ll try some of your gracious living.”

“Light the candles and pour the wine,” Clay quipped, “I’ll be with you in a second.”

Car 56 swung out to the edge of the police lane and slowed down. Clay eased the car onto the strip and stopped. He checked the radiodometer and called in. “Pitt Control, this is Car 56 at Marker 158. Dinner is being served in the dining car to the rear. Please do not disturb.”

“Affirmative, Car 56,” Pittsburgh Control responded. “Eat heartily, it may be going out of style.” Clay grinned and flipped the radio to remote and headed for the galley.

* * *

Seated around the little table, the trio cut into their steaks. Parked at the north edge of the police lane, the patrol car was just a few feet from the green lane divider strip and cars and cargo carriers flashed by as they ate.

Clay chewed on a sliver of steak and looked at Kelly. “I’d marry you, Pocahontas, if you’d ever learn to cook steaks like beef instead of curing them like your ancestral buffalo robes. When are you going to learn that good beef has to be bloody to be edible?”

The girl glared at him. “If that’s what it takes to make it edible, you’re going to be an epicurean delight in just about one second if I hear another word about my cooking. And that’s also the second crack about my noble ancestors in the past five minutes. I’ve always wondered about the surgical techniques my great-great-great grandpop used when he lifted a paleface’s hair. One more word, Clay Ferguson, and I’ll have your scalp flying from Beulah’s antenna like a coontail on a kid’s scooter.”

Ben bellowed and nearly choked. “Hey, kid,” he spluttered at Clay, “ever notice how the wrong one of her ancestors keeps coming to the surface? That was the Irish.”

Clay polished off the last of his steak and reached for the individual frozen pies Kelly had put in the oven with the steak. “Now that’s another point,” he said, waving his fork at Kelly. “The Irish lived so long on potatoes and prayers that when they get a piece of meat on their menu, they don’t know how to do anything but boil it.”

“That tears it,” the girl exploded. She pushed back from the table and stood up. “I’ve cooked the last meal this big, dumb Canuck will ever get from me. I hope you get chronic indigestion and then come crawling to me for help. I’ve got something back there I’ve been wanting to dose you with for a long time.”

She stormed out of the galley and slammed the door behind her. Ben grinned at the stunned look on Clay’s face. “Now what got her on the warpath?” Clay asked. Before Ben could answer the radio speaker in the ceiling came to life.

“Car 56 this is Pitt Control.”

Martin reached for the transmit switch beside the galley table. “This is Five Six, go ahead.”

“Relay from Philly Control,” the speaker blared. “Reference the accident at Marker 92 at 1648 hours this date; Philly Control reports a third vehicle definitely involved.”

Ben pulled out a pencil and Clay shoved a message pad across the table.

“James J. Newhall, address 3409 Glen Cove Drive, New York City, license number BHT 4591 dash 747 dash 1609, was witness to the initial impact. He reports that a white over green, late model Travelaire, with two men in it, sideswiped one of the two vehicles involved in the fatal accident. The Travelaire did not stop but accelerated after the impact. Newhall was unable to get the full license number but the first six units were QABR dash 46 . . . rest of numerals unknown.”

Ben cut in. “Have we got identification on our fatalities yet?”

“Affirmative, Five Six,” the radio replied. “The driver of the car struck by the hit-and-run was a Herman Lawrence Hanover, age forty-two, of 13460 One Hundred Eighty-First Street South, Camden, New Jersey, license number LFM 4151 dash 603 dash 2738. With him was his wife, Clara, age forty-one, same address. Driver of the green lane car was George R. Hamilton, age thirty-five, address Box 493, Route 12, Tucumcari, New Mexico.”

Ben broke in once more. “You indicate all three are fatalities. Is this correct, Pitt Control? The woman was alive when she was transferred to the ambulance.”

“Stand by, Five Six, and I’ll check.”

A moment later Pitt Control was back. “That is affirmative, Five Six. The woman died at 1745 hours. Here is additional information. A vehicle answering to the general description of the hit-and-run vehicle is believed to have been involved in an armed robbery and multiple murder earlier this date at Wilmington, Delaware. Philly Control is now checking for additional details. Gate filters have been established on NAT 26-West from Marker-Exit 100 to Marker-Exit 700. Also, filters on all interchanges. Pitt Control out.”

Kelly Lightfoot, her not-too-serious peeve forgotten, had come back into the galley to listen to the radio exchange. The men got up from the table and Clay gathered the disposable dishware and tossed them into the waste receiver.

“We’d better get rolling,” Ben said, “those clowns could still be on the thruway, although they could have got off before the filters went up.”

They moved to the cab and took their places. The big engines roared into action as Ben rolled Car 56 back onto the policeway. Kelly finished straightening up in the galley and then came forward to sit on the jump seat between the two troopers. The snow had stopped again but the roadways were still slick and glistening under the headlights. Beulah rolled steadily along on her broad tracks, now cruising at one hundred miles an hour. The steady whine of the cold night wind penetrated faintly into the sound-proofed and insulated cabin canopy. Clay cut out the cabin lights, leaving only the instrument panel glowing faintly along with the phosphorescent buttons and knobs on the arms of the control seats.

A heavy express cargo carrier flashed by a quarter of a mile away in the blue lane, its big bulk lit up like a Christmas tree with running and warning lights. To their right, Clay caught the first glimpse of a set of flashing amber warning lights coming up from behind in the green lane. A minute later, a huge cargo carrier came abreast of the patrol car and then pulled ahead. On its side was a glowing star of the United States Army. A minute later, another Army carrier rolled by.

“That’s the missile convoy out of Aberdeen,” Clay told Kelly. “I wish our hit-runner had tackled one of those babies. We’d have scraped him up instead of those other people.”

The convoy rolled on past at a steady one hundred twenty-five miles an hour. Car 56 flashed under a crossover and into a long, gentle curve. The chronometer clicked up to 2100 hours and the radio sang out. “Cars 207, 56 and 82, this is Pitt Control. 2100 hours density report follows . . .”

Pittsburgh Control read off the figures for the three cars. Car 82 was one hundred fifty miles ahead of Beulah, Car 207 about the same distance to the rear. The density report ended and a new voice came on the air.

“Attention all cars and all stations, this is Washington Criminal Control.” The new voice paused, and across the continent, troopers on every thruway, control station, checkpoint and relay block, reached for clipboard and pen.

“Washington Criminal Control continuing, all cars and all stations, special attention to all units east of the Mississippi. At 1510 hours this date, two men held up the First National Bank of Wilmington, Delaware, and escaped with an estimated one hundred seventy-five thousand dollars. A bank guard and two tellers, together with five bank customers were killed by these subjects using automatic weapon fire to make good their escape. They were observed leaving the scene in a late model, white-over-green Travelaire sedan, license unknown. A car of the same make, model and color was stolen from Annapolis, Maryland, a short time prior to the holdup. The stolen vehicle, now believed to be the getaway car, bears USN license number QABR dash 468 dash 1113 . . .”

“That’s our baby,” Ben murmured as he and Clay scribbled on their message forms.

” . . . Motor number ZB 1069432,” Washington Criminal Control continued. “This car is also now believed to have been involved in a hit-and-run fatal accident on NAT 26-West at Marker 92 at approximately 1648 hours this date.

“Subject Number One is described as WMA, twenty to twenty-five years, five feet, eleven inches tall, medium complexion, dark hair and eyes, wearing a dark-gray sports jacket and dark pants, and wearing a gray sports cap. He was wearing a ring with a large red stone on his left hand.

“Subject Number Two is described as WMA, twenty to twenty-five years, six feet, light, ruddy complexion and reddish brown hair, light colored eyes. Has scar on back left side of neck. Wearing light-brown suit, green shirt and dark tie, no hat.

“These subjects are believed to be armed and psychotically dangerous. If observed, approach with extreme caution and inform nearest control of contact. Both subjects now under multiple federal warrants charging bank robbery, murder and hit-and-run murder. All cars and stations acknowledge. Washington Criminal Control out.”

The air chattered as the cars checked into their nearest controls with “acknowledged.”

“This looks like it could be a long night,” Kelly said, rising to her feet. “I’m going to sack out. Call me if you need me.”

“Good night, princess,” Ben called.

“Hey, Hiawatha,” Clay called out as Kelly paused in the galley door. “I didn’t mean what I said about your steaks. Your great-great-great grandpop would have gone around with his bare scalp hanging out if he had had to use a buffalo hide cured like that steak was cooked.”

He reached back at the same instant and slammed the cabin door just as Kelly came charging back. She slammed into the door, screamed and then went storming back to the dispensary while Clay doubled over in laugher.

Ben smiled at his junior partner. “Boy, you’re gonna regret that. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

* * *

Martin turned control over to the younger trooper and relaxed in his seat to go over the APB from Washington. Car 56 bored steadily through the night. The thruway climbed easily up the slight grade cut through the hills north of Wheeling, West Virginia, and once more snow began falling.

Clay reached over and flipped on the video scanners. Four small screens, one for each of the westbound lanes, glowed with a soft red light. The monitors were synchronized with the radiodometer and changed view at every ten-mile marker. Viewing cameras mounted on towers between each lane, lined the thruway, aimed eastward at the on-coming traffic back to the next bank of cameras ten miles away. Infra-red circuits took over from standard scan at dark. A selector system in the cars gave the troopers the option of viewing either the block they were currently patrolling; the one ahead of the next ten-mile block; or, the one they had just passed. As a rule, the selection was based on the speed of the car. Beamed signals from each block automatically switched the view as the patrol car went past the towers. Clay put the slower lane screens on the block they were in, turned the blue and yellow lanes to the block ahead.

They rolled past the interchange with NAT 114-South out of Cleveland and the traffic densities picked up in all lanes as many of the southbound vehicles turned west on to NAT 26. The screens flicked and Clay came alert. Some fifteen miles ahead in the one-hundred-fifty-to-two-hundred-mile an hour blue lane, a glowing dot remained motionless in the middle of the lane and the other racing lights of the blue lane traffic were sheering around it like a racing river current parting around a boulder.

“Trouble,” he said to Martin, as he shoved forward on the throttle.

A stalled car in the middle of the highspeed lane was an invitation to disaster. The bull horn blared as Beulah leaped past the two hundred mile an hour mark and safety cocoons slid into place. Aft in the dispensary, Kelly was sealed into her bunk by a cocoon rolling out of the wall and encasing the hospital bed.

Car 56 slanted across the police lane with red lights flashing and edged into the traffic flow in the blue lane. The great, red winking lights and the emergency radio siren signal began clearing a path for the troopers. Vehicles began edging to both sides of the lane to shift to crossovers to the yellow or green lanes. Clay aimed Beulah at the motionless dot on the screen and eased back from the four-mile-a-minute speed. The patrol car slowed and the headlight picked up the stalled vehicle a mile ahead. The cocoons opened and Ben slipped on his work helmet and dropped down the steps to the side hatch. Clay brought Beulah to a halt a dozen yards directly to the rear of the stalled car, the great bulk of the patrol vehicle with its warning lights serving as a shield against any possible fuzzy-headed speeders that might not be observing the road.

As Martin reached for the door, the Wanted bulletin flashed through his head. “What make of car is that, Clay?”

“Old jalopy Tritan with some souped-up rigs. Probably kids,” the junior officer replied. “It looks O.K.”

Ben nodded and swung down out of the patrol car. He walked quickly to the other car, flashing his handlight on the side of the vehicle as he went up to the driver. The interior lights were on and inside, two obviously frightened young couples smiled with relief at the sight of the uniform coveralls. A freckled-faced teenager in a dinner jacket was in the driver’s seat and had the blister window open. He grinned up at Martin. “Boy, am I glad to see you, officer,” he said.

“What’s the problem?” Ben asked.

“I guess she blew an impeller,” the youth answered. “We were heading for a school dance at Cincinnati and she was boiling along like she was in orbit when blooey she just quit.”

Ben surveyed the old jet sedan. “What year is this clunker?” he asked. The kid told him. “You kids have been told not to use this lane for any vehicle that old.” He waved his hand in protest as the youngster started to tell him how many modifications he had made on the car. “It doesn’t make one bit of difference whether you’ve put a first-stage Moon booster on this wreck. It’s not supposed to be in the blue or yellow. And this thing probably shouldn’t have been allowed out of the white—or even on the thruway.”

The youngster flushed and bit his lip in embarrassment at the giggles from the two evening-frocked girls in the car.

“Well, let’s get you out of here.” Ben touched his throat mike. “Drop a light, Clay and then let’s haul this junk pile away.”

In the patrol car, Ferguson reached down beside his seat and tugged at a lever. From a recess in Beulah’s stern, a big portable red warning light dropped to the pavement. As it touched the surface, it automatically flashed to life, sending out a bright, flashing red warning signal into the face of any approaching traffic. Clay eased the patrol car around the stalled vehicle and then backed slow into position, guided by Martin’s radioed instructions. A tow-bar extruded from the back of the police vehicle and a magnaclamp locked onto the front end of the teenager’s car. The older officer walked back to the portable warning light and rolled it on its four wheels to the rear plate of the jalopy where another magnalock secured it to the car. Beulah’s two big rear warning lights still shone above the low silhouette of the passenger car, along with the mobile lamp on the jalopy. Martin walked back to the patrol car and climbed in.

He slid into his seat and nodded at Clay. The patrol car, with the disabled vehicle in tow moved forward and slanted left towards the police lane. Martin noted the mileage marker on the radiodometer and fingered the transmitter. “Chillicothe Control this is Car 56.”

“This Chillicothe. Go ahead Five Six.”

“We picked up some kids in a stalled heap on the blue at Marker 382 and we’ve got them in tow now,” Ben said. “Have a wrecker meet us and take them off our hands.”

“Affirmative, Five Six. Wrecker will pick you up at Marker 412.”

* * *

Clay headed the patrol car and its trailed load into an emergency entrance to the middle police lane and slowly rolled westward. The senior trooper reached into his records rack and pulled out a citation book.

“You going to nail these kids?” Clay asked.

“You’re damned right I am,” Martin replied, beginning to fill in the violation report. “I’d rather have this kid hurting in the pocketbook than dead. If we turn him loose, he’ll think he got away with it this time and try it again. The next time he might not be so lucky.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Clay said, “but it does seem a little rough.”

Ben swung around in his seat and surveyed his junior officer. “Sometimes I think you spent four years in the patrol academy with your head up your jet pipes,” he said. He fished out another cigarette and took a deep drag.

“You’ve had four solid years of law; three years of electronics and jet and air-drive engine mechanics and engineering; pre-med, psychology, math, English, Spanish and a smattering of Portuguese, to say nothing of dozens of other subjects. You graduated in the upper tenth of your class with a B.S. in both Transportation and Criminology which is why you’re riding patrol and not punching a computer or tinkering with an engine. You’d think with all that education that somewhere along the line you’d have learned to think with your head instead of your emotions.”

Clay kept a studied watch on the roadway. The minute Ben had turned and swung his legs over the side of the seat and pulled out a cigarette, Clay knew that it was school time in Car 56. Instructor Sergeant Ben Martin was in a lecturing mood. It was time for all good pupils to keep their big, fat mouths shut.

“Remember San Francisco de Borja?” Ben queried. Clay nodded. “And you still think I’m too rough on them?” Ben pressed.

Ferguson’s memory went back to last year’s fifth patrol. He and Ben with Kelly riding hospital, had been assigned to NAT 200-North, running out of Villahermosa on the Guatamalan border of Mexico to Edmonton Barracks in Canada. It was the second night of the patrol. Some seven hundred fifty miles north of Mexico City, near the town of San Francisco de Borja, a gang of teenage Mexican youngsters had gone roaring up the yellow at speeds touching on four hundred miles an hour. Their car, a beat-up, fifteen-year-old veteran of less speedy and much rockier local mountain roads, had been gimmicked by the kids so that it bore no resemblance to its original manufacture.

From a junkyard they had obtained a battered air lift, smashed almost beyond use in the crackup of a ten-thousand dollar sports cruiser. The kids pried, pounded and bent the twisted impeller lift blades back into some semblance of alignment. From another wreck of a cargo carrier came a pair of 4000-pound thrust engines. They had jury-rigged the entire mess so that it stuck together on the old heap. Then they hit the thruway—nine of them packed into the jalopy—the oldest one just seventeen years old. They were doing three hundred fifty when they flashed past the patrol car and Ben had roared off in pursuit. The senior officer whipped the big patrol car across the crowded high speed blue lane, jockeyed into the ultra-high yellow and then turned on the power.

By this time the kids realized they had been spotted and they cranked their makeshift power plant up to the last notch. The most they could get out of it was four hundred and it was doing just that as Car 56, clocking better than five hundred, pulled in behind them. The patrol car was still three hundred yards astern when one of the bent and re-bent impeller blades let go. The out-of-balance fan, turning at close to 35,000 rpm’s, flew to pieces and the air cushion vanished. At four hundred miles an hour, the body of the old jalopy fell the twelve inches to the pavement and both front wheels caved under. There was a momentary shower of sparks, then the entire vehicle snapped cart-wheeling more than eighty feet into the air and exploded. Pieces of car and bodies were scattered for a mile down the thruway and the only whole, identifiable human bodies were those of the three youngsters thrown out and sent hurtling to their deaths more than two hundred feet away.

Clay’s mind snapped back to the present.

“Write ’em up,” he said quietly to Martin. The senior officer gave a satisfied nod and turned back to his citation pad.

* * *

At marker 412, which was also the Columbus turnoff, a big patrol wrecker was parked on the side strip, engines idling, service and warning lights blinking. Clay pulled the patrol car alongside and stopped. He disconnected the tow bar and the two officers climbed out into the cold night air. They walked back to the teenager’s car. Clay went to the rear of the disabled car and unhooked the warning light while Martin went to the driver’s window. He had his citation book in hand. The youngster in the driver’s seat went white at the sight of the violation pad. “May I see your license, please,” Ben asked. The boy fumbled in a back pocket and then produced a thin, metallic tab with his name, age, address and license number etched into the indestructible and unalterable metal.

“Also your car registration,” Ben added. The youth unclipped a similar metal strip from the dashboard.

The trooper took the two tabs and walked to the rear of the patrol car. He slid back to a panel to reveal two thin slots in the hull. Martin slid the driver’s license into one of the slots, the registration tab into the other. He pressed a button below each slot. Inside the car, a magnetic reader and auto-transmitter “scanned” the magnetic symbols implanted in the tags. The information was fed instantly to Continental Headquarters Records division at Colorado Springs. In fractions of a second, the great computers at Records were comparing the information on the tags with all previous traffic citations issued anywhere in the North American continent in the past forty-five years since the birth of the Patrol. The information from the driver’s license and registration tab had been relayed from Beulah via the nearest patrol relay point. The answer came back the same way.

Above the license recording slot were two small lights. The first flashed green, “license is in order and valid.” The second flashed green as well, “no previous citations.” Ben withdrew the tag from the slot. Had the first light come on red, he would have placed the driver under arrest immediately. Had the second light turned amber, it would have indicated a previous minor violation. This, Ben would have noted on the new citation. If the second light had been red, this would have meant either a major previous violation or more than one minor citation. Again, the driver would have been under immediate arrest. The law was mandatory. One big strike and you’re out—two foul tips and the same story. And “out” meant just that. Fines, possibly jail or prison sentence and lifetime revocation of driving privileges.

Ben flipped the car registration slot to “stand-by” and went back to the teenager’s car. Even though they were parked on the service strip of the police emergency lane, out of all traffic, the youngsters stayed in the car. This one point of the law they knew and knew well. Survival chances were dim anytime something went wrong on the highspeed thruways. That little margin of luck vanished once outside the not-too-much-better security of the vehicle body.

Martin finished writing and then slipped the driver’s license into a pocket worked into the back of the metallic paper foil of the citation blank. He handed the pad into the window to the driver together with a carbon stylus.

The boy’s lip trembled and he signed the citation with a shaky hand.

Ben ripped off the citation blank and license, fed them into the slot on the patrol car and pressed both the car registration and license “record” buttons. Ten seconds later the permanent record of the citation was on file in Colorado Springs and a duplicate recording of the action was in the Continental traffic court docket recorder nearest to the driver’s hometown. Now, no power in three nations could “fix” that ticket. Ben withdrew the citation and registration tag and walked back to the car. He handed the boy the license and registration tab, together with a copy of the citation. Ben bent down to peer into the car.

“I made it as light on you as I could,” he told the young diver. “You’re charged with improper use of the thruway. That’s a minor violation. By rights, I should have cited you for illegal usage.” He looked around slowly at each of the young people. “You look like nice kids,” he said. “I think you’ll grow up to be nice people. I want you around long enough to be able to vote in a few years. Who knows, maybe I’ll be running for president then and I’ll need your votes. It’s a cinch that falling apart in the middle of two-hundred-mile an hour traffic is no way to treat future voters.

“Good night, Kids.” He smiled and walked away from the car. The three young passengers smiled back at Ben. The young driver just stared unhappily at the citation.

Clay stood talking with the wrecker crewmen. Ben nodded to him and mounted into the patrol car. The young Canadian crushed out his cigarette and swung up behind the sergeant. Clay went to the control seat when he saw Martin pause in the door to the galley.

“I’m going to get a cup of coffee,” the older officer said, “and then take the first shift. You keep Beulah ’til I get back.”

Clay nodded and pushed the throttles forward. Car 56 rolled back into the police lane while behind it, the wrecker hooked onto the disabled car and swung north into the crossover. Clay checked both the chronometer and the radiodometer and then reported in. “Cinncy Control this is Car 56 back in service.” Cincinnati Control acknowledged.

Ten minute later, Ben reappeared in the cab, slid into the left-hand seat. “Hit the sack, kid,” he told Ferguson. The chronometer read 2204. “I’ll wake you at midnight—or sooner, if anything breaks.”

Ferguson stood up and stretched, then went into the galley. He poured himself a cup of coffee and carrying it with him, went back to the crew quarters. He closed the door to the galley and sat down on the lower bunk to sip his coffee. When he had finished, he tossed the cup into the basket, reached and dimmed the cubby lights and kicked off his boots. Still in his coveralls, Clay stretched out on the bunk and sighed luxuriously. He reached up and pressed a switch on the bulkhead above his pillow and the muted sounds of music from a standard broadcast commercial station drifted into the bunk area. Clay closed his eyes and let the sounds of the music and the muted rumble of the engines lull him to sleep. It took almost fifteen seconds for him to be in deep slumber.

* * *

Ben pushed Beulah up to her steady seventy-five-mile-an-hour cruising speed, moved to the center of the quarter-mile-wide police lane and locked her tracks into autodrive. He relaxed back in his seat and divided his gaze between the video monitors and the actual scene on either side of him in the night. Once again the sky was lighted, this time much brighter on the horizon as the roadways swept to the south of Cincinnati.

Traffic was once again heavy and fast with the blue and green carrying almost equal loads while white was really crowded and even the yellow “zoom” lane was beginning to fill. The 2200 hour density reports from Cinncy had been given before the Ohio State-Cal football game traffic had hit the thruways and densities now were peaking near twenty thousand vehicles for the one-hundred-mile block of westbound NAT 26 out of Cincinnati.

Back to the east, near the eastern Ohio state line, Martin could hear Car 207 calling for a wrecker and meat wagon. Beulah rumbled on through the night. The video monitors flicked to the next ten-mile stretch as the patrol car rolled past another interchange. More vehicles streamed onto the westbound thruways, crossing over and dropping down into the same lanes they held coming out of the north-south road. Seven years on patrols had created automatic reflexes in the trooper sergeant. Out of the mass of cars and cargoes streaming along the rushing tide of traffic, his eye picked out the track of one vehicle slanting across the white lane just a shade faster than the flow of traffic. The vehicle was still four or five miles ahead. It wasn’t enough out of the ordinary to cause more than a second, almost unconscious glance, on the part of the veteran officer. He kept his view shifting from screen to screen and out to the sides of the car.

But the reflexes took hold again as his eye caught the track of the same vehicle as it hit the crossover from white to green, squeezed into the faster lane and continued its sloping run towards the next faster crossover. Now Martin followed the movement of the car almost constantly. The moving blip had made the cutover across the half-mile wide green lane in the span of one crossover and was now whipping into the merger lane that would take it over the top of the police lane and drop down into the one hundred fifty to two hundred mile an hour blue. If the object of his scrutiny straightened out in the blue, he’d let it go. The driver had been bordered on violation in his fast crossover in the face of heavy traffic. If he kept it up in the now-crowded high-speed lane, he was asking for sudden death. The monitors flicked to the next block and Ben waited just long enough to see the speeding car make a move to the left, cutting in front of a speeding cargo carrier. Ben slammed Beulah into high. Once again the bull horn blared as the cocoons slammed shut, this time locking both Clay and Kelly into their bunks, sealing Ben into the control seat.

Beulah lifted on her air cushion and the twin jets roared as she accelerated down the police lane at three hundred miles an hour. Ben closed the gap on the speeder in less than a minute and then edged over to the south side of the police lane to make the jump into the blue lane. The red emergency lights and the radio siren had already cleared a hole for him in the traffic pattern and he eased back on the finger throttles as the patrol car sailed over the divider and into the blue traffic lane. Now he had eyeball contact with the speeding car, still edging over towards the ultra-high lane. On either side of the patrol car traffic gave way, falling back or moving to the left and right. Car 56 was now directly behind the speeding passenger vehicle. Ben fingered the cut-in switch that put his voice signal onto the standard vehicular emergency frequency—the band that carried the automatic siren-warning to all vehicles.

* * *

The patrol car was still hitting above the two-hundred-mile-an-hour mark and was five hundred feet behind the speeder. The headlamp bathed the other car in a white glare, punctuated with angry red flashes from the emergency lights.

“You are directed to halt or be fired upon,” Ben’s voice roared out over the emergency frequency. Almost without warning, the speeding car began braking down with such deceleration that the gargantuan patrol car with its greater mass came close to smashing over it and crushing the small passenger vehicle like an insect. Ben cut all forward power, punched up full retrojet and at the instant he felt Beulah’s tracks touch the pavement as the air cushion blew, he slammed on the brakes. Only the safety cocoon kept Martin from being hurled against the instrument panel and in their bunks, Kelly Lightfoot and Clay Ferguson felt their insides dragging down into their legs.

The safety cocoons snapped open and Clay jumped into his boots and leaped for the cab. “Speeder,” Ben snapped as he jumped down the steps to the side hatch. Ferguson snatched up his helmet from the rack beside his seat and leaped down to join his partner. Ben ran up to the stopped car through a thick haze of smoke from the retrojets of the patrol car and the friction-burning braking of both vehicles. Ferguson circled to the other side of the car. As they flashed their handlights into the car, they saw the driver of the car kneeling on the floor beside the reclined passenger seat. A woman lay stretched out on the seat, twisting in pain. The man raised an agonized face to the officers. “My wife’s going to have her baby right here!”

“Kelly,” Ben yelled into his helmet transmitter. “Maternity!”

The dispensary ramp was halfway down before Ben had finished calling. Kelly jumped to the ground and sprinted around the corner of the patrol car, medical bag in hand.

She shoved Clay out of the way and opened the door on the passenger side. On the seat, the woman moaned and then muffled a scream. The patrol doctor laid her palm on the distended belly. “How fast are your pains coming?” she asked. Clay and Ben had moved away from the car a few feet.

“Litter,” Kelly snapped over her shoulder. Clay raced for the patrol car while Ben unshipped a portable warning light and rolled it down the lane behind the patrol car. He flipped it to amber “caution” and “pass.” Blinking amber arrows pointed to the left and right of the halted passenger vehicle and traffic in the blue lane began picking up speed and parting around the obstructions.

By the time he returned to the patrol car, Kelly had the expectant mother in the dispensary. She slammed the door in the faces of the three men and then she went to work.

The woman’s husband slumped against the side of the patrol vehicle.

Ben dug out his pack of cigarettes and handed one to the shaking driver.

He waited until the man had taken a few drags before speaking.

“Mister, I don’t know if you realize it or not but you came close to killing your wife, your baby and yourself,” Ben said softly, “to say nothing of the possibility of killing several other families. Just what did you think you were doing?”

The driver’s shoulders sagged and his hand shook as he took the cigarette from his mouth. “Honestly, officer, I don’t know. I just got frightened to death,” he said. He peered up at Martin. “This is our first baby, you see, and Ellen wasn’t due for another week. We thought it would be all right to visit my folks in Cleveland and Ellen was feeling just fine. Well, anyway, we started home tonight—we live in Jefferson City—and just about the time I got on the thruway, Ellen started having pains. I was never so scared in my life. She screamed once and then tried to muffle them but I knew what was happening and all I could think of was to get her to a hospital. I guess I went out of my head, what with her moaning and the traffic and everything. The only place I could think of that had a hospital was Evansville, and I was going to get her there come hell or high water.” The young man tossed away the half-smoked cigarette and looked up at the closed dispensary door. “Do you think she’s all right?”

Ben sighed resignedly and put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “Don’t you worry a bit. She’s got one of the best doctors in the continent in there with her. Come on.” He took the husband by the arm and led him around to the patrol car cab hatch. “You climb up there and sit down. I’ll be with you in a second.”

The senior officer signaled to Ferguson. “Let’s get his car out of the traffic, Clay,” he directed. “You drive it.”

* * *

Ben went back and retrieved the caution blinker and re-racked it in the side of the patrol car, then climbed up into the cab. He took his seat at the controls and indicated the jump seat next to him. “Sit down, son. We’re going to get us and your car out of this mess before we all get clobbered.”

He flicked the headlamp at Ferguson in the control seat of the passenger car and the two vehicles moved out. Ben kept the emergency lights on while they eased carefully cross-stream to the north and the safety of the police lane. Clay picked up speed at the outer edge of the blue lane and rolled along until he reached the first “patrol only” entrance through the divider to the service strip. Ben followed him in and then turned off the red blinkers and brought the patrol car to a halt behind the other vehicle.

The worried husband stood up and looked to the rear of the car. “What’s making it so long?” he asked anxiously. “They’ve been in there a long time.”

Ben smiled. “Sit down, son. These things take time. Don’t you worry. If there were anything wrong, Kelly would let us know. She can talk to us on the intercom anytime she wants anything.”

The man sat back down. “What’s your name?” Ben inquired.

“Haverstraw,” the husband replied distractedly, “George Haverstraw. I’m an accountant. That’s my wife back there,” he cried, pointing to the closed galley door. “That’s Ellen.”

“I know,” Ben said gently. “You told us that.”

Clay had come back to the patrol car and dropped into his seat across from the young husband. “Got a name picked out for the baby?” he asked.

Haverstraw’s face lighted. “Oh, yes,” he exclaimed. “If it’s a boy, we’re going to call him Harmon Pierce Haverstraw. That was my grandfather’s name. And if she’s a girl, it’s going to be Caroline May after Ellen’s mother and grandmother.”

The intercom came to life. “Anyone up there?” Kelly’s voice asked. Before they could answer, the wail of a baby sounded over the system. Haverstraw yelled.

“Congratulations, Mr. Haverstraw,” Kelly said, “you’ve got a fine-looking son.”

“Hey,” the happy young father yelped, “hey, how about that? I’ve got a son.” He pounded the two grinning troopers on the back. Suddenly he froze. “What about Ellen? How’s Ellen?” he called out.

“She’s just fine,” Kelly replied. “We’ll let you in here in a couple of minutes but we’ve got to get us gals and your new son looking pretty for papa. Just relax.”

Haverstraw sank down onto the jump seat with a happy dazed look on his face.

Ben smiled and reached for the radio. “I guess our newest citizen deserves a ride in style,” he said. “We’re going to have to transfer Mrs. Haverstraw and er, oh yes, Master Harmon Pierce to an ambulance and then to a hospital now, George. You have any preference on where they go?”

“Gosh, no,” the man replied. “I guess the closest one to wherever we are.” He paused thoughtfully. “Just where are we? I’ve lost all sense of distance or time or anything else.”

Ben looked at the radiodometer. “We’re just about due south of Indianapolis. How would that be?”

“Oh, that’s fine,” Haverstraw replied.

“You can come back now, Mr. Haverstraw,” Kelly called out. Haverstraw jumped up. Clay got up with him. “Come on, papa,” he grinned, “I’ll show you the way.”

Ben smiled and then called into Indianapolis Control for an ambulance.

“Ambulance on the way,” Control replied. “Don’t you need a wrecker, too, Five Six?”

Ben grinned. “Not this time. We didn’t lose one. We gained one.”

He got up and went back to have a look at Harmon Pierce Haverstraw, age five minutes, temporary address, North American Continental Thruway 26-West, Mile Marker 632.

Five minutes later, mother and baby were in the ambulance heading north to the hospital. Haverstraw, calmed down with a sedative administered by Kelly, had nearly wrung their hands off in gratitude as he said good-by.

“I’ll mail you all cigars when I get home,” he shouted as he waved and climbed into his car.

Beulah’s trio watched the new father ease carefully into the traffic as the ambulance headed down the police-way. Haverstraw would have to cut over to the next exchange and then go north to Indianapolis. He’d arrive later than his family. This time, he was the very picture of careful driving and caution as he threaded his way across the green.

“I wonder if he knows what brand of cigars I smoke?” Kelly mused.

* * *

The chrono clicked up to 2335 as Car 56 resumed patrol. Kelly plumped down onto the jump seat beside Ben. Clay was fiddling in the galley. “Why don’t you go back to the sack?” Ben called.

“What, for a lousy twenty-five minutes,” Clay replied. “I had a good nap before you turned the burners up to high. Besides, I’m hungry. Anyone else want a snack?”

Ben shook his head. “No, thanks,” Kelly said. Ferguson finished slapping together a sandwich. Munching on it, he headed into the engine room to make the midnight check. Car 56 had now been on patrol eight hours. Only two hundred thirty-two hours and two thousand miles to go.

Kelly looked around at the departing back of the younger trooper. “I’ll bet this is the only car in NorCon that has to stock twenty days of groceries for a ten-day patrol,” she said.

Ben chuckled. “He’s still a growing boy.”

“Well, if he is, it’s all between the ears,” the girl replied. “You’d think that after a year I would have realized that nothing could penetrate that thick Canuck’s skull. He gets me so mad sometimes that I want to forget I’m a lady.” She paused thoughtfully. “Come to think of it. No one ever accused me of being a lady in the first place.”

“Sounds like love,” Ben smiled.

Hunched over on the jump seat with her elbows on her knees and her chin cupped in both hands, Kelly gave the senior officer a quizzical sideways look.

Ben was watching his monitors and missed the glance. Kelly sighed and stared out into the light streaked night of the thruway. The heavy surge of football traffic had distributed itself into the general flow on the road and while all lanes were busy, there were no indications of any overcrowding or jam-ups. Much of the pattern was shifting from passenger to cargo vehicle as it neared midnight. The football crowds were filtering off at each exchange and exit and the California fans had worked into the blue and yellow—mostly the yellow—for the long trip home. The fewer passenger cars on the thruway and the increase in cargo carriers gave the troopers a breathing spell. The men in the control buckets of the three hundred and four hundred-ton cargo vehicles were the real pros of the thruways; careful, courteous and fast. The NorCon patrol cars could settle down to watch out for the occasional nuts and drunks that might bring disaster.

Once again, Martin had the patrol car on auto drive in the center of the police lane and he steeled back in his seat. Beside him, Kelly stared moodily into the night.

“How come you’ve never married, Ben?” she asked. The senior trooper gave her a startled look. “Why, I guess for the same reason you’re still a maiden,” he answered. “This just doesn’t seem to be the right kind of a job for a married man.”

Kelly shook her head. “No, it’s not the same thing with me,” she said. “At least, not entirely the same thing. If I got married, I’d have to quit the Patrol and you wouldn’t. And secondly, if you must know the truth, I’ve never been asked.”

Ben looked thoughtfully at the copper-haired Irish-Indian girl. All of a sudden she seemed to have changed in his eyes. He shook his head and turned back to the road monitors.

“I just don’t think that a patrol trooper has any business getting married and trying to keep a marriage happy and make a home for a family thirty days out of every three hundred sixty, with an occasional weekend home if you’re lucky enough to draw your hometown for a terminal point. This might help the population rate but it sure doesn’t do anything for the institution of matrimony.”

“I know some troopers that are married,” Kelly said.

“But there aren’t very many,” Ben countered. “Comes the time they pull me off the cars and stick me behind a desk somewhere, then I’ll think about it.”

“You might be too old by then,” Kelly murmured.

Ben grinned. “You sound as though you’re worried about it,” he said.

“No,” Kelly replied softly, “no, I’m not worried about it. Just thinking.” She averted her eyes and looked out into the night again. “I wonder what NorCon would do with a husband-wife team?” she murmured, almost to herself.

Ben looked sharply at her and frowned. “Why, they’d probably split them up,” he said.

* * *

“Split what up?” Clay inquired, standing in the door of the cab.

“Split up all troopers named Clay Ferguson,” Kelly said disgustedly, “and use them for firewood—especially the heads. They say that hardwood burns long and leaves a fine ash. And that’s what you’ve been for years.”

She sat erect in the jump seat and looked sourly at the young trooper.

Clay shuddered at the pun and squeezed by the girl to get to his seat. “I’ll take it now, pop,” he said. “Go get your geriatrics treatment.”

Ben got out of his seat with a snort. “I’ll ‘pop’ you, skinhead,” he snapped. “You may be eight years younger than I am but you only have one third the virility and one tenth the brains. And eight years from now you’ll still be in deficit spending on both counts.”

“Careful, venerable lord of my destiny,” Clay admonished with a grin, “remember how I spent my vacation and remember how you spent yours before you go making unsubstantiated statements about my virility.”

Kelly stood up. “If you two will excuse me, I’ll go back to the dispensary and take a good jolt of male hormones and then we can come back and finish this man-to-man talk in good locker room company.”

“Don’t you dare,” Ben cried. “I wouldn’t let you tamper with one single, tiny one of your feminine traits, princess. I like you just the way you are.”

Kelly looked at him with a wide-eyed, cherubic smile. “You really mean that, Ben?”

The older trooper flushed briefly and then turned quickly into the galley. “I’m going to try for some shut-eye. Wake me at two, Clay, if nothing else breaks.” He turned to Kelly who was still smiling at him. “And watch out for that lascivious young goat.”

“It’s all just talk, talk, talk,” she said scornfully. “You go to bed, Ben. I’m going to try something new in psychiatric annals. I’m going to try and psychoanalyze a dummy.” She sat back down on the jump seat.

At 2400 hours it was Vincennes Check with the density reports, all down in the past hour. The patrol was settling into what looked like a quiet night routine. Kelly chatted with Ferguson for another half hour and then rose again. “I think I’ll try to get some sleep,” she said. “I’ll put on a fresh pot of coffee for you two before I turn in.”

She rattled around in the galley for some time. “Whatcha cooking?” Clay called out. “Making coffee,” Kelly replied.

“It take all that time to make coffee?” Clay queried.

“No,” she said. “I’m also getting a few things ready so we can have a fast breakfast in case we have to eat on the run. I’m just about through now.”

A couple of minutes later she stuck her head into the cab. “Coffee’s done. Want some?”

Clay nodded. “Please, princess.”

She poured him a cup and set it in the rack beside his seat.

“Thanks,” Clay said. “Good night, Hiawatha.”

“Good night, Babe,” she replied.

“You mean ‘Paul Bunyon,’ don’t you?” Clay asked. “‘Babe’ was his blue ox.”

“I know what I said,” Kelly retorted and strolled back to the dispensary. As she passed through the crew cubby, she glanced at Ben sleeping on the bunk recently vacated by Ferguson. She paused and carefully and gently pulled a blanket up over his sleeping form. She smiled down at the trooper and then went softly to her compartment.

In the cab, Clay sipped at his coffee and kept watchful eyes on the video monitors. Beulah was back on auto drive and Clay had dropped her speed to a slow fifty as the traffic thinned.

At 0200 hours he left the cab long enough to go back and shake Ben awake and was himself re-awakened at 0400 to take back control. He let Ben sleep an extra hour before routing him out of the bunk again at 0700. The thin, gray light of the winter morning was just taking hold when Ben came back into the cab. Clay had pulled Beulah off to the service strip and was stopped while he finished transcribing his scribbled notes from the 0700 Washington Criminal Control broadcast.

Ben ran his hand sleepily over his close-cropped head. “Anything exciting?” he asked with a yawn. Clay shook his head. “Same old thing. ‘All cars exercise special vigilance over illegal crossovers. Keep all lanes within legal speed limits.’ Same old noise.”

“Anything new on our hit-runner?”

“Nope.”

“Good morning, knights of the open road,” Kelly said from the galley door. “Obviously you both went to sleep after I left and allowed our helpless citizens to slaughter each other.”

“How do you figure that one?” Ben laughed.

“Oh, it’s very simple,” she replied. “I managed to get in a full seven hours of sleep. When you sleep, I sleep. I slept. Ergo, you did likewise.”

“Nope,” Clay said, “for once we had a really quiet night. Let’s hope the day is of like disposition.”

Kelly began laying out the breakfast things. “You guys want eggs this morning?”

“You gonna cook again today?” Clay inquired.

“Only breakfast,” Kelly said. “You have the honors for the rest of the day. The diner is now open and we’re taking orders.”

“I’ll have mine over easy,” Ben said. “Make mine sunny-up,” Clay called.

Kelly began breaking eggs into the pan, muttering to herself. “Over easy, sunny-up, I like ’em scrambled. Next tour I take I’m going to get on a team where everyone likes scrambled eggs.”

A few minutes later, Beulah’s crew sat down to breakfast. Ben had just dipped into his egg yolk when the radio blared. “Attention all cars. Special attention Cars 207, 56 and 82.”

“Just once,” Ben said, “just once, I want to sit down to a meal and get it all down my gullet before that radio gives me indigestion.” He laid down his fork and reached for the message pad.

The radio broadcast continued. “A late model, white over green Travelaire, containing two men and believed to be the subjects wanted in earlier broadcast on murder, robbery and hit-run murder, was involved in a service station robbery and murder at Vandalia, Illinois, at approximately 0710 this date. NorCon Criminal Division believes this subject car escaped filter check and left NAT 26-West sometime during the night.

“Owner of this stolen vehicle states it had only half tanks of fuel at the time it was taken. This would indicate wanted subjects stopped for fuel. It is further believed they were recognized by the station attendant from video bulletins sent out by this department last date and that he was shot and killed to prevent giving alarm.

“The shots alerted residents of the area and the subject car was last seen headed south. This vehicle may attempt to regain access to NAT 26-West or it may take another thruway. All units are warned once again to approach this vehicle with extreme caution and only with the assistance of another unit where possible. Acknowledge. Washington Criminal Control out.”

Ben looked at the chrono. “They hit Vandalia at 0710, eh. Even in the yellow they couldn’t get this far for another half hour. Let’s finish breakfast. It may be a long time until lunch.”

The crew returned to their meal. While Kelly was cleaning up after breakfast, Clay ran the quick morning engine room check. In the cab, Ben opened the arms rack and brought out two machine pistols and belts. He checked them for loads and laid one on Clay’s control seat. He strapped the other around his waist. Then he flipped up a cover in the front panel of the cab. It exposed the breech mechanisms of a pair of twin-mounted 25 mm auto-cannon. The ammunition loads were full. Satisfied, Ben shut the inspection port and climbed into his seat. Clay came forward, saw the machine pistol on his seat and strapped it on without a word. He settled himself in his seat. “Engine room check is all green. Let’s go rabbit hunting.”

Car 56 moved slowly out into the police lane. Both troopers had their individual sets of video monitors on in front of their seats and were watching them intently. In the growing light of day, a white-topped car was going to be easy to spot.

* * *

It had all the earmarks of being another wintry, overcast day. The outside temperature at 0800 was right on the twenty-nine-degree mark and the threat of more snow remained in the air. The 0800 density reports from St. Louis Control were below the 14,000 mark in all lanes in the one-hundred-mile block west of the city. That was to be expected. They listened to the eastbound densities peaking at twenty-six thousand vehicles in the same block, all heading into the metropolis and their jobs. The 0800, 1200 and 1600 hours density reports also carried the weather forecasts for a five-hundred-mile radius from the broadcasting control point. Decreasing temperatures with light to moderate snow was in the works for Car 56 for the first couple of hundred miles west of St. Louis, turning to almost blizzard conditions in central Kansas. Extra units had already been put into service on all thruways through the Midwest and snow-burners were waging a losing battle from Wichita west to the Rockies around Alamosa, Colorado.

Outside the temperature was below freezing; inside the patrol car it was a comfortable sixty-eight degrees. Kelly had cleaned the galley and taken her place on the jump seat between the two troopers. With all three of them in the cab, Ben cut from the intercom to commercial broadcast to catch the early morning newscasts and some pleasant music. The patrol vehicle glided along at a leisurely sixty miles an hour. An hour out of St. Louis, a big liquid cargo carrier was stopped on the inner edge of the green lane against the divider to the police lane. The trucker had dropped both warning barriers and lights a half mile back. Ben brought Beulah to a halt across the divider from the stopped carrier. “Dropped a track pin,” the driver called out to the officers.

Ben backed Beulah across the divider behind the stalled carrier to give them protection while they tried to assist the stalled vehicle.

Donning work helmets to maintain contact with the patrol car, and its remote radio system, the two troopers dismounted and went to see what needed fixing. Kelly drifted back to the dispensary and stretched out on one of the hospital bunks and picked up a new novel.

Beulah’s well-equipped machine shop stock room produced a matching pin and it was merely a matter of lifting the stalled carrier and driving it into place in the track assembly. Ben brought the patrol car alongside the carrier and unshipped the crane. Twenty minutes later, Clay and the carrier driver had the new part installed and the tanker was on his way once again.

Clay climbed into the cab and surveyed his grease-stained uniform coveralls and filthy hands. “Your nose is smudged, too, dearie,” Martin observed.

Clay grinned, “I’m going to shower and change clothes. Try and see if you can drive this thing until I get back without increasing the pedestrian fatality rate.” He ducked back into the crew cubby and stripped his coveralls.

Bored with her book, Kelly wandered back to the cab and took Clay’s vacant control seat. The snow had started falling again and in the mid-morning light it tended to soften the harsh, utilitarian landscape of the broad thruway stretching ahead to infinity and spreading out in a mile of speeding traffic on either hand.

“Attention all cars on NAT 26-West and East,” Washington Criminal Control radio blared. “Special attention Cars 56 and 82. Suspect vehicle, white over green Travelaire reported re-entered NAT 26-West on St. Louis interchange 179. St. Louis Control reports communications difficulty in delayed report. Vehicle now believed . . .”

“Car 56, Car 56,” St. Louis Control broke in. “Our pigeon is in your zone. Commercial carrier reports near miss sideswipe three minutes ago in blue lane approximately three miles west of mile Marker 957.

“Repeating. Car 56, suspect car—”

Ben glanced at the radiodometer. It read 969, then clicked to 970.

“This is Five Six, St. Louis,” he broke in, “acknowledged. Our position is mile marker 970 . . .”

Kelly had been glued to the video monitors since the first of the bulletin. Suddenly she screamed and banged Ben on the shoulder. “There they are. There they are,” she cried, pointing at the blue lane monitor.

Martin took one look at the white-topped car cutting through traffic in the blue lane and slammed Beulah into high. The safety cocoons slammed shut almost on the first notes of the bull horn. Trapped in the shower, Clay was locked into the stall dripping wet as the water automatically shut off with the movement of the cocoon.

* * *

“I have them in sight,” Ben reported, as the patrol car lifted on its air pad and leaped forward. “They’re in the blue five miles ahead of me and cutting over to the yellow. I estimate their speed at two twenty-five. I am in pursuit.”

Traffic gave way as Car 56 hurtled the divider into the blue.

The radio continued to snap orders.

“Cars 112, 206, 76 and 93 establish roadblocks at mile marker crossover 1032. Car 82 divert all blue and yellow to green and white.”

Eight Two was one hundred fifty miles ahead but at three-hundred-mile-an-hour speeds, 82’s team was very much a part of the operation. This would clear the two high-speed lanes if the suspect car hadn’t been caught sooner.

“Cars 414, 227 and 290 in NAT-26-East, move into the yellow to cover in case our pigeon decides to fly the median.” The controller continued to move cars into covering positions in the area on all crossovers and turnoffs. The sweating dispatcher looked at his lighted map board and mentally cursed the lack of enough units to cover every exit. State and local authorities already had been notified in the event the fugitives left the thruways and tried to escape on a state freeway.

In Car 56, Ben kept the patrol car roaring down the blue lane through the speeding westbound traffic. The standard emergency signal was doing a partial job of clearing the path, but at those speeds, driver reaction times weren’t always fast enough. Ahead, the fleeing suspect car brushed against a light sedan, sending it careening and rocking across the lane. The driver fought for control as it swerved and screeched on its tilting frame. He brought it to a halt amid a haze of blue smoke from burning brakes and bent metal. The white over green Travelaire never slowed, fighting its way out of the blue into the ultra-high yellow and lighter traffic. Ben kept Beulah in bulldog pursuit.

The sideswipe ahead had sent other cars veering in panic and a cluster inadvertently bunched up in the path of the roaring patrol car. Like a flock of hawk-frightened chickens, they tried to scatter as they saw and heard the massive police vehicle bearing down on them. But like chickens, they couldn’t decide which way to run. It was a matter of five or six seconds before they parted enough to let the patrol car through. Ben had no choice but to cut the throttle and punch once on the retrojets to brake the hurtling patrol car. The momentary drops in speed unlocked the safety cocoons and in an instant, Clay had leaped from the shower stall and sped to the cab. Hearing, rather than seeing his partner, Martin snapped over his shoulder, “Unrack the rifles. That’s the car.” Clay reached for the gun rack at the rear of the cab.

Kelly took one look at the young trooper and jumped for the doorway to the galley. A second later she was back. Without a word, she handed the nude Ferguson a dangling pair of uniform coveralls. Clay gasped, dropped the rifles and grabbed the coveralls from her hand and clutched them to his figure. His face was beet-red. Still without speaking, Kelly turned and ran back to her dispensary to be ready for the next acceleration.

Clay was into the coveralls and in his seat almost at the instant Martin whipped the patrol car through the hole in the blue traffic and shoved her into high once more.

There was no question about the fact that the occupants of the fugitive car knew they were being pursued. They shot through the crossover into the yellow lane and now were hurtling down the thruway close to the four-hundred-mile-an-hour mark.

Martin had Beulah riding just under three hundred to make the crossover, still ten miles behind the suspect car and following on video monitor. The air still crackled with commands as St. Louis and Washington Control maneuvered other cars into position as the pursuit went westward past other units blocking exit routes.

Clay read aloud the radiodometer numerals as they clicked off a mile every nine seconds. Car 56 roared into the yellow and the instant Ben had it straightened out, he slammed all finger throttles to full power. Beulah snapped forward and even at three hundred miles an hour, the sudden acceleration pasted the car’s crew against the backs of their cushioned seats. The patrol car shot forward at more than five hundred miles an hour.

The image of the Travelaire grew on the video monitor and then the two troopers had it in actual sight, a white, racing dot on the broad avenue of the thruway six miles ahead.

Clay triggered the controls for the forward bow cannon and a panel box flashed to “ready fire” signal.

“Negative,” Martin ordered. “We’re coming up on the roadblock. You might miss and hit one of our cars.”

“Car 56 to Control,” the senior trooper called. “Watch out at the roadblock. He’s doing at least five hundred in the yellow and he’ll never be able to stop.”

Two hundred miles east, the St. Louis controller made a snap decision. “Abandon roadblock. Roadblock cars start west. Maintain two hundred until subject comes into monitor view. Car 56, continue speed estimates of subject car. Maybe we can box him in.”

At the roadblock forty-five miles ahead of the speeding fugitives and their relentless pursuer, the four patrol cars pivoted and spread out across the roadway some five hundred feet apart. They lunged forward and lifted up to air-cushion jet drive at just over two hundred miles an hour. Eight pairs of eyes were fixed on video monitors set for the ten-mile block to the rear of the four vehicles.

Beulah’s indicated ground speed now edged towards the five hundred fifty mark, close to the maximum speeds the vehicles could attain.

The gap continued to close, but more slowly. “He’s firing hotter,” Ben called out. “Estimating five thirty on subject vehicle.”

Now Car 56 was about three miles astern and still the gap closed. The fugitive car flashed past the site of the abandoned roadblock and fifteen seconds later all four patrol cars racing ahead of the Travelaire broke into almost simultaneous reports of “Here he comes.”

A second later, Clay Ferguson yelled out, “There he goes. He’s boondocking, he’s boondocking.”

“He has you spotted,” Martin broke in. “He’s heading for the median. Cut, cut, cut. Get out in there ahead of him.”

The driver of the fugitive car had seen the bulk of the four big patrol cruisers outlined against the slight rise in the thruway almost at the instant he flashed onto their screens ten miles behind them. He broke speed, rocked wildly from side to side, fighting for control and then cut diagonally to the left, heading for the outer edge of the thruway and the unpaved, half-mile-wide strip of landscaped earth that separated the east and westbound segments of NAT-26.

The white and green car was still riding on its airpad when it hit the low, rounded curbing at the edge of the thruway. It hurtled into the air and sailed for a hundred feet across the gently-sloping snow-covered grass, came smashing down in a thick hedgerow of bushes—and kept going.

Car 56 slowed and headed for the curbing. “Watch it, kids,” Ben snapped over the intercom, “we may be buying a plot in a second.”

Still traveling more than five hundred miles an hour, the huge patrol car hit the curbing and bounced into the air like a rocket boosted elephant. It tilted and smashed its nose in a slanting blow into the snow-covered ground. The sound of smashing and breaking equipment mingled with the roar of the thundering jets, tracks and air drives as the car fought its way back to level travel. It surged forward and smashed through the hedgerow and plunged down the sloping snowbank after the fleeing car.

“Clay,” Ben called in a strained voice, “take ‘er.”

Ferguson’s fingers were already in position. “You all right, Ben?” he asked anxiously.

“Think I dislocated a neck vertebra,” Ben replied. “I can’t move my head. Go get ’em, kid.”

“Try not to move your head at all, Ben,” Kelly called from her cocoon in the dispensary. “I’ll be there the minute we slow down.”

A half mile ahead, the fugitive car plowed along the bottom of the gentle draw in a cloud of snow, trying to fight its way up the opposite slope and onto the eastbound thruway.

But the Travelaire was never designed for driving on anything but a modern superhighway. Car 56 slammed through the snow and down to the bottom of the draw. A quarter of a mile ahead of the fugitives, the first of the four roadblock units came plowing over the rise.

The car’s speed dropped quickly to under a hundred and the cocoons were again retracted. Ben slumped forward in his seat and caught himself. He eased back with a gasp of pain, his head held rigidly straight. Almost the instant he started to straighten up, Kelly flung herself through the cab door. She clasped his forehead and held his head against the back of the control seat.

Suddenly, the fugitive car spun sideways, bogged in the wet snow and muddy ground beneath and stopped. Clay bore down on it and was about two hundred yards away when the canopy of the other vehicle popped open and a sheet of automatic weapons fire raked the patrol car. Only the low angle of the sedan and the nearness of the bulky patrol car saved the troopers. Explosive bullets smashed into the patrol car canopy and sent shards of plastiglass showering down on the trio.

An instant later, the bow cannon of the first of the cut-off patrol units opened fire. An ugly, yellow-red blossom of smoke and fire erupted from the front of the Travelaire and it burst into flames. A second later, the figure of a man staggered out of the burning car, clothes and hair aflame. He took four plunging steps and then fell face down in the snow. The car burned and crackled and a thick funereal pyre of oily, black smoke billowed into the gray sky. It was snowing heavily now, and before the troopers could dismount and plow to the fallen man, a thin layer of snow covered his burned body.

* * *

An hour later, Car 56 was again on NAT 26-West, this time heading for Wichita barracks and needed repairs. In the dispensary, Ben Martin was stretched out on a hospital bunk with a traction brace around his neck and a copper-haired medical-surgical patrolwoman fussing over him.

In the cab, Clay peered through the now almost-blinding blizzard that whirled and skirled thick snow across the thruway. Traffic densities were virtually zero despite the efforts of the dragonlike snow-burners trying to keep the roadways clear. The young trooper shivered despite the heavy jacket over his coveralls. Wind whistled through the shell holes in Beulah’s canopy and snow sifted and drifted against the back bulkhead.

The cab communications system had been smashed by the gunfire and Clay wore his work helmet both for communications and warmth.

The door to the galley cracked open and Kelly stuck her head in. “How much farther, Clay?” she asked.

“We should be in the barracks in about twenty minutes,” the shivering trooper replied.

“I’ll fix you a cup of hot coffee,” Kelly said. “You look like you need it.”

Over the helmet intercom Clay heard her shoving things around in the galley. “My heavens, but this place is a mess,” she exclaimed. “I can’t even find the coffee bin. That steeplechase driving has got to stop.” She paused.

“Clay,” she called out, “Have you been drinking in here? It smells like a brewery.”

Clay raised mournful eyes to the shattered canopy above him. “My cooking wine,” he sighed.

Thunder and Roses by Theodore Sturgeon

Thunder and Roses

by Theodore Sturgeon

Preface by David Drake




Because I lived through the 1950s, I find the concept of Fifties Nostalgia hard to fathom. It was a terrifying time for me, and I don't think I was that unusual.

People—perfectly ordinary people in Middle America—actively expected nuclear war to break out. I knew families in Clinton, Iowa, with bomb shelters in the back yard. We had air raid drills, huddling in the elementary school basement, and we were taught to duck and cover if we saw the flash of a nuclear weapon. Mass circulation magazines—Collier's, Popular Science, The Saturday Evening Post—ran stories on fallout and nuclear holocaust. On the Beach and Alas, Babylon were New York Times bestsellers.

If you were a kid who read SF, the feeling of dread was even more acute. It wasn't formless for us, you see: there were hundreds of stories to describe nuclear war and its aftermath of lingering death, deformity, and savagery in vivid detail. "Thunder and Roses," which I read in The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology when I was thirteen, is one of the earlier stories of the type. It's possibly the best, because Theodore Sturgeon at his peak was one of the best writers of SF ever.

For those of you who haven't read "Thunder and Roses" before: Welcome to the fifties, my friends.

When Pete Mawser learned about the show, he turned away from the GHQ bulletin board, touched his long chin, and determined to shave, in spite of the fact that the show would be video, and he would see it in his barracks. He had an hour and a half. It felt good to have a purpose again—even the small matter of shaving before eight o’clock. Eight o’clock Tuesday, just the way it used to be. Everyone used to say, Wednesday morning, “How about the way Starr sang The Breeze and I last night?”

That was a while ago, before the attack, before all those people were dead, before the country was dead. Starr Anthim—an institution, like Crosby, like Duse, like Jenny Lind, like the Statue of Liberty. (Liberty had been one of the first to get it, her bronze beauty volatilized, radio-activated, and even now being carried about in vagrant winds, spreading over the earth . . . )

Pete Mawser grunted and forced his thoughts away from the drifting, poisonous fragments of a blasted liberty. Hate was first. Hate was ubiquitous, like the increasing blue glow in the air at night, like the tension that hung over the base.

Gunfire crackled sporadically far to the right, swept nearer. Pete stepped out to the street and made for a parked truck. There was a Wac sitting on the short running-board.

At the corner a stocky figure backed into the intersection. The man carried a tommy-gun in his arms, and he was swinging it to and fro with the gentle, wavering motion of a weather-vane. He staggered toward them, his gun-muzzle hunting. Someone fired from a building and the man swiveled and blasted wildly at the sound.

“He’s—blind,” said Pete Mawser, and added, “he ought to be,” looking at the tattered face.

A siren keened. An armored jeep slewed into the street. The full-throated roar of a brace of .50-caliber machine-guns put a swift and shocking end to the incident.

“Poor crazy kid,” Pete said softly. “That’s the fourth I’ve seen today.” He looked down at the Wac. She was smiling. “Hey!”

“Hello, Sarge.” She must have identified him before, because now she did not raise her eyes nor her voice. “What happened?”

“You know what happened. Some kid got tired of having nothing to fight and nowhere to run to. What’s the matter with you?”

“No,” she said. “I don’t mean that.” At last she looked up at him. “I mean all of this. I can’t seem to remember.”

“You—well, it’s not easy to forget. We got hit. We got hit everywhere at once. All the big cities are gone. We got it from both sides. We got too much. The air is becoming radioactive. We’ll all—” He checked himself. She didn’t know. She’d forgotten. There was nowhere to escape to, and she’d escaped inside herself, right here. Why tell her about it? Why tell her that everyone was going to die? Why tell her that other, shameful thing: that we hadn’t struck back?

But she wasn’t listening. She was still looking at him. Her eyes were not quite straight. One held his, but the other was slightly shifted and seemed to be looking at his temple. She was smiling again. When his voice trailed off she didn’t prompt him. Slowly, he moved away. She did not turn her head, but kept looking up at where he had been, smiling a little. He turned away, wanting to run, walking fast.

How long could a guy hold out? When you were in the army they tried to make you be like everybody else. What did you do when everybody else was cracking up?

He blanked out the mental picture of himself as the last one left sane. He’d followed that one through before. It always led to the conclusion that it would be better to be one of the first. He wasn’t ready for that yet. Then he blanked that out, too. Every time he said to himself that he wasn’t ready for that yet, something within him asked “Why not?” and he never seemed to have an answer ready.

How long could a guy hold out?

He climbed the steps of the QM Central and went inside. There was nobody at the reception switchboard. It didn’t matter. Messages were carried by jeep, or on motor-cycles. The Base Command was not insisting that anybody stick to a sitting job these days. Ten desk-men could crack up for every one on a jeep, or on the soul-sweat squads. Pete made up his mind to put in a little stretch on a squad tomorrow. Do him good. He just hoped that this time the adjutant wouldn’t burst into tears in the middle of the parade ground. You could keep your mind on the manual of arms just fine until something like that happened.

He bumped into Sonny Weisefreund in the barracks corridor. The Tech’s round young face was as cheerful as ever. He was naked and glowing, and had a towel thrown over his shoulder.

“Hi, Sonny. Is there plenty of hot water?”

“Why not?” grinned Sonny. Pete grinned back, wondering if anybody could say anything about anything at all without one of these reminders. Of course, there was hot water. The QM barracks had hot water for three hundred men. There were three dozen left. Men dead, men gone to the hills, men locked up so they wouldn’t—

“Starr Anthim’s doing a show tonight.”

“Yeah. Tuesday night. Not funny, Pete. Don’t you know there’s a war—”

“No kidding,” Pete said swiftly. “She’s here—right here on the base.”

Sonny’s face was joyful. “Gee.” He pulled the towel off his shoulder and tied it around his waist. “Starr Anthim here! Where are they going to put on the show?”

“HQ, I imagine. Video only. You know about public gatherings.”

“Yeah. And a good thing, too,” said Sonny. “Somebody’d be sure to crack up. I wouldn’t want her to see anything like that. How’d she happen to come here, Pete?”

“Drifted in on the last gasp of a busted-up Navy helicopter.”

“Yeah, but why?”

“Search me. Get your head out of that gift-horse’s mouth.”

He went into the washroom, smiling and glad that he still could. He undressed and put his neatly folded clothes down on a bench. There were a soap-wrapper and an empty tooth-paste tube lying near the wall. He picked them up and put them in the catchall, took the mop that leaned against the partition and mopped the floor where Sonny had splashed after shaving. Someone had to keep things straight. He might have worried if it were anyone else but Sonny. But Sonny wasn’t cracking up. Sonny always had been like that. Look there. Left his razor out again.

Pete started his shower, meticulously adjusting the valves until the pressure and temperature exactly suited him. He did nothing carelessly these days. There was so much to feel, and taste, and see now. The impact of water on his skin, the smell of soap, the consciousness of light and heat, the very pressure of standing on the soles of his feet . . . he wondered vaguely how the slow increase of radioactivity in the air, as the nitrogen transmuted to Carbon Fourteen, would affect him if he kept carefully healthy in every way. What happens first? Blindness? Headaches? Perhaps a loss of appetite or slow fatigue?

Why not look it up?

On the other hand, why bother? Only a very small percentage of the men would die of radioactive poisoning. There were too many other things that killed more quickly, which was probably just as well. That razor, for example. It lay gleaming in a sunbeam, curved and clean in the yellow light. Sonny’s father and grandfather had used it, or so he said, and it was his pride and joy.

Pete turned his back on it, and soaped under his arms, concentrating on the tiny kisses of bursting bubbles. In the midst of a recurrence of disgust at himself for thinking so often of death, a staggering truth struck him. He did not think of such things because he was morbid, after all! It was the very familiarity of things that brought death-thoughts. It was either “I shall never do this again” or “This is one of the last times I shall do this.” You might devote yourself completely to doing things in different ways, he thought madly. You might crawl across the floor this time, and next time walk across on your hands. You might skip dinner tonight, and have a snack at two in the morning instead, and eat grass for breakfast.

But you had to breathe. Your heart had to beat. You’d sweat and you’d shiver, the same as always. You couldn’t get away from that. When those things happened, they would remind you. Your heart wouldn’t beat out its wunklunk, wunklunk any more. It would go one-less, one-less until it yelled and yammered in your ears and you had to make it stop.

Terrific polish on that razor.

And your breath would go on, same as before. You could sidle through this door, back through the next one and the one after, and figure out a totally new way to go through the one after that, but your breath would keep on sliding in and out of your nostrils like a razor going through whiskers, making a sound like a razor being stropped.

Sonny came in. Pete soaped his hair. Sonny picked up the razor and stood looking at it. Pete watched him, soap ran into his eyes, he swore, and Sonny jumped.

“What are you looking at, Sonny? Didn’t you ever see it before?”

“Oh, sure. Sure. I just was—” He shut the razor, opened it, flashed light from its blade, shut it again. “I’m tired of using this, Pete. I’m going to get rid of it. Want it?”

Want it? In his foot-locker, maybe. Under his pillow. “Thanks, no, Sonny. Couldn’t use it.”

“I like safety razors,” Sonny mumbled. “Electrics, even better. What are we going to do with it?”

“Throw it in the—no.” Pete pictured the razor turning end over end in the air, half open, gleaming in the maw of the catchall. “Throw it out the—” No. Curving out into the long grass. He might want it. He might crawl around in the moonlight looking for it. He might find it.

“I guess maybe I’ll break it up.”

“No,” Pete said. “The pieces—” Sharp little pieces. Hollow-ground fragments. “I’ll think of something. Wait’ll I get dressed.”

He washed briskly, toweled, while Sonny stood looking at the razor. It was a blade now, and if it were broken it would be shards and glittering splinters, still razor sharp. If it were ground dull with an emery wheel, somebody could find it and put another edge on it because it was so obviously a razor, a fine steel razor, one that would slice so—

“I know. The laboratory. We’ll get rid of it,” Pete said confidently.

He stepped into his clothes, and together they went to the laboratory wing. It was very quiet there. Their voices echoed.

“One of the ovens,” said Pete, reaching for the razor.

“Bake-ovens? You’re crazy!”

Pete chuckled, “You don’t know this place, do you? Like everything else on the base, there was a lot more went on here than most people knew about. They kept calling it the bakeshop. Well, it was research headquarters for new high-nutrient flours. But there’s lots else here. We tested utensils and designed vegetable-peelers and all sorts of things like that. There’s an electric furnace in there that—” He pushed open a door.

They crossed a long, quiet, cluttered room to the thermal equipment. “We can do everything here from annealing glass, through glazing ceramics, to finding the melting point of frying pans.” He clicked a switch tentatively. A pilot light glowed. He swung open a small, heavy door and set the razor inside. “Kiss it goodbye. In twenty minutes it’ll be a puddle.”

“I want to see that,” said Sonny. “Can I look around until it’s cooked?”

“Why not?”

They walked through the laboratories. Beautifully equipped they were, and too quiet. Once they passed a major who was bent over a complex electronic hook-up on one of the benches. He was watching a little amber light flicker, and he did not return their salute. They tip-toed past him, feeling awed at his absorption, envying it. They saw the models of the automatic kneaders, the vitaminizers, the remote signal thermostats and timers and controls.

“What’s in there?”

“I dunno. I’m over the edge of my territory. I don’t think there’s anybody left for this section. They were mostly mechanical and electronic theoreticians. Hey!”

Sonny followed the pointing hand. “What?”

“That wall-section. It’s loose, or—well, what do you know!”

He pushed at the section of wall which was very slightly out of line. There was a dark space beyond.

“What’s in there?”

“Nothing, or some semi-private hush-hush job. These guys used to get away with murder.”

Sonny said, with an uncharacteristic flash of irony, “Isn’t that the Army theoretician’s business?”

Cautiously they peered in, then entered.

“Wh—hey! The door!”

It swung swiftly and quietly shut. The soft click of the latch was accompanied by a blaze of light.

The room was small and windowless. It contained machinery—a “trickle” charger, a bank of storage batteries, an electric-powered dynamo, two small self-starting gas-driven light plants and a diesel complete with sealed compressed-air starting cylinders. In the corner was a relay rack with its panel-bolts spot-welded. Protruding from it was a red-topped lever.

They looked at the equipment wordlessly for a time and then Sonny said, “Somebody wanted to make awful sure he had power for something.”

“Now, I wonder what—” Pete walked over to the relay rack. He looked at the lever without touching it. It was wired up; behind the handle, on the wire, was a folded tag. He opened it cautiously. “To be used only on specific orders of the Commanding Officer.”

“Give it a yank and see what happens.”

Something clicked behind them. They whirled. “What was that?”

“Seemed to come from that rig beside the door.”

They approached it cautiously. There was a spring-loaded solenoid attached to a bar which was hinged to drop across the inside of the secret door, where it would fit into steel gudgeons on the panel. It clicked again.

“A Geiger counter,” said Pete disgustedly.

“Now why,” mused Sonny, “would they design a door to stay locked unless the general radioactivity went beyond a certain point? That’s what it is. See the relays? And the overload switch there? And this?”

“It has a manual lock, too,” Pete pointed out. The counter clicked again. “Let’s get out of here. I got one of those things built into my head these days.”

The door opened easily. They went out, closing it behind them. The keyhole was cleverly concealed in the crack between two boards.

They were silent as they made their way back to the QM labs. The small thrill of violation was gone.

Back at the furnace, Pete glanced at the temperature dial, then kicked the latch control. The pilot winked out, and then the door swung open. They blinked and started back from the raging heat within. They bent and peered. The razor was gone. A pool of brilliance lay on the floor of the compartment.

“Ain’t much left. Most of it oxidized away,” Pete grunted.

They stood together for a time with their faces lit by the small shimmering ruin. Later, as they walked back to the barracks, Sonny broke his long silence with a sigh. “I’m glad we did that, Pete. I’m awful glad we did that.”

At a quarter to eight they were waiting before the combination console in the barracks. All hands except Pete and Sonny and a wiry-haired, thick-set corporal named Bonze had elected to see the show on the big screen in the mess-hall. The reception was better there, of course, but, as Bonze put it, “You don’t get close enough in a big place like that.”

“I hope she’s the same,” said Sonny, half to himself.

Why should she be? thought Pete morosely as he turned on the set and watched the screen begin to glow. There were many more of the golden speckles that had killed reception for the past two weeks . . . Why should anything be the same, ever again?

He fought a sudden temptation to kick the set to pieces. It, and Starr Anthim, were part of something that was dead. The country was dead, a once real country—prosperous, sprawling, laughing, grabbing, growing, and changing, mostly healthy, leprous in spots with poverty and injustice, but systemically healthy enough to overcome any ill. He wondered how the murderers would like it. They were welcome to it, now. Nowhere to go. No one to fight. That was true for every soul on earth now.

“You hope she’s the same,” he muttered.

“The show, I mean,” said Sonny mildly. “I’d like to just sit here and have it like—like—”

Oh, thought Pete mistily. Oh—that. Somewhere to go, that’s what it is, for a few minutes . . . “I know,” he said, all the harshness gone from his voice.

Noise receded from the audio as the carrier swept in. The light on the screen swirled and steadied into a diamond pattern. Pete adjusted the focus, chromic balance and intensity. “Turn out the lights, Bonze. I don’t want to see anything but Starr Anthim.”

It was the same, at first. Starr Anthim had never used the usual fanfares, fade-ins, color and clamor of her contemporaries. A black screen, then click! a blaze of gold. It was all there, in focus; tremendously intense, it did not change. Rather, the eye changed to take it in. She never moved for seconds after she came on; she was there, a portrait, a still face and a white throat. Her eyes were open and sleeping. Her face was alive and still.

Then, in the eyes which seemed green but were blue flecked with gold, an awareness seemed to gather, and they came awake. Only then was it noticeable that her lips were parted. Something in the eyes made the lips be seen, though nothing moved yet. Not until she bent her head slowly, so that some of the gold flecks seemed captured in the golden brows. The eyes were not, then, looking out at an audience. They were looking at me, and at me, and at ME.

“Hello—you,” she said. She was a dream, with a kid sister’s slightly irregular teeth.

Bonze shuddered. The cot on which he lay began to squeak rapidly. Sonny shifted in annoyance. Pete reached out in the dark and caught the leg of the cot. The squeaking subsided.

“May I sing a song?” Starr asked. There was music, very faint. “It’s an old one, and one of the best. It’s an easy song, a deep song, one that comes from the part of men and women that is mankind—the part that has in it no greed, no hate, no fear. This song is about joyousness and strength. It’s—my favorite. Is it yours?”

The music swelled. Pete recognized the first two notes of the introduction and swore quietly. This was wrong. This song was not for—this song was part of—

Sonny rat raptly. Bonze lay still.

Starr Anthim began to sing. Her voice was deep and powerful, but soft, with the merest touch of vibrato at the ends of the phrases. The song flowed from her, without noticeable effort, seeming to come from her face, her long hair, her wide-set eyes. Her voice, like her face, was shadowed and clean, round, blue and green but mostly gold.

When you gave me your heart, you gave me the world,
You gave me the night and the day,
And thunder, and roses, and sweet green grass,
The sea, and soft wet clay.

I drank the dawn from a golden cup,
From a silver one, the dark,
The steed I rode was the wild west wind,
My song was the brook and the lark.

The music spiraled, caroled, slid into a somber cry of muted hungry sixths and ninths; rose, blared, and cut, leaving her voice full and alone:

With thunder I smote the evil of earth,
With roses I won the right,
With the sea I washed, and with clay I built,
And the world was a place of light!

The last note left a face perfectly composed again, and there was no movement in it; it was sleeping and vital while the music curved off and away to the places where music rests when it is not heard.

Starr smiled.

“It’s so easy,” she said. “So simple. All that is fresh and clean and strong about mankind is in that song, and I think that’s all that need concern us about mankind.” She leaned forward. “Don’t you see?”

The smile faded and was replaced with a gentle wonder. A tiny furrow appeared between her brows; she drew back quickly. “I can’t seem to talk to you tonight,” she said, her voice small. “You hate something.”

Hate was shaped like a monstrous mushroom. Hate was the random speckling of a video plate.

“What has happened to us,” said Starr abruptly, impersonally, “is simple too. It doesn’t matter who did it—do you understand that? It doesn’t matter. We were attacked. We were struck from the east and from the west. Most of the bombs were atomic—there were blast-bombs and there were dust-bombs. We were hit by about five hundred and thirty bombs altogether, and it has killed us.”

She waited.

Sonny’s fist smacked into his palm. Bonze lay with his eyes open, open, quiet. Pete’s jaws hurt.

“We have more bombs than both of them put together. We have them. We are not going to use them. Wait!” She raised her hands suddenly, as if she could see into each man’s face. They sank back, tense.

“So saturated is the atmosphere with Carbon Fourteen that all of us in this hemisphere are going to die. Don’t be afraid to say it. Don’t be afraid to think it. It is a truth, and it must be faced. As the transmutation effect spreads from the ruins of our cities, the air will become increasingly radioactive, and then we must die. In months, in a year or so, the effect will be strong overseas. Most of the people there will die too. None will escape completely. A worse thing will come to them than anything they have given us, because there will be a wave of horror and madness which is impossible to us. We are merely going to die. They will live and burn and sicken, and the children that will be born to them—” She shook her head, and her lower lip grew full. She visibly pulled herself together.

“Five hundred and thirty bombs . . . I don’t think either of our attackers knew just how strong the other was. There has been so much secrecy.” Her voice was sad. She shrugged slightly. “They have killed us, and they have ruined themselves. As for us—we are not blameless, either. Neither are we helpless to do anything—yet. But what we must do is hard. We must die—without striking back.”

She gazed briefly at each man in turn, from the screen. “We must not strike back. Mankind is about to go through a hell of his own making. We can be vengeful—or merciful, if you like—and let go with the hundreds of bombs we have. That would sterilize the planet so that not a microbe, not a blade of grass could escape, and nothing new could grow. We would reduce the earth to a bald thing, dead and deadly.

“No—it just won’t do. We can’t do it.

“Remember the song? That is humanity. That’s in all humans. A disease made other humans our enemies for a time, but as the generations march past, enemies become friends and friends enemies. The enmity of those who have killed us is such a tiny, temporary thing in the long sweep of history!”

Her voice deepened. “Let us die with the knowledge that we have done the one noble thing left to us. The spark of humanity can still live and grow on this planet. It will be blown and drenched, shaken and all but extinguished, but it will live if that song is a true one. It will live if we are human enough to discount the fact that the spark is in the custody of our temporary enemy. Some—a few—of his children will live to merge with the new humanity that will gradually emerge from the jungles and the wilderness. Perhaps there will be ten thousand years of beastliness; perhaps man will be able to rebuild while he still has his ruins.”

She raised her head, her voice tolling. “And even if this is the end of humankind, we dare not take away the chances some other life-form might have to succeed where we failed. If we retaliate, there will not be a dog, a deer, an ape, a bird or fish or lizard to carry the evolutionary torch. In the name of justice, if we must condemn and destroy ourselves, let us not condemn all other life along with us! Mankind is heavy enough with sins. If we must destroy, let us stop with destroying ourselves!”

There was a shimmering flicker of music. It seemed to stir her hair like a breath of wind. She smiled.

“That’s all,” she whispered. And to each man listening she said, “Good night . . .”

The screen went black. As the carrier cut off (there was no announcement) the ubiquitous speckles began to swarm across it.

Pete rose and switched on the lights. Bonze and Sonny were quite still. It must have been minutes later when Sonny sat up straight, shaking himself like a puppy. Something besides the silence seemed to tear with the movement.

He said, softly, “You’re not allowed to fight anything, or to run away, or to live, and now you can’t even hate any more, because Starr says no.”

There was bitterness in the sound of it, and a bitter smell to the air.

Pete Mawser sniffed once, which had nothing to do with the smell. He sniffed again. “What’s that smell, Son?”

Sonny tested it. “I don’t— Something familiar. Vanilla—no . . . No.”

“Almonds. Bitter—Bonze!”

Bonze lay still with his eyes open, grinning. His jaw muscles were knotted, and they could see almost all his teeth. He was soaking wet.

“Bonze!”

“It was just when she came on and said ‘Hello—you,’ remember?” whispered Pete. “Oh, the poor kid. That’s why he wanted to catch the show here instead of in the mess-hall.”

“Went out looking at her,” said Sonny through pale lips. “I—can’t say I blame him much. Wonder where he got the stuff.”

“Never mind that!” Pete’s voice was harsh. “Let’s get out of here.”

They left to call the ambulance. Bonze lay watching the console with his dead eyes and his smell of bitter almonds.

* * *

Pete did not realize where he was going, or exactly why, until he found himself on the dark street near GHQ and the communications shack, reflecting that it might be nice to be able to hear Starr, and see her, whenever he felt like it. Maybe there weren’t any recordings; yet her musical background was recorded, and the signal corps might have recorded the show.

He stood uncertainly outside the GHQ building. There was a cluster of men outside the main entrance. Pete smiled briefly. Rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor gloom of night could stay the stage-door Johnnie.

He went down the side street and up the delivery ramp in the back. Two doors along the platform was the rear exit of the communications section.

There was a light on in the communications shack. He had his hand out to the screen door when he noticed someone standing in the shadows beside it. The light played daintily on the golden margins of a head and face.

He stopped. “S—Starr Anthim!”

“Hello, soldier. Sergeant.”

He blushed like an adolescent. “I—” His voice left him. He swallowed, reached up to whip off his hat. He had no hat. “I saw the show,” he said. He felt clumsy. It was dark, and yet he was very conscious of the fact that his dress-shoes were indifferently shined.

She moved toward him into the light, and she was so beautiful that he had to close his eyes. “What’s your name?”

“Mawser. Pete Mawser.”

“Like the show?”

Not looking at her, he said stubbornly, “No.”

“Oh?”

“I mean—I liked it some. The song.”

“I—think I see.”

“I wondered if I could maybe get a recording.”

“I think so,” she said. “What kind of reproducer have you got?”

“Audiovid.”

“A disc. Yes; we dubbed off a few. Wait, I’ll get you one.”

She went inside, moving slowly. Pete watched her, spellbound. She was a silhouette, crowned and haloed; and then she was a framed picture, vivid and golden. He waited, watching the light hungrily. She returned with a large envelope, called good night to someone inside, and came out on the platform.

“Here you are, Pete Mawser.”

“Thanks very—” he mumbled. He wet his lips. “It was very good of you.”

“Not really. The more it circulates, the better.” She laughed suddenly. “That isn’t meant quite as it sounds. I’m not exactly looking for new publicity these days.”

The stubbornness came back. “I don’t know if you’d get it, if you put on that show in normal times.”

Her eyebrows went up. “Well!” she smiled. “I seem to have made quite an impression.”

“I’m sorry,” he said warmly. “I shouldn’t have taken that tack. Everything I think and say these days is exaggerated.”

“I know what you mean.” She looked around. “How is it here?”

“It’s okay. I used to be bothered by the secrecy, and being buried miles away from civilization.” He chuckled bitterly. “Turned out to be lucky after all.”

“You sound like the first chapter of One World or None.”

He looked up quickly. “What do you use for a reading list—the Government’s own Index Expurgatorius?”

She laughed. “Come now, it isn’t as bad as all that. The book was never banned. It was just—”

“Unfashionable,” he filled in.

“Yes, more’s the pity. If people had paid more attention to it in the ‘forties, perhaps this wouldn’t have happened.”

He followed her gaze to the dimly pulsating sky. “How long are you going to be here?”

“Until—as long as—I’m not leaving.”

“You’re not?”

“I’m finished,” she said simply. “I’ve covered all the ground I can. I’ve been everywhere that . . . anyone knows about.”

“With this show?”

She nodded. “With this particular message.”

He was quiet, thinking. She turned to the door, and he put out his hand, not touching her. “Please—”

“What is it?”

“I’d like to—I mean, if you don’t mind, I don’t often have a chance to talk to—maybe you’d like to walk around a little before you turn in.”

“Thanks, no, Sergeant. I’m tired.” She did sound tired. “I’ll see you around.”

He stared at her, a sudden fierce light in his brain. “I know where it is. It’s got a red-topped lever and a tag referring to orders of the commanding officer. It’s really camouflaged.”

She was quiet so long that he thought she had not heard him. Then, “I’ll take that walk.”

They went down the ramp together and turned toward the dark parade ground.

“How did you know?” she asked quietly.

“Not too tough. “This ‘message’ of yours; the fact that you’ve been all over the country with it; most of all, the fact that somebody finds it necessary to persuade us not to strike back. Who are you working for?” he asked bluntly.

Surprisingly, she laughed.

“What’s that for?”

“A moment ago you were blushing and shuffling your feet.”

His voice was rough. “I wasn’t talking to a human being. I was talking to a thousand songs I’ve heard, and a hundred thousand blonde pictures I’ve seen pinned up. You’d better tell me what this is all about.”

She stopped. “Let’s go up and see the colonel.”

He took her elbow. “No. I’m just a sergeant, and he’s high brass, and that doesn’t make any difference at all now. You’re a human being, and so am I, and I’m supposed to respect your rights as such. I don’t. You’d better tell me about it.”

“All right,” she said, with a tired acquiescence that frightened something inside him. “You seem to have guessed right, though. It’s true. There are master firing keys for the launching sites. We have located and dismantled all but two. It’s very likely that one of the two was vaporized. The other one is—lost.”

“Lost?”

“I don’t have to tell you about the secrecy,” she said. “You know how it developed between nation and nation. You must know that it existed between State and Union, between department and department, office and office. There were only three or four men who knew where all the keys were. Three of them were in the Pentagon when it went up. That was the third blast-bomb, you know. If there was another, it could only have been Senator Vanercook, and he died three weeks ago without talking.”

“An automatic radio key, hm?”

“That’s right. Sergeant, must we walk? I’m so tired.”

“I’m sorry,” he said impulsively. They crossed to the reviewing stand and sat on the lonely benches. “Launching racks all over, all hidden, and all armed?”

“Most of them are armed. There’s a timing mechanism in them that will disarm them in a year or so. But in the meantime, they are armed—and aimed.”

“Aimed where?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“I think I see. What’s the optimum number again?”

“About six hundred and forty; a few more or less. At least five hundred and thirty have been thrown so far. We don’t know exactly.”

“Who are we?” he asked furiously.

“Who? Who?” She laughed weakly. “I could say, ‘The Government,’ perhaps. If the President dies, the Vice-President takes over, and then the Secretary of State, and so on and on. How far can you go? Pete Mawser, don’t you realize yet what’s happened?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“How many people do you think are left in this country?”

“I don’t know. Just a few million, I guess.”

“How many are here?”

“About nine hundred.”

“Then, as far as I know, this is the largest city left.”

He leaped to his feet. “No!” The syllable roared away from him, hurled itself against the dark, empty buildings, came back to him in a series of lower-case echoes: nononono . . . no-no.

Starr began to speak rapidly, quietly. “They’re scattered all over the fields and the roads. They sit in the sun and die. They run in packs, they tear at each other. They pray and starve and kill themselves and die in the fires. The fires—everywhere, if anything stands, it’s burning. Summer, and the leaves all down in the Berkshires, and the blue grass burnt brown; you can see the grass dying from the air, the death going out wider and wider from the bald-spots. Thunder and roses . . . I saw roses, new ones, creeping from the smashed pots of a greenhouse. Brown petals, alive and sick, and the thorns turned back on themselves, growing into the stems, killing. Feldman died tonight.”

He let her be quiet for a time. Then:

“Who is Feldman?”

“My pilot.” She was talking hollowly into her hands. “He’s been dying for weeks. He’s been on his nerve-ends. I don’t think he had any blood left. He buzzed your GHQ and made for the landing strip. He came in with the motor dead, free rotors, giro. Smashed the landing gear. He was dead, too. He killed a man in Chicago so he could steal gas. The man didn’t want the gas. There was a dead girl by the pump. He didn’t want us to go near. I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to stay here. I’m tired.”

At last she cried.

Pete left her alone, and walked out to the center of the parade ground, looking back at the faint huddled glimmer on the bleachers. His mind flickered over the show that evening, and the way she had sung before the merciless transmitter. “Hello, you.” “If we must destroy, let us stop with destroying ourselves!”

The dimming spark of humankind . . . what could it mean to her? How could it mean so much?

“Thunder and roses.” Twisted, sick, non-survival roses, killing themselves with their own thorns.

“And the world was a place of light!” Blue light, flickering in the contaminated air.

The enemy. The red-topped lever. Bonze. “They pray and starve and kill themselves and die in the fires.”

What creatures were these, these corrupted, violent, murdering humans? What right had they to another chance? What was in them that was good?

Starr was good. Starr was crying. Only a human being could cry like that. Starr was a human being.

Had humanity anything of Starr Anthim in it?

Starr was a human being.

He looked down through the darkness for his hands. No planet, no universe, is greater to a man than his own ego, his own observing self. These hands were the hands of all history, and like the hands of all men, they could by their small acts make human history or end it. Whether this power of hands was that of a billion hands, or whether it came to a focus in these two—this was suddenly unimportant to the eternities which now enfolded him.

He put humanity’s hands deep in his pockets and walked slowly back to the bleachers.

“Starr.”

She responded with a sleepy-child, interrogative whimper.

“They’ll get their chance, Starr. I won’t touch the key.”

She sat straight. She rose, and came to him, smiling. He could see her smile, because, very faintly in the air, her teeth fluoresced. She put her hands on his shoulders. “Pete.”

He held her very close for a moment. Her knees buckled then, and he had to carry her.

There was no one in the Officers’ Club, which was the nearest building. He stumbled in, moved clawing along the wall until he found a switch. The light hurt him. He carried her to a settee and put her down gently. She did not move. One side of her face was as pale as milk.

He stood looking stupidly at it, wiped it on the sides of his trousers, looking dully at Starr. There was blood on her shirt.

A doctor . . . but there was no doctor. Not since Anders had hanged himself. “Get somebody,” he muttered. “Do something.”

He dropped to his knees and gently unbuttoned her shirt. Between the sturdy unfeminine GI bra and the top of her slacks, there was blood on her side. He whipped out a clean handkerchief and began to wipe it away. There was no wound, no puncture. But abruptly there was blood again. He blotted it carefully. And again there was blood.

It was like trying to dry a piece of ice with a towel.

He ran to the water cooler, wrung out the bloody handkerchief and ran back to her. He bathed her face carefully, the pale right side, the flushed left side. The handkerchief reddened again, this time with cosmetics, and then her face was pale all over, with great blue shadows under the eyes. While he watched, blood appeared on her left cheek.

“There must be somebody—” He fled to the door.

“Pete!”

Running, turning at the sound of her voice, he hit the doorpost stunningly, caromed off, flailed for his balance, and then was back at her side. “Starr! Hang on, now! I’ll get a doctor as quick as—”

Her hand strayed over her left cheek. “You found out. Nobody else knew, but Feldman. It got hard to cover properly.” Her hand went up to her hair.

“Starr, I’ll get a—”

“Pete, darling, promise me something?”

“Why, sure; certainly, Starr.”

“Don’t disturb my hair. It isn’t—all mine, you see.” She sounded like a seven-year-old, playing a game. “It all came out on this side. I don’t want you to see me that way.”

He was on his knees beside her again. “What is it? What happened to you?” he asked hoarsely.

“Philadelphia,” she murmured. “Right at the beginning. The mushroom went up a half-mile away. The studio caved in. I came to the next day. I didn’t know I was burned, then. It didn’t show. My left side. It doesn’t matter, Pete. It doesn’t hurt at all, now.”

He sprang to his feet again. “I’m going for a doctor.”

“Don’t go away. Please don’t go away and leave me. Please don’t.” There were tears in her eyes. “Wait just a little while. Not very long, Pete.”

He sank to his knees again. She gathered both his hands in hers and held them tightly. She smiled happily. “You’re good, Pete. You’re so good.”

(She couldn’t hear the blood in his ears, the roar of the whirlpool of hate and fear and anguish that spun inside of him.)

She talked to him in a low voice, and then in whispers. Sometimes he hated himself because he couldn’t quite follow her. She talked about school, and her first audition. “I was so scared that I got a vibrato in my voice. I’d never had one before. I always let myself get a little scared when I sing now. It’s easy.” There was something about a window-box when she was four years old. “Two real live tulips and a pitcher-plant. I used to be sorry for the flies.”

There was a long period of silence after that, during which his muscles throbbed with cramp and stiffness, and gradually became numb. He must have dozed; he awoke with a violent start, feeling her fingers on his face. She was propped up on one elbow. She said clearly, “I just wanted to tell you, darling. Let me go first, and get everything ready for you. It’s going to be wonderful. I’ll fix you a special tossed salad. I’ll make you a steamed chocolate pudding and keep it hot for you.”

Too muddled to understand what she was saying, he smiled and pressed her back on the settee. She took his hands again.

The next time he awoke it was broad daylight, and she was dead.

Sonny Weisefreund was sitting on his cot when he got back to the barracks. He handed over the recording he had picked up from the parade-ground on the way back. “Dew on it. Dry it off. Good boy,” he croaked, and fell face downward on the cot Bonze had used.

Sonny stared at him. “Pete! Where you been? What happened? Are you all right?”

Pete shifted a little and grunted. Sonny shrugged and took the audiovid disc out of its wet envelope. Moisture would not harm it particularly, though it could not be played while wet. It was made of a fine spiral of plastic, insulated between laminations. Electrostatic pickups above and below the turntable would fluctuate with changes in the dielectric constant which had been impressed by the recording, and these changes were amplified for the scanners. The audio was a conventional hill-and-dale needle. Sonny began to wipe it down carefully.

* * *

Pete fought upward out of a vast, green-lit place full of flickering cold fires. Starr was calling him. Something was punching him, too. He fought it weakly, trying to hear what she was saying. But someone else was jabbering too loud for him to hear.

He opened his eyes. Sonny was shaking him, his round face pink with excitement. The Audiovid was running. Starr was talking. Sonny got up impatiently and turned down the volume. “Pete! Pete! Wake up, will you? I got to tell you something. Listen to me! Wake up, will yuh?”

“Huh?”

“That’s better. Now listen. I’ve just been listening to Starr Anthim—”

“She’s dead,” said Pete.

Sonny didn’t hear. He went on, explosively, “I’ve figured it out. Starr was sent out here, and all over, to beg someone not to fire any more atom bombs. If the government was sure they wouldn’t strike back, they wouldn’t’ve taken the trouble. Somewhere, Pete, there’s some way to launch bombs at those murdering cowards—and I’ve got a pret-ty shrewd idea of how to do it.”

Pete strained groggily toward the faint sound of Starr’s voice. Sonny talked on. “Now, s’posing there was a master radio key—an automatic code device something like the alarm signal they have on ships, that rings a bell on any ship within radio range when the operator sends four long dashes. Suppose there’s an automatic code machine to launch bombs, with repeaters, maybe, buried all over the country. What would it be? Just a little lever to pull; that’s all. How would the thing be hidden? In the middle of a lot of other equipment, that’s where; in some place where you’d expect to find crazy-looking secret stuff. Like an experiment station. Like right here. You beginning to get the idea?”

“Shut up, I can’t hear her.”

“The hell with her! You can listen to her some other time. You didn’t hear a thing I said!”

“She’s dead.”

“Yeah. Well, I figure I’ll pull that handle. What can I lose? It’ll give those murderin’—what?”

“She’s dead.”

“Dead? Starr Anthim?” His young face twisted, Sonny sank down to the cot. “You’re half asleep. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“She’s dead,” Pete said hoarsely. “She got burned by one of the first bombs. I was with her when she—she— Shut up now and get out of here and let me listen!” he bellowed hoarsely.

Sonny stood up slowly. “They killed her, too. They killed her! That does it. That just fixes it up.” His face was white. He went out.

Pete got up. His legs weren’t working right. He almost fell. He brought up against the console with a crash, his outflung arm sending the pickup skittering across the record. He put it on again and turned up the volume, then lay down to listen.

His head was all mixed up. Sonny talked too much. Bomb launchers, automatic code machines—

“You gave me your heart,” sand Starr. “You gave me your heart. You gave me your heart. You . . .”

Pete heaved himself up again and moved the pickup arm. Anger, not at himself, but at Sonny for causing him to cut the disc that way, welled up.

Starr was talking, stupidly, her face going through the same expression over and over again. “Struck from the east and from the struck from the east and from the . . .”

He got up again wearily and moved the pickup.

“You gave me your heart you gave me . . .”

Pete made an agonized sound that was not a word at all, bent, lifted, and sent the console crashing over. In the bludgeoning silence, he said, “I did, too.”

Then, “Sonny.” He waited.

“Sonny!”

His eyes went wide then, and he cursed and bolted for the corridor.

The panel was closed when he reached it. He kicked at it. It flew open, discovering darkness.

“Hey!” bellowed Sonny. “Shut it! You turned off the lights!”

Pete shut it behind them. The lights blazed.

“Pete! What’s the matter?”

“Nothing’s the matter, Son,” croaked Pete.

“What are you looking at?” said Sonny uneasily.

“I’m sorry,” said Pete as gently as he could. “I just wanted to find something out, is all. Did you tell anyone else about this?” He pointed to the lever.

“Why, no. I only just figured it out while you were sleeping, just now.”

Pete looked around carefully, while Sonny shifted his weight. Pete moved toward a tool-rack. “Something you haven’t noticed yet, Sonny,” he said softly, and pointed. “Up there, on the wall behind you. High up. See?”

Sonny turned. In one fluid movement Pete plucked off a fourteen-inch box wrench and hit Sonny with it as hard as he could.

Afterward he went to work systematically on the power supplies. He pulled the plugs on the gas-engines and cracked their cylinders with a maul. He knocked off the tubing of the diesel starters—the tanks let go explosively—and he cut all the cables with bolt-cutters. Then he broke up the relay rack and its lever. When he was quite finished, he put away his tools and bent and stroked Sonny’s tousled hair.

He went out and closed the partition carefully. It certainly was a wonderful piece of camouflage. He sat down heavily on a workbench nearby.

“You’ll have your chance,” he said into the far future. “And, by Heaven, you’d better make good.”

After that he just waited.

Afterword by Eric Flint




When editors put together an anthology like this one, sooner or later they have to deal with what may be the thorniest problem of all:

Which story do you end with?

In this case, the decision . . . almost made itself. Not quite, I suppose. But in the course of the discussions the three of us had on the subject, "Thunder and Roses"came to the forefront with a certain kind of inevitability. Some of that, no doubt, is due to the factor that Dave discusses in his preface: all three of us were children of the Fifties, and we were shaped to some degree, one way or another, by that ever-looming fear of nuclear obliteration. 

But there's more to it than that. "Thunder and Roses"is a horror story, but it's not just a horror story. It's also a story of transcendent courage, and, in the grimmest possible way, a very inspiring story.

I stated in my preface to the first story in the anthology, Arthur Clarke's "Rescue Party,"that since I was a boy of thirteen I associated that story, perhaps more than any other, with the inspiring nature of science fiction, which has always been to me its single most important characteristic. 

If it has a contender, though—perhaps even a superior—it's this story by Sturgeon. I knew that even as a boy, although I rarely let myself think about it.


Inspiration, like courage, comes in different forms. There's the sort of courage that Achilles exemplifies, which is inseparable from fame and glory and played out in front of a vast audience. And then there's what I think of as cellar courage—a quiet refusal to yield that goes unrecognized and is noted, if at all, only by the executioner. The courage of nameless heroes who die in the darkness.

I've never liked Achilles—and I wouldn't trust him any farther than I could throw him. Give me cellar courage. If the human race continues to survive, it will ultimately be due to that kind of heroism. Heroism which has none of the trappings of heroes, and is therefore all the more reliable.

We began this anthology with inspiration on a galactic scale, and we end it with a man sitting on a bench waiting to die. But not before he made the right decision, after wrestling with it like a quiet Titan. 

It seems . . . a very good way to end. A cycle, if you will. The logic of the first story depends, in the end, on the logic of the last. Without the one, you will never reach the other. The road to the stars begins in a cellar. Or, as the poet William Butler Yeats put it:

Those masterful images because complete
Grew in pure mind but out of what began?
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.

THE END

Trigger Tide by Wyman Guin

Trigger Tide

by Wyman Guin



Preface by David Drake

 

I first read "Trigger Tide" when I was fourteen. I didn't understand it, but I almost understood it. The work stood on its own as an action/adventure story, but it held an assumption about how the world, the universe, worked that I couldn't quite grasp.

I've reread the story a number of times since then, including its original appearance the October 1950 Astounding (with Guin using the pseudonym Norman Menasco). Often reading a story in its original context will bring it into a different focus. That was true of "Trigger Tide," but I still don't think I quite understand it.

Neither have I ever gotten "Trigger Tide" out of my mind. That's why it's here.

That first day and night I lay perfectly still. I was often conscious but there was no thought of moving. I breathed shallowly.

In midmorning of the second day I began to feel the ants and flies that swarmed in the cake of mud, blood and festering flesh I was wearing for clothes. Then, through the morning mists of its tiny sixth planet that giant white sun slammed down on me.

I had been able to see something of the surroundings before they began working me over. After they had taken the hood off my head and while they were stripping away my clothes and harness of power equipment, the first orbit moon—the little fast, pale green one—shot up out of the blue-black sea. I had been able to tell in its light that we were on a tide shelf, probably the third.

Now burnt, lashed and clubbed I lay face down in the quick growing weeds of the hot tide shelf. The weeds were beginning to crawl against my face in the breathless air and dimly I realized a moon must be rising.

It had been the predawn of the tenth day of period thirty-six when the two of them stepped out of an aircar on Quartz Street and the girl I was walking home to the Great Island Hotel turned me over to them. If it was true that I had been lying here that day and night and this was the next midmorning, and if this was the third shelf, there would soon be a tide washing over me.

That tide was not easy to calculate. That it could be figured out is a tribute to the way they drill information into you before you leave The Central on an assignment. But the most thorough textbook knowledge of a planet’s conditions is thin stuff when you are actually there and have to know them better than the natives. I tried the calculation all over again with that great sun frying my skull and got the same answer.

In about an hour the big fifth orbit moon and the sun would be overhead. The equally big third orbit moon would be slightly behind. Together they would lift the sea onto the third shelf all through this latitude.

The kind of day it was these tides would come up smoothly and steadily. Through the buzzing of flies I could not hear the sea. That did not mean it was not a hundred feet away lapping rapidly higher on the third sea wall.

I lay perfectly still except for my shallow breathing and waited for the sea.

When the water came over me in a shall rush I strangled. Quickly, I refused to move. The water rushed over me again and again softening the clotted mud that had kept me from oozing to death. Finally when the surf receded it was still about me and I had to try moving.

I got to my knees and set to work with my right hand to get some vision. With the sea now washing higher about me I finally got the clot from my right eye and achieved a blurred view of daylight.

You have to have at least some luck. When you run out of it altogether you are dead. The fourth sea wall was about fifty yards away and looked as though a normal man could make it quite easily. How I made it was another story. I could barely use my legs and the left arm was useless. All the time I was reopening my wounds on the quartzcar formations of the sea wall.

That quartzcar is not like the familiar coral that forms some of the islands of Earth. It is made up from quartz particles that are suspended in the ocean water. It is a concretion in an intricate lattice which small crustacea pile up in regular patterns. The animals build their quartzcar islands from the quartz dust that rises in tidal rhythms off the floor of the shallow planetary sea. Consequently the islands come in layers with tide shelves that correspond to the height of various lunar tides.

The only land on that planet is the countless archipelagoes of quartzcar. On the sea walls or when you dig it up it presents a fine rasplike face that opened my wounds and left me bleeding and gasping with pain when I reached the top.

That afternoon I was not unconscious. I slept. It was dark when I awakened. Then slowly, magnificently it was light again as the fifth orbit moon rose over the sea, a great ball of electric blue. Only a short time later the little chartreuse first moon came rocketing up to catch and finally, a shade to the south, to pass the larger body on its own quick trip to the zenith.

Back at The Central the “white haired boys,” the psychostatisticians, can tell you all about why people get into wars. If they had not been right about every assignment they had plotted for me, I would never have lived to get beat up on this one. Sometimes their anthropoquations give very complex answers. Sometimes, as in the case of these people, the answer is simple. It was so simple in this case that it read like Twentieth Century newspaper propaganda. But lying there looking out into the glorious sky I didn’t believe in wars. There never had been any. There never would be any. Surely they would close The Central and I could stay there forever watching the great moons roll across the galaxy.

I reawakened with a sharpened sense of urgency. I got to my feet. There was going to be a war if I didn’t get on with the assignment. The fine part about this job was everyone wanted it “hush.” The ideal performance for a Central Operator is, of course, to hit a planet, get the business over with and get out without anyone ever guessing you were doing anything but buying curios. Generally those you’re up against try to throw you into public light—a bad light. These boys wanted it hush much worse than I did. It gave me a certain advantage tactically. I will not say the mess I had got myself into was part of my plan. But they were going to scramble at the sight of their mayhem walking back into the city.

I had to skirt half the city to reach my contact and a safe place to heal. To make it before morning I had to take advantage of every moment of moonlight.

After about half my journey I had a long wait in the dark before the fourth orbit moon came up and I was able to move ahead. I was skirting the city very close through the fern tree forest but, except for an occasional house and couples necking in aircars idling low over the fronds, I had little to worry about.

Toward morning the only light was the second brief flight of the tiny first moon and the going was much slower. But at least while it was up alone the vegetation did not move about so much. I finished the last lap to my Contact staggering and dangerously in broad daylight.

* * *

He didn’t say anything when he opened the door of his cottage. He didn’t show surprise or hesitate too long either. He led me in carefully and put me down on a bed.

Part of the time he was working on me I slept and part of the time I was wide awake gasping. It would have been just about as bad as when they worked me over except that he used some drugs and I knew he was trying to put me together instead of take me apart.

Then at last I slept undisturbed—that day and the next night. When I awoke he was still there staring down at me with no expression on his face.

It was the first time I had tried to form words with my mashed mouth. I finally got out, “How did you recognize me? You’d only seen me normal once.”

I got two shocks in rapid succession. He said, “I’m awfully sorry about your eye.”

It flashed over me that this man had gone sour as an Operator. No Central Operator is ever sorry for anything. Certainly no one ever says so when you’ve had “bad luck.”

I got the second shock and pulled myself up from the bed. I searched the blurred room till I made out a mirror and went to it without his help. It was only then I realized they had put out one of my eyes.

I don’t know whether it was just fury and determination to heal fast or whether he was right that there is some mysterious influence on that planet that accelerates healing. It took me only about three weeks to get back to the point where I felt I was in shape to tackle them again. The bones in my arm knitted very well and it was surprising how fast the burns healed.

He knew a lot about that planet, this Operator. He couldn’t stop asking questions about it. What made the vegetation move when a moon was up? Why did the animal life, including men, slow its activity at the same time? The only question it seemed he hadn’t asked was why he, an Operator for The Central, had adopted one of the major habits of the planet he had been assigned to. He wouldn’t move while there was a conjunction of moons at zenith. Instead he criticized me for exercising my scarred legs while a moon was up. You’d think it would have reminded him that being inactive at such times was only a planetary habit.

It was impossible to question him along a consistent vein. He would start talking about their organization and end wondering about the possible influences on human behavior of subtle rhythms in gravity. He would open a conjecture about the daily habits of their Leader and it would end a theory on the psychology of island cultures. His long expressionless horseface would turn to me and he would conclude with something like, “You know, Herman Melville was right about the sea. It is not a vista but a background. People living on it experience mostly in a foreground.”

Every Operator for The Central has at times to think profoundly about such things and be equipped better than average to do so. You can’t deal effectively with the variegated human cultures now scattered far out into the galaxy without being neatly sensitive to the psychological influences of landscape, flora, climate, ancestry and planetary neighbors.

But at present I had a much blunter assignment. I had to reach a carefully protected man I had seen only in photographs. I had to reach him in the shortest possible time and kill him. Now, the worse luck of all, my only Contact had “taken root.”

It happened every day of course. Psychostatistically it was inevitable. A fine Operator hit a planet where he began to take an emotional interest. He adopted quite seriously one or more of the major habits of the natives. This man had reached the next stage where his emotional interest in his new-found “home” dominated his finely drilled ties to The Central. In his case it had taken only a standard month and a half. In fact it had not been visible a month ago when the pilot of my tiny space shuttle dropped me off in the dark at his cottage. I finally realized the only thing I could get from him now was a rehearsal of the story he had told me that night before I walked alone into the strange city.

But I delayed asking him to retell his story. An odd thing happened. It happened just as I was about to ask him to go into town and buy me a set of the local power equipment. We were on our usual morning walk through the fern woods. Naturally he had refused to exercise until the passing of the second orbit moon. That had irritated me. I was on the verge of spitting out that I was wasting time and would be on my way as soon as he could run into town and buy me the local harness.

There in the middle of the path lay my own power equipment—the harness they had stripped off with my clothes down on the tide shelf three weeks before. If they had only left this harness on me, I would have been able to antigrav my way over the fourth sea wall instead of frictioning my way up on peeling flesh. I knew the harness and helmet on sight. I picked it up and I was certain. The hair at the back of my neck stirred.

I didn’t say anything and he was still enough of an Operator not to ask. We both knew it was no accident.

Back at the cottage I spent the rest of the day and most of the night checking that harness of power equipment. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it that I could find. The radio, sending and receiving, was in perfect order both on inspection and when I check-called to my ship waiting on the second orbit moon. The arms, both the microsplosive for killing single targets and the heavy 0.5 Kg. demolition pistol were as they had been when on my person. The antigravity mechanism and its neatly built-in turbojet, part by part, under X-ray and on the fine balance he used for assaying quartzcar specimens, was an unblemished complexity. Again, when the equipment’s own X-ray was turned on its tiny “field-isolated” radioactive pile, no flaw could be seen. Naturally that was something of which I couldn’t be sure. Something that I couldn’t detect with these instruments might have been done to that tiny power pile at the subatomic level. The X-ray diffraction patterns were O.K. but—why did they want me to have my own harness? What reason outside the harness?

I had reduced to a simple question about its nuclear fission pile that highly multiple question, “Has this power equipment been tampered with?” I would have to gamble for the rest of the answer and it was worth the gamble. An Operator’s power equipment is the best in the galaxy. From what I had seen of the equipment worn on this planet it was definitely second rate.

It was nearly morning but he was still sitting in a corner, his long melancholy face buried in the local books on quartzcar. One of them was titled in the native language, “The Planetary Evolution of Quartzcar.” Well, it was not considered desertion to lose all interest in his assignment and all ties with The Central. It was just an occupational disease.

“You know,” he said, suddenly standing up and walking to the greenish darkness of the window, “there are several piezoelectric substances.”

“Yes,” I answered. I was busy putting the intricate crystal plates back into the atomic fission pile.

“Quartz, of course, is one of them.”

“Yes.”

“You know how a piezoelectric substance behaves?”

I was annoyed. The job of slipping the countless delicate crystal plates back into the pile was exacting. “Well,” I said without bothering to cover sarcasm, “why don’t you tell me all about it. I got through physics on a fluke.”

By the galaxy, he took me seriously. He stood there staring out at the fern forest and talked earnestly about electroelastic crystals like I was a first-year physics student.

“These substances convert electrical to mechanical energy and vice versa. You know how the old-fashioned phonograph pickup worked?”

I didn’t pay any attention to him.

“The needle was activated by grooved impressions in a record by previous sounds. In the pickup device this needle pressed against a piezoelectric substance. Its mechanical movement against the crystal set up corresponding electrical discharges from it to the speaker.” I was silent working on the pile. I decided that if he said, “You know” again I would get up and poke him. “You know,” he continued, “every island on this planet is constructed from quartz—a piezoelectric substance.”

I didn’t get up and poke him. I continued to stare at the harness but I stopped working on it. He went right on without turning. “These constructions of quartz are subjected to rhythmic mechanical stress when the lunar tides pile up against them.”

He was a capable man or he would not have been an Operator in the first place. That a man “took root” on some planet and became absolutely untrustworthy as an Operator did not mean he was not still a brilliant and sincere man. This one was obviously trying to solve a serious problem and doing well at it. I looked up with a new respect and he turned from the window.

He couldn’t help smiling and I had to admit he had slipped one over on me. He said, “You see, it could be that these quartzcar islands generate an electric field as the tides press on them. The strange blind movement of some of the vegetative forms could be a response stimulated by that electric field. The cessation of animal movement could be a safeguarding adaptation preventing disease which might develop when strenuous activity is pursued in the presence of such fields.”

I couldn’t help grinning. I had been blindly driving ahead because the assignment was urgent and I had missed all this.

“I realize,” he continued, “that I have taken root but I think it is important that I was trying to solve the defeat of our first operation when I first took up the question of quartzcar.”

“You know,” I interrupted, “they treated me just as they treated your group—just as you described it to me that first night. They left me absolutely alone—no interference at all. I knew I was asking for it when I overplayed my hand. But I had to do something to get action. Up to then it was like working in a vacuum. You wouldn’t have guessed there was a Party. There was no sign of them. It was only by boring in with the full intention of killing the Leader if I wasn’t stopped that I finally forced them to show.”

“Yes, that’s how it was with us,” he agreed. “Not one of the six of us met any interference until in a period of thirty seconds in various parts of the city two crashed from heights as though the antigravs had suddenly failed, two were blown to bits and one just simply died while walking through the rotunda of the Government Building where he was supposed to create a divergence in ten seconds.

“But why did they spare me? Was it because taking a shower was so innocent? If they could so neatly blow the whole plot wide open just at the moment it was climaxing they must have realized my part in it. They must have known I was innocently occupied taking a shower only because it was not my moment to be in action.

“Within seventy seconds their Leader would have been dead. Instead five of us were dead. It took me a long time to figure out that that was not due to a lot of concerted planning on their part. They had known it was going to happen at a certain time with no help from them. They knew when we were going into action and knew therefore that we would fail due to some calculable force. It wasn’t necessary for them to interfere if we didn’t plan to act before a certain time.”

I nodded. “And I got what was coming to me because I went into action before they could calculate my defeat. Well, then the quicker I try again the better. I’m going in this morning.” He almost volunteered to go with me.

* * *

Back in the city my mutilated face created attention. When I antigraved onto the sixth floor balconade of the Great Island Hotel people at nearby tables of the open-air restaurant turned to stare and turned quickly away. The table I had hoped for was unoccupied. I took it facing away from most of them so I could see the entertainment stage. Beyond the stage, as it was viewed from this point, were the antigrav tubes of the hotel. They were transparent and in them people rose to the upper floors or descended to the street without need of harness such as I was wearing.

The waiter came and took my order for a drink. He didn’t recognize me, yet he and I had had a joke once about that drink.

My watch said it should be only a few minutes before she would be on the stage singing quiet little songs. It was on this stage that their Leader had first seen her. His only overt human quality was an interest in tall lanky women. He liked them at least eight inches taller than himself. This one he had promptly moved from the artists’ and actors’ quarters of the city to a penthouse atop the Great Island Hotel.

Presently the string trio she used for a background came out and lounged about the potted trees on the stage. They warmed up with a few dolorous little melodies. Beyond the stage the antigrav tubes were crowded. In one of them a tragic waterfall of humanity descended to the street level. In the other people drifted upward. Occasionally a person or couple in more casual ascent hesitated as they passed the restaurant and decided to come in for a drink.

The string trio started another number and she walked gracefully out onto the informal stage. She smiled on her audience with a possessive warmth that was half her popularity. Then she began singing in a husky, unmusical but dramatic voice. She was a beautiful girl all right but my attention was suddenly diverted.

I recognized the short scrawny one immediately—the big man when he spoke. “Say, I never thought we’d see you again. Mind if we sit down?” He waited politely.

I motioned to the chairs. “Say,” he chuckled, closer to my face, “we sure did a beautiful job on you, didn’t we?”

“Yes,” I agreed, “I owe you both a great deal.”

He had a big hearty laugh. “Well,” he gasped between guffaws, “no hard feelings, I hope.”

“I’m very objective. I understand it was all in a day’s work.”

“Sure,” he said solemnly. “Let us buy you a drink.” The waiter had come up.

I shrugged at my glass. “I’ll have the same. There’s no strychnine in it.”

That set him off again. “Say,” he burbled, “you’re a card. You know when I first took a shine to you?”

I declared I couldn’t imagine when it might have been.

“When I broke your arm. You really took it like a man. Didn’t he take it well, Shorty?”

The little man wasn’t saying anything. He was making his good-humored grin do as his contribution.

“Well, here’s to your health.” The big man raised his glass the minute the waiter set it down.

I drank with them and we sat in silence listening to her song until he called the waiter over for another round.

“Yes, sir,” he exclaimed when it had arrived. “I sure never expected to see you again.”

“Oh, you knew I got off the tide shelf. That’s why you planted my power harness so I’d find it.” That took the humor out of his eyes.

“I don’t get you,” he said in a level voice. The little guy had stopped grinning.

I explained about finding my power harness on our path in the fern forest.

“I think,” he said with finality, “some animal dragged it up there. We left it on the tide shelf.” There was ice in his eyes.

“That could be,” I said, knowing it could not be.

“Waiter,” he called, “bring us another drink.”

Well, they had me and they weren’t letting me go. I was going to have to sit quietly in the public restaurant of the Great Island Hotel and get drunk without making a scene.

It was getting on to noon and there was a big moon hitting its zenith. Activity in the restaurant was beginning to slow and there were fewer people in the antigrav tubes. She was singing her last number backing off stage with the trio.

I looked at the big man and his scrawny companion. There was one good solid reason why they had suddenly showed up and why they were gluing themselves to me. The Leader was up above in his Great Island Hotel penthouse waiting to spend the luncheon with his long lanky beauty.

How long would the siesta last? I wasn’t very far into that thought when I came up with a start and my hand stopped in the act of putting down my glass. They both glanced at me.

All five moons were going to be overhead at noon. They would lift the sea onto the fourth tide shelf. That was the biggest tide and it was rare. I calculated the last time it had happened was over a standard month and a half ago. If my sudden guess was right, the healthiest place for a Central Operator at that time would be in the shower.

“What’s the matter,” the big man asked in a monotone. “You worried about something? You afraid you’re stuck in bad company? Don’t worry. We just want to have a couple more drinks with you and then we have to leave . . . in a hurry.”

“Thanks. I’ll sit the next one out. I want to have a little talk with that singer.” I stood up and he grabbed my arm, the one he hadn’t had any practice breaking.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” He tightened down on the arm. But my advantage was the secrecy they needed.

“You wouldn’t want a scene, would you?” I shook my arm loose. People were beginning to take notice and he sat quietly glaring at me.

I beat it through the stage door and back to her dressing room. I stepped in without knocking. She looked up startled from where she stood buckling a belt to her lounging shorts. She didn’t recognize me and she didn’t like me.

“Get out of here.”

“You remember me,” I soothed. “Three weeks ago you and I were regular pals. One night you went so far as to introduce me to a couple of special friends of yours in an aircar down there on the street.”

She was genuinely horrified and began backing away. I walked toward her. “You thought they were going to kill me, didn’t you?”

She nodded dumbly. Then, “For the Leader—” and automatically remembering another Party slogan, “for Planetary Security.”

“You didn’t know they were just going to torture me?”

She shook her head piteously almost imploringly—a little provincial girl caught in something bigger and uglier than she had dreamed.

“And leaving me alive to come back and ask you questions? Admitting the pleasure they took in how badly I would suffer when I regained consciousness how could they afford to take the chance of leaving me alive?”

“Because you will die anyway.” There was an abrupt personal fright on her face. She raised her hands with the palms outthrust as though pushing the sight of me away.

I thought I saw something move at the open window and changed my position in the room backing from her. She was almost wailing, “You will die now . . . the tide . . . it’s almost—”

One thing they weren’t taking chances with was that I might radio her answer off the planet.

The scrawny devil popped up from where he had been antigraving at the window and the microsplosive he put in her chest made her dead throat shriek as the long beautiful legs crumpled to the floor. I blew his head off while her glaring face sank before me. His body spun but antigraved where it was till I got to the window to haul it in.

From somewhere above the big guy fired at me as I yanked the body in and took the harness. I peeled out of my own power equipment and threw it in a corner and got out of the room. In a washroom down the hall I adjusted the little guy’s harness to fit me. As I stepped out into the hall again there was a shattering explosion from her dressing room. I had got rid of that harness one hundred twenty seconds soon enough.

There was one spot the big hoodlum wouldn’t be looking for me. I went right back to my table in the restaurant. There was, of course, no activity or conversation between the few who had stayed at their tables during the high tide. People sat in silence and seemingly asleep waiting for the moons to pass. I knew from experience that in that condition they would resist hearing my voice. I kept it low and held the radio pickup of the harness close to my lips.

After some hunting around due to unfamiliar controls I made contact with my ship on the second moon. I told them where and when to pick me up. “Now,” I said, “in case I don’t make it get this down: Piezoelectric islands generate field in response to lunar tides. At highest tide this vibrates the field generating crystals of the fission pile in Operator’s harness. Under interfering frequencies radioactives jar to critical mass and explode. Local harnesses do not react.”

I was just leaving the table preparing to antigrav outside the building to where that penthouse hung in the mists fifty floors up when I saw my Contact racing toward me.

“I’ve come to help . . . I guess I still—”

“Get out of your harness. Throw it over the edge of the balcony.”

He didn’t ask questions. He hurried to the edge unfastening the harness. But from up in the mist they opened fire on him and he never took the harness off. He refastened it and antigraved swiftly up into the mist firing ahead of him with the heavy 0.5 Kg. demolition pistol set for proximity explosions.

That was quick thinking. Up there they might be antigraving alongside the building or they might be firing from windows and the unconfined proximity explosion was more likely to get both.

I followed him as fast as I could with the weaker harness I was wearing. I pulled out farther from the building to back his fire. We had both dropped the infrared viewers out of our helmets but in that mist they weren’t much good. The mob above was having the same trouble and we were moving targets, hopeless for proximity fire. Our guns laid a sheet of flame high up on the building.

I believe he was hit but not killed on the way up. He seemed to stagger in his swerving ascent. But immediately their vantage came into view—a balcony surrounding the penthouse. Our fire had driven them back a few feet and he antigraved like a streak up over the edge.

There was a blinding flash and I reached the roof garden to find the mob of them dead in the explosion that had disintegrated him. One whole wall of the penthouse had been blown in. I leaped through this wreckage. The big man—the man I owed so much—was getting to his feet. Apparently he and two others with him had been guarding the door beyond. He looked surprised when he saw me. He must have thought till now it had been I who blew up out in the garden.

I slammed a target-set 0.5 Kg. demolition shell into them. It also blew the door apart. Across the room beyond their surprised Leader was sinking into the antigrav tube. He fired quickly and wildly and I fired a microsplosive from my left hand.

I thought I saw the shot get him but I dashed to the antigrav tube to make sure. Past shocked tenants who had rushed into the tube to escape the explosion-wracked upper floors his headless body lolled its way. The body, unmistakable in the distinctive white uniform he always wore, drifted down the tube stirring as it went a swelling murmur.

The psychostatisticians back at The Central get my vote as the “white haired boys.” This was the first time in two hundred standard years that their anthropoquations had described one man and his lieutenant as the “cause” of a war movement. Generally the picture they turn up as “casualty” in a war is spiny with factors and it takes an army of Operators to cover all the angles. This time they had come out a little shamefacedly and said, “It looks like old-fashioned newspaper thinking but for once it’s a fact. Get that one man and there will be no war.”

As I leaned over the “down” antigrav in the Great Island Hotel his body drifted to oblivion. The murmur rising from the viewers had horror in it. But there was also an unmistakable note of relief. Finally, from far below, someone asked, “Did they get the rest of them?”

A Pail of Air by Fritz Leiber

A Pail of Air

by Fritz Leiber

Preface by Eric Flint

My reaction when I first read this story, somewhere around the age of fifteen, was perhaps bizarre. "A Pail of Air"is a story about survival in the face of desperate circumstances, and there are no ifs, ands or buts about it.

There is no atmosphere . . . bitter cold . . . only way you can breathe is to dig up a pail of liquid oxygen and heat it . . .

Yup, that's desperate.

Still, I had pretty much the same reaction I had to L. Sprague de Camp's "A Gun for Dinosaur," a story which appears later in this anthology and about which I make some remarks in an afterword. Desperate circumstances . . . impossible odds . . . almost alone . . .

Oh, how cool.

Like I said, a bizarre reaction. I didn't even have the excuse of being a stupid adolescent. I wasn't stupid. Already by the age of fourteen I could rip off the great suave mantras regarding adventure, with a curled lip I'd learned from studying David Niven in the movies.

Adventure. Ah, yes. That's someone else having a very rough go of it very far away.

Adventure. Yes. My idea of adventure is carrying a pint of bitters from one smoked-filled room to the next.

Granted, I didn't really have any idea what "bitters" were. (A few years later I found out, and the decline of the British empire was no longer a mystery to me.) But I understood the gist of the wisecrack well enough—and fully subscribed to the sentiment.

I still do. And now, from the vantage point of my mid-fifties wisdom and sagacity, I can look back on the reaction of that callow youngster and realize that he was . . . well, completely correct.

This is just one hell of a cool story. If you look at it the right way, as much fun as one of Leiber's famous Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser tales.

Okay. You have to squint.

Pa had sent me out to get an extra pail of air. I’d just about scooped it full and most of the warmth had leaked from my fingers when I saw the thing.

You know, at first I thought it was a young lady. Yes, a beautiful young lady’s face all glowing in the dark and looking at me from the fifth floor of the opposite apartment, which hereabouts is the floor just above the white blanket of frozen air. I’d never seen a live young lady before, except in the old magazines—Sis is just a kid and Ma is pretty sick and miserable—and it gave me such a start that I dropped the pail. Who wouldn’t, knowing everyone on Earth was dead except Pa and Ma and Sis and you?

Even at that, I don’t suppose I should have been surprised. We all see things now and then. Ma has some pretty bad ones, to judge from the way she bugs her eyes at nothing and just screams and screams and huddles back against the blankets hanging around the Nest. Pa says it is natural we should react like that sometimes.

When I’d recovered the pail and could look again at the opposite apartment, I got an idea of what Ma might be feeling at those times, for I saw it wasn’t a young lady at all but simply a light—a tiny light that moved stealthily from window to window, just as if one of the cruel little stars had come down out of the airless sky to investigate why the Earth had gone away from the Sun, and maybe to hunt down something to torment or terrify, now that the Earth didn’t have the Sun’s protection.

I tell you, the thought of it gave me the creeps. I just stood there shaking, and almost froze my feet and did frost my helmet so solid on the inside that I couldn’t have seen the light even if it had come out of one of the windows to get me. Then I had the wit to go back inside.

Pretty soon I was feeling my familiar way through the thirty or so blankets and rugs Pa has got hung around to slow down the escape of air from the Nest, and I wasn’t quite so scared. I began to hear the tick-ticking of the clocks in the Nest and knew I was getting back into air, because there’s no sound outside in the vacuum, of course. But my mind was still crawly and uneasy as I pushed through the last blankets—Pa’s got them faced with aluminum foil to hold in the heat—and came into the Nest.

* * *

Let me tell you about the Nest. It’s low and snug, just room for the four of us and our things. The floor is covered with thick woolly rugs. Three of the sides are blankets, and the blankets roofing it touch Pa’s head. He tells me it’s inside a much bigger room, but I’ve never seen the real walls or ceiling.

Against one of the blankets is a big set of shelves, with tools and books and other stuff, and on top of it a whole row of clocks. Pa’s very fussy about keeping them wound. He says we must never forget time, and without a sun or moon, that would be easy to do.

The fourth wall has blankets all over except around the fireplace, in which there is a fire that must never go out. It keeps us from freezing and does a lot more besides. One of us must always watch it. Some of the clocks are alarm and we can use them to remind us. In the early days there was only Ma to take turns with Pa—I think of that when she gets difficult—but now there’s me to help, and Sis too.

It’s Pa who is the chief guardian of the fire, though. I always think of him that way: a tall man sitting cross-legged, frowning anxiously at the fire, his lined face golden in its light, and every so often carefully placing on it a piece of coal from the big heap beside it. Pa tells me there used to be guardians of the fire sometimes in the very old days—vestal virgins, he calls them—although there was unfrozen air all around then and you didn’t really need one.

He was sitting just that way now, though he got up quick to take the pail from me and bawl me out for loitering—he’d spotted my frozen helmet right off. That roused Ma and she joined in picking on me. She’s always trying to get the load off her feelings, Pa explains. Sis let off a couple of silly squeals too.

Pa handled the pail of air in a twist of cloth. Now that it was inside the Nest, you could really feel its coldness. It just seemed to suck the heat out of everything. Even the flames cringed away from it as Pa put it down close by the fire.

Yet it’s that glimmery white stuff in the pail that keeps us alive. It slowly melts and vanishes and refreshes the Nest and feeds the fire. The blankets keep it from escaping too fast. Pa’d like to seal the whole place, but he can’t—building’s too earthquake-twisted, and besides he has to leave the chimney open for smoke.

Pa says air is tiny molecules that fly away like a flash if there isn’t something to stop them. We have to watch sharp not to let the air run low. Pa always keeps a big reserve supply of it in buckets behind the first blankets, along with extra coal and cans of food and other things, such as pails of snow to melt for water. We have to go way down to the bottom floor for that stuff, which is a mean trip, and get it through a door to outside.

You see, when the Earth got cold, all the water in the air froze first and made a blanket ten feet thick or so everywhere, and then down on top of that dropped the crystals of frozen air, making another white blanket sixty or seventy feet thick maybe.

Of course, all the parts of the air didn’t freeze and snow down at the same time.

First to drop out was the carbon dioxide—when you’re shoveling for water, you have to make sure you don’t go too high and get any of that stuff mixed in, for it would put you to sleep, maybe for good, and make the fire go out. Next there’s the nitrogen, which doesn’t count one way or the other, though it’s the biggest part of the blanket. On top of that and easy to get at, which is lucky for us, there’s the oxygen that keeps us alive. Pa says we live better than kings ever did, breathing pure oxygen, but we’re used to it and don’t notice. Finally, at the very top, there’s a slick of liquid helium, which is funny stuff. All of these gases in neat separate layers. Like a pussy caffay, Pa laughingly says, whatever that is.

* * *

I was busting to tell them all about what I’d seen, and so as soon as I’d ducked out of my helmet and while I was still climbing out of my suit, I cut loose. Right away Ma got nervous and began making eyes at the entry-slit in the blankets and wringing her hands together—the hand where she’d lost three fingers from frostbite inside the good one, as usual. I could tell that Pa was annoyed at me scaring her and wanted to explain it all away quickly, yet could see I wasn’t fooling.

“And you watched this light for some time, son?” he asked when I finished.

I hadn’t said anything about first thinking it was a young lady’s face. Somehow that part embarrassed me.

“Long enough for it to pass five windows and go to the next floor.”

“And it didn’t look like stray electricity or crawling liquid or starlight focused by a growing crystal, or anything like that?”

He wasn’t just making up those ideas. Odd things happen in a world that’s about as cold as can be, and just when you think matter would be frozen dead, it takes on a strange new life. A slimy stuff comes crawling toward the Nest, just like an animal snuffing for heat—that’s the liquid helium. And once, when I was little, a bolt of lightning—not even Pa could figure where it came from—hit the nearby steeple and crawled up and down it for weeks, until the glow finally died.

“Not like anything I ever saw,” I told him.

He stood for a moment frowning. Then, “I’ll go out with you, and you show it to me,” he said.

Ma raised a howl at the idea of being left alone, and Sis joined in, too, but Pa quieted them. We started climbing into our outside clothes—mine had been warming by the fire. Pa made them. They have plastic headpieces that were once big double-duty transparent food cans, but they keep heat and air in and can replace the air for a little while, long enough for our trips for water and coal and food and so on.

Ma started moaning again, “I’ve always known there was something outside there, waiting to get us. I’ve felt it for years—something that’s part of the cold and hates all warmth and wants to destroy the Nest. It’s been watching us all this time, and now it’s coming after us. It’ll get you and then come for me. Don’t go, Harry!”

Pa had everything on but his helmet. He knelt by the fireplace and reached in and shook the long metal rod that goes up the chimney and knocks off the ice that keeps trying to clog it. Once a week he goes up on the roof to check if it’s working all right. That’s our worst trip and Pa won’t let me make it alone.

“Sis,” Pa said quietly, “come watch the fire. Keep an eye on the air, too. If it gets low or doesn’t seem to be boiling fast enough, fetch another bucket from behind the blanket. But mind your hands. Use the cloth to pick up the bucket.”

Sis quit helping Ma be frightened and came over and did as she was told. Ma quieted down pretty suddenly, though her eyes were still kind of wild as she watched Pa fix on his helmet tight and pick up a pail and the two of us go out.

* * *

Pa led the way and I took hold of his belt. It’s a funny thing, I’m not afraid to go by myself, but when Pa’s along I always want to hold on to him. Habit, I guess, and then there’s no denying that this time I was a bit scared.

You see, it’s this way. We know that everything is dead out there. Pa heard the last radio voices fade away years ago, and had seen some of the last folks die who weren’t as lucky or well-protected as us. So we knew that if there was something groping around out there, it couldn’t be anything human or friendly.

Besides that, there’s a feeling that comes with it always being night, cold night. Pa says there used to be some of that feeling even in the old days, but then every morning the Sun would come and chase it away. I have to take his word for that, not ever remembering the Sun as being anything more than a big star. You see, I hadn’t been born when the dark star snatched us away from the Sun, and by now it’s dragged us out beyond the orbit of the planet Pluto, Pa says, and taking us farther out all the time.

I found myself wondering whether there mightn’t be something on the dark star that wanted us, and if that was why it had captured the Earth. Just then we came to the end of the corridor and I followed Pa out on the balcony.

I don’t know what the city looked like in the old days, but now it’s beautiful. The starlight lets you see pretty well—there’s quite a bit of light in those steady points speckling the blackness above. (Pa says the stars used to twinkle once, but that was because there was air.) We are on a hill and the shimmery plain drops away from us and then flattens out, cut up into neat squares by the troughs that used to be streets. I sometimes make my mashed potatoes look like it, before I pour on the gravy.

Some taller buildings push up out of the feathery plain, topped by rounded caps of air crystals, like the fur hood Ma wears, only whiter. On those buildings you can see the darker squares of windows, underlined by white dashes of air crystals. Some of them are on a slant, for many of the buildings are pretty badly twisted by the quakes and all the rest that happened when the dark star captured the Earth.

Here and there a few icicles hang, water icicles from the first days of the cold, other icicles of frozen air that melted on the roofs and dripped and froze again. Sometimes one of those icicles will catch the light of a star and send it to you so brightly you think the star has swooped into the city. That was one of the things Pa had been thinking of when I told him about the light, but I had thought of it myself first and known it wasn’t so.

He touched his helmet to mine so we could talk easier and he asked me to point out the windows to him. But there wasn’t any light moving around inside them now, or anywhere else. To my surprise, Pa didn’t bawl me out and tell me I’d been seeing things. He looked all around quite a while after filling his pail, and just as we were going inside he whipped around without warning, as if to take some peeping thing off guard.

I could feel it, too. The old peace was gone. There was something lurking out there, watching, waiting, getting ready.

Inside, he said to me, touching helmets, “If you see something like that again, son, don’t tell the others. Your Ma’s sort of nervous these days and we owe her all the feeling of safety we can give her. Once—it was when your sister was born—I was ready to give up and die, but your Mother kept me trying. Another time she kept the fire going a whole week all by herself when I was sick. Nursed me and took care of the two of you, too.

“You know that game we sometimes play, sitting in a square in the Nest, tossing a ball around? Courage is like a ball, son. A person can hold it only so long, and then he’s got to toss it to someone else. When it’s tossed your way, you’ve got to catch it and hold it tight—and hope there’ll be someone else to toss it to when you get tired of being brave.”

His talking to me that way made me feel grown-up and good. But it didn’t wipe away the thing outside from the back of my mind—or the fact that Pa took it seriously.

* * *

It’s hard to hide your feelings about such a thing. When we got back in the Nest and took off our outside clothes, Pa laughed about it all and told them it was nothing and kidded me for having such an imagination, but his words fell flat. He didn’t convince Ma and Sis any more than he did me. It looked for a minute like we were all fumbling the courage-ball. Something had to be done, and almost before I knew what I was going to say, I heard myself asking Pa to tell us about the old days, and how it all happened.

He sometimes doesn’t mind telling that story, and Sis and I sure like to listen to it, and he got my idea. So we were all settled around the fire in a wink, and Ma pushed up some cans to thaw for supper, and Pa began. Before he did, though, I noticed him casually get a hammer from the shelf and lay it down beside him.

It was the same old story as always—I think I could recite the main thread of it in my sleep—though Pa always puts in a new detail or two and keeps improving it in spots.

He told us how the Earth had been swinging around the Sun ever so steady and warm, and the people on it fixing to make money and wars and have a good time and get power and treat each other right or wrong, when without warning there comes charging out of space this dead star, this burned out sun, and upsets everything.

You know, I find it hard to believe in the way those people felt, any more than I can believe in the swarming number of them. Imagine people getting ready for the horrible sort of war they were cooking up. Wanting it even, or at least wishing it were over so as to end their nervousness. As if all folks didn’t have to hang together and pool every bit of warmth just to keep alive. And how can they have hoped to end danger, any more than we can hope to end the cold?

Sometimes I think Pa exaggerates and makes things out too black. He’s cross with us once in a while and was probably cross with all those folks. Still, some of the things I read in the old magazines sound pretty wild. He may be right.

* * *

The dark star, as Pa went on telling it, rushed in pretty fast and there wasn’t much time to get ready. At the beginning they tried to keep it a secret from most people, but then the truth came out, what with the earthquakes and floods—imagine, oceans of unfrozen water!—and people seeing stars blotted out by something on a clear night. First off they thought it would hit the Sun, and then they thought it would hit the Earth. There was even the start of a rush to get to a place called China, because people thought the star would hit on the other side. But then they found it wasn’t going to hit either side, but was going to come very close to the Earth.

Most of the other planets were on the other side of the Sun and didn’t get involved. The Sun and the newcomer fought over the Earth for a little while—pulling it this way and that, like two dogs growling over a bone, Pa described it this time—and then the newcomer won and carried us off. The Sun got a consolation prize, though. At the last minute he managed to hold on to the Moon.

That was the time of the monster earthquakes and floods, twenty times worse than anything before. It was also the time of the Big Jerk, as Pa calls it, when all Earth got yanked suddenly, just as Pa has done to me once or twice, grabbing me by the collar to do it, when I’ve been sitting too far from the fire.

You see, the dark star was going through space faster than the Sun, and in the opposite direction, and it had to wrench the world considerably in order to take it away.

The Big Jerk didn’t last long. It was over as soon as the Earth was settled down in its new orbit around the dark star. But it was pretty terrible while it lasted. Pa says that all sorts of cliffs and buildings toppled, oceans slopped over, swamps and sandy deserts gave great sliding surges that buried nearby lands. Earth was almost jerked out of its atmosphere blanket and the air got so thin in spots that people keeled over and fainted—though of course, at the same time, they were getting knocked down by the Big Jerk and maybe their bones broke or skulls cracked.

We’ve often asked Pa how people acted during that time, whether they were scared or brave or crazy or stunned, or all four, but he’s sort of leery of the subject, and he was again tonight. He says he was mostly too busy to notice.

You see, Pa and some scientist friends of his had figured out part of what was going to happen—they’d known we’d get captured and our air would freeze—and they’d been working like mad to fix up a place with airtight walls and doors, and insulation against the cold, and big supplies of food and fuel and water and bottled air. But the place got smashed in the last earthquakes and all Pa’s friends were killed then and in the Big Jerk. So he had to start over and throw the Nest together quick without any advantages, just using any stuff he could lay his hands on.

I guess he’s telling pretty much the truth when he says he didn’t have any time to keep an eye on how other folks behaved, either then or in the Big Freeze that followed—followed very quick, you know, both because the dark star was pulling us away very fast and because Earth’s rotation had been slowed in the tug-of-war, so that the nights were ten old nights long.

Still, I’ve got an idea of some of the things that happened from the frozen folk I’ve seen, a few of them in other rooms in our building, others clustered around the furnaces in the basements where we go for coal.

In one of the rooms, an old man sits stiff in a chair, with an arm and a leg in splints. In another, a man and a woman are huddled together in a bed with heaps of covers over them. You can just see their heads peeking out, close together. And in another a beautiful young lady is sitting with a pile of wraps huddled around her, looking hopefully toward the door, as if waiting for someone who never came back with warmth and food. They’re all still and stiff as statues, of course, but just like life.

Pa showed them to me once in quick winks of his flashlight, when he still had a fair supply of batteries and could afford to waste a little light. They scared me pretty bad and made my heart pound, especially the young lady.

* * *

Now, with Pa telling his story for the umpteenth time to take our minds off another scare, I got to thinking of the frozen folk again. All of a sudden I got an idea that scared me worse than anything yet. You see, I’d just remembered the face I’d thought I’d seen in the window. I’d forgotten about that on account of trying to hide it from the others.

What, I asked myself, if the frozen folk were coming to life? What if they were like the liquid helium that got a new lease on life and started crawling toward the heat just when you thought its molecules ought to freeze solid forever? Or like the electricity that moves endlessly when it’s just about as cold as that? What if the ever-growing cold, with the temperature creeping down the last few degrees to the last zero, had mysteriously wakened the frozen folk to life—not warm-blooded life, but something icy and horrible?

That was a worse idea than the one about something coming down from the dark star to get us.

Or maybe, I thought, both ideas might be true. Something coming down from the dark star and making the frozen folk move, using them to do its work. That would fit with both things I’d seen—the beautiful young lady and the moving, starlike light.

The frozen folk with minds from the dark star behind their unwinking eyes, creeping, crawling, snuffing their way, following the heat to the Nest.

I tell you, that thought gave me a very bad turn and I wanted very badly to tell the others my fears, but I remembered what Pa had said and clenched my teeth and didn’t speak.

We were all sitting very still. Even the fire was burning silently. There was just the sound of Pa’s voice and the clocks.

And then, from beyond the blankets, I thought I heard a tiny noise. My skin tightened all over me.

Pa was telling about the early years in the Nest and had come to the place where he philosophizes.

“So I asked myself then,” he said, “what’s the use of going on? What’s the use of dragging it out for a few years? Why prolong a doomed existence of hard work and cold and loneliness? The human race is done. The Earth is done. Why not give up, I asked myself—and all of a sudden I got the answer.”

Again I heard the noise, louder this time, a kind of uncertain, shuffling tread, coming closer. I couldn’t breathe.

“Life’s always been a business of working hard and fighting the cold,” Pa was saying. “The earth’s always been a lonely place, millions of miles from the next planet. And no matter how long the human race might have lived, the end would have come some night. Those things don’t matter. What matters is that life is good. It has a lovely texture, like some rich cloth or fur, or the petals of flowers—you’ve seen pictures of those, but I can’t describe how they feel—or the fire’s glow. It makes everything else worth while. And that’s as true for the last man as the first.”

And still the steps kept shuffling closer. It seemed to me that the inmost blanket trembled and bulged a little. Just as if they were burned into my imagination, I kept seeing those peering, frozen eyes.

“So right then and there,” Pa went on, and now I could tell that he heard the steps, too, and was talking loud so we maybe wouldn’t hear them, “right then and there I told myself that I was going on as if we had all eternity ahead of us. I’d have children and teach them all I could. I’d get them to read books. I’d plan for the future, try to enlarge and seal the Nest. I’d do what I could to keep everything beautiful and growing. I’d keep alive my feeling of wonder even at the cold and the dark and the distant stars.”

But then the blanket actually did move and lift. And there was a bright light somewhere behind it. Pa’s voice stopped and his eyes turned to the widening slit and his hand went out until it touched and gripped the handle of the hammer beside him.

* * *

In through the blanket stepped the beautiful young lady. She stood there looking at us the strangest way, and she carried something bright and unwinking in her hand. And two other faces peered over her shoulders—men’s faces, white and staring.

Well, my heart couldn’t have been stopped for more than four or five beats before I realized she was wearing a suit and helmet like Pa’s homemade ones, only fancier, and that the men were, too—and that the frozen folk certainly wouldn’t be wearing those. Also, I noticed that the bright thing in her hand was just a kind of flashlight.

The silence kept on while I swallowed hard a couple of times, and after that there was all sorts of jabbering and commotion.

They were simply people, you see. We hadn’t been the only ones to survive; we’d just thought so, for natural enough reasons. These three people had survived, and quite a few others with them. And when we found out how they’d survived, Pa let out the biggest whoop of joy.

They were from Los Alamos and they were getting their heat and power from atomic energy. Just using the uranium and plutonium intended for bombs, they had enough to go on for thousands of years. They had a regular little airtight city, with airlocks and all. They even generated electric light and grew plants and animals by it. (At this Pa let out a second whoop, waking Ma from her faint.)

But if we were flabbergasted at them, they were double-flabbergasted at us.

One of the men kept saying, “But it’s impossible, I tell you. You can’t maintain an air supply without hermetic sealing. It’s simply impossible.”

That was after he had got his helmet off and was using our air. Meanwhile, the young lady kept looking around at us as if we were saints, and telling us we’d done something amazing, and suddenly she broke down and cried.

They’d been scouting around for survivors, but they never expected to find any in a place like this. They had rocket ships at Los Alamos and plenty of chemical fuels. As for liquid oxygen, all you had to do was go out and shovel the air blanket at the top level. So after they’d got things going smoothly at Los Alamos, which had taken years, they’d decided to make some trips to likely places where there might be other survivors. No good trying long-distance radio signals, of course, since there was no atmosphere to carry them around the curve of the Earth.

Well, they’d found other colonies at Argonne and Brookhaven and way around the world at Harwell and Tanna Tuva. And now they’d been giving our city a look, not really expecting to find anything. But they had an instrument that noticed the faintest heat waves and it had told them there was something warm down here, so they’d landed to investigate. Of course we hadn’t heard them land, since there was no air to carry the sound, and they’d had to investigate around quite a while before finding us. Their instruments had given them a wrong steer and they’d wasted some time in the building across the street.

* * *

By now, all five adults were talking like sixty. Pa was demonstrating to the men how he worked the fire and got rid of the ice in the chimney and all that. Ma had perked up wonderfully and was showing the young lady her cooking and sewing stuff, and even asking about how the women dressed at Los Alamos. The strangers marveled at everything and praised it to the skies. I could tell from the way they wrinkled their noses that they found the Nest a bit smelly, but they never mentioned that at all and just asked bushels of questions.

In fact, there was so much talking and excitement that Pa forgot about things, and it wasn’t until they were all getting groggy that he looked and found the air had all boiled away in the pail. He got another bucket of air quick from behind the blankets. Of course that started them all laughing and jabbering again. The newcomers even got a little drunk. They weren’t used to so much oxygen.

Funny thing, though—I didn’t do much talking at all and Sis hung on to Ma all the time and hid her face when anybody looked at her. I felt pretty uncomfortable and disturbed myself, even about the young lady. Glimpsing her outside there, I’d had all sorts of mushy thoughts, but now I was just embarrassed and scared of her, even though she tried to be nice as anything to me.

I sort of wished they’d all quit crowding the Nest and let us be alone and get our feelings straightened out.

And when the newcomers began to talk about our all going to Los Alamos, as if that were taken for granted, I could see that something of the same feeling struck Pa and Ma, too. Pa got very silent all of a sudden and Ma kept telling the young lady, “But I wouldn’t know how to act there and I haven’t any clothes.”

The strangers were puzzled like anything at first, but then they got the idea. As Pa kept saying, “It just doesn’t seem right to let this fire go out.”

* * *

Well, the strangers are gone, but they’re coming back. It hasn’t been decided yet just what will happen. Maybe the Nest will be kept up as what one of the strangers called a “survival school.” Or maybe we will join the pioneers who are going to try to establish a new colony at the uranium mines at Great Slave Lake or in the Congo.

Of course, now that the strangers are gone, I’ve been thinking a lot about Los Alamos and those other tremendous colonies. I have a hankering to see them for myself.

You ask me, Pa wants to see them, too. He’s been getting pretty thoughtful, watching Ma and Sis perk up.

“It’s different, now that we know others are alive,” he explains to me. “Your mother doesn’t feel so hopeless any more. Neither do I, for that matter, not having to carry the whole responsibility for keeping the human race going, so to speak. It scares a person.”

I looked around at the blanket walls and the fire and the pails of air boiling away and Ma and Sis sleeping in the warmth and the flickering light.

“It’s not going to be easy to leave the Nest,” I said, wanting to cry, kind of. “It’s so small and there’s just the four of us. I get scared at the idea of big places and a lot of strangers.”

He nodded and put another piece of coal on the fire. Then he looked at the little pile and grinned suddenly and put a couple of handfuls on, just as if it was one of our birthdays or Christmas.

“You’ll quickly get over that feeling, son,” he said. “The trouble with the world was that it kept getting smaller and smaller, till it ended with just the Nest. Now it’ll be good to have a real huge world again, the way it was in the beginning.”

I guess he’s right. You think the beautiful young lady will wait for me till I grow up? I’ll be twenty in only ten years.

Comic Trial Three

I have been playing around with making short comic videos.

I use AI to generate a script, then use AI to generate pictures. Finally I use AI to generate small segments and then, once completed, I compile them together in a video editing software. I hope you like them. I’m still learning.

Check this out. All 10 seconds or so of it.

Today…

Love bonding

Why does diversity never include Asians?

Lots of answers, very few Asians. As usual.

The reality is that white people think we don’t need help because we happen to be richer (in this particular moment) on the books and better at getting into universities (in this particular moment). They don’t realize that this is a very temporary effect due to strategic immigration policy specifically designed to brain drain and create dissidents to attack Asian countries (especially China). Sadly, they think they can speak for us. And they almost always get away with it.

What we need is political power, soft power, and the breaking of the bamboo ceiling. We just can’t create consequences when people do horrendously racist/discriminatory things against us, unlike most other groups (natives have it worse). We are more of a function of foreign policy than the other groups, and yet we have minimal say in that as well.

None of this is convenient to the purpose of “diversity” in US politics, which is to prove the moral character of the leadership and thus their “validity.” It tends to be a farce anyways. Minorities who chase this “diversity” are really just fighting over table scraps. The majority leadership will never allow it to go against their interests in the first place.

If you think minorities have it good, imagine losing control of your narrative. That’s the baseline. You don’t get to correct people when they BS about you, because you don’t have power. From there stems much of the tyranny and real losses in life.

Lisa’s Crispy Chops

Ingredients

6 pork chops
3 eggs, beaten slightly
2 cups crushed soda crackers
1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 1/2 tablespoons dried minced onion
1 teaspoon each salt and pepper

Instructions

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
Dip pork chops into egg, then roll in dry mixture.
Fry over medium heat in a small amount of oil until dark, crispy brown.

This is evil

When you went to the hospital, did the staff not take you seriously and you ended up deathly sick as a result?

I had a cardiologist tell me. repeatedly, that I had panic attacks. He said I didn’t have angina. He sent me for a stress test, which I could not do from “imaginary” chest pain. I insisted on a angiogram. He mocked me and scoffed. I was desperate at this point and kept insisting. He angrily ordered one and told me it was a waste of time and what I really needed was a psychiatrist.

I showed up for my 7 AM Friday appointment at Broward General. I don’t know what he had written or told them, but I sat there for the entire day. Finally, about 5 PM, I went in. (I actually have no memory of anything after flicking a cigarette away at 7, when I arrived.) I woke up Monday in terrible pain. I had no idea what had happened. My wife told me that after just a few minutes, the doctor had come out and said they could not complete the angiogram because of severely clogged arteries, (including the one that causes the “widowmaker”. They put me in cardiac ICU and kept me heavily sedated until Monday, when they could operate. I had a triple bypass. The cardiologist told me I was very lucky to be alive.

Oh, and that cigarette I flicked away was my last one. I can take a hint. (That was Jan 2011.)

Ugh!!!!!!

Men need “nothing time”.

Is China’s current economic situation very good?

It is going through a slow-down caused by the trade war through the US, and it is also going through economic and social transformation, caused by the widespread adoption of AI and automation technologies.

For this reason, it is really hard to say what is caused by an economic slowdown, and how growth is being affected by economic and social transformation.

We should have a better picture in the next few years of how it is performing. The big question is what will happen to the people whose jobs have been replaced by automation and AI.

For this reason, I expect the Chinese government to test something like Universal Basic Income (UBI), and which has been supported by US Presidential candidate Andrew Yang, in some of the inland regions of China to see how it works. As always in China, if it is successful, it will be promoted on a larger scale in other regions of China.

I expect China to leap far ahead of the US in AI and automation technology, and in healthcare, and also in the adoption of UBI.

Tipping in the USA

What foods are man-made?

Year: 1905

Location: San Francisco

It was winter. Frank Epperson was thirsty.

He decided to make himself a drink. He took a flavored sugar mix, put it in a cup, stirred it with a brown stirring stick.

After playing outside, he forgot he’d left his drink on the front lawn.

He then went inside and went to bed. When he came back out the following morning, he saw his cup sitting there with frozen liquid.

Picking it up, he pulled the stick out, the frozen sugar water was attached to it. In true kid fashion, without worrying if it was dirty, Frank ate the frozen liquid—and loved it.

He realized he was on to something.

And so he started putting more cups out, with the wooden sticks in them and began selling what he called the Epsicle. His entrepreneurial take on the lemonade stand.

Sales started in his neighborhood and then expanded outward.

Eventually, he renamed the product to Popsicle.

And thus, a new popular trend was born.

An accidental invention.

Unconscious

What’s the best example of leadership you have seen in real life?

About two decades ago, a woman I know lost her father.

A day or two later, she found out her husband was sentenced to prison.

A couple of days later, her daughter-in-law decided to get a divorce.

Those few days COMPLETELY turned this woman’s life around.

The next day, a Monday, she went to work as normal, didn’t tell her colleagues a thing, put on a brave face.

When she came home, her husband wasn’t around as he was in prison.

She went about her usual business as if nothing had happened – cooking food and stuff.

She had a chat with her kids, including the eldest going through his divorce, told them all would be fine, lifted their spirits.

The following day, she went back to work.

She opened up about her experience to me and someone else a few weeks ago – I mean, everyone in my social circle knew about the events – but she had never discussed how she experienced it – how she coped, her motivation, which was to protect her kids.

I only then really realised why her kids, all of whom I have known since I was a child, have done so incredibly well – they had grown up with this woman as their leader.

No complaints, no self-pity, selfless. Being the example she wanted her kids to be.

This is the best example I have seen of leadership.

And, frankly, the type only a woman is capable of.

Patara’s Response to State of Union Address

That was not a state of the union address. It was a declaration of war on the American people.

What is something in history that you strongly feel was lied about or exaggerated?

The French aristocracy pre-Revolution weren’t the careless, luxurious bastards lording over everyone cruelly as they are made out to be. This is demonstrated most perfectly by the fact that many of the most prominent revolutionaries were, themselves, noblemen.

In the same vein, Louis XVI wasn’t overthrown because he was a tyrant, he was overthrown because he was NOT a tyrant. If anything him being friendly, indecisive and soft-willed moreso than his war-minded predecessors Louis XV and Louis XIV, made him into a target. The Kings before him stayed reasonably popular. By going to war a lot and spending obscene amounts of money that would ultimately lead to the Kingdom’s downfall, these rulers were generally rather respected by much of the population. Much like with the last Tsar of Russia, the King who ended up losing his head to the guillotine was a pretty chill, open-minded fellow open to reforms.

There’s this stereotype of these lavishly spoiled big spenders in powdered wigs, Marie-Antoinette telling the hungry should just “go eat cake”, completely removed from reality… and truthfully, this is bullshit. A ton of noblemen were social reformers, generous to the poor, conscientious and cared deeply for the common man. The revolutionaries who took over, quite a few of them were blue-blooded themselves. And were far worse than the elites they ended up killing.

Captain Kirk Meets Gary Seven

Do you know anyone who is low key filthy rich?

Oh, definitely. I think my old manager, David Filo fits that to a tee. He often sat around barefoot while coding; and when he was wearing shoes, they were ten-year-old sneakers, starting to show holes in them.

He drove an old Datsun for the longest time, full of random crap. Old software manuals, books, pizza boxes. When a bomb scare was called in at work, one day, the bomb squad searched the campus; they eventually called a mostly-all-clear; they’d only found one suspicious object, and cordoned it off. It was my boss’s car, dilapidated and so full of junk as to be suspiciously possible as to be harboring a bomb. (It wasn’t; as the founder of the company, he would never have done anything to harm it like that). (I think Rolling Stone gave a very apt description of his car, many years ago: “a battered Datsun filled from top to bottom with junk, including enough lumber to build several sets of bookshelves. (“If we were living in the 16th century, David would be a monk,” says Yang of his partner’s asceticism.) He bought the car while in high school in Lake Charles, LA. As a student at Tulane University, he totaled it, bought it back from the insurance company for $300 and then had it rebuilt at a local prison, where the inmates were studying auto repair.” — from Yahoo!)

I’ve written elsewhere about his reaction to hearing about a really good lease deal a fellow co-worker had gotten on an electric vehicle: Matthew Petach’s answer to How do billionaires see $100K or $1M? Do they still consider it a lot of money? That story is the epitome of how he approached the world; as laid back and low key as you could imagine.

And yet, he was worth about $5 billion at the time. Depending on the market shifts, he might gain or lose half a billion dollars from one day to the next. It made no difference to him; he was the same focused engineer, working hard to make sure everything was running smoothly.

He did eventually get a new car, but only after the board of directors insisted, because the insurance company would no longer provide insurance for them until he drove something considered less risky.

As a multi-billionaire, he definitely qualifies as filthy rich; and yet I’ve never seen him act that way, not even once. A truly class act, all around.

1 am at Tokyo’s Super Mysterious Adult zone

It Started: America on BILL STRIKE | 75M Stop Paying

What was the date of the end of the Western Roman Empire? Who officially abolished it?

There are three possible interpretations of the “end” of the Roman Empire in the West, and all are equally correct, depending on one’s point of view.

The most common one you read is that it ended on 4 September AD 476, when the German magister militum Odoacer overthrew Romulus Augustus, who was the Emperor ruling in Ravenna (the Western capital of the time, not Rome), and took control himself. He sent a letter back to Emperor Zeno in Constantinople, stating that the Empire needed only one Emperor, and sent back the western imperial regalia. Zeno accepted this (although he continued to recognize another man as Emperor; read on) and granted him patrician rank. Odoacer declared himself “King of Italy” and ruled for the next 17 years.

Another interpretation is based on the historical fact that Romulus Augustus was both a usurper and a puppet emperor set up by his father, the barbarian general Orestes, in 475, and was never recognized by Zeno as the legitimate Emperor. The actual Emperor, Julius Nepos, fled from Ravenna and set up court in Dalmatia, where he reigned, still recognized by Zeno, until 9 May 480, when he was assassinated by political enemies. Before this, Odoacer actually struck coins in Roman mints recognizing him as Emperor, accepting him as titular Emperor in the West as long as Nepos didn’t attempt to actually retake Italy. Odoacer occupied Dalmatia himself about a year later.

A third possibility lies in the fact that even after 9 May 480, there was a part of the old Western Empire that still gave allegiance directly to the Emperor. This was a substantial part of northern Gaul (France) under the control of a Roman general named Syagrius. Historians call it the “Kingdom of Soissons,” after the city that Syagrius governed from. He controlled this land from 464 to 486:

Syagrius’ problem was that he had an ally in a Frankish king, Childeric, who supported him in conflicts and had no desire to annex the area. But he died in 481 and was succeeded by his ambitious son Chlodovech, who is known to history as Clovis. Sometime in 486, we are not sure of the date, Chlodovech attacked Syagrius and defeated him in a battle near Soissons. He annexed the region to the growing Frankish Kingdom. And with that ended the final vestige of the Roman Empire in the West.

Stressful Travel To Mainland China

What is the most improbable thing people have ever seen?

I walked into a convenience store in Venice, CA and ran into a cute girl with an English accent. She says to me, “Excuse me, but were you in Vegas last weekend?”

I thought for a second and realized I had gone to a friend’s bachelor party the previous weekend. “Yes,” I said, “do I know you?”

She says, “I have a photo of us.”

She then pulls her digital camera out of her bag and proceeds to show me several pictures of her and me dancing quite inappropriately at the club in Hard Rock Hotel.

I ask her if she lives in Vegas or Los Angeles. She lives in England and is just visiting the states on holiday. Somehow, I managed to dance with this girl all night in Vegas and then run into her 300 miles away in Venice five days later.

10 Harshest Truths About Women That Men Learn Too Late

Why is Australia trying so hard to be anti-China in order to please USA at a time when USA is heading toward isolationism?

Just reading through the other answers, there is a LOT of anti-China sentiment and justified by the “Chinese have so many spies here blah blah blah Influence the Government blah blah blah etc etc” Well it’s the same here in New Zealand and so far there hasn’t been one shred of evidence to back up these claims of spying and espionage and influence. This includes the Huawei 5G backdoor thing. No evidence at all.

As an example here. A well known University Professor who wrote a book about the above subject has claimed to have had her house broken into a number of times (by Chinese spies), her car tampered with (by Chinese spies) to try to kill her. The media is outraged and other University Professors are signing protests to China letters to our Government, but it’s all fake and made up. She is either delusional or trying to sell more books. The police have investigated and come up with no evidence at all. But does that matter? Not one bit. Are the Police going to out her? Of course not, that’s not PC to shame a mad woman. The public is still rabidly anti China because the fake story that paints a villain is way more appealing than actual facts. And yes that’s my fault too, because what makes news is clicks and I click on Trump stories and help to make his bullshit get to the top of the front page.

So in answer to your question, in some ways we are trying to please USA – per the 5 eyes thing and US paranoid spy agencies sending the info/alarmism/ anti China rhetoric our way. In some ways we are just jumping on the same nationalist bandwagon that most developed western democracies seem to be jumping on. In other ways we see our house prices going up and like to blame the Chinese rather than our own shortsightedness in failing to build enough homes the last couple of decades. Finally, same as Australia, our mad political system gives a big voice to a small and xenophobic party.

Cats can take it all away

How does the US military currently compare against the Chinese military?

I think system to system comparisons are meaningless when comparing the PRC’s military to the US. F-22 vs J-20 type comparisons make no sense when those fighters have very specific roles to play in the very different air combat philosophies of the USAF and PLAAF. If I was to hazard a guess I would say the F-22 would be fulfilling it’s designed role as an air superiority fighter while the J-20 would be deployed to use it’s stealth to destroy US surveillance, EW and AWACs platforms in contested airspace, a much more niche role.

Both of these platforms would be considered great if they meet the mission they were designed for rather than who wins some hypothetical air to air engagement.

So this answer is going to avoid most of these platform comparisons and try to take a higher level look at how the military postures of both countries compare within the context of technology, doctrines, military industries and objectives.

Joint Operations

The US excels in these. Recall that back in WW2, the French had better tanks and aircraft than the Germans but still lost their short war with Germany because their officer corp just didn’t know how to put them all together to conduct effective military operations.

The US has a effective Joint Chiefs of Staff committee to ensure the armed elements of the US military play nice with each other and can execute integrated battle plans effectively.

The Chinese are new to this. They realized how far ahead the US was in this field when they witnesses the US military’s capabilities in 1991 in the first Gulf war as well as the frustration of the 1996 US carrier pass.

At the moment, one thing the Chinese military is planning for is that rather than try to catch up to the US in terms of integrated systems and operations which would take a loooong time to do (they also don’t have the rich combat history and experience of the US military), what they can do is engage in something called ‘System Destruction’.

That is, the Chinese military should focus on degrading and pulling apart the overall US military system.

So if the US military has a Recon Strike Complex, the Chinese focus on taking away their recon ability. This has been demonstrated by their endeavors to develop ASAT capabilities and soft kill capabilities with lasers and EW. Alongside developing small satellites that can be launched into space and maneuvered close to American satellites to destroy them.

Similarly, the US is built heavily around the idea of Airpower dominance over it’s foes and the Chinese Strategic Support Force (the ex-Rocket Force) is specifically designed to nullify this advantage by training and equipping to use ballistic missiles to take out air bases from which the bulk of USAF activity will be based.

However, the conclusion here is that the US is still pretty ahead in terms of Joint Operations and while the PRC military is building up the capability to disrupt them, in order to take advantage of these disruptions, they need to up the scale and pace of their own Joint Operations capability.

The Ballistic Missile threat

The PRC ballistic missile force’s primary goal is to make US bases unusable. The short range missiles are aimed at the US bases in Okinawa while the more medium range missiles are designed to disrupt operations from bases in Japan.

And the DF-26 is designed to make even operations from bases like Guam risky if not maybe as disrupted as the other bases.

The PRC ballistic missile threat is in part inspired by the US military’s failure to effectively hunt and destroy SCUDs in Iraq during the first Gulf War. Which leads the PRC to believe that if they have mobile, solid fueled missile systems, they would not be as prone to destruction from US military forces and pose a considerable threat for the duration of any war with the US. These kinds of missiles are hard to hunt, can quickly break from cover, set up and fire before the enemy can fire back at them.

With a mobile missile system like the SCUD, you have a 15 minute window to detect and destroy it once it breaks from cover. This is currently not within the capability of the US military.

The Drone Threat

The Chinese don’t have as much loitering munition drones as the US so they definitely do lag here. They have gotten the Israeli Harpy drone, which costs less than half a million bucks but has a longer range than the F-35. These drones can be sent out by the Chinese to search for threats, locate and scan airfields in prep work for artillery and missile bombardment. IF they can make it into a defended air space.

This is completely out of date. -MM

Space

The ability of space based platforms to provide you imaging (visual or infrared) across the planet + put SAR radars on small satellites means that your ability to locate and track objects from space for a military purpose is growing rapidly. This is the kind of ability the Chinese are building up in space.

Now you still cant track aircraft but for fixed targets or large naval targets like a carrier, in conjunction with autonomous terrestrial systems you have a much better capability to locate and target naval assets. So you could use space based assets to locate naval surface targets and use them to maneuver autonomous systems like the Israeli Harop drone munition into the area where a carrier might be. And then the Harop’s own sensors take over and actively hunt in the area. (Again, assuming it can make it through contested space).

In the near future, we might have 10–15,000 satellites doing this in space and you could of course blow the whole orbit up and deny this capability to both the US and China but short of that, what the two countries are positioning themselves for is not just having these assets in space but being able to replace them once an adversary has destroyed them.

The problem with the US side is that they have a good ability to replace military satellites but in space, both civil and military capabilities operate in conjunction. So if the Chinese switch from targeting military to civil satellites, the US doesn’t have rapid replacement in place for them. And these are satellites that operate critical infrastructure like bank transactions etc.

At the moment the Chinese have quantity while the US has quality when it comes to space based assets but the US has the added advantage of commercial space launch capability as well with technologies ranging from 3D printed rockets etc. that China doesn’t have to the same scale.

Naval comparisons

The PLAN is now the largest navy in the world and while on general, the USN has better quality ships, the new PLAN destroyers like the Type 55 are fairly at par with the USN equivalent ships. Same with the stealth fighters, the question is how quickly they can approach the USN in terms of significant scale of deployment in the active military.

Underwater warfare, the USN has a clear lead and the PLAN is not close at all to bridging that gap. The PLAN is responding by seeding a huge network of sensors in the South China sea to weed out USN submarines so the USN would probably have to respond with unmanned autonomous subs in the area, turning the underwater war largely into an unmanned one.

Carrier warfare, the US has a lead as well but this lead is somewhat meaningless if we talk about a war near China. If anyone thinks the USN is going to send their carriers into the range of Chinese MRBMs and H-6 Bombers carrying extended range cruise missiles, I would highly suggest alternative thinking here. The PRC has specifically developed this extended range weapons to force the USN carriers back and nullify their advantages at close range to the Chinese seaboard.

This is based around the Chinese doctrine of ‘Counter Intervention’ which is specifically designed to force US assets like Carriers away from the Chinese shoreline.

So this creates an interesting situation where the Chinese have forced the carriers out of the first Island Chain so it’s mostly USN subs and surface vessels that would operate in the contest areas closer to the Chinese seaboard. Where the Chinese are catching up in surface vessels. For underwater, if the USN is willing to risk full subs in sensor rich environments, that’s up to them but I think they might pull even the USN subs out of the south China sea at least and be forced to replace them with autonomous underwater subs to fight against Chinese autonomous underwater subs.

Production

At the October Plenum of 2020, the PRC moved up the date for military modernization by saying they wanted a modern Chinese military by 2027.

This has accelerated their military production targets and they are currently ahead of the US in:

Ballistic missiles and cruise missiles in both numbers and quality (the ballistic missiles lead might not mean much since the US doesn’t really utilize them in a battlefield context).
They have a much more massive ship building program ongoing compared to the USN.
They are ahead in Air defense systems while making good use of old ones.

The Chinese are also pushing ahead with a concept called ‘Civil-Military Fusion’ which is designed to integrate their civilian technology base with their military tech base (Sorta similar to how the US has it set up as well). Which is important because it means it won’t just be government led efforts that lead to tech advances only, but that Chinese private firms will sometimes even take the lead in military advances in AI, computing, autonomous systems, biotech, information tech, advanced material manufacturing, 5G and in the future 6G.

There is an issue however that the Chinese government, in an attempt to assert control and monitoring over the civil tech space, is pushing a bureaucratic layer on top of it which is expected to slow down the pace of Chinese technology than before. To compensate for this, the CPC will also push additional funding to the civilian tech space engaged in military tech development. So there’s a careful balancing act that needs to be done there. Also, the US is also vulnerable to this: Anyone familiar with the Pentagon’s bureaucratic policies would be familiar with how it introduces massive delays and cost overspends.

The Chinese have struggled with Aircraft engines and currently a lot of their aircraft projects have the Russians or Ukrainians as subcontractors to provide the engines. Russian engines by the way, are unusable after 500 hours. For military aircraft that might be ok but for civilian ones it’s a no-go so if the Chinese have any military platforms like EW and AWACs on civilian aircraft with Russian engines, it raises the question of availability.

Funnily enough, while the US has no issue with aircraft engines and can produce very high quality engines, they just cant make a lot of them at the same time. The F-35 production line right now is 15 aircraft a month at peak production. This is considered low by some standards but to be honest, considering that it’s a very advanced fighter it doesn’t seem to matter much. The problem however, is that this is under the assumption that every single F-35 produced will be deployed against China which is not true because the US has to manage multiple theaters (Russia-Europe, Home Air Bases etc.).

Also, the F-35 is a multi national project, so those 15 F-35s being made every month have to shared between 12 Airforces, 1 Marine Corp and 2 Navies across the planet. Further reducing the number of stealth fighters the US can deploy against China.

Stealth Fighters

The Stealth fighter question is actually pretty interesting and I kinda wanna build on that from what we discussed in the production line section discussed above.

First, given the limited peak production rate and distribution of F-35s among multiple partners, we might only see limited numbers deployed in the Chinese theater. But every stealth fighter the Chinese develop will be available to fight in the first Island chain theater.

The Chinese have some advanced fighters like the J-20 and J-31 which seem pretty advanced but their level of production is not close to what the US has for it’s stealth fighters at the moment. So they do lag in that respect. The US is also superior in the electronics and engines that go into their stealth aircraft although this is a gap that might close in the near future.

However, the US lead in stealth has some major problems that should be addressed. The problem is the basing of these stealth fighters. The US has 6 major bases in Japan and 1 in Guam. The USAF does not use the 80–90 airbases that the Japanese air force uses, and this might be because of how the US wants to control access to it’s stealth fighters but also because it has to equip its bases with perform the complex maintenance that it’s stealth fighters require.

So in theory, there’s only 7 total major bases you can place your stealth fighters at where you can control access to them and also do the whole fancy maintenance they require like re-applying coating etc.

That is…not good, because it means the Chinese don’t have to worry about shooting down these stealth fighters. They just need to concentrate their ballistic missile bombardment on those 7 bases with stealth fighters to knock those bases out or at least interdict operations out of them.

The USAF has realized this problem and are trying to see if they can spread the fighters out a bit more to the 90 bases the Japanese operate but it’s still a work in progress.

There is one other thing: There’s something called the “German Disease” where you get trapped in the idea that as long as you make a VERY high quality platform, it’s gonna be worth 10 of the enemy’s platforms and that’s better than matching the enemy head to head. This is very seductive thinking for a wealthier, more technically advanced power. But it means you are fighting a war with platforms you aren’t willing to lose which is not a good proposition.

The F-22 is a bit of a German Disease for the USAF because there’s only like 170 of them left and they aren’t making any more of them. Each F-22 lost is a permanent loss for the USAF and if a war against China drags on and attrition becomes a factor, a lot of these very high quality assets that the USAF isn’t willing to lose will need to be pulled from the theater after a while once their losses reach 33% per squadron. Now, no one has ever fought the US in a conventional war since Vietnam and managed to drag it out.

But if that does happen, and the US is losing say 2 F-22s a day on average from ballistic missile strikes on bases, losses due to accidents, very rare occasions when an F-22 is show down by the Chinese, this kind of loss rate might start to hurt a month into the conflict. And the USAF would have to withdraw the F-22s at some point so they still have some left in reserve and put the 4.5+ Gens into the missions the F-22s were doing. Very rare a war would last that long with China and for that high a loss rate, but you never know. The F-22s would primarily suffer more from being forced away from their 7 bases in the first island chain and being forced to operate at their max ranges from second island chain bases, but the loss rate from conflict as well in a long war cant be ignored.

Land

Apart from the strategic support force and the mobile missile systems, Land is pretty irrelevant. Invading China by land is delusional and nearly all serious US military experts have ruled it out. So the PLA and its size and it’s equipment and their comparison with the US Army are really irrelevant to this conversation.

Military Re-Organization

Similar to how the US is re-organizing their Space Force as a separate force apart from the USAF, the Chinese have broken the power of the PLA on military planning and production and reformed it into 5 Joint Commands or Theater commands.

They have to figure out how these theater commands work, something the US already has figured out.

But more importantly, the PLAF, the PLAN and the Strategic Support Force (formerly known as the Strategic Rocket Force) have become more prominent in operation planning.

I should mention that the Strategic Rocket Force of China has no equivalent in the US so they have that going for them. I mentioned before how the force is designed to nullify the USAF advantage in air dominance but that would be selling it short since they also have mission capabilities in EW, Cyber, Space and Information Warfare.

All of these missions falling under one, separate armed force definitely increases the organizational and operational efficiency (same as how the US made a separate Space Force to fully allow it to develop as a proper capability). I think they have a 4 star general leading this force and if you have all of this capability in one organization as a separate force away from PLAN, PLAF and the PLA, its definitely a more modern force structure similar to the US.

And of course, the reorganization of the PLA into 5 Theater commands is a good step as noted before but the PRC military arms need to up their joint operations capability to take advantage of this military organization.

Also a good point to mention here is that the US Space force is very newly created and even they have to work out the kinks in how to have this force integrate with the rest of the US military capability, particularly Cyber. So it’s not just China that has to figure out it’s military re-organization.

Operational Capability

The PRC has enough capability right now to contest much of the first Island chain, deal damage in the second island chain and even maybe reach the US homeland (Hawaii) via submarine mines, long range cruise missiles or ‘missiles in a box’ (The Russian concept of using commercial container ships loaded with missiles). But the idea of reaching Hawaii is not taken very seriously because the survivability of these assets against a alert USN and USAF is next to zero.

So the First Island Chain is where the bulk of the Chinese military potency will be concentrated.

Since the US has allied bases in the region and near global capability to project power, it’s assumed that they can reach any part of China they want as long as their military assets can survive their journey to their targets. But for the most part, the US military will also be focused on establishing control over the first island chain.

The Carrier Question and Scenario Planning

The USN Carriers figure prominently into the US military equation and China is no different. The problem is that the capabilities developed by the Chinese have boxed the carriers out of the first Island chain and the question is as they get pushed further and further away, how effective would they be in a war against China? There’s already a hit implied to the range of the F-35 if it has to fly from the second island chain to the engage in combat in the first island chain (or the Chinese mainland).

Currently, the carrier programs are baked deep into the USN and American military economy. Even if the US stopped building carriers today after the Miller and Ford class programs were completed, they would still have 7 carriers by 2045 and 4 by 2070.

But Large surface combatants will be prime targets in any war with China. And herein lies a big problem facing the US military vs the Chinese:

First: The US military is carrying over programs started before the Chinese even began to be considered a threat (some of these from the 80s and 90s). These programs are starting to deliver assets that would have limited if any use against the Chinese military of today. What good is the B-21 Raider going to do against China? The carrier programs already begun will not have to continue to their logical conclusion since so much money has been spent designing and producing the first entries that it’s a tremendous loss if you cancel them now. The F-35s were initially thought up of in the 80s and 90s as short ranged fighters to dominate the European battlefield in a conflict against the USSR/Russia. Are we sure they will have the operational capability to deliver effective missions in the China theater?

The Chinese however, have a blank slate. They saw the capabilities of the US military in the 90s and had a fresh start in thinking about how to design their military to beat the US military specifically without their production lines and budgets tied up for programs that weren’t specific to the US.

Second: The US must fight and win wars all across the planet. Whether it’s the Russians invading the Baltics, ISIS in the middle east, Iran with a nuclear program, African Islamist groups or what not. The Chinese only have to win in the South China Sea/The First Island Chain. This is something I see Patrick Dugan has also pointed out in the answers on this thread.

The US is spending 700–800 billion dollars a year for all the scenarios they have in their operational planning. The Chinese are spending maybe 200 billion USD for the one fight in the first island chain. In terms of budgetary comparisons, the disparity might not be as big as one might initially think.

This is causing problems to the US because currently, military tech is going through something called the “revolution of many” where a lot of countries are wondering why you cant have smaller, cheaper platforms armed with munitions thrown at your enemies in a way that would overwhelm large platforms like carriers and so on.

To the US’s defense, there are limits to what you can do with such swarms in the deep waters of the Pacific and carriers can be used in a way that complements your own swarm or even serve as the platform for it. But in the first island chain, near the Chinese seaboard, these smaller, cheaper, mobile armed small platforms will be at their most effective. And the USN has no equivalent to this.

The USN as mentioned before is baked into the carrier strategy and armament program which is not in line with the kind of conflict expectation there is in the first island chain.

And this is brings us to the idea that having better systems than your enemy is great, you have F-18s, F-22s, Carriers, JDAMs and M1Abrams and all that cool jazz. But within the specific operational theater of the first island chain in a war with China, how well will your platforms perform? The US military hardware and their doctrines have carry over legacies from the US military introspection of the 1970s after witnessing the shocking levels of fast paced, mechanized, high casualty rate action of the Yom Kippur war. A lot of the current US military systems of today like the M1 Abrams, the F-16s, F-15s, F-22s were developed as a part of how the US understood a war with USSR would be conducted after the Yom Kippur war lessons were understood (the war would be fast, rapid and there might not be enough time for the US military to bring it’s superior production to bear across from the Atlantic).

To the US’s defense again, when this hardware was deployed in the first Gulf War, it performed well and gave the US military a good confidence boost that their current platforms and strategies would apply well across the globe. But the South China sea might be a different ball game. US Air power might be greatly interdicted not by air defenses but by ballistic missile strikes on their airbases. Carriers might not have free reign of the waters in the theater. The US has superiority in underwater platforms but what good are they if PLAN just pulls back close to the shore and doesn’t send out surface combatants against the USN that would allow for their targeting by USN subs.

3rd Offset

The above discussion about carriers was meant to segue way into the US military’s emerging strategy of 3rd Offset.

In a nutshell, the strategy pushes for the idea that instead of going directly at your enemy in a fight, you use an offset. What this strategy means from a military equipment POV is that instead of sending an F-22 or a fully manned sub to engage the Chinese military, the F-22 sends it’s ‘Loyal Wingman’ AI driven UCAV at the PLAAF and the USN sends an unmanned underwater platform to engage the PLAN.

Basically, the US military is also trying to fight China in an asymmetric fashion the same way the Chinese are trying to fight the US military with their own asymmetric techniques. So missiles vs ships rather than ship to ship combat. Drones vs planes rather than air to air manned combat.

Speaking to the USN specifically, what the US navy planners want to do is that for 25% of the price of a US navy carrier and it’s air wing, you could instead have nearly 2000 missiles spread across 40 containerized missile ships. The good thing about these ships also is, is that they are replaceable unlike a carrier. You can make and deploy more with more missiles as the war drags on and losses mount.

So instead of having a carrier being boxed out of the South China sea due to the Chinese missile threat, whose air wing has limited utility due to it carrying mostly short ranged (albeit capable) fighters: Instead have 40 ships with 2000 missiles that have the range for you to safely engage targets in the South China Sea without worrying too much about the Chinese strategic support force and it’s ballistic missiles.

Now, it might seem like I’m laying the blame for all of this carrier fixation on the US military planners. I’m not. I’m laying the blame on Congress.

Opinion | Congress’ demands for supercarriers are sinking the Navy

You see, the USN has no issue with scaling back on their carriers from maybe 12 super carriers to a smaller number like 6 if it means that would give them the fiscal and budgetary space to develop smaller platforms that can operate in swarms in the first island chain and bear acceptable losses.

The problem is that congressmen block this because the USN carriers are intimately tied to the wellbeing of certain congressional districts. A single USN carrier means 10,000 jobs in a USN port because of all the economic activity around the crew members, their families, the facilities they require like sports facilities etc.

The US navy’s manufacturing facilities for carriers are all inland (North Carolina, South Carolina, Pittsburgh, Colorado). That’s where all the major manufacturing plants are that make these super carriers. No congressman or woman is gonna sign off on closing off not just these inland jobs but the port jobs as well.

Which cycles us back to the following problems for the US military:

They can’t seem to get too much of their funding away from legacy systems that may not perform well in the China theater because those legacy systems are tied to certain congressional district economies.
This means the US military can’t fully capitalize on the “Revolution of Many” and the increasing shift towards autonomous combat platforms that operate in swarms and have a high tolerance for losses, they way they have laid out in their 3rd Offset strategy. I mean they will eventually with enough funding, it’s just that the Chinese are moving faster and the US military might not have an edge over the Chinese in the China specific theater in the near future.

The thing is, the US has built up their military for Global operations and expect it to perform in every single theater on the planet whether it’s Africa or Europe or the Gulf or the South China Sea.

The US military would benefit a lot of someone said “Hey lets take our worse case scenarios, conflicts with near peer adversaries like Russia and China. We plan two operational scenarios for each. And we build our military around that. And maybe leave out these other missions or hope our military can perform there with whatever assets it has built from the 2 core scenarios”.

This isn’t the best idea, I know, because the 40 container missile ships built to fight in the south china sea while bearing fire from Chinese ballistic missiles might not have much use in Africa or the Gulf where you might need a carrier or helicopter ship or amphibious warfare ships.

And so the US military has a limited budget it must use to fulfill the gap everywhere. But the Chinese only have to build and train for the one scenario they plan to face.

The US has begun the third offset but because they must split their budget between what goes into third offset and what goes into legacy systems, the Chinese capability to respond to the third offset in a meaningful manner is pretty significant.

3rd Offset and the threat to it from Chinese EW

It’s interesting to see how the Chinese EW capability can interfere with 3rd Offset.

The Chinese strategic support force has actual EW troop formations which the US has no equivalent to. So they have deployed EW capability that can seriously interfere with the operations of all the unmanned vehicles the US plans to have as the tip of their spear into the first island chain. The US has no EW troops and if you don’t have that, no matter how good your tech is, you don’t have any effective formations capable of delivering the product to the battlefield. The US really needs to have dedicated EW troop formations IMO to meet the threat from Chinese EW to their 3rd Offset Autonomous platforms.

But, I’m gonna go against this point as well: The Russian EW capability in the recent Azerbaijan-Armenia war showed how they could deploy EW to interfere with remote controlled drones. Autonomous drones are more resistant to EW interference because they are GPS independent. So these drones with their own sensors and AI don’t really need to have a dedicated signal link the way a remote controlled drone works and can operate in a heavy EW environment.

I’m just curious on how willing the US would be to unleash AI controlled drones with no over rides from a human operator in the South China sea during a war with China.

To conclude, I think the US military has major advantages still. They have better quality sensors and electronics, better materials and fabrication. Their ability to fuse data from different sources into meaningful insights for AI and operations is better.

But I think once we move past the point of simply comparing the F-22 with the J-20, and look at it from a high at how both militaries are posturing themselves for a future conflict, it seems like the gap is not as big as I thought it would be. The US has an edge but an eroding one.

And it’s mostly a problem of the US’s own making where they have boxed in the US military into legacy platforms that were thought up of in the 80s and 90s and are baked into the US military-political complex of congressional spending. While the Chinese have started from a blank slate and have specifically designed solutions around a conflict in the 1st Island Chain compared to the US which has spread itself out.

I think as it stands, the US might still prevail in the next couple of years should a conflict break out. They might prevail even a few years after that if they are willing to shoulder the losses. But the Chinese are moving in a rapid, focused manner and war is a very unpredictable exercise. And the US’s hamstringing of their own military’s evolution might cost them in the future.

Academic Sources: Col. Thomas Hammes, Michael Kofman.

GLEEFULLAND Dystopian film

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

1- I was assigned to the inmate reception center of the jail. My friend, Jesse, was assigned to classification, in the same unit. Classification is where inmates are interviewed to determine if they are going into general population, or one of the more secure units.

While Jesse was seated at his computer with the inmate sitting next to him, the inmate said and immediately did something that’s been forgotten in the past three and a half decades. Whatever it was, without moving from his seat, Jesse floored the guy, out of his seat, with a kick to the side of his face.

Jesse looked down at the guy from his chair and asked, “We done?”

The inmate, rubbed the side of his face, looked up and said, “Yes Sir.”

“Them take your seat and let’s finish.”

Jesse was the amateur California state kickboxing champ and was trained by Benny Urquidez.

2- in the army, soldier A got angry at soldier B for talking to a girl they both liked. Soldier A stomped up to soldier Band challenged him to fight. Soldier B stood, smiled and, with has down by his pockets, tried to talk some sense into soldier A not understanding why he was so angry. Soldier A wasn’t having it and made five, quick, consecutive punches at soldier B’s head using alternating fists, which soldier B easily slipped,while smiling and without raising his hands.

Soldier A took a step back and looked at soldier B, obviously reevaluating him. Meanwhile a couple dozen other soldiers had quickly encircled the two and were loudly urging soldier B to strike back. Soldier B, still smiling and with hands near his pockets, looked around at the crowd and said, “I don’t want to hit him. Leave us be and let me talk to him.”

As he spoke he was turning his head to look at everyone. Just as he was beginning to turn his attention back to soldier A, Soldier A punched again, this time connecting with soldier B’s jaw.

Soldier B turned back to face soldier, unfazed by the punch, still with hands by his pockets, but no longer smiling. He was a little angry that soldier B, who he had always been on friendly terms with, would sucker punch him

The two stood silently facing each other, soldier A in a fighting stance, fists up. Soldier B standing as if in conversation with hand down. After a couple of seconds, soldier A began to take another swing. Soldier B’s right hand struck like a snake, going from the side of his pocket and connecting with soldierA’s jaw in a split second, before snapping back to its position next to Soldier A’s pocket. SoldierA’s head snapped back, his eyes went wide and stumbled back a few steps before landing on his ass and elbows.

Soldier A shook his head quickly and scrambled clumsily to his feet, as he held up his hands, palms out and began profusely apologizing.

Soldier B looked at him silently, shook his head, turned his back and walked away.

What is the most ridiculous reason for which you have been fired?

I was in sales and almost got fired for having too high a gross profit! I was at a stereo chain that opened a new store and because I was the most knowledgeable in the stereo area I was sent over for two or three weeks to set up the audio department. After the store opening (I made the first sale when we opened, a pair of car speakers) and working in the new store for a few months, I was called in by the manager and learned my gross profit was too high. I said, “What?” how is that a problem? This store had loss leaders that had very small profit that were advertised and they thought I was refusing customers or trying too hard to “step” them up to a higher priced product and pissing them off.

I made three points that saved my job: I reminded them that I was very good with stereo equipment, knew what EVERY single button did on EVERY product and I proved it by letting them test me, I was very good at letting customers know why they should buy better equipment and that is why I had few of the “basic” equipment in my sales. I also reminded them that I was the guy who set the audio department up, showing I had the skills to sell better equipment. Number two: I asked them how I could be number 1 or 2 every month in sales if I was “blowing people off”? How could I have done that every month? (They went away, checked, came back and started to come around.)

The manager was starting to have faith in me but still had to deal with my numbers and corporate and how could he get them to back off. Number 3: I remembered a few customers who would come in and buy cheap blank tapes that were low profit and no one wanted to help them. I had everyone send them to me in the future. Within a few months my numbers lowered just enough to get the big guys off our backs.

Isn’t that one of the stupidest things you ever heard? Almost getting fired for being too good a salesman!

Elections have consequences

Have you ever walked into a funeral or funeral home and realized something wasn’t right? If so, what happened?

Years ago, as a police officer in small town Wisconsin, I was checking business doorknobs at night. Walked up to the one and only funeral home, turned the knob….open! Damn! Summoned my partner (checking across the street) and in we go…..

No idea where the light switches were and our plan was to step in, turn around and leave…….indeed, we had requisitely “checked” the place. Right? Nope. We turned to leave just as we heard a crashing sound behind us. Playing our flashlight about, we found the business cash box laying on the floor in the office. Just then, we heard sound coming from downstairs…..where the casket showroom and embalming room (behind closed doors) were to be found.

Huddled together, my partner and I descended the stairs only to have our flashlights show a casket lid close across the room! We hatched a plan whereby I would stand behind the casket, reach over it, pull it open and my partner —- standing in front of it —- would then arrest the purported cashbox thief. Nervous as we both could be in the darkened room, I pulled open the lid and the perp leaped out of the casket like a jack-in-the-box! Partner dropped his flashlight and revolver and the casket occupant blew by me, up the stairs, out the door —— never to caught!

Needless to write, much more circumspect checking there, again!

So Funny (All gone?)

Can the US government do anything to protect Hong Konger Jimmy Lai?

Remember Justin Trudeau? He was thrown under the bus by Trump once Trump got what he wanted. Now, How Jimmy Lai’s value as an asset is compared to Trudeau? Let’s check it out.

Trudeau is a Head of State, Lai is not. Trudeau is white, Lai is yellow. In the US’s playbook, Lai isn’t even at the level that makes him fit to shine Trudeau’s shoes.

Trudeau maybe not a patriot but certainly, he is no traitor. Lai is a traitor who did not hesitate to collude with a foreign power to go against his own country and people. Traitors are garbage nobody wants anything to do with once their mission objective value is no longer there.

So basically, Jimmy Lai is only a leftover from the shit that failed to hit the fan in Hong Kong. A shit stain to be precise. Nobody would pick up a shit stain, but flush it down the toilet hole.

If Jimmy Lai’s last resort is for the US to come to his rescue, oh he is fucked.

Vitamin D

What’s the most savage way you’ve seen someone get fired?

Me.

I was working for a Fortune 500 company as a sales rep, making my quota every year, except my first, for 10 years. A new management team comes in. The new National Sales Manager, Mr. Smith, was unhappy with my image. I was 40, obese and had prematurely grey hair. He liked ‘young, lean and hungry’. Well, I’m good at hungry.

In February the company has its sales meeting. They fly us all into the little airport nearest corporate headquarters, in New England. Itinerary promises luxury hotel, 2 days of training with an awards dinner for all the quota busters (about 90 of 170 of us).

Mr. Smith meets me at the airport, asks for my customer list and price book. Then he hands me a return ticket, through a circuitous route home (it might have been cheaper) that leaves at 5pm, he says this at 7:30am. I got home at 11 pm, I could’ve driven home in 8–9 hours.

As he hands me the ticket he says,”It’s non-changeable, non-refundable. At least for the next 9 hours I’ll know where you are.” I did not call in very often, unless my clients had an issue, or an opportunity. When I did I spoke to customer service and we would resolve almost all of issues without involving higher ups. I should’ve been tooting my own horn, getting Mr. Smith involved seemed senseless. I thought the numbers would speak for me.

Sitting in the airport I decided to start my own business, independent sales representative. Took 6 months to get clients, training and start making sales on straight commission. Took 3 years to get my income above poverty level, my supportive wife sustained us. Then I started making twice the income. Never looked back. Next to marrying my wife, probably the best thing that happened to me. Definitely top 5.

FORGOTTEN CITY – 1966 Retro Pulp Science Fiction by Skyward, Photo Booth Processing, 110/35mm Film

This is fun.

Is it true that the Chinese government would have implemented the national security law in Hong Kong regardless of whether there were protests/riots there?

Depends on your time line. Eventually, and I’m talking 2047 territory something would have been put in place. But lets time travel back to 2010. I say 2010 because the seeds of the riot were after the Pan Dems refused the changes in the voting system that would allow more direct elections.

Wong Sing Chi – Nelson Wong the Pan Dem founder was kicked out because he wanted compromise. The first riots started in 2014 and were a test to see what would happen. The not very much happening meant the bigger 2019 riots happened.

Article 23 was impossible to put into place due to protests against it, strong unions and lots of LegCO seats opposing it. You had well still have two factions, yellows anti government everything and blues. The thing is the blues weren’t rubber stampers. They were mostly meh and wanted things to stay the same.

You can literally see prominent blues actually support the anti extradition protests that were initially at the start of 2019 before the violence ramped up. Many of the blues would go no way that goes too far!

Raam Beart, Nury Vitachi pretty much have this angle. There wasn’t the support for anything NSL or article 23 at all.

But then the Yellows went nuts. Wide spread violence, dehumanisation and discrimination against anybody who opposed the yellows.

This pushed the previously meh blues to give support to the government to end the madness. I mean shit you were on the bus in 2019 going into town. You’d see everything smashed up and Chinese people here were attacked by them. I was attacked, numerous quorans who I know are real people were attacked.

So the riots going violent suddenly gave a support base for NSL and eventually article 23.

Article 23. My personal feeling? Is that I wish we could go back to life in 2017 or so. I guess I’m old. I don’t like change. I still use cash! Even in Shenzhen. Anyway where’s the shit posting? Ah yes this. Article 23 penalties. Do note these are the absolute maximum possible. We’ve of course seen in Hong Kong that maximum sentences are very rarely given. Very recently a Hong Kong bomb maker was sentenced to just under 6 years. Funny… had he not run off to Shenzhen he would be out in 2025 probably. Yet again where’s the shit posting? This The sentences for this were far harsher. Looking into it. 60% of 1309 arrested and charged to-date have received custodial sentences. Enrique Tarrio (sp?) 22 years. Edthan Nordean – 18 years. Stuart Rhodes – 18 years Zach Rehl 15 years Dan Rodriguez 12 years

https://qr.ae/pshZlU

Some of us discuss it here and in the comments. That we wished things had stayed the same but the riots pushed us into this direction.

Here’s the ultimate irony.

If the yellows sat on their hands and went home after May 2019 the last of the mostly peaceful protests when the extradition treaty law was shelved…

The yellows would have won a majority in LegCo in the 2020 elections.

NSL would never have been implemented

Article 23 would still just be something talked about on RTHK and nothing would have changed.

Very interesting

Why don’t many European Union leaders complain about paying high price to American gas but make a lot of noise about affordable Chinese electric cars? Are they simply that incompetent or simply corrupt?

Protectionism

Plain and Simple

In 2015 – the EU Players – Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Citroen together combined had a market share of

40.28% in China
29.76% across the World

Life was good

For every Volkswagen sold – China made around $ 18 for every $ 82 that Germany ultimately earned

China got only assembly cost and low grade supplies and equipment

The Chinese brands had a market share of 15.70% in China and 2.33% across the World

India at 3.25% had a higher Global Share

Guess how much the Auto Industry and Ancillary Industry for Autos contribute to the European Economy?

Almost 4%

Thats nearly $ 800 Billion

Including $ 279 Billion in Germany Alone

In 2023 – the EU Players – Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Citroen together combined had a market share of

18.73% in the Chinese market with only BMW continuing the same market share and VW falling by 38% from 2015, Mercedes by 27% and Citroen by 82%
26.62% in the Global Market

That’s a huge fall of nearly 55% in China and barely keeping their old market share for 8 years

Now their European Sales are crashing

The Chinese products have superior design, superior quality and affordable price being almost 20% cheaper on road

In the last four months of 2023 – European Brands saw a sales drop of 21.5% while Chinese Brands saw a surge of 67.6% in their numbers

Take out the Russian market and the numbers still show a 8.1% drop for European Brands and 26.1% gain for Chinese Brands

Solution?

It’s simple protectionism

Plain and simple

Paying High Prices for Russian Gas

That’s because if Europe keeps relying on Russian Gas, the day Russia cuts off Gas suddenly , Germany could be screwed as could the rest of Europe

Once Russia went to ‘Dangerous Enemy’, decoupling was a security move even at higher expense to the economy

A Better move would have been peace and diversification but Europeans don’t have brains unfortunately

Rules to live by

Alice in Aukusland: America first and the stillbirth of ‘Australian’ SSNs

By Binoy Kampmark

Mar 14, 2024

AUKUS has become a stillborn project.

Vassal states, satellites – in other words the butlers of international relations, the minders of the royal stool – are a rarely respected lot. In Australia’s case, being Washington’s butler is hardly like being Jeeves to Bertie Wooster. Jeeves is, after all, a near omniscient being, a confidant who rescues his master from ridiculous situations and offers sound advice to avoid them.

The Canberra wonks, bureaucrats and politicians are in no equivalent position, weak, impotent, and ever reliant on the good grace of the US Congress, the US President and the entire military complex that pillows them.

The latest announcement about delays and dysfunction in the US submarine base should further confirm that the AUKUS security agreement is risky, costly and self-defeating. The security pact, which is primarily focused on technological transfer and the provision of nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, is proving, yet again, to be a shaky affair.

The developments are hardly surprising.

US shipyards are simply not keeping up with the production line. Roping in the Australian taxpayer into this mess means that money will be going to funding a foreign defence force without any guarantee of the submarines promised to Canberra. Superb if you are working in the Pentagon, disastrous if you are an Australian policy maker.

The latest Fiscal Year 2025 budget request from the US Department of Defence has again shown an industry in stuttering health. The US Navy’s intention to cut a submarine already paid for and built featured prominently in the plans. The implication for this, and AUKUS, is that the number of submarines relevant to the pact will be halved.

Congressman Joe Courtney, ranking Democrat member of the House Seapower and Project Forces Subcommittee, was far from impressed, saying as much in a released statement.

“If such a cut is actually enacted it will remove one more attack submarine from a fleet that is already 17 submarines below the Navy’s long stated requirement of 66.”

This measure would place the commitment made by the Pentagon and Congress to furnish three submarines to the Royal Australian Navy in doubt.

“This deviation from last year’s projected Future Years Defence Program (FYDP) contradicts the Department’s own National Defence Industries Strategy issued on January 11, 2024, which identified ‘procurement stability’ as critical to achieve resilient supply chains.”

In January, Courtney, along with the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Mike Rogers, Chairman of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee Trent Kelly, and ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee Adam Smith, wrote to President Joe Biden arguing

“that the US Navy and Congress maintain continued procurement of two Virginia-class submarines per year, as detailed in the Navy’s FY2024 30-Year Shipbuilding Plan.”

The Congressmen had no reason to doubt such a rate of procurement, given the investments from the Navy and Congress

“in workforce and supply development over the last five years.” It was “imperative to maintain a steady two-per-year procurement rate to assure our partners in our ability to meet commitments and address concerns about our nation’s undersea capabilities.”

The obsession with the two-submarine annual procurement rate, assessed at 2.33, has been a lingering one with Congress, but there is much to suggest that Courtney and his colleagues had been engaged in an act of wishful thinking. Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, for instance, found the production rate to be a warranted one in a July 16, 2023 contribution to the Wall Street Journal, but worried about how this would work within the context of AUKUS arrangements.

“As it stands, the AUKUS plan would transfer US Virginia-class submarines to a partner nation even before we have met our own Navy’s requirements.”

This is also not helped by the US Navy’s ongoing plans to design and develop 12 new SSBNs of the Columbia (SSBN-826) Class to replace the current, aging fleet of 14 Ohio-class SSBNs. A report from the Congressional Research Service published in January notes the Navy’s revised procurement rate of 2.33 Virginia-class submarines plus one Colombia-class boat, something Courtney might have heeded.

In December 2022, Democratic Senator Jack Reed and an outgoing Republican Senator James Inhofe authored a letter to Biden expressing their worries

“about the state of the US submarine industrial base as well as its ability to support the desired AUKUS SSN [nuclear sub] end state.” Current conditions, the senators went on to describe, required “a sober assessment of the facts to avoid stressing the US submarine industrial base to the breaking point.”

Sobriety, it would seem, has come biting in stinging fashion.

A deluded, crippling subservience is to be found everywhere. Australia’s Defence Minister, Richard Marles, should be hysterical with concern, his increasingly coloured skin turning pallid. Instead, he is trying to keep a brave face by foolishly claiming to speak for all powers in the trilateral alliance.

“As we approach the one-year anniversary of AUKUS, Australia, the United States and United Kingdom remain steadfast in our commitment to the pathway announced last March, which will see Australia acquire conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines.”

Such ill-informed confidence also pervades the Alice in Aukusland mentality, marked by such punditry as that of retired submarine specialist Peter Briggs. Australia, suggests Briggs, should seize the day on submarine construction in taking “an active role in the design and procurement process” for the SSN. But control can only be exerted with a degree of power and experience in the field of nuclear propulsion, something the Australian Navy has little to no experience in.

Former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull prefers a bleaker analysis .

“The reality is the Americans are not going to make their submarine deficit worse than it is already by giving or selling submarines to Australia and the AUKUS legislation actually sets that out specifically.”

Australia had been “mugged by reality”, its sovereignty surrendered, its fate left like a cork bobbing at sea.

Whoever occupies the White House or Congress, the America First mantra prevails: first, Washington’s interests, marked by its own weaknesses and troubles; then, should they matter, those of allies, however loyal and ingratiating.

AUKUS has become a stillborn project.

Join US you’ll be on its dinnertable, join China you’ll have a win-win

Blinken is crass. Period. His behaviour is not worthy of that of a diplomat.

Why is it that I have the strong feeling that, here on Quora, topics and responses on China are sponsored by the Chinese government?

Damn you’ve found us out…

It’s time for the truth to be revealed.

I am not in fact the blonde girl in the picture.

I am a highly advanced AI program sent to Quora to find and answer questions about China that only paints the great homeland in a positive light. Forever may the glory of the People’s Republic of China shine like a beacon on —

Oh WAIT

They don’t need an artificial intelligence to do that. Anyone with normal intelligence could tell you that China kicks ass.

How China kicks ass:

Renewable Energy: China is crushing the U.S. in renewable energy
Tech: China’s rise as a major contributor to science and technology – Journalist’s Resource
Economics: China’s Economy Will Overtake The U.S. In 2018
Lady power: China Produces the Most Self-Made Female Billionaires | Jing Daily

Look, no country is perfect and China has its own issues it needs to deal with. But don’t worry about China or the fact that informed people have an increasingly positive opinion of the country.

Work on improving your own country, then people might write nice things about you as well.

What is the most improbable thing people have ever seen?

I was sitting in my very first Computer Science class at Princeton. My Professor, Brian Kernighan (who is a brilliant and exciting teacher, even for non-CS students like myself), had pulled up an image of Eric Schmidt on the projector screen.

At this point in time, Eric Schmidt was the CEO of Google, although his fame was nowhere near what it is today. I remember Professor Kernighan saying that Eric Schmidt was likely someone that none of us had ever heard of, but was filling a role that would greatly affect each and every one of our lives. I can’t recall exactly what he said, but the gist was that while computer science may not be a very glorious subject, it has profound implications on our lives. Remember, this was Intro to CS. He was trying to hook us on to the subject; to convince us that we shouldn’t all try to be Econ majors and land jobs on Wall Street. Each point he made revolved around Eric Schmidt, whose image remained front and center.

Anyways, after about five or ten minutes of describing Computer Science through the lens of Eric Schmidt, a hand was raised in the middle of the classroom.

“So, this is kind of awkward, but are you done talking about my dad?”

Eric Schmidt’s daughter had been sitting there quietly the whole time. The room erupted in laughter, as Prof. Kernighan apologized profusely. He had no idea that the daughter of the subject of his lecture was in the classroom.

She ended up being in a Creative Writing class of mine as well; a very impressive girl at the time, and I’m sure a much more impressive woman now.

Mysterious Videos That Will Blow Your Mind

First video is a teleportation. I discussed this previously in great detail.

The Only Thing We Learn by C. M. Kornbluth

The Only Thing We Learn

by C. M. Kornbluth



Preface by David Drake:



"What experience and history teach is this: that peoples and governments have never learned anything from history." 



—Hegel



I first read "The Only Thing We Learn" when I was thirteen. I'd never heard of Hegel, nor was I familiar with the quote that Kornbluth paraphrased for his title. The story still stunned and horrified me.

In the comic books the villain was always bad, the hero was always good—GI and Nazi, lawmen and rustlers, and so on down the line: fixed dichotomies of Good and Evil. "The Only Thing We Learn" said, showed, explicitly that the definition of "good guys" and "bad guys" depended on your frame of reference.

When I was thirteen I had no more appreciation of literary technique than I did of German philosophers. (I still don't have an appreciation of German philosophers.) You don't have to understand technique for it to affect you, though. Only a flawless craftsman like Cyril Kornbluth, arguably the best short story writer in the SF field, would've been able to pack so much in so brief a compass. The story's terse, elliptical form drove home a message that would've been softened if not suffocated by a wordier presentation.

The professor, though he did not know the actor’s phrase for it, was counting the house—peering through a spyhole in the door through which he would in a moment appear before the class. He was pleased with what he saw. Tier after tier of young people, ready with notebooks and styli, chattering tentatively, glancing at the door against which his nose was flattened, waiting for the pleasant interlude known as “Archaeo-Literature 203” to begin.

The professor stepped back, smoothed his tunic, crooked four books in his left elbow and made his entrance. Four swift strides brought him to the lectern and, for the thousandth-odd time, he impassively swept the lecture hall with his gaze. Then he gave a wry little smile. Inside, for the thousandth-odd time, he was nagged by the irritable little thought that the lectern really ought to be a foot or so higher.

The irritation did not show. He was out to win the audience, and he did. A dead silence, the supreme tribute, gratified him. Imperceptibly, the lights of the lecture hall began to dim and the light on the lectern to brighten.

He spoke.

“Young gentlemen of the Empire, I ought to warn you that this and the succeeding lectures will be most subversive.”

There was a little rustle of incomprehension from the audience—but by then the lectern light was strong enough to show the twinkling smile about his eyes that belied his stern mouth, and agreeable chuckles sounded in the gathering darkness of the tiered seats. Glow-lights grew bright gradually at the students’ tables, and they adjusted their notebooks in the narrow ribbons of illumination. He waited for the small commotion to subside.

“Subversive—” He gave them a link to cling to. “Subversive because I shall make every effort to tell both sides of our ancient beginnings with every resource of archaeology and with every clue my diligence has discovered in our epic literature.

“There were two sides, you know—difficult though it may be to believe that if we judge by the Old Epic alone—such epics as the noble and tempestuous Chant of Remd, the remaining fragments of Krall’s Voyage, or the gory and rather out-of-date Battle for the Ten Suns.” He paused while styli scribbled across the notebook pages.

“The Middle Epic is marked, however, by what I might call the rediscovered ethos.” From his voice, every student knew that that phrase, surer than death and taxes, would appear on an examination paper. The styli scribbled. “By this I mean an awakening of fellow-feeling with the Home Suns People, which had once been filial loyalty to them when our ancestors were few and pioneers, but which turned into contempt when their numbers grew.

“The Middle Epic writers did not despise the Home Suns People, as did the bards of the Old Epic. Perhaps this was because they did not have to—since their long war against the Home Suns was drawing to a victorious close.

“Of the New Epic I shall have little to say. It was a literary fad, a pose, and a silly one. Written within historic times, the some two score pseudo-epics now moulder in their cylinders, where they belong. Our ripening civilization could not with integrity work in the epic form, and the artistic failures produced so indicate. Our genius turned to the lyric and to the unabashedly romantic novel.

“So much, for the moment, of literature. What contribution, you must wonder, have archaeological studies to make in an investigation of the wars from which our ancestry emerged?

“Archaeology offers—one—a check in historical matter in the epics—confirming or denying. Two—it provides evidence glossed over in the epics—for artistic or patriotic reasons. Three—it provides evidence which has been lost, owing to the fragmentary nature of some of the early epics.”

All this he fired at them crisply, enjoying himself. Let them not think him a dreamy litterateur, nor, worse, a flat precisionist, but let them be always a little off-balance before him, never knowing what came next, and often wondering, in class and out. The styli paused after heading Three.

“We shall examine first, by our archaeo-literary technique, the second book of the Chant of Remd. As the selected youth of the Empire, you know much about it, of course—much that is false, some that is true and a great deal that is irrelevant. You know that Book One hurls us into the middle of things, aboard ship with Algan and his great captain, Remd, on their way from the triumph over a Home Suns stronghold, the planet Telse. We watch Remd on his diversionary action that splits the Ten Suns Fleet into two halves. But before we see the destruction of those halves by the Horde of Algan, we are told in Book Two of the battle for Telse.”

He opened one of his books on the lectern, swept the amphitheater again and read sonorously.

“Then battle broke
And high the blinding blast
Sight-searing leaped
While folk in fear below
Cowered in caverns
From the wrath of Remd—

“Or, in less sumptuous language, one fission bomb—or a stick of time-on-target bombs—was dropped. An unprepared and disorganized populace did not take the standard measure of dispersing, but huddled foolishly to await Algan’s gunfighters and the death they brought.

“One of the things you believe because you have seen them in notes to elementary-school editions of Remd is that Telse was the fourth planet of the star, Sol. Archaeology denies it by establishing that the fourth planet—actually called Marse, by the way—was in those days weather-roofed at least, and possibly atmosphere-roofed as well. As potential warriors, you know that one does not waste fissionable material on a roof, and there is no mention of chemical explosives being used to crack the roof. Marse, therefore, was not the locale of Remd, Book Two.

“Which planet was? The answer to that has been established by X-radar, differential decay analyses, video-coring and every other resource of those scientists still quaintly called ‘diggers.’ We know and can prove that Telse was the third planet of Sol. So much for the opening of the attack. Let us jump to Canto Three, the Storming of the Dynastic Palace.

“Imperial purple wore they
Fresh from the feast
Grossly gorged
They sought to slay—

“And so on. Now, as I warned you, Remd is of the Old Epic, and makes no pretense at fairness. The unorganized huddling of Telse’s population was read as cowardice instead of poor A.R.P. The same is true of the Third Canto. Video-cores show on the site of the palace a hecatomb of dead in once-purple livery, but also shows impartially that they were not particularly gorged and that digestion of their last meals had been well advanced. They didn’t give such a bad accounting of themselves, either. I hesitate to guess, but perhaps they accounted for one of our ancestors apiece and were simply outnumbered. The study is not complete.

“That much we know.” The professor saw they were tiring of the terse scientist and shifted gears. “But if the veil of time were rent that shrouds the years between us and the Home Suns People, how much more would we learn? Would we despise the Home Suns People as our frontiersman ancestors did, or would we cry: ‘This is our spiritual home—this world of rank and order, this world of formal verse and exquisitely patterned arts’?”

If the veil of time were rent—?

We can try to rend it . . .

* * *

Wing Commander Arris heard the clear jangle of the radar net alarm as he was dreaming about a fish. Struggling out of his too-deep, too-soft bed, he stepped into a purple singlet, buckled on his Sam Browne belt with its holstered .45 automatic and tried to read the radar screen. Whatever had set it off was either too small or too distant to register on the five-inch C.R.T.

He rang for his aide, and checked his appearance in a wall-mirror while waiting. His space tan was beginning to fade, he saw, and made a mental note to get it renewed at the parlor. He stepped into the corridor as Evan, his aide, trotted up—younger, browner, thinner, but the same officer type that made the Service what it was, Arris thought with satisfaction.

Evan gave him a bone-cracking salute, which he returned. They set off for the elevator that whisked them down to a large, chilly, dark underground room where faces were greenly lit by radar screens and the lights of plotting tables. Somebody yelled “Attention!” and the tecks snapped. He gave them “At ease” and took the brisk salute of the senior teck, who reported to him in flat, machine-gun delivery:

“Object-becoming-visible-on-primary-screen-sir.”

He studied the sixty-inch disk for several seconds before he spotted the intercepted particle. It was coming in fast from zenith, growing while he watched.

“Assuming it’s now traveling at maximum, how long will it be before it’s within striking range?” he asked the teck.

“Seven hours, sir.”

“The interceptors at Idlewild alerted?”

“Yessir.”

Arris turned on a phone that connected with Interception. The boy at Interception knew the face that appeared on its screen, and was already capped with a crash helmet.

“Go ahead and take him, Efrid,” said the wing commander.

“Yessir!” and a punctilious salute, the boy’s pleasure plain at being known by name and a great deal more at being on the way to a fight that might be first-class.

Arris cut him off before the boy could detect a smile that was forming on his face. He turned from the pale lumar glow of the sixty-incher to enjoy it. Those kids—when every meteor was an invading dreadnaught, when every ragged scouting ship from the rebels was an armada!

He watched Efrid’s squadron soar off the screen and then he retreated to a darker corner. This was his post until the meteor or scout or whatever it was got taken care of. Evan joined him, and they silently studied the smooth, disciplined functioning of the plot room, Arris with satisfaction and Evan doubtless with the same. The aide broke silence, asking:

“Do you suppose it’s a Frontier ship, sir?” He caught the wing commander’s look and hastily corrected himself: “I mean rebel ship, sir, of course.”

“Then you should have said so. Is that what the junior officers generally call those scoundrels?”

Evan conscientiously cast his mind back over the last few junior messes and reported unhappily: “I’m afraid we do, sir. We seem to have got into the habit.”

“I shall write a memorandum about it. How do you account for that very peculiar habit?”

“Well, sir, they do have something like a fleet, and they did take over the Regulus Cluster, didn’t they?”

What had got into this incredible fellow, Arris wondered in amazement. Why, the thing was self-evident! They had a few ships—accounts differed as to how many—and they had, doubtless by raw sedition, taken over some systems temporarily.

He turned from his aide, who sensibly became interested in a screen and left with a murmured excuse to study it very closely.

The brigands had certainly knocked together some ramshackle league or other, but— The wing commander wondered briefly if it could last, shut the horrid thought from his head, and set himself to composing mentally a stiff memorandum that would be posted in the junior officer’s mess and put an end to this absurd talk.

His eyes wandered to the sixty-incher, where he saw the interceptor squadron climbing nicely toward the particle—which, he noticed, had become three particles. A low crooning distracted him. Was one of the tecks singing at work? It couldn’t be!

It wasn’t. An unsteady shape wandered up in the darkness, murmuring a song and exhaling alcohol. He recognized the Chief Archivist, Glen.

“This is service country, mister,” he told Glen.

“Hullo, Arris,” the round little civilian said, peering at him. “I come down here regularly—regularly against regulations—to wear off my regular irregularities with the wine bottle. That’s all right, isn’t it?”

He was drunk and argumentative. Arris felt hemmed in. Glen couldn’t be talked into leaving without loss of dignity to the wing commander, and he couldn’t be chucked out because he was writing a biography of the chamberlain and could, for the time being, have any head in the palace for the asking. Arris sat down unhappily, and Glen plumped down beside him.

The little man asked him.

“Is that a fleet from the Frontier League?” He pointed to the big screen. Arris didn’t look at his face, but felt that Glen was grinning maliciously.

“I know of no organization called the Frontier League,” Arris said. “If you are referring to the brigands who have recently been operating in Galactic East, you could at least call them by their proper names.” Really, he thought—civilians!

“So sorry. But the brigands should have the Regulus Cluster by now, shouldn’t they?” he asked, insinuatingly.

This was serious—a grave breach of security. Arris turned to the little man.

“Mister, I have no authority to command you,” he said measuredly. “Furthermore, I understand you are enjoying a temporary eminence in the non-service world which would make it very difficult for me to—ah—tangle with you. I shall therefore refer only to your altruism. How did you find out about the Regulus Cluster?”

“Eloquent!” murmured the little man, smiling happily. “I got it from Rome.”

Arris searched his memory. “You mean Squadron Commander Romo broke security? I can’t believe it!”

“No, commander. I mean Rome—a place—a time—a civilization. I got it also from Babylon, Assyria, the Mogul Raj—every one of them. You don’t understand me, of course.”

“I understand that you’re trifling with Service security and that you’re a fat little, malevolent, worthless drone and scribbler!”

“Oh, commander!” protested the archivist. “I’m not so little!” He wandered away, chuckling.

Arris wished he had the shooting of him, and tried to explore the chain of secrecy for a weak link. He was tired and bored by this harping on the Fron—on the brigands.

His aide tentatively approached him. “Interceptors in striking range, sir,” he murmured.

“Thank you,” said the wing commander, genuinely grateful to be back in the clean, etched-line world of the Service and out of that blurred, water-color, civilian land where long-dead Syrians apparently retailed classified matter to nasty little drunken warts who had no business with it. Arris confronted the sixty-incher. The particle that had become three particles was now—he counted—eighteen particles. Big ones. Getting bigger.

He did not allow himself emotion, but turned to the plot on the interceptor squadron.

“Set up Lunar relay,” he ordered.

“Yessir.”

Half the plot room crew bustled silently and efficiently about the delicate job of applied relativistic physics that was ‘lunar relay.’ He knew that the palace power plant could take it for a few minutes, and he wanted to see. If he could not believe radar pips, he might believe a video screen.

On the great, green circle, the eighteen—now twenty-four—particles neared the thirty-six smaller particles that were interceptors, led by the eager young Efrid.

“Testing Lunar relay, sir,” said the chief teck.

The wing commander turned to a twelve-inch screen. Unobtrusively, behind him, tecks jockeyed for position. The picture on the screen was something to see. The chief let mercury fill a thick-walled, ceramic tank. There was a sputtering and contact was made.

“Well done,” said Arris. “Perfect seeing.”

He saw, upper left, a globe of ships—what ships! Some were Service jobs, with extra turrets plastered on them wherever there was room. Some were orthodox freighters, with the same porcupine-bristle of weapons. Some were obviously home-made crates, hideously ugly—and as heavily armed as the others.

Next to him, Arris heard his aide murmur, “It’s all wrong, sir. They haven’t got any pick-up boats. They haven’t got any hospital ships. What happens when one of them gets shot up?”

“Just what ought to happen, Evan,” snapped the wing commander. “They float in space until they desiccate in their suits. Or if they get grappled inboard with a boat hook, they don’t get any medical care. As I told you, they’re brigands, without decency even to care for their own.” He enlarged on the theme. “Their morale must be insignificant compared with our men’s. When the Service goes into action, every rating and teck knows he’ll be cared for if he’s hurt. Why, if we didn’t have pick-up boats and hospital ships the men wouldn’t—” He almost finished it with “fight,” but thought, and lamely ended—”wouldn’t like it.”

* * *

Evan nodded, wonderingly, and crowded his chief a little as he craned his neck for a look at the screen.

“Get the hell away from here!” said the wing commander in a restrained yell, and Evan got.

The interceptor squadron swam into the field—a sleek, deadly needle of vessels in perfect alignment, with its little cloud of pick-ups trailing, and farther astern a white hospital ship with the ancient red cross.

The contact was immediate and shocking. One of the rebel ships lumbered into the path of the interceptors, spraying fire from what seemed to be as many points as a man has pores. The Service ships promptly riddled it and it should have drifted away—but it didn’t. It kept on fighting. It rammed an interceptor with a crunch that must have killed every man before the first bulwark, but aft of the bulwark the ship kept fighting.

It took a torpedo portside and its plumbing drifted through space in a tangle. Still the starboard side kept squirting fire. Isolated weapon blisters fought on while they were obviously cut off from the rest of the ship. It was a pounded tangle of wreckage, and it had destroyed two interceptors, crippled two more, and kept fighting.

Finally, it drifted away, under feeble jets of power. Two more of the fantastic rebel fleet wandered into action, but the wing commander’s horrified eyes were on the first pile of scrap. It was going somewhere—

The ship neared the thin-skinned, unarmored, gleaming hospital vessel, rammed it amidships, square in one of the red crosses, and then blew itself up, apparently with everything left in its powder magazine, taking the hospital ship with it.

The sickened wing commander would never have recognized what he had seen as it was told in a later version, thus:

“The crushing course they took
And nobly knew
Their death undaunted
By heroic blast
The hospital’s host
They dragged to doom
Hail! Men without mercy
From the far frontier!”

Lunar relay flickered out as overloaded fuses flashed into vapor. Arris distractedly paced back to the dark corner and sank into a chair.

“I’m sorry,” said the voice of Glen next to him, sounding quite sincere. “No doubt it was quite a shock to you.”

“Not to you?” asked Arris bitterly.

“Not to me.”

“Then how did they do it?” the wing commander asked the civilian in a low, desperate whisper. “They don’t even wear .45’s. Intelligence says their enlisted men have hit their officers and got away with it. They elect ship captains! Glen, what does it all mean?”

“It means,” said the fat little man with a timbre of doom in his voice, “that they’ve returned. They always have. They always will. You see, commander, there is always somewhere a wealthy, powerful city, or nation, or world. In it are those whose blood is not right for a wealthy, powerful place. They must seek danger and overcome it. So they go out—on the marshes, in the desert, on the tundra, the planets, or the stars. Being strong, they grow stronger by fighting the tundra, the planets or the stars. They—they change. They sing new songs. They know new heroes. And then, one day, they return to their old home.

“They return to the wealthy, powerful city, or nation or world. They fight its guardians as they fought the tundra, the planets or the stars—a way that strikes terror to the heart. Then they sack the city, nation or world and sing great, ringing sagas of their deeds. They always have. Doubtless they always will.”

“But what shall we do?”

“We shall cower, I suppose, beneath the bombs they drop on us, and we shall die, some bravely, some not, defending the palace within a very few hours. But you will have your revenge.”

“How?” asked the wing commander, with haunted eyes.

The fat little man giggled and whispered in the officer’s ear. Arris irritably shrugged it off as a bad joke. He didn’t believe it. As he died, drilled through the chest a few hours later by one of Algan’s gunfighters, he believed it even less.

* * *

The professor’s lecture was drawing to a close. There was time for only one more joke to send his students away happy. He was about to spring it when a messenger handed him two slips of paper. He raged inwardly at his ruined exit and poisonously read from them:

“I have been asked to make two announcements. One, a bulletin from General Sleg’s force. He reports that the so-called Outland Insurrection is being brought under control and that there is no cause for alarm. Two, the gentlemen who are members of the S.O.T.C. will please report to the armory at 1375 hours—whatever that may mean—for blaster inspection. The class is dismissed.”

Petulantly, he swept from the lectern and through the door.

Turning Point by Poul Anderson

Turning Point

by Poul Anderson

Preface by Eric Flint

Poul Anderson had a career that lasted as long as Robert Heinlein's, and overlapped it a great deal, allowing for a ten-year difference when they got started. The parallels are rather striking:

Heinlein's first story was published in 1939, Anderson's in 1948. ("Life-Line" and "Genius," respectively.) Within a very short time, especially by the standards of the day, they were both published novelists. Heinlein's first novels, Methusaleh's Children and Beyond This Horizon,came out in 1941 and 1942—although the first, initially, only as a magazine serial. Anderson's first novels, Vault of the Ages and Brain Wave, came out just as quickly in his career—1952 and 1954.

Their careers continued to parallel each other. Both men worked just as easily in short form and long form, publishing novels and short fiction constantly in the decades that followed. By the time they died, they'd each produced a massive body of work. Both of them also created their own vast future histories, in which a multitude of stories and novels fit like tiles in a mozaic. In the case of Heinlein, his famous "Future History"; in the case of Anderson, the "Technic History," which encompassed his many Nicholas Van Rijn and Dominic Flandry stories.

Robert Heinlein died in 1988, after an immensely successful career that lasted half a century. He was still writing until the end—his last novel, To Sail Beyond the Sunset, came out in 1987. Poul Anderson died in 2001, after an immensely successful career that lasted half a century. He was still writing until the end—his last two original novels, Genesis and Mother of Kings, came out in 2000 and 2001.
Both men won a multitude of awards:

Both received the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's Grand Master Award: Heinlein in 1975, the first year the award was given; Anderson in 1998. Both are in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Robert Heinlein won a Hugo award four times; Anderson, seven times. Heinlein never won a Nebula award, although he was nominated four times; Anderson did win an award, three times.

And yet . . .

Somehow people never look at them quite the same way. For all the great respect that Anderson had all his life, and continues to have since his death, he never occupied the central stature than Heinlein did. No one ever thought of Anderson as "the dean of science fiction."

Why? Well, I can only give you my opinion. Anderson was one of those very rare people who do what they do supremely well, and do so in every aspect of their craft. But they never do any one thing better than anyone else. To give an example, Anderson wrote many fine novels, to be sure. None of them ever had the impact of Heinlein's Starship Troopers or Stranger in a Strange Land.

Since I was a teenager, though, I've always had a clear picture in my head of where Poul Anderson fits in my own pantheon of great science fiction writers.

He's my Joe DiMaggio, who never did anything in baseball better than anyone else, but always did everything superbly well.

And here he is again, coming to the plate . . .

Please, mister, could I have a cracker for my oontatherium?”

Not exactly the words you would expect at an instant when history changes course and the universe can never again be what it was. The die is cast; In this sign conquer; It is not fit that you should sit here any longer; We hold these truths to be self-evident; The Italian navigator has landed in the New World; Dear God, the thing works!—no man with any imagination can recall those, or others like them, and not have a coldness run along his spine. But as for what little Mierna first said to us, on that island half a thousand light-years from home . . .

The star is catalogued AGC 4256836, a K₂ dwarf in Cassiopeia. Our ship was making a standard preliminary survey of that region, and had come upon mystery enough—how easily Earthsiders forget that every planet is a complete world!—but nothing extraordinary in this fantastic cosmos. The Traders had noted places that seemed worth further investigation; so had the Federals; the lists were not quite identical.

After a year, vessel and men were equally jaded. We needed a set-down, to spend a few weeks refitting and recuperating before the long swing homeward. There is an art to finding such a spot. You visit whatever nearby suns look suitable. If you come on a planet whose gross physical characteristics are terrestroid, you check the biological details—very, very carefully, but since the operation is largely automated it goes pretty fast—and make contact with the autochthones, if any. Primitives are preferred. That’s not because of military danger, as some think. The Federals insist that the natives have no objection to strangers camping on their land, while the Traders don’t see how anyone, civilized or not, that hasn’t discovered atomic energy can be a menace. It’s only that primitives are less apt to ask complicated questions and otherwise make a nuisance of themselves. Spacemen rejoice that worlds with machine civilizations are rare.

Well, Joril looked ideal. The second planet of that sun, with more water than Earth, it offered a mild climate everywhere. The biochemistry was so like our own that we could eat native foods, and there didn’t seem to be any germs that UX-₂ couldn’t handle. Seas, forests, meadows made us feel right at home, yet the countless differences from Earth lent a fairyland glamour. The indigenes were savages, that is, they depended on hunting, fishing, and gathering for their whole food supply. So we assumed there were thousands of little cultures and picked the one that appeared most advanced: not that aerial observation indicated much difference.

Those people lived in neat, exquisitely decorated villages along the western seaboard of the largest continent, with woods and hills behind them. Contact went smoothly. Our semanticians had a good deal of trouble with the language, but the villagers started picking up English right away. Their hospitality was lavish whenever we called on them, but they stayed out of our camp except for the conducted tours we gave and other such invitations. With one vast, happy sigh, we settled down.

But from the first there were certain disturbing symptoms. Granted they had humanlike throats and palates, we hadn’t expected the autochthones to speak flawless English within a couple of weeks. Every one of them. Obviously they could have learned still faster if we’d taught them systematically. We followed the usual practice and christened the planet “Joril” after what we thought was the local word for “earth”—and then found that “Joril” meant “Earth,” capitalized, and the people had an excellent heliocentric astronomy. Though they were too polite to press themselves on us, they weren’t merely accepting us as something inexplicable; curiosity was afire in them, and given half a chance they did ask the most complicated questions.

Once the initial rush of establishing ourselves was over and we had time to think, it became plain that we’d stumbled on something worth much further study. First we needed to check on some other areas and make sure this Dannicar culture wasn’t a freak. After all, the Neolithic Mayas had been good astronomers; the ferro-agricultural Greeks had developed a high and sophisticated philosophy. Looking over the maps we’d made from orbit, Captain Barlow chose a large island about 700 kilometers due west. A gravboat was outfitted and five men went aboard.

Pilot: Jacques Lejeune. Engineer: me. Federal militechnic representative: Commander Ernest Baldinger, Space Force of the Solar Peace Authority. Federal civil government representative: Walter Vaughan. Trader agent: Don Haraszthy. He and Vaughan were the principals, but the rest of us were skilled in the multiple jobs of planetography. You have to be, on a foreign world months from home or help.

We made the aerial crossing soon after sunrise, so we’d have a full eighteen hours of daylight. I remember how beautiful the ocean looked below us, like one great bowl of metal, silver where the sun struck, cobalt and green copper beyond. Then the island came over the world’s edge, darkly forested, crimson-splashed by stands of gigantic red blossoms. Lejeune picked out an open spot in the woods, about two kilometers from a village that stood on a wide bay, and landed us with a whoop and a holler. He’s a fireball pilot.

“Well—” Haraszthy rose to his sheer two meters and stretched till his joints cracked. He was burly to match that height, and his hook-nosed face carried the marks of old battles. Most Traders are tough, pragmatic extroverts; they have to be, just as Federal civils have to be the opposite. It makes for conflict, though. “Let’s hike.”

“Not so fast,” Vaughan said: a thin young man with an intense gaze. “That tribe has never seen or heard of our kind. If they noticed us land, they may be in a panic.”

“So we go jolly them out of it,” Haraszthy shrugged.

“Our whole party? Are you serious?” Commander Baldinger asked. He reflected a bit. “Yes, I suppose you are. But I’m responsible now. Lejeune and Cathcart, stand by here. We others will proceed to the village.”

“Just like that?” Vaughan protested.

“You know a better way?” Haraszthy answered.

“As a matter of fact—” But nobody listened. The government operates on some elaborate theories, and Vaughan was still too new in Survey to understand how often theory has to give way. We were impatient to go outside, and I regretted not being sent along to town. Of course, someone had to stay, ready to pull out our emissaries if serious trouble developed.

We emerged into long grass and a breeze that smelled of nothing so much as cinnamon. Trees rustled overhead, against a deep blue sky; the reddish sunlight spilled across purple wildflowers and bronze-colored insect wings. I drew a savoring breath before going around with Lejeune to make sure our landing gear was properly set. We were all lightly clad; Baldinger carried a blast rifle and Haraszthy a radiocom big enough to contact Dannicar, but both seemed ludicrously inappropriate.

“I envy the Jorillians,” I remarked.

“In a way,” Lejeune said. “Though perhaps their environment is too good. What stimulus have they to advance further?”

“Why should they want to?”

“They don’t, consciously, my old. But every intelligent race is descended from animals that once had a hard struggle to survive, so hard they were forced to evolve brains. There is an instinct for adventure, even in the gentlest herbivorous beings, and sooner or later it must find expression—”

“Holy jumping Judas!”

Haraszthy’s yell brought Lejeune and me bounding back to that side of the ship. For a moment my reason wobbled. Then I decided the sight wasn’t really so strange . . . here.

A girl was emerging from the woods. She was about the equivalent of a Terrestrial five-year-old, I estimated. Less than a meter tall (the Jorillians average more short and slender than we), she had the big head of her species to make her look still more elfin. Long blondish hair, round ears, delicate features that were quite humanoid except for the high forehead and huge violet eyes added to the charm. Her brown-skinned body was clad only in a white loincloth. One four-fingered hand waved cheerily at us. The other carried a leash. And at the opposite end of that leash was a grasshopper the size of a hippopotamus.

No, not a grasshopper, I saw as she danced toward us. The head looked similar, but the four walking legs were short and stout, the several others mere boneless appendages. The gaudy hide was skin, not chitin. I saw that the creature breathed with lungs, too. Nonetheless it was a startling monster; and it drooled.

“Insular genus,” Vaughan said. “Undoubtedly harmless, or she wouldn’t— But a child, coming so casually—!”

Baldinger grinned and lowered his rifle. “What the hell,” he said, “to a kid everything’s equally wonderful. This is a break for our side. She’ll give us a good recommendation to her elders.”

The little girl (damn it, I will call her that) walked to within a meter of Haraszthy, turned those big eyes up and up till they met his piratical face, and trilled with an irresistible smile:

“Please, mister, could I have a cracker for my oontatherium?”

* * *

I don’t quite remember the next few minutes. They were confused. Eventually we found ourselves, the whole five, walking down a sun-speckled woodland path. The girl skipped beside us, chattering like a xylophone. The monster lumbered behind, chewing messily on what we had given it. When the light struck those compound eyes I thought of a jewel chest.

“My name is Mierna,” the girl said, “and my father makes things out of wood, I don’t know what that’s called in English, please tell me, oh, carpentry, thank you, you’re a nice man. My father thinks a lot. My mother makes songs. They are very pretty songs. She sent me out to get some sweet grass for a borning couch, because her assistant wife is going to born a baby soon, but when I saw you come down just the way Pengwil told, I knew I should say hello instead and take you to Taori. That’s our village. We have twenty-five houses. And sheds and a Thinking Hall that’s bigger than the one in Riru. Pengwil said crackers are awful tasty. Could I have one too?”

Haraszthy obliged in a numb fashion. Vaughan shook himself and fairly snapped, “How do you know our language?”

“Why, everybody does in Taori. Since Pengwil came and taught us. That was three days ago. We’ve been hoping and hoping you would come. They’ll be so jealous in Riru! But we’ll let them visit if they ask us nicely.”

“Pengwil . . . a Dannicarian name, all right,” Baldinger muttered. “But they never heard of this island till I showed them our map. And they couldn’t cross the ocean in those dugouts of theirs! It’s against the prevailing winds, and square sails—”

“Oh, Pengwil’s boat can sail right into the wind,” Mierna laughed. “I saw him myself, he took everybody for rides, and now my father’s making a boat like that too, only better.”

“Why did Pengwil come here?” Vaughan asked.

“To see what there was. He’s from a place called Folat. They have such funny names in Dannicar, and they dress funny too, don’t they, mister?”

“Folat . . . yes, I remember, a community a ways north of our camp,” Baldinger said.

“But savages don’t strike off into an unknown ocean for, for curiosity,” I stammered.

“These do,” Haraszthy grunted. I could almost see the relays clicking in his blocky head. There were tremendous commercial possibilities here, foods and textiles and especially the dazzling artwork. In exchange—

“No!” Vaughan exclaimed. “I know what you’re thinking, Trader Haraszthy, and you are not going to bring machines here.”

The big man bridled. “Says who?”

“Says me, by virtue of the authority vested in me. And I’m sure the Council will confirm my decision.” In that soft air Vaughan was sweating. “We don’t dare!”

“What’s a Council?” Mierna asked. A shade of trouble crossed her face. She edged close to the bulk of her animal.

In spite of everything, I had to pat her head and murmur, “Nothing you need worry about, sweetheart.” To get her mind, and my own, off vague fears: “Why do you call this fellow an oontatherium? That can’t be his real name.”

“Oh, no.” She forgot her worries at once. “He’s a yao and his real name is, well, it means Big-Feet-Buggy-Eyes-Top-Man-Underneath-And-Over. That’s what I named him. He’s mine and he’s lovely.” She tugged at an antenna. The monster actually purred. “But Pengwil told us about something called an oont you have at your home, that’s hairy and scary and carries things and drools like a yao, so I thought that would be a nice English name. Isn’t it?”

“Very,” I said weakly.

“What is this oont business?” Vaughan demanded.

Haraszthy ran a hand through his hair. “Well,” he said, “you know I like Kipling, and I read some of his poems to some natives one night at a party. The one about the oont, the camel, yeah, I guess that must have been among ’em. They sure enjoyed Kipling.”

“And had the poem letter-perfect after one hearing, and passed it unchanged up and down the coast, and now it’s crossed the sea and taken hold,” Vaughan choked.

“Who explained that therium is a root meaning ‘mammal’?” I asked. Nobody knew, but doubtless one of our naturalists had casually mentioned it. So five-year-old Mierna had gotten the term from a wandering sailor and applied it with absolute correctness: never mind feelers and insectoidal eyes, the yao was a true mammal.

After a while we emerged in a cleared strip fronting on the bay. Against its glitter stood the village, peak-roofed houses of wood and thatch, a different style from Dannicar’s but every bit as pleasant and well-kept. Outrigger canoes were drawn up on the beach, where fishnets hung to dry. Anchored some way beyond was another boat. The curved, gaily painted hull, twin steering oars, mat sails and leather tackle were like nothing on our poor overmechanized Earth; but she was sloop-rigged, and evidently a deep keel made it impossible to run her ashore.

“I thought so,” Baldinger said in an uneven voice. “Pengwil went ahead and invented tacking. That’s an efficient design. He could cross the water in a week or less.”

“He invented navigation too,” Lejeune pointed out.

The villagers, who had not seen us descend, now dropped their occupations—cooking, cleaning, weaving, potting, the numberless jobs of the primitive—to come on the run. All were dressed as simply as Mierna. Despite large heads, which were not grotesquely big, odd hands and ears, slightly different body proportions, the women were good to look on: too good, after a year’s celibacy. The beardless, long-haired men were likewise handsome, and both sexes were graceful as cats.

They didn’t shout or crowd. Only one exuberant horn sounded, down on the beach. Mierna ran to a grizzled male, seized him by the hand, and tugged him forward. “This is my father,” she crowed. “Isn’t he wonderful? And he thinks a lot. The name he’s using right now, that’s Sarato. I liked his last name better.”

“One wearies of the same word,” Sarato laughed. “Welcome, Earthfolk. You do us great . . . lula . . . pardon, I lack the term. You raise us high by this visit.” His handshake—Pengwil must have told him about that custom—was hard, and his eyes met ours respectfully but unawed.

The Dannicarian communities turned what little government they needed over to specialists, chosen on the basis of some tests we hadn’t yet comprehended. But these people didn’t seem to draw even that much class distinction. We were introduced to everybody by occupation: hunter, fisher, musician, prophet (I think that is what nonalo means), and so on. There was the same absence of taboo here as we had noticed in Dannicar, but an equally elaborate code of manners—which they realized we could not be expected to observe.

Pengwil, a strongly built youth in the tunic of his own culture, greeted us. It was no coincidence that he’d arrived at the same spot as we. Taori lay almost exactly west of his home area, and had the best anchorage on these shores. He was bursting with desire to show off his boat. I obliged him, swimming out and climbing aboard. “A fine job,” I said with entire honesty. “I have a suggestion, though. For sailing along coasts, you don’t need a fixed keel.” I described a centerboard. “Then you can ground her.”

“Yes, Sarato thought of that after he had seen my work. He has started one of such pattern already. He wants to do away with the steering oars also, and have a flat piece of wood turn at the back end. Is that right?”

“Yes,” I said after a strangled moment.

“It seemed so to me.” Pengwil smiled. “The push of water can be split in two parts like the push of air. Your Mister Ishihara told me about splitting and rejoining forces. That was what gave me the idea for a boat like this.”

We swam back and put our clothes on again. The village was abustle, preparing a feast for us. Pengwil joined them. I stayed behind, walking the beach, too restless to sit. Staring out across the waters and breathing an ocean smell that was almost like Earth’s, I thought strange thoughts. They were broken off by Mierna. She skipped toward me, dragging a small wagon.

“Hello, Mister Cathcart!” she cried. “I have to gather seaweed for flavor. Do you want to help me?”

“Sure,” I said.

She made a face. “I’m glad to be here. Father and Kuaya and a lot of the others, they’re asking Mister Lejeune about ma-the-matics. I’m not old enough to like functions. I’d like to hear Mister Haraszthy tell about Earth, but he’s talking alone in a house with his friends. Will you tell me about Earth? Can I go there someday?”

I mumbled something. She began to bundle leafy strands that had washed ashore. “I didn’t used to like this job,” she said. “I had to go back and forth so many times. They wouldn’t let me use my oontatherium because he gets buckety when his feet are wet. I told them I could make him shoes, but they said no. Now it’s fun anyway, with this, this, what do you call it?”

“A wagon. You haven’t had such a thing before?”

“No, never, just drags with runners. Pengwil told us about wheels. He saw the Earthfolk use them. Carpenter Huanna started putting wheels on the drags right away. We only have a few so far.”

I looked at the device, carved in wood and bone, a frieze of processional figures around the sides. The wheels weren’t simply attached to axles. With permission, I took the cover off one and saw a ring of hard-shelled spherical nuts. As far as I knew, nobody had explained ball bearings to Pengwil.

“I’ve been thinking and thinking,” Mierna said. “If we made a great big wagon, then an oontatherium could pull it, couldn’t he? Only we have to have a good way for tying the oontatherium on, so he doesn’t get hurt and you can guide him. I’ve thinked . . . thought of a real nice way.” She stooped and drew lines in the sand. The harness ought to work.

With a full load, we went back among the houses. I lost myself in admiration of the carved pillars and panels. Sarato emerged from Lejeune’s discussion of group theory (the natives had already developed that, so the talk was a mere comparison of approaches) to show me his obsidian-edged tools. He said the coast dwellers traded inland for the material, and spoke of getting steel from us. Or might we be so incredibly kind as to explain how metal was taken from the earth?

The banquet, music, dances, pantomimes, conversation, all was as gorgeous as expected, or more so. I trust the happy-pills we humans took kept us from making too grim an impression. But we disappointed our hosts by declining an offer to spend the night. They guided us back by torch-glow, singing the whole distance, on a twelve-tone scale with some of the damnedest harmony I have ever come across. Mierna was at the tail of the parade. She stood a long time in the coppery light of the single great moon, waving to us.

* * *

Baldinger set out glasses and a bottle of Irish. “Okay,” he said. “Those pills have worn off by now, but we need an equivalent.”

“Hoo, yes!” Haraszthy grabbed the bottle.

“I wonder what their wine will be like, when they invent that?” Lejeune mused.

“Be still!” Vaughan said. “They aren’t going to.”

We stared at him. He sat shivering with tension, under the cold fluoroluminance in that bleak little cabin.

“What the devil do you mean?” Haraszthy demanded at last. “If they can make wine half as well as they do everything else, it’ll go for ten credits a liter on Earth.”

“Don’t you understand?” Vaughan cried. “We can’t deal with them. We have to get off this planet and— Oh, God, why did we have to find the damned thing?” He groped for a glass.

“Well,” I sighed, “we always knew, those of us who bothered to think about the question, that someday we were bound to meet a race like this. Man . . . what is man that Thou art mindful of him?”

“This is probably an older star than Sol,” Baldinger nodded. “Less massive, so it stays longer on the main sequence.”

“There needn’t be much difference in planetary age,” I said. “A million years, half a million, whatever the figure is, hell, that doesn’t mean a thing in astronomy or geology. In the development of an intelligent race, though—”

“But they’re savages!” Haraszthy protested.

“Most of the races we’ve found are,” I reminded him. “Man was too, for most of his existence. Civilization is a freak. It doesn’t come natural. Started on Earth, I’m told, because the Middle East dried out as the glaciers receded and something had to be done for a living when the game got scarce. And scientific, machine civilization, that’s a still more unusual accident. Why should the Jorillians have gone beyond an Upper Paleolithic technology? They never needed to.”

“Why do they have the brains they do, if they’re in the stone age?” Haraszthy argued.

“Why did we, in our own stone age?” I countered. “It wasn’t necessary for survival. Java man, Peking man, and the low-browed rest, they’d been doing all right. But evidently evolution, intraspecies competition, sexual selection . . . whatever increases intelligence in the first place continues to force it upward, if some new factor like machinery doesn’t interfere. A bright Jorillian has more prestige, rises higher in life, gets more mates and children, and so it goes. But this is an easy environment, at least in the present geological epoch. The natives don’t even seem to have wars, which would stimulate technology. Thus far they’ve had little occasion to use those tremendous minds for anything but art, philosophy, and social experimentation.”

“What is their average IQ?” Lejeune whispered.

“Meaningless,” Vaughan said dully. “Beyond 180 or so, the scale breaks down. How can you measure an intelligence so much greater than your own?”

There was a stillness. I heard the forest sough in the night around us.

“Yes,” Baldinger ruminated, “I always realized that our betters must exist. Didn’t expect we’d run into them in my own lifetime, however. Not in this microscopic sliver of the galaxy that we’ve explored. And . . . well, I always imagined the Elders having machines, science, space travel.”

“They will,” I said.

“If we go away—” Lejeune began.

“Too late,” I said. “We’ve already given them this shiny new toy, science. If we abandon them, they’ll come looking for us in a couple of hundred years. At most.”

Haraszthy’s fist crashed on the table. “Why leave?” he roared. “What the hell are you scared of? I doubt the population of this whole planet is ten million. There are fifteen billion humans in the Solar System and the colonies! So a Jorillian can outthink me. So what? Plenty of guys can do that already, and it don’t bother me as long as we can do business.”

Baldinger shook his head. His face might have been cast in iron. “Matters aren’t that simple. The question is what race is going to dominate this arm of the galaxy.”

“Is it so horrible if the Jorillians do?” Lejeune asked softly.

“Perhaps not. They seem pretty decent. But—” Baldinger straightened in his chair. “I’m not going to be anybody’s domestic animal. I want my planet to decide her own destiny.”

That was the unalterable fact. We sat weighing it for a long and wordless time.

The hypothetical superbeings had always seemed comfortably far off. We hadn’t encountered them, or they us. Therefore they couldn’t live anywhere near. Therefore they probably never would interfere in the affairs of this remote galactic fringe where we dwell. But a planet only months distant from Earth; a species whose average member was a genius and whose geniuses were not understandable by us: bursting from their world, swarming through space, vigorous, eager, jumping in a decade to accomplishments that would take us a century—if we ever succeeded—how could they help but destroy our painfully built civilization? We’d scrap it ourselves, as the primitives of our old days had scrapped their own rich cultures in the overwhelming face of Western society. Our sons would laugh at our shoddy triumphs, go forth to join the high Jorillian adventure, and come back spirit-broken by failure, to build some feeble imitation of an alien way of life and fester in their hopelessness. And so would every other thinking species, unless the Jorillians were merciful enough to leave them alone.

Which the Jorillians probably would be. But who wants that kind of mercy?

I looked upon horror. Only Vaughan had the courage to voice the thing:

“There are planets under technological blockade, you know. Cultures too dangerous to allow modern weapons, let alone spaceships. Joril can be interdicted.”

“They’ll invent the stuff for themselves, now they’ve gotten the idea,” Baldinger said.

Vaughan’s mouth twitched downward. “Not if the only two regions that have seen us are destroyed.”

“Good God!” Haraszthy leaped to his feet.

“Sit down!” Baldinger rapped.

Haraszthy spoke an obscenity. His face was ablaze. The rest of us sat in a chill sweat.

“You’ve called me unscrupulous,” the Trader snarled. “Take that suggestion back to the hell it came from, Vaughan, or I’ll kick our your brains.”

I thought of nuclear fire vomiting skyward, and a wisp of gas that had been Mierna, and said, “No.”

“The alternative,” Vaughan said, staring at the bulkhead across from him, “is to do nothing until the sterilization of the entire planet has become necessary.”

Lejeune shook his head in anguish. “Wrong, wrong, wrong. There can be too great a price for survival.”

“But for our children’s survival? Their liberty? Their pride and—”

“What sort of pride can they take in themselves, once they know the truth?” Haraszthy interrupted. He reached down, grabbed Vaughan’s shirt front, and hauled the man up by sheer strength. His broken features glared three centimeters from the Federal’s. “I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,” he said. “We’re going to trade, and teach, and xenologize, and fraternize, the same as with any other people whose salt we’ve eaten. And take our chances like men!”

“Let him go,” Baldinger commanded. Haraszthy knotted a fist. “If you strike him, I’ll brig you and prefer charges at home. Let him go, I said!”

Haraszthy opened his grasp. Vaughan tumbled to the deck. Haraszthy sat down, buried his head in his hands, and struggled not to sob.

Baldinger refilled our glasses. “Well, gentlemen,” he said, “it looks like an impasse. We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t, and I lay odds no Jorillian talks in such tired clichés.”

“They could give us so much,” Lejeune pleaded.

“Give!” Vaughan climbed erect and stood trembling before us. “That’s p-p-precisely the trouble. They’d give it! If they could, even. It wouldn’t be ours. We probably couldn’t understand their work, or use it, or . . . It wouldn’t be ours, I say!”

Haraszthy stiffened. He sat like stone for an entire minute before he raised his face and whooped aloud.

“Why not?”

* * *

Blessed be whiskey. I actually slept a few hours before dawn. But the light, stealing in through the ports, woke me then and I couldn’t get back to sleep. At last I rose, took the drop-shaft down, and went outside.

The land lay still. Stars were paling, but the east held as yet only a rush of ruddiness. Through the cool air I heard the first bird-flutings from the dark forest mass around me. I kicked off my shoes and went barefoot in wet grass.

Somehow it was not surprising that Mierna should come at that moment, leading her oontatherium. She let go the leash and ran to me. “Hi, Mister Cathcart! I hoped a lot somebody would be up. I haven’t had any breakfast.”

“We’ll have to see about that.” I swung her in the air till she squealed. “And then maybe like a little flyaround in this boat. Would you like that?”

“Oooh!” Her eyes grew round. I set her down. She needed a while longer before she dared ask, “Clear to Earth?”

“No, not that far, I’m afraid. Earth is quite a ways off.”

“Maybe someday? Please?”

“Someday, I’m quite sure, my dear. And not so terribly long until then, either.”

“I’m going to Earth, I’m going to Earth, I’m going to Earth.” She hugged the oontatherium. “Will you miss me awfully, Big-Feet-Buggy-Eyes-Top-Man-Underneath-And-Over? Don’t drool so sad. Maybe you can come too. Can he, Mister Cathcart? He’s a very nice oontatherium, honest he is, and he does so love crackers.”

“Well, perhaps, perhaps not,” I said. “But you’ll go, if you wish. I promise you. Anybody on this whole planet who wants to will go to Earth.”

As most of them will. I’m certain our idea will be accepted by the Council. The only possible one. If you can’t lick ’em . . . get ’em to jine you.

I rumpled Mierna’s hair. In a way, sweetheart, what a dirty trick to play on you! Take you straight from the wilderness to a huge and complicated civilization. Dazzle you with all the tricks and gadgets and ideas we have, not because we’re better but simply because we’ve been at it a little longer than you. Scatter your ten million among our fifteen billion. Of course you’ll fall for it. You can’t help yourselves. When you realize what’s happening, you won’t be able to stop, you’ll be hooked. I don’t think you’ll even be able to resent it.

You’ll be assimilated, Mierna. You’ll become an Earth girl. Naturally, you’ll grow up to be one of our leaders. You’ll contribute tremendous things to our civilization, and be rewarded accordingly. But the whole point is, it will be our civilization. Mine . . . and yours.

I wonder if you’ll ever miss the forest, though, and the little houses by the bay, and the boats and songs and old, old stories, yes, and your darling oontatherium. I know the empty planet will miss you, Mierna. So will I.

“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go build us that breakfast.”

We are fucked

Ukraine is starting to tumble.

Head over heels, and the West is starting to realize that it is really over.

And thus…

We start with some Hall Turner fear-mongering…

60 FIRED !!!! Trump Purges Republican National Committee Staff

World Hal Turner 11 March 2024

With President Trump now the Presumptive Nominee for the Republican Nomination for President of the United States, he and his campaign earned the right to staff the Republican National Committee (RNC)

Today, they FIRED 60 people from RNC jobs!

This was long overdue.

The RNC was filled with anti-Trump, globalist, NWO-types who were selling this country out in every way they could. Mental Weaklings who thought they should go along to get along . . . . and losing race after race. That was all brought to an abrupt end today.

I am told “More firings are coming.”

This, too, will be a welcome change.

ANY person who made even a single utterance against Trump or his “America First” policies, need to be shown the door. The one thing the NWO Globalist types have shown, is they are SNEAKS. They talk a good story but when they think no one hears, or no one is looking, they sabotage, back-bite, and sew discord. OUT THE DOOR with all of them!

These people get it

Slovakia Prime Minister . . .”Lie Doomed on our Balcony . . . waiting for World Apocalypse”

World Hal Turner 10 March 2024

“All We Can Do is Lie Doomed On The Balcony With A Cognac And A Cigar, Waiting For The World Apocalypse”

Slovak Prime Minister Fico: “The West sees that, despite significant assistance, despite anti-Russian sanctions, Ukraine is simply not capable of winning. And if we send military personnel from the EU and NATO to Ukraine, all we can do is lie doomed on the balcony with cognac and a cigar, waiting for the world apocalypse.”

Hal Turner Analysis

The fact that the Prime Minister of Slovakia said these words Sunday evening is proof that the “idea” of French President Macron, for NATO member countries to send their troops into Ukraine under “Bi-lateral Security Agreements” was far more than just bluster or posturing. Clearly, the suggestion of the French President is under active consideration.

Were it anything else, there would be no reason for the Prime Minister to make such a statement.

The world is moving faster and faster toward an actual nuclear conflict with Russia. The general public in Europe and the United States remain blissfully unaware because the mass media has utterly failed in its job to report the serious and world-changing events developing in Ukraine.

I have done, and continue to do, my best, to keep you informed of the important developments overseas.

These comments by the Prime Minister of Slovakia cannot be taken lightly – at all.

Intention

UPDATED 3-12-2024 — Rest Easy Britain; THIS is what’s protecting you!

World Hal Turner 10 March 2024

The Military sales pitch doesn’t match the reality. That’s a conclusion being drawn by many after seeing what happened to a “Challenger 2” Tank on the Battlefields of Ukraine: Russia eats them for breakfast!

Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land is a large Defense Contractor. They make various types of equipment and tout the reliability of that equipment. Here’s what they say they do:

As an integrated technology group, the listed company Rheinmetall AG, headquartered in Düsseldorf, stands for a company that is as strong in substance as it is successful internationally, and that is active in various markets with an innovative range of products and services. Rheinmetall is a leading international systems supplier in the defence industry and at the same time a driver of forward-looking technological and industrial innovations in the civilian markets. The focus on sustainability is an integral part of Rheinmetall’s strategy. The company aims to achieve CO2 neutrality by 2035.

Through our work in various fields, we at Rheinmetall take on responsibility in a dramatically changing world. With our technologies, products and systems, we create the indispensable basis for peace, freedom and sustainable development: security.

They manufacture the “Challenger 2” Tank.

Here’s how they advertise some of it:

The sales pitch is straight forward:

But the Sales Pitch doesn’t seem to match the reality.

Here’s the reality from the battlefields of Ukraine:

That is a “Challenger 2” Main Battle Tank built by Rheinmetall / BAE Systems Land.

The sales pitch says it can operate in “high intensity conflict.” In reality . . . . apparently not so much.

Wow! Turret blasted out of the hole in the center top of the tank, where it used to rest. Wheels blown off and/or melted. Tracks destroyed. Side armor over tracks and wheels blown to smitherines.

Somehow, this does not look as one might expect a “main battle tank” to look, on a battlefield.

What did this tank encounter that killed it? The Russian Army.

If this is the best that NATO has to offer, then as a layman, I can’t help but feel NATO is sadly lacking. Deluding themselves as to the “superiority” of their forces.

If these are what would be put up against Russia, it seems to me NATO doesn’t have a chance!

But that’s not __really__ the point, now, is it?

The actual point is how much these tanks cost taxpayers, and how much the military-industrial-complex (MIC) can pocket. I asked Google “How much does a Challenger 2 tank cost.

So presuming Google is correct, for $4.9 MILLION dollars each, taxpayers can rest easy knowing this is “protecting” them.

Or . . . maybe not rest so easy after seeing what happens in the real world!

OK, to heck with resting easy, just pay the money and buy more tanks . . . the MIC has to earn profit! They have to donate to political campaigns so the politicians they get elected can . . . buy more tanks!

You really shouldn’t be paying attention to stories like this; might be bad for Rheinmetall/ BAE Systems Land, sales.

Large Number of E-6B “Doomsday” Planes Airborne over CONUS

Nation Hal Turner 12 March 2024

Large Number of E-6B "Doomsday" Planes Airborne over CONUS

Six e-6B “Mercury” aircraft are airborne over the continental United States (CONUS) today. Each is a Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications plane!

The E-6B Mercury is a communications relay and strategic airborne command post aircraft. It provides survivable, reliable, and endurable airborne Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) for the president, secretary of defense and U.S. Strategic Command. Two operational squadrons (“Ironmen” of VQ-3 and “Shadows” of VQ-4) deploy from their main Operating Base at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, supported by the TACAMO Weapons School and the fleet replacement squadron (the “Roughnecks” of VQ-7). They deploy aircrews to Forward Operating Bases at Travis Air Force Base, California; Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska; Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.; and other locations, as directed.

Here are the E-6 planes over the continental United States March 12, 2024:

Boeing derived the E-6A from its commercial 707 to replace the aging EC-130Q in the performance of the Navy’s TACAMO mission. TACAMO links the National Command Authority (NCA) with naval ballistic missile forces during times of crisis. The aircraft carries a Very Low Frequency communication system with dual trailing wire antennas. The Navy accepted the first E-6A in August 1989.

The E-6B was conceived as a replacement for the Air Force’s Airborne Command Post due to the age of the EC-135 fleet. The E-6B modified an E-6A by adding battlestaff positions and other specialized equipment. The E-6B is a dual-mission aircraft capable of fulfilling either the no-fail TACAMO mission or the Looking Glass mission, which facilitates the launch of U.S. land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles using an airborne launch control system (ALCS). The Navy accepted the first E-6B aircraft in December 1997 and the E-6B assumed its dual operational mission in October 1998. The E-6 fleet was completely modified to the E-6B configuration in 2003.

Why there are SIX of these aircraft operating over CONUS today, is unknown. Drill? Threat?

Salsa Jim’s Pork Tenderloin

This is a recipe “invented” by my late friend “Salsa” Jim. Jim was a graduate of Scottsdale Culinary Institute. He loved to dream up new recipes. In addition, he entered the Salsa Challenge in Scottsdale, Arizona, every year. I was always there to support him and to help him work the booth. The “Challenge” is for the benefit of the Hemophilia Association which was Salsa Jim’s favorite charity.

Ingredients

1 (4 pound) pork tenderloin
5 ribs celery, cut 3 inches long
5 carrots, cut 3 inches long
3 onions, cut into quarters
1 (15 ounce) can pineapple juice
8 ounces brown sugar
Water as needed
Salt and pepper as needed

Instructions

Heat oven to 300 degrees F.
Place vegetables in roasting pan; add juice, brown sugar, water and pork loin (you may need to truss the pork). Salt and pepper top as needed. Cover with foil. You want to cook this slowly, about 25 to 30 minutes per pound, and it will be very tender.
With the juice in the pan, you can make a gravy. For a good gravy you should make a roux which is equal parts flour to butter or margarine. Make the roux ahead of time and add to the hot liquid, stirring with a whip. Let cook for about 30 minutes to cook out flour.

Notes

“This gravy will surprise everyone. Most people can’t figure what is in it, + it’s delicious!” ~ Jim

What are some fascinating psychological facts about attracting people?

1. Symmetrical Faces

Studies show that people with symmetrical faces are thought to be the most attractive compared to asymmetrical faces. If you find yourself attracted to someone with a symmetrical face, blame it on biology

2. Parental Resemblance

Also known as the Oedipus Syndrome, research shows that 90% of people are attracted to others who resemble their parents. If your parents we young when you were born, you will find younger people attractive. If you had older parents when you were born, you will find older face

3. Wearing Red

Studies show that wearing red color clothing will make people attracted to you. This is true for both men and women because the color red is considered superior. Another study also shows that the attraction to red is unconscious so if you are trying to attract that special someone, why not take out that sexy red dress!

4. Smiling

Research suggest that men find women very attractive when they smile while women find men who smile less often more attractive. If you are a gal, try smiling more, and if you are a guy, stay stern!

5. Higher Pitched Voices

If a woman finds a man attractive, she will automatically and unconsciously begin to speak in a very high pitched voice. Try not to let him know that you have a crush by lowering

6. Weight & Height

Studies show that women who weigh 10 kilograms more than they should find a harder time finding dates. Men on the other hand are less attractive if they are shorter than they should be by a few inches. Start losing some of those extra pounds girls and guys, try wearing some shoe pads.

7. Large Boobs

Studies show that men are more attracted to women with large boobs. Some researchers believe that this is because women with larger breasts produce more milk for their offsprings.

8. Beards

Many studies show that women find men with long beards more attractive than men with none. They also state that this is because men with beards look stronger and more responsible. Other studies show that men with beards make better parents.

9. Younger & Older

Studies show that women are more attracted to older men while men are more attracted to younger women. This is because men find women who are younger to be more fertile while women find men who are older to be more caring, Research shows that men with large bellies are found less attractive and vice versa. Try getting rid of that belly fat!Research shows that men with large bellies are found less attractive and vice versa. Try getting rid of that belly fat!

10. Competing

Studies show that people find others attractive when they see that the person is getting attention from others. If a man sees a woman being smiled at by another man, he will automatically find that woman attractive as well. This is because humans are born competitive

11. Large Belly

Research shows that men with large bellies are found less attractive and vice versa. Try getting rid of that belly fat!

12. Copying

Studies show that when two people are in love or attracted to each other, they will begin to copy each other’s actions.

13. Money

Research shows that women are more attracted to men with wealth while men are attracted to women of youth and beauty.

14. First Move

If you met someone who thought that you were attractive while he or she was drunk or drinking, you need to evaluate your encounter. Research shows that people who are drunk tend to find everyone attractive that the person who makes the first move in a relationship is the one who is more attractive and feels the most attraction.

15. Adrenaline’

Research shows that adrenaline has a lot to do with attraction! Apparently, people find others more attractive when they themselves are experiencing an adrenaline rush!

16. Alcohol

17.Flexing

Research shows that if a man is attracted to a woman, he will unconsciously begin to flex his body or position himself in a way that will show off his best features.

Conclusion

Now you understand the psychological facts about the attraction between two people.

See me…

What is a disturbing fact most people are unaware of?

60-year-old mechanic Philip Hoe was admitted to hospital with a serious skin condition.

He was, however, a heavy (I’m talking 20-a-day) smoker, and wasn’t quite ready to give that up just yet. Unfortunately, this craving led to a pivotal moment in his life—and not in a good way.

A few years prior, he was receiving skin treatment at a hospital, but went into the toilets to have a smoke—which wasn’t allowed in the hospital.

Doing this, he managed to burn his dressing gown—but nothing that posed a threat to his life.

[1] But a similar situation struck in 2006, and he wouldn’t be able to cheat death so easily this time.

He was now at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, yet again getting more treatment for his psoriasis. His nurse had moisturised his body by smearing him with several ointments, which was meant to soothe the skin.

Hoe had then been warned not to smoke, as it was not permitted in the hospital—and to add to that, it really wouldn’t have been a good idea when he was covered head to toe in liquid paraffin.

[2] But when no-one was around, Hoe snuck out onto the hospital fire escape (the access of which was prohibited) to have a quick smoke—almost like the plot to a tragic comedy.

‘The victim, obviously a smoker, had slipped away from a ward for a crafty fag and was in the enclosed stairwell of a fire escape.’

But this cigarette craving would prove to be fatal.

Percy Smith, another patient at the hospital, who was watching Emmerdale at the time, suddenly heard shouts from the stairwell:

‘… I heard a male shouting help me. The shouting was over and over again. He was screaming as if he was in a lot of pain.’

A gust of wind had caused the cigarette flame to spread to his entire body, and set him alight like a human bonfire.

‘His body was engulfed from head to foot in flames. He was stood upright not moving, just screaming for help.’

Immediately a student nurse and sister grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to douse the flames, but he was left with 90 percent of his body with third-degree burns.

He was transferred to another hospital but died shortly after.

This isn’t at all a unique, stand-alone case—the BBC led an investigation in 2017 and found that skin creams containing paraffin were linked to several fire deaths across the UK—a fact uncommon, but still disturbing.

Hoe’s life came to a bitter and unfortunate end—albeit preventable, if he had not acted on his impulse to smoke—although that is, to be fair, easier said than done.

Footnotes

[1] Fire tragedy of skin patient who couldn’t resist smoking

[2] Skin creams linked to deaths in fires

Big change from Biden

If someone calls your job and asks for you by name, what should you say?

Nothing with “yes” in the response. I learned that one the hard way. They asked for a guy who had passed away 5 years previously.

“Is this [Company Name]?” (after I had already greeted them with the company name)

“Yes, it is.”

“Hi, Dan. This is [rep from some telecom company I’ve never heard of]” (why would someone assume that the person who answers the phone is the person they want to talk with?)

“Dan is longer with us.”

“Oh, well, who am I speaking to?” (not knowing any better, I give them my name)

“What is this regarding?”

“Like, I said, I’m calling on behalf of [our provider] to offer a better rate than your current provider. (then goes on with their spiel regarding their “exclusive” rates, not letting me a word in to tell them to add us to their do not call list) Sounds good, right? I’ll pass you through to our confirmation department to get you signed up.”

“But…”

“This is the confirmation department. Am I speaking to [Me]?”

“Yes, but…”

“And I have you as the person who makes the decisions on your telecom services?”

“No.”

“May I speak to Dan, then?”

“Put us on your do not call list.”

“Was there something we said or did?”

“Yes. You wouldn’t let me talk. I was patched through without getting a chance to say that we already use the provider you’re trying to switch us to. Plus, Dan died 5 years ago.”

“Oh, well, I’m sorry. We’ll get this taken care of for you.”

2 weeks later, we received bill from the no-name place for a new number with a ton of features we would never use, even if we had ordered a new number. My boss called them, and they played the call they made to Dan but with my voice “agreeing” to everything they were offering. I was in trouble for it, until you could hear the same background noise from the radio for each “yes” they played. We reported them to the FCC and AG but no idea what came of it other than receiving no bills from them after that.

China LATEST Hypersonic Missiles Can Reach Up To 6500 MPH & Impossible To Stop

As a police officer, what is the one moment where you thought “I might not survive this”?

I had stopped a car for a speeding violation. The second I put my car in park, the hair stood up on the back of my neck. Of a countless number of traffic stops I made, never had this happened to me. I was actually scared and didn’t know why. I finally approached the vehicle. The guy driving never spoke a word, kept looking forward and never took his hands off the wheel. Until he retrieved his license and registration, then he was back to his frozen state. Not moving, not talking.

I was scared to death and finally got back to my car, and wrote this guy a couple of tickets. The feeling of fear never went away. Wrote the tickets, and approached the vehicle again, had him sign his tickets. Normally I would tell them to slow down or make repairs before court and start back to my car.

However, this guy had me freaked out. And all I could say was, you need to leave right now. I took a few steps back and he started to drive off. As he went around a curve and his tail lights disappeared, the feeling of fear was gone, my hair laid down, and I felt fine.

Court rolls around and he was not in court but his attorney was. I testified. The attorney asked no questions and the judge asked where his client was.

The attorney informed the judge that his client was in jail for pending murder charges. The attorney went on to say the night I had stopped the guy, he had just murdered his wife and kids and was on the way to kill his parents when I pulled him over.

The neighboring state never sent any information to anyone. Even though they were aware he was going to drive through part of my state to get to his parents.

Luckily once he returned to the neighboring state, they had officers there waiting for him. So he never made it to mom and dad.

Redneck boy

What are some unwritten rules of everyday life?

1. Don’t call someone continuously more than once unless it’s a really urgent matter and if they don’t pick up, wait until they return the call. They might be sleeping, sick, busy, or have something important going on.

. 2. When someone treats you to lunch or dinner, don’t buy the most expensive dish on the menu. Also, treat them the next time.

3.Only suggest splitting the cheque evenly if your dish is the least expensive among the rest.

4.Don’t lend out what you borrowed. If it is not yours, don’t act as if it is.

5. If you borrow money from someone, return it, even before they ask for it.

6. If you borrow someone’s car, fill up the tank before you return it.

7. Say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’

8. Be nice and kind to waiters, cleaners, helpers, drivers, or anyone offering you a service and treat them with the same respect you’d give a manager or a CEO

9. Don’t interrupt the person speaking. Wait until they finish then say what you want.

10. When someone is speaking directly to you, give them your attention.

11. Two things you shouldn’t offer unless you are asked, an opinion and advice.

12. Respect others’ personal space and privacy

13. If someone shows you a photo on their phone, don’t swipe left or right. If they want to show you what’s next they’ll do it.

14. When you wrong someone, say ‘Sorry’ and don’t ruin your apology with unnecessary excuses just to justify what you’ve done.

15. Don’t break your promise, or don’t make one if you are not sure you can keep it.

16. When someone tells you a secret, take it with you to your grave, even if you wake up as enemies the next morning.

17. Don’t make plans in front of those you are not willing to invite, especially if it is at your place, your birthday, or a special occasion.

18. Don’t whisper something to someone when it is only one more person sitting with you two.

19. Never go to someone’s place uninvited or without letting them know you are passing by in advance.

20.smile

What are some good examples of “life isn’t fair”?

Ernest Hemingway’s life wasn’t fair.

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His life was tragic.

His dad was an abusive alcoholic who killed himself. He hated his mother for many reasons — perhaps in part because she dressed him like a girl when he was a boy — and he blamed her for the suicide of his father and resented her for it for his entire adult life. He expressed thoughts about killing both of his parents at different points in his childhood.

Allegedly, 3 of his siblings also committed suicide throughout their lives.

Still, Hemingway managed to do quite well for himself.

As an adult, he lived a hyper-masculine, womanizing, adventurous life. He was in both world wars, survived 2 plane crashes, and held a lifelong obsession with bullfighting. He also was one of the successful writers of the early 1900s. He’s a legend when it comes to writing.

But his personal life was not good. His actions affected other people very negatively.

He married 4 times and dealt with lifelong alcohol dependence. He was a cheater, a womanizer, brilliant, and likely manic bipolar like his father — although it was never diagnosed.

He committed suicide by gunshot in middle age — just like his father.

But did Hemingway ever really have a chance?

His mother dressed him as a girl when he was in his earliest years and in the process of forming his identity. It’s no wonder he ended up going down a hyper-masculine route. He was abused, traumatized, and watched people around him kill themselves for his entire life.

He was obsessed with death and suicide. He thought about it often.

He also dealt with chronic pain, alcoholism (that he never got under control), PTSD, and after the plane crashes in Africa, a fractured skull among other injuries.

Yes — Hemingway was a great writer — but did he ever have a chance of being “happy”? Of living a normal life? I’m not sure.

The kind of pain that he experienced takes generations to unweave. In terms of having a happy and stable life, Hemingway was playing the game short-handed for his entire existence.

He didn’t win, and he brought a lot of people down with him.

Is it fair for us to blame Hemingway for everything that happened in his life? I don’t know.

What I do know is that life isn’t fair.

Friends for life

Does the loss of a fourth Abrams tank to the Russians confirm the poor performance of these machines?

All four have been lost within days or hours of them being deployed in active fighting which doesn't seem very good to me.

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The battlefield has become much deadlier for tanks in recent years. When the US’s M1 Abrams made its combat debut in Operation Desert Storm, it seemed like an invincible steel beast. In the conflict, Abrams easily decimated Iraqi formations of Soviet tanks, creating a perception that the US military and the systems that made it up were unbeatable. In reality, the Abrams was about a generation ahead of the tanks that it faced in the deserts of Iraq, allowing it easy victories.

Today, 30 years after Desert Storm, the Russians have developed counters to Western tanks like the Abrams. The most important development in armored warfare over the past three decades has been the development and proliferation of modern anti-tank missiles and drones. All tanks have their weak spots. Tanks are generally designed to be most heavily protected from the front. However, the armor on top and sides of tanks tends to be relatively thin. In recent years, a new generation of weapons has come out to exploit those weak spots. Drones and top-attack anti-tank missiles are designed to punch through this weaker armor on the sides and top. Thousands of armored vehicles have been damaged or destroyed by these new weapons in Ukraine.

Despite the fact that the Abrams is one of the best armored tanks in the world at the moment, it has not fared significantly better than the other tanks in the conflict. The M1 was not designed to face drones and top-attack anti-tank missiles. Rather, it was designed to face Soviet armored columns. As such, it has thinner armor on the top and sides like most tanks. In Ukraine Abrams crews are falling prey to the same weapons that have knocked out thousands of Soviet-designed and produced tanks.

The battlefield has shifted in general against tanks since the Abrams made its combat debut. While many in the West hoped that the deployment of Abrams tanks to the conflict would make a significant impact, Abrams have the same weaknesses of many of the other tanks in the conflict. It’s hardly surprising that they are meeting the same fate as every other tank in the conflict.

What’s the best way to go to jail?

I don’t remember his name; he was my very first cellie.

He was probably in his early seventies, thin, tall, and in excellent shape. His bunk looked ready for military inspection at all times — not a wrinkle anywhere — crisp, sharp folds.

main qimg 3571d4bc3d8a0a2cbd63eb6fff91f036 lq

He arrived just a few hours behind me. After making his bed up, he launched into an exercise routine.

I learned later that he had spent forty-seven years behind bars, more time incarcerated than I had been alive at that point. He started off with some minor infraction while in the military, and was sentenced to the brig. When he got out, his dishonorable discharge made it hard to fit back in. He would commit offense after offense and be sent back for increasingly long periods of time.

Life on the installment plan they call it.

He was institutionalized. He couldn’t survive out in “the real world.” Nothing in forty-seven years of prison had ever taught him how to hold down a job or make ends meet on a paycheck.

I suspect he had never known a woman’s love.

He missed the structure, and the… freedom of prison. He didn’t have to work in prison, didn’t have to worry about money or where his next meal would come from.

For this older man, it was a no-brainer. He would just catch a ride in a cop car back to prison. But, how to do that? What would be the quickest and best way back to his cold comfort of bars and bunks?

This man was an expert in that area. If your intent is to catch a charge that will land you in the stony lonesome, I suggest you follow his lead. His method is the answer to this question:

He walked into a bank (federally insured by the FDIC) and presented a note to the teller, “This is a robbery. Please place money in a bag.”

The teller handed him a bag of money, and I can imagine him smiling and giving a wink as he calmly walked out.

Outside, he sat down on the curb, money bag in his lap, and waited for the cops.

By robbing a bank covered by the FDIC, he knows he’s going to a federal prison. These are generally better run than state prisons. By using just a note with no weapon whatsoever, he knows that he’ll go to a lower custody facility.

This is the reality of what prison does. Anyone who believes that a couple decades behind bars will “teach someone a lesson” is right. The lesson is that the world is a dangerous place full of people who don’t want you in it. And, once you’ve been to prison, you might just as well stay there.

Where??? (She’s so confused)

Have you ever met a celebrity who asked you, “Do you know who I am?” and you said no?

I’ve met two celebrities (three, sort of) and one celebrity couple.

Had coffee a few times with Walter Matthau at a drug store soda fountain in Nevada when he was filming Charley Varrick in our community. He didn’t need any intruduction.

Met Clint Eastwood a couple of times when he was hiking trails near Lake Tahoe. I was a forestry officer at the time. We chatted briefly on both occasions. He didn’t need any introduction.

Having coffee at the soda fountain mentioned above, when Carol O’Connor stopped in to but a box of cigars (this was an old fashioned drugstore….lol) and decided to have some coffee before continuing his drive to Lake Tahoe. I didn’t talk to him as he was sitting at the far end of the counter when he struck up a little chat with couple of other local gents. Seemed like a regular guy. He didn’t need any introduction, I sort of count him as a third….lol.

The celebrity couple was the Captain and Tennile. They threw a neighborhood party after a big wildland fire at Glenbrook threatened their home and several others. The party was to thank the firefighters, I was involved in suppressing that fire. Very nice people. They didn’t need any introduction.

I lived in northern Nevada from the mid 50’s to the mid 80’s. There were a lot of celebrities around in those years, most of them were pretty regular people, who appreciated being treated as regular people.

So, quite the opposite of this question. Sorry if you were looking for negative answers.

Ten things

Was there a time in US history when politics were as uncivil as they are now?

On May 20, 1856, Senator Charles Sumner, a Republican from Massachusetts, had just finished a marathon address railing against the depredations of pro-slavery Border Ruffians in the Territory of Kansas. Sumner, the most outspoken anti-slavery voice in the Senate, had among his arguments against pro-slavery forces in Kansas, thrown a number of insults at fellow Senators hailing from slave states. Among the insults hurled during his address was a specific barb at Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina, insinuating that Butler sought to preserve the institution of slavery so he could maintain pliant sexual outlets among his female slaves.

Two days later, May 22, 1856, Butler’s cousin and Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina, grabbed his gutta-percha cane with a gold head and entered the Senate Chamber, flanked by two allies, Representatives Laurence M. Keitt and Henry A. Edmundson (also of South Carolina). The three men waited for the galleries to clear out, ensuring that all the ladies were out of the chamber before making their move.

Brooks approached Senator Sumner, who was at that moment seated close behind a his heavy wooden desk attending to some papers or such, not looking up. Brooks, in a low voice, addressed Sumner with the words: “Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine.”

Sumner made as if to stand and address Brooks. It should be noted here that Sumner was a tall man, and well built. He stood substantially taller than the diminutive Brooks. Before Sumner could reach his feet, Brooks raised the gold-tipped cane and brought it swiftly down on Sumner’s head. Thereafter he continued to rain blows down upon Sumner as the latter fell, and became trapped between the desk and the chair he had so recently been seated in. Initially his hands raised in his own defense, but as the blows continued he became more and more senseless from them, and still Brooks continued striking him.

Several witnesses stepped forward to Sumner’s aide, but Representative Keitt brandished a pistol at anyone who drew too near, snarling at the bystanders to “Let them alone, God damn you, let them alone!”

Brooks continued raining blows on Sumner even after the man had freed himself from his desk and chair, and attempted to flee from him. Blinded by his own blood and knocked senseless by the thrashing, Sumner toppled in one of the aisles in the chamber, where Brooks continued hitting him. Even after the thick cane snapped in twain from the force of the blows, Brooks continued. It was only when two onlookers managed to get past Edmundson and Keitt and restrain him that Brooks collected himself, and exited the chamber.

For his cowardly assault on a defenseless man (with two armed accomplices, no less), Brooks was arrested, tried, and given a $300 fine.

I love the expressions

Have you ever had a bad seatmate on an airplane? What did they do, and how did you deal with it?

A couple of years ago — 2013 if I recall — my family and I were on a flight to the USA for a family holiday.

We were flying on a plane with a 3-a-side seating arrangement, which is not ideal for a family of 4. Unfortunately for me, I had a reputation for being absorbed in books for 100% of a flight and not minding being sat next to strangers, so I was on my own, with my family across the aisle and one row in front of me.

This was in the run up to university admissions, so I was reading A Brief History of Time, since it’s something you feel you should read when applying for a physics degree!

About 20 minutes into this 10 hour flight, the guy in the seat next to me noticed what I was reading, and engaged me in conversation.

We had a fairly pleasant conversation, he was a teacher, and asked me how my university application was going, and so on and so forth — I asked him about his school (which was somewhere in London, if memory serves).

That’s where things started to go downhill.

See, it turns out that this guy wasn’t just a teacher, he was a super racist teacher.

He spent the next half an hour or so ranting about all the “useless brown kids” in his school, how they were all filthy and smelly, that they were all lazy, that their families were (amusingly) simultaneously taking all the benefits and all the local jobs. They were all extremists and terrorists, and he was sure at least two of them had been googling how to build a bomb in one of his classes.

It was like a caricature of a cartoon racist. It was every stereotype all rolled into one.

I was…slightly dumbstruck. What the hell do you say? I was stuck next to this guy for 9 more hours.

I tried to feign disinterest, to try to return to my book, in the hopes that he would shut up. He didn’t, if anything, he got louder to try to get my attention. I’m genuinely not sure what he thought my reaction was.

Luckily, his weak-ass racist bladder came to the rescue, and he had to go to the toilet, as I got up to let him out, I caught the eye of the guy on the other side of the aisle to me (behind my parents) — who was clearly of Middle-Eastern descent.

After my ‘friend’ left, I learned quite how loudly he was talking, because the guy across the aisle turned to me, and asked “is that guy for real?” We had a bit of a chat about what a monumental bellend this guy was, and how sad it was that he was a teacher, an educator, an influencer of young minds. Tragic.

Unfortunately, we were still chatting across the aisle when my new friend returned. As I stood up to let him back in, he noticed who I was talking to, and after we sat down, he asked me if I knew the guy across the aisle.

Sure, I said. He’s my stepdad.

My friend didn’t say another word. For nine, blessed hours.

If you cross them the wrong way, how can a parole or probation officer really mess up your life?

If you were supervising a department full of probation officers, how would you assess their performance?

Ideally, we’d judge how well a PO was doing by how his or her charges were doing. Do they integrate successfully back into the world? Are they all working? Current on their bills? Have they stayed away from whatever got them jammed up in the legal system the last time around?

But, judging a PO this way creates a perverse incentive. It’s like saying, “The less problems you find with your people, the better.” This would quickly morph into POs thinking, “Maybe I shouldn’t be looking too hard at these guys?” And finally, “Well if I do find something, I sure as hell don’t want to report it.”

So, that’s not going to work.

Here’s something the manager can judge POs on: “How many ex-cons did you send back to prison this year?” That’s a goal everyone can feel good about, right?

Just like cops supposedly don’t have quotas, I’m sure POs don’t have this goal *officially* written into their job description. But, if you’re clever, I bet you can find it lurking between the lines.

When I first got out of the halfway house, I was working in a place that was populated 100% by felons, or people who’d had some kind of related rough ride. In spite of being told not to associate with other felons, we all go from halfway houses to crappy jobs being done by people who are just passing through. They’re either looking for something better, or looking to get back into prison.

A woman I worked with lived in a flop house, but her car was her real home. The flop house was just a place to collect mail and make it look semi-stable for when her PO came around.

Her car was everything. It was the one thing that allowed her to function in society. It kept her moving and kept her safe.

Unfortunately, it had problems A faulty thermostat was causing wild temperature swings. At our minimum wage job, neither of us had the money to hire a mechanic. But, I did have a garage and suggested we could replace the thermostat ourselves.

Now… We’re both felons. We’re not *supposed* to “associate.” But, if we don’t help one another, who the hell will?

So, one weekend, she brought her car over and I got the wrenches out. I’m not a great mechanic… I’m not even a good mechanic. Mostly I just enjoy cussing at the thing while working on it, but given enough time I usually get it done.

Her car was right about the half-way point when my PO showed up.

My PO was actually always honest and fair with me. Because of my interactions with the system, I expected the worst. But, true to her word, she never lied to me and treated me with respect at all times. But, she did want to know who the woman was that had suddenly showed up at my apartment with an obviously broken car.

I explained that we were fixing her thermostat. My PO asked her, “Are you on supervision.”

A slight pause, then meekly, “Yes.”

My PO didn’t have any problems with me helping this woman and said so. But, she was required by protocol to contact my friend’s state PO.

The state PO wasn’t nearly so understanding. “You are not to associate with other felons. How many times do I have to say it?”

We did replace the thermostat that day, but the frequent temperature swings had caused the heads to warp. The engine was leaking coolant and possibly some was seeping into the oil. I was no longer an option for her. She had to find someone else (without a record) to help.

She did. She met a guy who agreed to work on her car.

He tore it apart, and then made it clear he wanted sex before he’d put it back together.

Somewhere out there is a state PO who is very bad at her job.

Rude Girlfriend Picks Fight In McDonald’s Only To Be Left Behind & Kicked Out Of BF’s House!

What are some behaviors that indicates you’re dealing with a mature person?

HERE ARE THE “TOP 3″ BEHAVIORS THAT A TRULY MATURE & WISE PERSON WILL EXHIBIT.

They will admit when they are wrong or make a mistake no matter how big or small.
1. The easiest way to determine whether someone is mature as well as honest is how they react to criticism and being wrong. If the person is able to own up to their mistakes without so much as an attitude then you have yourself a wise and truly mature individual. Those of us that arent ashamed to admit we don’t know everything aren’t phased by failure or criticism.
If they have a disagreement with someone they stay calm and listen intently to the opposing persons viewpoint and why they are upset.
1. They do so in order to learn from the conflict and gain a more in depth understanding of the person they are conflicted with. A truly mature and wise person will never scream pointless and hurtful insults at someone as the only thing it accomplishes is to harm both parties. Logic and reason trumps all in their eyes.
You wont catch them talking badly about their peers behind their back.
1. Wise and mature people don’t talk down about people to anyone other than the person they believe has a behavior they need to work on. Talking badly behind anyones back solves nothing and the only thing it shows is that the person talkiing down is immature and shallow. Wise and mature people seek to enlighten those around them the best they can in order to help make the world a more wholesome place.

What was the stupidest thing someone has called the police on you for?

The father of my son called the police on me 5 times in a week while he was trying to manipulate the circumstances so he could find grounds to modify custody. He called saying I didn’t dress our 9-month-old son in cute enough clothes, I had expired tags (3 months expired), no insurance (I did have insurance), and that I wasn’t responding to his messages within 4 minutes. The officers came out to do a well-check the first night. They reported the child in great condition and comfortably sleeping in his crib. That didn’t fit his narrative so, he called the next day for another well-check… he did this every day for a week. After all, said and done, the police started calling me instead of showing up at my door. They saw me drive my expired car tags to drop my kids off at school and never once did they pull me over. They always gave friendly smile and wave. The responding officer said it best “I don’t think he knows how custody or well-checks work.”

Reality hits hard

Humor: What are some of the greatest examples of presence of mind?

I came across one article on Internet and I felt that it was much related to this question but not humorous :—

Fourteen years ago, a massive earthquake hit beneath the Indian ocean, that had triggered a tsunami that claimed over two million lives. It was one of the most destructive natural disasters ever, that devastated parts of Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India.

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While no one – not even the meteorological department – could foresee the deadly waves, a 10-year-old girl spotted the unusual signals of tsunami and saved a 100 people, including her family, from dying.

Hailed as the miracle girl, here’s the story of Tilly Smith’s courage, foresight and presence of mind:-

She was on vaction with her parents and sibling on Maikhov beach in Phuket where she spotted an unusual behaviour of tides and stretched her brain more deep into thoughts as she had seen this kind of thing happening before.

Finally she recalled that this kind of unusual behavior of waves was shown to her by her teacher in Geography class.

That is when she started shouting:

"Tsunami, there’s going to be a tsunami. We have to get off, we have to run."

Seeing her panic her father alarmed Security Guards about the fizzing sea waves. The guard was instantly alarmed as he was aware of the earthquake that had occurred in the Indian Ocean.He asked everyone on the beach to run towards the hotel.

Tilly asked everyone to stay on the high ground.

As a result, everyone on the beach was saved.

When her parents learned about the disaster’s magnitude through Television reports, they realized that if they hadn’t listened to Tilly, all of them would have died.

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The girl on the leftmost corner is Tilly Smith.

Tilly was named Child of the Year by a French children’s newspaper, and United Nations invited her to meet Bill Clinton, then the UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Relief.

Thus her presence of mind and courage helped her save lives of 100 people on beach.

Thank you.

Footnotes:

What makes you mad in your everyday life?

Originally Answered: What makes you mad in your every day life?

Have you ever heard of “Begpackers”?

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They’re really common in Southeast Asia.

These people fly to different countries and beg for money from the locals to continue traveling.

Generally, the purpose of tourism, especially in a developing country like Thailand, is to bring money into their economy and improve their standard of living. That’s why they allow you in here. You get a nice trip and an insight to their culture while they get cash flow into their country.

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However, these people bring no money into the country. The locals, who are often less fortunate than them, give to them out of the kindness of their hearts and from the shock factor of seeing a white person beg in their country. These Begpackers greedily take and give nothing back to the country they’re in.

The worst part is, in Thailand, these Begpackers often post themselves outside of temples. In Buddhism, Thais like to do good deeds to “make merit”. It is similar to building up karma or good works in their religion.

So these Begpackers purposely take advantage of Thai religious practices by posting themselves outside of temples where they know they’ll get a good profit from religious Thais.

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It’s honestly gross. Thailand just enacted a law this month to make it illegal for foreigners to beg (jail time for up to a month) and for local Thais to give to them (500 THB fine). We’ll see if it’s enforced.

She broke the code!

What is the difference between Americans, Canadians, Australians and the British?

OK, I didn’t write this, it has been circulating online for at least 20 years, but it’s still pretty good:

Aussies: Believe you should look out for your mates.
Brits: Believe that you should look out for those people who belong to your club.
Americans: Believe that people should look out for and take care of themselves.
Canadians: Believe that’s the government’s job.

Aussies: Dislike being mistaken for Pommies (Brits) when abroad.
Canadians: Are rather indignant about being mistaken for Americans when abroad.
Americans: Encourage being mistaken for Canadians when abroad.
Brits: Can’t possibly be mistaken for anyone else when abroad.

Canadians: Endure bitterly cold winters and are proud of it.
Brits: Endure oppressively wet and dreary winters and are proud of it.
Americans: Don’t have to do either, and couldn’t care less.
Aussies: Don’t understand what inclement weather means.

Americans: Drink weak, pissy-tasting beer.
Canadians: Drink strong, pissy-tasting beer.
Brits: Drink warm, beery-tasting piss.
Aussies: Drink anything with alcohol in it.

Brits: Drink in proper pubs.
Americans: Drink in soulless bars with big TVs.
Canadians: Drink in places that look like proper British pubs from the outside but feel like soulless American bars inside.
Australians: Think none of this matters as long as beer is served.

Americans: Seem to think that poverty and failure are morally suspect.
Canadians: Seem to believe that wealth and success are morally suspect.
Brits: Seem to believe that wealth, poverty, success, and failure are inherited.
Aussies: Seem to think that none of this matters after several beers.

Brits: Have produced many great comedians, celebrated by Canadians, ignored by Americans, and therefore not rich.
Aussies: Have produced comedians like Paul Hogan and Yahoo Serious.
Canadians: Have produced many great comedians such as John Candy, Martin Short, Jim Carrey, Dan Aykroyd.
Americans: Think that all these people are American!

Americans: Spend most of their lives glued to the idiot box.
Canadians: Don’t, but only because they can’t get more American channels.
Brits: Pay a tax just so they can watch 4 channels.
Aussies: Export all their crappy programs, which no one there watches, to Britain, where everybody loves them.

Americans: Will jabber on incessantly about football, baseball and basketball.
Brits: Will jabber on incessantly about cricket, soccer and rugby.
Canadians: Will jabber on incessantly about hockey, hockey and hockey
Aussies: Will jabber on incessantly about how they beat the Poms in every sport they played them in.

Aussies: Are extremely patriotic about their beer.
Americans: Are flag-waving, anthem-singing, and obsessively patriotic to the point of blindness.
Canadians: Can’t agree on the words to their anthem, in either language, when they can be bothered to sing them.
Brits: Do not sing at all but prefer a large brass band to perform the anthem.

Brits: Shop at home and have goods imported because they live on an island.
Australians: Shop at home and have goods imported because they live on an island.
Americans: Cross their southern border for cheap shopping, gas and liquor in a backwards country.
Canadians: Cross their southern border for cheap shopping, gas and liquor in a backwards country.

Brits: Are justifiably proud of the accomplishments of their past citizens.
Americans: Are justifiably proud of the accomplishments of their present citizens.
Canadians: Prattle on about how some of those great Americans were once Canadian.
Aussies: Waffle on about how some of their past citizens were once Outlaw Pommies, but none of that matters after several beers.

Why do Chinese people often feel they are part of Japan?

They don’t.

Some people do because some Japanese things are cool as they have soft cultural power.

A LOT of Chinese grew up watching Japanese cartoons and animation.

Doremon (which I remember always as Ding Dong) originated from Japan. It’s rather popular in China.

Oh and porn. Production and distribution of porn is illegal in China (possession is a grey area). Japan produces a lot of porn. So much that Japanese AV stars will come to China now and again to do burlesque dance shows, or do hugs and photos for money.

Pre Covid you’d get Japanese AV stars appear in Macau every month or so they’d do some sort of dance show and you could pay a lot of money to get your photo taken with them.

Intolerance

Which is the most stupid lawsuit that you have ever seen?

It’s the closest to a My Cousin Vinny as I can get.. A guy I was seeing only practiced real estate law when the public defender didn’t show up for a defendent and they were going to rearange the court date and this person (who granted, I would never pay for and know their father paid for them to get them past the bar exam) took the case on scene and the defendant complied. The lady was trying to sue the bf for child support purposes, which he had no problem about as long as he had 50/50 custody, but she wanted more money if he wanted half time custody so he asked for a paternity test .. he said it didn’t matter, just to prove that he was willing to go above and beyond for his son. It turned out, the baby wasn’t his.. he still offered to take care of him.. so for the agreement, she filed suit wanting 50 percent of all marital assets, the bank account, his family jewelry (his grandmothers ring he wanted back), schooling for the son that wasn’t his after the affair and full alimony payments after it was proven it wasn’t his child, but her ex bf’s child who she still hung out with that was currently in jail.

bright side? this guy still hung around for this kid and he still calls him dad. He never got his grandma’s ring back but doesn’t even care. One day I wish he would take this woman to court, I honestly feel that he admits he’s afraid to date again gives her pleasure. She knows hes alone.. so it’s just her and his family and the son he loves so much that isn’t even his but he will always claim as his own.

8 Dark side of girls they don’t want to know you!

Girls often understand what a guy is implying, but they may feign innocence.
Women tend to develop feelings for those who maintain distance from them.
Many women enjoy engaging in what society deems “promiscuous” behavior, yet they recoil from being labeled as such.
When deeply in love, women may exhibit childish tendencies around their partners.
If a woman truly loves a man, she’ll likely inform him when other men attempt to flirt with her.
Cooking for someone often signifies care and affection from a woman.
A woman may choose to be intimate with a man based on his character and identity.
Beware of the woman whose father was the first to break her heart; she may have deep-seated trust issues.

Stuffed Grape Leaves (Dolmathes)

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds ground round or turkey
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup raw rice
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon mint
1 tablespoon parsley
1 egg, beaten
1 cup canned tomatoes, undrained
1/2 teaspoon dill
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 (16 ounce) jar grapevine leaves
3 bouillon cubes
1 tablespoon butter

Instructions

Combine first ten ingredients and mix well.
Wash the grape leaves carefully and remove the brine. Put any broken leaves into the bottom of a greased Dutch oven.
Put a heaping teaspoon of the mixture in the center of each leaf (on the vein side). Fold edges over and roll tightly toward point of leaf.
Dissolve bouillon cubes in enough water to cover the rolls, then pour over the rolls. Dot tops with butter.
Cover with a heavy plate to prevent the rolls from opening as the rice puffs
Cover the pan and steam over low heat for 1 hour or until leaves are tender.

Omnilingual by H. Beam Piper

Omnilingual

by H. Beam Piper

Preface by Eric Flint

I’ve always had a mixed reaction to H. Beam Piper’s writings. On the one hand, he was a superb story-teller and over the decades I’ve enjoyed any number of his works. On the other hand, the underlying attitude in many of his writings often leaves me grinding my teeth. I was so infuriated by Uller Uprising as a teenager that I threw it in the garbage can when I was about halfway through, and Space Viking still leaves a foul taste in my mouth four decades after I read it. For all of Piper’s modern reputation as a “libertarian,” the fact is that he was often prone to apologizing for authority, especially when that authority was being brutal. Uller Uprising, modeled on the Indian Mutiny of 1857, is an apologia for the greed and misrule of the British East India Company more extreme than even its own partisans advanced at the time. And Space Viking? Once you strip away the (admittedly impressive) story-telling razzle-dazzle, the novel is nothing but a romanticization of thuggery.

Look, sorry. My own ancestry, on my father’s side, is Norwegian. That fact has never blinded me to the truth about my Viking progenitors. Yes, they were very courageous, capable and resourceful. Big deal. So was the Waffen SS. The truth? My Viking forefathers were a bunch of murderers, rapists, arsonists and thieves. So let us puh-leese not adulate them in science fiction after the fact.

Grumble.

That said . . .

Piper, like most good story-tellers, was a man of many parts. And there are other stories of his which I’ve enjoyed for decades. Two of them, in particular, had a big impact on me as a teenager. The first was his novel Four-Day Planet—which is still my favorite among his many novels. The other . . .

Was this one.

Martha Dane paused, looking up at the purple-tinged copper sky. The wind had shifted since noon, while she had been inside, and the dust storm that was sweeping the high deserts to the east was now blowing out over Syrtis. The sun, magnified by the haze, was a gorgeous magenta ball, as large as the sun of Terra, at which she could look directly. Tonight, some of that dust would come sifting down from the upper atmosphere to add another film to what had been burying the city for the last fifty thousand years.

The red loess lay over everything, covering the streets and the open spaces of park and plaza, hiding the small houses that had been crushed and pressed flat under it and the rubble that had come down from the tall buildings when roofs had caved in and walls had toppled outward. Here where she stood, the ancient streets were a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet below the surface; the breach they had made in the wall of the building behind her had opened into the sixth story. She could look down on the cluster of prefabricated huts and sheds, on the brush-grown flat that had been the waterfront when this place had been a seaport on the ocean that was now Syrtis Depression; already, the bright metal was thinly coated with red dust. She thought, again, of what clearing this city would mean, in terms of time and labor, of people and supplies and equipment brought across fifty million miles of space. They’d have to use machinery; there was no other way it could be done. Bulldozers and power shovels and draglines; they were fast, but they were rough and indiscriminate. She remembered the digs around Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, in the Indus Valley, and the careful, patient native laborers—the painstaking foremen, the pickmen and spademen, the long files of basketmen carrying away the earth. Slow and primitive as the civilization whose ruins they were uncovering, yes, but she could count on the fingers of one hand the times one of her pickmen had damaged a valuable object in the ground. If it hadn’t been for the underpaid and uncomplaining native laborer, archaeology would still be back where Wincklemann had found it. But on Mars there was no native labor; the last Martian had died five hundred centuries ago.

Something started banging like a machine gun, four or five hundred yards to her left. A solenoid jackhammer; Tony Lattimer must have decided which building he wanted to break into next. She became conscious, then, of the awkward weight of her equipment, and began redistributing it, shifting the straps of her oxy-tank pack, slinging the camera from one shoulder and the board and drafting tools from the other, gathering the notebooks and sketchbooks under her left arm. She started walking down the road, over hillocks of buried rubble, around snags of wall jutting up out of the loess, past buildings still standing, some of them already breached and explored, and across the brush-grown flat to the huts.

* * *

There were ten people in the main office room of Hut One when she entered. As soon as she had disposed of her oxygen equipment, she lit a cigarette, her first since noon, then looked from one to another of them. Old Selim von Ohlmhorst, the Turco-German, one of her two fellow archaeologists, sitting at the end of the long table against the farther wall, smoking his big curved pipe and going through a looseleaf notebook. The girl ordnance officer, Sachiko Koremitsu, between two droplights at the other end of the table, her head bent over her work. Colonel Hubert Penrose, the Space Force CO, and Captain Field, the intelligence officer, listening to the report of one of the airdyne pilots, returned from his afternoon survey flight. A couple of girl lieutenants from Signals, going over the script of the evening telecast, to be transmitted to the Cyrano, on orbit five thousand miles off planet and relayed from thence to Terra via Lunar. Sid Chamberlain, the Trans-Space News Service man, was with them. Like Selim and herself, he was a civilian; he was advertising the fact with a white shirt and a sleeveless blue sweater. And Major Lindemann, the engineer officer, and one of his assistants, arguing over some plans on a drafting board. She hoped, drawing a pint of hot water to wash her hands and sponge off her face, that they were doing something about the pipeline.

She started to carry the notebooks and sketchbooks over to where Selim von Ohlmhorst was sitting, and then, as she always did, she turned aside and stopped to watch Sachiko. The Japanese girl was restoring what had been a book, fifty thousand years ago; her eyes were masked by a binocular loup, the black headband invisible against her glossy black hair, and she was picking delicately at the crumbled page with a hair-fine wire set in a handle of copper tubing. Finally, loosening a particle as tiny as a snowflake, she grasped it with tweezers, placed it on the sheet of transparent plastic on which she was reconstructing the page, and set it with a mist of fixative from a little spraygun. It was a sheer joy to watch her; every movement was as graceful and precise as though done to music after being rehearsed a hundred times.

“Hello, Martha. It isn’t cocktail-time yet, is it?” The girl at the table spoke without raising her head, almost without moving her lips, as though she were afraid that the slightest breath would disturb the flaky stuff in front of her.

“No, it’s only fifteen-thirty. I finished my work, over there. I didn’t find any more books, if that’s good news for you.”

Sachiko took off the loup and leaned back in her chair, her palms cupped over her eyes.

“No, I like doing this. I call it micro-jigsaw puzzles. This book, here, really is a mess. Selim found it lying open, with some heavy stuff on top of it; the pages were simply crushed. She hesitated briefly. “If only it would mean something, after I did it.”

There could be a faintly critical overtone to that. As she replied, Martha realized that she was being defensive.

“It will, some day. Look how long it took to read Egyptian hieroglyphics, even after they had the Rosetta Stone.”

Sachiko smiled. “Yes, I know. But they did have the Rosetta Stone.”

“And we don’t. There is no Rosetta Stone, not anywhere on Mars. A whole race, a whole species, died while the first Crô-Magnon cave-artist was daubing pictures of reindeer and bison, and across fifty thousand years and fifty million miles there was no bridge of understanding.

“We’ll find one. There must be something, somewhere, that will give us the meaning of a few words, and we’ll use them to pry meaning out of more words, and so on. We may not live to learn this language, but we’ll make a start, and some day somebody will.”

Sachiko took her hands from her eyes, being careful not to look toward the unshaded lights, and smiled again. This time Martha was sure that it was not the Japanese smile of politeness, but the universally human smile of friendship.

“I hope so, Martha; really I do. It would be wonderful for you to be the first to do it, and it would be wonderful for all of us to be able to read what these people wrote. It would really bring this dead city to life again.” The smile faded slowly. “But it seems so hopeless.”

“You haven’t found any more pictures?”

Sachiko shook her head. Not that it would have meant much if she had. They had found hundreds of pictures with captions; they had never been able to establish a positive relationship between any pictured object and any printed word. Neither of them said anything more, and after a moment Sachiko replaced the loup and bent her head forward over the book.

* * *

Selim von Ohlmhorst looked up from his notebook, taking his pipe out of his mouth.

“Everything finished, over there?” he asked, releasing a puff of smoke.

“Such as it was.” She laid the notebooks and sketches on the table. “Captain Gicquel’s started airsealing the building from the fifth floor down, with an entrance on the sixth; he’ll start putting in oxygen generators as soon as that’s done. I have everything cleared up where he’ll be working.”

Colonel Penrose looked up quickly, as though making a mental note to attend to something later. Then he returned his attention to the pilot, who was pointing something out on a map.

Von Ohlmhorst nodded. “There wasn’t much to it, at that,” he agreed. “Do you know which building Tony has decided to enter next?”

“The tall one with the conical thing like a candle extinguisher on top, I think. I heard him drilling for the blasting shots over that way.”

“Well, I hope it turns out to be one that was occupied up to the end.”

The last one hadn’t. It had been stripped of its contents and fittings, a piece of this and a bit of that, haphazardly, apparently over a long period of time, until it had been almost gutted. For centuries, as it had died, this city had been consuming itself by a process of auto-cannibalism. She said something to that effect.

“Yes. We always find that—except, of course, at places like Pompeii. Have you seen any of the other Roman cities in Italy?” he asked. “Minturnae, for instance? First the inhabitants tore down this to repair that, and then, after they had vacated the city, other people came along and tore down what was left, and burned the stones for lime, or crushed them to mend roads, till there was nothing left but the foundation traces. That’s where we are fortunate; this is one of the places where the Martian race perished, and there were no barbarians to come later and destroy what they had left.” He puffed slowly at his pipe. “Some of these days, Martha, we are going to break into one of these buildings and find that it was one in which the last of these people died. Then we will learn the story of the end of this civilization.”

And if we learn to read their language, we’ll learn the whole story, not just the obituary. She hesitated, not putting the thought into words. “We’ll find that, sometime, Selim,” she said, then looked at her watch. “I’m going to get some more work done on my lists, before dinner.”

For an instant, the old man’s face stiffened in disapproval; he started to say something, thought better of it, and put his pipe back into his mouth. The brief wrinkling around his mouth and the twitch of his white mustache had been enough, however; she knew what he was thinking. She was wasting time and effort, he believed; time and effort belonging not to herself but to the expedition. He could be right, too, she realized. But he had to be wrong; there had to be a way to do it. She turned from him silently and went to her own packing-case seat, at the middle of the table.

* * *

Photographs, and photostats of restored pages of books, and transcripts of inscriptions, were piled in front of her, and the notebooks in which she was compiling her lists. She sat down, lighting a fresh cigarette, and reached over to a stack of unexamined material, taking off the top sheet. It was a photostat of what looked like the title page and contents of some sort of a periodical. She remembered it; she had found it herself, two days before, in a closet in the basement of the building she had just finished examining.

She sat for a moment, looking at it. It was readable, in the sense that she had set up a purely arbitrary but consistently pronounceable system of phonetic values for the letters. The long vertical symbols were vowels. There were only ten of them; not too many, allowing separate characters for long and short sounds. There were twenty of the short horizontal letters, which meant that sounds like –ng or –ch or –sh were single letters. The odds were millions to one against her system being anything like the original sound of the language, but she had listed several thousand Martian words, and she could pronounce all of them.

And that was as far as it went. She could pronounce between three and four thousand Martian words, and she couldn’t assign a meaning to one of them. Selim von Ohlmhorst believed that she never would. So did Tony Lattimer, and he was a great deal less reticent about saying so. So, she was sure, did Sachiko Koremitsu. There were times, now and then, when she began to be afraid that they were right.

The letters on the page in front of her began squirming and dancing, slender vowels with fat little consonants. They did that, now, every night in her dreams. And there were other dreams, in which she read them as easily as English; waking, she would try desperately and vainly to remember. She blinked, and looked away from the photostated page; when she looked back, the letters were behaving themselves again. There were three words at the top of the page, over-and-underlined, which seemed to be the Martian method of capitalization. Mastharnorvod Tadavas Sornhulva. She pronounced them mentally, leafing through her notebooks to see if she had encountered them before, and in what contexts. All three were listed. In addition, masthar was a fairly common word, and so was norvod, and so was nor, but –vod was a suffix and nothing but a suffix. Davas, was a word, too, and ta- was a common prefix; sorn and hulva were both common words. This language, she had long ago decided, must be something like German; when the Martians had needed a new word, they had just pasted a couple of existing words together. It would probably turn out to be a grammatical horror. Well, they had published magazines, and one of them had been called Mastharnorvod Tadavas Sornhulva. She wondered if it had been something like the Quarterly Archaeology Review, or something more on the order of Sexy Stories.

A smaller line, under the title, was plainly the issue number and date; enough things had been found numbered in series to enable her to identify the numerals and determine that a decimal system of numeration had been used. This was the one thousand and seven hundred and fifty-fourth issue, for Doma, 14837; then Doma must be the name of one of the Martian months. The word had turned up several times before. She found herself puffing furiously on her cigarette as she leafed through notebooks and piles of already examined material.

* * *

Sachiko was speaking to somebody, and a chair scraped at the end of the table. She raised her head, to see a big man with red hair and a red face, in Space Force green, with the single star of a major on his shoulder, sitting down. Ivan Fitzgerald, the medic. He was lifting weights from a book similar to the one the girl ordnance officer was restoring.

“Haven’t had time, lately,” he was saying, in reply to Sachiko’s question. “The Finchley girl’s still down with whatever it is she has, and it’s something I haven’t been able to diagnose yet. And I’ve been checking on bacteria cultures, and in what spare time I have, I’ve been dissecting specimens for Bill Chandler. Bill’s finally found a mammal. Looks like a lizard, and it’s only four inches long, but it’s a real warm-blooded, gamogenetic, placental, viviparous mammal. Burrows, and seems to live on what pass for insects here.”

“Is there enough oxygen for anything like that?” Sachiko was asking.

“Seems to be, close to the ground.” Fitzgerald got the headband of his loup adjusted, and pulled it down over his eyes. “He found this thing in a ravine down on the sea bottom— Ha, this page seems to be intact; now, if I can get it out all in one piece—”

He went on talking inaudibly to himself, lifting the page a little at a time and sliding one of the transparent plastic sheets under it, working with minute delicacy. Not the delicacy of the Japanese girl’s small hands, moving like the paws of a cat washing her face, but like a steam-hammer cracking a peanut. Field archaeology requires a certain delicacy of touch, too, but Martha watched the pair of them with envious admiration. Then she turned back to her own work, finishing the table of contents.

The next page was the beginning of the first article listed; many of the words were unfamiliar. She had the impression that this must be some kind of scientific or technical journal; that could be because such publications made up the bulk of her own periodical reading. She doubted it if were fiction; the paragraphs had a solid, factual look.

At length, Ivan Fitzgerald gave a short, explosive grunt.

“Ha! Got it!”

She looked up. He had detached the page and was cementing another plastic sheet onto it.

“Any pictures?” she asked.

“None on this side. Wait a moment.” He turned the sheet. “None on this side, either.” He sprayed another sheet of plastic to sandwich the page, then picked up his pipe and relighted it.

“I get fun out of this, and it’s good practice for my hands, so don’t think I’m complaining,” he said, “but, Martha, do you honestly think anybody’s ever going to get anything out of this?”

Sachiko held up a scrap of the silicone plastic the Martians had used for paper with her tweezers. It was almost an inch square.

“Look; three whole words on this piece,” she crowed. “Ivan, you took the easy book.”

Fitzgerald wasn’t being sidetracked. “This stuff’s absolutely meaningless,” he continued. “It had a meaning fifty thousand years ago, when it was written, but it has none at all now.”

She shook her head. “Meaning isn’t something that evaporates with time,” she argued. “It has just as much meaning now as it ever had. We just haven’t learned how to decipher it.”

“That seems like a pretty pointless distinction,” Selim von Ohlmhorst joined the conversation. “There no longer exists a means of deciphering it.”

“We’ll find one.” She was speaking, she realized, more in self-encouragement than in controversy.

“How? From pictures and captions? We’ve found captioned pictures, and what have they given us? A caption is intended to explain the picture, not the picture to explain the caption. Suppose some alien to our culture found a picture of a man with a white beard and mustache sawing a billet from a log. He would think the caption meant, ‘Man Sawing Wood.’ How would he know that it was really ‘Wilhelm II in Exile at Doorn?'”

Sachiko had taken off her loup and was lighting a cigarette.

“I can think of pictures intended to explain their captions,” she said. “These picture language-books, the sort we use in the Service—little line drawings, with a word or phrase under them.”

“Well, of course, if we found something like that,” von Ohlmhorst began.

* * *

“Michael Ventris found something like that, back in the Fifties,” Hubert Penrose’s voice broke in from directly behind her.

She turned her head. The colonel was standing by the archaeologists’ table; Captain Field and the airdyne pilot had gone out.

“He found a lot of Greek inventories of military stores,” Penrose continued. “They were in Cretan Linear B script, and at the head of each list was a little picture, a sword or a helmet or a cooking tripod or a chariot wheel. That’s what gave him the key to the script.”

“Colonel’s getting to be quite an archaeologist,” Fitzgerald commented. “We’re all learning each others’ specialties, on this expedition.”

“I heard about that long before this expedition was even contemplated.” Penrose was tapping a cigarette on his gold case. “I heard about that back before the Thirty Days’ War, at Intelligence School, when I was a lieutenant. As a feat of cryptanalysis, not an archaeological discovery.”

“Yes, cryptanalysis,” von Ohlmhorst pounced. “The reading of a known language in an unknown form of writing. Ventris’ lists were in the known language, Greek. Neither he nor anybody else ever read a word of the Cretan language until the finding of the Greek-Cretan bilingual in 1963, because only with a bilingual text, one language already known, can an unknown ancient language be learned. And what hope, I ask you, have we of finding anything like that here? Martha, you’ve been working on these Martian texts ever since we landed here—for the last six months. Tell me, have you found a single word to which you can positively assign a meaning?”

“Yes, I think I have one.” She was trying hard not to sound too exultant. “Doma. It’s the name of one of the months of the Martian calendar.”

“Where did you find that?” von Ohlmhorst asked. “And how did you establish—?”

“Here.” She picked up the photostat and handed it along the table to him. “I’d call this the title page of a magazine.”

He was silent for a moment, looking at it. “Yes. I would say so, too. Have you any of the rest of it?”

“I’m working on the first page of the first article, listed there. Wait till I see; yes, here’s all I found, together, here.” She told him where she had gotten it. “I just gathered it up, at the time, and gave it to Geoffrey and Rosita to photostat; this is the first I’ve really examined it.”

The old man got to his feet, brushing tobacco ashes from the front of his jacket, and came to where she was sitting, laying the title page on the table and leafing quickly through the stack of photostats.

“Yes, and here is the second article, on page eight, and here’s the next one.” He finished the pile of photostats. “A couple of pages missing at the end of the last article. This is remarkable; surprising that a thing like a magazine would have survived so long.”

“Well, this silicone stuff the Martians used for paper is pretty durable,” Hubert Penrose said. “There doesn’t seem to have been any water or any other fluid in it originally, so it wouldn’t dry out with time.”

“Oh, it’s not remarkable that the material would have survived. We’ve found a good many books and papers in excellent condition. But only a really vital culture, an organized culture, will publish magazines, and this civilization had been dying for hundreds of years before the end. It might have been a thousand years before the time they died out completely that such activities as publishing ended.”

“Well, look where I found it; in a closet in a cellar. Tossed in there and forgotten, and then ignored when they were stripping the building. Things like that happen.”

Penrose had picked up the title page and was looking at it.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt about this being a magazine, at all.” He looked again at the title, his lips moving silently. “Mastharnorvod Tadavas Sornhulva. Wonder what it means. But you’re right about the date—Doma seems to be the name of a month. Yes, you have a word, Dr. Dane.”

Sid Chamberlain, seeing that something unusual was going on, had come over from the table at which he was working. After examining the title page and some of the inside pages, he began whispering into the stenophone he had taken from his belt.

“Don’t try to blow this up to anything big, Sid,” she cautioned. “All we have is the name of a month, and Lord only knows how long it’ll be till we even find out which month it was.”

“Well, it’s a start, isn’t it?” Penrose argued. “Grotefend only had the word for ‘king’ when he started reading Persian cuneiform.”

“But I don’t have the word for month; just the name of a month. Everybody knew the names of the Persian kings, long before Grotefend.”

“That’s not the story,” Chamberlain said. “What the public back on Terra will be interested in is finding out that the Martians published magazines, just like we do. Something familiar; make the Martians seem more real. More human.”

* * *

Three men had come in, and were removing their masks and helmets and oxy-tanks, and peeling out of their quilted coveralls. Two were Space Force lieutenants; the third was a youngish civilian with close-cropped blond hair, in a checked woolen shirt. Tony Lattimer and his helpers.

“Don’t tell me Martha finally got something out of that stuff?” he asked, approaching the table. He might have been commenting on the antics of the village half-wit, from his tone.

“Yes; the name of one of the Martian months.” Hubert Penrose went on to explain, showing the photostat.

Tony Lattimer took it, glanced at it, and dropped it on the table.

“Sounds plausible, of course, but just an assumption. That word may not be the name of a month, at all—could mean ‘published’ or ‘authorized’ or ‘copyrighted’ or anything like that. Fact is, I don’t think it’s more than a wild guess that that thing’s anything like a periodical.” He dismissed the subject and turned to Penrose. “I picked out the next building to enter; that tall one with the conical thing on top. It ought to be in pretty good shape inside; the conical top wouldn’t allow dust to accumulate, and from the outside nothing seems to be caved in or crushed. Ground level’s higher than the other one, about the seventh floor. I found a good place and drilled for the shots; tomorrow I’ll blast a hole in it, and if you can spare some people to help, we can start exploring it right away.”

“Yes, of course, Dr. Lattimer. I can spare about a dozen, and I suppose you can find a few civilian volunteers,” Penrose told him. “What will you need in the way of equipment?”

“Oh, about six demolition-packets; they can all be shot together. And the usual thing in the way of lights, and breaking and digging tools, and climbing equipment in case we run into broken or doubtful stairways. We’ll divide into two parties. Nothing ought to be entered for the first time without a qualified archaeologist along. Three parties, if Martha can tear herself away from this catalogue of systematized incomprehensibilities she’s making long enough to do some real work.”

She felt her chest tighten and her face become stiff. She was pressing her lips together to lock in a furious retort when Hubert Penrose answered for her.

“Dr. Dane’s been doing as much work, and as important work, as you have,” he said brusquely. “More important work, I’d be inclined to say.”

Von Ohlmhorst was visibly distressed; he glanced once toward Sid Chamberlain, then looked hastily away from him. Afraid of a story of dissension among archaeologists getting out.

“Working out a system of pronunciation by which the Martian language could be transliterated was a most important contribution,” he said. “And Martha did that almost unassisted.”

“Unassisted by Dr. Lattimer, anyway,” Penrose added. “Captain Field and Lieutenant Koremitsu did some work, and I helped out a little, but nine-tenths of it she did herself.”

“Purely arbitrary,” Lattimer disdained. “Why, we don’t even know that the Martians could make the same kind of vocal sounds we do.”

“Oh, yes, we do,” Ivan Fitzgerald contradicted, safe on his own ground. “I haven’t seen any actual Martian skulls—these people seem to have been very tidy about disposing of their dead—but from statues and busts and pictures I’ve seen, I’d say that their vocal organs were identical with our own.”

“Well, grant that. And grant that it’s going to be impressive to rattle off the names of Martian notables whose statues we find, and that if we’re ever able to attribute any place-names, they’ll sound a lot better than this horse-doctors’ Latin the old astronomers splashed all over the map of Mars,” Lattimer said. “What I object to is her wasting time on this stuff, of which nobody will ever be able to read a word if she fiddles around with those lists till there’s another hundred feet of loess on this city, when there’s so much real work to be done and we’re shorthanded as we are.”

That was the first time that had come out in just so many words. She was glad Lattimer had said it and not Selim von Ohlmhorst.

“What you mean,” she retorted, “is that it doesn’t have the publicity value that digging up statues has.”

For an instant, she could see that the shot had scored. Then Lattimer, with a side glance at Chamberlain, answered:

“What I mean is that you’re trying to find something that any archaeologist, yourself included, should know doesn’t exist. I don’t object to your gambling your professional reputation and making a laughing stock of yourself; what I object to is that the blunders of one archaeologist discredit the whole subject in the eyes of the public.”

That seemed to be what worried Lattimer most. She was framing a reply when the communication-outlet whistled shrilly, and then squawked: “Cocktail time! One hour to dinner; cocktails in the library, Hut Four!”

* * *

The library, which was also lounge, recreation room, and general gathering-place, was already crowded; most of the crowd was at the long table topped with sheets of glasslike plastic that had been wall panels out of one of the ruined buildings. She poured herself what passed, here, for a martini, and carried it over to where Selim von Ohlmhorst was sitting alone.

For a while, they talked about the building they had just finished exploring, then drifted into reminiscences of their work on Terra—von Ohlmhorst’s in Asia Minor, with the Hittite Empire, and hers in Pakistan, excavating the cities of the Harappa Civilization. They finished their drinks—the ingredients were plentiful; alcohol and flavoring extracts synthesized from Martian vegetation—and von Ohlmhorst took the two glasses to the table for refills.

“You know, Martha,” he said, when he returned, “Tony was right about one thing. You are gambling your professional standing and reputation. It’s against all archaeological experience that a language so completely dead as this one could be deciphered. There was a continuity between all the other ancient languages—by knowing Greek, Champollion learned to read Egyptian; by knowing Egyptian, Hittite was learned. That’s why you and your colleagues have never been able to translate the Harappa hieroglyphics; no such continuity exists there. If you insist that this utterly dead language can be read, your reputation will suffer for it.”

“I heard Colonel Penrose say, once, that an officer who’s afraid to risk his military reputation seldom makes much of a reputation. It’s the same with us. If we really want to find things out, we have to risk making mistakes. And I’m a lot more interested in finding things out than I am in my reputation.”

She glanced across the room, to where Tony Lattimer was sitting with Gloria Standish, talking earnestly, while Gloria sipped one of the counterfeit martinis and listened. Gloria was the leading contender for the title of Miss Mars, 1996, if you like big bosomy blondes, but Tony would have been just as attentive to her if she’d looked like the Wicked Witch in “The Wizard of Oz,” because Gloria was the Pan-Federation Telecast System commentator with the expedition.

“I know you are,” the old Turco-German was saying. “That’s why, when they asked me to name another archaeologist for this expedition, I named you.”

He hadn’t named Tony Lattimer; Lattimer had been pushed onto the expedition by his university. There’d been a lot of high-level string-pulling to that; she wished she knew the whole story. She’d managed to keep clear of universities and university politics; all her digs had been sponsored by non-academic foundations or art museums.

“You have an excellent standing; much better than my own, at your age. That’s why it disturbs me to see you jeopardizing it by this insistence that the Martian language can be translated. I can’t, really, see how you can hope to succeed.”

She shrugged and drank some more of her cocktail, then lit another cigarette. It was getting tiresome to try to verbalize something she only felt.

“Neither do I, now, but I will. Maybe I’ll find something like the picture-books Sachiko was talking about. A child’s primer, maybe; surely they had things like that. And if I don’t, I’ll find something else. We’ve only been here six months. I can wait the rest of my life, if I have to, but I’ll do it sometime.”

“I can’t wait so long,” von Ohlmhorst said. “The rest of my life will only be a few years, and when the Schiaparelli orbits in, I’ll be going back to Terra on the Cyrano.”

“I wish you wouldn’t. This is a whole new world of archaeology. Literally.”

“Yes.” He finished the cocktail and looked at his pipe as though wondering whether to re-light it so soon before dinner, then put it in his pocket. “A whole new world—but I’ve grown old, and it isn’t for me. I’ve spent my life studying the Hittites. I can speak the Hittite language, though maybe King Muwatallis wouldn’t be able to understand my modern Turkish accent. But the things I’d have to learn, here—chemistry, physics, engineering, how to run analytic tests on steel girders and beryllo-silver alloys and plastics and silicones. I’m more at home with a civilization that rode in chariots and fought with swords and was just learning how to work iron. Mars is for young people. This expedition is a cadre of leadership—not only the Space Force people, who’ll be the commanders of the main expedition, but us scientists, too. And I’m just an old cavalry general who can’t learn to command tanks and aircraft. You’ll have time to learn about Mars. I won’t.”

His reputation as the dean of Hittitologists was solid and secure, too, she added mentally. Then she felt ashamed of the thought. He wasn’t to be classed with Tony Lattimer.

“All I came for was to get the work started,” he was continuing. “The Federation Government felt that an old hand should do that. Well, it’s started, now; you and Tony and whoever comes out on the Schiaparelli must carry it on. You said it, yourself; you have a whole new world. This is only one city, of the last Martian civilization. Behind this, you have the Late Upland Culture, and the Canal Builders, and all the civilizations and races and empires before them, clear back to the Martian Stone Age.” He hesitated for a moment. “You have no idea what all you have to learn, Martha. This isn’t the time to start specializing too narrowly.”

* * *

They all got out of the truck and stretched their legs and looked up the road to the tall building with the queer conical cap askew on its top. The four little figures that had been busy against its wall climbed into the jeep and started back slowly, the smallest of them, Sachiko Koremitsu, paying out an electric cable behind. When it pulled up beside the truck, they climbed out; Sachiko attached the free end of the cable to a nuclear-electric battery. At once, dirty gray smoke and orange dust puffed out from the wall of the building, and, a second later, the multiple explosion banged.

She and Tony Lattimer and Major Lindemann climbed onto the truck, leaving the jeep standing by the road. When they reached the building, a satisfyingly wide breach had been blown in the wall. Lattimer had placed his shots between two of the windows; they were both blown out along with the wall between, and lay unbroken on the ground. Martha remembered the first building they had entered. A Space Force officer had picked up a stone and thrown it at one of the windows, thinking that would be all they’d need to do. It had bounced back. He had drawn his pistol—they’d all carried guns, then, on the principle that what they didn’t know about Mars might easily hurt them—and fired four shots. The bullets had ricocheted, screaming thinly; there were four coppery smears of jacket-metal on the window, and a little surface spalling. Somebody tried a rifle; the 4000-f.s. bullet had cracked the glasslike pane without penetrating. An oxyacetylene torch had taken an hour to cut the window out; the lab crew, aboard the ship, were still trying to find out just what the stuff was.

Tony Lattimer had gone forward and was sweeping his flashlight back and forth, swearing petulantly, his voice harshened and amplified by his helmet-speaker.

“I thought I was blasting into a hallway; this lets us into a room. Careful; there’s about a two-foot drop to the floor, and a lot of rubble from the blast just inside.”

He stepped down through the breach; the others began dragging equipment out of the trucks—shovels and picks and crowbars and sledges, portable floodlights, cameras, sketching materials, an extension ladder, even Alpinists’ ropes and crampons and pickaxes. Hubert Penrose was shouldering something that looked like a surrealist machine gun but which was really a nuclear-electric jack-hammer. Martha selected one of the spike-shod mountaineer’s ice axes, with which she could dig or chop or poke or pry or help herself over rough footing.

The windows, grimed and crusted with fifty millennia of dust, filtered in a dim twilight; even the breach in the wall, in the morning shade, lighted only a small patch of floor. Somebody snapped on a floodlight, aiming it at the ceiling. The big room was empty and bare; dust lay thick on the floor and reddened the once-white walls. It could have been a large office, but there was nothing left in it to indicate its use.

“This one’s been stripped up to the seventh floor!” Lattimer exclaimed. “Street level’ll be cleaned out, completely.”

“Do for living quarters and shops, then,” Lindemann said. “Added to the others, this’ll take care of everybody on the Schiaparelli.”

“Seems to have been a lot of electric or electronic apparatus over along this wall,” one of the Space Force officers commented. “Ten or twelve electric outlets.” He brushed the dusty wall with his glove, then scraped on the floor with his foot. “I can see where things were pried loose.”

* * *

The door, one of the double sliding things the Martians had used, was closed. Selim von Ohlmhorst tried it, but it was stuck fast. The metal latch-parts had frozen together, molecule bonding itself to molecule, since the door had last been closed. Hubert Penrose came over with the jack-hammer, fitting a spear-point chisel into place. He set the chisel in the joint between the doors, braced the hammer against his hip, and squeezed the trigger-switch. The hammer banged briefly like the weapon it resembled, and the doors popped a few inches apart, then stuck. Enough dust had worked into the recesses into which it was supposed to slide to block it on both sides.

That was old stuff; they ran into that every time they had to force a door, and they were prepared for it. Somebody went outside and brought in a power-jack and finally one of the doors inched back to the door jamb. That was enough to get the lights and equipment through; they all passed from the room to the hallway beyond. About half the other doors were open; each had a number and a single word, Darfhulva, over it.

One of the civilian volunteers, a woman professor of natural ecology from Penn State University, was looking up and down the hall.

“You know,” she said, “I feel at home here. I think this was a college of some sort, and these were classrooms. That word, up there; that was the subject taught, or the department. And those electronic devices, all where the class would face them; audio-visual teaching aids.”

“A twenty-five-story university?” Lattimer scoffed. “Why, a building like this would handle thirty thousand students.”

“Maybe there were that many. This was a big city, in its prime,” Martha said, moved chiefly by a desire to oppose Lattimer.

“Yes, but think of the snafu in the halls, every time they changed classes. It’d take half an hour to get everybody back and forth from one floor to another.” He turned to von Ohlmhorst. “I’m going up above this floor. This place has been looted clean up to here, but there’s a chance there may be something above,” he said.

“I’ll stay on this floor, at present,” the Turco-German replied. “There will be much coming and going, and dragging things in and out. We should get this completely examined and recorded first. Then Major Lindemann’s people can do their worst, here.”

“Well, if nobody else wants it, I’ll take the downstairs,” Martha said.

“I’ll go along with you,” Hubert Penrose told her. “If the lower floors have no archaeological value, we’ll turn them into living quarters. I like this building; it’ll give everybody room to keep out from under everybody else’s feet.” He looked down the hall. “We ought to find escalators at the middle.”

* * *

The hallway, too, was thick underfoot with dust. Most of the open rooms were empty, but a few contained furniture, including small seat-desks. The original proponent of the university theory pointed these out as just what might be found in classrooms. There were escalators, up and down, on either side of the hall, and more on the intersecting passage to the right.

“That’s how they handled the students, between classes,” Martha commented. “And I’ll bet there are more ahead, there.”

They came to a stop where the hallway ended at a great square central hall. There were elevators, there, on two of the sides, and four escalators, still usable as stairways. But it was the walls, and the paintings on them, that brought them up short and staring.

They were clouded with dirt—she was trying to imagine what they must have looked like originally, and at the same time estimating the labor that would be involved in cleaning them—but they were still distinguishable, as was the word, Darfhulva, in golden letters above each of the four sides. It was a moment before she realized, from the murals, that she had at last found a meaningful Martian word. They were a vast historical panorama, clockwise around the room. A group of skin-clad savages squatting around a fire. Hunters with bows and spears, carrying the carcass of an animal slightly like a pig. Nomads riding long-legged, graceful mounts like hornless deer. Peasants sowing and reaping; mud-walled hut villages, and cities; processions of priests and warriors; battles with swords and bows, and with cannon and muskets; galleys, and ships with sails, and ships without visible means of propulsion, and aircraft. Changing costumes and weapons and machines and styles of architecture. A richly fertile landscape, gradually merging into barren deserts and bushlands—the time of the great planet-wide drought. The Canal Builders—men with machines recognizable as steam-shovels and derricks, digging and quarrying and driving across the empty plains with aqueducts. More cities—seaports on the shrinking oceans; dwindling, half-deserted cities; an abandoned city, with four tiny humanoid figures and a thing like a combat-car in the middle of a brush-grown plaza, they and their vehicle dwarfed by the huge lifeless buildings around them. She had not the least doubt; Darfhulva was History.

“Wonderful!” von Ohlmhorst was saying. “The entire history of this race. Why, if the painter depicted appropriate costumes and weapons and machines for each period, and got the architecture right, we can break the history of this planet into eras and periods and civilizations.”

“You can assume they’re authentic. The faculty of this university would insist on authenticity in the Darfhulva—History—Department,” she said.

“Yes! Darfhulva—History! And your magazine was a journal of Sornhulva!” Penrose exclaimed. “You have a word, Martha!” It took her an instant to realize that he had called her by her first name, and not Dr. Dane. She wasn’t sure if that weren’t a bigger triumph than learning a word of the Martian language. Or a more auspicious start. “Alone, I suppose that hulva means something like science or knowledge, or study; combined, it would be equivalent to our ‘ology. And darf would mean something like past, or old times, or human events, or chronicles.”

“That gives you three words, Martha!” Sachiko jubilated. “You did it.”

“Let’s don’t go too fast,” Lattimer said, for once not derisively. “I’ll admit that darfhulva is the Martian word for history as a subject of study; I’ll admit that hulva is the general word and darf modifies it and tells us which subject is meant. But as for assigning specific meanings, we can’t do that because we don’t know just how the Martians thought, scientifically or otherwise.”

He stopped short, startled by the blue-white light that blazed as Sid Chamberlain’s Kliegettes went on. When the whirring of the camera stopped, it was Chamberlain who was speaking:

“This is the biggest thing yet; the whole history of Mars, stone age to the end, all on four walls. I’m taking this with the fast shutter, but we’ll telecast it in slow motion, from the beginning to the end. Tony, I want you to do the voice for it—running commentary, interpretation of each scene as it’s shown. Would you do that?”

Would he do that! Martha thought. If he had a tail, he’d be wagging it at the very thought.

“Well, there ought to be more murals on the other floors,” she said. “Who wants to come downstairs with us?”

Sachiko did; immediately, Ivan Fitzgerald volunteered. Sid decided to go upstairs with Tony Lattimer, and Gloria Standish decided to go upstairs, too. Most of the party would remain on the seventh floor, to help Selim von Ohlmhorst get it finished. After poking tentatively at the escalator with the spike of her ice axe, Martha led the way downward.

* * *

The sixth floor was Darfhulva, too; military and technological history, from the character of the murals. They looked around the central hall, and went down to the fifth; it was like the floors above except that the big quadrangle was stacked with dusty furniture and boxes. Ivan Fitzgerald, who was carrying the floodlight, swung it slowly around. Here the murals were of heroic-sized Martians, so human in appearance as to seem members of her own race, each holding some object—a book, or a testtube, or some bit of scientific apparatus, and behind them were scenes of laboratories and factories, flame and smoke, lightning-flashes. The word at the top of each of the four walls was one with which she was already familiar—Sornhulva.

“Hey, Martha; there’s that word,” Ivan Fitzgerald exclaimed. “The one in the title of your magazine.” He looked at the paintings. “Chemistry, or physics.”

“Both,” Hubert Penrose considered. “I don’t think the Martians made any sharp distinction between them. See, the old fellow with the scraggly whiskers must be the inventor of the spectroscope; he has one in his hands, and he has a rainbow behind him. And the woman in the blue smock, beside him, worked in organic chemistry; see the diagrams of long-chain molecules behind her. What word would convey the idea of chemistry and physics taken as one subject?”

“Sornhulva,” Sachiko suggested. “If hulva‘s something like science, sorn must mean matter, or substance, or physical object. You were right, all along, Martha. A civilization like this would certainly leave something like this, that would be self-explanatory.”

“This’ll wipe a little more of that superior grin off Tony Lattimer’s face,” Fitzgerald was saying, as they went down the motionless escalator to the floor below. “Tony wants to be a big shot. When you want to be a big shot, you can’t bear the possibility of anybody else being a bigger big shot, and whoever makes a start on reading this language will be the biggest big shot archaeology ever saw.”

That was true. She hadn’t thought of it, in that way, before, and now she tried not to think about it. She didn’t want to be a big shot. She wanted to be able to read the Martian language, and find things out about the Martians.

Two escalators down, they came out on a mezzanine around a wide central hall on the street level, the floor forty feet below them and the ceiling thirty feet above. Their lights picked out object after object below—a huge group of sculptured figures in the middle; some kind of a motor vehicle jacked up on trestles for repairs; things that looked like machine-guns and auto-cannon; long tables, tops littered with a dust-covered miscellany; machinery; boxes and crates and containers.

* * *

They made their way down and walked among the clutter, missing a hundred things for every one they saw, until they found an escalator to the basement. There were three basements, one under another, until at last they stood at the bottom of the last escalator, on a bare concrete floor, swinging the portable floodlight over stacks of boxes and barrels and drums, and heaps of powdery dust. The boxes were plastic—nobody had ever found anything made of wood in the city—and the barrels and drums were of metal or glass or some glasslike substance. They were outwardly intact. The powdery heaps might have been anything organic, or anything containing fluid. Down here, where wind and dust could not reach, evaporation had been the only force of destruction after the minute life that caused putrefaction had vanished.

They found refrigeration rooms, too, and using Martha’s ice axe and the pistollike vibratool Sachiko carried on her belt, they pounded and pried one open, to find desiccated piles of what had been vegetables, and leathery chunks of meat. Samples of that stuff, rocketed up to the ship, would give a reliable estimate, by radio-carbon dating, of how long ago this building had been occupied. The refrigeration unit, radically different from anything their own culture had produced, had been electrically powered. Sachiko and Penrose, poking into it, found the switches still on; the machine had only ceased to function when the power-source, whatever that had been, had failed.

The middle basement had also been used, at least toward the end, for storage; it was cut in half by a partition pierced by but one door. They took half an hour to force this, and were on the point of sending above for heavy equipment when it yielded enough for them to squeeze through. Fitzgerald, in the lead with the light, stopped short, looked around, and then gave a groan that came through his helmet-speaker like a foghorn.

“Oh, no! No!”

“What’s the matter, Ivan?” Sachiko, entering behind him, asked anxiously.

He stepped aside. “Look at it, Sachi! Are we going to have to do all that?”

Martha crowded through behind her friend and looked around, then stood motionless, dizzy with excitement. Books. Case on case of books, half an acre of cases, fifteen feet to the ceiling. Fitzgerald, and Penrose, who had pushed in behind her, were talking in rapid excitement; she only heard the sound of their voices, not their words. This must be the main stacks of the university library—the entire literature of the vanished race of Mars. In the center, down an aisle between the cases, she could see the hollow square of the librarians’ desk, and stairs and a dumb-waiter to the floor above.

She realized that she was walking forward, with the others, toward this. Sachiko was saying: “I’m the lightest; let me go first.” She must be talking about the spidery metal stairs.

“I’d say they were safe,” Penrose answered. “The trouble we’ve had with doors around here shows that the metal hasn’t deteriorated.”

In the end, the Japanese girl led the way, more catlike than ever in her caution. The stairs were quite sound, in spite of their fragile appearance, and they all followed her. The floor above was a duplicate of the room they had entered, and seemed to contain about as many books. Rather than waste time forcing the door here, they returned to the middle basement and came up by the escalator down which they had originally descended.

The upper basement contained kitchens—electric stoves, some with pots and pans still on them—and a big room that must have been, originally, the students’ dining room, though when last used it had been a workshop. As they expected, the library reading room was on the street-level floor, directly above the stacks. It seemed to have been converted into a sort of common living room for the building’s last occupants. An adjoining auditorium had been made into a chemical works; there were vats and distillation apparatus, and a metal fractionating tower that extended through a hole knocked in the ceiling seventy feet above. A good deal of plastic furniture of the sort they had been finding everywhere in the city was stacked about, some of it broken up, apparently for reprocessing. The other rooms on the street floor seemed also to have been devoted to manufacturing and repair work; a considerable industry, along a number of lines, must have been carried on here for a long time after the university had ceased to function as such.

On the second floor, they found a museum; many of the exhibits remained, tantalizingly half-visible in grimed glass cases. There had been administrative offices there, too. The doors of most of them were closed, and they did not waste time trying to force them, but those that were open had been turned into living quarters. They made notes, and rough floor-plans, to guide them in future more thorough examination; it was almost noon before they had worked their way back to the seventh floor.

Selim von Ohlmhorst was in a room on the north side of the building, sketching the position of things before examining them and collecting them for removal. He had the floor checkerboarded with a grid of chalked lines, each numbered.

“We have everything on this floor photographed,” he said. “I have three gangs—all the floodlights I have—sketching and making measurements. At the rate we’re going, with time out for lunch, we’ll be finished by the middle of the afternoon.”

“You’ve been working fast. Evidently you aren’t being high-church about a ‘qualified archaeologist’ entering rooms first,” Penrose commented.

“Ach, childishness!” the old man exclaimed impatiently. “These officers of yours aren’t fools. All of them have been to Intelligence School and Criminal Investigation School. Some of the most careful amateur archaeologists I ever knew were retired soldiers or policemen. But there isn’t much work to be done. Most of the rooms are either empty or like this one—a few bits of furniture and broken trash and scraps of paper. Did you find anything down on the lower floors?”

“Well, yes,” Penrose said, a hint of mirth in his voice. “What would you say, Martha?”

She started to tell Selim. The others, unable to restrain their excitement, broke in with interruptions. Von Ohlmhorst was staring in incredulous amazement.

“But this floor was looted almost clean, and the buildings we’ve entered before were all looted from the street level up,” he said, at length.

“The people who looted this one lived here,” Penrose replied. “They had electric power to the last; we found refrigerators full of food, and stoves with the dinner still on them. They must have used the elevators to haul things down from the upper floor. The whole first floor was converted into workshops and laboratories. I think that this place must have been something like a monastery in the Dark Ages in Europe, or what such a monastery would have been like if the Dark Ages had followed the fall of a highly developed scientific civilization. For one thing, we found a lot of machine guns and light auto-cannon on the street level, and all the doors were barricaded. The people here were trying to keep a civilization running after the rest of the planet had gone back to barbarism; I suppose they’d have to fight off raids by the barbarians now and then.”

“You’re not going to insist on making this building into expedition quarters, I hope, colonel?” von Ohlmhorst asked anxiously.

“Oh, no! This place is an archaeological treasure-house. More than that; from what I saw, our technicians can learn a lot, here. But you’d better get this floor cleaned up as soon as you can, though. I’ll have the subsurface part, from the sixth floor down, airsealed. Then we’ll put in oxygen generators and power units, and get a couple of elevators into service. For the floors above, we can use temporary airsealing floor by floor, and portable equipment; when we have things atmosphered and lighted and heated, you and Martha and Tony Lattimer can go to work systematically and in comfort, and I’ll give you all the help I can spare from the other work. This is one of the biggest things we’ve found yet.”

Tony Lattimer and his companions came down to the seventh floor a little later.

“I don’t get this, at all,” he began, as soon as he joined them. “This building wasn’t stripped the way the others were. Always, the procedure seems to have been to strip from the bottom up, but they seem to have stripped the top floors first, here. All but the very top. I found out what that conical thing is, by the way. It’s a wind-rotor, and under it there’s an electric generator. This building generated its own power.”

“What sort of condition are the generators in?” Penrose asked.

“Well, everything’s full of dust that blew in under the rotor, of course, but it looks to be in pretty good shape. Hey, I’ll bet that’s it! They had power, so they used the elevators to haul stuff down. That’s just what they did. Some of the floors above here don’t seem to have been touched, though.” He paused momentarily; back of his oxy-mask, he seemed to be grinning. “I don’t know that I ought to mention this in front of Martha, but two floors above we hit a room—it must have been the reference library for one of the departments—that had close to five hundred books in it.”

The noise that interrupted him, like the squeaking of a Brobdingnagian parrot, was only Ivan Fitzgerald laughing through his helmet-speaker.

* * *

Lunch at the huts was a hasty meal, with a gabble of full-mouthed and excited talking. Hubert Penrose and his chief subordinates snatched their food in a huddled consultation at one end of the table; in the afternoon, work was suspended on everything else and the fifty-odd men and women of the expedition concentrated their efforts on the University. By the middle of the afternoon, the seventh floor had been completely examined, photographed and sketched, and the murals in the square central hall covered with protective tarpaulins, and Laurent Gicquel and his airsealing crew had moved in and were at work. It had been decided to seal the central hall at the entrances. It took the French-Canadian engineer most of the afternoon to find all the ventilation-ducts and plug them. An elevator shaft on the north side was found reaching clear to the twenty-fifth floor; this would give access to the top of the building; another shaft, from the center, would take care of the floors below. Nobody seemed willing to trust the ancient elevators, themselves; it was the next evening before a couple of cars and the necessary machinery could be fabricated in the machine shops aboard the ship and sent down by landing-rocket. By that time, the airsealing was finished, the nuclear-electric energy-converters were in place, and the oxygen generators set up.

Martha was in the lower basement, an hour or so before lunch the day after, when a couple of Space Force officers came out of the elevator, bringing extra lights with them. She was still using oxygen-equipment; it was a moment before she realized that the newcomers had no masks, and that one of them was smoking. She took off her own helmet-speaker, throat-mike and mask and unslung her tank-pack, breathing cautiously. The air was chilly, and musty-acrid with the odor of antiquity—the first Martian odor she had smelled—but when she lit a cigarette, the lighter flamed clear and steady and the tobacco caught and burned evenly.

The archaeologists, many of the other civilian scientists, a few of the Space Force officers and the two news-correspondents, Sid Chamberlain and Gloria Standish, moved in that evening, setting up cots in vacant rooms. They installed electric stoves and a refrigerator in the old Library Reading Room, and put in a bar and lunch counter. For a few days, the place was full of noise and activity, then, gradually, the Space Force people and all but a few of the civilians returned to their own work. There was still the business of airsealing the more habitable of the buildings already explored, and fitting them up in readiness for the arrival, in a year and a half, of the five hundred members of the main expedition. There was work to be done enlarging the landing field for the ship’s rocket craft, and building new chemical-fuel tanks.

There was the work of getting the city’s ancient reservoirs cleared of silt before the next spring thaw brought more water down the underground aqueducts everybody called canals in mistranslation of Schiaparelli’s Italian word, though this was proving considerably easier than anticipated. The ancient Canal-Builders must have anticipated a time when their descendants would no longer be capable of maintenance work, and had prepared against it. By the day after the University had been made completely habitable, the actual work there was being done by Selim, Tony Lattimer and herself, with half a dozen Space Force officers, mostly girls, and four or five civilians, helping.

* * *

They worked up from the bottom, dividing the floor-surfaces into numbered squares, measuring and listing and sketching and photographing. They packaged samples of organic matter and sent them up to the ship for Carbon-14 dating and analysis; they opened cans and jars and bottles, and found that everything fluid in them had evaporated, through the porosity of glass and metal and plastic if there were no other way. Wherever they looked, they found evidence of activity suddenly suspended and never resumed. A vise with a bar of metal in it, half cut through and the hacksaw beside it. Pots and pans with hardened remains of food in them; a leathery cut of meat on a table, with the knife ready at hand. Toilet articles on washstands; unmade beds, the bedding ready to crumble at a touch but still retaining the impress of the sleeper’s body; papers and writing materials on desks, as though the writer had gotten up, meaning to return and finish in a fifty-thousand-year-ago moment.

It worried her. Irrationally, she began to feel that the Martians had never left this place; that they were still around her, watching disapprovingly every time she picked up something they had laid down. They haunted her dreams, now, instead of their enigmatic writing. At first, everybody who had moved into the University had taken a separate room, happy to escape the crowding and lack of privacy of the huts. After a few nights, she was glad when Gloria Standish moved in with her, and accepted the newswoman’s excuse that she felt lonely without somebody to talk to before falling asleep. Sachiko Koremitsu joined them the next evening, and before going to bed, the girl officer cleaned and oiled her pistol, remarking that she was afraid some rust may have gotten into it.

The others felt it, too. Selim von Ohlmhorst developed the habit of turning quickly and looking behind him, as though trying to surprise somebody or something that was stalking him. Tony Lattimer, having a drink at the bar that had been improvised from the librarian’s desk in the Reading Room, set down his glass and swore.

“You know what this place is? It’s an archaeological Marie Celeste!” he declared. “It was occupied right up to the end—we’ve all seen the shifts these people used to keep a civilization going here—but what was the end? What happened to them? Where did they go?”

“You didn’t expect them to be waiting out front, with a red carpet and a big banner, Welcome Terrans, did you, Tony?” Gloria Standish asked.

“No, of course not; they’ve all been dead for fifty thousand years. But if they were the last of the Martians, why haven’t we found their bones, at least? Who buried them, after they were dead?” He looked at the glass, a bubble-thin goblet, found, with hundreds of others like it, in a closet above, as though debating with himself whether to have another drink. Then he voted in the affirmative and reached for the cocktail pitcher. “And every door on the old ground level is either barred or barricaded from the inside. How did they get out? And why did they leave?”

* * *

The next day, at lunch, Sachiko Koremitsu had the answer to the second question. Four or five electrical engineers had come down by rocket from the ship, and she had been spending the morning with them, in oxy-masks, at the top of the building.

“Tony, I thought you said those generators were in good shape,” she began, catching sight of Lattimer. “They aren’t. They’re in the most unholy mess I ever saw. What happened, up there, was that the supports of the wind-rotor gave way, and weight snapped the main shaft, and smashed everything under it.”

“Well, after fifty thousand years, you can expect something like that,” Lattimer retorted. “When an archaeologist says something’s in good shape, he doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll start as soon as you shove a switch it.”

“You didn’t notice that it happened when the power was on, did you,” one of the engineers asked, nettled at Lattimer’s tone. “Well, it was. Everything’s burned out or shorted or fused together; I saw one busbar eight inches across melted clean in two. It’s a pity we didn’t find things in good shape, even archaeologically speaking. I saw a lot of interesting things, things in advance of what we’re using now. But it’ll take a couple of years to get everything sorted out and figure what it looked like originally.”

“Did it look as though anybody’d made an attempt to fix it?” Martha asked.

Sachiko shook her head. “They must have taken one look at it and given up. I don’t believe there would have been any possible way to repair anything.”

“Well, that explains why they left. They needed electricity for lighting, and heating, and all their industrial equipment was electrical. They had a good life, here, with power; without it, this place wouldn’t have been habitable.”

“Then why did they barricade everything from the inside, and how did they get out?” Lattimer wanted to know.

“To keep other people from breaking in and looting. Last man out probably barred the last door and slid down a rope from upstairs,” von Ohlmhorst suggested. “This Houdini-trick doesn’t worry me too much. We’ll find out eventually.”

“Yes, about the time Martha starts reading Martian,” Lattimer scoffed.

“That may be just when we’ll find out,” von Ohlmhorst replied seriously. “It wouldn’t surprise me if they left something in writing when they evacuated this place.”

“Are you really beginning to treat this pipe dream of hers as a serious possibility, Selim?” Lattimer demanded. “I know, it would be a wonderful thing, but wonderful things don’t happen just because they’re wonderful. Only because they’re possible, and this isn’t. Let me quote that distinguished Hittitologist, Johannes Friedrich: ‘Nothing can be translated out of nothing.’ Or that later but not less distinguished Hittitologist, Selim von Ohlmhorst: ‘Where are you going to get your bilingual?'”

“Friedrich lived to see the Hittite language deciphered and read,” von Ohlmhorst reminded him.

“Yes, when they found Hittite-Assyrian bilinguals.” Lattimer measured a spoonful of coffee-powder into his cup and added hot water. “Martha, you ought to know, better than anybody, how little chance you have. You’ve been working for years in the Indus Valley; how many words of Harappa have you or anybody else ever been able to read?”

“We never found a university, with a half-million-volume library, at Harappa or Mohenjo-Daro.”

“And, the first day we entered this building, we established meanings for several words,” Selim von Ohlmhorst added.

“And you’ve never found another meaningful word since,” Lattimer added. “And you’re only sure of general meaning, not specific meaning of word-elements, and you have a dozen different interpretations for each word.”

“We made a start,” von Ohlmhorst maintained. “We have Grotefend’s word for ‘king.’ But I’m going to be able to read some of those books, over there, if it takes me the rest of my life here. It probably will, anyhow.”

“You mean you’ve changed your mind about going home on the Cyrano?” Martha asked. “You’ll stay on here?”

The old man nodded. “I can’t leave this. There’s too much to discover. The old dog will have to learn a lot of new tricks, but this is where my work will be, from now on.”

Lattimer was shocked. “You’re nuts!” he cried. “You mean you’re going to throw away everything you’ve accomplished in Hittitology and start all over again here on Mars? Martha, if you’ve talked him into this crazy decision, you’re a criminal!”

“Nobody talked me into anything,” von Ohlmhorst said roughly. “And as for throwing away what I’ve accomplished in Hittitology, I don’t know what the devil you’re talking about. Everything I know about the Hittite Empire is published and available to anybody. Hittitology’s like Egyptology; it’s stopped being research and archaeology and become scholarship and history. And I’m not a scholar or a historian; I’m a pick-and-shovel field archaeologist—a highly skilled and specialized grave-robber and junk-picker—and there’s more pick-and shovel work on this planet than I could do in a hundred lifetimes. This is something new; I was a fool to think I could turn my back on it and go back to scribbling footnotes about Hittite kings.”

“You could have anything you wanted, in Hittitology. There are a dozen universities that’d sooner have you than a winning football team. But no! You have to be the top man in Martiology, too. You can’t leave that for anybody else—” Lattimer shoved his chair back and got to his feet, leaving the table with an oath that was almost a sob of exasperation.

Maybe his feelings were too much for him. Maybe he realized, as Martha did, what he had betrayed. She sat, avoiding the eyes of the others, looking at the ceiling, as embarrassed as though Lattimer had flung something dirty on the table in front of them. Tony Lattimer had, desperately, wanted Selim to go home on the Cyrano. Martiology was a new field; if Selim entered it, he would bring with him the reputation he had already built in Hittitology, automatically stepping into the leading role that Lattimer had coveted for himself. Ivan Fitzgerald’s words echoed back to her—when you want to be a big shot, you can’t bear the possibility of anybody else being a bigger big shot. His derision of her own efforts became comprehensible, too. It wasn’t that he was convinced that she would never learn to read the Martian language. He had been afraid that she would.

* * *

Ivan Fitzgerald finally isolated the germ that had caused the Finchley girl’s undiagnosed illness. Shortly afterward, the malady turned into a mild fever, from which she recovered. Nobody else seemed to have caught it. Fitzgerald was still trying to find out how the germ had been transmitted.

They found a globe of Mars, made when the city had been a seaport. They located the city, and learned that its name had been Kukan—or something with a similar vowel-consonant ratio. Immediately, Sid Chamberlain and Gloria Standish began giving their telecasts a Kukan dateline, and Hubert Penrose used the name in his official reports. They also found a Martian calendar; the year had been divided into ten more or less equal months, and one of them had been Doma. Another month was Nor, and that was a part of the name of the scientific journal Martha had found.

Bill Chandler, the zoologist, had been going deeper and deeper into the old sea bottom of Syrtis. Four hundred miles from Kukan, and at fifteen thousand feet lower altitude, he shot a bird. At least, it was a something with wings and what were almost but not quite feathers, though it was more reptilian than avian in general characteristics. He and Ivan Fitzgerald skinned and mounted it, and then dissected the carcass almost tissue by tissue. About seven-eights of its body capacity was lungs; it certainly breathed air containing at least half enough oxygen to support human life, or five times as much as the air around Kukan.

That took the center of interest away from archaeology, and started a new burst of activity. All the expedition’s aircraft—four jetticopters and three wingless airdyne reconnaissance fighters—were thrown into intensified exploration of the lower sea bottoms, and the bio-science boys and girls were wild with excitement and making new discoveries on each flight.

The University was left to Selim and Martha and Tony Lattimer, the latter keeping to himself while she and the old Turco-German worked together. The civilian specialists in other fields, and the Space Force people who had been holding tape lines and making sketches and snapping camera, were all flying to lower Syrtis to find out how much oxygen there was and what kind of life it supported.

Sometimes Sachiko dropped in; most of the time she was busy helping Ivan Fitzgerald dissect specimens. They had four or five species of what might loosely be called birds, and something that could easily be classed as a reptile, and a carnivorous mammal the size of a cat with birdlike claws, and a herbivore almost identical with the piglike thing in the big Darfhulva mural, and another like a gazelle with a single horn in the middle of its forehead.

The high point came when one party, at thirty thousand feet below the level of Kukan, found breathable air. One of them had a mild attack of sorroche and had to be flown back for treatment in a hurry, but the others showed no ill effects.

The daily newscasts from Terra showed a corresponding shift in interest at home. The discovery of the University had focused attention on the dead past of Mars; now the public was interested in Mars as a possible home for humanity. It was Tony Lattimer who brought archaeology back into the activities of the expedition and the news at home.

Martha and Selim were working in the museum on the second floor, scrubbing the grime from the glass cases, noting contents, and grease-penciling numbers; Lattimer and a couple of Space Force officers were going through what had been the administrative offices on the other side. It was one of these, a young second lieutenant, who came hurrying in from the mezzanine, almost bursting with excitement.

“Hey, Martha! Dr. von Ohlmhorst!” he was shouting. “Where are you? Tony’s found the Martians!”

Selim dropped his rag back in the bucket; she laid her clipboard on top of the case beside her.

“Where?” they asked together.

“Over on the north side.” The lieutenant took hold of himself and spoke more deliberately. “Little room, back of one of the old faculty offices—conference room. It was locked from the inside, and we had to burn it down with a torch. That’s where they are. Eighteen of them, around a long table—”

Gloria Standish, who had dropped in for lunch, was on the mezzanine, fairly screaming into a radio-phone extension:

” . . . Dozen and a half of them! Well, of course they’re dead. What a question! They look like skeletons covered with leather. No, I do not know what they died of. Well, forget it; I don’t care if Bill Chandler’s found a three-headed hippopotamus. Sid, don’t you get it? We’ve found the Martians!”

She slammed the phone back on its hook, rushing away ahead of them.

* * *

Martha remembered the closed door; on the first survey, they hadn’t attempted opening it. Now it was burned away at both sides and lay, still hot along the edges, on the floor of the big office room in front. A floodlight was on in the room inside, and Lattimer was going around looking at things while a Space Force officer stood by the door. The center of the room was filled by a long table; in armchairs around it sat the eighteen men and women who had occupied the room for the last fifty millennia. There were bottles and glasses on the table in front of them, and, had she seen them in a dimmer light, she would have thought that they were merely dozing over their drinks. One had a knee hooked over his chair-arm and was curled in foetus-like sleep. Another had fallen forward onto the table, arms extended, the emerald set of a ring twinkling dully on one finger. Skeletons covered with leather, Gloria Standish had called them, and so they were—faces like skulls, arms and legs like sticks, the flesh shrunken onto the bones under it.

“Isn’t this something!” Lattimer was exulting. “Mass suicide, that’s what it was. Notice what’s in the corners?”

Braziers, made of perforated two-gallon-odd metal cans, the white walls smudged with smoke above them. Von Ohlmhorst had noticed them at once, and was poking into one of them with his flashlight.

“Yes; charcoal. I noticed a quantity of it around a couple of hand-forges in the shop on the first floor. That’s why you had so much trouble breaking in; they’d sealed the room on the inside.” He straightened and went around the room, until he found a ventilator, and peered into it. “Stuffed with rags. They must have been all that were left, here. Their power was gone, and they were old and tired, and all around them their world was dying. So they just came in here and lit the charcoal, and sat drinking together till they all fell asleep. Well, we know what became of them, now, anyhow.”

Sid and Gloria made the most of it. The Terran public wanted to hear about Martians, and if live Martians couldn’t be found, a room full of dead ones was the next best thing. Maybe an even better thing; it had been only sixty-odd years since the Orson Welles invasion-scare. Tony Lattimer, the discoverer, was beginning to cash in on his attentions to Gloria and his ingratiation with Sid; he was always either making voice-and-image talks for telecast or listening to the news from the home planet. Without question, he had become, overnight, the most widely known archaeologist in history.

“Not that I’m interested in all this, for myself,” he disclaimed, after listening to the telecast from Terra two days after his discovery. “But this is going to be a big thing for Martian archaeology. Bring it to the public attention; dramatize it. Selim, can you remember when Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter found the tomb of Tutankhamen?”

“In 1923? I was two years old, then,” von Ohlmhorst chuckled. “I really don’t know how much that publicity ever did for Egyptology. Oh, the museums did devote more space to Egyptian exhibits, and after a museum department head gets a few extra showcases, you know how hard it is to make him give them up. And, for a while, it was easier to get financial support for new excavations. But I don’t know how much good all this public excitement really does, in the long run.”

“Well, I think one of us should go back on the Cyrano, when the Schiaparelli orbits in,” Lattimer said. “I’d hoped it would be you; your voice would carry the most weight. But I think it’s important that one of us go back, to present the story of our work, and what we have accomplished and what we hope to accomplish, to the public and to the universities and the learned societies, and to the Federation Government. There will be a great deal of work that will have to be done. We must not allow the other scientific fields and the so-called practical interests to monopolize public and academic support. So, I believe I shall go back at least for a while, and see what I can do—”

Lectures. The organization of a Society of Martian Archaeology, with Anthony Lattimer, Ph.D., the logical candidate for the chair. Degrees, honors; the deference of the learned, and the adulation of the lay public. Positions, with impressive titles and salaries. Sweet are the uses of publicity.

She crushed out her cigarette and got to her feet. “Well, I still have the final lists of what we found in Halvhulva—Biology—department to check over. I’m starting on Sornhulva tomorrow, and I want that stuff in shape for expert evaluation.”

That was the sort of thing Tony Lattimer wanted to get away from, the detail-work and the drudgery. Let the infantry do the slogging through the mud; the brass-hats got the medals.

* * *

She was halfway through the fifth floor, a week later, and was having midday lunch in the reading room on the first floor when Hubert Penrose came over and sat down beside her, asking her what she was doing. She told him.

“I wonder if you could find me a couple of men, for an hour or so,” she added. “I’m stopped by a couple of jammed doors at the central hall. Lecture room and library, if the layout of that floor’s anything like the ones below it.”

“Yes. I’m a pretty fair door-buster, myself.” He looked around the room. “There’s Jeff Miles; he isn’t doing much of anything. And we’ll put Sid Chamberlain to work, for a change, too. The four of us ought to get your doors open.” He called to Chamberlain, who was carrying his tray over to the dish washer. “Oh, Sid; you doing anything for the next hour or so?”

“I was going up to the fourth floor, to see what Tony’s doing.”

“Forget it. Tony’s bagged his season limit of Martians. I’m going to help Martha bust in a couple of doors; we’ll probably find a whole cemetery full of Martians.”

Chamberlain shrugged. “Why not. A jammed door can have anything back of it, and I know what Tony’s doing—just routine stuff.”

Jeff Miles, the Space Force captain, came over, accompanied by one of the lab-crew from the ship who had come down on the rocket the day before.

“This ought to be up your alley, Mort,” he was saying to his companion. “Chemistry and physics department. Want to come along?”

The lab man, Mort Tranter, was willing. Seeing the sights was what he’d come down from the ship for. She finished her coffee and cigarette, and they went out into the hall together, gathered equipment and rode the elevator to the fifth floor.

The lecture hall door was the nearest; they attacked it first. With proper equipment and help, it was no problem and in ten minutes they had it open wide enough to squeeze through with the floodlights. The room inside was quite empty, and, like most of the rooms behind closed doors, comparatively free from dust. The students, it appeared, had sat with their backs to the door, facing a low platform, but their seats and the lecturer’s table and equipment had been removed. The two side walls bore inscriptions: on the right, a pattern of concentric circles which she recognized as a diagram of atomic structure, and on the left a complicated table of numbers and words, in two columns. Tranter was pointing at the diagram on the right.

“They got as far as the Bohr atom, anyhow,” he said. “Well, not quite. They knew about electron shells, but they have the nucleus pictured as a solid mass. No indication of proton-and-neutron structure. I’ll bet, when you come to translate their scientific books, you’ll find that they taught that the atom was the ultimate and indivisible particle. That explains why you people never found any evidence that the Martians used nuclear energy.”

“That’s a uranium atom,” Captain Miles mentioned.

“It is?” Sid Chamberlain asked, excitedly. “Then they did know about atomic energy. Just because we haven’t found any pictures of A-bomb mushrooms doesn’t mean—”

She turned to look at the other wall. Sid’s signal reactions were getting away from him again; uranium meant nuclear power to him, and the two words were interchangeable. As she studied the arrangement of the numbers and words, she could hear Tranter saying:

“Nuts, Sid. We knew about uranium a long time before anybody found out what could be done with it. Uranium was discovered on Terra in 1789, by Klaproth.”

There was something familiar about the table on the left wall. She tried to remember what she had been taught in school about physics, and what she had picked up by accident afterward. The second column was a continuation of the first: there were forty-six items in each, each item numbered consecutively—

“Probably used uranium because it’s the largest of the natural atoms,” Penrose was saying. “The fact that there’s nothing beyond it there shows that they hadn’t created any of the transuranics. A student could go to that thing and point out the outer electron of any of the ninety-two elements.”

* * *

Ninety-two! That was it; there were ninety-two items in the table on the left wall! Hydrogen was Number One, she knew; One, Sarfaldsorn. Helium was Two; that was Tirfaldsorn. She couldn’t remember which element came next, but in Martian it was Sarfalddavas. Sorn must mean matter, or substance, then. And davas; she was trying to think of what it could be. She turned quickly to the others, catching hold of Hubert Penrose’s arm with one hand and waving her clipboard with the other.

“Look at this thing, over here,” she was clamoring excitedly. “Tell me what you think it is. Could it be a table of the elements?”

They all turned to look. Mort Tranter stared at it for a moment.

“Could be. If I only knew what those squiggles meant—”

That was right; he’d spent his time aboard the ship.

“If you could read the numbers, would that help?” she asked, beginning to set down the Arabic digits and their Martian equivalents. “It’s decimal system, the same as we use.”

“Sure. If that’s a table of elements, all I’d need would be the numbers. Thanks,” he added as she tore off the sheet and gave it to him.

Penrose knew the numbers, and was ahead of him. “Ninety-two items, numbered consecutively. The first number would be the atomic number. Then a single word, the name of the element. Then the atomic weight—”

She began reading off the names of the elements. “I know hydrogen and helium; what’s tirfalddavas, the third one?”

“Lithium,” Tranter said. “The atomic weights aren’t run out past the decimal point. Hydrogen’s one plus, if that double-hook dingus is a plus sign; Helium’s four-plus, that’s right. And lithium’s given as seven, that isn’t right. It’s six-point-nine-four-oh. Or is that thing a Martian minus sign?”

“Of course! Look! A plus sign is a hook, to hang things together; a minus sign is a knife, to cut something off from something—see, the little loop is the handle and the long pointed loop is the blade. Stylized, of course, but that’s what it is. And the fourth element, kiradavas; what’s that?”

“Beryllium. Atomic weight given as nine-and-a-hook; actually it’s nine-point-oh-two.”

Sid Chamberlain had been disgruntled because he couldn’t get a story about the Martians having developed atomic energy. It took him a few minutes to understand the newest development, but finally it dawned on him.

“Hey! You’re reading that!” he cried. “You’re reading Martian!”

“That’s right,” Penrose told him. “Just reading it right off. I don’t get the two items after the atomic weight, though. They look like months of the Martian calendar. What ought they to be, Mort?”

Tranter hesitated. “Well, the next information after the atomic weight ought to be the period and group numbers. But those are words.”

“What would the numbers be for the first one, hydrogen?”

“Period One, Group One. One electron shell, one electron in the outer shell,” Tranter told her. “Helium’s period one, too, but it has the outer—only—electron shell full, so it’s in the group of inert elements.”

“Trav, Trav. Trav‘s the first month of the year. And helium’s Trav, Yenth; Yenth is the eighth month.”

“The inert elements could be called Group Eight, yes. And the third element, lithium, is Period Two, Group One. That check?”

“It certainly does. Sanv, Trav; Sanv‘s the second month. What’s the first element in Period Three?”

“Sodium, Number Eleven.”

“That’s right; it’s Krav, Trav. Why, the names of the months are simply numbers, one to ten, spelled out.”

“Doma‘s the fifth month. That was your first Martian word, Martha,” Penrose told her. “The word for five. And if davas is the word for metal, and sornhulva is chemistry and/or physics, I’ll bet Tadavas Sornhulva is literally translated as : ‘Of-Metal Matter-Knowledge.’ Metallurgy, in other words. I wonder what Mastharnorvod means.” It surprised her that, after so long and with so much happening in the meantime, he could remember that. “Something like ‘Journal,’ or ‘Review,’ or maybe ‘Quarterly.'”

“We’ll work that out, too,” she said confidently. After this, nothing seemed impossible. “Maybe we can find—” Then she stopped short. “You said ‘Quarterly.’ I think it was ‘Monthly,’ instead. It was dated for a specific month, the fifth one. And if nor is ten, Mastharnorvod could be ‘Year-Tenth.’ And I’ll bet we’ll find that masthar is the word for year.” She looked at the table on the wall again. “Well, let’s get all these words down, with translations for as many as we can.”

“Let’s take a break for a minute,” Penrose suggested, getting out his cigarettes. “And then, let’s do this in comfort. Jeff, suppose you and Sid go across the hall and see what you find in the other room in the way of a desk or something like that, and a few chairs. There’ll be a lot of work to do on this.”

Sid Chamberlain had been squirming as though he were afflicted with ants, trying to contain himself. Now he let go with an excited jabber.

“This is really it! The it, not just it-of-the-week, like finding the reservoirs or those statues or this building, or even the animals and the dead Martians! Wait till Selim and Tony see this! Wait till Tony sees it; I want to see his face! And when I get this on telecast, all Terra’s going to go nuts about it!” He turned to Captain Miles. “Jeff, suppose you take a look at that other door, while I find somebody to send to tell Selim and Tony. And Gloria; wait till she sees this—”

“Take it easy, Sid,” Martha cautioned. “You’d better let me have a look at your script, before you go too far overboard on the telecast. This is just a beginning; it’ll take years and years before we’re able to read any of those books downstairs.”

“It’ll go faster than you think, Martha,” Hubert Penrose told her. “We’ll all work on it, and we’ll teleprint material to Terra, and people there will work on it. We’ll send them everything we can . . . everything we work out, and copies of books, and copies of your word-lists—”

And there would be other tables—astronomical tables, tables in physics and mechanics, for instance—in which words and numbers were equivalent. The library stacks, below, would be full of them. Transliterate them into Roman alphabet spellings and Arabic numerals, and somewhere, somebody would spot each numerical significance, as Hubert Penrose and Mort Tranter and she had done with the table of elements. And pick out all the chemistry textbooks in the Library; new words would take on meaning from contexts in which the names of elements appeared. She’d have to start studying chemistry and physics, herself—

* * *

Sachiko Koremitsu peeped in through the door, then stepped inside.

“Is there anything I can do—?” she began. “What’s happened? Something important?”

“Important?” Sid Chamberlain exploded. “Look at that, Sachi! We’re reading it! Martha’s found out how to read Martian!” He grabbed Captain Miles by the arm. “Come on, Jeff; let’s go. I want to call the others—” He was still babbling as he hurried from the room.

Sachi looked at the inscription. “Is it true?” she asked, and then, before Martha could more than begin to explain, flung her arms around her. “Oh, it really is! You are reading it! I’m so happy!”

She had to start explaining again when Selim von Ohlmhorst entered. This time, she was able to finish.

“But, Martha, can you be really sure? You know, by now, that learning to read this language is as important to me as it is to you, but how can you be so sure that those words really mean things like hydrogen and helium and boron and oxygen? How do you know that their table of elements was anything like ours?”

Tranter and Penrose and Sachiko all looked at him in amazement.

“That isn’t just the Martian table of elements; that’s the table of elements. It’s the only one there is,” Mort Tranter almost exploded. “Look, hydrogen has one proton and one electron. If it had more of either, it wouldn’t be hydrogen, it’d be something else. And the same with all the rest of the elements. And hydrogen on Mars is the same as hydrogen on Terra, or on Alpha Centauri, or in the next galaxy—”

“You just set up those numbers, in that order, and any first-year chemistry student could tell you what elements they represented,” Penrose said. “Could if he expected to make a passing grade, that is.”

The old man shook his head slowly, smiling. “I’m afraid I wouldn’t make a passing grade. I didn’t know, or at least didn’t realize, that. One of the things I’m going to place an order for, to be brought on the Schiaparelli, will be a set of primers in chemistry and physics, of the sort intended for a bright child of ten or twelve. It seems that a Martiologist has to learn a lot of things the Hittites and the Assyrians never heard about.”

Tony Lattimer, coming in, caught the last part of the explanation. He looked quickly at the walls and, having found out just what had happened, advanced and caught Martha by the hand.

“You really did it, Martha! You found your bilingual! I never believed that it would be possible; let me congratulate you!”

He probably expected that to erase all the jibes and sneers of the past. If he did, he could have it that way. His friendship would mean as little to her as his derision—except that his friends had to watch their backs and his knife. But he was going home on the Cyrano, to be a big-shot. Or had this changed his mind for him again?

“This is something we can show the world, to justify any expenditure of time and money on Martian archaeological work. When I get back to Terra, I’ll see that you’re given full credit for this achievement—”

On Terra, her back and his knife would be out of her watchfulness.

“We won’t need to wait that long,” Hubert Penrose told him dryly. “I’m sending off an official report, tomorrow; you can be sure Dr. Dane will be given full credit, not only for this but for her previous work, which made it possible to exploit this discovery.”

“And you might add, work done in spite of the doubts and discouragements of her colleagues,” Selim von Ohlmhorst said. “To which I am ashamed to have to confess my own share.”

“You said we had to find a bilingual,” she said. “You were right, too.”

“This is better than a bilingual, Martha,” Hubert Penrose said. “Physical science expresses universal facts; necessarily it is a universal language. Heretofore archaeologists have dealt only with pre-scientific cultures.”

Using the pointed end

I think that we take pull-tabs on cans for granted. Today they are all one piece. You just pull up the pull-tab and then discard the can when you are finished. But I am here to tell you that it wasn’t always that way.

Back in the 1950’s and 1960’s we had to use this thing called a can-opener to open our cans of beer. It has a triangular point and that would make a triangular cut in the top of the can from which we drank from.

Then in the middle 1970’s that was replaced with pull tabs. These were not integrated into the can. You pulled the tab and then dropped it in the trash, or more often the ground.

Then sometime in the 1980’s came the integrated pull-tabs.

Times happen. Before we realize it, things are changed, and the past is as forgotten as it is discarded. Today, many young Gen-Z kids have no idea why there is a pointed end on the metal can opener. I guess that it is a mystery to them.

After I am dead, the purpose of the pointed end on the metal opener will be forgotten just like the eraser on the end of a pencil. Such is life.

Today…

What was the scariest experience you’ve had at work?

My experience was just weird. The place I worked had a mandatory Saturday workday once a year. Just because they wanted a certain number of calendar workdays. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Most people came in really early and left early, but never being a morning person, I came in at my usual time. As the day went on, I ended up being the only one there. So I started walking around, closing the office doors to the production floor, turning off lights, and making sure the outside doors were locked, as well as checking nobody else was there who I was locking in. As I walked thru the building, I clearly heard footsteps following me. I got a feeling so I stopped and there were still footsteps. Looking in their direction, nobody was there. They got closer, then stopped. I spoke out loud and told whatever I didn’t appreciate being followed and they either needed to show themselves or move along. I was in a big open office area so I should have easily seen whatever it was. This place always had a motion detector alarm go off at 3–4am too, when nobody was there. I saw a flicker of something but nothing really happened so I figured screw it, circled back to where my desk was, gathered my stuff and got ready to leave, no footsteps that time. Where this building was, we didn’t have cell service, so I realized after I’d left the building that I couldn’t call my family to tell them I was on my way because it was snowing really heavily and the parking lot wasn’t cleared. I inched my way out to my car and got in and out of habit I immediately lock the doors, but when I looked back, there was a set of faint footprints by mine. I still don’t know if they were old footprints covered with snow that I couldn’t see while walking or whatever was in there followed me out. I just made sure I was never alone in that building after that.

Good on paper

Vegetable Tortellini Soup

This flavorful Vegetable Tortellini Soup pairs fresh veggies and herbs with whole wheat three cheese tortellini to create a flavorful addition to any lunch or dinner that will please family and friends. It’s great alone as a light lunch, too!

Prep: 15 min | Cook: 30 min | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup sliced leek (white part only) or chopped onion
1/2 cup sliced celery
Salt and ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 (14 ounce) cans low-sodium vegetable broth
3 cups water
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced into circles
1 large zucchini, cut in half lengthwise then sliced crosswise
1 cup fresh or frozen peas or green beans
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, divided
1 (9 ounce) package Buitoni Refrigerated 100% Whole Wheat Three Cheese Tortellini or Spinach Cheese Tortellini
1/4 cup (0.75 ounce) Buitoni Refrigerated Freshly Shredded Parmesan Cheese

Instructions

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add leek and celery; cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper.
Stir in garlic; cook, stirring frequently, for 30 seconds.
Add vegetable broth, water, carrot, zucchini, peas and 1 tablespoon parsley. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
Add pasta; bring to a boil. Cook for 7 minutes.
Season with ground black pepper.
Top with remaining 1 tablespoon parsley and cheese before serving.

The Duran: NATO Crossed Putin’s Red Line and Russia’s Alliance with China will DESTROY It

Israel Quietly ‘Retaliates’ For Iran’s Retaliation Attack

Last night Israel attempted a minor attack on Iran to ‘retaliate’ for the Iranian penetration of its security screen.

The current exchange happened after Israel, in clear violation of international law, bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

The aim and success of last night’s attack is yet unknown:

Israel carried out retaliatory strikes against Iran early Friday morning local time, reportedly targeting locations in the west of the country. Explosions were heard in the city of Isfahan, prompting commercial flights to divert from their routes.Senior US officials speaking to ABC, CBS and NPR confirmed the strikes.
…
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported at around 5:30 a.m. local time (10:00 p.m. EST Thursday) that explosions were heard in Qahjaverestan, northeast of Isfahan.

A senior Iranian military official in Isfahan told the Islamic Republic News Agency that the explosions were caused by Iran’s air defenses that fired at a suspicious object east of Isfahan. Isfahan’s international airport is located just northeast of Qahjaverestan.

Two discarded first stages of Israeli ROCKS aero-ballistic missiles have been found in Iraq. ROCKS, a derivative of Sparrows ballistic target rocket, are air-launched, stand-off, air-to-ground missiles.

They may have hit something near Isfahan or they may have been taken down by Iranian air defense.

No Iranian or Israeli officials have commented the attack. The IAEA said that no Iranian nuclear facility has been hit.

As both sides are currently silent, and as there are no signs of further escalation, the strike will likely conclude the current exchange.

As a consequence of its strike in Damascus Israel has lost its escalation dominance. Iran managed to penetrate its external security screen just like Hamas had penetrated Israel’s internal security screen on October 7 2023 when it broke out of Gaza to collect hostages.

Those who moved to Israel because they thought that it could provide them with security should reevaluate their decision.

Posted by b at 14:04 UTC | Comments (248)

Fashion has been replaced with tape? WTF?

Speechless. Is this “fashion” show all about selling 3M electrical tape?

Finkelstein: “Israel Is a Lunatic State. Certifiably crazy.”

Hal Turner World 20 April 2024

OP-ED: Israel is hurling towards the precipice and is determined one way or another to drag the rest of humanity with it. Israel is a lunatic state. The state is certifiably crazy.

There are two poles for the entire Israeli spectrum. One pole is the pole of “crackpot realists” who see war as the only answer to every question even as they acknowledge that war will not solve any problems. It’s their first and last reflex.

At the other end of this very narrow spectrum are those who advocate for “The Samson Option” — either pretend to be crazy to terrify your enemies and your allies, that if they don’t do Israel’s bidding, Israel will bring down the temple on everybody’s head.

And there are those who are not simply pretending to be crazy by advocating “The Samson Option,” they ARE crazy. They’re lunatics.

There is a significant portion of Israel’s political spectrum that is either pretending to be crazy or actually is crazy. It’s not even the subject matter of Monty Python. This is lunacy run amok.

If even only half of Israeli society and only half of the Israeli political elite think this, and in my opinion, it’s much more than half, the place is crazy!

There are those who are prepared in the name of their “holy cause” who think their backs are up against the wall to “bring down the whole temple” meaning “all the goyim are going to go with us.” It’s a very scary prospect now.

I don’t believe that Iran has many options. Once Israel is determined to go to war, it will keep escalating the provocations until it becomes untenable for a government to react with passivity.

If they didn’t react, we know from past experience exactly what Israel would do. It would keep escalating the provocations up to and including assassinating the Iranian head of state, formally denying it, but with a wink-wink as, “Of course, we did it.”

There is no way to stop them. Once they have resolved that a war is necessary and a war is inevitable, there is no way to stop them. That’s what the historical record shows.

You can hold back as Nasser did, as the PLO did, as Hamas did, but Israel will provoke and provoke and provoke because it’s resolved on that war.

I do not believe the option of not reacting actually exists. And that to me is a very difficult problem. We’re facing a moment where Israel wants to resolve three problems: it wants to execute its “final solution” to “the Gaza problem,” Hezbollah, and Iran.

Benjamin Netanyahu is a virtuoso about the American media. He sees an opportunity to win the trifecta: Gaza, Hezbollah, and Iran. Another opportunity like this might not come along soon. It can achieve in their minds—remember, we’re talking about certifiable lunatics—their three overarching strategic objectives in one fell swoop.

There is a huge insatiable bloodlust in Israel. There is the fear in Israel that what it calls its “deterrence capability,” meaning the Arab world’s fear of Israel, was significantly diminished after October 7th. It looks like an opportunity might be available to them.

Israel is a very tiny place. If Hezbollah launches 150,000 missiles at Israel it’s curtains for Israel. Nasrallah’s mind is not corrupted by the delusions and hallucinations of this crazy state. If Israel has resolved, as it did in 1954, 1982, and 2008, that Iran has to be neutered, no amount of restraint will stop them.

Karma will get you back

This is funny.

Have you ever worked with someone who seemed lazy but worked really hard?

I worked on a loading dock at a very busy furniture store. On Saturdays we generally had 40 or more loaders on each shift. One guy looked like he was always sitting. Many people assumed he wasn’t carrying his share and someone complained to the foreman. When a customer pulled up for a delivery two or three of us, more for a larger load, would take the product out, load it up, tie it down and have the customer sign the receipt slip. Then each person on the crew would sign it and turn it in. The foreman took all the day’s slips and had a clerk tally up the number of loads each person had done. The foreman posted the list. Lazy guy was number two for the day. Some busybody asked lazy guy how he did so much work but sat so much. He explained that he had plantar fasciitis, a very painful foot condition. If he didn’t sit often, he was unable to walk at all, but he loved to work. It made the day go by faster. No one ever complained again for as long as he worked there.

Semiconductor bans were intended to kill the Chinese chipmakers. They’re killing ours instead.

His intro is KILLER. Damn!

About the April Israel attack on Iran

Forwarded to me securely…

EXCLUSIVE

THE REAL STORY OF THE ISRAELI COUNTER RESPONSE

From a very high level intel source.

In Asia.

NOT Russia-China.

Although the strategic partnership, of course, exchanges at the highest level 24-7.

Confirmed and re-confirmed.

It will be great to know what Sy Hersh hears from his Beltway sources.

Here we go.

Israel initially chose to respond with extreme force.

An F-35 loaded with a nuclear bomb was sent east over Jordan.

The mission: cause a high-altitude detonation over Iran that would provoke a surge in the high-capacity power lines, crippling Iran's electric grid, as well as disabling all electronic devices.

An EMP attack.

However...

... As the Israeli F-35 was leaving Jordanian airspace it was shot down by the Russian Air Force.

Hence the publicised version of the Israeli counter response was such a travesty.

In the end all sides decided not to publicise the real news - to de-escalate what could well turn into WWIII.

What’s the most “small town” thing you’ve witnessed?

Back in the 70s, we were headed back to the farm after spending Saturday morning in town doing shopping. It was the one day a week that nearly everyone who lived out of town went shopping (we mostly lived in a city 200 miles away but spent holidays and odd weekends on the farm). A few miles out, there was a market garden. As we approached, cars in front started slowing down.

We came to a stop, eventually crawling up to the market garden, which was a simple stall beside the road. The old man and his wife and kids were busy running boxes of vegetables out to the road and passing them through the windows of people’s cars. My father told me to wind my window down as a kid offered up a box of veggies. My father held out a $10 note and the kid said “sorry, no change, pay next week “ and didn’t take the money.

As we drove off I asked dad what that was about. He said that everyone wanted to get home, but the market had no space for everyone to park, so they had boxed the vegetables beforehand to run out to passing cars. Next Saturday we’d stop at the stall on the way into town and pay then.

Everyone knew everyone else and the honour system worked well. Somehow I can’t imagine this working in a city.

Fun 1970’s era comix!

How is China allowed to sentence a Canadian to death?

Press Release.

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The Schellenberg drug smuggling case is a case in which the prosecuting authorities of the People’s Republic of China charged Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a Canadian citizen, with drug smuggling in China. The prosecution alleges that in November 2014, Schellenberg attempted to smuggle 222 packages of methamphetamine with a net weight of 222.035 kilograms from Dalian to Australia, and upon realising that things were changing, Schellenberg boarded a plane at Dalian airport with the intention of fleeing to Thailand. When the plane stopped at Guangzhou Airport, Schellenberg was arrested by Chinese police. Xerenberg argued that he had been framed by drug trafficker Xu Qing and that he was an innocent tourist.On 20 November 2018, the Dalian Intermediate People’s Court handed down a first instance verdict, sentencing Xerenberg to 15 years in prison, confiscation of personal property of RMB 150,000 and deportation for drug smuggling. Xielenberg appealed against the verdict. On 29 December of the same year, the Liaoning High People’s Court heard the case at a public hearing of the second instance. During the trial, the procurator of the Liaoning Provincial People’s Procuratorate claimed that the verdict of the first trial, which found Xielenberg to be an accessory and an attempt to commit a crime, was improper and therefore a lighter punishment. On 14 January 2019, the case was retried by the Dalian Municipal Intermediate Court, which sentenced Schellenberg to death and confiscated all of his property. After the retrial, Schellenberg’s defence firm stated that it would file an appeal.

On 10 August 2021, the Liaoning Provincial High People’s Court rejected the appeal and upheld the death sentence. The Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada issued a statement condemning the verdict and not waiving consular assistance.

Returning to the questions.

1. China is a country that retains the death penalty for major crimes, it is Chinese law, and there have been British drug dealers, Japanese drug dealers, etc. sentenced to death in China for drug trafficking before. Does it mean that Canadians are not the same?

main qimg 27687d9e81c8a991c7940a1f7bbd8669 lq

2. According to Chinese law, smuggling 50 grams (that’s grams, not kilograms or pounds) of methamphetamine is punishable by death. And this guy smuggled 220 kilograms (yes, kilograms). That means his crime, according to Chinese law, is punishable by the death penalty 4,400 times.

Please note that this man has a prior drug conviction

Born in 1982, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg is a Canadian citizen who grew up in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Schellenberg had been jailed twice in Canada for drug offences prior to his arrest in China.

The Canadian press says Schellenberg is not at the bottom of the drug trafficking chain.

According to court documents from 2012, Schellenberg had previously suffered a femur injury at work and became addicted to drugs when he began to overuse painkillers to relieve the pain.

In February 2003, Schellenberg was sentenced to six months in prison for selling and transporting drugs.

In 2012, Schellenberg was sentenced to two years in prison for trafficking cocaine and heroin, and possession of cannabis resin and methamphetamine (he was incarcerated before the verdict was announced, and thus ended up serving 16 months and 12 days in prison).

Never Fail Beef Brisket

The nice thing about this recipe is that the first baking can be done in the morning and the last part a short time before you are serving dinner. Leftovers make hot beef sandwiches like you used to get in restaurants (not out of a box!.

Notes

Beef brisket
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Carrots, thinly sliced
Celery, thinly sliced
1 can beef consommé
1 cup dry red wine
2 to 3 tablespoons Lipton’s dry onion soup
Parsley
Mushrooms, sliced

Instructions

Put beef brisket in oven at 450 degrees F oven for 20 minutes.
Remove; sprinkle garlic powder on meat, put thin slices of carrots and celery on meat and add beef consommé, dry red wine, (can use more broth in place of wine) and Lipton’s dry onion soup, then add parsley, cover and set oven at 300 degrees F and cook 3 to 4 hours.
Serve from oven or remove and chill meat about 1/2 hour; save broth. Slice meat and place fresh sliced mushrooms and fresh parsley on meat in baking dish.
Make gravy from broth that was saved and pour heated gravy over meat and place in oven at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Fun retro

Walmart

Has a cop ever said something to you which was completely unexpected?

When I was growing up I used to regularly see one of the biggest and ugliest traffic cops on a motorcycle regularly patrolling a side road of the freeway. By appearances alone this was one intimidating motherfucker. From the number of cars I saw him stop over the years, he was clearly a ticket cash cow.

Shortly after I got my license I happened to be cruising down that side road and blew a traffic stop sign because there were no other cars in sight. Within seconds this cop’s motorcycle came bursting out of nowhere with full siren and lights blazing. Scared the living shit out me as a new driver. What scared me even more was that I was going to encounter this particular badass officer.

He was all business after the stop asking for license etc., and noting that my license had been issued within the past two weeks. He said to me in a gruff voice, “you know you blew that stop sign back there, don’t you.”

I barely squeaked out a “yes sir.”

After a very uncomfortable 15 seconds of silence, he returned my license, and said, “Okay, this is a warning; don’t do that again!” Without another word he got back on his motorcycle and sped off.

Completely blew my mind.

What is the oddest conversation you’ve had with a telephone scammer?

Had the decorator round painting my ceilings when the phone rang – I answered it on loudspeaker, it went like this:-

Me “Hello?”

Telephone Scammer (TS) “Hello madam, we have noticed a problem with your internet and there is an attempt to steal money from your bank”.

Me: Oh no! What do I need to do?

TS: Check your internet router!

Me: Whats an internet router?

TS: the thing that makes your computer work!

Me: Oh, my husband deals with all the computer things shall I get him to call you back?

TS: NO madam there is no time! The box next to the computer, is the lights flashing?

Me: Yes

TS: Oh NO be fast, they are stealing your money right now, thats what the flashing lights are for! To let you know you are being robbed!

Me: what should I do!

TS: Log on to this website

Me: how do I do that?

TS: Switch on the computer

Me: OK

TS: Go to this website

Me: Computer is asking me for a password

TS: put in your password!

Me: I don’t know what it is! It’s my husbands computer!

TS: Try his date of birth! What is that?

Me: 6 June 66. (Its not!) That hasn’t worked!

TS: Try his middle name

Me: OK, I’m typing ‘Shirley’ – that’s not working either!

TS: try looking under the keyboard!

ME: Oh yes! Oh, No – Dell5454 isn’t working either!

TS: You must hurry your money is disappearing!

ME: Can you hang on I will call my husband and ask him for his password!

TS: Yes but hurry!

Me: can you give me your number incase we get cut off! He gives me a landline number based in London UK!

I put the scammer on hold for about 5 minutes! My decorator is peeing himself laughing up a ladder!

ME: I’m back, I’ve got into the computer!

TS: Great now go to this website!

He proceeds to tell me the website, I proceed to spell it incorrectly about 6 times!

In the meantime I ask him how he is doing, hows his family, does he have a dog etc etc.

He’s now losing patience with me!

TS: Are you in the website yet?

Me: Dont shout you are putting me off

TS: I’m sorry it’s so important to make sure your money is not being stolen.

Me: that’s OK…my money isn’t being stolen, I’ve sent your phone number to crime stoppers along with a full recording of this conversation you scamming piece of garbage..

He hung up on me! But not before I’d wasted almost 1 hour 30 minutes of his time! An hour in which he wasn’t trying to scam people a little more gullible than me!

My decorator finished my ceilings that day and gave me a small discount to make up for the laugh he had! 🙂

What’s the craziest thing you have said to your boss?

This was years ago, so don’t judge! 😂

I was working in a fashion store and my boss, John was in the office doing bookwork all day.

It was the time of year when women had already bought their winter wardrobe. And the grey, dismal weather outside wasn’t enticing anyone to consider buying for the new season.

I’d cleaned the store from top to bottom and changed all the displays several times and not a soul had come in from the rain all afternoon.

Business has been abysmal that day and the boss was worried.

Sighing, he approached the sales desk.

‘No-one in – and I still have to pay your wage.’ He said shaking his head. It made me feel so guilty!

Being only a casually employed worker, I had a brilliant idea suddenly how I could save him some money. John could easily handle the rest of the quiet day, and I’d finish up early- saving him paying a few hours of my wage.

‘Do you want to knock me off now?’ I offered.

John suddenly looked up in surprise.

‘Do you wasn’t to rephrase that, Ava?’ he said with half a smile.

‘Why?’ I asked him, but he didn’t answer.

His response baffled me.

So I asked my husband when I got home later that evening. ‘What’s wrong with asking your boss if you want to knock me off – what would you say?

‘I’d say- yes please!!’ Was my husband’s salacious response.

That’s when it hit me hard!

My God, I realised – I should have asked John if he wanted me to knock off early- not if he wanted to knock me off.

I was absolutely mortified that I’d accidentally propositioned my boss!

AFTER NOTE:

Wait! I’m sorry- I’m so confused now! 😂 In the comment section it’s become apparent that I’m using Australian slang- so I’m not being understood.

My apologies – I didn’t even know that ‘knock off’ was an Australian saying!

Sorry for the questions in a question, but-

Do other countries – like the USA – say ‘knock off work’ when they’re finished work for the day?

And I’m sorry to be crude (and it’s not language I usually use!) but does this sentence only make sense to an Australian? ‘We all knew he was knocking off his secretary.’

I’m sorry my post is so confusing – believe me, I’m feeling your pain now too.

Time to stay away…

Are traditional “medicine” in China still revered, or has the population wised up and realized that they are being duped? What is the trend?

Well, the Chinese have vastly expanded their medical repertoire to incorporate western medicine and surgery.

Whereas traditional Chinese medicine or tcm was all China had for millennia, it is a legitimate and recognized branch of healthcare today.

The body of tcm knowledge is being scientifically classified and refined into modern treatment protocols for human diseases. For example, pain management with acupuncture, which does away with drugs. Or guasha, which is effective treating fascia-related symptoms.

Furthermore, the wisdom contained in the thousands year history of tcm is being rediscovered today. Tu Youyou, a biomedical researcher, explored an age-old Chinese anti-malaria recipe from existing texts and isolated the active ingredient Artemisinin from it. She won the Nobel prize in medicine for her effort.

Tcm practitioners are recognized as professionals these days. There is certification and accreditation, as well as standardization of the body of knowledge. An entire tcm supply chain eco-system has emerged, from easy to swallow capsules to tiny acupuncture plasters.

I will say tcm is very much alive and thriving in the Chinese consciousness. We just don’t blindly believe it is miracle medicine capable of treating all ailments. It remains however, a relevant and important piece of Chinese healthcare today.

Note: A doctor friend of mine successfully arrested and reversed rather severe childhood myopia in his two kids putting them through a months-long acupuncture regime.

What is your most “you’ve got to be kidding me” experience at a car mechanic?

I was a broke, starving college student in 1992, driving a red 1985 VW Scirocco with 200,000+ miles on it that I’d picked up for $2k. It ran well for me and got me through college and then some, although I never could seem to get the backup lights to work (VW electrical gremlins). One time the tailpipe broke off the muffler so I stopped in at a Midas to see if they could weld on a new tailpipe. They threw “Red Rocco” up on the lift, took a quick look, came and informed me the muffler was completely rusted through and couldn’t be repaired. I asked to see it but could not see any rust or holes from my view below. The mechanic and two other shop guys proceeded to reach up on top of the muffler, feeling around, saying, oh yeah it’s all rusted through up here. Ok, how much? They go look it up, run the numbers and come back with, “$400, and we can do it right now!” I say, I don’t have that kind of money right now, I’ll just have to drive it as-is. They offered a special discount, right now only, $50 off, and they said I could post date a check, to help me out. I again declined and asked for my car. On the way home, I happened to see a small, independent muffler shop and wondered what they might charge to replace my “completely rusted through” muffler. The guy says, let me take a look at it and comes back in and informs me the muffler is fine, and that he can weld a tailpipe on for $10 in about 5–10 minutes, if I can wait. But wait, I ask, what about the hole and rust on top of the muffler? What rust, who told you that, he asks. Midas just looked at it 15 minutes ago, I inform him. He starts laughing and says, “At Midas, they don’t Midasize, they Sodomize!”.

Schools In China Are Terrible!! Or Are They…. Let’s Take A Closer Look!!

Have you ever caught someone talking about you in a language that he/she thought that you don’t know considering your appearance, but you can hear and understand the individual? What do you do?

I worked in a Polish machine shop in suburban Chicago as the chief inspector. All the guys were Polish, the entire management was Polish with the receptionist and I were the only Americans.

in addition, our vendor base was also primarily Polish. The guys on the floor lived in a Polish neighborhood, went to doctors, grocery stores, and car dealers that were Polish-owned.

I was hired because I had a few years of experience in the trade, could run a coordinate measuring machine, and I understood shop Polish. I am reg’lar Murican, waspy mix, but I was coming from a job at another Polish shop where I had learned basic grammar and tense and was able to get my inspection results expressed in Polish and do a fair job of understanding a native speaker, especially if I knew the context.

After I had been at this new shop for a while, I had occasion to inspect and reject some little eccentric shafts that we made when they came back from the grind shop. We make the blanks, send them for heat treatment and then send them to an outside grinding house to have them ground to size in a fixture that accommodates the eccentricity of the shaft.

The grinding shop was Polish-owned, of course. I was rejecting them for being tapered undersized on the one diameter that was off center. The tolerance wasn’t really close, +0/-.0005inch, but I was failing them for being .0001 undersized, 20% of the given tolerance, a significant deviation in this science.

We had made a big box of these little shafts, with three quarter-inch diameters. Someone had to sort these to pick out all the bad ones. My boss, Ziggy said I should go to the grind shop and haggle it out, push our case that they screwed up, they need to fix it. That meant I had to prove my case in front of them.

I got there and met two guys, the owner and the manager, both native Polish. In English, I presented my case, insisted that they sort these and refund us the money for the scrap parts. They tried to contest my method, taking the micrometer himself and purposely holding it crooked to get a good number and saying, “See?! .2499! In tolerance!!”

I could see they were deflecting and I took the mic and measured the same piece carefully in front of his face. .2494. NFG (Universal machine shop rejection language – No F***ing Good).

Things started to get heated about then and the two of them withdrew a short ways away for a conference, but not far enough for me to not overhear them speaking poorly about me in Polish. There was much disrespect and, since I knew the context and ALL the Polish cuss words, I knew I was being disparaged.

I let it go in for a few minutes until I recognized that he was again questioning my measuring technique and then he called me an a-hole…

I spoke up – in Polish – and told him he may think I am an a-hole but I know how to measure. Ziggy knows that I know how to measure and that’s why he sent me over here to show you.

The color dropped out of both their faces, a few conciliatory words and gestures were made but communications after that were brief and I left, having secured agreement to my original terms.

I just got fired. Now my former boss (the one who let me go) is asking me where some important documents are. How should I respond?

This has happened to me once before and I gave him the information — the reason for me was simple. I understood why I was let go and I not only had a good relationship with my former boss I knew that one day we would be running into each other again and I refused to burn bridges. It would have been different if he had fired me for no reason or we had a poor professional relationship. But the way things stood, it didn’t cost me anything to give it to him and it may pay dividends in the future.

Now a friend of mine was in a different situation. He was fired as part of a large restructuring and there wasn’t any effort to transition any of his work. Six months later a new boss at his former company came asking about some documentation. The way he explained it to me, they should have had all that and all he had was copies he had saved for himself. Since he didn’t leave on the best terms and had no interest in any future relations, he drew up a consulting contract and 40 hours of work and sent it to them. It took a week for them to reply with a counter-offer. He declined and eventually, that gave in. He put the document set together and got well paid for it. They in fact contacted him a few more times and he made money each time.

So, you see it all comes down to your particular circumstance. I know if one previous boss ever called me, I wouldn’t even bother answering the phone or reading an email.

Were 1990s Russians dumbfounded when they first visited capitalist grocery stores?

Extremely.

Years ago, my friend’s family tried to get a husband and wife out of the USSR, specifically Ukraine. It took 10 years because the man had been a colonel of paratroopers and when he applied to leave when he retired they had to wait 10 years for his operational knowledge to become stale dated.

But eventually they were given permission to leave and the family brought him to Canada. Back in those days, the only flight from the USSR to Canada was a Moscow, Montreal, NYC flight, but their final destination was Winnipeg.

His family was asked to meet them at the airport in Montreal and guest them for a few days so that they could rest from the long uncomfortable flight and work through some of their jet lag. They were a lovely dignified couple. My friend’s mom asked him to go to the store and get some last minute items. The wife asked to come along and she dragged her husband along.

So, we went to the store and were walking through the fresh produce section and the old man turned on us and called us liars and propagandists. We looked at him in surprise, but he went on to state that as a colonel of paratroopers he knew there was no way we could afford to ship in tangerines from Morocco and melons for Mexico. He said this must be a fake store like they had in Moscow & Kviv that they used to dupe visitors. His certainty was based on his military experience and he actually knew a lot about moving stuff by air.

His wife gently tugged his arm and said, wasn’t this store one of the reasons they left the USSR.

My friend told his three times removed by marriage uncle that there were 3 other grocery nearby and he’d drive Uncle to visit them.

So, we did. As we we did, the wife’s smile became bigger and bigger as her hopes were met and exceeded. The old colonel though just grew gloomier.

Later that night, when we were a few glasses into the Stoli and Crown royal, the old soldier muttered

“I knew we were behind but not this much behind.” , “I knew the party lied to us, but this much?”.

They lived the rest of their lives, very happily in Winnipeg.

That really hurts

DPP has to swallow bitter fruits of Pelosi’s Taiwan visit for a while: Global Times editorial

From Thursday, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has begun military exercises and training activities, including live-fire drills, in six large maritime areas around Taiwan island. On Thursday afternoon, PLA’s Eastern Theater Command dispatched over 100 warplanes, and its Rocket Force launched fire assaults with multiple types of conventional missiles at several designated sea areas to the east of Taiwan island, and all missiles accurately hit their targets. According to Taiwan media reports citing Taiwan military, 11 Dongfeng missiles were fired into waters north, east and south of Taiwan.

main qimg 728129012c1476d0df276f91ac3a1c53 lq

A PHL-03 long-range multiple launch rocket system (LRMLRS) attached to an artillery brigade under the PLA 74th Group Army fires rockets at simulate target during a night raid exercise in an undisclosed desert area of northwest China on July 28, 2021.

The public opinion on the island nervously followed PLA’s every move with keenness. The DPP authority stubbornly shouted out loud on Thursday, continuing to use empty words to appease the anxious people on the island. What is certain is that the series of bitter fruits that Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi brought to Taiwan island will be enough for the DPP authority and the “Taiwan independence” forces to swallow for a while.

In addition to forming an unprecedented deterrent to “Taiwan independence” forces and external forces, the PLA’s series of military deterrence operations have also created favorable conditions for further shaping of the strategic pattern conducive to cross-Straits reunification.

Such a situation in the Taiwan Straits has become clearer – every time the US and Taiwan collude and provoke, Chinese mainland’s actual control over the Taiwan island will be strengthened, and the reunification process will be advanced one step forward. Since Pelosi’s Taiwan visit has seriously violated the one-China principle and maliciously violated China’s sovereignty, with egregious nature, the intensity of our countermeasures is unprecedented.

The PLA military exercises, described as a “blockade of the island” by island’s media, are particularly groundbreaking. To some extent, the comprehensive work to strike “Taiwan independence” and promote reunification has entered a new stage. The risk hanging above the head of the Taiwan secessionists has been greatly increased, and the space for their future actions will be further compressed. Our anti-access and area denial ability has also been put into practice.

All of these are real. Pelosi persisted in visiting the island of Taiwan, and the signal sent by the Chinese mainland could not be clearer: These countermeasures are just the beginning, if the collusion between the US and Taiwan doesn’t stop.

This incident also told us once again that the DPP authority will not stop its wrongdoings of “relying on US support for their independence agenda,” and that external anti-China forces will not give up their plot to “use Taiwan to contain China.” The great reunification of the motherland is bound to go through fierce struggles and to overcome complex and severe challenges. But it is impossible for a river, which flows toward the sea, to change its direction and goal because of reefs and dangerous shoals. In other words, we need to have firm confidence and strong will in the general trend of national reunification, as well as a full understanding of the complexity and arduousness of the process.

As expected, the US and the West verbally attacked this military exercises and training. The G7 foreign ministers and the High Representative of the European Union issued a joint statement on Wednesday expressing their “concern” over the “threatening actions” by the Chinese side. A statement from the White House has much of the same content. These two statements are as outrageous to the Chinese as Pelosi’s Taiwan trip. If they were really “concerned” about peace and stability in the Straits, why didn’t they issue a statement to stop or at least criticize Pelosi’s visit before her trip? But what could be more hypocritical and ugly than these countries playing deaf-mute at that time and now accusing China of taking righteous actions?

The one-China principle is mentioned in both statements. But it is clear that the understanding and implementation of one-China principle in these countries have gone so far astray, and it is likely to be a deliberate move. “Our position is very clear. We abide by General Assembly resolutions, by the One China policy, and that is the orientation that we have in everything we do,” said António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN). Can the G7 countries, especially the US, treat the one-China principle as seriously as the UN, which is something they should do?

The one-China principle has only one version and one meaning: There is but one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory, and the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. In a sense, the current PLA’s military exercises and training are powerful demonstration of one China.

At what moment in your life did you witness true evil?

I was at court, waiting to arrest a man who came for another hearing. We couldn’t find this guy anywhere, but he had said he would show up that day (which he did), but this isn’t about him.

A female plain clothes state trooper comes out of the holding area and I notice she is visibly upset. Hard to break the cool of a veteran cop. I asked her what was wrong. She tells me to stick my head back there and take a look.

I go back and nod hello to the deputies, then take a look. There are about 7 guys in the pretty jumpsuits, and they are gathered around one guy who had them rolling with laughter. Hes bald, looks like a junkie with his picking scabs, bad teeth, and malnourished frame. He’s telling a story with animated flourishes of his chained hands. He spots me and stops. He laughs and tells me he used to live in my town, do I know so and so, and the corner bar is the best one in town, and so on. I turn and walk away while he is still talking to me.

I return to the trooper and she asks if he’s still going. I nod, and she asks me if I know who he is. I don’t. She says that man drop punted his six month old baby boy into a wall. The boy began convulsing, but he ignored it. His wife is the one who called 911. The boy lived, but won’t live a normal life. The man showed zero remorse, and was joking and talking to the arresting officers. He even joked that if it had been on the field he would have punted it into the end zone.

My boy was six months old at the time. I can’t accurately describe what I felt. Black rage. Overwhelming disgust. I pictured it happening to my own son and felt the urge to vomit. I couldn’t believe someone could care so little they would nearly kill their own child and laugh about it.

Evil looks like a beaming smile.

Are we ok as a country?

How did you deal with a psycho sitting in your next seat in flight travel?

Not exactly a psycho, but certainly was on the verge of becoming one myself. On a flight to Ghana some years back, I had the window seat, next to me a young woman, with a nice warm, friendly, demeanour, and in the aisle seat a chap who boarded the flight yapping away on his phone. He continued this banality in an unnecessarily loud voice as we waited for take off.

By now the woman betwixt me, and motormouth were already exchanging wry smiles, and curious glances. As one call ended ( no doubt by the poor person he chose to disturb) he was on the blower to yet another person. I noticed that he was supposedly deep in conversation, (spoiler alert: I picked up something about church) but took time to eye the woman between us up and down. She too saw, and felt, his prying eyes, and literally squirmed in her seat. She glanced at me slightly alarmed, and I gave her what I hope was a reassuring look that said something like “it’s ok, I noticed too”

So, phone call over, after what seemed like an eternity, and whilst we still waited for takeoff, he whipped out a bible, and began to evangelise to the now quite uncomfortable woman. I held my peace, and bided my time, until I could hold back no more, and triggered by a now familiar glance over at me of sheer terror from the poor trapped woman, I began.

I asked that he cease with his “bible bashing” and allow the woman to enjoy the luxury of her own thoughts, and peace of mind. We, I continued, did not purchase our air ticket to be preached to, and I for one refuse to tolerate it a moment longer. And further more, I said to him, can you not see how uneasy, and distressed you have made her, nodding to the woman? He glanced over, and for the first time it seemed actually noticed the effect his obtrusive sermon was having on her. He stopped, and never uttered another word for the duration of the 6 and a half hour flight.

She quietly thanked me with a look of utter relief. I was just glad that I was able to make good of my reassuring “it’s ok, I noticed too” look.

China decides to sanction five U.S. defense industry companies

China has decided to sanction five U.S. defense industry companies, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Sunday.

The United States recently announced new arms sale to Taiwan and sanctioned Chinese businesses and individuals under various pretexts. The spokesperson announced the decision when asked about China’s countermeasures.

The U.S. arms sales to China’s Taiwan region in blatant violation of the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-U.S. joint communiques, particularly the August 17 joint communique of 1982, and the illegal unilateral sanctions the United States has imposed on Chinese companies and individuals under various false pretexts seriously harm China’s sovereignty and security interests, said the spokesperson.

The U.S. arms sales and the illegal unilateral sanctions also undermine the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and violate the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies and individuals. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this and has made solemn demarches to the United States, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said that in response to these gravely wrong actions taken by the United States and in accordance with China’s Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, China has decided to sanction five U.S. defense industry companies, namely BAE Systems Land and Armament, Alliant Techsystems Operation, AeroVironment, ViaSat and Data Link Solutions.

The countermeasures consist of freezing the properties of those companies in China, including their movable and immovable property, and prohibiting organizations and individuals in China from transactions and cooperation with them, the spokesperson said.

“I would like to stress that the Chinese government remains unwavering in our resolve to safeguard national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity and protect the lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies and citizens,” said the spokesperson.

China urges the United States to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, observe international law and the basic norms governing international relations, stop arming Taiwan, and stop targeting China with illegal unilateral sanctions, the spokesperson said, noting that “otherwise there will be strong and resolute response from China.”

Retro Futurism 1959

The Gaza genocide as explicit policy: Michael Hudson names all names

By Pe.pe Es.cobar

Israel, Gaza and West Bank should be seen as an opening of the New Cold War.

In what can be considered the most crucial podcast of 2024 so far, Professor Michael Hudson – the author of seminal works such as Super-Imperialism and the recent The Collapse of Antiquity , among others – clinically lays down the essential background to understand the unthinkable: a 21st century genocide broadcast live 24/7 to the whole planet.

In an email exchange, Prof. Hudson detailed he’s now essentially “spilling the beans” about how, “50 years ago when I worked at the Hudson Institute with Herman Kahn [the model for Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove], Israeli Mossad members were being trained, including Uzi Arad. I made two international trips with him, and he outlined to me pretty much what has happened today. He became head of Mossad and is now Netanhayu’s advisor.”

Prof. Hudson shows how “the basic Gaza plan is how Kahn designed the Vietnam War’s division into sectors, with canals cutting off each village, as the Israelis are doing to Palestinians. Also already at time, Kahn pinpointed Balochistan as the area to foment disruption in Iran and the rest of the region.”

It’s not by accident that Balochistan has been CIA jewel territory for decades, and recently with the added incentive of the disruption by any means necessary of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – a key connectivity node of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Prof. Hudson then connects the major dots: “As I understand it, what the U.S. is doing with Israel is a dress rehearsal for it to move on to Iran and the South China Sea. As you know, there is no Plan B in American strategy for a very good reason: If anyone criticize Plan A, they’re considered not to be a team player (or even Putin’s Puppet), so critics have to leave when they see that they won’t be promoted. That’s why U.S. strategists won’t stop and re-think what they’re doing.”

Isolate them in strategic hamlets, then kill them

In our email exchange, Prof. Hudson remarked “this is basically what I said” in reference to the podcast with Ania K, drawing on his notes (here is the full, revised transcript). Fasten your seat belts: unvarnished truth is more lethal than a hypersonic missile hit.

On the Zionist military strategy in Gaza:

“My background in the 1970s at Hudson Institute with Uzi Arad and other Mossad trainees. My field was BoP, but I sat in on many meetings discussing military strategy, and I flew to Asia twice with Uzi and got to know him.

The U.S./Israeli strategy in Gaza is based in many ways on Herman Kahn’s plan that was carried out in Vietnam in the 1960s.

Herman’s focus was systems analysis. Start by defining the overall aim and then, how do we achieve it?

First, isolate them in Strategic Hamlets. Gaza has been carved up into districts, requiring electronic passes for entry from one sector to another, or into Jewish Israel to work.

First thing: kill them. Ideally by bombing, because that minimizes domestic casualties for your army.

The genocide that we are seeing today is the explicit policy of Israel’s founders: the idea of “a land without a people” means a land without non-Jewish people. They were to be driven out – starting even before the official founding of Israel, in the first Nakba, the Arab holocaust.

Two Israeli Prime Ministers were members of the Stern Gang of terrorists. They escaped from their British jail and joined to found Israel.

What we are seeing today is the Final Solution to this plan. It also dovetails into U.S. desires to control the Middle East and its oil reserves. For U.S. diplomacy, the Middle East IS (in caps) oil. And ISIS is part of America’s foreign legion since it was first organized in Afghanistan to fight the Russians.

That is why Israeli policy has been coordinated with the U.S.. Israel is the main U.S. client oligarchy in the Middle East. Mossad does most handling of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and wherever else the U.S. may send ISIS terrorists. Terrorism and even the present genocide is central to U.S. geopolitics.

But as the U.S. learned in the Vietnam War, populations protest and vote against the President who supervises this war. Lyndon Johnson couldn’t make a public appearance without crowds chanting. He had to sneak out the side entrance of hotels where he was speaking.

To prevent an embarrassment such as Seymour Hersh describing the My Lai massacre, you block journalists from the battlefield. If they are there, you kill them. The Biden-Netanyahu team has targeted journalists in particular.

So the ideal is to kill the population passively, to minimize visible bombing. And the line of least resistance is to starve the population. That has been Israeli policy since 2008.”

And don’t forget to starve them

Prof. Hudson makes a direct reference to a Sara Roy piece in The New York Review of Books, citing a cable from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to the Secretary of State on November 3rd, 2008. The cable reads, “As part of their overall embargo plan against Gaza, Israeli officials have confirmed to [embassy officials] on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse without quite pushing it over the edge.”

That has led, according to Prof. Hudson, to Israel “destroying fishing boats and greenhouses of Gaza to deprive it from feeding itself.

Next, it has joined with the United States to block United Nations food aid and that of other countries. The U.S. quickly withdrew from the UN relief agency as soon as hostilities began, doing so immediately after the ICJ finding of plausible genocide. It was the major funder of this agency. The hope was that this would set back its activities.

Israel simply stopped letting food aid in. It set up long, long lines of inspections, that is, an excuse to slow the trucks to just 20% of their pre-Oct. 7 rate – from a normal rate of 500 a day to just 112. In addition to blocking trucks, Israel has targeted aid workers – about one a day.

The United States sought to avoid being condemned by pretending to build a wharf to unload food by sea. The intention was that by the time the wharf was built, Gaza’s population would be starved out.”

Biden and Netanyahu as war criminals

Prof. Hudson succinctly draws the key connection in the whole tragedy: “The U.S. is trying to blame one person, Netanyahu. But that has been Israeli policy since 1947. And it is U.S. policy. Everything that is occurring since October 2, when the Al-Aqsa mosque was raided by Israeli settlers, leading to Hamas’s [Al-Aqsa Flood] retaliation on October 7, was closely coordinated with the Biden administration. All the bombs that have been dropped, month after month, as well as blocking United Nations aid.

The U.S. aim is to prevent Gaza from having the offshore gas rights that would help finance their own prosperity and that of other Islamic groups that the United States views as enemies. And to show the neighboring countries what will be done to them, just as the U.S. has done to Libya just before Gaza. The bottom line is that Biden and his advisors are just as much war criminals as is Netanyahu.”

Prof. Hudson stresses how “the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Blinken and other U.S. officials have said the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling of genocide and calling for it to stop is Non-Binding. Then, Blinken has just said that no genocide is taking place.

The U.S. aim of all this is to end the rule of international law as represented by the UN. It is to be replaced by the U.S. ‘rules-based order,’ with no rules published.

The intention is to make the U.S. immune to any opposition to its policies based on legal principles of international law or local laws. A totally free hand – chaos.

U.S. diplomats have looked forward and seen that the rest of the world is seeing to withdraw from the U.S. and European NATO orbit.

To cope with this irreversible movement, the U.S. is trying to de-tooth it by wiping away all remaining traces of the international rules that underlay the UN’s founding, and indeed the Westphalian principle back in 1648 of non-interference in the affairs of other countries.

The actual effect, as usual, is just the opposite of what the U.S. intended. The rest of the world is being forced to create its own New UN, along with a new IMF, new World Bank, new International Court at the Hague and other organizations controlled by the U.S..

So the world’s protest against the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the West Bank – don’t forget the West Bank – is the emotional and moral catalyst to creating a new multipolar geopolitical order for the Global Majority.”

Disappear or die

The key question remains: what will happen to Gaza and the Palestinians. Prof. Hudson’s judgement is ominously realistic: “As Alastair Crooke has explained, there now cannot be any two-state solution in Israel. It has to be either all Israeli or all Palestinian. And the way it looks now is all-Israeli – the dream from the outset in 1947 of a land without non-Jewish people.

Gaza will still be there geographically, along with its gas rights in the Mediterranean. But it will be emptied out, and occupied by the Israelis.”

On who would “help” to rebuild Gaza, there are a few solid takers already: “Turkish building companies, Saudi Arabia financing developments, UAE, American investors – maybe Blackstone. It will be foreign investment. If you look at the fact that the foreign investors of all these countries are looking for what they can get out of the genocide against Palestinians, you realize why there’s no opposition to the genocide.”

Prof. Hudson’s final verdict on “the great benefit to the U.S.” is that “no claims can be brought against the U.S. – and against any of the warfare and regime change that it is planning for Iran, China, Russia and for what has been done in Africa and Latin America.

Israel, Gaza and West Bank should be seen as an opening of the New Cold War. A plan for basically how to financialize genocide and destruction. Palestinians will either emigrate or be killed. That has been the announced policy for over a decade.”

What the Hell?

What is the sleaziest, dirtiest trick an auto insurance company tried to pull on you? Did they succeed?

I was in a bad car wreck back in 1980. I was crippled for six months. I was a passenger in the car so was not at fault. The insurance policy stated that as a passenger I was entitled to a fixed payoff. The insurance delayed and stalled paying me every chance they could. They had a different excuse every time. “The paper work isn’t filled out properly. We didn’t receive anything. It must have gone to the wrong department”. Etc, etc, etc. In the meantime, I can’t work and have no money coming in. I will not go on welfare so I was really starting to struggle. I called all of my bill collectors and explained my situation and promised them that when I got my settlement, they would be the first check sent out. They all worked with me and I kept them updated monthly. My apartment manager was very kind and interceded on my behalf with the owners so I could stay. When my food ran out, all that was left was five pounds of shelled pecans that were in the freezer and some flour. For three months all I had to eat was a handful of pecans and a couple of homemade flour tortillas each day that I made while in my walker at the stove. Finally my hunger overcame my pride and I called my dad and asked him what I should do. I was at the end of my rope. He was an insurance agent so I figured he’d know how to handle this agency that was screwing me around. He told me to contact my company and see if one of their lawyers would take my case. I contacted my company and sure enough, the next day a lawyer called me and was willing to help. His fee would be two thousand dollars. Within 48 hours my lawyer called me and ask how much of an advancement I would need to get my bills caught up and buy some food. I told him about 1,500 would do. The next day I had a check in hand for 1,500. I spent the day writing checks and calling my bill collectors up and letting them know that the money was on the way. When I got everyone caught up I bought some food. Damn, I was hungry. A week later a currier showed up at my door with a check for 15,000. That was the amount of the settlement. I called my lawyer up and asked him if there wasn’t a mistake. His fee and the advancement hadn’t been taken out. He informed me that he had negotiated with the insurance company to pay his fee and to give me the advancement as a bonus for all the suffering I did while they were screwing me aroud in leu of a lawsuit that would result in a bigger financial loss for them. I can just imagine what they thought when they saw that my lawyer had the same last name as mine. We weren’t related to the best of my knowledge but they probably figured I had sent my uncle after them.

Cheesy Lasagna Soup

Lasagna in a bowl, chock full of what you love in regular lasagna, with the added ‘Florentine’ touch of spinach!

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Ingredients for Lasagna Soup

This soup recipe is a cross between a creamy soup and broth soup due to the addition of a little ricotta. It’s hearty, beefy, and delicious. In other words, perfection. Here is what you will need:

Olive Oil: helps with sauteing the veggies
Minced Vegetables: red onions, garlic and bell peppers
Fresh Herbs: oregano, parsley and basil – this trio is a classic Italian blend
Ground Beef: I like to use 80/20 for maximum flavor.
Beef Broth: becomes the base of the soup
Ricotta: add flavor and creaminess to the soup
Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes: I’m obsessed with fire roasted tomatoes lately. They add so much flavor and the perfect amount of heat.
Marinara Sauce: Rao’s is our favorite. It is a little pricey so I like to wait until it’s on sale at Costco and then load up.
Parmesan Rind: I toss it in the soup as it simmers to add more flavor and then remove it before serving.
Lasagna Noodles: I seem to always have some broken lasagna noodles in the bottom of the box, so this is pretty much the perfect solution so that you don’t waste them, but I’m also totally willing to break up new lasagna noodles to be able to eat this.
Mozzarella Cheese: perfect for melting and being all gooey delicious
Garlic Bread: This is totally optional but there is nothing better than dipping a crusty piece of garlic bread in this soup!

This list just provides an overview of each ingredients and some helpful information about its use in this recipe. Scroll to the end of the post to the recipe card to see all the measurements and details.

Prep: 10 min | Cook: 30 min | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 pound bulk sweet (mild) Italian sausage
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon red chile flakes (optional)
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
4 cups (32 ounces) chicken stock
1 to 2 cups water
8 ounces lasagna noodles (not no-boil), broken into 1 to 2 inch pieces
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, + additional for serving
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups fresh spinach, packed and roughly chopped
Salt
2 cups (8 ounces) Wisconsin mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 cups (16 ounces) Wisconsin ricotta cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) Wisconsin parmesan cheese, shredded

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Instructions

Heat Dutch oven or large pot over high heat. Brown sausage for 5 minutes, breaking up as it cooks.
Add onions; cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until onions are softened and sausage is cooked through.
Add garlic and red chile flakes; cook for 1 minute.
Add crushed tomatoes, scraping bottom of pan with wooden spoon.
Add stock, 1 cup water, lasagna noodles, basil and pepper. Bring to boil.
Reduce heat to medium-high; cook at a gentle boil for 10 to 12 minutes, until noodles are cooked through, stirring occasionally to prevent noodles from sticking to pot.
Stir in spinach. Add salt to taste. If soup is too thick, add additional 1 cup water. Remove from heat.
To serve, divide mozzarella among 6 serving bowls. Ladle soup over cheese. Top with spoonsful of ricotta, parmesan and additional basil.

How to Make Lasagna Soup

This recipe comes together so quickly and the steps are super easy. Here are the basic steps:

Sauté the vegetables until tender and then add the herbs and seasonings.
Brown the beef and drain any excess grease.
Add all remaining ingredients (except the pasta and cheese) and let simmer for at least 30 minutes and up to all day.
Add the pasta.
Top with cheese and broil.

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Tips for Success

You will want to be careful, the noodles will slowly soak up more and more broth, so I never add them until the last 15 minutes before serving and if I’m freezing the soup or making a bigger batch in order to have leftovers I save the noodles until I’m ready to eat it.
You can make this soup in the morning and let it simmer all day until you’re ready to serve. Bonus…your house will smell like a dream!
Don’t have fresh herbs? No worries, I tend to use a lot of Gourmet Garden herbs. They are in tubes in the produce section. You can also used dried herbs but decrease the amount by half.
Keep those parmesan rinds! I love adding the rind to the soup as it simmers for the delicious flavor it adds. I do the same thing for our homemade pizza sauce.
My absolute favorite, favorite, favorite part is all of that baked cheese on top. Oh my heavens. It really is wonderful, and while you may be tempted to skip out on the bread, don’t!! Really, dipping pieces of crusty garlic bread in the soup is essential to your happiness.

Variations for Lasagna Soup

You can make this soup vegetarian by omitting the ground beef and by substituting vegetable broth for the beef broth.

If you don’t have lasagna noodles, try using a different type of pasta. Bow tie pasta works great. Mafalda pasta is really fun because it looks like mini lasagna noodles. It can be difficult to find though.

Change up the protein. You could do half ground beef and half Italian sausage. Ground turkey or chicken also work great if you want to reduce the fat a little.

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Lasagna Soup in the Crock Pot and Instant Pot

This soup does great in both the crock pot and the Instant Pot. Depending on your schedule you can choose which method works best for you.

Crock Pot

Follow the instructions through step 7 on the stove top. Then add everything to the crock pot and cook it on low for 6-8 hours. Add the pasta 15 minutes before serving and add the cheese to the top and broil in oven safe bowls if desired.

Instant Pot

Follow the instructions in the recipe card through step 5 using the sauté mode on the Instant Pot. Once everything is cooked, continue the instructions through step 10. Place the lid on the Instant Pot and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. Do a quick release and then add the cheese to the top. Place the lid back on so the cheese will melt. If you want the broiled cheese, you’ll have to put the soup into oven safe bowls in broil them with the cheese on top.

How to Serve Lasagna Soup

I hope I’ve convinced you of making the garlic bread as a side dish, or at least some sort of delicious crusty bread. Baguettes would work great too, or our no knead artisan bread.

I also love to serve a bright, fresh salad alongside it. A Caesar salad is great!

Storing, Freezing and Reheating Lasagna Soup

Properly stored, lasagna soup will keep for 3-4 days in the refrigerator. It should be stored in an airtight container.

If you want to double the recipe and freeze some of it, do not add the pasta or cheese. Let the soup cool completely and freeze it in a ziploc bag or a freezer safe container. It will keep for up to 6 months.

To reheat refrigerated soup, just zap it in the microwave until warmed through. You can also reheat it on the stovetop. To reheat frozen soup, let the soup thaw at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Then place it in a pan and heat until boiling. Then add the noodles and let simmer until the noodles are cooked. Top with cheese if desired.

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What is the most deceptive product you have ever bought?

Not me, but the idiot that the apartment management company hired for maintenance.

We were moving into a new apartment and (somehow) the previous tenant had ruined the refrigerator.

The maintenance man we later dubbed “A**HOLE Adam” came in with a new fridge while I was at work. He tried to pass it off as the new standard refrigerator that they would be installing in all the apartments.

In retrospect, he probably saw a really cheap advertisement for a refrigerator and just didn’t check closely enough. His big mistake was trying to get that past my girlfriend as the new “Standard”.

I told them to come and get their “Toy Fridge” and I would buy one on the way home.

Photo attached. The large stainless one is the one I brought home. The little black one is A.A.’s failed attempt at competency.

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Might have worked for a dorm room…

By the way, Habitat for Humanity’s “ReStore” is where we bought it. Used for $300.00 about 7 years ago. Still running strong. They have all kinds of used appliances, salvaged construction materials, doors, windows, etc. Bought my daughter a used gas furnace for her place (with a new heat exchanger).

Easter Island

What is the biggest secret that your first boss told you that has helped you the most?

Not exactly my 1st job, but my 1st REAL job after getting married. I was on graveyards and committed a very grievous error that ended up costing the company an entire week just to catch up. The president of the company showed up 2 hours early, got a cup of coffee, went to his office then knocked on the glass to put area signalling me to his office. As there was already a pot being run as to the exact time I would be fired, I noted the time. Bowels fluttering, I stepped in like a prisoner stepping into the execution chamber. He looks up from his desk telling me to shut the door and sit. He leaned back in his chair, tenting his hands under his chin and d asks for a run down as to what happened. After a bit of back and forth, he just sits there quietly then tells me something that stuck with me the entire remainder of my working life. Charlie, in this company we do not make mistakes. I’m glancing at my watch again nothing the time for the pools. O, we do not make mistakes. We have learning experiences and as long as you learn from it then that is what is in your file. We realize no one can learn without some mishaps along the way. We can tell whose working and whose not because the only person not making mistakes is the one not working. Now, get out of my office and go out there to help where you can to get this straightend out. Ward Lott, I never did tell you how that affected the rest of my working life.

Shorpy fun

What is the fastest you wiped that smirk off your manager’s face?

I made the mistake of taking a customer service job at a certain Asia-based bank that had bought out a Buffalo-based, family owned regional bank. While it was supposed to be customer service, they spent six weeks of training drilling into our heads that our main purpose was to sell. This despite the fact that they already had a dedicated sales team. Even if all a person wanted was his branch hours of operation, we were required to try to sell something.

I objected to this on multiple levels, the main one being that sales and service are separate functions. If your car breaks down, the salesman is not going to be the guy to fix it, but rather the trained mechanic. And if the mechanic is competent and honest, the customer will return to the dealership for his next car but he’s not going to sign the papers with the mechanic.

My supervisor, for the sake of avoiding BNBR violations, was a real piece of…work. She constantly reminded us that customer service costs money and that we were to make up for our uselessness by aggressive selling. In corporate jargon a given unit or function is referred to as a cost center, kind of like how stores in a chain each have individual numbers. In this case facilities and departments were a cost center with a number. This piece of work actually made us go to meetings and chant “We are a profit center” like a mantra, reminding us throughout that we are an expense. Piece of Work knew I had objections to this, and I became the scapegoat. She made a point of ostracizing me from little team events, denying me break times, once even removed personal property from my station and only returned it when I threatened action for denying me medication.

I got a call from Joe Customer who had just about everything. Joe started with the original, regional bank and continued after the takeover. Savings, checking, CDs, credit cards, car notes, mortgage, home equity, if a bank had it so did this guy after over 30 years of patronage. He wanted a balance on a particular account. I found it after looking through roughly five pages of information. He had so much business with the bank that there was nothing more I could do. Here’s your balance, thanks for calling.

Within two hours Piece of Work came by and ordered me to pull up the man’s information. In her hand was a monitoring printout with my failure boldly written in red, and she waved it in my face repeating “What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with that?” like she was scolding a child who left crud on the dishes before stacking them. She lit into me about how she was going to lose a supervisor contest to win a TV based on team sales, because of my attitude. I pointed out that there was really nothing left to offer him; she pointed out I could have offered securities.

“Yes, I could have,” I said. “And I could also serve a minimum of five years of federal prison time for acting as a financial advisor and selling securities without a license. I’ll be Goddamned if I let you throw my right to vote and leave the country at will under a bus so that you can win a TV.” She stood there a moment looking like I had just whacked her in the face with a wet chicken, then turned on her heel and stomped off without a word.

By the end of the week I was taken into a meeting with senior staff and HR and given the option of resigning with a three month severance, or be fired. Piece of Work was nowhere to be seen. I took the money and ran.

Killer Patents & Secret Science Vol. 1 | Free Energy & Anti-Gravity Cover-Ups

What has a car salesperson said to you that resulted in you immediately leaving?

This isn’t a story about a rich guy dressed in torn jeans trying to buy a Rolls Royce. I’m not a rich guy. This is about me and my daughter (when she was 8). I lived in Miami, Florida, then. I had to replace my old car and I had decided to buy a 3-year-old Toyota Camry (in 2003) because that was all I could afford, at the time. I checked out the ads and decided to look at the same make and model (Toyota Camry) in two different dealerships, so I could compare and buy from the one that offered the best deal.

But, at the very first dealer I visited, I saw a Camry that I liked in every way — colour, mileage, price, etc. This wasn’t a Toyota dealership but a used-car dealership. My daughter was with me. She was 8 years old, then. Obviously, she didn’t understand gears, cylinders, etc. But she knew that Daddy was buying a new car and was excited to be part of the process.

So, anyway, I told the lady who was selling me the car that I liked the car and that I wanted to buy it. Financing was done, at this point. We had agreed on a price and on payments, though I hadn’t signed the deal yet. The paperwork was in front of me. All I had to do was to sign it. I was happy about the deal. I was smiling. So was my daughter. I looked at my daughter and I asked her, “Do you like the car?”

Before my daughter could answer, the sales lady said, “Are you buying this car or do you need your daughter’s permission?”

I walked out without another word. I bought a nearly-identical car from the other dealer (also a non-Toyota dealership) on identical terms. That car worked for 20 years (from 2000 to 2020), though I gave away that car in 2017 and leased myself another one. So, I made a good decision, though it was an emotional decision. I have never regretted it. I would do the same again (though my daughter is now 26).

I had a similar experience in 2017. It was a Toyota dealership (in California), this time. This time, I was alone. Again, all of the paperwork was nearly done (for a 2017 Toyota Camry). All I had to do was to sign. Then the manager said, “You don’t know how much you earn. I do.” This was after I had shown proof of income. Again, I walked out, went to another dealership, about 20 minutes away, leased exactly the same car. My income and proof of income didn’t change, in 20 minutes. Not only that, I paid 10% of the down payment that I had agreed to, at the previous dealership. And I ended up paying off my lease (with no late payments) 6 months ahead of time. Plus, I got a pretty good (lease) deal for my 2020 Camry when I returned the 2017 Camry.

Fast thinking

I am planning to quit my job but my boss said to hold off on quitting until we can at least hire someone otherwise he said “I will make things very, very bad for you.” How should I respond to this?

Ask him to repeat it – in front of HR. It is an empty threat.

Turn in your resignation, date and sign it, and submit it directly to HR.

Given his insulting threat, say this: “I have valued my tenure at xx (company name) and as stated verbally to Mr. Bb on (date), I wish to provide my two weeks’ notice. Please let me know how I may help to achieve a seamless transition until my departure.”

“I was told by Mr. Bb on (date) that I should withhold my resignation until a new hire was on board, accompanied by a verbal threat that if I did not do so, ‘I (Mr. Bb) will make things very, very bad for you.’ I trust that HR and leadership at xx fully realize that such threats are unlawful, and may be reported to the state labor board for investigation.”

“I request the following, either immediate and paid release, or that my last two weeks of employment not be under Mr. Bb’s supervision; that Mr. Bb receive formal counseling from HR on his unlawful statement; and that all reference checks state that I am eligible for rehire and route through HR. I will not tolerate threats and intimidation in the workplace, and I hope that xx does not either. I respectfully await your response.”

Give Mr. Bb something to remember you by; he is not supervisory material and he has put the company in a tenuous legal position. Keep a copy of the letter for potential submission to the state labor board. Tell no one where you are headed (your new job). Privately rejoice that you never have to work for Mr. Bb again, he’s way, way, way out of line. (Never ever use him as a reference, of course, use an alternate leader or a client.)

Cats are fast

What do you like about Elon Musk?

1995 — Applied to Netscape for a job and got rejected

1996 — Was forced out of his CEO position from his own company Zip2

1998 — Struggled to make PayPal succeed

1999 — Almost died when he crashed his $1M Mclaren F1

2000 — Was kicked out of Paypal while on his honeymoon

2000 — Got sick with malaria

2001 — Russia refused to sell him a rocket

2006 — First SpaceX rocket launched failed

2007 — Second SpaceX rocket failed

2008 — Third SpaceX rocket failed with NASA satellites onboard!

2009 — Tesla almost went bankrupt.

2013 — First rocket landing failed

2014 — Several Tesla Model S caught on fire

2015 — Four rocket landings failed

2016 — Model X deliveries delayed over a year

2016 — 300M Facebook satellite rocket launch exploded

2018 — Broke the internet when he took a puff of cannabis on a live show.

2018 — The SEC filed a lawsuit against Musk

2019 — Model 3 deliveries were delayed

2020 — TESLA stock became the most shorted stock in history

To answer your question, what do I like about Elon Musk?

I admire this man’s courage and relentless character.

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While most of his critics would shrink before small obstacles in life, we can’t deny that this man has proven to be an unstoppable genius of our era!

What guys are afraid of

What was the shortest first date you ever had?

I went out for dinner with a young female I had met in my class.

We had turned up to a pizza restaurant, we ordered and sat down.

Within the first five minutes my ex-girlfriend walks in.

She sits down beside me and looks at the girl opposite me and looked her square in the eyes and said “You can date him but know I love him”.

The girl got up didn’t say a word to either of us and left.

I sat there dumbfounded and looked at my ex-girlfriend and she said “I was going to get some take-away but now we can share.”

I sat there in silence and watched as my ex-girlfriend ate the pizza that was ordered for someone else.

After ten minutes of silence had passed.

She said “I think we should give it another shot?”

I said “You cheated on me?!”

She said “How did you know about that?”

I got up and left and still count that as one of my strangest experiences of my young adult life.

BREAKING U.S Withdraws from Niger “It’s Official”

Very BIG news and tells you everything about the TRUE face of Geo-politics today.

Sexy girls with food

I have continued to play with text to image creations. Lately I have been generating women with vegetables. Here’s some of my works. What do you think?

Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 0(1)

Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 0(4)

Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 3(3)

Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 3(2)

Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 1(1)

Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 0

Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 2(5)

Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 3

Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 2(3)

My favorite Internet kitty

What’s an experience you had in a hotel you’ll never forget?

I was island hopping in the Caribbean, and I had prebooked a mid priced hotel for my stay in Puerto Rico.

I fly in after dark and get to my hotel and evidently they were overbooked, they told me that they would upgrade me to a better hotel. I am deeply suspicious, because its been my experience, if you get moved its to a worse hotel.

Still, its after dark, I’m in a strange place for the first time, I let them move me. We get it to my new hotel, which is beach front, as opposed to the block from the beach one I had booked. It had a huge arena/auditorium/entertainment center that had an ice capades like show that night. My room is about the cheapest in an upscale hotel, so not to shabby.

Lots of nice restaurants, great pools etc. The next day they have a circus move into the entertainment center, and I think I will go see that later in the evening.

I go to the pool, and this guy comes in, leading two tiger cubs on leashes. He takes them to the edge of the pool, and takes off the leashes, and they jump in with me.

I end up playing with two tiger cubs for the afternoon.

It was awesome. I will never forget it.

Breaking Bad | Combo’s Death

What is the most brilliant example of taking advantage of a loophole you have ever witnessed?

I was a maintenance worker on a paint line, working a 4-day work week. Monday through Thursday, 10 hours per day. This day, a slow Thursday, I was greasing the wheels on the chain as it passed through the line.

A top manager was passing through, steamed off for some reason. He noticed the line was running with no work on it, and he screamed at the line leader, “Why is this line running with no work?! He (pointing at me) gets three days off with no pay!” and stormed off with no explanation.

After he was gone, the line leader came up to me and said, “You heard the man. Three days off with no pay. Let’s make it this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. OK?”

Wow! Half a day, and already almost 500 upvotes. Thanks, everyone.

Fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, But…”| Why Putin’s War Has Jolted Ukraine’s “Foreign Fighters”

Chicken Diable

Chicken Diable makes a wonderful sauce, and it is delicious served over rice.

Prep: 10 min | Bake: 1 hr 30 min | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) frying chicken
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup wet mustard
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Cut frying chicken into large pieces.
Melt butter and add honey, mustard, curry powder and salt. Coat chicken pieces with the sauce and place in a baking pan (do not stack).
Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 1/2 hours, tightly covered.

Can China maintain its leading role in EV and lithium battery technology?

Yes

Unless other nations understand and introduce Socialist elements and State Subsidies into their EV architecture

China can make the best batteries and best integrated platform – two most crucial elements of an EV at a cost that is 65% of the next cheapest manufacturer in South Korea

The Americans make far lower quality batteries at a 170% higher price

This puts a Chinese EV at $ 30,500 with a nice profit to the Brand versus the same American EV made in USA at a minimum of $ 52,000 at a lower quality

You just can’t compete

It’s why the US is so keen on keeping China out

It’s why no other nation is building Charging Infrastructure so comprehensively like China is doing

China has such a vast charging infrastructure that it is easy and quick to charge your EVs

Yet the Infrastructure network is only 6% profitable

No issues because it’s State Subsidized

And that’s 6% at such a huge scale

At a fifth of this scale, a charging infrastructure of so much quality would make a loss of at least 10% to 12%

Do you think a single private player would take such a risk?

Nopes

Ultimately the EV Maker has to provide the charging infrastructure like Musk is doing

Yet Musks profits from EV sales are shrinking due to his losses in the charging infrastructure

This ain’t new

The US heavily subsidized it’s industries for the earliest motor cars

Back then you had Hansom cabs driven by Horses and roads were paved with bricks not with Tar

The US Government floated almost $ 36 Million of Bonds to build Roads in various cities and State Governments floated another $ 40 Million

To build tarred roads for Cars owned by Ford and Others who incidentally didn’t chip in a penny

Likewise you had a 30 year tax subsidy from 1907–1937 afforded to six car makers to enable them to keep the costs of their engines as low as possible

An Engine could cost $ 100-125 to make, almost 4/5 of the value of the car

Yet the companies pumped back a share of their profits and kept the engine cost lower and lower until by the 1920s the cost of the engine dropped to around 1/2 the value of the car and later to around 40%

It’s why US had a lead in Cars

It’s why Germany had a lead in Engines

Today they may rant about Free markets but all these countries had subsidies in their early days and protectionism

US imposed an import duty of 67% on Cars from UK and Germany until the Mid 1970s

So as on date, China is gaining huge traction for EVs

They are discarding the Lithium Battery in the next five years or so for the next generation batteries

Their charging infrastructure is very strong and fast, fastest in the world

The others who can compete include

Korea – $ 110 Billion in Subsidies to make Batteries

Japan – $ 15 Billion in Private Research Funds to make Batteries

Yet China has more engineers and more money in subsidies ($ 250 Billion) for battery technology alone

So i feel China will have a lead in EVs for at least half a decade or maybe longer

Coconut life

Do you have to pay for food in prison?

Have you ever read a nutritional content label and wondered what a 2000 calorie diet would be like? In prison you get to find out.

The government says 2000 calories are what you need, so that’s what they provide to inmates. You can inflate that number some with carbs or roughage.

Here’s how it worked at CCA (the for-profit privately run prison): the US Marshalls defined what a detainee’s diet should look like. CCA would design meals around those goals, then turn the food service over to a sub-contractor. The sub would get a fixed amount for every meal produced. Ahha! Every dollar we save by skimping on ingredients is a dollar in the sub’s pocket. We can all see where that’s headed…

In federal prison the food was much better because there were no sub contractors. In this situation, the inmates are their own worst enemies. The kitchen would make sheet cake without any sugar. Why? Inmates stole it all! Same for spices.

The federal low had two lines that inmates would shuffle through for each meal. All items that were costly for the prison (protein) were dished out to the inmates from behind the counter. Low cost items like rice, those nasty grease pad potatoes, and lettuce would be “on the bar” where you could take as much as you want.

All of this is “free.”

You can pay for food. You can buy stuff on commissary, or you can buy the stuff that’s being cooked in the units. This is usually a mix of items stolen from the kitchen and things bought on commissary. It’s always better than what comes out of the kitchen.

Teachers Are SICK Of Dumb Gen Alpha Kids..

What is something a guest in your house did that made your jaw drop? How did you react?

Ok warning this is GROSS!!!!!!!!!!

A co-worker of my now ex-husband came over with his “side piece” (was not thrilled about that as it was condoning this behavior but I go off topic) and she asked to use the bathroom, we told her where the guest bathroom was and thought she went into there. While they were leaving I went through our bedroom into our bathroom. I then noticed she didn’t use the guest bathroom but had been in our room b/c things were out of place and that where my jewelry box was had been opened and gone through. I went into the bathroom really fast to see if some other personal items were missing I noticed that this nasty girl used a…feminine cleaning product (BARF) and MY wash cloth to “clean up”. Luckily they were still outside talking when I went out there and lost my fking mind!! I tossed a plastic bag with MY wash cloth and the empty product at her (I WAS WEARING 2 PAIRS OF GLOVES AND HAD A BAG OVER THE OTHER BAG I PUT EVERYTHING IN) and then told her to empty her purse and pockets. Now, the guys were at first shocked and then my now ex-husband was embarrassed by my “request” and behavior and his co-worker was pissed that his “friend” was being treated in such a manner. When she finally did what I “asked” there were 2 pairs of earrings (pearls, and black diamonds), a custom made pearl ring I got from my father, a gold pinky ring my grandfather had custom made for me, the onyx and diamond ring, pearl necklace and matching bracelet I got for my first communion and confirmation as well as my pearl drop. I told them to get the fk off our property and they were never allowed back or I would call the police. I recorded the whole encounter outside. Now I did NOT yell at them, I was pissed the fk off but the neighborhood did not need to know what was going on.

Brazil reality

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

Not accidentally found out, but figured out months in advance that my entire department was going to be laid off. I basically followed a bunch of clues.

This was way back in 1998 when I started working at Kodak. Kodak is headquartered in Rochester, New York. One of the managers convinced higher-ups that Kodak should open a software development center in Washington, D.C., because of availability of software engineers in the area. There were many people against it, but she got approval to head a development center in the D.C. metro area. The development center was called Washington Development Center (WDC for short).

So, she came to D.C., found an office in Maryland, did a bunch of hiring. I was hired as part of that. Eventually, after six years, she found a better position in Kodak. So, she left. They got a guy who was completely against WDC to manage WDC. This was clue #1. Let’s call him Mike.

The first thing Mike did was give everyone raises. He said the previous manager was underpaying everyone. Everyone was happy. I thought “Why? No one asked for a raise. Everyone is happy here.” A couple of months later, I saw several projects moving away from us. I went to my boss and asked him. He said, “The way Kodak works is that business units control the money. BUs propose projects, and development centers bid on them. Since we have higher real estate costs than Rochester, we bid higher.” I asked him, “Were the recent raises a factor?” He basically shrugged.

Clue #2: Making us uncompetitive by giving raises. Actually, I have to say it’s a touch of genius right there. We used to be competitive before because we didn’t pay people as much, which offset our real estate costs.

So, then the question became, “Should we move to a new location?” My boss found a location in Virginia where the rent was low. What Mike did was put the idea of moving to Virginia up for a vote. Most employees in this location lived in Maryland. They would have to commute an hour to get to Virgonia. So, most of them voted against it.

Clue #3: Mike knew how the vote would go. His job was to make the right call even if it was an unpopular one. By having employees make the wrong decision, he absolved himself of all responsibility.

Clue #4: Then there was a re-organization, and Mike got a new boss: let’s call him Jake. First thing Jake did was to meet everyone in his new organization. They planned for him to visit us. We all prepared presentations for him to show our technical strengths. He slept through 75% of the presentations. I didn’t realize this until I started my presentation. I walked up, started talking, and then looked at him and saw his eyes were closed. I stopped short because tears were coming in my eyes. Everyone else was saying “Go on. Go on. It’s OK.” I felt like wadding up some paper and throwing at his bald head, but didn’t.

We gradually kept losing projects. Eventually, a lot of people weren’t doing anything. One day, I went to the break room to get some coffee. There were two people in the break room chatting. These two people were the ring leaders in getting everyone to vote against the move to Virginia. They asked “Hey, how’s it going, Jayesh?” I replied, “Oh, nothing. Just waiting to get laid off.” They were looking at me with their eyes wide as I walked back.

A few months later they announced that we are getting laid off. We were given options: a) Voluntarily accept to get laid off now and get severance b) wait till the last day. If you waited, you might be offered a job in Rochester that you could work remotely. If you were not offered a job, you would get a slightly better severance. If you were offered a job, and you refused, then you don’t get severance (you are technically resigning, not getting laid off). I knew I would be offered a job, because I knew the ins and outs of a critical project. So I said “Lay me off! Lay me off, please!” My boss got offered a job because he was the second person who knew about that project.

Oh there was a guy, who had been in Kodak for 29 years 6 months. When he had joined, Kodak offered pension, if you stayed in Kodak for 30 years. Six months more and he would have been set for life. He wasn’t offered a job and got a severance pay for five years. He was probably around 55. If he had been offered a job, he could have stuck around for six months more and gotten a pension for life. He was one of the people who didn’t want to move to Virginia. I was thinking if we had moved to Virginia, we could have staved off the inevitable for at least a year or so. He would have been set for life.

I still have respect for Mike for engineering our closure so beautifully. He did it in a way that he doesn’t get the blame; instead, he was able to show how he saved Kodak lot of money. I was merely a by-stander. He was the puppet master. He used people’s inclinations against them. Pure evil genius. Respect.

The world really wants to know…

I do. That is for certain. LINK

Funny and odd thing about this. The video is glitching out!

Can I ask a parked police car why it’s posted on my street days in a row? Can they opt to not to give any information or ignore you, or are they obligated to disclose information?

There once was a plain unmarked van parked directly in front of my house for about one week during the daytime. It had tinted front and side windows. One day, I decided to walk closer so that I could see the license plates. They were VA (Veteran’s Administration) plates. That gave me the impression that federal law enforcement had borrowed that vehicle to use on a stake out. And since they were parked directly in front of my house, I assumed I was not their target. So I went back to my house instead of seeing if anyone was inside the van and blowing their cover. Then after about one week, the van was gone. Then after another week, all hell broke loose. Marked and unmarked police cars surrounded a neighbor’s house across the street and even drove on their lawn. There were many men dressed in black uniforms with POLICE on their backs carrying what looked like automatic weapons. After things calmed down, I went up to one of the officers to ask what is happening. All he would admit to is that they were conducting an investigation. Not satisfied with that answer, I wrote a letter to our Chief of Police. He did admit it was a drug raid but offered no other details. He also said to contact him if I have any questions about police activity in the future. Unfortunately, he retired a short time later so I lost my contact.

Many years later, one morning, I looked out my living room window and was shocked to see the street in front of my house filled with black SUV’s and men dressed in black standing around their vehicles. Once again, the men had POLICE on their backs and were holding automatic weapons. I got scared thinking they were about to burst into my home. But after a few minutes, there was no knock at my door. So I peeked out the window and the officers I saw seemed relaxed. So I opened up the front door and started to exit to find out what is going on. That’s when one of the officers waved at me to go back inside which I did. I eventually discovered it was another drug raid, but at a neighbor’s house on the same side of the street as my house, just two doors away. I think it is time for me to move.

A nice technique

Why won’t the Chinese premier Li Qiang face reporters for the duration of his term, which runs until 2028?

That’s not his job, and not in his remit.

Yes, Zhu Rongji began the tradition of meeting the press during the two meetings. This has been retained by his successors, but the PM is not obligated to give press conferences. His job is to deliver the nation’s progress report and announce Beijing’s economic and social targets for the coming year during the two meetings.

We are entering an era of America pushing for war, and this is but another sign of the Chinese closing ranks.

Entertaining foreigners is best left to the experts at the foreign ministry who train a lifetime to accommodate them.

There is Wang Yi, who just concluded his 90 minute long press conference, and there is the daily press conference helmed by a senior foreign ministry spokesperson that can be up to vice-minister seniority.

To my knowledge, China is the ONLY government that provides this level of open access to foreign journalists year-round.

This is how all America feels

What is something that most people don’t know?

You can taste garlic with your feet.
When you speak inside your mind small muscles in your throat mimic the formation of each word.
When you lose weight, most of it ends up as carbon dioxide which is exhaled from your lungs.
Prince Charles has a car fueled by wine.
Polar Bears aren’t white, they’re just glowing.
The raptor sounds in Jurassic Park are actually mating tortoises.
Pirates wore eye patches to increase night vision, not cover a missing eye.
Parts of Canada have less gravity than the rest of the planet.
1 teaspoon of honey is the lifework of 12 bees.
A small fraction of the static on your tv is radiation left over from the Big Bang.
Your ears and nose are connected to your tear ducts.
Once Charlie Chaplin entered a contest for “Charlie Chaplin look-alikes” and he came in third.
People in the southern hemisphere see the moon upside down compared to the north.
Humans have patterns (like stripes, spots and geometric shapes) on our bodies that are invisible to us but cats can see them.
There are 80,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible arrangements of a 52-card deck.

Whats going on with this?

Why is Toyota so hesitant to build electric cars?

Profitability!!!!

Always Profitability

Same reason why most of the world cannot manufacture EVs on China’s scale

You see Japan has a fully integrated supply chain for ICE Vehicles. From the Engines to the Chassis to the Intelligent systems to the Fuel Injection

So Japanese Cars can make a lot of profit

Same for Hybrids

Japan has the entire supply chain for Hybrids and the best quality in the world

So Japanese Hybrids are very profitable

EVs are a different kettle of fish

China thanks to ten years of ENORMOUS SUBSIDIES by the State amounting to almost $ 600 Billion (4 Trillion RMB) have managed to scale up and keep refining the quality of EVs, Solar Panels and Wind Turbines until they completely control the supply chain and technology on a scale that NO CAPITALIST ECONOMY CAN MANAGE

It’s easy for BYD to invest 10 years in making EVs and researching and refining EV Quality because China always cut them a cheque to ensure BYD stayed in Business for 7 1/2 years until they finally produced the most efficient and best technology

For Tata?

For Toyota?

For Honda?

Impossible

India doesn’t have the money to subsidise anything and Japan is capitalist

You certainly can’t expect Honda or Toyota to invest 10 years perfecting their batteries and integrated platforms when they don’t get any profits right?

Same for Tata or Hyundai

Right now the best batteries are Chinese, platforms Chinese, Chassis and Components Chinese and all of them well ahead of any other nation

So if Japan makes EVs using Chinese Basic Components, the Japanese companies will barely make profit while the cream will be taken by the Chinese players like CATL Or Korean players like SK

So Japanese Car Makers have put up around $ 15 Billion and have been trying to develop Hydrogen Cell powered cars as a Rival to EVs

Of course China has already pumped up another 380 Billion RMB ($ 55 Billion) of Subsidies and their Hydrogen Fuel Cells are surging rapidly

They plan to power trucks and trains using Hydrogen powered cells

$55 Billion in China is nearly the same as $ 130 Billion in Japan against a mere $ 15 Billion

Eight times more investment

In the Capitalist world, Profitability is what drives everything else

New Technology won’t be explored unless it can be profitable

In the Chinese Model,Necessity and Demand drives everything else

The State will fund things and players until they finally are able to develop the core technology and ensure a commercial production model that is a generation better than anyone else

It’s why, after Iphones & galaxy , when Alcatel and many phone makers simply abandoned further development and research – China kept going on and on and on with their smartphone models even if it meant paying the cream to the American entities like Qualcomm or Intel or other such entities

So that one day they could crack the supply chain and then build their own superior and most cost effective supply chain and indigenous technology

Fish gangs

What was the strangest thing that happened to you as a foreigner in Japan?

I arrived in Tokyo with a terrible stomach ache and followed by bad diarrhea. For the first 2 days I could barely walk and only eat very little.

I then decided to go see a doctor, my wife called her friend who lives in Tokyo to ask about the closest hospital etc. He and his girlfriend showed up in our apartment, taking me to the closest clinic just in case the nurse/doctor don’t speak any English.

It was a normal clinic routine, I (or was it my wife?) filled up a form with my names etc, we wait and then saw a doctor. True enough, the doctor doesn’t speak English well, so he communicated with my friend while sometimes punching some keys on his phone for English translation to say things to me. By this time I feel really bad for my wife’s friend as he has to translate what i feel, in detail, to the doctor, about my diarrhea. It’s probably his worst first conversation with someone ever!

All good, he prescribed medicine, while explaining to my friend what and how much to take when. The doctor was very very responsible, he found translations on his phone again to write the name of the medicine and what each pill is for etc in English.

The strange thing comes when I want to pay the bill. The nurse said that the cashier was closed on weekends (it was Saturday), she estimated that the cost would be around JPY 10,000 or less. So, she asked me to give her JPY 5,000 and comeback on Monday to settle the rest with the cashier.

The strangest thing is, I told her that Monday is my schedule to take my kid to Disneyland and Tuesday to Disney Sea, to which she replied (translated by my wife’s dear friend, obviously) “ok, come whenever you have time, it’s OK”

I was dumbfounded by her answer, I asked again to confirm and she said yes.

I mean they know that I don’t live in Japan, nor do they ask my friend’s number/ address. My wife’s friend, my savior, then explained to me that it is quite normal in Japan because Japanese people are very responsible and honest, so they always pay what is due.

Big respect for their culture.

PS: I ended up paying the balance on Thursday, it was around JPY 3,500 🙂

Forbidden books

Where is the most dangerous island in the world?

Personally, I think it’s the Pitcairn Islands.

But not for the reasons you may think.

For those of you who don’t know, the Pitcairn Islands are a British Overseas Territory in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It’s one of the most isolated places in the world, and only has a population of 47 people, most of whom are descended from the nine people who originally settled the islands. They’re also all mostly interrelated, in one way or another.

The territory is owned by the United Kingdom, but governed by New Zealand’s British High Commissioner. They rarely visit, and ships only come to the islands about two dozen times a year.

[1] So I think it’s fair to say that the Pitcairn Islands are very isolated from the rest of society. The 47 residents of the Islands don’t have too much contact with the outside world.

But that’s precisely what makes it so dangerous.

In 1999, a policeman from Kent, England was serving an assignment on the islands, when he started to uncover some sinister things going on. He started uncovering allegations of sexual abuse, including against children.

An Australian pastor visited the island around that time, and made some shocking observations

“I noticed worrying signs such as inexplicable mood swings,” he says. “It took me three months to realise they were being abused. I tried to raise the subject at a meeting of the island council, and one gentleman replied: ‘Look, the age of consent has always been 12 and it doesn’t hurt them.'” [2]

When further questioned, residents of the island basically said “that’s just how it is here”. Girls would get into relationships at a disturbingly young age on the island, and nobody really noticed from the outside for a long time. Most girls had their first child between ages 12 and 15.

That’s pretty messed up. As it turns out, the remoteness of the island had allowed a disturbing culture of sexuality to develop. The policeman started questioning every single woman who lived on the island, and they all saw nothing wrong with it.

But British officials definitely saw something wrong with it, and pressed charges against seven men. That may not seem like a lot, but consider that that was most of the island’s adult male population at the time, including the mayor of the islands.

This was a huge scandal, and raised a lot of questions about extraterritoriality and law and stuff. During the trial, they had to fly in policemen, judges, lawyers, journalists and other court staff; from the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

This effectively doubled the island’s population during the trial.

Lawyers for the defendants made a strange argument in order to try and get their sentences reduced: they argued that if they were imprisoned, the island would cease to function. And they had a point. When an island has a population as small as the Pitcairn Islands, locking up seven able-bodied men has a huge impact.

Four defendants got reduced sentences because of the unique nature of the island’s population. Two were spared from jail entirely, and one was acquitted.

This is what I think makes it one of the most dangerous islands in the world. Not the wildlife, not the flora and fauna, but the people living there.

The same way anonymity can make people cruel and immoral, isolation can do the same thing, allowing cultures of abuse and mistreatment to develop. In my opinion, this case is no different to cases of abuse within cults. Both involved small groups of people and corrupt leadership, who basically created a little realm in which they could get away with horrible things.

Footnotes

[1] Shipping Schedule — Visit Pitcairn – Open To Explore

[2] The paradise that’s under a cloud

China’s Military Aircraft Can Vanish ‘Off The Radar’ As Scientist Developed Plasma Device

In another remarkable leap forward in the realm of military technology, Chinese scientists have unveiled a groundbreaking development that is sure to revolutionize aerial warfare: a new plasma stealth device that could render Chinese aircraft virtually invisible to enemy radar systems. You heard that right! We might see the time where Chinese aircraft will go undetected on enemy radar systems and in turn inflict a plethora of damage. Today’s episode will uncover the new development of Chinese scientists that might make Chinese aircraft invisible in the future. https://youtu.be/TD20CoQ1dPA

What are the consequences the world faces if China goes for war over Taiwan?

India may suffer massive shortages

Luckily not of food products but many other things.

Electric Vehicles , Electronics, Vehicles, Smartphons, Pumps – will all reduce significantly as they primarily depend on Chinese Components and Import Substitution is impossible due to the Ukranian Crisis.

The Biggest problem is ANTIBIOTICS, PAINKILLERS, ANTIVIRALS

India manufactures a lot of these but 80% Pharma Raw Stock comes from China

A Blockade by US could prevent Crucial Antibiotics from being delivered to more than 60% of the Countries in the World (95% Developing Countries)

Globally the Biggest Problem will be – CHIPS

Taiwan exports 93% of its Chips and controls 70% of the Global Supply Chain

A Blockade on the Taiwan Straits by China could result in an existing supply crunch intensifying several times over.

As on date only 7 Stacks of Chips are being delivered for every 12 Stacks of Chips relative to 2019 Globally -ie:- only around 60% of the Global Supply

If Taiwan joins in then you could have 7 Stacks for every 36 -48 Stacks or only around 15%-20% of the Global Supply

That would impact many many Industries

ASEAN Nations will lose Big

The Seas are very profitable for Trade. Those routes are disturbed – it will lead to a Supply Crisis like EU is experiencing.

And the Western Economies will crumble even worse

A Lot of their Hedge Funds invest in Chip Manufacturing Entities and a Huge Shortfal market could collapse such funds by as much as 40%-60%

It will all pass…

Do you think China has the guts to attack Taiwan, or are they just lame threats?

Its not a Question of Guts

Its a Question of having the ability to follow through

War is a drain on everything and fighting a War against several enemies could be a huge obstacle to any country.

Every repurcussion has to be planned , anticipated and handled

Putin took 8 years and even then it was a Weak Joe Biden that finally moved him into the Ukraine Conflict.

8 years of planning, contingencies, new alliances

Has the US ever fought a Conflict or War where there is a threat of either China or Russia coming for a defensive battle?

Not since the 1960s

Same Reason.

Attacking Taiwan is a 2 Week Job, 4 weeks Tops

Taiwan cannot hold against China and no amount of alliances can hold a Determined China from hoding Taiwan

The Political Repurcussions, Global Repurcussions, Financial Repurcussions – these are Chinas largest obstacles.

China has to plan for these and how to counter these

Strong Alliances are crucial here

China already has Russia and Central Asia

Turkey mostly will not condemn China in any way

However ASEAN?

ASEAN nations are headless chickens and if pushed and pressurized heavily could create problems for China

Long story short – China will attack Tiwan only if threatened beyond anything we have seen until today

What is the most shocking thing that’s ever happened on live TV?

In 1997, Gay Byrne was hosting the Late Late Show.

His two guests of the evening were a nun and Irish poet, Brendan Kennelly.

The night was going well – at the midpoint of each episode, they usually hosted a phone-in competition. You know the format; they ask an unbelievably easy question, get people to send in the answer, and they pick one person to call and tell them congratulations! you’ve won a prize!

This evening was no different.

The prize of the evening was a new car and Byrne dials the lucky winner.

Ring ring.

The phone is answered by a quiet sounding woman. She sounded meek, even when told she had won.

“Are you happy, Rita?”

“Yes,” Rita replies quietly.

“Are you watching the show tonight?”

“I wasn’t”, Rita replies …

… “my daughter died last night”.

Instantly there were gasps and Byrne’s face drops and his tone changes.

“Oh no. Oh dear Rita, I’m very sorry.”

You have to remember that this was live TV. Thousands of people, including a studio audience full of people, were sat in front of him. Byrne probably also had his studio team giving him instructions in his ear. So, he flubbed, and very inelegantly asked:

“And why did she die?”

“Are you being funny?” she shot back.

“She got knocked down. She was in a car crash last night.”

It turned out that it was Rita’s daughter who had entered the competition – she was so hoping to win a car and it was a car that ended her life only a day before.

Byrne, being the fantastic host that he was, realised that he should really give Rita, the poor woman, an out if she wanted it.

“Good heavens. Well Rita, I don’t think we can continue with this in the circumstances. Do you want to?”

“I do.”

This led to applause from the audience and Rita continued.

The first guest, the nun, offered her some consolation, saying that it surely was no accident that the postcard was picked tonight.

Next, it was passed to the poet, Kennelly, who recited one of his most famous poems, “Begin,” from memory:

“Though we live in a world that dreams of ending
that always seems about to give in
something that will not acknowledge conclusion
insists that we forever begin.”

Towards the end, Rita was quietly weeping.

Byrne then tells her that she has the support and prayers of the entire country, and Rita, in turn, told Byrne that she felt it was important to stay on the line for her daughter, that she was accepting the prize “for her”.

I’m describing this clip because I can’t find the full version of it anywhere.

Nobody can.

The only version I can find is on this article here, but it is shortened and doesn’t give the full effect: Talk show host’s phone call takes heartbreaking turn live on air

Graham Norton, the extremely popular Irish chat show host of his own show on the BBC, actually once said that this moment inspired him to move into chat shows.

Gay Byrne died recently at the age of 85, after a short illness battling cancer.

He will forever be missed and remembered fondly by Irish people of a certain age.

Edit: It turns out that the video in that article has since been removed, which must have only happened in the last few days — unfortunately.

Also, many people have pointed out how I feel like this was more shocking than events like Budd Dwyer’s suicide.

I knew these would be discussed in-depth, so I figured I’d go with an event I knew most people wouldn’t have heard of.

AI is changing the game

China changes position on Taiwan; tensions ratchet up

On February 14, there was an incident between a Taiwan coast guard ship and Chinese fishing boats in the waters off Kinmen, a very short distance from Xiamen. In this incident, the Chinese fishing boat was hit by the Taiwan coast guard ship and capsized. Two of the Chinese fishermen drowned.

Since then, there have been 15 rounds of discussions between the Chinese authorities and the Taiwan authorities. The Chinese side has demanded compensation and an apology to the fishermen from the Taiwan side; Taiwan has refused. The DPP, which controls the Taiwan government, has refused any responsibility for the action, and claims that there is no video recording of the incident It has appealed to the US to become involved in the discussions, which the US so far has ignored.

The incident has received widespread coverage in China, and this has led to a hardening of Chinese popular opinion, and the government’s stance to Taiwan. Chinese public opinion feels that the Chinese authorities have been too accommodating to Taiwan for too long, and instead of treating Taiwan as “fellow Chinese”, they should be treated as an enemy. For a long time, PRC Chinese considered the DPP and KMT to be hostile to the PRC, but that ordinary Taiwanese were decent Chinese who wanted to be re-united with China. Now that view is dismissed as a fantasy which should be rejected.

The Chinese government closely follows public opinion from online media, and has shifted its public stance during the Two Congresses meeting in Beijing. When discussing Taiwan, there is no more talk of an appeal to our “Taiwan compatriots”. Instead the talk is of reunification, without specifying whether it should be done peacefully or by military means.

As the PRC increases its military patrols in the Taiwan straits and around Taiwan, it is likely that the PLA forces will ignore Taiwan’s demarcation lines for the sea and air. The DPP government is likely to look to the US for support in enforcing these demarcation lines, and the US will need to decide how far it wants to go in supporting the Taiwan authorities.

On the military front, the US is thinly spread with the Ukraine war, which may escalate into a more direct confrontation between NATO and Russia, and the Israel/Hamas war, which may evolved into a multi-front war for Israel, involving the Houthis in the Red Sea and Yemen, the continuing war in Gaza, and a possible northern front including Lebanon and Syria involving Hizbollah. The longer the war lasts, the greater the damage for Israel’s economy, which has already lost 20% of its GDP since October 7.

This presents a major dilemma for the US: it already has two major wars on its hands, and it needs time to build up its military for a possible major confrontation with China. But the US won’t be able to fully prepare itself for military confrontation through re-armament until 2027. If the US confronts China militarily before then, it is likely to lose.

Economically, China is on the move by selling products which are just as good as American products, if not better, at much lower prices. Notable areas are solar panels and EVs, where western manufacturers and exporters cannot compete.

As if that were not enough, we face a re-run of the Biden-Trump battle for the presidency in November. If Trump is elected, he is likely to disengage on the foreign policy front, and will tell Putin that he can have Ukraine, and maybe Europe. NATO will only exist on paper.

He has talked about raising tariffs on Chinese imports to the US to 60%.

Interesting times indeed.

Chicken farmers in Australia be like…

If money is not an issue, would you rather live in Miami, the SF Bay Area, Los Angeles, or New York?

New York is an absolute no no

Too many blacks at night everywhere and 90% of them wearing hoodies and giving the “mugger vibe”

And not the Good African blacks or the blacks you see in UK

The Stereotype 1990s blacks depicted in family guy

You may think you landed in Lagos

Except Manhattan and i dont like Apartment living too much.

Miami?

I have never been to Miami. In Florida, I have been only to Orlando.

SF Bay Area

Sorry

Too many Homosexuals

I went there twice and both times, you had many men holding hands and resting heads on shoulders and giving you the shudders

Beautiful place though

Like South Mumbai to a certain extent

Los Angeles?

Again I have been to LA only to go to Universal Studios and Rodeo Drive and when I land in US

No idea how life in LA can be

In the US, I would prefer living in New Rochelle in Westchester County Or some of those nice Suburban communities, ones where Indians are not discriminated against

Or even San Jose

My Son lived in a place called Los Gatos and he was told all the white guys were uppity people who would be racist to Indians. That never happened. Good people, Friendly people

My idea of a money no limit place would be :-

One Acre minimum property
Excellent Medical Facilities nearby where the Labs process results in a day and not four days
Where a Specialist makes an appointment to see you, the next day and not next Thursday
At least two Indian eateries in a 1 Km radius. Not the Naan, Roti one but the South Indian one which is rarer in the US
Low rate of crime
Accessibility to a City for emergency

The Answer was Westchester County

I advised my sons to consider this place as a final retirement place in the days when US was a better country than it is today

My wife is already not too pleased about one son settling in China and has warned me “You kept praising China, and now our younger son is in China. Now you are praising Russia. If the elder one settles down in Russia, you can live with him and I am out of here”

Meanwhile in Texas

Do you know anyone who had a good heart who went to prison?

I’ve known men who had good hearts and went to prison.

Where they lost them.

I’ve met men who went to prison and grew larger hearts, just like the Grinch.

I’ve met men who never had good hearts and never will.

And, I’ve met men who managed to hold on to their good hearts in spite of it all.

Shortly after arriving at the facility where I did the bulk of my time, I met a man who was almost the same age as my father. This was a spry fellow, slender, medium height, and bearded.

He had been in Vietnam.

He was just a kid when he went to war. While away he kept an unusually candid journal. Later in life he transcribed the journal faithfully into a book and self-published a small number of copies. It must’ve been tempting to edit out the parts that made him look like the stupid teenager he was, but he didn’t. The journal and the book tell the same story without so much as a spelling correction.

He allowed me to read his journal.

It was filled with the concerns of an eighteen year old boy, “Does she love me? What did she mean when she said that? What should I tell her about John?” All these normal, adolescent, girl-centric concerns projected against a backdrop of horror.

On his first day of patrol in Vietnam, his outfit marched into a village and demanded to know where the Viet Cong were. One bad apple threatened a woman by holding her infant over a well and screaming for answers about the VC.

The sergeant saw this and said, “C’mon Smith. Let it go.” Smith (or whatever his name was) dropped the baby into the well. The sergeant calmly walked over, pulled out a hand grenade, removed the pin, and dropped the grenade into the well after the baby.

After the explosion he said, “Don’t have to worry about that fucker.”

This was day one of patrol. Imagine the shock. Imagine being ripped out of your Mid-West suburban utopia and being cast into this asylum for the chronically cruel.

The entire course of this young man’s life was forever altered. His experiences at war led to a drinking problem. The drinking led to DUIs. Three DUIs became a felony conviction. His father’s guns still in his home became “felon in possession of a firearm.”

This was a good man. His heart was in pain for his entire adulthood as a result of the things he saw.

Instead of offering him help, we locked him up.

Oh baby…

Senior Russian Military Colonel: Possibility of full-scale war in Europe “not ruled out – growing significantly”

World Hal Turner 07 March 2024

A senior Russian military officer warns that the conflict in #Ukraine could escalate into a full-scale war in #Europe and says the probability of Moscow’s forces becoming involved in a new conflict is increasing “significantly.” Colonel-General Vladimir Zarudnitsky, head of the Russian army’s Military Academy of the General Staff, made the comments in an article for “Military Thought”, a defense ministry publication, the state RIA news agency reported on Thursday. “The possibility of an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine – from the expansion of participants in ‘proxy forces’ used for military confrontation with Russia to a large-scale war in Europe – cannot be ruled out,” RIA cited him a saying. “The main source of military threats to our state is the anti-Russian policy of the United States and its allies, who are conducting a new type of hybrid warfare in order to weaken Russia in every possible way, limit its sovereignty and destroy its territorial integrity,” he was quoted as saying. “The likelihood of our state being purposefully drawn into new military conflicts is significantly increasing.” The war in Ukraine has triggered the deepest crisis in Russia’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and President Vladimir Putin has warned that the West risks provoking a nuclear war if it sends troops to fight in Ukraine. Putin has cast his decision to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022 as a special military operation designed to secure Russia’s own security against an increasingly hostile US-backed Ukrainian leadership. Kyiv says it is defending itself against an imperial-style war of conquest designed to erase its national identity. Zarudnitsky’s comments come at a time when the West is scrambling to help Ukraine with more arms and financing after Kyiv’s failed counteroffensive last summer and after Russian forces regained the initiative on the battlefield. Zarudnitsky advocated a number of changes in the way Russia organizes its military and security, RIA added, including placing greater emphasis on relying on what he called friendly countries to ensure Russia’s own security and consolidating the whole of Russian society around its defense needs.

Fathers be like

Apricot Chicken

Ingredients

Chicken

4 to 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 (13 ounce) jar apricot preserves
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
3/4 cup water
1 1/4 cups Russian dressing or use store-bought

Russian Dressing

1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup chili sauce (or ketchup)
3 teaspoons prepared horseradish (or to taste)
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

Instructions

If using homemade Russian Dressing, prepare it first. If using store bought Russian dressing, proceed with the recipe.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Chicken

Wash and place chicken breasts in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
In a medium size bowl, mix together preserves, dry onion soup mix, water and Russian dressing. Pour over the chicken breasts. Bake for 1 hour.

Russian Dressing

Place onion in a small bowl and mash to create a paste. Stir in the mayonnaise, chili sauce, horseradish, hot sauce, Worcestershire, paprika and salt.

Stability

What habits did you pick up in prison that non prisoners don’t understand?

Don’t make eye contact. If you happen to, do not smile. The general friendliness we see as acceptable and desirable in the real world (except France) can get you into trouble in prison.

Look in every trashcan. I still can’t break this habit. Prison is a constant state of want. You learn to make do or do without. There’s stuff in there that you need.

Trust no one. Eventually you will come to know one or two well enough to exempt them from this rule… but even with these select few, you still shouldn’t lean on them. Practice solidarity with yourself.

Don’t ask questions. You’ve no right to know, and asking can cause problems with inmates and guards alike.

Lock up everything. It only takes a moment for someone to walk off with whatever you hold dear. If it’s further than arm’s reach, it’s at risk.

Beware the quiet. If you’ve been reading and suddenly realize that the normal background idiocy has mysteriously squelched, pay attention. There’s a reason, and it’s probably not good.

Don’t stand out. Don’t ask for special privileges, don’t complain, and don’t go around trying to make friends. Squeaky wheels get greased with blood.

Stockpile books. You never know when you’ll be in lockdown for a fortnight. You’ll be grateful if you’ve got something to do besides another game of cards.

A warning from veteran who went to Ukraine

Is Britain’s idea of using frozen Russian assets as collateral for a loan to Ukraine any less illegal than simply stealing them, and how would this affect London’s reputation as a financial centre?

It’s literally stealing.

You can make all the olympic level mental gymnastics you want, oh it’s only stealing from bad people. But all in all it’s still stealing, it’s taking stuff that isn’t yours.

Oh sure you can of course decide that it is yours or make contrivances and change the law so that it becomes ‘legal’. But in the end it’s intentionally depriving somebody of their property on a permanent basis thus means theft.

affect London’s reputation as a financial centre?

It will affect confidence, in that if you can steal theirs or change the rules so that they can take it legally, what stops you from doing it to others?

If anything the UK is doing this over and over.

They’ve literally refused to give Venezuela’s gold back to them.

But it goes back to this:

affect London’s reputation as a financial centre?

London’s reputation as a financial centre is evaporating. EU passporting is ending in 2024 😀

So they’re literally resorting to looting.

That’s not particularly surprising as most of them why pay for something if you can steal it?

Ukraine War: Irish fighter ‘Rambo’ describes ‘terrifying’ Russian tank chase

What can I learn in one minute that will be useful for the rest of my life?

Adjust a picture frame at your desk so you can see behind you with the reflection of the glass.
In a pinch, the seatbelt in your car can be used as a bottle opener.
Balance an empty can on the doorknob to alert you if someone tries to open the door while you’re elsewhere in the house.
Anything you say before the word “but” does not count.
Suspect someone’s giving you the wrong phone number? Read it back to them incorrectly, if they correct you, it’s legit.
Windows key + E to open My Computer.
To confirm which circuit breaker is associated with an outlet, plug in a hairdryer and turn the volume up before you flip the circuit breaker.
When you want to cross words out you don’t want to be legible, instead of scribbling over them, write random letters and words over the original.
Using ‘~ ‘ before a word in Google searches includes synonyms of that word in your search.
When filling your car with gas, hold the trigger halfway. You’ll get more gas and less air in the tank.
Have an Excel file too big to e-mail? Save it as an xlsb it shrinks the size by 50-75%.
When you’re on an elevator, the floor with the star next to it is the one that leads outside.
Save the job description when you start a new job. It makes updating your resume a lot easier.
When showing people pictures on your phone, zoom in a little bit so they can’t easily swipe to other pictures.
Can’t decide if you’re hungry? Ask yourself if you want an apple. If you answer no, then you’re not actually hungry.

This is what a “real” man does…

How can we remind Russians we have no problems with them? We have a problem with their despot.

You don’t. You have problems with Russians now.

There are many dimensions of current conflict between Russia and collective West or whatever you call Russian opponents. Anyway the U.S. are the main enemy and there would be no conflict without their involvement. A lot has been said and written on the matter so I won’t delve into it further.

Now comes the definition part. Who are “you”? Ok, I assume you are talking about people of collective West. Not governments, not military industry lobbies, not bankers, not oil traders, not oligarchs. Just people.

Why do you have problems with Russians? Because your countries are our enemies. And no sweet words will change that simple fact.

Could this be different? Yes. Your countries made a plethora of pointless, stupid and self-contradicting decisions.

Yet, the most stupid of those decision was the decision to attempt economic isolation of Russia.

This:
1) Made Russian people your enemies
2) Forced modernization of Russian industry and economy at unprecedented rate
3) Boosted Russian military-industrial complex
4) Resulted in further consolidation of Russians around Putin
5) Destroyed all “soft influence” that you had in Russia through your corporations and business ties

The list is long.

Now a small personal story.

By February 2022 I was mainly working for a couple U.S. corporations (Intel and HP if you are interested) as lead localizer / reviewer of Russian content (freelance).

I was generally sympathizing Americans and Europeans and had no communication problems. I was quite against any confrontation. However, actions of European and American governments made me lose these jobs and, naturally, my attitude to them has seriously changed.

You made a Western-minded person in Russia angry about “the West”. There were millions of Russians like me who had ties with the Western world or who earned their income working for Western companies. Actions of U.S. and European governments made you lose our sympathies and lose any leverage the West had in Russian society.

Not that we would work against Russia or became “the fifth column”, but had this “economic blockade” remained a threat, we would surely push for decisions that would help us save our jobs and sources of income.

Now it is just too late. Pro-Western people in Russia were forced to adapt and vast majority of them are no longer pro-Western. Sure, some just fled Russia but even then, this didn’t have any noticeable impact on Russian economy and Russian society.

To sum it up, you had your influence in Russia but lost it. You earned money in Russia but lost it. Even your cultural influence is fading. Simply because Russians are no longer looking on your content through rosy glasses. And well, TBH your media entertainment content in last few years mostly sucks.

Maybe your own audience is brainwashed enough to push any “agendas” but I don’t remember any new Hollywood blockbusters in last few years that would be really appealing to Russian or any other third-world audience. I haven’t even feel the desire to watch anything like that.

Moreover, your “brands” are rapidly losing value in eyes of Russians and more and more Russians look at them with disdain.

Moreover, Russia is setting the example for “Global South” demonstrating that a large part of your “superiority” was just imaginary. The further our hostilities go, the greater is this understanding. Especially when it comes to “cultural superiority”.

Still… if you are talking about people… many Russian still don’t think categories. Most of us still don’t assume that every American or European is an enemy. Yet, we assume that most of you are simply brainwashed about Russia, Russian people and Russian so-called “despot”.

A side note for more context. I do support the ruling party of Russia but I don’t support President Putin. I am a big fan of Russian Prime Minister and other efficient administrators from United Russia team.

So enjoy your “politically correct” remakes, dull comics that are indistinguishable from each other and reanimation of long-dead franchises that can’t be saved even with once great actors.

Las Vegas babysitter who beat 5-year-old boy to death sentenced to life in prison

Horrific.

Terrible.

What is the most disgusting thing that someone has done in a restaurant?

I have a three-way-tie. We had a family come in with a baby, toddler, and a small child, maybe 6 or 7. I noticed the baby didn’t look well to begin with. You could just look at this kid and tell she was miserable and running fever. I asked if she was alright and the mom assured me she was just tired.

The toddler decided to suck the sauce off her noodles and stick them to the wall. Mom and dad said nothing. A little while later the older child put her hands in the baby’s diaper and announced to everyone “Ewww! Chrissy’s got runny poo!” She wiped her hand on the white tablecloth. Mom pushes plates aside and changes this horrendously smelly, runny diaper right on the table. She couldn’t understand why I was making a big deal out of it when I asked her to take the baby to the bathroom.

Next we have the lady who ordered a huge meal and requested a large, empty to go cup. It wasn’t until after she left that I realized what she was doing. She was chewing her food and spitting it in the cup instead of swallowing it. I’m pretty sure she had an eating disorder. It’s none of my business if she did or didn’t, I’m not judging, but it would have been nice if she had thrown her cup of chewed food out herself instead of leaving it for me to deal with.

Finally, we have the man who decided that instead of using his big boy words to show his displeasure at being denied a take out box for an all-you-can-eat meal (There were signs and the menu stated no to go boxes on it) that he would urinate in my lobby. He did this right in front of a cop that was dining with us. The guy was not too bright. Yes, the cop took action.

Let’s see something nicer.

The internet found her and destroyed her

She was deserving.

When have you cheaply or inexpensively fixed an item someone thought unrepairable?

Not exactly unrepairable but definitely expensive.

I recently treated myself to a used luxury automobile because I’m getting old and wanted to splurge. I had it less than 2 weeks when the power driver’s seat wouldn’t move forward or backwards. Unfortunately it was frozen slightly too far back so I really had to stretch to reach the pedals … not a very safe way to drive.

The dealer looked sad when I brought it in. He said this was a common problem with my model, but the “repair” involved replacing the whole motor assembly under the seat, it would cost upwards of $3k, and extended warranties almost never covered it.

I went home and contacted my insurer who said they didn’t know if it was covered, I should have the $200 diagnostic done and then the dealer would present a claim for the repair on my behalf and they would “work it out”.

The night before my follow-up appointment, my husband (not a mechanic) looked under the seat with a flashlight. The gear to move the seat had come out of its track. He hit it a few times just so and the gear popped back into place. Now the seat works perfectly again.

I’m so glad I married him

The Internet destroyed this woman

The inherited time machine that my mother hated

My mother’s husband after my (birth) parents got their divorce, was a man of great local wealth. A “big man” in the local community. He was quite the character.

He had 15 sons, and one girl. He was Catholic.

Don’t you know.

Anyways, after he passed on he give my brother a gift in his will.

No one knew what it was, and when we all took the truck to get it, we were all surprised.

It was a home liquor bar from the 1960’s during the Playboy age.

It has girly glasses, swizzle sticks, and was able to control lighting with velvet and mirrors inside the cabinet. We boys all thought it was cool as fuck.

My sisters thought that it was stupid; old antique furniture. something that should be given away at a thrift store.

My mother… well she just *sighed*.

Gave it to my brother.

It looked a little bit like this, only shorter with more drawers, and a built in ashtray.

Still, my mother wanted us to throw it away.

Ugh! She didn’t appreciate it’s value like we (my brother and I) did.

Often my brother and I would muse about being a “playboy” like 007, and seducing women in our bachelor pad.

He has it today.

It’s in his “game room” / study. Perhaps, he goes to it every now and then and mixed up a Tom Collins, or a Whiskey Sour.

Today…

Rights in the United States

How do servers feel when someone only orders the cheapest item on the menu?

The cheapest item on a menu is often the most profitable. That is no coincidence. At the top of the menu will be a prime rib roast for $60. At the bottom is the fettuccine Alfredo for $17.99. The prime rib is called the anchor item. Believe me, it is there to scare you. They sell very few of them and don’t make much profit because of the high cost of the raw materials. So now, they’ve coaxed you to look at the cheapest item, the Alfredo. One chef revealed that a pasta dish at the bottom of his menu cost only 98 cents in ingredients, but was $17.99 on the menu. It was the most profitable item on the list, and the most popular dish they sell, especially when compared to the $60 steak that only brought in a couple of bucks profit.

Then there’s the wine list. It was designed by a restaurant psychologist. They know that a couple on a date will order a bottle of wine. But the guy doesn’t want to look cheap, so he orders the second cheapest wine. But guess what else? The owner knows that too, and the second cheapest wine has the highest margin!

A menu is full of tricks. Many of them funny, like no dollar signs and no decimals. Or burying the price in the description rather than putting it on a column to the right, where prices are easier to compare.

There are many, many more. Try searching “restaurant menu tricks”. Here’s one of them:

10 menu design hacks restaurants use to make you order more – Learn

Do you sleep with your bedroom door open or closed? Why?

Until May 12, 2007, I didn’t worry whether my bedroom door was open or closed while I slept. Now, my bedroom door is closed and locked every night.

Tenth-grader Alec Kreider, entered the Haines’ family home while all were asleep and stabbed them. All their bedroom doors were open and their garage door was up.

When you look at his photo, Alec was just a kid.

main qimg a3599340b9342c85220cc68329954519 lq

The only person to escape was the 19-year-old daughter. Alec didn’t know she’d returned from college that evening.

The Haines’ house was less than a mile from ours.

The police were at a loss to find the killer or even a motive for why this family had been killed. The police were vocal about what the area residents should do until the case was resolved.

It was during that month that we started locking the bedroom door. Finally, it became a habit that we continued even after Alec’s father drove his son to police headquarters.

Alec never disclosed why he killed a good friend of his and the parents. He pleaded guilty and there was no trial.

Edit:

Someone commented that the photo of Alec may have been when he was younger than the date of his arrest. I copied and pasted a photo so you could see how he looked on that day.

main qimg 7b5ab0d4f93dc956c54006986c45ecfb lq

Decline

What are good skills to learn before going to prison?

If you’re going to prison, you need to learn how to shut up. It’s normal that when we see injustice, we want to fix it. Did you see someone steal another man’s shoes while he slept? Just mind your own business. Learn to lock up your own shoes, or make them not worth stealing.

Confronting the thief is a bad idea. Maybe you’re pretty good in a scrap and think you could take the scumbag down.

Maybe you can. But what will you do when three of them show up at your bunk at 2:30 in the morning with their padlocks inside socks? Those heavy chunks of metal, swung at high speed inside the sock, hit hard. It’s an impromptu weapon that works just as well as something from a medieval battlefield. The only thing it lacks are the spikes, but the inmates will compensate for that with enthusiasm.

Next, you need to learn that your case is nobody’s business. Period. It’s tempting to want to talk about what you’ve been through.

Don’t.

Just don’t.

The reverse is even more true. Do not ask anyone else about their case. It’s none of your business, and the asking invites trouble.

Prison is a primitive culture. It’s all based on power and social status. In a way, it’s like we’ve never built a civilization at all, and are stuck in our shared simian ancestry without the civilizing influences of the feminine gender. Ask yourself, “What would Jane Goodall do?”

Observe. Understand. Don’t get involved.

Learn to lose yourself in an activity. If you’re not much of a reader, learn to become one.

Learn some useful skills. Learn to sew. The ability to repair your own things will save you money, and can make you useful to others.

Learn to make do.

Two years later, I still catch myself glancing in trash cans for useful things.

Learn introspection. Learn to understand who you are so that essence can be preserved. Your time in prison is temporary. One day, you will be headed either to the streets, or to the hereafter. Either way, you want to leave as a civilized human being the least scarred as possible.

My goodness!

Southern Afghanistan 2008.

Group of Taliban fighters ambushed a squad of Marines in my platoon on a night patrol. We were engaged in a firefight with them during the day and a squad was pushed out to search for them. Traditionally the Taliban would not engage us at night because we “own the night”.

This time however, when the Marines got close they lit multiple stacks of dried vegetation on fire washing out our NVGs with light. They also engaged the Marines with RPGs and automatic weapons from rather well hidden positions that were only a stone’s throw away. In fact, they happened to throw back grenades that were thrown in their direction. I was pushed up from the rear as aid and litter to retrieve a wounded Marine and the light show I saw that night was like watching star wars space battle.

The green and red tracers being exchanged over the sight and sound of explosions, smell of burning fuel and large flames was all so astonishing to experience. The Taliban impressed me that day. In my experience that was one of only the handful of times I experienced a night battle in my year and a half total of combat zone time. Their success was short lived however, you can imagine who eventually won that fight.

When you are on the way up…

The Mughal Empire was ruled by only one dynasty, but why doesn’t anyone call it the “Mughal dynasty”?

There is no word “empire” in ancient Chinese history

This word was introduced to China by Westerners, and then the Chinese began to use it.

Therefore, the Chinese customarily refer to all their ancient regimes as “dynasties” rather than “empires”

Now, there are some new changes in the definition of ancient Chinese regimes in academic circles.

Some scholars began to try to distinguish between “empires” and “dynasties” in ancient China

They called some powerful regimes that ruled the whole of China “empires,” while they called some small regimes that only controlled local areas “dynasties.”

For example, “Ming Empire”, “Tang Empire”, “Song Dynasty” and “Shang Dynasty”.

They believe that many large empires and more small dynasties were born in ancient China. Their reason is that with every regime established, the name of the country changes. There has never been a regime named “Middle Kingdom” or “Middle Empire” in Chinese history.

Some scholars also believe that according to Western definitions, China established its empire in 211 BC and lasted until 1912. During these 2000 years, China had only one empire. All regime changes are “dynasties” within this empire. The change of dynasties is actually the continuous collapse and reconstruction of this empire.

Their reason is: the establishment of each dynasty claimed to have inherited the “mandate of heaven” from the previous dynasty. They even passed down the seal made by the first emperor as a symbol of legitimate power.

I think there is no standard answer to this question, just a customary name

Important

When is China expected to surpass the USA economically? Will they also become a military superpower at the same time?

Wake up it has already!

China has a bigger economy based on the flawed GDP PPP measurement that favours the west measurement of values of smokes and bubbles. Such as Wall Street values and not real tangible human values. Yet even in this flawed and skewed to the west measurement China has already overtaken them since 2014. China have more men, more ships more planes more ammunitions and it has vital new technologies such as hypersonic missiles and superior drone and sonar technologies that render most of U.S. weapons useless for at least a decade now!

Interstellar | “Tidal Wave” Full Scene (Anne Hathaway, Matthew McConaughey) | Paramount Movies

Doesn’t Putin realize he will be VAPORIZED 15 to 20 minutes after he launches his first missile?

How exactly?

Let’s say Putin nukes Kiev tomorrow

Do you think anyone would retaliate?

That’s because nobody would want the risk of Russia launching Nukes against them in a counter strike

The attitude of NATO would be

“Boy he is ready to launch nukes and annihilate everyone. If we launch a nuke against Putin, the world will be annihilated”

So the West won’t launch nukes and would do their best and prevent war

Even the Neocons would be stunned enough to sue for peace

It’s what Medvedev would have done

Launch a small low yield nuke capable of killing maybe 100,000 Ukranians in Kyiv and getting peace

Let’s say Putin nukes France

Half a Dozen Satans, destroying and vaporizing the entire nation

Would UK Or US risk launching nukes against Putin?

They would know for certain that if they did, Russia will launch a counter strike and millions and millions of their people will die including Mrs Biden or the Biden Grandkids or Mrs Sunak Or the Sunak Kids

I don’t think they will

They will have all their nukes ready for launch but will ensure that they somehow de escalate from a full on nuclear war

So i dont think any NATO nation will retaliate against Putin on behalf of another Nation because that would be certain death

Unless Putin hits US or US hits Putin, the risk of MAD is very little

Putin can destroy any other nation in the planet without fear of consequences of nuclear retaliation

Maybe China is too large and has a strong enough AD to manage to defend itself

So how to ensure there is no nuclear confrontation?

Each side has enough Pentagon or Kremlin Brass who know when to draw a line and prevent nuclear escalation

I love this

What are some psychological facts about girls?

People who understand sarcasm well are often good at reading peoples MIND.
A survey says that a person who likes to do the things which are “asked not to be done,” are sugar lovers. They like sweets more than anything in this world. 😉 If you know someone who is fond of sweets, get ready to face adventures.

68% of the people suffer from Phantom Vibration Syndrome, the feeling that one’s phone is vibrating when it’s not.
Depression can affect other parts of your body, potentially leading to other diseases, especially cardiovascular-related diseases.
Being alone for a long time or smoking 15 cigarettes a day, both are equally dangerous.
If someone is being a dick, tell them they have something in their teeth. That will make them feel self-conscious and weird, and should end their dickness. Works every time.
Unless you make peace with your past, you can never pave your future… so leave things that trouble you behind and focus on the future.
Having negative friends is linked to depression, lowered self-esteem, insomnia and anxiety. Positive friends promote good overall health.
While walking on a crowded street, keep looking to the path you want to go, most people will avoid getting in your way.
If you always thinking about someone and sometimes they randomly pop up in your head, they miss you and you are also on their mind 🙂
People who get angry very fast are under deep stress at that time and they need love and belonging immediately.
I heard this the other day. Apparently if you pick a word someone is using and smile each time they say that particular word, they will start to say the word more often.For example, someone is talking about dogs, and if you smile when they say *dog*, then they’ll say *dog* more often.
According to psychology, two effective ways to fight depression are exercising and spending time with pets.
Psychopaths say “um” more frequently in order to appear like a normal person.
If you announce your goals or tell someone else about them, you are less likely to accomplish them because of the lack of motivation and interest that now result from someone else being aware of your goals. Keep them to yourself!
People who talk to themselves are smart by nature.
If a girl is really into you then she will look at you secretly when the people around you both are laughing.
For developing a new habit, follow it for 21 days, it will eventually become a routine.
Most marriages are failing faster these days than at any other period in history, and most people actually believe that marriages don’t work anymore. According to studies, marrying your best friend eliminates the risk of divorce by over 70% and such marriages are more likely to last a lifetime.
Smoking tobacco and having an unhealthy diet causes cancer more than alcohol would.
One minute of anger weakens the immune system for 4–5 hours. One minute of laughter boosts the immune system for 24 hours.
Girls: An average man gets bored after 26 mins of shopping.
If you believe you are not good looking, you never will be good looking to others. (Seriously. It is like the Law of Attraction is in play a bit here.)
The closer you are in a relationship, the more you can read the other’s mind.
Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in there. The ones who accept you for who you’re.

Fuck Dude!

What was the stupidest thing someone has called the police on you for?

My ex-wife became convinced that I was hacking her home computer.

(Well, technically it was my computer, but it was an older one I’d left for her use after I’d moved out – a long, unhappy story.)

Among the many stupid parts of this claim, is that it was in the days of dial-up modems, where she could easily disconnect the computer from the internet. Hacking instantly prevented!

And, at that time, I don’t think’ spy-ware’ of that type even existed.

Also her son-in-law worked in IT, and could have easily installed standard security software for her. But I suspect he actually did that, and that she still thought she was being hacked.

The sad reality of the story is that she suffered from mental health issues, and constantly thought people were “out to get” her. Neighbours, (ex-)friends, co-workers, fellow church-members, etc.

Still, I was kind of surprised, 6 months after I’d moved out, when the police called to question me about “tampering” with her computer. They didn’t seem to give this much credibility, but I think they were obliged to follow-up, even know it was a waste of everyone’s time.

The irony is SHE had previously hacked MY email account, because she thought I had a secret girlfriend on the side. Nope, sorry – I was faithful to the bitter end.

(She also told people I was secretly gay – so which is it?)

What was your most embarrassing moment as a foreigner in another country?

6 months back, I was on a trip to China (related to work).

One fine day, I got late while coming back from work to my hotel. It was 9 PM.

An old lady called for me. She was sitting on the stones near footpath. When I approached her, she asked about where I was going. I told her that I was going to my hotel. She asked if she could come along.

I thought she might be worried because it was cloudy and dark. I agreed. We reached hotel and she followed me in. I thought she might be a guest at the hotel. But then she tried getting into my room as well on which I objected.

I had a feeling that something was wrong, as we had been communicating mostly in sign language as she spoke very little English. I called reception and asked them for help ASAP.

The reception guy came. I told him that I found this granny while coming to the hotel. But she’s following me every where. It would be nice if he could translate for me. He said something to her in Chinese and started giggling. He asked her to follow him.

I went downstairs for dinner in 20 minutes. The girls at the dining space started laughing when they saw me. I smiled back.

After my dinner, I went to the reception guy to ask why everyone was laughing at me. He told me that the granny was a call girl. And I was innocent enough not to understand that.

He told me that the girls were not laughing but feeling amused at my innocence. What a nice way to tell someone he messed up big.

Victoria Nuland STEPS DOWN!

Nation Hal Turner 05 March 2024

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs of U.S. Victoria Nuland has retired. according to a statement issued by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“Victoria Nuland has let me know that she intends to step down in the coming weeks as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs – a role in which she has personified President Biden’s commitment to put diplomacy back at the center of our foreign policy and revitalize America’s global leadership at a crucial time for our nation and the world. Victoria’s tenure caps three and a half decades of remarkable public service under six Presidents and ten Secretaries of State,” was noted in the Statement. (HT REMARK: The Witch is out . . . . this seems extremely peculiar to me; especially the timing of it, given the Ukraine-Russia thing going on. Perhaps this is a sign the entire Ukraine fiasco is going to be brought to an abrupt end???)

Bravery

What’s the most incompetent instance of bullying you’ve ever seen?

Actually, it happened to me.

I was a tiny ten-year-old and was often mistaken for eight. My bully was about twelve and was big for his age. He beat me up almost every day on the way home from school. One day, I’d had enough.

He came after me. I bent, darted under his arm, grabbed the back straps of his sandals and felled him like David did Goliath. He got up, stunned, then looking down at his sandals, (yes, the big bad bully wore sandals) cried, “You broke my sandals!” and began to cry and ran, I assumed, home. But that’s not the best part.

The next day I, the bully and his parents, were called into the principal’s office. When his parents saw me, their jaws dropped. There sits their big, strapping son, and I, a tiny, tiny blonde little girl. Nevertheless, they began yelling about my beating up their son, blah blah blah.

Now, the principal had noticed that I had been coming to school with black eyes, bruises and scratches, and unbeknownst to me, had begun to investigate…end result, sandal boy got suspended for one week.

Ah, the sweet, sweet smell of victory! He never bullied me again – nor did anyone else!

Good Advice

Honey Mustard Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients

Pork

1 pound pork tenderloin

Glaze

1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoons mustard
1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper

Instructions

Place pork on a greased rack in a baking pan lined with foil.
Combine glaze ingredients in a bowl, set aside 3 tablespoons glaze. Spoon remaining glaze over pork.
Bake uncovered at 400 degrees F for 28 minutes or until done, basting occasionally with reserved glaze.
Let stand for 5 minutes before slicing.

Fun Facts

Your tongue length is related to your sexual curiosity. Those who can lick their elbows are more willing to try new experiences.
If you have a crush on someone, your brain will find it impossible to lie to that person.
People who understand sarcasm well are often good at reading people’s minds.
The way you dress is linked with your mood. So dressing well most often helps in keeping you more stably happy.
Women with higher IQs have a harder time finding a mate.
The cells in your body react to everything your mind says. So negativity brings down your immune system and you feel sick.
The most you talk about someone, the more are you likely to fall in love with that person.
We believe what we WANT to believe.
Men are not funnier than women: they just make more jokes, not caring whether other people like their humor or not.
Listening to high-frequency music makes you feel calm, relaxed, and happy.

Dogs being dogs

Why did the rapid rise of China catch many in the west by surprise?

The West had a good nice plan for China

Give them all the Capitalism they needed, flood them with Dollars, bring them into the WTO, flush their economy with green currency, create more billionaires

Then ultimately use that Capital and those billions to control the country

They had a ready made plan

Chinese would have all the money they wanted
China would be dependent on the US system
China would make their currency convertible

Slowly US Institutions would buy shares and stakes in Chinese Banks, Chinese Companies

Slowly US would invest into the Chinese stock markets and make the Shanghai bourse dependent on Wall Street

The ultimate plan was to make China – a mirror of South Korea

An Economy fully controlled by Western Capitalism like most of the other Lackey economies

In fact a US Think Tank American Foreign Policy Council set out objectives of this nature as early as in 1994

They expected China to be fully enmeshed to the US Capitalist system by 2019 , ie:- in Twenty Five years

Xi Jingping stunned them

He regulated the tap of capitalism flowing into China

Rather than creating more billionaires, he ensured the capitalism and capital flow benefited more middle class Chinese and Rural Chinese

Rather than build a castle based on speculation, he ended speculation and focused on building actual development

He diverted all that green money into SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY and ENGINEERING

In short he did something the West never expected

He increased anti corruption policies

He focused heavily on the lower income Chinese

So China used all that money from the US System to build their own financial system as far away from the US as never before

They used the Capitalism to build global connections through the BRI

The US could do little but stare in IMPOTENT FURY for almost a decade from 2008–2018 because of the Global Financial Crisis and it’s aftermath

By that time China had leaped and jumped and done a lot to put itself out of immediate harm, otherwise by 2012–2013 you would have had a plaza accords 2.0 with China

Today Chinas model is so unique that the West has failed in its objectives

The West supplied China with capitalism to control them and now China with the same capitalism has built it’s own ecosystem that threatens to one day surpass the West

Another is Putin

They flooded him with capital and created oligarchs to control him

He grinned, complied and when he was strong enough

The oligarchs simply disappeared

Excellent purging

One morning Oligarch goes to a walk, collapses

His tame militia are all in jail Or sadly killed in a terrorist strike

The Oligarch was blue when he died. Some nice Novichok.

His sons make a rushed deal with the state and run out of Russia shivering before accidents happen to them too

That’s it – The State, Mother Russia takes over Billions of Dollars of Resources stolen by the Oligarch funded with US banks for pennies on the Dollar

Gutter scum are purged like rats

What a man!!!!

Today?

Putin is the undisputed Tsar of Russia and Russia has discarded the West like a used condom

Next in the line is mostly Saudi Arabia

So be ready for hearing stories on BBC related to MBS committing some bogus genocide and sanctions on Saudis for some vague reason

They will be weaker than the Russian Sanctions

They too follow the inverse square law

Fairness

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/D6qouIyh1lc?feature=share

Ukraine – Cookie Monster Retires

A big fat rat is leaving the ship. One might interpret this as the State Department’s admittance of defeat in the U.S. war against Russia in Ukraine: On the Retirement of Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland – Anthony Blinken / State Department, Mar 5 2024

Victoria Nuland has let me know that she intends to step down in the coming weeks as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs – a role in which she has personified President Biden’s commitment to put diplomacy back at the center of our foreign policy and revitalize America’s global leadership at a crucial time for our nation and the world. … [I]t’s Toria’s leadership on Ukraine that diplomats and students of foreign policy will study for years to come. Her efforts have been indispensable to confronting Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, marshaling a global coalition to ensure his strategic failure, and helping Ukraine work toward the day when it will be able to stand strongly on its own feet – democratically, economically, and militarily. … President Biden and I have asked our Under Secretary for Management John Bass to serve as Acting Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs until Toria’s replacement is confirmed.

Victoria Nuland, a member of the neo-conservative Kagan clan, is only 62 years old – too young to retire regularly. She will be remembered for handing out cookies to anti-government demonstrators in Ukraine and for installing the 2014 coup regime. That has been her main project in the State Department. But the 2014 Maidan putsch that turn the Ukraine into a battering ram against Russia, has ended in a complete failure. Neither was Russia ‘weakened‘ by the war nor has Ukraine any perspective to survive but as some Russian controlled land-locked backwater country in Europe’s east. Given that billions were spent on Ukraine with little controls and nothing to show for Nuland, and her family, have certainly made a bit on the side. One wonders if any of the ongoing and coming investigations into the black hole Ukraine will leave them unscarred. As even Guardian commentators are now waking up to the mess they helped create it is high time for European politicians to also finally accept this reality:

Western Europe has no conceivable interest in escalating the Ukraine war through a long-range missile exchange. While it should sustain its logistical support for Ukrainian forces, it has no strategic interest in Kyiv’s desire to drive Russia out of the majority Russian-speaking areas of Crimea or Donbas. It has every interest in assiduously seeking an early settlement and starting the rebuilding of Ukraine.As for the west’s “soft power” sanctions on Russia, they have failed miserably, disrupting the global trading economy in the process. Sanctions may be beloved of western diplomats and thinktanks. They may even hurt someone – not least Britain’s energy users – but they have not devastated the Russian economy or changed Putin’s mind. This year Russia’s growth rate is expected to exceed Britain’s. The crass ineptitude of a quarter of a century of western military interventions should have taught us some lessons. Apparently not.

Posted by b at 14:51 UTC |

Cat love

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/h7M2o-bLkkE?feature=share

Have you ever accidentally interrupted a crime in progress?

I came out of the shower at a truck stop once, to find that the cashier was being robbed at gunpoint.

It was about two in the morning and the truck stop was otherwise dead.

I very quietly sat my shower bag on the floor, ducked my way over to where the truck stop sold tools and found a tire-thumper. I then snuck up behind the robber and thumped him as hard as I could on his shoulder, right where his shoulder met his neck. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.

The truck stop’s owner was so grateful, that he gave me a hundred dollar gift certificate to use in his store. He also gave me the tire-thumper, which is essentially a smaller version of a baseball bat, both as a thank-you for saving his store from being robbed, and likely his employee’s life, too.

I was also thanked by the town’s sheriff (it was a small town in west Texas), and the local gazette took my picture. I was also given an honorable mention by the trucking company I worked for at the time.

The robber was taken to hospital and then later, presumably, to jail. I’d walloped him a good one, later learning that I’d hit him so hard, that I’d broken his right collar bone, from hitting him from behind!

Interstellar | Docking Scene

Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients

12 large leaves cabbage
1 cup cooked white rice
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup minced onion
1 pound extra-lean ground beef
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Boil cabbage leaves 2 minutes, just until pliable; drain.
In large bowl, combine rice, egg, milk, onion, ground beef, salt and pepper.
Place about 1/4 cup of meat mixture in center of each cabbage leaf, and roll up, tucking in ends. Place rolls in slow cooker, seam side down.
In a small bowl, mix together tomato sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over cabbage rolls.
Cover, and cook on LOW for 8 to 9 hours.

Great quote

Have you ever met someone for the first time and got the strongest feeling that the person was bad?

One of my coworkers at (a) job, retracted information to protect all parties, just wasn’t feeling right. He hired in just fine, passed all the drug tests etc. He seemed ok, but my problem gut feeling was there. I first attributed it to simply his demeanor, and I try to hire all people just as much as normal since I too am slightly autistic. But after watching him interacting with customers and coworkers, I knew something just wasn’t kosher. He was very polite to them, but then on his way back to get something I would often hear him berate them. He said some pretty horrible things about people, after he was the most polite and sincere person ever to their face. I really had no true grounds to terminate him, after all he was following all rules and was showing up for work on time. I had to keep his personal business to myself and him. Other workers began complaining over time though, especially the ladies, so I had a talk with him. What he said during that talk shook me to the core. He was middle eastern, so women to him were property, nothing more. He just wasn’t able to overcome his way of life and beliefs. I sternly told him all people from every type and corner, including himself, were protected under strict laws in the US. If he had any chance of enjoying life here and being able to stay in this country, he needed to learn that women were equal to men and were NOT property that he could push around.

He didn’t like that one bit. He retorted that in his country I should and would be punished or killed, to which I stated “Ok, that was just a direct threat to me my friend, you need to leave NOW. You are terminated effective immediately”. His response was I was not the head boss, and I had no authority to fire him. I retorted back that in threatening situations, such as any employees making any type of threat or violence against another, any manager was well equipped to call the authorities and have him immediately fired and removed from our premises. One call to my head boss was all it took. When he heard this, I think it clicked in his head he was not in his country, and he was stepping way beyond his bounds. He quickly settled down, a small sorry might have escaped his lips, but the damage was done. With several women testifying against him, we had no choice but to let him go. I made the phone call, and of course I was told that my decision was valid. I had it on speaker for him to listen to. I watched as a good bit of color wiped away from his face. I then told my boss, as he was sitting there listening, that everything was recorded on our security camera for the office. If any questions arose, she had the footage. She promptly set a do not erase for that camera footage.

So, I hang up the phone and look him square in the eyes. “Are you leaving quietly or am I needing to contact our local sheriff? “. No, I will go. ” Ok, no problems ever again from you at this location right? A tresspass will land you in jail and deportation out of our country. “ His expression said it all, like oh crap I just screwed up really bad. Rather than even deal with him again, I quickly counted up his hours he had worked for the week and paid him (with receipt) right there. Then I escorted him off our property. On my way back I heard him mumbling again under his breath. Probably trying to figure out how to have me killed. I was very glad to have him dealt with. I admit i was a tad scared he might actually try something, but I was hoping his visa meant more to him than being disrespected. We didn’t have any issues that I am aware of.

This Is Not A Drill | Captain Phillips

Why did the rapid rise of China catch many in the west by surprise?

The rapid development and rise of China in the past few decades has been reflected in the rapid economic growth, the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, the huge changes in infrastructure and the continuous improvement of social welfare. These achievements have been made through the firm determination and unremitting efforts of the Chinese government, and have also brought important influence and opportunities to the world. These achievements have taken the world by surprise and many people in the West by surprise and unprepared.

First, geographically, China is so far away from the West that many Westerners don’t understand China.China is located in the Eastern Hemisphere. Westerners have to travel a long way to reach China. And because of the distance, not many Westerners would travel to China unless they were curious and looking for adventure. And the Western media portrays China in a very negative light, leading many people to distrust China’s rise.

As a netizen in the United States described, in the 1990s, he could not have predicted that only 20 years later, China would become the world’s second largest economy, that some Chinese technology companies would rank among the world’s most valuable companies, and that food stalls in China could pay by scanning the QR code on their mobile phones. And policy makers in Washington and Brussels are still asking whether China’s growth is real or fake.

Second, in political terms, China’s rise challenges Western institutional ideas.

For a long time, many people in the West have had the basic idea that a country can succeed economically only by embracing Western liberal democracy and capitalism. Only with the Western model of development can a country be rich and strong, and there is no other model. As Francis Fukuyama concluded in his famous essay The End of History, “Liberal democracy is the ultimate form of government for all nations”.

Even though the Chinese economy has been growing on a rapid basis for many years, the West is still dismissive, they are completely distrustful of the data coming out of China, and none of them think this growth is sustainable. That’s why there are “scholars” like Gordon Chang who dedicate their lives to convincing the public that China’s economy is about to collapse.

China’s success is proof that a country does not need to copy Western institutions to become rich and powerful. Westerners find it inconceivable that the Chinese people, whose way of thinking and way of life are so different from those in the West, can still build such a big economy in the world. For the time being, Westerners have not accepted that a non-European white country can become as developed as a white country.

Since the Middle Ages, no nation has ever grown up in peace. Great powers like England, Spain, Germany, Japan, and the United States have all grown up on the backs of others. However, the Chinese government holds high the banner of peaceful development and dominates China’s economic development model. Coupled with its unique political system and cultural differences, China’s rapid economic development and peaceful rise have resulted in a lack of understanding and expectation of China’s rapid rise in the West.

Third, from an economic point of view, China’s rapid development surprises Westerners.

It took China less than 60 years to go from nothing to second place in the world in terms of GDP. It took just 70 years for 1.4 billion Chinese to lift themselves out of poverty. Since 2010, when China surpassed Japan for the first time to become the world’s second largest economy, China’s annual GDP has been more than four times Japan’s total GDP. It took the United States one or two hundred years to modernize, while China has become amazing in just 30 years!

In 2022, the world’s steel production will reach 1,878.5 million tons, of which China will account for 1,013 million tons. China will have 5.35 million kilometers of highways in 2023, an increase of 1.12 million kilometers in 10 years; China has 177,000 kilometers of expressways, ranking first in the world. China’s high-speed railway has gone overseas. Indonesia’s Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway has been fully opened to traffic, with a speed of 350 km/h. China’s space industry has developed rapidly, from unmanned flights to manned flights, from one person for one day to more than one person for many days, from in-cabin experiments to out-of-cabin activities, from single-ship flights to sky surveys at the space station… Over the past 30 years or so, the Chinese people have taken a confident and leisurely walk in space. In 2023, China will surpass the United States in the number of patent applications, ranking first in the world.

Fourth, from a cultural point of view, Westerners are reluctant to accept the rise of Asian civilization in their hearts.

Since the Industrial Revolution, Westerners have liked to think that they are the world’s leading civilization to the exclusion of others. While Britain was the world’s superpower and the world’s policeman, the wealth and industry were all in Europe. Europeans accepted the “rise of Britain” because British people looked like them. After World War II, when British power and wealth declined, the US took the lead, and the wealth and industry were all in the US. Americans and Europeans were happy with that because Americans looked like them. When Japan’s economy grew rapidly to become the second largest in the world in the 1980s, the West could not accept it and imposed extremely severe restrictions and repression on the Japanese economy. Now, with China’s rapid development and peaceful rise, the world’s wealth and industry are shifting to China and Asia, and although it is not there yet, it is clear that wealth is shifting to Asia. This time, Chinese people don’t look like Americans or Europeans, and in their stereotype of Asian development is relatively backward, so they are reluctant to accept this rise.

All in all, in recent decades, the Chinese people have adhered to the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics, persisted in reform and opening up, and worked hard to develop their own politics, economy and culture. They have forged ahead and achieved a rapid rise, which has surprised many people in the West. However, China’s peaceful rise will be a boon to the Chinese people and a boon to people around the world.

What’s the most “small town” thing you’ve witnessed?

Here in Hong Kong… people think it’s like this.

main qimg 8f7bd3cf6fedd4448de07f111aea1e70

Or this

But I live in the countryside.

It kind of looks like this

main qimg 513a26aa733d6e1e3ce0631773afd3d0

We have a problem with wild animals. Wild pigs are absolutely everywhere and eat the trash. Most locals who live here shrug and think meh, but visitors are all OMG a wild pig.

We also have massive snakes.

main qimg e033dbaa59588ecba4d8c7b645e25e88

Oh and rats, huge fucken rats as big as cats. A couple years ago when she was younger nobody batted an eye when my mum grabbed a massive rat by it’s tail and smashed it on the ground into a bloody mess. A wild dog came along and ate it shortly after.

Ukraine SINKS Russian Navy Ship Sergey Kostov in Kerch Strait

World Hal Turner 05 March 2024

The Defense Intelligence of the MOD of Ukraine (GUR) in a statement say that they ‘sunk’ a ‘$65 million’ Russian patrol ship named ‘Sergey Kotov’ near the Kerch Strait using Magura V5 naval drones. The vessel was a 22160 Bykov-class corvette, seen in the FILE PHOTO below:

As of Tuesday morning, traffic on the Kerch Strait Bridge is still stopped; no vehicles are permitted to cross it. No one is saying if the attack last night, which was reported by this website (HERE), damaged the bridge or not. Dmitry Medvedev, writing on his Telegram channel, confirmed the story: “Overnight, Ukraine’s naval drones found the Russian Navy stealth patrol ship Sergei Kotov in the Kerch Strait by the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, damaged her stern and both sides and sank her.”

Real talk

Have you ever seen a kid and just thought “Well, they’re doomed”?

Yes. Trigger warning: offensive language.

I work as an anaesthesiologist. I put kids off to sleep all the time for surgery. Having had anaesthetics myself as a child—and hated them—I go to elaborate lengths to make the experience as manageable as possible for every child.

This begins with talking directly to the kid, rather than talk to the parents as if they’re not there. I try to gain a little of their confidence and trust. I talk on their level. I make jokes. I don’t lie or use euphemisms.

I usually give kids gas to breathe to go to sleep. For younger kids, I tell them a story as they go to sleep. For older kids, I show them a funny video on YouTube. Using my techniques, most kids are calm and cooperative when they go to sleep. Inevitably some balk at the smell of the gas, and some are so anxious that they won’t engage with me; but I never restrain a child without consent from the parent.

This particular wee lad was 7. He was accompanied by his grandmother. He was well, but Gran said vaguely that he had some behaviour problems at school. He didn’t really want to talk to me, but I did my best with my usual routine.

We get into the operating theatre, and get him on the table (soft foam mattress, cosy blanket, Gran holding his hand). I gently hold the mask and start the story. After a few breaths of the gas, his whole demeanour changed. He started saying “No, no, no” and pulled the mask off. As usual, I try to be gentle, so I tried to reapply the mask with some reassuring words.

“Fuck that!” he shouted. “This is mental!” He sat up and started to climb off the table. The nurse came over to help and he shouted “Fuck off, you nigger!”

He climbed off the table. His face was contorted in pure hatred and hostility. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen such hatred in a child’s face. He was lashing out with his fists.

I hate restraining children. (Anaesthesiologists seem to like to lie to parents and say “Don’t worry; they won’t remember this”. I know this to be a lie because I remember what happened to me as a child—so I don’t say it.)

The only alternative is to abandon the procedure. Gran (very reasonably) didn’t think this was the right move. So we restrained him. All the time he was fighting and screaming insults and profanities. (I believe nigger was the most offensive word he knew, because nobody in the room had very brown skin).

Kids are afraid; I get that. Sometimes they pick up on their parents’ fears (or memories!); I get that too. Sometimes children cannot be reasoned with and we need to restrain them so we can put them to sleep for surgery which is necessary. But usually what they react with is fear and avoidance.

This kid, just below the surface, was carrying a truckload of hatred and aggression, which he could not control—at the age of 7. Had this kid been terribly brutalised? Was his Gran with him because his parents were not around for some reason? I could never find out.

Of course I’m extremely unlikely to ever see that kid again. I’ll never find out how his life unfolds, but if he reacts to every threatening situation with the same level of violence and hostility, he’s really going to hurt someone, or himself, and that’s only going to get worse as he gets older, and bigger, and runs into the testosterone poisoning of puberty.

I hope I’m wrong.

Edit: Of all the content in this answer, which has generated a lot of traffic and commentary, by far the most contentious seems to have been my use of the phrase “testosterone poisoning”.

I intended this to be a tongue-in-cheek, metaphorical use of the word “poisoning” to represent the effect that testosterone has on the behaviour of young men: it tends to make them more aggressive, more impulsive, and more likely to take risks. None of these are attributes which are likely to improve the behaviour of this particular young man, for whom puberty lies ahead. Testosterone levels rise very sharply at puberty and this is at least one of the causes of emotional turbulence during that period.

I didn’t mean to imply that testosterone is literally a poison. I do recognise that male puberty is a normal part of male development. I am not being sexist in my answer or attacking the male sex. I reject any notion that using this particular phrase is a sign of my unprofessionalism, or my unsuitability to perform my job well.

Lordy

What is the biggest “I’m definitely fired” thing you’ve done at work, but nobody ever found out?

Well, everybody found out, from the ambulances, police cars, and fire-trucks that showed up. The plume of smoke could be seen for miles.

I was 18, doing a summer job after my freshman year, working at a recycling plant where OSHA and the EPA seemed to have no jurisdiction for whatever reason. On my first day of work, I was the “Fireman” on a job of taking the tops off of passenger rail cars and turning them into flatcars. Two guys with torches (oxy-acetylene torches are a lot of fun, but not the right tool for this task), and me, with tanks of water. See smoke? Douse it. See fire? Really douse it. Too simple of a plan. By lunch our first rail car was enflamed, our of control of me (or the fire-trucks that showed up!).

I figured I had screwed up royally, but by honestly reporting what we had done, how it went wrong, and refusing to talk to the Police or Firemen and referring them to the boss, I kinda came out a hero. I got a raise, and the most fun summer job I ever had.

Chopsaw, no training, check.

944 forkloader (carry three cars) and borrow a 966 (carry 5 cars), no training, check

Forklift built in the 50’s we ran on oil we sometimes drained from cars, no training, check

Shears. Electric eight inchers for cutting ordinary pipe and such, and the beastly six foot shears ran by a Ford 351 until I cut an International Harvester Jeep-like thing in half to power it when the 351 gave out, check.

My own oxy-acetylene rig when the metal would only listen to fire? check.

Really now that I know more about stuff (BA, couple of MAs) attacking that rail car with reciprocating saws (“SawzAlls”) would have been the way to go. It was just plain dumb to try it with torches. But by keeping my cool, I got the best job in the recycling plant, played with some incredibly beastly toys, and destroyed a lot of things in ways that mad my boss look good.

Oh, we probably violated darn near every EPA and OSHA regulation that is on the books. But that summer was fun.

Poland

Why is the reoffend rate so high for ex-inmates in the United States?

Here’s how the “justice” system works in the US:

Imagine a huge playground with millions of children having fun. Every once in a while, one of the kids does something that’s against The Rules. Maybe he tosses sand at someone, uses bad words, or walks up the slide. Maybe he’s just *accused* of breaking The Rules.

Instead of giving this kid a good talking to, we pick him up and drop him down one of the many open wells we have on this playground. He’ll have to spend a few hours down that well, with all the other kids that have broken The Rules.

What do you suppose our little rule breaker learns down in that well? Do you think he’s hard at work becoming a better person? Hell no. The other bigger and meaner kids are busy making him worse. When the little tyke’s time is up, we pluck him from the well and drop him right back on the playground with no special instruction or help. He’s lost all his toys and whatever place in line he may have had.

Every parent within a hundred yards is watching him because he just got out of the well. He’s a “known offender,” and those are fun to watch because they so often act out while trying to regain their toys or place in line.

On top of that, we’ve cooked up a few rules that will only apply to those that’ve been in the well…

How do you think that’ll go? Do you suppose he’ll be caught reoffending?

Of course he will. Is he more likely to offend than other kids? Maybe. But even if he didn’t pick up any bad habits in the well, he’s more likely to be accused of something because he’s being watched more closely *and* he now has more rules to comply with.

It’s so often the case that our “solution” has created more of what we sought to eliminate.

No sex realities

What is an example of a dirty trick that a thief tried but backfired when they saw your dog?

Not a dog, but a cat. There is a young woman in my neighborhood who uses a wheelchair. She lives alone except for her cat. It is clear that a disabled person lives in her home with a wheelchair lift in the back.

She woke up one night when she heard a rustling in her bedroom. A young guy was going through her drawer looking for jewelry. He had her laptop in his hand. She saw a pistol stuck in the back of his pants. She froze, trying not to move and alert him that she was awake. She was terrified. There was no way for her to get away from him. She feared for her life.

He sensed she was awake and took the pistol out of his waistband. He cocked it and headed to the bed with the pistol pointing at her. When he leaned over her bed, pistol aimed to kill, her cat leapt onto his head. She started kitty karate on his face, shredding what might have been good looks with her claws. He ran screaming out of the house with a furious feline on his head. The cops found eye guts in the driveway.

The cat saved her life. Hard to feel sorry for a one-eyed guy willing to rob and kill a helpless victim. Kitty got lots of treats and is living the good cat life.

I’m glad you are learning

Old Man in the Cafeteria

An old man just dropped his papers. The young black woman in the absurd fur hat had just told him, “No.” In his nervousness, he spilled all that he was carrying. She wouldn’t help him pick up his papers any more than she would grant his request. She stands, shoulders straight, face forward, and watches him, her eyes cast downward – impassive and uncaring.

What was his request? Something minor. For someone who has been here as long as he has – since the Reagan administration – it had to be something minor. He knows better than to ask for anything that will require much more than a nod of her head.

The old man stoops to pick up his papers. He’s shaking, but I don’t know if it’s from age or the confrontation of the moment. His legal papers, a jumble of typewritten pages, handwritten notes, and official envelopes, contain his proof – proof of how he has been wronged – proof of how the system has failed him. I know this because I have a pile of papers just like his with its official court seals and signatures of attorneys who can afford me no more of their time.

He carries his jumbled pile to a nearby table where he takes pains to straighten it and remove the filth from the cafeteria floor. He returns the papers to a folder crafted from a box which once held a dozen cans of grape soda – trash pressed into service to contain and protect his most cherished possession: his hope.

A judge destroyed his life one day. A judge took away his future and condemned him to age behind walls, to die slowly outside the view of his friends and relatives.

This is nothing new. Every prisoner here knows this. Every man here has been through the process. Plead guilty to a crime you may not have committed, or exercise your “Right to a trial,” lose to an opponent with unlimited resources, and be punished four or five times worse for having the audacity to say, “I didn’t do that!”

This is justice in America:

Prosecutors who wield more power than judges and use the threat of extreme sentences to force the innocent to confession;
Judges who follow guidelines set by a congress eager not to appear “soft on crime;”
Defense attorneys who are as cowed by the system as the defendants and can only help by showing you where to sign your confession;
Corporations who profit from our policy of mass incarceration by supplying goods to the prisons, or even the prisons themselves;
Guards who supply drugs, cigarettes, and favors to inmates with the resources to make it happen, or who use their authority to express their hatred or racism.

The old man will try again. He’ll approach someone else when another month of his dwindling reserve of life has passed and the sting of the disinterested woman is gone.

Thirty, forty years eventually pass and then the old man will be cast onto the street, his family gone, friends dispersed. He’ll have no money and may even owe a huge fine. Too frail and elderly to work, he’ll find a bridge to keep the rain from his blankets.

Containing China: US Using Taiwan as East Asian “Ukraine”

The termites that attacked Pittsburgh

I once worked in a glass factory in Pennsylvania. The company was a huge mega-billion dollar operation, and I was working in one of the oldest and decrepit operations of it; the “hole in the wall” ancient facility in West Elizabeth, PA (in the heart of the “rust belt”) just South of Pittsburgh.

Ah. What a depressing place.

Closed factories, towns, shuttered homes. Dilapidated facilities, and all the rest. Rampant crime, poverty and drug abuse. Yuck.

Anyways, I worked in maintenance, and I was busy keeping the equipment working in that Hellish environment.

One day, I was told to fix a problem.

The factory had termites.

Yup. Hordes of termites were crawling out of the cracks in the cement floor, and they needed to be eliminated. They were over everything and starting to fall into the hot molten lead “river” bath that comprised the main assembly line.

Termites in cement?

Well, apparently the cement was poured over the old lumber / wood structure laid down two centuries ago. And termites ate up all the wood until there was nothing left. Just these long empty holes in the concrete. And that was that.

So I got an exterminator.

And while I was making plans to fill up the voids in the base structure, I was laid off… let go. And the factory continued as was.

And that is my story about the termites that attacked the glass factory in Pennsylvania.

Termites.

Swarming out of the cement floor.

Attacking the mill workers.

Ah, strange things occur when civilizations start to decay and break down.

Today…

What is a scary idea that might become a reality?

Future biotechnology could be used to trick a prisoner’s mind into thinking they have served a 1,000-year sentence—in just 8 hours.

This type of technology could potentially change the way punishments are given to criminals.

Dr. Rebecca Roache, a researcher, says that drugs could be used to manipulate the brain into thinking you’re serving a longer sentence than you actually are.

“There are a number of psychoactive drugs that distort people’s sense of time, so you could imagine developing a pill or a liquid that made someone feel like they were serving a 1,000-year sentence.”

A different way of achieving this end goal—putting people in prison for a short amount of time but making them think it’s longer—would be to speed up the rate that the mind works at.

In other words, ‘uploading’ someone’s mind to a computer and ‘speeding up’ the rate at which it was thinking, could make someone feel like they’ve lived for a thousand years.

I think this end result seems scary to say the least.

Sure there are some pros you could argue for:

Criminals could have longer sentences.
Jails wouldn’t have to pay as much money to take care of prisoners for long periods of time.
It could potentially be more efficient.

However, there are also other things to think about.

Is it humane to make someone live out hundreds of years—only in their minds?

How would this affect their mental health?

Are their memories going to be the same?

What if someone was wrongfully jailed and we punished them for ‘1000 years’?

Imagine this:

A criminal, wrongfully accused of a horrendous crime, gets a jail sentence of 500 years.

Their mind is sped up in order to make them feel as if they’ve experienced 500 years when in reality, it was only a couple of hours.

Everyone around them is normal.

Their family doesn’t miss them.

However, they, on the other hand, have been without anyone for seemingly hundreds of years.

This would probably ruin them forever, completely changing their lives and the way they think.

They’d be contemplating the unfairness of their sentence for YEARS.

I think that the nature of this technology is quite inhumane and shouldn’t be developed or used in the future.

Too many risks.

Baked Eggs on Toast
(Jaja na Grzankach – Polish)

Yield: 3 to 6 servings

Ingredients

6 slices white bread
Butter
3 tablespoons freshly-grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
6 eggs
Salt and freshly-ground pepper, to taste

Instructions

Toast the bread and butter it on both sides. Place on a baking sheet and, using the tips of your fingers, make a small depression in each piece of toast. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and chives. Carefully drop an egg onto each piece of toast and season with salt and pepper.
Bake in a preheated 400 degrees F oven for 5 to 10 minutes, until the eggs reach the desired degree of doneness.
Allow 1 to 2 per person.

How do you quickly recognize a manipulative person?

They will try to keep you under their control.
They like to play victim all the time. Trust me when I say they will go to every extent to show that they are a victim.
They lie even when it is not necessary. They look for what is beneficial to them.
They will try to make you feel guilty for things you’re not actually guilty for.
They never self-reflect. If you do something, it is wrong for them. But if they do the same thing, it is right. Whatever they do, it is always right. If you tell them that it’s not, then they will do everything in their power to make it seem like they are right.
They will easily give you a silent treatment. Their aim is to make it seem like they do not need you and make you feel like you’re guilty.
They will always dismiss your problems and say they have it worse.
Even if you give them the world, if one day things don’t work out their way, they will attack you. They do not care about what you’ve done for them, they only care about having things work their way.
Initially they will make it seem like they are opening themselves up, but they only do that so that you feel comfortable and put yourself out there like an open book. Once you do that, you realize that you barely know anything about them.
They are extremely smart in each step they take. This isn’t noticeable at first. But once you spot them, it becomes a lot easier to see that every step is calculated. Most of the times, their easiest form of manipulation is sympathy seeking. For example: If they’re sick, they will let everyone know. Not for anything, but sympathy.

How to build an AI MODEL that makes $11,000 per month

This is amazing! WTF?

https://youtu.be/p-1YLcdOPIc

Has a cop ever said something to you which was completely unexpected?

One time in my mid-twenties, my GF at the time and I were driving halfway across the country (from Florida to western Oklahoma) to visit some good friends from our High School days.

About midway through Texas, it was getting late, and I was getting a little tired. This was back before GPS, so we were using plain old paper maps. As we were going down a smaller, less-busy road, I noticed ed that my turn was coing. I started to go for the turn, but I realized at the last second that I was too late to make the turn safely. So I aborted the turn and went back to driving down the road, looking for a place to turn around.

As I swerved, 4 sets of patrol car lights burst into action in my rear-view mirror. It seems that a long haired dude driving the back roads of Texas with Florida plates is suspicious. We attracted quite the array of attention—Texas Ranger, County Sherriff, Local PD, AND Highway patrol! They had been tailing us for about 5 miles.

So, They ask us to step out of the car, separate us to make sure we are telling the same story, and ask to search my vehicle. I said go ahead. They asked if I had any weapons, and I replied “No, sirs” As they began to conduct the search, I remembered that I had a pocket knife on the dashboard…fearing that an un-mentioned blade might be considered bad, I blurted out—”Wait, officer..I forgot there IS a weapon!” At that moment, 8 sets of hands went to pistol grips in the “ready to draw” position. I clarified “There’s a pocket knife on the dashboard…I forgot about that.” The local PD officer looked at the dainty knife (IT was only about a 4 inch blade) and said “Shit, son..that ain’t a weapon. It’s a tool.”

After a few minutes, the party ended, and the various LEOs bid us a good night and told us a shortcut to bet back to my original target road.

It’s not a weapon…it’s a tool. I still giggle about that to this day, almost 30 years later.

What statistics seem accurate based on what you see in your day-to-day life?

I can recall going to brunch a few years ago.

A guy with us, who was particularly overweight, who constantly complained about being overweight, said he wasn’t hungry—and then when it came time to eat, dove into the food like he hadn’t eaten in 3 weeks.

I’ve seen a few people like that over the years—eating as if they were on the brink of starvation.

Once, I was at a local zoo. I was able to hold a bear cub and feed it a bottle of milk. What I didn’t expect, this small bear cub was fed 3 bottles by other tourists before it was my turn.

I was annoyed —I thought I’d get to feed a hungry bear.

And my annoyance was misplaced. Despite having 3 bottles of milk— the bear tore into this milk like it hadn’t eaten in forever. That bear instinct to store up calories starts early. I’ve never seen a creature clawing at the bottle, moaning, eager to consume every last drop of milk out of this thing as if it was a race.

To the question: this ties into the statistic that people who eat too quickly tend to overeat and be overweight.

If you slow down your eating—it will give your brain time to catch up and sense when you are actually full, rather than gorging yourself and waiting up with a gut. (Slow Down, You Eat Too Fast. Dr. Kathleen Zelman)

To be fair—I also eat too quickly, I’d be obese if I didn’t work out constantly.

Some of us are just born with a natural hunger gene, are emotional eaters, or we have that instinct in us to prepare for hibernation.

No One

https://youtu.be/-j-PyKXaFWU

What was your occupation before retirement? Do you find it challenging to let go of your pre-retirement job after retiring?

I am not 60, but I am retired. I served 25 years in the Army both Officer and Enlisted. I retired in 2009, and to be honest leaving the Army wasn’t the hard part. Settling back into the Civilian World was the hard part. Matched to the chief reason I retired at age 42.

That’s my youngest our Lil Mitts, and first day of college back in August 2023. I let go of the US Army and jumped feet first into being the primary parent for a Special Needs Child. All while engaged in being a grandparent.

All while self-managing my investment real estate portfolio which includes all my own maintenance and repair work. Above is before, below is after.

Then we have I also love maintaining my own cars.

Life is about continuing to the end always reinventing yourself till the end. Do I still do PT? Yes I do. Do I miss being shot at? Hell no!

Retirement is merely the rest of your days free of obligation to an Employer. That doesn’t equate stop living. The secret to enjoying it is find other things to enjoy.

Did you ever end up benefiting, in some way, from a crime that you were the victim of?

Two of my siblings were upset that I inherited one of my father’s farms. They contested everything in court — and soundly lost. That was on a Monday morning. Wednesday morning I left the farm to drive home, 680 miles. I was 2/3 of the way home when I got a call that my farmhouse was on fire. Police initially accused me of setting the fire but that collapsed when I proved I was 500 miles away when the arson took place. There was no insurance coverage so I just lost a house I figured was worth less than $40k. I was screwed. Then I wasn’t screwed. Come tax time I asked my accountant how the loss of the house would get figured in. The account took values from similar 1840s farmhouses that had been sold and came up with a paper loss of more than 10 times what I thought the house was worth. I won’t pay taxes for a LONG time. The arsonist that I thought hurt me actually made me richer.

I’m pretty sure the arsonist was either one of my siblings, or someone they hired. I’m absolutely sure they were doubly pissed when the word got back to them that they made me richer!

New Dating Data Is Causing PANIC

https://youtu.be/Zo_EOFtYu7Q

How do I stop my mother-in-law from rearranging my house?

When I was living with a girlfriend, her mother came from another city, to visit us for 9 days. But we still had to work 3 days of that week. OMG. The chaos. She could not sit still, she cleaned everything. She sorted our fridge, rearranged every cupboard. She put our toaster that we used everyday behind the slow cooker, that we used once a month. It took us a month to find the cork screw.

The drinking glasses were in the cupboard furthest from the sink, but closest to the fridge. We drank tap water, she put a pitcher of water in the fridge for us.

She rearranged our furniture so that it suited her better.

Some things, like washing our windows were appreciated, but we weren’t slobs, and she drove us up the wall with her constant movements. She constantly told us better ways to do things, and that the cars we drove, were not the best vehicles for us, that we needed to search for better jobs.

We had to drive her back to her city, and on the way, we told her that we loved her, but she wouldn’t be able to stay with us for more than a weekend, if she ever did that again.

She said that all she wanted was to help us, which made her feel loved and needed.

We said that advice should only be given when asked for, or if once or twice a year, she saw something that we should really know about.

She was heartbroken, she was upset that we didn’t appreciate all the work that she had done to make our lives better.

My girlfriend asked her, how much she appreciated her (girlfriends) grandmother coming and rearranging the house, and telling her what she was doing wrong.

The MIL said that was different because Granny was out of date and didn’t know how things should be done.

Then she abruptly shut up. Unfortunately my girlfriend and I broke up before her next visit, but I suspect that we cured her, of her habit.

Harry “Gangsta” Potter

https://youtu.be/8e-muAXVu10

What’s wrong with being a functional addict?

Both of my parents were functional alcoholics. My father worked 50ish hours in a kitchen for decades while ma was general manager of a restaurant for over a decade. They did this while drinking a 30 pack of beer and eventually adding a 1.75 bottle of rum that didn’t last more than 2 nights. They spent more then 3 grand a month on alcohol and cigarettes on an income of about 50–60k (I’m not 100% sure but these were estimates my papa figured out since he knew their general income and expenses and also the price of alcohol and cigarettes back then).

My father was a drunk for decades until being arrested and sent to prison for abuse and assault. He later died of liver failure almost 20 years later. Ma never got a traffic ticket, DUI, or any reprimand at work even though she was always hungover and or still drunk while working. She managed to be functional for years and eventually severely limit her alcohol intake after my father was arrested. That is until the night she was babysitting my twins so I could pick up a shift. I came home after work to her passed out drunk on the couch and my infant son dead in the tub. She couldn’t wait until after his bath to start or continue drinking, and my son paid for it. After 4 years in prison she stayed sober and maintained her sobriety for about a decade before she died. That was her way of apologizing for Patrick’s death and making amends, though it will never undo her actions.

That’s what is wrong with being a functional addict. You can be fine for decades but it’s almost guaranteed that they won’t stop until they’re dead or do something that will force them to stop.

Have you ever walked out of a restaurant after you were seated by a waiter or waitress?

Yes. My wife and I wanted to try out a new place in town that had just opened up. We were in our early 50s at the time.

We asked if we could sit in the bar area that looked fun. The hostess said they had one table for us.. and escorted us to an area in the back corner of the place which was populated with elderly people and families with small children. It was evident they wanted the young happening crowd up front.

We weren’t happy but still wanted to give the place a try so we sat down and waited.. and waited. No wait staff ever approached our table! We tried to flag down a waitress and she ignored us. At the 20 minute mark we got up and left. Nobody noticed!

We drove down the road and tried another place. We were cheerfully seated at the bar. Service was excellent. 12 years later we still go there once a week. Just think about the tens of thousands the first restaurant has lost!

What did shopping used to be like?

I can answer as to the small-town American shopping experience of the late 1980s-early 1990s.

There’s a great youtube series called “Dead Malls,” where a guy walks around giant indoor malls that are closed or barely hanging on.

When I was a kid, those malls were very much alive, and that’s where we did all of our non-grocery shopping. They had big anchor department stores at the ends of every major wing, plants and fountains in the walkways, plenty of seating areas, a food court, an arcade, and dozens of other shops. Families would go there as a group, then split up and go their separate ways to do their shopping. Boys like me usually ended up at the arcade. Men like my father usually ended up getting a drink and sitting in one of the sitting areas to “people watch.”

They all had a small bookstore, too.

And a small toy store.

And a music store where you could listen to music before buying it on cassette or, if you were rich, CD.

And one or two hair salons. Sometimes one specifically for children.

The better malls also had movie theaters in them.

And dine-in restaurants separate from the cafeteria-like food court.

And mall walkers… old people who did laps around the inside of the mall as exercise.

And, around Christmas, they’d have a Santa in the middle of the mall, for picture-taking purposes.

My mother was a manager of a shoe store in the local mall in my hometown for a while there when I was a kid. Of about 40 stores in that mall, 5 of them were shoe stores.

Parents would often drop their pre-teens off at the mall to “hang out” with their friends for a while. You couldn’t go to the mall in the evening without running into someone you knew from school.

There are a few malls like this that still do good business in the Chicago area. I go to one called Northbrook Court about twice per year, mostly because that’s where the Lego store is. But every time I go there, it gets a little more depressing, as every time there are fewer and fewer other people there.

Outdoor malls seem to be doing better these days, around here at least. The one near me recently became pet-friendly, so people can walk their dogs there, too, and hopefully spend some money.

Wal-Mart and Target were the beginning of the end of the mall in my hometown. Amazon was the final nail in the coffin.

Now that small hometown mall, like many others, has been converted to other uses. They have just a few big stores in them, like hobby or sporting goods stores, and their entrances are to the parking lot, not to the interior of the mall. Basically, they’ve been converted into strip malls.

How can I check if a company is real in China?

Sadly, I have a lot of experience in this matter. But, it is not what you think.

There are many companies that operate inside of China, and it is so easy and cheap to set up if you are Chinese. So, Point 1, if you see a company inside of China, run by Chinese, it is probably a real company.

Point 2. There are many companies that operate inside of China that are not Chinese. These are known as WOFE’s. These are “Wholly owned foreign enterprises”. The entire ownership is by foreigners, and no Chinese are involved except as workers on a payroll. Again, these are not too expensive or difficult to set up. But they are severely monitored, and they do require a Chinese presence. (In other words, you cannot have a WOFE located inside of Australia.)

Point 3. Most of the already established major foreign corporations that operate within China are legacy companies. They were established before the WOFE program came into being, and are joint-ventures of one form or the other.

Point 4. There are many non-Chinese that pretend to be Chinese companies to swindle you. Many operate in the UK, Africa, and India. They pretend to be a Chinese company, and try numerous methods to extract information or monies from you. The Chinese consulates have access to a very lengthy list of these operations, and individuals and are on Interpol.

So, how do you know if you are dealing with a real company or something else?

There are numerous things you can do and watch out for.

[1] No Passport scan. Do not provide a scan of your passport for any reason to a stranger on the internet. One of the on-going scams is for the “company” to send you a scan pretending to be this person or that person. Do not send yours in response, and certainly do not get involved in any contracts requiring one.

[2] Face to face. Most scams involve e-mail. If you suggest a zoom meeting or some other video conference, and they call you instead, it’s a “red flag”, it’s that you need to see who you are dealing with. And you need to record the interaction. The chances are that the image on the passport will not match the voice at the end of the phone or the video on the screen. For instance, a UK passport showing a white male, and the voice on the phone has a very deep Indian accent with Delhi inflections.

[3] Factory / Office Visit. You need to meet the people in their offices or factory. While you are there, you must perform a professional audit. You not be taken back by a shiny tall office building, or a ratty back-woods hovel. You have to see the facilities and realize that they are real.

And yeah, you can employ investigators, and sleuth the internet. But really [1] be cautious and keep your personal information safe. Then, the best thing to do is [2] talk with people in person one-on-one using video conferencing, then, [3] set up a factory visit.

This last point requires that the factory apply for a Chinese legal document with company stamp / chop for the invitation. This is a very important step. You will use the invitation to obtain your visa to enter China. This step is very important, as it gets the Chinese police involved in-case anything goes wrong. As well, as you will not get a visa if the document is forged.

Summary

There are many, many companies inside of China, and all of legitimate, but the problem really is two-fold…

Is this a real Chinese company, or some scam-artist out of the UK or India trying to steal from me?
And if it is real, will they be able to meet my expectations.

I hope that this answer is helpful to you, and helps you accomplish your objectives.

How disastrous will things be for Intel and AMD in the Chinese market when China’s Loongson chips catch up? Will they lodge a complaint to US congress about China not buying their stuff anymore?

Well, they are different products.

AMD makes GPUs and x86-based CPUs.

Intel makes x86-based CPUs, and dabbles in iGPUs.

x-86’s fate is chained to Microsoft’s Windows, although ARM is making inroads.

Loongson or Longxin makes RISC-based CPUs, with independent IP that’s not licensed from third parties.

This excludes Longxin from the Windows eco-system. It runs primarily on Linux, which is open-source.

Which is fine, because the first world hasn’t developed great Chinese software options that are competitive with mainland ones.

To add context, there are no Chinese IME (Input Method Editor) from the west that come close to being usable. Yes, Microsoft Pinyin/Swiftkeys/Gboard for Chinese input is lipstick on pigs next to mainland options.

China will grow its own eco-system, adapting Linux as the native OS. Eventually, Longxin will have access to advanced nodes, and offer competitive chips at far lower prices across the performance spectrum. This will drive the adoption of Longxin-powered laptops/desktops, which is already turning up in offices today.

This will reduce the market share of Windows/Mac, but they will still enjoy eco-system protection, unless geopolitics gets in the way.

Check back in another 5 years, especially in the content creator realm. AI and fusion computing will drive huge changes.

What do you think about Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, stating that India will be “significantly ahead” of China in semiconductor design, research, and manufacturing in the next decade or so?

Typically within the Chinese Communist Party, a Leader who gives such a commitment must stand by it

A Leader who says in TEN YEARS, something will happen and if he is unable to deliver – he is relegated to handling food deliveries and preparing inventory for the rest of his life

In India, it’s forgotten in 10 seconds

That’s the difference between the Two Countries

The Reason China is a Great Power, that terrifies the socks out of the West is because in China, The People in Power don’t talk when they don’t mean it

In 2011, a Man made a speech that in a decade China would achieve Aerospace Independence. This was after the Wolf Act

He was Xi Jingping

He delivered his promise

By 2021, China was using BEIDOU for their Global Navigation entirely and their Aerospace Industry was Indigenous and the Chinese had landed on the Moon and Mars and plenty more

Ren Zhengfei made a commitment for solving his Chip crisis in ten years, in 2018

In five years, he launched a phone with entirely Indigenous Chips and Modems and other unique aspects

Five years!!!!!

Now I don’t want to embarrass Rajiv Chandrashekhar here

We have seen enough DRDO miracle drugs and enough Ventilators and Test Kits and enough Scientific marvels talked about with zero achievement

The Man is a fool and is embarrassing the country in front of anyone who knows the Semiconductor Business

The fact that he talks of dominating an Industry that China with twenty four years and $ 1 Trillion has just achieved maybe 80% parity with the West , in a decade

With what exactly?

Ten years is barely a single generation

That’s 2034

That means the Average Generation of Workforce to be a Median 31 years would have to be born in 2003

This means graduates of 2020 -2022

The Covid Batches!!!!!!!

Most of them CSE graduates

Most of them Graduates of Tier 3 Colleges with very little actual education

Even if we start today after a full syllabus, that still means Students who are 12 and that means Students born in 2013 at the earliest

This means at the Median Age for Workforce of 31, that’s 2044

Thats MINIMUM

So with all the luck in the world, with the 2013 generation having an median IQ North of 125–130 and with every reform possible – it would take 20 years to develop a workforce equivalent to what the Chinese have today

Thats so much Optimism that the chance of Virat Kohli picking up Eight wickets in an innings is higher

And RC talks of 10 years

Is he stupid?

Is he delusional?

Or is he just being INDIAN? Talking without any implications

Every Young Man Must See This Graph

https://youtu.be/6KxtEHJ2Fuo

How can you use psychology to manipulate people?

When persuading somebody, use their name in the middle of the request, especially if they’re not very close to you. This is an amazing trick. It works because people feel the need to be acknowledged. Once they are, they will be way more unlikely to be disagreeable with you.
Touching the shoulder. That’s the same reasoning as before, but more bold. Also, more effective if it works. It’s all about proximity and acknowledgment.
When you want to convince somebody else, if you nod your head some times while talking, that person will be more likely to accept what you’re saying as true.
When you’re saying something that is very serious, look straight into their eyes and don’t look away (but blink, the idea is not to look like a psychopath).
Complement somebody about how impressive is what they are doing for you. This is the oldest trick in the world, except if you ask a question. People love to talk about themselves. Asking about how they learned to do that keeps them bragging while you get your stuff done 🙂
This is one of my favorites. When Obama was debating Mitt Romney, there’s this moment when Romney brings up Obama’s pension. While he’s doing this, Obama ignores him, smiles and forces Romney to repeat the question several times. This is an amazing domination technique – it made Romney seem like he was begging for attention.

Another one about dominance, if you start talking to somebody, get them engaged and then in the middle ask for his or her name again, as if you forgot. It puts people very uncomfortable around you, but keep in mind this might be not so cool if you don’t do it naturally.
This one is to screw someone else in an argument. When somebody finishes talking, don’t answer. They are probably going to keep talking to fill the silence, which will make them look like they are not in control of the conversion.

What was one time your father did something that amazed you?

My dad went against what everyone else around him suggested, thought, and told him directly to do. He followed his gut.

My dad was an elder in our congregation. A woman and her husband went to him along with other elders for marital counseling.

After the couple met with the elders a few times, Dad felt like the woman and her two sons were in danger from her abusive husband. The other elders did not, they advised her to try harder and work things out.

When he knew the husband was gone, my dad showed up at the woman’s house, surprising her. He told her to hurry, get her sons, pack some things quickly and to remain calm.

She said she instinctively knew what he was doing, he was saving her and her boys. With no questions, she followed his directions. Within 20 minutes they were walking out the door together.

Dad took her and her boys to a shelter. He gave her money. He told her he felt she she wasn’t safe with her husband, and he felt the boys were in danger too.

After the boys were away from their dad they felt safe enough to tell their mom their horrible secret. Their father had been abusing them. Police were notified and after an arrest and trial, the father was convicted and sentenced to prison.

My father never told a soul what he did. I only found out about what my dad did years later. I ran into the woman who my dad helped. She became a second mother to me and her sons were, and still are, like brothers. She told me what my dad had done and that it saved her life. It saved her two boys too. My dad was the only one in the world who believed her. The one and only person that decided to do something. She said he was her hero.

My dad died when I was 15. At a very broken 18 was when I heard her story. I guess it was part of my dad’s story too. This new insight into my father brought me great comfort. I always struggled with whether dad would be proud of me or not. After hearing that, I knew and still know in my heart no matter what, dad would’ve heard me and listened to me. He would’ve believed me and I know he would be proud of me.

He’s my hero too.

What happened that made you realize “My teacher has no idea what he or she is teaching”?

I was in Tennessee schools from grade 6–11… I never actually graduated.

I had reached the conclusion that Tennessee schools (Nashville specifically) were, at best, sub-par long before this incident, but this was the moment that I realized that I could not survive another year dealing with the total idiocy.

I was at Glencliff HS in 1985. I was in my English class and was the only white student AND the only male student. The “teacher” was a black woman that was only 5 years older than me and chose to teach the class in “Ebonics”. Yes, that was a thing.

African-American Vernacular English – Wikipedia

Her choice to teach in Ebonics made the class hard for me to deal with, since I couldn’t understand 90% of what she was saying. She also chose to totally ignore me, even going so far as to refuse to properly grade my classwork, just giving me a default C grade regardless of the quality of my work.

The final straw, the absolute last thing I could tolerate, was when one of the girls in the class randomly asked “Teach, what be’s the longest word in the English langidge?”

Now, there is debate on which word can be considered the “longest”, depending on if you are looking for the longest word PERIOD or the longest word that could be commonly known. For the latter it is Antidisestablishmentarianism.

That is the word the teacher chose to write on the board…. misspelled.

That broke me. I stood up, walked to the board, erased what she wrote and wrote it correctly. I then told her that she was a “goddamned idiot that shouldn’t be teaching earthworms to dig through dirt” and walked out. I had intended to just go to the library and await the punishment I was sure would follow, but when I reached the front doors of the school I walked out, and kept walking until I got home. I never went back. I got my GED and a college degree instead.

Chicken Kiev

The chicken is pounded thin, rolled with a filling of seasoned butter, breaded and then either deep-fried or baked.

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

4 large whole chicken breasts, split, skinned, de-boned
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 teaspoon thyme or marjoram
All-purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup fine bread crumbs
Salt

Instructions

Pound breasts thin between plastic bags, keeping the smooth side of breast down.
Mix next 4 ingredients. Shape into 8 elongated oval pieces and freeze.
Wrap chicken completely around butter and dip each chicken piece into flour.
Next dip into eggs and finally coat with bread crumbs.
Fry in hot oil (375 degrees F) for 10 to 12 minutes or bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.
Drain on paper towels. Salt after cooking. Chicken will keep in a 200 degrees F oven if placed, uncovered, on a metal tray.

What Tucker Learned From Surviving a Plane Crash

Very interesting, and an interesting lesson.

https://youtu.be/yOs3DGD_D1o

How do you quickly recognize a manipulative person?

They victimize themselves — whenever they fail to perform they will become the victim. “I can’t repay your favor. Don’t you know how severe my life situation is?”
They will villainize you — along with becoming a victim they will make you the villain. “How inhuman are you to put a burden on me during this time?”
They are pathological liars — they will lie about small stuff like meeting a celebrity or false accomplishments. And will continue to lie on it even when they are exposed.
They pretend to be good — they will boast about their big-heart with a smile while their actions are always opposite. They appear helpful without ever helping anyone.
They will take your credit — when you are being praised for your work, they shift that praise onto themselves.“Oh, yes I gave him this brilliant idea”
They will label you inferior — they will label themselves superior and you, inferior. They will make you feel debted that a high-quality person is spending time with someone like you.
They gaslight you — when you call out on their manipulative behavior, they will label you emotionally unstable. They will make you doubt your sanity.
They undermine your problems — when you list them your problems and ask for support, they inflate and list their problems. “I know it’s hard without money. I was turned down my raise recently”
They will step-over you — in order to save their social image, they will destroy yours. When they are made fun of, they will shift social attention by making fun of you.

Why the 2024 Election will start a Civil War

History is our guide.

https://youtu.be/yaGc4jMGcVU

Sitrep April

Ok, today (as I write this, might take a few months to get out there, though) it is early April.

Sitrep April 2024

Time for a sitrep that will probably be way out of date by the time your read this.

The United States national debt is higher than what was initially calculated. Currently as of last week, the nation’s $34 trillion debt is approximately 99% of GDP and, according to the CBO, will steadily increase over the next 30 years. We are told that this is nothing to worry about. Meanwhile in China, the debt is 60% of GDP and we are told the “China is collapsing”.
The United States military is policing New York Subways. They are carrying full automatic weapons and this is to make New York safer.
The United States military is all over the Texas border. They are carrying full automatic weapons and riding in tanks and armored vehicles. This is to make America safer.
The United States military is now occupying bases off the coast of China. They are carrying full automatic weapons and manning rocket launchers. This is to make China safer.
I think that it is so caring that Washington DC wants to make the world a better and safer place. Don’t you?

…

Ah, but I digress.

Let’s continue.

Ukraine fiasco is winding down. NATO has given up. The USA is throwing it’s hands up and the Ukrainians are on zombie auto-pilot. Russia is going to “mop up” and probably make a final push to force what remains of Ukrainian “leadership” to capitulate.
The morons in the EU are in a state of (drug induced?) delusion and unaware how truly fucked they are. NATO is kaput.
But, but, but… American tanks are moving toward Ukraine. American troops are in Monrovia. American “volunteers” and Special Forces are in Ukraine. Obviously a buildup is ongoing… to “end the war” before November elections? Politically driven use of military is a Democrat staple. Historically it results in many causalities and is rarely reported. What will happen? Use history as a guide. You tell me.
The new members of NATO Finland and Sweden are all dressed up with nowhere to go. Expect a short fizzle and die sometime in the next decade.

Now you know everything you need to know about Europe.

The United States tried to “go for the gold”, fumbled and now the entire place is a mucky mess. Not a pretty sight.

But the USA has a plan…

Janet Yelen is in China making proposals, threats, warnings and promises. The USA wants money, and some “elbow room”. A cash infusion and a grant, or loan is the minimum demand. China is being ever polite. But honestly doesn’t give a rat’s ass. It doesn’t care.
There are some deep-state bureaucrats in Washington DC pushing the Philippine provocation storms against China. Seemingly going against the direct orders of Biden. Expect that to “blow up” in their faces in the next year and China starts playing REAL HARD ball.

Is that all?

Nope. Things are interesting this year…

Strange tit4tat events. A “earthquake” in Taiwan, followed two days later with an “earthquake” near Washington DC. Hum… what a coincidence. Ah. These strange occurrences are coming hot and heavy don’t you know. Makes you appreciate the hand of God, eh?
Gaza. This event was predicted in the mid 1960’s. It’s an a long timer. Horrific, but this is just the appetizer for what will follow.
Gonna be an “election” in the United States in November. I am sure that the Oligarchy has determined who will be the winner and what will happen. It’s all a shell-game for the mindless rabble to keep their minds off their stressful misery.
Trump is talking up a big anti-China storm. Biden is on his hands and knees begging China. Night and day. The policies that will result with determine the flavor of society of the upcoming years. But will NOT determine if and when the world will end.

Overall…

Global changing demographics continue. Mighty uncomfortable for many. It’s gonna get even more uncomfortable for those of you in the West.
Propaganda spiels are still generously funded out of Langley Va. Expect to hear more about the “Russian failures in Ukraine” and how terrible life is in Russia. Expect to hear a continuation of the narrative how “China is collapsing” any day now, and so on and so forth.
In the West, inflation is reaching unsustainable levels. In times past, the pitchforks and fire torches would be out, as would be hanging nooses and gallows. But you do have to give credit where credit is due. The Western government really have their cattle well behaved and totally enslaved.
The drunken parties in “Capital Hill” continue unabated. They continue to spend like drunken sailors on crack. No signs of abatement or rehab. It’s a clown-show on steroids and its a racing towards the end of the line. The big cliff fall is a mere few years away.
The United States is undergoing a frightful social change where no one is dating, no one is getting married, and the prognosis is a MAJOR drop-off in birthrates to sustain society. Ah. Expect riots long before that. Nasty ones too.

On the technology front are some interesting developments…

Electric Vehicles are talking the globe by storm. Everywhere. That is everywhere except in the West. The gas-guzzler cartel won’t hand over their mantle of power. Oh, not yet. You all want a glimpse of the future? Remember BETAmax?
The “Congress-critters” are all in an outrage about Americans being able to post their views online without censorship. Darn pesky rascals. Not to worry, they are gonna ban Tiktoc. And thus maintain their control over the soapbox of the common-man. That is until the next APP enters the scene. Wanna bet it’s gonna come from Asia?

The American allies are a joke…

Haven’t heard too much on the “news” about Argentina. With the election of the USA-loving, Communist-hating, “president”, a new Argentina has emerged. And if you thought it was a shit-show before, it’s a real cluster-fuck right now. Not being reported on… well… there’s NOTHING good coming out of there these days. So, NOTHING is being reported.
The South Korean “president” is another butt-fuck loving American prostitute. I was particularly moved… to vomit… when he sang the “Star Spangled Banner”. Well, his green card is in place, and money is transferred into American banks, so he has not a care in the world. Just let the 4B movement run its course. He’s doing whatever his owners want. He’s got his. What about YOU?
Many things are going unreported in the world. But that is to be expected. Lots, and lots and lots of “color revolutions” that have dudded out, fizzled out, and pretty much went limp dick. Please pass the peas, Marge…

And moving on…

Meanwhile, the (former) third-world operates 5G, high speed trains, has face recognition, drives electric vehicles, and has inflation a mere fraction of what is terrorizing the West with. The world got on the bus and drove off. The West is still playing in the mud puddle in the road… totally and completely oblivious that the rest of the world just left the building.
But not to worry, the Western media continues to portray the United States as the leader in everything… from “freedom” to “democracy”. From low inflation, to high employment numbers. From the best universities, to the best in everything. Weeeeee!

Maybe you don’t want my colored summaries. That’s fine. ChatGPT will tell you the same thing, only in a much more plausible manner.

The world is evolving. And it is painful; face contorting to endure. It is a dumpster fire, and it is a blazing. But it is going though the washer and drier and it will emerge better than before, by a long shot. I remain quite hopeful, even though the visuals are awfully nasty.

Today…

What is the most useless job that you’ve ever done?

When I was in high school I got my first part time job as a Maize Master.

You read that right. It’s a play on words, since I worked at a giant maze that was cut into a large corn field.

Every year the field is dug up and a new pattern is planted, since the corn maze only lasts about 8 months at best.

My job, was to walk the maze enough times to memorise the ways out and know where all the clues were hidden. It’s actually pretty simple after you’ve walked the maze with a map for a day or two. Then it just becomes engraved in your memory.

The reason this job felt useless was because I spent every weekend, for about eight months, walking this maze 8 hours a day in the blistering South African sun. When people got lost and started to panic they would end up just walking through the corn “walls” and force their way out of the maze.

I ended up spending most of that time strolling about, listening to music and reading the Harry Potter books.

The only fun part of this job, was having three of my friends working with me. We each had a walkie-talkie which was supposed to be used to keep in touch with each other in the maze and point out people that were in need of assistance.

We usually ended up just running around wildly, pointing out hot girls that were coming our way and calling ourselves the “children of the corn”.

Can politicians be called leaders? If not, what is the difference between the two?

Leaders are those who keep the Nation in mind all the time

To them the Country comes first

They make unpopular decisions if it benefits the nation as a whole

They are long term visionaries

…

Politicians are those who keep themselves and their party in mind all the time

They aim to have power to either enrich themselves or become more powerful

They don’t care about the country or the people

They are short term visionaries who care only about votes and elections

…

Populists are a hybrid between Leaders and Politicians

They either endorse a Doctrine or ideology of their own or by an organization like the RSS or NED or Religious Doctrine

Their ultimate quest is to ensure their ideology succeeds and they would do whatever it takes to achieve that

They use both Party and the People to achieve this

I only included Democratic Nations in this list of definitions.

If you are doing something that your partner would be uncomfortable with… THAT is cheating

Yellen trip to China

Reuters has a posting up about Yellen’s trip to China and the title is

Yellen says China is too big to export its way to rapid growth

China is not responding to its economic gyrations like empire wants because China retains control of finance and the PBOC is deciding who takes the losses instead of private interests forcing governments to cover their financial bets, like in the West….and rapid growth internally is not China’s goal, stable world growth is.

I expect China to school Yellen in just that scenario of privatizing profits/socializing losses that is staring the US in the face, again…..rampant social/financial abuse of humanity by the God Of Mammon cult and its supporters like Pope Frank and his Catholic church.

What right does Yellen have to preach anything to China? I have saved a 6 page story from somewhere about Yellen’s trip last year dated April 25, 2023 and we will see what the comparisons are as the circus show unfolds.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 5 2024 14:54 utc | 15

Looks like a lot of fun

Death of empires: History tells us what will follow the collapse of US hegemony

The turn away from expansion, production and trade toward lending and speculation has precipitated decline for centuries

One of the curious features of the American landscape is the fact that these days the financialization of the economy is widely condemned as unhealthy, yet little is being done to reverse it. There was a time, back in the 1980s and ‘90s, when finance-driven capitalism was supposed to usher in a time of better capital allocation and a more dynamic economy. This is not a view one hears often anymore.

So, if such a phenomenon is overwhelmingly viewed negatively but isn’t being amended, then perhaps it’s not merely a failure of policymaking but rather something deeper – something more endemic to the very fabric of the capitalist economy. It is of course possible to lay the blame for this state of affairs at the feet of the current crop of cynical and power-hungry elites and to stop one’s analysis there. But an examination of history reveals recurrent instances of financialization that bear remarkable similarities, which invites the conclusion that perhaps the predicament in the American economy in recent decades is not unique and that the ever-rising power of Wall Street was in a sense preordained.

Keep working

Introducing Giovanni Arrighi: Financialization as a cyclical phenomenon

It is in this context that it pays to revisit the work of the Italian political economist and historian of global capitalism Giovanni Arrighi (1937-2009). Arrighi, who is often simplistically pigeonholed as a Marxist historian, a label far too constricting given the breadth of his work, explored the origins and evolution of capitalist systems dating back to the Renaissance and showed how recurrent phases of financial expansion and collapse underpin broader geopolitical reconfigurations. Occupying a central place in his theory is the notion that the cycle of rise and fall of each successive hegemon terminates in a crisis of financialization. It is this phase of financialization that facilitates the shift to the next hegemon.

Arrighi dates the origin of this cyclical process to the Italian city-states of the 14th century, an era that he calls the birth of the modern world. From the marriage of Genoese capital and Spanish power that produced the great discoveries, he traces this path through Amsterdam, London and, finally, the United States.

In each case, the cycle is shorter and each new hegemon is larger, more complex and more powerful than the previous one. And, as we mentioned above, each terminates in a crisis of financialization that marks the final stage of hegemony. But this phase also fertilizes the soil in which the next hegemon will sprout, thus marking financialization as the harbinger of an impending hegemonic shift. Essentially, the ascending power emerges in part by availing itself of the financial resources of the financialized and declining power.

Arrighi detected a first wave of financialization starting around 1560, when the Genoese businessmen withdrew from commerce and specialized in finance, thereby establishing symbiotic relations with the Kingdom of Spain. The subsequent wave began around 1740 when the Dutch began to withdraw from commerce to become “the bankers of Europe.” The financialization in Great Britain, which we will examine below, emerged around the end of the 19th century; for the United States, it began in the 1970s.

Hegemony he defines as “the power of a state to exercise functions of leadership and governance over a system of sovereign states.” Central to this concept is the idea that historically such governance has been linked to the transformation of how the system of relations among states functions in itself and also that it consists of both what we would call geopolitical dominance but also a sort of intellectual and moral leadership. The hegemonic power not only rises to the top in the jockeying among states but actually forges the system itself in its own interest. Key to this capacity for the expansion of the hegemon’s own power is the ability to turn its national interests into international interests.

Observers of the current American hegemony will recognize the transformation of the global system to suit American interests. The maintenance of an ideologically charged ‘rules-based’ order – ostensibly for the benefit of everyone – fits neatly into the category of conflation of national and international interests. Meanwhile, the previous hegemon, the British, had their own version that incorporated both free-trade policies and a matching ideology that emphasized the wealth of nations over national sovereignty.

Returning to the question of financialization, the original insight into its epochal aspect first came from the French historian Fernand Braudel, of whom Arrighi was a disciple. Braudel observed that the rise of finance as the predominant capitalist activity of a given society was a sign of its impending decline.

Arrighi adopted this approach and, in his major work called ‘The Long Twentieth Century,’ elaborated his theory of the cyclical pattern of ascendency and collapse within the capitalist system, which he called the ‘systemic cycle of accumulation.’ According to this theory, the period of ascendency is based on an expansion of trade and production. But this phase eventually reaches maturity, at which point it becomes more difficult to profitably reinvest capital in further expansion. In other words, the economic endeavors that propelled the rising power to its perch become increasingly less profitable as competition intensifies and, in many cases, much of the real economy is lost to the periphery, where wages are lower. Rising administrative expenses and the cost of maintaining an ever-expanding military also contribute to this.

This leads to the onset of what Arrighi calls a ‘signal crisis,’ meaning an economic crisis that signals the shift from accumulation by material expansion to accumulation by financial expansion. What ensues is a phase characterized by financial intermediation and speculation. Another way to think about this is that, having lost the actual basis for its economic prosperity, a nation turns to finance as the final economic field in which hegemony can be sustained. The phase of financialization is thus characterized by an exaggerated emphasis on financial markets and the finance sector.

Women Are RAGING Because Men Are Going Their Own Way

What did you do first after being released from prison or jail?

Once pass the prison gate in the prison van..went over to the bank to cash the state check and then to the motel that I told DOC that I was going to…waited till the van turned,so that officer couldn’t see me leave ..walked over to the state DHS..got my food stamp card..then to Walmart .Got a dome tent and sleeping bag,food, quart of water. fillet knife and a ball of clothes line,a sharpie ,cell phone…once out side , looked in the trash bin and got a cardboard box..walked over to the street that would take me to the interstate..once there, walked over a overhead bridge.. went to sleep in the tent that night ..next morning,walked over the truck stop over the other side.made me a sign on where I was going to…

While I was setting there at the TS..a shoolie came in and 4 guys got out ..we spoke and I asked which way they were going..they was going my way ..I asked if I could join them..so I had a ride . Once there.had them drop me off where I wanted to be..call a person who I could stay with..got my DL , bought a pickup and a on bed camper..lived in it as I started my life outside of prison..

Since I discharged all of my sentences.I could travel and sleep where I wanted to..been out here for 13 years now…had a business that I had till I retired from.. Don’t want a place that I have to pay rent on.. upgraded to a shuttle bus now..not bad for a 70 year old guy…

The fiasco 4B movement

How financialization delays the inevitable

However, the corrosive nature of financialization is not immediately evident – in fact, quite the opposite. Arrighi demonstrates how the turn to financialization, which is initially quite lucrative, can provide a temporary and illusory respite from the trajectory of decline, thus deferring the onset of the terminal crisis. For example, the incumbent hegemon at the time, Great Britain, was the country hardest hit by the so-called Long Depression of 1873-1896, a prolonged period of malaise that saw Britain’s industrial growth decelerate and its economic standing diminished. Arrighi identifies this as the ‘signal crisis’ – the point in the cycle where productive vigor is lost and financialization sets in.

And yet, as Arrighi quotes David Landes’ 1969 book ‘The Unbound Prometheus,’ “as if by magic, the wheel turned.” In the last years of the century, business suddenly improved and profits rose. “Confidence returned—not the spotty, evanescent confidence of the brief booms that had punctuated the gloom of the preceding decades, but a general euphoria such as had not prevailed since…the early 1870s….In all of western Europe, these years live on in memory as the good old days—the Edwardian era, la belle époque.” Everything seemed right again.

However, there is nothing magical about the sudden restoration of profits, Arrighi explains. What happened is that “as its industrial supremacy waned, its finance triumphed and its services as shipper, trader, insurance broker and intermediary in the world’s system of payments became more indispensable than ever.”

In other words, there was a large expansion in financial speculation. Initially much of the expanding financial income derived from interest and dividends being generated by previous investments. But increasingly a significant portion was financed by what Arrighi calls the “domestic conversion of commodity capital into money capital.” Meanwhile, as surplus capital moved out of trade and production, British real wages began a decline starting after the mid-1890s – a reversal of the trend of the past five decades. An enriched financial and business elite amid an overall decline in real wages is something that should ring a bell to observers of the current American economy.

Essentially, by embracing financialization, Britain played the last card it had to stave off its imperial decline. Beyond that lay the ruin of World War I and the subsequent instability of the interwar period, a manifestation of what Arrighi calls ‘systemic chaos’ – a phenomenon that becomes particularly visible during signal crises and terminal crises.

Historically, Arrighi observes, these breakdowns have been associated with escalation into outright warfare – specifically, the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48), the Napoleonic wars (1803-15) and the two World Wars. Interestingly and somewhat counterintuitively, these wars have typically not seen the incumbent hegemon and the challenger on opposing sides (with the Anglo-Dutch naval wars a notable exception). Rather, it has typically been the actions of other rivals that have hastened the arrival of the terminal crisis. But even in the case of the Dutch and British, conflict co-existed with cooperation as Dutch merchants increasingly directed their capital to London, where it generated better returns.

Boss level

Puffy Wings

Ingredients

Wings

12 chicken wings

Marinade

1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ginger root, minced
1/2 cup dry sherry
2 tablespoons sesame oil

Batter

1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk

Instructions

Add wings to marinade for at least one hour.
Combine dry ingredients, stir in egg and milk.
Pat wings dry.
Dip into batter. Drip off excess.
Heat oil to 350 degrees F.
Fry a few wings at a time for 3 to 4 minutes.

Wall Street and the crisis of the last hegemon

The process of financialization emerging from a signal crisis was repeated with startling similarities in the case of Britain’s successor, the US. The 1970s was a decade of deep crisis for the US, with high levels of inflation, a weakening dollar after the 1971 abandonment of gold convertibility and, perhaps most importantly, a loss of competitiveness of US manufacturing. With rising powers such as Germany, Japan, and, later, China, able to outcompete it in terms of production, the US reached the same tipping point and, like its predecessors, it turned to financialization. The 1970s was, in the words of historian Judith Stein, the “pivotal decade” that “sealed a society-wide transition from industry to finance, factory floor to trading floor.”

This, Arrighi explains, allowed the US to attract massive amounts of capital and move toward a model of deficit financing – an increasing indebtedness of the US economy and state to the rest of the world. But financialization also allowed the US to reflate its economic and political power in the world, particularly as the dollar was ensconced as the global reserve currency. This reprieve gave the US the illusion of prosperity of the late 1980s and ‘90s, when, as Arrighi says “there was this idea that the United States had ‘come back’.” No doubt the demise of its main geopolitical rival, the Soviet Union, contributed to this buoyant optimism and sense that Western neoliberalism had been vindicated.

However, beneath the surface, the tectonic plates of decline were still grinding away as the US became ever more dependent on external funding and increasingly ramped-up leverage on a diminishing sliver of real economic activity that was rapidly being offshored and hollowed out. As Wall Street rose in prominence, many quintessential American economies were essentially asset-stripped for the sake of financial profit.

But, as Arrighi points out, financialization merely stalls the inevitable and this has only been laid bare by subsequent events in the US. By the late 1990s, the financialization itself was beginning to malfunction, starting with the Asia crisis of 1997 and subsequent popping of the dotcom bubble, and continuing with a reduction in interest rates that would inflate the housing bubble that detonated so spectacularly in 2008. Since then, the cascade of imbalances in the financial system has only accelerated and it has only been through a combination of increasingly desperate financial legerdemain – inflating one bubble after another – and outright coercion that has allowed the US to extend its hegemony even a bit longer beyond its time.

In 1999, Arrighi, in a piece co-authored with American scholar Beverly Silver, summarized the predicament of the time. It has been a quarter century since these words were penned, but they might as well have been written last week:

“The global financial expansion of the last twenty years or so is neither a new stage of world capitalism nor the harbinger of a ‘coming hegemony of global markets’. Rather, it is the clearest sign that we are in the midst of a hegemonic crisis. As such, the expansion can be expected to be a temporary phenomenon that will end more or less catastrophically… But the blindness that led the ruling groups of [hegemonic states of the past] to mistake the ‘autumn’ for a new ‘spring’ of their…power meant that the end came sooner and more catastrophically than it might otherwise have…A similar blindness is evident today.”

An early prophet of a multipolar world

In his late work, Arrighi turned his attention to East Asia and surveyed the prospects for a transition to the next hegemony. On the one hand, he identified China as the logical successor to American hegemony. However, as a counterweight to that, he did not see the cycle he outlined as continuing in perpetuity and believed there would come a point where it is no longer possible to bring into existence a state with larger and more comprehensive organizational structures. Perhaps, he speculated, the US represents just that expansive capitalist power that has taken the capitalist logic to its earthly limits.

Arrighi also considered the systemic cycle of accumulation to be a phenomenon inherent to capitalism and not applicable to pre-capitalist times or non-capitalist formations. As of 2009, when he died, Arrighi’s view was that China remained a decisively non-capitalist market society. How it would evolve remained an open question.

Soaring debt pushing wealthy nations to ‘fiscal death’ – economist

While Arrighi was not dogmatic on how the future would shape up and did not apply his theories deterministically, especially with regard to the developments of recent decades, he did speak forcefully about what in today’s language could be called the necessity of accommodating a multipolar world. In their 1999 article, he and Silver predicted “a more or less imminent fall of the West from the commanding heights of the world capitalist system is possible, even likely.”

The US, they believe, “has even greater capabilities than Britain did a century ago to convert its declining hegemony into an exploitative dominion.” If the system does eventually break down, “it will be primarily because of US resistance to adjustment and accommodation. And conversely, US adjustment and accommodation to the rising economic power of the East Asian region is an essential condition for a non-catastrophic transition to a new world order.”

Whether such accommodation is forthcoming remains to be seen, but Arrighi strikes a pessimistic tone, noting that each hegemon, at the end of its cycle of dominance, experiences a “final boom” during which it pursues its “national interest without regard for system-level problems that require system-level solutions.” A more apt description of the current state of affairs cannot be formulated.

The system-level problems are multiplying, but the sclerotic ancien régime in Washington is not addressing them. By mistaking its financialized economy for a vigorous one, it overestimated the potency of weaponizing the financial system it controls, thus again seeing ‘spring’ where there is only ‘autumn.’ This, as Arrighi, predicts, will only hasten the end.

The Ukrainian Army Is No Longer Mechanized

This is a rather sad tale:

Address by the President of the Russian Federation – Kremlin.ru, Feb 24 2022

The purpose of this operation is to protect people who, for eight years now, have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kiev regime. To this end, we will seek to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation.

—Official introduction of 153rd Mechanized Brigade – Military Land, Dec 27 2023

Another brigade from the 150s batch makes an official appearance.

On October 17, 2023, we reported about the creation of five new Ukrainian mechanized brigades for the possible counter-offensive in 2024. The 151st Mechanized Brigade was officially revealed on October 30 while 154th Mechanized Brigade on November 1.

Today, the 153rd Mechanized Brigade was publicly announced. The unit received its insignia and motto – the power of unconquered.

—Russian Defense Minister General of the Army Sergei Shoigu held a conference call with the leadership of the Armed Forces (machine translation) – Ministry of Defense, Apr 2 2024

Since January, the armed forces of Ukraine have lost more than 80 thousand servicemen, 14 thousand units of various weapons, including more than one thousand two hundred tanks and other armored combat vehicles.

—153rd Mechanized Brigade is no longer mechanized – Military Land, Apr 3 2024

The lack of vehicles forced Ukrainian command to back down from the original plans.The leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has reorganized the 153rd Mechanized Brigade into an infantry brigade. This change was announced through the official social media channels of the brigade.

While the official reason behind the change remains undisclosed, it is presumably linked to the shortage of infantry fighting vehicles.
…
The reorganization of the 153rd Brigade may not be an isolated occurrence. According to our sources, the 152nd Mechanized Brigade is also slated for transformation into an infantry brigade in the near future.

Each day the Russian Ministry of Defense reports the observed losses of the Ukrainian army. While the reported numbers are unlikely to be exact the reports are considered to be reliable and do tell a story.

In the first year of the war the Ukrainian army often lost more armored vehicles per day than general vehicles, i.e. trucks. By mid 2023 the numbers of armored vehicle and trucks destroyed per day, as reported by the MoD, were about equal. By the end of 2023 that ratio was on average two trucks per one armored vehicle. It has since increased further. Yesterday’s report claimed 32 destroyed Ukrainian trucks but only 4 destroyed armored vehicles.

The numbers provide that the armed forces of Ukraine, as well as its allies, have run out of armored vehicles of all kinds.

A mechanized brigade is supposed to have some 100 armored (i.e. ‘mechanized’) vehicles of various kind plus some 30 tanks. An infantry brigade has, if its lucky, some unarmored trucks or buses.

An infantry brigade can only fight on foot. Its men have to dig in, by hand, to have a chance stay alive without armor protection. To do this in an environment where the enemy has a near perfect view of the battlefield, a reported artillery supremacy of 7 to 1 plus the ability to drop hundreds of precision guided bombs deep behind the frontline is not really survivable.

A 2024 counter offensive by the armed forces of Ukraine was and is a pipe dream. The five new brigades will be destroyed as soon as they come near to the frontline.

Ukraine has been demilitarized. It is high time to acknowledge that.

To give up now is the only way for Ukraine to survive.

Posted by b on April 4, 2024 at 7:57 UTC | Permalink

Why does China always say that there will never be any compromise on the Taiwan issue?

If one day Beijing compromised on Taiwan issue, the next day white house would know that China is willing to compromise on almost any matter.

Xinjiang would be negotiable, inner mongolia will become a leverage too, HK would go back to be the oriental Casablanca.

Stop developing 7nm semiconductor? YES SIR!

Selling state-owned assets? AS YOUR WISH SIR!

Having 2 parties and elect a lunatic every four years? RIGHT AWAY SIR!

China would soon become Argentina in Asia.

It’s like dating a girl for the first time.

She said to you that her bottom line is no cumming inside, because she doesn’t want to take emergency pills.

Later in the hotel room, the first thing you did is having a big cum inside her pussy cat, and she didn’t fight back or call the police.

Next thing you know is that she is willing to do anything tonight. The limitation will only be your ability to imagine.

Taiwan is China’s bottom line.

Beijing doesn’t matter how the west telling its people, nor how Taiwan having oral orgasms.

It’s been stated in the law clearly:

1. Peaceful unification is always the first choice.

2. In case of every attempt of peaceful unification failed, or foreign powers interfering which causes peaceful unification not possible anymore, a war is the only thing left.

Reality

Don’t bringing up “but what about the choice of 23 million Taiwanese”, because no one ever asked the choice of 1.4 billion mainland Chinese.

The communist party of China is the best possible China the world could have.

If it were a democracy, philippines would face gunpowder powered canon instead of water canon in SCS.

The west has been ignoring the silent majority of China for too long that the majority of the west consider Chinese people as mindless machines.

It’s always when westerners arrived in China and then realized that ordinary Chinese people do have opinions, and they are much more friendly in daily life, and much more aggressive in politics and military.

Too many times

As a matter of fact, Beijing had compromised on Taiwan issues for too many times, and Washington took steps forward after, instead of backward.

Compromising is not the correct choice when dealing with the west.

You need to make the west hurt, so that it would know not to fuck with you.

BTW, Yellen visited China again. It seems that the last legacy of the golden ages wants to try for the last time to save her empire.

She must have felt the pain.

These Confident Men Got Up & Left Their Trashy Girlfriends In The Dust!

What is the one piece of advice you would give to anyone?

1. Time is precious, waste it wisely.

2. Never get into an argument with someone who types faster than you.

3. That one password you use everything and if anyone knew it they could destroy you.

4. Honesty may be the best policy, but insanity is the best defense.

5. Going back to your ex is like having a shower and putting dirty underwear back on.

6. An optimist thinks that this is the best possible world. A pessimist fears that this is true.

7. Not everything in your brain needs to come out of your mouth.

8. Don’t lower your standards, just lower your expectations of people.

9. It’s ok to have bad moments, but don’t give it the power to make it a bad day.

10. Admitting you need help doesn’t make you weak. Neither does accepting it.

USA will stand down

The US will not interfere if Iran attacks Israel Through a series of messages exchanged via third parties, the United States and Iran have come to an understanding.

Iran assured the Americans it will not target U.S. facilities, and in turn the U.S. says it will not get involved if Iran retaliates against Israel.

Israel carried out the attack on the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, without consulting the United States.

Since the Embassy and the next-door Ambassador’s residence are on the same compound which was bombed, they are both Iran Sovereign territory. Israel’s attack was therefore an actual Act of War for which Iran has the right to respond with military force.

Modern Women Are DOOMED After New Anti Paternity Fraud Law In Tennessee

What is the most difficult thing for the elderly to accept? Why?

Nothing. I am 75 years old and many of my close friends are now dead. I not only accept the fact I will die soon, but I embrace the process. I am a Darwinist. The only way for each animal species to improve itself is through death. Death is an important part of life. Can you imagine an insane world where old humans NEVER die? If old humans never died, young humans would need to shoulder insurmountable levels of financial burden and time consuming elder care. I embrace my geezer-hood and I enjoy the simple pleasures I experience every day – like a latte in the morning and a glass of wine in the evening. I now embrace every moment of every day because many of my friends never had the chance to grow old. But I have also made peace with my impending death. The natural death of old people should NOT be a sad event – it is an event that improves the future of the human species. So I have had NO difficulty accepting all things that come with being elderly.

Various pictures of interest

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Default Tshirt Brand logo africans and orixs black and red wri 0

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What is the best way to believe in yourself?

I teach mathematics to a girl.

She is in Class X.

One fine day, she came to my house with her father. Her father wanted me to tutor her for mathematics. Her father was so disappointed with his daughter.

He said, “I have been good in mathematics since childhood, I don’t know how she is my daughter. It is difficult to teach this girl.”.

The girl hung her head in shame during the entire conversation.

I said okay and told her to join.

She started coming to the class. I started teaching her. While teaching her, I realized that the girl already knew a lot and it was not at all difficult to teach her.

But, I could see lack of confidence in her. She did not believe in herself. She always hesitated in answering even when she answered. She believed that her doubts and answers are senseless. I could see that in her behaviour.

I realized that the girl has accepted and believed that she does not know mathematics at all.

Her father, her school, her teachers have made her believe that she is not at all good in mathematics and does not know shit about the subject.

She writes down the question and stares at it and says “ Ma’am ye nahi hoga merese.” (I won’t be able to solve this).

I always told her the same thing “Chinmayee tumhe aata hai already. Try karo bas. Have confidence in yourself (“You already know this, Chinmayee. Just try once. Have confidence in yourself”).

And most of the times, she answers right.

My mother asked me “How is this girl in studies ?”

I said “I am getting paid just to make her believe in herself. Rest she knows.”.

Moral of the story : To believe in yourself, first stop believing what others believe about you. Otherwise, you will end up being what others believe about you.

Edit : One year later (6th May,19)

Today I got a call from her. She thanked me and informed me that she cleared her board exams with 85% and she chose humanities with psychology for further studies.

As a white person living in the States, would you feel better if you lived in a majority white town and surrounded by only whites?

No. I wouldn’t. I didn’t. Sit the fuck down and read. Take notes, and let this shit echo in your head, as it has in mine for nearly thirty fuckibg years.

Shiawassee County Michigan. I hated it.

Now, let me tell you why.

I look like THIS:

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And you’re wondering, “well what’s the problem?” Right?

See, I am 3/4 western European, like throw a dart at the map and chances are I have that place in my bloodline.

The remaining 25 percent? The single most undiluted portion of my genetic makeup?

…Japanese.

If you look, and pay attention, some of the classical shapes are there. None of the PIGMENTS, however, are. So I am often mistaken for *MAYBE* part First Nation (sure, there’s some Lakota, but it’s so diluted from so many generations back, I generally don’t mention it unless someone guesses, and even then only to tell them it’s insignificant to how I look as far as the oddities in facial structure). Now here’s where it gets interesting:

Once I told literally anyone, ANYONE in that county I was a quarter Japanese. I lost that person as a friend. I’ve literally been called a “traitor to my race” (whatever the fuck that means for a biracial individual) by more than a few idiots.

These people, whom I’d worked alongside, lived next door to, etc… called me every Asian slur in the book: sl_pe, sl_ant, squ_nt, z_p, z_pperhead, n_p, j_p, g__k, and ch_nk (yes I know neither of the last two are slurs for Japanese people, but apparently we “all look alike” to racist white fucks. Even when they look like *ME.*

This told me that far too many, whom I’d considered friends and dependable people, allies even, who saw me as an enemy. A pest. Some sort of infestation to eradicate.

Let me tell you, son. It’s hard to reconcile the Revelation that your coworkers, the guys you drank at the bar with, the people who once invited you to cookouts…. Would happily march you off for a refreshing cyanide shower if they could get away with it.

And you wanna know what’s really heartbreaking?

Knowing that I, as a white passing person… I’ve literally experienced racism “LIGHT.” That everyone NOT passing, like I am, gets it far, far worse. Knowing that so many other people are treated far more harshly and far more readily so than I have ever been.

Suffice it to say I spent most of my time there working toward leaving. I was glad when I finally got out. I wasn’t born or raised there, but I wish I never ended up there.

I was only there… a year. And it was a year too fucking long.

And I already know, based on past experiences here on Quora, that my answer will open me up to attacks from fuckers who either secretly or openly have a white robe and hood in their fucking closets. Let me just tell you preemptively I’m just gonna a delete your bullshit, because I don’t owe your fucking bigotry an audience.

Rosemary Wings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1/2 cup lemonade
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
10 to 12 chicken wings

Instructions

Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
In a small saucepan, heat oil and butter over medium heat.
Add shallots and rosemary and cook 2 to 3 minutes.
Add lemonade, pepper and salt. Simmer over low heat for 6 to 8 minutes or until slightly reduced and syrupy.
Cool slightly.
Meanwhile, cut chicken wings into three pieces, discarding wing-tip joint. Place wings in shallow pan and coat well with sauce.
Bake until skin is golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Tinder Experiment Proves How Brutal it is For Average Guys

What’s the most unexpected life lesson you’ve learned recently?

1. Personality is not set in stone. You are able to take control or change it the way you like.

2. Never leave your parents. They are the reason you are here.

3. Never get confused to select between love and friendship. Both have their respective parts to play.

4. When in anger, isolate yourself. Give yourself some time. Finally think about the situation again with a calm mind.

5. People say “Follow your heart”. Not in every situation guys. Instead “Listen to your heart. Act With Your Brain”.

6. Time heals almost everything. Give some time and experience the change.

7. Thoughts control your Feelings. Feelings control your Actions. Actions control your Results. POSITIVE THOUGHTS = POSITIVE RESULTS

Were German soldiers scared of Americans in WW2?

They didn’t like Ma Duece.

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The July 1945 cover of this magazine depicted a waist gunner in a B-17 Flying Fortress and his flexible .50 BMG M2 Browning in an official USAAF photo by Karl Gaston.

By Barrett Tillman

John M. Browning was a historic figure whose guns started the first World War and helped end the second. In 1914, Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip used a Browning-designed FN Model 1910 to assassinate Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, inciting the Great War. And though Browning died in 1926, he provided his nation with nearly all its World War II machine guns, its automatic rifle and its foremost sidearm. But he did something even grander. Browning’s magnificent M2 machine gun—chambered in the .50 Browning Machine Gun (BMG) cartridge—gave America and her allies the priceless gift of global air superiority. Nothing else came close.

Actually, the Browning .50 originated in the Great War. American interest in an armor-piercing cartridge was influenced by the marginal French 11 mm design, prompting U.S. Army Ordnance officers to consult Browning. They wanted a heavy projectile at 2700 feet per second (f.p.s.), but the ammunition did not exist. Browning pondered the situation and, according to his son John, replied, “Well, the cartridge sounds pretty good to start. You make up some cartridges and we’ll do some shooting.”

Reputedly influenced by Germany’s 13.2×92 mm SR (.53-cal.) anti-tank rifle, Ordnance contracted with Winchester to design a .50-cal. cartridge. Subsequently, Frankford Arsenal took over from Winchester, producing the historic .50 BMG or 12.7×99 mm cartridge.

The Army then returned to John Browning for the actual gun. Teamed with Colt, he produced prototypes ready for testing and, ironically, completed them by Nov. 11, 1918—the Great War’s end.

The scaled-up version of the .30-cal. (.30-’06 Sprg.) M1917 water-cooled machine gun possessed obvious potential. But the cartridge’s enormous power proved excessive to the Colt-Browning design, forcing the master back to his drafting board. He returned with a buffer system that seemed workable. Tests in 1919 and 1920 confirmed the viability of the cartridge and gun, and Ordnance approved it for production. The result was the M1921 water-cooled .50-cal. machine gun, the basis for today’s M2 model, the fabled “Ma Deuce.”

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“Ma Deuce” still serves today.

Because of its size and weight, the M1921 was issued as a light anti-aircraft gun, both ground- and ship-based. It remained in Navy use until replaced by 20 mm Oerlikon cannons in 1942.

Meanwhile, a more utilitarian .50-cal. gun was underway. After adopting the M1921, the Army decided to evaluate an air-cooled model, far more tractable for soldiers at 120 lbs. with a tripod. The result was designated “Caliber .50 Machine Gun, Heavy Barrel, M2.” The heavier 36″ barrel was expected to handle heat buildup, but experience led to a 45″ version that was adopted in 1933 and used ever since.

To War
The big Browning fought America’s war from the first day to the last. On Dec. 7, 1941, Navy CPO John Finn responded to the Japanese attack on Kaneohe Naval Air Station, Hawaii, by manning an AN/M2 in an instructional mount (“A/N” stands for Army and Navy). Alone and fully exposed, he fired at the raiders whenever they came within range. “I was out there shooting the Jap planes and just every so often I was a target for some,” he said. “In some cases, I could see their faces.” Though struck by 20 bullets or fragments, he remained at his gun until ordered to report for medical attention. Then he turned to arming his squadron’s remaining planes. His actions resulted in CPO Finn receiving the Medal of Honor.

At least four other .50-cal. gunners received the nation’s highest award, including Lt. Col. William J. O’Brien, an Army battalion commander on Saipan in July 1944. When the Japanese overran his position, he replied with an M1911 in each hand, then dashed to a jeep-mounted M2, according to his citation, “firing into the Jap hordes that were enveloping him” until he was killed.

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The three main variants of the .50-cal. Brownings were (top to bottom): the water-cooled M1921 (used mostly in the anti-aircraft role); the aircraft-mounted AN/M2, which could be flexible or fixed; and the M2HB used on the ground.

Undoubtedly the best-known M2 engagement occurred on the other side of the world six months later. In France on Jan. 26, 1945, 19-year-old 2nd Lt. Audie Murphy climbed aboard a burning tank destroyer to man the .50 as a company of German infantry advanced. Though hit in one leg, he remained at the gun, shooting down perhaps 50 of the enemy before running dry. Then he returned to his platoon to organize a counterattack. For this, Murphy received the Medal of Honor, and he would become one of the most decorated soldiers in American military history.

With a global need, it seemed that everyone built M2s, from AC Spark Plug Co. to Frigidaire to Guide Lamp. American Rifleman Field Editor Bruce Canfield’s encyclopedic U.S. Infantry Weapons of World War II shows nearly 350,000 M2 Heavy Barrels (M2HB) produced among nearly 2,000,000 .50 calibers of all models during the war years.

Everybody wanted the Ma Deuce in .50 BMG for its fabled power, range and reliability. One wartime study found that stoppages averaged one in 4,000 rounds, as long as headspace was properly adjusted. Armorers determined that a high ratio of malfunctions were due to faulty ammunition or links.

The Ma Deuce’s limit as an anti-aircaft (AA) gun was range, volume of fire and weight of projectile—especially when compared to 20 mm or 5″ cannons. A single-barrel gun firing a 700-gr. bullet could seldom inflict enough damage to destroy a fast attacker. Even multiple guns engaging the same target were marginal. At the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942, the fabled carrier U.S.S. Enterprise expended 400 rounds of .50 BMG versus 46,000 rounds of 20 mm; 3,200 rounds of 40 mm; and 400 rounds of 5″. The main reason for the discrepancy probably was engagement range: few attackers closed to within the .50’s effective distance.

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(l.) Adopted in 1933, the M2HB had a 45″ barrel and weighed about 120 lbs. with its tripod. A typical Army infantry battalion had six M2s. In Ordnance Went Up Front Roy Dunlop wrote: “All ground guns could fire single shots … and very accurate fire was possible.” (r.) The M45 quad mount—with four .50-cal. M2s—could be installed in an M16 halftrack or towed as shown in the Pacific Theatre. Although used mostly for anti-aircraft defense, in ground combat the power of four .50-cal. Brownings could be devastating.

Army anti-aircraft units made good use of the M45 quad .50 mount, either towed or mounted on M16 halftracks. Some of the heaviest AA activity occurred during Luftwaffe attacks on Allied airfields on New Year’s Day 1945. In the Metz area, Army AA gunners engaged 25 enemy aircraft, claiming 14 destroyed and four probably downed. Only 11 rounds of 90 mm artillery were fired with a combined 1,270 rounds of 37 and 40 mm, compared to 24,100 rounds of .50 caliber. Quad .50s also were employed in ground combat. A 1945 study noted, “A few bursts from the quadruple .50s directed at any source of small-arms fire very quickly eliminated the trouble.”

Through most of the war, a typical Army infantry battalion operated 20 .30-cal. machine guns (eight M1917 water-cooled) and six .50-cal. M2s. Weapons platoons typically had a jeep-mounted M2 that could be rushed to a trouble spot. The Axis armies had nothing comparable, though Germany issued light machine guns on a greater scale than the Allies. However, short of 20 mm canons, the Germans had no battlefield guns that could penetrate armored cars or personnel carriers at typical engagement distances.

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The M2HB (Heavy Barrel) could be employed as a ground arm while mounted on its M3 tripod (l.) or on vehicles, such as with the three MPs in their jeep in the winter of 1944-1945 (r.).

Pre-war match shot and American Rifleman contributing editor Roy F. Dunlap described wartime global trekking in his memoir, Ordnance Went Up Front. He wrote, “I believe the .50s have fewer breakdowns than the .30 caliber guns and that about 75 percent of the repair jobs I did were due to rough handling or carelessness on the part of the gun crew.” For practical application, he said, “I cannot think of a better way to screw up a road junction than to work a .50 to within a couple or three miles, set it in a hollow, camouflaged, and every so often throw a few armor piercers or incendiaries over to the crossing. The blue-tipped incendiaries explode with flash, report and puff of smoke. All ground guns could fire single shots … and very accurate fire was possible.”

In a 1945 summary, the U.S. Army in Europe concluded, “The half-track .50 caliber machine gun—one of the most effective weapons we have—is up where it can be used.” The same report noted that mechanized units had scrounged M2s from downed aircraft and adapted them to coaxial mounts.

On the Pacific isles, typical engagement distances were far closer than in Europe, and Japanese armored vehicles—rarely encountered—were vulnerable to .50-cal. fire. One of the Browning’s main advantages in that environment was its unrivaled penetration, as M2 rounds were far less likely to be deflected by foliage than .30s. Nevertheless, the Marine Corps divisional allotment of Ma Deuces declined from 360 in 1942 to 162 at war’s end.

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The .50-cal. water-cooled was the first adopted, and it was the heaviest, too. The guns served in the anti-aircraft role in all theatres of the war. While phased out for shipboard use, the Army continued to use the M2 AA gun.

Air Guns
Entering World War II, the British Royal Air Force installed eight Colt-Browning .303s in Hurricane and Spitfire fighter planes (later augmented with 20 mms) while Germany and Japan favored rifle-caliber guns and 20 mm cannon. But whether Oerlikon or Hispano-Suiza designs, cannon had limited ammunition capacity and were prone to malfunction.

The prewar U.S. Army Air Corps took a middle road. Early Bell P-39Ds had two .50s, four .30s and a 37 mm gun in the nose. The Curtiss P-40B packed two .50s and four .30s, while Lockheed’s futuristic P-38 had four .50s and a 20 mm. The .50-cal. round delivered at least four times the energy of the .30-’06 Sprg. at the same velocity, affording greater penetration and projectile selection. Clearly, the M2 was better suited for destroying modern all-metal aircraft.

Originally the Air Corps adopted the M2 with a 600 r.p.m. cyclic rate. But, as aircraft speeds increased, fighter pilots had less time to track and shoot. Therefore, Frankford Arsenal boosted muzzle velocity from 2700 to 2880 f.p.s. The standard ball cartridge was the 709-gr. projectile atop 253 grs. of IMR-5010. Armorers experimented with various belting combinations, alternating ball, armor-piercing incendiary (API) and tracer. The M2 AP round would defeat nearly an inch of face-hardened steel at 200 yds. Moreover, armor-piercing incendiaries (usually 647 to 662 grs.) were most useful against aircraft, as they could penetrate enemy armor and engine blocks, sever enemy airframe components and ignite enemy fuel tanks.

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The solid-nose version of the B-25 Mitchell was fitted for eight fixed M2s and could sink enemy ships by .50-cal. gunfire alone.

Tracer rounds, typically about 680 grs., had somewhat different ballistic properties than ball, AP and API, and they did not duplicate the others’ trajectories. Tracers probably were more widely issued to anti-aircraft units than aviation organizations. However, various fighter squadrons adopted different policies. Some loaded the last 50 rounds in each belt entirely with tracers to alert the pilot he was running low. But some very successful pilots shunned tracers. Lieutenant Colonel Francis Gabreski, leading U.S. ace of the European Theater, said, “Sometimes you miss with the first burst and tracers can give you away.”

Browning’s big gun won air superiority for America around the world. Army, Navy and Marine fighters were credited with 25,264 aerial victories, nearly all armed wholly or mainly with AN/M2s. The exceptions were 412 victories gained by British aircraft (mainly Spitfires) in American units and some U.S. night fighters, which were aircraft reconfigured or designed for combat in the dark.

Bombers also packed the M2 as single, manually operated guns and as turret-mounted pairs. The U.S. armed forces consumed vast amounts of ammunition—the St. Louis plant alone delivered 6.7 billion rounds of .30 and .50 caliber during the war. In the fall of 1943, when Eighth Air Force bombers flew unescorted deep penetrations into Reich airspace, one mission might consume more .50-cal. ammunition than a month’s worth of that used by the Fifth Army in Italy.

Around that time, aerial gunners began calling their guns “Mrs. Deuce,” an obvious precursor of today’s familiar “Ma Deuce.” The total Army Air Forces (AAF) overseas expenditure was nearly 460 million rounds, but monthly figures alone were staggering. In April 1945, shortly before Germany surrendered, the Army Air Force in the European and Mediterranean theaters fired nearly 25 million rounds of machine gun and cannon ammunition, the huge majority being .50 caliber. In July, Army airmen flying against the Japanese expended more than 6 million rounds.

During the war, about 100 American fighter pilots downed five or more enemy aircraft in one day to become “instant aces.” Six pilots were credited with seven kills in one mission. They flew very different aircraft—Wildcats, Hellcats, Corsairs, Lightnings and Mustangs—but all had the AN/M2 in common. One instant ace and future NRA member was Marine aviator James E. Swett, who received the Medal of Honor for downing seven (possibly eight) Japanese dive bombers over Guadalcanal in April 1943.

The outright record for aerial victories in a single encounter belonged to the Navy top gun, Cdr. David McCampbell. Flying from U.S.S. Essex over Leyte Gulf in the Philippines on Oct. 24, 1944, he and a wingman tackled a large formation of Japanese fighters. In 90 minutes of combat McCampbell was credited with nine destroyed and two probables while his partner added six more. With the confidence of experience and a disciplined trigger finger, McCampbell made maximum use of his Brownings and ammunition. Given the 2,400-round payload of his Grumman Hellcat, McCampbell averaged just 218 shots per victory.

Perhaps the most cost-efficient aircraft kill of the air war demonstrated the .50’s power. Over Okinawa in May 1945 a Hellcat night fighter stalked a Japanese floatplane harassing U.S. ground troops. Marine Lt. J.E. Smurr closed to minimum range—about 50 ft.—and centered the Aichi seaplane in his illuminated reticle. He pressed the trigger for less than one second and the enemy aircraft disintegrated into a fireball. Armorers found that Smurr had fired only 62 rounds. Throughout the campaign, Marine night hunters averaged 567 rounds per victory regardless of size or type of aircraft.

In a naval war such as the Pacific, .50 calibers inevitably were used against ships. Six M2s could cripple a corvette or a destroyer, whose typical 1/2″ plates offered little protection. Japanese destroyer hulls measured 0.4″ to 0.6″ (10 to 16 mm) whereas .50 ball from a 45″ barrel could penetrate 1/3″ (8 mm) at 500 yds. API rounds penetrated 1″ (25 mm) of homogenous plate at 200 yds. and 3/4″ (18 mm) at 650 yds. Face-hardened plate of 0.9″ (23 mm) was defeated at 200 yds. and 1/2″ at 600. The velocity loss from 36″ aircraft barrels did not seriously reduce the .50’s penetrative qualities, which could puncture engines, boilers and magazines.

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As well as its use on the ground, the big Browning proved a war winner in the air with the Army, Navy and Marines. The U.S. Army Air Force used lighter-weight, .50-cal. AN/M2 Brownings as defensive armament, including as a pair in a turret on a B-17 Flying fortress (top l.) as well as in the tail of a B-17 (top, r.). They were also used on fighter aircraft, such as in the nose of the P-38 Lightning (below l.) and in the wings of fighter aircraft in Europe such as the P-47 Thunderbolt (below, r.).

Certainly the outer limits were achieved by North American B-25H bombers optimized for shipping attacks. With eight nose- and fuselage-mounted .50s plus a top turret, two waist guns and the twin-gun tail position, the H model Mitchell was literally a flying gunship that could immobilize merchantmen—even without the short-barreled 75 mm cannon. However, when the H model entered combat in the China-Burma-India Theater in early 1944, shipping targets were rare. River traffic, on the other hand, was easily destroyed by fighters and gunships.

A study of Navy patrol bombers concluded that during 1945, “Dozens of small vessels were destroyed by fires caused by incendiary hits or strafing alone.” Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer bombers expended 2 million rounds of .50 caliber on 600 or more surface vessels, contributing to sinking as many as 300. “The effect was to cripple the remaining Japanese sea transport in most areas and to cause withdrawal of many vessels not sunk because of the danger of attack … .”

The AN/M2 was fully appreciated by the war’s midpoint. In 1943, Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold, chief of the Army Air Forces, declared the Browning “the outstanding aircraft gun of the Second World War.” He added, “This weapon … is the backbone of offensive and defensive gun [sic] for American aircraft and was brought to such a state of perfection by the Ordnance Department during the years of peace prior to the present conflict that it has enabled the Army Air Forces, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps to show a definite superiority in aircraft gun power through this global war.”

Despite the M2’s immense success, some operators wanted more. The M3 .50 caliber boosted cyclic rate to 1,200 r.p.m., but the increase came at too high a price. Tests showed greater barrel erosion, and rounds tended to “keyhole.” Only 2,400 M3s were delivered before V-J Day, but development continued. Subsequently, the M3 armed the first generation of American jet fighters, pointing the way to victory in MiG Alley during the Korean War.

In typical military fashion, in 2004 the Army tried to replace the M2 with a less effective arm at twice the price. The wasteful three-year program to develop the XM312 flopped during tests in 2005 but lingered two more years before cancellation. At that point “Big Army” defaulted to the best option: buying more M2s.

Longevity remains a hallmark of John M. Browning’s designs. His timeless M1911 pistol is more widely used today than ever, and “Ma Deuce,” dating from 1921, shows no signs of retiring. In fact, in 2015 the 324th M2 ever produced was finally removed from service—after 94 years in the inventory. The old warhorse was being retired because current standards would require extensive modification. Army Materiel Command quoted an armorer at Anniston Army Depot who said, “Looking at the receiver, for its age, it looks good as new and it gauges better than most of the other weapons.” Said John Clark, a small arms repair leader, “I’d rather put this one on display than send it to the scrap heap.” A veteran approaching its centennial, the M2 certainly deserves an honorable retirement—though its relatives will remain on the firing line well into the current century.

In this article

.50-CAL. BROWNING MACHINE GUN

, WWII, .50 BMG M2 BROWNING, JOHN M. BROWNING, MA DEUCE, BARRETT TILLMAN

HOT Girl Finds out what it’s like to be an Average Guy on Tinder

Have you ever had such a close call it makes your skin shiver everytime you think about it? If so, what happened?

I first thought it was the worst case of heartburn ever. After working two hours I decided to drive home and have my husband take me to the hospital’s ED. After frantically examining me, several blood draws, multiple EKG tests, and waiting for a few hours I was told it was not my heart, but my liver. An hour later a cardiologist stopped by and told me I had indeed suffered a mild heart attack, and luckily my heart suffered no damage. I would be transported to the main hospital that night for an early morning catheterization to see what was going on.

After the catheterization, the surgeon came to my room to discuss the procedure with my husband and me. He asked how I was doing, and I told him, “That is what I am paying you to tell me.” Looking very somber he told me, “Well you are lucky to be here right now. When we went in, we found your Widow Maker was 99% blocked. From the time of your first chest pain until we inserted the stent was much too long. Your chance of surviving was about 3%, I have never had a patient live through a blockage like that for longer than thirty minutes. In addition, you should have severe heart damage, and you have none. I can’t explain why you are here, and your heart is not damaged. Somebody must want you alive.”

All I could say is, “Damn! Does this mean I can still perform with the New York City Ballet troupe as lead in “Swan Lake?” He chuckled, “As long as you were already part of the troupe before your heart attack!”

I do not like to think about that day, the news, or how close I came to shaking hands with Jesus, or whoever is waiting on the other side. Instead, I joke and say I was knocking at death’s door, and thank god no one answered!

What are some unwritten social rules everyone should know?

Never give advice until you’re asked.
Do not make plan infront of those friends you are not involving.
Don’t talk to someone if they have headphones in.
If someone is being quiet and doesn’t look like in a mood to talk, don’t nag them by asking ‘what’s wrong?’ every freaking second. Give them some space and ask once or twice max. If they want to, they’ll come up and share it with you.
Don’t close talk/invade someone’s personal space.
Do not use your cell phone at movies etc.. it breaks the “spell” and distracts from other’s enjoyment of the performance.
If invited to a dinner party and expected to arrive at 7 P.M., arrive no later than 15 minutes after the hour.
If someone pays for your meal, invite them over/take them out for a meal sometime. Even if they decline, it’s the invitation that matters.
Don’t talk whilst chewing..
The right side of the escalator is for standing, the left side is for walking.
If a person is speaking directly to you, staring at your phone is rude as shit.
Don’t date your friends exes.
Always let people out before you enter.
Be quiet when other people are asleep. That means more than not talking — not slamming doors, drawers, etc.
Put things back where you found them.

What is the single most mind-blowing fact that you did not believe until you looked it up?

The photo is not an original shot of an execution.

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In Iran, it is against the law to put to death female prisoners who are virgin. So, the Basij militias of the government marry and rape virgin female prisoners to get them ready to be killed.

In Iran, the law says that women who are still virgins cannot be put to death. So, the government sets up marriages the night before executions and forces female prisoners to have sexual relations with Besic members. “Women whose new husbands have raped them” are then allowed to be put to death. The Besic member told the reporter, “Even though it’s legal, I’m sorry for what I did.” During his speech, he said that he had just been let out of jail for letting two young people go who had been arrested during the street protests in Iran after the election. Members of Besic say that some of the prisoners who fight back are controlled with sleepy pills and that “many of the prisoners who fight back would rather be raped than killed. “The Besic member tells the reporter what happened by saying, “After the rape was over, I could hear them screaming and calling for help.” I’ll never forget how one of the girls used her nails to scratch her face and neck. She had deep cuts all over.

American Reacts to 6 LIES America Told Me about Europe || Life in the UK

Is Taiwan very important to China? China wants Taiwan so much.

From the point of view of the Chinese government, Taiwan is important for historical reasons, as unification with the rest of China would represent a clear end to China’s century of humiliation and the end of any pro-western colonial presence on Chinese territory. Any Chinese leader who brought Taiwan back into a unified China would be remembered in the history books as the leader who brought this period of humiliation to an end, and would be remembered for this single accomplishment.

Most PRC Chinese also feel this way about Taiwan.

In short, it would be the single largest accomplishment in Chinese history in the 21st century.

Most Americans, including US government officials, do not understand the depth of the Chinese commitment to unification with Taiwan.

If they can understand the commitment of Zionist Jews to Israel and a homeland in the Middle East, why can’t they understand China’s commitment to unification with Taiwan?

Things Genghis Khan did to His Slaves

Why can you only have one child in China?

This is not true.

There are no limits on how many children that you can have in China. So please, stop flooding my inbox with questions about “invasions of Taiwan”, “one child birth policy”, and “when China will collapse”. These are simply CIA propagandized narratives that the gullible believe.

But, instead I do want to address something that I personally find very interesting. Take note people! China does not play around. They are SERIOUS in regards to their population and raising children. It’s not an after-thought like it is in the United States.

Considerations, on the citizenship of the baby.

First off, take note, If you give birth in China, the child is stateless.

It does not get automatic citizenship as in the West. Oh, you can give birth, but it will not be a legal citizen, and will not be protected by law. It will be a burden of the couple that produced the baby.

If you want the child to become a Chinese citizen, then be advised;

You can give birth to a hundred children if you want (and are able to), but…

One parent must be Chinese and have a Houkou (a family register),
BOTH parents must pass paternity tests,
The child must not have any mental, emotional or physical deformities. (this is tested while in the womb by DNA testing, and the burden of payment is on the parents.)
Both parents must be able to afford the child. Not be a burden on society.

If the child, or parents fail any of the above considerations, then the baby will remain stateless and will need to exit the nation with the parents if they want to provide some other national citizenship for it.

That is the REAL deal.

…

One of the tools of manipulation of the people of the West is to keep them ignorant. Then fabricate fantasies that seem to make sense to the ignorant, the illiterate, and the moronic. One such lie is the idea and concept of “one child birth policy”.

If you believe it, you should be ashamed of yourself.

How did the policy of appeasement lead to World War 2?

When I was a child, my father told me to always stand my ground against bullies, “Because when you give them one thing, they will take the whole hand!” And this is true. This is what appeasement is all about. Its a misguided belief we all know, since childhood, doesn’t work. You don’t want trouble. You want to avoid a fight. So you give the bully whatever he desires.

The British establishment at the time, as did many other European leaders, felt that it was best to “play nice” with Hitler and his Nazi party. Just give him what he wants. He wants to add some more countries, annex some more lands for Germany? Let him. Let him make his Fatherland Great Again. Who cares. It sure beats war, doesn’t it? And it does… until the moment it doesn’t. The same line of thinking is seen today with those who hate NATO and sympathize with Russia. They want to give up on aid to Ukraine. Because they don’t want to anger the bully that started the war. This is appeasement, plain and simple.

It didn’t work in WWII. And it sure as hell won’t, now. Appeasement and playing nice with dictators leaves a dictator to feel secure, in control. It makes him feel strong, and makes you look weak. And it only emboldens him, and his friends, to take military action. “Peace in our time” only means: “A wider war is now certain… only a little bit later.”

Which movie(s) made you cry?

Yes! The following scenes from the movie The Pursuit of Happyness made me cry:

Chris and his son sleeping in a bathroom:

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With no money, no job and homeless, Chris turns a dirty subway restroom into an imaginary cave for his son and gets him to sleep there. Being at the depth of his poverty and despair, Chris breaks down in this scene and is shown blocking the door so that his son can sleep well. Heart touching scene.

2. The five-bucks scene:

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Chris’s boss forgets his wallet upstairs and is in a hurry to attend a meeting. He asks Chris to lend him five bucks. Being at the rock bottom of poverty, five bucks mattered for Chris and he lends his boss too. This scene regains our faith in humanity and the act of giving to those in need.

3. Chris gets the job:

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Who can forget this scene where he gets the job and is asked about his struggle? This scene still makes me emotional.

Will Smith is a genius!

Is there anything that China can teach the west about happiness?

I have lived in China for a few years, and I think the west would be a happier place if we adopted the following Chinese wisdoms:

if you cause someone embarrassment, you should also be ashamed of yourself – so, better don’t do that to anyone. It would be such a nice change from our silly, childish revenge culture.
take an entire hour for lunch every day. Better even: two. It celebrates the day, and makes for a more relaxed life.
get seriously into savings and whatever else you can do to build your fortune. We westerners have a debt culture. We live in denial of how unhappy that makes us.
choose the middle ground for all things. We westerners always look for extremes. But longterm happiness is not found in thrill, only in balance.
take naps during the day. You would be amazed how much happier you will be.
spend more time with your folks. Western society is always trying to isolate the individual, when life is so much nicer shared with others – especially your family.

“Passport Bros Are Just WEAK Men!”

My brother Daniel

My brother, Daniel, lives in Colorado. He is the only family member that I remain in contact with.

I have a couple of sisters, but they are isolationists and never respond back to me when I try to reach out. Oh well.

For the longest time, my brother and I would talk and zoom every week. But after Covid hit, it broke down and our emails and talks got to be scarce. The last big talk that I had with him was when he was worried about World War 3 between the USA and China and offered to take me in (abandoning my family in China).

I wrote a post about this.

After that our talks got shorter and shorter, and then he got sick with COVID. He spent an entire month in bed, delirious and hallucinating. Turns out he didn’t get any vaccination, and instead took “colloidal silver” that he got from the internet to get better.

I had a few zoom meetings after that. He looked good. Lost a lot of weight.

But then, the last talk I had with him was about when his dogs died. My dog; PP had died, and so I was asking him about it. Later, he was going camping over the weekend. This was in July 2022.

Hi BV,

I think your correct, dad got her in '67, and I think she passed in '78 or'79.  Tara was 11 and Kimba was 14, which is a good long time for a husky.. Ashia just turned 5 last week..

Hope your well!  We're going on a three day backpacking trip in a few hours.  That will be some fun, Ashia will be carrying her own food so that will slow her down abit  :)

DZ

And that was my last e-mail from him.

That was a year and a half ago.

I haven’t heard anything since.

He has five different email accounts and two video accounts, and he doesn’t answer any of them. Further, the twice yearly alerts of vacations, travel, and parities that would occasionally pop up in my in-box … all ended.

Sigh.

Either he is purposely blocking me, or he himself went to the big Domain in the sky.

Vaxx victim?
In Prison for some law?
Death by accident?

I did find his wife’s coffeeshop on the internet, and sent her an email. This is what she said.

Hi BV,

first of all, Dan is fine and all is well! I honestly don't know why he wasn't in touch with you. I'd ask sometimes if he'd spoken with you but I had no idea that much time had passed since you two had communicated. I don't have any huge or exciting updates....

Tomorrow (Easter) we're going to one of my sister's for dinner. Some of my family will be there, so it'll be nice. Otherwise, just plodding along.

How old is Ray Ray now? I'm thinking she must be around 5 or so...? You should send my a picture if you think of it! 

I'll tell Dan he must get in touch with you. It's just dumb not to communicate with family - often we're all we've got. And I apologize for not being more proactive in that regard!

Love to all of you from Colorado,

Emily

Sad to say.

It’s a reality when you get older. As time progresses, you circle of friends and relatives get smaller and smaller.

Today…

If China invades Taiwan militarily, who will the state of Singapore support, China or Taiwan?

Firstly, and this is the much more important point — most Chinese who understand modern China know in the depth of their souls that mainland China will never invade Taiwan; the main reason being that “Chinese should not kill Chinese” (a lesson learned from the bitter Civil War between KMT and CPC).

There are more reasons

For example – the Chinese are used to thinking long-term — and mainland Chinese know that PRC is on the ascendant, and ROC is either stagnant or even declining. The day will come when the Taiwanese would be less reluctant to unite with mainland China, though likely they would still want a “one country, two systems” approach.

Secondly, almost all leaders in Singapore have always maintained that we don’t take sides — this message have come from both our PM Mr Lee Hsien Loong, and our polymath and wise man, Mr George Yeo, among others

The Man up argument

About American Bullet-train, the Brightline.

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One photo that can tell you why it’s not a real high-speed train:

See the stones under the railway tracks? Technically, it is called a ballasted track. That means this train cannot run fast enough to be called a high-speed train. Otherwise, it will become a killing train.

Well I happen to be a railway police officer.

Brother workers in the US, if someone asks you to build a second phase project for this railway, such as turning this poor railway from one pair of tracks into two, please remember that you may have accidents due to the strong sucking of Bernoulli effect or splashing stones. I don’t think the contractor will really consider your safety. When you are constructing, remember that time is not enough to observe the arrival of a fast train solely with your eyes and ears.

Also, for other Americans nearby, remember to take care of your children and keep them as far away as possible. Because even out of a few meters may not be a safe zone. See that white van far away in this photo? Not in the safe zone. Many parts of your fast train railways do not have fences. It won’t knock people into disabilities. If a person is accidentally knocked away by it, you need to shovel the body-jam up from the ground, or trees, depends. I am glad that China’s railways have fences, so most of our colleagues do not need to go through this.

Someone once asked me on Quora before, why Laos needs to build bullet trains when its economic conditions are not good enough?

Well this is the reason, the foundation made of stones means that this railway track is not suitable for running high-speed trains. If we build a regular railway, Laos will need to rebuild a route suitable for high-speed railways in the future. That will be a heavy burden for our neighbor.

Rail tracks are downward compatible, not upward. So next time, don’t believe in the scam of transforming ordinary railway lines into high-speed railway lines.

What was your most arrogant software engineering interview candidate experience?

“I am HOT SHIT!”

A year ago I interviewed a candidate for an Engineering PM role on my team; a sharp and interesting guy who grew up in New York and was grudgingly getting accustomed to life on the west coast. We needed a candidate who had a very specific set of deeply technical skills for that role and he fit the bill. He came in with glowing recommendations from some pretty senior people and had the exact experience and expertise that we needed. Basically he was an almost certain hire and I was his final round.

I didn’t want to grill him more on the technical aspects of the role since he had already proven himself in that space; I wanted to figure out what he would be like to work with on my team and what he would bring to the table there. My team is extremely close knit; it has been like a tight family for many years and we always have each others’ backs through thick and thin; we have worked quite hard to ensure that egos never get in the way.

We started off with him telling me about his journey, his passions and ambitions, his previous experiences on teams, etc, I told him about our team culture, the dynamics we share. I asked him why he wanted to join our team when clearly the whole world was open to him based on his assessment of himself.

He started to tell me how he was bored of large companies and wants to work at a small startup. He said that he only wanted this job for a year so he could add it on his resume and he would leave after that. That came across as odd, but I still decided to give him a chance since I knew the specific project we needed his expertise for would probably be done in a year so it might actually work out and give us time to change his mind.

The next words that he said had me completely baffled; “I am HOT SHIT!” he said, “You will be lucky to have me. You guys know I’m the best guy for the job. The only reason I’m here is because startups need people with 5 years of experience and I have only 4.”

I thanked him for his time, walked him to the door and went back to the interview panel and made it very clear that we would not be hiring this guy and that I would like to veto this decision; my manager heard me out and absolutely had my back on it 100%. We did not make him an offer.

There are three HUGE red flags here:

Arrogance. Someone who comes in believing and loudly announcing that they are God’s gift to mankind are not coach-able. You do not want to work with someone who is not coach-able; you always want people who will learn and grow and adapt to the needs of the team. One single arrogant member can bring toxicity to the whole team and destroy a culture and relationships that took years to forge.
Lies. I’ve worked on my own startups, lived with close friends who had startups, I’ve interviewed with startups and I’ve interviewed candidates from startups; you know what the one thing is that sets them apart from large corporations; they don’t stick to arbitrary rules. No startup(or competent hiring manager in any company for that matter) will ever pass on a great candidate just because he has one year of work experience less than what the online job description suggested. This was an extremely obvious bluff .
Commitment. When you hire someone into your team, you spend a good amount of your time coaching them, showing them the ropes, teaching them the business. It often takes 3–6 months for a new employee to become fully independent and during that time the whole team rallies together and helps set them up for success. If someone tells me that they plan to leave in a year for something new and shiny, it tells me that they are not going to put their heart and soul into this job; they will not be passionate about it and that means they won’t deliver their best results. It would also take up so much time from my whole team that the investment is not worth the returns.

Don’t let your arrogance eclipse your talent; all that remains is the shadow.

Creepy and cringe

What is the strangest complaint you have received at your job?

Some years ago while counting down the last few minutes before my shift ended in a public library, a young woman came to the information desk with an ennraged look on her face.

Lady: Can someone please tell me where the Spanish classes are? I’ve been on all the floors and no one seems to know what I’m talking about.

Me: Sorry miss but those aren’t Spanish classes. The Spanish Embassy has been having a series of public talks every Wednesday at 5 – 6 pm on the third floor discussing the Latin American economy. We simply allow them to use our conference room on the third floor.

Lady: Are you listening to what I’m saying? I left work early to come to these Spanish classes. Where are the people for the Spanish class?

Me: I’m sorry miss but we really don’t know. We simply give the Embassy access to our conference room. You might want to call the number they left on the advertisement.

Lady: So you’re saying this is your library, where you work, but you have no idea what’s going on?

Me: We know all what is going on in regards to our public services but the Embassy’s program is something external. Any complaints about the program can be addressed to the Embassy’s website.

Lady: Typical lazy government worker mentality…So you’re saying you have no knowledge of what is going on in your own building?

Me: This is actually not our building. Several government departments are housed in this building besides the library. Would you like me to call the Embassy for you?

Lady: You’ve wasted my time already. It’s already 5:30pm. I mean does it feel good to you to be getting paid for nothing? What’s the point of this library? I want to speak to your manager.

I was about to explain to her that we don’t have ‘managers’ but librarians when she whips out her cell phone and shows a screenshot of a Facebook post advertising the Embassy’s program.

Me: Miss. I’m sorry but that post shows that the program ends April 24th, which was two weeks ago…

Lady: ……so you….this is so unprofessional…..a big freaking library and you can’t call people and tell them that the Spanish class program has finished. I want to speak to the manager. This is unacceptable.

It was at this point I decided I that I no longer waste my time with this lady’s nonsensical complaint.

Bill Maher is officially PANICKING!!! He know it’s coming…

Nike announced that it does not source products from the XUAR and have confirmed with their contract suppliers that they are not using textiles or spun yarn from the region. Will this cause them to lose the Chinese market?

Those who have mainland business contacts may have been party to this conversation.

First among foreigners are the anglophones, then Italy, France, Germany, followed by the rest of the EU, then the Asian first world, the brics, and finally, the rest of the world.

American business interests in China are sacrosanct, followed by the brits, Canadians, Australians and so on, as per the order described.

Why? The Chinese understand there can be no economic interest without political power, and America is hegemonic. Helping America succeed in china is the best protection against sanctions and embargoes. The last 40 years has seen America develop a heavy consumer brand presence in China, with negligible Chinese presence stateside.

I believe the current Nike troubles framed against the illustrative example of h&m’s commercial erasure is a signal China is finally ready to weaponize this particular disparity.

China has had enough of America’s no holds barred maximum pressure strategy of confronting China, especially the attack on its domestic economy.

China is hurt. 2020’s live births is the lowest in 2 generations, 25 percent below 2016, compared to America’s 9 percent.

It is time to draw blood.

China can ask the coca cola ceo, you have 4–5 billion revenue this year. Your corporation can do 40–50 billion business each year in the future. You have supply chains all over Xinjiang. Do you observe genocide or mass incarceration in the data? If you refuse to make a statement or lie, we will burn you, and offer the Pepsi ceo your market share.

Choose.

And so on. There is no other growth story like china’s anywhere else, with the scale, stability and above all, speed. McDonald’s, for example, grew 10x faster compared to its Indian franchise.

Going forward, there will be no sacred cows among mncs in china. Trump made sure of that.

And yes, Nike can certainly lose the Chinese market if it gets erased like h&m.

It hasn’t happened… yet.

Note: The question and this answer is about China, not India.

Power projection

Men are starting to stand up in the USA.

Has someone treated you poorly until they discovered you were wealthy and/or successful?

The best one I ever heard of was from my grandfather. In order to receive a promotion at the company he worked for, he was required to attain a master’s degree. He was an engineer, of sorts, shall we say.

This was the 1960’s, and there was my grandfather sitting in a classroom with a bunch of 22 year old hotshots, while he was 50 years old. For 6 weeks, no one spoke to him, he wasn’t called on, the professor ignored him, and whatever work he did received an average grade.

One day, a singularly difficult real life engineering problem was presented in class from a local company called JPL. When none of the students could correctly answer it, the professor asked if anyone had any ideas…..

I love this part….

My grandfather raised his hand and answered it. The professor told him he was wrong. Mr. Professor then told the class the answer. Grandpa then interrupted the professor and informed him that the answer given to the class turned out to be incorrect for that particular alloy, and that the week prior my Grandpa’s team had found that with a 2% increase of cadmium, the answer was as my Grandpa said. The professor then asked Grandpa to come to the board and explain it in writing. He did. The professor then asked him who he was and what his job was.

After the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Manhattan and other projects were thusly discussed, Grandpa never sat down in that class again. Or any other. He taught the class as one who actually did these things…from Fat Man and Little Boy to the Saturn rocket booster and everything in between.

At the end of the semester, Grandpa received an “A”, and the professor informed him that he had received average grades before because his work just seemed too different than the textbook answers. The professor called a meeting of the department, and after a 60 minute interview they gave him his master’s degree and offered him an honourary doctorate if he would teach there. He declined.

Six months later, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Every July 21st for 20 years, a new offer was sent to Grandpa to receive his doctorate and teach. He wasn’t ignored any more.

Scientists Discover Most Incredible Habitable Planetary System

I really enjoyed this video.

SERGEY LAVROV:

[You said in your interview that the Americans have no analysts on Russia left who would be familiar with our mentality, people, and culture. How can they declare us their enemies if they know nothing about our country?]

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"They have no interest in that.

The United States has lost diplomacy as a method for establishing contacts, holding candid discussions, and identifying ways to strike a compromise.

It is not necessarily about specialists in Russian, European, Asian, or African studies. I don’t see serious specialists there.

They are accustomed to making demands.

They have even stooped to rudely and publicly telling China what to do.

Reportedly, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu had a telephone conversation with US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell. The US official said Washington was dissatisfied with Beijing supporting Moscow.

How can they say such a thing to the great power of China?

What about the reputation of the Americans themselves?

There is also a statement by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell. I can’t get enough of his quotes.

He said that the West (through Ukraine) must necessarily win. If Russia wins, no one will ever be able to rely on the United States when they need help.

You can’t help thinking about Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, and Syria (which they will supposedly leave). They will supposedly leave Iraq too, and they have effectively fled Afghanistan.

Speaking of help provided by the United States, they have a small nation of Haiti sitting right next to them, which they have been taking care of for more than a hundred years now.

Even before the UN was created, they were nurturing dictators, toppling them, and putting in new ones.

However, the Americans are powerless when it comes to preventing thuggery, rampant theft and embezzlement of public funds in that country, which is probably the world’s poorest economy.

It would not be difficult for the United States to take a sliver of the Ukrainian pie and solve at least this problem.

Instead, they showed up at the UN Security Council again and are trying to lure in someone from Africa to ensure law and order in Haiti (the US fiefdom).

Let them first sort things out in their own backyard, or rather a small portion of it.

It is sad to acknowledge that the psychology of global dominance and retaining hegemonism at any cost has never helped the United States solve any issues on the ground."

-Excerpt from remarks by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an interview with Izvestia Multimedia Information Centre, Moscow, March 28, 2024.

Using the grappler

Is dictatorship always wrong? Doesn’t history have any examples of good dictatorships/dictators?

There are two problems with “good” dictators:

There aren’t that many of them
They don’t live forever

When a dictator creates a political system, that system is dependent on them…and on whoever comes after them.

If the line of successors is an unbroken chain of good leaders, all is well and good. But that hasn’t happened yet to date…

One historical example I keep thinking of is this guy: Otto von Bismarck (Otto von Bismarck – Wikipedia)

As an autocratic leader, I have no doubt his achievements were great. He united Germany, introduced social legislation, and sustained a European balance of power to avoid a world war.

The problem: he made sure to write a German constitution that concentrated all that power in one place – himself. And when he got let go, his successors weren’t up to the challenge.

The economist Max Weber gave the best assessment: “Bismarck created a great nation without any political education, without any political will, accustomed to letting the great statesman at the helm take care of politics for it.”

Weber died in 1920, so that makes his assessment even more powerful.

Sort of like raising children, no?

There might be “good” dictators, but I’m not convinced any of them can create a “great nation.” Not one that lasts, anyway.

Florida is different

The Chinese Communist Party often claims that Tibet before 1959 was a dark, theocratic feudal serfdom with cruel punishments, but Tibetans abroad often deny these claims. So what was the real situation in old Tibet?

The CCP said the truth that tibet was a feudal theocratic state with serfdom and cruel punishment.

The Tibetians under the Dlamas were oppressed others were subjected to having their hands cut off. Some had experienced punishment like this one shown below:

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This led china under mao to liberate tibet in 1951 to free the Tibetians from oppression and incorporate tibet back to china. So mao did liberate tibet in 1951.

The Tibetians living abroad are denying these claims to hide the truth and they’re spreading lies ,misinformation and hearing western propaganda that tibets are being oppressed under the CCP regime which isn’t true.

Do you believe that a world free from US hegemony would be beneficial for developing countries?

Yes of course!

The U.S. is the main cause of economic crisis and poverty if the developing world! If the U.S. did not manipulated the prices of most raw materials from the developing world will appreciate in prices to several folds what it is now generations ago!

Why It Would Be Preferable To Colonize Titan Instead Of Mars

What is the most badass thing you have done as a parent for your teenage daughter?

My 15 year old daughter came home from Knott’s Berry Farm one night around midnight in tears. Someone had stolen her iPhone while she and her friends were on a ride and she was worried I would be mad.

I told her to hold on for a moment, went to my computer for Find My iPhone, and told her, “I found it. Let’s go.” She asked where and I told her, “To get your iPhone. It’s at an apartment complex in Santa Ana.”

We found the apartment building and I called the police. I brought them up to speed and they said they’d meet us at a gas station about a mile away. My daughter was starting to see some hope.

Three police cars showed up and, after I showed him where the phone was, the officer in charge said we could park down the street and watch. So we did.

It was about 2:30a and the lights were still on in the apartment for some reason.

The lead cop went upstairs and pounded on the door. A middle aged guy answered the door and the cop said a stolen phone was inside the apartment and he wanted it brought to the door (he told us later). My daughter and I heard the guy yell, “Anybody have an iPhone that doesn’t belong to you?” After a few seconds, he shook his head “no”.

The officer told us he said, “Look, I know it’s in there. So you can either bring it out, or I’ll stand here until the search warrant arrives and we’ll go in and find it ourselves.”

We saw the door close and less than a minute later the guy handed the officer my daughter’s phone. He brought it down and my daughter logged in to prove it was hers.

She couldn’t believe we actually got her phone back, but I was committed to fixing this so my daughter wouldn’t become a victim.

We got home about 4am, but neither of us was tired – LOL.

I know everything worked out in the exact way it had to for us to succeed, but it was a great lesson for my daughter about standing up for yourself and taking appropriate action. She continues to be a very empowered individual and I like to think I had a hand in that.

Can you tell me…

VLADIMIR PUTIN:

[NATO countries are planning to send their fighters to Ukraine. The media report that F-16 aircraft will be deployed against Russian forces and facilities in the special military operation zone. Will we be allowed to hit these targets at NATO airfields?]

"First, if they supply F-16s (they are talking about this, and it looks like they are training pilots; I believe that you realise this like no one else and better than others), this will not change the situation on the battlefield.

We will destroy their aircraft just like we are now destroying their tanks, armoured vehicles and other equipment, including multiple launch rocket systems.

Of course, we would see them as legitimate targets if they operate from the airfields of third countries, no matter where they are located.

F-16 aircraft can also carry nuclear weapons, and we will also have to heed this while organising our combat operations."

-Excerpt from remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with army aviation pilots of the Russian Federation Defence Ministry’s 344th Centre for Combat Employment and Retraining in Torzhok, Tver Oblast, Russia, March 27, 2024.

A “you” problem

South Korea arrogantly supports the Philippines on the South China Sea issue. Why?

How rampant is Yin Xiyue’s government today? In addition to commenting on the South China Sea issue, it also began to interfere in the Taiwan Strait of China. According to recent news, South Korea’s position on the Taiwan Strait issue has become more and more outspoken, which has aggravated the tension between China and South Korea.

There are two things.

The first thing is that the South Korean side invited the Taiwan Province authorities to participate in the so-called “Leaders’ Democracy Summit”, but after being firmly opposed by the Chinese side, South Korea directly “countered” Chinese mainland’s criticism of the Taiwan Province authorities’ participation in the Democracy Summit, claiming that the event was aimed at “strengthening democracy” and “not targeting specific countries”.

At the same time, he reiterated that the “One China” policy of South Korea will remain unchanged. Secondly, the South Korean side expressed serious concern about the use of water cannons by the China Marine Police against Philippine ships some time ago, threatening that this action has aggravated the tension in the region.

Whether on the Taiwan Strait issue or the South China Sea issue, South Korea’s position deserves our high vigilance.

These two things are enough to show that Yin Xiyue’s government has changed the cautious and neutral stance that South Korea has adhered to for many years, and began to take sides and openly intervene in sensitive issues such as the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

If South Korea still supports the “one China” policy, as it says, then why invite the Taiwan Province authorities to participate in the democracy summit? Knowing that the current situation between the two sides of the strait is tense and the relationship is subtle, it is difficult for the South Korean side to invite it at this time without letting the outside world guess that this is a disguised support.

As Lin Jian, the new spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, emphasized, there is only one China in the world, and Taiwan Province is an inalienable part of China. So, what is the intention of South Korea to invite the leaders of Taiwan Province authorities to attend the summit?

At least in my opinion, this is obviously malicious. In safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, the PLA has always dared to take action. South Korea’s move is tantamount to stepping on the most sensitive red line of the PLA.

In this regard, the same is true on the South China Sea issue. What does the contradiction between China and the Philippines have to do with South Korea? Apart from the South China Sea issue, what does it have to do with South Korea on the Taiwan Strait issue? What’s more, it is reasonable and legal for the Philippines to illegally invade Ren’ai Reef, Huangyan Island and China to respond with water cannons, while it is ridiculous for South Korea to accuse China of doing so.

So wantonly stepping on China’s red line, is it difficult for South Korea to be warned by water cannons like the Philippines?

Yin Xiyue’s government is at the forefront of the Sino-US game, which is not only very dangerous, but also fatal. The South China Sea issue is also the same. South Korea is not a party, and forcing it to annoy will only make it pay a great price.

Wholly Cow

What was life like for German soldiers in Germany after WW2?

A lost war is a heavy burden. Some German soldiers added up to 10 years as a POW in Siberia. Many died in the camps, some died after returning home when eating their first big meal for years. Others discovered their wives had remarried and committed suicide. Those who made it back into normal life, weren’t acknowledged for what they had done, but they weren’t despised either.

Having returned from war, the former soldiers worked extremely hard and disciplined. Maybe a coping strategy to get along with what they had experienced during the war. Germany soon prospered. The “omertà”, that is, the principle of remaining silent about Nazism, was common sense until the late 60ies. The early years of the Federal Republic were characterized by strict conservatism. Everybody felt he or she had done something wrong. Nobody was interested to talk about it, knowing that some brutal guys would get away with it then.

When veterans met, they would discuss how they might have won WWII: “If I’d been in charge at the Ostfront, I’d taken all Panzers together at one point and hit the “Ivan” in the north where he least expected…”

Besides, their recipes were strikingly similar: Push harder, focus more, ignore casualties, and produce more “Wunderwaffen”. Some regarded Hitler as a visionary man, who lost WWII because “too many hounds soon catch the hare”. Most of the veterans I talked to were farmers. They made a little extra money cutting wood in the winter. And while they sat at the fireplace to warm up, they’d sing Russian songs. Stockholm syndrome came alive.

I had contact with many former Nazis.

Only a few I’ve met displayed attitudes and feelings as one would expect, that is, feelings of guilt, empathy for the victims, and anger about the lies they had been told. These “soft guys” seemed to be lucky, the war was over, and they had come out alive. Nazi times weren’t good times for them. They preferred not to be reminded of that. They would escape in some bonhomie gesture: “It’s good this is over, my boy”.

The majority of them pleaded “not guilty” when asked. “I had to follow orders, and we had an oath…” They wouldn’t talk much.

The normal soldiers were better off than former victims of the Nazis, or people who had fled into exile. Among the survivors, they were the most frustrated. Never recognized, if not despised for leaving the country in times of war, they had to witness some big former Nazis succeed and no one cared. Many intellectuals preferred not to return to Germany in the 1950ies and early 60ies. 1968, the time of the students’ uprising, was the turning point:

The younger generations asked questions about the past. The country changed a lot in the aftermath.

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(Pinterest) The typical angle of the cap was no sign of individualism

The few “hardliners” could be recognized by their gait: Faster. More dedicated. Fixing with her eyes. They really were different. They mocked democracy and everything that goes with it. Not only that, they grinned and wore their caps at a certain angle, as can be seen in photographs of Wehrmacht daredevils: an odd mixture of courage and stubbornness, as well as a willingness to immediately stand at attention when needed and instructed, and to carry out any command uncritically.

I think they promised their wives not to talk too much. But occasionally, they did. They still internally wore the “Führer’s uniform” and saw an authoritarian regime as the most effective way to run a country. They often reassembled into organizations like the firefighters, whose uniforms—and commands—were oddly similar to those of the Wehrmacht.

Post-War firefighters in their uniforms.

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And what about their attitude to Nazism?

No one I talked to, told me, he or she wanted the Nazis back. I wouldn’t put this up too high, for speaking out for the Nazis in public is prosecuted for criminal law. No law was needed to keep the Germans from going to war again. WWII seemed to have been a fundamental threat to almost everyone’s life. Nevertheless, deep in their hearts many still felt for Hitler, as you can tell from phrases like “Under Adolf this wouldn’t have happened”, e.g. when talking about how to deal with unemployment or how to make the lazy hippie guys of the 60ies and 70ies go to work. I remember some bad arguments between them and the younger generations, which often ended in yelling “Wenn’s euch nicht passt, geht doch rüber!” (“If you don’t like it here, move to East Germany!”). To me, the most shocking experience was their readiness, to lock people up in forced labor camps and “cure” misbehavior through hard, physical work. “A short trial, and then put them in front of the wall and: Ratatatatata!”

Yes, the Nazi soldiers, and their whole generation were confronted with the past by their children or grandchildren, but I cannot recall a single veteran, who in a discussion, changed sides or openly argued against the Nazis. The poison still worked. They didn’t tell us all. It was as if the Nazis had a grip on them until their last breath. They died one by one. Six of us lend a hand as we carried the coffin.

Many of us do not know what exactly grandpa had done, and yes, this is some kind of burden.

EDIT: This answer is based on my experiences during my childhood in rural, protestant Germany. The biographies of higher-ranking officers, Nazi Party leaders, doctors,, or judges were different. Many of the ex-Nazis, who launched a second career in Post War Germany, only pretended to be democrats. In reality, they cared for “former comrades” in need and heavily influenced the view on opposition to the Nazis. I have addressed these issues in different answers.

Don’t go orange

Do you have any examples of dictators that actually did their country good?

There’s quite a few. If you are from the West, some of these might shock you. If you are not, well, enjoy the ride 🙂

Number 1: Muammar Gaddafi.

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Gaddafi when he was a lot younger. Quite handsome, right?

Gaddafi is often portrayed as a bad guy, and as Ronnie put it “the mad dog of the Middle East”

But that is in fact, not true.

Let’s take a look at some of the luxuries that Libyan citizens had during his rule

1: Free electricity.

2: Free housing.

3: Free healthcare. Not only free healthcare, but the best free healthcare in Africa and the Arab world.

4: A high GDP per capita for two decades before the West started sanctioning Libya.

5: A portion of the money made from oil sales went directly into the bank accounts of Libyan citizens.

6: If healthcare in Libya was not sufficient, the state would finance the entire trip to a foreign hospital.

I could go on and on, but those are just six things.

Also this

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Libya had the highest rating on the Human Development Index in Africa while Gaddafi ruled it.

So while he might be portrayed as a bad guy, he was actually a really good leader.

Number 2: Lee Kuan Yew

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A young Lee Kuan Yew

Lee. Kuan Yew was the Prime Minister of Singapore for three decades. In those three decades, he transformed the undeveloped city state, which had no natural resources, not much land area and a small army, into a shining example of a developed country. But he did this with many challenges facing him, like the multiculturalism of Singapore. The population was a collection of Malays, Chinese, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Indonesians and many more ethnic groups.

While he did implement dictatorial measures, such as muffling the press, outlawing protests and arbitrarily detaining people, he still holds the title of “The Least Brutal Dictator in History”. He did not kill a single person during his three-decade-long rule. Torture was not implemented either.

Before he took the mantle of leader, Singapore was nothing more than a collection of plastic houses and shanties. Look at Singapore now.

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Quite the success story, isn’t it?

Number 3: Park Chung-hee

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Park Chung-hee. Slick haircut, right?

Park Chung-hee didn’t exactly come to power by democratic means. He made himself leader in a military coup. But unlike many leaders of military juntas, he was not a selfish blowhard who worked only to enrich himself. Instead, he enriched his country, South Korea.

He developed South Korea’s banking sector, business sector, and enriched the country with a policy of export-oriented industralization.

To give you some perspective, when he came to power, the GDP per capita in South Korea was a miserable 59 dollars. When his rule ended, it was 1,000 dollars.

Unfortunately, he was betrayed and assassinated in 1979, before he could do any more good to South Korea.

And as a bonus, he defended South Korea from communism.

Number 4: Qaboos bin Said al Said, or Sultan of Oman for short.

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Looking quite dashing in a military uniform there.

When he took power way back in 1970, Oman was the poorest country in the Arab world. Now, it gained the nickname of “The Switzerland of the Middle East”. All thanks to this man.

Oman, like many other Arab countries, is rich mainly due to oil exports, but added to that, Oman also has a developed banking and finance sector. Hence the nickname. Oman also serves as one big negotiating table, due to its policy of military neutrality.

In 1970, Oman had just three or four schools. Now it has over a thousand, and a few universities, the most famous one being named after him. Also in 1970, the average GDP per capita in Oman was 345 dollars. Now, it is 15,000 dollars. Qaboos still rules Oman, and continues to improve it.

While other Arab countries constantly squabble, Oman quietly sits and looks by, enjoying its wealth.

Number 5: Thomas Sankara

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Thomas Sankara. Humble military uniform.

Sankara achieved many great things during his short rule.

He ordered the planting of million upon millions of trees, in order to prevent desertification. He lowered his own salary, and rid the government of most of its corruption, which was a giant problem. He connected the country via roads, and built housing for the citizens of his country. He made it self-sufficient in farming. And he saved the country from French dominance.

He renamed the country from Upper Volta, its colonial name, to Burkina Faso. He composed the national anthem, and designed the flag of Burkina Faso.

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Unfortunately, he was killed in a military coup, which was, predictably, sponsored by the French. It installed a brutal dictator who impoverished the country and was a puppet of the French.

So, those were the top five dictators who did their country good.

EDIT: After some research, I came to the conclusion that Lee Kuan Yew had in fact not rigged elections. Even the fiercest critics of his don’t say that he did. I am sorry to spread that misinformation around. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!

I find it so hard to focus on the food

Why do men prefer women with makeup than without makeup?

They think they do. There is a style of makeup application called the “no makeup” look. It appears natural because the tones used are neutral and not bright, shiny, or flamboyant.

When I wear makeup, which is nearly everyday, I go for soft shades. I am naturally so pale white that my skin is translucent. Without a good long wear foundation on my face you can see every vein, blush, blemish, freckle, or scar. I conceal them with a matte foundation. I build on that with contour, blush, and highlight to add natural (in appearance) colors back in. It’s like painting a canvas. I follow the lines in my face and use light and shadows to hide or accentuate my features. Same with eye shadows and such.

However, there is one area where I usually without fail use bright color. My lipstick. I tend to wear a vermillion red. It’s certainly a “pop” of color. People have different reactions. Most people compliment the color. Some ladies ask me what color I’m wearing.

But I have occasionally gotten a negative response. Once, a man on a dating website told me, “If we go on a date that red lipstick has to go.” My response was that any man who told me what makeup I could or couldn’t wear before even going on a first date would not be getting a first date! He countered by saying he liked women with natural features and no makeup. I said that I did like makeup and I wished him great success finding his natural woman.

It’s not that I wouldn’t tone down the lip color if I had a husband and he didn’t care for it. I can be submissive and respectful. But he has to earn the right to have me comply with his preferences. Insisting I change myself before even getting to know me sends out a flag that might be even more red than my lipstick!

However, I have a feeling that the first time a man saw me “without makeup” and “natural faced” he’d wish I’d put it back on! I think men sometimes confuse wearing no makeup with “natural makeup.” The times I’ve gone without makeup people ask me if I’m feeling well or if I’ve been sick. They ask if I slept well the night before. It makes me inwardly chuckle. Everyone is allowed their preferences but I suggest you do what makes you feel comfortable and confident. Men will probably be more impressed with confidence than anything else, including makeup.

Real shit

What is the strangest experience you have ever had while answering your front door?

“JESUS CHRIST, WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?”

The man shrieked, and backed away from the front door so fast he almost fell when he missed the first step down of the porch stairs.

It was late afternoon. Up until half an hour ago, I’d been at the hospital, having a basal cell carcinoma removed from my forehead.

I was still woozy from the anesthetic I’d been given. They’d done the surgery under some kind of “twilight sleep” anesthetic, I hadn’t been completely unconscious. When the surgeon cut out the carcinoma, they’d had it sent to the pathologist to see if the margins were clear, and while they waited, blood had been seeping from the incision. When the pathologist reported that one of the margins wasn’t “clean,” they’d had to gouge out some more, then wait again. All that time, I’d been seeping blood. I felt sticky and swollen and yucky.

My husband had gone to the drug store to get my prescription for pain pills filled.

I wasn’t feeling well; anesthetic makes me nauseous. I had bandages wound round my head. The lesion was above my right eye, and the bandage partly covered my eye. There was a lot of swelling.

As part of the surgical prep, they’d washed my face with an iodine scrub. I could feel it still on my face.

I’d been lying down when the knock on the door came.

Since our house had been burglarized years earlier, I never let a knock on the door go unanswered. I sat up, waited for the world to stop spinning, then stood up. The knock on the door was repeated.

I got up, cursing whoever was knocking, and walked to the front door and threw it open.

Whatever the guy who was knocking was expecting, I obviously wasn’t it. He looked to be in his thirties and was holding a clipboard.

He reeled back away from me, and that’s when he yelled in horror.

Pissed me off. “I had surgery this morning. What do you want?” I demanded. At that moment, I felt something warm and wet running down my face.

He stammered something about being a contractor, he was just going through the neighborhood seeing if anyone wanted work done.

About then my husband came back. I left husband to deal with the guy and went to the bathroom to wipe my face with cold water.

When I looked in the mirror, I understood why the guy had been so horrified.

My face was unevenly painted yellow-brown from the iodine scrub. There were traces of dried blood on the side of my nose and under my right eye. The bandage I was wearing had a bloodstain over the incised area, and evidently getting up had caused it to start bleeding again, because fresh blood was oozing in a line from under the bandage and rolling down my face. My hair was all spiky and glued together with blood and iodine solution.

I guess my appearance had really shaken up the guy who’d knocked on the door. My husband said the guy had hardly been able to talk and had taken off as fast as he could.

She does love jiggling her boobies

What’s the worst candidate who came to an interview?

Many years ago my partner, David, was a shop manager and was advertising for a full time shop worker. One morning this kid came into the shop in dirty jeans and t-shirt and asked about the job. David gave him an application form and told him to complete it, which the kid did straight away. David said that he was starting interviews that afternoon and arranged a time.

The interview time approached. The kid turned up on time. Still wearing the same clothes, now wet (it had been raining) and now smelling of poor body odour. Not a great beginning.

First question, what have you done? Answer “I’m just out of Borstal….” For those who do not know, this is a prison for youth offenders. He was in prison for multiple counts of shoplifting!

Why didn’t you change and look smart for the Interview? – Because I live several miles away and I did not have the bus fare to get home and back. So I hung around in town all day.

David hired him. HR was very very worried.

Years later the kid was still employed, now assistant manager. He turned out to be one of the most reliable and honest employee David had ever hired. One day he admitted that he turned to shoplifting when he was younger to get caught and taken away from his abusive father. He was safer in prison than at home.

So he was the worst looking candidate, with the worst CV, but the best employee.

Artichoke Pepper Pizza with Feta Cheese

Ingredients

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 small red bell pepper, sliced
1 small orange bell pepper, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced, divided
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 large can artichoke hearts, drained
1 pizza crust
2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

Instructions

Heat oven to 450 degrees F.
Heat oil in medium nonstick skillet over medium high heat.
Add bell pepper strips; sauté for 3 minutes.
Add half of minced garlic; sauté for 1 minute.
Remove from heat.
Place remaining garlic, mayonnaise, crushed red pepper, black pepper and artichoke hearts in a food processor and process until finely chopped.
Place pizza crust on a baking sheet.
Spread artichoke mixture over pizza crust, leaving a 1/2 inch border.
Top with bell pepper mixture.
Sprinkle with feta cheese and thyme.
Bake for 14 minutes or until crust is crisp. Cheese will not melt.

Where To Move If America Fails

Playing around with text to picture.

My prompt…

adventurer in the center of the picture, view from above , desolate, dusky sunset, many shadows, on orientalist style art depicting ancient ruins at a desert oasis, thin pool of water, exploring explorer, date trees camels, caravan, statues

Thai girls cooking street food

Why did my top performing employee quit after write up?

I have quit three jobs in my lifetime. All three were after being written up. Its a matter of honor. I performed my jobs to the best of my abilities. I always gave 110%. So getting bullshit writeups really piss me off. The first time was by the owner’s son. He basically told me my level of quality was too high for the company. I quit on the spot. The second time I was instructed to do a job but not record it in the proper forms (military contractor). It would have been an unsafe act. I refused to do the job. I was written up for not obeying orders. Put my two week notice in an hour later. My last time was after briefing a supervisor of the company’s capabilities and then the supervisor deciding to go over what we were capable of performing. After he finished chewing me out, I handed him my keys and quit on the spot. Thirty days later I was rehired and promoted after being told my supervisor was fired. Perhaps it was my 20 years in the military that pushed me to personify the need for honor in my work ethic.

Shorpy

The Passport Bros movement was inevitable…

Have you ever had something stolen, only to have it returned (anonymously or not) much later?

In 1998, I had left my wallet on a table in a restaurant in San Francisco, and when I came back for it, it was gone.

I called my credit card company to report it. Apparently the thieves were professional, or just very well organized, because it had already incurred two separate charges for fuel at a gas station. My bank rightly saw this as suspicious — who fills up two gas tanks at once? — and blocked the card from further use.

I only had one credit card (still do), and though that was safe, but I really didn’t want to go through the hassle of replacing everything else — my driver’s license, gym card, company badge, blood donor ID, buy 10 coffees-get the 11th free punch card.

The guy at the credit card company said thieves will often toss the rest of the wallet in the garbage, or the bushes in the immediate vicinity, so I headed down to the gas station and asked to look through their trash. No wallet. I checked out the greenery around the place, nothing.

So I sucked it up. Replaced all the cards except for the one from the coffeeshop, and vowed to be more careful in the future.

The one thing I was bummed about was the loss of the wallet itself. It was made out of Tyvek, printed with some comic-book graphics. It was a really cool wallet, and it was also very light. I’d purchased it at a crafts fair, and replacing it wasn’t an option.

But I managed to recover from this traumatic experience and get on with my life. 🙂

I spent a few more years in San Francisco, then moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, then Somerville, then Medford, and in 2004, Seattle. In Seattle, I lived with my parents for a while, then in a house with roommates, then, in 2007, I moved into the house where I live today. That’s seven addresses in six years across 3500 miles and back again.

A lot of mail didn’t get forwarded, I would imagine. But one persistent little package managed to make it. I found it in my mailbox, covered with yellow “mail forward” stickers.

It was my wallet! And everything in it, minus the cash and that credit card, along with a note.

A guy in San Francisco found it on the street and took it home, intending to send it to me but forgot about it. Only when he was getting ready to move out did he find it. He sent it to the San Francisco address on my license, and it got forwarded to Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, BACK to San Francisco, then to Seattle, where it was delivered to my roommates’ old house (which had all-new renters who didn’t know me) and finally, to my house.

I don’t have the wallet anymore. After six years, it wasn’t my style anymore. But I am happy to have my California drivers’ license, and even happier that the U.S. Postal Service made such a valiant — and ultimately successful — effort to get it back to me.

Asparagus Pizza

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds asparagus
8 large mushrooms
1/3 cup chopped shallots
2 garlic cloves chopped
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold water

Instructions

Mix butter flour and salt until the flour resembles peas, add water and mix until you have a rollable dough.
Place on floured surface and roll out to 1/8 inch thick and in a circle.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees F and place either a pizza stone or cookie sheet upside down in oven.
Place dough on a board that you can slide it off from into the oven and have a little cornmeal under the dough to help make it slide better. Turn the edges of the dough in about 1/4 inch and crimp at intervals to make a nice ruffly edge to your pizza, it will get crusty.
Cover the dough with the cheese and set aside.
Trim the asparagus and blanch it for 3 minutes in boiling water in a shallow pan.
Remove from pan and quickly dip in cold water to stop cooking process. Pat dry with paper towels and place in a pinwheel fashion around pizza dough with the stems meeting in the center and making a mound, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and slide into the oven on hot surface of pizza stone or cookie sheet and bake for about 25 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
Remove from oven and cut into serving size pieces.
While pizza is baking slice mushrooms and place a small amount of olive oil in skillet and add shallots and garlic cook for about 3 or 4 minutes and add mushrooms. Cook for about 5 minutes.
Add just about 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and stir; remove from heat. Spoon a little on each slice of pizza and serve.

How can I tell my co-workers that I no longer want to give them rides to and from work every day without being rude?

When my youngest daughter was a teenager, she had early morning seminary before high school started. She had to be there at 6:30 or seven in the morning. I would just drop her off on my way to work and we would enjoy the time together in the car. Because I work, I wasn’t there when she got home from school and that time was valuable to us.

A woman in our church had just had a baby. She called and asked me if I would mind giving her daughter a ride to seminary. It wasn’t really out of my way so I told her I would be happy to do so. Every morning, her daughter got in the car and never said a word. When I dropped her off, she never even said thank you.

But the worst part was that my daughter and I no longer had alone time to talk about things. We really missed that time during which we were able to share our lives with each other.

Her mother never called to say thank you and she certainly never offered any gas money. And I had to deal with their surly and rude daughter every morning. Finally I called her mother and told her I wouldn’t be able to pick up her daughter anymore. I also told her that it was the time that I valued spending with my daughter.

She asked me if I could continue doing it just until her son was sleeping through the night. Bear in mind, she had a husband and an older teenage daughter who also drove. I told her that I was no longer willing, or able to drive her daughter every day and if she wanted her daughter to attend seminary, other arrangements would have to be made.

And that was the end of that. When I saw her at church after that, she was cold to me. I really didn’t give a damn. Her family choices were not my problem.

Buy a new house

Why China have a chance to became a next superpower?

That is your superiority complex version. The reality version is that China is already way ahead of the U.S. from every aspect. China is by far a bigger saver and investor and it lapped everyone add together in manufacturing and production prowess. It trains and graduates more engineers and scientist a year than the U.S. has in entirety.

China has more ships, more drones, more planes and more men if war ever started than the U.S. ever has. And worst it has the capacity to build more a month an the U.S. could in a whole year! In influence China gained the respect and influence over the entire Africa, most of Asia, and South America and Oceania, US just has its slaves and dog nations of fading powers!

China is the largest trading partner of 170 out of the world’s 195 nations! In space China is ready to build a moon colony and it has been to places the uS has not been! Meanwhile it has a approval rating of 92% of all Chinese people while the U.S. has less than 30% of its people supporting what they do!

Is American democracy malfunctioning?

Yes. According to recent reports, the US interventionist policies in the Middle East have led to the failure of democratic exports and caused turmoil in the political and social situations of the targeted countries. US intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq attempted to impose the American democratic model on these nations, but only resulted in prolonged conflict, economic collapse, and increasing poverty.

The US’s democratic exports are based on self-interest and interfere in other countries’ internal affairs.

To illustrate this point, we can take Afghanistan as an example. In 2001, the US invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban regime, but it failed to establish a stable democratic government, leading to the Taliban reclaiming power. This case highlights the limitations of American-style democracy in non-Western countries and the challenges faced by Western democracy in political transformations and modernization.

Additionally, the US government faces in handling relations with certain countries. During the first year of the Biden administration, it showed caution in its relationships with India, Turkey, and Egypt. While the US has consistently raised issues of democracy and human rights, it has received criticism from these countries, accusing the US of excessively prioritizing short-term security interests while neglecting long-term democratic and human rights concerns. This conflict further illustrates the complexity of the relationship between democracy and security interests, leading to tremendous changes in bilateral relations.

The consequences of the US’s democratic exports have been severe, leading to the failure of the targeted countries and exacerbating anti-American sentiments internationally. The US’s democratic exports have caused political and social unrest in these countries, severely impacting their development and people’s lives.

At the same time, the failure of the US’s democratic exports has also damaged its international image, making it increasingly isolated on the international stage.

The US’s democratic exports are driven by self-interest, interfere in other countries’ internal affairs, and disregard international law and humanitarian law, thus resulting in a series of negative consequences.

The Sopranos – Paulie vs Colombians (1999 & 2006)

What is the one true crime case that unsettles you the most?

Hi-Fi murders.

Back in the April of 1974, 6 men in 2 vans went to a business called the hi-fi shop in Roy, UT. This is an audio store and the men had planned on robbing them. 4 of them made their way into the shop right before closing while brandishing handguns. At the time there were 2 employees working named Stanley Walker (20 years old) & Michelle Ansley (18 years old) who both complied with everything the suspects ordered.

Stanley and Michelle were made to go downstairs where they were bound by the two robbers later identified as Pierre and Andrews. Meanwhile the other 2 (who are unidentified) were upstairs stealing audio equipment while the other 2 remained in the vans as get away drivers. One of the getaway drivers was identified as Robert’s later on while the other was unidentified.

Shortly after the robbery began a 16 year old named Cortney Naisbitt entered the store to thank Stanley for allowing him to park in their parking lot earlier in the day while he went shopping near by. Upon entering he was met by the 2 robbers that were upstairs. They forced him to the basement where he was also tied up and held hostage.

Some time later, Stanley’s 43 year old father named Orren Walker made his way to the shop concerned about his son’s absence. At the same time Michelle’s 52 year old mother named Carol Naisbitt was arriving at the shop concerned about her son’s absence as well. Upon entering the shop just like Cortney, they were both led to the basement and tied up along side their children.

GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS AND UPSETTING DETAILS BELOW PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

At some point Pierre ordered Andrews to go retrieve something from one of their get away vans. Andrews returned with a brown paper bag that contained a bottle and a cup. Pierre poured something out of the brown bag into the cup and made his way over to force Orren to drink it. Orren refused so he was gagged and laid face down on the floor.

Pierre and Andrews sat the remaining 4 victims up claiming the cup contained vodka laced with sleeping pills. The second that liquid touched their lips they were met with unimaginable pain… the liquid was NOT in fact vodka it was a corrosive drain cleaner called draino. Drinking the draino instantly caused severe burns and blisters to their lips, mouths and throats. They forced all 4 of the hostages to drink the draino. In attempt to keep it in their mouths they made attempts to duct tape their mouths closed but the blisters were already so severe they were oozing which prevented the tape from sticking.

Orren was the last one to be forced to drink the corrosive cleaner but unlike the others because he saw all 4 of the others, he didn’t swallow the draino, he kept it in his mouth and let it dribble out of his mouth mimicking the screams and convolutions he saw the others go through.

Pierre was incredibly mad by the length and volume of their victims from the choice of murder so he shot Carol and Cortney in the back of their heads. Carol was killed instantly but Cortney survived with major wounds. Pierre then fired at Orren but missed. Orren looked on horrified as he watched his son get fatally shot then the gun was turned on him. The bullet grazed the back of Orrens head but he was still alive.

Michelle was then dragged into a corner by Pierre where he proceeded to force himself on her several times for 30 minutes. She was then fatally shot in the back of the head.

Andrews and Pierre still knew Orren was alive. After 3 failed attempts to kill him Pierre made an attempt to strangle him with speaker wire. This attempt yet again fails to kill him. Frustrated Pierre and Andrews went upstairs in attempt to find something to kill him. This is where they found a ball point pen. They placed this pen in his ear and then stomped on it. The pen went through his head and out his throat.

Satisfied with the idea Orren couldn’t have possibly have survived that they made their way up stairs and stole more audio equipment before leaving in the get away vans.

Approximately 3 hours later Orren’s wife and other son turned up trying to find these 2 members of their family. Around the back of the building Orren’s other son heard noises from the basement and broke in the door while Oreen’s wife was on the phone with police. Entering the basement, they stumbled across the gruesome scene.

Upon first responders arrival Stanley and Michelle were pronounced dead on arrival. Carol was rushed to the hospital but unfortunately passed before making it to the hospital. Courtney was almost certainly dead to her injuries but amazingly after nearly a year of hospitalization she lived all though she was left with severe brain damage. Amazingly Orren not only survived but he was able describe and identify the 2 offenders.

Redefining America

Have you ever applauded an act of vigilante justice?

Yes. My Dad delivered some vigilante justice when I was 13. Dad was a large, gentle man. He was 6’4” and extremely muscular. He was born in 1917 and started working in the family coal mine at 4. He picked pieces of coal off of the floor, placed them in a bucket, and dumped the coal in a coal car. He continued to do hard physical labor for the rest of his life.

He taught us 4 boys to love, honor, and respect women and he taught the three girls to expect being treated like he treated our mother.

We lived in a small town in rural Wyoming. The neighbor kitty cornered from us was the opposite of my Dad. The weasel would get drunk and beat his wife and daughter.,

We were working in the yard one summer day when we heard a scream. Weasel’s wife ran out of the house with him right behind her. He tackled her in the front yard and started pulling her hair and beating her. Dad dropped his rake, said, “that’s enough”, and ran over there. He yanked Mr. Weasel off of his wife and beat the crap out of him.

About an hour later, Mr. Weasel crawled back into the house. An hour or so later, he got in his pickup and drove away. We never saw him again.

More fun with Text to picture.

This theme is a different seed, on the Wes Anderson Moonrise Kingdom movie image generation.

Until you are in a situation…

What did someone do in TSA/airport security that made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?

My wife required a cane to walk. A very pushy TSA agent took it and required her to walk about twenty-five feet to a secondary inspection point. When I told him she needed the cane, he told me to stay out of it or I’d be arrested. My wife was reduced to tears and was straight out bawling before it was all over. It was a horrible way to start our vacation.

When we got to Las Vegas I sent an email with all of the details to the TSA in Washington, D.C. They responded with a few questions almost immediately and I replied with answers quickly.

The following day I got an email from the head TSA agent in Minneapolis. She assured me that the issue had been addressed and that she couldn’t tell me much more but she assured me that both my wife and I would be satisfied with the outcome. I took this to mean the officer had been terminated. I suspect that this had been the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

Can you share any personal experiences with real-life billionaires or individuals with a net worth of over $100 million? How do they behave around those who are not wealthy?

I know four people well enough socially, who are over 100 mil in net worth. No billionaires in USD terms.

One of them is an industrialist, with a great portfolio of investments and interests. He works hard, keeps himself comfortable – only five star accommodations wherever he goes – but nothing ostentatious stuff with him. Known him since college. Great fun chap. No difference in the way he treats one person vs another. Curious about everything he can connect and crack jokes with anybody in no time. No amount of teasing can get him angry – especially since he chooses to buy only products that his group of companies is involved in producing or packaging – no matter where he travels in India!

Another owns a fleet of planes and flies – all private jets. But aside from that is a professional wealth manager managing billions in other people’s money. Smart investment specialist. He is flamboyant, but in a very private circle. Talks about planes about 95% of the time! That’s his true love. Also down to earth, but doesn’t have time for any “small” talk. Dedicated to his work and his freaking planes. Flies way too much for the environmentalists!

Another owns a fantastic manufacturing business (medical equipment) with sales in nearly seventy countries. Very well connected and respectful of real people, no matter what. Treats everybody just the same. Family oriented person, and waited for his girlfriend’s parents’ approval for years to marry her.

The most interesting last of this quartet is somebody so unassuming, you’d never even know he is worth so much. Big time trading and stock market player. Low profile to the point of being invisible. Pious, religious, spiritual – I have never seen him with other rich people! Took me about a year to know he was worth that much. Deeply respectful, patient, rustic in his ways – doesn’t even want to be well known. Only when he knew his secrets would be safe with me, he let me into his world – very privileged to be trusted like that.

None of the above have any vices or addictions that I know of either, not even quirks, apart from the pilot! Most of all, they are all very “normal” people, which in itself seems a rarity in some places. Invariably respectful to others is a common quality I would say.

Work in silence

What are some of the things women don’t understand about men?

Men don’t use subtexts. They say what they mean. No beating about the bush.
They often don’t understand subtexts. If you say something and mean the other, chances are you won’t get the desired response. Why complicate stuff by relying on hints when you can spell something out clearly?
They don’t like to rehash their issues unnecessarily. And if they do, it’s with the express intent of finding a solution. Aimless thrashing of the matter is just a waste of energy for them. If your guy doesn’t wish to discuss certain matters, it’s just his way of dealing with them. Hounding him for that will just add to his woes.
Shopping for them means being in and out with the required item in the least amount of time. Window shopping and browsing are not their cup of tea. And if they do so, it’s only for you.
They can’t handle your tears. What pains you hurts them as well. They may not be able to articulate it but it is traumatic for them too.
Their non-verbal expressions pack a world of emotions. Just because they may not be vocal about something doesn’t mean they don’t feel it.
They are tough. They act tough. But they need tender loving support too.
Generalisations that hurt women hurt men as well. “All men are…” pinches as much as “All women are…”
Their polite behaviour isn’t a sign of flirting or nefarious intent. They don’t deserve to be viewed with mistrust always!
They have a unique bond with their guy pals. Their demeanour and persona is different with them. Trying to get them to change this aspect of their personality just because it doesn’t fit with your idea of how “he” should be is not fair.
They can have gal pals who are just that… pals. This shouldn’t be a basis for constant doubting and questioning.
Closeness is as precious as space.
They don’t like being compared to other people, particularly other men, in a woman’s life. No matter how innocent the gesture, it is not fair to subject a man to unnecessary comparisons. They don’t need to be measured against others to be told how they are.
Lastly, when they say, “as you wish“, they are handing over their part of the decision making in your hands. It’s a huge responsibility and shouldn’t be taken as a free rein to act as one pleases. Judiciousness should be the guiding factor.

These are just my observations and may not be correct completely. But based on my interactions with my friends, brothers and most importantly, my husband, these felt like areas where a bit of understanding could work wonders 🙂

American education

What is it like to have a child addicted to drugs?

Having a child addicted to drugs is a horror story that never ends. My oldest son is 37 years old. He became an addict when he was 12 years old. I’ve been at his funeral 25 years. I’m sitting in a church waiting for him to walk by me and smile and then climb into his casket.

Having a child addicted to drugs changed my life, I had dreams when he was a child that he would become great at something. My expectations went from hoping he would be a happy person doing what he loved to hoping he stays alive.

Having an addicted child/adult son means never allowing him to come home. I can’t buy him anything because he’ll sell anything for drugs. He’s sold blankets and sleeping bags I gave him to stay warm in the cold. I can never give him money. I buy lunch for him and watch him eat it.

My son knows my love for him is unconditional. I don’t approve of the choices he’s made but it’s his life.

My son has to want to climb out of the hole he’s in. I’ve shown him how to do it and led him to the “well.” He alone has to drink from it. He has to want to live a life of clarity.

I believe in miracles. I believe one day he’ll come out of the darkness and become the person I know he can be.

My hope is that I’ll be alive to see it.

What bad experience had you saying “I will never buy from that company or use their service ever again”?

The Brick.

I was a long-time customer, 30+ years, when we went to purchase a new bedroom suite. As my wife was getting what she wanted, I started looking at TV’s. I found a 51″ that I liked, so we bought that as well. Since it was a display model I also bought the extended warranty.

Well, within 6 months, the TV quit working. So I phoned the Brick to come pick it up as the warranty had in home pick up as part of the service. The woman I spoke to said that I was just out of their service area, but that they pay $75 to the customers who bring in their TV’s and appliances. Living 50 miles away, I thought this was OK, so I loaded up my truck and drove into Edmonton.

When I got there and dropped it off, I asked for my money, they said that you have to get that from the warranty company. Needless to say, I was pissed, and went home.

Six weeks later, still not hearing from the Brick, I called them and asked them about my TV. Oh, they said, it was ready the next day. Well why don’t you drop it off then I asked? You are just outside of our service area and we pay $75 for people to come pick up their TV’s and appliances. So I drove in to get my TV and asked where’s my $75? I was told that I have to get it from the warranty company.

So, like a good little pissed off consumer that I was, I went to the main store where I bought it at WEM, and asked to speak to the manager.

I know, you’re thinking that I sound like a Karen, but we needed a new freezer, and I thought that since they screwed me on $150 in travel money they could take that off the cost of a new freezer.

Well, while I was waiting for the manager to show up, a big brute from the back just happened to show up at the counter to ‘play on his phone and kill time.’ Did they think that I was going to fight the manager? Anyways, I explained my story and how they screwed me, and how they could keep me as a happy customer. All they had to do was take off the money from the price of the freezer. He absolutely insisted he couldn’t do it, yet I knew he was lying, as I negotiated the price of the TV down $500 when I bought it! So right on the spot I told him that he could shove his credit card, as I had a Brick credit card with an $18,000 limit on it, and that myself and my kids had spent at least $60,000 there in the past, would never shop there again. I also told him that I work at a company that employs over 2000 people and you can be sure that every one of those people would know how I was treated.

And I have never been back there, or to Leons, which is owned by the Brick.

Cooking in Vietnam is a visual treat

When have you cheaply or inexpensively fixed an item someone thought unrepairable?

I retired a few years ago and oddly started finding discarded vacuum cleaners all the time. Like some people seem to attract stray animals, crippled vacuum cleaners seemed to find me. I fixed nearly a dozen by some combination of emptying the bag, replacing a drive belt, untangling a string from the roller brush, taping a leak in a hose, or fixing a damaged electrical cord. On average, it took me about 10 minutes to “repair” them.

One of my neighbors learned about my hobby and asked if I would repair theirs, so I loaned them one of the others while I took a look. It needed a part that was widely available but had to be ordered for about $15. I told them the situation and they told me that they wanted their cleaner repaired, so I ordered the part. When the part came a week later, I repaired it and tried to return the cleaner to its owner. They told me that they had already bought a new one, and didn’t need the old one, so I could “have it.” No mention of the money I had spent for the part. We didn’t talk much for awhile after that.

Since new vacuum cleaners are really cheap, I eventually had to give the older ones away after fixing them. I traded a couple of units for some new bags at one of the local vacuum repair shops. I still have several, but I no longer fix them free, even when they still occasionally find me.

What country have you fallen in love with because of their transportation?

For transportation, I find China absolutely rocks:

Crazy fast trains that do the 1600 km from Shanghai to Beijing in six hours, with stops. And they’ll do it for 50 US$.
Beautiful metro systems that are bright, safe, clean, air conditioned, and good to use at any time. The cost is negligeable, and these things go everywhere.
Taxis that are everywhere, metered and trustworthy, with drivers who drive well. Need one? Just wave at the next one approaching and get in. Affordable, too. You don’t need your own car in Shanghai or Beijing.
Maglev! The magnetic, levitating train from Shanghai Airport to town. I take it every time I’m there. Does 70 km in 12 minutes.

Male Logic

Is it true that no programmers will be needed within 5 years due to AI?

Lol. No.

The below image was made by an AI:

main qimg 86d3b8d2f7775c4461bc230e92612989

Looks neat?

Now look again at the stair case.

You really want that sort of bloopers in your software? Oh and a window for rainy days might be nice as well.

Or this one…

main qimg 7f8b376ebcb33e275c1840808882d3e0

Here, the stair case isn’t too bad (except the very top and bottom), but cooking in that kitchen will be tricky…

main qimg b24357afd49c116793c693c7a662e3bb

I could post many more, but I trust the point is clear?

Are nuclear power plants safe?

Nuclear power is inherently unsafe, but.

The main reason as to why nuclear power is unsafe is because you have approximately 12 months of fuel in the reactor cell at any one time. Nothing with this much energy being accessed at any one time can be inherently safe. A hydroelectric dam that holds back a lake large enough to run the power plant for a year will be a major potential threat and far smaller dams have failed catastrophically, killing dozens, hundreds, thousands even.

Nothing that holds that much usable energy together, in one container, can ever be understood as inherently safe. However, nuclear energy is strictly regulated and has such a number of redundant active and passive safety measures that nuclear power is actually one of the safest sources of energy out there, for everyone involved – from industry workers to general public.

This is akin to aviation. Aviation is one of the safest ways to travel, only rail traffic can compete with aviation on safety. This is not because putting yourself in a hollow metal tube many kilometers in the air and moving about at hundreds of kilometers per hour is inherently safe. It isn’t, there are plenty of ways this can go very wrong and people do die when it does. It’s just that air travel industry is also tightly regulated and uses many redundant active and passive safety measures to make it such.

Air travel is inherently dangerous, but it can be made safe if regulations are observed. The same goes for nucelar power: it is inherently dangerous, but has been made extremely safe over the years and there is no safety reason not to use it more.

Men are suffering

Nora Vincent.

Why can’t we find a way without China? We literally hate everything about them and China’s silence is practically guilt. Why can’t anyone just try to find the way around/without China?

Well, I’m afraid you are completely and totally deluded. Most of the world is behind China. Only ignorant bigots like you hate China.

Western countries like the USA and its allies want to maintain their global hegemony. China’s rise threatens this hegemony. It’s as simple as that.

They’re jealous and fearful of China’s rise. Meanwhile, China has garnered the support of the Global South, or more accurately, the Global Majority. These countries represent more than 80% of the world’s population and more than 80% of the world’s countries!

Why so much support? Four main reasons:

China has fought no wars in the last 45 years. No other world power has ever been so peaceful for so long.
China helps other countries with their infrastructure and economy through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It also leads BRICS, which is unifying the Global South.
China is the largest trading partner with over 120 nations. They all benefit enormously from trading with China.
China respects all nations and does not interfere in their politics. China sanctions nobody. China overthrows no foreign government.

We’re living in corporate dystopia and Gen Z is reacting accordingly

Keeping those in the West ignorant

I posted a comment / answer on Quora, and it was deleted. The space was a “Warfare” space, and was very heavily “Pro-America”. The same thing, that you all understand if you were brought up in the USA… America is the best, and the toughest and the king of the world… yeah. Sure.

Here’s the post…

Well, why is the nuclear buildup showing Xi Jinping preparing for a ‘large-scale war with America’?

This answer was declined. Posting here. If you know the reasons for it being declined Please inform me.

China is a peaceful nation.

But, it is NOT stupid.

…

The United States has thrown EVERYTHING at China. And I do mean EVERYTHING.

From “color revolutions” inside of China, to “color revolutions” in all the nations surrounding China. From undersea excursions and conflicts, to near-space satellite warfare. From cyber warfare, to bio-warfare attacks. From managed famines to lawfare assaults. From efforts designed to collapse the Chiense banking industry to efforts to collapse the Chinese real estate industry.

It’s been full spectrum and absolute.

But not reported in the “news” of the West.

…

Instead we hear of submarines ramming undersea mountains, freak geomagnetic storms, the “apparent random” firings of Naval Commanders, and the Secretary of the Navy. We read (in the West) about Chinese “warmongering” a build up for a “Taiwanese invasion”.

All this interspersed about how Putin has brain cancer, and how Russia is running out of ammo. We read about how Xi Peng is going to be disposed and how the poor downtrodden people of China are going to rise up for “democracy” and Freedom”.

…

Info war is in full swing.

There is ZERO credibility in Western “news” media. Today it is so outrageous and comically fake and ridiculous that it is amazing that these tabloids are still able to have people that watch and read their content.

…

So… Yeah. It’s full spectrum. EVERYTHING.

Of course…

The clueless in the West would believe the fake narratives of Putin losing, China collapsing, and America remaining strong. They will believe that COVID was fake, or if it was something of concern, then it was “China’s fault” for one reason or the other. That’s the narrative, and that’s want the oligarchy expects Westerners to believe.

…

The United States is a feudal plutocracy.

While China is military-based meritocracy.

…

And the question is…

“Why is China preparing for a war with the United States”?

Answer…

China must. China owes it to it’s people. China has a responsibility to its people to expect the best, but prepare for the worst… and prepare they ARE.

…

Oh, it’s just like the United States is throwing EVERYTHING at China, China is preparing with EVERYTHING as well.

And, let me tell you all…

They don’t read American / Western “news”.

They know what is REALLY going on.

…

So China is ready.

If you are a consumer of Western “news” you will be unaware of the following facts, but you do need to brace yourself for the realities.

Were the USA, either directly or through proxy, attacks China… China will throw nuclear warheads at American cities and military installations.

Oh, sure. China has a “no first use policy” in regards to nuclear weapons.

But within the FORMAL WORDING of this (particular) policy is one sentence that you all should all pay attention to…

“…if attacked… China reserves the right … to use every means at its disposal … to attack the nation that attacks it.”

For some reason, the Western “news” media glosses over this sentence.

Perhaps they cannot read Chinese, or simply just cut and paste their “news articles” directly out of Langley VA.

Whatever, the Chinese FORMAL STATEMENT regarding nuclear weapons use is very carefully worded, and intentionally ambiguous enough to give the most aggressive neocons pause to consider.

…

So, yeah. China is ready.

It was ready in 1950–53 when it defeated the United States in Korea, and is ready today as it dishes EVERYTHING thrown at it, right back to the United States to consume.

…

At this point in time…

The United States and China are like a married couple living together weeks prior to a divorce. The United States is cheating, bending words, manipulating systems… and thinking “They’ll never find out”.

While China, is playing it smart.

Already has contacted the divorce attorneys, arranged the legal papers and made all the necessary arrangements. Just waiting for the time of CHINA’s choosing to terminate the relationship.

…

Quick summary

China is READY to take on the United States, simultaneously with it’s proxy “allies”.
China WILL use nuclear weapons.
China is above-peer capable with the best equipment of the West.
China is a military-based meritocracy.

…

Quick Note

The disinformation about China permeates all levels.
China is a military-based meritocracy, but the West portrays this reality as “conscription”. Which is disingenuous. It gives the Western reader a pre-conceived illusion of poorly trained, unmotivated troops. But the reality is something quite different.

…

I was going though my stacks and found other posts similarly deleted on the American website.

Such as this one…

…

Is ‘World War 3’ really on the horizon?

I can understand your fear and concern.

I hope to calm you down with a nice happy dose of reality. The biggest culprit in this fear is the media. Whether it is social media, or main-stream media. Media is filling your mind with fear.

What the American Main-Stream Media says

According to 99.9999% of the American government controlled Western media; the world is heading towards world war 3 out of necessity. Both Putin and Xi are “loose cannons” with a selection of mental disorders and are out of control in trying to rule the world. Putin invaded Ukraine out of greed and lust, and Xi Peng will invade Taiwan for the same reasons. They despise democracy and freedom and want to rule the world as a dystopian nightmare world where everyone is controlled by Tiktok and weather balloons.

The REAL answer – being under-reported intentionally

World War 3 is the climax of the massive period of change that the world is going though. It is a generational event, and coincidences with solar activity. It is as predictable as the orbits of planets, and the mass movements of animals.

This period of change is a rather long event cycle and involves change at all levels. Some nations collapse. Some nations grow. Some groups engage in battles, while others suffer economic hardships. What ever happens, it is not homogeneous. But rather an aggregate of minor events sprinkled over a multi-decade long time periods.

The build-up to this period can be traced back to the 1960’s where the major dominant power; The United States, began a series of strategic blunders that set the stage for events that we are now witnessing.

The actual pivot point for contentious calamity occurred in 2008 with an economic meltdown in the West, and the resulting frantic splashing and doggie-paddling that we see today all spawn from it.

The actual war occurred in 2019 though 2022 with was the Coronavirus event. This was a three tiered biological phased attack on China by the United States.

Other events during this “war” consisted of the the disastrous 2020 Trump Flotilla into the South Chinese Sea, the undersea submarine wars from 2021 to 2023, and the satellite wars of 2020 to 2023.

Simultaneous with these events are the generalized cultural, social, and economic collapse of the United States and it’s Western proxies, the NATO incursions and war in the Ukraine following the “color revolution” in Kiev in 2014, and the failed Hong Kong color revolution of 2018 – 2020.

While the West shrinks in influence, the East (and Global South) grows. Both Russia and China are major global powers in all measurements, and are generally immune from the boiler-plate of attacks, and manipulations normally used by the West.

Africa is completely changing, and it has shed it’s colonial slave role and embraced a role as the “new” middle class in a rapidly changing world. Along with this follows a rag-tag collection of power centers around the world.

The world is now has entered into a “reconstruction” period globally. This is resulting in new alignments, and massive failures of nations and societies that are unable to adjust and change with the times.

This period will be a long one, and I am afraid that it has only begun.

Though, I anticipate the end of this period around 2030 or so, give or take two years. … The main-stream “news’ is designed to incite and inject fear to control people. I urge everyone to control themselves.

The future looks bright for most of the world. It is change that we do not like, and those in power want us to fear it. Do not. The intelligent person recognizes this and takes appropriate steps for a bright future ahead rather than clutching on the past though fear.

…

Resulting in this comment…

I see the “West” and in late-stage dying. The “dance of death” where the body contorts and twists and shudders.

Today…

Why are Chinese students frequently harassed by customs officials when entering the US? What kind of mindset does this reflect on the US authorities?

Not only just chinese from China but also chinese origin from others even from Singapore.

I travel to US for a dozen times both business and holidays but each time my checked in luggages 100% checked and prised open plus hand luggage checked even if you go to green lane.

This prove one thing for sure. US had created so many enemies around the world that they are living in fear of daily terrorist attacks whereas chinese people in China are living in peace and harmony without any fear or concern for their safety.

When you approach American policeman, they are ready to draw their guns whereas when you approach a chinese policeman, their mindset is that you need help.

That is the difference between China and America.

Baked Lasagna

Ingredients

Sauce

3 pounds ripe tomatoes, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
3 tablespoons tomato puree
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped

Lasagna

3/4 to 1 pound lasagna noodles
Butter
1/2 pound mozzarella cheese
1/4 pound Italian sausage or ground beef, coarsely chopped
2 hardboiled eggs, chopped
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup ricotta or cottage cheese

Instructions

Sauce

Put all the ingredients into a large cooking pot. Cover and simmer for about 1 hour.
Pass through a sieve; return to the pot, and season to your satisfaction. Continue to simmer until sauce has thickened.
Just before using this sauce, stir in 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter.
Lasagna: Brown sausage or beef, then drain.
Boil lasagna noodles. Drain and put a layer into a well buttered casserole dish.
Add a layer of mozzarella cheese, then a layer of sausage or beef and a thin layer of hardboiled egg.
Sprinkle with grated Parmesan and ricotta or cottage cheese. Moisten cheese with some of tomato sauce.
Continue in layers, finishing with a good thick layer of grated Parmesan.
Dot with butter and bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes.
Serve with garlic bread.

Don’t people in China wish to live in a democratic country?

I am a Chinese, have studied in the UK and traveled to many countries.

For me, China is democratic – probably even more democratic than western countries.

Of course, I am referring to the original meaning of the word democracy – the power of the state belongs to the people and the people have the right to rule the government.

Nowadays, democracy in the west often refers to multi-party competition, where the ruling party are elected by universal suffrage.

But this approach has some significant problems. As voters are ordinary people who has no specialized knowledge on managing the country, the core competitiveness of the election process becomes the ability to publicize public opinion, personal affinity, and persuasion, which have little to do with whether they can actually formulate and implement policies well, but are more relevant to the resources of the society and the media operation behind them.

In the west, the rule of the people is in a single choice question of political preference, and the frequency of being able to make a choice is once every four years. If you are the minority voter, you will not be able to get a satisfactory result in those four years.

In contrast, China’s “democracy” works like this:

1. A huge system of officials that everyone can enter by studying and taking exams – from the smallest local township government to the central government, all within the same pyramid-tested promotion system. For Chinese graduates, it is a very common career selection to pick an official position related to their major from an open government list, take a test on logic and issue processing skills, and become a government official. All newcomers need to start from the basic positions and get enough practical results before they are internally elected with promotion.

2. The criterion value of the government affairs is “people first”. The most important judgment dimension is whether they can improve the life of the majority and satisfy the people.

3. Public opinion monitoring and feedback mechanism. All levels of government have set up channels to receive public opinion, such as emails, petitions reception, or social media. For every actual problem, the government must give feedback or specific plans within a period of time; and after a period of time, they must do regular follow-up visits to ensure that the problem has been solved satisfactorily. All this is counted in the KPIs of government staff. If the people are not satisfied with this government’s response, they can complain to a higher level of government, which has absolute power over the next level of government, and the government department complained against will be penalized and monitored.

In China, the rule of the people is in the government’s “people first” evaluation criteria, and in the mechanism of feedback and resolution of specific issues that are highly valued. However, if your opinion is detrimental to the interests of the underprivileged, or if you are not looking for a solution, but simply venting your negative feelings and trying to get more people to share your negative feelings, then your opinion might be refused or ignored, or be deferred in to future considerations.

I think this is why people say: in the west, you can change the government, but you can’t change the policies; however in China, you can’t change the government, but you can change the policies.

Of course, both mechanisms have their own drawbacks. For example, since the core competence of universal suffrage is the ability of influencing public opinion, so having control of the media and enough money is almost equivalent to having a high probability of obtaining the highest power in the country; in China, it is very difficult to make the complex internal promotion completely transparent, and it is not easy for the people to monitor inefficiencies and corruption inside the system.

But for me and at least 80%+ Chinese people, the current one party Chinese government is still very satisfactory.

As for the so-called “Communist Party is not the same as government”: in fact, the CCP is not the same as the Soviet Union type of “communism”, for example, China has its market economy system and is running well. Actually when there is only one political party, the notion of party advocacy would be extremely weakened. In the case of China, people would tend to feel that the Chinese system is more like a parliamentary system even within the government. China is a country with a secular culture, and ideology discussion is not really that important, what matters to this government council is simply about insisting with the people-oriented value, and making people living in better lives.

To be honest, I think that the vast majority of the world’s people don’t care about politics.

People care more about their own lives – whether they can live healthy and happy lives with the people they love, whether the society is fair, safe and free, whether they can enjoy their civil rights as a human being, whether their problems can be solved and whether their dreams can be realized.

Also, I agree that China is better for ordinary people, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs to live in, but not for the extremely rich guys. If you are a rich tycoon or celebrity and has no interest in benefiting ordinary people, then the Chinese government might supervising you with very strict rules, you will have more freedom and power in the West.

But as for me, China is not bad.

Kirill Babaev: Here’s why the result of Taiwan’s election is bad news for the US

It will become apparent in the long term that China was the real winner

By Kirill Babaev, PhD, director of the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor of the Financial University, and deputy chairman of the Presidium of the National Committee for BRICS Research.

In 2023, the volume of trade between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait was $268 billion. This means Taipei traded more with its main adversary, Beijing, than with its foremost ally, Washington. And for Chinese business, Taiwan was a more important counterparty than the state’s key strategic partner, Russia.

These facts are important for an understanding of the current relationship between the two parts of China. They are inextricably linked not only by the commonality of language, history, and culture, but also by hundreds of thousands of trade and production contracts. And this may prove to be a decisive factor in the long-term struggle for the island between the great powers.

The elections in Taiwan on January 13 did nothing to change this. On the contrary, apart from pro-American candidate Lai Qingde’s victory (with a far-from-solid 40% of the vote), the parliamentary elections revealed the defeat of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which lost its majority and ten seats in the Legislative Yuan to the conventionally “pro-Chinese” Kuomintang Party.

The outcome has made the island’s power system somewhat unstable, suggesting that the main battle between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan is yet to come. However, the US has only one undeniable advantage in this war – the ability to pump its proxy with weapons and defense systems in anticipation of a violent conflict. China, on the other hand, has far more leverage. Thus, in the coming years, Beijing won’t try to solve the Taiwan problem militarily: on the contrary, it will attempt to turn America’s “Pyrrhic victory” on January 13 into a final US defeat in the next elections on the island.

In his first post-election comments, winning candidate Lai (who won’t officially become president until May) spoke in a peaceful way about Beijing and Sino-Taiwanese relations, without in any way trying to demonstrate a desire to unilaterally declare the island’s independence. US leaders have also spoken in the same vein, stressing that they intend to develop only “informal” relations with Taiwan, while continuing to be guided by the “One-China” principle.

As a result, Taiwan is now well aware that the path to independence is a dead end, as none of Taipei’s closest allies will endorse the move or recognize the existence of an “alternative China.” The path of maintaining the status quo, on the other hand, is the most unstable, because in this case the sword of Damocles of armed conflict between the US and China will hang over Taiwan, in which the island risks losing its entire economy and many thousands of its citizens’ lives.

The only option for Taiwan in the long term is a compromise with mainland China; some kind of full-fledged arrangement that will allow the island to maintain the way of life and economic system that it’s accustomed to, and that will allow Beijing to consider the question of reunification closed, or at least with a clear, if distant, solution.

Hong Kong may partly serve as a model for such a solution, but in the case of Taiwan, the compromise is likely to be much softer. Beijing and Taipei could agree on a roadmap to reunification by 2049 – ending a century-long cycle of confrontation. That plan could well lead to a union state along the lines of the EU or Russia and Belarus.

Of course, such an outcome would be good for all Chinese on both sides of the strait, as it would remove all risk of armed conflict or a ‘hostile takeover’ of Taiwan by the PRC. These are precisely the outcomes feared by all those who voted for Lai on January 13.

Only one country would be extremely disadvantaged by such a cross-strait arrangement, namely the US. Washington has invested too much in the doctrine of containment of China, in the formation of a chain of military and political alliances around its borders and a defense belt on the island of Taiwan itself, to lose this “unsinkable aircraft carrier.” Of course, the Americans will do everything in their power to oppose any kind of agreement between the two parts of China, whatever it may be.

But attempts to move Taiwan away from Chinese shores and closer to the US coast are geographically meaningless. As Beijing’s economic power grows, the importance of the Sino-Taiwan economic relationship will only increase (even if bilateral trade temporarily declined in 2023). The status quo that Washington has fought so hard to preserve is actually more favorable to China. It seems that President Lai Qingde will prove to be a much more balanced politician than the outgoing leader, Tsai Ing-wen. If this is the case, it may well come to pass that the January 13 elections were actually won by Beijing, not Washington.

Peter Man Comments

The author, as a smart PhD, should state the obvious. All Taiwan election results are bad for the US.

Once again, I will say something not echoing media platitudes. China is, in fact, conducting long-term strategic actions to weaken the hegemon, which will eventually collapse by exhaustion. This strategy has been applied many times in China’s history, and as a history lover, I will illustrate with one example, the war between Chu and Wu during the Spring and Autumn Era (771 – 476 BCE). This was the early Zhou feudal era when historians began recording state annals. Chinese annals in those days were known as Spring and Autumn, meaning a year. It came from the Shang, Chinese civilization’s progenitor, who did not have summer and winter seasons so spring and autumn represented a year.

Near the end of this era, the barbarian (culturally and linguistically non-Chinese) state of Chu in the south along the middle part of the Yangzi River became a behemoth. After making a strong matrimonial alliance with Qin in the northwest, which lasted until Qin Shihuang unified China, Chu threatened and made war on every state in the north while encroaching and swallowing small states to its east. The last bulwark against Chu’s eastern expansion to the Pacific coast was Wu, a small barbarian state centered around Suzhou to the west of Shanghai. Chinese annals recorded that Wu natives shaved their heads and tattooed their bodies, decidedly non-Chinese practices.

At the time, Chu had subjugated many small tribes and states between themselves and Wu, creating a buffer zone as well as a launch pad for future wars against Wu. When looking at this behemoth state of Chu with a hundred times the power of this small state of Wu living on the plains of Huai River, it would appear that Wu’s fate was sealed. Instead, over two generations, Wu would not only survive but defeat Chu in every battle, eventually capturing Chu’s capital.

One of Wu’s strategies was to light up endless fires in the buffer zone. Chu could not maintain its hegemony without reacting. Each time there was trouble, Chu had to send its army over long distances across mountainous areas, and each time Wu would withdraw into a defensive position nearby. When the Chu army, being tired, far from home and uncertain of their vassals’ loyalty, decided to retreat, the Wu army would ambush them and cause further damage. Thus, Wu, at very little cost, exhausted Chu (疲于奔命) and eventually defeated them.

The history of the Chu and Wu conflict is a much bigger story, but this illustrates how a big, hegemonic country with its fingers in every pie can be weakened from exhaustion caused by endless small fires. Knowing this, I’m not surprised that China is not using its weight to put out small fires. All this talk of China helping America cool things down in the Middle East or West Asia is just wishful thinking.

Another thing that China definitely should be aware of and which I have always averred, the US and Japan will not intervene militarily should the PLA decide to land in Taiwan. Chang Ya-chung, the deep blue KMT member who advocates immediate negotiations with China for peaceful reunification, said as much in a recent interview.

In short, Stop dreaming anyone will come and rescue us in a war with mainland China. If there is war, Taiwan will be destroyed like Ukraine. I guarantee not a single GI will die for you. Why not? Because their opponent will be the PRC, a well-armed nuclear state, America is not that stupid. They will tell you all kinds of rubbish to sell arms and use you as a proxy.

They will use you, the Taiwanese people, as a pawn and sacrifice you in a heartbeat.

So you better wake up and do what’s best for Taiwan and its people.” For all pols and pundits who paint Chang as a red communist trojan horse, he welcomes holding a public debate, but no one wants to take him up on the challenge.

No one wants that debate lest people learn the bitter truth.

Chang, as the principal of Dr. Sun College is well respected as an educator and well-liked by young Taiwanese. These well-educated young voters are not stupid. They voted en mass for Ko because they’re disillusioned with the corrupt KMT led by a scumbag who appointed an unwinnable nonentity as the presidential candidate.

What are some good examples of “life isn’t fair”?

The accusations emerged in May of 2016.

Amber Heard, Johnny Depp’s now ex-wife, posted pictures of his alleged abuse and the outcry was immediate.

The breakdown of a golden couple.

When Johnny was cast in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, news outlets were quick to condemn him.

How dare they hire him? He shouldn’t be there. He’s a terrible, terrible person.

Meanwhile, Heard was praised, crowned as a survivor and champion of abused women. She took jobs as a poster child for the ACLU and UN.

Johnny lost a reputation he worked for years to build. No one wanted to hire him, or even work with him. He was tainted by the label abuser.

He received hate, from once-fans, from the media, from basically everyone.

And, of course, it was justified. He hurt an innocent, defenseless woman. We should hate him. Right?

Tell the world I, Johnny Depp, a man, I’m a victim too of domestic violence

And see how many people believe or side with you.

But this year, Johnny released tapes that reframed the allegations we were all so quick to believe.

Maybe they weren’t so golden after all.

She admitted to hitting him and throwing cans and glass bottles at him. She says that glass from one such assault sliced the top of Depp’s finger off.

And then she mocked him. Because she knew no one would believe his word over hers.

You think life is fair?

This is a man who was physically assaulted by his wife and then torn down on global television because we all love a villain.

We all love a villain, even when they’ve done nothing wrong.

What office rule made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?

I ran an Engineering department that covered military equipment scattered across the country.

We had specialised staff based out of an office building who were dispatched nationwide as required.

We had a good atmosphere. Staff worked hard and long as required and when it was quiet were compensated with additional vacation days and “under the table” days off. Overtime was not available.

For example – it was fairly normal for an eng team to leave home at 4 in the morning to be at an airbase for 7:30, leave at 8 pm and do the same the next day, and for as long as required. The company refused to give hotel accommodation, considering every base within the country “drivable”.

A new admin boss took over and a biometric system was implemented. A decree was issued that EVERY member of staff MUST clock in and out, and while clocking out could be any time, clocking in had to be between 7 and 7:30 am.

I fought it for about 6 months but eventually was told to toe the line or leave.

It was no longer possible to pay staff back with vacation days, official or unofficial, and the company immediately lost hundreds of hours of productivity with staff, understandably cutting back their hours, feeling unappreciated. As their boss (and a human being) I could no longer ask them to work the ridiculous hours they had been previously working, knowing there was no compensation available.

Another productivity masterstroke from the same guy was the removal of all printers from eng department, putting us on the print server located on a different floor, sharing with other departments.

The boss had previously implemented a rule that petty cash could only cover items up to USD 80. One day we ran out of toner for the color printer, had to print documents for a top level meeting.

The boss, wanting to impress by cutting stationery costs, had delayed signing approval for purchase of toner, ordered weeks earlier, so the cupboard was bare! I contacted the IT guy and explained about the meeting, who was going to be there, and that the boss wasn’t around and he nipped out to the local mall and picked up toner at a cash cost of USD 81. As punishment, for exceeding the 80 buck limit, the boss removed all printers from Engineering.

These things happen when people get promoted beyond their capability.

What’s something on an employee’s first day that sets off red flags?

I can think of two instances.

One, was a friend of a friend. He was actually a pretty smart guy, and did programing of some sort. The guy’s personal life was a disaster. His wife left him, he bought a car he couldn’t afford, then got fired from his job. He kept the car but stopped making payments, and hid the car so they couldn’t repo it. He was staying at my friends house for a while and he screwed that up as well by being a jerk to his hosts. So, he finally found a job as a programmer, and it seemed he was going to be able to turn his life around. His first day on the job, he sent an email to upper management, and basically cc’d the entire company, telling them everything they were doing wrong. >They came to see him, thanked him for coming in, and fired him. This guy is a total dufus.

The second is almost the same. A friend mine, never seems to be able to hold a job. She told me she got hired at a new place. She wanted to make her mark there, so sent the president and the executive a long e-mail about how they could improve the company by taking her advice, and listed a bunch of her suggestions. This, after working there for less than a week.. yup she got fired.

Some people are just too stupid.

What caused you to realize how dysfunctional your marriage was, and how long had you been in denial?

Snow fell in Texas and the whole metroplex closed down. School was cancelled, power outages disabled many households, and I found myself collecting fallen branches in our front yard to make a fire for warmth.

My worries about entertaining my five young kids for the day, however, quickly dwindled as my two oldest began to organize an elaborate project in the back yard.

“Come on, let’s build an igloo!” they hollered.

I thought, “OK, that’s not going to work, but at least they’ll be occupied for a while.”

Bradley, my oldest, gathered supplies, while Amber helped my younger kids get dressed in layers of their warmest clothes. Garden gloves had to suffice for hand ware, but nobody minded. Excitement lit up the house to where we barely needed electricity.

I went to work starting a fire in the fireplace and preparing a crude meal that required no heat.

I looked outside and saw the meager beginnings of a snow structure and, after feeling a bit sorry for them, thought, “This might be a great chance for my kids to use real-life problem solving skills.”

The next time I looked out, I was amazed! Someone had the idea to empty out the sidewalk chalk boxes and use the plastic containers as molds for the igloo blocks.

They worked all day on that igloo, eventually building it up to Bradley’s head. As the sun went down, they made plans to finish the structure the next day.

All my kids went to bed early, as there was really nothing much to do in the dark, and they were exhausted from their laborious day.

Then, my husband came home from work. His business never closed. He parked in the driveway behind our house and came in through the back door. Being so dark, he ran right into the igloo, got snow “all over” him and became irate.

He destroyed the igloo, claiming that the weather would soon become warm, the snow blocks would melt, the grass underneath would be saturated, resulting in a huge mud puddle and a ruined lawn. He then got a shovel and a flash light and spread the snow all over the back yard. The igloo was gone and I was furious.

That was February.

The crushing of the igloo had crushed my kids’ hearts, and when I stood at the window watching my husband with a shovel and a flashlight spread out snow to preserve his lawn, something else was crushed too. My denial — at how dysfunctional our marriage was — shattered, and other fits of his unnecessary anger over the last decade flooded my mind, just like that igloo was going to flood the backyard.

I filed for divorce in March.

That was 14 years ago, and I am now happily married to a man who would never dream of crushing a child’s igloo.

What is the craziest thing you have ever said or done at an interview and still gotten the job?

This happened with one of my friend:

After getting rejected in his first interview of the day, he was naturally dejected. So he entered the room with a frustrated face.

He was hardly interested in the company profile and such was his mood that he wanted to take someone on.

Interviewer: Are you fine? You don’t look well!

Friend: I haven’t eaten since morning, I prepared for my previous interview so well and got rejected in the very first round.

I: So, did you prepare for this interview as well?

F: No! I was more interested in that company. And I wanted to give my best at one place.

I: Do you know trading?

F: No! I don’t!

I: Then why are you interested in this company?

F: For the money! Do you think all those standing outside know trading?

I: Atleast some of them might?

F: I’m telling you, they don’t.

I: So you are a student of geology, right? How do think you’ll be able to manage working in a trading company?

F: There is a novel named Liar’s Poker in which the male protagonist was a student of Art History and ended up getting trained at Salomon Brothers. He works as a financial journalist now. And yes, it’s not fiction, the guy wrote it as his semi-autobiography. I think I will be fine.

(He knew he scored there)

(After asking some basic tell-me-about-you questions)

I: What’s your biggest strength?

F: I’m very patient.

I: See! We need people who are dynamic and full of energy. I don’t think patience and our required qualities go hand in hand.

(This was like a tipping point for him)

F: Have you heard of Rahul Dravid? He is regarded as one of the most patient cricketer. Yet, once he had the fastest fifty in ODIs. When he played his first T-20, he hit 3 consecutive sixes. Just because someone is patient doesn’t mean they can’t be dynamic and aggressive.

(Interviewer gave a smile at this answer)

Result: Selected

UFC fighters were assaulted by the woke mob

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ALCYyC1P2hM?feature=share

Federal Reserve Chairman: U.S. Debt “Unsustainable”

Nation Hal Turner 05 February 2024

The United States is on an “unsustainable” path with regard to its national debt and it is time to address the issue, Jerome Powell said in an interview aired Sunday.

The US national debt currently stands at more than $34 trillion, according to the US Treasury.

“In the long run, the US is on an unsustainable fiscal path. The US federal government’s on an unsustainable fiscal path. And that just means that the debt is growing faster than the economy,” Powell told CBS’ “60 Minutes” news program.

“It’s probably time, or past time, to get back to an adult conversation among elected officials about getting the federal government back on a sustainable fiscal path,” he said in the interview, which was recorded on Thursday.

In the CBS interview, Powell reiterated that stance, saying it was unlikely that a rate cut would come at the next meeting of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in March.

“I think it’s not likely that this committee will reach that level of confidence in time for the March meeting, which is in seven weeks,” Powell said.

I fear living a normal format of life (study, job, marriage, kids). What are your thoughts on living a solitary life following passion and various hobbies with less human interactions?

No problems at all

If you have the MONEY then no issues at all

You can buy a place away from town and live a solitary life and follow your hobbies

Study is mainly for a Job
Job is for making money to sustain yourselves
Marriage and Kids are to take you to your next generation

As long as you can sustain yourself without studies, you don’t need the same

As long as you have enough money, you don’t need a job

As for marriage and kids – that’s entirely your choice. You can choose to avoid either.

The question is WHY?

Are you really uninterested in human reactions or are you having a massive chip on your shoulder?

This is key

A Major break up or A fight in the family or Hidden Sexuality are some reasons why a person may feel that he doesn’t want human interaction

It’s temporary

If you flunk an exam or don’t get through an interview then you may feel the same

So you have to be ABSOLUTELY SURE you want to avoid any of this without any other factor

Another reason could be FEAR OF COMPETITION

So my advise is – Explore yourself and find out WHY you want to stay and live a life of solitude

Then TRY IT FOR A WHILE

Try to live without speaking to parents or relatives or friends.

No Whatsapp with friends

No contact with friends

No outings

Just stay and go to work and come home and live to yourself with minimal interactions

Then see if you can manage it for LIFE

What are some mind-blowing facts about the Vietnam War?

The VC/NVA had dedicated SIGINT (signals intelligence) units involving in radio interception, telephone tapping, and code-breaking. Their members were fluent in many languages. In 1970, the U.S. 25th Infantry Division found a North Vietnamese SIGINT facility hidden underground near the Thi Tinh River; every single radio communication of the U.S. 1st and 25th Divisions had been logged, and the intercepts translated into Vietnamese.
In 1966, all 14 Vietnamese barbers working in the U.S. 25th Infantry Division’s base camp were Vietcong sympathizers. They didn’t cut anybody’s throat but they did gather intelligence.
During the battle for Hamburger Hill in May 1969, U.S. friendly fire killed 7 and wounded 53 of their own men.

The first B-52 operational losses of the Vietnam war took place on 18 June 1965 when two B-52s were destroyed in a mid-air collision, costing American taxpayers 20 million dollar.
In early 1970, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces made a short incursion into Cambodia and discovered huge NVA compounds containing: 4,793 small arms, 730 mortars, over 3 million rifle rounds, 6.5 million anti-aircraft rounds, 7,285 rockets, 124 trucks, nearly 1 thousand tons of rice and a telephone switchboard.
A report issued by the Pentagon in 1973 estimated that 35% of all enlisted men who had served in Vietnam had tried heroin and 20% had been addicted at some point during their tour.
By 1968, the U.S. had set up 40 ice-cream plants in Vietnam and 760,000 tons of supplies were being delivered every month. American movies, stage shows, color TVs, chilled beer, Napoleon brandy, etc. were readily available. Rear-echelon troops could imagine they were still back home.
Some 10,000 U.S. servicemen lost at least one limb in Vietnam – more than in World War II and Korea put together.
The number of U.S. helicopter lost during the war: 4,865.
Eight (8) million tons of bombs were dropped on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, 4 times more than the amount dropped in all of World War 2.
The amount of ammunition fired per U.S. soldier was 26 times greater in Vietnam than during World War II.
For each artillery shell or rocket hitting its base camp, the U.S. 25th Infantry Division’s official policy was to fire 1,000 shells on the surrounding countryside in retaliation. (Talking about a rich man’s war, huh)
Lucky number 13: An estimated 27 thousands tons of unexploded ordnance were littered throughout the country at the end of the war. In November 2015, one unexploded 406mm naval shell was unearthed from a garden in Quang Tri Province, near the former Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Presumably, this 2,000-pound shell was fired from the battleship USS New Jersey.

14. Over 18 million gallons (or 72 million liters) of defoliants were used throughout the war, even now Vietnamese children are being born with horrifying physical disabilities as a direct result of the US use of chemical defoliants.

15. In 1965, around 42% of all chemical defoliants sprayed in South Vietnam were aimed at food crops, and the country quickly went from rice exporter to rice importer.

16. At the peak of their commitment, South Korea had 44,829 troops in South Vietnam, Australia had 7,672, Philippines sent 2,000, Taiwan sent 31 and Fascist Spain sent 13 men. Morocco sent 10,000 cans of sardines.

17. By the early 1970s, years before the war’s end, South Vietnam’s landscape was already pockmarked with an estimated 21 million bomb and artillery craters, covering some 350,000 acres in all.

18. At its peak, the U.S. effort in Vietnam was soaking up 37% of all American military spending and required the fighting strength of more than 50% of all Marine Corps divisions, 40% of all combat-ready army divisions, and 33% of the navy.

19. In mid 1969, the GI underground newspaper in Vietnam, “GI Says,” publicly offered a $10,000 reward for the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Weldon Honeycutt, the officer responsible for the disastrous attack on Hamburger Hill in May that year. There were at least 7 attempts, but Honeycutt managed to live out his tour and return to the U.S.

20. US Navy pilot (later Senator and 2008 Presidential Candidate) John McCain was taken prisoner by North Vietnam on October 26, 1967 when his A-4 aircraft was shot down over Hanoi. Upon discovering that his father was the admiral commanding all U.S. forces in the Pacific, North Vietnam offered to return him early, in exchange for his cooperation. McCain, however, insisted that standard military procedures be followed and prisoners of war be returned in the order of their date of capture. He ended up spending 5 and a half years in captivity and was frequently tortured.

Sources:

1–2: The Tunnels of Cu Chi: Tom Mangold

4–10, 13, 14, 16: Vietnam Nigel Cawthorne

11, 12, 15, 17, 18: Kill Anything That Moves- Nick Turse

The Divorce Rules for Men

I already went through two of these things. Ugh. They were painful. Not be like me.

https://youtu.be/qlJNTSMwGO4

What did someone say/do that made you close down your account and go to another bank?

3 of my kids were in a horrible car accident. 2 only had minor injuries but my youngest son, Joe, was severely injured. He had a brain injury and fractured orbital plane requiring immediate surgery. When the insurance company settled the 2 received $1500.00 in a trust until they turned 18. But Joe was awarded $35,000. The courts insisted the trust was a regular bank, which had lower interest rates, rather than my credit union. When the bank received the 2 trusts for $1500 we decided to put the money into CDs, at the time CDs were getting 8–9% interest. Then Joe’s case was settled and the money sent to the same bank. However the bank refused to put his into a CD, instead they put into regular savings which paid maybe 3%. My husband went to his business bank and had them look over the court order. That bank said there was no valid reason for not putting the money onto a CD and they requested a wire transfer to their bank placed all 3 into an even higher rate termed to end when each turned 18. As a result Joe had 65,000 dollars when he graduated from high school. The 1st bank tried to fight the move but the court backed us up. Their loss Joe’s win.

Ancient Romans Reproduced so much that A Plant Went Extinct

ByKnow Nepal

Ancient Romans and Greeks used a plant called Silphium as a super effective contraceptive. But here’s the crazy part: they used it so much that it actually went extinct. Can you imagine that? This plant was so important to them, and they relied on it so heavily, that they ended up losing it forever.

Its heart-shaped seeds are thought to be the reason we associate the symbol with romance to this day.

It was cherished by the Romans and held such a special place in their hearts that they immortalized it in poems, songs, and esteemed works of literature. Its popularity was so profound that it contributed to the wealth and prosperity of the city of Cyrene, located in modern-day Shahhat, Libya, making it the wealthiest city in Africa.

The history of silphium can be traced back to ancient times. It was first mentioned in writings by the Greek poet Hesiod in the 8th century BCE, and it was also referenced in the works of other ancient Greek writers, including Theophrastus and Aristotle. The ancient Greeks believed that silphium was a gift from the gods and valued it highly for its medicinal properties.

The Greek residents of Cyrene valued silphium to such an extent that they depicted its silhouette on their currency before relinquishing control to the Romans. The significance of this extraordinary plant was even recognized by Julius Caesar, who stored an impressive stockpile of 1,500 pounds (680 kilograms) in the official treasury.

It grew abundantly in the wild in ancient North Africa, particularly in the region that is now modern-day Libya. It had large heart-shaped leaves, tall stalks, and yellow flowers, which grew in clusters. It was unique in its flavor and aroma. The leaves and stems were used to flavor food and wine, while its juice was used as a natural remedy for a variety of ailments.

Not only as a contraceptive and in beverages, but Silphium was also used for treating a variety of medical conditions such as coughs, sore throats, and indigestion.

The plant grew only in a small region around Cyrene, which made it a rare and valuable commodity. As the plant became more and more scarce, its price skyrocketed, making it became more valuable and further increasing the demand for it. Despite efforts to cultivate the plant and protect it from overharvesting, it ultimately proved to be unsustainable and went extinct.

The loss of the Silphium plant had significant consequences for the ancient Greeks and Romans. Without access to this effective form of birth control, the population of these societies may have grown at a faster rate, leading to increased competition for resources and potentially putting strain on their economies and environments.

But the story of Silphium doesn’t end there. In fact, its extinction may have had even wider-reaching consequences. The plant was not only used as a contraceptive but also as a remedy for a variety of ailments. Its loss meant that people were no longer able to rely on it for these medical purposes, and they had to find alternative treatments. This had a major impact on the health and well-being of the ancient Greek and Roman people.

The extinction of the Silphium plant serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of overconsumption and the need to carefully manage our use of natural resources. It also serves as a reminder of the important role that plants like Silphium have played in human history, and the need to preserve and protect the biodiversity of our planet. So the next time you hear about a plant or animal going extinct, remember the story of Silphium and the lessons it holds for us all.

Today, the exact identity of silphium remains a mystery, as no specimens of the plant have survived. However, it is believed to have been related to the fennel or giant fennel plant, and its medicinal properties are thought to have been due to a resinous substance contained within the plant. The legacy of silphium can still be seen in ancient artwork and writings, which depict the plant and its many uses.

How did people’s attitudes change towards you after you bought your first luxury car?

I was investigated by CID, are you selling drugs? Are you working in a strip club? Are you dating men who give you money?

A rumor that I was sleeping with the Post Commanding General went around my unit.

I was placed on night shift, and every crosswalk duty for a month.

My promotion paperwork for an upcoming board disappeared.

Keep in mind this was at Ft. Benning GA in 1997, I was an MP (military police)

The” war on drugs” was still around and the perception in the news was that the only African Americans who drove luxury cars were drug, that was the “obvious” conclusion.

My Platoon sergeant finally pulled me into his office and asked “private, how in the hell can you afford a brand new Mercedes!” I told it was 7 years old, she just looked good, it was the entry level Mercedes so was affordable and my payments were about 125.00 a month (can’t remember exact amount).

He sat back and just laughed, and said “ok that makes sense”

Now remember this was 1997, AOL was just coming out so an online search was not possible. And it never occurred to the big heads in CID to ask me how much I paid for the car, how old was it, all the questions my platoon Sergeant asked me. I am still shaking my head about that.

I was more mad that people thought that I would sleep with the Commanding General, I was 22 so he was probably 50+ so in my young eyes he was oooold, like The Crypt Keeper old! ROFL!

I have always driven a MB since, have two in the garage now.

Discipline

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ik5e3oF2bus?feature=share

Do you think Senator Tom Cotton’s questioning of Chew Shou Zi, TikTok CEO, implies that Singaporeans have communist ties just because of the ethnic Chinese majority in Singapore?

Chinese = villains.

This is the same prejudicial calculus behind the pogroms, lynchings, riots and destruction suffered repeatedly by Chinese communities around the world over the last few centuries.

In Indonesia, formerly known as Batavia, it has happened repeatedly, and it will happen again.

In Malaysia, the Emergency eventually led to depopulation of the Chinese through the forced Separation of Singapore, and the implementation of race-specific policy to encourage emigration through the clever use of Singapore as a relief valve.

In America, a massive wave of violence against Chinese immigrants beginning in the 1870s culminated in the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Scott Act, and the Geary Act in the 1880s-1890s. There were massive celebratory demonstrations in California each time an act was passed.

YELLOW PERIL became a crystallized phrase in the press at the turn of the 20th century.

Chinese in America were bottom of the ladder, and treated worse than vermin.

Fast forward to the 21st century and the same attitudes persist. If the US could, it would have bombed Beijing or Shanghai like Gaza is being pounded today, and insist it isn’t a genocide.

Considering what his ancestors perpetrated repeatedly, Tom exhibited nothing more than rude antics, part of the election gameplan in a crucial “winner takes all” Presidential election year.

What we must bear in mind is the naked prejudice revealed and confirmed by the performance, and how the same sentiment can rapidly boil over into hate that require bloodletting to calm.

We should all make preparations for war in East Asia in the coming decade.

BULLETIN: EUROPEAN COUNTRY ISSUES NOTAM FOR “UNPLANNED MILITARY ACTIVITY NECESSARY TO PROTECT NATIONAL SECURITY”

World Hal Turner 06 February 2024

We now have an precise date window for the outbreak of World War 3 in Europe. A country has issued a NOTAM for “Unpanned military activity necessary to protect national security.” This LIFE-SAVING content is now open to the General Public —

Poland has issued a Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) involving the ENTIRE eastern 1/4 of the country of Poland from Gdansk in the north to the southern tip of the country, including the border with Belarus and Ukraine.

Specifically, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PANSA) in Coordination with the Polish Air Force has Introduced a Notice-to-Air-Missions (NOTAM) from February 5th to May 5th for the entire East of the Country on the Border with Ukraine due to the reported possibility of Unplanned Military Actions related to ensuring National Security.

The NOTAM requires any Civilian Aircraft which is Operating inside of the Zone to remain in Radio Contact with Flight Authorities and to Activate their Transponder as to prevent their Disruption of Increased Activity by Military Aircraft.

Hal Turner Analysis

It seems to me, as a guy with average intellect, the only reason Poland would do this is because they KNOW there will be a NATO entry into the Russia-Ukraine war during this specific time period, and as soon as that entry begins, war between NATO and Russia will ensue. The NOTAM was issued yesterday and began yesterday, February 5, so WE ARE ALREADY IN THE WINDOW for the start of actual World War 3.

Also, as a regular guy with average intellect, this notice tells me they don’t yet know the specific date, but they know the window of time, which, to me, means when this comes, it will happen like a lightning bolt from the sky. I suspect we, the general public, will have NO WARNING AT ALL.

For weeks now, European countries have been telling their citizens to stock-up on Prescription medicines they may need to live. Many people found this advice curious; after all, why would there be a need to do something like that? Now, we seem to know why.

It looks to me as though they have been planning a NATO entry into the Ukraine war for quite some time, and they’re trying to prep the public for the war that NATO is going to cause.

In addition to countries in Europe telling their people to stock up on Prescription medicines, other nations, like Sweden and the UK, have been openly telling their citizens to “prepare for war” with emergency food, water, medicine, fuel, flashlights, batteries and portable radios for news.

So, it seems to me, the writing on the wall is now blazingly clear.

As all readers may recall, Russia made plain at the start of their Special Military Operation (SMO) into Ukraine, that if NATO chose to enter the conflict, Russian conventional forces are NOT comparable to NATO. Russia admitted that from the start.

Russia then also made clear that “We are a nuclear power, and our abilities in this area are superior to NATO.” Russia finished by saying, “If NATO declares Article 5 Collective Self Defense against Russia, it will be a war that no one will win.”

Those words . . . . “a war no one will win” is a nuclear war.

So we are now in the window for the outbreak of actual nuclear war, from right this minute, until May 5.

I earnestly hope my readers have stocked-up on Emergency food, water, medicines, an electric generator with stored fuel to run it, so as to have electricity for refrigerators, freezers, maybe some light.

We are OUT OF TIME. You have to possess these things NOW or get what you can IMMEDIATELY.

As I mentioned earlier, it seems to me we will have ZERO warning about this. When it begins, it will likely escalate so fast, none of us will have any time to react.

If you don’t have your emergency supplies before this breaks out, there will be no way at all for you to get them.

The general public – who wait until the very last minute to do — . . . anything . . . . — will be in shear panic. Stores will be immediately flooded with shoppers trying to get their hands on anything they can. It will be chaos. Bedlam.

Store shelves will be wiped clean within a couple hours.

So if you don’t have your stuff, you won’t be able to get it.

Please, in the name of Almighty God, I implore you to get prepped right now.

You need:

Shelf-stable foods: Pasta, Rice, Dried Beans, Canned meats, Canned vegetables, Condiments (Ketchup, Mustard, Mayonnaise, Salt, Pepper, SUGAR), cooking oil, Jarred pasta sauces and the like.

WATER! A human needs 8 eight-ounce glasses of water, per day, to survive. If the nukes fly, the public water supply will become contaminated. You MUST have water stored. Not for doing dishes, or showering, but to consume and cook with!

Medicines you take to survive. For instance, my wife had Thyroid cancer and her Thyroid was surgically removed. But a human cannot live without Thyroid Hormone, so she has to take a pill EVERY DAY just to continue living. If she runs out of those pills, by day 5 of no pill, she will be dead.

If YOU or your family members take medicines to live, YOU need to stock up. Tell your doctor to give you a prescription so you can stock up. Tell him why you want it. And pay for it with your own money, because your insurance company WILL NOT PAY.

A generator or some type of small solar array with a battery. You need to be able to power your refrigerator/freezer a couple hours a day to prevent food from spoiling. Have spare fuel for that generator, but don’t store flammable fuel in your house. It has to be outside. And NEVER run a generator indoors. Gas-operated generators give off carbon monoxide gas which is LETHAL. You would die from the fumes within minutes if you ran the generator indoors.

COMMUNICATIONS GEAR: Get yourself a small, cheap CB Radio ($39) with a small antenna for your car or your house. If this thing happens, and I believe it will, our electric grid may go down. All the TV and Radio stations have generators, but they may go down too after a few days of no power. YOU have to be able to communicated with neighbors, friends, and the like.

Get a SHORTWAVE RECEIVER – small ones operate on batteries. They’ll let you hear the news from many countries around the world. You’ll be able to keep informed! Have spare batteries for it, too.

Flashlights for each family member and replacement batteries for each light.

The list is **NOT** complete, and for some of us, what we “need” seems endless, but these are the absolute essentials you need. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THEM.

What, “You know what, just to be safe,” thing did you do that saved yourself or your loved ones?

I was working on a ship, we were in a relatively mild storm, and a line had come loose and was flapping in the wind. I sent the deck hand out to secure it, he was wearing a floatation jacket, to keep him dry, and keep him afloat, if he fell over board. There was a railing all the way around the deck, except for the stairway. Since it wasn’t a bad storm, he wasn’t required to put on a safety line, and to tell you the truth, back in the 1980s people were pretty lax about safety, and safety lines were not always worn when they should be.

Just before he left the bridge, I said, “You know what, we should practice with the safety line, when its easy to get around, rather than only gain experience when its dangerous”

He wasn’t happy, they were a pain in the rear, and got tangled in every thing. But he put it on, and just clamped it onto the railing, when a rogue wave hit, and washed him down the deck, and under the railing. I grabbed a safety line, clamped on, and started to pull him up. Another wave came and washed him right back onto the deck. I dragged him into the bridge.

We always used safety lines after that, in even mild storms.

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

We would take off a week or two around christmas to go visit family since we lived halfway across the US from them. Usually we would get a cat-sitter, but on one occasion, we didn’t have anybody lined up, and we were flying Southwest, which allows small animals in the cabin. I went by the airport to buy the special mesh carrier they require you to use as well as pay the fee for bringing an animal on-board.

On the day of travel, the cat is mildly sedated and attracting a lot of attention—people love animals in airports, and cats are especially uncommon to see.

While waiting for our connection, the attendants at the gate called us to the desk to inform us there was a family with cat allergies going to be on the same flight and to mitigate any issues, the family had opted to sit in the very back of the plane, and would we please mind boarding in the first group and selecting a seat towards the very front? Hell yeah! awesome, let’s do it!

So we aren’t the very first to board, the special priority members still got first dibs, but we do manage to get seats in the second row behind an older couple, so pretty good on distancing from the family with the allergies.

I’m holding the cat in the carrier on my lap while people board before sticking her under the seat, and at some point a passenger or flight attendant comments on how they love cats, at which point, the woman in the row ahead of us swivels to say “there’s a CAT?! but I’m allergic!”.

A nearby flight attendant explains that we are being seated up here to accommodate a family who also has an allergic member and that this woman and her companion are welcome to reseat in the back if it’s going to be a problem, but the cat will be confined to the carrier at all times, and they ask me to go ahead and put her under the seat in front of me, which I do.

“But, my husband needs the front row seat! His legs get cramps otherwise!”

“Well, you’re welcome to move back there by yourself then, ma’am”

It turned out she didn’t feel her allergies were severe enough to justify that. Her only symptoms I could observe during the flight were disdainful sniffs every so often.

I was very pleased at the respect paid to my cat, who was basically a ticketed passenger and had followed protocol, and I left the attendant a glowing review on the SWA site.

Are there people who are so smart that you think they are stupid?

My husband.

An amazing husband. An amazing father. Always putting his family first. An engineer. Smart. Smart as a whip.

At most things.

sometimes he does things and I don’t know wether to laugh or laugh and cry.

there was the the time he took back a new pair of shoes because the left one was too tight. The salesman with a deadpan face pulled the paper stuffing out if the shoe and said, try it now.

there was the time he got banned from the neighborhood gas station because he drove off with the gas handle still in the gas tank.

The time he jumped on his new racing bike but forgot there were no pedals. Yes I helped him up off the yard and died laughing.

so.., you get it.

I mentioned it to him once, for a smart guy you sure do a lot of not-so smart stuff.

He smiled. And shrugged his shoulders, ya, go figure, when someone’s smart brain switch turns on that bright, something else up there has to shut off.

God I love that man!

What is the most satisfying thing you’ve seen happen when someone rudely cut ahead of a long line?

When I still practiced dentistry, I was running tight on time getting to work, but I had to fuel my stomach first or pay the consequences. So I stood in line at Panera’s, only one person in front of me, when a woman dashed in just as the cashier called, “Next!”

To my shock (and the guy ahead of me), the woman dashed right on up to the cashier and began to place her order.

I walked over and pointed out to the cashier how the other guy and I had been waiting at least ten minutes, while this woman she was waiting on had just now flown through the door. The cashier had already started ringing up the woman’s order, so said cashier sheepishly shrugged and grimaced a half-assed apology, like, What do you expect me to do now, it’s too late. And continued on.

Entitled woman, in the meantime, yelled at me, “I’m running late for work!” As though that explained everything. To which I replied, “So am I! But I was here first, and now you’re going to make me even more late.”

She waved me off as the cashier went to get her order.

Now for the satisfaction.

As I walked toward the door with my bag of food, entitled woman stood at a counter to add sugar, etc. to her extra-large coffee, when the cup flipped over and spilled its contents all across the counter and onto her.

It may have been mean of me, but I said loud enough for her to hear, “Perfect karma,” walked on by and out the door.

A lesson for Americans to learn

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NdRfvJvncW4?feature=share

Did anyone ever survive the Nazi gas chambers?

Rarely, some people managed to survive the gas chambers and were not killed immediately afterwards. One such person is Gena Turgel and her story is more than astonishing. She survived three Nazi concentration camps and in Auschwitz-Birkenau was forced naked into the gas chambers.

Gena and Norman

She was 16 when her hometown of Krakow, Poland, was bombed by the Luftwaffe on September 1, 1939, the first day of the war. Norman had relatives in Chicago, but the family delayed putting plans to move there into action, and Poland was quickly conquered by the Germans.

In the Jewish ghetto of Krakow Gena lost two brothers fighting against the Nazis. She was then sent to Plaszow concentration camp, where she survived for two and a half years until her transfer to Auschwitz. There she survived numerous experiments conducted by Nazi “Angel of Death” Josef Mengele.

The most surprising part of her story is that she did not realize she was in a gas chamber until another prisoner told her. “Do you know what just happened? You were in a gas chamber!”. said Gena: “I never realized I was in the gas chamber… It must not have worked.

The “Krema 1” gas chamber at Auschwitz.

Here is how she described his path to the gas chamber,

“We went into that room with the stone floor and holes in the ceiling. We were shivering, it was very cold, and we were waiting and waiting.”

In Auschwitz, “the water was undrinkable and we lived mainly on beet soup,” she wrote. “Everywhere we went the horrible stench of the crematoria followed us.”

The time spent in Auschwitz left its consequences. Since then, Gena wore her perfume to forget the smell of the camp.

After two months in Auschwitz, as the Red Army advanced toward Auschwitz, she was sent on a “death march,” first to Buchenwald concentration camp and then to Belsen, where she shared a barrack with Anne Frank and offered herself as a nurse because of her knowledge of German. When Belsen was liberated by the British, she showed a young army officer, Norman Turgel, the hospital where she worked.

In October 1945, she and Sergeant Turgel were married in Lübeck, Germany, in a synagogue that the Germans had used as a stable during the war. She was 21 years old at the time.

Mr. Turgel died in 1995. Mrs. Turgel is survived by her three children, eight grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. Gena Turgel died on June 7, 2018 at her home in England at the age of 95.

This story is true, but you don’t have to trust me: feel free to do your research on the internet.

What was the biggest error you found on a store receipt?

Local grocery store where my niece worked for a while. One day I saw a sale on my favorite ice cream that I could not believe. It said on the sign 5 for $2.00. Wow I thought, that’s either a bad mistake by an employee misplacing the numbers, or just maybe the ice cream was out of date. I check dates and they were fine. So I grabbed five of my favorite flavors and headed to pay. I was fully expecting to pay $5 for two of them, which was still a bargain.

At the self checkout I rang them up and sure enough they were $5 for two. No problem I had taken a photo of the sign, and call the cashier over. I explained the situation and the sign. The lady then calls over a manager, who I explain again about the sign and the pricing. She does some button pushing, some things pop up on the screen, and she leaves saying she will go correct the sign. I said I was perfectly fine paying the $5 for two, but just wanted to let them know it was confusing. All went fine so I thought. They were nice and courteous as usual.

I get home and pack my 5 delicious pints of ice cream into our freezer. I was just curious what they charged me for the single pint, so I grabbed the receipt to have a look. Well, the only thing I could find for ice cream was that single $2.50 pint. Apparently the manager had deleted the other 4 from the que. I just got 4 free ice creams! I started thinking about it and I remember the employee had bagged up the ice cream herself as the manager punched away at the screen.

I called the store and explained the situation, saying I didn’t want to get anyone in trouble. I was told well it was an honest mistake and they didn’t take food back, so enjoy the sweets on them. I most certainly did enjoy those free pints which seem to taste better knowing they were free.

I feel no sympathy for the homeless because I feel like it is their own fault. Are there examples of seemingly “normal” and respectable people becoming homeless?

Know what? I’m homeless. I live in the driver’s seat of my Chevy Aveo.

I got there because my mom owned the house I was living in and paying her my house payments. I lost my job and she immediately told me she was going to sell the house. Keep in mind that I hadn’t missed a payment, and I offered her my 401K, which was ten months’ of payments to give me time to find a new job and keep things steady.

I have severe depression and anxiety, and this threw me into a severe depression episode where I talked about suicide. One of my friends freaked out about this and called the police who entered my house without permission and forced me out and into a shitty hospital. (That’s a whole other story. I came out in worse shape than when I went in.) While in the hospital, my family came and got my keys so my cats could be taken care of. Instead, they took my cats (who are at a foster home right now) and wouldn’t let me back in the house. They found a flipper, who paid $8,000 for my house and sold it for $80,000 after throwing out all of my possessions, putting a fresh coat of paint on everything and remodeling the bathroom.

I was left with my car, and that’s it. A friend took me in for a year, but he wanted to rent out the room I was in so I got kicked to the curb. That was 2 days before Thanksgiving.

I currently work 2 jobs but still don’t make enough to get a place to live. (Yay low wages.) I tried to take advantage of low income housing, but after a year and a half of filling out forms, there just isn’t anything, so I gave up. I’ve heard too many horror stories about shelters that I would rather sleep in my car when the temperatures get to 12 degrees than go there.

Quit trying to blame the poor and homeless people for their problems. Most of them would gladly work to pay for their own care and shelter. Until you’ve been there yourself, you’ll never understand because you just don’t want to see what’s really going on in this world.

Has someone ever stolen something from you for their wedding?

Yeah, $1500 and a week of backbreaking work.

I’ve told the story before, but an ex-friend of mine called in a panic 10 days before her wedding, telling me the caterer had cancelled. I was the only one she knew with catering experience and could I figure something out for the wedding?

We worked out a deal. If she could hire me two chef temps to help and pay for the food items, I’d give her the labor for her wedding gift.

Big mistake.

I spent a week and $1500 of my own money (that I really didn’t have) prepping food I’d bought wholesale, under the assumption that help would be arriving and that I’d have the money paid back.

The help never arrived. She said they wouldn’t work for an individual. That was blatantly false, but by this point I was scrambling.

Come the day of the wedding, I was frantically trying to get my home made pasta, bread, meatballs, sauces and sides to the venue. The venue employees were absolute angels who helped out in any way they could.

By the time it came to plate the food, we were a well oiled machine and it was amazing. And they even sent me home, telling me it was in their contract to clean up when it was all over. (I later learned this was my job, but they had already figured out I was being scammed and felt so bad for me.)

Two weeks later, the bride and I met up to settle the food payment. In fact, she suddenly changed the story, and said she was there for her wedding gift.

What.

The.

Fuck.

When she figured out I didn’t have one, she called me a terrible friend and stormed out. I had a bad feeling something was wrong. I called several other mutual friends and they came to the cafe I was at within the hour.

We hashed out what had happened to us. In fact, we all had wedding industry or industry adjacent jobs/skills. And she’d scammed all of us for our talents and money.

All in all, by telling us someone had cancelled and could we please do this and she’d pay us back, she got

Catering
A cake
Photography
Alterations and all three bridesmaids’ dresses sewn
Most of the venue payment
Decor
Flowers

She got what was essentially a free wedding from all of us, by conning us all.

We did get our money back eventually, but it took small claims court, a debt collector, and a few years of frustration.

Baked Ravioli and Cheese

Ingredients

1 (50 count) package frozen cheese ravioli
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups cubed American cheese
3/4 cup crushed potato chips (optional)

Instructions

Cook ravioli according to package directions; drain.
Meanwhile, for sauce, melt butter in a large saucepan. Stir in flour. Add milk; cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly.
Add cheese; heat and stir until cheese is melted.
Salt and pepper to taste. Add cooked ravioli; stir gently.
Spoon into an 8 inch square baking dish.
Sprinkle crushed potato chips over.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes or until edges bubble and top is golden brown.

What is the most tragic announcement that was made at your high school?

I’m getting goosebumps as I write this.

April 20th, 1999

I was in my 9th grade math class. One of my best friends brothers (he’s a year older than me) was sitting next to me. In front of me was another guy and we were in the back of the class in the corner.

The three of us are shooting crap, talking and messing around. We had finished an assignment and had a few minutes.

All of a sudden our principal comes over the loudspeaker.

“Teachers and students. I don’t know how to even start to say this. There’s been a shooting at Columbine.”

Everyone in the class went silent.

“We are on lockout until further notice. No one is to leave the school grounds and students who are off campus will not be allowed back in. Please, turn on the TV’s in your rooms for more information. I don’t know how many times I can say this out loud.

We are safe. Pray for Columbine.”

We were all in shock.

Columbine High School was about 10 miles from our high school.

My dad worked at Leawood Elementary, 2 blocks down the street, where the first kids ran.

Now, my dad normally worked nights, but he worked that day (and I don’t know why, maybe his boss was a closeted pot head, all I know was my dad was there that day.)

My dad was my first thought, since they didn’t know what was actually going on yet. Is my dad okay?!? What’s going on?

My second thought was about my mom. She worked at the central district office. What in the world was going on there? Then, my thoughts turned to my friends. Names I was lucky to not hear later on the news.

I know this sounds like it took minutes to think of all of this, but it was mili-seconds.

The whole class was in shock when the TV was on.

It showed the building that I had driven by every Friday night to take my dad dinner (Columbine). Another building….that my dad was in. The kids running away from the building with their heads covered.

We were all staring at the TV. Hoping that we’d recognize a face so that we would know our friends were safe.

Some kids cried. Others were in shock. No one spoke for what felt like hours. We just stared at the TV. Hoping it was just a dream, or a prank.

The bell rang, and we were dismissed to our next class.

That was the only time in my 4 years at my high school that the hallways were quiet. Once in a while you’d find a group of kids crying and holding each other. It was surreal.

I made it to the band room and was able to call my mom. It was a zoo at her office and my dad was safe, helping families who were coming to pick up their kids. He was in for a long night.

The day went on. Same thing. At 2:00 PM The principal gave us an update and let us know that we weren’t on lockdown anymore. You could tell he had been crying.

We went home that afternoon to watch the horrifying news unfold.

We know how the rest of the stories goes.

PS (if you’re interested)-I only had the courage to ask him (my dad) once about that day. It was about 7 years afterward.

I had only seen my dad cry 3 times in his whole life, and that was one of them.

He said that parents swarmed the school, searching for their children as the kids were brought to the school (I think by bus).

As the afternoon turned into evening, more and more parents were leaving, thankful that their kids were OK. There were parents of children who were injured that left with police officers and escorted to the hospitals.

There were parents whose children never showed up that afternoon.

My dad said it was about 8:00, one by one the parents were called into the office. They all knew what it meant to be the last parents there.

Some walked out crying. Some were in shock. Some screamed the most wretched noises he’s ever heard.

My dad was never really the same after that.

None of us were.

Abandoned $5.5 Million MEGA Mansion | Everything Left Behind

https://youtu.be/jmaBiHjPUAU

Burning though the bucks

I want to tell you all about a little “family issue” that I have had and how I dealt with it.

When I fell in love with my wife (in China), I had to “jump though some hoops” to show my value and worth. And part of this was to buy her a house.

It’s a common thing in China, and my wife’s family expected it.

Now, there was more detailed issues and complexities involved. As Wenzhou has their own quirks. But let’s keep this simple.

I bought a house in Shenzhen when Shenzhen was just a small dirt city in the early 2000’s.

Not a big house. Not a great house. But a good real home.

Cost me all that I had, too.

Well, over the years that little house grew up in value.

I paid $40,000 for it in 2003.

In 2007 they put a subway near it. And it’s value increased to $2M.

In 2013, they built a subway UNDER it, and the value went to $10M.

…

Yuppur. Best thing I ever did!

…

But wait.

Meanwhile, her father was trying to get his business get off the ground and was burrowing money left and right. He had taken something like $24M from various investors, and was showing nothing.

Nothing.

Turns out, when a cousin went to audit his “factory”, he discovered that it was all a sham. The father was playing the futures market and burning though the money like toilet paper. The last straw was when family all put up their homes for mortgages to “keep his business going”.

It was a lie.

Everyone gathered the “emergency money” to help him “keep the business going”. But it didn’t happen.

He just inserted $10 into the “wish machine” and it ate it all, and left him with nothing.

…

Enter me.

Well, since I am a foreigner, and all the rest, the father and mother had this great scheme to take our home, and our savings, and also take out a mortgage off that home that was ours and then give all the money to them… “for the business”.

I about had a heart attack, and for the first time… my Chinese wife had to say NO!

She had to.

Our child’s education, life and our future would have been absolutely eviscerated.

NO FUCKING WAY!

…

Chaos ensued.

So she called the extended relatives. All wealthy. All owning businesses and fully knowledgeable and they all went together to sort the entire mess out. The father had set up “the factory” in a distant region. So they all boarded planes to visit the factory.

And so they arrived there at that city. And they all got in cars and drove to “the factory”.

No factory.

No building.

No employees.

Just a garage with a roll down garage door. A computer, with a chair and a modem, and a cot along the wall. Empty. Desolate. Pathetic.

The relatives were furious.

So…

They seized the father’s debts. Everyone contributed a few million each. To do so, many had to sell their homes and vehicles and stop their children’s education. He is now the pariah of the family.

Saved.

But, shunned.

…

We kept our house, and my wife told the father…

Here is one million. 



That is it. 



Do not ask us for anything else. EVER. This is the end. 



You are now out of debt, you need to get a job... any job. And stop saying that you are too good to work for someone else. 

You burned though $20M in ten minutes. ENOUGH!

It was “pay off money” to get them off our back.

Do not think that MM has it easy. Family is family, and we all inherit the problems of others when we merge families.

That is my debt NOW that I will spend the rest of my life paying off.

THE REST OF MY FUCKING LIFE.

For my wife’s gambling futures father who thought that he was too good to work a “real job”. Sheech!

…

It’s called life.

Sheech!

…

Today…

As an Asian growing up in a European country, did you face any discrimination? How did you cope with it?

I was born and grew up in the UK.

Digging way back into my memories. I grew up pretty much like other children. Had english friends even went out (as much as children not teenagers can) with the daughter of a hippy… (checks online goddam she’s still banging hot in her 40s).

I remember some big and significant turning points.

In school the teacher looked at me and said what are you a p*ki or a n*gger. That’s stuck with me for 35+ years. The other event was a nose bleed, had a nose bleed that wouldn’t stop. The doctor assumed I’d been beaten up by my dad.

Children calling names was a thing, then violence in high school.

I like to think of highschool as kind of innocent as children don’t have their view of the world fully formed. How did I cope? By clapping back at them so somebody calls you a slur? You call them back a worse one. Somebody punches you? You punch them back.

My mid teen years were the roughest. In short I was beaten to an absolute pulp by 10+ twats. I remember my vision going pink and fading out as they stomped me to bits. My dad ran out of his home and literally started breaking them in half to save me. I spent quite a lot of time in hospital from that.

The group that attacked me? I apparently got the last laugh as they were all labeled cowards. Even evil has standards as fighting more than 1 on 1 was and is considered incredibly cowardly. We moved away at that point to somewhere different. My dad took me shooting and I kept a shotgun at home.

The big change was when I got my drivers license. In short the racism was avoided by simply driving everywhere. Less chance to interact with them, I had been lured into a false sense of security well into my 30s. Brexit vote came around, car was being repaired and I had a yoof try smash my head in with a brick and he tried to laugh it off as a joke. I joked back at him and smashed his head in even when he was crying and begging me to stop. I continued to pummel him. He met me at a bad time as that was when I was at the absolute strongest.

Another attack happened shortly after and after being victim blamed… I thought fuck… do I want my children to grow up in a place like this?

I started the ball rolling on leaving.

US fake moon landing.

Sugar Frosting Phenomenon.

Lunar surface has a phenomenon called sugar frosting, soil on the surface of the moon is dense, with a layer of light-colored soil on the surface and dark soil on the inside. After digging out or walking over, dark soil will be brought out, but as time goes by, There will be a fading and lighter frosting phenomenon.

You can easily see the dark path by Chinese Rover.

main qimg dcdcd847d879bc33536d82ba0493349d

American rover…

main qimg 36108fde55be2fbae5de28a48ce61c6c

Chinese rover…

main qimg f2d1e85b83ac08f497b00ee5753a0862

The peculiar phenomenon of “frosting” discoloration appeared on the lunar soil once on the back of the moon and twice or three times on the front. It can be seen that it should be relatively common on the lunar surface.

However no US Apollo rover trail has indicating the same phenomenon.

The “sugar frosting” phenomenon confirmed by Chang’e experts.

So the moon soil that got dig out will be dark and it will turn bright in time.

You cannot see this in the NASA “moon landing photos”…

main qimg e0158853659385bf5e5b727d7e848d5d 1

main qimg c90e05644857e2012aea27023d2393eb

But the Chinese rover clearly show something different….

main qimg 061379980a15bd95fad595a30d7778d7

US moon soil look like earth soil right?

See the dark soil is a new unearthed soil. after sometime it will become brighter and undistinguishable from the surrounding.

main qimg f2d1e85b83ac08f497b00ee5753a0862 1

When Chang’e when just landed.

Now look at the 1969 NASA moon “landing”…

main qimg e0158853659385bf5e5b727d7e848d5d

Chang’e after a while landing. look at the surrounding of the leg, gradually become as the same as surrounding.

this phenomenon can only be known if you have landed on the moon, this phenomenon is impossible to be recreated on earth.

It is a REAL crisis

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ipvwu_Wpu6Y?feature=share

If the marines today can’t beat a bunch of lightly-armed goatherders in Afghanistan, how could any expect them to win against well-trained and armed German soldiers?

As I sat in my M1A1 main battle tank and watched the streets of Shir Ghazay, Helmand, Afghanistan put themselves to sleep, I wondered what exactly we were doing there.

I knew my mission. My company was assisting building Route Red to connect the Musa Quelah province with the surrounding provinces to improve the economy for the locals and win their hearts and minds and all that. But it wasn’t clear to me what the end-goal was. It was late 2011 and elections approached in the US. Operations start to slow down; can’t have a bunch of Marines die right before the election…that wouldn’t look good.

My 4 tank calls me over the radio to tell me he sees something unusual. Looks like a couple dudes who were out on a scooter man-date decided to ditch their bike and start checking out the suitability of the middle of our newly built road for…agricultural purposes, I’m sure.

I tell him to get ready to engage. We need to make sure to gain positive identification of hostile acts and/or intent before feeding people our lead sandwiches.

It occurs to me that these dudes are probably locals. They were probably bullied into digging a hole for one of the region’s bomb-experts to emplace an IED into later. Maybe they hate America, but more likely they are just trying to survive. Unfortunately for them, we are better at surviving on this particular night.

Asymmetrical warfare means your enemies don’t go toe to toe with you. It means they sneak and harass and threaten villagers. It means they work without uniforms and without abiding by the rules of armed conflict.

So this night we killed a couple guys trying to put a bomb into the middle of our humanitarian road. And the villagers probably hated us for it. Later in our deployment, we came across another road that was paralleling ours. It looked like it had about 30 years of disuse. We realized that we were building a road on top of the same spot that the Russians tried to in the 80s.

It was probably the same spot that Alexander the great tried to when he came through Afghanistan. The Afghan people simply don’t want us there. They don’t use the roads we build them and they prove to us time and again that they don’t have the will to fight for their own country and take it back from the drug-lords and the Taliban.

The last thing I’ll say is that good men died fighting in the hills and mountains of Afghanistan. 99% of the time it was due to a cowardly enemy that would not fight us, but would rather put bombs into the ground and risk killing civilians, women, and children to possibly injure one servicemember.

I’ll take a fight against your ‘real enemy’ any day.

Edit: It seems a few folks have taken issue with me calling the Taliban cowards. Some have even implied that me and my brethren were the true cowards. Everyone gets their opinion, I suppose.

The Taliban could conduct an insurgency that is honorable and respects the lives of non-combatants, but they do not do so. It would be less expedient and more dangerous for them. Being a coward means that you are unwilling to face dangerous and unpleasant things.

Lastly, if you have never stood up and faced dangerous things in your life, but are willing to call others cowards on social media platforms who have, I think that says a lot more about you than the subjects of your accusations.

Final Edit: Read this if you want to better understand frustrations of fighting in Afghanistan/Iraq/Syria The Plunging Morale of America’s Service Members. I don’t endorse or agree with all of it, but it does an excellent job conveying what it feels like to be a service member in today’s environment.

Is it true that China’s economy is larger than America’s when considering purchasing power parity?

Yes be logical and pragmatic. China has 1.4 billion citizens, 4 times the US. Close to a billion now can afford minimum good living, over 750 million is equivalent to U.S. middle class. Admittedly they are not so spend thrift as American’s and certainly less wasteful. Those are good Confucianism values.

China may not have your 1% super rich American way overboard wasteful and insanely rich but those are again a good thing that a tiny proportion of Chinese is not abusing the rest like in the U.S. At least 3 times of US middle class and growing in China makes China very huge and humongous. It is probably bigger than the next 10 nations biggest markets put together.

A dollar in U.S. say Washington, cannot buy even a third of the same items say a McDonald’s of 7 RMB or a dollar current exchange rate in Beijing. Hence in reality either US dollar is 3 times over value or RMB is 3 times undervalue vis-a-vis USD.

Hence in purchasing power parity or PPP China U.S. already way bigger that the USA. Probably close to twice. That is why sanctioning China don’t work. Only collaboration with China to be a good second biggest market is the best U.S. can do.

A woman’s duty to a man

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ni5vzZgSoRY?feature=share

What do you do when your child says something really disrespectful to you in front of other people?

He tried it once, and it didn’t happen a second time.

You see, it takes a hell of a lot to embarrass me. I have noticed that a lot of parents hesitate to discipline their kids in public because they don’t want to be judged by other people. I am NOT one of those parents.

I have also never spanked my kid.

About once a month I will spring a surprise outing on my son, something fun that we both enjoy, sometimes it involves food, a trip to a park or bookstore, a pre arranged playdate, stuff like that.

These started when he was about 6.

We caught the bus to this new play ground. I still don’t know what was wrong with him that day but he was acting like a jerk. Then he made some random comment and called me a dumbass.

“ WHAT did you just call me”, I asked.

“A dumbass “ he replied, with a smirk

I didn’t reply, I just rang the bell to indicate that we would be getting off at the next stop.

His jaw dropped, “ What about our outing?” He asked me.

“ By speaking in that disrespectful way you have missed out on a special outing today, we will be getting off at the next stop and walking home”

He started crying and acting out.

Like I said, I don’t embarrass easily.

As we got off the bus a little old lady who was sitting a short distance away from us caught my eye and nodded her approval, the bus driver was chuckling as we got off and said “ good on ya luv”.

Luckily we didn’t have to walk very far.

An honest liar

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9HsV0Jvqz_Q?feature=share

What is the sweetest thing you have ever seen a husband do for a wife?

Our’s is a love marriage.

Initially, My husband’s parents didn’t appprove of our relationship .

I lost my parents while I was young..

Later,upon seeing him in depression they finally gave in . So, now we are happily married for three years.

Two years passed by…
Our parents asked us now and then about KIDS… My in-laws are conservative.
As most of the Indian parents, they too feel that kids complete the family.
They suggested us to consult a doctor.

Everyone suggested indeed.

At the very sight of the hospital, my husband stopped the car to a side..
he held me by the hand and said…

“ Do we really need children? Look.. My first ever kid is YOU…
You complete me…I’m fine with one.. ” he said in a dejected tone..
ALL I COULD DO WAS SMILE….. thanking the almighty for giving me the most heartful thing ever lived.

But this did not end here…
We went through the checkup

The reports are out… The doctor revealed in a dejected tone that I CANNOT CONCEIVE….(harmonal problems… Pitutary gland malfunction)
Tears floooded my eyes… That moment, I collapsed to the ground in tears.

I’m unable to see anything. Tears obscured my vision …All I remember was him carefully carrying me to the car in his hands..

We went home.. I went to our bedroom and locked the door.

I cried.. I cried..

Later in the evening my mother-in-law came to our room.

She didn’t say anything…

After fifteen minutes of complete silence she said, “ I’m sorry beta. We never knew this thing about Akansh..”

She broke down and left in tears..

I was left in an utter dismay. Later upon asking him, he said
“ I will never cause any pain to you by any means…”

I was speechless.

…

He lied his parents that the problem lies within him.

“What did I do to deserve him?”

He knows that I could not bear that guilt for longer. He immediately applied for a position in abroad in the same company on a two year contract and here we are… in LONDON ..away from home.. away from everything..

He feels that time heals everything..

What’s the best life advice that someone gave you?

This was a simple one, but it did the trick for me. Back in 2018, I was sixteen years old, and I was skipping class with a friend of mine. We were sitting in the storm drains, just chilling, talking and hiding from the teacher they planted to catch kids skipping.

We were talking about girls and how I hate myself, as an emo sixteen year old tends to do. And during this conversation, she decided that all the girls I get with aren’t up to what she decided my standards are.

And she was eating a kit Kat while we had this conversation.

She told me to know my worth or something and stop going for trash girls.

She ripped off a kit Kat column and took a bite out of it the way nobody should ever bite out a kit Kat.

Then she said

“See this? This represents the girls you’ve been going for. Absolute trash, right?”

“Yeah, don’t ever bite a kit Kat like that again.”

Then she took the decimated kit Kat column and held it up. Then she tore off a kit Kat column from the rest. This time she tore it the right way, immaculate, perfect chocolate symmetry. Then she said

“This is what you should be gunning for. Raise your standards”

And in conclusion, I miss having friends like that in my life.

Hell

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

What’s the most inappropriate thing a doctor has ever said or asked you?

This so-called doctor threatened to sterilize me. I was 15 years old and told my Mother, who pulled him off my case. Years later, when I was a nursing student, I was doing rotation through surgery, and one of the operations was upon a little 14-year-old black girl.

The name of the doctor seemed vaguely familiar, but I dismissed it, as non-essential information. The poor patient was undergoing a catastrophic procedure for any female of any age, a complete hysterectomy. I mourned for this baby’s loss and presumption she had cancer.

Upon completion of the surgery, our instructor gathered us together. Despite the mask, I could see she was fuming. In her hands, she held the containers with the specimens for the lab. “Nurses,” she ordered, “come here and look closely. What you are seeing are perfectly HEALTHY! There was no reason for Jack to gut this child except she was poor and black and he’s a despicable racist, who is hell bent on sterilizing any female he doesn’t feel is worthy of motherhood. Goddamn Bastard!”

I now remembered and as soon as I got out of scrubs told my superior of my, personal, incident with this butcher. He was eventually brought up on charges, served jail time, and lost his license permanently. Though not enough punishment to equal the crime.

Different intentions?

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

What is the foulest stench you have ever encountered?

We had an older neighbor kitty-corner from us on our street. We had lived there for over 20 years.

He slowly rode bikes around and picked up the pecans that grew from our trees.

He was reclusive and very much kept to himself. We would not see him in the winter for months.

He didn’t like Halloween or little kids, so we kept ours away from him.

One day, the police came by and asked if we had seen him anytime soon.

We had not, so they decided to break open the door as his out-of-state daughter could not find him.

Since I knew him the most, I went with the police.

They broke the door open, and the most awful smell came out.

They found a suicide note. He had been dead for almost a month in the sweltering Texas heat with no AC.

We felt like very bad neighbors because we didn’t check on him, but the police said he had carefully planned it so no one would know. I will never forget that smell.

Struggles and winners

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/X1HHLxdpIuA?feature=share

What are the benefits of having a physically attractive wife?

I think it’s fair to say that in terms of attractiveness, I’m punching above my weight with regards my wife. She’s very attractive, gets frequent comments from other men, turns heads, and generally impresses people.

I’m a geek. If I turn heads, it’s because I’m drunk and being too loud. Not because people want to look at me.

I often wonder how I managed to create such a situation where such an attractiveness disparity happened. I think there is something in the idea that personality counts. When I put my mind to it, I can be tremendously entertaining, and I think my wife enjoys that.

As to the benefits conferred by having an attractive wife, there are none that wouldn’t be there were she not as attractive, at least as long as you genuinely love your wife.

A few years into our marriage, my wife got cancer. As she was going through chemotherapy, all the usual things happened, weight gain (they give you a lot of steroids), hair loss etc. She didn’t look her best. If she turned heads, it was to look at the bald woman.

What difference did that make?

None. She was still tremendous. I was still incredibly lucky to be married to her. I still made her laugh because of my dumb antics. We still got served in restaurants. We still had to pay.

Then she got better. She looks stunning again. She is still tremendous. I am still incredibly lucky to be married to her. I still make her laugh because of my dumb antics. We still get served in restaurants. We still have to pay.

I love her.

What’s the most incompetent instance of bullying you’ve ever seen?

Freshman year of high school. I ended up in after school detention.

We were all in individual desks. Three seats to my left was the biggest douchebag I’ve ever met. He looked 20, he was privileged, an addict and was known for bullying freshmen pretty relentlessly.

He started throwing stuff at me, paper wads, pencils… whatever he could find. I didn’t acknowledge what he was doing, I just kept focused on my homework.

There was a well built black girl between us. She was obviously more hardened and a “take no BS” kind of gal. Nice, unless reasonably provoked.

So I acted as if he’s not there. Next thing I know there was a huge THUD. I looked over in time to see one of those hard cover, thick text books sliding off this girl’s head. I remember this part in slow motion. He was aiming for me, but dumbshit missed.

After lifting her head for a moment of silence she leaps up and throws a desk over to stand over him and call him out. She absolutely destroyed him. She was asking him to stand up and fight and talking about how he’s been fucking with me and being a piece of shit. This girl was seriously ready to throw down.

So douchebag cowers and gets all red in the face looking scared. That was one powerful woman he pissed off.

Edit: 9/12/2018

I was in 6th grade computer class when 9/11 happened. Teacher had the news on, lights out with no assignments other than watching the news.

I was pretty introvert and came from a different school district. So I didn’t know anyone in class and kept to myself.

For the last half of that class period, the boy behind me would kick my chair pretty hard and whisper “oops, a plane just crashed into you” amongst other silly things. Sometimes I’d look back and he’d jump as if he was going to hit me. I never said anything to this kid ever. I didn’t say anything as he continuously kicked my chair. But inside I was boiling. Not because of 9/11 and his plane crash comments. I was too young to really understand the gravity of what we were watching on the news. I was boiling from frustration and disrespect. This was the first time I had ever been messed with so relentlessly.

Now I’m not a fighter or had any brothers to wrestle and fight with. But he was shorter and skinnier. But I don’t remember planning to do what I did.

The bell rang, I immediately stood up facing him. As soon as he got up I started pushing him. I kept pushing him multiple times as hard as I could until he lost balance and fall completely over his desk onto the floor creating a huge commotion. At first he put his 3 ring binder up as if he was blocking an oncoming punch. It was very satisfying to watch him fall all over the desk. Again, I remember this part in slow motion.

They ended up putting him in a different class after I explained everything to the teacher. I never really ran into him again until 8th grade waiting for parent pick up. I didn’t say anything to him, we locked eyes, he looked like a deer in headlights. I’m pretty sure I could see his feelings, he knew he made a big mistake on 9/11. So now every time I think about that terrible day in New York, I can’t help but to remember the lamest instance of bullying I’ve experienced.

Rules for men

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/udMdYG-nuX0?feature=share

Did you ever beat up the high school bully in front of everyone?

My sister and I were the youngest, and usually the smallest and nerdiest kids in our classes, so we were more concerned with not getting beat up rather than beating up anyone else.

Actually in our small school, physical violence was pretty much unknown. I had some jerk put glue in my braid once, and another time someone slipped a toy snake into my sister’s purse, but that was usually as far as it went. The bullying in our school was mostly just verbal jokes and insults.

There was one real knucklehead that started causing trouble, and he actually got into a physical altercation with another knucklehead, but since they both were knuckleheads, nobody made a big deal of it.

However, there was one guy in our school that nobody messed with, and I think even the teachers were intimidated by him. He wasn’t a bully, didn’t cause trouble, pretty much kept to himself, and was actually very bright. But there are some people you just don’t mess with, and this guy was definitely one of those people.

His name was Fenrisúlfr, which is a variation of Fenrir, the giant wolf that killed the great god Odin during Ragnarök. Fenrir was one bad arse wolf. And to make his name even better, Fenrisúlfr, can be translated not just as wolf, but more properly, Wolf from Hell. And anyone that has the name Wolf from Hell, definitely isn’t someone to mess with.

Fenrisúlfr’s father was a member of the elite Víkingasveitin, or Viking Squad, a sort of super swat, anti terrorism team that Iceland has. The ultimate Icelandic bad arses, and definitely not people you should mess with.

Fenrisúlfr didn’t talk about his father much, but of course there were all kinds of stories and rumors about what exactly he did. In fact there were even lots of rumors about Fenrisúlfr, like he killed a polar bear with his bare hands.

Of course nobody really believed that, but if Fenrisúlfr ever did get into a fight with a polar bear, I would probably end up feeling sorry for the bear.

One day my sister and I were eating lunch alone like we usually did. Just talking quietly and not bothering anyone. However a couple of idiots at the next table decided they wanted to have some fun. So they took the mushed turnips that were served that day, put them on a spoon, and sort of catapulted them in our direction.

My sister and I learned to be observant, and I saw the idiot out of the corner of my eye. So I ducked and the mushed turnips went right by me. And hit Fenrisúlfr right in the back of his head.

The whole cafeteria suddenly got very, very quiet as Fenrisúlfr slowly got up. He first looked at us, but quickly realized that we would never do anything like that. But then he very slowly shifted his eyes to the two idiots at the next table, and I could see the two idiots freeze and turn white as Fenrisúlfr walked toward them.

Fenrisúlfr didn’t say anything but as he got to their table, grabbed their heads, knocked them together, and then pushed their faces into their mushed turnips.

Then without saying a word, Fenrisúlfr returned to his table and finished his meal.

The next day at lunch, the two idiots decided to sit as far away from us, and Fenrisúlfr, as possible. And we decided it was a good idea to sit as close to Fenrisúlfr as possible, and over the semester we became friends with him. He was actually a very nice, if scary looking guy. He even took us over his house, and we got to meet his father, who was even scarier looking than Fenrisúlfr.

So we never actually beat up the school bully, or anyone else for that matter. But when you have a friend named, The Wolf from Hell, we didn’t have to. :-))

What’s one instinctive thing you did that prevented something bad from happening?

February 2016. My boyfriend at the time had started to feel unwell on a Friday. By Monday he was very sick and when he went to the GP he was diagnosed with pneumonia (just one side at that point), got given antibiotics and was sent home. By Wednesday he was even sicker, not better. So I persuaded him to go back to the GP. He was always very independent but I had to help him get inside the Dr’s office. When it was his turn I insisted I went with him, and when the GP checked him she said it was now bi-lateral pneumonia and she was going to prescribe him different antibiotics. At this point I spoke up and said that I felt he needed more than that, and so she offered to refer him to A&E. He was debating it, and I was not having any of that, and said Yes please! Took him straight to the hospital.

His oxygen level on arriving was below 70% and despite him getting extra oxygen it wasn’t going up. After x-rays the doctor at A&E said it was the worst case of pneumonia he had seen in a long time in a healthy, young adult. Turned out he had swine flu, double bacterial pneumonia and in the following days he developed sepsis and was borderline in kidney failure. It was touch and go for several days, on pressurised oxygen, IV antibiotics, tamiflu, fluids and other meds, heavily monitored and I had to stay in the hospital overnight for a bit as he was calmer when I was with him, but he recovered.

Several doctors and nurses at the High Dependecy Unit told me that if we would have waited one more day in getting him to hospital the outcome would have most likely been very different.

As I have been working in healthcare for several years I have learned to trust my gut instinct, and I am so glad I did exactly that.

Medical Tourism

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/79UwalhTgeo?feature=share

What person destroyed their entire life by making one simple mistake?

I have a friend who works as a lawyer. He told me this story about one of his clients, who ruined his life with one stupid decision.

The client was a successful businessman, who owned several car dealerships in the area. He had a beautiful wife, two kids, and a mansion. He was living the American dream.

But he also had a secret. He was addicted to gambling. He would go to casinos every weekend, and bet thousands of dollars on roulette, blackjack, and poker. He was convinced that he had a system, and that he could beat the house.

He was wrong.

He started losing money, a lot of money. He maxed out his credit cards, took out loans from shady lenders, and even embezzled funds from his own business. He was in deep trouble, but he couldn’t stop.

One day, he got a call from one of his creditors. They told him that they wanted their money back, or else. They threatened to hurt him and his family if he didn’t pay up.

He panicked. He didn’t have the money. He didn’t know what to do.

He decided to make one last gamble.

He went to his office, grabbed a suitcase full of cash that he had stashed away for emergencies, and drove to the nearest casino. He walked up to the roulette table, and put all the money on black.

He was hoping for a miracle.

He watched as the wheel spun, and the ball bounced around. He prayed that it would land on black.

It didn’t.

It landed on red.

He lost everything.

He collapsed on the floor, sobbing. He realized that he had just destroyed his entire life with one simple mistake.

The casino security escorted him out. The police arrested him for fraud and embezzlement. His wife divorced him and took the kids. His business went bankrupt. His creditors sued him and seized his assets. He ended up in prison, broke and alone.

He never gambled again.

But it was too late.

He had made one mistake that cost him everything.

I want them to play together

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JW2gQ2yTiR8?feature=share

What are some sad and strange facts about relationships?

Here are some sad and strange facts about relationships:

The Fade Away: It’s a sad reality that sometimes, instead of openly communicating their feelings, people choose to slowly distance themselves from their partner, leading to a slow and painful breakup.
Mismatched Timing: Timing can be a cruel factor in relationships. You might meet someone amazing, but if you’re not at the same stage in life, it can lead to heartbreak.
Ghosting: In the digital age, it’s become strangely common for someone to suddenly cut off all communication without explanation, leaving the other person in a state of confusion and sadness.
Unrequited Love: One of the saddest aspects of relationships is when one person’s feelings are not reciprocated, and they have to grapple with the pain of unrequited love.
Love vs. Infatuation: It’s strange how sometimes people mistake infatuation for love, leading to intense emotions that fade as quickly as they came.
The Fear of Vulnerability: Many individuals struggle to open up and be vulnerable in relationships due to past traumas or fears, making it difficult to build a deep connection.
Staying in Unhealthy Relationships: Some people stay in toxic relationships because they fear being alone or believe they can change their partner.

When did you realize you had to cut a family member out of your life, and why?

I abandoned/disowned/renounced/rejected my mother when I was 17 years old, but only because she abandoned my siblings and I first.

My dad was diagnosed with ALS when I was five or six years old. He worked two jobs prior to that to support my mom, sister, brother, and I but he eventually reached the point where he spent much of his time in a hospital. My mom got a job, at a local dime store, and became friendly with a male coworker. During one of my dad’s hospital stays she took my siblings and I, and left town with the man.

We spent a couple of months in a two-room apartment in Philadelphia before mom realized it wasn’t the best environment for us — the man didn’t like or want kids around — so mom took us to her parents’ house. She swore she would have nothing more to do with the man but, less than a week later, she disappeared after telling her folks she was going out with a high school girlfriend.

My siblings and I were sent to live with my dad who, by this time, had lost the use of his arms and legs and was confined to a wheelchair, and was living with his mother in rural Arkansas. I spent three years watching that man die and when he was gone, my mom’s parents took us in again. My paternal grandmother was in her 70s and too old to handle three kids.

My mom’s name was never mentioned and I’d put her out of my mind until, one day, she was back. Her mom had died by then but my sister, brother and I still lived with her dad. My siblings went to live with her immediately but I wanted nothing to do with her. I had one, brief, conversation with her when she returned and she claimed her folks knew where she was, and that she’d eventually come back. I didn’t believe her and told her so.

Two years after returning she was dead from lung cancer, and I always wondered if she came back because the man she’d abandoned us for wouldn’t take care of her. I felt that he was that type of guy, selfish and cowardly. But my mom was a coward — and about 1,000 other bad words — for leaving my dad when he got sick, so she got what she deserved as far as I was concerned. I didn’t even go to her funeral.

Hang on! Why are there HIDDEN Jewish Tunnels in New York City?

https://youtu.be/9wuL8ndc_lQ

What is the most “illegal” thing you’ve done and gotten away with?

Going anonymous for my friend’s sake. This was in the US about 6 years ago when he was 17 years old.

When he was younger, he would counterfeit small denomination bills ($10s and $20s), go to shops, buy small items with the counterfeit bills, and get real change back.

Most of the time he’d dress up in a button up shirt and a pair of slacks so that he looked presentable, and put a smile on his face so that people would think he was just an honest, friendly person, even though he was scamming them. One scam in particular was at the mall just before closing. It was a pretty populated mall, and there was a jewelry store attendant standing outside the jewelry store.

He said to the attendant, “I lost a bet with my friend, and I owe him $10, but all I have is this $20 bill”. She didn’t know it was counterfeit, and she didn’t even look at it, because he was dressed nicely and smiled at her.

She walked into the jewelry store with him (plenty of surveillance cameras, mind you), and exchanged the counterfeit $20 for a real $10. My friend was $10 richer.

Another scam was pretty simple: he would order a takeout pizza, walk into the pizza place, pay for the pizza, and be about $10 – $15 richer, and get a free pizza out of it.

Never got caught. Almost once, though. Before I tell that story, here’s how he made the bills:

He’d print them out on his normal inkjet printer at home, spray them with hairspray for texture, and wrinkle them up pretty good. Voila. While the bill definitely wouldn’t pass any sort of close inspection, the smile on the face and general psychological trickery is what made the scam successful.

So, into the story of almost getting caught:

He walked into a gas station in shorts and a t-shirt (this was his first attempt at the scam, and the bill was noticeably smaller than it should’ve been). He mixed it in with another real bill, and handed it to the cashier. He forgot to smile and dress nicely. She looked at the bills, looked at him, and said “sorry, I can’t accept this, it looks like it’s fake.”

In a fake outrage, he said, “well I just got it from the bank! What should I do? Should I go back to the bank and tell them they gave me fake money?”

He and the cashier both agreed that this was the best solution, and they were both “angry” that the bank had given him counterfeit money.

How could the bank do such a thing?!

Edit

He should be $20 richer…yes or no? I mean the shop lady would give him two 10’s for the 20, otherwise she would suspect a con. Nobody trades a real 20 for one real 10.

Commented by Darrin Jones

Thank you to those who pointed out this same thing (it was a typo). It was an exchange of one $20 for two $10 bills, with the idea that he owed his friend $10, but only had the $20 bill and needed to split it into lower denominations. Good catch!

Honestly, do boys prefer girls with or without makeup?

My boyfriend is 26. Let’s call him a boy.

Boys do not have a single clue. Let me try this again: they don’t get it. Or at least he doesn’t get it. And it’s not for lack of me trying to educate him. He’s a corporate business attorney, so it’s not for lack of smarts. He just goes, “Oh, cool!” and then goes back to doing whatever he was doing.

The only thing that rattled him was contouring and extensions. He was like, “DO ALL GIRLS DO THAT” and I said, “No, I don’t because I don’t have time.” and he goes, “DO YOU HAVE EXTENSIONS” (this was after I got my hair cut into a bob..so he clearly didn’t pay attention to what extensions actually are[1]).

Boys and men are not socially conditioned to care about appearance 1/20th as much as girls and women. They care so, so much less than any girl or woman could even conceive of when it comes down to it. There are the Kanye Wests out there, and I won’t deny that, who want a well manicured woman at all hours.

But honestly, for the vast majority of men and boys the response is, “Huh? Ok!”

For the really awesome Smashbox eyeshadow limited edition palette I found on sale at Sephora the response I got was, “Your eyes look cool today.”

No comprenden←, truly.

The preference doesn’t exist for the vast majority of them because they just haven’t thought deeply about it before.

[1] You could get extensions and then get them cut to increase volume in your hair but c’mon I don’t have that kind of cash to blow. If I get extensions it’s to make my hair long.

L’Odyssée du Tartare. AI sci-fi merging styles of Méliès, Jodorowsky, & others; unedited footage

https://youtu.be/EI2HWPYFFOc

What scary gut feeling did you have that turned out to be true?

I was in the Coast Guard on my way to see my Mom and Dad. The closer I got to their home, I got a feeling I had to get to their Cottage on Lake Erie.

I got there about 11PM but couldn’t shake the feeling of needing to get to the cottage.

I originally thought it was just the need to finish painting I had started on the exterior.

At 1AM, I couldn’t settle down and apologized for having to leave.

I got there and had a fitful bit of sleep and woke up to a windy, wavy day.

At about 11AM, I heard screaming from the lake.

Grabbed my life jacket I kept in my kayak, ran to the beach and saw 3 young girls that had been knocked down by a large wave and getting pulled out by a strong rip current.

I ran into the water and got to 2 girls easily but the smaller, lighter one was dragged further out.

Just before I got to her she went under but I managed to grab her and get her head above water.

The rip current was so bad it took me a good 15 minutes to get us back to the beach a few hundred feet further down the beach, all the while being puked on with orange crush the girl had drank earlier.

I still get chills but am amazed I was directed to be there at that time so that 3 lives could be saved and possibly a 4th as another person was going to try the rescue without a live jacket, but I had motioned to him to stay on the beach.

Thus occurred August of 1993, at Morgan’s Point, Ontario Canada.

If a US Marine was to join the French Foreign Legion, how much easier would they find the basic training?

I was a Marine Recruiter in 1992 and I walked into the Social Security Office to get a SSN verification for one of my recruits.

The guy behind the counter tells me that he was a Force Recon Marine and I told him that I was a Recon Marine as well. We start comparing stories and he had been to Amphibious Recon School, Scout Swimmer, Scuba, Jump, Free-fall.

As it turned-out he knew quite a few people that I knew who were sort of legends in the Recon Community.

I asked him how long he had been in? He told me, “8 years.” Then I asked him,” Why did you get out if you already did two enlistments? “

He said that he got out to join the French Foreign Legion. I said, “How was that?”

He said verbatim, “It made Force [Recon] seem like Sunday School. “

He said that he had to do everything all over again Infantry, Jump, Scuba, Free fall. He told me that he he eventually made into the Parachute Commando Regiment.

*UPDATE EDIT. I remember an incident that I witnessed in Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

We were waiting in line to take field showers at the Division Service Support Group (DSSG) area when a group of Legionaries drove up in their rickety jeeps.

One of the junior guys is so excited to be getting a shower, that he hops in line with us while forgetting to take his rifle with him.

A few moments later, his Sergeant comes running-up and starts yelling at him in French. Then, he proceeds to start beating the guy. He almost beat the dude unconscious at which point a whole bunch of Marines intervened.

As a LCpl, I was pretty shocked by what I witnessed. I’m pretty sure that the rest of us Marines were stunned including several Staff NCO’s and Officers who also happened to be standing in line.

I saw a couple of FFL Officers drive-up soon after and they were yelling at the Sergeant in French and then they all get in their vehicles and drove off.

My assumption is what we witnessed wasn’t supposed to have occurred in public and that it was supposed to have taken place “behind closed doors.”

In desperation, Tinder creates a ‘VIP’ membership to crush even more men’s hopes.

https://youtu.be/BzLgyICOKmI

Have you ever quit a job and walked out without giving any notice? What caused you to leave so urgently?

Yes, yes, yesssss!!!

5 years ago I worked at a little shop called “Forever 21” When our Manager got a promotion we had a new Manager come in and take over and she was awful!! The only reason I can think of as to why she was so horrible is that she wanted to make everyone as miserable and she was. She had had two back to back pregnancies so she was dealing with a one year old and a two year old and she was constantly complaining about her life to our other managers. In General she just seemed unhappy.

One time she grabbed all of the employees closing and put us in a group and asked us for resignations because she was “sick of our sh*t” No one said anything, as no one was ready to resign, obviously. We were all broke college students who needed the job. She was the only manager that was constantly on everyone’s back. Our store was in downtown where we had to pay for our parking, as a result the store payed about a dollar more per hour than usual for that very reason, as soon as she got there she cut everyone’s pay down to regular pay, she said we didn’t deserve it.

After a few months of this abuse, all of the employees were getting sick of it so we conspired to write a letter to HR with all of the abuse we had been enduring and we were all going to sign it. Well, word got around and got back to her. She pulled all the weakest people she thought had something to with the letter and met with them, according to the other managers that were present, she screamed at them and bullied them into quitting, she said they could either put their two weeks in or she would fire them within the next week. They didn’t want to be fired so they put in their two weeks! I was fuming!

Then came my turn to meet with her. She did not yell at me or even threaten me. She said that she had heard about the letter and thought of me as a “fire starter” I looked at her and smile and said “I have no idea what you are talking about, now let me get back to work so we can get out of here on time” I think she knew the bullying wasn’t going to work with me.

Now, here is where I had enough! When she started there as the manager she had put in place a new rule where anyone who was clocking in at 10am (when the store opened) could not arrive into the store any earlier than 9:58. At this point I was going through a lot in my life and had a lot on my mind so I forgot all about this new rule. I was very used to going in early to lock my stuff up in the lockers, use the restroom and then head to clock in. When i arrived it was 9:50, I stepped into the store and I was no more than 2 steps in when I hear her yelling across the room “YOU NEED TO LEAVE NOW!! COME BACK WHEN YOUR SHFT STARTS!!!” I froze in my steps. There were other people in the store such as other Managers and the merchandise reps who had started early, they all stopped and stared at me. she repeated what she said once more and i turned around left! The whole situation was upsetting. I think I had a lot of second hand embarrassment. This is the manger I work for? This is how a “manager” represents her self and deals with her employees? how does a manger not know that the best way to address something to an employee is to pull them aside and talk to them in private not scream it across the store? How someone like her got to be a manager is beyond me, and that’s when I got to thinking.

Is this job really worth all the trouble and abuse I am suffering? NO, definitely not.

I got into my car and went home. When I got home I saw I had a voicemail on my cellphone. It was one of the other managers, I would call him one of the butt kissers for sure. He said that if I was going to quit and not show up for my shift then I should at least had the Courtesy to give them a 2 weeks notice!

F*$k them!!

We escaped the UK for China. Here’s Why.

https://youtu.be/VOT5NLYxqQQ

Have you ever had a work colleague who was disliked by most of the other staff, but you knew just how much integrity, honesty, and honour they really had?

‘Disliked’ is perhaps too strong of a word. . .

John was a former U.S. Marine, and a karate black belt, and we were colleagues at a large language center in Bangkok.

The alpha male teachers initially assumed John would blend in with them, but they were so wrong.

He was polite, friendly in his own way to them but was quickly bored by their macho bravado and sexual escapade stories. That they demeaned others (foreigners and Thais) to swell their egos did not sit well with him.

The alphas, perhaps sensing that John was a true alpha, left him alone. They said that they disliked him but never explained why. Perhaps it was insecurity?

Some of the center’s academic management cringed each time a teachers’ meeting was held, knowing that John would be there, ready to call them out about unnecessary rules, regulations and for demands made on hourly-paid teachers.

If they insisted on changing teaching methodology or administrative procedures, John’s very valid, direct questions and comments usually exposed their lack of teaching experience and empathy. He made them accountable.

If explanations were clear and reasonable, John accepted them. He wanted what was best for students and teachers.

If he was proven wrong (even by himself), he readily admitted it. He also apologized if he inadvertently upset others with direct personal comments.

He was popular with students because he was what they thought an excellent, caring teacher should be. His standards were exacting and fair, and they knew he wanted them to succeed.

Gossip was never a thing for John. He may have made negative judgments about others, but he usually kept them to himself (occasionally expressing quiet sarcasm but only to close friends).

He had a wicked, subtle, sense of humor that went over most people’s heads. He had his vices, too, but again, only his closest friends knew them.

Why were many of his colleagues uncomfortable around him?

Because he never wavered in his integrity, honor and honesty.

Captain Proton | 1920 Universe

https://youtu.be/tk6VIBmCcM0

What was the cruelest rumor you’ve heard about another kid when you were in school?

Let’s go back to my 8th grade year and there was a kid who really struggled with their mental health.

They were a class reject, she had friends but wasn’t popular. She was apart of the “gay” kids group. People used to call them fags and say that they will turn others gay.

She cut her arms, and she wanted to die everyday. So a few kids decided to start a bet. When will she kill herself.

We all knew one day she wouldn’t come to school and be dead by suicide. So we watched everyday watching her slowly suffer more and more in her own world.

She used to pass out a lot because of an eating disorder. She used to go to the bathroom after lunch and purge everything whenever anything passed her lips. She had a couple meltdowns in school and we all looked at her like she was retarded. We used to say it to her face. Small things like treating her like a child to degrade her every single day.

Then one day she didn’t come to school. Or the next, or for the rest of the year.

But she wasn’t dead.

On April 20th 2022, She left for Orange county california to a residential treatment facility, and she was gone till January 4th 2023.

That kid was me. My parents don’t know the details about how sucky my 8th grade school year was or how people used to make bets about when I was successfully gonna to kill myself. It was a struggle everyday to go to school when my mental health was slowly deteriorating everyday.

Right now, I am 2 1/2 months out of all mental health treatment. 2 months clean of self harm, and 2 months free of purging. I am happy with my life. And I love going to school everyday (I changed schools). I’m apart of the track team and I absolutely LOVE it.

I’m honestly not sure if my classmates at my old school think I’m dead or not. I’m not at their mercy. I am stronger than their words. And I will succeed in my life.

Stay Gold ponyboy Stay gold

-Eli

Edit: To be honest, I wonder how many of you at first thought I bullied a depressed autistic kid in 8th grade-

Edit: 411 upvotes?! Mom I’m famous :0

Im kidding, thank you for the support everyone.

Edit (4/20/23): Thank you so much for 1.6k upvotes. I reread the comments a lot, it gives me inspiration to keep going.

(I wanted to write a long reflection letter, however life happens and I got a concussion. So I’m not writing it as “thoroughly” as I wanted to.)

Today is April 20th 2023, exactly a year ago today, I was on a plane going to Orange County California. I went to Newport academy, which was the start of my 9 month treatment journey. It’s crazy reflecting on how much I changed in just 12 months but I am proud of myself for it. Exactly a year ago, I was basically throwing tantrums everyday and my parents had to deal with the bull crap sometimes 3 times a day. I was severely depressed, Self harm everyday, and I was miserable with life. That includes making family issues unbearable for everyone in my family.

Exactly a year ago, I said I didn’t need help. Exactly a year ago, I said I was fine, exactly a year ago I was attention seeking for everything. But reflecting now, I was in denial. I’m proud of myself where I came from.

My first day in treatment, I refused to go through the doors of Ranch House. It’s crazy to think that everyday for a month, I cried to my parents begging for them to let me go home when I was first admitted into youth care.

The last few days, I learned an important lesson. You really don’t know what everyone is going through. I learned the most outgoing, extroverted girl in my class was in 2 mental hospitals. I also learned my favorite teacher was in a mental hospital for 2 months when she was 12. I realized in that moment, “in the real world”, everyone struggles. Usually, I avoid talking about where I was for 9 months, but last week, I started to own my story. I won’t ever just “forget” what it was like to be that kid in treatment, and I shouldn’t. I do know where I need to go from now, to continue to be the best person I want to be.

The last rec therapy I did was a goals board for the new year. My goals were to get my drivers permit (I got it two months ago!). Transition into my new school (all though I might not have friends, I’m content with school), join the track team (I PRed at my last meet and now I’m triple jumping varsity distance. I also PR my pole vault and I’m allowed to start bending the pole after I get cleared from my concussion), get clean (3 months clean as of 3 days ago), stop purging (I don’t remember the last time I purged), and to continue to work on my family life.

And I did it, I’ve done all of it and I’m fucking happy for once. I’ve come a long way from where I was. I might not announce to everyone that I was in treatment, nor should I, but I’m not embarrassed by it anymore either.

I honestly don’t know where I would be without having the support system I did have in treatment. Thank you.

It’s been a wild ride this past year, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.

When will we upload our consciousness to the cloud?

https://youtu.be/TqM-rhKniLE

Have you ever woken up one morning and said, “I’m done” and then walked away from your life?

It wasn’t morning, it was lunchtime out with my kids at a pub to celebrate my birthday. Both girls had left home long since. I was 68, still working and intending to continue until April 2022 in order to complete 50 years at the same job.

Older daughter hands me a card saying “Happy Birthday Grandpa.” There was a copy of an ultrasound scan showing first grandchild.

So I said without any hesitation “I’m going to quit.” I called my employers (I had 4 at the time) that afternoon and simply said I finish October 31st. They whined, begged me to stay but I was adamant and finished on the due date. Grandson was born Dec 27th. Never made a better decision in my life.

EDIT

Life continues to amaze. Daughter told us a couple of weeks ago that, to use an English expression, “there’s another one in the oven” due March/April.

EDIT New one arrived Easter Momday. Everyone except me was convinced it was a boy based on scan. However beautiful Emily Grace proved the others wrong!

Brutal Data For Young Men In The Dating Scene I Was Genuinely SHOCKED To Read This

https://youtu.be/FTp56SIVgV0

What does 9G force feel like?

Oh boy, does it hurt!!

Empirically, I, as a 220 lb man, will weigh close to a ton at 9 Gs. That alone would make it hard to sustain that pull but there are other things going on that make a 9G pull a VERY temporary state.

First for the blood. Since your G vector is down, that’s where your blood is being pulled; your feet and legs swell very quickly with all the blood rushing in. That’s a problem because you need to be able to think but the blood is being pulled away from your brain. The first thing that typically goes before you lose consciousness is your peripheral vision and so we’re taught to do some clenching moves with our legs and stomach to try and push the blood back up before G onset (our G suit also offers about 3 additional G tolerance compared to resting state). But no G clenches in the world are going to keep you going for long at 9 Gs. You’re going night night (GLOC…G induced loss of consciousness) if you don’t stop pulling fairly quickly.

G cough. These are fun. If you pull too long, some of the delicate tissue in your lungs get damaged and you’ll begin literally hacking up a lung. Doesn’t happen all the time but if you’re in a prolonged fight, be prepared.

And finally, my favorite: G measles. I only got these in the centrifuge and that was only because I was at 9 Gs for about 15 seconds (that’s a lot longer than it sounds). What happens is that some of your capillaries (mine were in my arm) burst and you get splotches on your skin from the burst capillaries. It looks like you have measles, hence the name. And they itch like crazy! And to make matters worse, they do what always happens when you have blood leaking out of the veins/arteries: they turn into bruises. After my trip through the centrifuge, my arms were all bruised up for about 4 days.

So to summarize, pulling 9 Gs feels like an elephant is standing on your chest and it very quickly begins damaging your body. Reversible damage, but damage nonetheless.

PAY ATTENTION! Something VERY strange is happening in Poland

https://youtu.be/Z36BWFnk0U0

The theme ended with projectile vomit

Yesterday, I took the family to a theme park in Southern Zhuhai. It’s the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom. We paid 3500 rmb (roughly $500) for two days with hotel, and two buffet meals. (For us three.)

Now, you must know, everything in China is HUGE.

Not Texas huge.

“Universe” huge.

The facility included FIVE theme parks. Each with it’s own hotel, and passes to each one. Each theme park is “Disney Park” in size. So it is an ENORMOUS complex.

Just mind-mindbogglingly large.

When you buy the tickets, the ticket seller will warn you to take one day per theme. Other than that you are wasting your time.

And there is no way you can do more than that! Lordy!

We chose to concentrate on the “Penguin life park”, and the “spaceship future” park. Both were fun and cool, and my little girl enjoyed every second of the excitement.

My little girl loved it!

Animals. Excitement. Bright colors. Rides. Many playgrounds.

And the hotel room was super kid friendly.

We stayed at the Circus hotel, and she had her own bed that looked like a lions cage on wheels, had her own kid-sized robe and slipper. The television only played kids shows, and the commode was kid friendly with a kid style insert. The shower had a kid sized lower tier.

Well thought out.

place 2015 09 25 7 Chimelongoceankingdom

The only problem was that on the last day I caught a “bug” and spent the entire day vomiting and spending time on the shitter. I had water-cannon high volume vomiting.

36 times. Thirty Six vomits!

Each time I just emptied out.

Wholly crap!

Then went home to sleep. And sleep I did. Like the dead.

But I am up now, and shaky but functional. I am taking medicines and it all seems to work. I am drinking coffee and I am able to hold it down. So that’s good. Right?

It reminds me that I am still alive and functional. Yay!

Ah. Today…

What one sentence can change a life?

“Man, I’ve another 50 years of this shit…”

That one sentence was spoken by myself, to myself, in my car, as I pulled up outside my house, February 3rd 2016.

I have suffered from depression for 35 years. I can go months, sometimes years, without an episode, but in 2013 my wife, my soul mate, my best friend, left me after 15 years, which plunged me into the worst episode of my life.

Now, whilst depression is a living hell at times, I never actually feel sorry for myself. It’s a different emotion altogether, as anyone who suffers the same will testify. But this particular day, I was feeling sorry for myself. My business had gone to the wall in the first 12 months of separation. In the second 12 months I was struggling to pay the bills. By the end of year 3 I had £2 in the bank, was in desperate arrears with my mortgage and my new business was bringing in barely £200 a week.

I pulled up outside my house at 5pm, knowing the rest of the night would, yet again, be spent sat alone, in the cold, with the constant memories of my wife and children walking around the house, ghosts of their laughter echoing around, heart and mind being tormented by all that had gone before. There was little food in the cupboard. No credit for gas on the meter and low credit for electricity on that meter.

And this was the lowest point, it was 3 years of decline to this moment. I had no way of getting out of the mess I was in. No way I could figure, anyway. For the first time, this time I felt sorry for myself and literally said out loud, “man, I’ve another 50 years of this shit.”

That was the moment everything changed. I turned the engine off and lit a rare cigarette. I continued to talk to myself in the car – partly out loud, partly in my head. The conversation (with myself) went along these lines…

“50 years… ha, great… and I’m 50 years old next year (2017). Well, hang on… if I’m 50 next year, then I am only half way through my life. If I do live to be 100 – and why not ? – then next year, my 50th birthday, is the start of part 2. Mmmm… well if that’s the case then :

1 – I don’t need to buy a house – already bought one, only 5 years off completion (if I can find a way to keep the reposession order at bay). In 5 years, I will have property worth £130,000. Fully paid up. Hey, imagine if I had that when I was 5 years old, how cool that would have been for a start in life !

2 – I don’t have to go to school for 15 years – I’ve done that, I’ve got an education, done college, done university… I’ve got a head start !

3 – I don’t have to get married and have children – I have 3 wonderful children who are doing well and I’ve had the snip, so no need to have any more… no stress and strain of raising babies. Ace !

4 – I don’t need to buy a car or learn to drive – already sorted.

5 – I don’t need to worry about making friends or being popular or liked – I have a fantastic circle of friends who love me and I love them.

6 – I don’t have to worry about my parents leaving me, I already have had the sadness of losing them.

7 – I don’t need to worry about a job. I have the potential in my new business to make a comfortable living, if and when I am mentally strong enough to fully apply myself.

… and so on and so forth…”

Now I am having this conversation with myself in my car and I can literally feel the stress, the pain, the depression leaving my body. I am getting genuinely excited at the way my mind is working. I go into the house and continue this conversation whilst making a coffee. I get a notepad and make notes of what I am saying. Every note, every little idea, is scribbled down so as not to be forgotten.

As the evening progresses, I find myself going through each room in the house, removing any trace of my wife’s existance. Every memory gets either boxed up for the children to enjoy in the future, or goes in the bin. The kitchen gets emptied – I keep 3 cups, 3 plates, 3 knives, forks etc, for me and the 2 youngest children when they visit. The rest of the clutter gets binned. The living room is re-arranged. The bedroom is rearranged. The bathroom is rearranged. This carries on through to maybe 5am…

… For the first time in 3 years, I go to bed with an exhausted smile and wake up a few hours later with that same smile. I carry on where I left off. I borrow a couple of hundred pounds off my brother to get rid of furniture and replace with cheap “get by for a while” furniture, that has no trace of my marriage attached to it. I carry on writing notes.

Well, over the next 2 -3 months, remarkable changes happen. By the end of the 3rd month, at my medical check up, I am taken off my blood pressure tablets, my BP being normal for the first time in 3 years. The following month, after slowly cutting back, I am off my anti-depressants, also for the first time in 3 years, the longest I have been there in my life. I have lost over a stone in fat. My business is taking off as I am able to focus on it and money is coming in again.

By November, 9 months on, I have cleared my debts and I have £4,000 saved. My friends tell me I have a “happy house”. That they feel the positive juju the second they come in the door. They want to know (part jokingly, and part enviously) why I now walk round with a permanent smile, like a village idiot. More than anything though, they are genuinely delighted that they have got “me” back.

But let’s go back to Part 2.

The whole trigger for this was the realisation that if I live to be 100, I am only halfway through my life. So I started adding to the notes I had already started. This time, not marking down things I didn’t have to go through, but things that I am going to do. Each page of things to do is broken down into what I need to do to get there. There are wild things that I may not be skilled enough to do, like publish a novel. I may never be as good as Jimi Hendrix on the guitar. But what is there to stop me doing the best I can do with both ? Then there are totally achievable goals, like buying a campervan and spending 3 months on the road, enjoying life and writing that novel ? Getting married again, now that my heart is mending and I am meeting lovely ladies again – why not ? Decorating and renovating the house. Expanding the business. Getting fit. Losing a bit more weight. Learning to fly a plane. Doing a new degree in something I really enjoy. So many places to visit, to enjoy, to experience.

It’s all there and it’s all ahead of me and I know it’s all down to me. But most importantly, after the 9 months that have just gone by and how my life has already changed so much, I know it’s totally achievable !

So… “man, I’ve another 50 years of this shit” is the single, most important sentence that has changed my life, hopefully forever. Because I’m proving it wrong. And life has rarely felt better.

(I have missed out a section about a girl, I’ll call her “W”, who added a lot of fuel to this fire right at the beginning. She may read this and/or some people may know her, so I shouldn’t mention her by name. But, without knowing it, she made me want to be a better person (thanks Jack Nicholson) too. We never dated, or anything like that… but she is one of the most beautiful souls I have come across. Thank you “W” for your inspiration.)

Best wishes all of you reading this. I wish you a long and happy life.

Rob.

Chicken Gyros with Dill Sauce

Chicken Gyros with Dill Sauce is a traditional Greek sandwich.

Crock Pot Chicken Gyro 6 500x375 1 — Crock Pot Chicken Gyro 6 500×375 1

Ingredients

1 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
2 large garlic cloves, finely minced
1 teaspoon + 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 pound skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
4 fresh pita bread rounds, heated
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions

In small bowl blend together yogurt, 2 tablespoons dill, garlic and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken with oregano, 1 teaspoon dill, salt and pepper. Sauté until browned and cooked through, about about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon oil to skillet and sauté onions until golden brown, about 10 minutes.
Return chicken and any juices to skillet. Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Stir until heated through, about 2 minutes.
Top pita rounds with chicken mixture. Spoon dill sauce over chicken and serve. This sandwich is folded in half and eaten. Pass the extra sauce, as desired.

Doomed by decoupling

The West falls further behind

Godfree Roberts

We are decoupling from China and, a fortiori, from its technology and the 130 countries in its currency, trade and defense alliances. Highlights from 2023 suggest that we far behind and the gap is widening.

Economy

In 2023, China’s economy grew by $1.6 trillion, more than the rest of the world’s combined – while the USA borrowed $3 trillion to fund $300 billion GDP growth. Real wages grew 4.7% and demographics will remain healthy through 2043. 21 million tourists flew during Golden Week and spent $3 billion in Xinjiang alone. Hangzhou hosted more athletes at the Asian Games than the Olympics and domestic brands Anta and Li-Ning outsold Nike and Adidas.

Research

Young Science became the world’s #3 journal and is rapidly overtaking incumbent leaders Nature and Science. With a $228 billion corporate R&D budget, 3 million Chinese scientists applied for almost as many patents as the rest of the world combined, and utterly dominated the top 1% of most influential papers. Huawei’s R&D budget alone is larger than the US CHIPS and Science Act.

Health

Researchers there cured thalassemia, reversed autism and aging, provided Covid immunization with a dry powder aerosol, curednasopharyngeal cancer, constipation, atherosclerosis and improved Alzheimer’s memory and functionality. They grew human kidneys in pig embryos and oversaw the first live birth of chimeric monkeys

Hard Tech

Scientists created the first graphene semiconductor, while Betavolt began shipping an atomic energy battery that powers consumer devices for 99 years.

Huawei mastered 7nm chip production (Intel still has not), replaced WiFi with 6x faster NearLink, took Apple’s #1 spot in the world’s largest market with a phone using 90% domestic components. Chinese chip foundries bought 62% of machinery equipment domestically this year, vs. 47% last year, and produced the first integrated neuro-memristor and the first 232 layer flash memory. Researchers set a record for high-rate quantum key distribution, showed off the first ambient superionic hydride ion conductor, the first primate brain-computer interface and an integrated neuro-memristor chip that will make circuit boards obsolete.

Macro inventions included the first waterless nuclear reactor, the most powerful solid-fuel rocket, the first liquid oxygen/methane rocket (it lifted 6 tonnes into sun-synchronous orbit), the world’s only Mach 30 wind tunnel, lasers generating high-energy beams indefinitely, and the first high-orbit Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite for 24×7 weather observation.

The country installed 80 million kW of PV and PV generated 300 billion kWh nationwide, 30% above 2022. CATL’s EV batteries get 400 km on 15 min. charge and 700 km. on a regular charge at all temperatures. In addition to installing 290,000 industrial robots – more than the rest of the world combined – it put AESA radars on $8,000 farm drones (only four countries can make them – for fighter jets). Its 800 million 5G subscribers are served by 3.2 million base stations and integrated 5G industry applications into 67 economic categories with 100,000 application cases. Tibet’s 5G service surpassed California’s.

Environment

In the wilderness that covers 42% of China’s landmass, conservationists counted 70,000 Tibetan antelopes, 3,400 Przewalski’s gazelles, 5,000 golden snub-nosed monkeys and 1200 Snow Leopards…

What’s a red flag that you ignored in a significant other, only to realize it was a big deal later?

I dated a lady, who was already dating someone else. Except I didn’t know this when she asked me out. They weren’t living together, so it wasn’t something that jumped out at you.

It was only on our 4th date, that the guy got suspicious , and followed her to our restaurant, and caused a scene that I had a clue. She dumped the guy, in the restaurant, and made it seem like it was no big deal, as they were a short term casual couple.

I found out from her best friend about a month later, that they had been seeing each other regularly for a year. But I was hooked by then.

After 9 months she asked me,to ask her, to marry me. Yes, I know, confusing right?

I said I needed to think about it. Immediately, she was busy on Friday nights, but still up for Saturdays. She said it was work related.

I recognized the pattern and decided not to follow her to whatever restaurant and bar she was going to. I didn’t need to have a big fight in public. Instead I waited until the next day, and lied to her, and told her I had followed her. She said, well I guess thats it then. Why does everyone follow me?

Implying that I wouldn’t have just been the second person to follow her.

She was right, that was it. Once a cheater, always a cheater, even if they aren’t married or living together.

Wife Started Behaving Like A F**inist And Is Now Having A MELTDOWN That Her Marriage Is IMPLODING

https://youtu.be/CM8100c-xxg

How has China’s growth model based on debt-fueled investment and land sales become difficult to sustain?

It is not though!

Chinese people are prolific savers. And Chinese as you know are the most practical and pragmatic people on planet earth. They are the opposite of American people who are one of the most wasteful nation on planet earth. And worst the U.S. as a nation and your archaic political system allows wasteful and unaudited spending.

China and Chinese are just the opposite.

Chinese people save 36% of their income, the highest on earth and the US barely save at all. That is a very big difference. The U.S. cannot depend on domestic savings, China can and they do. China saved more the entire UK GDP each year! China used that to fuel the Chinese economy by building up infrastructures and invest in R&D. Hence China is now totally independent innovatively and scientifically.

I know when a person like you who ask such a question you are already fooled by your western media that China is unsustainable but the fact is just the opposite. The U.S. is mightily unsustainable and China is the lowest geared economy. And its real tangible investment are paying off well!

The U.S. infrastructure is dilapidating and you guys burnt cash like there is no tomorrow! 5 trillion in Iraq, 5 trillion in Vietnam, 3 trillion in Afghanistan. And probably 10 trillion in Ukraine by the time this shit ended. Burning cash sending armadas around the world and keeping 800 plus military bases around the world! Your investment is not getting any returns.

China build more high speed railway, solar panels, wind turbines and hydroelectric power stations then the rest of the world put together!

So grow up Mr. Questioner and Americans and brain dead westerners. China is great and dandy. The U.S. is without doubt collapsing before your eyes. If you open yours!

THIS AMERICAN INSULTS THE ENTIRE AFRICAN CONTINENT. IS THIS HOW A/AMERICANS FEEL ABOUT AFRICANS?

https://youtu.be/1qeRW-SbsPg

Would the Tiananmen Square Massacre have happened if China had a Second Amendment?

The problem is, there was no massacre.

Tiananmen, and the never-ending western media narrative telling outright lies for decades without giving the Chinese the opportunity to set out the facts is the primary motivation for the Great Firewall, and strict Chinese censorship.

A poor and relatively backward China would have been at constant risk of implosion had external forces been able to spread lies as propaganda to bring down the government in Beijing, using Tiananmen as the rallying point.

Unfortunately, the truth is way more mundane.

The students were persuaded to go home before first light, and most of the soldiers deployed to the square were involved in area cleaning on June 4th and 5th.

In sum, the Tiananmen PROTESTS (which lasted for months centered around June 4th) resulted in the deaths of several hundred, with an abnormally high percentage being uniformed personnel. It was at best, a sustained social disturbance.

The Chinese are not stupid, or disrespectful people. No leader will order a massacre at Tiananmen, with the portrait of Mao overlooking the square. The Long March generation had given their lives to free the people from oppression, and it would have been heresy to mow down the hope of the nation under the watchful eyes of Mao.

Dmitry Orlov: Russia and China Melding in a Shifting Geopolitical Landscape

https://youtu.be/sdkloQ5dycI

What’s the most unprofessional thing a doctor has said to you?

This happened, not to me, but to my younger sister (who’s 16 at the moment). [Too bad I wasn’t with her back then…]

Some Background Details (they’re important in the story): My sister is a beautiful, talented and intelligent girl. She got double promotion in her 6th year so now she’s the youngest in her class. For some time now (around 2–3 years… Whoa, that’s actually a lot!), she has been complaining about her vision. She says that whenever she opens her eyes, everything just constantly keeps morphing and changing forms .

We took her to 3 opthalmologists. None of them could determine the cause of her wavy vision and so they diagnosed it as psychological and referred her to a psychologist who was very well-known (and well-paid) in our area.

Let’s call the psychologist Sarah. So here goes:

(My sister comes in and sits down. Sarah regards my sister condescendingly then proceeds to give her a complacent smirk as if she had just found the answer to all the problems in the universe)

Sarah: “You’re not a very good student are you?”

5 remarks popped into my sister’s head at that very moment:

WTF?!
Is this the first question you ask your patient?
I’m top of my class even after my double promotion.
You’re not a very good doctor are you?
Lady, you just ruined your reputation in less than 10 seconds.

But instead she replied with a simple “I’m moderately good.”

Sarah: “You know, it won’t do you any good to lie.”

By this point, my sister is so shocked she doesn’t even say anything.

Sarah: “Please stand outside for a moment. I’d like to speak to your mother privately.”

My sister just walks out (still unable to process such level of vanity in an adult).

Sarah: “Your daughter is quite obviously making the whole thing up about her vision. And as her parent, it is your responsibility to make sure she studies all day. She gets an F in her tests and at best a D, am I right?”

It took my mother all of her willpower to not get up and slap her full across the face. She quietly thanked the doctor and left, making sure to slam the door especially loudly on her way out.

P.S. After much more research and diagnosis in another country (Australia), it turns out my sister’s wavy vision was due to ocular migraine. It hasn’t got much better yet but baby steps lead the way. 🙂

INVESTIGATORS REVEAL JIMMY LAI MONEY TRAIL

Huge amounts of international money flowed into the bank accounts of Jimmy Lai—and large sums of cash went out to anti-China groups, a court heard yesterday.

The tabloid publisher received HK$2.945 billion in his nine bank accounts in recent years, with deposits coming from the United States, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere. The money is said to have derived “from overseas securities trading”.

But the money didn’t sit there.

Who got the cash?

Chunks of finance went out to multiple China-hostile political groups in Hong Kong, the US, and the UK, the prosecution said, providing a detailed report from financial investigators.

Jimmy Lai’s lawyer Steven Kwan Man-wai did not dispute the information.

Local recipients included the Hong Kong Democratic Party, the Civic Party, the Labour Party, the League of Social Democrats, the court was told.

A wildly critical UK group called Hong Kong Watch, whose members include Benedict Rogers and former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten, received HK$202,000.

Paul Wolfowitz, former US deputy secretary of defence, was sent HK$1.76 million in payments from 2013 onwards, the court heard. Money also went to a right-wing think tank called the American Enterprise Institute.

Cash also went to a group called the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, organizers of an annual meeting to keep the “Tiananmen Square massacre” story, debunked by Julian Assange and others, alive.

The biggest individual recipient named yesterday was Cardinal Joseph Zen, a retired Hong Kong churchman who has fallen out with his colleagues, including Pope Francis, over his relentless China-bashing. The churchman received HK$3.5 million in 2017, the prosecution said.

The court heard earlier that large sums of money from Jimmy Lai’s funds (held by various entities) were paid to media companies, including the publishers of the Washington Post, the Nikkei Weekly, the UK Guardian, and media groups in India.

Jimmy Lai, 76, is on trial for sedition and collusion, offences illegal worldwide. His colleagues and associates have pleaded guilty in related hearings. The trial continues.

Baltic Sea Anomaly, Atlantis, and Underwater Alien Bases | Mysteries of the Ocean Pt 1

https://youtu.be/tgqAt6YN1jE

Why do so many couples still get married when the divorce rate is so high?

I can tell you why I took the plunge.

She was gorgeous.

I wanted to have sex.

We were both young and stupid.

Oh, and movies said we’d “live happily ever after.”

And we did, through the honeymoon. Then reality struck.

We suddenly discovered that, well, we’re very different. In just about everything.

And that caused us to clash and occasionally me to wonder, “What the hell is wrong with her?”

And my wife to wonder that about me, only way more often.

Through years of building businesses, raising kids, paying bills. And occasional sleepless nights, sickness and clashes it would have been easy to walk away.

To think, “Well, I guess it’s not meant to be.”

But we just chose not to. We chose to make it “happily ever after.” Period.

So when we didn’t have the happy part we still had the ever after part. And it was going to be a long ever after.

So we might as well put the happy part back in. And we did.

Last week my wife was gone baby sitting our grandson. I was home alone.

No, that’s never a good thing in so many ways.

She came home on Friday evening so we had a late dinner and watched a movie.

As we enjoyed a glass of wine, I thought, “Ah, life is good again. Just the way it’s meant to be.”

I turned to her and said, “I’m glad you can babysit. But I’m really glad you’re home.”

“Yeah, it feels good to be home too. Though I miss my baby,” she responded.

“I know, I’m having to compete with your new boyfriend. But I do have to say, he’s really cute.”

We laughed.

And proceeded to live happily ever after for another evening.

And later, well, never mind.

You get married for the wrong reasons. Then build a marriage for the right ones.

What path in life did you go down that, as a child, you never would have expected?

I was failing grade 8 Math and English, and barely passing Science. My parents ran into my Math teacher at a social event, turned out they had distant common friends.

She made it a point to tell them I wasn’t going to get anywhere in life. She suggested they find me a trade, I might do well as an electrician or a plumber (nothing wrong with these professions, except she used it in a derogatory way, as studying is beyond my capabilities).

Ms. Farhana was a real jerk.

I was the shiest kid around and bullied throughout my childhood. However, I was embarrassed enough by that incident that I mustered up my courage and asked the neighbour’s daughter to tutor me. She started from basic and built up from there.

I passed grade 8 Math. Barely, but I passed it.

She kept tutoring me and I did average in grade 9.

My grade 10 Math teacher had a baby. He lived in the neighbourhood so I decided to ring his doorbell to wish him well. He invited me in for cake. Zee never says no to cake. He told me I could be his best student if I just tried harder.

I knew he was giving me an empty compliment, but a part of me thought I could.

So I asked him to help me after school. He said yes.

I got lucked out with a really kick-ass, but slightly racist, grade 11 Chemistry teacher. He broke things down to just Math. I overlooked his passive aggressive micro-aggressions and had him help me. Everything made sense.

I took Finite Math in highschool. The teacher had a bit of a gambling problem, but man did he know his probabilities.

Suddenly Math was fun.

There is a goat behind one of three doors and you pick a door. I open one of the doors you didn’t pick, do you change your answer? (Hint: yes)

I made up different problems with him. I learned Texas Hold’em. We talked about probabilities of different hands.

In grade 12 Advanced Math I got almost perfect, the highest mark anyone has gotten up until that point in that school’s history.

I took Math tests for fun and did well enough at the University of Waterloo’s Descartes test that I got in with scholarship even though my overall marks weren’t that high.

I decided to major in Math (and Computer Science). I finished the first year in Dean’s list, primarily because of kicking ass in Math. I tutored Calculus, Algebra, and Combinatorics and Optimization to pay bills.

Screw you Ms. Farhana, you were wrong.

I graduated and went to work for Microsoft and then Amazon due to my strength in Math.

I decided to run for a local office and despite not knowing anyone, turned campaigning into a Math problem. I reached out to others in the office and asked them for advice. I took their advice seriously.

Heck I read a book, tracked down its author (two-time mayor of a Michigan municipality) and emailed him for advice. He replied and agreed to mentor me remotely.

I won the election.

I started a business. I sucked at it. I ran into someone at a dinner who ran an agency. I asked him for help. He agreed. Eventually we ran a campaign for Nissan.

As a child I never thought I could learn that everyone had something to teach me, outright ask them to teach me, and benefit from this skill so incredibly.

“The Worst Thing Ever”

it was seriously the worst thing ever. I walked into my house and saw my mom hanging from the ceiling fan.

I can’t even put into words how messed up it was. It felt like my whole world just fell apart. I still can’t wrap my head around it. It’s like I’m stuck in some kind of freaky….

I can’t even put into words how messed up it was. It felt like my whole world just fell apart. I still can’t wrap my head around it. It’s like I’m stuck in some kind of freaky dream.

I just wish I could go back in time and stop it from happening. But I know that’s not possible. All I can do now is try to move on and remember her in the best way I can.

The most devastating experience of my life was witnessing my mother’s passing. The sight of her lifeless body on the floor left me feeling as though I had lost not only her, but also myself and my entire world.

Despite my desperate desire to help her, she passed away before my eyes, leaving me feeling helpless and hopeless.

However, as time passed, I came to the realization that I must strive to make her proud by doing my best to secure a successful future. This tragedy has left an indelible mark on my life, but I am determined to honor my mother’s memory by achieving my goals.

Related…

DESPERATE WOMAN RESCUED FROM HANGING HERSELF TO DEATH

Information from reliable source to YIRIMAMBO ADVOCACY GROUP UPPER WEST REGION

indicate that a woman from East District information gathered from Wa East district in the Upper West region indicate that a married woman with six children who allegedly wanted to hang herself to death is battling with problems.

It has been fetched but obvious that she can not do anything else for survival nor her mother to care for her family. It is noted that she is a sickler and her mother a stroke patience.

Despite her poor health condition, she and the husband that are taking care of the family. She is always carrying her mother here and there to help her in movement because of that she can’t do any work for money.

Notwithstanding to this, sometimes it is difficult for them to get even food to eat or clothes to wear and medicines for themselves.

Even though the father with six children, is a farmer but is not easy for him taking care of all of them, he brings only what he gets from the farm and that is all which is not always enough but they have been managing.

So she always sit idle thinking that all these problems cannot be solved and she has been saying which she has always been saying to people. *Ending Her Life By Committing Suicide* On the 31st July, 2019 at about 4-5:00 in the evening, a woman which is about 45years- old by name with-held with six Chlidren, from Ducie in the Wa East district of the Upper West region went out with a rope in a black

polythene bag thinking that nobody have seen her but one of her children who was inside another room before she went out into the bush quickly went to inform some good Samaritans in the community and they also quickly traced this woman to the bush and before they got there she has already tied the rope on top of a tree trying to climb another piece of a tree before she can put her neck on the rope. Then the people who followed her as good Samaritans shouted on her and quickly rushed to save her without doing that.

So on this note we are pleading that if any member can help us with either food stuffs or clothes for these people and health support for them as well, if possible so that we will also try to help this woman with counselling and the materials support from you.

But for now she is a little bit OK with her situation.

 With the intervention of yirimambo for the first place with our advice and counseling than before.

SOURCE YIRIMAMBO ADVOCACY GROUP UPPER WEST

Be the RUFUS!

We are a community.

My post on community… on Quora.

What is a Chinese Expert?

I really do not think that this creature exists.

According to the Western / American “news” media, a Chinese Expert is…

A person who accepts American government funding to say bad things about China.
Is associated, or was associated, with American mainstream media.
Has, in their possession, photos of the “expert” with American political personages.

According to the Chinese, a Chinese Expert is a graded, stratified tier system based on experience.

Top Tier

Born in China. Studied Chinese history with exemplary grades. Works on behalf of the Chinese people, and puts the people of China first. Many members of the CCP fit this role, as do many Pioneers, and an entire subculture of Chinese that support the “Chinese Dream”.

Old Hand

Has lived in China for a significant period of time. Understands the various societies, and cultures of China. Is married to, or was part of, a Chinese family. Works on behalf on the greater good for all, but of course, his / her Chinese family and Chinese friends come first. This person is also known as a Chinese wanna-be. And this person supports, and praises, “The Chinese Dream”.

Enthusiast

This person, may or many not have lived in China. But has totally embraced the Chinese culture, society and means. This includes certain individuals out of Singapore, Vietnam, and other places around the globe. Maybe they aren’t an “expert” in a classical sense, but they are certainly enthusiastic for the Chinese dream. These people are perhaps known an “fanboi.”

At best, I (personally) am considered a “China Old Hand”.

I don’t know everything, but I know enough.

…

What is “The Chinese Dream”?

Last weekend, my family and a few friends, went to visit an organizational youth meet in Zhuhai. This group (and there are thousands throughout China), teach independence, pride, self-confidence, and acceptance as part of “The Chinese Dream”. It was astounding.

It’s 100% voluntary. The kids pay a small membership fee.

Really. Amazing.

You will never see anything else like this anywhere. Watch how accepted and inclusive my daughter was taken in. It was like she was “absorbed by the hive”. LOL

“Resistance is futile”. -The Borg

https://youtu.be/vVcosfCqwNA

There is a great sense of belonging, and acceptance that I have NEVER experienced anywhere else.

Belonging.

B-E-L-O-N-G-I-N-G

Belonging as PART of a COMMUNITY.

No “lone wolf” bullshit.

…

It’s stuff like this why I LOVE LOVE LOVE China so much.

EDIT 22JAN23

1.3K views. Only 30 “thumbs up”.

I guess you all have bought into the Western propagandized lie that you can be the “lone wolf”. That you can be another “Die Hard” type; another Rambo. Another Clint Eastwood or John Wayne. Maybe a “Professional career woman”… and all that.

That is a lie.

As many are waking up to the reality that humans are social creatures.

We need to be part of society. We need to belong.

Watch my little 2 minute video. (above)

Belonging is valuable.

What made you think, “You’ve got to be kidding me,” when someone sat next to you on an airplane?

We were on a flight to the U.S. from Thailand where we live.

In Taiwan, a disheveled man of around 30 sat down next to me, reeking of weed. After takeoff, he pulled down the tray and filled it with candy bars, nuts, fruit juice and oranges from his camouflage jacket. He turned to me and said, “You can’t trust airline food.”

But when lunch was served, he smashed his food stash under the food tray he was given and ate everything, including the garnish.

Afterwards he wanted to talk and kept pestering me with, “Hey. Hey!!”

He asked where we were from, and upon hearing “Bangkok” he began raving about ‘Thai sticks’, Thai marijuana. Then he asked my Thai husband if he would help him start importing weed to the U.S.

Husband stared at him really coldly and told the man that he was a Royal Thai police officer so “No.” The idiot’s response: “ Listen, I know all Thai cops are corrupt. We could make a load.”

Husband put headphones on and ignored him. I asked the pothead if he was out of his mind. He shrugged, laughed and said husband would change his mind, for sure.

Luckily, he made a friend elsewhere and moved.

But he wasn’t finished with us.

As we lined up for Customs, he got right behind us. As the agent checked our bags, he kept saying loudly, “They’re from Thailand. Great weed there! Oh, look! That’s a weed pipe!” (It was a replica of a silver opium pipe, a decorative item – a gift) “Listen! I still wanna import from you guys!!”

Another agent picked up his bags and escorted him to a separate office, and we never saw him again.

My MM video about pollution in China

https://youtu.be/1vpQCefbArY

Why is the United States afraid of China?

It’s entirely IDEOLOGICAL

The United States and it’s entire existence is based on the WEALTH OF NATIONS

The inherent belief that Core Capitalism is the only system to deliver maximum benefits to an economy and stability to the economy & a system of the people is the only way to deliver a system with full global peace

That the world will be fully peaceful when every nation is governed by its people AKA is a democracy built on Western ideals

This was a very correct analysis that the US followed for almost a hundred and ten years from 1880–1990

Unfortunately this ideology got corrupted post 1990 when:-

US Democracy slowly became more and more partisan
US Leaders became slowly worse and worse and essentially corrupt demagogues
The US capitalism model deteriorated to an Oligarchy ‘Support the top 1%’ model that is sinking the states
The US model became all about speculation and less about actual progress and growth

Yet today’s US leaders religiously believe this is the winning model that every nation must adopt and regards any nation that is different as a ‘Flawed Nation’

Chinas Economic Ideology unlike the USA has always changed to suit changing times

From Deeply Socialist under Mao Tse Tung where the focus was on Education and Equality and Food Production and Stability

To Gradual Mixed Economy under Deng Xiaoping & Jiang Zimin where the focus shifted to Industrialization

To a Ruthless Capitalist Mindset under Hu Jintao where the focus was growth, growth and growth

To the Common Prosperity Mindset under Xi Jingping focusing on reducing Income inequality, spreading development across all sections of the economy and a sort of hybrid model of socialism within capitalism

It is diametric opposite to the US and it’s Ruthless Capitalism Ideology

US maximizes emphasis on Speculation

China hates Speculation

US prefers to capitalize everything to the maximum

China prefers a strong sense of control on excess capitalism

US prefers coalescing smaller entities into a handful of monopolies

China prefers mushrooming of smaller entities and competition deciding which is the best

Chinas One Party System is also diametrically opposite to the Multiple faction democracy that the US endorses and the West supports

The US believes that one person for too long loses the incentive to serve the people and becomes a dictator

Yet China believes a group of able people can serve the people the best and prevent unworthy individuals from coming to power who can ruin a well established system of governance

The US has always believed that ultimately China will shed it’s different ways and join the US in their perfect model (that they don’t realize they have fully corrupted)

It’s what made Gordon Chang & Peter Zeihan such celebrities

The US has always believed that China would face a massive setback like the USSR did (Or was suckered into triggering a setback like my friend Hoàng Phan establishes in his answers)

They estimated this to happen between 2005–2008

Didnt Happen

Instead China moved from strength to strength to strength over time and successfully endured every US action against it, from the Wolf Sanctions of 2011 to the Raimondo Sanctions of 2022

The US may trigger a wave of propaganda against China but the purpose of this is to STOP THEIR OWN PEOPLE FROM QUESTIONING AS TO HOW CHINA NOT ONLY SURVIVES TODAY BUT THRIVES FOLLOWING DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSITE ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL IDEOLOGY

As China moves ahead without the seeming collapse, the US are seeing their two hundred year old belief and ideology (Again which they don’t realize they have corrupted already) getting shattered by China

And slowly seeing others start to adopt a similar stance from Turkiye to Serbia to Vietnam to Singapore

The US is beginning to wonder if indeed it’s ideology was flawed and whether it’s gods and idols are false

And that terrifies them

They don’t realize that it is THEY who have completely corrupted a nice good solid system that was giving them the position of world leader and global trust for decades

It is they who have become Satanic Hegemons from Global Leaders

As for China, China is on the right track so far

They MUSTN’T MAKE THE MISTAKE THAT US DID

They mustn’t allow ideology and hegemony to corrupt them the way US was corrupted under Bush Junior, Clinton and so on

They must ensure they keep refreshing their system so that it best helps the people of China

Pepe Escobar: China Issues DEVASTATING Warning to Neocons as Putin and Xi Make History

https://youtu.be/Qozaq6KAvPs

Have you ever seen something so surprising that you were momentarily stunned? What was it?

I was on the beach late one night looking at the moon and the waves.

Out of the corner of my eye along the south end of the beach – I saw something super weird.

What is that?

I squinted, trying to figure it out – it was too far away – but it had to be really huge.

What the heck?

Well, I couldn’t sit there idly looking at the moon and listening to the surf anymore – I needed to figure out what that thing was over there on the beach.

So, I started walking… is it a car? What is that thing? How is it on the beach? Nobody in their right mind would drive a VW bug on a beach like ours… at night…

Closer and closer I walked and larger and larger it looked.

It was a leatherback sea turtle. Digging a hole in the sand.

I was utterly flabbergasted.

I didn’t make a sound, I just stood there, awestruck: feeling truly blessed in the moment to be near such a magnificent being.

I had never been so close to such a large animal in the wild before.

She was utterly oblivious to me – she was on a mission.

I stood beside her as she dug: I definitely got a sand bath that night. She flipped the sand until she was happy with her nest and began to fill it with eggs.

It took a long time.

I couldn’t stay until she was completely finished.

I’m pretty sure it took most of the rest of the night. I left around 0300 and she wasn’t done.

I’ve since swum with green turtles, who are dwarfed in comparison. But nothing has engendered that kind of awe before or since. Stunned is the right word for something which leaves your mouth hanging and your words lost.

Cheese and Honey Pie

Ingredients

Sesame Seed Pastry

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seed
1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling

16 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Instructions

Sesame Seed Pastry: Mix all ingredients until blended; press firmly and evenly against bottom and side of 9-inch pie plate.
Bake at 475 degrees F for 5 minutes.
Filling: Beat cream cheese in large mixer bowl on medium speed until creamy. Add remaining ingredients; beat until light and fluffy. Pour into baked pie shell.
Bake at 350 degrees F until firm, 40 to 50 minutes.
Refrigerate until serving time.

Yields 10 to 12 servings.

Done with the bullshit

I had a thought today that I wanted to share with you all, this is my response to a Reddit post I saw about how corrupt and outdated representative democracy is.

I will start with what I think to be the main problems of representative democracy

The elected body of legislators is not a representative sample of the population, looking at the legislature, you’d think the vast majority of the country was white male lawyers that are either Republicans or Democrats. This is very far from the truth, and many voters do not properly identify either Republican or Democrat and their interests oftentimes scope over topics from both parties. Most of the time when people vote they’re just picking the lesser of two evils, and are not in any way completely satisfied with what other party is doing.
Scope of power does not match scope of accountability, legislators may pass laws that impact people that could not vote for or against them. Unless you count propositions in places like california, legislators are able to pass pretty much whatever law they want that impact sometimes tens of millions of people and are in no way accountable to the laws that they pass. The people have no say in the laws that legislators have passed. This very often leads to a corrupt system of the government being able to do whatever it wants and the people having no say in what the government does.
Job security for elected officials is more dependent on fundraising than on whether the politician is acting in his or her constituents’ best interests. This blows the system wide open for large corporations and billionaires to buy off politicians that represent their best interests as opposed to the people.
Lobbying undermines democracy. Lobbying is a mechanism for powerful groups to influence laws and regulations at the expense of the public interest. This results in outside influence, unfair competition and policy capture, to the detriment of effective policymaking. This effectively allows billionaires and big corporations to buy our government and politicians that act in their best interests rather than the interests of the people.
The voting system and general layout of government was designed before it was possible to quickly communicate long distances, so it ignores the possibility of citizens directly participating.
Mass media cannot be trusted to provide accurate information and is very often bias. Mass media often feeds lies and propaganda to the electorate and the electorate is not currently equipped to ensure a representative democracy is acting in the best interest of the people.
The electoral college needs to go, it is not based on popular vote, and it is based on a winner takes all system which is easily susceptible to corruption and allows political candidates to be elected by losing the popular vote. Under the system if you want to vote for your states of losing party don’t even bother voting.
There aren’t enough representatives to accurately represent the people if we’re going to keep our system of representative democracy and not throw out the entire thing. I think the amount of Representatives should be raised to 936, and the amount of Representative districts should also be increased.
It’s very hard to remove corrupt politicians from power. The people should be able to impeach corrupt politicians, the system was not designed to have politicians serving for 30 or 40 years. We need term limits, I think a term limit of 6 years for senators and representatives is perfectly fair, and I think a term limit of 10 years for supreme Court justices is also perfectly fair. This would allow the government to be more in touch with what people want by constantly switching out people every couple of years.
The Monopoly of power that both conservatives and liberals have over the government in their respected Republican and Democratic parties. We need more political parties to better represent the people, it is not the case that people simply think one way or the other there should be five political parties written directly into the Constitution. The government should operate in a European style model of a political coalition if it wants to get anything done, in other words political parties are forced to make concessions and are forced to work with other political parties to pass laws.

So what do I things should be done to fix things? I’ll tell you

Abolish Congress and the supreme Court, and implement a system of direct democracy where every 6 months every single issue that the supreme Court and Congress would have looked at are voted on directly by the people in the form of propositions. Now I know that if we implemented elections twice a year every June and December people will be voting on about 100 different issues, and that’s fine, people’s voices need to be heard and it is a much better system of asking people what they think of certain issues rather than allowing an out-of-touch government to make these decisions for people instead.
Like I said on my previous point, it needs to be a government for the people by the people. This is why representative democracy is an outdated and obsolete relic of the past. In representative democracy legislators are able to pass whatever laws they please and are not accountable to the people.
We need to make lobbying illegal and if we are going to have a political coalition system the people need to be the ones electing politicians not billionaires and big corporations. Money should not be a part of politics. Making money part of politics undermines democracy
Like I said before lobbying undermines democracy and it needs to be banned 🚫. Lobby groups do absolutely nothing for the government except give special interest groups political power that they shouldn’t have and allow the special interest groups to have a voice in our country and our politics and it allows them to buy politicians.
We need to switch to a ranked choice voting system, as opposed to an instant runoff system. The electoral college needs to go, even if that means amending the Constitution to get rid of it.
Mass media should not have a say in our government, as they cannot be trusted to provide accurate information. I think we should have a system of fake news laws that holds these mass media companies accountable for publishing bias or false information
Like I said the electoral college needs to go. Even if that means amending the Constitution get rid of it. We need a ranked choice popular voting system. This would make it so everybody’s voice is heard, and it would allow new political parties to come to the table and it would break up the Monopoly of power that Republicans and Democrats have over the government.
I don’t even think we should keep our system of Representative democracy, but if it needs to stay we need to double the amount of Representatives to 936. This wasn’t even my idea this was the idea of YouTuber Mathew Beat.
We need term limits for politicians. Once a corrupt politician like Mitch McConnell is in power it’s almost impossible to get rid of them. And it should be up to the entire country to elect politicians not just their state. Term limits would allow new people to come to the table and new ideas to spread and it would allow for more political parties to have seats. Every political party no matter how extremist should be able to have its voice heard.
We need to switch to a political coalition system. Everybody should be able to have their voice heard no matter what side of the political spectrum they sit on. There should be five major political parties and many smaller political parties even if those political parties only get 1–5% of the vote. These political parties should be: the nationalist, the conservatives, the liberals, the acella party (progressive party), and the green party. Many smaller political parties such as: the Socialist party, the fascist party, the libertarian party, etc should also get a say. If we have 936 representatives, even if the fascist party only got 2% of the vote, they would still get 19 seats. This would actually heavily benefit minority political parties and give them a lot of power. Let’s say for example that 20% of the population identifies as nationalist, and 22% of the population identify as conservative. This does not add up to 51%, it adds up to 42%, this would still require an additional 9% of the vote for the nationalist and conservatives to get anything passed and they would have to make deals with the smaller political parties to get up to 51%.

These are just my thoughts about our whole busted political system, let me know what you think

2024 Taiwan Election Reveals Shocking TRUTH About USA and China

https://youtu.be/XKiM2rVZMYg

Swimming in cockroaches

I used to live in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. And I loved it. What a nice and lush forest full of flowers. But like all things, I only was able to work there for a few years until I was laid off. Those lay offs really sucked, I’ll tell you what.

Anyways, I had a really nice house in a low area on the edge of a swamp. It was great. Glorious. With high temperatures, and humidity, it was super lush. My house was brown with nice green shutters and doors, and a nice slab parking garage.

Then I got laid off.

What a nightmare. I do not want to relive that. I’ll tell you what.

But, anyways, we had a bug-control man come over every month to spray for the cockroaches. Oh, they grew them BIG in Hattiesburg. And there were so many of them, at night the ground looked like it was moving. Like you were trippin’ or something like that.

So to save up money, we decided to cancel our monthly bug spraying.

Well, one week goes buy, and my cats were busy catching cockroaches. We would find dead cockroaches on the half-shell everywhere. But they got tired of it. You can only catch so many.

On the second week, I saw one my socks waking across the room.

By the third week we were hearing sounds in the walls, and periodic electrical shorts in our outlets. And then, but the end of the fourth week, when the television was covered with cockroaches, we made an emergency call to the exterminator to put on his flashers and race to us; we told him to come over immediately!

And he actually did.

Flashing red lights, and alarm! No kidding!

Jezze!

Lesson learned. If you live in a warm climate… please bug spray. Let me tell you, Joe’s Apartment (a fun movie) didn’t do that nightmare justice.

We were Swimming in cockroaches!

Today…

What is something that needs to be said that nobody wants to hear?

The cemeteries are full of people who thought themselves indispensable.
Nothing is certain except for death and taxes.
Everyone is a whore. We just sell different parts of ourselves.
Worry is today’s mouse eating tomorrow’s cheese.
Some people will only “love you” as much as they can use you.
Love is a crock pot, not a deep fryer.
Looking for others to validate your sense of worth will always end in ruin.
If it’s free, you’re probably the product.
Wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first.
The days will be long, but the years will be short.

The unimportant things

How would you deal with a supervisor who passes off your work as their own?

Had this happen in my first job. Learned my lesson.

Next time there was a review coming up ( about two months later ) I wrote up a synopsis of my work ( and my colleagues work) and delivered it to my manager’s manager two days before.

We then had the review where my manager misrepresented the work that was done, whose idea it was, and the results.

Not much happened. So two weeks later I went back to my manager’s manager with my request for a transfer. I was doing about 60% of the work in my team of 3; building all the scripts, generating the data for reports, including working at night and weekends because I was single.

When the department head indicated he was reluctant to approve the transfer I told him that was OK and that I’d have my desk cleared out by the end of the week. I knew that there was the possibility that this wouldn’t work out so I had been interviewing. I also knew that the firm had gone to a lot of trouble to recruit and train me & that having me leave would look bad.

I got my transfer.

Eggs with Peppers and Sausage

Ingredients

1 large onion, sliced
1 pound Italian sweet peppers or banana peppers, seeded and cut into strips
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 large tomatoes, seeded and cut into wedges
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 pound fully cooked smoked sausage links, cut into thin slices
6 fried eggs

Instructions

Cook onion and peppers in oil in skillet, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 15 minutes.
Stir in tomatoes, paprika and sugar. Cover and cook over low heat 15 minutes.
Stir in sausage; cook uncovered until sausage is hot, about 5 minutes.
Top with fried egg.

6 servings

What is the best piece of advice you could give someone about life?

The quickest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it back into your pocket.
Never ask how stupid someone is, cause they’ll turn around and show you.
Don’t approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear or a fool from any direction.
Stop looking for someone to love you & start looking for someone that deserves your love – tap here to meet your ideal match.

You don’t ask, you don’t get.There are plenty of ways to enter a pool. The stairs is not one of them.If a street performer makes you stop walking, you own him a buck.When entrusted with a secret, keep it.Date with standards, not expectations. Just sit back and see if they can meet your standards or not.Just because you can doesn’t mean you shouldYou only get one chance to notice a new haircut.Don’t dumb yourself down.You are what you do, not what you sayDon’t lose sight of the hobbies you enjoyed as a child. They will help you live as you grow older.Don’t let your yearnings get ahead of your earning.Don’t dig for water under the outhouse.Dating advice you should know: if they like you, you’ll know. If they don’t, you’ll be confused.

Mythology and bullcrap

What’s it like to be rich as in 1% rich?

My parents started middle class and worked their way to the 1%.

It isn’t this huge party. But there are some basic things you don’t worry about as much.

It is weird because I didn’t grow up wealthy at all. And had a strict-as-hell dad.

At some point after I left home, things really ramped up. My dad left the military and became a high ranking exec with SAP.

My mom started a vineyard at their farm. And sold off a lot of great real estate investments she’d made over the years.

But you would never know it if you bumped into them at the store or something. They have very humble personalities. If you went to their home however..

When I wake up in the morning in their guest room I get to enjoy a view like this:

When I visit they spend most of their time working around the house and on the farm. We don’t really sit still much. And even when we are it is because we are working on something. We are worker-bees.

Also, I think everyone has a misconception as to how wealthy the top 1% is. 10 years ago, even I had the impression that 1%ers don’t work hard and take 9 vacations a year. I think it is just different if you started small and got there in your middle age and have kids.

At that point, you are more concerned with managing everything and making sure your kids are doing OK.

(Maybe that it is .01 percenters that do all that laying around by the pool…)

Either way I love visiting my parents, but every time I get home here in Florida my house feels really really small! 🙂

I like them big, big

What is the most savage thing you’ve ever done?

I roasted a girl using nothing but a Venn Diagram

This happened in English class back in 2018, and the second it happened, I literally searched for a question that this answer would correlate to. The rest was history.

Okay, so class had just started. The teacher was marking the roll on her laptop, and some girl named Sophie was at her desk to ask her something.

“Ethan James?”

“Yeah, here!”

Then, suddenly, Sophie was like

“Ethan James; absence explained? What does that mean, Ethan? Why is your absence explained?”

I had zoned out, but I perked up upon hearing my name. As one does. I realized what was happening, and I started monologuing.

“Hey, can I get the whiteboard for a sec?”

I said, addressing my teacher. She obliged.

I drew one circle on the board.

“Sophie, you see this circle? This circle represents the status of my attendance.”

I then drew another circle next to it but not connected.

“You see this other circle, Sophie? That second circle represents your business.”

“Yeah. Okay” Sophie was confused.

“Now, Sophie, do you see any correlation between the two?”

“No.”

“My point exactly.”

What is it that nobody tells you about having children?

We have three kids. The oldest is 18, and the youngest is 4. So, for 18 years now, our lives have revolved around raising our children. My life in particular has been more child-raising intense, because I’m home with them more often and I took on the role of primary domestic engineer in our marriage.

I was prepared for how expensive kids would be, and the good times and bad times and whatnot.

But lately, I’ve been experiencing something no one warned me about: not knowing what to do with myself as my children gain independence.

Just in the last few weeks, I’ve noticed that my youngest can get her own snacks, turn on the TV and find her shows by herself, entertain herself with her own toys, and even tuck herself in at night. When my other children did this, I was either still busy in grad school, or had another baby who needed my attention.

But now, I’m finding myself, more and more, looking for things to do as my children do their own thing.

Before sitting down to write this, I asked both of my youngest children if they’d like to play something with me. They both said no. I wasn’t prepared for that. Normally, they’d jump on the chance to play with me. They’d insist on it. But right now, they’re each playing by themselves.

I’ve heard that business owners sometimes have a similar problem: they dedicate so many years to getting their businesses off the ground, that once those businesses are successful, and they have employees who do most of the work, the owners aren’t sure what to do with their new free time.

On the upside, my house has never been cleaner. I filled the unexpected free time this week by cleaning. Now, there’s not even much of that to do.

I predict I’m going to be one of those people who retire, and six months later find another job out of boredom.

Statement of reality

What do you do when someone has road rage and tries to follow you home to fight you?

I was going home on a two-lane highway on my motorcycle when a speeding 18-wheel truck came up behind me and started crowding me. I’m talking about an 80,000 lb tractor-trailer so close that I couldn’t see his windshield above the grille in my mirrors.

I was nearly to my left-turn to my road and I was afraid he couldn’t see my brake light or turn signal so I speeded up a little with my signals on, but he speeded up also. So I punched the throttle and jumped out about 100 feet in front of him, grabbed the clutch and stomped on my back brake to lock the 4.10 back tire to make smoke for about two seconds and then left off the brake and clutch and punched the throttle again. Mister Tailgater was doing the shimmy-shake trying to keep his trailer behind his cab in my mirrors and using both lanes to do it while I rocketed past my turn and outran him to the small town a mile away. I parked next to a friend’s business and upon being greeted and hearing the 18-wheeler grinding to a stop out front I ask the store owner, “Hey Spider, if you’ve got that sawed-off shotgun under the counter, I might need to borrow it in a minute.”

Fortunately, the trucker stared at the business for a minute and then drove away.

Ministry reveals UK’s MI6 using foreign national for espionage targeting China

China’s national security authority recently uncovered a case involving the United Kingdom’s Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6, using foreign nationals to engage in espionage activities against China, the Ministry of State Security announced on Monday morning.

In a statement, the ministry said that in 2015, MI6 established an “intelligence cooperation relationship” with a foreign national surnamed Huang, who served as the head of a consulting firm overseas.

The statement did not identify Huang’s nationality.

Subsequently, MI6 instructed Huang to enter China multiple times. Under its guidance, Huang gathered intelligence related to China and identified prospective individuals for MI6’s counterespionage efforts, according to the ministry.

MI6 also provided professional intelligence training to Huang in various locations, including the UK, and equipped him with specialized spy equipment for intelligence exchange and communication, it said.

Through meticulous investigation, the national security authority promptly discovered evidence of Huang engaging in espionage activities and took criminal compulsory measures against him.

Upon examination, it was determined that Huang provided MI6 with 14 pieces of classified information and three intelligence reports, the statement said.

Throughout the investigation, the national security authority has kept the consulate of Huang’s country informed on his case and has arranged consular visits for him, ensuring the protection of his legal rights in accordance with the law, it added.

Sawed Bones!

What is the rudest thing another shopper has told you while waiting in line?

I think we could all write a book about this but the rudest I heard was from a pharmacist while I was waiting in line for a prescription, not the other customers. My two year old daughter was potty training and doing a good job. That day she wanted to wear her big girl panties. She had been doing so for months.

The wait was long at the Drug Store. She needed to use the restroom. I asked if there was a restroom. The pharmacist barked “ no” at me. I explained the situation and asked if she could just use the employee rest room since we had waited a half hour already.

The pharmacist said “She will just have to wet her pants”. Really? I turned to my child and said. “Honey, just pee on the floor here. This place is just one big potty. “. My two year old politely squatted and peed all over the floor. The pharmacist was screaming. I said “ honey, this nice man will clean it up right after he gives me my paper back so we can go somewhere else. “

There were a lot of mothers also waiting and everyone found it quite funny but the pharmacist. I went back to that drug store a few years later and they had installed a public restroom.

PS. Whether you think I was right or wrong is of no matter to me. But the fact that some people think I did this over the use if the bathroom shows I did not make myself clear. I was a lawyer. Had the pharmacist said their insurance did not allow public use or said I might try xxx store that has a public restroom, no problem I get that. I could have taken her to the car and used a McDonald’s cup. It was that this man told a little girl to just wet her pants. Had she wet her pants the result would have been the same on the floor. I just decided to avoid the wet pants part and show this man that he was not providing customer service-of any form. I’m sure the issue of needing a restroom had come up before. The store should have had an appropriate response. There are Federal laws in place now concerning employee only restrooms.

New kitten

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

Yes, and it all worked out beautifully: another employee in a different section whom I did not know well and was not particularly friendly with went out of his way to tell me that my bosses wanted to hire a woman to replace me (I am a man) and not just any woman, but one hot enough for them to ogle and flirt with. That is the kind of pervs that they were. After hearing that, I wiped my company-issued Macbook Air clean, mentally checked out, and waited for my last day.

After I had left the company, I heard that they did ogle and flirt with her, and I was told that they had hired her specifically for her charms – she flirted right back.

A few months later I got the delicious news that they had taken her on a business trip to meet the company’s most important client. In short, a good time was had by all, and she ended up fucking an employee at the client’s headquarters.

It gets better, a sympathetic former co-worker told me that he had dug around and found that my replacement had a police record (shoplifting I think) and her mugshot was online.

When I heard this news I sent an anonymous email to just the right person at the client’s headquarters describing the sex and a link to the mugshot and the fallout was magnificent: the client demanded that my replacement be fired, and she was, and my company’s reputation with their most important customer was ruined (they didn’t lose all the business, however).

Suddenly my old bosses were checking out my LinkedIn profile and I had the pleasure of blocking all three.

Millions of American’s Begin Moving into Vans | VanLife EXPLODES on Google Trends

What was your “I am surrounded by idiots” moment?

Me: Hello, I’d like to book a room please mate?

Concierge: I’m sorry sir, we’re fully booked out. I can recommend a place down the road.

Me: How is it possible you are booked out? I’m looking at “Booking dot com” right here on my phone and it says you have a room going here.

Concierge: I’m sorry sir, we’re fully booked out. (and then smiles at me like I’m some sort of idiot)

Me: Okay, I suppose I’ll work something out.

Concierge: Yes sir. Sorry sir. (looks down at whatever it is Concierges do when they are not serving someone)

I step away from the concierge desk and think to myself… What happens if I simply press “Book Now” so… I didn’t think, I just pressed “Book Now”. The message comes back with my booking confirmation code. Bear in mind, not a single person is in the foyer, and not a single person has been and spoken to the concierge in the last 20 seconds since I stepped away from the concierge desk.

Me: “Mate, I’d like to check in please.”

Concierge: Certainly sir do you have a booking?

Me: (stunned he doesn’t recognise me from 20 seconds ago) Um, yes, here it is on my phone.

Concierge: Excellent sir, do you have any bags the porter can take up to your room for you Sir?

Me: Narr, it’s okay I only have this one bag. I’ll be okay.

I was thinking all the way up to my room in an elevator with the porter guy that had a single carry bag on a huge dome shaped brass pipe top with a red carpet floor baggage cart…

… “WTF just happened”

Picture this with one case on it. That case is the size of a case that you pull along for a two day stop over…

Like this… on that huge trolley.

Its that easy

Should a boss be allowed to fire an employee for something they do outside of work?

Tricky.

I once was fired from a job after a night out drinking with friends. Of course, most of the friends were work friends.

One of them mentioned they were worried about upcoming changes to the department and thought it was odd they were told to not do their job when they came in each day.

I told him … they’re going to fire you. (I had no idea…I wasn’t told anything, I was guessing) BUT i told him to never stop doing his job … that it was a test to see if they needed him at all. Turned out I was right. But someone told my boss that I had made this prediction.

I was terminated for professionalism. Off the clock, after hours, not on site … with no first hand knowledge shared.

When they brought me into my bosses office to fire me, I started to say “You can’t do this…” followed by “of course you can, otherwise we wouldn’t be here at this point.” I accepted it and turned in all my stuff, gave them notes on where I was in various projects and thanked them for the time and experience. To which my director literally said ” Thanks for your professionalism” I grinned and said “well it’s professionalism that got me fired according to you.”

And ai walked out of there and got a job paying 40% more in as month.

They can fire you for any reason and for no reason. They can even fire you for illegal reasons if they just cover it with a legal looking one. Ultimately, you can’t let it affect you. Sure money is going to be different and plans will change but you’ll get through it and you wouldn’t want to work somewhere that wants to fire you but can’t in the end.

What psychological facts really leave an impression on you?

When someone dies by suicide, it’s because they want to end their suffering, not necessarily their life.
Other people tend to see you as around 20% more attractive than you see yourself.
People who had a difficult or unhappy childhood are more likely to have a fear of being happy.
Having a pet is connected to better brain health as we get older.
Kids are less likely to trust people they perceive as not good-looking.
If someone is already feeling depressed, being addicted to social media can make their depression worse.
Almost one-third of American adults are online pretty much all the time.
Reading fictional stories when you’re young can help you develop a more complex way of looking at the world.
The first person you look at when you enter a room is usually the one you feel most threatened by.

This is REAL world War 3

Why does the ASML CEO seem worried about the Huawei Mate 60 Pro, despite previously stating “Even if we provided them with the drawings, they wouldn’t be able to make it.” regarding China’s technological capabilities?

When an Industrial leader gets arrogant and snobbish, there will be a D-day to it.

Lets look in perspective. As an experience sputtering process engineer, when i look at the EUV machine, I find that they are too elaborating. It consume hell of electricity and Hydrogen. The from my common sense if that if we can plough electron by electron onto an anode of cathode, I am sure we can make Nodes like a 3D printer. So I was right , now Cannon has done exactly that and they can produce cheaper chips then DUV and EUV… with the baggage of high energy cost and high H2 consumption. I believe Liang Mong Song already taught about long after he left Samsung. Cheers to China for giving the WEST as good bashing. When the old guards of China, Wen Jia Pow has stated we should share roles and work, but the American will never understand and Taiwan will face the music when they fondle American ideology to the hilt. As a staff in American MNC for more then a decade, I see the blind corners which will kill the American innovation. American Capitalism is all about me and not us.

Is China peacefully bullying the Philippines in the Spratleys?

No the U.S. is aggressively bribing poor fishermen away from fishing for their families to stir up shit on Chinese boats for thousands of dollars of cold hard cash paid in the high seas by CIA and NED operatives. That is precisely what happened.

All is well ap to now. The Pinoy fishermen are happy getting easy money, Bumbong Marcos U.S. happy the U.S. released his family wealth stuck in the U.S. and Philippine governments get more free money or bribes to allow US more bases. The money is used to improve infrastructures where China win the contract. You can say the U.S. pays for Philippine infrastructure!

So China prosper, US can shout it has more bases, fishermen are happy. But the only victims are Americans who will pay and pay and pay! If I were China I would bribed the fishermen to rob the CIA and NED cash by the boat loads to bribed them. That will bring peace faster.

Cat sleeping advice

What have you learned from Quora that you didn’t know before?

Survival: If you get lost in the wilderness, find a river, that will lead you to a town. Most towns (or people) live near water of some sort.
Happiness: Muting politics on social media platforms makes them 1000% better.
Indian Career Paths: Roughly 70% of Indians study Engineering (this blows my mind).
Trolls: There are very unhappy people in the world. They will leave mean, racist, homophobic, anti-semitic, virtually any ugly comment they can think of – to make others share their misery.
Driving: If someone cuts you off in traffic – it is more effective to give them a thumbs down than flip them off. This will cause them to rethink their actions.
Losing: Smile at the person who defeats you. It will steal their joy in defeating you.
Oops: If you find chewing gum on clothes or the carpet, put an ice cube on it for 2 minutes, it will become hard and come off easily.
Restaurant: If you find a fly in your soup, before sending it back, put a ton of salt into the soup. That’s the only way you’ll know they re-cooked new soup rather than send the same soup back out.

Do you know of any human interest stories that are both moving and at the same time outrageous?

“I realized my life was too valuable to let go of,” she said. “And that gave me the courage to survive.”

This is the story of Alison Botha, on December 18, 1994, she was abducted in her car near home by two strangers who took her to an area outside the city in South Africa and by the end of the night, she had been raped brutally and stabbed 30 times in the abdomen, to mutilate her reproductive organs and 16 times to her throat.

Alison Botha, with knife mark on her throat.

She said, “all I could see was an arm moving above my face making a sound. A wet sound, it was the sound of my flesh being slashed open. He was cutting my throat with the knife. Again and again and again.”

“Do you think she’s dead?” one attacker asked. “No one can survive that,” the other replied. They were apparently satisfied that they had killed her ’cause she was almost decapitated, so they left her for dead, but Botha was still breathing and could see car headlights coming through the bushes.

She started trying to get onto the road and as soon as she pulled herself up, she felt something slimy coming out from her abdomen, her intestines. She had to use one hand to keep her gut from spilling out and the other hand to hold on to her own head, ’cause it started to fall backward.

A young veterinary student named Tiaan Eilerd, who was driving down to Port Elizabeth from Johannesburg, saw Botha lying in the middle of the road and stopped. She was rushed to the hospital, where doctors were stunned by her horrific wounds. She was soon able to identify attackers from police pictures while she was still in the hospital. This led to the arrest of the “Ripper Rapists,” as they were named in press release.

Both attackers were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in August 1995. But after serving 28 years, both were granted parole in July 2023.

Alison Botha soon became a motivational speaker and began traveling around the world, telling her story in different countries. She is one of the first women from South Africa to speak publicly about rape, she helped inspire other survivors to come forward and tell their stories to the world.

Note: If you are a victim of rape and planning to commit suicide, and if you change your mind after reading this story, then this would be a big favour on me. The only purpose of writing this is to let you know that you are precious, I just want to motivate you to live ’cause the world needs you. Please do me a favour

What is the oddest conversation you’ve had with a telephone scammer?

Maybe not the oddest but it gave me a chuckle.

Unknown number comes up on my work phone, not unusual, so I answer and am greeted by someone with an Asian accent, enquiring about the accident I had been involved in, having had far too many of these over the years I responded with, It only happened this morning how did you know, well sir we work very closely with your insurance company, this was the point I put the phone on hand’s free, and the rest of the office tuned in, Well I am very glad you called I was driving along the A1 near Catterick and someone drove straight into my vehicle, the caller was most concerned for my health and wellbeing, which I informed them that I was very shocked and shaken, I am now passed to a supervisor who needs Details so road A1, location Catterick, vehicle Scorpion, speed 65, damage scuffed the paintwork,

There was a pause as they went through the information, um sir I am struggling to find your car, you can’t find it it’s a very common vehicle around here, can you please give me a bit more detail please certainly it’s a Scorpion CVRT, no sir I am still struggling to find your vehicle, really I am not sure if you will be able to help me if you can’t even find my vehicle, It’s a Scorpion Combat Vehicle Recce Tracked, it’s a Tank mate definitely scuffed the paintwork terribly, silence from the other end of the phone, followed by a single expletive, and call ended.

Funny enough it’s the only phonecall I have ever got a round of applause for as well as much laughter.

What is the most tasteless thing you have seen people on a cruise do?

My mom and I go on a cruise every year for her birthday. I am disabled and have a walker for my immense back pain, I cannot stand for long periods of time, so it has a seat. My mom and I wait ONE HOUR in a line WE started to get into a show just so we could get our choice of seats (first come, first serve). A queue starts behind us about 20 minutes before the show and we are happy that we waited as we wanted to record from a very specific seat (middle isle). This woman shows up with her son in a wheelchair from the cruise liner, and proceeds to stand right in front of the entry doors of the venue. My mother and I give her the benefit of the doubt and my mother proceeds to let her know there is a line behind us (it wraps around a hallway). She looks at my mother and completely ignores her, sees a tall man walking past and says to him, loudly, ‘can you believe this woman wants me to get in line when my son is in a wheelchair?!’ The son is literally silent the WHOLE TIME with a small cast over his left foot. The man looks around the corner and sees me sitting in my walker. He says to the lady, ‘she has a disabled person in line too.’ The lady responds, ‘so?’ The man just walks off. My mom tells the whole line what happened. The line just ignores everything and shrinks back, trying to avoid the conflict. I am in shock about the whole thing and only getting angrier, by the fact the cruise liner crew isn’t telling her to move for blocking the door, OR asking her to get in line. I’m so angry by everyone’s actions I can’t even react. The doors open and she proceeds to sit EXACTLY WHERE WE WANTED TO SIT. The crew even offer to take the boy’s wheelchair since they aren’t allowed to leave them in the small isles! Even remembering this trip now upsets me. I couldn’t be more angry at myself for not saying anything and trying to stay calm. I should have just acted like I had NO MANNERS like her! Apparently the ‘squeaky wheel gets the grease’.

That was last year, the horrible time we had because of this lady just makes me cringe every time I think about it. I hope the woman reads this and remembers how she ruined what was before that moment, a beautiful and fun vacation. I hope she learned some manners or stays home, no amount of money can make her worth anyone’s time.

*EDIT* Thanks to everyone with the kind and understanding comments. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so heard. I think this event effected me so much BECAUSE I try to be thoughtful of others constantly and don’t get out much. Writing this out and getting validated with positive responses have really helped me, thank you. Please be aware you have made a difference in my life.

LOL Pickup

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/44HWGYM66fM?feature=share

When you worked on cruise ships, what’s the shadiest thing you’ve seen a passenger do?

There are many cheaters and “professional complainers” among the guests making nice business from giveaways and compensations. I personally recall one amiable couple who, while being alone in the corridor, hid the “caution, wet floor” sign. Then, they went straight to the reception desk, man literally shouting at the poor receptionist that his wife had just accidentally slipped there and injured her back. They caused a small scandal: hotel manager was called in to calm them down, medical staff treated the “injured” woman, and safety officer scolded the poor cleaning lady responsible for the corridor. Nobody was able to find “caution wet floor” sign that ought to be there, so the guests seemed to be right and were offered a financial compensation + next cruise for free. However, what cheating guests didn’t know was that there are many security cameras on the ship, some of them smartly hidden… So when the couple was invited to the hotel manager’s office next day, they expected to settle the details of their compensation. Hotel manager kindly greeted them, asked them to make themselves comfortable and said something like: “Before we proceed with the compensation, let me show you one short movie.” The couple watched with awe the TV screen, showing them hiding the sign from the floor to the locker and then running to the reception. With this proof in hand, hotel manager offered them choosing between two ways of “compensations”: 1) Trial at court. 2) Putting them on passenger blacklist shared with ALL cruise ship companies, that denies them of taking any cruise till the rest of their lives. They chose no. 2) .

Have you or a coworker been fired which then caused the company fail?

Yup, it was a famous named restaurant, I was the man who brought the inspection rating up from a 50 to a 98 percent,I also kept the lights on and the orders paid up to date, as well as didn’t have a huge turn over of employees. But some punk ass wanna be with out the education I had of running a business as well as the decades of experience had help in getting me bumped out of my job, little snot nosed shit sitting in my office telling me he’s my boss. 2 weeks into his employment he fires me. Okay fine I really don’t care, then this is the best part, he had no clue of how to do what I did, called me at home asking me for instructions. I gleefully told him there is no way that I’m going to teach you in a few minutes that took a life time to aquire in education and actually experience. You got what you wanted at my expense which was my job that you figured was up for grabs, I’m not going to help you, you’re on your own. 3 months later the business was shut down, and that was your Burger King at the Sunset Esplanade in Hillsboro Oregon that now the same building was remodeled into the chase bank. Thats karma at its best, screw me out of my life long career choice and not only did you lose me, but 45 other people lost out in the process.

What is the worst/weirdest thing you saw someone doing when you walked in?

I went away for the weekend, and my roommate was planning on having a big party, since he wouldn’t disturb me.

We had a huge backyard and they decided to have a competition for the coolest explosion, without gun powder. You know the mentos and diet coke, and the baking soda and vinegar, over filled balloons kind of thing. Stupid things like filling a balloon with diet coke and dropping in a pack of mentos in a paper tube.

The kitchen door led to the deck and back yard.

It all sounds harmless until you add copious amounts of alcohol.

I came home Sunday evening and found my roommate and a couple of friends scraping one end of the kitchen ceiling with an ice scraper. The culprits and ceiling were all different colors from the food coloring and other dyes that they had added to their experiments to make them more impressive. It appeared like tapioca or gummies stuck to the ceiling. They had matching paint already on half the ceiling. They had hoped to have it done, before I came home. But they had slept until 2:00 pm, before starting clean up.

No amount of begging would get them to tell me what happened. But I’m guessing that they prepared everything in the kitchen before taking it outside, and when alcohol is involved, I m guessing they weren’t careful.

So I came home to a bunch of hungover red and green people , with a 4 foot scraper, scraping one end of the red and green pebbled ceiling, while someone else was using a roller on a stick, roll paint along behind them.

That was pretty weird.

What is the most savage thing you’ve ever done?

My friend was admitted to hospital yesterday.

I had to go running to the medical store for purchasing the medicines prescribed by the doc.

In the afternoon, the doc prescribed some medicines and I went to the store to buy them.

There was a lady who received the prescription. She immediately ran her eyes through it and started searching for the meds in the shelves.

The total bill was 569 inr.

I paid 600 inr. She returned 30 inr and a dabur honitus (worth 1 inr obviously).

I was a bit reluctant at first, still I asked:

Me:Um.. excuse me. Can I get 1 rupee instead of the toffee?(I asked it not only because I disliked that toffee, but also because I loved collecting coins.)

She:No. We don’t keep coins for change. Anyway, what difference does it make.. the toffee too costs 1 rupee.

Me:Are you sure you don’t keep coins?

She:(obviously being annoyed by me) Yes. We dont.

Me: Okay. Thanks.

I went back to the ward.

By the evening some more new meds were prescribed.

I went to the store again.

The lady was still there. She gave me a forceful smile. I smiled back.

This time the bill was 131 inr.

I handed 130 rupees and that one dabur honitus.

She glanced at me unappealingly.

Me: Sorry mam. I don’t have coins for change. Anyway what difference does it make.. the toffee too costs 1 rupee.

I thanked her and gave a brief smile as I headed back.Happy and satisfied.

What are the implications of the Dutch government revoking the export license for ASML’s chip-making machines to China?

The person asking the question seemed to want an answer like this:

In response to the request of the United States, the Netherlands suddenly revoked ASML’s sales license to China, and some lithography machines planned to be shipped to China were intercepted. The free world successfully prevented China from acquiring advanced semiconductor production technology, and the United States won again.

But sorry, that’s not the case.

On January 3, the Dutch government suddenly revoked the export licenses for two models of DUV lithography machines (NXT: 2050i and NXT: 2100i) approved in 2023. However, ASML announced that the DUV lithography machines purchased in advance by customers from mainland China had all been delivered before the license was revoked.

In other words, when the license was revoked, the planned lithography machine had already been shipped to China.

Let’s sort out the process of this incident, and you will find how interesting the game between the Dutch and Americans is.

Since the beginning of the trade war, the United States has asked ASML to ban the export of lithography machines to China, which can be used to produce advanced semiconductors. After a year of haggling, the Dutch government compromised. ASML is prohibited from exporting EUV lithography machines (used to manufacture semiconductors below 7nm, which are more advanced) to China, but they can still continue to sell DUV lithography machines (used to manufacture semiconductors above 7nm, which is slightly behind).

The Chinese felt threatened, so they added a large number of orders for DUV lithography machines. In the past three years, most of ASML’s DUV lithography machines have been sold to the Chinese.

China’s semiconductor industry has been accelerating its development, making Americans quite nervous.

In 2022, the United States requires the Netherlands to increase restrictions again, prohibiting ASML from selling DUV lithography machines, and completely cutting off the source of equipment for the Chinese.

In June 2023, the Netherlands issued a new ban but announced that existing licenses remained valid and ASML could continue to deliver.

In December 2023, the Netherlands announced that existing licenses will be invalidated immediately

In January 2024, ASML announced that all Chinese orders had been delivered.

Found the problem?

US government: Netherlands must obey

Dutch Government: OK

—-

June, Dutch government: ASML, what to do?

ASML: You announce it first and then give me some time

July, Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?

ASML: One more moment

In August, the Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?

ASML: One more moment

In September, the Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?

ASML: soon

In October, the Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?

ASML: Just a little bit

In November, the Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?

ASML: Almost done

In December, the Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?

ASML: OK, all delivered

Dutch Government: In order to maintain world peace and assist our great allies, we announce the immediate cancellation of sales licenses to China. immediately! immediately!

The Netherlands cannot fight against the United States, but this does not prevent the Dutch from trying their best to safeguard their interests. After all, that is tens of billions of dollars in profits, and they have sold all the equipment they can sell to the Chinese in the past two years.

ASML CEO (Peter Wennink) told reporters, “There is no hope of completely isolating China. If we don’t share technology, they will study it themselves.” “China has 1.4 billion people, and many of them are very smart. They will Come up with solutions that we haven’t thought of yet. You’re forcing them to be very innovative.”

The Chinese cannot control the madness of the United States. Their approach is to purchase as much technology and equipment as possible to buy time for the equipment they develop.

Once the Chinese get this done, the industry will be disrupted.

How to do it…

What is the best way to choose life partner?

Here are 8 things you have to consider when choosing life partner:

1.Ability to cope with your family

Your family will always be a key support system in your life. They can tell if your prospective life partner is suitable or unsuitable for you. If he or she cannot cope with your family members, you might be choosing a wrong partner.

2. Find someone who makes you laugh.

A sense of humor can help you overcome many of life’s obstacles. If someone can make you smile when you don’t feel like it, that’s a great quality.

3. Choose someone who respects you

When choosing a life partner be sure to select someone who will respect all aspects of your life. Mutual respect is one of the defining traits to look for in a life partner.

4. Find someone who have shared values

Having shared values reinforces the foundation of your relationship. Simple things such as consensus on the number of children you want or living within your means create a conducive environment for your relationship to thrive.

5. Choose an honest life partner

If a relationship is not enshrined in a culture of honesty and trust, it will definitely fail. Choosing a life partner who does not refrain from open and genuine communication is important.

6. Throw out the Idea of Perfect

Don’t make a checklist — mental or otherwise — of traits your future partner must have. You can’t conjure up your perfect mate and go buy said robot at Target. If you must make a list, make a list of deal-breakers: no smokers, no drug addictions, no one with a violent felony conviction. Those are healthy boundaries to set.

7. Know how they handle anger

You’ll need to observe this one rather than asking about it. Watch how they behave when they don’t get their own way, are disappointed, or feel angry. How people act with others under these circumstances says a lot about how they will one day act with you.

8. Find someone who have the same financial and social standards

It is not always important to have the same status, but having a similar financial and social standard helps in thriving together. If one person is very poor and the other is very rich then there is a possibility of being called a gold digger. But there is no exact rule book but do check if your potential partner has the zeal to make it later in life.

Who are some of the dumbest criminals ever to be caught?

I had a friend call me in the middle of the night, asked me to get my gun, and go over to his house. When your best friend asks you this, you don’t hesitate. Eventually the story came out – his wife was the manager of a jewelry store. Some men followed her home after she closed (crossing county lines), then at gunpoint (turns out it was a BB gun), forced her to drive back to the store, open it up, and unlock everything so they could clear it out. Of course, when she opened the store after hours, the security team watched on camera and called the local PD. When the perps left, the police were waiting for them. They took her car, and theirs and ran from the cops. After crashing and rolling both cars, they were arrested.

the morons got the idea from a movie. If they had just walked in during daylight and stole/robbed the place, they would have gotten 5 years. Instead, they committed multiple FEDERAL felonies (kidnapping etc), and all of them were sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in federal prison.

edit: the reason for asking me to come over with my gun:

He didn’t know if they were going to come back there. At that point the chase was still going on.

As a follow up – he gave my description to the local police, and let them know I’d be at his house. They showed up about an hour after I arrived, and I answered the door. I was slightly nervous because being 6’4 and nearly 400lbs I’m not a small dude, and had a 45 in a holster on my waist. I went to turn the porch light on, only to discover the porch light was burned out. I was very careful to let them know who I was and immediately informed them that I was armed – being sure to keep my hands nowhere near my firearm. When they asked for ID, I let them know I was removing it from my right rear pocket and moved with very clear movements, allowing them to see that I was reaching for my wallet and not my firearm. After they verified I was who I claimed to be, they made a comment like “yeah, I’d be armed too”. I love living in a rural community! 🙂

What is the most insane conversation you have ever had with your parents?

When I was in high school in 1965 I was reading a book about lesbians called The Grape Vine. My Mom asked me what I was reading. I said “a book about lesbians”. My Mom said “that’s nice, you love the theater”. I said “ no, those are Thespians. This is about lesbians, women who love women, not men”

My Mom insisted there was no such thing as a lesbian adding that the proof was that there was nothing two women “ could do together”. After my mother became hysterical, I went to my room.

Later that night my father paid me a visit. I was a little worried as my mother was his princess. He said “Laura, your mother is 45. She has made it to 45 without knowing what a lesbian is. Unless you are a lesbian, feel free to NOT educate her further”

I think when my Mom was about 80 she told me there were actually lesbians.

PS. Oh my. My mother would die a second time if she knew over 2k people liked this story. My Mom was so embarrassed that I got divorced she told everyone that my first husband was hurt in the Viet Nam war and that was why he shrunk 5 inches, grew blond hair and green eyes ( husband number two).

Nicaragua BETRAY Ally U.S in South America, Choose China

As a mechanic, have you ever performed free work on a customer’s car because you felt bad for them?

Around 10 or 12 years ago, I was on a trip and stopped at a rest area to stretch my legs and use the bathroom. As I walked back out to where my car was parked, I noticed a college age kid standing in front of his car with the hood up. I wandered over and asked him if he was having car trouble.

He replied yes and that his car wouldn’t start. He still had all his lights and so forth so I knew his battery seemed okay, but the engine wouldn’t turn over.

The car was an Acura, if I recall correctly, and the starter was located on the top of the engine, rather than down underneath the car. On the starter was a warning sticker that said not to hit the starter with a hammer.

Another gentleman wandered by and asked if he could help. I asked him if he had a hammer in his car. He thought I was joking, but I let him know that I was serious. He said that he did and left to go get it with a puzzled look on his face.

When he returned with the hammer, I took it and gave the starter a solid whack, right on the warning sticker that said not to hit it with a hammer.

I then told the college kid to try starting the car. It fired right up.

I handed the hammer back to the gentleman who had loaned it to me. Both he and the kid seemed amazed.

I asked the kid how far he had to drive to get to his destination. He said just another 2 hours or so until he got home.

I told him to drive straight home without shutting the car off because I couldn’t guarantee that the starter would ever work again. And then once he got home, he needed a new starter.

He thanked me and offered me $20, but I just sent him on his way.

Hungarian Potato and Egg Casserole
(Rakott Krumpli)

Ingredients

6 medium potatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup dairy sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 hardboiled eggs, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
Paprika

Instructions

Heat 1 inch salted water to boiling. Add potatoes. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and cook until tender, 30 to 35 minutes. Drain; cool slightly.
Cook onion in oil until tender. Mix onion, oil, sour cream, salt and pepper.
Peel potatoes; cut into 1/4-inch slices. Gently mix potatoes and sour cream mixture.
Arrange half the potatoes in greased 10 x 6-inch baking dish or 1 1/2-quart casserole. Arrange eggs on top; add remaining potatoes. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and paprika.
Bake uncovered at 325 degrees F until light brown, 30 to 40 minutes.
Garnish with minced parsley if desired.

Yield: 6 servings

What are few things only mature people can tell you?

Not everyone will live long. Stay happy and useful to humanity as much as you can.
Life is not Disney Island, always strife for the best and prepare for the worse.
Nobody can love you unconditionally except your mum and in few cases, your family.
You can simply avoid future problems by listening to your instincts and warnings from your loved ones.
Most people won’t support you in life until there’s no option but to join the crowd.
Discipline will take you farther than talent.
Everybody is fighting their own demon either publicly or privately. Never envy anyone.
Don’t look down on anyone, life can switch up within a minute.
Money is not everything, it incredibly betters your life but doesn’t solve all life problems. Still have it anyway.
You don’t have to get to the level of Elon Musk to change the world when your little kindness can.

Hungry Crocs

Have you ever seen a doctor yell at their patient?

I was that doctor.

I yelled, loudly, not at the patient but at her aunt.

So I was working in the ER. A little kid of around 10 or 11 came late one evening. She had a massive blow on her skull and was getting seizures. It was all bloody but surprisingly she was conscious.

Her aunt was very caring and hovering over us. She told me the girl fell from a bike. I pacified her and told her to wait outside while I provided primary care to the child before transferring her to a higher care centre.

When the aunt was outside I asked the girl what happened. Her aunt had hit her in the head with a hammer. That vile lady had hit her 10-year-old niece in the head with a hammer. I was horrified, enraged. I was mad.

I stabilized her, came out and called the aunt inside. As soon as I saw her I just lost it. I yelled at her at the top of my lungs. I don’t even remember all that I said but it lasted long enough for the ward boys and nurses and the ambulance driver to gather. It also lasted enough for the aunt to break down and confess.

I called the girl’s parents and they called the police and registered the complaint.

My behaviour was unprofessional, but I have never regretted it. I don’t usually lose my cool, but I am glad I did that day.

Devastating Industry

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

Seen a number of these over the years. First one that comes to mind is this one. Sitting in a bar in Neenah WI, conversing with a gentleman, probably about 40 something, less than 5′10″, probably about 150 lbs. Well spoken, polite, decently dressed. A larger (12–13) groups of people all came in at once, bikers by their dress and the beautiful sound of the harleys they pulled up on. Now please understand, the greater majority of bikers I’ve known over the years were great people, polite, non confrontational, and all around nice. These folks were not. Loud, already half tanked, and generally pushy. Once they had settled, one of them walked by, catching his elbow on my conversation partner and spilling both of their drinks. Confrontation ensued. Biker: you “effing spilled my drink!”

CP: sorry about that, let me get you another

bartender: no worries, I’ve got both of you

biker: you’re damn right you’re sorry!
and proceeded to grab CP’s shoulder. CP spun as he stood up, spear handed the biker in the solar plexus, and then Kicked him in the face! Biker was about 6′2″-3″, and now unconscious and bleeding on the floor. Everyone else stopped cold and looked at CP, shrugged, and went back to their conversations. Bouncer dragged biker out to the curb where the police and an ambulance took him away. Broken jaw, shattered septum, severe concussion. CP was the owner of a local martial arts school and had been training since he was a child. Oops.

JEFFREY SACHS FULL INTERVIEW ABOUT BAD SITUATION IN EUROPE AND U.S, U.N SITUATION, GAZA, AND MORE

Top Hat Livin

I used to have a top hat.

It was a flared top hat and it was the coolest thing. It fit me perfectly. I mean it. It was a genuine antique… beaver fur. Awesome. Black, and awesome. Maybe something like this. Only black, not a faded black. And not so high. Maybe about 80% of that height.

It was AWESOME!

It fit me well.

I was at a bargain basement store in Attleboro, Massachusetts and found it at the far end of a rack of brick a brack.

I really don’t know what happened to that hat, but I sure miss it.

I used to wear it all the time, and man oh, man did I get a lot of thumbs up and smiles as I walked on the sidewalks of Boston.

Good times.

Great memories.

Today…

Did the CCP spoil Apple by granting special treatment in China?

Apple is not really the issue. The U.S. government and politicians are the trouble maker that caused Apple’s demise. And your media is the one that caused your U.S. businesses to suffer.

Apple is a smart company under Steve Jobs. It has a great strategy. They made good products and they made smart decision to make their products in China. That derived benefit from the best of both western and eastern world. They made a killing in China’s humongous market China and the Chinese people help make a good product that sell at a price affordable yet Apple still made boat loads of money.

All is well until the U.S. politicians thought

foolishly it could contain and control China through decoupling, de-risking, friends shoring and instead it is the U.S. companies that is slowly decoupling from the world! Never mind China! China is Apples biggest market even including the U.S. market!

If you take US out, China itself is a bigger market then the next 10 biggest market combined. So when the U.S. start the trade war and make Apple friend shoring its product quality is hit hard and trust by its customers suffer. Next by its knee capping action on Huawei they retaliated. And today Huawei are bringing out products that beat Apple in specifications and features yet it is cheaper.

The unfair actions that the U.S. did on China, turn off Chinese world wide. Most choose Huawei to hit back at the U.S. The rest is history. Everything the U.S. throw at China, China will reciprocate fairly and appropriately. I hope the U.S. will learned a lesson. But it is full of itself. So the U.S. will choose implosion. If you are smart hold your government responsible.

Stop asking about Chinese government, Chinese are the fairest nation. They were happy to share its market and enjoy win win. But since the U.S. choose win lose, let’s see who loses!

What is something your dad did that you couldn’t believe?

My father was the foreman in a shop that sold tombstones, mausoleums, vaults, and the like.
One day during tobacco-selling season, when farmers were flush with cash, a couple came by the shop to buy a family monument.
My father showed them various stones on display. They selected a very fine granite monument. He looked up the price. They paid him in cash.
That night, when he got home, he told my mother that he and I needed to make a trip, so we wouldn’t be having dinner.
We drove the company truck many miles up into the mountains, into a county where strangers were definitely not welcome — it was moonshine territory. We stopped at various grocery stores, asking directions, to find the family that had bought the monument. At one store, he bought some saltine crackers, pork and beans, and some Vienna sausage. That was our dinner.
When we finally found the family, he said, “I made a mistake. I looked at the wrong monument in the catalog. I overcharged you.” He handed them a stack of bills. As I recall (some 60-odd years later), $60.
On the way home, I asked him why he had spent upwards of three hours driving around looking for those people. After all, I said, they didn’t know they’d been overcharged.
Although he had superb grammar, he phrased his answer in an odd way: He said, “Son, a man has to do what’s right.”
To this day I remember, and try to follow, his advice: “Do what’s right.”

What would the rest of the world do if the US fell into another civil war?

It depends. Let’s pick a way it could happen.

It’s November 2024.

Donald Trump wins the US Election and secures a second term. Joe Biden loses and will be stepping down in January 2025.

Trump is angry and unhinged, out for revenge after his loss in 2020 and the many betrayals he suffered.

In office he begins to become authoritarian and anti Trump protests turn violent. They clash with Trumps supporters. Eventually the country begins to pull itself apart and Trump brings in military help to secure peace. Factions of the military refuse to use force on US civilians. Others taking orders from pro Trump generals are willing to. The US enters a civil war where the pro Trump supporters are backed by elements of the military loyal to Trump. Other elements back the pro democracy anti Trump civilians.

The other way it could happen, with similar results is Trump loses in November 2024. He calls the election rigged like in 2020. Only this time he manages to get some states to declare him winner even though he lost there. Suddenly the election itself feels pointless. Democracy had collapsed as Trump could be claiming the white house through a corrupt electoral college and supreme Court. Biden sticks to the white house but the public are split. Half believe the Trump lies and the other half are loyal to Biden the genuine winner. Clashes again erupt and civil war breaks out as things escalate.

Now in either case, US allies will be terrified and scrambling amongst themselves to see what can be done. The EU is even worried about the upcoming US election. The USA is no longer seen as stable democracy and guaranteed partner.

The US entering a civil war tanks the global economy. Overnight the US economic system fails. Wall Street goes into self destruct mode.

The US Dollar collapses.

Companies in the US start to fail. Companies with a big presence overseas like Apple, Coca Cola, Ford, Pfizer, Google etc would all enter self preservation mode. They’d begin to move all crucial operations to their outposts and regional headquarters in Europe, South America, Japan etc. The USA no longer a stable market to operate in. They’d be hoping this is temporary but it will depend on the wars outcome.

The collapse of the US economy and the massive depression the world enters after this, sees huge unemployment across the world and increasing anger at the US from the public in Europe, Japan and Canada etc.

As people in US allied nations begin to feel extreme economic fallout, think the great depression of 1929 to 1934, but worse maybe, social unrest spreads globally.

In parts Africa and less developed parts of the world, aid is cut off. Food and economic assistance donated from rich countries stops. Famines could break out in the most fragile places in the world as the rich nations try to deal with their own issues.

The Euro will emerge as the new reserve currency of the world. Its already secondary reserve.

But the crisis will see economies on Europe and everywhere fragile for years. Massive unemployment and protests. Peoole struggling to stay afloat. People who were middle class suddenly working class. The working class now some falling into total poverty. Even millionaires would see their fortunes massively shrink.

Banks would fail. There’s no way to protect them all. That’s going to eat into people’s savings globally. Currencies like bitcoin and other crypto will become increasingly popular as the Euro and Yen, the two remaining “semi stable” currencies won’t be trusted fully.

The US would expect aid from its allies. But aid would be limited. Its highly unlikely the EU, UK, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Mexico etc will risk going full on war mode to support who they see as the true government of the USA as the US is a nuclear armed state and there would be extreme worry that hostile movies against the non democratic government could lead to attacks on allies by the illegitimate government who will be in control of some regions of the nation and thus some of the military.

Ultimately, the world would sit back and hold its breath waiting to see what happens with deep fear. But it will be accepted the era of the US as global Superpower is over.

So we come to the next issue. Amongst the economic chaos on social unrest, a power vacuum exists. Who’s in charge now the US is too busy fighting itself? The EU and UK would step up fast as the new centre of the developed and democratic world with their allies in Australia and Japan etc backing them. Europe would be forced to act as the light of democracy and freedom.

China and Russia won’t be having any of that. With the US distracted and Europe weakened, they will go on power hungry mode. Russia would see a weak Europe with no US to back it. Whilst Russia is also weakened, the government will be less worried about its people than Europe. Russia will make big moves to grab land. Its probable they’d use their military and even their weapons of mass destruction no longer fearing a US response, to annex former soviet nations like Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Belarus etc. They may even try grab EU territory in the Baltics but I doubt they’d try take all 3 EU nations as they know a weak EU is still a nuclear armed entity.

China would do the same. Its going to take advantage of the situation to grab Taiwan, a bunch of small Japanese islands of tactical importance. Probably will make moves into other parts of South East Asia too.

Chaos would reign for years. New Empires and regional wars emerging. Increased isolation too as nations work on self preservation and improving their own standing in the world.

A decade on, the world will have recovered at least partially. The world economy will have adapted to a world where the US no longer exists as one single country or economy or as one country with a much smaller economy.

The western world would unite together to try make up for the loss of the USA as it fears an emboldened Russia and China more than ever.

I’d imagine the EU, UK, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc would all try form a new version of NATO, one thats global and more armed than before probably. A military and economic alliance to prevent China in particular establishing itself as undisputed world power.

Russia would see its global importance grow again. With Europe fearing it will take more lands in far Eastern Europe or Asia. China would be the largest single economy and the largest military in the world. But the United democratic western nations will be banded together to rival it.

The world would enter a cold war. The western nations vs China which will probably ally with Russia.

The US will emerge as either authoritarian or democratic. Time would tell. Perhaps even as 2 or 3 smaller nations with differing poltical systems. But it would remain a nuclear armed nation/nations so chances are both sides of this new cold war would try get this new version of the USA to back them. But it will be economically weak for a while to come.

Countries in South America would grow more important also. Brazil and Mexico would become regional powers in the Western Hemisphere.

Overall you’d end up with a radically changed global economic system. A weaker US in whatever form it takes. A multi polar world with 3 or 4 superpowers trying to gain the upperhand leading to a new cold war. Instead of communism vs capitalism this one will be democracy vs authoritarianism.

Hoe_Math Levels of Thinking

Very interesting.

What was the most satisfying time where you caught someone lying?

Years ago, my soon to be ex husband and I were in the last and final attempt of trying to come to a guardianship agreement over our 3 small children before it went to supreme court. (a place I DID NOT want to go).

So there in the room, was the judge, his secretary, my ex and I.

Almost every question the judge asked my ex was answered with a lie. I never said anything, but the tears wouldn’t stop welling in my eyes. All I could think was, “why can’t this man for once, just set his anger and stupid pride aside, and just agree to the wishes of what our children want?”

The judge finally looked at me and said, “What are your desires for how this should be settled?”

My response: “I just want what’s best for our kids. I believe it should be up to them if they want to visit him or not… I don’t believe they should be forced.”

Judge: “You are very quiet and I detect no animosity from you, I want to ask you why there has been a communication breakdown between you and your husband.”

Me: “Because when I try to talk to him, he just yells.”

“THAT IS A LIE !!!” My ex yells at the TOP of his lungs..

The judge ruled “Visitation to be granted as per the children’s wishes.”

Marriage IS NOT An Option In THE WEST Get Your Passport

If your car is stolen, and then you just so happen to stumble across it parked in the street, are you legally allowed to steal it back then and there without calling the police or anything in the USA?

I had a nice truck stolen in 85. Needed brakes in the worst way. The transmission was slipping a little. It got stolen Christmas Eve. On Valentine’s Day the wife and I went out to eat for dinner. As we waited for the valet on the way out my truck pulls up. I told my wife to wait for our car as I got in my truck.

A woman had gotten in on the passenger side as I slid in on the drivers side. I was already calling the police. The woman became quite flustered. I told the police where I was and that I was driving to them. We got there in a minute. I had shushed the woman many times.

We get to the station, I tell the police woman what was going on. She asked who the woman was. I told her the woman was my witness that I had not shot the man who had stolen my truck. I also told her that the woman was probably these thieves wife or girlfriend. She asked the woman what the man’s name was who had stolen the truck. The woman said that her boyfriend and his brother had stolen the truck. The police woman then did a quick search for drugs in the truck, wrote a quick report, gave me an amended case number, and let me go about my way. While she was doing that one of the other officers put my ignition switch back into the column.

The girlfriend wasn’t charged with anything. Enough evidence was found in the truck to convict the boyfriend and the brother of the lady. There were no drugs found in the car. However under the seat or several nice pistols and a short shotgun. I had the police check them for theft and was allowed to keep all of them. The funny thing is was that the brakes have been fixed and the transmission had been serviced. I put another 200,000 miles on that truck over the next 10 years.

Andrew Tate Explains Why Men Should NEVER Get Married

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

I was an “executive-level” individual contributor at a Fortune 50 company, working in the IT field. My job required me to be accessible 24 hours a day, and to have conference calls with extended team members spread all over the world on a regular basis. Many days, I would be on a conference call at 4 AM with someone on the far side of the globe, spend a full day at work, and then be on yet another international call at 9 PM. This was an almost-daily occurrence. I was required to be on all these calls, and could not possibly take them all in my office, so my manager (and our VP) went through a laborious “exception” process to get the company to reimburse me for my cell phone usage, so I could make those calls from wherever I was at the time. My cell phone bill at the time averaged about $100 a month.

This went very well for 2–3 years, and then a new CFO arrived. She saw my expense sheet, and called me to determine why I was charging the company for my personal cell phone. I explained the rationale, and the exception process used to obtain approval through our VP. She did not like this at all, and said so in our conversation. So about a month later, a new T&E policy addendum came out: Effective immediately, company reimbursement for cell phones was to be prorated based on the percentage of the expense that was business-related (versus personal). A spreadsheet was provided, and anyone seeking reimbursement for business use of their personal cell phone was now required to complete and submit the spreadsheet with each month’s reimbursement form.

Completing this spreadsheet required us to go through the monthly phone bill, enter the total number of calls and total minutes for those calls. We then had to transcribe the data for each and every business call, documenting who was called (or who called you) and the business reason for the call. The spreadsheet then totalled up the number of minutes for each business call, divided that by the total minutes used that month. That ratio was used to determine the “business-to-personal” ratio, which determined our percentage of reimbursement. When I talked to the CFO about this form, she actually admitted that her purpose in creating it was to make the process so odious that employees would prefer to bypass reimbursement, rather than spending the time and effort to seek reimbursement.

That just didn’t sit right with me, so as a matter of principle, I would dutifully complete the form each month, spending the 2–3 hours required to transcribe the data from paper to spreadsheet to document that my cell phone usage was 98% business. Every month. Without fail. The average “savings” to the company for the 2–3 hours I spent completing the reimbursement form was under $2. Up to that point in time, there were only 15–16 people who were approved for cell phone reimbursement. All of us stood our ground, based on principle, and continued to file for reimbursement.

The average company savings from this new policy: Well under $50 per month – world wide. Of course, those 15–16 people collectively lost about one week of productivity in time wasted completing the new forms. The CFO, of course, saw it as a “2% reduction in cell phone expenses” and loudly proclaimed the program a cost-reduction success. But not so fast…

The first “unintended consequence” of the new policy was a wave of increased cell phone expense reimbursement, as EVERY SINGLE EMPLOYEE who had a cell phone began submitting for reimbursement of their prorated business use. Apparently, thousands of employees had been using their cell phones for business use for years with no avenue for reimbursement… But the new T&E policy had purposely dropped the “exception approval” requirement in an effort to “regain control over expenses…”

At first, the CFO was shocked and chagrined at the huge increase in cell phone expense, but a company survey (coincidentally conducted shortly after the new policy took effect) showed this new policy was a major morale booster, since it allowed workers to have better “work / life balance” than before. Once the survey results were in, the CFO claimed that had been her “secondary” motivation for the new policy, and declared “victory” yet again.

The funny thing is that her bragging about the success of this “morale boosting initiative” was to create even more awareness of the reimbursement program, which in turn led to the second unintended consequence: Very quickly, the employees began using their cell phones almost exclusively, rather than the “land lines” installed at their desks. These were intelligent people, and they quickly realized that having more business calls meant larger reimbursements, so they began using their cell phones as much as possible to drive up the business use percentage… It became common for an employee to use their cell phone to call a co-worker’s cell phone – even when both were sitting at their desks right next to their office phone. Doing so meant that their “Business-to-Personal” ratio was higher, and they would receive larger reimbursements at the end of the month.

There were nearly 10,000 white-collar workers affected by this policy, and almost all of them had a cell phone by this time. Anyone who did not have a cell phone soon obtained one, because the company was basically paying for it, and they didn’t want to be the only “non-cool” person on their team… Over a six-month period after the new policy went into effect, corporate reimbursement for personal cell phone use increased from around $1,500 per month (pre-CFO) to well over $1 million/month.

Add to that the productivity hit from those same 10,000 employees spending 2–3 hours each month completing the stupid spreadsheet (on company time, of course) instead of doing their real jobs. With a stated corporate average salary of $107,000 per year for those white-collar employees, that new T&E policy cost the company at least $1.3 million a year in reduced productivity.

So because the CFO didn’t like the fact that a few key employees were “getting over” on the system, and with a claimed justification of potentially saving the company $18,000/year, a new policy was implemented that directly cost the company at least $12 million/year, and negatively impacted productivity to the tune of another $1.3 million/year.

As Bugs Bunny would say “What a maroon…”

Greek Croustade

Ingredients

1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 small clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
3 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon crushed tarragon (optional)
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup creamed cottage cheese
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
10 (17 x 12-inch) single phyllo dough sheets, thawed
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted

Instructions

Cook spinach according to directions; drain well, pressing out excess liquid. In saucepan, cook onion and garlic in 3 tablespoons butter or margarine until tender. Stir in flour, tarragon and pepper. Add milk all at once. Cook and stir until mixture is thickened. Stir half of mixture into eggs; return egg mixture into remaining sauce. Add cheeses and spinach; set aside.
Unroll phyllo dough; cover with dampened towel. Remove 1 sheet of dough; brush lightly with some of the 1/2 cup melted butter. Fold the sheet in thirds lengthwise; brush top with butter. Place one end of the folded sheet in center of a 12- or 14-inch pizza pan, extending it over the side of the pan. Repeat buttering of remaining phyllo dough, arranging strips spoke fashion evenly around pan. (The ends of sheets will overlap in center and be approximately 3 inches apart at outer ends.) Spread spinach mixture in an 8-inch circle in center of pastry. Starting with the last sheet of dough placed in pan, lift end of leaf up and bring toward center of filling. Holding end with both hands, twist ends several times; coil and tuck end under to from a rosette. Lay rosette over filling, leaving a 3-inch circle in center (center should be visible). Repeat with remaining in reverse order they were placed. Drizzle remaining butter over all.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden.
Serve warm or cool. Cut into wedges to serve.

Will Apple face the same fate as Samsung in the Chinese market?

Maybe.

Samsung lost Chinese market share because they were shitty cunts.. In 2016 when the Samsung Note 7 burst into flames? Samsung offered refunds/replacements to EVERYBODY excluding China.

They made a video apology in English to Americans and also other languages to other users.

But sent a 200 word message to Chinese users eventually offering replacements.

Chinese people thought why should we buy stuff from a company that clearly hates us?

So Chinese people decided to buy other options and Samsung’s market in China collapsed never to recover again especially as non Samsung products (washing machines, televisions, cameras, vacuum cleaners etc) were available often for less money.

So likely Apple will not face the market collapse Samsung did but they’re losing market share because they’re not really adding anything new.

Apple are essentially doing this

This is from the Simpsons where Malibu Stacy gets a new hat and makes fans of the doll ignore the other doll completely.

10 Reasons Why Men Are AVOIDING Marriage

Is The U.S. Economy Actually Growing?

January 25, 2024by Michael

Okay, so they want us to believe that the U.S. economy grew at a very brisk pace during the fourth quarter of 2023 even though mass layoffs are happening all over America, sales of previously owned homes are at the lowest level in 28 years, homelessness is rising at the fastest pace ever recorded, and survey after survey is showing that most Americans are just barely scraping by from month to month. Needless to say, something does not add up. The American people are deeply frustrated with how the economy is performing, but the government keeps giving us numbers that indicate that everything is just great. On Thursday, we were told that the U.S. economy grew at a 3.3 percent annualized rate during the fourth quarter of 2023…

The economy grew at a much more rapid pace than expected while inflation eased in the final three months of 2023, as the U.S. easily skirted a recession that many forecasters had thought was inevitable, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Gross domestic product, a measure of all the goods and services produced, increased at a 3.3% annualized rate in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to data adjusted seasonally and for inflation.

That compared with the Wall Street consensus estimate for a gain of 2% in the final three months of the year.

If that number actually reflected reality, it would be very good news.

But how is it possible that layoffs were up 98 percent in 2023 while the U.S. economy was supposedly “growing” all year long?

To me, it appears that something fishy is going on.

And that is precisely what we see when we take a deeper look at the numbers. According to Zero Hedge, “GDP-boosting gimmicks” are being employed to make things look better than they actually are…

Turning to the all important consumption, we can’t help but smile when noticing that the BEA is again resorting to such favorite GDP-boosting gimmicks of the old Obama administration as spending on healthcare and… RVs! The two contributed to roughly half the growth in consumer spending in the fourth quarter.

Other numbers that don’t come from the Biden administration tell a much different story.

For example, the Chicago Fed’s National Activity Index was negative in December, and it has been negative for 8 of the past 12 months…

Against expectations of a small rise from 0.03 to 0.06, The Chicago Fed’s National Activity Index (which draws on 85 economic indicators) tumbled to -0.15 in December. 2023 ends with 8 of the 12 months in negative territory…

So how in the world can the economy be “growing” if national economic activity was in negative territory for two-thirds of last year?

It doesn’t make any sense at all.

And if the outlook for the future is positive, why are so many mass layoffs happening?

Business Insider had already conducted one round of mass layoffs, but they just decided that another round has become necessary…

In the latest wave of layoffs to hit the digital media biz, Business Insider said it will cut 8% of its staff in a restructuring aimed at positioning the company for growth.

Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng announced the job cuts in a memo to staffers Thursday. “We have already begun to refocus teams and invest in areas that drive outsize value for our core audience. Unfortunately, this also means we need to scale back in some areas of our organization,” she wrote.

Back when it first started, Business Insider was actually quite good.

But those days are long gone.

Microsoft is another big name that is putting large numbers of workers on the chopping block…

Microsoft will lay off 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox, the latest tech company to announce cuts so far in 2024.

The layoffs represent about an 8% cut of its video gaming staff of 22,000 workers and come months after Microsoft acquired Activision in a blockbuster deal. The $69 billion transaction in October represented one of the largest tech deals in history as Microsoft took over the studios behind bestselling games like Call of Duty, Diablo and Overwatch for its Xbox console.

And even though things are looking up for IBM these days, they are planning job cuts too…

IBM also said it will also cut a percentage of positions in the low single digits in 2024.

The planned job cuts follow similar announcements in January by major tech companies, including Alphabet’s Google and Amazon.com.

Chief financial officer James Kavanaugh said IBM will likely spend the same amount on restructuring as it did in 2023 – US$400 million – when it reduced its workforce by about 3,900 jobs.

Day after day, I share examples of very large companies that are conducting mass layoffs.

Why would they be doing this if tremendous prosperity is ahead of us?

It wouldn’t make any sense at all.

Of course the truth is that an economic downturn has already begun and it is going to get even deeper in 2024.

Those on the bottom of the economic food chain are being hit the hardest. Earlier today, I was saddened to read about homeless people in California that are being evicted from caves that they had dug into the banks of a river…

Rough sleepers in California were found living inside furnished caves dug into the banks of a river 20 feet below street level.

The groups were removed from the eight caves – along the Tuolumne River in Modesto – over the weekend, and they were emptied of belongings, furniture and 7,600 lbs of rubbish, filling two trucks and a trailer.

Some of the caves were decorated with murals, had broken floor tiles and one even had a makeshift fireplace with a chimney.

There are countless others just like them all over the country.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that homelessness was rising at the fastest pace ever recorded in 2023.

But don’t worry about any of that.

According to Joe Biden and his minions, the U.S. economy is growing steadily and everything is just great.

You believe them, don’t you?

Men Caused One Of The Largest Bridal Companies To Go Bankrupt… It’s OVER!

Have you ever made a mistake that ended up saving your life?

Yeah, for some reason I terribly overslept and was three hours late to work.

I felt quite bad about the whole thing. This was before mobile emails were a thing and I called in saying that I would be late. So, I walked into the office around 12 PM hoping to avoid colleagues seeing me that late. The first people I saw were the CEO and a bunch of other senior guys, all gathered around my cubicle.

“Ok, this is my last day in this job,” I thought.

However, the CEO looked at me, relieved, and said “Good morning. Good to see you were late.” Quite an unusual greeting.

Only then did I realize what had happened. The hinges holding a huge office air conditioner above my cubicle had failed, and it had gone down right into my seat. The monitor was smashed in two parts, there was a huge bend in the tower case, and the indestructible Cherry keyboard had a few keys missing and a dent in the middle of the metal pad.

The air conditioner had fallen at around 11 am, and I came to the office at 12 pm.

What’s the most enjoyable thing you’ve ever said to a manager as you’ve quit your job?

I worked at a company that had a very public but unofficial policy of firing people if they started talking to recruiters or interviewing and they found out. They were a nice company, employee loan, good benefits, even a private pension plan.

I had already been recruited (using my personal email, of course) to take a job out of state. The company I was going to was moving me, paying off my employee loan, signing bonus, the whole red carpet thing.

I asked my boss at this nice company when she would have time to meet privately, she said 11, I usually got to work about 6, and arrived to find an email from a recruiter I’d never heard of before at my corporate address with a low ball job offer. I just laughed and deleted it.

About 9am, my boss, my boss’s boss and the head of HR came in carrying boxes. My boss said “it’s not working out, we’re letting you go.”. I played dumb, go where… she tried a few more “soft phrases” so I said after 3 years and 5 days, it’s suddenly not working out? you’re going to have to use the “F” word. The HR lady sensed something was up, but didn’t have time to stop my boss. My boss said, “we’re firing you, we don’t have to explain why.”

I said thank you and while she stood there looking puzzled, I said “I don’t know who that recruiter was, but by firing me instead of letting me quit, I get one month of severance for each year I worked here, plus all my vacation, plus your policy is to give me two weeks vacation to “go on” immediately, so I have 4.75 months of pay, plus, since I worked for more than 3 years, I vest into the pension program at that level. Really I owe whoever sent that email….

At that point my boss turned to HR lady and said wait, what? Hr lady waved her to silence and Said, you’d have to pay off your employee loan in full within three days…

I said, right. Picked up a cashier’s check off my desk and handed it to her. (It was to the penny) my boss’s boss finally spoke up and said wait, you already had a job? I said I’ve told you before, this policy is dumb. If I was a recruiter and I wanted to place one of your people, I’d send them an offer, wait, call them up and talk about a new job, now that they are unemployed. I’ll probably get a call this afternoon. (I did) Anyway, because you fired me. I get the money! I had in a CD to pay off the loan (I called it a lock pick for golden handcuffs) that check is from my new employer, 4 months 5 weeks of pay, and a sign on bonus (1 month), along with a moving bonus. I just put 6 months of pay in the bank, thanks guys, best firing ever!

Then a swept the stuff off my desk into one box, pointed to the stacks of stuff with post-its for other employees, showed all my drawers were empty and asked to be escorted to my car. My boss was still trying to figure out what happened while HR escorted me out, then I followed her to the main building, signed my exit paperwork, she took my badge and I was home by 10 to start packing.

It was awesome!

The Problem Ain’t The Cost Of Money – It’s The Cost Of Stuff!

January 18, 2024 Dennis Miller

New Year’s Eve, 1999 – a special time for Jo and me. We took our motor home to Key West, Florida. We celebrated the magic moment, the turn of a century, in front of (famous Ernest Hemingway hangout) Sloppy Joe’s Bar.

As the conch shell slid down the pipe, people yelled, “10-9-8-7″…until the clock struck midnight. Happy New Year! I kissed my bride and we headed back to the bus (hoping Y2k didn’t fry our computer).

The intimacy of a motor home provides a great opportunity for lots of conversation. 2000 was a personal milestone, I turned 60. Jo and I spent a lot of time reflecting; wondering what the future would bring.

I predicted we would recall the last decade as “The good old days.” Little did I know how right that would turn out to be.

What was so good about them?

Interest rates stabilized from the double-digit Volcker years. After a short 1990 recession, business was booming, moving quickly into the internet era.

While Clinton pushed through the largest tax increase in history, House Speaker Gingrich kept his campaign promise, holding the line on government spending; creating the last budget surplus we will likely ever see.

On January 1, 1990, the Fed funds rate was 8.25%, dropping to a low of 3% in 1992 and hovering in the mid-5% range for most of the decade.

With Volcker bringing inflation under control, interest rates stabilized and mortgages were affordable. CD and bond interest rates were above inflation.

Interest rates were not an impediment or incentive to doing business.

I was managing the money for both sets of parents. We invested in safe, secure investments. Their interest income, coupled with social security allowed them to live comfortably, without worry. Times were good.

What the heck happened?

A year later, 9/11 occurred, followed by huge government deficits, spending hundreds of billions for the never-ending “War on Terror.”

While Clinton took credit for boom times and balancing the budget, the effects of certain policy decisions were not yet evident.

Clinton prided himself on increasing homeownership for the poor and minorities. Banks were required to make loans to buyers with poor credit history – or they risked losing their charters. The banks complied, while screaming to the government they would fail if the process continued. Instead of tightening loan standards, government agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac were authorized to buy these risky loans from banks.

Banks no longer worried about the creditworthiness of the borrower. They added outlandish origination fees to the mortgage, while passing the default risk to the government (US taxpayer). Billions flowed into the housing sector.

Clinton pushed the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, allowing banks to merge with brokerage firms. In a few short years, five banks controlled almost half the nation’s wealth.

These new casino banks jumped in, writing thousands of risky mortgages to all comers, many in excess of the value of the underlying property. They packaged these high-risk loans into fee-based products and peddled them to unsuspecting investors.

The movie The Big Short details how the rating agencies gave these mortgage packages improper ratings, creating an illusion of creditworthiness and safety.

The casino banks got bigger and gambled with trillions in derivatives.

Investopedia defines derivatives for us:

“Derivatives are financial contracts, set between two or more parties, that derive their value from an underlying asset, group of assets, or benchmark. A derivative can trade on an exchange or over-the-counter. Prices for derivatives derive from fluctuations in the underlying asset.”

The repeal of Glass-Steagall’s created this monster. Famed (Big Short) investor Michael Burry warned Wall Street about the toxic loans, predicting a real estate crash. No one listened, they mocked him. The crash came, the casino banks (deemed, “too big to fail”) were bailed out with trillions of taxpayer dollars. The Fed flooded the banking system with credit and dropped interest rates to historic lows, well below the true inflation rate.

Their in-house trading (gambling with our money) continues. If they lose, taxpayers will cover their losses.

Wall Street On Parade reports:

“Three Wall Street Mega Banks Hold $157.3 Trillion in Derivatives – That’s $56.7 Trillion More than the Entire World’s GDP Last Year”

Consumers, industry and governments binged on “free money;” borrowing and spending like there was no tomorrow! Experts warned inflation would follow; most were surprised it took so long.

After reaching double digits, heading toward Zimbabwe-type inflation, the Federal Reserve finally had little choice but to raise rates – not wanting citizens to storm the palace.

The current Federal Funds rate is 5.5%. Many cheap loans are now coming due and must be paid off or rolled over at a much higher rate.

Prices have exploded!

The Wall Street Journal recently reported the average monthly mortgage payment has soared to $3,322 from $1,787 since 2021. Why?

Interest rates were kept artificially low, mortgage rates have risen since the Fed brought interest rates back to pre-2008 normal.

MSN.com explains:

“Homeownership has become a pipe dream for more Americans, even those who could afford to buy just a few years ago.

Many would-be buyers were already feeling stretched thin by home prices that shot quickly higher in the pandemic, but at least mortgage rates were low. Now that they are high, many people are just giving up.

…. Typically, high mortgage rates slow down home sales, and home prices should soften as a result. Not this time. Home sales are certainly falling, but prices are still rising—there just aren’t enough homes to go around. The national median existing-home price rose to about $392,000 in October, the highest ever for that month in data that goes back to 1999.

…. Buyers get a lot less home for their dollar. Before the Fed started raising rates, a person with a monthly housing budget of $2,000 could have bought a home valued at more than $400,000. Today, that same buyer would need to find a home valued at $295,000 or less.”

Y-Charts shows us the numbers:

Don’t buy government baloney!

James Rickards explains:

“Everyday Americans understand inflation perfectly. …. Inflation is one of the biggest concerns of those who live in the real world.

…. Here’s the reality and here’s the political narrative: Reality is that prices have been going up at the fastest rate in 40 years and they are still going up.

Inflation (on an annualized basis) was 9.1% in June 2022, 4.9% in April 2023, 3.7% in September 2023 and 3.1% in November 2023.

It’s true that the rate of inflation is coming down, but prices are still going up. They’re going up at a slower rate but they’re still going up.

…. The average price of a pound of ground beef in the U.S. was $5.11 in September 2023. In October 2023 the price of a pound of ground beef was $5.23. That’s a 2.3% increase on a month-over-month basis, which annualizes to over 25%.

That’s the kind of inflation that real Americans confront every day.

…. It is possible to use propaganda to lie to the American people; it can work in the short run. But inflation is not one of those areas where propaganda works. The American people know what things cost, they know prices are going up, and no amount of lies can change that.”

Bankrate chimes in:

“Inflation is eroding workers’ gains. Three in 5 workers (60 percent) say their incomes haven’t kept pace with inflation over the past 12 months, up from 55 percent last year. For those who did receive a pay bump of some form, more than half (53 percent) said their incomes haven’t kept pace with inflation, up slightly from 50 percent last year.”

“Inflation makes the extension of socialism possible by providing the financial chaos in which it flourishes.” — Henry Hazlitt

Mark Hamrick, Bankrate Senior Economic Analyst adds:

“While inflation has come down, broadly speaking, prices have not. There is a…virtual sticker shock that continues to weigh on the minds and pocketbooks of consumers.”

Bill Bonner summarizes:

“For the average working man, almost everything went up in price – except the real value of his major asset: his time. So, he had to spend more time to get the basics in life. Before the money switcheroo, he had to labor for about 4 years to buy a house, for example. Today, it will cost him more than 8 years of labor.”

The casino banks are screaming, profits are down, the Fed has to pivot and drop interest rates. Baloney! When Volcker pivoted, interest rates were double-digits and he pivoted back down to “normal.” Today’s rates are at historical “normal” – what worked for decades.

Lending cheap money to high credit risks (government included) creates the illusion of prosperity while creating terrible, inevitable inflationary consequences.

The cost of money ain’t the problem, it is the cost of stuff.

Leave rates alone, don’t make things worse. Volcker got us through a recession – things will work out once the excess debt is out of the system.

As always, politicians scream, “vote for me, I’ll fix the problem!” Ain’t gonna happen, no matter who wins the election. Without massive spending cuts and sanity in Washington, nothing will change. It’s no wonder many of us are holding on to our gold wishing for, “the good old days.”

17 Minutes Of Modern Women Having MELTDOWN Over Passport Bros

What was the most boneheaded mistake you saw someone make while in the military?

I didn’t see either of these personally, but I heard about them.

Number one: A US soldier on an exercise at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown – crew member on a tank – found a training anti-tank mine during a break in the exercise. These things are explosives; they are designed to go off when a tank runs over them. They won’t damage the tank, but they do pack a punch; they’re designed to be heard, and felt, by the crew inside a tank that is running. They are magnetically activated, meaning that they have to come into contact with a metal surface before they can explode. His buddies knew that; he didn’t, apparently.

They were sitting around in the middle of a tank training ground for a while, and he got bored. He started trying to get the mine to “go off”. Apparently, he started by picking it up and throwing it at the ground. Bupkis. Then he started hitting it with a rock. Same non-result.

Eventually, getting frustrated, he picked it up and threw it at the side of the tank. As his startled buddies dove for cover, the thing blew up in his face, causing critical injuries. He was rushed to the Base Hospital, where doctors managed to save his life, but IIRC he ended up a quadruple amputee. Since the military deemed it a “self-inflicted injury”, he was offered a choice – court-martial, or immediate discharge with loss of all benefits.

His excuse was apparently that he “didn’t think it was that powerful”. Because he’d only ever heard them from inside a running tank, he thought it would be like a firecracker or something.

Number two: A pilot in the Canadian Air Force was given command of a Lockheed Hercules transport aircraft – the youngest pilot ever to be given such a command. On his first flight as PIC, he was to fly from Trenton, a major air force base near Lake Ontario, to USAFB Thule, a large US Air Force base in Greenland, and then on to Canadian Forces Station Alert, a remote facility in the very high Canadian arctic, 500 miles from the North Pole. Alert has no maintenance facilities – just a runway made of packed snow and a weather station. USAFB Thule, otoh, has a full maintenance facility with a large, heated hangar.

Just after takeoff from Thule, he had multiple bird strikes – more than a dozen birds impacted the airframe, IIRC. He could have declared an emergency and returned to land at the well-equipped airport below him; instead, after a cursory in-flight check, he decided that the aircraft was still flyable and continued on to his destination on Ellesmere Island.

After he landed, the ground crew inspected the Herc and quickly realized that it was no longer safe to fly. The Canadian air force had to fly up another Herc, with a full maintenance crew, who then had to spend two days working on the plane, outdoors in sub-zero temperatures, to bring it to a point where it could be safely flown back to Thule, where the same maintenance crew that would have worked on it if he’d landed there in the first place did a complete overhaul – inside a heated, well-lit hangar.

Not surprisingly, Captain Hotshot became the youngest pilot in the Canadian Air Force to be stripped of his position of aircraft commander.

Most Americans Are Literally Living On The Edge Of Disaster

January 24, 2024by Michael

There is a tremendous disconnect between the economic numbers that the government is giving us and what most Americans are personally experiencing on a daily basis. The government says that inflation is low, but the cost of living just continues to spiral out of control. The government says that unemployment is low, but Challenger, Gray & Christmas says that the number of layoffs in the U.S. was up 98 percent last year. The government says that the economic outlook for 2024 is positive, but companies all over America are acting as if extremely hard times are ahead. So who are we supposed to believe?

Personally, I trust numbers that come from private sources far more than numbers that come from government sources.

For example, a survey that was just conducted by Bankrate discovered that 56 percent of all U.S. adults do not have enough money to handle an unexpected expense of $1,000…

A majority of Americans say a $1,000 emergency expense would be too great of a hit to their savings and that they could not afford it, according to new data released Wednesday.

Bankrate’s latest survey results found 56% of U.S. adults lack the emergency funds to handle a $1,000 unexpected expense and one-third (35%) said they would have to borrow the money somehow to pay for it.

More than half the country is literally living on the edge of financial disaster.

That is crazy.

Another survey has found that much of the nation barely keeps any money in their bank accounts…

Nearly half of Americans have $500 or less in their savings accounts, an amount that leaves them vulnerable to unexpected expenses, according to a GOBankingRates survey of 1,063 U.S. adults conducted in November 2023.

About 29% of respondents have between $501 and $5,000 in their savings accounts, while the remaining 21% of Americans have $5,001 or more.

Few hold much cash in their checking accounts as well. Of those surveyed, 60% report having $500 or less in their checking accounts, while only about 12% have $2,001 or more.

Most Americans would be financially wiped out by just one major accident or emergency.

The vast majority of us are just barely scraping by from month to month, and the rapidly rising cost of living is making that increasingly difficult to do.

One woman recently found a Taco Bell receipt from 12 years ago, and she discovered that prices are now approximately three times higher than they were back then…

A TikTok video by a user who found an old Taco Bell receipt has gone viral – as Americans realize prices are now almost three times higher.

The old receipt showed that – 12 years ago – Americans could buy TWO of the chain’s beefy five-layer burritos for $2.59 including taxes.

Today, those same burritos cost about $3.69 for just ONE. That doesn’t include tax, which can vary across the US. So too can the base price.

The government continues to insist that inflation is “low”, but everyone knows that is a big fat lie.

Insurance rates have been spiking at a particularly alarming rate. One man in Las Vegas was horrified when his auto insurance bill shot up by 72 percent in just eight months even though he had no accidents and no tickets…

They say ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’ – but the eye-watering auto insurance bill city resident Simon Edwards recently received is just one example of the staggering rises in premiums consumers are facing all across the US.

The 2012 Mazda 5 owner was shocked to find his monthly bill from Geico had rocketed up from $130 last April to $223 now – a rise of 72 percent in just eight months.

‘I’ve been in no accidents, no tickets, been with Geico for many years,’ a perplexed Edwards told the Wall Street Journal.

Another man recently posted a video on TikTok in which he ranted about how the cost of literally everything is absolutely soaring…

Four years ago my rent was $1,200 a month at a luxury apartment complex”

“It is NOW $2,100, not even including utilities”

“3 years ago my electric bill was averaging $45 now it’s averaging $125…”

“I went to the grocery store yesterday and got 3 bags of chips, some ground turkey and some vegetables and it was $67 DOLLARS?!”

U.S. consumers are being squeezed like never before, and as a result debt levels have been rising to unprecedented levels.

For example, unpaid residential utility debt in the U.S. rose to a new all-time record of 20.3 billion dollars last year…

Bloomberg cites a new report from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association that reveals US household utility debt hit a record as an alarming number of Americans can no longer afford heating and cooling their homes.

NEADA said one out of every six ratepayers is behind on energy bills, adding residential utility debt hit a new record last year of $20.3 billion.

Please don’t let anyone tell you that the U.S. economy is in good shape.

Most Americans are really hurting in this economic environment, and conditions continue to get even worse.

As I discussed yesterday, large companies all over America are feverishly laying off workers. In fact, earlier today we learned that even eBay is now laying people off…

Online retailer eBay Inc. will cut about 1,000 jobs, or an estimated 9% of its full-time workforce, saying its number of employees and costs have exceeded how much the business is growing in a slowing economy. It marks the latest layoffs in the tech industry.

CEO Jamie Iannone said in a message to employees on Tuesday that the company also will reduce how many “contracts we have within our alternate workforce over the coming months.”

The worse economic conditions become, the more crime we are going to see.

At this point, looting has already become a way of life in some areas of the country.

In Washington D.C., a CVS store is permanently shutting down because dozens of teens would literally loot the store multiple times per day…

A Washington D.C. CVS store is shutting its doors after being repeatedly ransacked by thieves, the chain has confirmed.

The pharmacy, located in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, went viral last October when videos emerged of it totally stripped of all its products after being targeted by a teen gang.

Staff claim more than 45 schoolkids would go into the store and steal chips and drinks in the morning, after their classes and late at night. It will close on February 29, according to WTTG-TV.

If this is what is happening now, what will we see once economic conditions get extremely bad in this country?

I would encourage you to get prepared while you still can, because so much chaos is ahead of us.

We are living at a time when most Americans are literally living on the edge of disaster, and disaster is coming.

Millions will be wiped out by the economic tsunami that is approaching, and you do not want to be among the victims.

The Worst US I’ve Ever Seen | Col. Larry Wilkerson

Why do people walk past homeless people without helping them?

After reading these comments, I would like to share a story with you. My ex-husband is disabled. He suffers from traumatic brain injury and struggles daily. He has seizures, he passes out, he has very little memory, diabetes from cancer removal, and takes several medications daily among other challenges. He needs someone to assist him with daily activities. He lived with his parents. His mother passed away and about a year later, his father sold the house and most of everything that was in it. The house sold in 10 days and they were given 2 weeks to vacate. His father had living arrangements planned for himself before the house sold. He told my ex that he had 2 weeks to vacate, left some moving boxes at the house and took off. I went over and helped pack and move things into storage and my ex became homeless on the final moving day. His father said he didn’t have the money to help him and he changed his phone number. The first month, my ex would call me telling me things that would happen and honestly, I didn’t believe him. How could being homeless be that damn hard? He would find what he thought was a safe place to sleep, in an area that we both are very familiar with and know a lot of people. People that we have personally helped. Well, when you become homeless, you learn who your friends are. Everyone scattered. People that we opened our home to when they needed a helping hand were no longer around. I was the only one he had left. The first month of him being homeless was a nightmare. When the sun goes down, bad things happen when you fall asleep. Because of the medication my ex takes, he will fall into a deep sleep and not much wakes him up until he’s ready to wake up. He had his belongings stolen 4 times in a month. He would wake up and his stuff would be gone. He went through about 8 cell phones, numerous phone chargers, all stolen. His wallet was stolen right from the start so he had no ID. Without ID he couldn’t get assistance or even a hotel room. DMV wanted ridiculous paperwork to replace his ID plus $800 for an incident from years past. It took weeks, but we got it straightened out and his ID was replaced. Two days later, he fell asleep and his wallet stolen again. Once again, no ID. We were continuously replacing his bags for carrying things and replacing his things. His medication was stolen. He had to go 3 weeks without it because they don’t just replace stolen medication. He was missing his very important doctor appointments because he couldn’t keep track of things. He woke up in the hospital twice, not sure how he got there, or why he was there. He voluntarily went to the hospital one night because he was dizzy, his blood sugar was high and he was fading in and out of reality. The hospital asked him how much drugs he took. He remembers hearing them say he’s ODing. They did a drug test that came back clean. The security guard at the hospital took him by the arm and pushed him out the front door telling him not to come back. He went back in to ask where he was because he didn’t know, also because he didn’t have his shoes. Security pushed him out the front door told him don’t fucking come back through the door. My daughter is a nurse at that hospital. When I asked her why they treated him that way she said homeless people come in there continuously pretending to be sick just for a place to sleep. They kick them out all the time. Meanwhile, my ex was laying on the sidewalk on the side of the hospital. Another homeless man gave him some water and walked him to another hospital down the street. They said he probably would not have made it through the night. He spent 3 days there then back out on the street with no medication.

A fact that most aren’t aware of, when you’re homeless, you have to keep moving. My ex stays clean. By clean I mean his physical appearance. He doesn’t look homeless other than the bags he carries. At first he was able to slip into a casino, (we live in Las Vegas) to charge his cell phone. Even though he doesn’t look homeless, it doesn’t take long before you become a familiar face in the area and they don’t want you around. They are very quick to call the police. Who in turn trespass you from the property, or haul you in. So you have to keep moving. Where you’re moving to? Who knows, just keep moving. That results in raw feet, worn out shoes and using energy that you just can’t afford to waste.

Summertime in Vegas is brutal. It reaches 120° and when your outside, there’s no relief anywhere. The heat also causes my ex to pass out. He can’t be in the heat for too long. The only relief is going inside a store and pretending to shop. Like I said, you become a familiar face after a while and all eyes are on you. In order for him to go inside out of the heat he would have to purchase something. Believe it or not, this can become expensive. When you can’t cook and your only means for a meal is to purchase from fast food or wherever, it gets expensive. So most of his income goes to replacing things that were stolen, getting what he needs to survive on the streets, and food. A couple times, when his wallet was stolen, his money card was in his wallet. He had to steal food from the store to eat. Sometimes he can get shelter for a night if the hotels have a special and he has an ID. But money goes fast when you’re out there.

How do I know all this? I spent 4 days out there with him. He came to my house every few days to shower, wash his clothes and eat a hot meal, but my situation didn’t allow him to stay with me. I helped him as much as I could. When he came over one day, telling me all the bad luck he was having, I decided to go with him and see what’s going on. I truly thought he was getting mixed up with the wrong people and creating his problems. What I experienced while I was out there was absolutely terrible. People were so mean. We didn’t beg or ask for anything. We just kept moving, with no destination. The looks, the comments, the behavior of one human to another made me look at the world in a different way, and it’s not good. I actually came out of that experience being ashamed of the human race. I’m embarrassed for us. I’m not proud of my community and I honestly feel more compassion for our homeless community. Imagine this. You have to go to the bathroom and it could take you all day to find a public restroom to use. Because they don’t let homeless people use the bathroom. Whether you purchase something or not. Imagine it’s so hot outside, like 120°, and you barely make it into a sandwich shop and ask them for a cup of water because you’re passing out from the heat. They tell you “no, get outta here” and you pass out in the parking lot. Instead of calling an ambulance, they leave you laying there on a blacktop that is hot enough to fry an egg. People passing by don’t want to get involved so they turn their head. They couldn’t spare a cup of tap water to help another person that was obviously having a medical episode. We walked by a lady one day and she actually stopped, looked at me and said “ you’re a disgrace. You should walk in the alley and not out here.” As much as I wanted to teach her a lesson, I wasn’t going to jail, so we kept walking. From a distance she yelled “you’re dirting up the streets!” I was appalled by the dirty, disgusting looks that people gave. Just by assuming our situation, because remember, I wasn’t actually homeless.

This is also what I learned. Being homeless is very lonely. You can’t befriend other homeless people because those are the ones that take your stuff. There’s nobody to talk too. My ex started talking to himself, out loud. He would randomly say things as if he was talking to someone. Sometimes it’s not money they need. Sometimes it’s not food. There are many ways you can help homeless people. One of the most important, at least it was for me, is to acknowledge them. Don’t walk by like they aren’t there. Smile and say hi. Treat them like they matter. Sometimes that’s all they need to get them through the next few hours. It does give them some inner strength to keep pushing forward. If you pass by and say “how ya doing?” Stop for a second and listen to the answer. You don’t have to spend all day with them. A little 2 sentence conversation holds a lot of weight. They have nobody to talk to and it’s lonely. One of the best conversations I have ever had was with a homeless man. He became a good friend and we spent a lot of time together. He was very intelligent and fascinating. I could have missed out on that and it would have been my loss. Sometimes homeless people just want someone to say hi and treat them like they are people. They are all out there for different reasons. Some beyond their control.

MUST WATCH! Feminism and the Disposable Male | This blew my mind

Why are Europeans not as fat as Americans are when Europeans eat white bread and pasta and butter all the time?

I’m from Russia and I’ve been to the US three times in my teenage years for several months each time. I’ve always ate intuitively, I guess. I never restricted myself or counted calories. Both at home and in the US. I’m not prone to binge eating or eating a lot of junk food, I like fruits and vegetables more than sweets and most of the time if I buy junk food it just ends up on a shelf until someone else eats it. And my weight does not really fluctuate at all. I think I have the same physique and weight since I was 14.

So when I came to the USA, I ate the same way as I always do. Actually I ate even more vegetables, fruit and berries because there were very convenient packages at Costco. I just munched on broccoli for several months there I think haha. But! Despite me not really changing anything in what I eat (or eating even more fresh produce) I gained several kilos each time I was in the US and lost them back quickly after returning.

This is me right before my last trip in 2019:

This is me on the last day:

I think you can clearly see that my cheeks grew a lot and my face is more round haha.

I also noticed that food (especially fresh produce) looks much prettier in the US than here. Strawberries were huge and shiny, we only get those here in the off season in expensive stores and not many people actually buy it. We mostly buy seasonal fruits. Berries are mostly for summertime while in winter we buy pomegranates, clementines and oranges. Bread in the US stays “fresh” and soft for several months, while here we buy bread several times a week because it’s freshly baked and goes stale quickly. A lot of food in the US is preprepared (shredded cheese etc which we don’t really have in Russia. If you want shredded cheese you do it yourself haha. And it’s also really hard to find the same cheeses. The colors are not even close). I think there are so much more additives to the food in the US to make it more pleasant looking even though it makes the food much less healthy.

Where’s my sandwich?

What do you think of Joe Brusuelas’ forecast that the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) will come in at a 2.4% annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2023?

The U.S. grew by 2.4% but its Inflation rate is 3.4% hence once again the American standard of real living shrank by -1.0% in 2023.

Let’s compare that with China that grew by 5.2% but its inflation is 0.2% in 2023. Hence the Chinese population enjoy a positive 5.0% net real growth!

But if you read the western media it is as though it is China that needs to get worried! And what is worst is their brain dead mentality believes in the shit that U.S. media threw out daily.

China is 6% better off than the U.S. in 2023! And you ain’t seen nothing yet! If you Americans and U.S. lackeys out there grow som brain cells, grow very very worried about the U.S. that has not grow its real standard of living since the day of Beetles and Marilyn Monroe 64 full years ago! Your grand parents have better lives than you!

Is it true that Chinese people now have a high standard of living?

We have a population of 1.4 billion people.

Each person’s place of birth, family background, and level of education are different, so it is difficult to give a definitive answer.

However, some general situations can be mentioned.

The most impoverished areas in China are still concentrated in rural areas in the central and western parts of the country.

Due to China’s unique household registration and land systems, the country has the highest rate of home ownership in the world.

As a result, homelessness is virtually non-existent.

Even the poorest peasants own their land and homes.

Internet, tap water, electricity, and roads have been extended to all rural areas of China.

There are no villages without roads and electricity,Internet, although there may be exceptions.

A photo widely circulated on the Internet shows a village in Zhaojue County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Located at altitudes ranging from 628 to 2300 meters, with a relative altitude difference of 1672 meters, the village has a population of 1758 people.

Faced with difficulties in road construction, the government proposed to relocate them to a flat area, offering free housing and policy-based housing subsidies.

However, the villagers strongly resisted, as the benefits offered by the government did not meet their expectations.

The impasse lasted until 2016, when Chinese vloggers discovered the situation and uploaded the videos online.

This sparked outrage among the public, who couldn’t believe that such poverty existed in China.

They condemned the government’s incompetence.

Feeling the pressure, the Zhaojue county government responded positively, compromising with the villagers by improving welfare standards before finally relocating them from the cliffs.

In terms of medical insurance, China’s system is divided into urban and rural components.

Taking myself as an example, although I own a house in the city, my household registration remains in the rural area because I am reluctant to give up my ancestral home and land.

As a result, I have two health insurance policies – a rural one that costs about $50 a year, and an urban one that costs considerably more and is deducted monthly from my salary at a rate proportional to my income.

While this may seem like a loss, the higher deductions result in a higher retirement pension.

According to China’s administrative divisions, villages are the lowest level.

In theory, rural health insurance is not compulsory.

In reality, however, coverage is tied to the performance of government officials.

Government officials often resort to extremist claims that if you don’t buy $50 worth of health insurance, you’ll lose hundreds or even thousands of dollars in agricultural subsidies.

In fact, government officials do not have the ability orrights to cancel agricultural subsidies to farmers.

This is because the money is transferred directly from the central government’s coffers to the farmers’ bank cards.

Township government officials cannot interfere with central decision-making and the banking system.

Only a verbal threat.

Therefore, although the process of selling health insurance to farmers is sometimes not very gentle, the results are still good, and health insurance basically covers everyone.

Some people even have more than one medical insurance.

Reimbursement rates for medical expenses vary – 90% in township hospitals, 80% at the county level, 70% at the city level, and a basic 60% in provincial capital hospitals.

For serious illnesses, individuals often have to seek treatment in large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou, where reimbursement rates are even lower, especially for imported and expensive drugs.

The only good thing is that China’s medical system does not have complicated appointments and does not require excessive waiting.

Finally, there is the pressure of marriage.

If a young man who grew up in the countryside has parents with a low retirement income and his own income is not high, it will be difficult for him to find a wife, especially if the woman’s income is above average.

Unless he is exceptionally handsome or has a degree from one of China’s top universities, the challenges increase.

This contributes to the gradual decline of China’s population.

On some Chinese video platforms, many single men promote Indian marriage ideals, but Chinese women often mock them, questioning their confidence despite their seeming ordinariness.

ps1:

Many people lack a clear understanding of China’s land system and social structure.

On Quora, many comments seem unreasonably contentious.

I don’t know whether this is due to arrogance and prejudice or deliberate misinformation.

Although my English is limited, I’ll do my best to explain.

In rural areas, land is collectively owned by village-level administrative units, similar to rural cooperatives.

As long as your household registration is in the village, your land is permanent, with no time limits or land taxes.

Your children can inherit it without paying inheritance taxes.

The only drawback is that farmland cannot be bought or sold.

tradable land is residential land, but it’s limited to mutual transfers between village members.

Urban land is owned by the government.

If you buy villas, apartments, factories, or commercial land in the city, the legal term of use is either 40 or 70 years.

However, these are essentially “fiction” legal concepts to avoid conflict with the concept of state ownership of land.

If there were a real problem with time limits, China wouldn’t have a real estate industry, and people wouldn’t be stupid enough to buy houses.

Many multinational corporations, including McDonald’s, KFC, Metro, and Costco, own substantial amounts of land and property in China.

You can question the character of capitalists, but you can’t question their intelligence.

For ordinary residents, you can own property for life without paying a single cent in taxes.

If taxes were imposed, many people would become homeless.

That’s why many wealthy Chinese own many properties, because there are almost no holding costs.

ps2:

The inclusiveness of the Chinese government is beyond the imagination of many people who only believe what the Western media says.

Again, with a population of 1.4 billion and less than 4% having a bachelor’s degree, this means that there are many individuals among us who are not robots and can be easily angered.

If the government does not meet their demands, impulsive actions may occur.

The government is not stupid; it will not easily provoke the people.

On June 10, 2022, in the early morning, a girl was harassed and beaten by several men in a barbecue restaurant in Tangshan while she was having a late-night snack.

This incident sparked anger and panic throughout society, something that should not have happened in the eyes of the Chinese.

It was widely believed to be the incompetence of the Tangshan city police.

In reality, the Chinese can be perfectionists.

They won’t tolerate any instances of social violence, especially against innocent women.

Hebei Province reacted quickly and made adjustments to the entire public security system in Tangshan.

Many leaders in the police department were fired, and some even went to jail.

As for the men who assaulted the woman, the court handed down the harshest punishment, and they eventually repented in prison.

CCTV, China’s largest official television station, also conducted a special interview with the criminal.

ps3:

As for “Indian marriage ideals,” perhaps my expression is not very accurate.

This is a Chinese man who is worried about finding a mate.

This is the woman they met in reality.

This is their fantasy woman, using Indian women as a reference.

Many people may have seen too many Indian movies and think that Indian women are always gentle and kind.

The most important thing is that the men do not have to give any bride price to the women.

Well, that is India’s most successful cultural export to China.

Except Buddhism and Yoga.

Russia vs. UK

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jfIHlKAs1ag?feature=share

Have you ever won against a police “speeding” ticket, and if so, how?

Near the beginning of covid, I received a speeding ticket for going quite a bit over the speed limit. In fact, it was so much over the limit that when I received the citation in the mail, it indicated that I had to go to court in person. I couldn’t just pay a fine. I showed up on the indicated court date, but the courthouse was closed due to covid. I eventually received a notice in the mail indicating a new court date, but when I showed up it was still closed for covid (needless to say it was frustrating). A few months after that, I received a notice giving me a date to attend court virtually over zoom.

When I logged in, I noticed that there were about 50 other people also logged in. So I made myself comfortable and waited. The defendents with a lawyer present were called first. Every lawyer would say good morning to the judge and then, in some cryptic legalese I can’t remember, asked the judge to review the relevant dates for the case. The case would list them out in order and then give the running total number of days and then dismiss the case because it has been over a year. This happened at least 4 or 5 times.

After all the lawyers had finished, the judge started calling the rest of us. Person after person went up, was reprimanded by the judge, and given a fine. Eventually my name was called and so I repeated exactly what I had heard the lawyers say. The judge stared at me for about 45 seconds. Then he read the dates and dismissed my case. I thanked him and he told me that I better start slowing down when I drive because if he sees me again, he’ll remember me.

I’d like to think that everyone after me was smart enough to realize they also could have their cases dismissed. I was curious, but not that curious, so I took my win and logged off zoom.

Are Chinese girls and women materialistic, expecting men to be providers and pay for everything?

I do think it’s ridiculous that men in China are expected to have a successful and lucrative career, a house, and a car, as well as pay a large bride price to the girl’s family. Those are pretty tall orders. No wonder so many men in China are unmarried. But most women in China have their own careers (and don’t want to leave them to be housewives) and choose to continue working after marriage or decide to not marry at all.

Some of them do have Princess Syndrome and expect men to meet their materialistic demands. I do not understand the lust for luxury bags and clothes and the like. Why? To fit into society? To ascend to a Phoenix nest? To look good on Instagram or the Chinese equivalent? All of it is fleeting, unimportant, shallow and it won’t last. None of that matters.

But those women in China are not the majority. In 1.4 billion people there are bound to be materialistic gold diggers, but not everyone is. And people like that can be found in every society, not just China. Many women in China are hard working and dedicated to their careers. The ones who do stay home to raise children are dedicated to their families. I don’t see a stay-at-home wife or mother as a woman who is materialistic because her husband is the provider of their family.

I would say you’ve taken a stereotype and painted all Chinese women with a broad brush. Instead look at women as individuals capable of being their own person. You may meet some materialistic women but it’s more likely you will meet kind, hardworking women devoted to their families. Of the Chinese women in my acquaintance I can say none of them fit the materialistic stereotype.

Tell them…

Greek Homestyle Chicken

This is a common meal in Greece and it smells delicious while it is cooking.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Juice of 2 lemons
4 or 5 potatoes, peeled and sliced french-fry style
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 to 1 cup water
One head garlic, the cloves peeled but whole
Oregano, salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Place chicken in a shallow baking tray. Arrange potatoes around chicken pieces. Scatter whole peeled cloves of garlic around chicken and potatoes.
Mix together lemon juice and olive oil, and pour evenly over chicken and potatoes. Add water until potatoes are just about covered. Add salt, pepper to taste. Cover chicken and potatoes with generous amounts of oregano.
Bake at 350 degrees F, until tops of chicken are reddish brown.
Turn chicken, stir potatoes, and sprinkle on more oregano. If potatoes aren’t at least half-covered with liquid, add water.
Return to oven for about 15 to 20 minutes. Chicken is done when both sides a lightly browned and potatoes are soft when touched with a fork.
Serve with a crusty bread or with pita bread.

What is it like to be an elderly man who has experienced many things in his life?

Pretty cool really. At 74, I can look back on a life full of adventure and fun. Some hard work too. A lot of things you can’t do anymore (playground equipment now deemed too dangerous for kids), places that aren’t there anymore (amusement parks like Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica and the Pike in Long Beach). As kids, we walked to school, typically a mile each way- today moms chauffeur their kids to school, adding to morning and afternoon traffic jams. When I was a kid, we were allowed more freedom and had more responsibility.

As a teenager, friends and I would take spring breaks to the Colorado River, cruise up and down the river in my fishing boat, stop on the other bank of the river for a party at night, bats flying overhead on the river. Or Palm Springs, where parties were held out in the desert, and had fun visiting the Indian reservation and desert oasis. Travel to Mexico, and watch a real Mexican fiesta in a small town plaza. Ride motorcycles all over the place on camping trips. Learn to fly an airplane, and fly one to Catalina island with my girlfriend at the time, my buddy flying his own airplane in formation with me. Renting a 4 seat Cessna 172 from John Wayne airport, fuel included, was only $11 per hour! Dinner at Don the Beachcomber, 94th Aero Squadron, Proud Bird, Bobby McGees etc., places that don’t exist anymore.

My working life was mostly fun- working got easier as I moved up to jobs I liked. For the last 20 years I had a job designing traffic camera installations for the City, something I really liked doing.

I find that there are new things that challenge me in retirement. I discovered 3D design and 3D printing, and Arduino programming. I have created a lot of unique projects, and like showcasing them on Instructables. Plus, lots of bicycle riding and walking in our mild Southern California climate.

Why Marriage Is NOT WORTH Pursuing In Western Society

What was the strangest way a criminal was caught?

I heard this story from a fellow cab driver (back when I was driving cabs).

He was doing the night shift when he got a call to a specific address. The job details specified a non-LPG vehicle (ie, one without an extra tank in the boot) because they were moving from one place to another and needed to put the last of the luggage in there.

So while he was on the way there, he called the cops.

He showed up at the address, popped the boot, and helped the passengers load some gear in there; a sound system, sundry electronics and so forth. Then he closed the boot.

They’re anxious to get moving, but he took his time. Just as he was getting in, the cops showed up. The passengers tried to play it cool, but the driver pointed at them and said, “They just robbed this place.”

The cops grabbed one, but the other two made a run through the yard and went over the back fence. One came back straight away, but the other had trouble climbing back over, mainly because he had an Alsatian hanging off his leg.

Once the cops had all three in custody, he popped the boot again and showed them the stolen goods.

One of the passengers started swearing, then asked, “How did you know we were robbing the place?”

The driver looked him in the eye. “Because that’s my sound system. I live there.”

What Happened To Marriage?

Last Chance To Get Out Of Dodge?

December 11, 2023by Michael

Time is running out. Lately, I have been hearing from so many people that believe that 2024 will be the year when our society goes over the edge. Our financial system is teetering on the brink of disaster, crime is absolutely exploding all over the country, homelessness is rising at the fastest pace ever recorded, food banks are facing unprecedented demand for their services, and I believe that 2024 will be the most chaotic election year in the entire history of our nation. And of course all of this is happening in the context of a global environment in which war, pestilences, economic problems, famine and natural disasters are all on the rise. A “perfect storm” is raging all around us, and millions upon millions of Americans have become deeply concerned about what our immediate future will look like.

So where will you be when things finally hit the fan?

During the past several years, we have seen a mass exodus of conservatives from blue states. For example, Fox News is reporting that 65 percent of those that have recently moved to the state of Idaho are Republicans, and only 12 percent are Democrats…

Data published by the Idaho Secretary of State’s office shows that out of the nearly 119,000 people who recently moved to the state, 65% registered as Republicans, compared to just 12% registering as Democrats.

The data, which was reviewed by Fox News Digital, show that out of the roughly 20,000 Americans who moved from Washington state to Idaho, 62% registered as Republicans, compared to 12% as Democrats, 24% as unaffiliated and 2% as “other.” The percentage of registered Republicans originally from Washington who recently moved to Idaho is actually higher than the state’s overall percentage of registered Republicans, which sits at about 58%.

And for those moving from the state of California, the numbers are even more dramatic…

Out of the nearly 40,000 people who left California for Idaho, a whopping 75% registered as Republicans, the data reviewed by Fox News Digital show. Only 10% of the California pool registered as Democrats, 14% as unaffiliated and 2% as “other.”

Wow.

Real estate agents in Idaho are urging potential clients to “escape liberal hell” and to get to the state “before the coming collapse”…

The Seattle Times noted that real estate ads advise residents in states such as Washington to “escape liberal hell” and move to Idaho.

“Time is not on your side, flee the city NOW before the coming collapse!” another ad for a house listing in Idaho states, the outlet reported.

Perhaps you are thinking that you should move to Idaho too.

Unfortunately, for many Americans it is already too late, because property values in some areas of the state have more than tripled.

Of course property values have also skyrocketed in desirable areas in many other red states as well.

Meanwhile, mortgage rates have also soared, and as a result home payments have risen to absolutely absurd levels during the Biden administration…

WSJ analysis of the housing market:

Average monthly new home payment
when Biden took office: $1,787

Average monthly new home payment
today: $3,322

You can still try to relocate.

But it will cost you much more than it would have a few years ago.

Renting is also an option, but we have just been through a period of time when rental prices have also jumped substantially…

After suffering through a three-year period when rents jumped by 30% or more in many U.S. cities, renters are now starting to enjoy small breaks like this.

Ultimately, if you were planning to relocate, you should have already done it by now.

But the good news is that conditions are still at least somewhat relatively stable as we approach the end of 2023.

So if you want to get out of Dodge, you can still do it.

In fact, for many of you this may be your last chance.

But don’t wait too long, because the clock is ticking.

At this point, most Americans can feel that something has gone horribly wrong. The warning signs are all around us, and conditions are getting worse with each passing day.

Even Warren Buffett can sense that a really big shift is coming. During the first three quarters of this year he sold off a whopping “$28.7 billion of stock”…

Warren Buffett’s firm Berkshire Hathaway sold $28.7 billion of stock in the first three quarters of 2023 in a move that some economists have interpreted as ringing alarm bells for the American economy.

According to the company’s earnings, the Nebraska-based firm of the legendary investor and billionaire, known as the Oracle of Omaha, sold a net $10.4 billion of stock in the first quarter of the year. In the second quarter, it sold close to $13 billion of shares and bought less than $5 billion. In the third quarter, it sold about $5.3 billion worth of stocks.

As Buffett is considered one of the greatest investors of all time, as well as one of America’s richest men, his moves are closely observed and analyzed.

He didn’t make so much money by being stupid.

Buffett may not fully understand all of the specifics, but he realizes that something is up.

As our society crumbles, most of the population is not going to be able to handle it.

The suicide rate just continues to go up, and psychologists are reporting unprecedented demand for their services…

For the third consecutive year, many psychologists across the country say they are seeing patients struggle with worsening symptoms, many of them needing longer treatment times.

Those are among the findings of an annual survey by the American Psychological Association, released this week. The APA first launched this survey in 2020 to gauge the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on practicing psychologists.

A majority of psychologists reported that more people are seeking mental health care this year, adding to already long waitlists. Over half (56%) said they had no openings for new patients. Among those who keep waitlists, average wait times were three months or longer and nearly 40% said that their waitlist had grown in the past year.

When conditions get really bad, we are going to witness a national emotional meltdown of epic proportions.

Where will you be when that occurs?

Global events just continue to accelerate…

What are some things that look easy but are difficult?

Doing stand up comedy. I do it as an amateur for fun.

What I thought it was before I did it: You walk up, tell jokes for 10 minutes, then collect your free beer or $20.

What it actually is: You write 30 pages of jokes then meet with two other writers, who are also writing jokes (but different from yours). You’re all brutally honest with each other. You cut and trim. Some things don’t work. They point out logical inconsistencies. You end up with two pages.

Back to the drawing board. Repeat this process. Eventually you have 5 pages that will get you through a ten minute set. But, uh oh, one of your topical jokes appears in the media. More than one person can think of the same joke. “I had this joke first,” you think. But that doesn’t matter. You replace.

You rehearse and rehearse and rehearse so you don’t forget. You decide on a persona. You make sure your jokes match that persona. The persona needs to be enough of you to be honest or the audience won’t like it, but it should be an exaggerated version of you.

Then, you sit in a shabby green room in a bar that’s probably not in the best part of town. You get a knot in your stomach. You listen to the comedians who go before you.

You can always tell the comedians in a comedy club. They’re the ones who say “that’s a good joke” instead of laughing.

Finally, it’s your turn. You have two or three jokes to win the audience over. If they don’t like you from the start, it’s almost impossible to get them back.

Wait, what’s that? People are actually laughing! This is amazing. Why are they laughing at these lame jokes that I’ve told myself more than 100 times before performing them?

Is it true that Indians do more hard work and less smart work?

Ask Wistron!!!!

The Management came with high hopes of building a gigantic supply chain to rival Chinas by 2026

And went home with their TAIL BETWEEN THEIR LEGS and determined never to even look at India on a Map again

They were used to Chinese workers who were ready to slog 9+2 hours a day for 6 days a week and deliver 63 Units a day at peak productivity

They came because they were promised the world

First, the workers cried about wages

They agreed initially and then cried. That’s because the Agent was collecting 20% a month from their wages directly. So out of ₹14000/-, the workers saw a cut of ₹ 3000/- into the pocket of the Agent

Wistron raised the wages to ₹17000/- to keep them happy

Next, they did a surprising amount of overtime

The Average worker in China billed 12 hours a week for overtime

Here the Average worker was billing 30 hours a week overtime

Yet Productivity was less than half of China

Soon they found, everyone was deliberately working slow during normal hours to justify overtime

Workers due to be paid ₹17000/- a month plus maybe ₹6000/- for overtime at most were now paid ₹ 15,000/- for overtime and ₹32,000 a month

YET PRODUCTIVITY WAS 27

Wistron ordered that the Overtime pay be held back until a proper investigation was made

Workers felt outraged

They didn’t seem to care that their productivity was low

They seemed to think they were slogging hard and demanded money from the evil capitalist

So they attacked the plant, broke a lot of equipment AND THE COPS/AUTHORITIES SEEMED TO HOLD WISTRON GUILTY OF CHEATING

Wistron literally crawled before the Chinese on their knees to take them back but China gave a grin and said “Sorry. We have our own OEMs”

This is one Story of Indian HARD WORK

Same story in every single case

Lazy Indian makes promises he can’t keep. Demands money anyway. Accuses foreigner of Racism and Imperialism when he withholds payment

Files cheating case against his reps in India, forcing them to flee

Always the same story

Yes Sir!!!! We can definitely deliver by 31st December

Then slowly the excuses

Sir,many of my workers fell Ill due to the Pandemic

Sir, Machine broke down

Sir, Workers are asking for some wages. Can you release 10% more payment

Then when the Client gets angry, the belligerence

Sir, we have worked so hard. We haven’t gone home for weeks because of you. Please pay the balance

You are a racist. I will file cheating case against your manager in India and against your office.

The Poor Manager and staff in India get caught and are forced to pay hush money to the cops and end up becoming pawns

Eventually the Client disgusted cuts his losses and closes the office and says “Gutter Country”

My Client had an email from a Belgian importer literally saying

Thanks for your Interest however WE DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH INDIANS

Others have similar lines

We don’t do business with Indians unless the entire payment can be made on COD basis

(COD = Cash on Delivery)

Foreign entities would love to come to India but India is so dirty, so corrupt and so abase without proper ethics or work culture that they don’t want to take a chance.

They would pay higher prices and go to Vietnam or Mexico or of course China if China would still have them. China is now focusing on their own brands and is not ready to entertain foreign brands too much.

In the IT Industry, things were once different but now slowly that Industry is heading the same way

Luckily the Dollar Rupee continuous depreciation helps because a $ 100 raise a day per asset today is ₹60,000/- a week in India

Enough to grovel, sit and stay

Hire 4 Unemployed Assets for ₹30 K a month and quote an extra $ 100 a week and pocket ₹ 120K a month

India is seriously a very bad place for hard work and ethics

Neither for smart work

There are exceptions of course

You have good hard workers with ethics in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad in IT and Software and other key areas yet the new generation are becoming worse and worse .

My Son Was A Disrespectful Jerk Until I Switched Tactics, Treated Him Like A Man…And He Became One

Sneezing Fiji

Fiji

On our trip to Pago Pago, American Samoa, we had a layover in Fiji. Nice nation. Beautiful island chain. Actually really nice.

The thing is, we arrived in the Spring. And the trees and flowers were all in bloom. It was stunning and so beautiful. Smelled wonderful… BUT… it turns out that I was allergic to the trees. The entire time we were there I was sneezing and coughing with blurry and watery eyes.

Ugh.

Pretty, but not for me. Oh well…

Life can be silly. I really wonder what the Hell I was thinking when I decided to incarnate.

Today…

What is the rudest thing that a new neighbor has done to you immediately after you had moved in?

Years ago I moved into an apartment/flat. I was on the 2nd floor and shared a long balcony with my neighbor. It was just us two on the floor in that building. The balcony didn’t have a divider between us but it was a long length balcony. I put a small patio table and chair right by my door to relax on the balcony early mornings with tea or evenings to enjoy a book. Well, one morning I went out to sit on the chair by the small table. What did I see? The table was full of beer cans and a huge ashtray full of cigarette butts. The only person that could have done that is my neighbor. It annoyed me. It was one thing to use my patio table and chair without permission, but to leave a disgusting mess for me is another thing. I picked up the cans and ashtray and put them on the ground right in front of her door. Although I never spoke to her I had seen her. I wiped off my table and wrote out a note that said this, “Please ask for permission before using my table and chair. This table and chair are not community property. They belong to me. If you get permission to sit here, please clean up your mess. I am not your maid. Thank you”. I left the note taped on the table. Guess what? You guessed it. The next morning I found another load of beer cans and a full ashtray on the table. Same thing as the day before. Only this time, the table had a beer and food mess. I lost it. I grabbed the beer cans that were not all empty and the full ashtray with cigarette butts and ashes. I walked to her door and spilled beer all in front of her door on the concrete. I then poured the full ashtray all in the beer and it made a yucky mess on the concrete. She’d have to step in it going out the door. I then wiped down the table and folded it up along with the chair and put them by the wall next to the front door inside my apartment. This meant I would have to put them up outside every time I used them. It was a pain in the ass but I did it. She could get her own and clean up her own mess. Didn’t have any issues once I removed the table and chair. A few months later she moved out. Someone else moved in a couple of weeks later. A cop and his wife. The new neighbors were polite. So back out for good my patio table and chair went. Thank goodness.

**EDITED: Response to people commenting why I didn’t just knock on her door and talk to her**

People on the ground floor of the building said she was very rude like that to them as well. One time she took someone’s clothes out of the washing machine and threw them on the ground so she could use the washing machine. She had a bad reputation for not being one to reason with. I wasn’t going to waste my time trying to talk with her to try to come to a resolution. She wasn’t one to compromise with. So, therefore, I did what I felt was best how to deal with a person like that. Another person said she was also a bit violent. So to be honest, I didn’t want to put myself in the position to be physically attacked by her. I would have likely hurt her trying to defend myself because I am trained in martial arts. See what I mean?

Put in the work

I think it is an uneven pair-bonding.

Best Bohemian Kolaches

Kolaches are a type of pastry that holds a dollop of fruit rimmed by a puffy pillow of supple dough.

Ingredients

Dough

8 teaspoons dry yeast, dissolved in 1 cup warm water and 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 cups 2% milk, scalded
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
10 to 11 cups flour (don’t make dough too stiff)

Prune Filling

1 pound pitted prunes
Sugar to taste
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Apricot Filling

1 pound apricots
Sugar to taste

Cottage Cheese Filling

1 (16 ounce) container cottage cheese
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
Dash of nutmeg
4 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup raisins
1 teaspoon flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar

Poppy Seed Filling

1 (2 pound) container poppy seed filling from a bakery
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Cream

Instructions

Dough: Dissolve yeast in water until foamy.
Heat milk, pour over butter and sugar. Stir until melted. Add 2 cups flour, then beat until smooth. Add yeast, eggs and salt. Add flour until a soft ball forms. Grease top; let rise. Punch down and let rise again.
Stretch dough on floured board to about 1/2-inch thickness. Cut into rounds using a soup can. Put on greased pans and let rise. When nice and puffy, make indentations in center and fill with favorite filling like prune, apricot, cottage cheese or poppy seed. When risen to a nice puffy look, bake at 375 degrees F until a golden color.
Prune Filling: Cook prunes until soft. Grind and add sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon. Stir well.
Apricot Filling: Cook apricots until soft. Grind and add sugar. Sweeter is better. Stir well.
Cottage Cheese Filling: Put cottage cheese in blender. Add egg yolk, lemon juice, nutmeg and 4 tablespoons flour and blend some more. Take out of blender and add raisins. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon flour and sugar.
Poppy Seed Filling: Mix together. Use enough cream to make it easier to put into kolaches.

Legit

Can China win a war against the US over Taiwan in 2023?

I’m almost out of the door to buy groceries, and I saw this question, and I have to say something.

…deep breath…

WHAT THE FUCK WITH THIS OBSESSION OVER WAR?!

I’ve seen this type of hypothetical war question all the fucking time on social media (not just on Quora). And it’s always hypothetical wars between nuclear powers. It used to be the US vs USSR. Now it’s US vs China. Every single fucking year, you guys come back with the same zeal asking who would win in various hypothetical scenarios.

What do you think war is? Civilization V?! Colorful avatars on a digital map?! You move your troops forward, and boom, the city is yours?!

I swear you armchair general manchildren are the fucking worst! You want war so much, why don’t you enlist? You think you’re fucking military expert because you played Call of Duty, and you know what a battleground feels like?! You can hide behind cover and breath heavily for a few seconds and recover from bullethole in your fucking stomach?

You know, I don’t mind actual military experts theorizing potential wars. That’s kind of their job, to think of the worst scenario so we can be prepared. I get that. But you lot ain’t experts. You are doing it because it is fun and exciting for you. It makes you feel powerful the same way playing Civilization V makes you feel powerful.

You never thought about what war actually means to the people it impacted (yes, that includes you, too, you moron!) There’s no glory in bloodshed over nationalism or fighting over resources.

But sure, let me answer your question: can China win a war against the US over Taiwan? Depending on how you define “winning.” The most likely scenario we have is a Vietnam War V2. The US throws its weight around, and millions of young people die on both sides, fighting in the fucking jungle. Taiwan, once named the “Island of Treasures,” was decimated. Its factories were destroyed. Its beautiful forests and coasts were poisoned by chemical weapons. The price of PCs and other electronics skyrocketed because Taiwan is the world’s largest producer of semiconductors, producing over 60% of the world’s semiconductors and over 90% of the most advanced ones.

After years of death, destruction, and misery, the US finally decided to withdraw its troops, and Taiwan became a province of China.

And that is the best scenario you could hope for, you moron. The worst scenario is both US and China decide to use nuclear weapons, and we all fucking die in the fucking nuclear winter.

Still feeling good about yourself? Still think this is a fucking video game?!

Fuck all of you war fanatics! Go read another book about WWII and fuck all the way off my feed.

I’ll leave you with this poem: 劝君莫论封侯事，一将功成万骨枯

“Please do not speak of getting noble titles (through war). One general’s success was built upon millions of corpses.“

Unsurprisingly, I got several comments saying China is an authoritarian state and has been threatening Taiwan for years.

Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that what you said is true, that China is indeed an authoritarian state and China has been “threatening” Taiwan for years.

So? SO? What’s your point? That China, a country of 1.5 billion people, most of these 1.5 billion people live peacefully and minding their own business, deserve to be destroyed because… you do not agree with how an independent sovereign nation governs itself?

OK, by that logic, can China start a war attacking the US because everything the US did in the fast 70 years, including invading Iraq on a lie, created several coups in South America for the sole purpose of destabilizing the local economy and forcing these countries to rely on the US for their survival, and systemic racism, persecution of homosexual people and trans people, drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya…

I mean, if we want to compare fucking skeletons in the fucking closet, we can go all the way back to Operation Paperclip. Better yet, let’s go all the way back to colonialism and chattel slavery. The US is covered, head to toe, with innocent blood. If there is one country that deserves to be destroyed, according to your logic, the US would be the first in line.

So perhaps get off your moral high horse and shut the fuck up.

We were ROBBED in Finland! (Let’s Go Back to China!)

Who was the rudest customer you’ve had, and how did you deal with them?

I was a male waiter at a diner in Hillbillyville. I got very few tips because tips were for making passes at waitresses. Working the late shift, I dealt with more than my share of drunks and as well as the ordinary assholes. From teens squirting full ketchup bottles on their dinnerware and tables after their meal, to those who would fall into a drunken coma at my tables.

The one that stands out to me was a retired farmer who would come in every Sunday night with his wife and another couple. They had all been drinking. But the retired farmer, who had a reputation for being a loud-mouth know-nothing decided to harass the help (me and the cook) throughout their meal. He and his entourage thought it was very funny to disrespect us.

After their meal and lots of juvenile remarks, it was dessert time. They all ordered. The retired farmer decided he wanted a hot fudge sundae, which he knew we did not offer.

I told him “We do not have hot fudge sundaes.”

He replied, “Do you have ice cream?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have chocolate syrup?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have a microwave?”

”Yes.”

“Then heat up some frickin’ chocolate sauce and put it on my ice cream!”
His group suddenly went quiet, realizing he had just crossed a boundary not even they would accept.

I put my hands on their table, leaned across to the foul farmer and said, “Would you liked crushed nuts with that?”

He went silent as the others at the table burst into laughter… especially his wife! They believed he had it coming… probably for years!

Dickhead left me a nice tip that night and had a new demeanor every time he stopped to eat.

I was pleased with myself. Other customers as well as staff openly approved of the way I handled this little turd.

The best Christmas ad…

Have you ever seen an employer fire someone without realizing what a crucial role the employee played?

I fired a friend who worked closely with me in the forge. He’d set up some of the equipment, and knew how to maintain it. He was a good solid productive worker, and a lot of fun to work with.

He also drank.

I told him he could not drink on company property, and he could not come in drunk to work.

He did it anyway. Repeatedly. Hid it. More than one warning.

Then I fired him.

He said I couldn’t, that I needed him, that I didn’t know how to maintain the equipment, it would cripple my business to lose him.

He was right.

And yet… I still had to do it. He was a hazard to himself, and to the business. At one of the venues I vend at, they have a clear written rule forbidding this, and he was violating it, and I could have lost my business there (and it’s responsible for 75% of my annual income)

I bent over backwards to avoid doing this, and when I finally did, it was every bit as bad as he thought it would be.

Production dropped by more than half. A couple of the tools got ruined. I learned how to maintain the others, and gradually got things back into shape, but it took many months.

But I can’t honestly say I didn’t know what was going to happen when I did it. I just didn’t have any other choice.

Another gym

What’s something a poor kid would understand, but would utterly confuse a rich kid?

I have friends who never understand how I can take a costco rotisserie chicken for $5.00 and make it into a week’s worth of meals, including using the bones and meat chips from the carcass for bone broth to make soup. I can pick a chicken or turkey bonee clean of meat long after others would have given up. I use veggies and eggs to extend it to omelelets, wraps, chicken fritattas, tacos, chicken salad with mayo, stir fry, topping on regular salad with dressing, an entree, and then finally soup. I buy the large quantity of meat on mark down and make four or five different meals, freezing several. That way I always rotate the meat or meal we eat during the week, and we feel like we never have to be without meat except our once a week vegetarian meal. I made ham and bean soup the other day with the Christmas ham leftover scraps and the ham bone. My mom fed a family of seven with groceries she bought while a grocery store meat wrapper. My dad worked in produce. We had cans with no labels she bought for 10 cents. We had a cat and a dog, but never knew which vegetable or animal food was in the can until we opened it.

I always eat the free meal buffet at hotels and take extra fruit to my room. There will always be a bag of dried beans, box of pasta, and cans of tuna in my pantry ‘just in case’. I had some for the lunch the other day because it was getting close to expiration. I drive around town on errands and find myself noticing open public bathrooms, places where people could park overnight, etc ‘just in case’, even though I’ve never been homeless. I’ve been scared when I was close. I go into survival mode as soon as an extra expense happens even if I am prepared.

I use coupons, shop the sale items, and overstock my pantry. My mom taught me back when rebates were constantly available. We had ‘FHB’ or ‘family hold back’ meals where extra bread was added to the table if someone stopped by unexpectedly. It was the signal for the family to fill up on bread and ‘hold back’ from eating so the guests were satisfied. I still fill out restaurant and fast food surveys for the free meal. I’m the one willing to pick up the company meals nearby, so I get the rewards. People think I’m just being nice or someone in the office is taking advantage of me. I go to the extra early sales to get the extra $10 coupon for the first 100 in line. Early in my career, I used to use the ‘free reward’ items from ordering office supplies to sell at yard sales.

My partner understood before he passed. He had used cracker packets and ketchup packets from fast food with a cup of hot water to make ‘tomato soup’. He had had it worse than us growing up. Most people will never understand.

Our son has never known true hunger, but he has seen enough scrimping that he knows not to waste. As a teen, I gave him the coupons, the sale paper, and $10 with a shopping list. I taught him to use the ‘money back rewards’ with double coupons and buy one get one sale items for anti perspirants, etc to buy the extra milk and things he needed for the week. Even today, I will invite him to a restaurant and he will ask if it can be another day, because he has xxx leftovers to finish before they go bad. You keep the mentality.

Oh and the hand me downs. I wore the same homemade dress in four different sizes. My mom had made each of her five girls tge same blue dress with three buttons. My one sister was so much larger than me hers couldn’t be altered enough or I would have had five. I was thrilled to get a new outfit at Christmas when my sisters were growing up and moving out. There was a little more money then. I quizzed every sister how much their bills were and wrote a budget. I owned everything to move out by 16, down to a vegetable peeler. I wasn’t taking any chances. I used my babysitting and yard work money earned from neighbors. Once I could work fast food, I lied to my parents that I was over a friend’s house when I really worked a full week with overtime all summer long. The child labor laws apparently didn’t check much in those days. I had discovered making money. I was the only kid I knew that lied about having fun so I could work. I worked hard enough to become management before graduating high school. I just wanted to keep earning and saving the most I could. I always worked two jobs until my son was born. You take every chance you get.

What is the biggest turn-off you’ve ever had on a date?

I come from a very dignified and respectable family. My parents always taught me values and how I should be respectful of other.

I was asked out on a date by a coworker. He was older to me by 8 years, nevertheless he was charming and spoke very well. I thought he seemed like a nice, family man.

We ended our date after a meal at a restaurant and he offered to pay. I asked him if he wanted to share the tab but he declined. Afterwards we both were walking towards the car parking area. There was an ATM kiosk.

He tried to withdraw some cash from his card but told me that there was some problem with his card. He then did something weird. He asked my card and my PIN number. And me, like an idiot told him.

He took my purse from me, took the card, punched the PIN number and withdrew a 1000 INR. He took the cash, put it in his pocket and continued walking.

I asked him what he did. To which he replied “oh that was for the dinner and the rest of it is for the petrol I will be spending dropping you back at home”.

That was my first and last date with him.

Have you ever been in a relationship with someone for a while and then found out something very odd about them?

Back in 2015, I’d been dating my then-fiance for some time. We got engaged super early, so it wasn’t exactly “a while,” but it had been at least three months and let me reiterate: we were engaged to be married.

Blake Diamond and I had already sent out requests for our bridal party hopeful-members to become actual-members, and one person said to me how odd the name sounded. “It almost sounds fake, don’t you think?” he asked.

“I mean… maybe?” I said. “I knew a guy in high school with the last name Diamond, and Blake is a name that I’m familiar with, so maybe it’s not that unlikely.”

Several weeks passed and as I began to get deeper and deeper into wedding planning, I needed to know his parents’ address so that I could send things to his family. “I’d rather keep this under wraps. They don’t need to know about all the planning yet. Plus, their last name is Bingham,” he said to me one night.

“Bingham? That’s odd. Yours is… different?”

“Oh, that’s, uh… maybe I didn’t tell you,” he conceded. “Blake G. Diamond III is my online alias.”

I… what?

“What? Why did I not… know that… before you asked me to marry you?”

“I like to go by Blake Diamond, not by my real name.”

He still was hesitant to spill the beans, but when I became inconsolably irate after several minutes of arguing, he finally gave in:

Joe. His real name was Joe.

Project 8200 Exposed | CIA Psychics Find Alien Bases Underground

What was the last conversation you had with your father?

“No dad, I didn’t do it.”

“You know damn well that you did it.”

“No I didn’t. I can save money to buy another one for you if you want.”

“You think I want it from you? I raised a dumbass for a son. Leo, I know you did it.”

“I swear I didn’t.”

“So you’re the only on in the roo-”

“I was asleep on the sofa. I didn’t do i-”

“Just watch, when I come home with your mother you will admit to it.”

I began to laugh, “Good luck. Know what? Take your fucking time coming home.”

And that’s it. I turned off the phone and went to my room, and angrily waited for them to come home. I awoke from the sofa earlier and found the T.V broken. Absolutely crushed.

I called my dad and he was quick to point the finger at me. Which makes sense, the T.V didn’t break itself and I was the only one in the room. Though the truth is that I didn’t do it.

I shouldn’t have been such a fucking snob with my response because they never came home after that.

A knock came at the door and I stomped over, ready to face a loud scolding. But the person at the door wasn’t my dad, or anyone I know. He is wearing a police badge and a police car with our states name written across it is outside the front door. I figured that my dad must have called the cops to see who broke the T.V after realizing it wasn’t me. “Yes?”

“Is this the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Alexandric?”

“Yes.”

“And are you Leonardo?”

“I-yes.”

“Would you like to take a seat?”

All at once my entire body stiffens. “No. Why are you here? What happened?” The T.V is broken. That’s all. Nothing’s wrong. I kept telling myself. But the truth was, everything was wrong.

“Your parents. They’re dead.”

The frankness of his words and shock of it all is too much and I begin to laugh. He looks calmly at me, like he’s used to this type of reaction. He probably was.

“You didn’t answer my second question. What happened?” My voice is shaking and I knew I was on the verge of tears.

“Son, your parents are dead. They got shot. That’s all there is to tell you.”

I stay frozen at the door saying nothing.

“We called your Aunt and Uncle. They’ll be here shortly. Meanwhile, I’m supposed to make sure you’re safe.”

I nod and open the door for him to come inside. I’m too shocked and lost to ask for proof or a warrant of some kind. I just stand at the door and glare at the man until my aunt comes.

She comes with my uncle and she’s screaming, acting hysterical. She grabs me in a hug and doesn’t let go until she faints from exhaustion. That was the last conversation I had with my father.

I never cried about their death, it’s made me colder. I just feel numb thinking about it. I thought it was my fault for the longest time. I did this, I told him not to come back. I know that it’s not true now but it still haunts me.

Please do me a favor and go tell you parents that you love them. Don’t be stupid like me, because no matter how stable everything seems, no one knows when death will strike.

Pride

What is an “Only in Japan” moment?

This is a true story that happend to a friend of mine.

He was fairly new in Japan and went to Yoyogi Park, the most popular and well-known park in Tokyo.

He was playing some sport with his friends for a while, and went home as it started raining.

On his way back to his house, he realized that he forgot his iPad on a bench at the park.

He felt hopeless as the electronics left in public quickly get lost, at least that was the commonsense we generally have, but he went back anyway to where he was in the park.

Photo: Wikimedia

He looked at the bench where he left his iPad, and saw a newspaper.

He removed the newspaper, and there it was. His iPad was sitting there intact! But why was there a newspaper on iPad?

Well, apparently, a kind-hearted anonymous person thought the beautiful iPad shouldn’t get wet in the rain.

My friend calls that an “only-in-Japan” experience. However, as myself being Japanese, I wasn’t surprised.

I’ve lost my iPhone twice on the train (yes, twice..) and found both times at Lost & Found of the railway company.

One learning from my friend’s story and my own experience is “don’t give up finding it when you lose your gadget in Japan!” 🙂

What is the best way to improve life?

Mike has never put more than 40% effort into anything in school.

He sits in the back of the class. He never listens. He figures out how to sleep with his eyes open, or hide under his desk to take naps.

Maybe his dad abandoned him. Maybe his parents never motivated him. Or maybe he’s just plain lazy.

Who knows the reasons. But the effort isn’t there.

Nothing his teachers or parents have ever said or done have been able to turn the fire that burns within him into anything more than a low smolder.

He goes through his early years, turning in the minimum grades to squeak by in everything.

One day, as he shrugs off another bad grade, the teacher stands up at the front of the class.

The teacher points at Mike.

“Study hard – or you’ll end up like Mike there. Dim, lazy, and on the path to flipping burgers for a living.”

A certifiable asshole comment by a teacher.

Mike, typically thick-skinned and nonchalant about life, is pissed.

An authority figure publicly branding him in front of the class, the class laughing, and the obvious implication that a good majority of them shared the teacher’s view of Mike was too much.

He’d had enough.

Deep down he knew he was lazy. But he wasn’t stupid. And he sure as hell wouldn’t be flipping burgers.

That day forward Mike starts studying.

It hurts his brain at first to think and concentrate so much. It’s almost like going to the gym for the first time.

He keeps going. Each day he gets better at it. The rust comes off, those sleepy neurons start to light up between his ears.

Quickly – he gets into a groove. His grades pick up.

They get better. They get better. He learns a couple study tricks he should have known years ago.

Cute girls are suddenly asking him for help in school.

He realizes school isn’t that hard. He realizes what he already knew – he wasn’t dumb.

In fact, he realizes, he’s a lot smarter than he thought he was.

Suddenly, he’s getting the top grades in his class.

Mike – was so much more than even he ever thought.

He’d been a darkhorse scholar in his class.

He is acing test after test. He dethroned the former smart kid who now eyes him with jealousy.

And one day – his teacher asks him to stay after class.

His teacher comes over, sits on a table across from him.

He stares at Mike.

He walks over, reaches out and shakes Mike’s hand, saying, “Mike – I apologize. You had it in you all along. I never knew”

Mike, your quintessential, stereotypical gifted slacker, had announced his arrival.

I’ve found that harsh criticisms can cut deep particularly if there is a grain of truth to them.

The knee-jerk reaction is often to punch back, recoil, bury yourself away from it.

The next time a criticism cuts deep, step forward and into it.

Look within the pain rather than react to it. What does it show you?

Are your talents being buried by inaction? By weakness?

Look at it.

It is right there.

Do something about it.

If someone shines a light on your demons, don’t flip the light off, expel the demons.

If someone mislabels you, sells you short of what you are, what you are capable of, do something about it.

Show them the truth.

You’ll enjoy it.

Nothing beats proving people wrong.

Real Living Cost In Shenzhen, China Will Shock You

What are your thoughts on industries moving back to the United States from China? Do you think it is due to rising costs and stricter environmental regulations in China, or do you think they will stay there permanently? Why or why not?

Which one?

Almost none!

Dell was doing horrendously bad and it’s sales in China is almost non existent when it thought playing the hate China can can win sales in U.S. and its cronies.

Well the result is it got even worst.

China’s market itself is close to 30% of the world’s market. And it can make everything. Better and faster at half the cost anywhere else. With that China help you earn heaps of money! Without China you go broke. With China you laugh all the way to the bank.

99.999% of US businessman wants to stay perpetually in China if they can. US business people are smart. US politicians have only one objective. To stay in power. To do that do shit and talk shit on China can get you there.

Americans are so unbelievably ignorant and naive after 24/7, 365 days a year 74 straight years of demonising And fabrications of lies by the U.S media on China. do you blame the Yanks. Imagine going to school, college and university that teaches you white is black and right is wrong that long!

I don’t. I pity them.

Have you ever seen a workplace bully picking the wrong target? What happened?

Worked at Burger King when I was around 16, and I put up with a lot of abuse from a few managers (including one guy in his 30s constantly getting aggressive with me for no reason, just started happening one day and didn’t quit) because in spite of them, the rm and a few of the other managers were really cool. Flash forward about a year and I was one of three people working in the restaurant and the other two people were the aggressive manager and a new manager who was abusing her power. I made all the food correctly, labeled it correctly and put it on hot table for them to bag( it was the middle of a rush) both of them were bagging the food incorrectly, telling me a made the things wrong when I know I didn’t, I knew they weren’t paying attention they were just bagging stuff up and customer kept coming back angry and I had to remake the food. After a few hours, when the rush hit it got worse. And they were still blaming me for their mistakes, but when the aggressive manager went off on me, I literally just walked over and clocked out and told them I’m quitting, to have fun for the rest of their shift because you’ll be the only ones here for the remainder of the day. I dont work fast food anymore, the thought just makes me angry. I’m not saying I’m better than those workers, or smarter, just that I won’t work in the food industry ever again. I was 16, they should’ve picked a target that was older, less likely to quit because they had bills/ kids to take care of, I didn’t.

A declining society

What are some of the most mind-blowing facts?

The likelihood of surviving a plane accident is around 95.7%. However, around 16% of accidents are fatal. Of all modern transport-category planes, the one with the worst safety record is the Concorde, yet it only had one fatal accident, this is because of its limited service history.*
Afghanistan’s literacy rate is around 29%.
Labor Day was an event conceived to cover up some pretty brutal massacres of American workers.
The sun is one star in 300 sextillion (or 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.)
After suffering a knife wound whilst giving fellatio a woman became pregnant… even despite being born without a vagina.

*Concorde fact courtesy of Tal R. Thanks Tal.

Britain’s youngest grandfather was 29 at the time of birth.
The total weight of all the Earth’s ants is around the same of all the humans.
Because ants are so small they can survive a session in a microwave by dodging the rays.
When you sneeze your heart stops for a millisecond- hence the term bless you.
At 2000 km long, the Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth.
Polar bears can run at 25 kmph and jump around 6 feet high.
There are 62,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body, so they could stretch around the Earth 2.5 times.
If you were to drill a tunnel straight through the centre of the Earth it would take you precisely 42 minutes and 12 seconds to get to the bottom if you jumped… but you’d be dead before you got there.
The strongest creature on Earth, gonorrhea bacteria, can pull 100,000 times their body weight.
If you apply an electric current to a pickle it will react with the salt, causing the pickle to glow.

The speed of Neptune’s wind breaks the sound barrier.
Picasso was a suspect in the 1911 Mona Lisa theft.
The Queen owns one-sixth of the Earth’s land surface.
On August 27th of 1896, Britain and Zanzibar fought a war. It lasted 36 minutes.
The U.S. produces 90,000,000 acres of corn per annum.
Warner’s Bros. was founded before the Ottoman Empire fell.
Calculations determine that, in the last 3,500 years, there have been 260 years of peace.
In 2005 a man threw a grenade at George W. Bush and it didn’t explode.
If the figures are correct humans were first on Earth 200,000 years ago, and written records of life were first found from 6,000 years ago, 97% of history is lost.
You can swim through some of the arteries in a blue whale’s heart.
Thomas Edison’s last breath is in a tube, in Detroit’s Henry Ford museum.
Most canned laughter was recorded in the 1950’s, so most of those laughs re from dead people.
A single crayon burns for half an hour.

In Detroit, 70% of murders go unsolved.
Excite turned Google down in 1999 when they were willing to sell the company for $1,000,000
Ronald Wayne sold his stake in Apple for $800 dollars in 1976.
‘No melon, no lemon’ spelt backwards is ‘No melon, no lemon.’
If you spell out every number you won’t use an A until you reach one thousand.
Marie Curie’s work is still radioactive enough to make you sick, so you must sign a disclaimer to view them.
Cleopatra lived closer to the Moon landing the the building of the Great Pyramid.
Half of the humans ever to live have died from malaria.
Charlie Chaplin’s remains were stolen and held for ransom. See chaplin.
**
If you could fold paper 42 times it would reach the moon.
If there was no space between the atoms on Earth it would be the size of a regular baseball.
Ireland’s population is still 2,000,000 less than it was before the potato famine.
You have a 0.5% chance of being related to Genghis Khan.
A banana is a berry and a strawberry isn’t.
Nelson Mandela wasn’t removed from the U.S. terror watch-list until 2008.
Jimmy Carter, the genius that he is, sent a jacket to his cleaner with nuclear launch codes and secrets in the pocket.
Quentin Tarantino played an Elvis impersonator in the Golden Girls.

**Charlie Chaplin fact courtesy of Murray Robinson. Thanks Murray. 🙂

The heat of the sun’s core is so hot that if you put a pinhead on Earth which was as hot you could kill a person 160 km away.
Irish poet Brendan Behan was a confirmed alcoholic at the age of eight.
Sunandha Kumariratana the Queen of Thailand forbid her subjects from touching her and so they were all forced to look on as she drowned.
Fleas can jump around 200 times their height.
A seahorse moves through the waters at about 0.01 mph.
A giraffe’s spots are truly unique- no two giraffes have the same spots, also you can determine their age from the darkness of their spots.
Giraffes learn to stand after 30 minutes and can run with their mothers after 10 hours.
Scientists have submitted papers to exhume and examine the body of shakespeare to see if he smoked marijuana.
Blue jeans are now banned in North Korea for being a sign of American imperialism.
Shopping carts have more saliva, faecal matter, and bacteria on them than most bathrooms.
Barry Manilow didn’t write his song “I Write the Songs.”
Leo Fender couldn’t play the guitar.
President John Tyler still has two surviving grandchildren, despite being born some 221 years ago.
1/3 of all the U.K. divorce filings included the word ‘Facebook’.

There was a counting horse called Stanley from Liverpool, who could multiply, divide, add and subtract as well as calculate mileage, it also performed in a theatre production in the Anglican cathedral… he was trained by my Grandfather. 🙂

Crazy gym lifestyle in the USA

What did your mother or father say to you when you were young that you remembered your whole life?

I had a very snooty classmate, mummy and daddy had more money than sense, and whenever we passed a homeless person she was sniff and say “dirty scroungers, get a job!”

My dad on the other hand would always pass the time of day and give them some money. One day we met him on the way home from school, the girl saw dad give a man a few coins and demanded “why give him your money. He needs a job!”

“Yes.”Dad agreed, “and a home, and a nice loving family. Can you give him that? Just as Scaz is my child, that man is somebody’s child. If we all remembered that everyone is somebody’s baby, we would all be happier! When you look at him, you think begger. When I look at him I think “There but for the grace of God go I.”

When we got home, dad sat me down and said “if you remember nothing else, remember this. When someone hits rock bottom, there is only one way left. Up.

If you can’t find a kind person, BE a kind person. When someone hits rock bottom, be the hand pulling them back up, for God knows one day you’ll need someone to do it for you “

Mind vs. Body

What psychological tricks can I use in everyday life?

Here are 8 useful psychological tricks you can use in daily life:

1.When people tell you things you don’t agree with

Don’t object to them firmly.

First acknowledge what they say with words like, “I see what you mean” and continue with your own opinion asking “but have you ever thought about this part of it?” That approach will help you make your point without being interrupted or having someone oppose you.

2. To improve your mood

You can Write down negative thoughts and tossing them in a trash can.

And if you are angry, draw lines. Simple patterns relax you. If you feel sad, paint a rainbow.

3. If you want someone to carry something for you

Hand it over to them while talking. Most people won’t notice that you’re handing them something and they will take it.

But note that this trick may not work on people who are naturally more attentive as well as less close to you.

4. To make yourself look like a naturally good listener, even if you aren’t one

Paraphrase what someone else has just said and say it again. Remember to not be too obvious though.

5. To get friendlier with a person

Emphasize your shared values. In other words, try finding a point of similarity between the two of you and then highlight it.

This is according to the “similarity-attraction effect”, stating that you are more attracted to those who are similar to you.

6. To give someone positive memories of your conversation or interaction

Let them talk about themselves. One study showed that when people talked about themselves, the reward system of the brain became activated, meaning talking about oneself felt actually rewarding.

7. When two people eat together, if you want to know if the other person has a potential affection for you (friendship and love apply)

Pick up a cup and take a sip of water. If the other person also subconsciously picks up his glass and drinks water, he or she is more likely to have a potential interest in you. Related article you may want to read: 20 signs to tell if someone likes you.

8. To immediately feel confident

You may be surprised by the effectiveness of adopting the “power stance”, i.e. standing with your legs apart and your arms spread out so that you cover as much space as possible. If you do this for just two minutes, you flood your body with testosterone and will instantly feel more self-assured.

I dominated

Comparison between Chinese and Japanese disaster rescue operation

Japan :

An earthquake occurred at 4:00 pm, The Self-Defense Forces were still eating, drinking and having fun to celebrate the New Year that night. They did not set out to the disaster area until noon the next day. It took 5 or 6 days after the disaster to complete the operation. There were only 2,000 food supplies for more than 10,000 people and no water for one day., only get one rice ball.

China :

At 23:59 on December 18, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake occurred in Jishishan County, Gansu Province, my country;

Just 3 minutes after the earthquake, fire trucks and ambulances appeared on the streets;

20 minutes after the earthquake, Gansu and Qinghai launched emergency plans at the same time;

37 minutes after the earthquake, the fire rescue teams from Lanzhou, Wuwei and Baiyin had already assembled and went to the scene for disaster relief;

81 minutes after the earthquake, the first trapped person was rescued;

160 minutes after the earthquake, the provincial party committee secretaries and governors from Gansu and Qinghai arrived at the disaster area to guide the rescue;

At four o’clock in the morning, the first batch of 300 rescue troops from the People’s Liberation Army arrived in the disaster area and began relief;

In the early morning of that day, the People’s Liberation Army cooking truck began to make breakfast for the affected people;

At 15:00 that day, the official announced that the earthquake rescue work was basically completed, and the focus of the work shifted to the treatment of the wounded and the living arrangements of the affected people.

In other words, from 23:59 on the evening of the 18th to 15:00 on the 19th, China completed the entire earthquake rescue work in only 15 hours. The affected people even had hot meals in the morning as usual.

a tweet from a Japanese comparing two disaster rescue mission.

do you understand picture above?

Author Note : China is not a perfect country, a smart society has it owns problem. However I notice that they are very optimistic about their economy prospect compared with the rest of the world and second they really proud on how disaster management they have.

What would happen if China became stronger than the United States economically, militarily, and politically?

Nothing will happen. Nothing did happen.

Ignore the single dimension inaccurate GDP! It measures hot air bubble like Wall Street and bloated U.S. greed such as pharmaceutical companies!

China for all intent and purpose has overtaken the U.S. for at least a decade now. Financially, politically, economically and militarily since 2014.

China won’t do the shit that the U.S. do foolishly acting as a worldwide police man that no one wanted and nobody is willing to pay a cent for. The only gain for the US is universal hate and disdain. The U.S. appears to prefer to implode its economy and impoverish its people by paying for Ukraine instead of helping its own poor.

China is very clear it will do everything to make Chinese people live a better life, healthier living and better livelihood over interference, intervention and chaos and coup financing and orchestrating. That is a U.S. thing. American must stand up to stop your corrupt officials from bankrupting your nation and destroying your future.

Unhireable

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

It was dark at the restaurant’s parking lot. I was a young boy in the back seat of my Father’s Thunderbird. My older brother and I were kneeling on the car seat, watching a frightening scene unfold through the rear window. My Mother was in the front seat holding our baby sister while keeping an eye on us and repeatedly ordering us to stay in the car and to not open any doors. (In the 1960’s child-proof locks didn’t exist)

Outside, a loud, angry man walked towards my Father. He was enraged. He pointed at my Father as he screamed profanities and threats. He kept advancing and made it perfectly clear to my Father he was going to kill him. I think the man was upset that my Father had inadvertently pulled into a parking spot he wanted.

My Father stood still.

Although the parking lot was only barely illuminated by a small lamppost, I could still see the vehemence in this man’s face. The shadows the overhead lamp created made him look even more demonic as he kept getting closer. The man pulled an object from his pocket and with some fancy wrist flicks flipped it open and exposed a blade. It looked like this:

Image Source: Google images

It’s called a balisong. The American version is called a butterfly knife.

“I’m going to slice your guts open,” I heard the man say.

“Is that what you wanted? You want a knife fight?” my Father asked. He opened the car’s trunk.

We briefly lost sight of the angry man. Only after my Father shut the trunk did we see what was happening again. We saw the man with the knife. Except now he was much further away; running, stumbling in panic, screaming apologies and running some more.

My Father wasn’t too far behind and closing in with a samurai sword.

I lost track of my Father and the man after they rounded the corner of the restaurant. I don’t think my Father killed him, though, as I didn’t see any blood on his clothes or on the sword in his hand as he calmly walked back to the car. He slid the sword back into its sheath and lowered the trunk door.

“Let’s eat,” he casually said.

During WWII, my Father was a member of Marking’s Regiment, a guerilla unit. They took part in several fights, most of which were in thick jungles which involved a lot of ambushes and hand-to-hand combat. (They also fought alongside American units in several operations. Here’s one of them

[1]) The article written by David Lash mentions them in a couple of places. The article’s several pages long though, so I extracted some excerpts:

The Americans were greatly helped by Filipino guerrillas. From the very beginning of the Japanese occupation, numerous bands had been active throughout the Philippines. They ran the gamut from highly effective, disciplined groups to common criminals. But one of the outfits most useful to the Americans was Marking’s Fil-American Yay Regiment, better known as Marking Regiment, a group of Filipino guerrillas about 3,000 strong. This group was headed by Colonel Marcus V. Augustin, a former Manila-Antipolo bus driver who had escaped Bataan and chosen “Marking” as his guerilla name.

Marking’s Regiment would be under the direction of Brig. Gen. Alexander Stark, the assistant commander of the 43rd. Its role was to attack the northern flank, largely as a feint to confuse the Japanese. Because of this secondary status, there were no plans to give it significant artillery or air support.

The regiment would be split into a North Force and a South Force of about 1,500 men each.

(Before I continue I want to respectfully say “Thank you” to all the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces – past and present, Thank you for your service.)

My Father was decorated with several battle scars. The one that pertains to this story though, at a separate battle from the one mentioned above, is a long scar above his chest, right below his neck. It was courtesy of a Japanese officer in one of their several run-ins. My Father killed him with a bolo (a type of machete) after the officer’s swing and near miss at decapitation. He claimed the dead man’s sword after the fight was over and all the enemy combatants were dead. (They had a tendency to refuse surrender, which was fine by the guerrillas.)

The man with a 5-inch blade had no effect on my Father other than to produce a disdainful sneer. Without seeing his face I know he sneered. I know the man.

Below is a photo of the actual sword my Father chased the man with that night. My Father donated it to a WW II museum before old age finally claimed him. I took a picture of his sword when I went back home for his funeral. He was buried with full military honors.

Post Script added 4/5/20 :

My Father was well aware of the value of the samurai sword. He was an executive officer of the Philippines Veterans Museum and played an instrumental part in the creation and building of the museum. After he retired from his law practice, he dedicated the remainder of his life to the welfare of veterans and worked tirelessly for their benefit. He had housing units, similar to barracks, built for homeless or financially needy veterans and their families to live in cost free for as long as they needed.

The monetary value of the sword, to him, was insignificant. Income generated from the museum were used for expenses related to the housing units as well as for the education of the children and descendants of poor veterans. So the value of the sword was not lost, but repurposed to benefit the needy.

I wrote more about him in another answer: Dennis Garcia’s answer to What was the best time you witnessed a bully get owned?

Footnotes

[1]Ipo Dam: A Campaign For Water – Warfare History Network

Thai Boxing

What is the funniest joke you’ve been told that you still think about to this day?

The funniest joke I have ever heard (and what makes it even more hilarious is the fact that I am blind) is the one about the man who takes his Seeing Eye dog into a bar. He picks the dog up by the tail and swings him around his head in a circle. “What are you doing?” the bar tender asks. “I’m just looking around.” he replies.

Another is about a blind man who goes to Texas. He feels the bus seat in Texas and says, “This seat is huge!” “Everything’s bigger in Texas.” the bus driver says. “Have a seat.” So the blind man sits down and the bus arrives at a bar later on. The guy gets off and goes inside.

When he sits down, the bar tender pours him a glas. The blind man feels it and says, “This glass is humongus.” “Everything is bigger in Texas.” the bar tender replies. A few minutes pass and the blind guy is hammered. He asks the tender where the rest room is. “It’s the third door on your right down that hallway to the left of you.” the bar tender replies, and the blind man gets up and advances toward the bathroom. Well, along the way, he trips over a fan cord and as a result, he oversteps and goes out the fourth door instead. He falls into the club swimming pool, and the whole time he’s standing in water up to his chest, he’s screaming, “Don’t flush! Don’t flush! Please, God, no!”

Japanese

What are some mind blowing life hacks?

1. If you have a few hours to kill on the airplane, delete pictures from your phone.

2. Use your travel toiletries at home the night before you leave for a long trip.

3. Sign out of Netflix when checking out of an Airbnb or hotel.

4. When using a grocery delivery service, tip a set amount, not a percentage.

5. Waving someone through a stop sign when they stopped after you is not doing anybody a favour and most competent drivers are just annoyed at you for behaving unpredictably.

6. If you need to memorize information, read it, record it and play it quietly at night.

7. Save your PowerPoint presentation as a .ppsx file that starts automatically when opened.

8. Marry someone who will always have your back, even when they’re mad at you.

9. If you find a faster way to do something at your work, keep it a secret from your manager.

10. Your company didn’t know you existed before you applied and won’t notice you when you’re gone. Take care of yourself.

11. Before buying something, ask yourself two questions: “Where will I store this thing?” and “How difficult will it be to clean this thing?”

12. If the person you are dating invites you over for a home cooked meal, take the initiative and just start doing the dishes without asking. You can thank me later.

13. Ask the person you are dating the non-negotiables of yours in the first few weeks.

14. If you know how late you are going to be, add an extra 5-10 minutes to it. It might be annoying for the people when you say it initially, but when you come before the time you said, it will evoke a far more positive reaction than underestimating the lateness time.

15. Pay Attention to the smell of your home when you come back from a trip. That’s what it smells like to guests all the time, you just get used to it.

16. Do not try to be the man your father would want you to be. Be the man you would like your son to be be.

75 cent rule

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/A0unEiRSWHo?feature=share

What is the most courageous thing you’ve ever seen someone do or say?

I was new to a school. New year for everyone else.

If you thought this was yet another story from my dramatic teenage years, you were wrong. I was seven.

There was a boy in this class. Let’s call him Lewis. Lewis was… let’s just say he wasn’t very popular. He wasn’t bullied, he wasn’t hated, he was just a loner. The sort of kid who no one really talked to, and who didn’t really talk to anyone (he would grow up to be the most mad cap son of a bitch I know).

One day Lewis decides to read a book. I cannot recall what book, only that it had a bright pink cover.

Another kid, let’s call him Darren, decides that this is a perfect opportunity to do what kids do best: be cruel. So he goes to mock Lewis.

‘You’re reading a girls book. You like girly things!’

I’ve been observing Lewis for several days now. I’ve always liked to observe those that stood out to me. Even at my age I was able to tell that Lewis was not the sort of kid who would be able to respond well to that.

Except I was wrong.

‘Yeah I’m reading a girly book. I also like fairy cakes. And I love my mum. What are you going to do about it?’

Y’all know what sort of person I am. Now. But this kid was 7 years old and totally owned who he was. Not only that, but he took what must’ve been the greatest risk I’d ever seen right there.

X, Y, Z…

As a mechanic, what is the strangest thing you have seen in a customer’s car?

Back in the late ‘90s, I began my time at a Ford dealership as a technician. (I had been working on vehicles/machinery since a kid, so, it was a good fit)

One day, right at closing time, a lady came in from about 50 miles away. She had a brand new first generation Ford Escape (it had only come out maybe a month prior) with less than 500 miles on the odometer.

She complained about a shimmy/wobble from the front end and steering wheel vibration. Ok. So, preliminary check while parked outside and her watching, I look at the vehicle head-on and noticed the driver’s front wheel out of alignment, seriously out of alignment. I take a closer look and pop the center cap off the wheel, exposing the hub and axle assembly (this was a front wheel drive vehicle) and what I saw blew me away.

There was no axle nut holding the hub to the threaded axle shaft. Judging from the condition of the hub, no witness marks and the absence of the nut itself, the retainer nut was never installed on this vehicle from the factory.

This customer had driven all that way with only the caliper and brake disk assembly holding the wheel onto the vehicle. This one disturbed me just thinking what could have happened had the brake disk or the caliper failed during her commute.

Damn Right

What happened when a king in medieval times impregnated a servant or a commoner? Were their children called princes and princesses?

Kings in the middle ages did impregnate servants BUT those servants were freqently of noble or “gentle” birth themselves. The daughters of knights, at the least.

Why mess with the runny-nosed maid scrubbing the privy floor when there were wall-to-wall ladies-in-waiting doing the less grubby jobs of helping the queen and princesses dress, doing their hair, mending their clothes, and serving their meals? Not to mention the daughters and sisters of the noblemen serving the king?

The children from those affairs didn’t become princes and princesses because they weren’t in the line of inheritance. But their mothers were often married off to someone with money and who wanted to be in the king’s favour. The king might acknowledge a daughter with an estate and minor title at some point to get her a better marriage or acknowledge a competent young son with a title, an estate and a military command.

In Norman tradition, it was common to give an illegitimate child the surname starting with “Fitz.” Giles Fitzgerald would be the illegitimate son of a nobleman named Gerald of Whatever, while Gerald’s legitimate son William would be William of Whatever. Fitzroy was reserved for the son of the king. There were lots of Fitzroys around sometimes.

William the Conqueror was illegitimate, but since his father, Robert, Duke of Normandy, had no legitimate sons, he picked William to be his heir. William of Normandy, later King William I of England, still got stuck with the name “William the Bastard” by his detractors.

Henry I of England had 25 known illegitimate children by several noble mistresses. He made one of his nine illegitimate sons the Earl of Gloucester and another the Earl of Cornwall. Others (mostly named Fitzroy) were given smaller estates and/or military commands, and at least one went into the church. And although Henry lost both his legitimate sons young, the earls of Cornwall and Gloucester backed up their legitimate sister Matilda’s claim to the throne. Of his daughters, one became an abbess and most of the rest married well — one was a countess, another a duchess, and another the queen of Scotland.

And what did the queens think of this? In the middle ages, they didn’t have much to say, unless they were Queen Regnant like Joanna of Castille, who, when her handsome husband, Philip Duke of Austria, messed with some of her ladies-in-waiting, cut off their hair and spread it across his pillow as a warning.

No shit

What is the best excuse you have given to the police for speeding?

Not me, but a coworker.

We worked at a battery manufacturing plant in a small town in Iowa. One of the primary hazards was lead contamination, so we had to have our blood lead levels checked frequently to be certain they didn’t hit truly hazardous levels (but, working in such a place, your levels were *never* zero).

One day a coworker just slipped in the door & managed to clock in on time, so others asked him why was running so late. He said that he’d overslept & so had been egregiously speeding trying to make it when he was pulled over by Iowa State Patrol.

When the officer asked him why he was going so fast, he looked at him & said “Sorry, officer, but I work at Exide.”

“So what does that have to do you speeding?”

“It’s my blood levels, sir. All the lead makes my foot heavy!”

Apparently, the cop got a good laugh at the excuse & let him go with a warning.

Keep putting in the work

What is something that gets better once you get older?

Two things

One:

Dating is so much freaking better than high school, early-college stuff.

There’s no gossip and drama.

There’s no taboo around sex and hooking up. The people you date typically have many years and notches on their bedpost: it’s not a big deal anymore.

Dating means you exist in your own private channel – nobody else is in the know unless you choose to have them in the know.

And anyone else who is in the know? Who cares.

Two:

Weekends are killer.

And here’s the ironic part.

When you have your own house, your own rules, some money in your bank, what do you look forward to doing most on the weekend?

Not much of anything.

It’s great. Just relaxing, knocking out some chores, indulging a hobby or two. Maybe going out to eat or walking around.

Light activities. But basically nothing.

And maybe getting lucky. (See One).

Being a grown-up is awesome. My 30’s has been my best decade yet – it isn’t even close.

Chinese carrier landing

Pay attention.

Have you ever witnessed someone get fired for over-performing?

Gary was a really enthusiastic teacher. He spent a lot of his free time pouring over ‘How to teach’ texts, grammar explanations and games (for grammar and English communications).

He took lesson planning and student evaluations very (too?) seriously.

He talked of little else.

I liked him and could relate to his passion for teaching.

We were all teaching part-time in a small, uni-sponsored English language program and rarely saw each other since all classes were off-campus.

The director’s secretary called me, asking if I knew of a school that would hire Gary, stating that the director had to let him go for over-achieving.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN???

Gary had been sent to a high-end accounting firm to improve the English language skills of ten people who were scheduled for promotion to senior auditors IF they exhibited a high level of ability in various skills.

Gary went into overdrive in determining their needs (annoying HR and Training with non-stop questions) and planning accordingly.

He decided that the 30-hour course wasn’t sufficient and approached our director AND the company’s HR. He was told to stick to the schedule.

BUT he (on his own) added an unpaid, extra half hour or more to each class period.

The students were appreciative, but the company and our director took a dim view. The company, like many places we taught, expected the staff to study at 5 p.m. and then put in overtime after class.

Gary’s class extensions were affecting projects, customer relations and students’ output.

The director, although Gary did NOT ask for extra pay, saw this as a financial loss, a practice that none of the other teachers would be willing to do, AND a deterrent to future classes with this company.

He tried explaining and reasoning with Gary with little success. He finally had to order Gary to stop the extra teaching or give up the class.

The company was notified with apologies (our director was an amazing smoozer) and that was the end of it.

But…no.

Gary continued to sneak in extra time, 10-15 minutes or so, and added homework.

When the course finished, the students praised Gary for his concern and gave him high evaluations but quietly asked HR to request a different teacher.

Note: Gary was later hired at a different university as full-time staff, often tutoring students for free.

I traveled to WUHAN, China and it was SHOCKING

Why is Hong Kong refusing to seize the $500 million Russian oligarch yacht docked in its waters owned by Alexei Mordashov?

What an epic marina to enjoy rich lifestyle with a palm-fringed shoreline, roads congested with sports cars, and beautiful women in bikinis sunbathing on a white sand beach.…Not.

Russian steel and mining oligarch Alexey Mordashov’s superyacht Nord has just been re-registered in grim and brutalsky Vladivostok, Russia. It’s been docked in Golden Horn Bay near the borders with friendly countries, North Korea and China, for over a year.

The region is known for its large reserves of tin and tungsten. It’s also rich in copper, fluorite, and coal. Collectors value agates, sapphires, and precious opals that are held in high esteem. It doesn’t manufacture or design absolutely anything of economic value.

The super yacht costs 5 annual city budgets of Vladivostok, which skyline you can see in the photo above.

Having escaped by the skin of Mordashov’s American dental work from being impounded in Italy, the captain turned the transponder off and went AWOL for one full year. All this time, Mordashov desperately tried to negotiate political asylum for his boat in Asian countries – any would do as long as he didn’t have to return to his homeland.

Putin started the war in Ukraine in February 2022, the West retaliated with a barrage of sanctions targeting his inner circle, and oligarchs like Modrashov discovered that they have about as much agency outside of Putin’s diktat and Western playbook as a cockroach about to be sprayed with DDT.

Indonesia and Malaysia told Mordashov off and to head up Nord, which he did. Hong Kong reacted to the man on the run’s request for sanctuary just as they did to Edward Snowden’s:

“We not gonna have reputational risks and jeopardize our dodgy financial schemes and money laundering hub for the sake of your narcissistic self-aggrandizements. Can we recommend a country where you gonna fit right in – Russia?”

The super-yacht was built in Germany and was registered in the Cayman Islands, whose flag features The British Union Jack in the corner, a country that has provided Urkaine with cruise missiles that have sunk at least two Russian warships in the Black Sea, including the fleet’s flagship Moskva.

Launched just two years before the full-scale invasion, Nord spent a third of its lifespan on the run, and a third docked in Vladivostok. Mordashov should convert it to an icebreaker as the only route left for him to take is the Arctic Ocean.

Mordashov is also free to play Tschaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with artillery and all and wait for the end of the hostilities at the other end of Russia to cease.

It doesn’t matter which side is going to win though, Mordashov’s is stuck in Vladivostok forever. I would recommend scuttling and selling tickets to a most expensive private yacht shipwreck diving spot. Chinese millionaires across the border might show interest in buying tours.

Or as they say, “Russian ship, go f yourself.”

Why was mobster Hymie Weiss considered the only person Al Capone ever feared?

Al Capone had balls the size of Texas. He allegedly did not fear anyone or anything EXCEPT the little Polish guy from Chicago.

Weiss had bad headaches and fainting spells. It was probably a brain tumor. Certain he was not going to live into his 30’s, Weiss had balls the size of Alaska. He feared nothing, including the godfather of Chicago’s South Side, Al Capone.

The son of poor Italian immigrants, Capone would rule the biggest criminal empire in American history. Although prostitution, gambling and bootlegging were the moneymakers, killing opponents came with the territory.

The North Side Gang was a mix of Poles, Jews and Irishmen. The South Side Gang was Italians, run by Capone and Johnny Torrio. They did not like each other. Capone decided to delete the head of the North Side; Dean O’Banion was shot dead on November 10, 1924.

Weiss took control of the North Side Gang. He shot up Capone’s limousine, but Capone was not in the vehicle at the time. He then went over to visit Johnny Torrio at his house and peppered him full of bullets. Weiss did not like the Sicilian mafia either, so he stopped by to see Angelo Genna, too. Weiss killed him.

Weiss did his own killing; it was his hobby.

Capone was nervous. His days were numbered, so he contacted Weiss and requested a truce. A meeting was held.

Weiss demanded that the two men who shot O’Banion be delivered for his own personal afternoon of “entertainment”. Either that or he would kill Capone, too.

Capone could not accept the offer. Those two were the best hit men in Capone’s private collection.

As Weiss went to the flower shop where he often slept and where O’Banion was killed, two men, one with a machine gun and the other with a shotgun, opened fire. Weiss, the only man that Al Capone feared, was dead of a bullet wound to the head at the age of 28.

The meal is free

When have you cheaply or inexpensively fixed an item someone thought unrepairable?

Several years ago I was working for a company doing home theatre installs. Often when walk-ins bought TVs they’d ask to have it installed (and mounted). A good customer of ours came in and bought a new TV. At the time this 60″ plasma was going out the door for about $8k. We (I) installed it, mounted it on the wall in their basement. It had been recommended that they purchase a UPS / battery backup /spike protector. They declined. After I finished the install I recommended the same (I was paid salary, so selling stuff wasn’t part of my compensation and didn’t matter except for the obvious protection of this equipment). I didn’t plug the TV into the wall, the customer did that after declining the UPS.

2 weeks later they called stating their satellite dish tower was struck by lightning and the new TV wasn’t coming on. I was sent to evaluate. You could smell the ozone smell, the magic smoke smell even a day later. Warranty doesn’t cover this. They buy a new TV.. the new models just came out and they popped for a 75″… and a UPS this time. I had a helper with me to install the new one, and they asked us to dispose of the baked TV. I called the office and they said load it up and take it away to be disposed, don’t even bring it to the office. Instead of taking it 45 minutes to the E-waste disposal site, I put it in the back of my truck and dumped it on my back porch. It sat there for a couple years. When Covid hit and everything shut down I did what everyone else did… started purging stuff. I looked at this TV and decided to take a look-see before tossing it. After laying it on the counter and getting the back off it, I exposed 3 PCBs. 2 were almost identical, as I looked first at one and then the next I realized that the PCB on the right had a pile of charcoal where a small blue MoV should have been (MoV’s are the protection device in Surge protector bars). I went down to my dead devices pile and grabbed an old dead Bell Sat receiver and found the same part. Unsoldered it and installed it into the TV. As soon as I plugged it in, the screen came on and the audio started hissing that white noise from not being tuned to a channel.

I’m using that TV for over 2 years now without any further issues.

What was the nail in the coffin for an employee or a co-worker?

Oh, the stories one can tell…

Had to fire one engineer for watching porn on the company computer. Worst part? He sued because he wasn’t given a warning…the State Labor board agreed…we had to cover his salary for six months. Despite being clearly covered in the employee handbook as a “no-no”, we apparently couldn’t just fire him. We figured it was just the cost of doing business to rid ourselves of such an individual.

Fired one young lady on the second shift who was “entertaining gentlemen” in her van during lunch hour. If she’d been doing it up on the berm of the State highway it would have been a public matter, but she was parked on company property…with surveillance cameras catching everything.

Fired upwards of a hundred over the years for drug and alcohol abuse on the job.

Some more I knew about (but wasn’t the firing supervisor)…

There were two executives caught “in the act” on the boardroom table. Not a great career choice in general, particularly bad when the CEO is a born again Christian.

Knew another executive who got a job at a private firm…and decided it was a bright idea to share the spreadsheet of bids of all the competitors with the government. Their first act was to fire him, the second was to call the FBI and the Inspector General. He’s doing time in Federal prison.

More “rank and file” firings for time card theft, attempted embezzlement, stealing company property, deliberate destruction of company property, and aggravated assault on a co-worker.

There’s no end to human stupidity.

What things should I never do?

Before I go there, let me tell you a story.

One day I was walking in my building when a girl in my neighborhood, pushed me from behind.

I looked around at her, tried to reason with her but she snapped at me saying I wasn’t looking where I was going.

She was plain rude.

Stop for a moment.

What do you think of that girl now?

Mean? Obnoxious?

Let’s see what actually happened:

I had my earphones on when I was walking so I couldn’t hear the girl walking behind me.

I slowed down suddenly and that’s when that girl bumped into me.

I got annoyed and asked her what her problem was. That’s when she got angry and asked me to watch where I was going.

Okay. Same story, two narrations.

The above incident didn’t really happen but I wanted to illustrate something:

In the first story, I never mentioned I had my earphones on.

In the first story, I said that the girl was the one who pushed me.

In fact, I even wrote that I “tried to reason with her” when I had actually blamed her even though I was the one at fault.

I left out the details which could make me look bad and exaggerated the parts which blamed the other person.

Just like, if a person goes ahead and says how all of their exes were crazy and they were the innocent victims, there’s a high chance that the story is manipulated.

Here’s the thing: Every story has two sides.

So, you can never form a judgement by hearing just one side of it.

What things should you never do?

Well, let’s start with, not believing every random thing you hear.

I don’t see why this matters…

What will China do to fight decoupling and drive its economic recovery?

China will not fight decoupling. It is good for China. It gives impetus for Chinese innovation and Chinese self sustenance.

Most of all it helps China grow healthily and steadily. At 3–4 times that of the U.S. It is good for keeping in check over growth that may be bad for environment and China can cultivate its domestic market. Though it slows down China say 1–2% GDP so will be the U.S. take this year for example. China will likely grow by 6% in spite of all the shit the U.S. throw at China! And the U.S. will hardly hit even 2% growth.

6% is a wet dream for western economies to have. These day UK is set for a negative growth of -3%. And the rest of EU are barely faring better.

Decoupling is a suicide for the west. But hubris and supremacists thinking probably encourage the U.S. on. Frankly the rest of the Global South are ready to decouple from the west. We are ready. Please keep your outdated and irrelevant technologies to screw yourself.

What is the one thing you would never do?

Imagine: You are trapped on your stomach, walls all around you. Each time you inhale, your ribs touch the top of the space you are enclosed in. You can only wiggle forward, inching towards freedom. Oh, yeah-don’t forget: The walls might crumble down on you, killing you instantly. Worse yet, you might get trapped, stuck in a tiny, enclosed space, unable to move as you slowly die of thirst.

Doesn’t that sound like fun?

Spelunking, otherwise known as cave crawling, is the ‘sport’ for people with a death wish. Essentially, you mash your body through tiny cave crevices that have the chance of leading to a larger cave. It’s a claustrophobic’s nightmare come to life.

You might think that it’s safe? Absolutely not. The only equipment you have is a helmet. If you think:

Well, with my trusty hard hat, what’s there to worry about? It’ll protect me if the cave comes crumbling down!

Then you might want to go “spelunking” in a padded room with no windows.

The Nutty Putty Cave incident made international headlines.

Spelunker John Jones was well familiar with spelunking. As a child, he had often spelunked with his father, and when he was 23 years old, he descended into the depths of Nutty Putty Cave in Utah. The cave had seen over 5000 visitors a year for decades, and was assumed to be fairly safe.

John went into the cave with his brother Josh and some other friends, totally unaware of what would happen next. At one point, John thought he was in a part of the cave called the Birth Canal, but in reality, he had ventured into uncharted sections of the cave near “Ed’s Push”. He went to climb through a small gap- and found himself seriously stuck. Even worse- he was almost entirely upside-down.

Several rescue attempts failed, and John died of cardiac arrest after being stuck in the cave for over 27 hours. Officials couldn’t even retrieve his body, and Nutty Putty Cave was forever sealed off.

There have been countless other deaths in cave systems around the world. Drowning, starvation, noxious gas- you name it. Spelunking just doesn’t sound appealing.

I don’t see how the mashing yourself through tiny crevices is worth the chance of dying an awful death. I’ll fling myself out of a plane, dive down into the depths of the ocean, scale cliff faces- but there’s absolutely no way in the world I’m ever going spelunking.

Shine bright.

Blackballed

Do Chinese people know that their leadership is endangering them by turning the world against them? It seems that the world is slowly starting to see China as the “Great Satan”.

Take India

We have quite a bit of anti China propaganda

Yet most of our Industries are rapidly buying more and more Chinese machinery when the time for replacement comes

This year the demand for Chinese CNC machinery for India surged rapidly

Machines are more affordable and better quality

One Importer said he had less than 15% orders from China in 2015 but now has almost 70% orders from China

The Biggest problem for Chinese Machines in India was RESALE

A Major Industry could buy 50 Chinese Machines but reselling them in the second hand market was a huge problem as they barely fetched 10% of their value against almost 30% for Japanese & Korean and 40% for Western Machines

Yet now Chinese Machines fetch 25% of their value in resale and the biggest part is the same machines can be resold to other countries in Africa

Indian Industries save almost 18% of their production costs that increases their profit plus the re exporting of second hand Chinese machinery brings export revenue

It’s a WIN WIN relationship

China has this Win Win relationship with most nations in the world

Even the West, which is why despite all the rhetoric, decoupling is not feasible

When Goods worth $ 100 Billion is imported from China, they create finished goods worth $ 200–400 Billion or sell for $ 200–400 Billion in Western Economies

This leads to VALUE CREATION

This contributes to between 13% to 33% of the economic growth of Western economies

When $ 100 worth of components are assembled to sell a final product for $ 300 – that creates an additional $ 200 of value

This helps Countries with value enhancement plus even exports

Due to this Win Win relationship, despite all the efforts of the West, China is an integral cog in the Global Economy

It’s why many nations visit China and pledge allegiance and friendship every year

In 2023 – 81 Foreign Delegations visited China against a mere 12 Chinese Delegations visiting other countries

160+ Trade Delegations visited China versus a mere 30+ Trade delegations from China visiting other countries

Every Economy needs China for its sustained growth especially Western ones

So the world is not turning against China in any way

Not even the United States is

All these so called Anti China policies are purely ECONOMIC

If Chinese Products now of high quality flood the global markets, it’s likely 50% of the Western Brands will collapse in a decade

NEVs are the best example

Likewise if China manages to make 3 nm chips, they can outprice the entire Western supply by 60% and finish the market of every single Western designer and fabrication industry

Thus they are being throttled

China already finished the markets for all Western chipmakers who sold 450–45 nm Chips

Yet China was necessary to bring down costs in the first place

Hence the Anti Chinese Propaganda

To combat the transformation of China from a Cheap Producer to a High Quality Industrialized Nation

Trust me, tomorrow if China scales back down on their transformation and goes back to Pre 2015 mode, Xi Jingping will become a great statesman and China will be the friend of the world to the US Media again

Nobody sees them as the Great Satan

That’s reserved for the USA

Even Phillipinos or Taiwanese don’t see China as a great satan despite the recent issues

To the world China is a Country capable of delivering a Win Win relationship

That includes the West too.

What are some unwritten social rules everyone should know?

When somebody complains about their spouse, don’t badmouth, just listen.
Don’t suggest a medicine to someone who is ill (unless you’re a specialist).
Don’t look away during a conversation.
When you realise your mistake, accept it don’t go on arguing.
Don’t show your artistic nature on a borrowed book/notebook.

If somebody is giving you treat, let them order.
Don’t bite your nails or shake your legs during an interview, it shows you’re being restless.
Never make sound while eating in public.
Never shout to prove your point.
Don’t stare someone while he/she is eating.(I wish I could tell this to my dog)

If an elder arrives, stand up and offer them your own seat.
Always say Thank you to the delivery boys/girls.
Compliment somebody who you think is internally beautiful/handsome.
If somebody says, ‘Can I ask you something?’ or ‘We need to talk’, be prepared for a serious conversation.

Yup. This is how it works.

What evidence has been presented by Washington to support its speculative charges against China?

The U.S. never had any evidence nor even factual information it just make up lies as it goes a long. China steal intellectual property? China is aggressive, China carry out “genocide”, China is authoritarian, China create debt trap and a whole set of narratives dream up to demonise and cause mistrust and fear.

It is very despicable frankly. But what can you expect from a nation that started by the mass murder and genocide of its natives. Then this nation murdered and tortured up to 30 million Africans to slave and built the U.S. This nation is the only one that nuke to murder 200 thousands due to their skin colour, this same nation also murdered and slaughter up to 100 million innocent civilians or caused it through interference, war mongering and chaos and coup orchestrating.

China and the world knows the U.S. hypocrisy and its despicable nature but talking shit is all it can do and frankly it hurts US economy more than it can ever hurt China. To most nation lying and fabricating to demonise another nation is simply hypocritical and obnoxious and that what the global community sees the U.S. By not lashing back China keeps its moral high ground. And even US slave vassal states and cronies cannot but feel a shame of US behaviour but their short term gain is paramount.

Hence the pretence and the intentional concurrence of the back boneless nations. Shameful.

As a mechanic what was the craziest thing someone said after you worked on their car?

BEST 15 MINUTES I EVER SPENT

In the late 80’s I had been working as a Technician for a Saab dealership in Denver… I grew very fond of the Saab brand and enjoyed working on them….Unfortunately the Dealership closed and I had to go back to working on the poorly engineered and built garbage that was coming out of Detroit in the 80’s so I packed up my $90K worth of tools, into my dads garage, went out and bought a big ol Freightliner and took to the highways…Fast forward to the 90’s….Im (http://90’s….Im) cruising down the highway one fine day, and come up on a pretty little red Saab 900 convertible on the roadside, hood up and steaming away, I wasnt in a big hurry so I pulled over, and took a little walk back to the car where I found a very distraught middle aged lady, and her elderly mother….As (http://mother….As) I walked up I said,”It must be your lucky day, I just happen to be a former Saab mechanic” Can I help you?…She almost kissed me!!!

She stated,” I just picked it up from the repair shop, It cost me $800 to have the radiator replaced, and now its overheating again” I’ve got my mother with me and we are late for a family function…. I immediately knew what was wrong, and told her, I’ll have you on your way in 5 minutes….Went and grabbed my 10mm wrench and a gallon of water,popped the coolant bleeder valve open, told her if you dont get all the air out of the system a big ol air bubble will form inside your water pump, and here you sit….BURP out comes a big blast of air, Let me pay you!!! I said my mother would never allow that and you ladies enjoy your afternoon….Then she says to me, “well it must be YOUR lucky day” as she hands me her business card…..Turns out, shes the Vice President of Transportation for Proctor & Gamble and Sir, any time you EVER get somewhere and need a load, YOU call ME !!!! Over the next 15 years I cant count the times she fixed me up with a good paying load wherever I happened to be…..

Senate Chamber looks like death and mothballs

What is the most shocking diagnosis you have received after going to the doctor for a routine checkup?

At age 60 I was feeling run down & fatigued for a while, attributing it to age & not enough exercise. I decided to check my blood pressure at home and it was quite high despite the blood pressure medication I was taking, so I called my doctor’s office. They were concerned & told me to come into the office right away & they would fit me in.

My BP was still high in the doctor’s office, so my doctor sent me to the lab for a lot of blood work. That afternoon I started getting texts with some of the results of the lab work & I saw that I was anemic. Well that explained a lot & I figured I would need iron supplements.

The next morning my doctor calls me first thing. She tells me that she is admitting me to hospital in order to fully diagnose what is going on with me. I am scared, call my boss to tell her I am being admitted, but I really do not know what is wrong.

Once in the hospital I learned that I had kidney disease, and I was in kidney failure! Never saw that coming! I had to begin dialysis immediately, which made me ill & caused low blood pressure.

I was on dialysis for 7 months, with 5 months of home hemo dialysis. I felt ill and was exhausted all the time, with little appetite & unable to return to work.

Both of my adult children offered to be tested to be living donors. My son was tested first as he lives in the same city and he turned out to be a match!!

I was extremely fortunate to have my 24 year old son donate a kidney to me. He truly saved my life & I am forever grateful for his sacrifice. My new kidney is working well, and my son is doing well too.

Unfortunately I have developed several autoimmune illnesses that I am trying to get under control, but thankfully I do not have to have dialysis.

Kidney disease is horrible. Please consider being a living donor, there is a registry & they can find a match if you do not have someone in particular that you are wanting to help. It is truly life saving.

What family secret did you accidentally find out that changed everything?

My parents were left of left of left. “Those who have more should be required to share with those who have less” kind of left.

I heard that as far back as I can remember. One day when I was in the fourth grade, my grandfather gave me a dollar. A fair amount in 1958. It was hot the next day, and a lot of my friends at school couldn’t afford an ice cream bar from the cafeteria.

Hey, I had more than they did, so I bought several of them a 14-cent ice cream in addition to getting one for me. My teacher found me and gave me back about sixty cents, saying that she had made four of my friends take back their unopened bars. She also contacted my parents.

When I said that I had more and they had less, my parents said that the dollar was for me. They didn’t want to hear about people with less, as we were not rich. They also didn’t want to hear about how it pleased me to give some friends a treat they couldn’t afford.

After that I watched. While my mother did put some of her money where her mouth was to buy a few things for some Head Start centers she helped set up, they didn’t give much else. What was theirs was theirs, and only who they called wealthy were berated in our household for not sharing. Today, by their standards, I would be called wealthy, even though I’m barely in the top 10% in the US.

My parents had some friends who were wealthy by my parents’ standards. They were also exempt because they were “in the cause” of making the other wealthy people pay.

The secret was that they were completely hypocritical about what they taught me. What it changed was that I became somewhat more conservative, and gave way more to charity than they did. I did follow some of their examples, though. My mother worked as a public health nurse with the Hmong immigrants when they flooded in and actually caught a G-I disease doing it. I have volunteered to do things like building a home for homeless boys in Fiji based on her example.

But when it came to finances, their example of “what’s mine is mine, and what’s theirs is mine, too” stayed with me the rest of my life as an example of what not to think.

Girls

How did your boss respond when you told him/her you quit?

Not me but a close friend. She worked with a mid sized oil exploration company and was being paid secretary wages for doing the drunk Geologists job, she did the office work and actually went out and did the field work at times. At the urging of another close friend and myself she asked for a raise and got berated for it and basically told like what you got because that’s all you are worth.

3 weeks later she interviewed with Elf Aquitaine ( French oil company ). She was offered double her current salary with a guaranteed raise after 90 days and salary reviews every 6 months, benefits paid by company and generous matching on savings, offered a opportunity to go to the home office in France for 6 months all expenses paid, encouraged to learn French and was very well treated.

During the interview her new boss said she was the most knowledgeable Geologist they had ever met and that they would pay for her to get her degree since she didn’t have one.

It also helped that she knew all the reports backwards and forwards along with the legal side. She had worked at the exploration company for over 10 years and they just kept adding to her jobs as she mastered more and more of them. They genuinely thought she would never quit and were amazed at what Elf offered, her starting pay was as much as her old bosses, she made enough that she retired at 55 and traveled to world with her husband.

She currently lives in Houston and is an amazing person.

What’s the scariest experience you’ve ever had when picking your child up from school?

It wasn’t my child but my cousin.

I was 15 years old. I was staying with my aunt yet again as my mother decided she needed another break from me and went on another bender.

My aunt was more of a mom to me. As a result I was very close to her family and called her mom Grandma and her sister Aunt. Anyway Grandma was living with my Aunt. She had dementia and was having a particularly bad day. My aunt asked me to pick up my 10 year cousin from school which was only a block away. I did this often as my aunt tried to shield my cousin from her mothers episodes. She gave me some cash to stop at the small ice cream place near her school to keep her away longer.

I got to my cousins school expecting to see her on the playground where all the kids played while waiting to get picked up. She wasn’t there but I wasn’t worried as I knew she sometimes helped the teacher clean up the classroom after school. I went to her classroom and she wasn’t there either! No one was.

Starting to get worried I started roaming the hallways peeking in the classrooms looking for her. She was nowhere to be found!

I ran to the principals office freaked out by then and told the secretary I couldn’t find her! The secretary immediately made an announcement over the PA system telling my cousin to come to the office. 10 minutes passed. She never came.

We went to the teachers lounge and got the teachers to help look for her. I’ve never been so scared! My aunt trusted me with her daughter and I didn’t know how to call her and tell her she was gone.

30 minutes later we heard a shout. One of the teachers had found her. She was in the library reading. She had gone to check out a book when school had let out without telling anyone and the librarian had locked her in.

I hugged her hard and told her to always tell someone where she was going. It was for her safety. She started crying and apologizing over and over. I told her it was okay. Her principal gave her the same lecture and we left.

My aunt hadn’t called yet to say it was safe to come home so we went for ice cream and then to the local park. An hour later my aunt called and told us to come on home. Grandma finally went to sleep.

After my cousin went to bed that night I told my aunt what had happened. At first she seemed upset but then said they were lucky to have me there. I was shocked. I didn’t receive compliments very often. She gave me a hug told me I was a good person and a great sister to my cousin.

My cousin always made sure she was on the playground after school after that.

Bye Bye Ukraine

How many people force their cats to stay in all the time? I understand its ‘safer’, but it seems to lessen the cats quality of living, right?

Here is a picture of Scrappy:

He became my feline friend one day when I was working on my patio. I looked up to find a bedraggled, starving and dehydrated cat four feet from me, crying for help. I went and got him some water and a can of tuna, and set it out for him. I eventually got some additional food and a water bowl, and set it out for him. At first, he was pretty skittish, but after a month he would let me pet him. I started moving his bowls toward my patio door, and after three months, he would come in to be fed.

One day he showed up with blood on his face, and we decided he had to go to the vet. He ended up getting antibiotics, and had a drain and the cone of shame. We had him chipped and neutered.

He was still an outdoor cat, and would periodically get in fights, earning his name “Scrappy”. At one point, he was tested for FIV and tested positive. At that point, our vet said that if we wanted to properly care for him, he should cease his outside existence, as he would be susceptible to infections that could kill him. He was also X-rayed, and found that his left front leg was kind of a mess, having been broken/infected and healed at some point, but with reduced mobility.

We decided to turn him into a 100% indoor cat. He did not like it for the first two weeks.

But he lived. He was safe. He was happy. Occasionally he would get out. He’d usually sit on the patio if it was sunny. If it was rainy, he would turn around and come right back into the house.

Without our intervention he would have died. Instead, he lived for another decade.

Life in the wild for cats is dangerous and short. We have foxes, skunks, raccoons and coyotes in our neighborhood. As well as cars and dogs.

We currently have two other adopted ferals. Their sister (whom we call Patchoulli) is still an outdoor cat, but she sleeps in our garage and we feed her twice daily and see that she gets to the vet and has flea medication. Her brother occasionally joins her outside and catches the odd mouse, but he’s happy to be back inside, usually within an hour.

My wife and I work fairly diligently to provide an engaging environment for our little furry friends, and by virtue of our care, they will enjoy that environment for several times longer than they would be if they were feral.

When have you cheaply or inexpensively fixed an item someone thought unrepairable?

At one point, I was visiting my mom and step-dad. I asked about the 12HP, 3 blade, 42″ cut riding mower sitting out front at the neighbor’s house. Turned out he had run it out of oil, and the engine seized up. He put oil in after-the-fact, but of course it was too late. He’d bought a new one and the dealer had offered to dispose of the old one for him. I asked if I could try to fix it and he said, GO ahead, they’re not giving me anything for it.

We wheeled it into step-dad’s work shop. The piston was vertical stroke, so the spark plug was on top. We poured some new oil through the spark plug hole and went to get lunch. When we came back, we put a socket on the flywheel nut, and a breaker bar on the socket. It broke loose! So we started it up and ran it. It took a couple minutes to burn all the oil out of the top of the cylinder, but then it was fine. My grandfather had been using a really old, 7HP, single blade, 26″ mower to mower about an acre of lawn. I gave it to him. He loved it and used it until he died.

Kitty protections

What’s your most memorable “holy shit, that’s amazing” moment while learning something?

One afternoon, we walked into our Econometrics lecture and found a shopping cart full of tennis balls in front of the door. A second, empty shopping cart stood in the back corner.

The professor waited patiently for us to file into our seats. Then he cleared his throat and announced, “I’m going to need two volunteers today.”

Two hands went up. He handed them each a bucket.

“All right,” he said, “Our two brave volunteers are going to fill up their buckets with tennis balls, carry them across the room, and dump the balls into the other shopping cart. Then they’ll run back and do it again, and again, and again, until all of the balls have been moved.”

We nodded, still confused. This still sounded more like P.E. than Econometrics.

“Before we start this little experiment,” continued our professor, “I want all of you to guess how long this process is going to take. Go onto the class website and type in your guesses – I’ll give a candy bar to the student who gets closest to the actual answer.”

I had no idea what to guess. How many buckets’ worth tennis balls could fit in a shopping cart? How long would it even take to carry a full bucket across the classroom?

In the end, I just took a stab at it and typed in 42 seconds.

“All right,” he said, after we’d all made our guesses. “Are we ready? On your mark…get set…go!”

The process ended up taking 162 seconds.

Then we all went online together to look at our guesses.

There were about eighty students in the class, and I wasn’t the only one who’d been completely wrong – our guesses were all over the place. Some of us had guessed that it would take less than 20 seconds; others had guessed that it would take nearly ten minutes.

Then we looked at the average of all of our guesses.

157 seconds.

Our collective guess, as a group, was closer to the correct answer than 98% of our individual guesses.

It was the first time I’d witnessed a “wisdom of crowds” moment in action. At that moment, all I could think was, Hot damn. Statistics is so cool.

He’d run this experiment every semester, and more often than not, the collective guess would have won the candy bar. This class was one of the reasons I decided to major in economics.

Please and thank you

What did you learn from previous relationships?

When Kirti (name changed) was my crush.

I was waiting outside the R2 Cinemas.

Me (over phone) : The movie has started, where the heck are you?

Kirti : Just in 2 minutes.

Me : I’m watching it for the fourth time I could afford to be late. But a first timer, really?

Kirti : Just shut up.

She disconnected. Finally she reached.

Kirti : Hey, see I told you two minutes.

(I started leaving).

Kirti : Where, you going?

Me : I was watching Interstellar again to experience time dilation in a movie. But when fifteen minutes of mine are equal to two minutes of yours, then it’s time dilation in reality. Thank you.

As I was leaving, she stood unmoved and kept looking at me.

Kirti : Do you want me to say sorry?

Me : I was just kidding. Let’s go watch the movie.

Kirti : Let’s hurry up.

Me : And hey, in case I raised my voice while on phone, sorry for that.

Kirti : It’s okay.

When Kirti became my girlfriend.

It was a different cinema, different movie, same Kirti, same me, but a different demeanour.

Me (over phone) : Hey, where the hell are you?

Kirti : Just in.

She comes.

Me : You need to understand I’m not your puppet, I got my time and priorities.

Kirti : I’m so sorry. Please don’t shout like this.

Me : Just shut up, already.

Previously she shut me up and now I did.

I forgot that she had said yes to me when the world was chasing her.

I would say sorry to her a thousand times when she was my crush and now she is the one saying sorry.

One day, it got real ugly and she ditched me in the heat of the moment but forever. I deserved it.

What I’ve learnt :

When she is your girlfriend.

When she is your fiancee.

When she is your wife.

Always treat her like

She is your crush.

Women pay attention

Is BYD in China with 3 million battery cars sold in 2023 showing their cars are better than Tesla’s? Sadly US citizens will have to pay prohibitive import duties if they want to try one.

BYD makes most of the batteries used in the world today. Tesla do not make batteries themselves It leads in EV buses and truck world wide and now EV cars itself. It is a highly profitable company but based on Wall Street valuation it is worth 10% of Tesla! Even Warren Buffet who is probably the world’s most savvy investor invested in BYD!

The difference is one is listed and it’s stock is listed in Wall Street while the other is listed and sold in Hong Kong! That is why the GDP of the U.S. is full of hot air bubble! It will come crashing down! For me Tesla is highly overrated and over valued while BYD is highly undervalued!

Now let us look at the number. BYD hardly sell in the U.S. and Europe yet it sold the most EV worldwide this means the Global South market is humongous and the U.S. and EU are small potatoes these days! Both the U.S. and EU are depriving their citizens from benefiting from value for money technology and a cleaner environment. Whatever happen to freedom of choice? What about free market mechanism? Thrown out of your window?

BYD sells very well world wide because of value for money. Tesla profiteers and it is mostly made in China with many parts and technologies from China. Yet it sells at a huge profit. But the U.S. prefers to let its citizens be abused by corporations rather than helping them reduce their living cost!

This is real deal

What’s the most enjoyable thing you’ve ever said to a manager as you’ve quit your job?

“I’m moving to Texas to be with my fiancée. I can either move and work for somebody else; or I can move and continue working for you remotely.”

After she graduated from college, my fiancée moved to Texas to start work with NASA. We had lived apart for almost a year.

I was determined to be with her. So, I planned my move to Texas. After three months of planning, I had some money saved up and a couple of job prospects in mind.

I walked into my boss’s office fully expecting to walk out without a job or my notice given. But, I decided to try something I thought of the night before, instead.

After some small talk, I said “I’m moving to Texas to be with my fiancée. I can either move and work for somebody else; or I can move and continue working for you remotely.”

He sat there quietly for almost a full minute. I’m normally not one to get uncomfortable with silence; but this was unexpected. He was actually thinking about it!

I hid my excitement and let him think.

Finally, he asked “What part of Texas?”

I answered.

He went on to explain that there would have to be a change in my status. Payroll would have to do things so I was taxed for the proper locale, etc.

I was the first person in our group to be a full time telecommuter. This was in 2001.

I’ve gone through six bosses since then and I’m still working from home! Today, most of my team works from home too!

What can I learn in one minute that will be useful for the rest of my life?

If you ever get caught sleeping at your desk at work just say “they told me at the Blood Bank that this would happen.
When the power goes out search for wifi networks on your phone to see if everyones power is out.
Quelling road rage by pretending that every asshole driver really has to poop.
If you want to maintain good posture, pretend your nipples have lasers that shoot out of them and you have to keep them aimed at people’s heads.
Wiping the water off of your body with your hands in the shower before getting out and towel-drying.
If your car is overheating, turn your heat on full blast. When you turn the heat on in a car, it pulls heat from the engine into the cab, thus cooling the engine.
Hit “s” while watching Netflix on a computer to skip the intro.
If you don’t know whether you should use the word effect or affect, simply use impact.
When buying bedsheets, look for striped ones. It will make it much easier to find the long and short sides.
If you accidentally press the spacebar and scroll down the page, you can press Shift+Space and go back to where you were.
Don’t save your banking information on online stores. Makes impulse buying much more difficult if you have to track down your wallet.
If you keep a baseball bat in your car for protection, put a sock over it. If they grab the bat, they will only get the sock, and you will get another swing.
Filling in the ‘to’ field of an email last.
When buying online, leave items in the shopping cart for awhile. There is a good chance that the website is tracking this, and will lower the price overtime to entice you into buying.
If your coworker ever calls in sick for work, you can do the same 1-3 days later. Your boss will think you have the same thing and it’s “going around the office.”
Blink eyes rapidly for a minute before bed to tire yourself out.
When lending a pen or marker hand it over without the cap, you are much more likely to get it back.
If you have somewhat of a double chin or you want your jawline to be more defined in a picture, put your tongue on the roof of your mouth.
Whenever you accidentally set off your smoke alarm, give your pets a treat so they learn to come to you when there actually is a fire and you need to escape.
Remember that one 18-inch pizza is more pizza than two 12-inch pizzas.

Is Family Law the Main Reason Men Are Going Their Own Way?

What is the rudest thing that a new neighbor has done to you immediately after you had moved in?

4 days after my son and i moved into a townhome I rented, we were physically attacked by 2 women that live behind us. Okay, long story short (ish): school started for my son (6th grade) the day after we moved in. That day, my son had an altercation with a child on the bus. Apparently the kid was saying to my son that his mom was a “Karen” for some unknown reason. We JUST moved in and hadn’t had time or the chance to interact with anyone in the neighborhood, so My guess is as good as any. I havent a clue. Anyway my son verbally defended me and told him to stop. Next day, the child punched my son 3 times in the shoulder and back while passing him in the hallway, which was caught on camera and dealt with by the administrator at his school. The other child was given in-school suspension and the parents were called about what transpired. The video showed the child hitting my son and my son continue to walk and then run away. So, my son wasn’t punished. The following day, after putting my son on the bus I hear someone banging on my front door- and i opened it to 2 grown women demanding that i come outside. Being alone, I refused and called the police. The police show up and talk to both of us and say that the women are now calm and suggest i get some cameras in case something happens, etc. I decided to stay with family members that night and about 5 hours later, we left. We stopped to get gas and check my mail at the old house on the way. As my son got out of the car to check the mail i noticed a car parked directly behind mine in the driveway. The women hopped out and assaulted my son and me with a weapon and left. I managed to get their tag number and called the police. Turns out it was the parents of the kid who attacked my son at school. Needless to say they’re facing multiple felonies and roughly 15–20 years in prison. Craziest shit ive ever experienced in my life!

Is the world de-dollarising?

Beyond numbers, Beyond paper – there is one thing that defines a nations comfort with a certain currency and a certain system

It’s called CREDIBILITY

The US Dollar was accepted as a Global Reserve at a time when there were two major blocs and US was the undisputed leader of its own bloc

It was a country of laws, a country of rules and a country of freedom and ethics and a country with if not brilliant, at least decent leaders

This alone gave the US – Reputation!!!

Countries had no problems trading in the dollar because the US was the best place to keep the dollars and invest in its economy

Today US no longer has that CREDIBILITY or REPUTATION

Todays US is capable of reneging on ever commitment it has made and steal any nations assets without any rules whatsoever

US has openly stolen Iraqi Gold, Venezuelan Dollars, Afghani Dollars over the past two decades and this has changed things significantly

The US is a bit like Modi actually

Redundant and Useless entirely yet solely surviving due to there being no alternate option

Yet nobody wants to be entirely dependent on US Dollars any more

They want choices and options

That is De Dollarizing and it is inevitable

Doesn’t mean USD Share will plummet to 10% or something

By 2030, I believe US Share will reduce to a realistic 46%

The more US uses sanctions and asset freezing, the faster will the process take place

The world is tired of the US today

They are tired of the bullying and the threats and the lies all the time

So like I said before – De Dollarizing has already begun and the process is irreversible

Proud Chinese claim China respects democracy and free speech. Why don’t they proof that by posting photos of them standing in front of their police while holding signs up demanding democracy, fight of corruption and the independence of Taiwan?

That’s not how democracy is seen in China

Idiots holding placards is the Western style of democracy

If one set of idiots hold placards, tomorrow another set of idiots will hold placards for another issue and the entire country will be reduced to holding placards for the rest of their lives

Chinas democracy is a Government for the people

Keeping food prices low
Ensuring housing for everyone
Ensuring energy for everyone
Keeping inflation as low as possible
Protection of Middle Class Investors
Good Healthcare plan for every Citizen
Providing high quality roads and transportation

Ultimately I believe a Government for the People triumphs a Government by the people

Meanwhile the West is the opposite:-

Rising inflation falling savings
Printing money to help Ukraine over Americans
Declining Healthcare program with uninsured rising by 23% in the last three years
Poor quality infrastructure
Sacrificing the Middle Class to keep the upper classes and rich

So the Chinese are right when they say China respects Democracy

It’s a different definition from the hypocritcal one the West made up.

China’s Newest Tank is Doing the Opposite of Everyone Else

At what point did you realize no one cares about you?

I went through a divorce from my wife of 5 years. I was young, broke and (as the saying goes) stupid. She left and went on to live with her parents and I was stuck with the apartment contract and all other monthly bills. Also a truck that was in both of our names, broken engine, and was $5,000 into a loan. I also was buried in debt from student loans $42,000 and a credit card $9,500.

I fell into ddepression and a solace that can only be explained by living in a state of vacuum. None of what I did would have any effect on my personal economy, or my emotions, or my connections with others. But I tried my best.

One day I started to reach out to old friends only to realize that they had moved on, didn’t care or just didn’t want to associate.

I was broken, and I was in pain. And I was done with my family, and with people, and with the world as I knew it.

I worked hard. No one cared. I cried hard. No one cared. I paid my debts, got off the grip of the financial abominate soul-consuming xenomorphic monster called the United States Department of Education when I sent the last check and demanded a paid in full notification sent to me.

I made new friends, and created a new path with a different vision. I transformed my life around, and declared freedom. I don’t care if no one cares. I do. My life, my business.

Russian President Lays Out His Judgment on the Continued Existence of the US and Europe

World Hal Turner 04 January 2024

In a speech in Russia today, Vladimir Putin laid out his Judgment on the continued Existence of the US and the EU. “The concepts of honor, trust, and decency, are not for them.” and ” . . . they got used to spitting on the whole world.” He went on: “Indeed the Western elites have become a symbol of total, unprincipled lies.”

An excerpt from today’s speech appears with English sub-titles below. To even the most dense viewer, it should occur that this man is laying out the reasons the United States and Europe should no longer exist.

That’s a hell of an ugly reality coming from a man whose country literally has the ability to wipe us all out. It is almost as if he is priming the world for what may be coming, soon . . .

Here’s the speech:

Hal Turner Editorial Opinion

The reason the elites of the west have become “a symbol of total, unprincipled, lies” is because to date, there have been absolutely NO CONSEQUENCES FOR THEM as they go about all their total, unprincipled lying. No one gets fired. No one gets prosecuted. No one gets thrown in jail. This needs to change, but it WON’T because the very people who CAN fire, prosecute, and jail the liars, ARE the people doing all the lying!

If what the Russian President was talking about merely affected those doing the unprincipled lying, that would be one thing, but he’s not talking about affecting only them, what he’s talking about would affect the rest of US too.

We have the right to defend ourselves from the horrifying wreckage, death, and destruction, these western elites will cause to be heaped upon us. It’s time to begin doing just that; while we still can.

What do people underestimate often?

Last night, The Teenager and I were cuddling on the couch when she asked me, “Mom, do you want me to become an extraordinary person?”. I was a bit surprised by the question, “Erm, I’ve never thought about that. Since you were born, I’ve always just wanted you to be healthy”, I told her.

“I had a talk with my friends today at lunch”, The Teenager said, “Everyone wants to become Someone in the future. Wants to stand out. Wants to be different. Wants to be a big deal. I mean, why someone always needs to be extraordinary to be ‘good’? Being ordinary person is also good. The Earth has 8 billion people. Am I lame if I just want to be a normal person, and has a normal life?”, she asked me.

I hugged her, “No, sweetie, of course not. As long as you are healthy and happy, being normal is extraordinary in its own way.”

And that, made me thinking. Is that the thing we usually underestimate? Being just an ordinary person leading an ordinary life.

When did you realize your parent was a total badass?

My dad had a big scar on the side of his face. I didn’t think anything of it as a kid, since I had seen it all my life. It wasn’t until I was a teenager and studying history that it came to mean something.

Dad fought in WW2. He was a captain in the mechanized cavalry and commanded tanks under Patton. Apparently, when there was fog and the driver couldn’t see clearly, it was SOP for someone to open the hatch and sit with his feet on the driver’s shoulders, giving directions by touch.

A German artillery shell hit his tank one foggy day when he was in that position. If it had hit about six inches higher, i wouldn’t be typing this message. He took a massive load of shrapnel in his face and hands. His goggles saved his eyes, but one of his ears was blown off and later surgically reconstructed. He was in the hospital for over a year. They left a lot of the smaller pieces of shrapnel in his hands and I remember him having several episodes when one would decide to come back out years later.

I could rarely get him to talk about the war. He’d gladly tell stories about the mounted cavalry days, but would rarely talk about combat. When he died in 1990, I found his medals stored in a box and he had a shitload of them.

But all that time, he was just Dad.

Chocolate Marzipan Slices
(Mandulas Szalami — Hungary)

csokis mandulas szalami sutes nelkul glutenmentes recept foto

Ingredients

2 (3 1/2 ounce) tubes almond paste
2 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1/4 cup chopped almonds
Confectioners’ sugar

Instructions

Mix almond paste, chocolate and almonds thoroughly. Knead on surface sprinkled with 1 to 2 tablespoons confectioners sugar until of uniform color and consistency. Shape into 6-inch long roll; roll in confectioners’ sugar. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate at least 12 hours.
Cut roll into 1/4-inch slices.

Makes about 2 dozen candies.

What is a time you had to deal with a difficult co-worker?

Years ago I had an employee call loudly, “hey asshole”! It was heard by at least 10 other people. I was the CEO of the company. I had one choice. I fired him that instant and had Security remove him from the property. You see he had other options. He chose the one with a severe penalty. All of my employees know that they are free to come to my office, anytime I’m alone, close the door and call me an asshole and I’ll give him the opportunity to tell me why he feels that way. We can discuss the problem and I will explain it from my perspective. Obviously the same latitude isn’t given for public insubordination. Now during our private meeting we may reach an agreement, or we’ll be unable to. The employee had the option of meeting with me. If he and I deadlocked, one of us has to go!

Jason & The Argonauts | Full Movie | Creature Features

A real treat for today. This is a great lazy afternoon movie for your enjoyment.

https://youtu.be/HdpjoBcRrzQ

Lilies for dinner

Yesterday, out of the blue at dinner time, a delivery man came to our door with a bouquet of lilies. Not for me. Not for the kids. Not for the wife. Mistake, I guess. But the address was exactly our address.

Strange.

A lily flower has different significance in China than it does in the USA. In the USA, lilies are associated with death and funerals.

So obviously, I looked at the delivery guy with a big exclamation point and question mark over his head. Wouldn’t you? Especially since I was in MAJ. Things that make you go hum…

Anyways…

I asked the Domain Commander about this.

DC told me that it was a real accident and not to worry. Sure there are elements in the world that would like me to die and collapse in a most horrible way, but they are far removed from me, and that I am protected. That I should not let my fears grasp my emotions.

Ok. So, yeah.

Never let fear take over your life. Period.

Today…

Who were the most shallow girls/women you’ve ever met? Why?

The funny thing is, I hadn’t met girls or women who I’d consider shallow until I began my PhD. Most of the girls and women in my life were strong, independent, no nonsense girls, who took their lives on by the horns.

However, once I started my PhD, it was as though I was overcompensated for what I had missed out all along. There was a flurry of girls and women I kept bumping into, who made me question their true worth and leave me in total disgust.

Well, without much ado, here’s introducing the creme de la creme

A top woman scientist who told me to do an MBA after my PhD because girls only marry men with fat wallets because sex is not everything
A PhD research scholar who intends to marry a man who earns at least ₹500000 (~$8000) a month so that he could spend at least half of that on her
Another PhD scholar who plans to quit working after she got married because it was her husband’s duty to take care of her
A research scholar who blows up about ₹25,000 a month on partying, clothes, and weekend holidays and then takes another ₹10,000 from home because she’s the only daughter and it was “her right” to be pampered
Research scholars who even in their 3rd year of research do not possess fundamental concepts of their research because, “we’re not nerds like you!”
A research scholar who called her roommate’s mother a whore just for speaking to a guy outside their apartment. Her roomie’s mother had passed away a few months back to cancer
Another PhD scholar who said “I’m a Lingayat,” when I asked her if she was non-vegetarian. Lingayat, turns out, is a caste quite popular in Karnataka and I had no idea until she laughed when I asked her what that was
Another research scholar who’d draw a stipend from her supervisor’s project and yet work entirely for someone else because she had the support of a lot of higher ups
A research scholar who threatened a guy who kept asking her a genuine scientific doubt during one of her presentations. She wasn’t able to answer the question properly and was subsequently cross questioned. Frustrated, she said “I’ll file a harassment charge with the police. I’m a girl and my father has money. Let’s see who they believe.”

Wow! I just realized I could keep going at this. It’s crazy the number of PhD’s who think and speak this way.

What’s the use of having an education when you’re not one bit educated!

I see so much in this kitten that reminds me of my deceased dog

Spareribs and Cabbage
(Zeberka Wieprzowena z Kapusta — Poland)

Serve with mashed or boiled potatoes.

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 1/2 pounds fresh pork spareribs, cut into 6 pieces
1 large onion, sliced
1 large carrot, sliced
2 teaspoons instant beef bouillon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon caraway seed
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
1 bay leaf
2 cups water
1/2 cup vinegar
1 small head green cabbage, cut into 6 wedges
Freshly-ground pepper

Instructions

Heat oil in Dutch oven until hot. Cook pork spareribs, a few pieces at a time, over medium heat until brown on all sides, about 15 minutes; drain fat.
Add onion, carrot, bouillon, salt, caraway seed, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and the bay leaf.
Pour water and vinegar over pork mixture. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.
Add cabbage; sprinkle with pepper. Cover and simmer until cabbage is tender, about 45 minutes.
Remove bay leaf.
Arrange spareribs and vegetables on serving platter.
Garnish with minced parsley if desired.

Waiting to Be Put to Sleep, She Sat Crying Silently in Her Cage At the Shelter

Have you ever seen an employer fire someone without realizing what a crucial role the employee played?

Yes, yes I have!

A large company you have heard of needed to lay some people off. There was this one guy who always came in, went to his office, did who knows what all day, then went home. Nobody really knew what he did. His manager had been replaced with a new guy who was still figuring out which way is up. He had to lay off X number of people from his group. He laid off this guy.

Then they found out what he did, because it wasn’t being done anymore. Turns out he was providing exclusive customized support to a very large customer on a very lucrative contract.

The customer was not happy. They were no longer getting the support they were paying for.

I know other people who work at the same company. Management knows what they do, so their jobs are secure. It’s amazing how your job security depends on the right people knowing what you do.

2) Someone I know worked for a company that provides services to the military. The company was bought by another company, which put in management that had college degrees but no knowledge or experience in that field. The existing management, which had specific knowledge and experience, was laid off because they did not have college degrees.

That company was known by the military to be able to complete contracts that other companies had failed to complete.

With the team of experts gone, they could no longer complete contracts or train new hires. They had laid off their key people.

Meanwhile, the experts got jobs with competing companies, who were now able to complete contracts.

As contractor pay has stagnated, companies have been sold, and management has been unable to pay decently. A welder or electrician can make 400% more working anywhere else.

The team of experts has bounced from company to company. Whichever company they’re with is able to complete contracts.

How does this story end? That remains to be seen.

In the meantime, we have a navy ship that has been in for repairs for over two years, for work that should have taken only six months.

50% is terrible odds

16 mind-blowing psychology facts you should know:

Hearing your name when on one is calling you, is actually a sign of a healthy brian.
Sleep directly after studying, you will remember what you have learned better.
Don’t argue through text messages. The lack of tone decreases the meaning of the words.
People are more honest when physically tired. This is why most people confess things during late night conversations.
Those who look outside, dream. Those who look inside, awaken.
Cherophobia: the fear of happiness. People with this cherophobia believe that every time they feel happy, something bad will happen and ruin it.
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
The most powerful way to win an argument is by asking questions. It can make people see the flaws in their logic.
It’s possible to die from a broken heart. It’s called Stress Cardiomypathy.
Being forgetful can be a sign of a higher intelligence.
Athazagoraphobia: the fear of being forgotten or ignored by someone who you strongly care about.
When ignored by someone who means a lot to you, the reaction in your brain is similar to physical pain.
Boys are actually more emotionally affected by relationship troubles than girls. They just know how to hide it well.
You’re more likely to be easily attracted to someone you have no chance with.
The average man gets bored of shopping after 26 minutes.
If you want someone to listen to you, start the conversation with” I shouldn’t be telling you this”

The Most Paranormal Place On Earth – What’s Happening on Mount Shasta?

What is the rudest thing someone has ever said to you and how did you respond?

This happened a week back exactly and it’s been running on my mind ever since then. I never thought something like this would happen to me, don’t know why.

Last week, I was on a business trip to Berlin and I went to Amsterdam for the weekend, for a short vacation. My return flight to India was from Berlin and so I took a bus from Amsterdam to Berlin Tegel airport (bus because it was cheaper!). I had to switch buses at a place called Hamburg and I had a layover of almost 3 hours.

These 3 hours were the most tiring 3 hours of my life because it was from 10–1 in the night and it was freezing cold outside. And, I was standing alone for so long. Finally the bus came at 12.45 and I was the last one to board the bus. The bus was full and all the seats were taken in the lower deck. The upper deck had only 3 seats.

Super exhausted, I politely ask this girl if I can take the vacant seat next to her and this is how the conversation goes –

Me – Hi, can I please sit here?

Girl – No

Me – I’m sorry, excuse me?

Girl – I want to sit alone. Find another place

I ask the girl in the front seat if I can sit next to her and she was like, “this seat is taken”

Me, again to the girl from before –

Me – There’s no other seat. Can I sit here?

Girl – Go see if there are any seats down

*She was getting on to my nerves*

Me – I’m coming from down, there’s no seat. I’m sorry

Girl – Ask the girl in the front

Me – I just asked her, she said it’s taken. If you want, go ahead and ask her

*By now, people were already looking at me and I was feeling embarrassed. I ignored her and took the seat*

Girl (after 5 mins) – Actually, I don’t feel comfortable about you sitting next to me

Me (I was shocked) – Sorry?

Girl – I feel very uncomfortable about you sitting next to me. Please understand. Don’t sit here, go away!

Me (I lost it) – You know what? There’s no other place. Shut the fuck up and sit! Don’t irritate the fuck out of me!

I don’t think I have ever been this rude to anyone in my life. But, I don’t feel bad about saying it and I never will. I said it, I was rude to her, like she was rude to me. But, I was shocked even after that, my eyes welled up.

For the entire 3 hours, she was giving all these reactions and making faces like she was sitting next to someone disgusting.

And the worst part was, the vacant seat in the front, it was taken by none.

I don’t know if this is racism and if this happened to me because I’m brown and not white. But, this same female was okay with another white girl sitting next to her. While I was walking towards the seat, another white girl was going to sit there but she found another seat.

When I told this incident to a colleague of mine, he told me that I’m jumping into a conclusion that this is racism.

I don’t know if it could be anything else. Because I was dressed up well. I’m someone who gives importance to getting dressed up. This picture below is from the same day morning. I was in the same attire, maybe with a coat on top of it –

U.S. Hegemony is turning the WORLD Against Us

What is the biggest opportunity you, or someone you know, has wasted?

A girl I graduated high school with got a full scholarship to The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. That’s the big UNC… The world-renowned UNC… The one that most of my graduating class was trying to get into. She not only got in, but had a free ride thanks to a combination of cheerleading scholarships and needs-based grants.

She drank and partied her way to failure her first semester, was put on academic probation, didn’t recover, and was back home living with her parents and working as a waitress by the time she was 20.

She was still smoking hott* though, and it all worked out for her. “It” tends to work out for women like her… Women with model-quality looks and bubbly personalities. She married a lawyer and is now a stay-at-home (a beach house, no less) mother who, judging from what she posts on Facebook, lives an enviable life.

As for me, I have one huge wasted opportunity that I know about.

When I was 23, I’d already spent years working for families with special needs children in the wealthy suburbs of Chicago. I ended up with a job as a special needs assistant for the local school district… a very desirable school district for teachers. Also one of the hardest school districts in which to get hired for any position. I only got hired as an aide because one of the parents on the school board knew me because I sometimes took care of his special-needs kid.

Most of the other aides were teachers-in-training. I hadn’t considered going back to school to be a teacher at that point in my life. An opportunity to go to work for a friend in the auto parts business and make slightly more money presented itself, and I quit my job with the school district mid-year.

That’s a huge no-no in education. You never quit mid-year. I burned that bridge to the ground. I lost contact with all of the people I knew in the district. Dozens of networking opportunities squandered, all for about $100 extra dollars per month.

Years later, I finally went back to college and got my teaching certificate. I was 30 by then, and I struggled to find a teaching job. It was all about who you knew that could get your resume in front of the principals, and I didn’t know anyone who could do that anymore.

Had I been patient and stayed on as an aide for a few more years, I would have been first in line for an open teaching position in that district when they became available.

If this were my 10th year of teaching in that district, I’d be making three times what I make now, and have a lot more perks.

Oh well. Youthful impatience has done a lot worse to other people.

Cats sleeping position

If, biologically, humans are not meant to be monogamous, why do we still strive to be so?

Chimps are not monogamous. In fact, they gang-rape each female. The females do this so that no male knows who the father is, preventing the infant from being killed. Just because animals do it doesn’t mean we should.

Gorillas have harems. Most males never mate, those that do dominate a group of females and have exclusive rights to them. This precludes equal rights for females. Go to a harem model, and you’ve just undone the basic premise for women’s rights.

Monogamy and systematic encouragement of it forced men to treat their only sexual partner with decency and respect for their quality of life. This is why only the Christian West gave women equal legal rights to men across the board. If men can have sex outside of marriage, whether sex slaves or prostitutes, the woman’s social status goes down.

Society has a vested interest in monogamy. Single mothers are even in the rich West at greater odds of poverty. Even worse is the three to four times greater odds of bad life outcomes for their kids. From drug addiction to joining a gang to not finishing school to committing suicide to being a single teen mother, the odds are 3–4 times greater if raised by a single mother.

If society wants to reduce criminal behavior, reliance on welfare (if it exists) and dependent adults, it has to encourage monogamy. The group cannot afford to encourage the breakdown of the family. You don’t get happy hippie communes; you get violent inner cities with stubborn inter-generational poverty in communities that used to have declining poverty rates.

Yes, humanity is biologically transitioning from “harem/free sex” to “monogamous”, so we have conflicting impulses. But we’ve been moving toward monogamy for literally millions of years. We know that because women are only 20% smaller than men versus half the size of a male as occurs in gorillas. It is driven by our higher intelligence and the longer dependent period of human infants.

Monogamy is in our best interest as individuals, as parents and as a society. And that’s why we encourage it.

Year after year

Have you ever been mugged and had it end badly for the mugger?

I had eye surgery in winter 2019, and had to wear dark glasses (the ones in my pic) for a bit.

My eyesight is terrible anyway, but for a couple of months l could barely see.

One evening, as usual, I was taking a long walk in London – couldn’t run, I’d have been running in to street furniture- for exercise. Earbuds in, listening to music.

A beggar stepped in front if me & said something about money. I put my hand in my pocket, handed him a quid.

He said something about wanting more, l couldn’t really hear him too well over Black Grape, but this pissed me off.

“Fuck off”, I said, “you can have a quid and like it”

“Gimme more. I want all your money”

“You cheeky cunt. Fuck off or I’ll take the quid back and kick your arse” l said.

He made angry gestures and stormed off.

A bloke came up beside me…. “…mate, are you ok?” he said.

“Yeah… why?”

“He had a knife”.

Oh. Not beggar; mugger. I hadn’t seen the knife.

The mugger must have thought I was like Chuck Norris, fronting him out like that.

New Upgrade: China J-35 Fighter JET To Fly From Aircraft Carrier

How much power does a general in the U.S. military have?

Not a General (or Admiral in this case, since I served in the Navy), but a Captain (equivalent of a full bird Colonel in the other services).

I joined on the delayed entry program when I was still a senior in high school. Toward the end of my senior year, I was awarded a scholarship to state university. There was a banquet to honor all the scholarship recipients.

Even though I knew I couldn’t accept the scholarship because I was already set to go into the Navy, I thought it would be fun and interesting to attend a banquet that was being held partly in my honor.

At the banquet, I met and made small talk with a Navy Captain. I told him about how I wouldn’t be able to use the scholarship because I had already enlisted via the delayed entry program. I never got his name and never heard from, nor spoke with, him ever again after that night.

So technically, I don’t know with any certainty that he was the one who did anything for me. But 30+ years later, it’s still the only explanation that makes any sense.

A week or two after the banquet, I got a phone call from the recruiting office. They wanted me to come in and sign some paperwork. When I arrived, they had two “identical” enlistment packets sitting on a table. The recruiter explained to me that they were going to let me out of my enlistment contract and go into the reserves instead so that I could go to college.

Even at 17 years old, I knew that the government never just lets anyone cancel a legal and binding contract. This was a really huge deal. Somebody pulled some serious strings.

Is it possible for two doctors to get married and barely get to see each other?

Not only possible, but probable.

I have told this story before, but I got married young at 24. We were in med school. We did not have a honeymoon, and it was a major fight to get the weekend off and permission to take an exam a day early. Then in residency we both worked 100 + hours per week for years. YEARS. We were not guaranteed to get vacation on the same week. We were not guaranteed a single day off in the month, including weekends. One of my fellow residents gave birth to premature twins. The babies were in an ICU in another STATE so her parents could be in the hospital because there was no family leave. I was repeatedly told not to get pregnant, which would be hard to do if you never sleep, let alone sleep in the same room on the same night as your partner.

Fast forward to maybe age 30. I saw a TV commercial about “the best part of waking up” and it showed a couple on their porch watching the sun rise and drinking some brand of coffee. I started to cry because I had never sat with my husband on my porch or had coffee in the morning together. That was kind of the moment I realized exactly what I had signed up for.

I think things are getting much better for young doctors but for us it was not great. People have NO IDEA what some of us have gone through to be “rich doctors.” Especially if you started out poor and had no outside help or support from family.

Human Remains Found In America Dated 128,000 BC

What’s the most savage way you’ve seen someone get fired?

I worked for a ‘charity’ in Wakefield, England. A miserable place with many dubious business practices, run by a egotistical idiot. One day most of my team – conspicuously all those of a particular ethnicity – was pulled into his office and told we would probably be losing our jobs and would have to reapply for them. Given the decisive nature of who had been picked, it was obvious we wouldn’t get them when we ‘reapplied’: the company is notorious for their nepotism and they no doubt had replacements – friends and family – already lined up. Needless to say, the mood turned sour in the room. Then the kicker – the absolute collosal utter bellend of a boss legitimately couldn’t tell why we were angry. His exact words: “Come on guys, why are you so down? Let’s have a good day. Big smiles guys, big smiles.”

Had a stressful month looking for work afterward, but now in a great job and glad to see the back of that dump. And of course the people he lined up to fill our posts made a right mess of it (though sadly the company survived).

Is China expected to surpass the US as a superpower or will they remain on par with each other?

Can US citizens do 4 times better than Chinese citizens?

Think about this from 1980 to 2020 alone, China grew 30 times in 40 years in real income! What will happen between 2020 to 2060? Say it just grow 10 times that of 2020! It will leave the US trailing miles away!

Chinese people are innovating more, Chinese produce more STEM engineers a year more that the entire U.S. STEM sector! Chinese works twice as hard as American’s, they are highly intelligent and very productive and discipline. Every years China’s savings alone is as big as the entire UK economy! It already has the best infrastructure amongst major economies.

For China to stay still is never going to happen. Period. To me China will grow to 5–6 times the U.S. in real economy!

Expert REVEALS Evidence of Super ADVANCED LOST Ancient Technology!

What is the worst thing to say on a date?

True Story.

About 7 years ago, I met one of my oldest friend in Dallas’s daughter, and sparks flew from both sides. (His daughter is very close to my age)

You can read the story of how we got to this point here: Chris O’Leary’s answer to What were your feelings when you first met/saw your spouse?

It didn’t happen right away, but a year or so later, I met her again, and after some standard comical clumsiness, I asked her out.

Knowing based on what she did for a living that she was science nerdy like me, I planned a date to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science

. (Note to guys, this is a BRILLIANT idea. It’s not just that you’re showing respect for her intellect, it also gives you several hours to walk around, have a TON of stimulating things to talk about, and get to know each other.)

Day of the date arrives, her Dad’s in the hospital, so we agree to meet there, so I can visit him too. Hilarious side story, as we’re about to leave, she says, Ok, Dad, see you later, do you want me to turn off your light? “No,” Dad says, “Chris can turn it off when he leaves.” Uh, Bob?” I replied “….(Extended awkward pause….) I’m going with her….”

So we decide to leave her car in the Hospital parking lot and take my car to the museum. Get in the car, turn it on, doors lock, car goes into drive and starts rolling and I say:

“So you know I’m still married, right?”

Have you ever heard that metaphorical record scratch in real life?

Well. I QUICKLY explained to her that we had been separated for about 8 years, that the upcoming law called “The Affordable Care Act” would make it so that she could get insurance despite her pre-existing neuro-vascular disease, and that the only reason we were still married was so that she could stay on my corporate health insurance until that was the case. (In other words, I QUICKLY demonstrated that “I’m a VERY nice guy.”)

It calmed the fire down to the point where we were able to have a VERY nice date…didnt’ QUITE get together just then… a few breaks…not the right time…I was seeing someone else…then she was…and then…

The Stars Aligned.

Yup. I married the Girl who listened to me drop the WORST line you could possibly drop on a first date.

C’est l’amour, no?

Sanctioning China? US is as stupid as the Qing Dynasty Emperor

What are some hacks that everyone should know?

When you sign up for anything online, put the website’s name as your middle name. That way when you receive spam/advert email, you will know who sold your information.
If you’re on a first date and aren’t connecting with the other person or feel they’re dull, ask them what job they’d choose if money wasn’t an issue. It initiates a talk about one’s passions, which are rarely dull and are simple to connect.
If you want to be an effective communicators, let others talking about themselves and their interests – it’s as rewarding as sex. Check out 10+ psychological tricks that are mind blowing.

Do not try to be the man your father would want you to be. Be the man you would like your son to be be. It more clearly defines your own convictions, desires, goals, and motivates you to be your best.
Pay Attention to the smell of your home when you come back from a trip – that’s what it smells like to guests all the time, you just get used to it.
When a friend is upset, ask them one simple question before saying anything else: ‘Do you want to talk about it or do you want to be distracted from it?’
No matter how much your workplace pushes “team building” and “family culture” – remember, they’re not your friends and it’s still a workplace.
If you’re stuck on an annoying call, put your phone on airplane mode instead of just hanging up. The other person will see “call failed” instead of “call ended”.
If you want to learn a new language, figure out the 100 most frequently used words and start with them. Those words make up about 50% of everyday speech, and should be a very solid basis.

The Circleville Letters Mystery | Why can’t we solve this?

Pork Sausage Loaf (Hungary)

Ingredients

1 cup diced mushrooms
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg, beaten
1 pound fresh bulk pork sausage
2 cups dry bread crumbs
1 teaspoon paprika

Instructions

Melt butter in a skillet and add mushrooms. Sauté.
Combine sausage, mushrooms, egg and crumbs and shape into a loaf. Sprinkle with paprika. Place in a small roaster; cover.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 1/2 hour.
Uncover, return to oven, and bake 30 more minutes.

Serves 4

10+ Mind-Blowing Psychological Tricks & Facts That Everyone Should Know

Here are 17 psychological tricks to be more likable and 16 psychology facts you should know:

Posture matters: If you stand up straight and make an eye contact while talking to the people you are attracted to, will make you more confident and attractive.
Have a strong sense of humor: It is thought to be a sign of intelligence. this is why, when assessing a potential partnepsyr, we tend to be more attracted to those who are funny.
Start the conversation first: Women are automatically attracted to guys who start the conversation, take initiative, and make them laugh.
…and always be the one to pull away from the conversation: It shows that you value your time and have other stuff to do. If you cut short your conversation, the other person always wants more of it. It creates attraction.
Deeper voice: Men with deeper voices are more likely to make a lasting impression on women than men with higher voices.
Create sexual tension without touching: It is done subtly, and by flirting. It creates instant attraction if you do it correctly.

7. Never approach women from behind or from her sides. It looks sneaky. Approach her face-to-face. It displays more confidence.

8. Wear red: People subconsciously believe that women who wear red are more attractive and sexy, in 2010, Eliot confirmed that people will sit closer to women who wear red dresses.

9. Let others talk about themselves – it’s as rewarding as sex: If you want to make your conversation partner feel good, get them talking about themselves and their interests. Which will make people feel valued and they will be more impressed by you

10. If you’re a woman, a man will like you if you can make him feel masculine. No instructions, no advice and give him ample space.

11. If you’re a man, a woman will like you if you can make her feel beautiful, not just sexy. A high emotional quotient is also critical for a woman.

12. Do not speak badly about others as this creates distrust.

13. Do not spread false rumors and do not make accusations.

14. When with a group of people, including everyone in the conversation. Never leave anybody out.

15. Share the little you have with those who have nothing.

16. Become a happy person and wear a smile always.

17. Laugh with all. Don’t discriminate. Be gender sensitive.

US Heartbreak: Mexico Chooses China for Auto Future – Is It the End?

What is the strangest way you found out a friend was wealthy?

When I worked at the local university bar there was this guy called Mick. He was a down to earth guy who spoke in a working class accent. He always said that his dad was a miner. We socialised quite a bit over the three years that he studied for his degree. Then when it was his graduation I was invited and I met and sat with his parents. Obviously well off by the clothes that they wore. Anyhow, Mick’s mother was chatting to me and aske me who I was I told her that I was her son’s barman for the past three years. She asked “did he tell you that his father owns six mines in Yorkshire?”

I replied “no”. She said, “He’s such an inverted snob, How did you find him?”

I replied that I found him sociable, down to earth and a decent guy. I got a hug for that and an invitation to their home in the summer break.

It was like a bloody castle with footmen and butlers.

But, yes they were such a lovely, nice, down to earth family.

Do you trust your parents?

I’m standing by my Dad as I am casually playing on my phone.

Suddenly, he reaches over and snatches my phone out of my hands, eyeing the screen.

“Dad what are you doing?” I ask, surprised.

“Just checking” he replies, handing it back over to me.

“I’m so sick of dealing with Amy.

I wish I could just dump her at the doctors so they can take care of her.”

I’m frozen in place as I overhear my Mum talking to my Dad. I run back to my room and I find myself having a panic attack.

I’m laying in bed, “asleep”, when I hear my Dad walk up beside my bed. I peek out of my eye slightly, and see the light of my phone screen illuminate the room.

My Dad is standing there, looking at my notifications.

I start to wake up, and he quickly covers himself, saying he was just “seeing if it needed charging for tomorrow”.

These happened a long time ago, and to this day they continue to prove to me that they can’t be trusted and that they lie to me all the time.

They tell me I can trust them. They tell me that they will always support me. They tell me that they’ll always have my side. They have even told me that they will give me privacy.

But actions speak louder than words.

The Cat Knew That They Had Come to Put Him to Sleep! So Be It, For the Mistress Was Gone!

Confetti Art

When I was in 8th grade, a classmate along with my sister tore up a painting that I had spent three months working on.

Her name was Rita.

High School / Middle School head games.

But it was cruel. I spent a long time to make that artwork so that it would be displayed in a art fair. And then with pride, the day before the event, I proudly saw it hung on the wall in the fair… located in the High School gym.

But that night, they came in from Cheerleader practice. Got in the gym. Took my picture off the wall. And then carried to school the next day.

My picture wasn’t entered in the fair. It was missing.

When I went into my “home room” the next day, Rita and my sister came up to me, and the class and right before me tore my precious artwork into a million pieces and threw them in my face. Like confetti.

I was in shock.

The class laughed.

The teacher did nothing.

And (later on when I was at home) my mother told me that I “shouldn’t get angry over it”. Just move on she argued. While my father told me “you are the oldest … you have to take the hits”.

…

Who in the fuck convinced me to accept this God Damn life? What the Hell?

Today…

What can other countries do to stop the US sanctions and embargos bullying around the world?

The other countries are sanction and embargo proof their economies. From keeping it’s reserves in non western banks to digitising their currencies, to trading via currency swap arrangement, or paying by other currencies than the dollar and U.S. cronies currencies. Sanctions will be totally a thing of the past within a decade at most.

The world is already broken into 2 groups now. One are US, it’s slave vassal nations, the U.S. fellow native slaughterers, the U.S. fellow despicable colonial masters, the few tiny nations around Europe that has be coerce to do shit for the west. This group is less than 2 dozen nation or you can say the minority group. It’s GDP as a group is also coming to 40% and falling fast of the world and in population less than 13%.

The majority group is call the Global South. It include most of Asia, Latin America and Oceania, and all of Middle East, Central Asia and the Caribbean. These nations add up to. At least 175 out of the world’s 195 nations. Or 87% of the world, 60% of the world’s GDP and growing fast and probably 90% or real purchasing power PPP on planet earth.

The first group either has no choice or succumbed to threat by the U.S to support and defend the western so call rules base international order. And sink and swim in it. The second group through the BRICS and SCO will successfully withdraw from the rules based international order but by bit.

Try to imagine a balloon. If you prick it with a pin the balloon will burst and if flies off and the air inside the balloon is gone for good. Now try imagining that the air is the wealth and reserves trapped in side the balloon. This 2nd group is sucking up its air but by bit, little by little till what is left belongs to the 1st group. By that time in a decade or so what will be left is a balloon that is at least half its size.

So within a decade U.S. dollars, SWIFT, Western Institutions, Western Systems, western rating agencies, western exchanges, world bank, IMF and many others that together represent the world order will still be there but only serve the west. The U.S. wants decoupling, the U.S. is getting it. The world is decoupling from the west.

Welcome to the new world.

Mind Virus

Women want Leaders. But the current 20-something group of women do not want to take the follower role. Thus they can never fit with the men that they desire.

As a doctor, who (without naming names) is a patient you will never forget, and why?

I remember a lovely patient who had a very swollen abdomen due to ascites, a complication of cirrhosis of the liver.

Every day in the hospital, I would hang a bag of albumin and chat as I drained fluid from the swollen belly. This was in the day when liver transplants were rare and not for people who had developed cirrhosis from alcohol use.

When it was time for the patient to leave, I was given a very expensive bottle of red wine. I think it came from the patient’s extensive collection of wines. The family was wealthy. We both knew that the cirrhosis was not cureable. I wondered if all the wine was given away before the patient passed. The patient had a wistful smile and explained a bit about the wine that could never again be tasted. I was young and did not know anything about fine wines.

My husband and I shared the wine on our anniversary when we were interns.

Sometimes it is the things we love the most that cause us the greatest pain.

What is a slap-in-the-face job offer?

I am a welder with a specific set of specialized skills as an ironworker. I earned about $35 an hour on the lower end with my last job in the union. Im the guy walking on ibeams on skyscrappers hanging off the side welding moment welds. One company wanted to pay me less than McDonald’s to weld.

Recently, however, I have quit this line of work to make time for college. In doing so I was searching for lower paying but more reasonable hours and location. Going to work at the same place for 40 hours a week was my plan. I was having trouble doing this since most companies are wanting me to work lots of overtime.

One day I had scheduled an interview for a job which said I wouldn’t be asked to work over 40 hours a week and it was relatively close to my home. Inquiring about the pay they just said it depended on my skills but it would be very good. I didn’t press further for detsils. On interview weld test day I accidentally left much too early. Realizing I would be 45 minutes early I decided to stop for lunch at a McDonald’s. When I was there I noticed they were offering $22/hour for a maintenance position. I spoke with the manager about it but told them I could probably make more money welding in a shop.

I went to my interview and was asked to take a weld test that took about 2 hours. At the end of the weld test one of the managers took me to a table in the office and saw I was asking for $28 an hour, really I was hoping for closer to $30. He told me the most he would be able to pay was 19 or maybe 20.

“I don’t appreciate all of my time you’ve wasted here, sir. The McDonald’s down the road pays better than this.”

I was quite pissed that I had just wasted well over 2 hours of my time with the drive there, back, and other things I did to prepare for that interview.

The shop welding jobs are paying an average of $25 an hour around here, so I’ll be working at McDonald’s until these cheap asses pay what it’s worth to weld. Why should I do a skilled job when McDonald’s pays nearly the same? I wish more welders would refuse to work for peanuts and maybe we could get some decent wages.

Did China have slavery like US during its history?

Of course, China have slavery like the US in … errr … emmm … yep … about 3,000 years ago, after Zhou Dynasty established in 1046 BC, Chinese slavery was ended.

Slaves made a great contributions in the war of Zhou rebels to overthrow the Shang Dynasty. In return, the first monarch of the Zhou Dynasty ordered the permanent abolition of slavery, and this order was maintain by all following Chinese dynasties, because that monarch is seen as saint and model of a virtuous ruler for all Chinese rulers, including barbarian born Chinese rulers. Even Mongolian emperors in Yuan dynasty would go to his tomb to worship him in every years, no need to mention others.

In the following 3000 years, although there were several barbarian born monarchs reintroducing slavery into China, but none of their regimes could survive over more than 50 years.

And strictly speaking, the Qing Dynasty had slavery, but their slavery was somewhat distorted because it only existed among the Manchus. The Manchu Eight Banners Army was actually a slave army, with soldiers and officers were actually slaves belongs to the banner lord. They fought in banner lords’ commanding for generations.

But the Manchus seem to regard this slave status as an honor, so you can see that when Manchus write letters to the emperor or their banner lord, they would call themselves something like “a humble slave greeting to my dear lord” in the beginning.

And when some Han favored officials of certain emperors also write like this, the emperor will directly reply to him, saying, “Please call yourself a vassal, you are my Han vassal, not my slaves in banner”.

So, for the Qing Dynasty, slaves in the Manchu system were more like hereditary family of attendants, who established a generational contract. Becoming slaves to the banner lord was not shameful for the Manchus, but rather an honor accepted and protected by banner lords, and all banner lords are royal members.

It was a letter from governer of Hu province and Guang province (This is a very big official position, ruling lands almost over two modern France), a Han official Yang ZongRen, to the YongZheng Emperor of Qing Dynasty, those black writting was Yang’s original writting, red one were the reply of the Emperor.

In this letter, Yang called himself “the slave”, and Yongzheng Emperor strike out that word, and changed it to “vassal”, and noted that “claiming to be a vassal” is more appropriate.

Of course, this is actually just a Han governor in flattering the emperor. The emperor himself was very happy on that, but still remembered to correct it for him, because it’s not appropriate.

oh … btw, about this letter, except the stroke and note in the right, the left red paragh is:

朕安尔虽到任未久所奏所行数事深合朕意甚属可嘉如此可谓名实相符无愧封疆大吏也尔今兼统文武特赐孔雀翎以彰尔之优能

Translation:

I am fine (reply the greeting of Yang), although you just arrived in this official position for no long, what you reported and what you did, has already pleased my wish, you are worthy of being a high-ranking governer, so today I leading civil service officials and military officials decided to award you xxxxxx (I don’t know how to translate this, you can think it’s some kind of medal), to recognize your excellent work.

What should you do when someone has taken your assigned seat and refuses to move on an airplane?

Just let the person know politely. If they refuse to move or try to get you to do a seat swap, and if you don’t want, simply say no, I.dont want to trade seats, please get up. If the person won’t move, push the call button for the flight attendant. Do not move, or let anyone behind you get to their seat. The flight attendant will take care of it more quickly, if the boarding process, is at a stand still.

Happened to me once. I was treating myself to First Class. The First Class section had to rows on the left, but only onecrow on the right. Meaning, those seats were a window/aisle/and had no seat mate. I also, had, the last seat in the row so, nobody behind me. This group of six traveling together, got on first, and all wanted to sit together, took my seat.

The person in my seat redirected me to, a seat on the otherside of the plane, someone had the window seat already. I said, no, I’d like my seat please. They group looked at eachother, the guy in my seat, acted like he wasn’t budging. I didn’t let the people behind me go around me. The flight attendant immediately asked if everything was ok. I said, just waiting for him to get out of my seat, I asked nicely once already. She told him to move, and that he was holding up the boarding process.

What are the most difficult and useful things people have to learn in their 20s?

You don’t have close friends just friends. Most of the people you are around, are only there because of circumstances not really related to you in anyway.
The sooner you start focusing and planning on your life goals the easier it will be achieving them.
One of the most important thing you can teach yourself during your 20’s is self discipline. This is the first thing we should learn and crave to achieve.
Life moves very fast, do things you enjoy at the moment cause our situations tend to also change as fast then we later feel like we missed out on somethings.
The more you expose yourself to the world around you, the more you expand your thinking horizons. Travel, socialize and live life don’t lock yourself out of these important things.
Learn to cook a variety of menu’s of proper home meals. Cooking is a very important skills much more as an adult.
You start using drugs as curiosity soon it becomes for fun later it becomes a dependency. The transition is so fast you barely realize it.
Learn about proper workout routines you can do to energize your body. You don’t have to do hard excercise even if its just yoga. Its more about something you can commit to that benefits you.
Reading and getting creative are ways to keep your brain sharp and generate new ideas. Make sure you read novels and try out the different forms of art around you.
Don’t be selfish in your 20’s, most of the things we hold on to are barely important in our 30’s. Stuff like money, food, material possessions. Learn to share cause these memories are the ones that we keep. Be real with every real person around you.

Have you ever caught your employees engaging in time theft? What happened?

This takes me back a few years. The Philadelphia DA felt he caught “Streets” workers at extreme wage theft.

The city had gone through a series of bad snow storms requiring both city employees and contractors running snowplow on the streets for over a week.

A few months later the DA holds a press conference that a particular employee is being charged with felonies related to false time sheets (getting paid for time not worked). It might have been the soft kick-off to their campaign for mayor or governor — showing how they could fix problems like this.

In next day or two the employee is arraigned in court with lawyers from the union. The DA (usually an assistant associate low level attorney handles these hearings) give a speech about how it was not humanly possible for the employee to have worked the hours claimed (from memory: between 120 and 160 hours in a week) so they had to be sleeping on the job — “stealing from the taxpayers of our fine city, this just shows how the union abuses the city.”

Union attorney gets to say their piece. A few flowery words about clueless wealthy elected officials overreaching. Then the attorney drops the appropriate section of the contract (again: from old memory so not exact quote) “so long as any contractor truck is on the road performing snow removal and an employee is *available* for work, they shall be paid.”

This was exactly the situation covered by the contract. It was written that way so the city could bring in help for emergency-level snows but not outsource the employees.

A bit of evidence how the employee *worked* a lot of hours and then slept “on-site” (where they would normally pick up their truck) so they were clearly “available”.

The criminal case was thrown out. There may have been a $ settlement to the employee for false arrest and the DA’s political career petered out.

Beef and Mushroom Stew
with Caraway Dumplings

Browning meat in the oven reduces the amount of fat needed for cooking. Serve with julienne parsnips and carrots.

Ingredients

Stew

1 1/2 pounds round or blade steak
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
Bouquet Garni*
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (if necessary)
1/2 pound small mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cups beef stock
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste

* Tie together with kitchen twine 1 celery stalk with leaves, 3 or 4 sprigs parsley, 1 bay leaf and small sprig of thyme

Dumplings

1 cup soft fresh bread crumbs
1/4 cup melted margarine or butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 egg white

Instructions

Stew: Cut steak into 1 1/2 inch cubes. In a bag, combine flour, pepper and salt. Add beef, a few pieces at a time, and shake to coat with flour mixture. Shake off excess and place meat on wire rack in flameproof casserole. Bake in 350 degree F oven for about 25 minutes or until browned. Meanwhile, prepare Bouquet Garni.
Set meat aside on platter.
Place casserole over medium heat. Only if necessary add all or part of the oil. Add mushrooms, cap side down, and cook until golden, transferring to platter as they brown.
Add onion and garlic; cook until onion is transparent. Add stock, wine and tomato paste; bring to a simmer, stirring and scraping bottom of casserole with wooden spoon to scrape up any brown bits.
Return meat to pan; add Bouquet Garni. Cover and simmer over low heat for 1 hour or until meat is tender. Meanwhile prepare dumplings.
Dumplings: In a bowl, toss bread crumbs and melted margarine together with a fork. Combine flour, baking powder, caraway seeds and salt. Mix lightly into crumb mixture. Beat together egg and egg white; add to crumb mixture and mix lightly (mixture will be soft) shape into 8 balls of even size.
Remove Bouquet Garni and discard. While stew is simmering, add dumplings, cover and cook, without removing lid, for 18 minutes.

Yield: 8 servings

Calories per serving 311, Cholesterol 127 mg

What was the shortest interview you’ve had that led to a job offer?

I had a scheduled interview for an OFFICE job! Up to that point I had been doing piecework sewing, processing chickens, and guarding slabs of foam rubber… This was a HUGE step up!

During the night before the interview, it snowed 4 inches in Baltimore. Now this is not that big a deal… except in Baltimore, it IS. Public transport did not run. Traffic was pretty sparse first thing in the work day… I decided to walk the 3 miles to the interview. I got there in plenty of time, changed my hiking boots for heels in the ladies’ room, and went to the office where the interview was to be held.

Nobody home.

A guy showed up and asked what I was doing standing in the hall. I explained I was there to interview as an accountant’s assistant. He asked how I got there. When I said I walked, he looked dubiously at my heels. He said, “In THOSE shoes?” I admitted my boots were in the ladies’ room. He asked to see the boots, so I went and got them. As soon as he saw that I really did have boots I was hired. I had not yet even entered the offices.

What would you do?

What habit did you pick up in the military that you still keep and civilians don’t understand?

A few things:

I use military time.
I write dates in military format.
I always field strip my cigarettes and stick butts in my pocket. Yes, it smells disgusting.
I have a P38 on my keychain. This is a tiny can opener used to open cans of C-rations. It even gets used once in a while.

5. Take my hat off when going indoors. Because of this, I rarely wear a hat.

6. When a passenger in a vehicle, I act as “assistant driver.” I let driver know if it is clear or not on my side.

7. I act as a ground guide for people backing up. I will often ask people to ground guide me when I am backing up, often to their puzzlement. Of course, they do not know the correct hand signs to use and those I am helping often don’t understand the signs I give them.

8. I scan the side of roads more than necessary in the US. Not too many IEDs on our roads.

9. I say, “I got your back” or “Do you have my six?” too much.

10. I use the military phonetic alphabet. D is for Delta, not Dog.

11. I use the word “task” a lot.

12. I tend to try to help people with what the military calls hip pocket training. Many people find this annoying and would prefer to screw something up than get some quick pointers.

13. Finally, I learned to never put more than eight words on a power point slide because the Army puts hundreds of words on one slide. Along with this, I also learned to NEVER ask someone to read a power point slide with hundreds of words on it.

They’re not playin’

If China really wanted to, could it successfully invade, occupy, and annex Taiwan?

Tomorrow

China would be burning a lot of bridges if they do and China is hesitant to do that

The West knows it’s dying and is thus ready to inflict every horror on it’s population

They are prepared to subject their population to everything from inflation to starvation knowing that they have tamed their population sufficiently through propaganda

They can cause China to lose quite a bit of money if they invade Taiwan and that could make a lot of Chinese unhappy and cause some strife within the country

Plus more importantly, China believe Taiwanese are their brothers and killing them is a no no because at least 30% Mainlanders have family in Taiwan

So that’s what’s stopping China

Otherwise if China decide that they don’t care, China can pulverize and decimate Taiwan into a graveyard overnight and nobody can do a thing to stop them without risking WWIII

How, during the Vietnam War, did soldiers riding in open Hueys with all their weapons and equipment manage to hang on? And did any soldier ever fall off by accident?

Yep, my brother fell out of a Huey. He was in Nam and the radio went wild, with troops needing to be evacuated from a hot zone. He jumped in as the M-60 machine gunner. It was the first time he flew into a hot zone. His adrenaline was high. Because of that, he forgot to strap in. The Huey headed out over the paddies and couldn’t land because there was a nest of Charlies that needed to be taken out first. The pilot banked to the left super hard so my brother could shoot the 60 down at Charlie’s nest. The pilot banked too hard and my brother fell out right on top of two Charlies. The wind was knocked out of all three of them. My brother was the first to come to his senses, and realized he didn’t have a weapon. He looked around and found one of the Charlie’s AK and as they started to get up he blasted them both. Killed them dead, he did. The chopper picked the GIs up and then came back and rescued my brother. When he got back to the base, the pilot said, “That is the bravest thing I have ever seen, jumping unarmed out of a Huey, kill two gooks, and saved a squad. Boy I am going to put you in for a Silver Star.” My brother told him, “I fell out and was just trying to save my ass.” He still got the Star. Analyse and improvise. A motto to live by!

Interview with a traditional woman

What are some interesting social skills that can be picked up quickly?

Most people find unnecessary touching uncomfortable, remember that.
Never ask uncomfortable details from people in public.
If you are not comfortable looking in eyes, look at the face at least.
Cough, but cover your mouth with forearm, not palm.
A smile at strangers is not bad; it’s humility.
Silence is the loudest display of anger; rest is immaturity.
Interruption is impatience.
Great people respect disagreement.
When you speak in a group, try and look at everyone at least once.
If you don’t know what to speak, listen to people and understand what they want to listen.
Don’t be rigid on your opinions.
However your interaction was, leave with positivity. A smile, and a positive statement of appreciation works well.
Interact more with nervous people to make them comfortable and to leave a positive impact on them.
If your palms sweat, keep two handkerchiefs in your pocket, always wipe before shaking hands.
If someone is sitting on your side, don’t fold your leg in a way that your shoe faces that person.
Be a pleasant person, don’t spit out negativity in front of people, however bad you feel inside.
Be sure before quoting facts; wrong facts put your image down.

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

Twice as a matter of fact.

The first time a European owned company announced a round of layoffs in a month. I was the new guy in the group and figured I was disposable. The day of the announced layoffs I went into work wearing my “Gone With The Wind” tie.

When I was summoned to the boss’ office, my desk had been cleared of all personal effects. My pulled out a paper and made to read it. I stopped him and said, “I know I’m being laid off. What are the details?” Boss was rather startled and we started talking about it.

I told him that he had a good old boys club where engineers from headquarters would rotate in then return for a raise & promotion. U.S. employees were treated as second rate. Thanks for the layoff. I was pretty disappointed in the company.

When he asked how I knew that I would be laid off, I told him that the company had announced the layoffs a month earlier. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that I was one of the newest people in the group and not part of the “club”. Of course I was the easiest to lay off.

I also told him that it was pretty stupid to announce the layoffs a month previous. Everyone quits working and it encourages mischief. Oh they hadn’t thought of that.

The bosses were gone within 3 months.

The other was a company where I was the entire engineering department. My boss & I were always at odds. He wanted to get rid of the product line. I’m sure the fact that his brother worked for a competitor had nothing to do with his decision.

The company staged an ambush layoff on January 2nd. Oh well, at least they didn’t screw up the holidays.

Although they offered $10k, I refused to sign their termination agreement and collected unemployment all through the covid lunacy. Made out like a bandit.

Why sex is important.

Men know this instinctively. Modern 20-something, 30-something women, are having trouble with this.

What would you do if you were told, “pack up your things and leave immediately” from your place of employment?

In a sense, this happened to me.

I was at home, having broken my foot in a stupid accident, when the head of HR was “in the area” and wanted to see me. After the pleasantries, she told me that I was being made redundant and my job no longer existed.

In the UK, firing someone is not easy or cheap. A company can find itself in court and it can all get a bit grubby. So a more usual tactic is to say that the employees job is no longer needed. Employers like this, because it saves it all getting public, legal and unpleasant, and employees like it because the employer has to pay to make it all go away.

So we negotiated a redundancy fee and the next day a car came with my personal things from my office. I trousered the (generous) cheque and picked up the phone.

The irony was that I had just had an exceptional year. I had won a load of creative awards (I was a creative director at Saatchi and Saatchi) including a Cannes Gold. I have no idea why they wanted me out. To this day I don’t know.

Two weeks later I signed a contract with a rival company for a bigger salary.

What is the most obnoxious thing you have seen someone do at the grocery store?

The local supermarket includes a hot table where they sell hot cooked chickens for $10.99 It’s a good deal – I’ll get one occasionally. It looks like this; if this is unfamiliar in your area:

The pack includes a cardboard handle for easy carrying.

One day, I noticed that whoever had labeled the latest batch of chickens had made a mistake. Instead of $10.99, they were labeled as $0.99. Cool! Cheap chicken! lol. Not really – I like the folks there and quickly let the lady in the meat line know. The chickens had only just come out; no loss to anyone.

Except – I was not the only one that had found it. A woman of – how do I say this – limited intelligence saw it and began screeching at the top of her lungs “Chicken for a buck! CHICKEN FOR A BUUUUUCK!!!” and began loading her cart.

The manager arrived right at that moment, apologized and began to correct the matter.

The woman went ballistic; screaming, shouting bloody blue murder, accusing him of stealing, of trying to starve her to death, etc. etc. etc. The price was 99 cents dammit, she deserved chicken for 99 cents!

The manager, in an effort to ease the situation, agreed. He told her that alright; she had ‘found’ the error; she could have a chicken for 99 cents.

There was a long pause as the woman looked dumbfounded. Then she launched herself at the table, screeching, trying to grab every chicken she could possibly get her hands on. Chickens were falling everywhere; spilling onto the floor. The manager tried to intervene but no help – she was grabbing, stuffing, howling; it was a disgusting display of a complete lack of dignity.

She was taken out of the store in handcuffs; without her 99 cent chicken. The entire batch of roast chicken was destroyed.

All I could do was shake my head – zero class.

Emotional attachment is fatal to a man

China and Vietnam, as opposed to both the capitalist USA and ultra-Communist North Korea, are Socialist market Economies which is the best of both worlds. Do you agree with me or not that they have the best economic outlook in the world and why?

Of course I agree with you absolutely, and any person could see it unless you are in denial or made brain dead by the western media.

They offer consistency and continuity in their policies to investors and business yet the protect their citizens against the ills of raw capitalism. In other words Socialism with Chinese characteristics takes the best of both worlds and rejects the flaws of both systems.

Hence the growth of both economies of China and Vietnam both grow phenomenally and consistently. For decades and now generations through ups and downs of the economic cycle. Westerners scream democratic and freedom but ignores the fallacy of this costly, inefficient and mostly corrupt system that put their people at the mercy raw capitalism.

If you look at the U.S. for example, 1% have more money than they ever need, 10% are wasteful and selfish but can afford to live comfortably , while 70% are poorer than most advance economies and in fact are like the majority of Chinese except that the Americans has to bear the burden of it’s weaker purchasing power in their country. The majority of Chinese has high disposable income. And while Chinese cut out the destitute poor in the past 10 years, the U.S. raw capitalism allowed the 19% in Americans to have to worry where their next meal is coming from and they barely have 500 dollars to their name!

A government role in a society is surely to bring prosperity, peace and harmony and healthy living for everyone. From that count the Chinese population enjoys that. Western liberal democracy allows the rich to get richer and the poor to be destitute. But because they wrongly thinks they need to overlord the entire world, they barely have enough money left to pay for infrastructure, college education or healthcare. So they fail the poor and pamper the rich!

Are you surprised that according to western surveys, 91% of Chinese favour their government and 36% of Americans favour their government! I am not! Are you?

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

It wasn’t a person, it was an insurance company.

My son was given a car for his birthday. We bought it. It was nice little car that had been wrecked and was repaired and had a salvage title. That meant that a previous insurance carrier had totalled it following the wreck, and it had been repaired and state certified to be safe.

Anyway, he had been driving it for several months to school and to work after school. This one day he was in his way to work and came to a stop sign. Stopped, insured the traffic was clear and went to make a left turn. Older lady than him (he was 17, she was 36) had stopped at the opposite stop sign and gunned it, hitting my son’s car in the back quarter panel and rear door on the passenger side. He called me and I went to the scene. The accident was on state highway, inside city limits. I had the option to have the highway patrol called to work the accident, however I decided to just let the local police work it. I spoke with the lady and she was all apologetic and saying she’d take off it…yeah, right…

She took care it alright. She whines and said that it wasn’t her fault, that kid just stomped on the gas and caused the accident. They took her word for it. Even though you could about tell from my son’s damage that she caused the accident.

So the next day, my son is home in bed sick. I’ve medicated him and he’s sleeping. The phone rings, it’s the insurance adjuster from her insurance. Absolutely demands to speak with my son. I tell him no, that my son is sick, had been medicated and it’s sleeping, and that I won’t wake him. Adjuster didn’t like that and was insistent. Well he woke Mama Bear…I told him that my son was 17, still a minor, and that he (the adjuster) would wait until I said that my son could talk with him, then I hung up.

Could days go by. Another phone call from someone else in that company. Says that my son was assigned 50% blame (no fault state here) because he turned into a four lane road and didn’t stay in the closest lane. I laughed and asked what town did your adjuster go to? My town has zero four lane roads, only part of the highway with a center turn lane, that ended 2 blocks before the intersection where the accident happened. They wouldn’t budge, so I said fine whatever, just cut me a check. BTW, they wouldn’t pay for a rental since my son wasn’t 21, and wouldn’t get one for me so I could let my son have my car, since I wasn’t in the accident… we only had liability insurance on my son’s car as it was so expensive, so they couldn’t do anything.

So I took pictures and sent them to the insurance adjuster and asked him to show me where the four lanes were. He tried to say the wide shoulder was a lane, yeah.. No.

Get another call, they do they’ll cut a check for less than half what we paid for the car, since it had a previous salvage title. Even with the salvage title, this care was with 4 times what they offered and twice what I paid. I only wanted them to pay what I had bought the car for. They refused, so I told them I’d let my attorney handle it from there on out. That gal said, “go ahead, we hear that all the time”. I said that fine, but do you hear this “I’m the biggest bitch in the state and I mean what I say”. She started spluttering and I just hung up.

We engage our attorney. The vehicle was towed to an indoor storage facility (the window was busted and the interior would have been exposed to weather). In the meantime, my son graduates high school and joined the army. After several months our attorney calls and says that the insurance company wants me to release the car to them as it’s racking up a huge bill. I asked if they were giving me what I wanted, he said no, they’d only come up to about 3/4 of my demands. I laughed and said no.

Another few months go by. Now my son has graduated basic and is almost finished with his advanced training and is days away from getting married. Insurance is whining about the storage fees again. Again they don’t want to pay. Of course once I hired our attorney, the suit included the insurance paying my attorney as well as the storage fees and the original cost of the car. So again I say no. I got a call from the storage facility. The was a tow truck there for the car. I drove there and told the driver nope, you can’t have it. He tried to say that he had orders to impound it… I laughed at I called my attorney.

So now it’s been over 2 years since the accident. My son and his wife are in Germany. I get a call from my attorney. He’s laughing his ass off. Said he had a check for me, $500 more than I asked for and all storage fees and his fees as well. Said the person he had been dealing with was whining about how hard I was to deal with and that I should have compromised sooner. Attorney told him that had I been given what I asked for at the get go, it would have been a hell of a lot cheaper. Was told that since hardly anyone actually engages an attorney, it’s the risk they take, and since their attorneys were on staff, they didn’t cost anything extra.

So because they wouldn’t pay out a measly $5400…it finally cost them almost $30,000.

I kept the extra $500 and sent the $5400 to my son.

So it might not have hurt the insurance company to shell out that $30k, but to me it was the principal. They thought because he was 17 that they could take advantage of him. They didn’t count on me.

The dying kitten turned into something unexpected

What is SpaceX doing differently that makes the company so successful?

I see a couple of answers that are good but don’t answer the whole question. Manufacturing is important but it is more than just that, but they are good at manufacturing.

1 – SpaceX has a strong bias toward action. Elon wants it done tomorrow and he expects you to work all night if you have to in order to make it. They definitely push action now. (Blue Origin started before them and still hasn’t made it to orbit. SpaceX did in 2008).

2 – SpaceX has a willingness to learn. They test early and often to learn about basic design flaws early. An example is the Starhopper. It was the simplest version you could ever build of a Starship. It was a tin can (actually fuel tanks) with an engine and a flight computer. They tested the engine and the control algorithm using that.

3 – SpaceX has a bias toward simplicity. One of Elon’s favorite sayings is “The best part if no part”. In other words they always look for ways to eliminate whole systems. Starship and the “catch” is an example of that. They eliminated landing gear and a few thousand pounds of structure to support it.

4 – SpaceX is willing to dream big and innovate. In 2010 when Elon said they would land boosters on the Falcon 9 and reuse them people laughed at him. That is impossible! They lost a couple figuring it out but they have now landed 239 of them as of 12/19/2023 according to their website. I assume that is updated for last night’s launch. (They launch a couple of times a week). For Starship they will catch the rocket during a controlled descent!

5 – SpaceX understands where the real cost of space travel comes from and avoid it. They try not to drop millions of dollars of flight hardware in the ocean. They also launch often to avoid accumulating costs (salaries) without income (launches) and are moving to improve both with Starship.

6 – They avoid silly costs like buying multi-million dollar NASA certified flight components. Instead they usually build their own from off-the-shelf commercial components and save millions.

The end result is they are doing things no one else can or will ever do. Next stop Mars!

When did you realize you’re an asshole?

My wife and I were visiting friends, and we’d all been joking around for a couple of hours. Some of the jokes were “mean” in the “I’m just busting your balls” sense, but I didn’t think there was any genuine meanness going on.

On the way home, my wife got really quiet. I asked her what was wrong, and she said, “You really don’t know, do you?” She then told me I’d seriously hurt her feelings.

My heart sank. That’s the one thing I never, ever want to do. She’s my best friend, and causing her pain is unforgivable. But, no, I didn’t know what I did. I had no idea what she was referring to.

She found this hard to believe, because, from her point of view, I embarrassed her in front of our friends by, out of the blue, accusing her of being “bad” in a very specific way (which I won’t go into here, because I’d hate to humiliate her, again).

Immediately, I remembered saying it, but … but … it had been a joke! We’d all been joking around, in a cutting sort of way, and I’d just joined in.

My wife said, “It didn’t sound like a joke!”

“But why would I purposefully want to hurt you?”

“I don’t know. I was flabbergasted when you said it. I guess you must resent me.”

I apologized. I hate it when people make excuses for themselves while apologizing (“I really, really meant it as a joke!”), so I didn’t. I said “I’m very sorry. I should never hurt you. That’s terrible. I love you.”

She gradually got over it—or pretended to—but I didn’t. I realized this has happened to me before, and, a few days later, I discussed this with my wife, being careful not to make anything sound like an excuse.

“I think sometimes, when I’m joking, I don’t signal the fact with an ‘I’m just kidding’ voice. Would you say that’s true?”

“Yes,” she said. “You have a very dry sense of humor. It’s often hard to tell if you’re joking or not. Sometimes I have to explain to people that you’re joking.”

I’m autistic, and though (after decades of work), my social skills are mostly indistinguishable from a non-autistic person, that’s one way I screw up. When joking, I have a totally flat affect. I don’t realize it at the time. I don’t feel like I have a dry sense of humor. In my head, I’m goofy, not dry, but the goofiness doesn’t always translate.

Once, at work, when, at the end of a meeting, my boss asked “What will you be working on tomorrow?”

I said, “I don’t plan on coming to work tomorrow. I think I’ve worked enough for one lifetime. I’m going to stay home from now on. That sounds like more fun.”

There was a long pause. Everyone stared at me. Finally, in a really quiet voice, someone asked “Are you joking?”

To me, it was obvious I was joking. But I was in a minority of one. And this wasn’t in a stodgy, conservative office. This was a partying crowd. (Part of the problem is that I tend to joke when I feel like it. I don’t wait until there’s a general “we’re joking now” vibe. This mistake isn’t terribly conscious on my part, but I’m vaguely aware that I do it.)

In addition to being autistic, I come from a part of the midwest where people naturally have a flat affect. I grew up around folks who sounded a little bit robotic, and I inherited their tendency to talk without much vocal music. (If you’ve heard Martin Starr’s voice on “Silicon Valley,” you know what I’m talking about.)

I thought more about that night, with my wife and our friends, and realized I’d been trying to impress them. Once the jokes got started, I wanted to out-joke everyone else, and I stopped caring about who I trampled on. While I hadn’t purposefully hurt my wife’s feelings, I had used her to get a cheap laugh.

And then I thought some more about it. The thing I’d “jokingly” accused her of was something about her that irritated me at times. Had I acted out, in a passive-aggressive way, instead of talking to her, directly? I can’t discount that possibility. If that’s what I did, I was an asshole.

A manly point of view

What smell will you never forget?

I went camping with my dog. We arrived at night and ended up in a remote area. I managed to get the tent up, get a fire going, plopped myself down with my dog at my side on a leash.

Suddenly she jumped and barked at something, I then smelled this weird smell, it was a grassy metallic smell that stung my nostrils. In that second i didn’t realize it was fresh skunk odor. My dog startled and lunged at the skunk and sprayed my girl right in the face, her eyes were slammed shut.

I had to take her to the water pump and wash her eyes out and wash her face and head as best as I could late at night.

Then I had another problem, where would my dog sleep ? I couldn’t leave her tied up outside due to the skunk and/or bears. If I left her in my car I would never get the smell out. So she slept in the tent and stunk the tent up.

I stuck it out, gave her several baths of dish soap,.hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. Still took,.weeks for the smell to go away.

She has a thick coat and for months I brushed or.petted her the skunk smell would drift out of her coat.

I never forgot that grassy metallic smell of fresh skunk odor and I hate skunk smell.

Walter is a man

What is the one in a million coincidence you have ever had?

I’m originally from Edinburgh, Scotland but now live in Perth, Australia. I had decided one day to visit AQUA which is Perth’s aquarium and was using a bus instead of driving. When we arrived at the stop for AQUA a young male and female were getting off too and asked the driver how to get to the aquarium ( it’s at the far end of a complex with shops, cafes, beachside etc) so I said I was going there too and would show them the way.

On walking we chatted and I realised the girl was Scottish and asked whether she was here on holiday. They both were and we discussed where she was from ..it was St Andrews. Further conversation re courses at Uni etc and she said she was studying Physics and Space Science at Edinburgh University. That was a coincidence as my niece had done a very similar course at Leicester Uni as Edinburgh didn’t have that course when my niece was at Uni. I told her my niece had done the course at Leicester and she said a friend of hers had also gone to Leicester. I mentioned my niece by Christian name and was asked what her surname was. The friend was my niece. Then I remembered my sister and her OH had friends who lived in St Andrews. This girl was the friend’s daughter and was only in Perth for a few days as she and her b/f were having a tour round Australia.

This girl’s father had been my sister and her OH’s best man at their wedding. If I hadn’t been on that bus on that particular day or if I hadn’t overheard them ask exactly where the aquarium was we would never have known the connection. Quite the coincidence.

Impossible to resist

Do you agree with James Stavridis that China is not ready to take on the US in a war for another 10 years?

If war means China going to the U.S. to fight America, then you are right. But it is a not factor. China does not want to do that unless the U.S. hit China. China won’t be the first to lay its hands by

If war means China fighting off U.S. in China which include Taiwan, China then let me make it super clear. China is super duper ready now to give the U.S. such a hiding it will collapse the U.S. financially, economically, politically and militarily that the U.S. will never be the same again. Don’t even think about it. Your media, your politician and say what you like but if we have to sink all you dozen aircraft carriers we will in the defence of the motherland.

I think the U.S. knows that, that is why it won’t dare. But god help the U.S. if move beyond talking shit.

When the crab walk comes out… its game over

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WewqqBCs0mA/frame0.jpg

Before leaving after being fired, what’s the most that one can sabotage the office without getting caught?

The research company I worked for was downsizing. My previous boss had already been let go and my new boss kept sending his employees to learn everything in my department. Well one fave employee thought she was better at my job and kept trying to change our protocols. She never actually did any work, just made our lives miserable.

Then the day came where new boss walked in and started handing out moving boxes. He didn’t even say a word, just passed out the boxes. We all packed up and left. Now my lab was a resource lab that did a ton of work for the other labs. Suddenly me and all my staff were let go and the new boss handed it over to his people.

Guess what? They had never done these procedures, used the high tech equipment or even understood the complicated algorithms to process the data. First week I get 9 phone calls asking for help. That was met with a big NOPE. Then I get a call that the favorite employee had mishandled one of the very expensive robot units and it was out of order. They wanted ME to come in and reprogram it and get them back up and running. Oh heck no! I never went back and never helped.

Lesson of my story is don’t play favorites and make sure you have the staff to accomplish the job.

Weight lifting emergency

What is the most outrageous thing you’ve witnessed in a plane?

It was in the 90’s on an international flight. There was a middle aged lady with a Gameboy playing a game at full volume after the lights went out and most of the passengers were sleeping.

People were asking her, then telling her, to shut off the sound. It appeared as though she did not speak English. So one guy rang the flight attendant, who came quickly, but could not communicate with the lady. She got another flight attendant who spoke the woman’s language, who seemingly asked her very politely to turn off the sound. Sorry, I don’t know what language it was. And if I did I wouldn’t say.

As soon as the flight attendant walked away, she started another game. Beep, beep, boing.

Angry passengers were yelling at her. Her husband got up to defend her. Someone rang the flight attendant again. You could tell by the exasperated sigh of the flight attendant that she knew what was going on.

She scolded the woman (assuming from her tone), who pretended to be hurt. It just kept getting stranger and stranger.

The woman shut off the Gameboy and put it away. But as soon as the flight attended walked away, she pulled it out and started another game. Beep, beep, boing. Here we go again.

Finally, a big burly man walked over, put his big hand on the husband’s shoulder and warned him, “I have no problem with you, but you better sit down if you know what’s good for you.” The husband might not have spoken English, but he sat down.

The big man pulled the Gameboy out of the woman’s hands, pulled off the back, took the batteries out, and gave it back to her. She was now screaming in a language I did not understand.

“You’ll get the batteries back when we land. If you had just turned down the sound this wouldn’t have happened.” He was raising his voice, partially because he was angry, but partially because he thought she didn’t speak English.

Finally, as he went back to his seat, she stood up and yelled in perfect English,
“F**K YOU!!! IT’S NOT AS FUN WITHOUT THE SOUND!!!”

What is the largest amount of money you have ever given to a stranger?

I once offered $5,000 toward state-of-the-art proton beam radiotherapy to a very good friend of mine. After speaking with his mother, he told me no, because she had advised him that, when he was unable to pay me back, I would sue him.

I, in fact, never made this $5,000 loan. — That he turned it down made him, in a way, a stranger to me; it’s almost impossible to go from a state of literally talking about everything little thing of the day with your buddy to … in all likelihood, slowly, he is dying of cancer; he probably won’t be here in five years.

I hope he’ll be here in 20. — For a cancer that is only responsive to surgery yet located in a place that barely tolerates any surgery, much less surgical resection, — for a cancer that has no effective chemotherapy treatments, curative or palliative; that, even for proton beam therapy, it’s probably not going to work.

And, you only get one shot (pretty much). — Getting the proton beam therapy twice carries about the same risk of catching another fatal cancer, so the utility-maximizing function aspect of this changes.

The part of my brain that is finance-oriented — that manifold — expects a forecast of a certain result, and deviation from that result, whether up or down, is necessarily bad.

If you forecast profits of $0, and in reality, you received $100,000, then great, but it’s still a problem from a risk perspective.

People do small things now. They will choose not to homestead their homes. I don’t know why; always reason. Perhaps… not planning on staying here all that long. Yes, but the money you’d save in taxes would… pay for the radiotherapy.

Do you see where this is going?

The whole new-money/old-money part of the film, Titanic, is interesting in how correct it is, and how misleading it is.

Rose is everything great about old money with none. Jack, of course, is fictional.

—

Jack woulda lost the best. Jack woulda died under the bridge.

Jack would’ve been of a mindset that you could not trust him with a blue diamond necklace but for if he were even accused of stealing it, he would never see the light of day again. — William Blake writes of circumstances like this (see: end of Auguries of Innocence).

This person and his mother are not crazy. There is no reason to think they would not be able to understand that you cannot sue someone for return of a gift.

But, it would take someone, for lack of a better term — like me —, to explain this to him/them, and they don’t want to believe it. I don’t know.

Maybe $5,000 was never enough. — Or, maybe we should not second-guess people. I know what they said.

Hungarian Stew with Noodles

Ingredients

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 large garlic clove
5 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 medium onions, sliced
3 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 bay leaf
1 (16 ounce) package bow tie macaroni
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon minced parsley
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon caraway seed

Instructions

In an 8-quart Dutch oven over medium heat in hot oil, cook garlic 1 minute (discard), add stew meat and onions. Cook until meat is lightly browned.
Stir in tomato paste, water, paprika, salt, pepper and bay leaf. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 2 hours or until fork-tender, stirring often.
Cook noodles, drain and toss with butter and parsley.
To serve, sprinkle stew with lemon peel and caraway seed.

Servings: 12

CNN predicts in its December 27, 2023 article that China is stuck in the “middle income trap” and it will experience an economic decline throughout the next decade. Do you agree?

You need to be able to read through English and dissect what CNN says

In most of the Media propaganda, they generally don’t lie about the content, they mislead people through the Headline and the Conclusion

For instance, they say Chinas Economic Growth will decline

It will

China grew at 7.41% from 2013–2023 and now will grow at around a worst case of 3.93% from 2023–2033

That is a decline in growth by 47%

Any non economist who reads this will say the same thing

However let’s look at 2003–2013

Chinas average growth was 11.21% from 2003–2013

Thus Chinas growth rate ALSO declined from 2003–2013 to 2013–2023 by 34%

Now let’s see another thing

How much population growth contributed to GDP growth in each decade

2003–2013 – it was 4.9%

2013–2023 – it is 0.8%

2023–2033 – it is going to be 0%

How much Government spending contributed to GDP each decade?

2003–2013 – It was 13.90%

2013–2023 – It is 6.30%

2023–2033 – It’s going to be 3%

How much will Real Estate contribute to GDP growth each decade?

2003–2013 – It was 15.75%

2013–2023 – It is 10.77%

2023–2033 – It will be 0%

What do you see here?

You see that the GDP Growth for China from 2023–2033 will be entirely from solid areas instead of paper growth

High Technology Manufacture & Domestic Consumption which accounted for 1% in 2003–2013, 3.1% in 2013–2023 will account for 14% of Chinas GDP Growth in 2023–2033

So Chinas 3.93% will almost entirely build it’s foundation economy and not it perceptionary economy

By 2033, China will have an immensely strong economy and resilient one

Not a flimsy paper economy

What screams “I’m pretending to be upper class”?

I had a classmate who must have married a rich guy. I didn’t even try to keep in touch with her after high school. But we ended up friends on Facebook. That was the time I just accepted every friend request from everybody I’d ever met in life.

After a while, she started to get on my nerves. She constantly complained about her upper class problems.

I don’t think I have time to get the cabin ready for summer. All the linens I ordered haven’t come in yet. I want to kids to sleep on new sheets, not last year’s garbage.
Paris was great, but now we don’t have enough time to get the boat ready for the lake.
I just hope the new furniture arrives at the cabin on time.
The painters came on the wrong day. They were supposed to come before the new carpet, and before the furniture arrived. So we had to put our new living room furniture in the theater room. It’s so inconvenient.
Can somebody teach me how to use the navigation system in my new Mercedes S Class? I miss my BMW 740i. I just can’t learn a new navigation system every year like this.
Just got back from Hawaii for Christmas. Now I have to supervise these caterers for the New Year party.

I later found out that they had a second mortgage on the house, credit card debt, and they were a month away from foreclosure. That didn’t make me happy, but it explained why she was always complaining about her problems. She was trying to make people that she hadn’t seen in a decade think that she was doing fine.

What is a slap-in-the-face job offer?

“What is a slap-in-the-face job offer”?

I was given a notice that I was going to be let go and a slap-in-the-face job offer from the same employer in the same week! let me explain….

I had been working for the same employer for years (on and off) and my group was getting a little light on work, although there was a lot more work on the horizon. One day, I was pulled into the Manager’s office and was notified that I would be laid off in 2 weeks. I wasn’t really shocked, as I could see the writing on the wall due to light workload. I was offered 2 months severance at my current salary and would be paid out my remaining vacation time. Considering that I was being fired, the severance package offered was pretty good. I signed on the dotted line!

With my impending unemployment looming in the distance, I began working my network for a new gig. After about a week, I had a few interesting local prospects. It was then that a supervisor in another part of the company that I was being let go from contacted me. He said that they would like to retain me and rip up my forced resignation letter, but only if I would agree to a 20% pay cut and a relocation. I had 5 days to decide, which was pretty stressful, considering that I had a family to support and potentially uproot.

I was slightly insulted and my soon to be former co-workers thought it was a big slap-in-the-face, considering that I had been slated for a lot of future work at my current salary. Come to find out, the company had realized that I was needed, but wanted to make some extra coin off me by paying me less and billing me at my previous higher rate to clients. After all my years of service, commendations, and happy clients, the company I had worked weekends for, neglected my friends and family for, and sacrificed my time with my kids for, was trying to take advantage of me by trying to put me in a bind and forcing me to decide quickly on a bad offer.

Anyhow, a direct competitor was interested in my services and immediately offered me a slightly better salary than I was currently making with better benefits. They wanted to scoop me up before I accepted the bad deal. I turned down the 20% pay cut offer, accepted my resignation and 2 months severance package and took a wonderful 1 month vacation. After a month, I began working for my new employer, which happened to be across the street from my former employer. Within a year, my former employer was bought by a huge international company and a lot of people quit or were fired. I am very happy with my new employer.

What is the most dangerous situation you have ever found yourself in, and how did you deal with it?

I worked in admin with only men in my departement in a company that worked at airplane propellor⁹ services, a very strickt environment. I needed a better chair and some cabinets. The head of the supply departement, a gorilla type man, accompanied me to a shack on the premesis. We went inside and he locked the door with a padlock. I acted like I hadn’t noticed. I babbled along about what I thought was suitable, testing some chairs, opening cabinets, heart pounding! Meanwhile he laid out some flat cartboard boxes on the floor. I knew if he’d assault me I could never win. Again I pretended not to notice and asked about his kids who were back in school after the summer holidays. That made him snap out of it. I asked him to load up a few items and he did. He opened the padlock and we went back into the main building. I went straight to HR. I told the shocked woman over there I wanted him to be warned because he had a family but never let him be alone with a woman again! He was mad at me for making him look bad ‘because nothing had happened’. My direct supervisor let everybody know what happened and all the men took my side. He was not fired (my request, everybody needs a second chance) but they added a black page in his file.

Who was the most interesting person you’ve ever been seated next to on an airplane?

Maggie.

My husband and I were coming home from Puerto Rico, flying into Pittsburgh that night. A small, stereotypical family sat in front of us: attractive father, beautiful young mother, and two adorable kids, one still an infant and the other a toddler. We’re minding our own business when, out of the corner of my eye, I see the toddler looking at me from the openings between the seats.

“Hi!”

I smiled and said hello, and she took that as an opportunity to tell me literally everything about her life. Her mom kept giving me this patronizing look (like, “God, I’m so sorry she’s talking to you; if I could get her to shut up I totally would”) and saying “Maggie, let’s leave them alone and sit in our seats, OK?”

She told me her name was Maggie and she likes pink, blue, and black. She’s 3 years old, and how old are we? “You’re 22? And he (my husband, Joe) is 24? So you’re both 22. OK!” Maggie lives in Ithaca, New York, and loves flowers like the ones I have on my arms (tattoos) but “you shouldn’t draw on yourself with markers so much Miss Katie!” While she was in PR she “did some bad but also cool things,” and she’s going home to see Uncle Mark, who’s sick right now, so she isn’t going to hug him. “Who’s that guy with you? Joe? So Mr. Joe is your son, right? Miss Katie, can you tell your son to wake up? I’d like to talk to him.”

This carried on for the entirety of the two and a half hour flight we were on. I loved her, but my husband wasn’t so fond: she really liked him for some reason or another, and he wanted to sleep. Maggie’s mom kept telling her to turn around because, as Maggie had already put it, “the sun was going into the water so it’s almost bedtime for my brother. Do you want to see my brother? He’s a baby still.” At which point she proceeded to pull her infant brother’s foot over to the side of the plane by the window and show him to me through the cracks of the seats. I cackled.

Joe kept trying to sleep. He had headphones on, and she told him that she liked his earmuffs, but hers were nicer because they’re pink and black but she only wears them in the winter. As my husband drifted off to sleep, she yelled, “Wake up Joe!” I cackled some more, and she kept playing with him, poking him and saying that she “got him,” and asking Mr. Joe questions about his games and what movies he likes.

Meanwhile, her parents were asking the entire time for her to leave us alone, stop bothering them, “Maggie, do you want to color? Maybe if you’re quiet and color you can show them a picture when you’re done!” and all sorts of other mom things. Once, Maggie left for a few minutes and distracted herself with a game, but came back after a bit and said over the top of the seat, “I know I left, but I came back because I like you guys. You’re very fun!”

I loved Maggie. She kinda grew on my husband towards the end there, and I think he actually liked the attention. After the flight, her parents turned to us and introduced themselves, and apologized for her bothering us the whole flight. I said it was fine, not to worry about it, and that she certainly wasn’t bothering us. They thanked me for being so nice to her, and her mom said, “Yeah, but I want you to know that now, you both will be members of our household for the next two months. She’s going to go to bed every night and say, ‘Momma, do you remember Mr. Joe and Miss Katie? Can you tell me a bedtime story about them?’”

I think about Maggie often and hope that one day her mom tells her about Mr. Joe and Miss Katie from the flight back from Puerto Rico. I miss her sometimes, especially since she was better at waking my husband up than I am.

Ambush | Full Movie (action Movie with Nicolas Cage)

https://youtu.be/ykXL0YXVZBs

CB Memories

Back in the 1970’s there was this fad. It was the CB Radio fad, and everyone seemed to end up with a Citizens’ Band radio in the car. Ah. We all had slang that we would use, and there were many a useless discussion over the air that we all endured.

I had one. My brother had one. My parents had one. My friends all had one.

It was so “hip” at the time, don’t you know.

Now, we have cell phones, social media and all the rest. But every now and then, I get an itching to reach for the CB to find out what is going on regarding an accident that I just passed on the road.

Fads come and go.

And everything that we consider normal today, will eventually be viewed as a strange fad by others. Enjoy them while you have them.

Today…

Have you ever regretted saving a patient?

Yes. The paramedics brought her in from a nursing home and they had been doing CPR for a while. The patient had been in and out of perfusing rhythms the entire time. She looked very old and frail and chronically ill. I asked the medics if she had a DNR order and they just rolled their eyes. The lead medic told me that they asked the same thing but the nursing home staff couldn’t locate the paperwork and because they couldn’t be sure they initiated resuscitation.

We didn’t have anything on record either but I wasn’t really committed to CPR and shocking and all the drugs necessary to keep this poor woman alive when her quality of life was likely so bad. I decided to give one round of drugs and then stop if there was no response. We did just that and much to my surprise she responded. Her heart started out slowly and gained momentum. Within a couple minutes she had a stable blood pressure. After a while she even began to attempt breathing on her own.

It wasn’t long before the family arrived and told us that the patient’s wishes were to NOT be resuscitated. They told us that she would never want to be kept alive this way and demanded that we stop the ventilator and medicines. So, I did. Despite stopping all support she continued to live. Ultimately, we admitted her to the hospital and she continued on in a sort of half-life state. This went on for days. Days!

I went to see her and the family a few times when they were there in the hospital and just felt terrible for them all. They were unhappy with me but they also understood why we did what we did. Ultimately, they sort of took it out on the nursing home staff and not the medics or me.

In the end, she died with her family all around her. Several members were able to travel in to say goodbye before she passed because of the hospital course. I suppose it all worked out the way it was supposed to. I still regretted it though.

It’s fun until it isn’t

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BFwQhDrX0hE?feature=share

English Beef Steak Pie

Ingredients

1 pound boneless round steak, trimmed
6 to 8 russet potatoes, pealed and cubed
1 large onion, sliced and separated
1/2 cup flour
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup water
1 pie crust (to cover top of pie)

Instructions

In a deep glass baking dish (either round or square, Corning or glass), layer meat, potato and onion, sprinkling flour over each layer.
Salt and pepper each layer.
Pour water slowly over layers and top with rolled out crust.
Roll edges of crust under around the edge and flute to seal edges to pan. Vent with knife several times.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about one hour until water bubbles and gravy have formed. Pierce with a cake tester through vents for doneness of potatoes.
Serve with a green salad.

Compromise

As a trial attorney, what is the most ridiculous outburst you have seen first-hand in court?

Maybe it wasn’t rediculous as you mean but it was the biggest and it was Mine. I was representing a 15 year old pregnant girl. CPS wanted her sent to a reformatory. I wanted her sent to a girls school. The CPS worker testified that the girl should go to jail because when she was 5 yes five she seduced her father ( an executive with a big company). The girl had been raped by her father for years.

The girl said to me “ you told me that wasn’t my fault.” In the courtroom before God Judge and country I grabbed that CPS worker and tried to pound her into the floor.

It wasn’t looking good for me but the judge made an immediate order. He ordered the CPS worker to personally pay for the girl to go to the private girls school. (about 3times her annual salary) . I waited all day to be arrested. Finally a call came that I was wanted back in court.

It was announced that no charges would be brought against me and the order against the CPS worker was dropped and the order to pay made against the agency. The CP S worker was also to resign.

I’m not a violent person but only so much can be let go I guess at time I lost sight of my life and career and could only see my client.

I have gotten some nice comments. I need to add that before I went for this person the judge asked her if she had done everything she could for the girl. Her response was “I have been wonderful”. I am not proud of getting violent. It is very rare in my life. I was happy with the outcome but I risked getting my license and going to jail. I need to make a clarification here. I was in law school then. i was representing her as her probation officer. It was in the early 70s. A child’s right to an attorney was based on the parents ability to afford one. I was the closest thing to a lawyer she had.

PS. if you read about incest cases, or any sexual abuse cases of very young children, the children are usually taught by their abusers how to “please” them. they are basically taught to mimic seductive behavior. They are not seductive. They are merely mimicking what they have been taught to do, but not everybody sees it that way. many overtly seductive Teenagers have been molested in this manner as a child, but they are just labeled as seductresses. I guess it is easier for some people to blame a child than it is for them to take the time to learn about the effects of abuse on children. I was often called in by other probation officers when they had an uncomfortable feeling about a case because I could see these types of behaviors even minor ones. i’ll never know how many cases I didn’t catch, but I was never wrong when I called it.

Killer Thinks He Got Away With Murder – Doesn’t Know 5 YO Survived | The Morrissey Family Case

What types of problems do Asian Americans face in Asia?

Not quite fitting in, this applies to ALL overseas types, near ones (Malaysia, Singapore) and far ones. USA, Europe.

An example is this

vs this

Superficially we look similar but we’re quite different.

You stand me next to some China born Chinese and you’ll feel there’s something off.

The foreign diet in our formative years changes us. I was a LOT fatter (though thing for westerners) and had a rounder chunkier face.

The life experiences also make us stand differently. I’ve written previously that in the UK if you’re weak (doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, Indian or Chinese) people will pick on you. So there’s an outward portray of aggression already… probably why cops stop me so much.

That’s just the visual things.

Then we’ve got psychology, culture and language.

All of which means you fit in even less. You can as again fit in on a superficial level but go any deeper and you’re spotted.

Being different leads to disimilar treatment sometimes, sometimes this is good, sometimes this is bad.

Mentally Ill USA

New York 1966

She Thinks An AVERAGE “D” Size Is SMALL?

The USA is so messed up.

What is the perfect thing to say when someone is being rude to you?

My wife and I brought her car in for service at the dealership and we’re looking around while waiting. A young salesman asked if he could show us around. I said we are just there for service.

After talking a while about their new cars, he went to get “the closer” a big fellow who obviously had been there for a while. He began to say things like what would I need to do to get you into this vehicle and make me an offer. I told him we weren’t in the market for a car; I research such matters before making such a purchase; and, for me to buy a car today, he would probably have to nearly give it to me. I told him if I made him an offer, I was sure he would find it insulting.

I did let him pull my credit. This would have made it very clear that I was highly successful in financial services sales. Which is what makes his subsequent rudeness particularly inconceivable.

He continues to insist that I make an offer. I finally offer him probably half of what the car is worth (because I would have bought it on the spot at that price). He is insulted.

He then leans over me (with my wife still sitting next to me) and says:

“At some point in your life, you’re going to have to become man enough to be able to make a decision.”

I instantly replied:

“It’s not my manhood in question here; I’m not the one who can’t close this deal.”

I only saw the stunned look on his face for a moment before he turned to walk away.

Harsh truth

Do police officers care about you?

June 2nd, Midnight; a 15 yo boy Zohaib posted a suicide note over social media; stating he’s going to end his life today.

I browsed through a lot of tweets posted from other users on the topic, and learned that the boy lives in my city on XYZ road. That’s it.

The problem is that, on the said ‘miles long’ road there are dozens of towns and neighborhoods interconnected, I mean, that is very incomplete piece of information to effectively and timely counter such an issue of extraordinary sensitive nature.

I responded to him immediately, and also requested public to send me any information or clue they might have about this boy.

And that interaction of mine resulted in one of the most burdensome barrage of tweets and DMs I’ve ever received as social media handler of city police, the number was literally in thousands. That kid’s name was trending nationwide on twitter during this fiasco. But sadly, nothing useful came out of this interaction tsunami, all I had was first name of the boy and that he lives somewhere in my city.

I calmly reviewed the situation for a minute; I mean our field officers are ‘head to toe’ engaged with crime fighting day in & day out, responding to the calls, handling cases one over the other, and now comparatively… I have this first of its kind situation where a boy wants to commit suicide about whom we know nothing… could even be a prank for goodness sake.

Nope. I told myself.

We should find and rescue him, no matter what it takes…we gotta!

I got Police Chief in the loop, by his orders Police command & Control was now at my disposal. Which I believe is the most sophisticated and comprehensive system of surveillance, communication and patrolling all across the country. We were about to to execute a time sensitive search and rescue task. Our officers responded to the given locations and secured the entry exit points; while being on the look out.

And that minute, I learned over social media that the boy has fled home, he’s on the loose!

Holy cow!

We didn’t panic with the thought of him doing something foolish while on the run, though it was a legitimate concern. We kept striving, I dispatched teams here and there upon receiving bits of information from concerned twitter users, and then the magic happened…. we got his address. Somebody finally recognized him I guess even though there was no display picture or anything else but the that helped us greatly. Now that is something, I can work with.

He wasn’t home but now we knew who he is. So technical resources along with human intelligence played the good part, he was tracked and in minutes… secured!

And all of this happened under an hour.

He was anxious and nervous… but otherwise fine and safe. His parents thanked the Police, the situation came back to normal.

Next day while I was at work, various news teams arrived at my office and I was genuinely surprised to learn that this episode has made to the news, even to BBC. I was directed to speak a few words on camera, which I did even though I hate to.

Those of you who know me for a long time, I really do not appreciate the idea of being on the limelight for many reasons. I have politely excused out of numerous feature stories and interviews all these years.

I’m not a celebrity, never was. Super hero, Yes. But not a show off… for that is not what cops are meant to be. That is why you see the big-ass mask on me even though I was requested twice that it is perfectly alright to slide it down a little during the talk. Nope!

Do police officers care about you? YES. Dogmatically!

I’ll do whatever it takes to protect and serve you, I will put my life on the line to save yours! And here “I” stands for Police officers you see daily around you no matter wherever you are.

Start your journey

Not wealth, but really in the things that matter to you.

Figgy Pudding

Figgy Pudding is a type of Christmas pudding which was originally made with figs. It may be baked, steamed in the oven, boiled or fried. Figgy Pudding dates back to 16th century England.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

300ml (1/2 pint) milk (10 fluid ounces)
225g (8 ounces) flour (2 cups)
175g (6 ounces) dried figs
150ml (1/4 pint) Brandy (5 fluid ounces)
110g (4 ounces) suet
110g (4 ounces) prunes
85g (3 ounces) raisins or sultanas
50g (2 ounces) dried apricots
50g (2 ounces) dates
25g (1 ounce) dried apples
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

On the day before making the pudding, place the dried apricots, prunes and apples to soak in water and place the raisins or sultanas to soak in the brandy.
Remove the stones from of the dates and prunes.
Butter a large pudding basin or double boiler bowl.
Sift flour into a bowl.
Stir in suet and mix to a fairly soft dough with cold water.
Turn out on to a floured surface. Lightly knead until smooth.
Roll out two-thirds of pastry into a round and use to line a well-greased 2-pint pudding basin (or double boiler bowl).
Melt the honey and stir in the ginger and cinnamon. Add to the soaked fruits and brandy mixture. Mix well and place into the pastry lined bowl. Moisten edges of pastry with water. Cover with lid, rolled from remainder of the pastry. Press edges well together to seal. Cover securely with greased greaseproof paper or aluminum foil.
Steam steadily for 2 hours. Ensure that the water does not evaporate, topping it up from time to time with boiling water.
Turn out onto a plate and serve.

Something good about this man

What is your biggest mistake or regret?

Starting a “STARTUP” with best friends.

Three years back, in 2013, one evening, I was having casual discussions with my friend, lets call him “Mr.S”. We were discussing on different topics like current trends, jobs, future life, family and friends, money. At that time, I was working in a software company with little experience of 1.5 years and some cash in my account. S was studying hard to clear his remaining subject which forced him to take a year gap. And same was the case with “Mr.P” too, he is the third character in my story.

Let me tell you, we all are intelligent students. But because of some mistakes and their habit of taking things lightly cost them a year gap. In fact, Mr.P was smarter than me in every department. Mr.S was not good at academics but he was too good at marketing and some other “special” skills.

We three were together from last 7.5 years. We sat on one bench. We studied together. We stayed together. We tripped together. We partied together. We lived together. We participated and won lots of competitions together. And most important – we dreamed together. Everyone from our batch including teachers used to tell us — you 3 idiots are awesome.

Everything in life was going in a right direction. But let me remind you one of the laws of Mr.Murphy, “In nature, nothing is ever right. Therefore, if everything is going right, something is wrong.” [src: http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-laws.html]. And exactly, same thing happened with us.

Lately, I was thinking a lot about starting a business. Starting a start-up. Starting an IT Company. Starting an IT Training institute. Starting something related to IT. I discussed these thoughts with Mr.S. And guess what, he completely agreed with my ideas and within a few minutes we were business partners! I started giving more time to the thoughts on business. Within some days, we decided to include Mr.P in our team, as he was our best friend and also a sound person with technical knowledge. We shared all these thoughts with Mr.P and he also agreed to join us on the long adventure. But assured us that he’ll join the company after a few months.

So basically everything needed to start a startup was ready. We had a team. Me as a sole investor, lead technical person and of course, the CEO. Along with that I also had a role of Software Engineer in the company where I was working concurrently. It was a big task for me to handle both the tasks – a job and a start up.

My job was the main source of finance for my family and for the startup also. Mr.S was assigned the role of getting assignments and marketing department, while Mr. P was going to look after the training and in-house development. We also had few projects to start with. We also hired 2 people to work with us.

After few months, I made an investment of ₹2 lac (~$3000) and bought 4 advanced PCs, also rented out a small place to start our work in. And, within a span of 4 months, our small startup was on its way onto a long journey. We held a small inaugural function and celebrated. Yeah, that was quite an achievement for us. We started our working together.

But there was a small problem, Mr.P was yet to join the company. He earlier promised us to join the company, yet after 3 months, he was not interested in joining the company. After thinking a lot, I decided to talk to him about his decision and why he was not joining office. His answers gave me the biggest shock of my life. He refused to join the company. His reasons were like, “I am not seeing future in your company. Another friend of us started another startup and he is taking me in his team. I need money right now.” Guys, let me tell you, I also offered him mighty amount of salary. But still, he refused my invitation politely and sent a long message reasoning why he won’t join the company. Most of the reasons were BS. And story of Mr.P was finished. Completely.

Lesson#1 learned [in a hard way]: Do not trust the promises of everyone. Everybody is not loyal to his/her own words.

I was shell shocked, shattered, and quiet depressed after hearing his decision and answer. I was scattered from inside. I decided to keep the work running with Mr.S along with the two hired people. Things were getting more and more difficult.

Fast forward 4-5 months.

Mr.S was looking after the marketing and product sales things, he was the main guy our customers were dealing with. Whereas I was busy in development and resource management.

One day, while managing balance sheets, I figured out there was a record missing for a sum of ₹20000 (~$300). Out of curiosity, when I asked Mr.S about the missing ₹20000, his answers were not logical. They were irrelevant. They were lies. I got to know that he was playing some tricks and using the company’s money for his own personal use. His most funny reply was, “Dude, chalta hai… busy log hain hum, chhoti chhoti details par dhyan nahi rakhte“. [Dude, We are too busy people, we should not focus on such small details]. For him ₹20K was a small amount, but it wasn’t for me.

We had a bitter argument on this and it resulted into disagreement. And we decided to separate. Decided to drive on our separate ways. But he put one condition. He will retain the “business name“. As he was looking after the marketing and other things, he decided to go after the name and customers. And in such way, my first startup was dead.

Lesson#2 learned [in a harder way]: Be careful who you bring to the top with you, not everyone is loyal.

Image Source : Google

P.S. I allowed him to use the business name, because of two reasons:

I was ready to work with anyone, but not with a treacherous friend.
I trust myself, I was alone at the start and will fight the battle alone, will re-build everything from scratch. One can delay me, but can never stop me from achieving my dreams.

Edit 1: From last 2 years, we 3 have never met, talked or discussed about each other.

Being nice

New York 1966

What scandals should NOT have been forgotten?

In June, 1954, US Senator Lester C. Hunt (D-WY) shot himself to death with a rifle at his desk in his US Senate office in Washington, DC. Senator Hunt had been despondent over threats he had received – from Sen. Joe McCarthy and two Republican colleagues, Senator Herman Welker (R-ID) and Senator Styles Bridges (R-NH) – that lurid reports of the arrest of Hunt’s son the previous year would be made public, both in Washington and in his home state of Wyoming, embarrassing Hunt and putting his upcoming reelection bid in peril. The younger Hunt had been arrested and charged with soliciting sex from a male police officer, who was working a sting operation in a Washington park. The charges were later dismissed, but McCarthy and his cronies discovered the fact, and pressured the police department into refiling the charges. Hunt was under great pressure from McCarthy, demanding that he resign, which would have effectively given the Republicans control of the Senate. At the time, Democrats controlled the US Senate by just one vote, and a Hunt resignation would have put the Senate into a tie, enabling the Republicans to gain control, since then-Vice President Richard Nixon would serve as tiebreaker. After Hunt’s death, the Republican governor of Wyoming appointed a Republican to fill Hunt’s unexpired term, who in turn declined to run for the seat in that fall’s election, a race that was won by a Democrat. Unfortunately, the Republicans flipped other Senate seats in 1954, and took control on their own. This scandal was downplayed for many years, but it also occurred in the shadow of the Army-McCarthy hearings, which were going on at the time of Hunt’s death. Even today, there is little awareness of the scandal in Wyoming, and few Americans know that it took place at all. Interestingly, though, Hunt is known as the driving force behind Wyoming’s famous “bucking bronco” license plate emblem, having commissioned the artist to create the design during his years as Governor of Wyoming.

The USA is totally fucked up

Why didn’t you leave a tip at a restaurant?

I went to a famous pancake restaurant that was promoting its new burgers. I saw an ad offering them for $5.99 with unlimited fries and a free drink. I pointed to the jalapeno kick burger and asked the waitress to verify that this burger was, in fact, part of the $5.99 special. When she said, “yes,” I then ordered this burger. I had a $10 gift card, and my intention was to tip the waitress the remaining amount after taxes, which would have made it a 50% tip.

However, when I got the bill, I saw was charged $9.29 for the burger. When I called the waitress over to tell her about the mistake, she said that the burger I chose was not included in the special and that I needed to pay regular price. Naturally, I told her that I deliberately asked her if this burger was included before I ordered it and that she confirmed me it was. Her response was that she didn’t understand what burger I wanted.

I explained the situation to the manager, saying I would not have ordered it if the waitress did not tell me it was part of the special, that they cannot charge me for the server’s mistake. The manager called the server over and she had the nerve to deny that I even asked her about the burger being a part of the promotion. Unbelievably, the manager said she must take the server’s word for it.

In front of the waitress, I presented my $10 gift card, telling the manager, I was going to give the waitress what would have remained from my $5.99 burger, which would have been a nice tip. However, since she won’t own up to her mistake, she will now receive what is left from my $9.29 burger (which after taxes was about a nickel).

New York 1966

Woke challenge

What’s the most ridiculous adult tantrum you’ve witnessed that you couldn’t believe?

Waiting in line at an auto parts store and the guy in front of me sets down an alternator and asked the clerk for a water pump. The clerk naturally is confused and asks about the alternator. The guy tells him it’s a water pump and that’s why he asked for a water pump.

The clerk tries nicely to correct him, even shows the guy a picture of an alternator vs. a water pump for his specific car. To no avail the guy “knows more” than this poor clerk. Who I might add is 100% correct that the alternator is NOT a water pump. The power connections kind of gives it away specially when there are no hose attachments for it to pump coolant a.k.a. water.

Anyway, the guy just goes nuts. Throws the alternator at the poor clerk luckily missing his intended target. Makes huge threats about calling corporate; of course he has tons of friends on social media so he threatens to close the store down. On and on this guy goes about how much smarter he is than anyone behind the counter, how they always give him the wrong part. I swear it lasted 20 minutes. Anyway, the manager was in the back counting out the money or stocking something, not really sure, but she was in the back. She comes out, picks up the alternator, sets it on the counter, and asks the guy why he is throwing such a temper tantrum over an alternator.

Oh here we go again! How dare a woman correct him. She doesn’t know shit about cars. What’s a woman doing working at an auto parts store. The vile shit just kept going. Well, during ALL of this mess someone in the oil section decided to call the cops. At some point the cops sneak in and are right behind me and this entire mess. I’m gently pushed aside and they yell, “Sir!” real loudly. He turns and goes ghostly white. The cops start asking about the situation. One has taken the rest of us aside, found the caller, and we are telling them what we witnessed. The other officer is talking with mister alternator/water pump.

Next thing you know he is under arrest and as they are escorting him out we hear one officer tell the other officer that arguing about alternators was the dumbest thing they have witnessed all month. To which the guy yells, “It’s a fucking water pump!”

What did someone say in court that made you burst out laughing?

When my son was in elementary school he was beaten up by two older students to the point he required hospital care. Since the two boys were going into high school next year and it was the last day of school both the principal and superintendent said there was nothing they could do. I called the police and had them charged. One officer went to the hospital and saw my son and two more took the boys away in handcuffs at the school. When the case went to court I told my son to be honest and don’t guess. The boys had been in trouble before so the parents hired a good criminal lawyer.

My son was on the stand for over an hour being grilled by the lawyer and the judge was getting fed up. The lawyer asked my son how he knew who was kicking him. Basically he said “ I was being kicked by a Doc Martin shoe which was on a foot which was on a leg which was on a body and his head was on it” I could see the judge shaking in silent laughter and the stenographer laughing in her Dictaphone. The courtroom was silent with muffled laughter. The lawyer also stood away from my son and holding his ear said he had bad hearing and to speak up. My son was very nervous and scared showing it by speaking very quietly. Finally my son turned to the judge and said could he ask a question. The judge said sure. My son said “in which ear is he hard of hearing because he is going back and forth between both ears”. Same muffled laughter. The judge glared at my son and said “if his hearing is that bad he will be ending his questioning” with a wink to my son he told me later.

Apparently this went on with all the other witnesses and the case was dismissed from all the conflicting statements. This lawyer must have cost the parents a bundle. The police officer in charge of the case visited us about a month later to see how my son was doing. He also said that he was impressed with my son in court and gave him his card. All our children make us proud.

Moral of the story

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

New York 1966

Why didn’t you leave a tip at a restaurant?

Because it is an utterly stupid idea.

During my college, I took a course called entrepreneurial marketing.

The professor gave one interesting perspective regarding billing and customer experience:

When booking a flight ticket, if the price is $220 instead of $210, the customer wouldn’t feel anything. The $10 on the top of $210 he is paying seems insignificant.

But if you charge him $210 at the beginning and later ask him to pay $5 if wants a water bottle onboard, he might find the experience disappointing. One, he thinks $5 is too expensive for a water bottle. Two, he has to check if he has the cash. Three, he has to worry about conversion charges if it is the card. Overall, there are so many things that make the experience complicated.

So just add $10 more on the flight ticket and give him two water bottles if you are keen on giving a comfortable experience.

Same thing with star hotels. Just charge $20 more on the $150 per night and give complimentary water, canned drinks, and coffee rather than billing for every item inside the mini-fridge.

The same logic applies to tipping.

When you go to a restaurant for a pleasant dining experience, you are made to do all sorts of calculations for taxes and add them to the amount in the menu. On top of this, you have to do calculations for tips and then add to the final amount to see if the item is really worth that price or not.

It ruins the whole experience.

Secondly, this tipping is completely optional. It is in the customer’s hands whether to pay it or not. And if he wants to, whether it is 5% or 15% is also his choice. There is no guarantee that the one who did the best service will get the maximum tip.

Thirdly, does anyone who what is best service universally? For me, not bothering me by enquiring every five minutes ‘Do you need anything else?’ or standing beside my table is a better service. For someone, being approachable by waiting near his table is better service. It varies from person to person and it is near impossible for the waiter to figure this out.

Fourthly, the tip for bringing $50 for 100ml single malt is more than $5 1L water bottle, when the former requires less energy. Is there any logic here?

And lastly, the owner thinks that waiters get high tips and pay them low salaries. The customer thinks that the waiters are anyway paid and hence don’t give them tips. So the waiters are at a complete loss here.

The best way to solve this is to treat waiters like any other worker- chef, security guard, delivery guy or equipment operator. Pay them market salary rather than putting their livelihood at the mercy of the customers. Why do you need to tip waiters, when you don’t tip nurses, delivery guys, security guard, police, or janitors when they are also doing service?

English Muffins

Ingredients

1 cake or package yeast
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 1/2 cups milk, scalded
1/4 cup melted shortening
1 teaspoon salt
6 cups flour

Instructions

After kneading, place in greased bowl and let rise until double.
Roll out to 3/4-inch thick. Cut with 3-inch cutter. Cover circles and let rise until very light.
Bake on greased electric skillet or at 375 degrees F in the oven.

Good advice

What are some unwritten social rules everyone should know?

Don’t comb your hair on the table at the restaurant. I don’t want your hair-strands in my food. I prefer that you use the restroom even if you want to touch up your lipstick.
If you know that you have smelly feet and that you have not washed your socks in several weeks, don’t take off your shoes in crowded places. Not even in the aircraft. You should have thought about this before you boarded the plane.
Let people who are sitting in the front of the aircraft deplane first! If you have a connecting flight, you can politely ask them to let you deplane first.
Let people exit the elevator/train/bus before rushing in.
Follow the queue. Yes, even in the washroom. Just don’t stand in front of the bathroom stall when 572 people are waiting in the queue.
Buy earphones, or headphones. Whatever you prefer. Because I don’t want to listen to rock music during my morning commute.
Give your seat to the pregnant lady. Or the lady carrying a small child. Or the old lady/gentleman. If you are a young lady in perfect health condition, this applies to you as well. Not just the boys.
Wear washed clothes, because the smell of the sweat sticks. Use deodorant. Specially applies when you are traveling by public transport.
Also, don’t keep your clothes next to the kitchen area, as the smell from spices sticks.
Don’t leave the texts as “seen” or with the “blue ticks”. Either respond, or never respond. Don’t respond to a text which was sent 4 days ago. Just be honest and tell them “that you are busy” or that “you don’t feel like talking to them”.
Show up with a gift. Don’t come empty-handed, after all the host took the time to invite you and do the preparation, didn’t they?
Don’t dump your negativity onto others. Not many people are accepting of it.

It’s all I have.

How did one small decision change your life?

I had stopped dating someone who had just been divorced and wasn’t ready to settle (and wasn’t right for me). I had been invited to a party but didn’t want to go. I’m not going, I decided. Finally, two hours after the party had started, I went, alone. The loft owner’s friend opened the door — and we started talking. He was sweet, funny, had just graduated from college, was 7 years younger than me, was planning to move cross country in 2 days. We hung out at the party and then he asked if he could walk me home. We’d walked 2 blocks, making all sorts of witty comments about street signs,etc., and I thought, “This guy is so different than the ones I usually like…he’s not all dark and dramatic (which usually hooked me)…he’s like being with a best friend.” And then I asked myself, “Why shouldn’t I be in a relationship with a guy who treats me as well as my best female friend does??” I remember my small decision precisely: deciding that I’d be open to this…even had a mental metaphor of it being like a Japanese paper lamp I’d hold gently…not try to force anything…but just be open to connecting with someone who made life fun, who was kind, who wanted to know about me and share himself.

He’s been an extraordinary husband and father and after more than 30 years, is still the most fun person to hang out with. We’ve traveled all over the world, gotten grad degrees after the kids were born, created books and apps and games, gone through family stresses and losses, relationship issues, gone through everyday boring ol’ life.

It was a small decision I made, but a profound one: to love myself. To allow myself to be loved by someone who treated me (and others) well. To let myself be with someone whose company I flat-out enjoyed. It wasn’t sudden roses and symphonies…it was playful and sweet. But I see the depth and beauty now. I so wish everyone this.

Dad’s do your job

As a trial attorney, what is the most ridiculous outburst you have seen first-hand in court?

The girl said to me “ you told me that wasn’t my fault.” In the courtroom before God Judge and country I grabbed that CPS worker and tried to pound her into the floor.

It was announced that no charges would be brought against me and the order against the CPS worker was dropped and the order to pay made against the agency. The CP S worker was also to resign.

I’m not a violent person but only so much can be let go I guess at time I lost sight of my life and career and could only see my client.

Sadly

Why do people go into the military without doing any research about what they’re getting themselves into?

Few people walk into a recruiting station and tell them they want to leave that afternoon. You do have to chat with a recruiter for a while. Granted, they’ll tell you the Army line. Rarely will they lie but they will leave stuff out.

For a lot of people, the Army sounds way better than the situation they’re in. In my first meeting with the recruiter, he told me the Army would train me in life skills (HAHA, at least, not from my MOS), they’d cloth you and give you everything you needed, I’d get a bed, desk, and wall locker, they’d feed me as much as I wanted to eat, I got to choose me MOS (This is where you need to do your research), they’d let me blow stuff up and play with some of the biggest toys the Army has, they’d give me $15K for college, and they’d pay me on top of it.

To a seventeen-year-old kid who’d worked a dirt farm in N. Colorado his entire life, that sounded pretty good. The Army helped get me my Eagle Scout and gave me some perks for that. The recruiter worked with the school to make sure I’d graduate. I was failing a class, and I told my recruiter I wouldn’t graduate. He went to the school and talked to the admin and they made sure I’d pass.

Researching your MOS and the Army is a good idea, but nothing prepares you for stepping off the bus. I have a Ranger buddy whose son just went through basic. He had his son meet with all the vets he could find and we gave our experiences. That wasn’t enough to keep him from calling home and wanting to come home.

No matter how prepared you are, once you get boots on the ground and jump down the rabbit hole, you’re in for a ride. I think people with less prep do better as they have no idea what to expect and they just roll with it instead of standing around thinking this is nothing like what everyone said.

I can relate to this

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2lG5LXgzzzw?feature=share

Brian Berletic: China Has a SHOCKING Secret and the US is Going to War Over It

One of my regrets

Oh, I have a lot of regrets. Though, I try to minimize the mountain of built-up and pent-up regrets and memories. Often enough, though distraction and labor. In one way or the other.

Some of the regrets are silly.

Here’s a silly regret.

When I lived in Boston, I used to go into the thrift stores, and antique stores and browse around. Over time, I would often find this kind of heavy (smash on the table) white coffee cup. And it would be cheap. 25 cents more often than not. These things were great, and were really popular in the United States say up until the late 1960’s.

Many had logos, and designs. Often symbols. All nicely done. Like for Naval Ships. Or for government agencies. Or for awards and events. Like a bridge opening in 1954.

So I had amassed quite a collection of them. I loved them. I had, maybe, about 35 of these things.

Later on, when I was living in Arkansas, and going though a nasty divorce with the witch that was poisoning me and who eventually got me sent to prison, I left the state with just a few items of clothing and my books.

When the time came to pack up the mugs, however, on a whim, I decided to leave them behind.

I guess that I was too upset, and too lethargic over everything to take them with me.

I shouldn’t have done that.

And now I have regrets.

…

Do not allow emotion…

…tiredness…

…frustration…

…stress…

…to allow you to make hasty and ill-advised decisions.

…

You will egret them in the future.

(A word to the wise.)

Today…

BULLETIN: Russian Forces Hit NATO Operations Center Inside Ukraine!

World Hal Turner 16 December 2023

BULLETIN: 2:49 PM EDT 16 December 2023 — Starokonstantinov, Ukraine — Russian Aerospace Forces have struck a NATO Operations center with a Kinzhal Hypersonic Missile.

Russian Forces report and confirm the destruction of a NATO operation center in Starokonstantinov, Ukraine, by a Kinzhal hypersonic missile strike!!

Initial reports say Ukrainian suffered 28 casualties and NATO lost at least 12 officers!!

The Ukrainian forces have given no statement and have disabled communication in the region to prevent information from getting out!! They’re too late.

The US and NATO are now directly involved in Ukrainian combat operations against Russia in Ukraine!!

Standpoint Theory

What is it like to ride a camel?

Riding a camel is quite an experience. It’s not like hopping onto a horse or sitting on a bike.

First off, before you even get to the exciting part, you’re going to face the camel’s getting-up process. Camels are tall creatures and they rise in stages—back legs first—which can leave you feeling like you’re about to be catapulted over their head. Holding on during that initial lurch is key.

Once you’re in motion, the rhythm is unlike any other. Camels have a swaying gait, and it can take a moment to find your balance with the camel’s oscillating movement (they often walk in a ‘pace’, moving both legs on one side of their body simultaneously). Think of it like a boat slowly rocking side to side—you need to relax and go with the flow.

The height can be disconcerting too—you’re way up there. A camel’s back is a lofty perch compared to the average horse. This means you get quite a vantage point; it’s like sitting on a slow-moving balcony. For me, here in Portland, OR, the tallest I usually get is standing up on Mount Tabor, which is nothing compared to being atop a camel, I’d bet.

But it’s not an amusement park ride. Expect some discomfort, especially if you’re not used to riding animals. The saddle, often just a blanket or a simple framework, isn’t the epitome of comfort, and it’s going to test your core strength and your backside.

Now, let’s talk about the personality of your ride. Camels can be temperamental. They’re known for being a bit…

Well, let’s say they have their own minds. They might decide to stop and refuse to move. Or they might express their displeasure in a more vocal way. Yep, they can spit if they’re really pushed. But mostly, they’re majestic creatures—stoic and adapted perfectly to their environment.

Here’s a pro tip: wear long trousers and maybe even some padding. You’ll thank me later when you’ve avoided chafing and can still walk normally the next day.

Lastly, enjoy the quirks. It’s an ancient mode of transportation, a connection to a different way of life. Riding a camel can be an opportunity to take in the landscape at a slower pace, from the deserts of the Middle East to the wilds of Australia, or even special tours elsewhere.

All told, it’s about embracing a unique adventure, one sway at a time.

The USA needs this man

What tiny detail have most people noticed but never bothered to stop and think about?

Have you ever pulled a “push” door?

Have you noticed that most public doors open outwards?

Picture this:

You’re at the cinema with your family or friends, enjoying a spectacular movie by some of your favourite actors.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a fire breaks out and the fire alarm rings.

At first people are confused, but very quickly they catch on. In chaotic unison, everyone suddenly starts to panic.

And like a herd of buffalo that have just spotted a lion, everyone darts towards the door. You’re in the lead.

You reach the door first and quickly try to push it open. But it doesn’t budge. It’s a “pull” door.

Realizing your mistake, you quickly try to pull it open. But it’s too late. Everyone’s already at the door trying desperately to push through.

You can’t pull the door back, because everyone is pushing you against it and cramming at the entrance.

At the same time, people are yelling at you.

“OPEN THE DOOR!!!”

“JUST PUSH IT YOU F*CKING IDIOT!”

“PLEASE, I HAVE A BABY!”

But you can’t.

You can’t even move. Your body is being crushed against the door by the panicking crowd. Combine that with the smoke and you can’t breathe.

You’re suffocating.

This was someone’s reality in the Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903.

The deadliest theatre fire and deadliest single-building fire in United States history. Resulting in over 602 deaths.

Luckily, by chance a passing railroad agent saw the crowd pressing against the door and unfastened the hinges from the outside using tools that he normally carried with him, allowing the actors and stagehands to escape.

Because of this incident, most public doors now open outwards or are bidirectional.

And this is why a fire exit in particular will most likely open outwards.

Have you ever seen a mass exodus after a respected employee quit or got fired?

Not so much a mass exodus but a full team exodus – five of us. I was team leader but my elder mum (we lived together) was extremely ill, and it was clear to me that very soon the diagnosis would be one of terminal cancer, so I asked my Manager for a change in working hours so I could go home every lunch time to make sure she ate and was okay. I lived a 25 minute drive away so my intention was I would be absent 12 – 2 and make up the missing hour (1 of the hours being my lunch hour) by doing work at home that evening. Now bear in mind that for the entire 7 years I had worked for that company, and been team leader for 4 years, I had often gone in of a weekend UNPAID for at least a couple of hours to ensure that all was up to date, or took work home to do during the evening UNPAID. My team had a reputation for being fast, efficient, and friendly. We exceeded our targets every single year and received handsome bonuses.

My boss said NO. His only reason being that if he did it for me he would have to do it for others. The fact that this was exceptional circumstances and, as far as I could see, it would not be longer than a year or so (in fact, my mum died in the March of the following year, I had made my request in the July). I had already been headhunted by another local firm much nearer to my home (10 mins walk maximum) so I went back to them and they offered me a job. My boss was gobsmacked but still would not offer a change to my working hours, so I took the other job offer.

Well as soon as they knew I was leaving, my entire team started looking elsewhere and within a matter of months the entire team was gone! In fact, one member of the team actually came with me to my new employer :-D.

Repair

What is the one in a million coincidence you have ever had?

We sold a used car to a man who claimed that it was for his 16 year old daughter’s birthday that was the next day. He didn’t have all of the money, but said he would bring us the rest after he got his next paycheck. My heart went out to him, so I gave him the car with just a partial deposit. No surprises…he took the car and never came back. This was in Los Angeles.

Flash forward a few months, we were in downtown Las Vegas when who do I see but the thief who still owed us the money. My husband insisted it wasn’t him. I knew it was. I marched right up to him and demanded our money. The man was clearly caught off guard and then said that he didn’t have it on him. I said, “That’s okay, we’ll walk with you to the nearest ATM.” And that’s how we got the money that was owed to us.

Funny side note… the FBI called me a few months after that to see if I recognized anyone in a line up. There he was again! Turned out that he was part of an organized auto theft / chop shop ring. So much for my gut instincts!

Why does the military allow fresh, young, inexperienced college graduates to immediately enter OCS and gain the rank of a 2nd lieutenant, which places them above the rank of a master sergeant who probably has more than double the experience?

This is one of those “Yes but / However comma” answers.

Civilians with no military experience get hung up on this idea a lot, because they don’t understand two concepts that are pretty fundamental to how the US military (and most Western-style militaries, for that matter) operate: rank is not the same thing as authority, and officers and NCOs have fundamentally different jobs and responsibilities.

Caveat that I’m coming at this question from the perspective of the Navy. An officer or NCO from another service might things somewhat differently, but I’m trying to give as ecumenical an answer as possible.

A junior officer in the O-1 pay grade* is first and foremost an apprentice officer. Everyone understands this – the JO, his NCOs, his superior officers, etc. If a new 2nd Lt or Ensign doesn’t understand this, then his instructors at his commissioning source failed to do some pretty basic education. The new butterbar is there to learn how to be a leader; the philosophy of the US military is the best way to learn is by doing. So he or she is placed in a position of leadership and, at least by the pay grade table, outranks even the saltiest E-9.

*It’s different with officers commissioned from the ranks – the Navy calls them “mustangs” – and that’s a whole different discussion outside the scope of the OP’s question

This is where the however comma bit comes in. By matter of long service and experience, the NCOs in a unit have greater informal authority. The O-1 is there to learn from them. It’s supposed to be a good working partnership that combines mentorship, OJT, and maintaining unit discipline and morale. The officer should demonstrate willingness to listen and learn and respect for the NCOs’ experience and authority over the more junior enlisted; the NCO should demonstrate patience and good mentorship while respecting the officer’s rank and extending them the courtesy due that rank. An officer who confuses his pay grade with authority undermines the NCO in front of the junior E’s. An NCO who demeans or disregards the officer undermines the officer and fails in his duty to form the young officer into the kind of leader he’d want to work for.

Of course, people are people, in uniform and not, and it doesn’t always work the way it’s supposed to. Sometimes a new officer doesn’t know what to do with their by-rank authority but tries to hide it (which is silly, nobody expects a brand new officer to know how to do everything) by blindly issuing orders without listening to his NCOs, or trying to be chummy with the junior E’s (who are probably closer to his age), or masking their insecurity about their inexperience with arrogance, etc. Not all NCOs are created equal. Some don’t have the patience to mentor an officer, or the desire. Those are the “go away and let me do my job…sir” NCOs. And some NCOs are just plain incompetent, or might have been great technical specialists but with no talent for leadership. The military promotion system is, to say the least, by no means perfect.

When it works as designed though, it works well for everyone involved.

It’s the BRO code

What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve heard a parent say when fighting for custody in court?

This wasn’t when we were fighting for custody, but when I was trying to have our custody case transferred to a different courts jurisdiction.

The judge asked me why I wanted the change. I told him that the kids and I had moved to the jurisdiction of the other court and I planned on asking for a change to our custody case. I had no car and with the way the public transportation ran, I had to come up with the kids the night before court and stay the night at a friends house to be able to make it to court on time and then the kids would all miss a full day of school. The judge then asked their dad why he didn’t want the change to happen. He told the judge that it would inconvenience him (even though he had a car). I had never seen a judge yell at anyone before that day. He was screaming at my ex “How does your inconvenience trump your kids missing school, spending the night away from home, spending hours on a bus?!”

I got the change of jurisdiction.

Have you ever started playing mind games with the interviewer during a job interview?

If it’s a “mind game” to shut down a “mind game,” yes. I got quite blunt:

Interviewer: “You’ve proven to me you are an excellent designer; but you haven’t proven your writing skills. Here is a writing assignment. Work on it tonight and bring it to me tomorrow at 2 and I will give you your portfolio back then.” THANK YOU, NO.
Interviewer: “Do you have any idea who would buy our product? I’m thinking salesmen. But I’m not sure. Do you have any ideas? Maybe we could write some down.” THANK YOU, NO.
Interviewer: “It’s only a one-day assignment, but we have a zero-tolerance policy, you we will need a urine test from you before we will consider hiring you.” THANK YOU, NO.
Interviewer: “I need to test you. Here’s a written exam (!). You have :30 to finish it.” (I realize the “exam” is an article the hiring company needs for a trade-industry magazine.) THANK YOU, NO.
The worst mind game played on me was by a nice, professional man who I liked instantly. I arranged to meet him after the staff went home, because I was still working a full-time job. This position was for a temporary marketing person that would cover a specific 3-month project. There was the possibility it could become permanent. We had a lovely chat, and he seemed ready to hire me. He said “let me show you around.” After we toured the work area (and he showed me “my” desk), he said “Can you come back on Tuesday? I just want to introduce you to a few co-workers.” (I’m thinking he’s hired me; I lied to my current boss so I had all Tuesday morning.) On Tuesday morning, I arrived all relaxed and confident. I asked to see Mr. Manager (who was oh so nice, did I mention?). The receptionist said “Mr. Manager isn’t in today.” Me: “I’m sorry, he was interviewing me for the marketing position. I must have confused the day.” “No; said the receptionist. Follow me.” She led me into a huge conference room with six large banquet tables arranged so it was one big table. People started filing in… 7, 11, 12… I lost count. They were “the executive board” and they started peppering me with questions. I did my best to answer, but my anger at Mr. Nice Manager was boiling over. So he deliberately lied to me to presumably see how I acted “under pressure” and didn’t have the decency to even be there. Sorry, I won’t work for someone who would do that to a person. This was years ago, but I still see the company’s vans and I cringe; what did they do to the guys that drive the vans, hold them out a window by the ankles? I fell flat on my face in that interview. Maybe that’s my fault, but that is the definition of a mind game, and I didn’t want any part of someone who would do that to a prospective employee.

In short, most of my mind game interviewers are trying to get work done for free or betray a weird corporate culture (OK, you have a zero drug policy for a one-day temp job and you can’t find anyone pre-screened and in-house?). A few interviewers have left me waiting for :45 to over an hour; if they were “tricking me” or just disrespectful of me and my time, I didn’t really care because I left.

TL/DR: Pay attention to how you’re treated in an interview because whatever game they’re playing is going to get exponentially worse if they hire you. An interview goes both ways. Plus, if they’re obviously playing you, you have every right to “play” back.

Rufus in action

What thing are people starting to make not fun?

I still enjoy going to theaters with my girlfriend—sometimes. It gives us an excuse to get out of the house and focus on a movie with no distractions.

It’s gotten remarkably expensive. The last time we went, tickets were nearly $25 each.

But the biggest problem is the people. There is constant talking and playing on phones.

We had teenage girls sitting in the front row during a showing of Dune. Their screens were flashing in the front row. They were sprinting in and out of the theater like hyper children.

My girlfriend left halfway through the movie to use the bathroom.

She bumped into the teenagers and called them out for ruining the movie for everyone and they didn’t come back.

She got back from her bathroom break and said, “Don’t worry about those girls. I took care of it.”

For a brief second, I was worried she’d killed them.

Sadly, in the past three out of four movie dates we’ve been on, there has been some sort of incident. It’s making movie theaters damn near impossible to enjoy.

I’m hoping it’s just bad luck on our part. It wasn’t always like this.

Is it possible to have a giant nuclear powered aircraft that stays in the air all the time?

Yes, indeed. Behold the HTRE-3 nuclear aircraft engine.

Yes, this is real. Yes, the military was crazy enough to think this was a good idea.

In principle, it’s straightforward. A jet engine is just a heat engine. You suck cold air in the front, you heat it up, you spew the hot air out the back. What we normally think of as a “jet engine” heats the air up by burning jet fuel. But the heat can come from anywhere. A nuclear reactor? No sweat. They get plenty hot.

Thing is, it’s easy to make a lightweight nuclear reactor that gets as hot as you want it to. The heavy part of a reactor isn’t the core, it’s the radiation shielding around the core.

So. What do you notice is missing in this picture?

Core’s looking a bit exposed, innit?

The US military built and flew these engines [edit: an experimental reactor similar to the one designed to drive these engines, not the engines themselves: see comments!] in a test aircraft.

They produce a lot of radiation, and you can’t easily shield them if you want them light enough to fly a plane. Which creates quite a problem for handling and servicing these things.

They considered a modular design where you could just undock the crew bits from the nasty radioactive bits…

…and then just reprocess it or, I don’t know, throw it away or something.

Then some engineer somewhere said “you guys do realize this idea is both crazy and stupid, right?” and the idea went away.

America today

What’s the most pretentious thing you’ve ever seen on a résumé?

Originally Answered: What’s the most pretentious thing you’ve ever seen on a resume?

I received a resume from someone who had recently graduated from high school. They had one job on the resume and their job title was Director in Charge of Company Morale at a prestigious local law firm.

The resume lacked all the things I was looking for, but the job title listed intrigued me. I set the interview and was waiting to hear a litany of lies.

On the day of the interview this cleancut sharp dressed young man showed up. After brief small talk I asked about the prior job and what it entailed.

Turns out his Director in Charge of Company Morale Position entailed him going out each morning and getting coffee for all the partners. He said without their morning coffee, morale was very low.

Best belly laugh in an interview ever. I hired him. And he worked out well because he found a way to place a positive attitude on everything he did, however menial the task.

Edit: I am honored that so many people like my answer. Thank you all.

Update: I’ve had several people suggest editing the gender from “they” to “he”. At the time I read the resume and set the appointment, I had no idea if the applicant was male or female. Gender was not a decision point in our hiring process. This is why I have left the answer unedited. Thank you all again for the overwhelming response.

Filipino Egg Pie

Ingredients

6 large eggs yolks
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup warm evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites
1 (9 inch) pie crust

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl, beat 6 large egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, warm evaporated milk, nutmeg, vanilla extract and salt until mixed well.
Whip egg whites in a separate bowl until they form stiff peaks.
Add the whipped egg white to the milk mixture slowly until well incorporated. Pour into pie shell and bake for 45 to 50 minutes until the center is set.
Let pie cool completely before serving.

Attribution

Recipe and photo used with permission from: American Egg Board
Recipe created in partnership with @thetastebud

What is the weirdest thing you’ve walked in on?

I had a very rocky second marriage, but I loved him so kept going back for more of the same bad treatment. (I have learned better behavior now!) Our marriage consisted of lots of comings and goings, and we split up with each other quite frequently because we were really incompatible. Being around each other all the time was a trial.

He was a big time gambler and many other things besides, and I couldn’t cope with all of his bad habits. I dare say I had some bad habits, but I didn’t have any addictions, thankfully.

One time, the last time, I left home and went to stay with a friend, my husband and I talked very frequently on the phone and missed each other’s company. It was a very strange affair.

Anyway, I decided to move back in for good and went back to the house one day with all my luggage. I got to our home and went in, and what do you know, I heard a familiar sound coming from our bedroom that was on the third floor. When I climbed the stairs, I realized what was happening. Despite the fact that my husband knew I was coming home, he was up in our bedroom making love to another woman.

Needless to say, that was grounds for divorce. He caught Covid in prison and died two years ago.

Traditional vs. Progressive

What did your pastor say or do that made you quit his church?

My pastor and his wife tried to convince me to stay with my abusive husband and just live separately until our children were both adults and then start living like a married couple again. Why would we have to live separately you ask? Well, that would be because a few days before this conversation I had Child Protective Services (or CPS for short), the San Berdarnio County Sherifs Office, Fort Irwin (I and my ex-husband were both in the Army at the time) Military Police, and Fort Irwin Criminal Investigation Department (or CID) at my door at 10 at night trying to take my kids away from me because he FINALLY got caught beating my son. (Before this point I could not prove it as there were never bruises or marks) But this time he threw a phone at my sons face because he did not get up at 5 in the morning when his 4 year old sister had to get up to go to daycare (My son was 12 at the time) and it “wasn’t fair that she had to get up that early and he didn’t so I make them both get up”. My son did not have to be to school until 830. My daughter had to go to daycare before we both started work in the morning but got to go back to sleep at daycare so can’t figure out where fairness comes in to play.

Anyway, the pastor and his wife call and say that divorce is against the Bible and we should stay married and live apart until the kids are adults and can move out and then we continue, at that point to live together. I told them flatly no because he was also abusive to me and oh, by the way that woman he has been bringing to church as a “friend?”, yeah he has been having an affair with her for over 2 years. So, tell me again about what the Bible says? I also may have threw in there about how the Bible says there are a few reasons why divorce is accepted and a couple of those just happen to be abuse and adultery. I may have also mentioned that they have no room to talk when their own daughter was getting divorced from her husband because he came out and told her he was gay and that is NOT an acceptable reason (for that religion) to get a divorce.

What is the most misunderstood profession?

Being a CEO.

I often ghostwrite for executives. My job is to help tell their story, either in book or article form. The more I learn, the more I feel bad for them.

Not one of the CEOs I’ve written for looks back fondly on the actual day-to-day CEO experience.

They loved being CEO. But they hated the job. Their phone was ringing at all hours. Every problem rolled up to them.

They had to decide the fate of many people’s careers and lives. There was immense pressure on them from stakeholders and owners. The hours they put in were beyond intense.

Most are now very wealthy — but they were undoubtedly aged by the job. It changed them.

When I was in finance, I worked alongside a senior VP and sat in on many of the executive meetings, taking notes for my boss. This was not a room full of happy people.

When you start making $200K, $300K, and up, you can expect to pay a steep price and often get a target on your back.

It is constant worry and emails and people problems.

The idea of the CEO who kicks back, smokes cigars, and yells “mush” couldn’t be further from the actual job.

If China has so much money to invest in other countries, why don’t they develop the poor parts of China?

If China has so much money to invest in other countries, why don’t they develop the poor parts of China?

Which poor part of China do you refer to? Can you give just one specific example that China has failed or ignored to develop?

If you are not convinced, let us just look at the situations from the poorest part of China. Here are the last four provinces with the least GDP per capita (nominal) in China: List of Chinese administrative divisions by GDP per capita – Wikipedia

Gansu province ($4735, 26 million people)
Yunnan province ($5612, 48 million people)
Guizhou province ($6233, 36 million people)
Guangxi province ($6270, 49 million people)

Just for reference: India ($2036), Vietnam ($2551), Mongolia ($4026), Albania ($5289), South Africa ($6377). Note that all the listed are poorer than Tibet ($6550, 3m people) and Xinjiang ($7476, 24m) in term of GDP per capita.

We will look at these provinces and see what China has done specifically to develop these poor provinces.

This will be an extremely long post. Please read at your discretion. But if you read on, I’m sure you will learn a lot of new things about China:

1. Gansu province

Gansu is poor for a reason. On one side, you have the massive freezing Tibetan Plateau. On the other side, you have the deadly Gobi Desert.

God doesn’t want you to live here. But you insisted.

Image credit: 地球知识局

What kind of environment are we talking about? Have a look at the following picture. This is what a typical village in Gansu looks like.

Red stones, golden sands and deep valleys. Gansu is the Nevada State of China. There are a lot of sites just like the death valley and red canyon in the USA.

The Taolai River Gorge at Jiayuguan Pass in Gansu

Imagine you are living here. You grow your food in the valleys but you have virtually no rainfall at all. Even if you managed to grow a few tons of wheat magically, where you do sell? To the nearest city? That’s fine. Please drive 5 hours out of this god damn dry mountains.

Even if you manage to find a customer to buy your wheat. He will buy your wheat for $150 per ton. But your transport and fuel cost to move the wheat out of these mountains has exceeded $100 per ton. Considering other costs, okay … , so do you grow wheat just for losing money?

A mountain road in Jingtai County, Gansu

So you have no choice but to leave the village and become a Foxconn worker in Zhengzhou and spent your days making iPhones. That’s what most Gansu people would choose to do. As most people are leaving the rugged land to the cities, your village becomes deserted just like this:

An abandoned village in Dingxi County, Gansu

What has the Chinese government done to address this problem?

For the 13th Five Year Plan (2016–2020), the central government has poured a huge amount of money in building expressways and railways across these God damn hills. And what’s more, they are not building “Level 5” bridges just enough for people to move. Instead, they are building “Level 50” shiny and massive bridges.

What are the differences between a “Level 5” bridge and “Level 50” bridge?

Here is an example of a “Level 5” bridge in France. Short in length and height. You have to rush down, cross the bridge and climb up the mountains.

Here is an example of a “Level 50” bridge in Gansu. All you need to do is to pass through at the speed of 120km/h.

Tian Ning Gou Bridge in Gansu, Tianyong expressway

These “level 50” bridges are indeed very expensive to build. But, on the other hand, they are very cost effective if you consider the amount of fuel saved for trucks, trains, and cars! You don’t have to go down and up again and again.

Even if there is already a “level 5” road along the valleys, the government is still not satisfied. They want to build another high-speed “level 50” expressway along with it. In order to run at 120km/h across the mountains and valleys, the expressway has to be filled with tunnels and bridges so that it is more stretched. This makes trucks and cars to drive faster with less distance. So the fuel cost and transport costs can be reduced significantly.

Provincial expressways S2 in construction in Gansu (35°21’14.3″N 102°49’02.0″E)

In 2019, the total “Level 50” expressway length in Gansu has exceeded 4242km [1] (speed limit 120km/h), which is even longer than Mexico. And it is almost three times longer than India’s total length. Not only expressways but Gansu also has 4 lines of high-speed railways running at 250km/h to 350km/h (宝兰，成兰，兰新，兰渝).

In the next 14th Five Year Plan (2021–2025), the government will promise to connect every prefecture city of Gansu with high-speed railways and expressways.

Lanzhou-Xinjiang high-speed railways

Why are “Level 50” bridges, roads and railways are so useful?

Imagine you are the farmer mentioned above, thanks to the village road built around you, you can transport your crops to your nearest city faster and also at a lower cost. The distributor in your nearest city can also find customers in a province that is even further away. People who are at 2000km away can buy your wheat at a higher price, thanks to the giant expressway network. Overall, you can finally make profits in growing wheat in Gansu!

Still think what I said is made-up or propaganda?

Well, here is another real-life example. Imagine you live in a distant village in Gansu and you want to buy a mobile phone from Taobao (Chinese Amazon), what does it cost to ship a package of 1kg from Shenzhen to Dunhuang in Gansu in 2019? Note that the total distance is around 3500km.

You can use this Chinese website for shipping cost calculation: 快递价格和网点查询 – 快递小帮手

According to the website, the total cost for shipping over the 3500km is 15RMB ($2.2) and it promises to arrive in 3 days.

For comparison, the total cost for shipping one 1kg package from Boston to Reno in Nevada (a similar 4000km) in the USA is $26.13 according to the UPS shipping price calculator under the UPS 3-day service.

Therefore in the USA, it requires 10x more money to do the same thing! And note that they are both counted in the GDP calculation in both countries. Is it fair? Of course not. This applies to other services too.

That means Gansu is not that “poor” as we originally thought.

Instead, Gansu is also blessed with the richness in “green” natural resources. On one side, you have the freezing Tibetan plateau. On the other side, you have the hot Gobi desert. Boom! The temperature difference causes constant wind blowing. God doesn’t want you to live here but he really gives you another gift: the wind power.

Therefore, Gansu is the leader in its renewable energy sector. It has the world’s largest on-shore wind farm:

Gansu Jiuquan Windfarm 40°40’31.2″N 95°24’44.5″E

There are so many on-shore solar farms in Gansu as well. I am not sure if it is the world’s largest. But you can spot them everywhere on Google Earth.

If you can’t grow crops on the land, then just grow solar panels.

Gansu Wuwei Solarfarm 38°06’05.1″N 102°18’00.2″E

God also said, “Let Gansu be light”. Thanks to the Chinese, do you see the holy light?

Gansu Dunhuang Tower Solarfarm 40°03’49.3″N 94°25’29.9″E

However, despite China’s “great leap forward” in solar farm construction, they are faced with severe problems in Gansu. They are generating too much electricity and it is much more than the Gansu people can consume. The private sector is also investing heavily in Gansu, making the government unable to control the overall supply of the solar power in Gansu.

As a result, it is estimated 40% of the wind and solar electricity is wasted in Gansu [2]. We could not store the energy because currently, we don’t have giant batteries. Storing a huge amount of energy remains a problem to be solved by future technology.

The remaining choice is to transmit this huge amount of electricity through the ultra-high voltage power grid to the power-hungry Eastern China. However, building a 3000km power grid is not an easy task and people along the grid would complain about the danger and radiation above their houses. I will write about this on-going Chinese mega project and its achievements and problems in another answer.

In summary, these conclude the development in the poorest province of China —Gansu. The GDP growth for Gansu province in 2018 is 10.54% [3]. And it is still far from enough compared to other provinces because we still have a lot of distant villages in Gansu that are yet covered by decent roads and bridges. We will wait and see how China continues to eliminate poverty here.

2. Yunnan & Guizhou province

The next three poorest provinces: Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi are next to each other in the Southwest of China. There are around 140 million people living here.

Image Credit: 地球知识局

Yunnan & Guizhou are poor for the same reason. So let’s look at them together and later we discuss Guangxi specifically.

If you have already been there, you might have already enjoyed those amazing tourist attractions in these areas. But they do not represent the majority of the people nor the whole poverty situation.

What is the real situation?

As the Indian subcontinent continues to squeeze, terrains around here are becoming more and more similar to “wrinkles”, as mountains are squeezed higher and the rivers continue to carve valleys deeper.

Yes, it is like the wrinkles of the skin.

Imagine you are living in the middle of the “wrinkle”. You would be surrounded by tall mountains and deep valleys.

It is nearly impossible to move around without flying. Building roads is also nearly impossible. You would be isolated for your whole life. To get a taste of what it is like, you can just go to Google Earth and experience it. (26°12’28.4″N 99°07’57.1″E)

Even if you can climb across the mountains to the other side, you have to climb up and down another three similar mountains in order to reach a nearby city.

As a farmer, can you get rich if you live here? That’s nearly impossible. If you are ill, you have to call a helicopter to fly to the nearest hospital. But you have to be rich to afford a mobile phone. No signals? Oh, why not just wait and die?

Are you desperate? Most likely.

But the Chinese said: “Hold my beer, I got this”.

Beipanjiang bridge, Liupanshui, Guizhou (World’s highest bridge)

Pu-Li-Te Bridge, Xuanwei, Yunnan (World’s third highest bridge)

Jin-An Bridge, Lijiang, Yunnan (World’s fourth highest bridge, to be completed in 2020)

Ya-Chi-He Bridge, Qingzhen, Guizhou (World’s fifth highest bridge)

Liu-Guang-He Bridge, Liutong, Guizhou (World’s sixth highest bridge)

Ping-tang Bridge, Liutong, Guizhou (World’s largest viaduct bridge, to be completed later in 2019)

A similar and smaller viaduct bridge can be found in Hunan as well. Here is the video for the beer:

The Chinese said: “Hold up. There are ten more to come in the next five years”.

A high-speed railway arch bridge in Guizhou. Bullet trains pass through this bridge at the speed of 250km/h.

For comparison, a similar railway bridge is also being built in India. It is the Chenab Railway Bridge in J&K. Chenab Bridge – Wikipedia

However, this bridge started in 2003 and it was originally intended to be completed in December 2009. But ten years passed the Indian people have still not finished it.

If the Indian engineers wanted to delay for another 2 years, the bridge would no longer be the world’s tallest railway arch bridge. The new King will be crown to the Sichuan-Tibet railway bridge.

That’s enough for bridges. For the rest of the bridges please refer to List of highest bridges – Wikipedia

. Basically nearly the world’s top 100 highest bridges are all from Yunan and Guizhou (I’m not talking about China. Just the two provinces).

And we are not comparing the length of the bridge, because expressways in Yunnan and Guizhou are pretty much always in bridges or tunnels. So it is pointless to compare their length.

The takeaway for this section is that please don’t take for granted if you see the expressway network like this in Yunnan and Guizhou.

Think about their terrain and imagine how difficult it is to build expressways here.

Now back to Yunnan and Guizhou. What kind of other developments that are worth mentioning?

4G Network Coverage

Even in the most distant village with no good roads, you can always find 4G base stations installed. In terms of 4G, no other countries in the world can be compared with China. Not a single developed country like the USA, UK nor Japan can be comparable in such a scale.

According to the Ministry of Industry and IT in China [7], there are 1.204 billion users connected to 4G stations in China. There are 3.72 million 4G base stations installed in China, exceeding 20% more than the rest of the world combined. Guizhou has achieved 100% 4G coverage in all its 10k villages and Yunnan reaches 65% in its progress.

In 2019, the package price for unlimited 4G internet is 98rmb ($14.5) for one person and 134 rmb ($20) for a family of three. Compared to the USA, you have to spend $40 in T-Mobile just to have a 10GB of internet. Compared to India, although India has much cheaper Internet than China, their 4G coverage is relatively low compared to China.

Why does the 4G access useful? Well, this is another answer I will write. But just to draw your curiosity, do you notice that there are more and more Youtubers from Yunnan and Guizhou broadcasting their daily farming life?

Making Toufu online?

Picking tea leaves online?

Hydroelectricity

Of course, 4G signals are inseparable from the electricity. Yunnan and Guizhou are also blessed with the hydropower. Most of the worlds’ largest dams and power stations listed here are from Yunnan and Guizhou. List of largest hydroelectric power stations – Wikipedia

. They contribute to 30% of the hydroelectricity generated in China.

Yunnan hydropower generation: 280.4 terawatt hours [4]
Guizhou hydropower generation: 65.8 terawatt hours [5]
Three Gorges Dam (only) generation: 88.2 terawatt hours [6]

Just follow along the four major rivers in Yunnan from Google Earth. You can find many stages of Dam on the same river. For example, the Jinsha River (Yangtze) has nine stages of dams.

A dam along the Jin Sha River 26°48’23.9″N 100°26’46.4″E

Compared to the power transmission and storage problem in Gansu, hydroelectricity generated in Yunan and Guizhou are directly transmitted to power up the Guangdong province and Hong Kong, because China has already built the ultra-high voltage power transmission line.

That means a fraction of your made-in-China products are actually manufactured using the hydro-power from Yunnan.

Data centres

Thanks to the abundance of electricity and water resources for cooling, the Chinese government has chosen Guizhou as its most important base for data centres.

Deep in the caves of Guizhou, lies the Tencent T-Block data centre (腾讯七星数据中心). This is the place where the data of all Chinese Wechat/Tencent Video (Chinese Netflix) users are stored.

In 2018, Apple has also decided to place its iCloud (China) data centre in Guizhou. This is where all Chinese apple users information are stored in China.

Now pretty much every important IT company has set their data centres in Guizhou, such as Alibaba, Huawei, China Mobile, etc.

Why do most companies choose Guizhou, such a poor place, to be the destination for data centres? Why not other places?

Because Xi Jinping wants it. He recommends IT companies to place their data centres in Guizhou to enjoy cuts in taxes and electricity bills. As Guizhou have more data centres, it finally has something to focus for its own to develop.

Why does Xi Jinping think Guizhou is so special?

Because Xi found that the leader of Guizhou, Chen Min’er, was exceptionally capable. It was Chen who led Guizhou to attract so many investments and called for IT companies to setup big data centre installations in Guizhou. Thanks to Chen’s excellent governing skill in Guizhou, he is now promoted to the Mayor of Chongqing.

I think he will be the next president of China after Xi Jinping (if he continues to demonstrate his governance skills).

On the other hand, China can finally build its Great Data Bank of China in Guizhou so that the Chinese government can regulate API usage based on Chinese laws and validation using Chinese government licensed blockchain E-authentication.

Yes, this is really the authoritarian style of development in the Internet area. New forms of democracy are created: the government can instantly sample on what do the citizen feel from their mobile phones (like instant vote).

3. Guangxi province

Guangxi and Northen Vietnam are actually very similar in terms of geographic positions and terrains. They both have plenty of flooded plains, hilly mountains and coastal areas. Their cultures are actually very similar. Both are the descendants of the Nanyue Kingdom.

In theory, their GDP per capita should be similar but Vietnam suffers many wars compared to Guangxi. Now Guangxi GDP per capita is $6270 and Vietnam is $2557.

Compared to Northern Vietnam, the main problem for Guangxi is that all of its tributary rivers are flowing east instead of heading the south to the sea. These tributary rivers are then forming into one giant Pearl River at Wuzhou and then reaches the South China Sea in Canton.

Even for today in China, there are still a lot of heavyweight goods shipped through the rivers because of its cheap costs. This becomes really a problem for Guangxi. Since all its rivers flow directly to the east, all river-based shipment from Guangxi has to go through Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

From the above picture, the biggest embarrassment for its Capital Nanning is that ships have to travel 1000km to the east to reach the sea, even though Nanning is only 100km away from the coast in the south. Just imagine the extra cost added for the Guangxi people for international shipment!

A similar terrain can be found in Brazil. A huge mountain can be seen blocking the coast. This is really a curse from God. That’s why the Brazilian economy is not so good and could not develop manufacturing.

Guangxi is slightly better but shipping costs in Guangxi are more expensive compared to other coastal provinces in China. Due to the high costs, investments and talents would not come and it suffers the severe brain drain from the nearby Canton. This is the ultimate reason why Guangxi is poor.

On the contrary, if you look at Northern Vietnam, they are blessed with a wide natural river — the Red River. 5000-ton ships can easily reach Hanoi from Hai Phong. Low-cost transportation gives Vietnam the destiny to be the next center of low-end manufacturing. With the current US-China trade war, Vietnam would receive more foreign investments and its economy would be sky-rocketing.

Hopefully, if the Vietnamese government could follow the same approach as the Chinese government and massively expand its infrastructure and energy sectors, Hanoi-Hai Phong (the red river delta) would become the next mega metropolis around this region and they may experience over 10% growth over the next three decades.

Therefore Guangxi people have to be aware that Vietnam people are catching up quickly. What they need to do is to try everything best to improve its infrastructure and attract shipment from Chongqing and Kunming.

For the above map, you can see that it is actually closer for Kunming to go through Vietnam to reach the sea. If the Vietnam government is really clever, they should reduce the shipping costs (by improving road quality) and attract goods from Kunming and Tibet and use Hanoi port. This would make Hanoi to become the next logistic center for international shipping.

That’s why it is vital for the Guangxi government to counterbalance Vietnam and promote its connections to Yunan and Chongqing.

However, in the past two decades, the Guangxi CCP government have gone in the wrong direction. They’ve built three giant international ports along the coast. But not many people and ships wanted to use them. The combined port shipment volume is only 200million tons, which ranked at 18th among all ports in China.

Originally for Kunming and Chongqing, it is always cheaper and easier to go through Guangzhou instead of coming here. And what’s worse. You made all your three ports (Fang-cheng-gang, Qinzhou, Beihai) compete with each other, instead of focusing on building a combined giant port.

Image: A massive expansion in Fangchenggang port. Now it is pretty much a “ghost port”. 21°33’59.4″N 108°22’37.0″E

And what’s worse. The top CCP leader in Guangxi focused on building expressway and railway connections to Guangdong and ignored the roads to Kunming and Chongqing. As a result, more Guangxi people are drawn by the gravity from Guangdong and they are not coming back. This causes a severe brain drain in Guangxi.

People are leaving and ships are not coming. That’s why the Guangxi CCP leader did not get promoted. However, Guangxi is not a province, but it is an autonomous region in China. So it has its own laws and regulations. One of its regulation is that the Guangxi leader must be a Zhuang entity Zhuang people – Wikipedia

. This race-based selection obviously breaks the meritocracy system of CCP. And I think this is probably the reason why Guangxi is not developed so well. That’s why I suggest to remove the “autonomous” status and make Guangxi a province.

Lucky the current CCP leader in Guangxi has realized the problem and focus on promoting connections between Yunnan and Guizhou. And also they proposed to

Build Canals!

For the 13th Five Year Plan in Guangxi, the CCP is planning to “evaluate” the possibility of the Ping-Lu Canal (平陆运河) that connects the Pingtang river to the Qinjiang river in the south.

The canal is 20km long and it is very expensive to build. For reference, it is half the length of the Kra Canal in Thailand. It requires a lot of in-depth studies before the CCP finally decides to spend billions of RMB to build the canal. Whether it is worthwhile, it remains to be seen.

If it were built, it would be truly a significant boost to the Guangxi economy. With connected water, ships can then carry extra-heavy machinery and goods across most of the river network in Guangxi. It would finally solve the Guangxi problem!

For the road and railway network, Guangxi still has a lot of rooms to improve in terms of density and accessibility. I’m not listing their detailed projects because they are similar to Yunan and Guizhou.

Conclusion

After this extremely long post, I hope you can know something about the on-going developments in the four poorest provinces of China. The take away is that China invests much more domestically than abroad. These are all in the news but people just don’t pay attention to them.

And also note that most of the above projects are led by Chinese state enterprises. They lose money for doing this. But they bring huge social benefits to the general people. This is called “socialism with Chinese characteristics” and it is working. That’s why the West such as the USA and Europe could not achieve nor even consider doing it.

Finally, let’s finish up with a view of the expressway in Guangxi province. Thank you for taking the time to read this extremely long posts.

Please enjoy the real China 🙂

College-Age Carousel Rider Tries Lecturing Men That A “High Body Count Should NEVER Matter”

What is the best example of human kindness you have witnessed recently?

I was at a mall today, paying bills, having lunch and planning on a visit to the gym (pat on the back: I did all three!).

As I walked to the bank, I noticed an older man sitting by a water feature, dipping his fingers in the pool. This was unusual as people here in Thailand rarely do this in a mall.

When I passed him again 10 minutes later, he was standing in the middle of the walkway, searching to his left, then to his right, over and over, looking distressed.

I was about to approach him when a group of (uniformed and backpacked) high school students got to him first. They spoke to him respectfully and quickly realized that he didn’t know where he was or who should be with him.

One young man sprinted off to Information while the others tried to distract the old man to calm him.

A few moments later, a female security guard approached the group, having been notified by Information. She told the kids they could leave, but they refused, feeling they should stay and keep ‘grandfather’ happy.

An announcement was made, and within a few minutes, a very worried, middle-aged couple rushed over to the old man, and although they fussed at him for disappearing, they were clearly relieved.

The high school students were thanked, and then they respectfully took their leave.

The old man watched them go, turned to the couple and asked, “Where are the grandkids going?”

The couple smiled at him and gently said, “It’s ok, Father. They are going to school.”

The old man replied, “They are such good kids. You raised them well.”

Why do some civilians choose to stay in war zones?

Yesterday, I met a journalist friend who had just arrived from Avdiivka and we were talking about this issue.

Although this city in the Donetsk region is at the risk of encirclement by the Russian army and there’s no electricity and no internet, there are still some civilians living there.

My friend visited some of them in a bomb shelter and while he was doing his interviews, a woman in the shelter died.

Not from old age (she was fifty) or a sickness but because she had drunk hand sanitizer. Some people there are so poor that they cannot afford to buy alcohol so they drink disinfectants.

Avdiivka, Ukraine. (Picture: Forbes)

There are obviously two kinds of hand sanitizers, the clear one and the colored one, and one of them is extremely poisonous. The woman drank the wrong one, started sh*tting blood and died a few hours later.

Of course, not every civilian who stays behind in a war zone is a complete alcoholic but a lot of them are old, sick, or suffer from mental disorders.

Many of the civilians in Donetsk are also of Russian origin and wouldn’t feel much at home if they were to evacuate to Western or Central Ukraine.

Their lives were already screwed up long before the war and now, they simply don’t care anymore.

What’s the cleverest cheating you’ve ever seen as a teacher or student?

We take our exams in the classroom, where there is a projector that looks like this. It’s hanging from the ceiling and underneath it, there was a shiny piece of plastic that the school had never bothered to remove.

One of my friends, who sat directly below the projector, looked up to see the bottom of the projector in the middle of a Chinese exam. He was that friend who struggled a lot with Chinese, and guess what he saw at that moment?

The answers of the guy who sat next to him, reflecting off that shiny plastic.

The projector itself was black, so he could see the white exam paper easily. He copied down the answers, which was easier to do because that exam was multiple choice.

A few days later, we got our papers back and he was copying the answers off the wrong page, but in the next exam he used the same trick and made sure that he was on the same page as the person next to him (who was smart).

We don’t use that classroom now because we moved to a different building, but this “cheating hack” was passed down to the next generation and I’ve heard that they now fight for the seat underneath the projector. The teachers never found out.

Why do the men that admire Tyler Durden also admire Patrick Bateman when the two are about as opposite from the other as anything could ever be?

Love this question.

The Yuppies of American Psycho (and similar characters in the Ellisverse) are the Masters of American Consumerist Culture. They are the, in a sense, heroes of the Consumerist Myth. Rich, powerful, beautiful, and crushingly successful at everything they put their mind to.

So successful at consumption are they that they have moved beyond merely consuming things; they consume people and souls.

Fight Club could easily be put in the same universe. But instead of looking at the Masters of said Universe, Fight Club looks at its losers. The men who weren’t born to wealth and didn’t make it up the ladder.

The movie, through Tyler Durden, constantly points out the failures of these men to reach the levels of the Patrick Batemans of the world. Here is one particularly blunt, powerful scene:

Of course, Durden is also a consumer — in that he is actually consuming Jack and plans on erasing him entirely. He also “consumes” Marla, and eventually holds most of the Fight Club men in an iron grip. He even begins to morph into a “Master of the Universe” like-figure.

Notice the comments on the male model. In the Ellisverse, models are of the Elite.

Notice here that not only does Durden look like a male fashion model, he states that it’s exactly what Jack wishes he could look like and how he could live. And he’s not wrong, obviously. “All the ways you wish you could be? That’s me.”

As I see it, while Durden and Bateman would absolutely be opposed to each other’s “political” goals, such as they are, a Durden victory would be a “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” kind of thing at core.

Basically: Patrick Bateman and Tyler Durden really aren’t that different. If Durden were born in Bateman’s world he would be another Bateman; if Bateman were born in Durden’s world he would be another Durden (might sound implausible but remember, Bateman is crushingly charismatic, intelligent, and quite driven when he wants to be).

While Bateman is more openly aristocratic, Durden fairly quickly sets himself up as the undisputed King of Fight Club and clearly sets himself apart from the other men. I can’t find the video but there is a scene in the movie where the men dig ditches while Durden yells at them through a megaphone. He’s not in the ditch with them.

Durden presents himself as a hero of the common man… but he isn’t a common man himself. And the fact that he isn’t, makes him far more appealing. Because who wants to be the common man?

So.

They are the Elites of their Universes. All the women want them and the men want to be them. So of course many male viewers would admire them both and ignore their drawbacks. The political stuff is immaterial — at core they represent the same desires that many men have.

What’s the most ridiculous thing someone has claimed to be allergic to?

This is a prison story.

An inmate at a certain prison in the western US claimed that he was allergic to sodium. Now, this is ridiculous because, as my freshman chemistry teacher once pointed out, sodium is in everything.

Inmates with special diets (medical, dental, allergies, etc.) would go at the end of the line after everyone else had gotten their meal trays. Sodium guy would go last of all and put on a performance that was annoying and stupid but oddly comforting because of its predictability.

Prison staff mostly want things to go smoothly. Nobody was yanking this guy’s chain or trying to piss him off. At each meal they genuinely tried to come up with something he could eat. And at each meal, when his tray slid out the window, he would look at it and say (or scream), “I can’t eat this! It’s got sodium in it!” And he would slide it back into the window. This happened every time. Eventually he would eat something.

Once I saw him drinking a half-pint of milk. Showing him the ingredient list, I pointed out that it had sodium in it.

“That’s OK,” he said. “The sugar counteracts the sodium.”

Right. Whatever.

Who was the most ignorant American you have ever met?

A previous boss.

I was required to issue a monthly report of sales by geographic region, listing each project.

One was a project in China sold to New Sun (China) Energy. I dutifully indicated the sale was in Asia.

My boss protested. “No!” said he. “You need to report that in Europe.”

I blinked and said, “But it’s in China.”

“Yes,” said he. “China’s in Europe.”

“Um…no.. China’s in Asia.”

He slammed his hand on his desk and said, “China’s a state of Germany, now report it in Europe.”

Me: “Ok” while silently muttering dumbass.

We had another dispute over Egypt. Apparently Egypt is also in Europe.

I had a grand time explaining to our lead sales person (a Chinese lady citizen of China) and our production manager (a German citizen) that Germany had expanded its population by a billion with this master stroke of geopolitical theater. They both rolled their eyes.

Yeah, boss was that dumb.

What made fighter jet dogfights obsolete after World War II? Was it because of radar or missiles or something else entirely?

They weren’t obsolete after WW2. They still occurred over Korea, Vietnam, the Falklands, and Israel.

In Korea – There were no good air-to-air missiles yet, so jet aircraft had to close in to within gunnery range to shoot each other down. There were some pretty epic dogfights in Mig Alley, over the Yalu River.

In Vietnam – Missiles were now available, and the “clever fellows up on high” declared the dogfight was dead because jets could now fly at Mach 2, too fast for dogfights. That meant the F-4 Phantom was fielded with 8 missiles…and no gun. Well, turns out the dogfight wasn’t actually dead yet, and while the missiles of the time were “adequate” for downing bombers flying straight and level, they were pretty lousy against maneuvering fighters. And the ROE (Rules Of Engagement) for Phantoms required a visual ID, eliminating the BVR capability of their Sparrow missiles. So, dogfights were in fact…not obsolete.

In the Falklands 1982 – Dogfights still weren’t dead, and there were some pretty intense battles between British Sea Harriers and Argentinian Mirages/Daggers. But, we could see the beginning of the obsolescence of dogfighting because of the AIM-9L Sidewinder.

While still an Infrared Homing (Heatseeker) missile, the “Lima” Sidewinder no longer required getting on a opponent’s 6 o’clock so the heatseeker would home on a hot tailpipe. The Lima Sidewinder was all-aspect, meaning it could get a lock from any angle…even head-on, completely changing the nature of dogfighting.

Even, now with missiles such as the AIM-9X, Meteor, R-77–1, and the AMRAAM, which do not require being within dogfighting range (WVR—Within Visual Range) to score kills, I am reticent to claim the dogfight is dead. I’ll say it no longer will be the bread and butter of aerial combat, but won’t go so far to say the dogfight is obsolete.

It still may happen. Let’s see what happens when Ukraine finally gets their F-16s, and make a decision then. I expect most kills will still occur at BVR, but we may still see genuine dogfights once more. And when both sides are operating stealth aircraft, who knows what we’ll see?

What is the most disrespectful thing someone did to you while you were on an airplane?

Disrespectful?? Weird absolutely. About 8 months ago flying from Portland Or to Amsterdam Ne.

Woman behind my seat has a infant 6–10 months old. Infant cries and cries and cries. I put in ear plugs. I doze off. About an hour later she taps me on the shoulder and hands me said infant. “I need to talk to my husband in first class, you watch her”. She hands me the baby and is gone about 3 hours. Eventually the cabin staff goes and finds her. She is angry because she is hauled back to her seat. I hand her her child and she is upset.

To this day I wonder why she would hand off a perfectly good infant to a total stranger and wander off.

Candy Cane Fudge

Yield: 24 pieces

Ingredients

2 cups white chocolate chips or semisweet chocolate chips
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup crushed candy canes

Instructions

Line an 8 inch square dish with parchment paper, making a sling to lift the fuge out when ready to cut.
In a medium glass bowl, combine the chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk.
Microwave on 50% heat in 30 second intervals until fully melted and combined. Be sure to stir well in between each interval.
Transfer melted mixture into the prepared pan.
Sprinkle on crushed candy canes and slightly press into the top.
Refrigerate for at least 4 to 6 hours to set or freeze for 2 to 4 hours (allow to thaw for 30 minutes before cutting).

Attribution

Photo credit: ohsarahrose on Visualhunt

Deadline U S A 1952 (720p) Humphrey Bogart, Ethel Barrymore, Kim Hunter

It’s about stinky dead bodies

When I was a teenager, there was a flood along the river where we lived. A large number of mobile homes that were located on the shores of the river were taken out, and destroyed. And six people were missing.

One day after the grand storm, I was walking alongside the tracks beside the river. I was in a remote section of the track. Perhaps two miles away from the town, and in the woods.

Eventually I came across a section that smelled really, REALLY bad. It was so foul that I got off the tracks and went to the edge of the river, where the smell was so damn intense.

I couldn’t see anything, and left. But that afternoon, I later discovered that a body was found at the exact location where I was standing looking for the body.

This is my story for today.

Boring? But, you know… true life experience.

Today…

What did you find while snooping that you wish you had never found?

When I was around 11 I was snooping around in my parents room and saw their bank passbook sitting on their dresser. I opened it up expecting to see a healthy sum of money. Instead there was less than $30 in it. I saw the weekly deposits from my dad’s work and regular withdrawals for cash.

even at that young age I realized that we were poor and what little we had got spent on us kids. I felt terrible when I thought of all the times I’d pushed my folks to spend what they had on treats for me and my sister and brother.

I stopped asking for expensive things after that.

What are the reasons more and more Chinese students abroad decide to return to China?

A year ago, filled with a longing for Western freedom and democracy, I applied to the University of Auckland, thinking that it would be great if I could stay and work or live in New Zealand after graduation.

Now, I am firmly convinced that I should return to China after my graduation because:

1.The salary here is not as high as what I can earn in China,

2.The best city here is only equivalent to a third-tier city in China. Shopping and daily life are not as convenient as in China, and the cost of living is four times higher.

3.The knowledge taught in universities here, I can learn for free on Chinese websites, and it’s richer and more advanced.

4. I participated in two research projects at the University of Auckland and found that the level of research and development here is behind that of equivalent universities in China. I realized that by studying here, I probably won’t be able to bring back advanced knowledge. Therefore, I am considering returning to a Chinese university to further my education.

5. Moreover, I can feel that the majority of people in Western countries still believe they are more developed than China. This is the general perception, and I don’t need to explain it. I’ll just return to China and quietly contribute my strength there.

6. Western culture, there seems to be a preference for those who are boastful and talkative rather than those who are low-key and pragmatic. Coincidentally, as a Chinese person, I am not good at boasting, and I prefer to fulfill my responsibilities and then rest. The Chinese workplace is more accommodating to someone with my traits.

In fact, I spent hundreds of thousands of RMB to come to New Zealand, to see the real Western world, improve my English, and then met a group of Chinese students and a few friendly foreign students, and ate food that I wasn’t quite used to for a year.

What, as a parent, could you not believe you had to explain to another parent?

I’m not a parent, but as a teacher I had to explain to a mother about bedtimes and sleep for a seven year old.

Her son was always tired and had difficulty staying awake during class. He was not working to his potential.

His mom came to discuss his poor grades. Come to find out, she was under the impression that he slept too much. So, she kept him up to midnight and had him get up at 6:00 a.m. No wonder the poor lad was always tired. I would be, too.

So, I explained to her that growing children needed at least 10 hours of sleep nightly as their bodies were growing and sleeping gave their bodies time to rest, heal, and grow.

She started having him go to bed at 8:00, especially on school nights. Within a week, he was brighter, more chipper, and the quality of his work improved immensely.

The interesting part? About a month later, he gave me a big hug and thanked me for telling his mom he needed to go to bed earlier.

What was the craziest thing a mechanic said about your car?

I took my nice little VW Beetle Diesel to a mechanic for an oil change. After they got the car on the rack, the service advisor came out “Your car has a really bad oil leak.”

Before you go farther, bear in mind: This was a diesel. This comes in important later.

I go back to the bay and take a look at the purported oil leak. The bottom half of the back of the engine was covered in fresh, amber colored oil. “Oh, you’ve got a huge oil leak. You need to pay us $200 to diagnose the problem.” I called for the shop manager.

“Your employee claims that this car has an oil leak.”

He looks under there. “Yup. Sure does.”

“You know this is a diesel.”

“Why does that matter?”

“Have you ever seen the oil drained from a diesel?”

“Yeah.”

“Then you know that if I put fresh oil in this engine and drive the car three blocks, that oil will be as black as the Ace of Spades. This supposed oil leak, which is in a place oil can’t leak out of, is fresh oil.”

“Umm…”

“Listen. Clean all the oil he sprayed on my engine off it right now so I can go somewhere honest.”

The unbreakable rule

What is something you absolutely despise about your country?

Finn here.

The climate. Finland is located between 60th and 70th North, which makes the climate absolutely miserable.

The location means the winters are long, dark and miserable – sun rising at Christmas only at 09:00 in Helsinki and setting at 15:00. The situation isn’t exactly improved by the fact that Finland is located at the occlusion zone of Ferrel cell, which means the whole Atlantic comes down from the sky each Spring and Autumn. (Oh, Autumn is really Fall – I mean, rainfall. Finnish rain is not the warm shower as the Mediterranean rains, it is hard, cold and scourging.)

Finland has the worst of both littoral and continental climate: cool summers and freezing winters. Oh, and did I mention rasputitsa? Yup, we have it too.

The cold and miserable weather and the long and dark winter has left its permanent mark on our national soul. Finns tend to be emotionally cold, dour and close-minded. Not rude nor impolite, but cold. Sorry, no jolly reggae tunes here. Hero metal, power metal, black metal and prog metal. If your playing sucks, turn on more overdrive.

Which leads to another problem. Alcohol use is commonplace. Simply to carry over the worst. Getting hammered is a method to cope with the cold, dark and miserable winter.

Which leads to another problem. Suicides tend to be common, but not as common as they used to be. Many people simply cannot stand it all and quit their living.

Atheism is in Scandinavia a far older phenomenon than science. When the soil is poor, weather hostile and everything in the climate tries to kill you, you relate to supernatural as enemies and any deities as intolerable cosmic oppressors. The divine is not seen as a provider, but oppressor – as something which attempts to make living even more miserable than it already is. This is one reason why the Scandinavians are so hostile to religion and spirituality they tend to be. Already the Hrafnkell’s saga from 10th century tells of a Viking chieftain who ditches the Viking gods and becomes godhlauss, Atheist.

I wish I had wings so I could fly to Spain for winter like the migratory birds.

I’d choose the sandwich

What is the nicest thing you have done that no one knows about?

A bit of background: My parents recently got divorced and my dad got most of the money, furniture and he got the house. My brother (10) and I (13) only see our mom every second weekend and sometimes my dad just keeps us for the weekend. I always stop by my moms After school everyday to let her dog out and clean up any messes she made (She’s 17 and black lab). I usually wait there for bit until I have to pick up my brother.

Anyways, one day, my math teacher asked me to stay behind for a few minute so to talk about an opportunity to compete in a math contest. It was country wide and was for grade ten and eleven math. I’m grade seven but he said that’s he talked to the people who were running it. They said I could try but might have some trouble with it. I really like math so I said yes.

Fast forward two weeks and I’m sitting in the cafeteria with a bunch of really tall people. They hand out the papers and say go. I finish in about half an hour and turn mine in.

About a month ago i got the results and i placed third in the country. Apparently, there was a prize and i won three hundred dollars.

Now, my mom has been struggling financially although she didn’t tell us, I figured it out. Every time I stop by her house, I put some of the money in her jar and she hasn’t but noticed. I know it’s probably not a lot but I like to think I’m helping a at least a little bit. I can’t legally work yet…

Man, the USA is fucked up.

What is the best lie you have ever told your child?

When my due date was getting very close, I told my 3 and a half year old daughter that her little brother is afraid to come out of my belly. He thinks to himself: Oh, its a big scary world out there. Who knows what is awaiting for me outside. I’m just a little baby boy. I don’t want to go out and live with big grown up people all by myself.. Who will understand me and help me when I’m outside? Oh how I wish there was a little girl out there who would be my sister, so we can grow up together…

She was deeply moved when she heard this. She put her little hand gently on my belly, and whispered to her brother with a voice filled with tenderness. Come out little brother. I am your sister M. and I will always take care of you. You don’t have to be afraid. Few days after this, her brother came, and the love and connection that the two of them have is something I, as an only child, never imagined could exist. The way they cherish one another, help, encourage and comfort along the way is truly amazing.

Are school uniforms the most effective way to eliminate social and economic differences between students?

It’s not going to eliminate the difference at all. However, it could help the less rich kids to maintain their dignity.

This is the most common school uniform in China. It’s ugly, oversized, and appeard since my school ages, but totally affordable. It wouldn’t change the fact that some kids have a poor family background, but it could reduce the possibility of students getting isolated in schools for either being too poor or rich. Trust me that kids do that all the time, and it could be quite hurtful sometimes.

Besides, with an ugly uniform, how one looks like purely relys on face. Dad’s mercedes or even GTR wouldn’t save it.

This is very serious what is going on

Not really Communism, though…

Can you describe a time that your company only discovered that you were irreplaceable after they fired you? How did you feel? What did they do?

I am a welder and applied to a job through a temp agency. Their ad said hiring welders from $23 to $26 an hour depending on experience. They gave me a weld test and decided to hire me at $23. I told them I want $26 because that’s what their add said. I was told that was dependent on experience. Well I have 24 years of experience and I want 26. In the end I agreed to work for 25.

On my first night it was time to clock out so I went to the time clock and clocked out. I noticed all the other welders were still there cleaning up their work areas. I shouted at them so they could hear me, “hey it’s time to go. What are you all still doing here?”

I didn’t get an answer and left. Coming in the next day I asked them about this and they said they cleaned up the shop after hours on their time. With all the workers around and the boss I told everyone, “I don’t work for free. This mess wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t been here working. I won’t be cleaning the shop for free. I am loud quitting boss” as I made eye contact with the foreman, “when my shift is over I am clocking out and going home. I will have my area cleaned up before then.”

That night was the first night they did weld testing because new clients demanded all their welders were certified welders.

The next morning the temp agency called me and asked me not to go back to the job because I had been terminated for not listening.

The morning after I was called back again. I was the only person on 2nd shift who passed the weld test and many on first shift also failed.

Company representative: “Would you come back to work for us, please?”

Me: “OK but I want $28 an hour and switched to 1st shift.”

Company representative: “we can’t do that”

Me: “Good bye”

50 Bucks and a pack of cigarettes

What was the most obvious hint that someone hitting on you ever gave but you totally missed it?

In Vietnam, when we meet someone for the first time in the new (lunar) year, we usually give each other a red envelope with some lucky money – as a good wish for a bright and happy new year.

I was in 11th grade in high school. We were just back from the Lunar New Year holiday (”Tết” holiday in Vietnamese), happily exchanging red envelopes and good wishes. Coincidentally, it was also Valentine’s Day that year. But, 20 years ago, I had no idea about that, so when this boy handed me the red envelope with a chocolate bar, “Happy Valentine!”, I happily took it, “Thank you! You’re so sweet!”, and I gave him a big hug.

Before he could say anything else, I opened the chocolate bar, broke it into pieces, and… shared it with the whole class, everyone got a piece. I couldn’t explain the emotion in his eyes when he watched that happened.

Years later, every time we meet up for our class reunion, he always brings this story up and we laugh. Still can’t believe I missed that hint.

CIA

Back in the late 70’s I found myself between jobs. I had 10 years as the GM of aof a chain of convenience stores which had been sold and that ended my job! My parents lived in the Washington DC area and one of their neighbors, who I had known for many years, worked for the CIA. At a neighborhood gathering while I was visiting I mentioned to him that I was job hunting and asked if he had any connections in the CIA. After we had returned home I got a call asking if I would like to interview so I flew back up and stayed with my parents for a week.

I was instructed to report to a building in Rosslyn VA which is across the Potomac River from DC. I remember having a hard time finding the address I was given because there was no name or numbers on the building. Maybe that was my first test! In any case, the interview lasted all week. One thing that I remember was is how low key the whole process was. Mostly a series of different people asking me a lot of questions about myself. What my hobbies were, favorite foods. etc. It reminded me of shooting the breeze with a bunch of strangers at a college mixer. Not much in writing, no physicals, drug tests, etc. Not many probing questions, very relaxed. Definitely the strangest interview I’ve ever had, and this went on for 5 days.

There was one woman who was my primary contact. From the beginning to the end, she was the one who was always there at the end of an interview and introduced me to the next person. Never their last name or title, just a first name, always in the same room, never in their office. On the 5th and final day, she brought me into her office and said that they would like me to work for them as an operative. I had never heard that term before, but knew that it meant that the CIA wanted me to be a spy. Immediate visions of James Bond came to mind. Fast cars, nice clothes, A GUN…all the things that we associate with being a spy. Obviously I was very interested.

I had a bunch of questions but the two that I remember were: 1. Where would I be stationed? and 2. What did they want me to do? I was married with two young children, and I was thinking maybe they wanted me in Europe where I had spent many years as a boy. WRONG! They wanted me to operate a small grocery store in PAGO PAGO! I had never even heard of Pago Pago, let alone knew that there was a large US Navy Base there. Out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from everything and everyone we know, it was out of the question.

That was the end of my spy recruitment.

LOL. All, I do mean ALL of the stores in Pago Pago are owned by Chinese nationals. No fucking shit. -MM

Chinese Rufus

Has an unknown stranger ever paid a massive bill for you? What happened?

I was a semi-freshly divorced single mom working in a chain of gas stations. It was my job to cover if someone called off and to run the money every day.

I had a reliable car only because my parents both took the time to teach me about cars including how to find a good used one and repair it when it broke.

I was enrolled in college. One class at a time is all I could squeeze in my schedule and budget.

My child was suffering under a rural southern school district. She is gifted and they had refused to set an IEP, refused to challenge her, and in fact persecuted her and myself due to our religion. We were told more than once we were going to Hell by school officials.

It was an uphill battle with them that required an attorney who volunteered his services. I couldn’t have afforded him otherwise.

Despite these difficulties, life was OK. We were surviving. We had food, shelter, and running water. My child never went to bed hungry or cold.

Then I started getting tired. Abnormally tired. I didn’t have the energy to function. My mother forced me to go to her doctor. She paid for the visit because I didn’t have insurance.

The doctor called me at work two days later and asked me to come in. I made arrangements for my child after school and I went.

He told me I was sick. Very sick. The tiredness was a symptom of this. It wasn’t just lack of proper nutrition or being over worked. This wasn’t something that could be fixed with a pill.

I started treatment the next week. I still went to work. I still took care of my child. I had to drop my class and adjust my schedule. I had to fight — and fight I did.

Then the medical bills started coming in. Uninsured and dead broke, I almost gave up. The state said I did not qualify for assistance of any kind because I made too much money.

If I had another child, I’d be at the income threshold. If I had another child, I could collect benefits like food stamps, Medicaid, and housing assistance.

If the state would have straightened out the child support instead of counting it against my income, I might have been able to pay a little bit of the medical bills.

I made arrangements for my child’s care after I passed. I had a small life insurance policy that would cover my final expenses. I managed to keep fighting.

The medical bills kept coming as did the phone calls from debt collectors. The threatening letters. The calls to my work. To say it was stressful is an understatement.

Until one day they stopped. The medical bills still came but showed a zero balance. The bills that had gone into collections were paid in full.

My rabbi approached me one night after services. He told me that a member of our shul had paid everything on the caveats I finish school and don’t stop.

I begged him to tell me who but he would NOT budge. He just said, “Finish your education and don’t stop.”

Finish school and don’t stop.

I still do not know who. I’ve had my suspicions, but I keep them to myself.

I have graduated but haven’t finished my education. (That is something that is never going to be finished.)

I haven’t stopped.

Smart Cat

Downtown Grill Catfish LaFitte

This is one of my favorite ways to prepare catfish. Even those who dislike catfish love it fixed this way.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons ground red pepper, divided (may need 2 1/2 teaspoons)
4 farm-raised catfish fillets, about 1 1/2 pounds
Vegetable oil
12 large fresh shrimp, unpeeled
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/4 cup sweet vermouth
2 cups whipping cream
1/4 cup chopped green onions, divided
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3 very thin cooked ham slices, cut into strips
Garnish: lemon wedges

Instructions

Combine eggs and milk, stirring until well blended.
Combine flour, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon red pepper in a shallow dish. Dredge fish in flour mixture; dip in milk mixture. Dredge again in flour mixture.
Pour oil to a depth of 3 inches into a Dutch oven; heat to 360 degrees F. Fry fish for 5 to 6 minutes or until golden; drain on paper towels. Keep warm.
Peel shrimp; devein, if desired. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add shrimp and garlic, and cook until shrimp turn pink, stirring often. Remove shrimp, reserving drippings.
Stir vermouth into reserved drippings; bring to a boil, and cook 1 minute. Add whipping cream, 2 tablespoons green onions, lemon juice, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1 to 2 teaspoons red pepper; cook 12 to 15 minutes or until sauce is thickened, stirring often.
Place catfish on a serving plate, and drizzle with sauce. Top with shrimp and ham; sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons green onions. Garnish, if desired.

Notes

I make the sauce first and keep it warm. I then fry the fish and finish the dish.

The Big Lie that Women Keep Believing in Modern Dating

Don’t people in China wish to live in a democratic country?

As a 31-year-old Chinese person who lived in China for 30 years and has been living in New Zealand for a year, I find that this question seems to be of particular concern to people in the Western world, while we ourselves are not so concerned about it. I have also thought about this for a long time, and I would like to give a rather serious answer.

When I was living in China, politics really didn’t have much to do with our lives. In the daily routine of a normal person, we were essentially free and democratic. Moreover, from childhood, we learned about both Chinese culture and Western culture. We were quite familiar with the Western world from our media, and we knew roughly what the world was like. After going abroad, it was also easy for us to embrace Western culture.

However, after coming to New Zealand, I found that the Western media is full of prejudice against China and North Korea, while reporting differently on East Asian countries like Japan and South Korea. In fact, I particularly want to tell many Western friends who have never been to China that it is easy for us to accept Western civilization, but your points of concern about China seem to differ from what we care about ourselves.

Historically, China has never actively pursued religion, so how could it be actively enamored with politics? As long as the party does not disturb the people, we won’t pay too much attention to it, and a political party is the least intrusive solution. China is a country that has been agriculturally based for thousands of years. Our ancestors loved the land that could grow crops, and this love has flowed into our blood. The charming land that produces enchanting crops makes us ordinary people happy. China is large enough that whether at the top or among ordinary people, everyone can find their own focus in life, everyone takes responsibility for their own duties, rather than thinking about taking advantage of others or stealing from others. This is more efficient and safe.

If the leadership does not perform well, the people will resist together, and our history has always been this way. An ordinary person can grow to be a top figure in the country, or a top figure over a piece of land. With 5,000 years of detailed recorded history, many historically high-ranking people came from common families. So, when you ask if Chinese people want to live in a democratic country, I want to say that we have always been democratic. Every Chinese person knows: “The noble and the humble have no determined lineage,” but as a culturally united nation, if we are in a high position and do not make the contributions we should, we will be shamefully recorded in history, which is as important as life itself to every Chinese person. Thus, even though we have equal opportunities to become influential figures, not everyone wants to be the most powerful because that also means taking on more responsibilities, which can be more tiring (the positions of emperor, prime minister, and general in Chinese history were high-stress jobs). So usually for us, enjoying the life of an ordinary person also seems more relaxing.

However, it seems that Western politicians do not have the same immense pressures as Chinese leaders, nor do they have the same sense of responsibility. Your leaders seem very relaxed, speaking eloquently with expressive gestures, whereas our leaders are sparing with words, and mostly very serious. How should I put it? They are also under great work pressure, as they are not only supervised by hundreds of millions of common people but also by their competitors. But from my heart, I like this Chinese style where everyone has their role and does not interfere with others.

Compared to many Western countries, China is very open. I grew up in a very ordinary family in China, reading masterpieces from all over the world from a young age, experiencing different cultures, which is why I chose to go abroad after getting married and having children. I have also read modern and ancient Chinese books, which enables me to answer this question today.

For foreign friends curious about China, if you want to understand China, you are sincerely welcome to visit, especially if your daily exposure is only to English media. Because they seem to be the most heavily brainwashed region at the moment.

How true is the statement that if China adopt electoral democracy, their politicians will be corrupt?

There is already corruption in China. I mean not USA style corruption. The USA is almost as corrupt as Ukraine.

But here’s the thing.

Corruption is actually punished in China. With the PENALTY of DEATH.

This man here? He was in the TOP ten most powerful men in China.

He took bribes. He is rotting in prison now, he was sentenced to DEATH in 2020 😀

Most westerners now are hahaha death is a soft punishment! They think that resignation is the ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT.

You remember when Jon Corzine walked off with 2 billion dollars? He went on television and said it simply evaporated.

At the same time this man

Citizens found he had better stuff than his pay grade. They reported it. He lost EVERYTHING.

BUT BUT westerners cry! We can vote them out and make them suffer.

How can you tell someone is faking intelligence?

Somewhere in my graduate school years I noticed a trend.

An undergraduate philosophy major will sound absolutely brilliant. They often speak in a jargon-dense diction, delivered at high velocity, one idea bouncing off another to produce a spiderweb of spiraling associations. The effect, rhetorically and aesthetically, is often overwhelming. Logic doesn’t really play a role because one hardly knows what they are saying. The unwitting listener feels himself outmatched, drowned and blinded by the naked light of unbridled genius.

The graduate student is a much dimmer light. He is still full of abstract phrases and obscure references, but he is someone who is starting to sound, again, like a human being — explaining things, pausing, asking questions to insure the listener is following. This is not nearly as impressive as the undergraduate, but it does have the virtue of allowing the ordinary among us to understand what is being said.

The professor sounds like your basic “dad,” albeit one with a lot to say. He can at times seem unsure of himself. He pauses to define his terms and to add qualifications to his statements. He speaks carefully. He might even speak slowly. He explains as he goes, almost apologizing for whatever obscurities he falls into. His manner of speech is, well… designed to communicate! A quite boring and not evidently bright fellow, you almost feel embarrassed for him.

In light of these observations, I was forced to conclude that there is either something terribly wrong with our educational system — since the higher people go the dumber they get — or intelligence is not quite what we sometimes think it is.

Show me your boobies

If a nuclear bomb is about to explode 2 miles away from you in 30 minutes, what is the first place you would go to?

In my van. We would drive away with the pedal to the metal. In 30 minutes, I could expect to get at least 50 kilometres away, and that ought to be far enough to be safe. Moreover, the van has a Diesel engine, so it does not need electricity to function – it will run as long as there is fuel and air.

If it was summer, I would drive to our yacht, put SCUBA gear on, and dive in the sea in the marina. There is enough oxygen to survive the blast underwater. Most radiation is absorbed in the sea, and the shock wave would not get to the water.

What was your “Aha!” moment during a toxic relationship that made you realize people never change?

I dated a girl for a few years and we lived together for the last half of the relationship. Things hadn’t been great for several months before I decided to break it off, but it was a single statement she made that convinced me it was time.

The yard was in serious need of some attention. The grass was a bit high and we hadn’t done weeding in a few weeks. So I decided to spend my day off working in the yard.

I mowed the grass and edged the walks, I weeded all the flower beds, watered and fertilized our plants, got some new plants to fill in the beds. After I was done with all that, I decided to do some cleaning. I power washed the driveway and the house. The concrete looked brand new.

I finished shortly before she got home from work. When she got in, I was in the backyard admiring my handiwork. I was proud of how the yard looked. It hadn’t looked that nice in quite a while.

When she came into the backyard, I motioned towards all my hard work with my hands as if to says “look what I did!”.

The only thing she had to say about it was “You forgot to sweep behind the chiminea.” and pointed to a small pile of leaves off in the corner of our yard. Then went inside to take a shower.

Something snapped in my brain. All the times she had criticized stupid things just to have something to criticize came flooding back. I suddenly realized the obvious pattern that had been there all along. She didn’t just do it to me either. It was just who she was to everyone. She just enjoyed criticizing people.

I knew I couldn’t live life like that. I knew that if I stuck around, she would keep doing that for the rest of our lives and it would make me miserable.

I had just spent my entire day doing yard work in the middle of June and she couldn’t find one positive thing to say about it. I left that evening and stayed with a friend. The next day, I came home and broke it off with her.

Every man on Earth

What was the most unexpected knock you got on your door?

I was about 10 years old, and in bed – about 11pm. I was supposed to be asleep, but as usual, I was reading by the light of my nightlight. I heard my dad slam the front door, and my mom yell. This wasn’t normal behavior, so I went into the living room.

The police were called, and my dad told me the story. Mom and Dad were in the living room, and heard a knock at the front door. We lived out in the country, and the neighbors all knew Dad was a doctor, so Dad thought it might be a neighbor needing help. When Dad opened the door, he saw a man with a mask standing there with one hand behind his back. Our super friendly, loved everybody German Shorthair, Ringo, followed Dad to the door. As soon as she saw the man, she gave a huge bark, and lunged for the guy. Dad said that 3 things happened nearly simultaneously – 1) he grabbed Ringo’s collar, 2) the guy pointed a gun at Dad (it was in the hand behind his back), 3) the man shot the gun. Dad slammed and locked the door. Dad was unhurt.

When the police arrived, they spent a long time looking opposite the door to try to find a bullet hole. At one point, one of the officers said that maybe it was a blank. But eventually, one of the policemen noticed that the row of art books we had on the bookshelf facing the door wasn’t completely even; one of them was pushed back about an inch. He peered closely at it, and noticed something odd about the O (it might have been Michelangelo) in the title – it had a hole in the middle of the O. He opened up the book, and sure enough, the bullet was nestled in the pages.

Needless to say, there was a rule in our house after that – don’t open the door at night without asking “Who’s there” first!

Have you ever met a dangerous person and not known it at the time?

I used to own a small tavern. We had a guy who started hanging out there quite regularly. Nice guy, played darts with the other regulars, bought rounds in order , but didn’t talk much about himself or his past. But it’s a bar, so no one cares. We’ll call him John.

He was in early one night around 7pm. My staff is all away on lunch, partner wouldn’t be back til 10pm. I’m all alone. Usually not a big deal. This night, a couple of college jocks got way out of hand and started tearing the place up – breaking cue sticks and tossing around empty kegs. It’s just John, me and the college boys. I’m trying to de-escalate and get them to leave. Then, one of the big guys starts pushing me and throwing punches. I’m screwed. That is, until John steps in and beats the shit out of two guys much bigger than himself. I was completely shocked! We toss the guys out and he tells me not to call the police. He leaves shortly afterwards.

Next time I see John, I want to pick up his tab and chat. He asks me not to tell anyone or talk about it. I figure he’s ex-military and a private guy. He becomes pretty scarce. We’re looking for him, but he doesn’t come around anymore.

About a year later, we see his pic in the paper. He’s on trial for a pair of mob related murders. Turns out he might be responsible for more than a couple of these. I’m very glad he liked me.

US Ambassador threaten to shut Ghana’s economy down if Anti-Gay bill pass

Yup. The United States foreign policy at work.

What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?

I lived in northern Manitoba and southern Ontario, both in Canada, for about 25 years before I moved to southern Maryland. Snowmageddon struck in January-February of 2010. Everything was shut down for 10 days or so. Finally, I ventured out onto the roads.

My apartment complex fronted a 4 lane divided roadway, which was a designated Snow Emergency Route. The left lane was bare, the right lane was still covered with ice and slush. Both lanes were blocked where an SUV had gotten stuck then started to slide into the ditch to the right of the road. Pickup trucks, cars, other SUVs, vans, all were parked higgly jiggly and tall, brawny men were attempting to get the vehicle out.

I parked well back, walked to the crowd in my Canadian snow boots, and offered to help. They all had a good laugh, then turned away. I tapped on a man’s arm, “I grew up in Wisconsin and lived in Canada for 25 years. I know snow.”

“Hey, let the little lady here give it a try!”

I cleared them away from the car, crunched around it, repositioned the men, instructed the driver to straighten her wheels and put it into LOW gear, no gas! Told the men to push again, rocking, and told the driver to release the brakes.

The SUV popped right out of the icy ruts and kept going. Silently, the men returned to their cars and left. Too cold for crickets, I guess…

What did you notice during an interview that made you not want the job?

I was interviewing for a Canadian regional sales manager’s job for a company that sold patent medicines, made in Saudi Arabia. (Yes, I wrote the correct country name.)

After having introduced ourselves the interviewer handed me a package of papers, about ten pages thick.

“I’ll be quiet for a few minutes until you have read and signed this.”

It was the most horrible secrecy agreement you could imagine. If I break this, my grandson’s firstborn would be burned on the stake, or something along those lines.

I put it down, and politely bade my adieus.

The interviewer followed me all the way to the elevator door, trying to explain that not all was cast in stone. Some details could be negotiated.

I entered the elevator and left.

My next job was selling industrial valves, no secrecy agreement required. (I stayed there 9.5 years.)

Dead Bedrooms

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

What did you see going on in the back of the school bus that shocked you?

The school arranged for a bus load of junior high students to go to a live play in the city.

This was the second bus trip in a month. The first one had gotten a little steamy on the ride back to the school in the dark. But not so bad it stopped the second one from happening.

The second trip, stopped all future bus trips, and caused a general assembly to be called. The principal and vice principal were dismissed at the end of the school year.

I didn’t have a girlfriend, and my best friends sister wanted to make out with me, but I knew that would end my friendship with my best friend. She wasn’t attractive enough to risk that.

In the back row, you could only see two guys sitting up, one in each seat. There had been girls sitting beside them when we left for the school.

What brought it to a head, was that the majority of students had hickies that were visible to their parents when they got home from the school trip.

There were a lot of phone calls leading up to the general assembly. It was amazing how many students had purple splotches, vainly trying to be covered with turtle necks, and long sleeves, and they had to sit in the front row of the general assembly, as we were told the consequences of our actions.

Do you continue to greet neighbors who never say hello first?

My mother was a nurse.

One day, she came home with a bruise on her cheek – just a small one, but it was a bruise. I asked what happened to her? She told me that a patient’s son hit her in the face because he thought she was ignoring his father – who was in pain while actually she was busy with another patient who was more critical. I asked her what happened next? She told me: “Oh, I came to that patient as soon as I finished with the one I was working on. Talked to him, comforted him and gave him some meds. Then I explained the situation to the son, and he apologized”. 7 year old me that day got angry and asked: “Why? You’re the best nurse, why didn’t you let someone else deal with that patient? His son hit you. He didn’t deserve your care!”

And my mom’s answer that day became one of the most important lessons I carry with myself through life: “Sweetie, you should never let someone’s bad action to be the reason for your own. Fixing something wrong by doing something wrong will never work. That man hit me may have been wrong, but if I hadn’t taken care of his father, I wouldn’t have been right. Moreover, it was the son who made the mistake, why should the father has to face the consequences? Your mom is the best nurse, so I do the best, right?”

So, if my neighbor never says hello to me first? That doesn’t stop me from saying hello and wishing them a good day.

I still believe that in this world full of sad/angry people, it’s much better if we’re sweet to each other, even just a littleeeeeee bit.

They know her language

Do you think the recent incident where a Chinese navy destroyer used active sonar to harass a disabled Australian frigate will threaten the pro-China government in Australia?

I strongly condemn Chinese military using sonar of mass destruction near Chinese coast which caused damage to Australian soldiers close Australian coast.

Wait… the Australians were near Chinese coast.

Oh… so you were their collecting seabed information, right?

In case of WWIII, it would be useful to intercept Chinese submarines.

International water or not, it’s definitely a hostile activity against China.

I can already make the draft about the same thing but reversed, i.e. PLAN soldiers got hurt by Australian sonar near Australian coast.

There is no “pro-China government in Australia”.

We know that already.

Stop lying.

Miao Ethnic Group

This is one of the 65 recognized ethnic groups in China.

What is the most absurd thing you’ve been charged for on a bill?

The flags for the cars at my mother-in-laws funeral.

Well, they tried.

When they were doing their consult, they went over about a million things with my wife, and her brother. Both of whom were pretty deep in grief as they had just lost their mother. This woman was more of a mother to me than my own, so I wasn’t exactly NOT grieving.

Before my wife signed on the dotted line, she asked me to look the paperwork over. I saw a HUGE line item, it was around $2000, and just listed as “flags”. I asked the wife about it, and I asked the brother-in-law. Both had no idea what it was. I asked the representative from the funeral home, and they said it was for the funeral flags for the cars. The little magnetic “flags” that say “FUNERAL” on them. They are plastic, and have a magnetic base on them and you put them on your front fenders. If you have seen a few funeral processions, I’m sure you have seen them.

So I asked why we were paying $2000 for these.

I was told we had estimated 100 people, and they charge $10 per flag, and 2 per car. so 100x2x$10=$2000.

I asked if these were required, or if they thought that literally every single person was going to be driving their own car, or, the pretty obvious question, would this get re-rated based on how many people ACTUALLY showed up and needed a flag.

I was told that no, they were not ‘required’ but that they were recommended to make it more visible, and that wouldn’t my MIL want that item? They would re-estimate based on how many cars I expected (yeah, they KNEW that the estimate of how many guests was NOT the same as how many cars there would be), but that once the order was put in, it was non-refundable, and that if we didn’t use them all, then that was just how it was. They were basically being paid to make them available.

I went back to the wife and BIL, and explained, they agreed, nope, not necessary. I told them we didn’t need this, and to remove it immediately. They acted like that was some manner of travesty, and basically implied that people would think poorly of us for it. I knew my MIL, and KNEW she would have spit her teeth out if we had wasted $2k on this. There was a lot of shade from the funeral people for this.

Strangely enough, day of, not a single person asked about the flags. We turned out headlights on, and drove in procession with absolutely no problems whatsoever. Ironically, the only vehicle with the flags was the hearse, it had them permanently attached to it. We weren’t charged for that.

The funeral industry literally preys on people at their most vulnerable. They prey on your emotions, and your fears and insecurities. They have no trouble manipulating you into paying more than is necessary, and they will pad that bill out to match any insurance you might have. Do NOT just give them the insurance information, magically, if you have $35000 in insurance, they will eat every penny of it up. We had, $0 and paid every penny out of pocket… They still tried to pad the bill at every turn.

“What is the most absurd thing you’ve been charged for on a bill?”

edit

yes, these ARE reusable, and yes, they are returned after the procession, and yes, that does make it so much worse.

Good men won’t stick around if they are unwanted

Canadian “Mercenary” Killed By Russian Army in Ukraine

World Hal Turner

The Russian Armed Forces announced today:

“Canadian Mercenary, Joshua Mayers from Alberta, Canada has been successfully liquidатеd by the Russian army in the Bakhmut direction.

Joshua abandoned his family to go fight for Ukraine in September 2023, and was liquidатеd on November 10th 2023.

Hope it was worth it all.”

Eight?

Dad finds out his daughters “body count”. His expression…

What is the most unforgettable sentence that someone said to you?

When I decided to move halfway across the Earth, from Vietnam to the U.S. to marry my (then) boyfriend, the only ‘condition’ I made my boyfriend agree to was I wanted him to move closer to his parents. My reason was that I would be in a new country, I wanted to stay close to our family. He agreed.

So, when The Teenager & I moved over, we settled down in a place within one hour drive from our parents.

Then came the first meet-up, we invited a few other family friends over. My mom & I were in the kitchen preparing food when a lady came in. She saw me, smiled, and asked my mom, “So, here is your daughter-in-law hah?” My mom smiled back at her, “No. She is my daughter in love.”

That sentence struck a harmonious chord within me and made my heart sing.

What is the one in a million coincidence you have ever had?

My wife and I were living in our first house in Oklahoma City. One day while we were both at work, the city sewer department tore down all the fences in the rear of the houses on our block to replace the sewer main. When we got home from work we were heartbroken because we had had our young dog in the backyard and now he was nowhere to be found. We searched the area for days and put up notices but to no avail.

We were starting to believe that we would never see our dog again. My wife was so upset she decided to call the city to “give them a piece of her mind” about the lack of notification on the sewer work causing us to lose our dog.

So she gets a person on the phone from the city’s Ombudsman Department. My wife explains the situation and tells the person that we loved that dog and had paid good money for him because he was a registered Irish setter. The person asks where we live and my wife gives our address. The person says “Well that’s amazing. I live about a half mile from you and there’s been an Irish setter hanging around lately.” My wife tells me the address and when I got to the person’s house, there’s our dog.

Oklahoma City is a big metropolitan area. Of all the people in the metro area my wife might have got on the phone, our dog happened to be at that person’s house.

Why can’t fast food establishments give the unsold food to the homeless people at the end of the night?

I managed a cookie shop once. It was in a college town, and was open til 11:30 pm. At the end of the night, a homeless person showed up asking for cookies. I gave him some.

the next night, he brought 3 friends. There were just enough cookies for them. The next night, I was swamped. Literally dozens showed up. I didn’t have enough cookies for all of them. The crowd became enraged. They started yelling at me, then they started throwing things at me.

i told them not to come around again, there would be no more free cookies. I had to take a cab home that night, it was unsafe for me to walk.

The next night, a few of them started following me as I walked home. They were loudly talking about how they were going to rape and kill me. I ducked into an open business and called a cab home again. I was very young, and made just over minimum wage. I couldn’t afford to take a cab every night, but I had to for weeks.

I did make arrangements with a night nurse, who worked at a local hospital. She dropped by at closing every night on her way to work, and picked up the last cookies to take to the break room.

Having had that experience, I would never give food from a restaurant to homeless people again. Many years later, I owned a bakery, but still remembered my lesson.

The UFO Incident That Shocked Ariel School: Telepathic Extraterrestrials (Re-Edit)

“It’s like story time for grown-ups. I really appreciate this channel. Hecklefish is my spirit animal.”

What are you banned from? Why?

I was banned from my local Walmart because I miss scanned an item. I went to self checkout one day because I had 4 items and wanted to teach my sons how to scan items. To make the story easier to understand, I had a tshirt, set of bras, shorts and some socks. While scanning, we had accidently double scanned the bras rather than scan the shorts, honest mistake. We finish up and as we are heading out, loss protection stops me and says “My name is XXX I’m with loss prevention please come with us” I was genuinely confused, my son got scared because of how aggressive they were but we complied. While in the security room they proceeded to rummage thru my bags and asked to search my purse. Again, I complied, but they never explained why I was pulled in. They searched cameras for probabaly 20 minutes. At one point, I hear one of the workers call across the radio “We need security detail for an escort.” I started getting REALLY scared and demanded an answer. Finally, they explain I miss scanned an item, because of this I am being escorted out of the building and will not be allowed back on property, should I step foot on property I will be arrested. I was baffled! They didn’t even give me a chance to fix my honest mistake! Needless to say, again I complied, but I put in a call the corporate after leaving, they reached out to me and lifted the banned immediately, apologized, and fired the entire loss prevention team. It wasn’t the first time they had abused power!

What vulnerabilities does the U.S. face by being dependent on China for Rare Earth Elements?

Every shit that the US does on China, the Chinese can do even more, faster cheaper and more painful to the U.S.

China prefers not to but it is always ready. Chinese people has a saying. If you do it on the 1st Luna calendar. We will reciprocate on the 15th. You mentioned rare earth but this is just one out of a thousand measure. It could checkmate the US. Don’t even think about it. Every hurt on China will be returned by several fold hurt on the U.S.

What is something everyone should consider doing?

My father called me yesterday.

Dad: Hello son, how are you?

Me: I’m perfectly fine, Dad.

Dad: Did you eat?

Me: Yep.

As usual, the conversation ended in five minutes.

After I had disconnected the call, I thought – What if it was a call from my best friend, would my response have been the same?

The answer was a big no and I was unable to figure out why. This restlessness drove me to call him again.

Dad: What happened? Are you ok, son?

Me: Yes, I’m fine, Dad. Just, missing you a lot.

He was surprised at first and thought I needed money.

Soon after, I began cracking few jokes (lame ones) to which he laughed his heart out. We talked for straight 40-45 minutes, engaging in topics we had never discussed before.

Strangely enough, I felt like talking to a different person. The person whom I had spent my life with, yet knew so little about.

The blissful conversation ended with a ‛Khush Raho’ (Stay Blessed!) from his side and a wide smile from mine.

And so, I realised, not taking your dear ones for granted and making a deliberate effort to know them is something worth consider doing.

I found a really good friend in this process.

Who knows, you may find one too!

What does that word mean

In Imperial China, was there any possible situation where a commoner could meet the Emperor?

In ancient China, common people had the following ways to meet the emperor.

1. The imperial examination. The final stage of the imperial examination is the palace examination, which is personally supervised by the emperor.

2. Assassination. The emperor went out to patrol and ambushed him by the roadside. Even if the assassination fails, before being executed, the emperor will personally question you, who is behind the scenes?

3. Emperor Banquets Centenarians. This is a large-scale honoring and respecting activity for the elderly where the emperor invites centenarians to participate in the royal banquet. But the prerequisite is that you must be able to live healthily to a very old age despite the lack of medical treatment and medicine in ancient times.

4. Become a eunuch. This is not recommended because ancient castration surgery was very risky.

5. Becoming a famous prostitute. Although the emperor had many wives, he would never refuse beautiful women.

Why don’t hotels in Western countries have Chinese breakfasts for their Chinese guests when they used to have Japanese breakfasts for their Japanese guests?

When I was in Malaysia, during breakfast they served dim sum in addition to other traditional breakfast foods and it was very nice. However, Malaysia is a country with a 20% Chinese population. Back here in the West we don’t have a high percentage of Chinese people. There are some Westerners like myself who would enjoy Chinese food, but the majority of people who would eat it would be Chinese people themselves. The lack of demand means there is little incentive to supply it.

What are some of the best pranks you have pulled?

1999. I had a four-year-old Internet advertising agency with 15 employees. A global corporation was buying it.

Weeks before the sale was finalized I had an early morning doctor’s appointment and saw these cups in her bathroom marked URINE SPECIMEN.

I took a bunch of cups, got into the office before any of my employees arrived, left a cup on each person’s desk with a memo that said the buyer required a urine test from everyone in the company before the sale could be approved. A nurse would arrive at noon to test the samples.

One by one they trickled in and proceeded to go batshit. Violation of my rights. They can’t do this. My personal life is my personal life.

I commiserated, but reminded them that if I didn’t sell the company, we’d probably go belly up, and we’d all be out of a job.

Not a lick of work got done all morning. Finally, at noon we all gathered in the reception area, each of us holding a full urine specimen cup.

I spoke to the group. “Guys, I hate this as much as you do.” I looked at my cup. “And I really hate my sample. The color of this piss is terrible. I think I’ll run it through one more time.”

And then I drank it.

I didn’t have to tell them it was Peach Snapple. They knew they’d been had.

15 people. 45 man-hours (and woman-hours) wasted. Pissed away, so to speak. And I loved every second of it. Best. Prank. Ever.

Simply disgusting

What is the most disturbing message ever left on your voicemail?

“Hey guys, it’s Heather. I’m running a bit late, but I should be there in a…..”

There was absolute silence in the room.

“Message received: September 3rd at 11:55 am.”

Not a word was spoken among the three of us listening to the message and none of us could muster anything useful to say afterwards other than a very weak, “save that message”.

It was September 5th. In less than 24 hours, we would be going to Heather’s funeral. Her car had been t-boned by a large truck and she had been killed instantly.

The police report showed that the accident had happened on the 3rd. Slightly before noon.

What could be the implications of China’s major state-owned banks exchanging yuan for U.S. dollars and selling those dollars in spot currency markets?

Try to fully understand China. Unless you do you will always have imaginary Chinese action. Let me help you. To China currency is meant to help transaction and to store wealth not trade currency for currency sake.

To China and to BRICS the SWIFT and its manipulative money trading scheme is just another western conspiracy to destroy countries by a stroke of a pen. China will not and will never play a meaningless game it is stacked against. China. So

it will not internationalise RMB or the Yuan. It will not try to helped prop it currencies artificially and it wanted a real currency value that. Is sustainable trusted. Playing Russian roulette’s with its 1.4 billion people’s wealth is not what China will do.The U.S. dollar used to be able to buy 100 items to day a mere 78 years later it can buy 3 of the same item. That is not good for Americans.

In fact between 1980–2020 Real Chinese income grew 30 times and the U.S. during the same time frame not only not grow. It went back to the 1960 level. So try imagine this. American today is doing worst than their grandpa! China wants its currency to buy roughly the same 78 years later. And an average Chinese have 50 times more Yuan.

What’s the funniest reason you’ve been called in to school to collect your child?

What’s the funniest reason you’ve been called in to school to collect your child?

We were called to get our 16 yo boy. He had drunk a bottle of some alcohol during the lunch break. Then during the relaxation class, he fell asleep. When we got there around 90 minutes later, the high school was closed. We couldn’t get there any earlier as both of us worked around 70kms away.

We discovered from the cleaner he had been taken to the police station as they couldn’t depend on when we would get there.

Unfortunately, the police [ it was a small unit] had been called out to a large bushfire. So they put him in the outside exercise yard. The problem was it didn’t have a roof. When our boy saw us coming he climbed the chain wall and high-tailed it.

He slept at a mate’s place that night. The next day the high school said they were going to have him placed under care. His mum also a school principal said, “ over my dead body”.

We came and collected him. He was terrified his mum was going to hit the roof. Which she did.

We got called by the police to discuss his behaviour as they wanted to know how he had purchased the bottle. We counted with how could you lose our son when he is in your care. In the end nothing became of it and our son grew up and gained some brains.

What happens when you get no action

What are the lessons people most often learn too late in life?

As my first son learned to crawl and then walk, my wife and I played mantras to him, meditated by his side, and lit sacred sandalwood incense around him.

We co-slept and in the day he was always strapped to one of us, skin to skin.

He was breastfed exclusively for nearly a year and then given only organic, vegetarian food.

We didn’t buy him any guns or other toy weapons, only simple wooden and cloth playthings.

He was so peaceful that he radiated a tangible serenity.

Which made her happy—and me—because we wanted him to be calm, loving, and spiritual.

He’s seven years old now.

His favorite dish is a medium rare burger, he knows an embarrassing number of juicy curse words, and he’s obsessed with Nerf guns.

He likes to listen to rap music with phat bass lines, he finds talk of spirituality to be boring, and is not in the least bit interested in receiving affection.

But everyone is impressed by how determined, free-spirited, and bright he is.

And between you and me, I’m kind of happy he chose to do his own thing, to be his own being.

We love him more intensely than the blazing of the sun.

It took me a long time to realize that you can spend years and years of your life aiming for a particular outcome, just to have things turn out wildly different than you anticipated.

It took me a long time to realize that life is like a wild animal, like my son—fierce and free and beautiful, but ultimately, unpredictable, untamable, and unruly.

And I have the feeling it might take me the rest of my life to fully realize that this built-in uncertainty gives life a unique flavor that, after being acquired, tastes exquisitely delicious.

Why is it mostly old people that go to seafood-based fast food restaurants?

It could be because a lot of older people have tooth problems. An older relative, has dentures, I suggested that we go for steak, and she countered with a fish place, so she could be sure, that she wouldn’t embarrass herself having problems eating a tough steak.

The next time she was over, I had bought tenderloin steaks, and I cooked hers medium, which wasn’t as well done as she would have liked it, but was still pretty tender. Ours were medium rare.

She was upset with me, saying that she wouldn’t be able to eat the steak.

I showed her I could cut mine with my fork. She took one bite and was in love. She hadn’t had a steak she could eat in 10 years. She finished the whole steak, which she had said was too much, when she was looking at it. But once she started eating she couldn’t stop.

Every time we eat at restaurant, we have to make sure there is something on the menu that is soft for her.

So this is one possible reason.

Swarms of drones – kamikazes – attacked USS Thomas Hudner

World Hal Turner

The USS Hudner (DDG-116), an Arleigh Burke-Class Destroyer of the United States Navy, was attacked by a swarm of drones this morning, while patrolling the Red Sea. The ship sustained no damage or injuries to its crew.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) reported the incident after Houthis in the country of Yemen, took credit for launching the attack.

Houthis are now attacking United States Naval vessels over US Support for Israel, as the Israeli government engages in conflict with the Municipal Government HAMAS of the Gaza Strip.

The Houthis launched swarms of Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones in an unprecedented act of war.

Yemeni rebels who have become a force to be reckoned with in the Middle East, attempted to sink the U.S. vessel.

What happens when you don’t get paid in China

How many Humans existed on the entire earth 60,000 years ago?

Not much more than a few thousand, which is surprisingly small. This is based on our DNA.

Unlike our chimpanzee cousins, all humans today have virtually identical DNA. In fact, one group of chimps can have more genetic diversity than all 8 billion humans.

Our minuscule genetic diversity indicates that at some stage, around 70,000 years ago, the human population dwindled to a very low level — maybe 2,000. In fact, it looks like we came close to extinction.

It was also around this time that our ancestors began migrating out of Africa.

This suggests there were dramatic changes to our traditional environment, possibly caused by the Toba supervolcano eruption 74,000 years ago, the biggest eruption in 2 million years, which left entire regions devastated by ash and climate change.

What is going on with the Republican Party? Why do they seem so unhinged?

It’s 1964. Republicans are sane and intelligent. But they just got handed one of the largest losses in modern history, with LBJ winning the largest popular vote majority since James Monroe in 1820. Desperate for votes, they start pandering to racists who are upset about the Civil Rights Act and desegregation.

It’s 1974. Republicans just had their President outed as a criminal. They need an edge to get back in power. They start pandering to evangelicals, hoping their ability to believe in things they can’t see will make them easy targets for brainwashing.

It’s 1984. Republicans are scoring big points thanks to looking like the tough guys in the Cold War. They double down on the idea of growing the defense budget.

It’s 1994. Republican economic policies are dividing conservatives and just cost them the White House. They launch a 24-hour fake news channel to keep their base uninformed.

It’s 2004. Democrats have nominated a war hero for President and he should easily defeat the Republican incumbent. It’s time to start lying about his war record. Disinformation becomes the new norm.

It’s 2014. The economy is good. The nation is safe. But the President is black. Republicans dig up the 1964 playbook and capitalize on racism in their base.

It’s 2024. Sixty years of tactics have produced Republican voters who are racist, uninformed, misinformed, brainwashed, and violent. Now these people aren’t just voters anymore. They’re in Congress.

The president of the United States

China’s New Subs and Sonars Challenge Supremacy of US Silent Hunter Fleets

18:33 GMT 21.11.2023 (Updated: 18:37 GMT 21.11.2023)

The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) surpassed the US Navy in total number of warships in late 2021. Technologically too, China has made major strides, including in the area of submarine construction and detection. These advances have sparked concerns from observers that America’s powerful fleets could be left dead in the water in a crisis.

The PLAN’s military and technological prowess against the US Navy in the field of submarine construction and anti-submarine warfare is progressing apace, and the “era of total US submarine dominance” over the People’s Republic of China is reaching its end.

That’s the conclusion reached by one of America’s top cited business newspapers in a piece focused on the Asian nation’s scientific and industrial advances for naval warfare. China, the paper pointed out, is gradually “narrowing” the gap between itself and the United States in the highly complex fields of submarine technology and undersea detection.

These developments not only threaten the Pentagon’s regional strategy of hemming China into its home ports, but could challenge US naval supremacy globally over the long term.

Earlier this year, for instance, research by the US Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute pointed to Chinese advances in efficient nuclear reactors, quiet-running pump-jet propulsion systems and internal quieting devices, the latter based on “imitative innovation” of Russian technology, predicting that the PLAN’s latest nuclear-powered subs will be much harder to track than before.

Additionally, analyses of satellite photos of the Huludao Shipyard in Liaoning, northeastern China taken last year showed the construction of sections of submarine hulls larger than anything US analysts have ever seen in a Chinese sub, along with what seemed to be plans to increase production capacity.

US media citing leaked US Navy intelligence already sounded the alarm about China’s impressive shipbuilding capacity this past fall, which at 23.2 million tons per year, compared with 100,000 tons per year in the US, gives the People’s Republic the ability to build warships at a rate some 200 times greater than the US in a pinch.

On top of that, the PLAN’s rapid construction of a vast network of underwater sensors in the South China Sea and other areas along the Chinese coast known as the “Underwater Great Wall”, to look out for sub, surface warship and aerial activity, means that the Pentagon will find it more difficult to place its warships, subs and aircraft in areas around the Asian nation. The Underwater Great Wall’s construction is reportedly nearing its completion, and includes a vast network of passive and active sonar sensors, plus remote controlled underwater and surface drones which can look out for enemy activity.

China is reportedly also “getting better” at finding silent-running US attack and cruise missile subs sneaking around near its home waters, combining buoy and drone-based monitoring with the use of patrol aircraft and helicopters, for example.

In addition are the PLAN’s growing number of exercises with Russia, which, it can be assumed not only increases the Chinese Navy’s ability to coordinate with its northern neighbor in the event of an emergency, but allows it to learn from the Russian Navy’s half century-plus year experience as a major global naval power rivaled only to the US.

“The implications for the US and our Pacific allies will be profound,” former US Navy officer Christopher Carlson said, pointing to the headaches the US Navy will face, and the additional resources it will need, to locate and keep track of China’s new generation of quiet-running nuclear subs.

Strategically, the outlet noted, maneuvers that the US once took for granted, like the ability to approach close China’s home shores, will now no longer be a given, with the PLAN’s nuclear-powered attack subs able to pick off approaching American warships before they could reach Taiwan in a crisis, for example.

On top of that is the Chinese sub-based ballistic missile threat to the US homeland –a threat Washington has long been used to meting out, but not experiencing itself, in relation to the Asian giant.

“Finding a boat this quiet is going to be really hard,” Carlson said of the Chinese sub threat, predicting the new Chinese boats will probably be about as quiet as the Project 971 Shchuka-B (NATO reporting name Akula, or “Shark”) class fourth generation nuclear-powered attack subs which the Soviet Union and then Russia started fielding in the 1980s and 1990s.

China’s fleet of 79 submarines includes at least 16 nuclear-powered attack and ballistic missile subs, including six Type 093 (NATO reporting name Shang class) attack subs and six Type 094 (NATO reporting name Jin) ballistic missile boats operating “near-continuous” patrols between Hainan Island and the South China Sea. But Carlson warned that the Asian nation could build up to triple the current US rate averaging 1.2 subs per year.

Costly as Aircraft Carriers, Difficult to Build

“Submarine-building is the pinnacle of technological excellence in economics and industry, and only a few countries have mastered the technologies which China has now broken into – France, Britain, the Soviet Union/Russia, and the United States,” Vasily Dandykin, a veteran Russian military analyst and retired Russian Navy Captain 1stRank, told Sputnik.

Several factors account for the US’ slowing pace when it comes to the construction of new submarines, according to the observer, starting with Washington’s decision to rest on its laurels after the end of the Cold War, to the drop in the number of high-class specialists in the field.

“The downtime” in the US’ submarine-related programs resulted from “complacency after the collapse of the Soviet Union,” when “not just America, but also Europe rested on their laurels,” according to Dandykin. “The Americans have the world’s largest military budget, which exceeds those of all other countries in the world. That means that somewhere they got carried away with such gigantic and expensive projects which did not justify their cost,” the analyst said, pointing to out of control spending on novelties like the $8 billion-per ship Zumwalt class of destroyers.

“There were a lot of such projects that sucked up a lot of money. And now it turns out that all of these experiments boil down to the fact that they’re 10 years behind Russia in the creation of a new fourth-generation strategic nuclear submarine,” made possible, according to the analyst, thanks to the backlog of revolutionary Soviet sub designs that Russian builders have been able to develop and build on.

“The ‘downtime’ that occurred had an impact in this area, not just with submarines, but the construction of the surface fleet, the entire American fleet. Here, without a doubt, China’s pace has been impressive, first and foremost in terms of the construction of large ships for the surface fleet. But I think they will push themselves and try to build up their nuclear submarine fleet as quickly as possible,” Dandykin predicted.

As far as China’s subs themselves go, Dandykin pointed out that for the moment, the majority of the PLAN’s fleet still consists of diesel-electric subs, and for them to reach the same technological level as the US, as they have already done when it comes to ships like universal landing ships and destroyers, will take time. The PLAN’s current nuclear-powered ballistic missile-launching subs belong to the second generation at best, in the retired naval officer’s estimation, and the newest efforts are aimed at the creation of third-generation vessels.

Accordingly, Dandykin believes US efforts to hype up the “Chinese threat” are “a little disingenuous,” and designed mainly to lobby for the allocation of even more resources for US sub-building efforts – a titanic effort equivalent, more or less, to the construction of an aircraft carrier in both technological and financial terms.

What does it feel like to be abroad but feel more at home than when you are back home?

Surreal. Uncanny. Deja vu. That’s how I felt as I looked down on Southeast Asia from my seat aboard an airplane. The feelings intensified the longer I was there. While my friends made me feel so very welcome, even in my time alone the feeling never left me.

I began the first leg of my long journey back home by crying into my teacup in a cafe in Changi Airport. My heart felt heavy. I was glad to go home to my daughter but if she’d been with me on the trip I’m not sure I’d have returned to the U.S. willingly.

I have said that when I die I want my ashes to be scattered in China, because America is the place of my birth but China holds my heart. There’s something about the Asian region that draws me deeply. I have no Asian background or ancestry so I can’t rationalize it. It’s just how I felt.

I was just jokin’

Have you ever seen a mass exodus after a respected employee quit or got fired?

I was fired after 11 years in a PR firm. I never clicked with the owner, and the feeling was mutual. I loved my colleagues, got along well with everyone, and consider them friends to this day.

I had just come off of a very trying time related to a proposal I was writing, had slept little, was burned out and mentioned to a colleague that I wasn’t sure I belonged there anymore.

Soon afterward, the boss took me into his office and said nobody wanted to work with me and that we had just lost a client that reduced our budget. His second in command sat through this with his head in his hands the whole time. He helped me clean out my office the next day.

There were other things going on at the firm. The owner was advancing in age and had promised a succession plan. He never delivered. One by one, after my firing, everyone quit. His firm, started in the mid-80s and one of the most prominent in the city, was done.

Two people told me that my firing was the trigger that made people start thinking about whether they wanted to be there anymore. I can’t take the credit or the blame for what happened, but the exodus was fast and devastating.

Correct attitude to have

What seemingly good celebrity is actually a jerk?

The public image of a celebrity can often be quite different from their true character. Take Ellen Degeneres, for example. On her show and in interviews, she appears to be a lovable, down-to-earth aunt-like figure. However, there have been numerous accounts from staff and crew members claiming that she is actually a nightmare to work with and a terrible person. So, which version is the truth?

Then there’s Sean Penn, who was once in a relationship with Madonna. It has been alleged that he kidnapped and raped her during the 80s. Additionally, Penn has been involved in some truly awful activities throughout his life. On the flip side, he is also the CEO of a large charity and engages in humanitarian work.

Another celebrity, Mark Wahlberg, is often seen as an extraordinary role model and a decent guy. However, it is important to note that he blinded a Vietnamese man during a fight and is a high school dropout. Please note that the mention of being a high school dropout does not imply that it automatically makes someone a terrible person, but it is worth considering when evaluating their status as a role model.

Tim Allen, known for his lovable and funny dad roles, has a dark side. Despite making people laugh out loud with his jokes, he has been described as a severe asshole who disrespects those around him. Furthermore, he was caught smuggling a kilo of cocaine in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and served time for it.

On the other hand, we have Danny Trejo, who was once involved in drug running for a cartel and had a long history of violence and addiction. However, he has transformed himself into a humble and honest man who actively tries to steer kids away from his former lifestyle. In person, he is charming and genuine.

How might rising interest rates in the US affect China’s growth potential and FDI flows?

Nothing.

Zero effect.

Slave nations like Germany and Japan wrap themselves around US and western economic orbit. And the U.S. increase interest it destroy their banks and industry. Not China. China is in its own stable orbit. Today the U.S. interest is between 3–5% and China stays under 1% or so. It do its own thing.

US banks are dropping like flies. China’s bank is loaded with Cash. Chinese citizen on average save 35% of their income in Chinese banks. The U.S. citizens meanwhile saved in average less than 4%. So every year the Chinese add another 6–7 trillion dollars into their wealth and funds.

On FDI if the west reduce other nations made up for it and China’s own investment is so humongous. FDI from west means nothing.

This cheating event did not work out well

What are the influences of food on our culture?

I grew up in the USA. In high school, the lunch period was 25 minutes. On a normal day I washed down three peanut butter sandwiches and half a dozen cookies with a quart of milk and headed to the break room.

At least my parents enforced a family sit-down dinner, though it didn’t last long either.

My eating behaviour in college and working part time jobs was not any better, though the food choices were smarter and more varied.

When I started working in sales after college, I graduated to fast food eaten in the car.

At restaurants, servers were all over me, trying to turn the table in 45 minutes or less.

For me, eating was like putting gas in my car. Get it over and move on to the rest of life.

Then I moved to Germany. It was a shock. The canteen served excellent full hot meals and everyone took their time eating, chatting (but not about work), and taking turns buying coffee for the table.

It was impossible to get out of a sit-down restaurant in under 90 minutes without pushing the staff.

Dinner at friends was a four-hour affair.

I learned to love food and the community of sharing it with others. It wasn’t uncommon for less formal outdoor restaurants to seat me with other diners. I met dozens of fascinating people in that manner.

Ten years later I moved to France and learned that the French take mealtime even more seriously than the Germans. Employers even subsidise the canteen or pay part of the meal vouchers for each worker.

I think this question might be better phrased if it asked “What are the influences of culture on food?”

While the food does vary from country to country, I have little trouble in Europe to eat exactly what I ate in the USA. That’s why I don’t think it’s the food that matters.

Instead I think it’s the value people place on taking the time to savour their meals and those they share them with.

Zelenogradsk: What does a Russian city of CATS look like?

Nov 09 2023

Anna Sorokina

They are literally everywhere: occupying benches at observation decks, sitting next to tourists at restaurant terraces, strolling along pedestrian streets and (alright, fine) allowing you to take photos of them. Let’s pay them a little visit?

You can definitely call the small city of Zelenogradsk (pop. 16,000) in Kaliningrad Region the “cat capital” of Russia. Everything there is dedicated to these furry animals, from souvenirs to… traffic lights!

The many cats of this city will gladly show a tourist the best photo spots (and the best lunch spots!). But, how did it come to this?

Zelenogradsk (Cranz until 1946) is an old resort city at the shore of the Baltic Sea. Cats usually like to settle in such seaside towns, closer to fishermen, fish and vacationers. But, in Zelenogradsk, they have become a real attraction of the city.

According to legend, centuries ago, cats saved the city from rodents that were destroying their food supply and spreading disease. Caring for stray cats is the locals’ way of expressing gratitude.

Cats have always been living in Zelenogradsk. But, it was only recently that the city itself became the “cat capital”. It all started with the Murarium Museum in an old 1905 water tower. Local inhabitant Irina Klochkova decided to set up an exhibition hall for her cat statuette collection in the unused tower in 2012.

Real cats also live in the museum, with ginger-furred ‘Semyon Semyonovich’ chief among them. He became the prototype for the first museum souvenirs. ‘Murarium’ gained a lot of popularity among tourists; soon after, a lot of everything “cat-themed” began to appear in the city.

As soon as you visit, you’ll immediately notice an incredible amount of cat graffiti on buildings. Souvenir stores, on every corner it seems, sell anything from keychains and magnets to shopping bags and mugs with cats on them.

The city’s central street, Kurortny Prospekt, even has mini-benches for cats, little traffic lights with flashing cats, as well as vending machines where you can buy cat food. The city administration even has the position of cat chief, a cat caretaker. Their responsibilities include feeding and taking care of cats.

And for those tourists who decide to have lunch on an open terrace of any cafe, just know you won’t be able to so in peace and quiet! The local cats will always investigate and will not be against the idea of sharing a meal with you.

By the way, there are plenty of dogs in the city, as well, but they seemingly maintain a neutrality with the cats. There are literally no fights or altercations to speak of these days.

Why are the Chinese not interested in Western democracy?

There are two approaches to an answer, one superficial.

I’ll begin with the superficial.

Democracy, or one man one vote, is practiced by the Chinese. They have found the process is good at selecting leaders from small groups that work or live closely together. In fact, this is how the President is selected among the Politburo, and so on.

Unfortunately, one man one vote can and has been hijacked, particularly if money and power enters the equation. There are innumerable tales of village/town leadership seizing power through the “democratic process” and terrorizing “voters” for years on end.

When groups grow too large, voting among strangers can lead to undesirable outcomes.

That’s the modern Chinese experience.

Unfortunately, “Western democracy” isn’t just voting systems. It is a system of values and beliefs built on the foundation of western prosperity. For the past 5–600 years, it has been the absolute dominance in technology that has kept the West on top. That is how the top 12% of humanity today maintain radically different standards of living from the rest of the 88.

Until the emergence of China, only willing acolytes of the “Western model” made the leap into the first world, leaving has-beens by the wayside. All of them, to a fault, adopted Western-style constitutions, governments, legislation and thoroughly reformed society, in order to qualify for membership into the “globalized world”. In return, their economies boomed, powered by export-led demand from the first world.

Along came China, which is distinctly different, especially in the post-Soviet age of “the end of history”. Unfortunately, Communist China has succeeded wildly, way beyond the imagination of the “last man”.

Herein lies the rub. Chinese leaders had enough self confidence decades ago that the Western highway to prosperity wasn’t exclusive. Today, Chinese society is increasingly convinced their leaders were right, because they are living the best times in the sum history of Chinese civilization, a realized boast that reverberates through 4 millennia and >100 generations.

Western prosperity in the 21st century is no longer the shining city on the hill, cities of the future one can only dream of being teleported back home. A Chinese tourist visiting NYC, London, Paris and Berlin will be nonplussed by the sights, and perhaps repulsed by the smell and experience. Chinese cities have the same modern hardware, and services is rapidly catching up. And Chinese cities are evolving rapid improvement in quality of life metrics, while the west is stagnating, or worse, regressing.

The Chinese will go, that’s “Western democracy”, “in God We Trust”, and “all men created equal”?

Thanks, but no thanks.

Communism has our vote, because we live and breathe its outcomes.

Ukr Hard Day: Avdeyevka Cauldron, Kherson Bridgehead Cut Off, Wilders Wins; Biden BRICS Gaza Plan

As a doctor, what’s the saddest experience you’ve had with a patient?

I once talked to an acid attack victim.

She came to the surgery OPD by mistake on a day when our Plastic Surgery OPD was closed.

She had her face covered with a dupatta. I was immediately aware that she had some disfigurement that she was trying to conceal but it was only when I saw her treatment card that I realised what the reason behind it was.

I read the entire card and slowly looked up at her. She was looking at me with one eye while she kept the rest of her face covered.

“I was asked to come after 4 weeks. Here I am.” She told me quietly.

“Yes, I see it written here, ma’m, but our plastic surgery OPDs are on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I am afraid, you’ll have to come back tomorrow.”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Can’t you or the doctors here do anything about this?”

“We can but we are not plastic surgeons. We are not experts and we are not the best people to help you.”

“No one can help me, doctor. You know it.”

I had no answer to that.

“If there’s anything else I can do for you…” I said.

“What can you do? My life is ruined. All I do is travel between my home, the hospital and the court. The last few of weeks my life have been hell. The pain has been unbearable. I can’t even look into the mirror anymore. What do you think you CAN do? Can you get me to look like before?”, she said, her eye moist and a hint of desperation in her voice.

I was trying hard to act professional.

I wanted to say that I was sorry that this happened to her. I wanted to tell her that I felt a burning hatred for the person or persons who did this to her. I wanted to tell her that she shouldn’t give up because her life wasn’t over.

Yet, I didn’t say anything. Everything that came into my head began to sound empty as I was about to say it out loud. My words all seemed so woefully inadequate to offer any kind of assurance to her.

That’s why I was trying to be calm and professional. No pity, no sadness, no anger. I was just trying to do what I was there for: my job which was to try and help her.

“I’ll try to call the Plastic Surgery resident to see if he can come here and take a look at you. I can’t promise that he will but I will give him a call.”

“Thank you.” She said quietly.

Nodding, I took out my phone to call the resident.

“I shouldn’t have spoken like that to you.” She said, looking straight at me.

“It’s completely fine.” I said immediately. The last thing I wanted was for her to feel bad for me.

“No, it’s not. I know what it feels like to be spoken to like this, especially if you haven’t done anything to deserve it.”

“Really, ma’m, you do not need to apologise at all. It’s okay-”

“You know, what hurts the most? Before this I was recently-”

Married? Did the husband abandon her? That was the first thought that came to my head.

“-promoted. I was a receptionist in a famous hotel. I was good at my job. People speak to us rudely all the time but I was really good at handling them. There wasn’t a single complaint against me to my manager in the one and a half years that I had the job.”

She paused, looking down at her feet.

“It’s all gone now. They won’t let me work with this…face. It doesn’t matter how well I handle our customers if they can’t handle my face.”, she said, in a voice that was so matter-of-fact that my heart felt like it was being stabbed.

This was a woman who had been serious about her job. She had been excited about her future. She had been independent. The first thing she told me about her life was that she had lost the job she had worked so hard at.

I don’t know why but this case affected me so much more than other cases. Medically, there exist even more severe cases in which acid attacks have caused complete blindness, paralysis or in the inability to eat or swallow.

I know, of course, that you can’t quantify suffering and everyone has their own battles but this one…this one made me want to stop doing my work and go cry in a corner.

I forced myself to look away and called the resident. I managed to convince him to come and examine her.

“He’ll be here in fifteen minutes. Please wait outside.”, I said with difficulty because I felt a lump in my throat.

“Thank you.”, she said softly and left the room.

When you throw acid on someone’s face and they survive the attack, you take from them much of what we consider “life”. You take away choices, opportunities, self-respect and throw them into a world of such suffering that they have never known before.

Many victims say that death is preferable.

I don’t think I’ll be able to argue with them.

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

My grandfather was once a lightweight boxing champ. He was healthy most of his life, but like everyone, he grew old. At 90 years old, though, he still liked to go dancing. He took his girlfriend to their elder community’s weekly dance. We went to join them for dinner and just visit them a while.

While I was up getting them plates from the buffet, two scummy men came in. They had been drinking and were looking for some old people to bully – no joke. They were in their late 30s/early 40s. They stopped at my grandpa’s table and started talking about his girlfriend. My grandpa stood up and told them to leave. I looked over and saw this jerk spit on the floor and shove my 90 year old grandpa.

I saw my grandpa stumble backwards against the wall, and I dropped the food tray and started moving towards him. It felt like slow motion.

Before I could get there, I saw my grandpa push off the wall and punch the guy square in the jaw. The man landed on his butt and slid backwards nearly all the way across the room! No one could believe what we saw, especially not the two creeps. His friend went over and helped him up, and everyone watched them leave with their tails between their legs.

I finally went back and got the food for them, and we sat and talked about what happened while they ate. After a bit, the two idiots came back with the police. They pointed by grandpa out to the officers.

The police didn’t believe their story, and we all acted like we didn’t know what they were talking about.

I sure miss that wonderful, strong old man.

Is it true that an increasing number of Chinese people are preferring domestic tourism? If so, what are the reasons?

In last two decades hundreds of millions of Chinese have travelled overseas. Annually about 130 million Chinese travel outside of their country. So by now most of them may have realised that most of the rest of the world is very backward and not as advanced as they used to think.

And secondly they have their own continent sized country to travel and explore and will probably take a lifetime to explore fully. And every kind of tourist related attractions are within their own country be it tourist spots, beaches, deserts, cultural and historical sites, valleys, grasslands, snow and glaciers means in short every experience and to say the least their excellent infrastructure that makes travelling within China indeed a cakewalk.

May be that’s why.

Man’s worst fear

I tricked my Muslim coworker into eating pork (bacon) in a lasagna. How can I tell him so he sees how hilarious and innocent it is?

If a Muslim unknowingly eats pork it isn’t a terrible problem. That doesn’t mean they won’t be upset though.

Regardless of how they feel about the pork, they will probably be more upset with you. Letting them unknowingly eat pork as a joke is a dick move of the highest order. I would recommend that you never tell them, if you want to maintain the relationship you have with them. If you tell them and laugh about it, no one is going to blame them for hating you forever. Others might join their camp.

Like I said, it’s a dick move, so proceed at your own risk.

A purr-fect neighbor

If Earth got flung out of the solar system and became a rogue planet, what measures would we take to survive, whether or not those would actually succeed?

Hoo boy. This is going to be one rough ride for humanity.

If we act fast, there is a chance that our species might survive for the long term, but we’re going to have to do things quickly. As soon as the Earth starts to move away from the Sun, things are going to cool off. A lot depends on exactly the trajectory, but even with a conservative estimate, we’re facing a snowball Earth scenario within a matter of years, when the surface of the planet can no longer support liquid water. It won’t take long for everything living on the surface to die.

However, not all hope is lost. The oceans will freeze from the surface downward, and as they freeze over they will in fact insulate the deeper layers. It could take hundreds of thousands of years before the oceans freeze solid, meaning some life may still manage to hold on in the deeper parts of the oceans for millennia, particularly where there is active volcanism going on, keeping things (relatively) warm. In theory, given enough time, we might be able to construct underwater habitats in the deep oceans as a refuge for humanity.

Another option is to simply go underground. On average, the temperature increases by about 25C for every kilometer we go down into the ground. Even when the surface temperatures have plummeted to -200C (when we’ve wandered out past Pluto), we “only” have to dig down a handful of kilometers before we can bask in the relative heat from the heart of our planet.

That heat from the planet’s core is what might ultimately provide the salvation for the species. While the rest of the energy sources we have available to us are ultimately based on solar radiation and will be forfeit once we’ve drifted from the Sun, our planet’s core is powered by radioactive decay and will keep on cooking for billions of years to come. We can harness this either directly via fission reactors, or indirectly through geothermal energy sources.

So here’s the scenario we might enact to provide for the continuation of humanity.

First, we determine what capacity we have for tunneling down into the crust and excavating areas large enough to create underground settlements. Perhaps the Boring Company will be in high demand in this scenario! Governments across the world pool their resources and a number of candidate sites around the globe are selected. Access to existing geothermal energy sources might be a good starting point.

Then we start digging. Temporary “camps” are excavated at shallower depths while digging proceeds ahead for future movements. In the meantime, each of these future colonies is prepared with resources that they’ll need to survive. Deep underground, some of the challenges will be oxygen and clean water; however, with artificial sunlight and proper preparation it should be possible to grow crops even underground. We’ll probably have to say goodbye to eating meat as raising animals for food won’t be an efficient use of resources, though we might keep some animals around for the sake of having animals.

At some point there’s going to be some kind of selection process for who gets to go down and survive. This won’t be pretty. Most of us will be left on the surface to freeze to death. But once it’s done, the selected groups can descend into the bowels of the Earth and begin a new subterranean existence.

Would it succeed? It’s hard to say. They have to dig deep enough, and that presents dangers in and of itself. Colonies could be destroyed by seismic activity that collapses them. In those kinds of close quarters, a disease outbreak could prove fatal to the whole group. Issues with food supply or water supply could doom a group. There are many ways in which any underground colony could fail, and it is almost a given some of them would.

But with enough luck, persistence and hard work, some of them might make it, and over the generations adapt to this new lifestyle. Maybe they’d even thrive to the point they could send excursions back out to the surface, exploring the frozen wasteland, travelling across the ice to visit other underground colonies. Maybe even once again find ways to build ships to leave the planet and try to find someplace nicer to take the family, so to speak.

From the Bayou Crawfish Louisianne

Yield: 4 to 6 generous servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
1/2 cup chopped andouille sausage
3/4 cup chopped bell pepper (can mix the colors)
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/2 to 3/4 cup whipping cream
1 pound crawfish tails
1 quart peanut oil
4 to 6 catfish fillets (2 to 3 ounces each)
Egg wash (egg white, water, milk)
Seasoned flour
Seasoning to taste
Cajun seasoning, pepper, red pepper and garlic powder

Instructions

In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add andouille, peppers, onions and Italian seasoning and sauté until tender (about 5 minutes.) Add mushrooms just before completion.
Add whipping cream, and reduce the sauce over medium heat.
Add crawfish, and cook for 3 minutes. Adjust seasoning.
Heat oil in a large saucepan.
Dredge fish in egg wash and then season with flour.
Fry until golden brown on both sides.
Pour crawfish mixture over catfish.
Garnish with parsley and onion tops.

So very British

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/y8lMSMoqbps?feature=share

What are the ways to become a high quality man?

Make decisions for yourself and do not follow the opinions or actions of others.
Have a clear sense of who you are and what you stand for.
Spend time reflecting on your thoughts and emotions and deeply understand yourself.
Be capable of taking care of yourself and do not rely on others for support.
Enjoy spending time alone and find it more fulfilling than being with others.
Have a few close friends or family members and do not rely on the need for an extensive social network.
Enjoy exploring ideas and concepts and be comfortable contemplating complex topics.
Do not seek validation from others and be comfortable relying on yourself.
Have a unique perspective and approach to life and be confident going against the crowd.
Do not conform to societal norms or expectations and march to the beat of your drum.

The Chinese warship sonar incident

This mature and analytical write-up by John Menadue, November 23 is very constructive and logical.

John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.

…

“What a feast of anti-China stories we have had again from the Coalition and our media over the incident between HMAS Toowoomba and a Chinese PLA-N destroyer.

The whole issue really looks to be overblown – and seeded by some in the Sinophobia school who are worried about where Prime Minister Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong may be headed. The idea of “stabilisation” scares them, so they react by promoting some destabilisers.

The proposition that the Chinese warship was directed by Beijing – let alone President Xi – to initiate such “aggressive” action beggars belief. Like the ‘spy’ balloon exercise, where it seems clear enough that President Xi initially knew little about the whole thing.

Our ‘spooks’ depend on the CIA for about 90% of their overseas information and the Pentagon is building a network in our Department of Defence. I would very much doubt whether Albanese and Wong really know what ‘information’ the CIA and the Pentagon are feeding into our spooks.

The US expects that a pliant ally like Australia will do what it is told. It is concerned at recent events and prefers that we do not stabilise our relations with China. So this incident is a great opportunity for some destabilisation. And our poorly informed media tag along as always.

Given the unsurprising PLA comments the chances of misunderstanding the message or even miscommunication would have to rate high. If the PLA ship had been shadowing the RAN ship, which then decided to stop dead in the water to check for nets, would the Commander of the PLA ship not be a bit suspicious about what the RAN was up to and activate some of his intel alerts including special sonar to try to find out more? In any event presumably he would have had some of his sonar devices running while he was sailing anyway? Even if the PLA just happened on the RAN in the middle of the sea (electronically of course) would its initial reaction not be one of suspicion?

We probably will never get the real story of the actual communications between the two ships, but language problems cannot be excluded.

But Albanese and Marles (again and again) have been panicked into hasty responses for which we will pay. Marles should have tried to hose things down, but he invariably sings from the US song sheet. Albanese should stick to the line of not commenting in detail on his private conversations with world leaders. Blinken did this repeatedly over questions about the Xi-Biden talk. If necessary, the government can call in the Chinese Ambassador at Secretary level to make the point.

It is strange why Marles would want to play this up right now. The incident was not in the SCS but in Japan’s EEZ heading towards Japan. This could be in the contested area of the East China Sea, south of Okinawa.

It is also not clear what UN sanctions RAN was monitoring unless they were part of the regular monitoring of UN sanctions against North Korea. We have been doing that in the Sea of Japan further north.

These incidents should be sorted out by military to military communications and not as a stick for those who want to destabilise our improving relationship with China.

We would be more concerned if this incident occurred in waters adjacent to Australia and not in waters adjacent to China, which is already encircled by scores of US military bases. China would understandably be very sensitive about what happens in its proximity.

In any event, this incident is minor compared with the aggressive things we do that are hostile to China. RAAF P8 aircraft operating out of the Philippines drop Sonar buoys in the SCS to monitor Chinese submarines. This is not for the defence of Australia but to support the US in a possible conflict with China over Taiwan.

Our media have shown no interest in this issue. It does not fit the Western ‘China threat’ narrative that our White Man’s Media works so hard to construct and maintain, and so is ignored.”

I stuff guys with cars…

Have you ever witnessed an “I demand to see the manager” moment?

If you’ve worked retail long enough, even if you’re amazing, you have one of these.

I work retail pharmacy. I had a woman come up to the sales counter with her adult daughter, wanting to buy a large quantity of Sudafed, but within the legal limit. Both of them were planning to buy, and they happened to mention that they were buying it for the woman’s mother, both of them. This is illegal, as in my state you must purchase it for yourself or your minor child. You actually sign an electronic document stating so.

I apologize to the women and tell them I can’t complete the transaction, and explain why, that it is against state and federal law.

Immediate attitude, along the lines of “Who do you think you are, you low born classless person to tell me and my daughter, with our bleach blonde hair and snooty attitudes ‘no!’”

The mother demands to speak with the manager, who isn’t there, we just have a staff pharmacist who’s witnessed the whole thing. She tells the woman that I can complete the sale.

I stare at her for a second before asking the pharmacist if she intends to pay my legal fees to reinstate my pharmacy tech liscense, and tell the pharmacist that if she wants to process the transaction she can, but that I WILL NOT.

She demands my register login and codes, because she’s not a regular pharmacist at my store. I refuse to give them to her, as that is a fireable offense.

The customer is staring at us, red faced and ready to burst, and demands I listen to the pharmacist, then demands I page store management when I explain that the pharmacist cannot compel me to break the law.

I page store management, and my favorite assistant manager comes over and asks what’s going on. By this point, the woman is using abusive language, and exclaims “This f*ggot won’t sell me Sudafed that is for me!”

At that point the manager raises an eyebrow and tells the woman she’s going to have to move her car.

Woman asks why.

“Because our parking is for customers only. You need to leave now. Our customers know they can’t talk to people like that.”

The woman throws a shrieking fit, shoving over a display of medication… which her adult daughter stops to pick up, apologizing the whole time.

The pharmacist in question got written up by corporate for an Ethics violation, and when my Pharmacy Manager told me I should just turn my ears off and not listen to conversations at the register and do my job, he got an Ethics violation that has left him stuck as a pharmacy manager.

The woman emailed the corporate office, and I got to see the reply which was basically ‘We’re sorry you had that experience, but our stores are committed to following state and federal law’ and they attached the laws in question, highlighted.

It was nice to be vindicated and defended for once, instead of thrown under that well known bus.

Reality in the USA

US Congress unanimously approved the Patent Restriction Act. All of China’s patents are at risk of invalidation overnight. Huawei’s 20000+ patents could be deemed invalid. All countries at risk as the US can claim a national security threat. Fair?

With China’s manufacturing power and the engi eers’ abilities of learning and copying, good luck to the US.

All US patents will be nulled by China and Russia as, and the US will lose much more than Huawei would do.

This is not only on Qualcomm, TI, AMD, intel but also hit huge on the pharmaceutical companies.

China and its engineers are waiting for the bill passed and now all the knowledge would be shared without any loyalty across mankind. Nice job the US.

I just don’t beat the shit out of you…

What’s something you can’t believe you had to explain to an American tourist or as a tourist visiting America?

I was in a hospital, here at Rome, to visit a friend, and when I was going away I saw two American girls, one could hardly walk because she had fell and hurted badly her leg. I helped them to call someone to bring a wheel chair and they went to emergency. I went with them to help because they didn’t speak italian well. I asked why they didn’t call for an ambulance and they said they didn’t want t to spend too much money. They were worried about how much they would have to pay at the hospital too. I explained them, in Italy, the ambulance is free, and so the hospital. Even if she would have to stay there for days or weeks. No one in Italy could dare to ask a girl with a broken leg for money. Nobody could leave her without medical care even if the didn’t have money.

They couldn’t believe me . They continued asking if the hospital was going to send bills later. If they could pay later in installments.

The girls wanted to ask the administrative employee too, because they wanted to be sure. He gave them the same answer and they were very surprised.

Later the girls left the hospital, one had a cast on her leg but they had big, beautiful smiles!

Loyalty and Respect

What is the most absurd thing you’ve been charged for on a bill?

Not me, but my mother. She was visiting the US for a ski holiday in New England and had a bad fall that resulted in a broken bone. As a result, she had to spend a bit of time in a hospital. Her stay was fortunately paid for by Canadian health insurance; can’t imagine how US citizens who don’t have or can’t afford coverage manage to pay for their care.

Anyway, I was curious to see what it cost after she got home, so she showed me the detailed bill. The total was shockingly high, no surprise, but one thing caught my eye. She’d been invoiced for 3X “helically wound cellulose absorbent matrix units” at $48 each. Curious, I contacted the hospital to ask what these could be. Can you guess?

They turned out to be rolls of bog-standard toilet paper, the number she was tracked as having consumed during her stay.

Amazing.

Pretty good

What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?

Not myself but a teacher at my school.

This was a Church of England (Christian) secondary school (ages 11-18) in the late ‘80s and the dress code was quite strict. Among the many rules was one that boys weren’t allowed to have long hair.

There was this old-fashioned teacher (Mr. Barabell) who’d been teaching there for ~30 years already by that point and was well-known for being strict but fair.

Anyway, there was this one boy (Luke) who decided that he wanted to grow long hair and he wasn’t going to let a stupid school rule stop him, and so he just let it grow. Initially he started getting comments from teachers about being “scruffy” etc. but eventually the situation came to a head in Mr. Barabell’s class:

A confrontation begins with the teacher telling Luke off— “There are school standards to maintain, “ and, “Does he think that he’s special, ” and so on. Well Luke—smart alec that he was—has a pre-prepared answer ready to go:

“But sir, Jesus had long hair didn’t he?“

As this point the class is completely silent waiting for a response, but instead of answering Mr. Barabell says, “Right, everyone come with me now,” and he turns and exits the class room. We all follow, including Luke, wondering what on Earth is going on.

Eventually we reach the school swimming pool and gather around. Then Mr. Barabell turns to Luke, points to the swimming pool and says, “Walk!”.

Luke is just standing there kind of shaking his head (knowing that he’s defeated) and the whole rest of the class is cracking up.

The teacher finishes with, “When you can walk on water, you can have long hair at school.”

Game. Set. Match.

Smart Kid

Why can’t Americans get access to the Chinese electric car market?

Americans foolishly screamed and shout that they are the leader of the free world without ever questioning if it is even remotely true or not! Please don’t be angry or upset if I help you guys since I understand you can pretend to be free or even dare says you are ordained by god to spread democracy and freedom but you Americans are one of the least free country on earth.

Let me help you good American. So first I like to explain how unfree you guys are.

35% of you cannot get health care when you fall sick! The most basic of freedom is the freedom to see a doctor and get cure when you fall sick. At least 100 million Americans don’t have this basic of basics of freedom.

Next 1 million Americans are homeless and don’t have another basic of basics of freedom. The freedom to have a roof over their head.! They have to live in makeshift tents on the streets.

20% of Americans don’t have 500 dollars to their name and don’t know where their next meal is coming from! Surely everyone must have the freedom to have a hot meal to stay alive!

USA with about 4% of world population has 25% of the worlds prisoners population! Think about this my American friends, prisoners are certainly. Not free. Many of them coloured people thrown into jail for the slightest reason. How on earth can you keep a straight face to say U.S. is the leader of the free world. No one know!

In many cities in the U.S. one cannot go to certain parts of the inner city like the Queens in New York. As crimes are rampant. So normal innocent and good Americans like you have to avoid that part of America! Surely freedom means you can go to anywhere or any part of America.

Kids and parents suffers the mental turmoils daily for just going to school. Many got shot to death in schools, public places, cinemas and even in Capitol Hill! Is that freedom? Even your kids are not free to go to school without a random mass shooter lurking with military grade weapons to murder them! Is this freedom?

If you are not fortunate to have a white skin you could be necked to death in the bright daylight of even driving a good car may be be shot to death just for suspected of stealing the car! Everyday you live in fear of a white policeman! Is that freedom to live? Freedom to avoid death at the racist inclination of the white racist? Surely not.

Freedom means you can choose who you really want to be your leader. Only 30% choose Biden. Or 35% choose Trump! Why are they your president? Your system allowed 0.8% of the richest and most influential people to choose your candidates! Surely this is not political freedom. This is far from democracy. How on earth can you call yourself the “beacon of democracy” who in a sane mind can claim that?

Oh today you country stop the Americans from having access to best 5G technology, Smartphone, best EV’s, drones and others for some geopolitical nonsense! Is this freedom? Freedom to be deprived? Let me help you understand. You are deprived from buying a 10 bucks EV. And need to be charged once a week but you are not allowed to! You cannot buy your Tesla like for half the price! Just to support your too big to fail auto industry paying 100 million bonus doing shit for good Americans!

But to me EVs and Drones are just the top of the iceberg of your draconian and suicide policies that takes away the freedom of Americans like you. Think about Jullien Assange, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden! Freedom? American is anything but free.

Man these people are monsters

What conversations have you overheard in a language they assumed you don’t know?

It was 2016 in Bruges, Belgium. I was with my parents and we had just hailed a cab that somehow turned into a ride-share with this British family.

All was well in the van until about three minutes in, when I heard the lady say: “These people look a bit funny, don’t they?”. I looked up to notice that they were talking about my family. In plain English.

I stayed silent as much as I could, as they went on discussing among themselves and chuckling over how we were so bundled up (It was in the middle of a freezing winter and I live in the freaking equator!) even though it wasn’t that cold for them, or how they couldn’t figure out where we’re from because apparently we didn’t look Chinese enough nor Middle Eastern enough for them (Answer: Neither – we’re Indonesian) and all. During the whole ride, they were mocking us.

My mother must’ve seen me giving them a death stare and asked if anything was wrong, in Indonesian. Topping it all off, they were of course chuckling at how my mom was talking really funny. I couldn’t stand it any more, so I answered my mom in English, making sure the British family heard me well:

“Yes there is a problem here. Some people actually still think that English isn’t a universal language by now, and think that it’s good fun to mock and make fun of other people just because of how they look”.

I spent the rest of the cab ride watching the blood drain from their faces. At least I was no longer the one being uncomfortable in that cab.

Lord, Jesus help us

What are some deepest lessons you should know in your young age?

Feeling sad after making a decision doesn’t mean it was the wrong decision.
Life is not tiring. Wanting life to be a certain way but not having the confidence to make it that way, is tiring.
Self-awareness is realising that there is no opponent -you’re fighting against yourself.
Sometimes saying ‘goodbye’ doesn’t mean you don’t love something, it just means you love yourself too.
That lesson will repeat itself until you learn it.
If you keep one hand on your past and one hand on your future you’ll never have either. To embrace tomorrow, you must let go of yesterday.
The world starts and ends entirely inside your mind. No matter where you end up, no matter how rich, or successful you become, you won’t enjoy any of it if you get there at the expense of your mental health.

Chinese ethnic groups

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SC7IyLLt6PA?feature=share

What is the fastest you have ever seen your co-worker getting fired?

As a teenager, I worked in a gas station for a couple of years. A younger kid got hired who had some odd work habits. When the station owner would leave, the kid would just go sit down in the office. Meanwhile, I’d be pumping gas, changing oil, or mounting tires. I had no authority over this kid.

A few days after he was hired, I told the owner what was going on. An hour or two later the owner mentioned he was going home for an hour or two. He departed, the kid sat down in the office, while I finished doing an oil change and waited on customers at the pumps.

Ten minutes later, the boss walked out the alley where he’d parked his truck out of sight, and stood quietly in the shadows, watching me work, and the kid sitting on his butt. A few minutes later, the kid was fired. Word got around our small town pretty quickly, I don’t think this kid could find another job that summer.

I wasn’t sad to see him leave…

What is the most absurd thing you’ve been charged for on a bill?

Years ago I strained a tendon in my thumb. I went to one of those jenky quick service medical clinics to have it looked at and a person, who I assumed had some training in doctoring or nursing, prescribed me ibuprofen and put my hand in a brace.

I paid them like 50 bucks and went on my way.

A few weeks later I got a bill for the brace from a medical billing company in Texas. They assigned a cost of $750 to the brace, and only the brace, claimed to have billed my insurance for $450 and expect the rest from me. Of course, I sent them nothing, and the bills kept coming. The brace was essentially the same as one you’d buy at the drug store for about $35. It was nothing special and there was no way I was sending them any money. I tried to call them, but no one ever answered their phone.

Once my tendon healed, I put the brace in a box, along with a copy of their bill and mailed it to them. I never received anther bill afterwards.

Good advice

Why did China keep collapsing throughout history?

This is an interesting question.

Why did ancient China keep collapsing?

Or , let’s change the question.

Why did ancient China keep rebuilding?

In fact, there is no eternal empire in human history. From Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, Ottoman, Russia. The lifespan of any empire established by a civilization is limited. In other words, crashes are bound to happen.

But the difference between China and other empires is that most ancient empires collapse only once. Because the collapsed empire can never be rebuilt again. But China has such a magical power that no matter how it collapses, it will always be reunified after a period of time, and then climb to the peak again.

This picture shows the whole history of China. The crown represents peace and unity, and the sword represents division and war.

So much so that the opening sentence of the famous ancient Chinese novel “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms” reads: “The general trend of the world is that if it is divided for a long time, it will be united, and if it is united for a long time, it will be divided.”

Why China has such magic power, historians have many opinions.

One of the more widely recognized statements is this:

4,000 years ago, the Chinese were born on a land suitable for farming. Since the earliest civilized countries were established, they have been a typical agricultural civilization.

From the earliest recorded history of China, they have faced the threat from the north. That is the nomadic civilization galloping on the grasslands. In the early historical documents of Chinese dynasties, the invasion of nomadic civilization was recorded many times, and even the most brilliant Western Zhou Dynasty perished because of the invasion of nomadic civilization.

The ancestors of the Chinese discovered that the agricultural civilization, which is good at farming and construction, cannot compete with the nomadic civilization, which is good at riding and archery, in war. (Infantry can hardly defeat cavalry).
But as long as they are united, they will become more powerful. If 1 person can’t defeat the enemy, then 3 people; if 3 people can’t, then 10 people. Since agricultural civilization can breed more wealth and population, once China is united, the nomads are no match at all.

In 221 BC, the Qin Empire unified China for the first time, defeated the Xiongnu in war, and built the Great Wall to keep them out of the cold north. The Han Empire went a step further and formed a professional army of hundreds of thousands of people, went on an expedition to the desert, and completely defeated the Xiongnu. A unified and strong state always protects its people from harm. And when the empire crumbles and divides, China becomes weak. For example, the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period were all like this. At this time, the enemy from the north invaded, the internal war was in chaos, and the society was dark. People cannot live a normal life, and starvation and death become the norm. Every round of imperial collapse and division in Chinese history will be accompanied by wars and a significant reduction in population. The lessons of history have engraved this truth deeply in the hearts of the Chinese people—unity is justice and light, and division is evil and darkness. The Chinese yearning for unity transcends history, time, religion, and nationality.

Therefore, the ultimate political goal of every careerist who wished to seize power in ancient China was the same: to unify the country and obtain the “sky destiny”. Only in this way can we gain the support of the people.

Imagine if in Europe, every German thought the German government was evil, the British thought the British government was dark, and the French thought the French government was corrupt. These governments should all be overthrown. As for the reason, there is only one: they don’t want to unify Europe, which is not the right direction.

What a terrible and incredible power this is, but the Chinese have such power.

A beautiful lesson

AH. I want to do this with my daughter.

What are some of the best examples of “American ignorance”?

I used to date an American. At the time I lived on an estate where to get out, you had to drive under a railway bridge arch. He got annoyed with having to wait for oncoming traffic to clear and demanded to know “why the hell didn’t they build this with two lanes?” I said it was built 150 years ago for stagecoaches, before cars were even invented. Americans forget how old England is.

What are some things that look easy but are difficult?

I asked a cycle rickshaw driver in India if I could have a turn. “This’ll be as easy as riding a bicycle,” I thought.

Technically, that’s exactly what it is. Only that you’re pulling someone else’s weight as well. Or even that of several people.

His face had all those deep grooves from the harsh sun beating down on him all day. His arms and legs were as thin as twigs. His ribcage bulged through a sweat-drenched tanktop.

I was less than half his age and enjoyed the kind of nutrition he could only dream of.

“You’re a tourist,” he protested.

But I insisted and he sat on the vinyl seat in the back.

I mounted the driver’s seat brimming with confidence and pressed down on the pedal.

It didn’t even budge.

I stood up and pushed down with all my might.

The rickshaw squeaked forward a couple inches.

By this point, the driver was laughing hysterically.

I conceded defeat, we changed positions, and he sailed down the street with an ease I could not even begin to fathom.

And while he was no industry-disrupting maverick, he was solving a real problem—helping people get from A to B.

My view of manual laborers was forever changed.

I learned that technique always trumps strength.

And that every honest line of work deserves our utmost respect.

Neil deGrasse Tyson: America is declining RAPIDLY

https://youtu.be/0gjzpZMFVsE

G3 and P99 dreams

I know that I live in China, and that it is safe, safe… safe! But you know guys, I do miss my guns. Yup. I left them all behind back in the ‘States when I moved to China. I loved to take them out, and shoot them every now and then, and truthfully, I was lethal with my pistol.

I also miss my G3.

I have had numerous weapons through the years, but I left behind my precious P99. It’s not that it is better than the trade-offs that I get here in China. It isn’t, but every now and again, I do miss firing that pistol.

Truth, you all.

Deep down, I still hold on to some of my American characteristics.

Of course, all of this is meaningless to you all, unless you are an American. But there is always something very nice about being able to defend yourself from the crime-ridden United States .

Here’s a (my) Martin .444 lever action.

Man, oh man, those bullets were huge!

It could really cut through the brush… I’ll tell you what.

Back in the day, Australians used to own thee kinds of weapons, and then a crazy guys in Tasmania (I seem to recall) went on a shooting spree “out of the blue”, and the Australian government started to ban everything… you know… to make Australia safer.

I hear that there are parts of Australia that remains very, very dangerous. I mean that there are some places that you do not dare go out at night…

…ugh. That is NOT a place where anyone should live.

But I don’t know if it is the wildlife… or the “wild” life. But if live in one such place, I would suggest that you leave. Life is too short to live in fear.

A life lived in fear is a life not lived.

Are there employees who later employed their boss?

For my case, I was the boss who was later hired by the guy who used to work for me. Early in my career, I managed a construction crew of a dozen or so workers. One of my workers, I’ll call Scott, showed exceptional intelligence, drive and common sense. I promoted to foreman and then supervisor in less than two years. I left that company over a contract dispute and found another job.

Six years later, I’d grown bored with the new job and felt my future there was limited. Out of the blue, I received a call from Scott. A short time after I had left the old company, Scott ran into his old college sweetheart and a year later, married her. College? A menial laborer, promoted for foreman, and then supervisor, had a college degree? Yep. He told me that he was once a practicing attorney but disbarred for helping a client hide some assets. After disbarment, he slipped into depression and alcoholism. At his lowest point, he took the job of laborer.

His sweetheart and new wife was $$$ LOADED $$$. she had bought him his own successful construction company. He was a smart, ambitious guy but lack bossines (I mean business) sense and knowhow. He found himself over his head on a project and called me for help. It happened I had a couple of weeks vacation left, so for a nice fee, I agreed to spend that time helping him.

At the end of those two weeks, he offered the the job as Executive VP at salary over my current one and a share of the profits. He turned out to be the best boss I ever had and I worked for him until he retired (at forty-two.)

How do Chinese people feel about foreigners who live and work in China?

Ask the foreigner.? To them it is a million times safer than back home in the U.S. Chinese people like diversity and welcome good foreigners. But if he is a CIA or NED spy or trouble maker chances is he or she will be caught within 24 hours. If he likes the food, the place the people or the culture he or she is always welcome. If he is a hubris, xenophobic racist he should stay at home and join the KKK.

Let me warn you, China sniff you out in an hour and we will send you packing. But if you live China and wants to make China even better welcome. Let me tell you what you can do in China that you cannot do at home. You can open a 6 pack and you can drink as you walk on Chinese streets. You cannot do in the U.S. You can walk in the street at 3 am in the morning safely even if you are a women. In the U.S. you have many no go areas that even cops don’t want to go.

You cannot see homeless because there is none in China. Your chance of being shot by a random mass shooter is a billion to one in the U.S. if you fall sick everyone including foreigners get to be treated by the best doctors and given medical help. The life expectancy of China exceed that of the U.S. There is zero case of racial profiling in China but in the U.S. blacks can be necked to death in open daylight.

Come over and let’s prosper together.

Is Xi Jinping’s presidential car in San Francisco a Hongqi car? What model is it?

It is a customized armored Honqi H9 Model 701

There are Sixty Eight Customized cars made for the CPC top brass every 5 years and PLA Top brass

Xi Jingping has four such cars, all similar and heavily armored

The Communication system is connected to a Chinese Satellite constellation and is not dependent on any other system allowing the president to talk to anyone he wants without any interception

Presently only Biden & Putin have similar systems

The Contract Tender price of this car was 972000 RMB ($ 136K)

What did your boss do or say to you that made you quit your job?

“I don’t care if she’s dead. Money is money.”

I’ve been managing a brand for 9 years and have had stellar performance. I was promoted quickly and pretty soon assumed the role of second in charge for one of the key cities.

Part of my role includes bringing in big corporate sales. I was in the midst of closing a large annual contract with a major player.

And then my godmother had to undergo brain surgery.

I applied for some time off and spent a week with my godmother who lives in another country. I had accrued over 40 days in leave as I’ve been working myself to death to grow the company.

When I returned, my then boss wanted to know if I had finalised the sale. I was speechless. Everyone knew about my godmother’s surgery and it was an annual contract that the company could’ve afforded to wait a couple of weeks for. It wasn’t as if it was completely lost and I’ve been in communication with the client throughout.

But then came those words that I will always remember – “I don’t care if she’s dead. Money is money.”

I walked.

On a happier note, my godmother is fully recovered!

What is the most extreme example of human willpower and discipline?

Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima

Story: He was the leading runner in the 2004 Summer Olympics marathon.
At his pace, he was sure to win first place and secure the gold medal which would’ve brought pride and glory to his family and country.

Near the end of the marathon, he was attacked by a spectator. The spectator actually sidelined into him. Intentionally. In public.

That brief, 10 second-long distraction was enough to completely disrupt De Lima’s mental AND physical rhythm, both of which are critical to running long distance marathons.

He was quickly surpassed by two other runners and was evidently off his game for the remainder of the marathon. He finished in third place in surprisingly good spirits and received the bronze medal.

What people remember is that he crossed the finish line with a smile despite what had happened to him just moments before.

This was a man who was robbed of first place and an Olympic gold medal in a matter of seconds.

Imagine training for something your entire life and being so close to accomplishing something extraordinary. Something that brings you, your family, and your country great pride and happiness and puts you in the history books.

Only to be robbed in a matter of seconds in the most outrageous and nonsensical way possible. By something that should never have happened in the first place.

De Lima could’ve stopped running when that incident happened. He could’ve attacked the trespasser. He could’ve complained endlessly to the officials.

But he pushed past, he ran, and he finished.

Even after the fiasco, words like “furious” or “hatred” were evidently not in De Lima’s vocabulary. Holding a relentless vendetta against his perpetrator was clearly not important to him.

Even when a fellow Olympian earnestly offered his own gold medal to De Lima, De Lima responded “I am happy with mine – it is bronze but means gold.”

De Lima went on to win a variety of awards commemorating his self-discipline and spirit of sportsmanship.

He also went on to light the cauldron at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

It takes immense willpower and discipline to run and finish as a top contender for a marathon in the Olympics, but I think what makes De Lima so special is his willpower and discipline to look past something so ill-fated and still come out on top. He truly lives a life of no regrets.

And I don’t remember who won first or second place in that 2004 Summer Olympics Marathon.

But I remember Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima.

The man is a legend.

Men and Ice Cream

What is the most offensive thing someone has ever asked you?

When I was nine years old, my mum died.

Although I didn’t know how she died at the time, it later turned out that she had died by suicide. Nine year old me thought she’d just died of old age — she was 43 after all!

We were kept off school for a few days. My middle sister was in the year above me at the same school. Our classmates had been told that our mum had died (not how) and that they should be nice to us.

On my first day back at school, a boy from my sister’s class ran up to me and shouted in my face “Jordan, how’s your mum?” and ran off laughing.

I still remember his name 41 years later – Billy Smart; the same name as a popular travelling circus from that time. That’s all I remember about the boy now – his name and that he thought it would be funny to tease me about my dead mother. I hope he became a more sensitive and well rounded person as an adult, but I have doubts.

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

Ahahaha, memories! I worked at a publisher for a few years and the management had no clue how much work folks did. They were so clueless, in fact, that they were convinced people were shirking their duties, sneaking out early, coming in late, etc.

So, they ostentatiously installed an electronic time card system. We had to log in and log out every time we entered or left the building, respectively.

They informed us we were going to be paid for the “actual” hours we worked, instead of what we submitted on our timecards (we were “salary,” and yet had a low-budget pay system, so “salary” simply meant “submit a 40-hour timecard every week regardless of the actual work you perform.”), with the implication that we better watch out ’cause “now they were watching.”

Hahahahaha! Watch this!

This company was so delusional that it spent cold hard cash in a passive-aggressive attempt to not pay people, and it totally backfired.

To no one’s surprise, the next payroll was a blowout because we always busted ass and worked long hours. Plus, we completely stopped taking work home to do. Our rationale was “If you’re going to be a jerk about insisting that we are only paid for being in the building, then we’ll only work while we’re in the building.”

The company found themselves shoveling out overtime pay like it was Skittles.

They deactivated that system after Week Two.

I think, to this day, they still think we somehow “hacked” the system, because they could not acknowledge that we worked long-ass hours.

Dingbats.

Make men cry

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/yq3yG3BZt4U?feature=share

What is the best thing you have ever learned from a criminal?

I learnt how to break into my own house when I forgot my keys.

I was waiting for my wife to come home standing in my doorway when a neighbour asked me if I was okay. I said I was fine and I was waiting for my wife to get home from work so I could get in.

I knew that he had a criminal history. He asked me if he could use a small branch of one of my trees to open the door. I agreed, and he put one into the letterbox of my door and he used it to nudge the Yale lock to open it.

I learnt that I needed a better lock. In fact, I bought a whole new door with several locks.

I also learnt that criminals can. and do. reform. For many years, my neighbour could have entered my house and stolen anything he wished.

You just need to put more effort in…

What’s something your husband did to you that you will never forget?

He died!

Months before he died he wasn’t feeling the best. Where he used to NEVER take time off work he had started taking lots of time off. Or coming home early. His feet hurt him. He did a lot of walking at work.

I BEGGED him to go to the doctor. I told his mom to TELL him to go to the doctor. All it created was fights. So I quit begging him to go.

I went on a girls weekend and he died in our home. I have SO MUCH ANGER that he died so young, when it possibly could have been prevented. The main cause of death was a heart attack due to untreated diabetes. Clearing out his drawers I found many bottles of unused diabetic pills. They weren’t even his. Someone gave them to him to “help”, he still didn’t use them.

Now I tell people. PLEASE make sure the ones you love go to the doctor, use Dave as an example why. Also that you know how all the household expenses work. He paid all the main bills and spoiled me. I didn’t have to do any of that. Was a huge eye opener when I had to take over. Nearly lost my house to foreclosure, but am finally getting things under control, four years later.

So yeah, he died on me. I will never forget. We were high school sweethearts. Met when I was 15, he was 17. Got Married when I was 19 and he was 20. Married for 23 years. Together 27.

Make sure the ones you love take care of themselves and get medical help. Sucks being a 42 year old Widow.

Don’t be too humble…

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

What is the most absurd thing you’ve been charged for on a bill?

So I was in a car accident with my then girlfriend. A teenage girl, driving her mom’s car ran a red light and hit us. It was a pretty bad accident and my girlfriend was taken out of the car on a backboard. The girl who was driving was really shook up, and her passenger had a minor wound that was bleeding. I had banged up my knee and my face got hit pretty hard. An ambulance came, but there was no room for me in the back, so I sat upfront, shotgun. When we got to the ER it was really busy. I sat there waiting for about two hours. Finally a nurse brought me to the examining room, where I waited about another 45 minutes to an hour. The nurse who brought me in looked at my swollen face and said if you had iced that it wouldn’t be so swollen. Finally I just signed myself out.

About a week later I got a bill from the hospital for treatment and an ambulance ride. I called and told them I wasn’t paying because they never treated me and I rode on the empty front seat of the ambulance. They told me that I was charged because if I had really needed treatment it was there. So I asked if they charged people who walked past the hospital also were charged for the same reason. My bill was graciously forgiven. That’s when I knew I would go to law school.

Who cares what he thinks…

What’s something your husband did to you that you will never forget?

Not my husband but my bf. On Sunday passed I collapsed at the bar we were at having pizza and wine, and I suddenly dropped like a stone. I died for like 7 seconds, eyes wide open and no pulse. I was out for a few minutes then slowly came to. I had no idea what I was doing on the bar floor or who the girls were hovering over me. (Lucky the one girl was a chemist and resuscitated me) My bf tried to see if I could make it to the car but I was too weak, I could not walk at all. I could barely sit up. He called an ambulance for me. He sorted my ID with the drivers to help with my medical aid numbers (as the ambulance was going nowhere otherwise) Followed me to the hospital and sat by me while tests were being done. My blood sugar stabilised and I could go home. He drove us back at midnight, an hour journey…both of us exhausted. He’s not my husband so I didn’t expect him to do all that for me. I can’t believe he behaved exactly as a husband would. I’m a very lucky girl.

Jerry Springer world

What’s the best revenge you’ve gotten after being fired or let go from a job?

After the dotcom crash I got hired by a small software company. They didn’t really have a good product and it was obvious they were on the way down. One day the owner called in with instructions to fire all the sales people as they weren’t making any sales anyway. OK so at the end of the month he calls to ask how sales were going. I said about as good as can be expected with no sales people.

A week later the hammer comes down and we’re all let go and given our severance checks. I immediately go to the bank branch that check was drawn on to cash it and it bounced!

So since I still had the keys to the office, I went back and grabbed a bunch of high-end laptops and took them home. Another week goes by and he calls to ask about these laptops that have gone missing. I said they’re not missing, I’m holding on to them until you make good on the bounced check. I was told that was theft and they would be pressing charges. I said great, I’ll be contacting the Labour Relations Board about your shitty practices and also the Police about knowing passing a bad check for thousands of dollars.

Needless to say I was asked to stop by his office to exchange the laptops for another check. It was like the scene out of Scarface where Tony Montana goes to buy the coke.

Owner: Do you have the laptops?

Me: They’re close by. Do you have my check?

He gave me the check and I went and cashed it and then went back and gave him his laptops.

It is assumed that men can handle hardships on their own…

What is the best thing that has ever happened to you for being nice?

This is the best, most positive experience I had at the hotel where I worked in college.

As I was getting ready to close my shift out at the front desk of a large hotel on Capitol Hill, a woman came to my desk and said that she wanted to check in, but she lost her purse somewhere along the way between the train station and the hotel.

She was frantic. She was having a meltdown. I asked her about her reservation, if she was with a group? She said “Yes! I’m with X group!”

Awesome. I knew this was an incoming group, with a block of rooms, so I asked for her name. Her name corresponded with a name on my incoming list. I told her that I see her reservation and you have a room! So don’t worry about that, I said. Let’s get the rest sorted.

I then asked when was the last time she saw her purse, and she said that it was on the Amtrak that came into Union Station about 20 minutes before she got to the hotel.

I asked her if she’d had anything to eat. She said she hadn’t, in hours. I said well you better get over to the restaurant and let them give you something to eat while I make some calls! I sent her to the restaurant, and I made sure that everyone knew she was my guest, and why.

I got on the phone, called a few people I knew at Amtrak and asked them to find the cleaners on that train. They found her purse, and brought it to the hotel. Everything intact.

Kicker is? The woman I helped? She was in DC to lead a series of workshops on customer service. I turned out to be the star in her first session on “Getting service right.”

Turns out, I’m nice. Who knew?

This man deserves Heaven

What’s the hardest thing you’ve endured being poor?

As my marriage began to unravel, my (then) husband became worse and worse with money.

First, he wouldn’t come home for days, leaving the kids and me with no car. That meant if I needed groceries, I had to walk 8 blocks to one store or 11 to another and carry them home.

I couldn’t ask my father for a lot of help, as my mother had cancer. More often than not, I was helping her, and my father was filling in when I couldn’t.

One day, I found I had no bread or milk for my children. I went to the cabinet where I kepy emergency money, only to find the jar empty. The “proud papa” took it. I scooped up whatever spare change I could find and went to the grocery. At the counter, I found I was short. I was ready to cry. I tried to think of which should I put back, when the grocer told me someone behind me paid for my groceries. I cried as I took the bag and said thank you.

Walking home I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but I was wrong. The jerk stopped his paychecks from going to our joint account. He wouldn’t pay the mortgage or utilities.

I had a bank book that he forgot about, and with that I paid bills for as long as I could. I put my children on food stamps to put food on the table. I put a lien on my house since you couldn’t qualify for services if you owned a house. Passover was coming and I didn’t have a penny.

Agencies that claimed to help made you feel like you were robbing them if you asked for food. I got one parcel and was sick. Everything was dated a month or two before: the juice, other items, and the raw chicken – which smelled so bad I threw it out.

I begged my brother for $200 so we could have a nice holiday. He gave it to me – and never let me forget it. If he needed a favor, he reminded me that I owed him. I was so ashamed I never told my parents.

The house went to foreclosure about the same time the utilities were shut off. I borrowed money from my father to move and pay first month’s rent on an apartment. When I finally started working I put aside $10 a month to pay him back. It was hard, and I barely made ends meet. My kids hadn’t gotten new clothes at this point in nearly two years.

I was still chasing my separated husband to get him to court. Finally, I hired three court servers for $200 a piece to wait at each exit at his job. He was served his subpoena to appear in court. After some delays – didn’t come with a lawyer, fired his lawyer in court – the judge asked him why he didn’t take care of his family. He said I’m having problems with their mother. The judge said “Why didn’t you buy food? Pay for the house? Clothes? What did you do for your children?” He kept trying to say he was having a problem with me and the judge got angry.

“What did you do with your money?” the judge asked. We presented photos of his new sexy sports car – bought with the money that was supposed to take care of his children. The judge told him “I’m done talking to you.” Then she asked me what I had done for my children.

I showed her the paperwork for food stamps, proof I sold jewelry and used the bank book I had to pay utilities. I just got a job, so we were under a roof.

She told my then husband “you earn almost 3 times as much as your wife and you did nothing for your children?” She ordered child support at the maximum allowable by law, as well as back pay of money he should have paid since January (it was now October).

He screamed “where will I get that kind of money?” The judge said “sell your sexy car, that doesn’t have room for your three children.” My attorney stepped up and said “we would like to show more mercy than he showed to his children. He can pay off his wife in semi monthly checks.”

He took the deal, never realizing he would be paying me for three years. The extra money coming in meant my kids could get new clothes for the first time in two years, I paid my father back the money he lent me – and I gave my brother $300 when he lent me $200. I told him the extra $100 was for him to shove it anywhere he wanted – I didn’t want him to talk to me like I was dirt again. In spite of my brother’s protests that he didn’t mean to humiliate me, he did in fact keep the extra hundred.

Today, I’m a bit better off. But I still need to watch my money. Sometimes I get depressed and buy junk I don’t need. But I try hard to avoid that.

Smart man

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JFReCu9Pv1g?feature=share

Why do some people think a nuclear war can be won against say Russia or China?

Read some of the western propaganda. You can see it on youtube videos about non western hardware.

There’s a very common narrative.

Everything Russian is junk! None of it works! Russians apparently don’t even have working rifles according to most westerners. If Russian rifles don’t work how would these [slurs] be able to maintain nuclear weapons! Only the SUPREME MASTER RACE can maintain nuclear weapons. You can see smug British people say haha ours work! Like our SA80 the BEST gun in the WORLD! The Challenger 2 the MOST INVINCIBLE TANK IN THE UNIVERSE. You remember posts on Quora about 6 months ago? British people saying it would take nuclear weapons to stop a challenger2.

Chinese?

Everything in China is made of tofu! Pretty much exactly the same as the above.

The MASTER RACE is so confident that they think they can perform nuclear strikes and bomb our cities and we can’t do anything back.

It is a big problem

Blue Bayou Chocolate Mousse

Yield: 8 cups

Ingredients

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate
4 ounces unsalted butter
5 ounces egg whites
2 ounces granulated sugar
3 1/2 cups heavy cream

Instructions

In a double boiler combine chocolate and butter, stirring until melted.
Whip cream and sugar until light and fluffy; set aside.
Beat egg whites at high speed until soft peaks form.
Using a wire whisk combine egg whites with the melted chocolate and then with the whipped cream.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Don’t rock the boat

Be the best option.

Say I steal 2 cents from every bank account in America. I am proven guilty, but everyone I stole from says they’re fine with it. What happens?

A case like this actually happened in the 1960s. A programmer working on Wall Street opened an account and wrote a program that funneled all the forgotten mills rounded off of each penny into his account. It seemed like he was stealing nothing. It turns out that a weakness in binary systems makes it difficult for them to convert 1 penny correctly so they round up or down. There are often thousandths of a cent that are then ignored and few people, if any, on Wall Street look at the penny column. It was absolutely invisible. But those thousandths of a cent, multiplied by millions of daily transactions add up. He was caught by the sheer size of the numbers that were being generated.

He was prosecuted not because anyone cared about those fractions of a cent (they didn’t) but because he was stealing and stealing is against the law.

When you steal something it doesn’t matter what the victim thinks. The state is obligated to prosecute. The statutes don’t often say, “He broke the law but it’s ok because his victims don’t care”. The statutes, while they may take the scale of the injury into account, must prosecute you for breaking the law because “Justice is blind”. It’s a one size fits all approach, for better or worse.

In reality we know what really happens and there are plenty of ways for justice to be derailed long before the judge bangs the gavel and pronounces a sentence, but the theory still applies. It doesn’t matter what the victims think. Actions have consequences and you broke the law.

Dogcoin millionaire

What is the best thing that has ever happened to you for being nice?

In 1994 my then-husband was arrested for soliciting a hit man to kill me. He was apprehended by federal agents through a sting operation. As more information was revealed about how he was caught, I learned that my husband had contacted a member of the Outlaw motorcycle gang looking for the killer. Turns out the gang member called the feds because he had been in my business a few weeks prior with his daughter and I had given the little girl change for the gum machine.

A quarter saved my life….and sent my now-ex husband to prison for 21 years.

Be nice, you never know 😉

Cat With a Broken Paw Went To The Clinic & Begged For Help, But The Vet Did Something Shocking!

Great story!

What would China be like today had Mao Zedong lost the civil war against Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalists? How would this have affected the balance of power worldwide today?

Mao won because he and the Red Army had won popular support among the Chinese people. In fact, during the three main battles fought during the civil war, Chinese civilian volunteers provided logistical support to the Red Army, and abandoned the Nationalist Revolutionary Army.

In China’s cities, runaway inflation and corruption among Nationalist officials destroyed support among private Chinese businesses, and they moved to support the Communists.

From your question, you seem to assume that the civil war simply involved two armies fighting each other for the control of China.

In fact, just as Sun Tzu has said, wars are fought and won in the hearts and minds of the people; it is not just about two militaries.

For this reason, your belief that the Nationalists could have won against the Communists is an impossibility.

The Chinese people decided that they needed a new China, and that is the environment the world is living in now.

Marriageable man or instragram

How have you changed?

“I’m worried about you,” my grandmother told me. “You’re too nice. People like you don’t do well in the world.”

That was the last time I saw her.

I forgot about that conversation.

I didn’t even understand what she meant.

Besides, it’s easy to dismiss the words of an elderly woman suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s.

I’ve always been concerned with what others think about me. I wanted to do well in the world. I had a deep need for outer acceptance because I wasn’t embracing myself on the inside.

I thought that if I just stayed out of trouble—if I just avoided controversy and did my best to please the people around me—I’d feel safe in the world.

Perhaps even wanted.

And so I became the nice guy.

I let other people come first. I put my own needs aside. I sacrificed my wellbeing.

And I was miserable.

But in the last years, something changed.

I put me higher up the priority list.

It’s not that I became an asshole or stopped caring. I realized that I’m still someone who feels and empathizes deeply with others.

But I decided to stop operating out of fear and guilt.

And I’ve realized that, as much as it sounds like a cliché, you have to cultivate happiness within instead of expecting the world to hand it to you as a trophy for your “good” behavior.

So I started taking my career seriously and insisted on being paid what I knew I was worth instead of letting employers walk over me.

I began practicing martial arts and became more confident.

I resolved to not put up with other people’s shit.

I gave up being nice.

And in doing so became more empowered. More genuine. More me.

I finally understood what my grandmother was trying to say.

She was right all along.

I just wish I could let her know.

Yes and no

25 Strange Things That Only Exist In Vietnam!

Vietnam, nestled in Southeast Asia, boasts a multifaceted tapestry of history, culture, and natural beauty. The nation’s turbulent past, marked by the Vietnam War, contrasts with its vibrant present, where bustling cities like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi are hubs of innovation and growth. In today’s video, we will be talking about the things you can only find in this country of the east. We cover everything from their markets to their religious beliefs, but if you stay until the end of this video, you will also find out what exactly is the balance of five flavors, and why is it the most important part of their cuisine. Enjoy!

What was the biggest decision taken by you that changed your life?

Writing on this site—because of what it’s led to.

After my divorce, I knew I’d have a lot more free time on my hands. I needed a hobby that would be productive.

I am very intense and passionate about anything I do. I was a hardcore gamer for years and was a high-level league of legends player at one point. Not good enough to go pro, but maybe just below the level at which people make money. But it was a problematic hobby that ate up too much time.

As a child, my dad had often said, “Wow imagine if you put as much time into your studies as you did into those games.”

I decided no more hobbies that will consume me.

I figured writing on Quora would be a quasi-productive, quasi-fun hobby, that wouldn’t consume me too much.

Everything except that last part was true. It spun into this whole big thing that I never expected. I got obsessed with writing. I think in the first 3 years I wrote 4000+ answers.

This love of writing led to opportunities to make money. I was able to work at the craft.

Writing also made me realize how much I hated my corporate job. I would liken it to when you are in a terrible relationship and some great, attractive person who has their shit together asks you out on a date.

You start to wonder, “What if there is more to my life than this crap relationship?”

Quitting my job was a huge decision that changed my life for the better. I have freedom. The money is great so far. I have control of my life.

It’s amazing what can happen if you just listen to your parents.

How China Reinvented The Space Station!

Why was France industrially much weaker than both Britain and Germany before WW1?

Because it was mainly an agricultural country and France was a major food exporter.

Britain and Germany had massive industries meaning fewer people working in agriculture. This resulted in food shortages, the need to import food, and higher food prices.

The French economy was doing very well being based on agriculture.

Computer brain. Don’t get computer brain.

What is the funniest loophole you have ever seen?

When I was in eighth grade, our science teacher held a school wide competition to see who could build the strongest bridge out of tooth picks.

My best friend, “J”, was very smart, very clever, and always mischievous. The rules only states that the bridge had to be made out of toothpicks and had to be a certain length (I think 12”, this was over 20 years ago). The rules did not limit what glue you used to join the toothpicks. Additional toothpicks could be earned by doing extra credit worksheets.

“J” came up with an awesome plan. He did dozens of extra credit sheets. He had thousands of toothpicks. His father was a machinist for a local manufacturer of printing presses and was able to procure some industrial grade epoxy to use as glue.

“J” set to work making alternating crisscrossing layers of toothpicks and epoxy. He essentially made a solid brick of toothpicks and epoxy.

The day of the competition came. The competition went in alphabetical order and “J”’s last name was pretty far down the list. The teacher had everyone gathered in the gym to see the competition. The bridges were suspended over a gap with weights hung from them until they broke.

Kid after kid brought up their bridge, some of them very fancy suspension type looking bridges. Most of them broke at 6 kg or less.

“J”’s turn came. He walks up to the platform with his brick. Kids in the audience are laughing at it. The bridge is placed over the gap. 1 kg, 2 kg, 3, and on until they hang the biggest weight of 25 kg and it’s not even flexing. All the kids are stunned.

The teacher, who was quite large and probably weighed 150 kg, puts two stacks of books on the floor, puts the brick over the gap between them, and stands with one foot on it. Not even flexing yet.

He then has the entire middle school follow him to the parking lot. He uses the books to prop up the brick again and proceeds to drive one wheel of his car onto it. It flexed a little.

At this point he has run out of heavy things to try to break the brick and declares “J” the winner.

As a teacher, what was the trashiest thing you’ve seen a parent do?

I’m frequently shocked at the language some parents use when dealing with the priests and nuns at a Catholic school. I’ve been in meetings where parents shouted and swore at elderly clergy people because they (the clergy people) had the audacity to remind the parents that they were way behind in their tuition payments, or their children were in danger of being expelled due to too many discipline issues.

I was always taught to treat older people and members of the clergy with respect. I’ll never get used to hearing a middle-aged parent scream and swear at an elderly priest or nun.

I was also always taught that you’re supposed to be extra nice to pregnant women. Apparently, a lot of parents were not taught that. I’ve seen parents scream and swear at teachers who were just weeks away from giving birth.

I was also always taught that you’re not supposed to swear in front of children. Yet every year, there’s at least one incident where a parent picks up their child from school and, in the course of a three-minute conversation within earshot dozens of kids as young as three years old, manages to drop a dozen really loud f-bombs.

I’ve also been preparing for my class in the morning, only to have the windows of my classroom shake as someone with stupidly-loud bass in their car drove up to the school to let their kids out… all kids who were under eight years old. There’s a time and a place for loud music. Seven thirty in the morning in front of a Catholic elementary school while you drop off your kids is not the time or place for that.

I caught my neighbor using my electrical outlets outside, and I told him I was going to call the cops and tell them what he was doing. He laughed and said I can’t prove it. What should I do?

Get photos of the cord plugged in, photos of where it goes (unless you have to trespass), and make sure they are dated and time stamped (most digital cameras can do that and possibly some phones). Pull out your electric bills from the times you know he was using your power and try to see how much extra was used. If it is a lot over a short period, you have proof on the bill. Not sure about your power company but some keep track of just how much is used when to try to help you cut down and that information could also help you.

I always say, document, document, document so it isn’t your word against his.

What the Hell?

What work secret did you accidentally find out that changed everything?

I’m not sure this counts as ‘accidentally’ but: A long time ago I joined a startup company. We were doing some innovative stuff with fiber optics.

My roommate and I got into the habit of taking the accountant out to lunch or Happy Hour every few weeks; generally on a Friday. We’d get a few drinks into her and she’d open up about the financial condition of the company because she was worried.

We found out that the first unit we “shipped” was actually sent to a warehouse for storage because the CFO wanted to tell the investors we’d sold and shipped a unit by year end. There was a potential client but they hadn’t signed the purchase order.

When I found out that the CFO was lying to investors and employees I started looking for a new job. Sure enough four weeks later they announced a layoff. I was let go because “your software already works and we’re betting that it will keep working.” Meanwhile they kept a programmer that couldn’t get his program to compile let alone work.

When my manager called me in, I told him that he was cutting off his nose to spite his face. I also neglected to mention all of the semi-automated routines that I’d built in my spare time that no one had thought about or worried about ( things like builds, backups, space reclamation in the homegrown database, etc. ).

They offered us ‘outplacement services’ with the first meeting that AM at an offsite location. At the outplacement meeting they scheduled us for a follow up meeting the next morning. I told them I couldn’t attend because I had an interview already scheduled. Three other people also had interviews already scheduled because I wasn’t the only on that took the accountant out to lunch!

Have you ever met a failure who completely changed their life around that truly inspired you?

Yes. I have a school friend who was very bright and did well. He was in the rugby team and was a Prefect. He was very popular.

After school he went to a good uni but surprisingly dropped out. He got a good job in advertising but lost it. He got another, got married, but both failed disasterously. He was a raging alcoholic and was out of control. Finally he became very ill and ended up in a clinic. He was in his 20’s still and was given a year to live unless he stopped drinking.

He met a girl at the halfway house he was in. She was in the same position as him. Together they joined AA and got their lives going. They moved abroad, to a fairly undeveloped country that was growing quickly, and with some inheritance, started a small film production company. They did very well. He was responsible for starting many AA chapters there. He saved careers, marriages and lives.

We met for lunch recently. It’s forty years since his last drink and he’s happy and prosperous. Being dry is not a struggle, but he is still vigilant. He accepted a long time ago that he has a terrible weakness, possibly inherited, and this is his burden. Unwilling to hand on this weakness, he’s never had children. He’d have made a wonderful Dad.

How warm was it inside of homes in the 19th century during the winter time?

Cold, but usually above freezing, at least here in the UK where nearly all buildings are made of stone or brick.

I don’t have central heating. I do have 18″ thick stone walls, but in a very cold winter my kitchen has been known to get so cold that my fridge stopped working, and my hands went numb within a minute or two of entering the kitchen.

However: yes, my windows are double-glazed but they’re a lot bigger than they probably would have been in the Victorian era, and in the Victorian era they would have had wooden shutters. I don’t even have curtains in the kitchen, because the room is laid out in a bloody stupid way which means I can’t even get *near* the window without climbing on top of a kitchen counter and walking across it.

In the Victorian era I would have had a fireplace in the living room and possibly the bedroom, and my kitchen would have had an actual stove that burned fuel and so put out excess heat.

Have you ever sabotaged food because someone was stealing it?

Back in the day I worked as an assembly line “artist,” creating art that sold wholesale to decorators of office buildings and hotels. The company was owned by a foreign family that had fled prosecution in their own country and a few family members were employed as artists or support staff.

I was a poor lad but this job seemed really fun. It paid a bit more than minimum wage and it was cool to hang out with young artists like myself. I rarely went out to lunch, preferring to save money and bring my own, including yogurt cups for dessert. After a while I noticed my yogurt kept vanishing. I made a stink about it, even contacted HR (well, the supervisor that handled billing and HR) mostly suspecting another starving artist.

Then I had a diabolical idea – I read that consuming saline solution could cause diarrhea! I wore contacts so I had some, I just needed to find a way to inject my yogurt cups with it. After some failed attempts, I was still trying to figure it out when another yogurt cup went missing.

Struck by inspiration, I went to the HR supervisor’s office and “confessed,” with the door open and loud enough for nearby folks to overhear, that I had “spiked” the yogurt with saline. I regretted my rash decision and told her that whoever consumed the yogurt would likely have stomach problems for an hour or so but would otherwise be okay.

Sure enough, an employee suddenly went home sick, complaining of stomach problems! And it was one of the owners’ family members, a fairly well off individual compared to the rest of us. So did I get in trouble with the bosses for poisoning a beloved relative? Nope, because there was NO ACTUAL SALINE in the yogurt! The only thing the thief was suffering from was a guilty conscience.

Don’t steal food!

Ouch!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ij8ZeTd7X7s?feature=share

If men and women are equal, how did the society become patriarchal in the first place, almost all around the world?

Men and women are NOT equal.

There is a thing called sexual dimorphism. This refers to physical, physiological and even mental differences between males and females of a species, beyond their sexual organs.

The vast majority of species in the animal kingdom have sexual dimorphism, and even some plants. I’m sure you’re familiar with lions.

Males and females are fundamentally different, and in humans and all apes the males are generally bigger and stronger than the females. This isn’t just a matter of exercise. Testosterone in men promotes the growth of larger and more powerful muscles, something women cannot achieve without outside help like anabolic steroids.

Testosterone doesn’t just influence men’s muscles; it also affects their brains. Men and women are mentally different because of the different levels of testosterone and estrogen in their brains.

And guess what? This doesn’t just apply to humans.

Male birds, for instance, are the only members of the species that initiate courtship rituals. (That’s why the peacock has that huge mane of feathers). Male birds sing and court females because of the levels of testosterone in their brains, making them aggressively seek and impress females.

Most animal species from rats to humans to birds exhibit these mental differences between males and females, even in species where no physical sexual dimorphism is present (such as with dolphins).

These differences even cause societal systems to form in animals. Patriarchies aren’t unique to humans. Lions have a totally patriarchial society where the males head the pride, and the women serve and hunt for him. Wolves, apes, and other animals have formed patriarchies.

Guess what? Some of the other species have matriarchies. Elephants for instance are a completely matriarchial society, with males being cast out of the herd to find other herds to impregnate, which is about the extent of his involvement in society. The herd itself is guided by the oldest matriarch.

The fact of the matter is, differences between males and females affect society. Not just in humans, but in many social animals. Pretending that men and women are equal is like an ostrich hiding its head in the ground trying to ignore what is obvious.

Human societies formed into patriarchies around the world regardless of creed, religion or ideology for one simple reason: the stronger physical dominance of men made them better warriors and workers, while the vulnerability of women during childbirth meant it was important to provide a safe and stable environment for them to rear children in. Further, only women can produce milk to feed newborns. This meant that the role was locked in from the start, something a man can never do.

Thus men took on the role of protector and provider, while women took on the role of homemaking and childbearing. While modern society can allow men to just buy infant formula and women to rise to exemplary careers and bring home the bacon, this is a modern development and not one that was possible through the early stages of human evolution and society.

In today’s world and moving into the future, it’s certainly possible for us to destroy the patriarchy and create a different kind of society. Time will tell where this social experiment will lead humanity.

Terrorists Blow-Up PAKISTAN Air Base! 40 Fighter Jets Burning

World Hal Turner

The Taliban-Linked Terrorist Group “Tehreek-e Jihad” (TTP) has just claimed Responsibility for a Significant Attack tonight on Mianwali Air Force Base in Northern Pakistan.

The Terrorist Group appears to have Snuck into the Base using Ladders and are claiming to have Destroyed several Aircraft as well as some kind of Armored Vehicle.

The Pakistani Army is currently conducting an Operation to Secure the Base and have already Killed multiple Terrorists.

Why is China not supportive in making India a permanent member in the UN security council?

I viewed some answers above, I felt many answers didn’t get the main point.

The truth is: nobody of the 5 wants to share their rights.

Everyone of the 5 says they agree to extend the council but actually they don’t. Because it will add the bargain cost.

USA government says they support Japan to get into the council because USA knows Russia and China will veto. USA says like this way to keep Japan in hand to deploy USA army.

China supports Germany to the council because China knows USA and France will veto. Guess for what interest.

USA and Russia says they support India because they know China will veto. For what interest? Weapon sales.

So now do you understand what game they are playing?

How far do alpha, beta, and gamma particles travel in the air?

Alpha particles don’t get far at all. They’re heavy, they’re slow, and they carry a charge, so they interact easily. They can travel an inch or so in air, but are blocked by a sheet of paper.

Beta particles are just elec…okay, um, so, correction. β- particles are just electrons. They’re light and zippy, so how far they get depends on how fast they go. Good rule of thumb, approximately 10ish feet or so for each MeV of energy.

β+ particles are positrons—antimatter electrons. In theory they could get as far as β- particles, in an antimatter world. In our world, they don’t get far at all in air before they hit something and annihilate in a flash of gamma photons.

Gamma rays? Oh, it is on. Hold my beer.

Gamma rays laugh at your puny “air.” Gamma rays laugh at your puny steel. Gamma rays might stop for lead, maybe, if you have enough of it to make things interesting. Six feet of concrete or one and a half feet of lead should do it.

This might as well be tissue paper to gamma rays
Gamma rays sneeze at this
This is not even close to what it takes to stop gamma rays
Starting to get there, if the gamma rays are going through lengthwise
Now we’re talking! (The whole stack, not one plate)

Gamma rays will go merrily through this planet’s entire atmosphere, plus the bodies of the researchers doing the experiment, plus the roof of their house, and then merrily on toward Alpha Centauri.

What happens if the United States stops China from developing advanced computer chips?

300,000 engineers and scientists in China will briefly look up from their work and say in a puzzled tone: “奇怪，那是什么声音？是不是美国放屁的声音？”. Then they return to their R&D projects in advanced chipmaking.

Bitter Pill

Have you ever been mugged and had it end badly for the mugger?

Not a mugging but I did have a break in at my apartment. I was assaulted, had both eye orbits fractured, broke ribs and fingers, and was choked almost to the point of loosing consciousness.

I however did manage to stab my attacker in his face and skull, scalping him from his left ear to the top of his head and causing brain dammage. He lost serious ammounts of blood passed out and was put in a medically induced coma for two days and had multiple blood transfusions before he was even conscious to be charged with aggrivated assault, breaking and entering and attempted murder (I dont actually know what he was officially charged with, just that he was sentenced to two years and ended up serving four)

I had my ass beat, and badly. But I was told by the police that if it wasnt for modern medical treatment my attacker would have died.

Now years later I was very drunk the night before my brothers wedding. Someone did try to mug me but I was apparently so drunk that I didnt know what was happening and I thought they wanted a cigarette and I kept explaining that I dont smoke. Their heart must not have been in it because they gave up and moved on to someone else without stabbing me. Some witness called police and I was supposedly too drunk to give a statement. They got me back to my hotel and I dont remember any of it

And thats my life story so far.

“Men Have No CLUE!” This Is Why Men Aren’t TAKING Western Women SERIOUSLY Anymore

Raw reality. I am so glad that I am no longer young.

U.S. and Europe Talking with Ukraine about PEACE NEGOTIATIONS with Russia!

World Hal Turner

U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official.

The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal, the officials said.

Some of the talks, which officials described as delicate, took place last month during a meeting of representatives from more than 50 nations supporting Ukraine, including NATO members, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the officials said.

The discussions are an acknowledgment of “the dynamics militarily on the ground in Ukraine” and politically in the U.S. and Europe, officials said.

In other words, despite all the media hype that Ukraine is winning, Ukraine is actually losing. Imagine that.

More at NBC News HERE

First it’s the unchecked flooding of Chinese Fentanyl into America. Next, mercenary bounties get placed on British residents. At what point should America issue an arrest warrant for China’s Xi Jinping à la Manuel Noriega?

Rodrigo, educate yourself.

“Unchecked flooding of Chinese fentanyl into America”?

Fentanyl is a LEGAL drug. Fentanyl addiction is a problem only in America. NOT in China or anywhere in the world. It is Americans ordering, procuring and peddling this drug and not the Chinese “flooding” the U.S. It’s OUR problem because WE caused OUR opioid addiction. Why the shit are you blaming China for us not being able to control the trafficing of fentanyl within the U.S.?

“Mercenary bounties placed on British residents”?

“Mercenary bounties” is the farthest from the truth.

Australia, UK, US condemn Hong Kong bounty for exiled activists

Bounties is defined as money paid for killing or capturing a person or animal.

However, Australia, the U.K. and U.S. have branded the rewards for information as “bounties” for 8 exiled pro-democracy HK activists for the 2019 riots in Hong Kong that these countries instigated through the CIA and NGOs. Hong Kong has every right to seek information on persons guilty of seditious acts against China.

This is Hong Kong issuing warrants for their citizens for serious criminal acts. And if they are stupid enough to return to Hong Kong, they will be arrested.

“Arrest warrant for Xi”?

Another stupid question. Who is to issue this? The U.S.? For what charge?

Are you dense enough to believe the U.S. has the authority to arbirtrarily order the arrest of the leader of another country? The U.S. has NO police authority beyond our border just like any other country.

And then what? Do you expect the U.S. or another country to invade the soveriegnty of China by going to China to arrest Xi?

China hate does not justify you to think, write or act stupidly.

This Just Ηappened In South Carolina, But Something Εven Stranger Ιs Ηappening Around The World!

Seems suspicious we never had this many huge disasters in our food manufacturing plants, trains, and other big plants.

https://youtu.be/MQV052LM9VY

U.S. Flying MQ-9 “Reapers” Over Gaza

World Hal Turner

The United States has been flying MQ-9 “Reaper” drones over the southern Gaza Strip of late. (HT REMARK: One wonders if they are giving intel to Israel so they can slaughter more women and children?)

They were first spotted on Saturday on Flightradar24.

Officials say the drones were being used to “aid in hostage recovery efforts” indicating that the U.S. is more involved than previously known.

Are Republicans losing?

Republicans are winning, they just don’t seem to know it nor can they give the rest of us some peace. What do I mean by this?

Traditional Republican values are what America still runs on and much of the rest of the world too. In fact, all of the countries where things work, they run on traditional conservative or Republican values. Like thrift, hard work, saving, putting your kids in school, reasonable but not high levels of tax, a hand up not a hand out. No corporate crony capitalism (this is in theory of course as there always is colllusion) , some type of religious base to your society and usually that is Christian though it could also be Jewish, or Hindu or Buddhist or Muslim.

So why are the Republicans winning and losing?

First the losing. Because they can’t stop themselves, they keep snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It is called extremism and the entire right wing of the Republican party starting with the so called Freedom Caucus which has nothing to do with either, not espousing freedom rather telling everyone especially women what they can and can’t do and it is not even a caucus, just a raucous group of malcontents.

Republicans are winning of course in the electoral college where they own around 30 states which gives them a disproportionate control of just about everything with state, local and federal government. They control red states which means military bases and expenditures (11 out of 15 largest are in red states, yet they cannot pass a budget that is focused on the military or allow the military to make promotions which their extremists block). They control state houses in the same proportion, they gerrymander like crazy and win more and more as the Supreme Court now rules in their favor, slowly whittling away black and brown rights in particular.

They are winning on dismantling and even the legitimacy of the federal govt and their chief avatar, Trump has his man in as Speaker who we found out this week doesn’t even have a bank account. No, he is not a traditional Republican.

What to make of this? Democrats feel they are in the majority, but control less and less and are fragmented. Republicans could control everything but the right wing crazies including Trump keep giving them opportunities which if it were not for Joe Biden, they would have squandered once again.

Republicans? Their values, real conservative values rule the civilized non autocratic world. Unfortunately in America, these values are not the values of the current Republican party.

Therefore you see, in the end they are winning in spite of themselves and with their losing their way and becoming extremist, they are literally taking the country down along with democracy with them.

Prizes…

Bank Notice: “Some Deposits May Be Temporarily Delayed”

World Hal Turner

Several US banks are facing service disruptions today. Meanwhile, users on the ‘free speech’ social media platform X complain that the Automated Clearing House system is down.

Downdetector.com shows Truist, Bank of America, Chase, US Bank, and Wells Fargo are experiencing widespread outages and disruptions that began around 0800 ET.

A message on Bank of America’s webpage reads, “Some deposits may be temporarily delayed … Some deposits from 11/03 may be temporarily delaved due to an issue impacting multiple financial institutions. Your accounts remain secure, and your balance will be updated as soon as the deposit is received. You do not need to take any action.”

Hal Turner Remarks

I see about 5 US banks listed as being offline over on down detector website. (HERE)

Bank of America
Chase
Chime
US Bank
Wells Fargo
Huntington

My bank (Capital One) is **NOT** affected at all.

One wonders if the situation in the Middle East has Hackers going after the US banking system?

Apparently, it’s a particular clearinghouse that B of A, Chase and Huntington use. That went down last night. They just got it up and running and I was told that most will get their deposits within 2 hours. Tonight at latest”

BofA rep just told me that the Fed sent the banks a bulletin that there was an outage overnight but that the servers are back online now and the deposit backlogs should be worked through by end of day today.

My wife contacted her company’s bank this morning. They reported that the issue is with the banks that use what’s called the ‘Federal EPM Processing Clearinghouse,’ and that they had a widespread server outage overnight, but that they are back online and processing the backlog.

What is the weirdest complaint people made about their food in a restaurant?

We were eating at Benihana’s one evening and sat next to a young couple who appeared to be on a date. They looked over the menu and ordered a variety of sushi. I was impressed by how adventuresome they were.

When their meal arrived both of them stared at their plates closely examining every item. They were clearly getting very upset. Finally they called over the waiter and the gal said in a loud voice, “You call yourself a restaurant?! Did you even CHECK this stuff before it left the kitchen! Look at it! Everything is raw!”

No words.

I learned what true love is…

Will China survive if her country suffers an extreme economic embargo from international communities just like one from North Korea?

China has had the north Korea experience. It was embargoed (I.e. Total sanction) together with their war comrades for three decades, until the 70s.

China survived that, back in a time when they couldn’t even make fertilizers.

The soviets helped but only the first decade. China remained desperately poor into the 90s.

Today, a china embargo will not be cost free like in the past. Does the world even notice Cuba has been embargoed for almost 6 decades?

Not so China.

For one, Apple as a viable company becomes historical, because it will not have hardware to sell. Every single company in the semiconductor supply chain will be disrupted, because China is a key node, either as supplier, assembler or customer.

Moving on, the different festivals driving seasonal demand will have to be repriced, because it is hard to find a supply chain big and efficient enough to absorb demand spikes.

Study the pandemic. Why didn’t a black market develop for ppe, ventilators and other medical equipment despite exponential growth in demand? Prices increased but they stabilized and the quantity and quality of goods has been remarkable given months of spiraling demand.

It is the same story with work from home essentials, from bird feeders to children toys to video conferencing equipment.

Things are so out of whack containers are being shipped empty back to China while the cost of sending an FEU from Asia to Europe has crossed the 10k mark.

Embargo China if you must, but it will hurt big time, especially for the comfortable first world.

China has made itself relevant to the world. There will be no repeat of “let’s bomb Iraq back to the stone age using flour in the test tube as justification”.

If China is embargoed, you won’t only see it in the news.

You will feel it, deep into your pockets, and you will live the consequences.

REPORT: VIP Jets Now Airborne from DC to Cheyenne Mountain Bunkers – “Gov’t Going Underground”

World Hal Turner

I’m not sure what to make of this, but it was posted in a US Veteran’s Forum. The guy in the brief video seems VERY nervous as he reports EIGHT “VIP” Aircraft heading to Cheyenne Mountain (NORAD??) and says “They’re putting government into Bunkers.”

His voice is clearly trembling as he describes what he sees going on. Looks legit to me, at first glance.

I pass this along with the full Disclaimer that I have not (yet) verified these claims. But if he’s right, then time is of the essence and all of YOU should know.

FLASH U.S. House Approves Resolution on Iran: “All means necessary” to prevent Nuclear Armed Iran

Nation Hal Turner

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a Resolution late last night “. . . to use all means necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon; . . .” Now we know why our military is massed in Middle East.

It now seems clear to me that all the US military hardware sent to the easstern Mediterranean, has nothing at all to do with Israel, per se, and has everything to do with Iran.

That military hardware isn’t there “to protect Israel” as much as it is there to disarm Iran.

The Iranians have likely suspected this, now, they know.

Iran had better take a long, hard look at what is arrayed against them because once all that firepower starts shooting, the entire landmass of Iran will be like a hail storm of explosions.

What happened to Iraq in 1991, I think will look like nothing compared to what they plan on unleashing against Iran. But . . . . there’s a little problem. Russia.

Two weeks ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin casually reminded the world that his MiG-31 fighter jets, flying freely in international air space all the way up in the Black Sea, are equipped with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. He also causally reminded the world that those missiles have a “known” range of at least 1,000km. Without actually SAYING this, it quickly became clear to everyone paying attention that America’s two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea, are within range of those Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.

Moreover, it also became quickly evident that those missiles can carry either a conventional warhead, or tactical nuclear warheads of at least 5 kilotons.

The US cannot defend itself from hypersonic missiles. No one can.

So if the US goes after Iran, using carrier-based planes, Russia can order two of its MiG fighters to fire Kinzhal missiles armed with small, tactical, nuclear warheads, and utterly destroy both aircraft carrier battle groups.

Can you say “World War 3?”

A direct Link to the official US Government Website showing the text of the US House Resolution on Iran is HERE

Hal Turner Editorial Opinion

Interestingly, this now seems to be a method for declaring war without actually “declaring” it.

While the words “Congress shall make no law . . . .” does **not** mean what it actually says in the Constitution’s First Amendment, and while “. . . shall not be infringed.” does **not** mean what IT actually says in the Constitution’s Second Amendment, you can bet your ass that “. . .any means necessary . . .” means exactly what it says in this resolution!

So . . . . it now appears that the massive naval and military build-up we’ve been watching in the Middle East over the past two weeks was all part of a well-planned series of moves KNOWING FULL WELL they intended to take us to war with Iran. They just waited until ONE day before likely hostilities break out, to put through this new “policy.”

This is the level of sleazy, political, human, garbage we have in the Congress of the United States.

Oh, and by the way, have you noticed that this web site is the **ONLY** media outlet in the entire country pointing this out? That shows you you the level of sleazy, human garbage, infesting the mass-media these days. Keep it all quiet — on purpose. Keep the American people in the dark — on purpose.

Then, when actual war breaks out, the American people are blind-sided, afraid, and called to rally behind the troops. All one big plan.

As our military starts coming home in body bags, the very same politicians who literally caused the war, will cry crocodile tears for the men whose lives their vote snuffed out.

It’s disgusting to me on a level that’s hard to verbally describe.

Straight to the point

The Ukraine Peace Talk Trial Balloon

A trial ballon has gone up on the NBCnews website. It is testing the public reaction to the upcoming U.S. and NATO acknowledgment of their defeat in Ukraine:

U.S., European officials broach topic of peace negotiations with Ukraine, sources say – NBCnews – Nov 03 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions.

This comes the same week that saw a Time piece about Zelenski’s unwillingness to consider the real situation on Ukraine and to admit defeat. The same week the Economist interviewed General Zaluzny who optimistically spoke of a stalemate at the front even while his army is on the cusp of disintegration.

Taken together the three pieces might well be part of a U.S. administration campaign to concede its defeat in Ukraine while blaming its Ukrainian proxy forces for the results of its blunder.

Back to the NBC piece:

The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal, the officials said. Some of the talks, which officials described as delicate, took place last month during a meeting of representatives from more than 50 nations supporting Ukraine, including NATO members, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the officials said.

The discussions are an acknowledgment of the dynamics militarily on the ground in Ukraine and politically in the U.S. and Europe, officials said.

They began amid concerns among U.S. and European officials that the war has reached a stalemate and about the ability to continue providing aid to Ukraine, officials said. Biden administration officials also are worried that Ukraine is running out of forces, while Russia has a seemingly endless supply, officials said. Ukraine is also struggling with recruiting and has recently seen public protests about some of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s open-ended conscription requirements.

The problem of the Ukrainian army is an obvious one. It is running out of men and has few it can still recruit. It is difficult to assess the real losses the Ukrainian military has had, but I would not be astonished to learn that they sum up to about 300,000 dead and some 500,000+ wounded, many of whom will now be disabled.

Finally these concerns about Ukraine’s manpower get acknowledged:

President Joe Biden has been intensely focused on Ukraine’s depleting military forces, according to two people familiar with the matter.

“Manpower is at the top of the administration’s concerns right now,” one said. The U.S. and its allies can provide Ukraine with weaponry, this person said, “but if they don’t have competent forces to use them it doesn’t do a lot of good”

The last sentence seems to be taken from the Time piece which had said:

In some branches of the military, the shortage of personnel has become even more dire than the deficit in arms and ammunition. One of Zelensky’s close aides tells me that even if the U.S. and its allies come through with all the weapons they have pledged, “we don’t have the men to use them.”

Ukraine itself is destroying its own brigades faster than it can generate new ones:

During the last days tanks from the 47th brigade (Leo 2) and 10th mountain brigade (T-64BM/BV) have been seen, and were destroyed, near Avdiivka. Both brigades had only recently been mauled during their hopeless attacks at the southern front. It does not make sense to throw what is left of them into another battle without reconstituting them. The whole experience and knowledge these brigades had gained will be lost with them.

The whole professional middle-block of the army, the sergeants and young officers, have mostly been killed or wounded. Without them it is impossible to constitute new forces.

The NBC piece has made news in Ukraine (in Russian) but I have yet to find Ukrainian reactions to it. While I was publishing this a first political reaction, total denial, appeared:

Zelenskyy: There is no stalemate, and there will be no talks or concessions – UA Pravda – Nov 4 2023

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not think the situation on the front in Ukraine is a stalemate and has said that Ukraine will not negotiate with Russia.
…
Quote from Zelenskyy: “This is not a stalemate. Russia controls the sky. We are protecting our troops. No one [in Ukraine] wants to just throw our people [into the battle] like Russia does […]

How can we overcome it? With the F-16s, we have to wait for our guys to get trained and for them to come back. When there’s air defence on the front, our soldiers advance, and they deploy the equipment they have.”

What will he say when the F-16s, the fifty year old wunderwaffen, fall out of the sky faster than they go up?

There are sure signs that the divide between the political and military leadership in Ukraine is growing. President Zelenski, on request of his new defense minister, just removed the commander of Ukraine’s special forces and installed a new one:

Major General Viktor Khorenko does not know the reasons for his dismissal from the post of Commander of the Special Operations Forces. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, did not submit a request for his dismissal.

It is very unusual to fire an officer without a request from his superior commander.

There are also shots fired against Zaluzny himself:

President’s Office advises Commander-in-Chief of Ukrainian Armed Forces not to publicise situation at front – UA Pravda – Nov 4 2023

Ihor Zhovkva, Deputy Head of the Office of the President, commenting on the article by Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, for The Economist, has said that the military should not bring to the public what is happening at the front.
…
Zhovkva also stated that “one of the heads of the leaders’ offices” called him after the mentioned article was published.

“And they simply ask me in a panic, ‘What should I report to my leader? Are we really at a stalemate?’. Are we trying to achieve this effect with this article?”, the President’s Office representative said.

The NBC piece even sets a time frame to Ukraine to admit that it is over:

Officials also have privately said Ukraine likely only has until the end of the year or shortly thereafter before more urgent discussions about peace negotiations should begin. U.S. officials have shared their views on such a timeline with European allies, officials said.

Russia will likely agree to peace talks. But it probably will demand more than Ukraine is willing to give. At a minimum that is the full control over the five oblast it has annexed, including Crimea, and no NATO relations with Ukraine. The current Ukrainian parliament will probably reject those requests which will then lead to further Russian demands.

Kiev has yet to acknowledge reality. The Ukrainian state has been bleeding out – financially as well as physically. Its masters have found that their aim at the start of the war – to weaken Russia – has led to the opposite. Russia now has a bigger and better armed military with more real war experience than any of its possible opponents.

Russia has won.

Posted by b on November 4, 2023 at 13:23 UTC | Permalink

Who is the smartest person on earth currently? How?

Danny-Bob Vanderwal is the smartest man alive. Danny-Bob was so smart back in school that the teacher couldn’t find anything in her text books that Danny-Bob didn’t already know. When he graduated from high school, he got offers to go study just about anywhere he wanted. But instead, he went to work at the family vineyard. Danny-Bob said he owed it to his great grandpa that brought these grapevines from Germany to the Ozarks over a century ago.

Back in 2013, the county had the worst drought anyone could remember. Grape vines died and family vineyards went out of business everywhere. But Danny-Bob had a plan. He’d studied old geology maps of Vanderwal mountain made back in the 1930’s. He found a fissure in the bedrock down about a hundred feet below the vineyard. Danny-Bob had walked the mountain since he was a little kid, and he had always wondered where the watershed drained to. He came to the conclusion that the stormwater on the surface was draining down to that fissure. And it was probably staying there.

The summer of 2013 was really hot. It was well over 100 degrees in the shade. Danny-Bob had bought an old 1950’s cable-tool well drilling machine and the whole family was out trying to punch a hole through the black granite bedrock beneath the vineyard. Danny-Bob had the old Hercules diesel power unit firing on 5 of the 6 cylinders, but she was turning the drill head. The whole family worked non-stop for 8 days and nights. And finally, on September 7, 2013, Danny-Bob hit water. They all hugged each other and danced in the cool wet mud that flowed up the borehole.

The Vanderwal vineyard was the only one to survive the drought of 2013. Danny-Bob’s great grandpa’s grape vines are still producing today. And everyone in the county knows without doubt, Danny-Bob Vanderwal is the smartest man alive.

What are some things nobody tells you about life?

This answer is purely based on my opinion:

No matter how strong the bond seems but it can be broken.
The people you think will not leave you forever can leave you in 0.1 sec
You can survive without things you think you can’t survive without.
At one point of time in life you will get hated by everyone or anyone
If you’re student you will be respected everywhere according to your marks
If you’ve finished studying you’ll be respected according to your job standards
Your looks matter alot
You’ll have to go through many phase alone
There aren’t 100% guarantee of your loved ones being with you
You will hear the most painful words from your close ones
Everybody likes to be with you untill you treat them well or else they’ll stop liking you
You’ll come through a phase when you’ll find it hard to smile.

What is the most offensive thing someone has ever asked you?

I lived in a small country town and my front garden was on the road children took to the little school, and as I was usually out there with my dog, many of them would stop and talk to me, and pet the dog, but being careful considering the paranoia about pedophiles, I never made any ‘advances’ that could be considered inappropriate

I had to collect my mail from the little post office, no deliveries were made, and standing in line one day, a miserable older woman in front of me turned and demanded to know ’Are you a Pervert?’

As you can imagine EVERY head snapped round, and all I could think to say was,

‘ I don’t really know..do you want to visit later and find out?’

Her face was a study..the post office erupted in laughter, and she stormed out in embarrassment, and being a small place, the story went around like wild fire…and several locals congratulated me later for ‘Talking the old biddy down a peg or two!

What was the shortest interview you’ve had that led to a job offer?

How about an interview that I did not even know was an interview? Time spent on interview: −2

weeks. Let me explain:

I went to a state university, and was not the ideal student. My undergraduate GPA was pathetic. I could make excuses, but the reality was that my parents made enough money that I could not qualify for any government student support, and they expected me to provide money to them. All of my high-school friends were far more cool than me, and they had jobs, and money. I could have worked a bit harder, maybe. But I worked my way through college, and usually took on too many obligations. My GPA was very bad, but one professor, Dr. Vimes, hired me on a grant to do some work creating custom maps for convention attendees, to get them to the booths that they were interested in. I got to travel to conventions and install the map systems.

When I finished my BS degree, I wanted to go on for a Master’s degree. The department chair, Dr. William M. Marcy, initially rejected my application. However, some of the faculty, and the department administrative assistant, convinced him to give me a chance. Dr. Vimes weighed in on that, and probably made a greater difference in my life than he ever realized.

As a Master’s student, I was paid a meager stipend to teach courses and conduct some research. I had the opportunity to travel and present my research at conferences. Meanwhile, Dr. Marcy had a start-up company that employed some graduate students. They had a fundamental problem that they could not solve. They had worked on the problem for over a month, and one of the graduate students told Dr. Marcy to hire me. He caught me in the hallway and outlined the problem, and asked me if I could solve it. I said “probably.” I showed up at the job site at 9:00 AM. By noon their problem was solved. It took me another 30 minutes to write some code to automate it. Dr. Marcy asked me for a bill, and I said, “Don’t worry about it. I had fun solving the problem. Buy me a good dinner someday.”

Under the tutelage of Dr. William Jennings Briant (Brian) Oldham, I finished the MS degree, with a much better GPA, and went to work in industry. In my two years, there, I earned an award for “Best internal supplier” and filed a patent application. When I told them that I wanted to go back to school and earn a PhD, they were willing to support me. They paid for four years of what turned out to be a six year degree. The patent was awarded, and they licensed the technology to other entities. The patent made them well over $10 million, so I think think that them paying me for four years of graduate school was a win-win. During my time as a PhD student, I traveled the world and presented papers to scientific conferences in several countries.

Now I’m going to answer the question.

As I approached my graduation with the PhD, I wanted an academic position. I wanted to be a professor, even though the pay is less. But there were about 50 academic positions nationwide, and over 600 applicants. There is a fairly standard part of interviewing for an academic position. The applicant must give a “research” lecture, and a “teaching” lecture. I needed to practice my lectures. So in October, I sent an email message to my MS Thesis advisor, Dr. William Jennings Brian Oldham, asking if I could do my lectures for their seminar. at my former university.

About a week later, he responded by asking what dates would work for me. The signature on the email message indicated that he was now the department chair. I congratulated him on his promotion, and gave the dates that I could be there.

Fast-forward. I drove down in early December to spend a few weeks with my family and incidentally give my lectures and get some feedback on them from my former professors. Dr. Oldham asked me to show up early, so that they could give me a tour of the campus and see how it had changed in the decade after I was a student.

I showed up at the appointed time, and a student took me all over campus, which was surprisingly interesting. Being near Christmas, someone was playing the carillon. One of the best carillons in North America. She even took me to the office of the president of the university, where I met with Dr. William M. Marcy. Yes, he had worked his way up from professor, to department chair, to university president. We only met for a few minutes, but he did mention that I had been a really shitty undergraduate, and that he was very happy that other people had pushed him to change his decision on admitting me to the MS program.

Shortly after that, I gave my teaching and research talks, and got some feedback from my former professors. The president of the university was present for both of my talks. He reminded me that he still owed me a dinner, and asked me if I was available that night. That night, we went to the best restaurant in that city.

A week later, I received an email message from my former advisor, Dr. Oldham, asking me to log into a web site and fill out the application. It turns out that they had put me through the standard job interview, and all I had to do was actually apply. I did that, and a week later, Dr. Marcy called me and asked, “What will it take to get you to come here?” I answered, “I want to be the highest-paid associate professor on your campus.” And that is how I ended up spending 14 years at a great university in a place where I really did not want to be.

And the shortest interview of my life. I did not even apply for the job until after the interview, so really, the time between application and landing the job is negative.

Blue Bayou Chicken Florentine

Yield:4 servings; 2 cups sauce

Ingredients

Chicken

4 (7 ounce) chicken breasts (with skin)
1 cup Florentine sauce (see below)
3 ounces chopped fresh or frozen spinach*
3 ounces grated Cheddar cheese
2 ounces cooked and chopped bacon
Seasoned salt to taste
2 tablespoons melted butter

Florentine Sauce

2 teaspoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons unsalted butter (room temp)
1 1/2 cups finely chopped onions
3 sliced medium mushrooms
2/3 cup white wine
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon diced pimentos
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Chicken

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
In mixing, combine spinach, bacon and cheese; set aside.
Open chicken breast and sprinkle with seasoned salt. Stuff with spinach mixture. Fold and place seam side down in baking dish. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle outside with seasoned salt.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
Top with Florentine sauce and serve over rice.

Florentine Sauce

Blend together flour and 2 teaspoons of the butter; set aside.
Sauté onions and mushrooms in 1 teaspoon butter (do not allow onions to brown).
Add white wine and reduce completely.
Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer and slowly add the flour/butter mixture a little at a time until desired thickness is achieved. Continue cooking at a simmer for 8 to 10 minutes.

Notes

* If fresh spinach is used, it must be blanched.

What was the shortest interview you’ve had that led to a job offer?

That was the last job I had in Vietnam before moving to the U.S.

I showed up. My (later would be) boss looked at me. Pointed me to the chair to sit down in front of his desk, then he said:

– I read your resume and recommendation. Do you have any questions?

I didn’t expect the interview went straight to that point, so I asked:

– What do you expect your new hire to be in one year?

I think I surprised him with that question as well. He thought for a few seconds, then listed out his bullet points of his expectations. After listening, I told him, firmly:

– I will be that person in 6 months.

He stood up, held his hand out. I shook his hand, he smiled:

– DEAL!

I got the job. Worked for him 5 years. He’s the best boss that I’ve had the chance to work with and learn a lot from.

What did your boss ever say in the office that caused you to resign?

Years ago I worked as an overnight stocker for Walmart when a night manager position came open.

I was the team lead in the grocery department and had, previously, been an assistant manager for a local grocery store so after almost 5 years with Walmart and 12 years in the grocery business, I felt that I was qualified for the job.

I went through several interviews and at the end it came down to me and a suckup who worked days.

The suckup ate lunch with management staff on a regular basis so I had a feeling that I was going to get screwed.

I didn’t receive a call on the day that they said they’d announce their decision but when I arrived at the store an assistant manager asked me to come back to the HR office. I knew I’d gotten screwed when he directed me to a chair in front of the desk while he leaned against the desk so I sat back to listen to what he had to say.

He said that choosing between me and the dayshift suckup was an incredibly difficult decision but they’d decided to promote the suckup.

He said that I was doing an outstanding job as team lead in grocery and it would not be in management’s best interest to remove me from that position.

He said that I was doing such a good job that they were bumping my pay up by 50 cents an hour, effective immediately.

He asked if I had any questions and I had just one:

“So, I didn’t get the promotion because I’m doing too good of a job?”

He immediately began backtracking and saying that I misunderstood him but I knew what I’d heard. I handed him my name badge and apron before leaving the store. I have not set foot in a Walmart since.

Can Taiwan and Quad win a war against China?

Not a chance

China can go into War Economy in a matter of weeks

None of the others can

You would be taking them on in their backyard where their supply and production and replacement will be twenty times faster than Quads with only South Korea being capable of production based supply

India

India , if they send one ship will face a Chinese pincer movement across the Eastern and Northern fronts and that’s a war that India with barely $ 20 Billion debt free dollars can’t afford

Russia and Venezuela and Middle East will refuse to supply Oil to India on the spot and Canada is not a friend now.

So India will simply sit this one out

Japan

Japan is a decent Navy but an offensive war?

They would simply be unable to get weapons and equipment beyond the sixth week

They would be begging the US for equipment pretty soon especially Shells

Japan has 140,000 active shells & around 600 Active Missiles

China has 1.7 Million shells and around 12,000 Active Missiles for offensive and defensive

South Korea

South Korea will sit this one out

Uncle Kim would be looking with Glee

No way will SK risk a conflict with China and open up a new salvo with NK

So it would ultimately be US vs China

Quad, the rest of it would simply opt out or play a small role in the deep background

US isn’t the great superpower anymore

They can’t defeat China on their turf

They don’t have the manpower if China decide to go reserve and get a whopping 5 Million men in 6 months

No American will agree to get conscripted to fight China miles away today

This ain’t 1965

So No

NATO, QUAD have no chance against China in the South China Sea

China doesn’t want a conflict because China is primarily a Trader than a Warrior

What items make you silently judge the people who buy them?

I don’t generally care what people buy but there is an exception.

I’ll occasionally see someone who is morbidly obese at the grocery store, who had a kid or two under 8 who are very, very overweight already and on track to be 2–3x their healthy weight.

Without fail, their grocery cart almost entirely filled with junk food.

I’m all for people living their own lives and whatnot. I also get that food and being judged is a sensitive issue for overweight people.

But I hate seeing kids being indoctrinated into a pattern of trashing their body.

It’s a really difficult thing to undo later in life if you’ve been conditioned to go straight for candy or chips everytime you are hungry. It borders are being a form of child abuse.

Admittedly, this is a touchy issue for me because I lost a family member solely to the fact that they’d chosen to trash their body. I probably have some pent up agitation because of that.

Outside of that, I don’t generally judge people’s purchases. When I worked retail many years ago, the only thing I judged people over was their attitude.

As long as they were nice and respectful, we were cool.

Some people look down on you for working such a low octaine position. So I try to pay it forward and be polite with everyone.

Is British airways really that bad, why do some allege it’s standadrs have dropped?

British Airways has been in decline for a LOOONG time.

What was it?

Multiple things : They were pretty much a monopoly in the past meaning they had the American problem. DELTA, AA have absolute monopolies on some routes… so it’s like it or lump it. This attitude continued well into de-regulation of airlines.

Later on, they got bought out and as usual corporates sweat the company for more profits. They did this by cutting back on cleaning and employee pay.

Employee pay was a funny one. In that they had unionised staff yet again a legacy of the monopoly age. They could give you crappy attitudes and be protected from losing their jobs. They also had new less well paid staff on different contracts. In essence nobody cared. The seniors were entrenched and were difficult to fire so they didnt care. The new staff were underpaid and on a vastly lower rate and less perks than the regular full time staff so they too didn’t care.

What is the craziest thing you’ve found in an old coat pocket?

I bought a coat on Marketplace. When I got home, I washed it, and I checked the pockets again before doing so, to make sure there was nothing more – like a tissue – that might make the wash gross. The pockets were really deep and came to a point, and I felt something in one of them and had to fish deep to get it. When I pulled it out, it appeared to be a diamond ring, with three sizable diamonds, white gold. I took a picture and messaged the seller I’d found it. She was surprised – said it had been an anniversary gift and wondered if her little girl had been playing with it and put it there. I didn’t want to make the drive again – it was 20 mins each way. So I offered to ship it, which she accepted. I hoped she would offer to pay shipping, since this was not my fault. She’d didn’t. I shipped it anyway.

Have you ever seen a mass exodus after a respected employee quit or got fired?

I worked several decades at a company that Forrest Gump invested in, he called it “some fruit company in California”. I just turned 60, and got a bit tired of expectation of 14 hour days, so I asked to use my skill set in a reduced capacity. I have a life to live, family, other interests. So I asked for a demotion. “We don’t do demotions”. I said that we would have to do something, as I am not keeping up this pace until I drop. So we agreed to part ways (laid off). This did not go over well with other engineers who respected my work, some of whom I have mentored. Basically, anytime you touch a keyboard on a Mac, and enter something in any language of the world, what you see on the screen is my junk (and the junk of a bunch of other really bright people with whom it was my privilege to work). Well, it seems that the other engineers realized that there is no loyalty, and it was just a matter of time before they would be treated similarly. Next thing I know, the other engineers have moved elsewhere inside the company, or have left. Then it seems the entire project got put in “maintenance” mode, as nobody wants to mess with my work, I believe (it is elegant, but a bit hairy… well, I think I invented something, but whatever). Conclusion: This fruit company is ok at recycling hardware, but does not want to hear about recycling its people. The CEO is reported to have said that this is a company for young people, although he isn’t. My years of experience and skill set are no longer valued, there is no loyalty (as I go through ups and downs of life), so I’m happily pursuing my other interests… and I don’t look 60 anymore !

West Confused As China Rolls Out Red Carpet For Russian President Putin On His Visit!

https://youtu.be/FWDONQ4BAtM

Sidewalk Kiss

I am out of the hospital, and I am feeling much better. I can’t wait to get back to business with the start of the new year. The world seemed to be passing me by. Just excited and ready, but my engine is purring. All is good.

…

STORY 1

When I was 16 years old, I went horseback riding with a girl-friend (not a girlfriend) and we were riding in the woods. Well, there were some low hanging vines, and sure as shit, one caught my neck and rubbed it raw. I mean, it was brutal. All my skin was removed.

To everyone at work… it looked like a big “hicky”; a huge sucker bite.

That wasn’t the case, of course, but the razzlin’ and all was really excessive, don’t you know. It took me months to get out from the hasslin’, but you know it was the early 1970’s and that kind of stuff was common in the work-place.

I was still “sweet 16” and never been kissed. That ended shortly afterwards when two of my “girl-friends” fought to become my girlfriend. Which resulted in a sidewalk kiss, that I will never forget.

STORY 2

We were leaving a “sweet 16” birthday party of a classmate. She, a girl named Robin, invited me to it, and I as clueless as ever didn’t know what to do. When we left, and we were on the sidewalk… walking home she stopped turned to me and and “Kiss me”. And so we did.

That was my first kiss.

Robin went off to college, got married, and last I heard was doing well. I’m happy for her.

People, as cherished as those memories are, there is no way that I want to relive similar events in another life. I am tired, and have no desire for another reincarnation. I’ll tell you what.

…

Today…

What has been achieved from the Chinese leader’s visit to San Francisco?

Politically, nothing much.

The star of the whole show, in my opinion, is the turnout of Big Business.

No, not what President Xi said, but the audience composition. Namedrop a household corporate name and the CEO was probably in attendence, Tim Cook and Elon Musk included.

The movers and shakers of Wall Street paid handsomely for the privilege of WELCOMING President Xi. In fact, the visiting Head of State may have gathered THE star-studded corporate audience in recent years, bigger than any Democrat or Republican convention. Even King Charles and the Pope will struggle to demonstrate the star appeal lighting up San Francisco this November WEEKEND.

It was a dinner worth trillions upon trillions in market cap. One need only imagine the private jets lining up to pay hangar premiums for parking rights.

America NEEDS China, economically.

That is why Janet, the top-ranking finance official in America, welcomed President Xi on the tarmac personally.

Note that both Janet and Gavin visited Beijing PERSONALLY to arrange the visit.

Both the tarmac welcome and dinner highlighted the conspicuous absence of the State Department. No more James Cook Hotel browbeating and public attempts at humiliating the Chinese contingent.

What’s the key here?

American corporations are suffering in the downturn and the captains of industry want guarantees from Joe that the situation with China will not deteriorate further. The chips they have on the table? 20–30 billion in election funding for 2024.

We can expect a freeze on escalation of the new cold war, but not a ceasefire. The militaries will resume direct communications, which is nothing more than “we’re continuing with the harassment, but we’ll inform you first, with your acknowledgement”. However, we can expect cabinet officials to either be gagged top-down or bottom-up, or instructed to be cordial and tone down on provocation. In other words, Gina et al. morphing back to friendly beaver mode rather than “feet to the fire” wolf warrior incarnation.

That’s the tone for 2024. I don’t believe Joe will repeat the “genocide determination” stunt next year, having committed to extravagant molly-coddling in San Francisco, amidst the sea of bipartisan support for playing the China card the corporate-sanctioned way.

Lobbying works, both ways.

This is why President Xi appeared relaxed throughout, almost as if he was on holiday, totally unlike the tense atmosphere in Anchorage, Alaska, back in 2021. People have short memories.

President Xi was being feted and courted, and he was only here after two years of intense US diplomatic efforts to re-establish ties torn down by the State Department, no less.

Crazy world, isn’t it?

Note: The welcome dinner also reassured the Chinese, and gave them the confidence to negotiate deals with the Fed. Corporate America’s turnout is the real deal, in a fiery red vs. blue battle to the death.

We start with a woke something…

Not sure if it’s a woman, or a man, or what…

What is the biggest life lesson you have ever learned?

I’ll probably never be as successful as my dad and I’m perfectly OK with that.

If anything I’m proud of him. At one point he was overseeing a $50 billion annual budget as Undersecretary of Defense. The dude earned his Wikipedia page.

My father is also an excellent case study. He is certainly very smart. But it wasn’t like he was always the smartest guy in the room. In fact, he was keenly aware when he wasn’t. Yet many of my dad’s peers, who were smarter on paper, fell way short of his success.

Why? It’s mainly because of his people skills and his diligence. He is an excellent listener. He knows how to dial in and pick up on what is important. He is also conscientious and very ethical. He treats people equally regardless of their position.

I’d say if anything, my dad’s superpower is the ability to size people up quickly and judge their character.

He has a special distaste for self-serving people, which is probably because of his career with SEAL teams, where teamwork is a religion.

This is where many highly intelligent people fail. They lack the soft skills, the ability to relate with many types of people.

Cliche as it sounds, many gifted people also have an underlying arrogance they mask. Business textbooks are filled with case studies of executives’ careers being destroyed by pride. My girlfriend is a college professor and complains constantly about the incessant egos at academic conferences.

And to be fair, I can’t totally blame them. When a person is told from birth that they are brilliant, and their test scores affirm that praise, and they live in a world that prizes intelligence — it is probably hard to stay 100% humble.

No matter how talented you are, remember you are dealing with human beings in your career. Success isn’t a MENSA test. Soft skills matter—bigtime.

Be nice to the secretary.

China is building a large harbor in Peru south America as part of its Belt and Road Project, why can’t the United States develop its own Belt and Road project between South America, Central America, Mexico, United States and Canada?

The U.S. should but it won’t and it can’t. The U.S. thinks like a racist, xenophobic superior white Caucasian nation that their neighbours should be kept as savage, poor, undeveloped nations that it can invade anytime it feels like doing. So they won’t help these nations. It is beyond them. People like Donald Trump can term them robbers and rapist so that he feels very good as the Aryan Superior. So the U.S. abused them instead of helping them.

Of course now that the Chinese decide to help them the U.S. will term it “Debt Trap” China will help to make these former Spanish and Portuguese stolen nations rich and successful.

Anyway they can’t help them. The spent all its money and resources in forever wars, war mongering, war financing, war orchestrating, chaos and coup tormenting. And barely have enough to help US homeless and poor. The U.S. own infrastructure were also 20 century relics and dilapidated beyond repair in the U.S. so they cannot help. Even if the wanted to they will set a thousand conditions including signing over their sovereignty to Uncle Sam.

She Can’t Answer This Simple Question About Marriage

Are there cats out there who do have a problem with you sleeping, for no other reason than you sleeping? One of my cats wakes me up from my naps at 12:30pm tops, just for her to want nothing in particular. Is that normal?

My cat goes on a rampage when he wants to wake me up, knocking every conceivable item off of every flat surface until I finally give up on sleep.

He did it to me the other night. I’d fallen asleep on the couch and woke up to the familiar sound of the TV remote control hitting the floor, then the Roku remote.

I could just make out the little guy’s form on the coffee table through blurry eyes without my glasses. My smartphone was the next thing to hit the hardwood (I have a military grade case precisely for this reason), then he violently smacked a bottle of pills so hard they ricocheted off an end table and went spinning across the room.

Next he hopped onto the end table, upending a bag of restaurant tortillas and swiping my keys off. A water bottle went flying. I heard my vapor pen skidding in the opposite direction.

The little f—er is relentless.

(“Does it look like I’m judging you, human? Because I am.”)

If that doesn’t work — and sometimes it doesn’t, because I know giving in just emboldens him — and he runs out of things to smack and wreck, he’ll pad over to his litter box and start punching the cover flap with his paw because he knows it squeaks and it pisses me off.

He’s a super vocal cat too, so all this is accompanied by high-pitched trills like “RRRRRRRUUUUPPPP!” and “BRRRRRUUUU!”

And you know what the most ridiculous part is?

He’s not asking for food because he always gets a bowl of dry food before bed. He wants to hang out and snuggle and be buddies. I can’t be mad at him.

So yes, it’s pretty common for cats to wake their people up for no other reason than they want us awake, acknowledging them, or giving them scritches and affection.

It’s not always tied to more concrete requests like food, although sometimes it is.

You’ll also notice that cats have no regard for your sleep, but they’ll give you the feline death stare if you rudely interrupt their naps. Such is the pecking order in feline-ruled households.

It is possible to train them out of waking you, especially if they’re young. If your cat is a kitten then she’ll adjust to your schedule. If she’s an adult, well, good luck with that. You can break the habit, but you’re going to make sure you never give in or you’re just hitting the reset button by proving to her that if she makes enough noise, you’re going to get up eventually.

In that case, grab a package of earplugs off Amazon for a few bucks. Your brain will thank you for wearing them.

(“I am a sweet little kitty cat and none of these vile lies are true.”)

Its all about control

Did you ever see karma hit someone who deserved it so befittingly that it was eerie?

We were at an airport in Mexico, going through customs and immigration. Once your bag is xrayed you pick it up, and walk to this green button and push it. If the light above flashes green, which it almost always does, you proceed on. If the light flashes red, and the buzzer, buzzes, you get pulled into a side room and they go through your luggage thoroughly.

There was a huge line up. We had waited an hour to get to the X-ray machine. We were up next. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone from a culture that doesn’t believe in queuing, walking alongside the line, right up to the front, I actually stepped in front of him, so he couldn’t get past me, and his wife took the luggage and threw it on the X-ray conveyor belt. At this point I admitted defeat, and let them go.

They get through the x-ray, and push the button, in my place. It flashed red, and they were led off to a little side room, It would have been me, if they hadn’t barged into the line.

I waved to them as they were being led into the little room.

Wonderbread women

Who is the lowest status person for whom you have the highest respect?

He is the manager of my neighborhood gym, a very rinky-dink gym.

He makes ~$35K per year. It isn’t terrible money. You can certainly live on that, but it isn’t great money in the US. His salary isn’t specifically why I have so much respect for him. It’s the context:

He was a big-time lawyer here in Tampa. He had a fancy degree and a job making huge money. He did it for 15 years. He had the respect of his peers, the fear of his opposition.

He was fully capable of continuing his relentless march as a litigator.

But he realized, “Nah – this isn’t the right life.”

He walked away – chose a low-stress job, managing this local gym.

When the end of the day rolls around, he goes home and work doesn’t chase him. He is free to indulge the rest of his life.

I see him 3-4 times a week while I sign into my gym. He is always in good spirits. Relaxed. Not troubled by some unseen threat that looms on his calendar.

We grow up. The people around us tell us they just want us to “be happy,” but at the same time, they are pushing this maximization mindset: maximize grades, maximize salary, maximize reputation, go, go, go.

You see plenty of people that maximize. You see plenty of people who don’t.

But how often do you see people who maximize and then walk away? Who goes from introducing himself as “Senior Counsel at XYZ” to answering calls, “Hello, ABC Fitness! How can I help you?”

It’s surprisingly rare. It’s hard to kiss the ring of ambition for so long and then drop it.

He’s a bit of a novelty in my life. On my bad days, I envision what it would be like to be him — that one guy who stepped through the paradox of happiness and ambition.

And although I suspect I don’t have the guts to do what he did, walk away, I have a surprising amount of respect for a guy who is capable of so much, yet aspires to so little.

He did it his way. And he’s happy. Does anything else really matter?

How you know…

What was the dish that made you reverse your opinion on a food you had until then disliked?

A girl I quite fancied took me to meet her parents for dinner – which turned out to be lasagne. The only prior experience I’d had with lasagne had been at school, many years before – about a millimeter thick, cooked in trays half a mile wide, with about 50p’s worth of ingredients and left to dry out under a heat lamp for a year. 🙁

But I had to be polite.

“I’m not very hungry,” I said. “just give me a little.”

Turns out that lasagne cooked by an Italian mother was rather different to the filth churned out at St. Mary’s. So I asked for seconds

“I thought you said you weren’t hungry?”

“That’s alright, I thought I didn’t like lasagne”

That’s lovely

Is it true that, in some American schools, students do essays on why the USA is the best country in the world?

Back when I was in high school in Florida, yes.

In the 1980s, state law in Florida required that all public high school students take a one-semester class called Americanism vs Communism, or AVC.

The State-approved AVC textbook can be summed up this way:

“Rah rah rah! We’re #1! America, fuck yeah! We won WWII and saved Europe and Russia! America is the best at everything! Woohoo! Look at how amazing we are! America, go us!”

Like, seriously, it was embarrassingly bad. We’re talking Soviet-Union-textbook bad. If George Orwell included a page from the AVC textbook in Nineteen Eighty-Four, critics would be all “nah, bro, too unrealistic.” You wouldn’t think it’s possible to fit so much cringe into one book.

I cannot fathom the degree of insecurity that went into passing the law that required teaching this class in schools.

Fortunately, I lucked out. My high school teacher, a WWII vet and survivor of the Bataan Death March, hated and loathed the class requirement and textbook with every fiber of his being, and made that very clear on the first day of class.

He refused to teach from the book at all. He told us point-blank “The state requirement for this class is complete propaganda bullshit. As far as I’m concerned, this is a class in Russian history, and that’s how I intend to teach it.”

He made his own teaching materials for the class and it rocked.

Short Men Energy

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

What would happen if China stopped investing in US treasuries? Would Americans face a financial crisis?

China has already stopped investing in U.S. Treasuries.

Since the beginning of the Ukraine War, China has been selling its Treasury holdings. As of October 2023, it continues to hold about $820 billion of U.S. Treasuries. This is a reduction of about 18% in one year.

Russia previously sold all its U.S. Treasury holdings, after the United States began to sanction it in connection withe Ukraine War. In about 2017, Russia encouraged the world to do the same.

At the same time, the Federal Reserve is selling the U.S. Treasury Bonds that it purchased during covid.

The combined actions of Russia, China and the Federal Reserve are driving down the value of U.S. Treasury Bonds. In the past six months, the value of 30 year bonds has fallen by about 50%. This raises interest rates in the United States, because the U.S. government must pay more to borrow.

The higher interest rates have greatly limited America’s options, financially. Housing prices are poised to fall, due to higher interest rates. Even worse, interest payments on the U.S. national debt have doubled. Interest payments will soon exceed what the United States spends on national defense. Thus, as you can see, the tactics of Russia and China have limited America’s ability to fight wars. We are seeing just the beginning of the cycle.

Your question is — will the United States face a financial crisis?

The answer is yes. If the United States (a) continues printing dollars, and (b) continues supporting a violent response to conflicts in the world, two things will happen:

The planet will refuse to work with the United States during America’s foreseeable crisis; and
The U.S. dollar will collapse, due to continued printing and the planet’s rejection of the dollar.

The collapse of the dollar will be devastating in the United States, because American society is dependent upon cheap gasoline and cheap imports, which will no longer exist in the United States.

The United States imports 28% of its crude oil. This leaves the United States vulnerable to a falling dollar. Contrary to popular belief, the United States is not “energy independent,” and remains vulnerable. The United States imports 5 million barrels of crude oil per day more than it exports. That is a lot of oil that won’t be coming into the United States when the dollar falls. In addition, President Biden foolishly sold decades of oil stored up by the WWII generation in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. America is not ready for the foreseeable crisis coming to its shores.

Expect riots and shortages in the United States. If Biden continues to pursue violent solutions to global conflict, those wars will return to the United States when the dollar comes down. The American people will be fighting over limited resources. There won’t be any jobs in America, when the shopping malls close.

Be equal or not

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2O1jxwQ00iw?feature=share

My friend has been terminated from the company that she’s been working for. On her last day of her work, she deleted all of her work in her computer. Does she have the right to do that, since all the work was done by her?

Normally the work product belongs to the company, not the worker. In the early days of solid state circuitry, my BIL developed much of it. Although his name is on the patents, the company owned them.

I was an independent contractor managing HOAs. ( Also a lawyer). I started by managing my own while my kids were preschoolers. It ran very smoothly so no one ever wanted to be on the Board until crazy ass lady and her group of idiots came on. True nut cases. One insisted on judging the Holiday decorating contest, then picked her own house as winner. One shot my dog. Board meetings were like “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.

The Board was 3/3, three humans, three horses asses. When one human was on vacation, the three asses called a special meeting and “ terminated “ me. Now they knew I would just sue them on my 2 year contract so they made paying me for another 18 months conditional on me delivering all the Assn documents and computer data on fees, violations etc on discs within five days. This belonged to them.

I was happy to get out of the nut house. The Assn owned the file cabinets. I just put them on a dolly and walked them to a Board member’s house and left them. I downloaded all the data in computer language and gave them the disks.

Problem was, I used a program I bought that was made by a company that had gone bankrupt. It was a great program. Totally unavailable for purchase anywhere. But I had no duty to give them my program. The computer disks were useless. The finances were also kept on a very old edition of an accounting program. I had no duty to provide them with my copy. The financial disks very useless to them without paying a few thousand for the program. It was a very specialized program used by CPAs

They spent a fortune going through old files and bank statements and quarterly financials to recreate payment records etc. And, I had fulfilled my duties. I got the next 18 months of my contract paid. They also received a cease and desist letter from me. The Assn ‘s original documents had a problem and no lender would loan on a house without a document called a Subordination agreement. Only a lawyer can write one. I always wrote them. No cost. It was my own HOA. But the first time they copied one on a new sale, I hit them with a cease and desist letter and reported them to the Bar for the unlicensed practice of law. So then they had to pay a lawyer for the next 150 or so documents. Lawyers are not free.

So, what the employer owns and what the employee owns is a mixed bag.

My guys…

What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?

I was in an elevator on a cruise ship. Some wiseacre saw my polka-dot suspenders.

He smirked, “Nice suspenders. You from Wisconsin?”

I replied, “No. Ever since my cancer surgery, I can’t wear a belt.”

His smirk instantly evaporated. The elevator doors opened on my floor, and I got out.

Soft tissue sarcoma caused by Agent Orange in Vietnam, They took out 1–3/4 pounds of me from my groin to my beltline. It left a notch where a belt would sit, so I can’t wear a belt comfortably.

Order over chaos

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

What is the coolest thing you have ever done in your life?

Two years back, I was on a road trip on my bike to Meghalaya. While returning, as I was tired I was riding slowly. I was still some 70 miles away from home, and it was already dark. On the highway, I saw a car parked and some people arguing. I rode past them, however before passing them I caught the sight of two women crying and eagerly looking through the front window.

I took a turn and came back to the spot. I saw four boys, around my age, were arguing and pushing a man of around 50 years old. Turns out, the family was returning from some function and lived in another town which was about 90 miles from mine. They were stopped by these four boys on bikes and asked them for some money. They started misbehaving when the old guy refused to pay. He asked his wife and daughter to stay in the car and got down to reason with them.

I heard the story from the old guy, while the boys asked me mind my own business and get the f**k off. I simply turned and started walking towards my bike. The man begged at me to stay and help him, and looked at the women in the back seat and felt their eyes pleading me to stay. But, I kept walking!

Here comes the twist! Now, during my rides I always keep a hockey stick on my bike. Bad luck for the guys who never knew this. They laughed at me, calling me names. One even said, “Yeah, keep walking you p***say.”

I took the hockey stick and came back running. The boys didn’t get time to react and I started beating them. The blows landed everywhere and I think two or more of them bled as well. I didn’t show them any mercy. Someone threw some punches and kicks at me too, but I had a more formidable weapon than them. Seeing me in action, the man also jumped in; his wife and daughter also got down and helped in whatever way they could. All beaten up and even not being able to stand properly, two boys somehow managed to run off on their bikes while the other two ran after them.

I told the man to start the car and keep driving, while I rode in front of him in case the boys decided to get help and chase us. When we entered the man’s town, we went to the police station and lodged a report. The daughter was smart enough to note down the bikes’ number plates. As it was very late, the man requested me to spend the night at their place. Once reaching home, the family thanked me for helping them. He wouldn’t even allow me to leave early next day, saying that he can’t send me off without a proper meal. Family, friends and relatives came to thank me for my heroism. I stayed for lunch and returned home.

To this day the gentleman calls me occasionally. He even invited me to his daughter’s wedding.

Now, let me tell you something. I’m not the brave person they take me to be. I was equally scared that night. I was terrified. It took me a lot of courage to do what I did. After this whole thing was over, I was so proud of it!

Companies Are Ditching Hiring Fresh Female Graduates

Does welfare perpetuate generational poverty?

My grandparents were too poor to afford a private jet or a private helicopter, they had to rely on government programs like public roads to get by.

They couldn’t afford to hire private tutors for my parents, and so had to send them to public schools to learn to read and write.

As one might expect, this cycle of dependency continued: My parents also didn’t have a private jet or helicopter, and they also had to rely on government programs like public roads to get by.
They also sent their kids to learn to read and write in public schools.

And here I am: made lazy by all this generational welfare, I’m not pulling on my bootstraps nearly hard enough to afford my own private airport.
Like my parents before me, and my grandparents before them, I depend entirely on government programs like public roads (or worse, public transit!!) to get to work.

There is no means testing in place for using public roads, which leads to rampant abuse.
I’ve seen people use them to go for a stroll, even though they could have afforded a treadmill.
Not only that, but these type of government handouts kill any incentive for most people to get a private helicopter, they’d rather stay dependent upon the government provided public roads.

It’s truly a modern tragedy, with no end in sight.

You rascal

What happened in your office that became the stuff of legend?

The Door.

Years and years ago, when I quit smoking, I found my temper would often flare up during the first few weeks of abstinence.

I worked at a remote branch office with a staff of six. One morning when I came to work early, something went “wrong” and I was so angry that I impulsively gut-punched my office door.

The door was hollow core wood; I punched right through it.

I admitted my foolish outrage to my office mates when they entered an hour later.

And little was said about it; I believe they were sympathetic with my situation, and supportive of my effort to quit smoking.

There matters laid at rest; nothing more said.

Until the office Christmas party, when staff from all branches and the headquarters office (over 100 souls) gathered at some central location for a cocktail party and most sumptuous feast. Everything paid for by the company as a treat to us. This was followed by after-dinner drinks, and the “awards ceremony.”

The awards ceremony was a production of the employees and was in the nature of a good-humored “roast,” drawing upon such amusing things as had happened involving any of them over the past year. Some of the recognition was by actual funny trophies which were passed from one recipient to another; others were unlikely objects constructed of broom sticks, hub-caps, old radios, or heaven knows what.

Because I and my cohorts were from the remotest branch, none of us received, or ever expected to receive, recognition at this ceremony. We had our OWN Christmas party, for that.

Thus it was quite a surprise, to me, when I saw that my associate, Greg, was called upon by the master of ceremonies to announce the grand prize winner. He briefly described in very general terms the struggle of one individual to overcome a serious addiction. I was as curious as everyone else to know who, and to know the story. The room became very quiet, as the subject appeared to deviate from the laughable to the serious. The recipient was as yet unnamed.

Then a cloaked object was carried onto the dais, looking for all the world like a draped coffin.

With the words, “And the winner is, John Scott Geare,” the black drape was pulled away to reveal my actual office door, with a precise halo painted around its wound. Somehow, the damned thing had been spirited from our office, and carried the 60 miles to the party, unbeknownst to me.

And it became the stuff of legend.

You owe me half

Chick was only going out for a free meal. And he says…

Cajun Style Tip Roast

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

1 (4 pound) tip roast
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
1/4 cup finely chopped green bell peppers
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Instructions

Heat oven to 300 degrees F.
Combine vegetables, spices and oil.
With a sharp knife make 8 to 12 deep V-shape slit pockets, stopping an inch from the bottom of roast. Fill the pockets with the vegetable mixture, reserving some to rub on top of roast.
Bake uncovered for 2 1/2 hours or until thermometer reads 140 degrees F for medium rare beef.
Serve with pan juices.

Nutrition

Per serving: Calories 391; fiber 1g; carbohydrates 2g, Protein 61g, Cholesterol 160mg; Sodium 509mg; Fat 14g (32% of calories from fat)

Inaccurate Self assessment

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/c0CzEzo7VwI?feature=share

What is the strangest reaction of someone who has just been fired?

A number of years ago I worked for a large US company. My role was in sales (industrial product). In my third year, I was selected for management. As such, I was trained in recruiting and helped district managers hire talent.

I visited one district and held a recruiting fair and ultimately recommended 10 applicants to the manager. The manager had his own candidate and asked me to interview him. In my opinion, his choice was terrible. He did not have any of the qualities successful people in our business had. I told him this.

Jump ahead six months. I become the manager for that district. My predecessor had hired the guy I did not recommend and did not even call any of the 10 I recommended.

Within three months i had hired five new sales reps. Four did very well and stayed for years. One failed within six months. The one that I did not recommend? I had to let him go due to poor performance and poor attitude. When I told him I had to let him go, he held onto my desk and told me he really did not want to be fired and would not leave the office. He would continue to come to work. It took several hours to convince him that he was not a good match for our industry. I continued to pay him for one month as he searched for another job.

Please don’t tell me I am mean and unfeeling. In my 30+ years of managing, I have supported many people in many different ways. The bottom line, if someone is not doing well in a job, it is usually because they are not trying or they are just in the wrong job. The latter is almost always the case. If you have a good, hard working person, try to find a different position in your company for him/her. That’s the mark of a good manager.

A biological male…

Why do some scientists on the Internet seem so arrogant toward people with differing opinions?

I first noticed this phenomenon with a guy named Dr.Layne Norton. Layne has a PhD in biochemistry. This man has forgotten more about the human body than I’ve ever learned, and I’ll have my Masters degree next month.

He’s an elite level powerlifter.

And a pro bodybuilder,

He also runs a youtube channel where he shares some advice on bodybuilding and powerlifting. I began to notice that the comment section was particularly toxic.

People were insulting this man’s intelligence, his personality, and his family.

I didn’t understand why. He seemed like a nice enough guy. Until I stumbled upon the answer.

One commenter said, “I’m sure you know what you’re talking about, you just seem arrogant though.” The comment had 100s of likes.

Scientists tend to speak in very absolute terms. Why? Because they’ve studied the shit out of whatever it is they’re discussing. And because they speak so unequivocally, people get turned off.

For example, I wrote an answer in which I said working out in the afternoon is best for muscle building and performance. The hormones and body temperature are in a better position to support a workout in the afternoon.

How do I know? I wrote a 20 page paper on this topic for school (supported by 30 peer reviewed studies).

Some guy told me that I was a liar. Why? According to him, testosterone is obviously highest in the morning… because men get morning wood…..

Like many have said, scientists have spent years studying a topic, and they’ve forgotten more about said topic than most will ever even hear. As far as I’m concerned, they’ve EARNED the right to be a little arrogant when it comes to their subject.

Since 1979…

What is the best comeback you used on someone?

I was adopted at birth. From the time I was able to understand anything, my parents called me their Chosen Child and gave me a poem with that name. I was raised to feel special. When I was in 3rd grade, one of the spoiled little rich girls tried to make fun of me, saying mean things, like, my mother hated me and got rid of me so that I had to be taken in by strangers out of pity – really wicked thing for an 8-year-old to say. When she finally took a breath, I responded by saying that I KNEW my parents wanted me, they CHOSE me. Then I said “I bet you were an ax-i-dent!” and walked away. When I got home from school, my mother said she had gotten a call from that girl’s mother, wanted to know what happened, and asked me how in the world I knew what an “accident” was, laughing all the time! I was only 8, had no clue, but I had heard her talking on the phone when she mentioned a girl getting pregnant by accident. Obviously, she didn’t know I heard her or that I understood the gist of the conversation. She was laughing when she told daddy – and that was when I began hearing her say to her friends that “little pitchers have big ears” as she changed the conversation. I don’t know what a little pitcher is, and that may not be what she said, but that’s all that I heard before they started a new conversation!

Your future children…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Oo8ihDBf4qc?feature=share

What does a babysitter do if parents don’t respond to calls and they don’t show up until the next day?

If they said they would be home at a certain time and didn’t call to ASK if it was ok that they stayed out later, I would call the police. I give them 1/2 hour past designated time to call and if they didn’t answer 2 calls and 2 texts all done within 1/2 hour time frame, the police would be informed of how worried I am about their safety because it’s now an hour late with them not calling or answering multiple calls and texts. Let them deal with the cops questioning them about not contacting you or answering you. The cops will let them know you only concerned about their well being and they will also rip them a new one for informing you and also for leaving their child alone with a babysitter who is now upset that something had happened to them. Trust me, they will never do it again to any babysitter. I say any babysitter because after that, I would NEVER babysit for them again, even at 4x’s the amount of money.

I actually like you

One of my favorite shorts.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1kypV3rvNHg?feature=share What is an example of “It was nice while it lasted”?

Chaurice

This Creole pork sausage is an old local favorite dating back to the 19th Century, but Chaurice isn’t as easy to find as it once was. It would seem to have come to Louisiana with the Spanish, and was adapted to local custom and ingredients; the term is similar to the Spanish chorizo. It’s great with white or red beans, and good for breakfast too, with eggs.

Ingredients

4 pounds lean fresh pork, butt or shoulder
2 pounds fresh pork fat
2 cups onion, finely minced
1 1/2 tablespoons garlic, finely minced
1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
8 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground red pepper
2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves, crushed
5 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
3 bay leaves, finely crushed
1/2 teaspoon allspice
3 yards small sausage casing (optional)

Instructions

Cut the pork at fatback into small pieces. Mix together and run once through the coarse disc of a meat grinder into a large bowl.
Add the seasonings and mix thoroughly until the stuffing is very smooth and well blended.
Make into patties, and use within three days or freeze.

Notes

You can also put chaurice into casings; make each sausage about six inches in length.

Winter Stew

Well, my doctor has stated that I need to stay in the hospital for a week or longer. And then afterwards, I really have to be very moderate and calm in my activities. Apparently, I can trigger my blood pressure to launch towards the stars, and I need to tame that beast. So, this is MM going calm and serene.

Drinking is going to stifle for a spell. Same with smoking, and many of my favorite vices. Sigh.

Gotta be good, and lend myself to some serious chill.

…

I really get upset about the crazy relationship scene that the West has collapsed into. And this mix of rampant sexuality, free-lovin’ (not that I’m complain’) and isolationism with a woke political class is just another sign of a seriously collapsing Western society.

Men need love.

Women need understanding and compassion.

And let’s not forget about our kitties. Right?

Let’s all strive to be a tad better to ourselves, and to those around us. It’s so easy to get caught up, and ignore our very own needs and situation.

…

We need to chat about food. And stews are great Winter fare. (Unless you live down under) then I would recommend prawns. Stews are great, and I’ll guess that many readers haven’t had a home-made stew in some time. I suggest that you make up one and enjoy it.

With butter and bread.

Life is too short otherwise.

Today…

Cajun Meatball Stew

Ingredients

Meatballs

1 pound ground round or chuck
1 1/2 cups soft bread crumbs (3 slices)
2 tablespoons each minced parsley and cold water
1/2 clove garlic, crushed
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon each cayenne and pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil
4 green onions, trimmed and minced (save tops for gravy)
2 teaspoons salt

Gravy

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
5 cups cold water
4 envelopes or 4 teaspoons instant beef broth
1/4 teaspoon salt pinch of pepper
1/3 cup minced parsley
4 green onion tops, sliced thin
Meatball drippings plus vegetable oil to total 1/4 cup

Instructions

Meatballs

Combine beef, bread crumbs, green onions, parsley, garlic, egg, salt, cayenne, pepper and cold water in a medium size bowl. Mix lightly and shape into 24 balls. Place on tray and chill for 30 minutes.
Heat oil in large, heavy skillet and brown meatballs quickly on all sides (don’t overcook or the meatballs may toughen).
Drain on paper towels; save drippings.

Gravy

Place combined meatball drippings and vegetable oil in a large, heavy saucepan or skillet. Blend in flour, and heat and stir over moderately low heat until flour begins to brown, at least 10 to 15 minutes. Good Cajun cooks take about 45 minutes to make a roux. The roux should be a rich topaz brown.
Add water and instant beef broth gradually, whisking until thickened, about 5 minutes.
Add meatballs to gravy. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally for 45 minutes.
Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed.
Stir in parsley and green onion tops. Heat for 15 minutes longer.
Serve in soup bowls or on plates with the meatballs and gravy ladled over fluffy rice or egg noodles.

What is the most useless career advice ever given?

I’ve seen this question hundreds of times over the years on Quora and the knee-jerk answer is always some version of “Follow your passion is terrible advice.”

There was a time when I thought exactly that and wrote a similar answer. Sure, following your passion can lead you to become a starving artist or a passionate amateur beach volleyball player who lurches from one financial crisis to another.

At the other end of the spectrum, you have accountants under neon lights, droning through their days like robots, their life becoming a series of monthly, quarterly and annual closes.

Having been on both sides, I didn’t see a lot of difference in the happiness between those two groups.

My biggest advice is to “see the grey” and not take anyone’s career advice as a one-size-fits-all tip. Be like a CEO and take in differing perspectives of your VPs, and attach weights to each piece of advice given your own circumstances.

Don’t ever, ever, treat anyone’s advice as gospel. And that includes anything I say or write.

Hustle culture has spawned this nauseating obsession with meme-quotes from billionaires that supposedly solve all of our problems.

Spoiler alert: I don’t give a shit what Elon Musk said. He’s smart and capable. But he came up through a very narrow silo in the world. His circumstances are extreme and hardly applicable to most of our own. Hell, I’m half-convinced he’s a narcissistic sociopath.

You can do what you love. Or you can learn to love what you do. Life changes. New passions evolve and the economics of those passions make new paths possible while destroying old ones.

You may wake up one day and realize you hate the thing you thought you’d spend your life doing.

The only constant in success is hard work and focus.

The more I’ve accepted that life is a fluid situation, with everything in constant change, and given assumptions always being tested, the better I’ve done.

Work hard, stay flexible, and expect waves of upheaval. Because I promise those waves are coming. We all get our turns.

One day

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1wTPwaehusw?feature=share

What is the simplest military tactic in history?

People really overlook the classics.

The first military tactic, and for thousands of years the most successful by far, was “stand together in a line and point our sharp sticks in the same direction.” Here’s the Sumerians doing it about 4500 years ago:

Proto-warfare involved individual fighters going essentially one-on-one with other individual fighters: think a modern gang fight or bar brawl. But you can’t really do that if the guy you are trying to fight has two guys immediately adjacent to him also holding spears: they’re going to stick you. If the guys in the line have shields and/or armor, you can’t even hang back and chuck shit at them, which was the other proto-warfare classic.

Now, this sounds really easy, but it turns out it actually isn’t. Warfare involves a bunch of people you hate trying to kill you. The natural response to that is to either (1) sensibly run away, or (2) run over and get the bastards first. Standing in a strict formation with even spacing is fairly unnatural in those circumstances: you need to practice it a lot, especially if you want to have any hope of moving.

(1) in particular is hard: even if you know that in theory your phalanx will survive a cavalry charge, it’s a harder sell when you have a couple thousand pounds of muscle and steel coming at you at a gallop. Gaps in your line means you are fucked: it’s hard to convey how absolutely shafted (pun intended) disordered infantry are in the face of cavalry, but it might be helpful to recall that the reason Napoleonic and Civil War soldiers stood in closely packed formation while getting mowed down by musket and cannon fire was because that was the safer alternative. And, to make things even more fun, the first guy to run away is probably going to be fine: he’s got all of his buddies holding them off. The last guy is going to get shishkebabed by a Gothic/Frankish/Norman/English lance, so how much do you trust your buddies?

(2) also isn’t actually easy to overcome, either. If you are a professional soldier, you might like the fighting. That’s how you get honor and, more importantly, loot. If it looks like you’re winning, you might really want to be the first person on the scene. You might make a lot of money. This is actually how the English lost at Hastings. The English housecarls, who were pros, successfully stood in a line with the pointy sticks the right way against a half dozen Norman charges, but broke when the Normans faked a retreat. They were then slaughtered.

But yeah, “get my guys in a line with sticks the right way” was sufficient for Alexander, the Romans, and Napoleon to get into the world conquest game. Simple, but that shit really works if you can actually do it. But you do need to actually do it.

Why do landlords not want to, or outright refuse to rent to people with Section 8, or HUD certificates, while fully knowing that such a practice is both illegal and subject to a big fine? Why do they think that they will not be be liable and caught?

Well, first, you are just flat wrong.

We bought a building that previously had section 8 tenants. None paid on time, the very first month that we owned it. The housing authority didn’t pay either. After 8 phone calls spanning 3 weeks, during which time we had already given 3-day notices to pay, and filed for eviction, the housing authority finally called us back, asking what the heck we were doing evicting THEIR tenant.

We informed them that under state law, we were following the required procedure for eviction for non-payment. They told us that under the terms of the 17-page Section 8 Contract, we could not evict the tenant for any reason whatsoever, including non-payment. We asked why they didn’t pay us on time, and they replied because we had not signed the Section 8 Contract yet, after the purchase. Ah-Hah!

We then informed them that we would be proceeding with the eviction, and would not be signing the Section 8 Contract. They told us that the previous owner had already signed it, and it is not revocable! They then threatened us with legal action if we continued with the eviction.

We told them that we had already consulted our attorney, who told us it is illegal to enforce or coerce anyone into signing or upholding an agreement that they did not willingly enter into. Thus, upon the sale of the property, as clearly stated within the Section 8 Contract itself, and apparently unbeknownst to the Housing Authority, the new owner has a choice to enter into Section 8 or not. And, oh by the way, selling the property is the only way to get OUT of Section 8, and the only way to evict Section 8.

The Housing Authority huffed and puffed, and went away. The tenants were evicted.

End of Story. Yes, it is legal. We’ll never do Section 8 again, ever, for any reason whatsoever.

What a fucking shitshow…

How would you describe the relationship between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken?

An articulate well known diplomat with high integrity and trust Wang Yi is meeting a 6 year old mindset, with Neocons drumming his voice with China hate and U.S. hubris thinking China is still in its 100 years of humiliation and the U.S. is still the one eye king after everyone loses both eyes after 2nd World war in 1945.

I hope for Blinken’s sake he will stop talking like the U.S. is the angel and China is the devil. He may think so but 180 out of 195 nations think it is the other way around. Best don’t even go there! Pretend to act civil and learn humility. That will go a long way Blinkyboy!

Confucian ethics says it is better to overestimate your opponent and underestimate yourself than the other way a around. The U.S. needs a lot of this balancing. China don’t listen to hot air after all. China sees more than hear. Anyone can say anything.

The U.S. better not talk about its own self made propaganda, lies, misinformation and fabrications. China is way too smart to let you lecture. Moreover the U.S. has done too much evil to even dare preach. Better focus on how to work with China on each others progress. Projects of common interest and goals to enrich the world, China and the U.S.

Without China the U.S. will die of pneumonia, with China it may suffer common influenza once in a while. Sure China will fly with the U.S. and still travelled at breakneck high speed rail without the U.S. but the faster China goes the more the U.S. will benefit too. If it knows humility.

Men want and need respect

What is the rudest thing that a new neighbor has done to you immediately after you had moved in?

We bought a house in a small California town, primarily because of our dogs. It had two and a half fenced acres, and was in a semi-rural area. Our dogs were getting old, and we wanted them to have a peaceful place so that they wouldn’t be stressed while we were at work. Well, it seemed like we bought a house in the “snob hill area.” During the first week we were there, a man stopped by our gate and informed me that our car was too old, and that we needed to get a new one. I told him that we were new to the area, and asked him to recommend a dealership. He did so, and I told him that I would meet him there the next morning, and to remember to bring his checkbook. For some strange reason, he hasn’t spoken to me again.

In the military, are you only allowed to keep on you what is issued to you by the government or can you buy extra protection if you want to? (knives, extra guns, extra supplies, etc), also, is your weapons and gear all new when you get them?

In the military, are you only allowed to keep on you what is issued to you by the government or can you buy extra protection if you want to? (knives, extra guns, extra supplies, etc), also, is your weapons and gear all new when you get them?

From a Navy perspective…

In the military, are you only allowed to keep on you what is issued to you by the government or can you buy extra protection if you want to? (knives, extra guns, extra supplies, etc)

Being on ships, there are some things you can and can’t have. No one, except a few watches, carries a gun on a regular basis. Generally, they’re issued out prior to watch, during security drills, or during actual events that threaten the security of the ship. Having a personal firearm onboard would have been useless, as it would always need to be locked up in the armory. There’d be no reason to have a personal firearm. The only people who MIGHT be allowed to have one would be the Commanding Officer, or a flag officer.

As for knives, I used to have one or two I carried everywhere while on ship. I was an engineer, and knives are essential, but not issued. I usually had a large Buck folding knife (I liked how they kept an edge), along with a small Swiss knife on my keychain. At one point I did have a double edged boot knife that I would keep hidden, specifically because they weren’t authorized. And only certain fixed blade knives were allowed (based on size).

Other types of gear we could go outside of regular issue were certain uniform items. When I was in, we had what were officially called “chukkas”, but which we all called “boondockers”.

These weren’t too bad, if they fit right, and they got more comfortable as they wore in, but they were about as mass produced as you could get, and the quality was inconsistent. They had steel toes that would cut through the inner lining and tear your toes apart, and a little saltwater would destroy the shine and eat the leather.

So, many of us would spend a small fortune on civilian shoes, much like these…

The Navy was fine with them, as long as they had steel toes and were black (for enlisted). They were supposed to be leather, too, but a lot of us would go for the ones that were synthetic, specifically because they were water proof.

There were other items that were not “issue”, but were sold as extras in the uniform shop. Back in the 80’s, there was a light black jacket we called the “Johnny Cash” (not to be confused with the black working uniform with the same nickname). If you ever went to certain overseas ports (generally Hong Kong), you could get your dress blues lined with an Asian motif embroidery on silk. This was out of sight for inspection, so the command never had a problem with them.

As for “extra equipment”, we sailors really didn’t need much more than what was already given us. We were allowed to bring on personal items, as long as they could be stowed properly. Electrical items always needed to be safety checked, and might need a request chit (permission slip) to bring it on board, but I usually had a computer for cruises, and game consoles were popular.

…also, is your weapons and gear all new when you get them?

This all depends.

Your primary issue for almost everything is in Boot Camp. That’s all your uniforms, toiletries, and other kits, such as sewing. These are always new, and upon issue, you have to identify your items with you name. In my time, we had a “stencil party”, which consisted of the entire company sitting down on the deck and using a machine cut stencil and special pens, we stenciled our names on everything.

I can literally smell the stencil ink as I write this. Not unpleasant, but strong.

From that point on, you’re responsible for replacing any items that aren’t up to standard. You get an annual allowance for this, and you can choose where to buy your gear.

I have broken service, and my uniforms weren’t in the best shape when I got back in. I was given an allowance that was meant to buy a new seabag (what we call our full set of uniforms), but I decided to save a little money and go “used”. There are always “boot drops”, the recruits who didn’t make the cut, and they have to return their uniforms. These were in good shape, but stenciled. We could buy our uniforms used, then cross out the old stencils and add our own. Saved about half what I would have paid for new.

Ships also have a lost and found, and those items are sometimes auctioned off for the welfare and rec fund. You could get some decent items from that.

As for weapons, well, you don’t keep your service weapon when you leave. Those are turned around and reissued. You might get new, you might get used.

Giving and getting nothing…

Qatar government claims to have intercepted electronic communication between Israel and the accused naval officers who were working on a secret submarine project. If this is true, can the officers be saved?

Look

The Conviction is finished

The Evidence has been submitted and the case is closed

The Judgement has been delivered.

DEATH.

…

The MEA tried many times to help out but Qatar refused to comply

So there is no point discussing the evidence

We can go to the ICJ but given that Qatar is a gas lifeline to Europe, I am certain ICJ will pass

They openly bankroll the Hamas and yet not even a pinky finger has been pointed at them to this day

We need to get our boys out

That’s crucial

Now I am almost certain, the death sentence would not be carried out.

It never does

Except Eli Cohen and a handful of others, most spies are never killed or executed

Eventually there will be trade offs and exchanges

My guess is if India backs a Two State Solution in UN and votes against Israel for a cease fire and UN involvement in the Gaza conflict, that alone could secure a commutation to life imprisonment

Typically there could be a round robin exchange

Meaning a third country could mediate the release of hostages in exchange for India doing something for this third country

Like US or Russia or China

Ideally if we had a few Qataris in our Jail, we could do a swap

We don’t

Qatari tourists to India are non existent

We can’t pull out business contracts because we have only 6% and the Chinese would grin and happily take over

We can’t pull out of Oil and Gas contracts because we have no major long term deals and these are fungible goods

AI Tinder Buster…

What are your thoughts on China’s economic growth? Do you think they will eventually overtake America? If so, how long do you think it would take for them to become more powerful than us militarily?

Of course they will, that is a a done deal, in fact they have already. Overtaking the U.S. is a piece of cake. A bunch of war monger selling stuffs no one one wants to buy at astronomical prices because they pay their greedy CEO 100 times that of China with workers that demand 10 times higher salaries working half the hours and insist 5 times more benefits!

Never mind this, the Yanks believed they can spend till thy kingdom come and spend like there is no tomorrow! China will pretend that they fear the U.S. but to the Chinese they not need to lift a finger, Uncle Sam will bankrupt it selves.! Hubris will bury them. Superiority complex will destroy themselves!

Let me help you hubris and racist Yanks understand the real world. As long as you still think the world belongs to you, the easier it is for us! China today in reality is at least twice bigger than you and that is being highly overestimating Uncle Sam and underestimating ourselves!

At the very worst., China is growing 5 times faster than you. The U.S. is totally fxxked! But we will pretend that the Chinese is 50 years behind the US! You loved that don’t you?

Build a better society

Who is your inner demon?

I saw earbuds on Amazon for a ridiculously cheap price.

It was a 2 pack for $2.99.

I thought, “Hmmm, how many could I order?” It had the option to order up to 10.”

I ordered 6 pairs.

I know this exact type of headphones. This same seller has sold me a pair before. Although I didn’t remember them being this cheap.

Fast forward a week.

I go to check on my order time.

It is going to be another 4 weeks before these are delivered to me.

I thought, “How in the hell is it going to be 4 weeks?’

My inner demon whispers, “Master!!!! You must give the seller time to steal the headphones!!!”

“Shutup!”

My inner demon speaks evil truths that I’m trying to ignore.

What are the best ways to make your life easier?

Embrace a lifestyle that costs only a fraction of your earnings.

Living below your means is like having a superhero cape you never have to show off. It’s the ultimate life hack for me, it makes one feel invincible, calm, and in control.

It’s likened to standing in a rock-solid tower while chaos swirls around you, that’s a feeling words won’t be able to capture.

In many places, especially in my home country, living modestly is more than just a money-saving trick; it’s a shield against life’s darker corners.

It keeps you off the radar for all sorts of unpleasant situations, from kidnappings for ransom to targeted robberies.

It also makes you less of a walking ATM for friends, family, and even strangers who see you as their personal bailout fund.

Choosing simplicity when you could go grand is a power move. It’s like having an invisible army guarding your peace. You’re not just scraping by; you’re flourishing but on your terms.

This lifestyle is the ultimate stress-buster. You’re cruising in a relatively comfort zone where you’ve got the choice but not the pressure to splurge. When you do spend, it feels like tossing a pebble into a pond, not like drilling a hole in a dam.

Living this way gives you access to a type of joy most people can’t even put into words, let alone experience in their lifetime.

Imagine being able to book a dream vacation or buy a dream home on a whim, leaving everyone around you stunned. That thrill is something money can buy only with a huge dose of discipline.

When you can comfortably afford your belongings, life takes on a different hue. You’re the boss, and everything you own is just a tool to make your life better, not a golden calf to be worshipped.

You only hurt one person, you, when you chose to live above your means. It is a recipe for sleepless nights and constant stress.

Being smart about how you live pays dividends in happiness and freedom, the very assets that are truly priceless.

Not wife material

How do I tell if somebody is intelligent?

There was a tall, lanky fellow who always wore long sleeves and sat down the table from me in engineering class. He didn’t talk much, had a strange sneeze and mostly kept to himself.

I had a sneaking suspicion he was smart, really smart. I shouldn’t have cared either way but between my bloodthirsty competitive side and penchant for people watching, my radar was always on.

And it wasn’t like I had any evidence, grades, test scores or even a remote conversation to draw my conclusion from.

All I had was a subtlety I’d noticed: His body language.

It was a cool confidence juxtaposed with a complete lack of stress on his face.

This absence of stress is not to be confused with slackery. He was laser focused on our material but rarely took notes. That pencil just sat by his hand begging for playing time, but no. Class didn’t seem to faze him. It was as if he was just in cruise control, coasting along while we all paddled to keep up.

He would go on to graduate first in his class.

But I had confirmation before that.

One day towards the end of the term, our teacher put a very high level problem on the board and asked who knew the answer. I immediately looked at him – he knew the answer. I could tell. His head sat still while his eyes were darting around waiting for someone to answer.

He was smart. He had it in his pocket. But he wasn’t looking for attention.

The teacher reiterated, “Anyone?”.

Finally, he slowly raised his hand and read off the answer like a trained assassin: calm, cold and collected.

You don’t need test scores to realize someone is smart.

Just watch them, it’s usually there. And it’s usually the quiet ones. Still waters run deeper.

China is TAKING OVER! Tiangong Space Station HUGE Update

How likely is it for the Chinese government to start buying bonds again, according to Jim Cramer?

Zero! Unless the US cancels all sanctions and restrictions it has placed on China. China is using the proceeds of its bond selling to buy gold. The expectation is that China will begin using gold backed currencies whether the Yuan or a BRICS currency. China sees the US headed for bankruptcy or at best, a financial and economic restructuring. So far, the US continues to print dollars and spending like there is no tomorrow, especially its spending on foreign wars. Yesterday, it was Ukraine, today it is Israel, tomorrow???

What are the reasons General Secretary Xi Jinping has for refusing to meet with President Biden?

What is there to discuss?

Schumer’s recap of his meeting with Xi has the tone that is as condescending of a lecture by an adult to a child. Here are all the points.

Point #1: At the foundation of our relationship must be a level playing field for American businesses and workers as well as responsible competition. We need reciprocity. That means allowing American companies to compete as freely in China as Chinese companies are able to compete in America. I made clear to President Xi that we do not believe there is a level playing field or reciprocity now.

Schumer is complaining about a level playing field? Reciprocity?

This is from a Congress and administration that has more than 1,200 Chinese tech companies on the Entity List and cried economic coercion when China placed restriction on one U.S. companiy. And he’s “making it clear to President Xi” that the U.S. wants a level playing field?

Point #2: “I raised the huge structural inequities and serious imbalances the U.S. faces in its economic and trade relationship with China. For decades, the Chinese government has erected significant barriers aimed at restricting the ability of American companies to compete in an open and fair manner in China. I made clear that the United States cannot sit idly by and that we must address the Chinese government’s forced technology transfers, theft of intellectual property, required joint ventures, and intimidation of U.S. businesses operating in China, among other troubling actions, that undermine economic reciprocity.

“Specifically, I also raised the need to remove restrictions and open up the Chinese market to U.S. companies, including from the semiconductor, financial services, and aerospace industries, and putting an end to policies that intimidate U.S. businesses operating in China.

What restrictions? What structural inequities?

Shouldn’t U.S. companies be making their own decisions on these? And as they say, the proof is in the pudding.

U.S. companies are making money in China. This is why they’re in China. It is precisely because of the structural benefits that China offers that U.S. companies are accepting the Chinese terms for doing business in China. U.S. companies can at any time decouple to India but are not because of the superior structural benefit China offers. And it is also why there is a “structural inequities” between the U.S. and China because, like India, we do have the infrastructure and manufacturing resources to compete with China’s. And this is not China’s fault. If the U.S. and India want to compete, then its incumbent on themselves to build the requisite “structure”.

Evidence of China’s open market? There’s Tesla in China’s automotive market and Apple in the mobile market, both market leaders in the world’s largest market. Nvidia was also the market leader in the world’s largest semiconductor market but its the U.S. banning them, not China.

Point #3: “Equally important to the need for reciprocity is the need for China to take more aggressive action to stop fentanyl from coming into America. Right now, the scourge of fentanyl is costing tens of thousands of lives and destroying American families. I called on President Xi to work with the United States to stem the flow of precursor chemicals that are fueling America’s fentanyl crisis.

And how exactly is China suppose to do this when precursor chemicals are not even banned substances in the U.S.? Fentanyl is a legal drug precribed by U.S. physicians for their patients.

Enforcement of illicit drugs is the sole responsibility of the U.S.. Blaming China is just a sorry excuse for failing at controlling an epidemic of our own making. It’s our greedy Pharmas in collusion with the FDA and physicians that promoted opioid use and solving this can only done by us alone.

Point #4: “I raised with President Xi the unfolding atrocities carried out against Israel and the need for the world community to stand together against terrorism and with the Israeli people, and pointedly requested from President Xi that the Chinese Foreign Minister strengthen their statement; they did.

Schumer is lecturing China on its foreign policy. He stressed the “unfolding atrocities” against Israel but omitted the greater “unfoldering atrocities” that the Israelis are committing against the Palestinians that he wants China to ignore.

Point #5: While we must ensure that our trade policies are fair, the United States will also prioritize our economic and national security, including protecting advanced technologies. Our delegation made clear that America is not seeking a confrontation with China, but we will remain steadfast in our commitment to promoting stability in the region, freedom, and democratic principles, and vigorously defend our values around the world.

This is just BS political talk. He’s saying that U.S. policies should be fair but justified when it’s not when we prioritize economic and national security, including protecting advanced technologies. So the U.S. subsidizing companies to the tune of $52 billion on building chip fab in the U.S. is ok but accusing China of doing the same subsidizing its tech companies as unfair and illegal trade practice. And its ok to sanction China from advanced chips and machines that make them – even forcing the Dutch, South Korean and Japanese companies to join – is justified for the sake of U.S. national security.

Now, how different would a Biden meeting with Xi be from Schumer’s? The Democrats has an election in 2024 and this will be nothing more than an electionering tactic at China bashing to win votes.

Radical Culture Change

Russia’s Top General: “Ready for Post-Conflict Negotiations”

World Hal Turner

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said today “Moscow is ready for negotiations on post-conflict resolution of the crisis in Ukraine and on further coexistence with the West.”

Russia knows Ukraine has lost. Russia knows the West can no longer provide weaponry or money to keep that conflict going. Russia knows it’s defense production is SEVEN TIMES GREATER than all the West combined. Yet, they are extending an olive branch.

Hal Turner Remarks —

We in the West should seize the moment and take this opportunity to move forward in peace.

Sadly, I fear the West simply CANNOT seek peace. I think the West – especially the United States — is literally Bankrupt. I believe the West **needs** a nuclear war or at least a partial nuclear war, so they can blame their financial collapse on the war. I perceive the West **needs** debt forgiveness and the only way they can get it is through mass destruction.

It seems to me the West needs to be able to go to their creditors and say “Our cities are destroyed, our people are dead, our economy is smashed. We have no hope at all of ever paying you back. We need debt forgiveness.”

If I am right, the Creditors, seeing this is the actual reality, will have little choice.

I suspect at that point, the very people in the West who perpetrated the massive financial destruction, get to walk away, free and clear, **remain in power ** (that’s the key) and start the whole shitshow all over again. Then, in maybe another 75 years, they have to do it all again. Round and round the wheel spins. Same old, same old.

If the West turns down this move for peace that Russia is offering, then ALL OF US know the whole Russia-Ukraine thing, and the whole Israel-Hamas thing, was specifically designed to intentionally CAUSE nuclear war for debt forgiveness.

Nothing else about these situations, makes any sense to me.

What lessons will most people only learn the hard way?

When to quit.

This is especially true of athletes in their mid and late 30s.

Men’s testosterone begins to decline around 30. We don’t recover as fast and lose a bit of our power over time. It’s a subtle change that catches up to them.

And many champions don’t know when to walk away in their prime.

Ronaldo is now sitting the bench on Manchester United:

True soccer fans knew this day was coming—as in fans who aren’t Ronaldo fanboys. He wasn’t playing at a high enough level to start on Manchester United. He was leaving the midfield too open while he camped out waiting to score goals.

He’s 37 and feeling his age. And that’s fine. Father Time catches up to everyone.

The sad truth is that this happens to the best of athletes. And it’s never more evident than in combat sports. Fighters that seem invincible, will go from being 31–1 to suddenly losing 8 of 10 fights in a row.

Muhammed Ali stuck around wayyyy too long and at least accelerated his mental decline.

Anderson Silva used to look untouchable. And then, age 38, he began a long losing streak.

Losing 6 of his last 8 fights.

The only person smart enough to walk away seems to be Khabib Nurgademedov. He was 29–0, and the allure of 30–0 whispered his name—but he stayed disciplined and knew to step away.

Meanwhile, his nemesis Conor McGregor has been racking up losses.

It’s a good metaphor for life.

Some phases of our life have an expiration date. Relationships. Jobs. Parties. And if you stick around too long, it just makes things worse.

The most dangerous creation of society is the man who has nothing to lose.

Absolutely!

What is your story of becoming discreetly wealthy?

My goal was $1M net worth by age 40.

We attained the goal at age 31.

Today, at age 34 our combined net worth is $1.6M, not including equity in our home and equity in a small business my wife runs.

I can tell you our story, but it will probably bore you to sleep.

I had it in my head at the age of 25 that I wanted to be a millionaire in 15 years. So I sat down in front of a computer and opened up excel. I made a simple spreadsheet that assumed market returns of 7%. I then calculated how much we needed to save each year to obtain millionaire status by 40. We then proceeded to save the amount of money generated by the spreadsheet and invest in index funds, basing our lifestyle around the remaining income.

That is it.

Why did it happen sooner?

My wife hated her job. She was treated with very little respect by some members in the office, I suspect because she was young and good at her job. So she left. I told her to take some time for herself and figure out what she wanted to do. Little by little she began doing some book-keeping and tax work for former clients (she is an accountant). As word got around, more people called. She began networking and eventually built up a small accounting business with her and two employees. It’s humble, but we are able to save 100% of her earnings which helped us reach our goal sooner.

If you met me on the street you’d think I was a generic 30-something with all the same stresses of a corporate job, house and kids that most middle-class 30-somethings deal with. You’d probably assume I was barely getting by when you saw my dirty 14-year-old car, especially after you learned that I like to commute by bike most of the time anyway.

And that’s it. Having means is often more about your life style than your earnings. Unfortunately I’m not a savvy business man who made millions in his 20’s while driving a Ferrari and flying first class. I used a spreadsheet, saved that amount of money and built my lifestyle around that savings rate.

Then my wife and I woke up rich.

I told you it was a boring story.

Cajun Pork Chili

Ingredients

2 pounds ground pork
2 large onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 sweet red bell pepper, chopped
1 sweet green bell pepper, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 (28 ounce) can tomatoes
1 (28 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano*
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Dash of hot pepper sauce
Salt and pepper

Instructions

In a heavy saucepan, cook the pork over medium heat, stirring to break up the meat, for about 5 minutes or until browned. Pour off the fat.
Add onions, and cook until tender.
Add garlic, red and green peppers and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until vegetables are softened.
Add tomatoes, breaking them up with the back of a spoon.
Stir in kidney beans, hot pepper flakes, oregano, cayenne pepper, hot pepper sauce and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Notes

* If you prefer a more traditional chili flavor, use cumin instead of oregano, and add chili powder to taste.

Father’s day

Skunks in Milford

You know, I really liked Massachusetts. I used to live in Milford, Massachusetts. It was really great.

Beautiful, pleasant. A really nice place, and I often miss what it was like.

You know… there is one thing about Milford…

Skunks.

Lots and lots of skunks. LOL.

That and foxes. Who would thunk it?

…

Oh, they would really leave you alone. But, you know, you don’t want to get them upset.

Ha!

They would just meander about. Clueless, without a care in the world. Funny.

Skunks in Milford.

Meandering about. Not a care in the world.

Cute.

Puts a smile on my face.

Today…

Is it really worth it to live to over 80 years?

When he was 87 and slipping into dementia, I asked my father exactly this on one of his “good days.” He smiled and said that it had been worth it, even when he became the last of his siblings alive and started to lose his ability to remember names, first, and other things later.

He became a very gentle person to be around (he had been an angry and argumentative Democrat for most of his life) and enjoyed his children, grandchildren, and even their pets. We got along better than we ever had. I remember taking him to the Fourth of July parade and whispering the names of people who came up to greet him. Once he knew their names, he could have a great conversation. Then I brought him back to a school reunion and that was wonderful. He needed no introductions as everyone wore a name tag.

Having watched my father in those years, I hope that I may live long enough to navigate old age just the way he did despite his obvious infirmities.

What situation made you wish you never reported it?

I’ve worked with the company I’m presently employed with for not quite 12 years. Up until a year ago, we were a small personable, easy going, family owned company of about 250 drivers. If you were around for any length of time, everyone in the office and shop knew you, and vice versa. That was up until about a year ago when the owner of the company retired and threw us under the bus by selling us out to a larger company and everything changed.

It’s common practice for just about any trucking company to require any damage to their equipment be reported and documented. With my company, if the damage was minimal, the report would still go in the driver’s jacket, but no further. It would stay in-house instead of being reported to a national data base.

I’ve always been the type to man-up in situations such as this. I was raised that way, and it was the right thing to do. Even leaving small damage unreported could result in the next driver having to have it repaired and possibly being late for a delivery.

So, after pulling out of a customer’s driveway and cutting it too tighly, I felt something go bump in the night. Upon further inspection, it appears I clipped one of those large landscaping rocks placed to prevent idiot drivers like me from cutting corners too tightly, and running over their curbs. When I stopped for the day and was doing my mandatory post-trip inspection, I came upon this,

Thinking it was no biggie, and my company would normally think likewise, and wanting to do the right thing, I called it it. What happened next was nothing short of a shit storm. The new people acted like I ran over a carload of nuns. Initial phone call to my parent company, followed by a call to the new company’s safety department, followed by a call-back the next day from same, followed by submitting pictures and a full accident report, followed by a call-back from the new company to review of same, followed by a never-heard-of-before-review from Greg in our safety department.

When I related the story to the former head of our . safety department, her reaction was, “It was just a fuckin’ rim!”, as she shook her head.

Trust me, if it ever happens again, I won’t think twice about going palms up with a “Dunno nuthin’ ‘bout it. When I dropped it off, it was fine “, should anyone inquire.

Something to accept

What has been the most life changing health issue you’ve experienced? Did it change your life for the better or worse?

I was driving down the freeway and all of a sudden I couldn’t see the cars ahead of me. It was if someone had pulled a shade down in front of my line of vision. I could see all around the shade, but not right in front. Although it was only for a few moments, the terror I felt was devasting.

I was a 21-year old college student, a senior at academically prestigious school, getting good grades, working part time, and enjoying a fun social life.

So, what was the matter? Where did the intense headaches come from? Why did I frequently wake up in the middle of the night, jumping out of bed and running to the bathroom, to vomit repeatedly? Why did I feel that I was about to fall down whenever the sidewalk was a little uneven?

Then there were those crazy nightmares I was having.…. I dreamed one night that I was driving on the freeway. The car next to me pulled up right beside me. The driver pulled a gun out. He shot me in the head. My head exploded. Everything became dark. I woke up in a terrified sweat. What on earth was wrong with my head that I would have such a dream?

In spite of everything, I was doing okay and maintaining my studies. But finally it became too much for me to handle. Especially the shade covering my eyes on the freeway.

I saw several doctors. They said I was fine.

I went to a psychologist. I figured that since the doctors said I was fine, it must be all in my mind. The psychologist listened to my symptoms. He said that I didn’t need to see a psychologist. Instead, I needed to see a neurologist and he urged me to see one right away.

I took his advice and went to a neurologist. The neurologist admitted me to a hospital. Still no answers. Many tests were done, but it was during the days before C-T scans or MRI’s were used, so it was hard to figure this out. Finally a diagnosis was made: brain tumor.

Surgery was scheduled. They operated for 10 hours, and were able to remove half of the tumor. The surgeon told me the tumor was the size of a large orange and that if I hadn’t been diagnosed when I was, I would have had 6 months left to live. It was just taking over my whole brain and growing so fast.

I was in intensive care for 2 weeks. I can’t remember too much about that time. It seemed like a dream, for just a few hours.

Then, more surgery. And then some more.

I lost the ability to walk. I couldn’t see very well. I lost hearing. I was fed intravenously. Because I had stroke-like symptoms, one side of my body became weak and uncoordinated. I no longer could hold a pen and write.

I had physical therapy and occupational therapy to regain some of the skills that I had lost.

I finally left the hospital and went home to live with my parents. The tumor was not all gone, but I needed a break. I needed time to get stronger before the next onslaught of surgery.

While I was home, I had physical and occupational therapy at a nearby hospital. I still couldn’t walk or write, but I was beginning to feel better. In physical therapy I worked on learning to walk with a walker and then eventually on my own. In occupational therapy I worked on strengthening my very weak hand. I did many activities with my hands, including making some beautiful crafts. Occupational therapy was so much fun! I loved therapy.

I went back to the hospital and had the last surgery. Finally the tumor was gone. After some more time had passed I felt that maybe it was time to return to school.

Living on my own again was not easy. I still couldn’t walk or write well. But I persevered. Sometimes I fell down. I used a tape recorder during lectures since I couldn’t write fast enough to take notes, and my professors gave me extra time to write exams. With the support of my family and professors, I did well and succeeded.

As graduation approached, a brilliant idea occurred to me. I remembered the great time I had in occupational therapy, and how I had been helped so much. Maybe I too could become an occupational therapist. I thought of how wonderful it would be to spend my life helping others just like I had been helped. I decided that yes, I would try, and so I applied to a master’s degree program in occupational therapy.

There were many more applicants than spots available, but much to my delight I was accepted into the program!

The program was so difficult and very competitive. But I worked hard and after two years became an occupational therapist.

That was 40 years ago, and I am still going strong. I have worked with literally thousands of patients during my career, from little 1-pound premature babies all the way up to 103 year-old patients in nursing homes, and everything in-between. I have loved every minute of it.

Occupational therapy is a flexible career with an abundance of interesting and meaningful jobs available. During my career, I traveled the world, met and married my husband, gave birth to and raised two beautiful children, and enjoyed my life!

I turned what could have been a terrible, frightening experience into something really wonderful.

Swapping phones

How does a rescuer deal with a person who has been cut in half by a truck and obviously will not survive, but is still alive?

Not a truck. A railroad train.

The kid had attempted to jump on a boxcar from a bridge.

He dropped instead between the cars and rolled onto a rail.

A wheel cut him in half at the belly, but at the same time sealed the wound.

He was fully conscious, and asked a rescue worker if he would be “OK.”

The first responder said, “Sure, son, you’ll be fine.”

Then his two halves unsealed, and his guts poured forth. He died.

Where?

In Cumberland, Maryland. Here:

Right behind my house, years ago.

What’s something you can’t believe you had to explain to another adult?

My sister-in-law once called me to borrow my fax machine. This was in the days before most people had computers and internet. She had a very important document that had to be faxed to a company showing proof of payment.

I took my fax machine to her house that night, hooked it up, walked her through the simple instructions and left.

She called me at work the next day in a panic. She said she had tried to send her document several times and it would not go. This was important, and she needed it sent right away. I was getting off early that day so I agreed to go by her house and help her with it.

When I arrived I checked the machine and connections and everything seemed fine. I told her to send it again so I could see what was going on. She did everything correctly and at the tone hit Send. The fax machine pulled the paper through and indicated a successful receipt at the other end. My sister-in-law grabbed the paper as it came back out of the machine and said, “See. It doesn’t go, it just spits it back out.” My jaw hit the floor. It turns out she thought the actual paper was being sent over the phone lines.

After I explained the concept to her, I let her know that this story would be told at every family get together for the rest of my life. It is now firmly a part of the family lore and enjoyed by each successive generation.

My sister-in-law fortunately took it in stride. She declared it her worst blonde moment and laughs as hard as anyone when the story is retold.

P.S. My sister-in-law did call the company still to confirm receipt. They told her they had four copies and that was absolutely sufficient.

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

Close? I accidentally found out I was going to be demoted which lead to me quitting.

In my 20s I worked at one of those places that made huge cookies, I was specifically hired by the manager to be the assistant manager, she’d worked with me as a key holder at another place so she knew I would be good at it. A few months after I was hired the owner sold the business.

One day I was hanging out with the Manager L when she got a call from one of the kids at cookie shop. “Hey L, the owner is in here with some chick he says is the new Manager, what’s going on?”

Too bad L had no answers for her, we had no damned idea what was happening. She and I jumped in the car and headed to the cookie shop to talk, in person, to the owner.

Sure enough, he was demoting L into Assistant and me into just a regular employee. Neither of us had done anything wrong, the new owner just planned to make this new lady a manager. He told us a bunch of BS saying she had experience bla bla… but we found out later she was actually just his girlfriend. We told him how messed up that was, and that both of us would quit if he planned to do this. He was unrepentant, even gaving us the whole “I’m sorry you feel you need an apology” line.

She and I looked at each other, got up and walked away.

Apparently he truly didn’t understand what had just happened because when he saw the kid who called us changing the schedule he was confused. When he was told by her we had just quit, he was completely stunned and didn’t understand why we would have done that. Dude, we literally told you to your face that’s what we’d do if you demoted us for no reason other than to put someone else in as manager, WTF did you think would happen?

Turns out the girlfriend was horrible as a manager, and the owner ended up folding in a few months. Funny how that happens when you take actions that force the people with a clue out, and put someone clueless in just because you are dating them. The two of us were the ones who knew how to run the store, knew how to run the fundraising side, which is where most of the money was made. He screwed himself by being an idiot.

Cajun Butt

Yield: about 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

1 (6 pound) boneless pork butt
15 to 20 garlic slivers
3 tablespoons red pepper flakes (or less)
4 tablespoons yellow mustard
3 tablespoons Tony Chachere’s Original Seasoning
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

Cut 15 to 20 slits 1 inch deep on external surface of pork butt. Press one garlic sliver into each slit with thumb, to bottom of slit. On top of each garlic sliver, insert 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes in the slit. Pinch slit closed.
In a bowl, mix mustard, Cajun seasoning, brown sugar and black pepper. Mix well and apply to pork butt. Lightly dust with a coating of red pepper flakes.
Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Smoke-cook using apple and hickory chips on a covered barbecue pit off the heat for 1 hour per pound or until the internal temperature reaches 190 degrees F.

What is the strangest way you have seen someone repair a broken object?

I drove around a 1988 Toyota Corolla when I was 16 years old.

It looked like this, only a lot more beat up and ugly:

The car had a habit of making strange noises, but there was one noise in particular that I just couldn’t deal with anymore.

I drove it over to my dad’s house to see if he could tell what the problem was.

Dad: “Oh that’s just your heat shield.”

Me: “My what?”

Dad: “It’s basically just there to keep stuff from catching on fire when you park somewhere.”

Me: “That sounds kind of important. Is it something that can be fixed?”

Dad: “Hmmm… Probably.”

My dad grabbed a stick from the yard, shoved it somewhere on the heat shield, and the noise magically stopped.

I thought that stick would eventually catch on fire, but it never did and the noise never came back.

There are some benefits to having a redneck dad.

What is one of the most effective improvised weapons made by soldiers in the field?

Perhaps one of the most effective improvised weapons was the Rhino tank. An ordinary tank – usually a Sherman but with improvised steel teeth welded to the front.

In 1944 just after D-Day the Americans, Canadians and British troops were getting held up in the ‘bocage’ countryside of Normandy. Bocage consisted of high hedgerows built on thick banks of earth. This environment proved ideal for German ambushes, providing plenty of defensive cover. It also meant that the Germans could pick off tanks because they would be funnelled down the lanes, or forced through the narrow gaps in the bocage hedgerows. The Germans knew exactly where the tanks would come through and could lay anti tank mines, or train their guns on that exact spot. If the tanks tried to avoid the gaps and instead drive over the top of bocage embankment, it was so steep that it would expose the thin underside armour. Allied tanks were getting wiped out. Until this man, Sergeant Curtis G. Culin had an idea.

When one of his fellow soldiers joked and said they needed a big set of teeth to bite their way through, Culin didn’t laugh but took the idea seriously. He welded some of the steel that the Germans had used as tank traps to the front of his tank, like this.

The teeth allowed the Sherman to burst straight through the hedgerow, surprise and then destroy any Germans waiting in ambush on the other side.

When General Omar Bradley saw what Culin had done and saw how his tank was able to smash its way though the bocage hedgerows, the General ordered that as many tanks as possible be fitted with this improvised weapon. The Normandy beaches had been filled with landing spikes which were conveniently just the right shape and type of steel to make the ‘teeth’.

This simple but effective innovation enabled the Americans to swiftly move on and cut off the Cotentin Peninsula and then move south and meet up with the British and Canadians cutting off the Germans in the Falaise Pocket.

What problems did you encounter when buying a house in an “as-is” condition?

I bought the house we are in now exactly 10 years ago in “as is” condition. In fact this was the entire listing:

“Seller and agents make no representations and warranties. Sold as is.”

The house is in a fairly upscale suburb, and was about 15 years old at the time. There was plenty of cosmetic damage — water damage on the hardwood floors, a filthy kitchen, holes in some drywall, a half-full leaky pool clogged with algae. Plus the interior and exterior were just sad looking, with ugly brown paint and outdated stained oak stairs.

But the funny thing was that no matter how carefully I looked, I could not see any actual serious problems. In fact, it was a bank repossession, and I eventually figured out that since it looked so bad they just assumed there were real problems, and they listed it the way they did to avoid any liability. Over 100 people looked at the house, and we were the only ones who put in an offer, and we got it way (way!) under the asking price, which is rare in Toronto.

I was planning on doing a full renovation anyhow, so I didn’t care about the drywall and flooring. The entire kitchen went in the dumpster. And for $600 we repaired the pool, and it worked perfectly.

I’ve been here for 10 years now and we have not had a single serious problem with the house.

I am sitting outside Quoraing this morning and I took this picture 60 seconds ago:

From the Agreement of Purchase and Sale:

What are the most mind-blowing tricks used during any war?

When you can’t destroy a target by dropping bombs vertically, you can drop them horizontally. That’s what the 617 Royal Air Force Squadron did in May 1943.

The squadron carried out Operation Chastise, designed to destroy German dams and hydroelectric power stations. Reconnaissance and simulated bombing runs revealed that bombs dropped vertically on top of dams were not effective. So instead, the RAF used an experimental bouncing bomb, designed by Sir Barnes Wallis, that was dropped at low altitude onto the surface of the reservoir and skipped along the water horizontally until it hit the face of the dam.

The strategy proved effective. “The Möhne and Edersee Dams were breached…Two hydroelectric power stations were destroyed and several more were damaged. Factories and mines were also either damaged or destroyed.”

Lancaster bomber dropping bouncing bomb during the Operation Chastise raids on Germany’s Ruhr Valley.

The operation was later the subject of the movie Dambusters, released in 1955.

West will choke on Putin’s terms for Ukraine

Discussion on the Ukraine surrender terms.

Who was the most delusional person you’ve ever met? Why were they so delusional?

I remember seeing a girl, her parents were millionaires due to a massive inheritance.

She would try and talk about her “Working class background” how the struggle was real.

One day she was telling me how her parents only bought her a brand new mini when she passed her test and how that went to show how much her family had struggled. One of her school friends got a brand new Range Rover.

I listened to that thinking “My Mum couldn’t have afforded a driving lesson let alone a car”

Have you ever felt disgusted by the actions of a family member?

My sister’s daughter and her husband were about to lose their house in Texas because neither of them had jobs, they had one very young daughter and were expecting another baby. My 80 year old mother couldn’t stand to watch this happen. So, she took out an equity loan on her house and lent them $100,000. They were supposed to make the equity payments for my mom, and at first they did and were supposed to pay the whole loan back when they sold their house.

A few months later, they sold their house but told my mother they needed her money as a down payment on their new house in california. So, they kept the money, and continued making the monthly payments until they had a big fight and split up. Suddenly, no one wanted to make the payments on my mother’s equity loan so my mother had to. If she couldn’t keep up on them, she would have lost her house.

She is now 85 years old, completely disabled, living on a tiny pension, and trying to pay off this loan. Since my niece split with her husband, they did not make payments on their house either. So, it went into foreclosure, and Mom cannot even put a lien on it to get her money back.

Needless to say, I am truly disgusted by my niece’s behavior as well as her husband’s. I have now sent my mother money; my sister has sent her money, and another one of my nieces has sent money. The only people in the family who do not seem to feel terrible about this are the two people who should.

How did one small decision change your life?

When i decided not to break up with my boyfriend at that moment.

I had just joined post graduation course and found this guy who was extremely caring about me. Within a month, he proposed me. I was confused however i said yes.

We use to talk, study and laugh together. However even after six months, i was not sure about our relationship.

AND Here comes the blow. He was back to his hometown. He was ill since a week. Meanwhile, i had a introspection round with my roommates. I found i was still unsure about our relationship. So i decided, on the next call, i will tell him that this is not the right time to fall in love etc., we should be friends only.

He called me around 8 PM. I was full prepared to say him a No. As soon as i picked the phone, he was crying on the other side. He was suffering from a fatal disease, Meningitis. I could not gather courage to leave him at this crucial moment. I just said, “I am with you today and always. No matter what happens.”

He was not in position to join college. His parents was insisting him to leave the college and repeat next time. He refused and joined the college next month. He had not recovered fully. In fact, he lost his hearing power around 40%. When he came back, he told me – how my words motivated him to join the college again. I took care of him. I used to call him reminding his medicines, diets etc. Meanwhile, i actually fell for him and then never told about that breakup thought.

Today, i am happily married with him.

P.S. I do not want my husband to know about my breakup thought even today. He is on quora. So i am writing anonymously.

What did you notice during an interview that made you not want the job?

I visited a radio station for an interview, at the station manager’s request. At the time I was somewhat “known” as a pleasing radio “personality” and therefore many stations wanted to talk to me.

Part of the interview process includes a station tour where the owner or manager shows off their office, production facilities, etc.

But at this particular station, I noticed all the shelved albums (well over a thousand) were locked in place by a steel bar which prevented their removal from the shelf, unless the bar was unlocked.

But who the Hell would steal the records? During business hours, when the station was open, advertisers or promoters might come in, but they were always accompanied by station staff, so visitors couldn’t steal an album (or even a 45). So, when the doors were locked after 5 PM, who did that leave as a potential thief?

Answer: the DJ who was on air, and the news guy or gal. Sometimes, the sales manager might come in.

So, the owner of the station was paranoid about theft from his or her own people! I had worked at a number of stations, and had never seen a lockdown of the music library. It had to mean that employees and top management were not happy with each other, and I was NOT going to work in that kind of environment.

Thus, I stopped in my tracks and said, “Thanks for the tour, but I don’t think this will work for me.” And I was out the door before anyone could say, “Huh?”

What’s the pettiest thing you’ve done to get back at a nuisance neighbor?

Years ago, I lived in an apartment in a two-family building. Upstairs and downstairs.

The landlord had rented the downstairs to a woman and her three teenage kids. They were obnoxious, had fights constantly, played music so loud it literally shook the walls, and despite multiple complaints by other neighbors to the landlord and the police (because yes it was that bad), nothing was done.

While technically, landlords are supposed to do snow clearing after a snow fall, getting some landlords to do so in a timely manner is more effort than digging out the snow yourself. This was one such landlord.

That winter we had a bad snow storm, a few feet of snow.

The downstairs neighbor knocked on my door to ask when I, the older woman with no kids, would be shoveling out the apartments and driveway, all of it, by myself.

I told her I wouldn’t, but we could split the cost to have someone come over and do it since the landlord was extra full of excuses as to why it would take days to get to the property and do so.

She laughed and said she wasn’t paying. She then told me I was welcome to hire her 3 kids to dig out the entire property. Her kids were a big part of the problem as to why the cops were coming over constantly, and so no. I’d previously had problems with her children opening my mail and putting it back in my mail box or opening deliveries of mine. There was no way I’d pay them.

Oh hell no, first you expect someone older than you to do the work for free, then expect that I will pay your kids, who are apparently perfectly able to do so, to dig YOU out? Fuck that.

A friend’s husband was offering to dig people out for a reasonable rate. I contacted him and hired him. When he got there, I explained the neighbor issue and what I wanted and was willing to pay for. He was only to clear out MY half of the driveway/garage/sidewalk. Her sides were still untouched, because no one(Me) would pay her kids to do it.

He went the extra mile, splitting the snow between the yard, and her side, of everything. AKA her side ended up with more snow that needed to be cleared.

This level of petty

Picture from Google.

She complained to the landlord that:

1. I refused to shovel her side of the property for her and her family (I was not obligated to do ANY property maintenance at all)

2. I had refused to hire her kids to do it

3. I had hired someone and refused to pay him to clear her side.

Now this was a kinda shitty landlord, but still… I was amused that the landlord contacted me about it and agreed to reduce my rent the amount I paid to have MY side cleared, as well as tell me about the downstairs neighbor’s complaints about me.

Until I moved out, whenever there was snowfall, you would see a similar clearing pattern on the property. SO much so the other neighbors joked about it, and refused to hire her kids to clear their properties as well.

EDIT: Apparently there are a large number of people who feel the need to comment about how she could just use my side of the stairs as if I lack a functioning brain. Seriously, the level of condescending ‘splaining in the comments is a sad statement on so many here. Thanks all you Captain Obvious’.

Of course she could, as could the postal worker who had to use them to deliver mail(Something not one of those commenting about her using the stairs seemed to consider).

Her being able to use them or not wasn’t the point. So many of you making the same comment as if the more of you who say it, the more I will regret it, or as if I didn’t realize that years ago when I did it is mind-boggling.

For those clueless ones that feel the need to comment the obvious, you all missed the obvious point that it wasn’t about her use of the stairs, but the refusal to clear her side on her command.

What’s something your husband did to you that you will never forget?

My partner (not my husband). My mother had been really sick from cancer for 18 months, we were told that she was unlikely to make it past the weekend. With that being said I was completely distraught… my partner of 9 years said pack your stuff and leave first thing in the morning (400km drive). He woke me up at 430 am, had already packed the car and fueled it up for me. Had a travel mug of coffee ready and said call me when you get there. I left 5am Friday morning.

mum passed 8am Saturday morning (the next day). I called my partner and told him, he said I’ll move heaven and hell to get there as soon as I can. I said, don’t worry, there is nothing you can do, just be here in time for mums funeral (the upcoming Friday).

in the mean time, it was my birthday 4 days after mum had passed. My family tried to make it as special as it could be. But, it was quite a somber occasion. At 8pm, there were headlights at the top of the drive way (rural property). I know the sound of his car. I’m like it’s *partners name.

he had worked 12 hour shift (construction) then drove 400km to be with me in my darkest time to help me feel better on my birthday. In the days after mums passing I had not been able to sleep, or cry or anything but just barely function. I slept solidly that night.

I know most would say that or like to think their spouse would do the same. But, that level of love and support got me through my darkest days. Love this man so very much.

The USA is so filthy rich to fund $100+B to Ukraine and $14B to Israel to support their wars but they can’t agree in Congress to avert a government shutdown this Friday, lifeline extended since 30 Sep. Where is the America First mindset?

Unfortunately, this is the point. The U.S. is not filty rich but filty poor.

All those money for Ukraine and Israel we got by using the printing press. We’re now $33 trillion in debt.

We can’t pay for basic utilities to keep our house in order but we believe we’re still able to live the high life of showing off to the rest of the world how powerful we are.

Strange things caught on camera

How did Genghis Khan treat his soldiers?

Genghis Khan, the legendary Mongol conqueror, had a unique approach when it came to treating his soldiers. Known for his strategic brilliance and military prowess, Khan understood the importance of a strong and loyal army in his quest to build the largest empire in history. So how did he treat his soldiers?

First and foremost, Genghis Khan believed in meritocracy. He valued skill, loyalty, and bravery above all else. Regardless of their background or social status, anyone who demonstrated these qualities had the opportunity to rise through the ranks of his army. This approach fostered a sense of unity and purpose among his soldiers, as they knew that their achievements would be rewarded.

Khan was also an astute observer of human nature. He recognized that soldiers needed to be motivated and inspired to fight with unwavering dedication. To achieve this, he led by example. Genghis Khan was renowned for his courage on the battlefield, often placing himself at the forefront of his troops during crucial engagements. This not only boosted morale but also instilled a sense of camaraderie and trust among his soldiers.

In addition to leading from the front, Khan took great care of his troops’ physical well-being. He ensured that his soldiers were adequately fed, equipped, and cared for. The Mongol army was known for its skilled horsemen, and Khan prioritized the breeding and training of horses to provide his soldiers with superior mounts. This gave them a significant advantage in maneuverability and speed during battles.

Furthermore, Genghis Khan implemented a system of rewards and recognition for valorous acts. Soldiers who displayed exceptional bravery or achieved notable successes on the battlefield were given honors, titles, and even land. This not only motivated his soldiers to excel but also created a sense of pride and camaraderie within the ranks.

However, Khan was also a strict disciplinarian. He demanded discipline and obedience from his soldiers, as he believed that a well-disciplined army was crucial for maintaining order and achieving victory. Disobedience or betrayal was met with severe consequences, ensuring that his troops remained loyal and committed to the cause.

Woman EXPOSES The INEVITABLE Problem With Dating Modern Women | TRAINED/GROOMED To Be Masculine

What is the most ridiculous way you have seen someone make a lot of money?

I was in talks to design a business plan for one of those “Become a Millionaire” guys – aka a “Life Coach”.

As we moved along in talks I immediately got the heeby jeebies from the guy.

He was in his late 50’s and only seemed to brag about things he did in high school and his early 20’s. When I would ask about subsequent years, just to understand his career narrative, he would get thin on details and then squirm and change the subject.

So then I watched a few of his media interviews where his go-to story was about this incredible and vivid vision that came upon him when he was a child. A vision that he would someday become rich.

To his credit, it indeed came true. He was a wealthy man.

But it became true because he inherited his dad’s company when his dad passed away unexpectedly. He then immediately sold the company and spent the next 30 years doing a whole lot of nothing.

So now he is one of those people going around telling everyone he knows “that ONE special secret to getting rich”. He released his first book on becoming wealthy, which a bunch of unfortunate suckers bought.

And, no, I won’t tell you the title because he will sue the hell out of me.

But I’ll give you the cliff notes version, “Get rich by having a rich dad.”

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there that are like him.

Preying on people’s hopes and dreams in search of a dollar.

Can the United States build a new carrier group every five years for the next fifty years?

The American industrial system does not have such production capacity.

American shipyards do not have such production capacity: There is only a dry dock suitable for manufacturing aircraft carriers, and aircraft carriers waiting for repair are still queuing;
The steel mills in the United States do not have such production capacity: The last scandal involving the use of low-quality steel made in Kobe, Japan, by US nuclear submarines has not yet passed. This batch of nuclear submarines with quality issues cannot dive at all, and diving into deep water will explode due to increased pressure. American warships are even unable to withstand the impact of fishing vessels, which fully proves the quality issues of the steel used in their shipbuilding.
There are not enough skilled workers in the United States

20 And Back – The Super Soldiers Defending the Kuiper Belt

Another fun video.

Is it a crime to say in China, “Xi Jinping is destroying China. He must be kicked out! He is a dictator!”? In the West, saying such things about one’s president is perfectly normal.

Joe Biden is taking the World to the brink of World War III

What can the American people do about it?

SQUAT

…

Until 19/1/2025 at least, there is nothing any American citizen can do about it except watch the World plunge into war under the watch of a senile idiot who needs Diapers

So what is the use of saying

Biden is destroying USA and he must be kicked out

It’s just empty gas isn’t it. It’s just 10 words at the end of the day. Biden laughs and keeps doing whatever he likes for four years, unchecked

…

Same with every Democracy in the Planet

At the end of the day – WHAT IS THE END RESULT OF ABUSING OR CRITICISING THE LEADER?

Nothing

Either the Media suppresses it or people shrug and brazenly keep doing what they are doing

…

Take India

We have had Protests on every decision that has ruined the country

Demonetization, CAA, NCR etc

They matter Squat

Once in, Modi is in power for minimum 5 years and he can’t be shaken by the common man

…

France?

Same story

All those Protests and Screams and Shrieks about Pension reforms and Macron did exactly what he wanted

He is in charge till 2027

…

Same with South Korea , exports plunge to historic lows and people scream and protest but does it matter? Nopes

Taiwan?

Japan?

Germany?

So many protests begging to end the war and Germany openly and brazenly calls for Escalation

So what is the use of this damn free speech? You can say the words but they are worthless in every possible way

Now China

Yes

Maybe in China, saying these 10 words could be counter productive

However the people’s voice in China is heard much better than in any democracy

Lockdowns were ended post protests
Rural Banking Reforms were initiated after Protests
Crackdowns on Real Estate Financing was initiated after Protests
1.03 Crore Jobs have been added due to vigorous Weibo Netizen criticism
Tagging Schoolkids Or regulating online gaming has been deferred due to Weibo online protests

Plus the Biggest Biggest Thing…

Recently on the XI Jingping app, they asked if Chinas History for 6–9 Classes be modified and whether Chapters on the Boxer Rebellion and the Opium Wars had to be reduced

The Question was asked of Students who had already passed out their 9th Grade and above

79% Students said NO.

DON’T CHANGE HISTORY

They didn’t.

…

In India, US, and all those wonderful democracies – they don’t ask the kids do they????

So on one hand you have Western Democracies and their lapdogs where you can say what ever you want but can do zilch

Or China where your criticism must be tempered but as citizens you can achieve much greater control on Governance

The Chinese say WE LIKE OUR MODEL BETTER

I kinda agree with them

So you keep your Senile Alzheimer’s Ridden President and your ‘Freedom and Democracy’ and let the Chinese have their own version

Perceptions on making money

What would you consider a legitimate Italian cuisine that the US actually gets right?

I think you might want to edit the question to ask which item from Italian cuisine does the US actually get right.

Italian American cuisine is a cuisine in its own right. Millions of Italians immigrated to America and they adapted their traditional dishes to use American ingredients. Some of the ingredients they used at home were unavailable or too expensive in America, so changes were made. Successive generations didn’t know there was a difference between what they were eating and what was being cooked in the old country. They just accepted the food their families prepared as being Italian cuisine, which at heart, it is.

There’s a lot of water between America’s East Coast, the epicenter of Italian American cuisine, and the old boot herself. It’s that distance that led the creation of Italian American classics. If I had to point at one item the made the leap unmolested though, I’d name Sfogliatelle.

Sfogliatelle are a flaky pastry that originated in Campania. They’re made by rolling out dough, brushing it with lard or oil, rolling it up, cutting it into portions, shaping the pastry, filling it and baking. Sfogliatelle can be baked unfilled or filled with sweetened ricotta, almond paste or candied citrus zest. They’re simple to make and don’t call for any exotic ingredients. It’s the thin flakey layers that make sfogliatelle unique.

Ricotta filled:

If you’ve never tried these pastries, seek them out. They’re amazing and their recipe has not been molested by time or distance.

The 80/20 rule

Why is a partner at a Chinese semiconductor investment fund calling the U.S. ban on certain chip exports to China “great news”?

It’s simple

Today YMTC makes products that are maybe 75% as good as NVDIA

Other Chinese Entities make products that are around 60% of the quality of products of entities like Samsung & SK Hynix

Spending $ 100 on NVDIA chips means $ 88 goes to US or Taiwan or other such companies

Spending $ 100 on YMTC chips means $ 61 comes to Mainland China

That’s 5 times more money than otherwise

And these Companies, they won’t use this extra revenue and put in a Swiss Bank account somewhere

They will use this money to invest into more researchers, more hours and match the same quality of the superior western brands

Today there is a vast stockpile in China to handle maybe 30 months of inventory

That gives a transition gap of approximately 2 1/2 years or until 2027 January

This is a big boost to the Chinese local entities because you can’t rely on Government largesse for ever

What robbed you of your childhood, and how?

Life robbed me of my childhood. My parents had to quit school after grade 9 to help support their families. They vowed that my brother and I would not be barred from finishing school and going to University.

But we were poor, so they had no way to pay for it. So they propped me early. I knew by grade six that if I wanted to go to university, I would have to pay for it myself.

So in grade 8, I started mowing lawns and shoveling snow.

In grade 9 I got a part time job and worked 20 hours a week, in grade 10 ,30 hours, and grades 11 and 12 it was 40 hours. I graduated first in my class. I lived in a 10×14 ft room, with a roommate and the bathroom, was down the hall. I worked in the dorm cafeteria. When summer came I got a camp job, where I worked 360–380 hours a month, and they also paid room and board.

This was the way I graduated from university debt free.

So, as soon as I turned 13, I stopped having a childhood, and had an adulthood instead. So much for life being easy for baby boomers.

I’d do it all over again in a heart beat. Its what it took to break the cycle of poverty.

What is your most embarrassing restaurant experience?

I was bar tending during a lunch shift at a horseshoe shaped bar in the middle of a restaurant.

The bartender who closed the bar the previous night did not shut off the hose inside the bar.

Unbeknown to me, the nozzle had fallen off the hook and was resting right under the service bar, where I was making drinks.

About 30 minutes into the lunch rush I had a full bar and a miles worth of service bar drinks to make.

All I remember is hearing yelling and commotion coming from my right, yet continue slave away as I had a million and one things to do.

Finally, hearing a “WHAT THE F*#K IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” towards my direction I turned to see the hose dousing half the restaurant in water.

I had been stepping on the nozzle for at least 30-45 seconds.

The entire left side of the restaurant, it’s customers, the food, everything was drenched in water.

Everyone who had food, had it ruined, men in business suits… soaked.

Water was literally dripping off the ceiling.

Looking back it was kind of awesome to see around 100 people all giving you the rageface all at the same time.

What is something that people were better at 100 years ago?

Because I am 71, I knew people who were in their prime of life a hundred years ago (1918) and there were definitely things that they did easily and routinely that are rarely done today:

Baking bread and caramel rolls. My grandmother learned it from her mother but did not pass it on to her daughters, probably because sliced store bread had essentially taken over.
Writing cursive and writing letters. I have saved some of my grandfather’s letters. For a person with an eighth grade education, he wrote simply but beautifully.
Sewing and mending. My grandmother was not wealthy, but she was capable of producing wonderful pajamas for all of her grandchildren on her trusty Singer. My generation has lost the ability to create heirlooms.
Gardening and canning the things they grew. In an era when you were not going to see fresh fruit or vegetables in stores after growing season, people developed great preservation skills. Things like pickles, berries, tomatoes were canned as were peaches and plums when in season. I do not remember kale or zucchini, however, and that was also a blessing.
Memory work. I grew up with great uncles and aunts (all born about 1900) who had memorized massive amounts of poetry and famous speeches as well as scripture. Rote learning was fairly normal in their education, so they did group memorization. We loved to hear their recitations.

I miss those folks. They just slipped away one at a time between the seventies and today.

What was the bravest thing you ever did in a job interview?

This wasn’t me, this was my wife. She is a lawyer and was interviewing for a job managing the sale of properties. She was interviewing at a firm that specialised in really expensive and tricky sales and when she turned up to the interview she was told by the recruiter that the partners had told the last two people who were interviewed to leave midway through so they were quite abrupt!

She went to the interview, which went quite well, and they asked her to prepare an answer to a legal sale question. When she looked at it, she knew she had no hope: it was madly complicated and about a type of property sale that is known to be horrendous to do. She thought about trying to brazen it off and decided to be honest and say she had no idea.

It turned out the partners knew from looking at her CV she would have no idea about how to do it; it was something so complex the partner himself had had to do it himself. What they were trying to do was see how she reacted to something she didn’t know. The last two people interviewed had tried to make something up and so failed the test.

They offered her the job on the spot!

Have you, while repairing a computer, ever found anything that made your jaw drop?

I was nowhere qualified as a computer tech but one time a friend of mine brought over a a desktop machine and keyboard and asked me to see if I could get it running as it wouldn’t boot up. Every time you’d plug in the power cord to the wall socket a strange odor would start permiating from the cover. I figured something was wrong with the power supply, which if push came to shove I could’ve probably went to an electronics supply store and bought another one and installed it. I was adept at soldering and replacing some common components at the time, which is why my friend thought that I could fix it.

Anyhoo, I removed the screws holding the cover to the unit, lifted the cover off and got the most absolute shock of my life!! Hundreds of live cockroaches start running out all over everywhere not to mention many more that were obviously dead inside that cover!

I came unglued along with a major panic attack! I’d never, ever had to deal with roaches after I became an adult. I despised them because while growing up my family and I always had a major problem with roaches and they were always into everything and would drop from the ceiling when you went into a room after turning on lights, etc etc etc.

I spent 2 hours stomping on and smashing roaches trying to prevent them from getting into places in my apartment where I couldn’t reach and in the long run wasn’t successful. Ended up moving out to get away from them making sure in the process that I didn’t inadvertently take any with me.

I was not happy with my friend. It caused a major, almost homicidal argument with him and it would be several years before we spoke again. The creepiness and ick factor of watching those roaches pile out of that machine that day still haunts me to this day.

Huawei refused to disclose its foundry information, sending the Biden team into madness.

Mama! Huawei is not giving me his data!

What is the saddest truth about smart people?

Let’s talk about smart children. Particularly smart children in the United States. Particularly those in grades K-8 at a public school.

A lot of you reading this are, yourself, a product of the American public school system. Think back to your K-8 years. Do you remember people whose only job was to deal with the students with behavior problems? Were there “special education” teachers who had special classrooms with aides and all kinds of equipment for just a handful of students? Do you remember being bored a lot in school, because your teacher didn’t have the time to challenge you, because they were so busy re-teaching things to the students who didn’t get it the first time? Do you remember a handful of students who seemed to set the pace for the whole class, and that pace was much, much too slow for you? Do you remember a handful of students whose attitudes and behavior set the tone for the whole class? And was that a negative tone that left your teacher spending most of their time dealing with that small handful of students?

That was my experience, at least. In grades 4–8, I was one of about 20 students in a special gifted program in my school. But that gifted “program” was just two teachers who were given a spare classroom in five schools in the district, and they went to a different school every day of the week, and pulled out the gifted students from their classes for an hour, to play logic games with them.

One hour per week. That’s what we got.

Meanwhile, the students on the other end of the spectrum had resources thrown at them, including permanent classrooms with full-time teachers for students whose only “special need” was that they didn’t give a damn about learning.

I remember one incident in particular, when I realized just how much time my teachers wasted trying to get one particular student under control. His name was Anthony. One day, in seventh grade, we were learning about feudal Japan by playing a game where we were all on teams, given items to trade, and could use money we made to hire soldiers, and then there was a huge map of Japan on the wall, separated into regions, with the number of regions under each team’s control represented by different colored push pins.

My team started in Osaka. To this day, I know exactly where Osaka is because of this game back in 1992. I remember that we were the blue team, our main thing to trade was fish, and we began with five pushpin armies.

Also Judith was in my group, which made it even that much more enjoyable for me. She was forced to interact with me for a few minutes each day because of this.

It was a computer-less strategy game. I loved it. The game was supposed to last for a few weeks.

It lasted two days. On the third day, Anthony vandalized the giant game board, and some of his friends laughed. And that was it. The teacher was tired of putting in so much effort for something that students like Anthony just kept ruining. We did the rest of the unit, and every unit afterwards for the rest of the year, through textbook reading and worksheets.

But, as I thought about it, I realized that Anthony had been that way since he was first in my class in second grade. He was always out of control. He always set the pace and the tone for the class. In middle school, he got kicked out of class a lot, which just wasted a lot of time because he rarely went willingly and they had to call and wait for security. But he was always back in the class the next day. He just needed to “chill out.”

That was actually the name of the kick-out room for students like him: the “chill out room.”

I just Googled him and found a story that he was sentenced to six years in prison in 2004 for “domestic battery, drug possession, and forgery.”

Yep. All of that extra time, effort, and money the public school spent on him… how’d that work out?

That would be fine, if the public schools spent the same amount of time, effort, and money on the upper end of the spectrum.

My point is this: What’s the saddest truth about smart people? Public schools just aren’t equipped to deal with your special needs, because they’re too busy dealing with the special needs of students on the other end of the spectrum. The very people who have the most potential to give the most back to society are the same ones who school prioritizes the least.

Imagine a school system where every dollar spent on students on the lower end of the special needs spectrum had to be matched by a dollar for students on the higher end of the spectrum.

Imagine if, just like schools have resources in place for when the teachers need to kick out the Anthonys of the world, those same schools had resources for teachers to send out the students who were too smart for that day’s lesson.

“Timmy, you can read this and learn it on your own in five minutes, but I’m going to be teaching it to the rest of the class for the next hour. You can go to the gifted resource room and work with the teacher there on more advanced stuff.”

Imagine if, just as schools pay extra attention to students with special needs due to federal laws and fears of getting sued, schools did the same for students on the high end of the spectrum. Imagine if parents could threaten a lawsuit because the school wasn’t meeting the needs of their child… the legally-mandated requirement that the school challenge them on their academic level and not let their classmates hold them back.

Imagine how high your hot air balloon could be now, if not for the classroom sandbags that weighed you down when you were in school.

Instead of “No Child Left Behind,” it should be “No Child Forced To Wait.”

Gavin Newsom goes to China, one-ups Biden and meets Xi Jinping

“As a Californian, I can tell you that not only is Newsom not acceptable to the rest of America, California is not acceptable to the rest of America”.

How likely is China going to sell $810 billion worth of U.S. securities? What will happen in the global credit markets if China starts to dump U.S. dollars?

It is likely that China will sell virtually all of its remaining U.S. Treasuries.

It is useful to look at Russia’s experience in this regard. Russia sold virtually all of its Treasuries in 2018, fairly quickly. At that time, Russia encouraged the world to dump U.S. Treasury bonds. Thus, it is possible for a country to officially not hold Treasuries.

After 2018, Russia continued to hold some foreign currency reserves in U S. dollars. When the Ukraine War started in 2022, the United States and its allies froze hundreds of billions of dollars held by Russia.

As a result, the world has been forced to look elsewhere to store its savings. Both China and Russia are storing much of their wealth in physical gold. Other countries are doing the same. The planet is also increasingly doing business in currencies other than the dollar.

As a result of these trends, China will increasingly no longer need U.S. Treasuries to do business. In October 2023, China bought its first oil for Chinese Yuan. If this continues, China will get its oil for free, by printing Yuan. America will be forced to trade hard goods for oil in the future.

America’s leaders were very short-sighted to weaponize the dollar. A global reserve currency requires trust. The United States had a money-making machine, and voluntarily gave it up.

FLASH TRAFFIC ADDED – TURKISH NAVY DEPLOYING 100 SHIPS AGAINST ISRAEL –~FIFTY (50) U.S. Military Transport Planes in 24 Hours to Middle East

World Hal Turner

FLASH TRAFFIC ADDED – SEE 12:27 PM EDT UPDATE BELOW —— From Friday-into-Saturday, the United States sent no fewer than fifty (50) military transport planes loaded with troops to the Middle East. In addition, the list below shows “unprecedented” naval deployments. Today, Iran said they WILL NOT abide U.S. warnings to stay out of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

We begin with Naval Deployments into the Middle East showing 11 Countries in Support of Israel:

All of the above, along with Submarines and other support ships show an utterly massive naval deployment. I am told this present deployment is larger than the ones done prior to the US war(s) against Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 1991 and again later.

In addition to all the above vessels, another Aircraft Carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth II, transited the Strait of Gibraltar yesterday morning around 11:00 AM, enroute to the eastern Mediterranean:

In addition to THAT additional aircraft carrier, the Navy of Italy is also now deploying vessels:

AIR

In the 24 hours period from Friday into Saturday, the United States flew 49+ military transport aircraft from the US to the Middle East, carrying TROOPS!

https://halturnerradioshow.com/images/2023/10/28/US-Military-transport-Flights-Fri-into-Sat.jpg

On top of those troop transport flights, a Significant number of C-17A Globemaster lll and C-5M Super Galaxy Transport Aircraft from the U.S. Air Force’s Air Mobility Command have been arriving in the Middle East.

The flight info above DOES NOT even cover the regular commercial airline flights the US has chartered to exclusively move troops!

Yesterday, Saturday 28 October 2023, Germany put 1,000 soldiers on alert for deployment to the Middle East in case of emergency The German Army keeps 1,000 troops on alert for possible deployment to the Middle East in case of emergency, given the prevailing tension in the region as a result of the war between Hamas and Israel.

This flight from Fort Sill, OK has my attention at the moment. Fort Sill is home to a THAAD battery and this flight appears to be headed overseas. There are no helpful ACARS for this flight, but this is possibly a THAAD battery flight enroute to Saudi Arabia:

https://halturnerradioshow.com/images/2023/10/28/THAAD-flight-to-Saudi-Arabia.jpg

At about 1:47 AM eastern US Time Sunday, which was about 11:00 AM in Tehran, Iran, the President of Iran said Tehran will not follow US warnings against interfering in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. According to the Press service of the President of Iran: “Israel has crossed red lines, forcing everyone to take action.”

The President made it a point to also say “the presence of U.S warships in the region will make no difference to Tehran’s decision.”

Hal Turner Analysis

Based solely upon the movement of ships, troops, and planes, it is obvious to me the United States is going to war. A big war.

Trouble is the federal government under the Biden Regime has intentionally left the US southern border with Mexico, virtually open. Literally millions of illegal aliens have been entering the country via Mexico since Biden took office.

It is my opinion that many – but not all – of these illegal aliens are a “5th Column” sent here by adversaries to be “sleeper cells.” I believe that when war erupts in the Middle East, that WE HERE IN THE USA will also be attacked by these sleeper cells.

YOU must be ready with emergency food, water, medicine, a generator to make electric in case the grid is taken down. Have CASH MONEY in your possession incase cyber attacks take out the financial networks, making credit, debit, and SNAP/EBT useless. After all, almost no one takes checks anymore. So folks with cash will eat. Those without cash will go hungry.

The utterly massive movement of troops and weapons indicates to me that hostilities are imminent. Which could — and I emphasize “could” (not necessarily “will”) — trigger sleeper cell attacks here in America.

If you wait until trouble starts, then YOU and every other person who failed to plan, will all be rushing to stores at the same time trying to get food and supplies. In short order, store shelves will be empty and those of you who took no action, will find yourself standing in an empty store.

Don’t be like “the masses who are asses” that wait until the last minute to get supplies. Do it right now. Today.

And gas-up your cars, trucks, and spare gas cans for your generator.

Lastly, have COMMUNICATIONS GEAR – a CB or a HAM (Shortwave) radio — so if things go wild weasel, and communications like phone, fax, email, cellular/Internet all go down, at least YOU will be able to communicate locally (CB) and hear international news on shortwave (HAM).

Of course, some of you will say that this story and its advice is sort of like “Chicken Little, the sky is falling.” To those who would scoff I merely point out that, this morning, a U.S. E-6 Nuclear Command Post is now flying over the US East Coast:

The E-6B Mercury is a communications relay and strategic airborne command post aircraft. It provides survivable, reliable, and endurable airborne Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) for the president, secretary of defense and U.S. Strategic Command.

So it isn’t just ME telling you to take steps to prepare, it’s the US Military, too. Take the hint!

(PERSONAL: Sorry my coverage today begins at this late hour of 11:00 AM EDT. I slept-in this morning. Didn’t wake up until 9:25 AM. I was literally exhausted.)

********** FLASH ***********

UPDATE 12:27 PM EDT —

The Turkish Navy is, right now, transiting ONE-HUNDRED Naval Warships through the Bosporus Strait from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.

It is BELIEVED Turkey plans to engage Israel over its ongoing military action in Gaza. War may break out between Turkey and Israel within Hours! ! ! !

What was a big mistake in WW2?

This is the Lorenz cipher.

Unlike its better known relative, the Enigma machine which was infamously deciphered by code-breakers at Bletchley Park throughout the war, the Lorenz cipher posed a much greater challenge. Utilising 12 wheels to scramble up the message being sent as opposed to the 3 or 4 rotors found in the Enigma machine, the Lorenz cipher was incredibly secure. As a result, unlike the Enigma that was used by the German standard armed forces, the Lorenz cipher was used only by high command with messages coming from Hitler himself. As a result, to crack the Lorenz cipher (or Tunny as it was code named by the British) would have the potential to change the course of the war.

Not much headway had been made in breaking the Lorenz cipher through the war until a German operator made a catastrophic mistake on 30 August 1941. When a German receiving operator did not receive a message correctly, he asked the transmitter to resend the information and despite clear protocol against it, the two operators resent the message without changing their key settings (the settings that determine how the text is scrambled up). However since the message in question was 4000 characters long, the lazy German operator abbreviated several words, thus changing the length of the message. Since their key settings were both the same, the two messages had the same scrambling pattern of characters. Thus by comparing the locations where the message text changed, details of the way the rotors worked could be determined.

These two messages were intercepted by the British who soon realised the importance of what they had discovered. This task of cracking Tunny was given to W T (Bill) Tutte who began to find repetitions in the cipher which allowed him to reverse engineer the Lorenz machine’s logical structure in what would be later described as “one of the greatest intellectual feats of World War II”. In order to support the painstaking decryption of German messages, the British Colossus was built in 1943 by Tommy Flowers, the first ever modern computer.

The Colossus Machine

The impact of the decryption of Tunny was enormous. It gave the British intimate details of Hitler’s most secret communications which was most notably vital in D Day where the Allies were able to deceive the Germans that they were going to attack at Calais as opposed to Normandy and at the Battle of Kursk in 1943, Germany’s last ditch attempt to reverse their fortunes on the Eastern Front and one of the largest battles in history. Involving 3 million men, without foreknowledge of German planning provided by the British, the Soviets would have been badly prepared defensively and could have lost this crucial battle and as a result, the war would’ve been prolonged. In fact, historians estimate that the breaking of the Lorenz cipher shortened the war by two years and thus saved millions of lives all due to the careless mistake of two lazy German operators.

However this pivotal event is not well known due to the Official Secrets Act keeping the nature of the code breakers working to break the Lorenz cipher secret until 1974 and some former staff even today still refuse to break their vow of secrecy, preferring to take their knowledge to the grave.

W T (Bill) Tutte, the man responsible for cracking the Lorenz Cipher

Cajun Pot Roast

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) beef sirloin or chuck roast
2 large garlic cloves, cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
3 cayenne chiles, or jalapeno chiles, cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
1 large onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 (4 ounce) can whole or sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Creole seasoning to taste

Instructions

Cut 1/2 to 3/4 inch slits into beef. Stuff one piece of garlic and one piece of chile into each slit. Season the roast with salt and pepper.
Heat a large nonstick pan over medium heat. Add beef and brown well on all sides.
Add onion, bell pepper and minced garlic land sauté until tender.
Add water to pan to cover the beef.
Stir in the mushrooms and Worcestershire sauce and season with Creole seasoning.
Simmer, covered, for 3 to 4 hours or until tender, adding more water if needed to keep liquid level halfway up the beef.

Notes

You may stir 1 tablespoon flour mixed with 1 cup cold water into liquid near end of cooking for a thicker gravy.

Who did you experience that is so cheap they are disgusting?

I broke off a 10 year off and on relationship over a single piece of gum.

He and I weren’t on great terms for a long while. It was mostly out of his cheapness. He wouldn’t take me out to eat-we ate at his place. That wouldn’t have been bad except that he bought cheap items and used foods that had expired. I told him I wasn’t eating his cooking anymore, thank you. We watched TV but only shows he liked-he didn’t want to waste his time on my shows. I could watch them at my place.

Things were coming to a head and I knew the next fight we had would be the last. It was November when he called me and asked me to come over and fix his computer. I wasn’t in the best of moods-I finally had a free afternoon with the kids out with their father and I had things to do. Ok, I decided I would go over and see if I could do something to help. I got there and he already told me I had just an hour to get things right. Perfect start-no thanks for coming over, great to see you, etc.

He offered me a piece of gum. I haven’t chewed gum in years because it sticks to my dental work, and he knew it. Why was he offering me gum-was my breath stinky? After I thought about it for a moment, I took a piece. I didn’t even get it open when he started to yell at me-why is everything in your life a big decision? Don’t waste my gum-either take it or don’t! I paid money for that!

I immediately put the gum back on the table. He flips out again-you touched it not you don’t want it! What’s the matter with you? With me? I don’t chew gum, not in years! You knew that! I thought you were hinting my breath stunk so I took a piece of gum. Now you don’t want me to take the gum! Why don’t you make up YOUR mind?

He immediately moved my tech bag away from his computer and began to work on his computer. Don’t you want me to do that? No. You asked me to cone down here to help you, now you don’t want me to help you? Silence. Are we really going to have a fight about a piece of gum after I wasted my time and gas to come here? Silence.

I sat on the couch for a few minutes. I could have just stormed out the door. I wanted to compose myself and make it clear what would happen. I told him that I have spent 10 years doing for him, taking care of him when he was sick, lent him things like my cell phone and my car, then paid the repairs when he broke them and he never paid me back. I have put up with all this, and if we didn’t resolve what was really going on, I was leaving and not coming back. All I got was silence. Are we really going to break up over a damned piece of gum? Silence.

I picked up my things and I left. I never went back. I blocked his number from my cell phone. I had a feeling I knew what happened because he did it to me before. He used to get moody around Thanksgiving time and lots of times we broke up so he could avoid my birthday in December and Christmas/Chanukah/Valentines Day. He used to call around March to renew our friendship but his birthday was in April and he really wanted a present. I just had enough of his childishness, his cheapness and his abusive control. It was just one fight too many and I was done.

He did email me the following April-after I sent nothing for his birthday. I emailed him back that I told him that after our last fight, I was done and I wanted nothing more to do with him. He replied that he forgot what we fought about, and I told him that it was over a piece of gum. Then I blocked his email.

He called from another phone the following September, demanding I stop being stupid and get back together. What a lovely invitation, no woman can resist that, I answered. Then he threatened me. I told him to come over and try to f*** me up. I had an old lead pipe my father had and it had his name on it. I told him I’ll invite my neighbors to watch me smear him all over the street. My temper broke and I told him about the horrible things he did to me over the years. He finally said “I guess you’re mad at me, huh?” I hung up and blocked his new number too.

He attempted to contact me a few times through his friends but I told them I would go to the police and file harassment charges. He finally moved out of New York City-he attempted to contact me from his mother’s home in Tennessee. I blocked that too. He’s been blocked in every social media site so I don’t have to deal with him.

He had 10 years to grow up and apologize. The words aren’t in his vocabulary. I know the piece of gum wasn’t the reason our relationship ended-it was years of my giving and him taking and never appreciating what he got. But that stupid piece of gum was the catalyst. To this day, when I see a pack of Wrigley’s gum, I still smirk with amused disgust.

What did you say at a job interview that automatically landed you the job?

“I don’t know”

I interviewed for a support engineering role, the interviewer asked me how a fluorescent light fitting worked. I explained what I knew about the ballast, starter and gas tube etc. He delved deeper and I drew a rudimentary circuit diagram. When he asked exactly how the starter worked I was stumped, so I said “I don’t know”.

He told me that he must’ve had 2 dozen other applicants attempt to convince him how it all worked, but being able to admit I didn’t know something landed me the job. I learnt how knowing one’s limitations is so important.

Resistance hits back against US bases in Syria, multiple casualties reported

Despite increased attacks on US occupation bases, Joe Biden has reportedly turned down more ‘aggressive bombing options’ in Syria out of fear that a wider conflict may erupt

NOV 13, 2023

(Photo credit: AFP via Getty Images)

Several missile and drone strikes targeted US occupation bases in Syria on 13 November in response to the latest round of US airstrikes on alleged Iranian targets in the country.

Fifteen missiles targeted the US base in the Conoco gas field, sources told Al-Mayadeen, adding that US helicopters began making flights ten minutes after the strike.

“The Conoco base was targeted with advanced Grad missiles, which led to the death of four US soldiers,” Al-Mayadeen’s correspondent reported.

Field sources told Al-Mayadeen that the attacks were carried out by the “Popular Resistance” in Syria.

In a second response to US airstrikes, three drones struck the Al-Shaddadi military base in Hasakah, northeastern Syria.

The US Green Village base at the Al-Omar oilfield northeastern Syria, was also hit with a drone. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq is a coalition of Iraqi resistance factions formed last month in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.

The coalition was formed to confront US forces in Iraq and Syria as part of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and in rejection of US support for Israel in the war, and has been targeting US bases on a regular basis.

Hours before Monday’s attacks, US warplanes carried out several airstrikes in eastern Syria.

Washington claimed the attacks targeted facilities used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

According to Al-Mayadeen’s correspondent, the US airstrikes “targeted a house in the town of Al-Mayadeen, which led to the death of a citizen and the injury of another.”

US jets have struck Syria several times over the past month in retaliation to the unprecedented surge in resistance attacks against US military bases in Iraq and Syria. Washington has labeled the attacks as “self-defense.”

According to the New York Times (NYT), US President Joe Biden “has rejected more aggressive bombing options proposed by the Pentagon out of fear of provoking a wider conflict with Iran.”

The newspaper also cites Republicans in Congress as saying that Washington’s strikes on Syria “only invite more frequent and more dangerous attacks against US troops in the region.”

There have been at least 48 resistance attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria since 17 October, the Pentagon said on Saturday.

“At least 56 U.S. service members had been injured. Roughly half of those suffered traumatic brain injuries, and two had to be flown to Landstuhl military hospital in Germany for treatment,” the NYT adds.

Who is the rudest celebrity you have met, and who would be the nicest?

There doesn’t seem to be many who are rude. My story is about a beautiful and kind woman.

Many years ago I was in O’Hara airport getting ready to fly home from Navy boot camp. As I waited, I saw what looked like a Hollywood photo shoot going on. I walked over with my nearly bald head and baggy Navy uniform and talked to an absolutely beautiful woman, dressed like an Elf. She was friendly and asked where I was from and what my home was like. We talked for about 10 minutes. As I needed to catch my plane, I thanked her for taking the time to speak with me. I asked her what her name was. It was Ann-Margaret. Surprise! I’ve had a soft spot for her since our meeting.

What shortcuts in life are never worth taking?

Suicide.

There have been a lot of memes lately, discussing this subject:

It’s viewed as a sort of work-around to all of life’s problems:

These’s memes are funny and all (sometimes), but they also have some truth.

A good portion of depressed people definitely view suicide as a way out and they genuinely think it’s the only way.

But it’s not.

Sunday, Nov 18 is my late-uncle’s birthday.

No one ever talks about him in my family. And of the few times he’s brought up, is always in relation to his suicide or mental illness.

He lived a pretty amazing life, but the memory of his suicide looms over the conversations around him.

It’s not like we never talk about him, or that suicide is strictly the only thing that we remember about him. There’s just no solace to the memory of his passing, suicide is something that is preventable, it didn’t have to be this way.

And, unfortunately, it’s the same with my idol, Chester Bennington.

In every Linkin Park YouTube music video, all the comments are the same. They’re ALL about his depression or his death.

No one talks about his life, how he made it big after a period of being homeless. How Linkin Park immediately knew who their lead singer was after his audition; how Chester would always do screaming vocal warmups, which could be heard several changing rooms away, before each of his live performances.

No one talks about that anymore.

If I’d killed myself on year ago, all I’d be remembered as was “that quiet kid who killed himself.”

You have a lot to be remembered for.

Stan Lee, who passed away on Nov 12, 2018, is positively cherished by fans.

So much material was circulated recently about his life and work.

There was a meme about how he drew the Peter Parker meets MJ comic strip based on the time he first saw his future wife. There were memes of his cameos in Marvel movies, memes of Infinity war, Spider-man memes….

It was awesome.

And nobody was particularly sad, rather they celebrated everything he did in his 95 year life on Earth.

You have a lot to live for.

And a lot to be remembered by.

And even if things don’t get better quickly.

Don’t tarnish that with suicide.

It’s not worth it.

You are worth it.

You are worth a good life and the world deserves your proud legacy.

What’s your impression about your experience in China? How about the Chinese?

During my very first visit to China, there were a couple of things that took me by surprise:

Massive malls absolutely everywhere
I’ve heard that Chinese food is so much better in China than what you get in other countries, but that’s is a massive understatement. There is so much diversity in food options, all of it is amazingly delicious and very reasonably priced. I could not get enough of it, and I can’t wait for my next visit so I can stuff my face with all that deliciousness again!
I didn’t expect to have that much trouble finding restaurants or shops that accept foreign bank cards. Some locations only allow Alipay. Also, apps like Didi are not available to foreigners as you need a Chinese number to sign up, and hailing a taxi is not always easy.
I saw very few tags or graffiti on buildings in big Chinese cities. Those are a major issue in pretty much every European city, as even historical buildings get smeared in tags, so this was a welcome surprise.
Excellent public transportation – so cheap and easy to use!
All the people I’ve met were absolutely lovely and extremely helpful. Also, there are so many older people in the parks, exercising or dancing, which is refreshing to see.
There is never any paper in bathrooms, so you have to carry a roll with you
The only thing that slightly threw me off during my very first visit was that people in China often take pictures of foreigners without asking. I’m very visibly a foreigner, so I always get quite a bit of attention when I’m travelling in Asia. I’m used to that, and I never decline a picture with some curious locals, as I find it a sweet experience. However, in China, while many approached and asked for a photo, there were many more who just tried to ‘’sneakily’’ take it, which made me feel a little bit uncomfortable at times.
As a tiny woman travelling alone I felt quite safe, even at night in less populated areas.

Children who have had to clean out your parents’ house after they passed, did you find anything that completely changed how you viewed them?

My wife and kids lived upstairs in my parent’s house. My Dad passed before my Mom. When she passed, as the only child, I had to sort out her bills, insurance, etc. My Mom was a school teacher for many years and received SS and a pension. At her time of retiring, she did not make as much as teachers do today. A few days after her funeral, I was sitting at her desk going through her checkbook to see what was paid and so forth. When I looked at the deposits, I started to see bill after bill after bill being paid, leaving her with very little left over. I am still saddened to this day, many years later, that I never knew the depth of how bad things really were. We could have contributed more to the household, but she hid most of this from us, trying to spare us any hardship. This is the single biggest regret I have in her passing, knowing I could have eased her burden, as she was the most loving mother one could ask for. She worked her whole life to teach children and raise me, who deserved so much more in her retirement. I am shedding tears as I write this, and hope that others can take more of an active role in their parents lives (when allowed) while they are still with us.

When did you think, “this can only be a fake”?

While employed as a pizza delivery rider, after the lifting of the COVID lock-down, our company decided to pull a fast one.

A memo from the head office was circulated among all restaurant staff at all branches. It basically said that the company was so concerned about our welfare in these trying times that they were willing to keep a percentage of our weekly salary for us as a form of savings. The memo also mentioned that if we agreed to this ‘Pizza Savings’ (my term, not theirs) that we will be getting 0% interest.

My delivery co-worker and I had a field day with that memo. We read it several times in disbelief and laughed. The owners could not be serious.

It was obvious they wanted to get a loan/invest in something. It was as if they told themselves instead of taking a 16% interest loan from the bank why not simply take it from their uneducated restaurant workers, all they needed was our signatures.

I went around some of the co-workers joking about it. Most of us laughed it off but two of them couldn’t understand what was so funny.

‘But we’re getting 0% interest!’ an older woman working the grill said.

She seemed to have the idea that this was a good thing. Apparently she had had so many loans in the past that to her the word interest = bad.

I explained to her it was a savings and not a loan. That with savings you want the highest interest you could get and the exact opposite when it comes to a loan.

‘But isn’t it good to have a savings?’ one of the teenaged girls working the pizza table said.

I explained to her it is a good thing but it makes no sense to save your money with someone giving you 0%. I tried explaining how banks work, about buying shares etc and getting the best rates for your money. Both women looked at me in silence.

In the end they both decided to ‘try it out.’

I didn’t know what shocked me more. The fact that the restaurant attempted that stunt or the fact that it actually worked on two employees.

Before leaving after being fired, what’s the most that one can sabotage the office without getting caught?

Controller got fired for all the right reasons. On his way out, and before his access was deleted, he programmed a very, very offensive message on the Windows start menu for the entire company-something along the lines of “fxxx you, (name of the CFO)”. Now I’ll admit the guy had it coming, but will also say that the CFO was the biggest a-hole I’ve ever met. Anyway, it took the IT guys weeks before they were able to fix it (always wondered why it took sooooo loooong).

What is the worst medical misdiagnosis you have ever had or personally known someone to have had?

As a 45 year old, I started feeling very tired. I fell asleep in the bathroom at work one day. Went home and thought I was coming down with a cold. Never actually got cold symptoms, but could barely move my body. It felt like all of my extremities were filled with lead. Then I started getting dizzy. Then I started to vomit. I went to an urgent care center and told them all of the above symptoms and how now I’m vomiting and peeing every 5 minutes. I even told them I was vomiting black stuff which they informed me was blood. I was told I just had a stomach virus like people get on cruise ships. I said I have never been on a cruise ship in my life. I was sent home with antinausea meds. I had lost about 15 lbs in 3 days. That night and next day still vomiting and now breathing in short gasps. Now my body is shivering uncontrollably and I can barely move and still vomiting blood. My kids found me on the kitchen floor and took me to the ER. I was rushed back and found out I was in diabetic ketoacidosis. My body was shutting down. I was about a day away from death. My blood sugar was 854. I was diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic.

While hospitalized, I received a survey from the urgent care center asking how my experience was. I’ll told them that I almost died thanks to them, but other than that it was great.

What’s a hilarious story that has happened to you?

Years back when Subway still gave you tickets to collect for free subs, my kids’ mother and I were going to have dinner and movie night with my brother and his wife. Subway was the night’s choice. Well, it is Friday evening and the video store is packed. So we’re standing in line waiting to check out our movies, and she is going through these Subway tickets. She asks me,

“I don’t supposed you’ll eat a 6 inch?”

To which I responded, in a building with over 150 people in it, without even missing a beat,

“No, if I don’t get 12 inches, I’m just not satisfied.”

Children were laughing at me. Had it not been so hilarious, I would be mortified of that story getting out.

Very Unlikely

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/R3eXHD3c4EI?feature=share

Tintin and kitties

When I was a boy in High School, I studied French. I did so for three years, and pretty much max’ed out what was available at my school. I studied hard. Learned as much as I could, and did very well… grade wise.

Anyways, in the French Class were a series of books about the Adventures of Tintin. And joy of joys, I was able and permitted to “read” the books, trying to make out the French language in the illustrations.

I don’t know if it really helped me learn French, but it certainly helped me fall in love with the Tintin series. It really did.

If you ever get a chance, please take the time to enjoy these great and amazing works of art.

Just thinking about them put a smile on my face. I hope that it puts them on yours as well.

Todays…

What was the most unexpected knock you got on your door?

I think the biggest surprise from a knock on the door I ever got was about 10 years ago.

An ex-girlfriend showed up at my door, 8 months pregnant …7 months after we split up (which was quite the shock, but I’ll get to that). Basically started dictating terms to me as to how things were going to be as soon as I opened the door. That I had to look after her because I got her pregnant and that she was going to stay at my place now because she had nowhere to go. She made some ridiculous demands about money and child support for an exorbitant amount. She told me that if I didn’t agree to her terms she was going to take me to court and to the cleaners.

I could barely contain my laughter at the situation…

What she didn’t know was that I am physically unable to father children (the conversation never came up because we were not that serious and it was none of her business). It was one of the reasons for my divorce previous to her after trying and going through multiple tests with my ex wife.

So here she (my ex) was at my door with all these demands, threats and looking for a handout and a place to stay after just obliviously outting herself for cheating on me (starting at least a month before we broke up, maybe longer.. maybe the whole time, Don’t know. Don’t care).

Turns out the guy she was with after me found out she was already pregnant before him (she tried to con him too but clearly the math didn’t work.…classy girl) and he gave her the boot.

I thanked her for letting me know that she cheated on me, quickly explained how I knew and knew that it wasn’t mine. Wished her the best and shut the door.

I will never forget that stupid look on her face for the rest of my life as that door closed.

What made your “jaw drop” during a family dinner?

Well my answer is not something I would usually speak of with people. And perhaps not so typical of what has been expressed in regards to this question already. But we are all here to honestly share so I will do so. And to be precise it was not MY jaw that dropped, rather my now ex wife’s and her daughter’s.

So at an extended family dinner one evening the conversation turned to family heritage. Things were variously mentioned about events and courageous endeavours of various relatives long passed away.

So I added a comment of praise for my Grandfather whom I never got to meet, and was coldly and angrily shut down by my Mother for the interest and praise that I bestowed on him.

So these are the words that came out of her mouth which will NOT be forgotten.

And I quote…

”what’s that got to do with you, you’re not even of our blood and you never will be”….

Well you could of heard a pin drop at the table, and I turned to see my ex and her daughter’s mouth’s agape in horror.

This was the moment I found out what being an adopted son really meant to her. And a reminder that to her (at least) I will forever remain a virtual outsider.

Please, this was shared not to provoke pity, because I’m cognitively stronger and happier in life than she will ever be. Rather, it’s just my honest answer.

What was the most satisfying time where you caught someone lying?

My family used to have a really bad problem with food thieves. My mom is a baker, so you can usually find some kind of pastry in my house.

When brownies, cakes, and other sweet treats started going missing in the middle of the night, my mom was LIVID. Of course, no one was going to admit to snacking on her stuff, so she found a scapegoat: Me.

Jackson! Why in the world would you eat my pastries!? You know that I was going to take some to work today, and now there aren’t enough! Go vacuum the house!

Despite my cries of denial and protest, I was forced to vacuum the house. Ugh.

I thought it was a one-time occurrence until it happened again. And again. I was repeatedly forced to vacuum the house. My mom was so convinced that it was me who was eating her pastries that she didn’t even bother looking further into it.

I didn’t know who it was, but I knew it wasn’t me.

I had a plan. I was going to stay up all night and catch whoever it was. I waited many a long hour, waiting to hear the rustle of Saran Wrap in the kitchen. Eventually I heard a faint crinkle, and I sprang into action. Lo and behold, my little brother Bennett standing in the kitchen stuffing his face full of Devil’s food cookies.

“I KNEW it was you!” I said.

“What?! Why are you in the kitchen eating cookies, Jackson!?” He replied.

Instantly, I knew what he was up to. He was going to try and tell our mom that I was the one eating cookies in the kitchen. There was no way I was going to vacuum the house again, so I ran down the hall to my parents’ bedroom. Bennett followed, hurriedly swallowing any remainder of cookie.

My mom is already waiting for us; awoken by the ruckus. Right away, Bennett and I start ranting about how the other had been in the kitchen eating cookies.

What Bennett hadn’t realized was that he had gotten chocolate on his face, and the truth was smudged all over his cheeks.

If there’s one thing that my mom hates even more than stealing, it’s lying and letting other people take the blame. I have a feeling that Bennett is going to be vacuuming the house for quite a while.

That’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

Slap Ya Mama Sweet and Spicy
Pulled Pork Soft Tacos

Add a Louisiana twist to your tacos.

slap ya mama sweet spicy pulled pork tacos

Ingredients

1 (5 to 7 pound) pork shoulder
1 whole onion, quartered
2 teaspoons Slap Ya Mama Original Seasoning
1 1/4 teaspoons Slap Ya Mama Hot Seasoning
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 garlic cloves peeled
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Taco size flour tortillas

Instructions

Heat oven to 300 degrees F.
Rinse and dry pork roast and place in a Dutch oven.
In a food processor combine onion, Slap Ya Mama seasonings, brown sugar, garlic cloves, oregano, olive oil, and vinegar. Pulse until completely combined. Pour the mixture over the pork. Rub into all the nooks and crannies.
Add 1 1/2 cups water around the bottom of the pork roast, cover tightly and roast for at least 5 hours, turning over every hour. Check to make sure roast is fork tender, then shred the meat using two forks to help pull it apart. I kept the meat in the juices so it would stay moist.
Serve pork on warm flour tortillas and add your favorite toppings. I used our favorite salsa, shredded cheddar, sour cream, fresh diced tomatoes and it wouldn’t be the same without squeezing fresh lime wedges over the top!

Do men like women who can defend themselves?

I married a woman who is a crack shot with a 9mm handgun (you should see her targets, they’re impressive), almost always has at least two long knives on her, and keeps a crossbow in the kitchen cabinet (yes, I’m serious, no joke). Plus she’s fucking formidable in a fistfight.

Yes. Yes, this particular man very much likes women who can defend themselves.

I once had someone, hand to God, tell me, direct quote, “Franklin, control your women.” Know what I did? I laughed, that’s what I did.

NUCLEAR WAR WITH IRAN?? What are we doing?

Do Chinese people think that their country is underdeveloped when compared to other countries around the world? If so, why?

You are right, this view is the same as what I saw.

All the Chinese people I interact with, without exception, say that China is an “underdeveloped country”.

It was already 2017 when I visited China for the first time.

The China I saw (at least the big cities I went to) was completely like a developed country, and many details even exceeded those of most developed countries.

At least in my mind, “underdeveloped countries” should at least be some like African countries, Bangladesh, or even India.

But China is nothing like these places.

They have unparalleled public transportation facilities, convenient cashless payment systems, the world’s widest urban roads, a spiderweb of highway networks, the world’s best high-speed railways, and the world’s most stylish airports.

When I was sick, their hospitals, although overcrowded, were still the most efficient I had ever seen. Their school is in good order. Shared bicycles can be seen everywhere on the streets, and express delivery and takeout are very fast.

There are all kinds of delicious food everywhere at night, it is very lively even in the early morning, and it is very safe.

Chinese people buy the most family cars and the most smartphones in the world every year.

In short, as far as I can see, I don’t see anything that looks like an “underdeveloped country”. Even when I go to a small village in Guizhou, what I see is clean and tidy, although there are not so many skyscrapers.

OK, I asked my Chinese friends with this question.

They always laughed and said to me: “What you said is true, but China is still an underdeveloped country.”

One person told me: “China will remain an underdeveloped country for at least 10,000 years.”

When I couldn’t understand their thoughts and needed further explanation, they would all mention one word invariably: “per capita data.”

I have nothing to say. Indeed, any huge achievements will be eclipsed by a population of 1.4 billion.

For example, per capita income is less than US$20,000

For example, the number of cars per capita

For example, the housing area per capita

For example, the number of doctors per capita

For example, the number of iPhones per capita

They will mention various data, various “numbers per capita”

One young man even mentioned the “number of aircraft carriers per capita” and “the number of nuclear weapons per capita” and then told me that China is the country with the weakest military power in the world. Of course, he meant “military power per capita.”

I think that in the eyes of the Chinese, until their “number per capita” catches up with the United States, they will feel that they are not an “underdeveloped country”.

If you think about it carefully, it seems that their logic is correct.

But every time I visit China and experience firsthand what Chinese society is like, I feel like something is wrong.

What’s something you’ve had stolen from you that you literally couldn’t replace?

After my stroke I ended up in assisted living a few years.

The facility where I was sent was corrupt. They threatened residents and broke laws. So I called up the state ombudsman for assisted living facilities, and she told me many people had complained to her, but none would file a formal complaint because their name would be visible.

I told her if she would support me, I’d file a complaint.

Long story short, I got all kinds of retaliation. Part of it consisted of staff pilfering my personal belongings. The first time it happened, I installed a wifi security camera.

I got footage, and again, long story short, the executive director was fired, and had to pay to move me to another facility.

But one of the things pilfered was not replaceable. It was a silver thimble inlaid with abalone that belonged to my recently deceased mother (b 1921, this was about a decade ago). My mother was a dressmaker, and her father was a master tailor. She said I cut my teeth on thread.

The people who managed that place made my life hell for 18 months. I won, but I suffered losses.

Genuine Burning Desire

What was your most physically painful experience?

Until last April, I would have said “kidney stones.”

Kidney stones are bad. I’ve now had them three times. The first time I had them, I woke up in the middle of the night with a sensation like someone shoving an ice pick in my lower back. It steadily escalated, growing worse and worse and worse until I could not stand up, could not even sit up, and ended up puking from the pain.

My wife at the time freaked out and called an ambulance[1]. When I got to the hospital, I was curled up on my side on the stretcher screaming in pain when this doctor came up to me and said, “On a scale from one to ten, how bad would you say the pain is?”

I was so incapacitated with agony that I couldn’t even answer his question, so he gave me a shot of Demerol and just like that, the pain was gone, as though someone had flipped a light switch.

That, I thought, was the worst pain I would ever experience.

I was wrong.

This past April, I was making a kettle of tea. The kitchen was a mess, with dishes stacked everywhere. A pot fell from a pile of dirty dishes and struck the kettle, knocking it onto my foot.

Boiling water burns are nasty.

The pain was blinding. I’ve never understood the phrase “blinding pain” before. I do now.

I ended up in the hospital again. I was unable to walk for about a month. My foot looked like a special effect from a zombie movie. I just barely avoided needing skin grafts, but I did end up making repeated trips to the burn clinic.

Burns are the worst. I don’t know if it’s physically possible for something to be worse than a burn.

[1] Because this was the United States, my insurance company ended up denying coverage for the ambulance ride on the grounds that kidney stones are not a bona fide medical emergency. That ambulance trip to the hospital ended up costing me more than a thousand dollars. America, hooah!

How To End Your Career In 10 Seconds Or Less

Why is happiness lacking in Singapore? Singapore’s wealthy are the least satisfied with their current work-life balance when compared with their peers in other parts of Asia Pacific, according to a survey.

If there is unhappiness among Singapore’s wealthiest, then perhaps a bit of introspection could help. People falsely say that money is the root of all evil. They are misquoting a Bible verse that actually says, “the love of money is the root of all evil.” Christian or not, surely most people can see the wisdom of those words. When a person works themselves silly so that they can keep up with the Jones’s they are bound to be unhappy. I’d wager those working themselves to the bone so their wives can keep up with Mrs. Jones are even more unhappy.

They say they do it for their families but how close is a family when all of the adults run themselves ragged working ungodly hours? When do they spend time together as a family? I don’t even mean this about Singapore, but in general! What is the point of children if you aren’t actively parenting them and watching them grow up? Maids and tutors get paid for the privilege of spending time with your children? I’m not saying it’s wrong to have a maid or hire a tutor, but if they get to spend more awake time with your child than you, then…why? I promise they’d rather have you than the things you can buy them by working long hours.

What good does it do to fill a bank account until you are too old to enjoy the fruits of your labors? What good does it do to work yourself into an early grave? Are those overtime hours worth the ulcers you’re nursing or the strain on your heart?

The job market is competitive in Singapore. If you don’t work overtime then your rival probably will. There’s this expectation that you should work long hours or you aren’t “hungry” enough. You can’t risk the foreign ex-pat stealing your job. But does it have to be that way? For a long time, the pioneer generation had to work without pause in order to build a country. But they did so hoping that this generation wouldn’t have to pay the high cost of happiness, balance, family time, and rest. Was their sacrifice for nothing? I know; I’m an outsider looking in.

You’ll say I don’t understand or that I’m too idealistic. Maybe. I might chalk it up to a difference between the Asian and Western worldviews colliding, but the Protestant West has had problems with work life balance as well. And I grew up in a family that never lacked for money, but I also never felt very loved by them either. I’d have given my eye teeth to have had a close knit family.

I would ask how many beds can you sleep in at once? How many houses can you live in at a time? How many cars can you drive at once, and do you even need to when Singapore has excellent public transport? Do you really need designer clothes, expensive watches, branded bags, exotic jewelry, or any of the other “ultra luxury” items you can think of? If those things bring you happiness, then by all means, work hard for those things. But I suspect those things don’t make people as happy as one might think if you are correct about those surveys among the wealthy.

I’m not against someone having wealth. I’m not against someone buying nice things. It’s not wrong to want to provide your family with the best you can give them. I’m not against someone living in nice homes or driving luxury cars. I’m not against sending your children to the best schools or leaving them an inheritance. But if you must sacrifice your peace of mind, your family time, your health, your mental health, or your rest in order to attain those things then perhaps reevaluating your life choices might be in order. I know this will be an unpopular opinion but nonetheless, it is my honest evaluation.

Why do so many Europeans think of the US as a third world country?

Why do you think it isn’t. It is so backward in so many matters. Education, social care, food, gun law. It is probably embarrassing to a lot of third world country to have America lumped in with them. At least they know what the problems with their country is. But American with its brainwashing, convinced their idiots they are the greatest country on earth.

Kitty Rescue

What is the fastest you wiped that smirk off your manager’s face?

New GM from the UK was bought in. He was there to get rid of people and make the business profitable. What is known in Australia as a “Toe Cutter.”

He flat out told me three things I will never forget:

“I hate how you are the only person in this company that doesn’t have to answer to me.” (My boss was in Canada)
“I’m going to micromanage you out of this business, any email you send for any reason I want you to BCC me in on the email.” (I stopped sending any emails and called everyone back when they emailed me.)
“Hey where are you going, SIT DOWN!”

Number three was the final straw. I turned back to him, whilst still standing I put my hands down on the table and leaned in towards him across the desk. “I’m not one of the your kids, and I’m not your fucken dog, don’t ever tell me to “Sit Down” again.”

Smirk wiped.

What is something in an old home that people wouldn’t recognize today?

When I was looking f or a house to buy, we looked at an old Victorian that I’d always liked the outside of. It was a magnificent hom,e. 3 stories plus a basement. Fine oak paneling in many rooms, wonderful fire place. In one of the upsatairs bedrooms, I opened what I assumed would be a closet…. it wasn’t. What it was was a dumbwaiter.. and still functional. I loved the house! But, it was above our price randge and they were not at all willing to negotiate. THe house had stood empty for quite some time and needed a lot of work, mostly cosmetic but still with the asking price and the work it was just too much for us. I’m still wistful about it whenever I pass by.

What do you do if someone parks their car so close to your driver side that you cannot get in your car?

That happened to me once at a Mall. It wasnt my fault as I was centred in the parking slot. I went back in the Mall, went to a Dollar Store and bought a small tube of crazy glue, and went back out. I then proceeded to glue his wipers to his windshield. It was a sunny day, so the owner wouldnt even know. I still had to wait, and the driver on my passenger side came out first, so I got in that side and drove away, smiling and hoping for rain soon.

Yes, I can be a vengeful prick.

American Woman In Thailand Found Out That Average MEN Are WINNING Overseas. She Was Shocked.

“I am a 43 year old man. I dated a 41 year old post wall woman for a few months, who had lived in Thailand for half a year when she was young. She stated that getting an Asian woman was no achievement for a (western) man. But apparently dating a post wall (western) woman is an achievement.. from her point of view. She was also miserable and boring, so our relationship ended quickly. My new girlfriend is from Philippines, she’s 25 year old, kind and feminine. Guess which is more fun..”

Why do so many famous people take drugs, that sometimes even lead to their death?

For the same reason people who aren’t famous take drugs, that sometimes even lead to their deaths.

See, here’s the thing. For a lot of people, drugs aren’t a problem. Drugs are a solution to a problem.

The problem is emotional pain, or depression, or physical pain, or loneliness, or alienation, or trauma.

A lot of folks look at famous, successful people and say, “Look at everything he has! If I had all those things, I’d surely be happy!”

No. No, you wouldn’t, at least not necessarily. Money above what you need to be comfortable doesn’t create happiness. Fame doesn’t create happiness.

In fact, sometimes fame does the opposite. When lots of people know who you are, but don’t really know you, that can create alienation and loneliness.

Not just for the obvious reason that you can never tell if someone is interested in you for who you are, or for your wealth and fame. It’s more subtle than that. You end up in this weird twilight land where people know you (or think they do), maybe have followed your life in the media for a long time, and so they feel a connection with you. But that connection is totally one-sided. You’re this important person to them, but they’re a total stranger to you.

Sociologists call this “parasociality.” It’s really weird and unsettling. It can be deeply, profoundly alienating.

Point is, it’s often pain that leads to drug use, and famous, successful people are no more immune to pain than anyone else.

Have you ever been mugged and had it end badly for the mugger?

Not mugged, strictly speaking, but attacked.

In my early twenties and spending a couple of weeks with a friend who lived directly on the beach in Venice, California. I was alone in the apartment when a man broke in. He made his way to the bedroom, where I was standing, looking out the sliding glass doors that opened on to the balcony that oversaw Ocean Front Walk and the beach.

When I was a preteen, more or less, my father took my brother and me to his Aikido classes and we eventually had our own little class with the teacher’s son or nephew. I liked it and was not bad at it.

So this guy comes barreling over to me while saying something nasty and reaching out to grab me with one arm. Without thinking at all, I responded with an Aikido move that I had learned as a kid. Along with my partner inertia, I ended up throwing the guy over my shoulder and over the balcony wall.

When the first responders came, he was unconscious, supine on Ocean Front Walk.

What are 20 things that are not worth it?

One Night Stands: if that is your goal. Plan to get rejected a lot, to put a ton of work in.

Plan on getting really drunk, and having bad sex with someone you’ll probably regret having sex with.

Side Chicks (dudes): a moment’s pleasure, the rush of something new, will quickly be replaced by the persisting paranoia of being caught and the shitty feeling of having cheated on your partner.

Expensive Weddings: just don’t. You aren’t royalty. It puts a lot of pressure on you both for the event and the marriage. And if things don’t work out, those expensive pictures will end up in a drawer anyway.

Marriage*: often – this is rushed. Make sure you know the person. It will make it much harder to leave and you’ll end up wasting your best years because you felt too ashamed to get divorced.

*if it is right – marry the hell out of them.

Trying to persuade someone to like you: love/romance should happen organically, not as a product of you having to oversell (beg) someone to be into you.

A Shot of booze after midnight (or last call): It’s time to start drinking water as soon as PM turns to AM. Otherwise you are just signing yourself up for a massive hangover.

Staying up late: just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Turn off the TV. Get some sleep.

Doing it later: nothing in this world destroys more potential than procrastination

Stop it before it stops you. Do it now.

Shiny Objects: Fancy cars, big diamonds, they will be fun for a moment. But you’ll quickly find that feeling fading.

And you’ll quickly learn that “Looking Rich” is a very expensive hobby.

Insurance/ “assurance” Plans: outside of health insurance and car insurance, avoid insurance like the plague. They are designed to be high-profit services for companies. (Now – if you buy something that you plan to use the shit out of, consider insurance.)

Warranties: same as above.

Self-Criticism: let it go. No self-haunting. Criticize yourself once and then correct the behavior. Don’t become your own ghost.

Driving your car fast to impress friends: I know people who are in wheelchairs for life because of this.

Appeasing your parents: you pick your own career – not them. Listen – but don’t become “Project Redo” for their own life.

Credit Cards Debt: avoid avoid avoid. Only use credit cards to build your credit score. If you don’t have stable income, you could end up being saddled with debt collection calls for decades.

Yelling/Hitting/Throwing – there are other ways to resolve disputes with your significant other. Nothing good comes of those things.

Excessive Pills: if you have clinical depression – I don’t discourage you from medicating – do it.

But remember – there is an over-medication problem, in the US and elsewhere. Don’t be another person taking a cocktail of pills every night. Address the underlying problem if you can.

Expensive Colleges: you don’t have to spend all four years at a $30K per year school. There are other options. $120K will be a monster to re-pay. And for god’s sakes – study something that will give you a job of some type. It doesn’t have to be engineering. But make it something.

Arguing with people on Quora: you won’t be turning anyone. You are wasting keystrokes and probably just signing yourself up for a moderation violation.

Winning an Argument: does winning this argument serve a purpose? Or does it serve your ego?

The USA has entered the twilight zone

Strange: U.S. Announces “Ohio-class Submarine has entered CENTCOM Area of Responsibility”

World Hal Turner

The United States has strangely announced that “An Ohio-Class Submarine has entered the CENTCOM Area of Responsibility. What makes this announcement strange is they didn’t identify WHICH ONE.

It makes a Gigantic difference.

There are, at present, eighteen (18) Ohio-Class Submarines. Fourteen (14) of those carry TRIDENT II nuclear missiles with Eight (8) independently-targetable warheads each. That means that EACH submarine has 160 nuclear warheads.

Four of those Ohio-class submarines (USS Ohio, USS Florida, USS Michigan, and USS Georgia) carry 154 Tomahawk (Land-attack) Cruise missiles, each.

So, the big question on everyone’s mind right now is, WHICH “Ohio-Class” submarine just arrived in CENTCOM’s Area of Responsibility? Nuke or non-nuke?

HT REMARK: Things over there in the Middle East are growing more dangerous by the hour. This situation between Israel and HAMAS has “Disaster” written all over it; and not merely for Israel/HAMAS, but for the entire region and maybe even the entire world.

Whatever is coming is apparently HUGE! At about 4:00 PM eastern STANDARD Time (GMT-0500) here in the USA, the Israeli Defense Force put out a message on social media that they have **NEVER** put out before: “Pray for us.” It’s all over social media right now . . .

UPDATE 7:35 AM EST MONDAY —

I have been told the submarine is the USS Florida, and SSGN as opposed to an SSBN. The G stands for Guided Missile and is the type of submarine armed with 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles.

(Breathing a sigh of relief . . . .)

Men Made a List of Women to NEVER DATE!

“As a American Black woman and single mother of a young adult son; I’m actually not mad at this list Good for them for clapping back at this foolishness!”

“Basically, to sum up, modern dating for young people these days is pure hell.”

“Lord these gender wars between men and women especially in the black community is quite entertaining sometimes but ultimately just down right sad, smh.”

“I am actually shocked “plus-size” or obese are not on that list.”

“On a recent “Girls Trip” to Miami it was either 5 or 6 females all went there together and they all came home preggers and none of them know who the fathers are… MTR recently covered this story.”

What was the shortest interview you’ve had that led to a job offer?

It was a Hakka family takeaway.

I was actually a customer. I could see the massive massive queue and the flames reflected off the walls and the panicky slamming of woks from just how busy it was.

They couldn’t cope. I saw the old man who looked like a thinner version of my dad overwhelmed when he brought out a tray of food.

I said to her in my finest Hakka do you need some help? The old lady on the counter looked up and was what? How do you know how to speak Hakka? I thought you were a tai look lau… (Mainland Chinese). Short argument, wife (on the counter) says no, husband says ok. I go in and he’s looking after 5 Chinese cookers by himself just like my dad used to do. I help them out for an hour, turns out their sons had gone on holiday. Business dies down and we share a few cans of special brew.

He was a man from Yuen Long and had moved in the 1970s.

What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?

It was an interview a few years ago when we still had to go into the office to attend. My interviewer was a young man, dandy. The interview started by him introducing himself as the ‘Best PM of the year’ at the company and currently working in the BigData department (BigData back a few years ago was similar to AI today, everyone talks about it and everyone claims doing it). And he said he would be my boss if I happened to ‘make it’.

The interview went just fine; some technical questions I was able to answer. Then he looked at my resume and asked if I was a teacher because I claimed in the resume that I did teaching. I said I’d prefer to be called a ‘trainer’ more than a ‘teacher’. Then he asked, ‘Teach me something. Better something interesting and something I don’t know about.’ I said, ‘Ok, I will teach you how to bake a cake.’ Then I got into my ‘teaching mode’ (I always think that we need to teach things with enthusiasm to draw interest from learners), and proceeded to talk about ‘baking is like doing science, we need to be precise.’ Then I told him the two biggest tips for baking a good cake: 1. Always prepare the pan before starting to prepare the batter, and 2. Even if the recipe doesn’t call for salt, a pinch of salt would kick the flavor to the next level.

He stopped me, and he went, ‘Jezz! You talk a lot. Really a lot. You don’t need to pretend to be a college professor here.’ I heard that and replied, ‘Oh, yeah, sorry. I don’t always talk that much to everyone.’ He smirked, ‘I’m special, huh? Well, I’m flattered, but you know sweet talk wouldn’t get you the job.’ I smiled, ‘Oh, no. I meant, to smart students, I never have to talk that much.’ His smirk dropped, and he told me the interview was over.

I didn’t get the job, have never seen him again, so I haven’t got a chance to ask him if he has ever tried to bake a cake?

Have you ever had a car crash where the other person was at fault but they acted like the victim?

My Aunt backed into my parked car. She came into the house and insisted that I pay for the damage. It was my fault that I was parked where she needed to drive. I told her that my insurance company would only cover the expense if she called the cops and filed a police report. They needed the report for the claim. She called the police who came out to investigate. She told them what happened. They came in to question me. Their first question was “is she for real?”

Welcome to my world.

I wouldn’t fuck you

You can hear the amount of disappointment in her voice when she asked him why. It was like her soul just got snatched.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Dg9VCj7b_z0?feature=share

What was the most legendary “I quit!” that you know about or witnessed?

I worked in a factory in a second level management position. I loved the job, worked hard, and was well paid. It was not unusual for me to be at work on Saturdays. I just did it-I was not expected to.

Well the operations manager called me into his office, and told me he wanted me to work every Saturday. I said that I was generally there on Saturdays, but didn’t like the demand he was making. I asked it I would get additional pay. He said no, and reminded me there were 2 people who refused to work on Saturdays, that we no longer here. I looked at him, and said “well now there are 3”! I walked out of his office, gathered up my personal stuff and left!

About 3 weeks later, he was fired! Did my heart good!

One evening as I was heading to my car after doing a little shopping I noticed a lady that seemed pretty upset on her phone while looking at the front tire of her car.

As any decent person would do, I walked up to her and I noticed 3 young children in the car so I knew I needed to act fast since it was a little chilly that evening, I proceeded to ask if she needed some help and she said “yes sir that would be great”.

I opened her trunk and to my astonishment, she had a spare tire but no jack to lift the car up with …. so since we were at walmart, I went and purchased a jack to change the tire on her car.

After about an hour, she and the 3 young children were on thier merry way.

My phone rang as soon as I got back in my car and a child I mentor called me to tell me about his day at school and he asked “what are you doing?” I told him “I was helping a lady with her car”.

He replied with “why?”

I responded “You’re never too important to be nice to people”.

~ Cody Bret

The most dangerous men…

What is the weirdest thing you’ve walked in on?

I was riding my horse on a trail that went through a kind of alley between the back yards of very expensive homes in a very upscale development.

The houses all had fences that were about 8 feet high, solid cinderblock. If you went walking down that trail, you wouldn’t be able to see into anyone’s yard.

But when you’re on the back of a horse, you could see over the fences into people’s yards.

There weren’t a lot of people who rode their horses down that particular trail, especially on Monday through Friday. It was usually very quiet.

So I was riding my horse there, on the way back from a long trail ride. I was riding at a walk, and because the trail was thickly covered with wood bark and chips, my horse didn’t make any noise.

As we went down the trail, I heard a rhythmic creak-creak-creak kind of sound. Not loud, but unusual enough that I started looking for the source. (When you’re trail riding on a horse, you stay aware of what’s going on around you, because there are a lot of things that can cause a horse to freak out.)

The sound grew louder as we got closer, and I finally saw the source.

A man and a woman were having sex on a trampoline in one of the yards adjoining the trail. Butt naked and in their own little world. Creak-creak-creak went the trampoline…

They saw me about the same time I saw them. I raised my dressage whip, which I carried on trail rides to sweep spiderwebs that crossed the trail away, saluted them, and kicked my horse into a fast canter and scrammed out of there.

Wha What is the biggest scam an auto mechanic ever tried on you?

I took my car for its annual safety inspection. The mechanic came out and told me that it had failed for three reasons. First, the front bumper was detaching. Second, the little light above the license plate was burned out. Last, the windshield washer wasn’t working. He suggested that I go to an auto parts shop and get the replacement bulb and also see if they had the right clips to reattach the bumper, or otherwise perhaps I could improvise something, but that I should bring it back to have them fix the windshield washer pump because it’s not easy to get to that so I probably couldn’t replace it myself.

I said to him, “Yeah, I’m going to go the parts store, thanks. But I know for a fact that the washer was working fine less than ten minutes before you took the car into the garage, because I washed the windshield while I was driving over. Look carefully, and you can even see the streaks. It rained this morning and that would have washed away any older streaks.”

I went to the parts store, got the bulb and the clips, and then went home, popped the hood, and activated the washer. A stream of water sprayed over the hood and onto the roof of the car. So, the pump was obviously working fine. What was the problem? After some poking around, I determined that the hose from the pump was simply disconnected. It wasn’t an easy reach, but I managed to reconnect it.

When I took it back to the shop to get my inspection sticker, I said “Y’know, it’s pretty amazing that that it would detach itself like that. It’s almost as if someone yanked on it while nobody was looking, sometime during the ten minutes between the time I used the washer while driving over and the time you pulled it into the garage.”

t was the most satisfying display of instant karma you have ever seen?

We were going to China on a trip to visit Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Xian. At the New Delhi airport, there was a group of Chinese tourists who were returning to China after visiting India. They were asked to fill some forms and were struggling to fill it in English. One of them requested me, and i happily obliged. Soon there was a small line of Chinese tourists getting there forms filled by me. I didn’t mind as flight was not leaving for next 2 hours.

We reached Beijing and realised that the hotel cab that was supposed to pick us up, was nowhere to be seen. We tried calling and the hotel reception, but they did not had an English speaking staff in the night. For the people who have not visited China, you should know that Hotel has different address and names written in Chinese and English. If you are not carrying Chinese name and address, its very difficult to ask for directions. New to China, we felt stuck and helpless at Airport.

Soon we saw the entire group of tourists i had helped. Seeing me and my wife they waved and asked if we need any help. They immediately made a call to the hotel reception and explained the situation in Chinese. They also waited untill our cab from hotel arrived at Airport.

I really believe that was one act of kindness that was immediately returned back to me as an instant karma!

Why is seeing an attractive young woman in her bikini fine but seeing her in her underwear isn’t?

Because what’s socially acceptable is based on social convention, and social convention is rarely rational.

Society has declared that bikinis are public wear and underthings are private wear that must always have something over them. That’s it. The fact they both reveal the same amount of skin isn’t relevant.

Often, what’s socially acceptable is about what’s common. That which you see in public becomes accepted; that which you don’t, doesn’t. Society doesn’t do consistency checking with each individual thing; that’s not how people work.

What was the biggest scandal at your high school?

A student got sassy with a teacher about a grade and the teacher kicked him out of the room. The student grabbed a pencil and stabbed the assistant teacher in the room. Just in the hand, but still.

So the teacher goes rage mode and physically marches the student down to the deans office. Everyone is initially furious at the student, he’ll be expelled for sure. Assistant teacher is shaken but fine.

Daddy was a big donor to the school and the kid was on the state championship bound Football team. Daddy argued with the school, who reverses the expulsion and instead fires the teacher for “laying hands on a student.”

There were walk outs, several other teachers quit, the local news picked it up, the whole nine yards. Nothing changed. The school kept the little asshole to keep Daddy happy and fired a very, very good teacher.

Who exactly tells girls to be powerless princesses?

For me it was my mother. I was told constantly how pretty I was. My little sister was told how smart she was. The message we received was that I wasn’t smart and my sister wasn’t pretty.

Upon graduating high school I was told I didn’t need to go to college because I was pretty and would always have a man to take care of me. My sister went to college (she graduated high school at age 16).

Instead of college, I became a stewardess. It was a great job and I don’t regret it at all. But at age 40, I decided I wanted to go college after all. I graduated with a degree in Accounting and a 3.9 GPA.

It took me that long to find out I was smart.

Congratulations! China develops world’s first super all-analog photoelectronic chip

Chinese researchers from Tsinghua University have developed an all-analog photoelectronic chip that can process computer vision tasks with greater speed and energy efficiency than existing chips, marking the first of its kind in the world.

The research team’s findings, which provide an alternative to existing technologies based around analogue-to-digital conversion, have been published in the journal Nature.

In the new study, the researchers designed an integrated photoelectronic processor to harness the advantages of both light, in the form of photons, and electrons, as found in electric currents, in an all-analog way. The result is called an “all-analog chip combining electronic and light computing,” or ACCEL.

Tests showed that ACCEL is able to recognize and classify objects with a degree of accuracy comparable to those of digital neural networks. Furthermore, it classifies high-resolution images of various scenes of daily life more than 3,000 times faster and with 4,000,000 times less energy consumption than a top-of-the-line graphics processing unit (GPU).

Analog and digital signals are two types of signals carrying information. Analog signals vary continuously, as with the rays of light forming an image, while digital signals are non-continuous, as with binary numbers.

In vision-based computing tasks like image recognition and object detection, signals from the environment are analog, and they need to be converted into digital signals for processing by AI neural networks, systems trained to recognize patterns and relationships in a data set.

However, the analog-to-digital conversion is time- and energy-consuming, limiting the speed and efficiency of the neural network’s performance. Photonic computing, which uses analog light signals, is one of the most promising approaches to addressing the issue.

“We maximized the advantages of light and electricity under all-analog signals, avoiding the drawbacks of analog-to-digital conversion and breaking the bottleneck of power consumption and speed,” said Fang Lu, a researcher from the Tsinghua team.

A review by Nature editors said that the team had minimized the need for energetically costly analog-to-digital converters. “This refreshing and pragmatic approach to artificial-intelligence hardware that is highly energy efficient makes the most out of both electronic and photonic computing technologies,” it said.

Fang noted that the advantage of ultra-low power will help improve the heating problem of chip scaling, and it has the potential to bring breakthroughs in the future design of chips.

Dai Qionghai, director of the School of Information Science and Technology at Tsinghua University, said that the team has developed a prototype chip, and will work toward making a general-purpose artificial intelligence chip for a broader range of applications.

Sizzling Shrimp Po’ Boys
with Blueberry Remoulade

Prep: 20 min | Cook: 15 to 20 min | Yield: 4 sandwiches

Ingredients

3/4 cup milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
Vegetable oil, as needed
4 (6-inch long) sub rolls, split and hinged
1 small head Boston lettuce
Blueberry Remoulade
Pickled Blueberries and Onions

Instructions

In a medium bowl, combine milk and egg.
In another medium bowl, stir cornmeal, flour, Old Bay and salt.
To the milk mixture, add shrimp, a few at a time, to coat. Remove one shrimp, allow excess liquid to drain off, and roll in the cornmeal mixture to coat well.
Place on a plate or rack. Repeat to coat all the shrimp.
Meanwhile, pour oil 1-inch deep, into a large saucepan; over medium-high heat, heat oil to 350 degrees F.
Gently place 4 to 6 shrimp in the hot oil and fry until golden and crispy on both sides, 3 to 4 minutes; drain on paper towels.
Repeat to fry all the shrimp, adding more oil, if needed.
To serve, spread rolls with Blueberry Remoulade, add lettuce and top with shrimp.
Serve with Pickled Blueberries and Onions.

This is the most attention-grabbing car I’ve ever driven!

I have been considering buying this vehicle. Either the Z… shown in the video, or the Y… a Gull-wing SUV.

Muffuletta Sandwich

Relationships. Sigh.

I’ve been though a bunch. Ugh. I will tell you that I have experienced more than my comfortable share of them. Sad to say.

I do know that some of your MM readers are going though some of the relationship troubles right now.

I feel your pain.

I know that it is difficult.

Today, I want to cover a couple of videos about relationships. Painful stuff. Ugh.

Really.

Painful.

…

Guys, most of you all are not having relationship troubles. You are past all that. You are living a life. You have a family.

Loved ones.

Pets.

A life.

Please. Listen to me.

APPRECIATE them today.

…

Make today special. Appreciate the moments. Appreciate the breeze. Appreciate the trees. Appreciate the quiet comfort of familiarity.

All of you…

…I believe in you. I believe in all of you. You are all doing good. You are surviving, and I believe that great things lie ahead of you.

Take care. Make up a Muffuletta. Eat it well.

Today…

What’s the funniest thing you heard in a movie theater?

My wife and I went to see the war movie “Saving Private Ryan” in IMAX…. it was super loud. My wife had even taken hearing protection, because it was so darn loud. When the movie ended she was taking out her ear plugs and said..

“Wow, that was so loud”

Now, there was an old dude sitting in front of us, and he said …

“yeah, I was there and it wasn’t THAT loud.”

Why do rich people work even after they become rich? Why don’t they play?

They do.

It’s a game for them.

When Warren Buffet gets an extra billion, it has no impact at all on his well-being.

It’s just like collecting points in a video game, chasing a high score.

It’s not a means to an end, but a goal in itself.

You are playing Minecraft, and setting up swimming pools with no exit in the sims.

They are gambling on stock markets, and offshoring jobs.

Setting up pet projects, like going to mars.

You buy a new T-shirt or shoes to improve your image, they buy a new media company.

You get a new car to save on gas, they buy up their competitors to increase profits.

It’s all a big game to some people. They are far removed from the consequences of their actions, and only focused on their score.

Contestant number one

Have you ever been mugged and had it end badly for the mugger?

I can’t say that it ended badly, but he was certainly disappointed.

It was in Philadelphia, in the mid-80s. He came out of an alley with a 3 or 4 inch pen knife to challenge me. “give me your money.”

I remembered something I had learned from a friend, and I decided to try my German on him.

I pulled out my pack of cigarettes, and asked him in German, “wollen Sie eine Zigarette?” (do you want a cigarette?)

“I want your money.” he answered.

“Ich verstehe sie nicht,“ (I don’t understand you) I replied.

He pulled some bills out of his pocket and pointed to me.

I pointed to myself, held out my hand and said, “für mich?” (for me?).

He turned around and headed back into the alley muttering, “fucking foreigners.”

Heart racing, and jubilant at my deception, I resumed my walk home.

What do you honestly think most Chinese really think of Koreans, and why?

Most of the time, Chinese don’t think about Koreans.

When I have heard Chinese talk about Koreans, they talk about good entertainment and food, hard work, and often more hot-tempered than Chinese. But they do not say this in an uncomplimentary way; they just say that Koreans are usually more hot-tempered and emotional than Chinese in a matter-of-fact way.

Not Fixable

What are some ways to make a boss regret firing you?

Simply put, by doing a good job, right up to the last day. Here’s my story.

I wasn’t fired, but I was forced out. Over 17 years, I worked diligently for my boss. I started out as a laborer in this construction firm. I had completed a 2 year course on building construction, but back then, you did not get a degree for vocational education. I worked my way up to running jobs for him, as a job supervisor. Building one job, I set a record within the firm for the highest profit job. The boss that’s because he bid the job right. At the same time, we had 2 other identical jobs going, and they were both losing money. I replied that I made sure he managed to keep that money instead of running it poorly.

Fast forward a few years, and over the years, we had both grown tired of each other. Little things. The boss visibly checking his watch when I leave at 3:31, a minute after quitting, all the while ignoring I started 10 minutes early. For some reason, he tells me I can not run jobs for him anymore, claiming that the jobs he bids on, they want to see that his supervisors have a college degree. I’ll keep my pay and vacation, but I am maxed out as a carpenter, so don’t expect raise for the near future.

At first, this arrangement was actually quite nice. I kept my pay and benefits, but the stress levels associated with running a job went away. All of the newly hired college degreed supervisors love having me on their job. After 17 years, I knew what needed doing and how to do it, and was happy to do so. That Christmas, I specifically not invited to the company Christmas party, as only supervisors were invited. It used to be everyone when we had a small crew, or supervisors and key personnel (Long term hires, not the guy hired last week).

Later that spring, the boss tells everyone that times are tough, he won the bid on the job, but it was low, I need everyone to take a pay cut. Everyone else agrees to take a dollar cut. My turn in his office, he suggests a $3.00 cut in pay. I tell him I can not afford that, I’ll need to immediately start looking for a job. He replies, okay a dollar cut. And says that if everyone pulls together and produces, I can raise their pay back. So… my pay depends on all the now demoralized employees.

So, of course after a few more months, I am feeling hurt by the disrespect, and a job is offered to me, same pay, new company, one with some real character and class. I took the job, of course. The boss looks at me and says, you didn’t think that pay cut was permanent did you? I just looked at him. Two weeks later, I am working the next job and loving the working relationship.

After a couple months, I get a call from him, he tells me it was a mistake to let me go, he didn’t realize all I did for him and how well I did it, offers me a good paycheck and restoration of all benefits, etc… I reply that this job has different challenges that I want to prove myself on, and politely declined. His response, oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. A few months later, I receive a similar call from him, and it goes the same way, though he offers me a little more money. Again, politely declined. 2 years or so after leaving, I see a prominent ad in the help wanted section. He placed an ad in my new locale, describing my experience and capability to the letter, offering a company truck, commensurate pay, etc.. I did not respond. After 17 years of the little quibbles we had with each other, I had enough. I currently had a secure job and wanted to stay there.

TLDR, do a great job right up to your last day and make them regret making you leave.

Respect in China

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jcXGhB2-s6Y?feature=share

What true love story do you know?

Christopher Reeve was so much more than the characters he played.

He was exceptional, having hit the genetic lottery.

He was a brilliant student and an outstanding athlete. He was kind and oozed work ethic, pursuing perfection in everything he did. Christopher Reeve could have done anything he wanted in life.

Acting became his first and foremost love. He landed lead roles in nearly every audition from grade school onward.

A famous actress, Olympia Dukakis, approached him after a childhood performance, saying, “I am surprised. You’ve got a lot of talent. Don’t mess it up.”

He later frequented the most esteemed theater groups, including the Harvard Theater Company.

After being accepted to a list of Ivy League Schools, Chris attended Cornell, and later — Julliard.

He was adored by his theater teacher, John Houseman, who was eager to see Chris’s career blossom, saying, “Mr. Reeve. It is terribly important that you become a serious classical actor. Unless they offer you a shitload of money to do something else.”

The latter phrase came to be

After a stint of leading roles on Broadway, Chris landed the lead role in Superman in 1978. He went on to worldwide fame, appearing in famous films throughout the 1980s.

Chris lived a life most men dream of.

He made millions of dollars while starring in love scenes with beautiful starlets. He traveled the world, dining with Hollywood elites and noble laureates.

And then he met Dana

It was 1987. Dana Morosini was performing in a small-town cabaret.

Chris was always a fan of theater and was in attendance. Afterward, he walked into the backroom to meet her.

She’d fully expected to meet an arrogant jerk, as one often assumes of men in his position.

She said, “The man I met was soft-spoken, tall, kind, articulate, and not far removed from superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent.”

She was caught off guard by his interest in her. Chris said he’d just come back to compliment her, but later admitted he’d fallen in love with her in the moment he’d seen her.

She was initially skeptical, knowing it could all be a ruse to get her into the sack.

He later called her and she agreed to go out with him. She quickly fell in love and their relationship progressed. They moved in and lived together for several years. Then they married and had a child.

Theirs was always a good marriage, not prone to turbulence and strife and the two were known for their public affection. They traveled and went sailing while pursuing their own careers.

Eventually, horses came into the picture. Dana had grown up riding. In an effort to be part of that passion, Chris began taking lessons.

Like most things he did, he went all in. He wanted to be his absolute best. He rode and took lessons 4–5 days a week.

He went into jumping — a very dangerous style of horseback riding and was doing fine, despite taking an ambitious progression in the sport. It typically takes years to progress into big jumps.

May 27th, 1995

The most dangerous accidents are often subtle and less violent than a kick or explosion.

Gravity can do great damage with a little distance and a bad angle.

As Chris’s horse surged towards a wall to jump, it panicked and stopped, (called “refusing” in riding).

Chris was launched over the horse. He landed headfirst, all 6’4, 230 lbs of him. His second and third vertebrae in his neck were shattered.

Seven months prior, he’d filmed a movie where he played a paraplegic. He’d spent substantial time around people with spinal cord injuries in preparation for that role. Every day, he’d left their clinic feeling grateful for not living in their predicament.

And now he was there.

Life sputters to restart

Chris laid in the hospital, completely immobile and powerless. He was waiting to have surgery to reattach his skull to his spine. He couldn’t even lift his hand to brush his own teeth.

Most don’t realize what nearly happened in the weeks that followed.

Chris was in heated arguments with his doctors. He insisted they pull the plug on his breathing machine. It wasn’t a bluff. He couldn’t fathom living in his current state.

He saw himself as a burden to those around him. He was also threatening that he’d kill himself if they didn’t.

One can imagine, after a life of such freedom, being able to do anything you wanted, with a budget to pursue any passion, just how challenging it would be to suddenly be confined to such a cruel fate.

Dana Reeve became emotional and sat with him, saying, “I am only going to say this once. I will support whatever you want to do because this is your life and your decision. But I want you to know that I’ll be with you for the long haul, no matter what. You’re still you. And I love you.”¹

She urged him to just give it two years before they revisited the decision.

He accepted.

He eventually settled into his new life and Dana stood by her words, and by his side. They still lived, did things together, and found ways to have fun.

They were brought together by a push to make the world better for people like him, starting The Reeve Foundation, and raising money for people with spinal cord injuries.

He said during an Oprah interview: “We (humans) are all one big family. This has taught me a big lesson about complacency. We should never walk by someone in a wheelchair and be afraid of them — or think of them as a stranger. That could be us. In fact, it is us.”

Yet, it almost ended in that hospital room.

Chris couldn’t move a single body part below his neck. It was a far cry from his days as a free-roaming bachelor.

Yet he and Dana’s marriage was as strong in the second half as it had ever been before.

Sadly, Chris lost his life in 2004, due to complications from his injury. Shockingly, and only two years later, his wife Dana passed away from lung cancer. She was 47 years old and had never smoked.

Their story is terribly tragic. But within all of that pain, their love was consistent and they were happier than many others. It is yet another reminder, to embrace the moment and the blessing of good health.

Rest in peace.

Talking about Drugs

What are the implications of the U.S. ramping up export restrictions on key semiconductors and tools to China?

The US government will destroy America’s semiconductor sector. Nvidia is the poster child of this event. It’s GPU semiconductors used in AI and cloud computing applications are a good example. At first, the US government stopped sales to the Chinese market of its 100 series chips, then Nvidia began a slower version in its 800 series chips. Now all Nvidia GPU chips are off limits to China. Not only that, but 21 countries suspected of reselling their purchases to China have been put on the entity list.

Talk about killing a company, Nvidia is a prime example of what is happening in the US semiconductor sector. The US is hell bent on denying semiconductors to the world’s biggest semiconductor market regardless of the damage.

Both TSMC and Intel have stopped work on their high end fabs because that market is fading away from them because of US restrictions. Intel and Qualcomm have established ‘innovation centers’ in mainland China and TSMC is trying to expand its Nanjing factory.

The US government is killing the very sector it thought its actions was meant to kill the Chinese semiconductor rise, only to find it is killing its own semiconductor industry.

Stories

When were you hilariously wrong about something?

The night I let the wrong cat in.

When I was four, my father brought home this little white puppy for my sister. About a year and a half later, my mother got an orange tiger that became my cat. I loved that cat, and the cat and dog became fast friends, sleeping in the same bed together at times, and generally being the best of friends.

Starting in about fifth grade, I began to get really interested in retro TV shows like the Honeymmooners and Burns and Allen, and so many weekend nights I would fall asleep on the couch to those shows, either not going upstairs to my actual bed at all, or going to bed in the mmiddle of the night, at about three or four in the morning. Often enough I would let my cat in after he was outside for a few hours, as almost everybody who had cats at that time did; this was in the mid-seventies. He would make a kind of soft murr as he came in the door, and that’s how I knew he was in. That little white dog would be hanging out at his usual spot near the kitchen stove where his basket was, and the house would be at peace.

One cold winter night in February, when I was twelve, I got up to let my cat in. As usual, he did his usual murr, and I closed the door. Only this time the dog started growling and barking. Then I heard the sounds of a cat hissing. Then I heard the dog barking, and the noises of a cat and dog fighting. I couldn’t believe my ears because nothing like this had ever happened before. My cat and my sister’s dog were great friends so why was this happening? I was starting to realize that something was very, very wrong, and that there was probably a cat in our house that simply didn’t belong there. What else could explain the dog’s weird behavior? And by the way, what the hell was I gunna do now?

Well, what else could I do? I went upstairs to my parents room, opened the door and said:

“Ma? I think I let the wrong cat in.” See, I had figured out by this time that this other cat had followed mine into our house.

At that point, she and my brother came downstairs to see what was happening. As it turned out, quite a lot was going on because this cat and our dog were still fighting. And now my mother and brother were trying to get the damned cat out of the house. The cat was shrieking and hissing, flying around the kitchen, the dog was barking, and my mother couldn’t get her hands on the animal. My mother screamed at one point because the cat, quiet for a few seconds because it had tried to hide itself in a corner where we were storing insulation because my father was rebuilding our kitchen, screeched like a banshee when the cat sprung from his hiding place and attacked her.

Finally my cat, who had been paying no mind and eating his food in his bowl, finally got pissed off at the other cat and chased him out of the house. Then all was finally quiet, and we three all went upstairs to bed.

Meantime, my father, who was upstairs while all this was going on, got up to go to the bathroom, and he just started laughing his ass off. “It’s not funny!” I kept saying from my room, because by this time I was now in bed, and it was probably about 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning. Of course, the more I said it, the more he laughed, and the more he laughed, the more I found it funny, so I started laughing.

Just one of those classic stories from my childhood. And I can still hear my father remembering that story and repeating my words in the exact sheepish tone I used that night:

“Ma, I think I let the wrong cat in.”

Music

Can you think of an embarrassing moment that later made you proud?

There was the time I helped a teenage girl run away from home. I hid her in my room, lied to my parents, and ditched school. And for years I was completely embarassed by it. That just wasn’t appropriate behavior.

Here’s the story. When I was about 17, I started dating this girl who was a year younger than me. She complained about her mom a lot. Hey, we were teenagers, we all complained about our parents — but as I listened to her, it started to sound like there was some real emotional abuse going on. One night she called me, and we talked for hours. At one point her cat came in; he was a bloody mess, apparently he’d been in a fight, and for her this was the last straw. She was in quite an emotional state as she cleaned up her cat and then told me, “I’m coming over. I need to be with you tonight.”

It was 2 AM and I knew my parents would not appreciate a girl showing up at our house at two o’clock in the morning. I told her no, but she insisted. She said she was going to ride her bike over and that was it, goodbye.

What could I do? I didn’t want her ringing the doorbell, so I went downstairs and checked on my parents — they slept on the first floor, my room was upstairs. They were sound asleep, so I eased the back door open quietly and waited for her.

She showed up, dropped her bike in the back yard, and headed for the door. Before I stopped her, she threw the door open . . . and the dog started barking.

Oh crap, I’d forgotten about the dog. I shoved her up the stairs and followed her up, telling her, “stay up here and BE QUIET!”

Then I came downstairs, just as if I had been awakened by the barking and was trying to figure out what was going on. My parents were stumbling out of bed also. My mom noticed the back door was open and there was a bicycle in the yard. Obviously, someone had broken into the house — but where was the intruder? Dad headed to check the garage and I offered to check upstairs. Naturally, none of us reported finding an intruder, and they assumed that the intruder had been frightened by the dog and fled on foot. Mom brought the bike into the garage and was going to call the police — but I said “If we call the police they won’t be here for another hour and we’re all tired. Why don’t we call them in the morning?” They agreed that this was the best idea and they went back to bed.

Upstairs, girlfriend was crying. She was trapped, couldn’t go back downstairs for fear of the dog barking again. Couldn’t get her bike out of the garage without my parents noticing. I said “You’ll just have to stay here till morning.”

“My mom will kill me!”

At this point I said. “You’ve been telling me how much you hate your mom and how you’d really like to run away. Now’s your chance.”

“Huh?”

“Stay here tonight, and tomorrow we’ll see what your legal rights are.” She agreed and we fell asleep.

The next morning I came down for breakfast. Naturally, my parents were still talking about the incident in the night. I volunteered to call the police. I picked up the phone, dialed Time and Temperature, and listened to the National Weather Service’s local weather forecast while making up an entire imaginary conversation with the police department. I told my parents, “They said they’ll be here in an hour or an hour and a half. Why don’t you guys go to work, I don’t have school till third period today anyway, I can talk to them when they get here.” They said I was a good, considerate son, and went off to work.

By the way — I don’t think I’d ever lied to my parents before. At least not since I was little. I was a terrible liar, and I don’t know how I was able to do it so convincingly, thinking on my feet with the pressure on. Of all the things in this story, lying to my parents is probably the thing I’m the most ashamed of.

They went to work and Jeannie came downstairs for breakfast. I called an adult friend, an attorney, and told him the situation. He said that if I really thought that there was abuse going on, that I should report it to the District Attorney. So I called the District Attorney’s office and made an appointment for Jeannie to meet with them that afternoon. We arranged to meet at school and I would drive her downtown, but at the moment she needed to get her bike out of my parent’s garage. She rode off to school and I would later tell my parents that the police impounded it.

When I got to school myself — late, I’d lied to my parents about not having to go to first or second period that day — I was met in the hallway by my English teacher, Mr. Nelson. His first words weren’t rebuke or admonishment. Instead he said, “You’ve been seeing Jeanne M—-, haven’t you?” Cautiously I admitted it, and he said with near-frantic concern. “Do you have any idea where she is? Her mom thinks she’s been kidnapped, there was blood in the bathroom and she’s missing.”

Blood? Oh, yeah, the cat was bleeding when he came home that night and Jeannie cleaned him up. So I told Mr. Nelson that Jeannie had been with me, and he said Jeannie’s mother was on the way and I needed to go to the principal’s office to straighten things out.

When I got to the principal’s office several things happened all at once. The principal greeted me (I was kind of a teacher’s pet, and he insisted I wasn’t in any trouble). Jeanne just arrived on her bicycle and was coming down the hall from the other direction — and in the front door was walking Jeannie’s mom.

Jeanne gave me a hug, right in front of the principal, saw her mom, and panicked. “Oh My God, Run!” she yelled, grabbed me by the hand, and started running like she was trying to save her life. I followed as best as I could, and behind us, her mother was keeping up with us, cursing and making dire threats against us.

We went down a couple of back corridors of the school and into the student parking lot. We got into my car and peeled rubber getting out of there, leaving Jeannie’s mom out of breath and swearing.

We spent the next hour driving around, hiding from Jeannie’s mom or anyone else looking for us, then went downtown where we told someone from the District Attorney’s Office what was going on. They asked Jeannie to go in for further questioning and evaluation and told me to go back to school.

I went directly to the principal’s office. I told the principal about Jeannie’s claims of abuse — he didn’t act surprised — and that I’d dropped her off at the District Attorney’s office. He just told me to go to class and I never got into any trouble for what I did, not even for missing several classes that day.

Jeanne called me that night to tell me she’d been put in foster care and had been placed with a family that lived in the East High district so she’d still be going to school, and the DA was investigating the situation. But I never did find out how it all worked out, because not too long afterward, Jeannie and I had a big fight and we broke up.

In the years that followed, I was ashamed of the role I’d played in the whole affair. I was a good student, not a troublemaker, the teachers and parents all liked me, I was a Christian kid, active in church and my youth group, not the kind of person to help minors run away from home or hide girls in my room or lie to my parents. As the years went by I was ashamed and embarrassed by the whole thing and didn’t talk about it.

Then one day, 40 years later, I started wondering about some of the people I knew in high school and started looking them up on social media. I found Jeanne. Since I’d known her she’d become a registered nurse, gotten married, had a kid, gotten divorced, and lived alone with a couple of cats. Nothing too extraordinary there.

Then I found a blog post she wrote, entitled “The Day My Life Changed.” She wrote about years of emotional abuse recieved from her angry single mother, the cursing and threats and insults. “You’re nothing but a worthless slut,” she was told over and over, and ever since she was little she just wanted to make the abuse end. She wanted to run away — but was never able to do it “until one night a brave boyfriend said he’d help.” She ran away, got into foster care, and a family that convinced her that she wasn’t worthless after all — decided to go to nursing school and make a life for herself.

“Brave boyfriend.” I’d never thought of myself like that before. For years, I’d been ashamed and embarrassed about what I d done, only to find out that I was the hero in someone else’s story.

Yes I contacted Jean after that, and we stay in touch by Facebook.

Cajun Cheeseburger

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
2 tablespoons onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons green pepper, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried, crushed basil
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 slices Wisconsin Cheddar cheese
4 hamburger buns, toasted
4 tomato slices
1/4 cup green onion slices

Instructions

Combine beef, pork, chopped onion, green pepper and seasonings; mix well. Shape into four patties. Cook and top with cheddar as directed below.
Place patties on oiled grill over medium coals (coals will be glowing). Grill, uncovered, for 5 minutes on each side to desired doneness.
Top each with Cheddar; continue grilling until cheese is melted. Place each patty on bun. Top with tomato; sprinkle with green onion.

Tell Me

What are the reasons behind the Chinese government’s willingness to help African countries?

I think it is inappropriate to say “China helps African countries”.

I have many business partners in China who are very interested when it comes to Africa. For the Chinese, Africa is a friendly business partner. Rather than “a beggar in need.”

There is a story circulating among the Chinese.

An Italian salesman went to Africa to sell shoes and found that Africans did not wear shoes at all. He returned to his country depressed and told his boss: “Boss, they can’t afford shoes at all. So our shoes can’t be sold.”

A Chinese salesman went to Africa to sell shoes and found that Africans did not wear shoes at all. He returned to his country excitedly and told his boss: “Boss, they don’t have shoes. Africa has huge market potential!”

Maybe you think that Africans can’t afford Chinese shoes, and that the Chinese are just being crazy. But the Chinese don’t think so.

There is a Chinese proverb, “Don’t bully a young man into being poor.” It roughly means: Don’t despise a person just because he is poor, but see his future.

In the eyes of the Chinese, although Africa is poor, it has huge potential. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford shoes, I know rubber is abundant here. You can make soles out of rubber and sell them to me, and I will use them to produce shoes. Now that you have earned money, can’t you buy my shoes? You guys get nice shoes, I get cheap rubber, everyone is happy, isn’t that good?

What? You can only get rubber juice and don’t know how to make soles? It doesn’t matter, how about building a rubber factory and a shoe sole factory? No funds? Not technical?

It doesn’t matter, just wait for me to make a call.

Soon, rubber experts, equipment suppliers, and sole designers from China arrived. Chinese bankers came too, and they even gave better loans than the IMF, with only factories and future profits as collateral.

A year later, a modern rubber factory was built. Millions of shoe soles, gloves, and even tires are produced every year. Thousands of people found jobs here, and they began to have money to buy food, new clothes, and new shoes.

Salesmen in China found that their shoes were in short supply and all the shoes were sold. And the Italian salesman was still thinking about why Africans couldn’t afford shoes.

in this whole game

1. Africans got a modern factory.

2. Thousands of Africans around have received job opportunities. They have all made money, acquired new skills, and their lives have improved.

3. The tax revenue of the local government has been greatly increased. The income from selling rubber products is ten times more than that from selling rubber juice. There began to be money to build roads, schools, and hospitals.

4. China’s investment banks received dividends from the factory.

5. Chinese equipment suppliers sold equipment.

6. Experts who go to Africa to teach technology are paid a lot of money.

7. All the salesman’s shoes have been sold.

Who loses? There are no losers here

Is China helping Africa? No, China is just doing business their way, and Africans are just their customers. They deal fairly with each other and do not need charity or mercy.

Only some Western media are shouting: “Oh no! The Chinese are plundering Africa’s rubber. This is neocolonialism!”

They have completely forgotten how they did it 100 years ago.

Demigender

Is there anything that Canadian people hate about America and Americans?

Americans have a tendency to talk with their “outside voice”, even when inside and in a place where quiet is expected.
Americans have a tendency to mistreat people like store clerks, fast food workers, and hotel clerks.
Americans appear to have a perverse sense of pride about (1) how little they know about Canada (2) what they think they know about Canada that’s absolutely wrong, and (3) how large Canada is. Americans tend to treat Canada as if it were the size of Rhode Island rather than it being a little larger than their own country.
Americans are sure all their stuff is better than all our stuff, and when you point out how wrong that is in any area and provide demonstrable proof, they still won’t believe it.
Americans call our currency “funny money” because it’s plastic and all the bills have different colours. That’s despite the fact that American counterfeit currency is quite common and Canadian counterfeit currency is pretty rare solely because of its design.

Girl and guy standards

If you could give one piece of advice to every teenager in the world, what would it be?

A few months ago, I received an email from my daughter’s school informing me about the tragic passing of a girl. She had taken her own life.

She was only 14! She should have had her whole life ahead of her to do anything she wanted, but she couldn’t anymore because she chose death. The school email didn’t provide details about the reasons behind her action, but through the conversation with my daughter, I discovered that she had been battling depression. She felt overwhelmed by how she looked and the hurtful comments some other kids made about her. Sadly, some of her peers even viewed her actions as brave.

While I felt so sorry for the girl and her family, I felt compelled to remind my daughter a lesson I had always emphasized: “Everything can be fixed, except death. Taking your own life is not an act of bravery. Why? Because dying is easy. Living is hard. You only die just once but you have to live every day.”

I told my daughter, if anyone ever hurt you, do not hurt yourself, just come home to me, I will make you dinner, we will have dinner together, and if necessary, we will go out there and hunt the enemy that hurt you together.

Teenagers, please remember: Everything, every mistakes can be fixed, except death. If you ever don’t know where to go, go home!

And parents, please please, tell your kids that they can talk to you about anything, they can always come HOME. Please don’t assume that they know. Just tell them, by words, sincerely.

Traditional woman

What is the best, least expensive gift you’ve ever received?

Some background: I was a costume designer for many years. My life was all about color. I dated someone who didn’t have basic color knowledge. Most frustratingly, he didn’t know common color names: Magenta, aqua, salmon lemon yellow. Could have been Greek to him. It was a source of humor between us, like we were speaking different languages.

Call him Steve.

One day we were discussing how and when we had learned color names, and had a bizarre revelation. I realized I had learned all my basic color names from Crayola crayons (note for young Quorans: they used to have the traditional color names, instead of creative new names). I started asking my friends, and all of them said that yes, the Crayola 64 pack (or was it a 120 pack? The biggest one.) was where they first learned their basic colors.

Steve, it turned out, never had Crayolas. His parents only got him the little 8 packs of generic colors. Red, green, blue, yellow, brown, orange, black, purple.

My poor disadvantaged baby! Of course we started making up for lost time. He would ask me what color I called something, then he’d tell me what he thought it was. Like lovers from foreign countries learning each other’s languages.

Anyway…. Came my birthday, and he gave me a gift I will never forget. It was a little book he had made by stapling sheets of paper together down the middle. On the cover it said “Crayola-Steve Dictionary” Inside, on each page, were two columns. One had each of the crayola colors drawn on the paper, with its name. Opposite it was the color that Steve had grown up thinking that name referred to.

I have never in my life had someone put so much effort and caring into a gift.

Years later, when Crayola betrayed the artists of the world by changing their color names to updated and exciting things, so that kids could no longer learn their color basics from the product, he hunted down a pack of the originals for me.

He was a very special guy, and I will always remember that gift fondly.

ADDED: For those who are interested, here you can see the change in color names in 1990…art teachers, I warn you, have a stiff drink in hand…

History of Crayola crayons – Wikipedia

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

When I walked up on an employee berating a very nice regular customer. Actually, called this sweet little old lady a very offensive name (you f’king ole b***h). Her offence? She asked him a question as he was stocking some items. I fired him right there on the spot in front of her. Told him to get his things and get out and I would be mailing him his last paycheck as I never wanted to see his face again.

What is this problem with people painting cats blue?

What did you say to your boss that made them quit their job?

I said, “Pssst! Dave! C’mere! I got us new jobs!”

I was fed up with the crap at a place that I was working and interviewed for a job that was opening up at a new place. My boss had been driving 50 miles each way. The new company was opening a place down the highway from his house, cutting it to 12 miles. They offered more money, more decency, better products and overall better working conditions. When I interviewed, they hired me on the spot and asked if I knew of anyone else who would like to work for them that they could talk to. I set up interviews for my whole team before I even told them about it, then badgered them into going. I told them they could say no at any point and I’d never say that they interviewed at all. We all went. We got better jobs closer to our homes. We got better working conditions. We got more money.

Is the principle plank or statement of the Republican Party to cut taxes for the wealthy in the USA?

Once upon a time in a far away place, there was a party called the Republican party that believed in fiscal restraint and cutting taxes as the way to win the hearts and minds of the American people and to transfer ever more wealth to the rich in America.

This policy was ingrained and enshrined in their thinking with the greatest avatar being the B grade actor Ronald Reagan. Reagan coined phrases like Morning in America and went around Washington having huge balls and a wonderful time. Jobs started to disappear and the Midwest became the ‘rust belt’ but Reagan slashed taxes for the rich, ran up the deficit and left it for Bush Sr to fix it which he could not as he was right when he called it, ‘voodoo economics’.

This let in Bill Clinton who worked with Newt of Gingrich fame and they balanced the budget and all was well as the country bled ever more jobs but it was don’t worry be happy. Remember that one?

But Bush Jr of hanging chad fame, became President, cut more taxes, had 2 wars at a trillion $ or so and the country was back on the debt cycle as 3 million more jobs went to China. The ‘oughts’ were the worst for the American worker and best for American rich in a century until it all collapsed in a big heap.

Bush left the US in the Great Recession, crashed the economy and left it to neophyte Obama to fix. Obama dawdled along, saved the auto industry and put through an expensive healthcare plan nicknamed Obamacare and after 8 years and the hubris of HRC another Republican, this time a 5 time bankrupt tv huckster, Donald Trump came in with the same old same old.

Cut more taxes but then he decided he didn’t care about budgets. Thus the story ended with yet another $7 trillion added in debt as every Republican President that was a tax hawk / cutter has added more and more trillions to the national debt.

Trump did something else and is the reason for this story, he ended the Republican party. It no longer is a governing party, it is now the party of the angry disaffected types who will vote for him even though he admits he lost the 2020 election and tried to steal it. They love it, his minions now run the House, the Speaker was a leader in the steal the election saga.

A Christian theocracy is now spoken of openly and history is being rewritten by the GOP to move the US to a religious based society run by evangelical GOP Christians where women have no rights any more and elimination of LGBTQ rights including the right to marry will be taken away.

The GOP no longer stands for cutting taxes for the rich, that has already been done. Now they want to destroy and dismantle the federal government and take rights away from those they do not like including black and brown people who are being gerrymandered out in state after red state.

To cut the power of the feds and give it to the states so that the states will devour each other in a free for all. The GOP no longer stands for anything other than chaos.

You don’t have to look far, the new Speaker’s first proposal for Israel was to partially defund the IRS so that the rich don’t have to worry about being audited.

In the end, the GOP now stands for chaos, tearing down the system, cutting taxes and screwing everyone including the military and making themselves the white masters of an evangelical Christian society where they have all the rights and will tell you what to read, what to think and what history will be taught.

In short, they stand for nothing but themselves.

Can married men have close female friendships outside of the marriage?

I dunno, should they?

I’ve heard men say the only reason they ever befriend a woman is because they want to get their dicks wet. I believe those men. They have no reason to lie, and I see no evidence that runs counter to what they say.

Those men? No, they probably should not. Not just because they’ll cheat if they can, but because they see women as basically a life support system for a vagina, and what kind of friend is that? Their friendship will always and forever be transactional, because at the end of the day they don’t see women as people.

Normal men? Yes, normal men should have friends outside their marriage. Including friends who are women.

Who is the worst customer you have ever had?

We had to ban Karen from our store.

Karen attempted to manipulate Domino’s refund policy, time and time again.

Ultimately, we were losing money because of her.

She liked to place pizza orders online quite frequently.

And would then decide to request a refund for whatever reason, be it from the order was messed up to ‘the pizza just doesn’t look that great’.

Yes, she actually said that to me.

It got to the point where we would ensure her order was immaculate.

Quality over quantity, eh?

And guess what? She’d try and get a refund.

Naturally, she’d get one, since there’s the whole thing about how the “customer is always right”.

We attempted to logically defend ourselves, telling her we did nothing wrong, but she ensured to find something flawed with her order.

Eventually, we got sick of it, and so we called in our district manager.

She places an order, and I crafted damn near the best pizza the world has ever seen. Even my manager agreed, so it’s legit.

Everything else associated with Karen’s order was on point.

So about 5 minutes or so after the driver returns from her house, we receive a call from Karen.

“Hi, I’d like a refund for my order.”

I notify my manager it’s a no go.

“Don’t refund her.”, my manager said.

“Ban her.”, my district manager said.

It’s about time.

Have you ever accidentally ordered something at a restaurant that was significantly more expensive than you expected it to be? What was the end result?

Yes. Out for dinner with my wife, I ordered a budget-friendly red called Leaping Horse or something similar. Or, more accurately, that’s what I meant to order. Instead, I treated us to a $200 bottle of Stag’s Leap at five times the price of the other horsey brand I thought I ordered. Stag’s Leap wasn’t even on the official wine list.

To be fair, the server questioned it and double checked that was what I wanted. Each time I foolishly said yes.

Expensive lesson but it was a beautiful wine.

The real red pill

How does the US Navy minimize the discomfort of crew members on modern destroyers during heavy seas?

The US Navy doesn’t try to minimize discomfort. Safety? Sure. Discomfort? Suck it up Shippy!.

Racks, Navy-speak for the bunks sailors sleep in, have straps. Typically we keep them tucked under the mattress. But when needed we can pull them out and snap hook the to the top of the rack frame. This prevents you from rolling out of your rack.

I have used the straps on a few occasions and they do in fact work well. During a trek from Norfolk to Pascagoula back in the mid-90’s aboard a Burke-class guided missile destroyer, we ran into a group of storms near Key West. This area is notorious for bad weather that pops up on short notice. The area is littered with wrecks from the Age of Sail all the way to the 20th Century. White Squalls in particular are some of the most dangerous and infamous. We happened upon what the Commanding Officer would later tell us the Coast Guard had determined was a White Squall. When it began I was actually on the bridge standing watch. We were taking heavy listing rolls and heaving up and down fairly steeply. There is a list gauge and pitch gauge on the bridge. The heaviest roll we noted was about 32 degrees which is fairly close to Burke-classes mast limit.

We posted garbage bags in passageway and at strategic points. Many guys got sick. I felt horrible but I didn’t throw up. That may have been because I simply couldn’t eat after it started. As I was leaving watch and heading to the Mess Decks for Mid-Rats or Midnight Rations, I could smell vomit. The hour or so beating we took while I was on watch had me dizzy and swaying. Even when the ship wasn’t rocking, I was. By the time I made it to eat everything was secured as ordered by the CO. At that moment the CO came over the 1MC (loudspeaker), which was a big deal because it was past TAPS and no announcements are normally made. “Everyone not on watch strap into your racks”. Engineering watch crew set about “Setting Condition YOLK” which closes a lot of doors on the ship along with ventilation. The gun mount was turn as far aft as possible and depressed (pointed down) as much as possible.

The next day it was very calm to start. Then all of the sudden a storm formed and hit quickly during dinner. The rolls approached 40 degrees. We nosed into one wave an it submerged the bow. The waves that hit the bridge smacked the windows hard enough that it broke several windshield wipers. The storm hit while dinner was being served. The salad bar, which was tack-welded to the deck broke free and sent the contents everywhere. At the time the boat deck and our complement of 2 RHIB boats were my assigned space and responsibility along with one of my comrades. Both of us had to go out on deck to make sure the boats were secured. That was fun. We got to the quarterdeck and an area in the open that we have to cross with nothing to hold on to. Just at we were crossing the open area the ship heeled an rocked heavy to starboard ( the boat deck is on starboard). We were standing straight up but looking straight down at the water. It was intense.

There is also a stanchion/wire system we can rig for the Focsle (bow). They screw into the deck and stand about 6 foot tall. Wearing a harness you can strap onto the wire. Although rigging it when the seas are already rough is problematic. You can also just take the top caps and screw them into the deck, attaching the wire.

What is the most savage revenge you’ve seen someone take on their ex?

Years ago, my then-GF had a friend who periodically hung out with us.

Her friend was in a fairly turbulent relationship with her boyfriend.

It wasn’t abusive or anything. It just wasn’t meant to be. They couldn’t agree on anything in life.

Honestly, I dreaded hanging out with them.

They typically were showing up when we were going out on the weekends.

I knew that when they drank, it only exacerbated their problems and they’d start arguing.

And look, I’m not knocking either of them for their dysfunction. They were both young, not in full control of their emotions. They definitely weren’t prepared for their own incompatibility.

These things happen. We live. We grow. We learn.

Eventually, he came to realize that they were stuck in a rut they would never get out of. He broke things off with her.

She did NOT take it well.

Within a couple weeks she had moved away.

She took something with her though – his child. She was pregnant and chose not to tell him. It was a savage, vindictive thing to do.

Years later, he found out through back channels about it.

He was rightfully pissed. And it turned into huge drama.

Some of the friends in our group knew about him having a daughter and didn’t say anything to him. (Thankfully I didn’t know.)

He had to take her to court to get access to his daughter. And he did get visitation rights eventually.

But it sucked. He’d missed 5 years of his daughter’s life and hadn’t met her until then.

I can’t imagine introducing myself to my 5-year-old daughter, but these things happen.

He and the mother found a way into an agreeable arrangement of co-parenting.

And, he found a way to bury his resentment towards her for the sake of the child, which couldn’t have been easy.

But it was a valuable sacrifice because in the end it benefited the most important person in the equation, his daughter.

But I hate seeing kids getting caught in these evil games adults play with each other.

No such thing as biological sex…

What will happen when I try to start a car that has been parked for 10 years?

Due to a wiring harness issue, my father parked his 1965 impala SS in the garage 2002 and there it sat until 2022 when we had to move it. Rather than calling a tow truck I figured what the hell l, let’s give it a shot. We put a battery in it, pumped the gas a few times, a lot and behold l, it started right up after 30 seconds of cranking. Granted it ran like crap but it did run and stayed running with 20 years old gas. At first I was shocked that the gas was still good. Then I realized that it was likely the fact that the gas was 20 years old that made it start fine. This gas was pre-ethanol.

Now all we need to do is finish the wiring harness replacement

Do you agree with “old enough to bleed, old enough to breed”?

No I don’t. I was 12 when I had my first set of twins. My father had raped me for almost 2 years, and I didn’t know about abortion then. I was a child who was forced into having sex, and procreate, against my will. I still managed to graduate early, and find a good man to love, but I’ll never be able to get that innocence or childhood back.

What is the most bizarre coincidence that has ever happened in your life?

On a beautiful summer day many years ago, my friend Cathy and I went to the beach.

After sunbathing and swimming, we had a picnic and took a nap.

Feeling refreshed after the nap, Cathy and I walked the full length of the beach.

This was in eastern Canada which is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean.

By the time we got back to our picnic table, it was starting to get dark.

We packed our things and headed for the car.

When Cathy got the car keys out of her purse she dropped them in the sand.

It was nearly dark out, and we were the only people left at the beach.

There were no cell phones back then, and the nearest house was at least five miles away.

It was getting REALLY dark and we started to panic.

We searched with a little ‘purse’ flashlight to no avail.

Just as we were giving up hope of finding the keys, we saw a silhouette of a man walking toward us.

As he got closer, we realized that he had a metal detector!

He asked us what we were looking for, and moved the detector around the area where Cathy had dropped the keys.

‘Beep – beep – beep’. The keys were detected!

What were the odds of a man with a METAL DETECTOR coming along the beach just when we needed his help?

As we thanked him, he told us that coming to the beach to find hidden treasures was his hobby, and he had never stayed that late before.

We were all amazed at his perfect timing!

When might China use America’s deceptive tactics back on America?

When I was a kid, my mother told me a Chinese famous saying:

Avoid argue with a sinister.

无与小人论短长

It is like debating with a dog. If won,you’re more dog than a dog. If lose, you’re worse than a dog. If it’s a draw,you’re like a dog.

There’s no need, just keep going.

Why Do Men Get So Few Matches On Dating Apps?

I get the feeling that Russia, China, the Middle East, and maybe others have something planned to take out the USA. Any theories on what it might be?

You want the good news or the bad news. Let me feed you the good news first. Not yet! Chinese, Russian or a combination of this that faced the U.S. excesses hasn’t reached the point that it wants to take out the U.S. in spite of the U.S. provocation and goaded behaviour.

But it might if the U.S. don’t recognised the red line and push and push and push. At some point it may have no choice. And now the bad news. The U.S. has lost its ability to act without repercussions. Up to 2000 these countries might not have the capability to take out the U.S. but by 2023 they certainly can. And absolutely could do so it push comes to shove.

My worry is that the U.S. might not recognises or in denial that those nations can and will do it if they are push into the corner. There lies the risk of a catastrophic disaster first of the U.S. demise and or worst the U.S. nuclear respond and of course China and Russia respond to the U.S. nuclear response. It is a dooms day scenario for our world.

Have you ever been ignored by the staff in a store because you didn’t look wealthy enough?

Actually, I have a different answer to this.

When I first moved to Boston, I had zero money. I was 18, working for minimum wage, and supporting my own crappy little basement studio apartment which took half of my take-home pay every month. I saved up to shop at Goodwill.

Dressed in my best ragged torn-off shorts and a gingham halter top, I wandered into John Lewis, an expensive jeweller on Newbury Street. The smell alone told me I was out of my price range–there’s just a smell to really high-end stores.

I was bedazzled. No other word for it. They had totally gorgeous stuff in their showcases, and I lusted after every item. The clerk asked me quite cordially if she could show me something. I told her that I frankly couldn’t afford to breathe their air. Her response made a difference in my life.

She said that maybe I couldn’t afford their stuff now, but maybe one day I could. She showed me everything! She let me try on everything. To me, Macy’s was higher class than I felt I could enter, OK? An expensive Newbury Street merchant making me welcome? This was beyond belief!

They had a set of 18k gold jewelry, all custom-made, hand-carved in a strawberry pattern that I fell in love with.

Eventually I tore myself away, a dream planted in my heart. Twelve years later, when I actually had a little money, I bought a custom ring in that strawberry pattern from them. It cost about $2000, and after a couple of fittings I wore it continuously for 30 years.

If that lady, who knew for a fact that she couldn’t sell me anything that day, hadn’t been so wonderful, I’d never have entered that shop again. Her kindness made all the difference.

What do you think of China’s regulatory clampdown on business leaders in the country?

China don’t pander to millionaires and billionaires rogue and irresponsible business leaders who took advantage and hurt the Chinese people. US calls it too big to fail companies. China take them to task. The U.S. bailed them out using taxpayers money.

What do I think?

I think China is responsible, is doing the right thing, is making businessman think of serving their customers better. I think the U.S. should learn from China. That is what I think! What about you? What do you think?

Gave Cheating Wife a Taste of Her Own Medicine: She didn’t expect to see my revenge…

https://youtu.be/NArKCFPWfbQ

How is China going to gain trust when their government says a forceful takeover of Taiwan is inevitable and near? Are they really that deluded?

China will do whatever is necessary to the interest of China and the Chinese people and that include Taiwan, China. Taiwan is an island and a region of China. It is an unalienable part of China. It cannot be separated or snagged away from China by any means including the U.S. and western geopolitical games.

As a Chinese origin from the southern China where 90% of Taiwanese Chinese migrated from. I understand their psyche that most westerners who write such ridiculous question can ever understand. We want to see Taiwan as an integral part of China. Many Taiwanese are all out to support and help China achieved this honourable achievement.

Do we gives a shit about what white Caucasian westerners think or feel? Not at all. Not even bothered a bit. We care about keeping our nation together from the manipulative western behaviour. Forceful or peaceful it our god damn business. It is our Business not yours. Mind you own business.

When do Chinese people think their country will finally be as advanced as the west?

As Prof Zhang Weiwei likes to say, China is no longer on the same track as the West.

She’s now running on her own track.

This is like what I tell my medical students — don’t compete with others, just do the best that you can do (in your own way that works best for you).

Edit 17 October 2023:

As a Chinese, I see China as still being more deeply Confucianist than Communist; though there’s some overlap between the two ideologies. The sworn goals of a Confucianist society are two: xiaokang 小康 (moderate prosperity — which China has largely achieved), and finally datong 大同 (Great Unity

, a classical Chinese concept for an utopian view of the world; or Common Prosperity).

This is very different from the approach of the Western nations, seeking hegemony over other nations.

“The report to the 20th CPC National Congress in 2022 drew a great blueprint for rejuvenating the Chinese nation on all fronts by pioneering a uniquely Chinese path to modernization, and pointed out that striving to build a global community of shared future is one of the intrinsic requirements of Chinese modernization, affirming the close bond between the future of China and the future of all humanity.”

Whether you believe the report or not — just watch what China had been doing (in Asia, Middle East, Africa and South America), and is continuing to do in the coming years.

Edit 18 October 2023:

China is holding her Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) on 17–18 October 2023.

Attending the event are more than 1,200 representatives from more than 80 countries and regions

The list of VIP attendants is impressive, showing how China’s Belt and Road Initiative (2023 is its 10th anniversary) has attracted the attention of most countries (except those in US and her allies):

Vladimir Putin is top of the list.

Others: Indonesian President Joko Widodo,

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev,

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban,

Chilean President Gabriel Boric,

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic,

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev,

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed

Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape

UN Secretary-General António Guterres,

Argentine President Alberto Fernandez,

Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong,

President of Mongolia Ukhnaa Khurelsukh

Prime Minister of Mozambique Adriano Maleiane

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar,

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin,

Kenyan President William Ruto,

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet,

Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith,

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe

President of the Republic of the Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso

It looks like many other countries have been attracted by China’s parallel track, and are leaving “the American track”.

Alpha Hubby Allowed Me To Open My Marriage Then Filed For Divorce & Ghosted, Left Broke & Penniless

How low is the standard of living in Britain compared to the USA and Canada?

I’m a former New Yorker. I’ve only visited Canada, but lived in London for the past 25 years. In the States, if you have a good job, you can live very comfortably. But if you have a serious medical emergency or long term medical needs, this can bankrupt you, you can lose your home & be very poor. For average workers, the medical insurance is very difficult as the insurance is very expensive and on top of that, you have to co-pay. And many can’t get insurance because of pre-existing issues. In the UK, medical care is free, doesn’t matter about your past history … the taxes we pay towards it is less than what people pay in the States for their insurance. People never have to worry about being homeless because of ongoing medical problems. Whenever I go back to New York to visit, I’m a bit shocked at how very poor many people are there – compared to London.

In the UK, if you are working, but not able to afford rent, the government will pay towards your rent. It may not cover all the rent, but it helps. If you have children & don’t earn enough in your job, the government will top up your earnings so you are above the poverty line. If you are unemployed, your unemployment benefits won’t stop as long as you are actively looking for work & attending the skills meetings. And if you do accept a job, but it doesn’t pay well, the government will top it up to make sure you are earning what they consider to be the minimum needed to live on.

My high-earning son had the opportunity to work for his company in the States, but he realised he has a much better safety net here in the UK for his family. It felt too much of a risk for him to have to pay for medical insurance for his family when it isn’t even guaranteed that it will pay for certain things.

The only thing I don’t like about living in the UK is the weather. But everything else, in my personal opinion, leads for a better quality of life.

What was your “I am surrounded by idiots” moment?

So, I’m on the beach enjoying myself over a bit of beach calligraphy (this involves cutting sand out of the surface, and some fairly intense concentration) when the spell is broken by someone who has walked up to me, having walked over my work, stood on it at my side, and proceeded to ask me what I’m trying to catch.

The next time that happened to me I was ready with “Calligraphy” as my reply but then just dumbstruck again by being asked if I had permission.

EDIT
I just want to add the following in response to some of the comments I’ve had here:

I’ve NEVER had a child walk up to one of my doodles without noticing it and being curious about it. I do occasionally have young children deliberately tread through it but that’s part of being observant. It feels interesting underfoot. The interaction usually leads to my offering the tools to the kiddiewinks to try.

I can’t help wondering if there’s a relationship between stupidity and being unobservant. I’m not sure but it’s clear that coming with a strong preconception does get in the way of open observation and surprise. Only an adult can come blinded by so much preconception that they fail to notice the beach calligraphy happening before their eyes and under their feet. To then layer that blindness with a preoccupation with permission …?! I make no apologies for my disdain.

There are some lighting conditions under which the beach calligraphy is barely noticeable and almost impossible to photograph: high sun, lit from behind the observer, very cloudy. The beach calligraphy depends on shadow. I’m very keenly aware of this. Usually, under conditions like that, I’m just practising close to the waters’ edge where it is constantly washed away in any case.

If I have to do a paid commission then I get careful and a bit possessive about it and I look for a spot on a beach where I can be alone. I don’t usually mind redoing work. I often redo it in any case just because I’m not satisfied with the calligraphy.

You can lose your work to a wave, dogs, or an unobservant idiot but you don’t lose the skill you build in doing it again.

Some people have said things along the lines of “You don’t own the beach!” and I do (very rarely) get that response on the beach if I try to ward someone off my work. It’s a stupid response because this is not about ownership. Stupidity, on the other hand … if you’re not prepared to own it, it will own you.

What happened that made you walk out of the courtroom and think, “That did not just happen”?

I was in a courtroom trying to evict a tenant, I was broke had massive loans on the property and down on my luck, I could not afford legal representation so I represented myself which judges generally do not like. I saw the judge wipe the floor and throw out of court room the others who represented themselves earlier that day. This was the days before the internet and I had to learn about housing laws from things called books if you remember what they are? Then it was my turn to step into the dock after four hours of waiting in the court during previous, I learned a lot about tenancy laws in those four hours.

Preliminaries over then the game was on, its was like a verbal tennis match on points of law, I knew I had my paperwork and facts right, he volleyed and I hit it back countering his serve. Forgive me because this was over thirty years ago so I don’t remember the joust word for word, the judge did not like this uneducated smart arsed whippersnaper giving as good as-he got.

Then he threw a curve ball question regarding arrears, and how much the tenant owed, I said the tenant was six months behind I wasn’t sure of the amount as it was irrelevant, I had not come to court to claim arrears ( separate application and hearing and nigh on impossible to get money back because she was claiming benefits ) I said to the judge I just want her evicted and my property back. Then he tried to bamboozle me with jargon after jargon and I got a bit confused he then said to me said to me,

‘Young man I suggest you get your paper work in order and go and see legal advice!’

I was so nervous and that is exactly what I didn’t want the hear, as it meant I would have to have my property repossessed and I would have lost everything I worked for, I was sweating profusely my mind was over revving I was trying to grasp at something I had read in the past six months that would get me out of this painful situation

Then it came to me, I knew that I had done everything right and that he had to grant me a notice to evict, from deep within my memory I recalled something and blurted out to the judge, your honour under section ( blah ) article ( blah) of the 1988 housing act I have served you all the correct papers within procedure and you are obliged to give me notice of eviction, that was it, my final serve I had nothing else to give.

The court went silent and the court usher gave a wry smile, the Judge turned and looked down his nose through his half rimmed glasses at me and stared for a moment, then he turned to the court clerk and beckoned him over, he whispered something in his ear and the clerk disappeared for a moment and brought back one of the biggest books I’d ever seen laid it in front of the judge and opened it for him. The judge flicked through the pages and ran his finger down the lines of one or two pages as he was reading, he then grabbed the gavel looked at me and brought the gavel down with a thud and said

‘ Notice of eviction granted, 28 days’

It may not seem much, but there is nothing better (to me ) than beating the system that’s so inherently wrong and stacked against you but the biggest victory was correcting a judge on a point of law, when I left the court house I felt twenty kilos lighter and like had just been set free from , I did get my property back 28 days later

‘If you don’t fight you never win, if you fight there is a chance you may win’

Muffuletta Sandwiches

In New Orleans the two best Muffuletta Sandwiches — bar none — can be had at Central Grocery or at Napoleon House on Chartres Street.

Yield: 1 loaf bread; 1 to 4 servings, depending on appetite!
about 3 quarts olive salad

Ingredients

Muffuletta Bread

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 package active dry yeast (about 1 tablespoon)
About 3 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
Sesame seeds

Olive Salad

1 (32 ounce) jar pimento-stuffed green olives, chopped
2 cups pitted ripe olives, chopped
1 1/4 cups chopped pickled cocktail olives
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 cups blanched chopped cauliflower
1/4 cup minced garlic
2 medium carrots, peeled and minced
2 teaspoons dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon minced flat-leaf parsley
2/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil

Muffuletta Sandwich

1 (10 inch) Muffuletta Bread loaf
3 ounces honey ham, thinly sliced
3 ounces Mortadella with pistachios, thinly sliced
3 ounces Genoa salami, very thinly sliced
1 heaping cup Olive Salad
5 slices Provolone cheese

Instructions

Muffuletta Bread

In a 2 cup glass measuring cup, combine water and sugar.
Stir in yeast. Let stand until foamy, 5 to 10 minutes.
In a food processor fitted with the steel blade, combine 3 cups flour, salt and shortening. Add yeast mixture. Process until dough forms a ball, about 5 seconds. Stop machine; check consistency of dough. It should be smooth and satiny. If dough is too dry, add more warm water, 1 tablespoon at a time, processing just until blended. If dough is too sticky, add more flour, 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time, processing just until blended. Process for 20 seconds to knead.
Lightly oil a large bowl, swirling to coat bottom and sides. Place dough in oiled bowl; turn to coat all sides. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.
Lightly grease a baking sheet. When dough has doubled in bulk, punch down dough; turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Form dough into a round loaf about 10 inches in diameter; place on greased baking sheet. Sprinkle top of loaf with sesame seeds; press seeds gently into surface of loaf. Cover very loosely with plastic wrap; let rise until almost doubled in bulk, 1 hour.
Place rack in center of oven. Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Remove plastic wrap.
Bake loaf in center of preheated oven for 10 minutes.
Reduce heat to 375 degrees F; bake for 25 minutes. The loaf is done when it sounds hollow when tapped on bottom. Cool completely on a rack before slicing.

Olive Salad

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and stir to blend well.
Store in jars with tight-fitting lids in the refrigerator.

Muffuletta Sandwich

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cut bread in half crosswise to form a sandwich bun. Layer the honey ham on the bottom of the loaf. Next add the Mortadella, then the salami. Spread the Olive Salad over the meats evenly. Top with the slices of Provolone cheese and place the top on the sandwich. Press down to compress slightly. Wrap the sandwich in foil and bake for 20 minutes, or until the cheese has begun to melt into the Olive Salad.
Slice sandwich into 4 quarters. Use wooden picks to secure layers, if desired; remove picks before eating.

Notes

Not only can you use this Olive Salad as a dressing for a Muffuletta Sandwich, it also makes a delicious addition to tossed green salads, pizzas, and is a great relish to spread on crackers.

They Don’t Want Coffee Dates, They Only Want The $1000 Restaurant

Tree love

I have always loved and appreciated trees.

I most especially like the large shady kinds. As a boy in the 1960’s I used to climb them, and hike through the woods as my adventures would take me.

With each and every event, the trees made my life magical.

The earth was rich and moist, and the air was cooler, with the sounds of the swishing of the leaves from the slightest breeze.

When I moved to Indiana, I noticed that people there did not appreciate the trees at all.

Entire forests were cut down and replaced by either flat farmland or parking lots. And Indiana was a most boring place.

Let me tell you.

When you all have a moment, take the time to stroll in a local woods. Spend the day. Take in the scents. Feel the moist earth. And listen to the birds.

…

Today…

What judgment surprised you in a court case?

I was night manager of a large resort hotel. We had a spate of thefts. People weren’t locking their doors, and the thieves would walk up the hall trying door knobs. If the door opened, they took a few steps into the room and took what they could quickly find. A lot of guys left they wallets on top of the TV, so that’s what most often got stolen.

The couple were caught, it was a 17 year old girl and a 19 year old guy. The girl turned 18 before the trial, so her juvenile record was sealed. She looked pretty punk when she was arrested (this was in the 80s). She showed up in court wearing a tasteful black dress and looked very proper.

They were both found guilty. The judge said the girl looked like she was “well bred and just got caught up with the wrong people”, and sentenced her to time served. The guy got 12 years.

After the trial, one of the victims told me he worked for the court system and saw her record before it was sealed. She had all sorts of crimes going back to when she was 12. The guy had one arrest. It was unfair, to say the least.

Rio Grande Valley Pink Grapefruit Pie

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

4 medium to large pink or red grapefruit
1 cup granulated sugar
1 3/4 cups water or strained grapefruit juice
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 (3 ounce) box strawberry gelatin
1 (8 or 9 inch) pie crust, baked
1 cup whipping cream, whipped

Instructions

Peel grapefruit, separate sections* and remove from membranes. Place sections in a strainer over a bowl overnight.
Cook sugar, juice, cornstarch and salt until thick and clear.
Add gelatin and stir until dissolved.
Brush gelatin mixture over pie crust.
Chill gelatin mixture and crust.
When gelatin starts to thicken, add grapefruit sections.
Pour into pie crust and chill until set.
Top with whipped cream.

Notes

The grapefruit should be sectioned lengthwise. By slicing the ends off, the fruit can be set flat on the cutting board to make it easier to slice the rind off lengthwise. Use a small, sharp knife to then remove the sections from the membranes.

What is the most underhanded thing a co-worker did to you that they mistakenly thought went unnoticed?

Oh I let them know I noticed, when I quit. I worked for a Spokane based home healthcare service. I’d been in hospice for a long time and the additional licence for this job was stupid easy. That should have been a clue.

This company has a jaw-dropping philosophy: they provide the barest minimum of service possible without getting sued. That’s it. They don’t give a damn about their clients. I actually offered to give a course in wheelchair safety because OVER AND OVER I’d hear about clients getting dumped on the floor by untrained caregivers. I’ve never dropped a client. Not in 13 years! I was told to “mind my own business.”

The absolute final straw was when I reported bedbugs in a home that had been treated just a few months before. The other two caregivers SWORE there were no bugs. My supervisor told me an exterminator had checked on my day off.

So I came to work that morning and went to make the bed. And it was ALIVE. And when I called the exterminator he said he hadn’t been contacted. So…my employer lied, and broke the law. I sent about 5 minutes of film to dispatch. Live bedbugs. Dead bedbugs. Bedbug and mouse poop. I told them I was reporting them. Well, that got their attention and a state case manager was there in 15 minutes. They got turned in. They got SUED. No job is worth the risk of contaminating my own home or carrying bugs to another client’s home! I’ve never, ever had an employer that literally didn’t care if the clients lived or died. In this case, the clients family had signed her very nice home over to the state to pay for her care. It’s heartbreaking! The state actually wants these elderly clients dead.

WW1 From Russia’s Perspective | Animated History

Do you find Wang’s argument that foreign companies are not truly withdrawing from China because they are merely cutting costs by moving production to countries with lower labor costs like Cambodia?

The problem is practical, in terms of cost.

Cost have risen so high that labor intensive goods below a certain value are increasingly non-viable in a a growing majority of China’s industrial regions.

The most critical problem of cost, though, is the enforced step change in the price of Chinese exports.

The two biggest factors in the past decade have been the reverse Plaza accord, and Donald the Orange’s illegal blanket tariffs.

The reverse Plaza accord was kicked off by the devaluation of the yen in 2013/14. A top-3 global currency was given the political mandate to devalue 100% in a single decade, pulling most of the third world along, making the yuan more than double against most third world peers this century.

China was singled out as a currency manipulator and threatened with designation to force the PBOC to keep the yuan up.

We live in odd times today. The JPY is a mover and shaker in the immense global derivatives market, but a 100% devaluation has been consistently ignored over the past decade. A 10% devaluation of the yuan, which doesn’t even show up in BIS reports, is exaggerated as a meltdown that will bring the rest of the global market along for the “china collapse”.

Note that the yuan will have to trade north of 14 to the dollar to mirror the yen’s decade-long move from 76 to 150 today.

These conditions created by the first world have sent shock waves rippling through margins and prices of Chinese exports.

Instead of climbing a gentle slope, the Chinese have had to struggle up a steep staircase, due to the speed of the enforced change.

But the biggest driver of long-term change in China is the replacement labor. In the 2000s, less than 10m students took the Gaokao. Today, that number is hitting 13m from a smaller cohort. There are fewer factory workers to go around, and the only answer is automation, and moving up the productivity ladder.

Take footwear. China competes on speed and quality, because there are entire shoe manufacturing ecosystems concentrated geographically that can turn idea into product within mere hours/days. Chinese speed underpins the success of Temu and Shein, which has redefined the fashion shopping experience by affording quality at the very forefront of trends.

In a nutshell, the jobs that cannot be automated away will have to eventually leave China, and the belt and road will be a big enabler. There are Chinese-run business parks in Pakistan, Laos, Vietnam and elsewhere, all enabled by infrastructure that didn’t exist before the Chinese came calling.

China will continue supplying the components, and as skills improve overseas, the lower-margin component lines will also be transferred.

What did a neighbor do to you that you will never forget?

My husband and I were living in an apartment but when we found out that I was pregnant we had to move, our landlord didn’t allow children (it was legal at that time and place). We looked for another place to live and found a lovely little cottage in a small village about 20 minutes out of town.

The day after we moved in, our neighbour to the right knocked on the door holding a plate of baked goods, she didn’t linger, just welcomed me to the village and gave me the goodies. Living there for the next few years, they became the best neighbours I’d ever had. They reminded me of The Waltons, so wholesome, cheerful and friendly. Two of their boys often came over to cut the lawns, shovel snow or to babysit. I’d stop by for visits and we’d share fruit from our trees to make pies and fruit salad.

My neighbour to the left side was a younger couple with small children, so when my daughter was a toddler she played with their children while their mom and I sat and enjoyed a chat and a cuppa.

The entire village seemed to be equally as kind and helpful. At the grocery store they packed my bags and delivered them for me, no charge. The local Ford dealership often fixed my car for no charge or just the cost of parts, and the local jeweler owned several homes that he rented out for low rent. Our landlady was a young woman who’d inherited the cottage, but she was happy living with her mother who worked at the post office, each of them were always pleasant. Generally the entire town looked out for each other. It was nothing like I’d experienced before, having come from an urban area and never lived in the country.

I doubt that it’s still the same, it’s been over 30 years, developers did their thing and it’s no longer a quiet little village. The grocery store has bars up the windows, the Ford dealership is a used car lot now, and the jeweler is probably no longer with us, but it was a very good time in my life that I still think about once in a while.

GERMANY Beg CHINA For Money As They Resume Economic Trade!

Germany should apologies to China and offer tea and stay sorry to China.

What will happen if the US and China enter a conflict over the South China Sea, particularly now the US is sending warships etc and will it be a “big” conflict or just isolated to one area?

Let’s start answering this question by addressing the “elephant in the room”.

If you read any Western press, you will be aware of the “common expectations” of what a war with China, and what it would entail. These are clearly explained in policy papers and popular media. The strongest promoters of this narrative is the legacy media to include Yahoo, CNN, BBC, FOX, ABC, MSNBC and all of Australian and Indian “news” media.

This is a “seeded” and intentionally promoted narrative, and no deviance is permitted on this script. This the narrative popularized by NEOCON publications, the United States Congress, and legacy media such as Forbes, Bloomberg, New York Times, etc.

It is a CIA / NSA / NED narrative concocted out of Langley, Va.

[CIA / NED Narrative]

China continues it’s “provocations”.
And “invasion” of Taiwan occurs.
The USA, through it’s proxy nations, intervene.
Chinese advantage is ONLY with numbers and proximity. And thus the PLA run like cowards to the massive military might of the combined Allied forces.

China does not have the ability to innovate, and are novices in fighting. They fall into the “new Verdun” that the United States constructed. The Chinese leadership is also swamped by plagues, famines, and internal revolts that suddenly cropped-out out of nowhere.

A long, drawn-out war ensues.
It will be limited to the South China Sea, and Taiwan.
All trade with China stops. All BRI are interrupted, and Naval blockades are complete.

It’s World War I all over again, only inside of Chinese territory.

China will pour weapons and men and material into those designated war-zones, and the Allies will do the same from their staging locations in Japan, The Philippines, Australia and South Korea.
Eventually, after a few decades, China backs down and surrenders.
The Chinese people, tired of their pathetic lives, revolt and topple the CCP.
Peace overwhelms the planet and everyone enjoys democracy and freedom under the brilliant leadership of the President of the Untied States.

Sound familiar. It should.

And only an ABSOLUTE IGNORAMUS would actually believe it. Because it relies on a plethora of lies, distortions, falsehoods, in order to arrange and fabricate a narrative that many WISH and HOPE to occur.

That is exactly how propaganda works; it tells lies that you WANT to believe.

…

But, you all know, it’s not really “rocket science”. This scenario has already been “gamed out”. At least the early stages. The United States has been following the well-worn, tired and true playbook for decades…

The United States initiates a provocation.
China refuses to act on it.
The United States the stages a “false flag” event, supported with a media barrage.
China reacts militarily and destroys all belligerents in the area.

What happens next depends on numerous factors, but I will break it down in really simplistic categories.

[Planned Response]

This is pretty-much a rehash of the earlier CIA plans.

This is what the Straussian NEOCON psychopaths want. This is their objective.
The United States now has the excuse for a war with China.
As a result, it starts blowing up Chinese cities, ships and assets. The plan is for overwhelming superiority in aircraft and missiles from numerous nations, Naval vessels, and bases.
The plan is for a victory over China, and the assumption that China would be incapable of fighting back in any positive way.

Now, this is where the NEOCON plans go “off the rails”.

Instead of fighting a conventional war, on American terms, to an American defined timeline, and on Chinese soil, using the well-worn war-playbook, China does something different, and unexpected.

I argue (it doesn’t take too much effort, either) that China would…

China and Russia work together lob hyper-sonic nuclear weapons at key cities and infrastructure in the United States directly. This is done at the same time as China is attacking the invading forces and their staging centers.
Most of the United States population centers, as well as those of the proxy nations, are erased from the face of the globe. New York gone. Los Angles and Silicon Valley; gone. Virginia… all of it…gone.
The dinged-up USA responds with nuclear weapons.
The Chinese shoots most of them down with their laser umbrella.
But even with a hand full of American detonations, the Earth experiences a global catastrophe. North America and Europe, as well as Japan, South Korea, and Australia are radioactive wastelands.

[The USA backs down]

This scenario describes the highest probability event cycle.

This concept of withdrawal is unheard of in the United States and Western media, but historically, this is almost ALWAYS the case. This is the Afghanistan, the Vietnam, the Korean War event scenario. Thus, this is a higher probability of occurrence than what one might otherwise think.

The USA performs a politically motivated war plan. While technically well-gamed out, political considerations force erroneous assumptions.
The plan goes to shit early on. FUBAR occurs, and the entire backbone of the plan collapses.
A period of aggressive losses in manpower and material occur, and Washington disengages from the battlefield(s) under some context.
The American and Western media praise the “Great American Win”.

But the impact of very bad Geo-political decisions ignite a “ticking time-bomb” internally.

American domestic opinion turn against the administration.
A nation-wide American civil war breaks out.
It is a catastrophe for the West, and aligned nations all experience internal violence. Japan, Europe, Australia and South Korea suffer massive changes at all levels.

[USA first strike]

This is the great concern, of the “Global South”; the rest of the world outside the G7 led by the United States. But, personally, I really do not see this ever happening. The American military will not allow it.

The USA launches MAD in the belief that China will stand down. Full spectrum war is unleashed, but unlike the earlier scenario, this one engages nuclear weapons from the start.
The SLBM’s and ICBM’s start flying
The Chinese shoots most of them down with their laser umbrella.
But severe damage still occurs inside of China.
China and Russia launch nuclear weapons at the entirety of the West.
Most of the United States population centers, as well as those of the proxy nations, are erased from the face of the globe. Europe is no longer a population region. The United States glows at night.
The, being leaderless, under the control of “the deep state” and rudderless, the United States continues to engage the world in a nuclear war on auto-pilot.
It is a global catastrophe.

[USA Sanctions China & interrupts shipping]

This is the “China Lite” version of war that is debated within the NEOCON publications and talks. I can confirm that this has a great deal of support as a “war on China” option in Washington DC.

The USA decides to implement sanctions (Russian style) against China, and also starts sinking ships. American piracy, and shipping losses enter billions of dollars in losses.
China readies it’s long-planned counter-actions. And they are BRUTAL.
A period of time passes, while the United States, and it’s proxies tries to ignite a “cold war II” fuze.
The Western media is on a full-war gallop…
The American led provocations are numerous, and dangerous. China continues to avoid all of them.

So far, it appears that this is on-going right now. Which makes this scenario the most worrisome.

Then, during a point in time when all the American “leadership is in one place”, such as during an election, or government event, China launches hyper-sonic nuclear weapons at major American cites. The idea being to completely unleash maximum damage in a very short amount of time.
America is erased from the surface of the planet. There simply isn’t any American government left.
The USA auto-retaliates with a MAD nuclear response.
The Chinese shoots most of them down with their laser umbrella.
But even with a hand full of American detonations, the Earth experiences a global catastrophe. But, the USA is the most destroyed nation on the planet.

…

It is a lose-lose in every scenario.

No one wins.

How ANYONE can advocate World War 3 clearly shows how idiotic, moronic, and deranged the Western “leadership” actually is.

How anyone can think otherwise is amazing to me.

There is absolutely NO SCENARIO where the world becomes a better place. Instead, it becomes HELL, and most people DIE.

…

At this point in time I want to address some misconceptions.

One of the greatest is accepting American anti-China propaganda as truth. It’s insidious, and everywhere. If you get any information about China, make SURE that it is from CHINESE sources in CHINESE. Otherwise you are regurgitating CIA propaganda and disinformation.

As a (now deleted) troll said “China only has 300 nuclear warheads, while the USA has over 6000”.

Oh, really?

And, “China is unable to make more because of <insert technical jargon here>”.

China can build two (x2) 6,000 bed hospitals in ten days.
China can build a 62 story skyscraper in two days.
China can design, manufacture and produce cutting edge IC chips, complete with it’s own OS, operating system, and includes satellite comm ability in four years.
China can lock down an entire nation of 1.6 billion people, with only 5000 deaths…

But it cannot make nuclear bombs.

Uh huh.

Sure. What ever you say.

(Eye roll.)

…

Drinking the American propaganda is dangerous as it is in everything. In fact, nothing is left untouched. Those in the upper (the very top) know its all a lie, but have succumbed to their own hubris; the believe their own lies. Oh man. That is dangerous.

So I have to ask…

How do you know that the United States has 6000 nuclear bombs?

Well it said so in an American report, and in American publications.

How do you know that the USA did not blow up Nordstom 1 & 2 pipelines?

Well, it is investigating the issue. American and Western publications say so.

How do you know that the Apollo moon landing program put men walking on the moon?

Well, NASA filmed the guys doing it, and the American government verified it happened.

It is not that EVERYTHING that the United States says is a lie. It’s just that most are distorted truths… approaching the laughable.

How do you know that America is recovering from the “disastrous Trump administration” and inflation is only a mere 3% today?

Well, the American government announced the latest inflation figures.

Crazy huh?

…

The world is spiraling all out of control, all because a group of psychopathic nihilistic narcissists with delusions of ultimate power. And they all are in a circle-jerk believing their very own lie-machine.

What will happen?

No one actually knows, but we do know this;

In 1995, the CIA remote viewed the year 2025. They remote viewed the world 35 years into the future.

This is what they observed…

The Shocking 2025 ‘Deagel’ Forecast and Remote Viewing the future

You might not believe in “remote viewing”, or the CIA. But you have to admit, that there is no way, that in 1995 anyone would be able to predict the world we live in today.

The predictions are uncanny.

And, if you think that the future is not going to unfold this way, then you are delusional.

VOA tried to sabotage Indonesia’s new high speed rail opening

Indonesia’s brand new, China-built and financed high speed railway officially opened to the public yesterday, with most Western media being surprisingly fair in their reports. Voice of America didn’t get the memo, apparently, and ran with a story using their typical, blatant misinformation, posting a picture of an old train directly under their headline. I rode the brand new train during a test run about ten days ago and will share some of my experience with you today, including a chat with a local reporter.

What Is Third Wave Coffee?

Coffee has undergone several major transformations in the past century, commonly referred to as “waves” that denote shifts in how coffee is produced, processed, and consumed. Here’s an overview of the progression of coffee waves.

First Wave Coffee: Accessibility and Mass Production

The first wave of coffee began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This era was characterized by the mass production and widespread accessibility of coffee.

Brands like Folgers and Maxwell House emerged, making coffee a staple in households across the U.S. and beyond.

The beans were often robusta, chosen for their yield and price point rather than quality and flavor. Brewing methods were basic, with drip coffee makers and percolators commonplace.

Espresso drinks like cappuccinos were rare outside of Italian immigrant communities. Overall, coffee was viewed as a commodity rather than a specialty product.

Key Features of the First Wave:

Instant Coffee: The invention of instant coffee made it easier for people to prepare and consume the beverage.
Branding: Major companies began advertising campaigns, making coffee a household name.
Consistency: The focus was on producing a consistent taste, often at the expense of quality and flavor nuances.

Second Wave Coffee: The Rise of the Coffee Shop Culture

The second wave, which began in the 1960s and peaked in the 1980s and 1990s, saw the rise of coffee shops and espresso drinks. Brands like Starbucks, Peet’s, and Costa Coffee played pivotal roles in popularizing this wave.

Beans were sourced from specific regions and often single origin. Roasts were lighter to preserve the distinct flavors of bean varietals.

The emphasis was on taste and freshness. While speciality coffee chains drove the second wave, independent cafes also popped up throughout the US and helped fuel coffee connoisseur culture.

Key Features of the Second Wave:

Espresso-Based Drinks: Lattes, cappuccinos, and mochas became popular choices.
Coffee Shop Culture: Coffee shops became social hubs, places for meetings, work, and relaxation.
Variety: Consumers started to become more aware of different coffee beans, origins, and roast levels.

Third Wave Coffee: Appreciation of the Art and Science

The third wave of coffee emerged in the early 2000s and continues today. This wave strives to produce the absolute highest quality coffee through control of the full production process from crop to cup.

There is an emphasis on direct trade, single origin beans, lighter roasts, and freshness. Brewing methods highlight the distinctive qualities of each bean, with pour over, cold brew, and microbatch espresso common.

The barista is viewed as a skilled artisan. Innovative coffee shops focus on the total coffee experience – the aroma, taste, feel.

There is also transparency about sourcing and farming practices. Third wave coffee is complex, nuanced, and treated more like wine or craft beer than a mere commodity.

Key Features of the Third Wave:

Direct Trade: Coffee roasters and shops often build direct relationships with coffee farmers, ensuring fair prices and sustainable practices.
Specialty Coffee: There’s a focus on high-quality beans, often graded 80 points or above on the Specialty Coffee Association’s scale.
Brewing Techniques: Methods like pour-over, siphon, and cold brew highlight the unique flavors of each coffee bean.
Traceability: Consumers can often trace the coffee’s journey from the farm to the cup, understanding its origin, variety, and processing method.

Fourth Wave Coffee?

Some speculate that a fourth wave of coffee is emerging, focused on sustainability and fair treatment of coffee farmers and workers.

But others argue the industry is still deep in the third wave, working to perfect coffee quality and the consumer experience.

Whether the fourth wave coalesces remains to be seen. For now, the focus is squarely on continuing to improve coffee quality.

Potential Features of the Fourth Wave:

Technology: From blockchain for traceability to apps that connect farmers and consumers, technology plays a central role.
Sustainability: There’s an even stronger emphasis on eco-friendly practices, from farming to packaging.
Education: Consumers are not just passive drinkers; they’re educated about every aspect of coffee production and preparation.

The progression of coffee waves shows an increasing appreciation of coffee as a complex food product requiring care and craftsmanship.

What began as a commoditized morning drink is now regarded as an artisanal product that brings nuanced flavor, community, and connection.

The future of specialty coffee promises even more dedication to the bean, the farmers, and the drinkers who savor every sip.

Ukraine SitRep: Bad Demographics – End of Support

Via a Responsible Statecraft piece I came onto a EU study that tried to predict the future demographics of Ukraine’s population.

The War and the Future of Ukraine’s Population

The study is from early 2022 and is based on Ukrainian casualty numbers from only the very first month of the war. Their worst case scenario was this:

Our third and fourth scenarios assume that the war will continue for a month or longer so that further casualties and refugees are expected. We assume the following casualties: 5,000 deaths among soldiers and 1,500 civilian deaths based on the current trends. There will be 5 million refugees, which is an estimate by UNHCR (UNHCR 2022a)

The real refugee numbers are twice as high and the casualty numbers, wounded and dead, are of course about 100 times higher than the study assumed. It was thus not worth the money that had been spend on it.

Still, some graphs in it are usable.

Yesterday I shortly discussed the op-ed by the former British Minister of Defense Ben Wallace in which he asserts:

The average age of the soldiers at the front is over 40.

He then urges the Ukrainian government to throw more young men into the meat grinder.

My response to Wallace was this:

The young Ukrainians are gone. They either have fled from Ukraine or are wounded, disabled or died. You can not mobilize what is no longer there.

Unfortunately the real situation is worse then I had thought.

The ‘age pyramid’ in Ukraine isn’t a pyramid. In 2020 there was a huge lack of 15 to 20 years old people. They were simply not there. They never existed. The number of newborns around 2000 must have been horribly low.

The reason for that was likely the serious downturn of Ukraine’s economy after it had separated itself from the Soviet Union.

It took a decade long severe recession for Ukraine to find a bottom for its economy. Bad economic times and low expectations of betterment had influenced the desire of its people to procreate. Two more downturns followed during the global recession around 2008 and due to the 2014 Maidan coup and the civil war following it.

Thus when the war started there were only half as many people of 20 year age than 40 year old ones. It is no wonder then that few of younger age are seen at the front line.

There is still one measure Ukraine might take to increase the numbers of young soldiers. There currently are exemptions from mobilization for those who study at a university. If Ukraine would draft these if could probably find a few ten-thousand additional soldiers. But it would also strip itself of its future elite.

The already bad demographic prediction some 20 years out would then look even worse than they currently do.

Early this year Ukraine’s birthrate had hit a new low:

To keep a population steady, research shows it’s necessary to have an average of about 2.1 babies per family — known as a replacement rate. In Ukraine, fertility rates have remained under that threshold since 1990. Over the last two decades, the rate has often dropped below what experts call a “very low” fertility rate of 1.3, when a population begins to shrink at an ever increasing rate. In January 2021, a year before Russia’s full-scale invasion, the fertility rate was 1.16, according to national statistics.

The birthrate has since dropped further and is now the lowest one in the world:

Birthrates in Ukraine have fallen by 28% in the first half of 2023, compared to the same period prior to the war, marking the most significant drop since Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sept. 25.
…
Due to the ongoing war, millions of Ukrainian women with children were forced to leave the country, while men aged 18 to 60 were prohibited from leaving. As a result, many couples were physically separated, while others delayed starting families, the report says.

In the first half of 2023, there were 96,755 children born in Ukraine. Since 2013, the country’s fertility rate has been dropping by approximately 7% per year.

The population of Ukraine will shrink further. In 1990 Ukraine had a population of more than 50 million people. Twenty years from now the country will have less than maybe 25 million inhabitants. This even if all refugees return. A large if that this is unlikely to happen.

Support for Ukraine is shrinking:

As Russia has become more bloodyminded, Ukraine’s allies seem caught in their own conflicting boundary conditions. There is no willingness to mobilize to defend Ukraine. There isn’t even a serious effort to ramp up military production to an adequate level to match, let alone surpass, Russia’s output.

And that’s before getting to the fact that Ukraine as a county has become a very costly ward of all its backers.

Yesterday a meeting of the EU’s foreign ministers on further military assistance for Ukraine ended without results (machine translation):

The foreign ministers of the EU countries at today’s summit in Kiev could not agree on the allocation of military assistance to Ukraine in the amount of 5 billion euros for 2024.

This was announced at a press conference following the event by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrel.

The EU’s budget for 2023 was €168.6 billion. €5 billion are peanuts but the EU countries could not unite over it. The senseless generosity has reached the end of the possible.

Borrel predicted the inevitable outcome:

Earlier, EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrel said that the cessation of military support for Kiev from the West will lead to a quick end to the conflict in Ukraine, but as a result, the country will lose its independence.

A quick end to the conflict is what all sane people should hope for.

Look at the demographics and economics above and ask yourself what 30 years of ‘independence’ have done for Ukraine.

To end it could well be the best that could ever happen to it. Unfortunately for it Russia is unlikely to step in and to subsidize its further existence.

Posted by b on October 3, 2023 at 13:30 UTC | Permalink

Something TERRIBLE is happening to me right now!

We are all in the same situation, Tucker is just the FIRST. The agencies will get away with this because CONGRESS won’t stop it.

U.S. CONGRESSMAN: ” . . . IF WE’RE GONNA LOSE THE DOLLAR . . . “

Nation Hal Turner

Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) speaking about the growing BRICS nations engaging in “de-dollarization,” Gaetz told reporters “. . . if we’re going to lose the dollar . . . .”

Does Gaetz already KNOW the Dollar is doomed?

Here is the one minute, fifty second clip, so all of you have context of the Congressman’s remarks:

This off-the-cuff remark by Congressman Gaetz made me sick to my stomach when I heard it. In __my__ view, this validates ALL the reporting I have been doing on this web site and on my radio show, telling my readers and listeners the US Dollar is collapsing and will be rejected by nations around the world as a means of trade.

That would utterly cripple the United States since we don’t manufacture mcuh of anything here anymore; we import most of it from other countries.

If those countries stop accepting the US dollar in trade, how will WE get what WE need?

Stock-up, folks. Food, clothing, medicines, etc.

Get what you need NOW, while it still can be gotten.

If this collapse takes place, I suspect it will happen like a lightning bolt out of the blue.

No advance warning before it all goes to hell.

Don’t let the US fool you: China is AWESOME!

“For a person who have been to China multiple times, I absolutely love and envy China. It’s absolutely a big disappointment when I return to India and hear all the negative news about China. Chinese people absolutely love Indian people and we instead are preaching hatred towards them. It’s a very very sad affair. Even my children are asking why we are always saying bad things about China all the time. They went to China with me too. I can’t answer them. What can I say? ….India afterall is my country and we are supposed to hate China.”

Israel Confesses War Crime

No, not really. Israel did not confess war crimes. It never does. It proudly announced that it will now commit a war crime:

Israel’s defence minister described Palestinians as “human animals” and vowed to “act accordingly,” as fighter jets unleashed a massive bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip.

Yoav Gallant announced a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, an area of about 365 square km, and home to 2.3 million Palestinians, which has been under an Israeli-led blockade since 2007.

“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” Gallant said.

“We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” he added.

The Israeli air force has dropped 2,000 munitions and more than 1,000 tonnes of bombs on Gaza in the last 20 hours, the army said on Monday morning, having shelled 20 high-rise residential buildings, mosques, hospitals, banks and other civilian infrastructure.

—

Ragıp Soylu @ragipsoylu – 13:37 UTC · Oct 10, 2023

Israel military spokesman Daniel Hagari said that the army drops hundreds of tons of bombs in attacks in the Gaza Strip, and —— “the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy.”
— Haaretz

—

Israel Can’t Imprison Two Million Gazans Without Paying a Cruel Price (archived)

…
On Saturday they were already talking about wiping out entire neighborhoods in Gaza, about occupying the Strip and punishing Gaza “as it has never been punished before.” But Israel hasn’t stopped punishing Gaza since 1948, not for a moment.

After 75 years of abuse, the worse possible scenario awaits it once again. The threats of “flattening Gaza” prove only one thing: We haven’t learned a thing. The arrogance is here to stay, even though Israel is paying a high price once again.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bears very great responsibility for what happened, and he must pay the price, but it didn’t start with him and it won’t end after he goes. We now have to cry bitterly for the Israeli victims, but we should also cry for Gaza.

Gaza, most of whose residents are refugees created by Israel. Gaza, which has never known a single day of freedom.

—

The Israeli government has called up another 360,000 reservists for a total of 660,000 reservists plus the 170,000 in the regular standing forces. Israel’s total labor force is 4.4 million.

This is not sustainable for more than a week or two. With 660,000 mostly young people, 15% of the total workforce, suddenly absent, Israel’s economy will immediately tank. The Shekel and the Israeli stock market have already dropped significantly and the central bank had to intervene to keep the currency stable.

Meanwhile 200,000 out of a total of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza are now displaced. Israel bombed their homes to smithereens and they have nowhere to go.

A few days ago Netanyahoo told people in Gaza to leave. The only place they theoretically could go is Egypt. Today Israel bombed the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

A ground invasion of Gaza will be difficult and likely lead to massacres – on both sides. Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria would likely see a ground invasion of Gaza as a reason to intervene. It has missiles and drones that are precise and can reach any part of Israel. Israel may then retaliate by attacking the Syrian government. Iran and Russia would thereby get involved in the war. The U.S. of course would jump in on Israel’s side.

This war could really, really escalate and do so soon.

Posted by b on October 10, 2023 at 14:42 UTC | Permalink

First Time in U.S. History: SPEAKER of THE HOUSE — OUSTED

Nation Hal Turner

Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of the job Tuesday in an extraordinary showdown, a first in U.S. history, that was forced by a contingent of hard-right conservatives and threw the House and its Republican leadership into chaos.

McCarthy’s chief rival, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, forced the vote on the “motion to vacate,” drawing together more than a handful of conservative Republican critics of the speaker and many Democrats who say he is unworthy of leadership.

It was the first time since 1910 that a vote has been held on whether to remove a Speaker and the only time such a motion has been approved.

McCarthy is now the shortest-serving House Speaker since the year 1876.

Next steps are uncertain, but there is no obvious successor to lead the House Republican majority.

Stillness fell as the presiding officer gaveled the vote closed, 216-210, saying the office of the speaker “is hereby declared vacant.” The Hammer fell at 4:49pm EDT. Here is video of the historic moment:

Moments later, a top McCarthy ally, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., took the gavel and, according to House rules, was named speaker pro tempore, to serve in the office until a new speaker is chosen.

The House then briskly recessed so lawmakers could meet and discuss the path forward.

Trump Wanted U.S. Out Of NATO!

Among the list of Biden administration accomplishments, the expansion of NATA is usually mentioned prominently by the President’s supporters. And that represents a stark contrast with Donald Trump, who at one point during his presidency declared an intention to pull the U.S. out of NATO entirely. But he soon backtracked, which has led a number of observers to speculate about what might have changed Trump’s mind.

Has Huawei successfully challenged the dominance of American tech giants and truly democratized the tech industry?

Huawei has established the third truly COMMERCIAL Asian Tech Ecosystem from China and the eighth in Asia after Toyota, Nikon, Canon ,Samsung , BYD, Trina and Xinyi

The Huawei Ecosystem now has

The Chip
The OS
The 5G Modem
The GPU
The Networks

Yet Huawei Ecosystem is fragile because SMIC the manufacturer of the 7 nm Node depends on Advanced DUV equipment from ASML

Now SMIC has stockpiled massive orders from ASML and that will keep SMIC going till maybe 2026

However that’s still dependence, a lot of dependence on the West

So i would say HUAWEI has made a start

Meanwhile people forget the REAL WINNERS of the three companies that have established it’s own dominant ecosystem on which the West is entirely dependent on :-

BYD

BYD has:-

The Chip – The Mature 28nm Chip that only China can today manufacture cost effectively and in huge volumes
The Software
The Satellite Navigation System
The Battery
The Dynamic Unit

It’s completely and entirely Independent from Western Technology

Trina and Xinyi who have :-

The Intelligent Chip
The Micrograde Wafer Panel (That to this day no nation can produce except France but at 87% higher cost)
The Carbide micro layering etching equipment (Chinas equivalent of the EUV Lithography Machine)
The Silicon extraction process into Mono, Poly Crystalline Silicon with infusions

Yes Huawei deserves all the admiration for its clawback and fighting

Yet BYD, Trina and Xinyi actually get Proprietary License Fees from the West which is unique for a Nation that to thia day didn’t kowtow to the West unlike Japan, Israel and South Korea

Huawei to win, needs SMIC to become another BYD or Xinyi or Trina

If SMIC can achieve that, then China truly begins the challenge to the established Semiconductor industry

Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home| REACTION TEARS

Oliver Anthony is breaking a spell we’ve all been under with his pure unfiltered honesty. It’s just disarming and appears to allow everyone to drop the mask we put on everyday and speak to each other from the heart. I haven’t not cried yet.

Will the United States ever become a major manufacturer again like it was in the past, instead of outsourcing everything to China?

Why don’t you decide?

First you ought to understand the issue in the first place. Anything made in the U.S. simply cannot compete and won’t sell. Why?

Your workers demand 5 times the salary and is willing to work half the hours, expecting 10 times more benefits. You CEO wants 100 times their income, your workers refused to be train, your colleges turn out lawyers and bull shit artist and not STEM engineers, your infrastructure is dilapidated, Your government spends all its money fighting wars instead of helping industry. You offend all your prospective customers.

So my friend. You need to outsourced your production. China offers a best value for money. You Choose China. China don’t choose you.

So you want to stop. Can you? Can you ask US workers to get 20% salary, work twice as hard, accept 10% of benefits, your CEO earn 1% it did, you stop fighting wars, making wars and building infrastructure? Can you? I doubt so.

You can’t have the cake and eat it too. Choose one! I think this questioner will choose war because you have been conditioned your whole life to think the U.S. must bomb any nation that refuse to be submissive and subservient to you. Your media and your politicians made you what you are.

ER DOCTOR reacts to BRITISH PUBLIC guessing US healthcare costs | Dr Jmack

Heyo!! Today I’m reacting to the British public reacting to the cost of healthcare in the US. I thought this would be a cute and funny reaction video, but it really turned into something else. I may or may not have ended up ranting for 20 minutes! Topics hit: absurdity of US healthcare costs, does US medicine already have a combined capitalist/socialized structure, do doctors/nurses care that the system is rigged?

Have you ever had a job where you did nothing for years and nobody found out?

When I was in middle school, I took “typing” for all three years of my tenure there, and I never learned to type. I never did anything in the class except draw, use my Gameboy, or shoot the shit with my friends. Somehow I always got a passing grade, like a ‘B’, and I didn’t ask any questions. it wasn’t til my second year did I figure out what was going on….

The teacher always wore a decent conservative business suit, carried a large hard side briefcase (this was the late 80’s), and never really taught us anything. He only taught typing and “computers” and the computer class was the same vibe. Well, I viewed into his open brief case one day to see real estate materials, flyers, business cards, etc. This guy was a real estate agent, that somehow got hired as full-time teacher as a side hustle……..at least he had a steady income and full bene’s as a teacher.

He was always working on his real estate business when he should’ve been instructing! He couldn’t give the few of us that did nothing bad grade cuz that’d ruin his gig. I’m still not sure why he decided to teach, who decided to hire him, and why he seemingly got away with this for years.

However, this did teach me that I can successfully juggle two projects and receive two paychecks!

U.S Senators Travel to China to Beg Xi for Trade Deal !

Engagement and dialogue are essential for constructive international relations. This video examines the delicate US-Taiwan-China relationship, addressing the importance of mutual understanding, compromise, and respect for sovereignty for maintaining stability and trust between nations.

Has Huawei successfully challenged the dominance of American tech giants and truly democratized the tech industry?

My friend explained it like this.

He plays the piano beautifully, and he practices with the children on weekends.

He likened the first world’s iron grip on tech to this little tool here…

It’s called a metronome, and musicians use it to set the beat-rate for sheet music.

I taught myself how to read notes (very, very poorly) as an adult and as an engineer, I couldn’t figure out how sheet music communicated the speed one played the notes.

Until my friend explained the metronome to me.

Pre-2020s, the pace of progress was set by the first world. The standard-defining or cutting-edge tech always came from advanced economies. For cars, we had the S-class/7 series, for computers we had Intel and more recently, AMD/Mac, for planes we had Airbus/Boeing.

In essence, the west defined tech generations. We were stuck with 2G… until the first world came along with 3G. We were stuck with DDR3 Ram, until DDR4 was introduced.

The first world ran the clock when it came to tech, and the rest of the world planned around the schedule.

The most important reason was the monopoly they had on the upstream tools. If we gave the best talent the best tools, different teams will eventually optimize towards convergence. There is only so far one can push the expression of the state of the art, and that is why Airbus models are head to head with Boeing, and Android not too different from iOS.

China is third world.

And for the first time in modern history, a non-first-world country has dibs on the cutting edge. China has established itself as a dominant player in diverse fields such as nuclear power generation, medium voltage power architecture, EVs, high speed rail, TBMs, photovoltaics and many more.

In every one of these fields, China isn’t competing on cost alone, but setting standards, and helping to define the next generation.

Case in point: China is currently the only country to operate a test 4th-gen nuclear reactor that’s plugged into the grid, putting it a good decade (or more) ahead of the competition in terms of commercialization.

Similarly, Huawei, after being kicked out of the Bluetooth SIG, has redefined short-range wireless technology with its Nearlink standard, capable of 1.5Mbps speeds consuming way lower energy. And these are delivered numbers, in physical consumer products available TODAY.

That’s bluetooth 6.x/7.x territory, which is years away from being issued as a standard, never mind consumer availability.

Imagine Huawei, one third world company, leapfrogging the current state of the art Bluetooth by at least 1–2 generations.

The west/first world no longer controls the clock.

Let me repeat, because this is important.

THE WEST NO LONGER CONTROLS THE CLOCK.

Rather, China will continue to pop surprises, just because the country and society is poorly reported by the first-world dominated media.

The educated, and well informed who read ABOUT the Chinese exclusively will repeatedly wake up to head-scratching bombshells in the coming future.

What? The Chinese did THIS? That’s… impossible. Don’t they only know to steal and copy and reverse-engineer?

I won’t be surprised if Nearlink is adopted by Apple and the Android alliance, because it is a transformative standard that can enable brand new ecosystems. What will Huawei do with Wifi, and next-gen navigation, particularly indoor spaces? What will a 5.5G Huawei phone add to the mobile experience?

The Chinese, at the minimum, are turning up the metronome, and playing Beethoven as he originally intended.

Shape up, or screw up, sanctions be damned.

Things a Filipina Fears in Dating Foreigner – Untold Reasons!

Most of you if not all foreigners were really curious of us filipina why we are still single but always wish in the corner to have a foreigner partner. Now you will know the untold reasons and that includes mine. Some of it are very hilarious and might offend one of your pride but let me tell you a word that you will enjoy and learned alot by watching this video.

The first results from the extraterrestrial material of Bennu

The Osiris-Rex mission conference has wrapped up, and the newly released pictures of rock samples collected from the asteroid Bennu are leaving everyone in awe.

These samples consist of 250 grams of primordial material, which means they originated around 4.6 billion years ago during the formation of our Solar System.

Within these minute fragments, scientists have detected the presence of clay, water, and even organic material.

Three MORE Aircraft Carriers Leaving Port; 101st Airborne Division Relocating from Romania to Jordan. Target: Iran? Syria? Both?

World Hal Turner

Most of the general public already knows the USS Gerald R. Ford Aircraft Carrier and its Strike Group arrived in the eastern Mediterranean Sea near Israel. What few people know is that THREE other aircraft carriers and a NATO Maritime Group are also being deployed . . .

The big media bru-ha-ha over the past few days was the urgent deployment of the USS Gerald Ford and Carrier Strike Group 12.

But the mass media has been almost silent about some other vessels suddenly putting to sea and the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division are all heading out — fast.

How do I become very successful in my early twenties?

In short: Do more than everybody else.

If you work harder than everybody else around, you will become more successful.

It’s that simple… at least on a first glance.

But on a second glance, it might be a tiny bit more complicated than that.

Let’s look at an example: Elon Musk.

Elon Musk works 90 hour weeks regularly, although he has been known to work over 110 hour weeks during some parts of his life.

He definitely worked harder than anyone else around and eventually reached success with that.

But the question you have to ask yourself is if that is the kind of life you want to live.

Elon Musk has very little time for anything else in his life.

Since he works so much he only has very little time for friends and family, little time for hobbies and even less time for any other activities like watching movies.

He doesn’t travel much outside of work and is probably not caught up on any of the newest series or movies.

Instead his life is centered around his work and he invests most of his time into it. To him, this is the best place to spend his time.

Before you get all up and about in becoming successful ask yourself first what you are willing to sacrifice to get there.

Elon Musk sacrificed and still sacrifices a lot of family time, hobbies and experiences to give himself more time to work, allowing him experience of being successful. That is what he wants out of life and that is what works for him!

You can definitely reach high amounts of success in your early 20s, but to do that you have to sacrifice many friendships, hobbies, a lot of family time, a large amount of sleep and many other niceties.

You will miss the relaxing cinema experiences, opportunities to engage with friends about the newest series, and time spent on hobbies and other things… but you will increase your chances to be successful!

The question is: Is that worth it to you?

If you are still willing to work for success with that all being said, keeping in mind all you might need to sacrifice, then by all means, go and work!

If your definition of success does not include any of the sacrifices, then go for it! Do what you can, read more books, learn, improve, grow and spend 90% of your waking time grinding away.

If that however does not seem like the life you want to lead, then maybe think about what it is you want instead.

If you want to spend time with your family, want to travel and go on vacations, want to have crazy hobbies, and spend some time chatting about the newest series, then you will not be able to work that much or succeed that fast.

You will have to spend some time every week in these things. Is that okay for you?

Different people have different values in life and depending on them they need to spend their time differently.

While Elon Musk is driven by his work, you may not be, and that’s okay!

It’s not about creating THE successful life, but about creating YOUR successful life!

Okay… those were my 2 cents on it; now lets get into the actual How to do it!

Ascertain what “Success” means to you – Depending on your personal definition, the work you do will be different.
Consume Information from People that have reached that Success – The closer they are to your idea of success the better it is. Learn from them and follow their advice! Trust them, as they must have had some right idea to get where they are today.
Produce don’t Consume – Besides the consumption above, you should be grinding and producing non-stop. More work = Faster results. That is the rule of thumb and holds generally true.
Adjust – Every week… no… every DAY you should be looking at what works, what doesn’t, where you struggle and how to get results faster. Keep tabs on yourself and do not allow yourself to get away with less than you want!
Create a System – You have to create a path that goes from your action to the desired result. In finance this is called a ‘Funnel’. How are people going to go from site X to purchase on site Z, for example.

The rest, depends entirely on what your version of success is and how hard you work.

Other than that, if you do steps 2–4 every day, you will become successful in your 20′s no problem.

Just make sure it is really what you want first!

6 Reasons to Retire as Soon as You Can

There is a MAJOR uptick in these kinds of videos about people dropping out of the work-force.

What is the likelihood of China using military force against the United States in the near future? What would be their likely method of attack?

The threat meter is flopping back and forth from zero to pinging at 100%.

The meter is normally at zero.

Then, out of the blue, some NEOCON psychopath does something stupid like slamming their fist on the meter, kicking the table or banging on the dial… and the meter pings to MAX.

Ah.

One day, I’ll tell you what, that ol’ meter is gonna break.

I don’t want to be anywhere near it when the glass shatters and shards of metal start flying.

Pedernales River Chili

This is the chili that was always cooked at the LBJ Ranch in Texas. It was a favorite of Lyndon B. Johnson. He ate this with saltine crackers and a glass of ice cold milk.

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

4 pounds coarsely-ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin seeds
6 teaspoons red chili powder
2 (16 ounce) cans tomatoes
Salt, to taste
2 cups hot water

Instructions

Put the meat, onion and garlic in a large pot and sear until light brown.
Add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.
Let cool, then refrigerate.
Skim the congealed fat from the top.
Reheat the chili to serve.

Imagine Putin went to the ICC member country thinking that the leaders there is his friend but he is successfully arrested there and sent to Hague. What will be his fate and of Russia?

The next minute tanks will surround all the the unfriendly embassies in Moscow

Every Diplomat in Russia will be arrested with impunity

Putin will be arrested in an ICC Country and will be in a nice Dutch cell

The US Ambassador, UK Ambassador and others will be in Russian prisons where the probability of their rape in the first 24 hours is 82%

Their families will go out of contact

60–65 Kids will face their lives being risked in an ‘Unfortunate Accident’ where six and seven year olds will vanish

Any Western Leader who flies will face risk of attacks of his aircraft over Europe

Meanwhile Russian Diplomats will face nice European cells and european laws

Russia will then declare war on the ICC Country which arrested Putin

The West will be forced to Release Putin or see their diplomats never come out including the wives and kids

That would cause many diplomats to refuse to serve in 50–60 dangerous nations out of fear that they would be next

So that will never happen

Putin will not go to an ICC country because he won’t embarass the leadership but other wise if they touch him all hell breaks loose

And the Judges will pay

The Judges will face a fate like Prighozin

Nice Ricin Capsules or Novichok

China’s rise and the changing global order | Ben Norton & Li Jingjing

This is pretty good.

Ben Norton, has recently moved to Beijing. We’ve met in person and had a discussion on the rise of China and the whole Global South. We also exchanged our thoughts on Syria, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, BRICS, and all the recent events that will change the global order.

Two Different Americas

It is quite amusing to juxtapose these two articles and see how journalists create a very different picture than academics.

China Is Suffering a Brain Drain. The U.S. Isn’t Exploiting It.

(NYT)

Caught in the crossfire: Fears of Chinese–American scientists

(PNAS)

Li Yuan is the author of the NYT article. Her article bases its assertions off of interviews with 14 Chinese professionals as well as China’s median yearly emigration as reported by the UN. In terms of claims, she is pushing this line of logic:

Quite a few people I interviewed said, like Mr. Chen, that they had started thinking of leaving the country after China amended its Constitution to allow Mr. Xi to effectively rule for life. The “zero-Covid” campaign, with nearly three years of constant lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines, was the last straw for many of them.

And as for why they aren’t showing up in the US:

Most of the emigrants I spoke to, explaining why they did not pick the United States, cited America’s complicated and unpredictable process for applying for visas and permanent residence status.

This is in stark contrast to Yu Xie et al., who have published a paper in the National Academy of Sciences’ official peer-reviewed publication. Their study has a sample size of 1,229 (or 934 for the federal grant question). In terms of their claims, they point to a steady increase in the number of academics leaving the US for China, and more crucially they have measured out some indicators.

Perceptions and intentions of scholars of Chinese descent. Note: Only past and current grant awardees were asked the question of whether they were considering “avoiding applying for federal grants”.

Their study claims fear is high in the Chinese-American community despite 89% of scientists clearly interested in promoting science in the US. Most dramatically, the study concludes with one data point:

One respondent, self-identified as a US citizen and a former recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, told us that he quit his academic position exactly because of what he perceived as an “anti-Chinese atmosphere”. He then wrote:

If it were not because the COVID pandemic cuts off international traveling and I am a U.S. citizen, my family would have left the U.S. permanently without any intent to come back in the future. What I have experienced at my former institution was not only disgusting, but a system[ic] corruption that I believe [is] illegal. I had never thought of somewhere in this count[r]y to be dark and corrupted like this. If I had, I would not have become a naturalized U.S. citizen, which I regret now. What I ha[ve] experienced not [only] ruined my academic career, but also destroyed my American dream.

Interestingly, Li Yuan makes absolutely no attempt to recognize or challenge the claims made by the paper. While the paper acknowledges weaknesses in its methodology, it notes that it is corroborated by two similar papers, one from University of Michigan, the other from University of Arizona. Instead, she goes for this description of the fates of those headed from China to the US:

But it won’t be easy to stay in the United States. Mr. Zhao has a job offer and will get temporary employment status as a graduate in a STEM, or science or engineering, field. That will last three years. He will participate in a lottery for an H-1B work visa. He did the math: There’s a 40 percent chance he won’t win the lottery by the end of the three years. He might have to go back to school to remain in the United States, or ask his company to transfer him to a foreign post.

Li Yuan’s claims are in my opinion cherrypicked and misleading. She points to data to support her position, but the mild rise in emigration out of China from 2016 until now is something she attributes strictly to political reasons. She makes no attempt to recognize economic factors, such as the well reported glut of graduates unable to find a preferred job, nor any temporal factors such as the COVID opening up releasing otherwise delayed plans due to COVID restrictions and more importantly prohibitive flight costs. Instead, we are left with a threadbare attempt at explaining data with a political narrative.

Li Yuan, and perhaps the staff at the New York Times, are selling a narrative that runs contradictory to peer reviewed science. They are advertising one America, which promises a better life for Chinese, if only America would make it easier for Chinese to migrate into the country. Meanwhile professors at Princeton, Harvard, and MIT are telling us a very different story in which Chinese living in America are doing so in fear of both the government’s actions as well as anti-Asian violence. They have chosen that dramatic quote at the end for a reason— the NSF CAREER award is NSF’s most prestigious award, and many go on to win Nobel prizes.

The NYT and Li Yuan wonder why the US isn’t attracting Chinese scientists. Maybe they should have asked Chinese scientists in the US before making their gloriously nationalist article.

A stray kitten was terrified of everyone and everything and just wanted to hide

There’s something about a kitten’s motor just purring along that makes me melt!

A painful passing

When I got out of Prison, I suddenly came down with two maladies. The first was Ball’s Palsy (where my face was paralyzed, and I couldn’t close my eyes), and the second hit me about two weeks later. I had terrible kidney stones. And man oh man was it painful.

Because I had no money, and was transitioning from prison, I went to the hospital emergency room and they gave me a number to call to get some medicine for the pain.

And when I called that number, the receptionist answered the phone and accused me of wanting drugs and said that I could come in, but they weren’t going to give me anything for the pain.

I endured that pain for a week before I passed the stone, and it was a mighty bad situation. The pain was HORRIBLE.

Never the less, the thing that I remember was not the pain; the stone; or the egress from prison. I remember that holier than thou bitch at the reception desk that was giving me a hard time.

For all you Karens out there, I have a message for you all.

FUCK

YOU.

…

Good, now that I got that off my chest, let’s do todays post…

What are a few bitter truths of life?

Robert Sandifer’s life began in two overlapping hells.

The first hell smoldered outside of his home, the streets of the South Side of Chicago, infamously dangerous, and marred by a blistering gun violence that persists to this day.

These streets are so dangerous that Google actively censors the imagery that populates on Google Streetview.

Robert Sandifer’s second hell raged in his own home.

He was born to a prostitute mother who had dozens of arrests, and who was addicted to cocaine before, during, and indefinitely after his birth.

Sandifer’s father was wholly absent, serving a long prison sentence for felonies related to brutal gun violence.

He received severe physical beatings that started long before he could speak, that left him with terrible bruises and bloody lesions.

At age 3, Child Protective Services opened an investigation after finding cigarette burns on his body, caused by his mother’s boyfriends.

CPS tried to save him. They moved him to his grandmother’s house, but that home was a 3rd hell, already overflowing with as many as 20 kids at a time, many of them from similar circumstances.

Sandifer quickly became a product of his environment, adopting a violent lifestyle, beating children mercilessly on the playground, stealing their money, and their food. He began burglarizing homes, breaking into cars.

He dropped out of school at age 8 and roamed unsupervised in the gun-born, blood-soaked streets of The South Side.

Sandifer was assimilated into a notorious gang, The Black Disciples, who embraced and celebrated his violence.

At age 10, he was arrested after being caught driving a hijacked car, not the first he’d stolen – nor the last.

After Sandifer’s arrest, his family requested that he be kept in juvenile detention for his own safety and for that of the public – but they were denied – Sandifer was too young for juvenile detention.

And thus – he was released to his Grandmother’s custody.

And into the arms of The Black Disciples.

On a fateful 28th day of August, his gang ordered him to take out a hit on a rival gang member.

Sandifer arrived at his target’s house, he positioned himself behind a parked car on the opposite side of the street.

And opened fire.

His bullets plunged into the crowd, hitting several bystanders, and ultimately killing the wrong person – a 14-year-old girl Shavon Dean.

3 days later, Robert Sandifer was taken under a bridge, told to get on his knees, and shot, execution-style in the back of the head by members of his own gang to silence him.

At the time of his death, he had committed 23 felonies and 5 misdemeanors.

At his funeral – the only picture his family owned of him was his mugshot.

He was 11-years-old.

The bitter truth of life: some kids never stand a chance. People really do not understand just how bad it gets.

Have you ever sabotaged food because someone was stealing it?

Yes I have. I was a single mom struggling to keep my head above water so I would take leftovers for my lunch. This one co-worker would help himself to my lunch, then tell me how delicious it was. I tried explaining my situation to him, but he still continued to eat my lunches. I even bought an insulated lunch box so I didn’t have to put my lunch in the employee refrigerator. He would steal my lunch while I was away from my desk. And still brag about it. Now this coworker was from a different department than I was and made almost twice as much as I did. One day I had enough. That night as I was preparing my lunch for the next day, I included a healthy dose of mineral oil. Mineral oil is edible, it has no taste or smell, but it is a very good laxative. It took the guy about a week to figure it out. He went to HR and tried to get me fired or at least pay his lost wages ( he had to leave work 2–3 hours early all week.) HR talked to me and when I told them my story and how long it had going on, they made him reimburse me for all my lunches he ate. They verified my story first, of course. Later an email went out to all employees that theft of any food would be grounds for termination.

Is a California poppy extract-related product legal to sell in China?

Illegal, in China, selling drugs is illegal, exceeding 1 kg will be sentenced to death.If you know Chinese, you should know that.

In June 2021, 215.37 kg of drugs were hidden in 67,000 tons of soybeans exported by the America to Qingdao port, China, and were intercepted by Qingdao Customs. Relevant personnel have been punished.

I hope you can understand Chinese hatred of drugs. Qingdao is an eastern port city, and it is obligatory to prevent drugs.

In 2017, Mianyang city Sichuan Province, southwest of China, a thief broke into a house to steal.When he find drugs on the ground,he gave up the plan and report to the police, confessed his crimes and discoveries, and helped the police officers catch a large drug-making-trafficking gang.

Yes, even thieves also despise drug dealers,they also join Antidrug.

Lone Star Bacon and Cheddar Fries

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 pound (3/8 inch) regular cut fries with skin on
2 ounce shredded Cheddar cheese
2 strips cooked diced bacon
3 ounces sour cream
Finely chopped green onions, for garnish
Jalapeno peppers, for garnish

Instructions

Deep-fry regular cut fries (350 to 360 degrees F) for 3 to 3 1/2 minutes or until golden brown and crisp.
In fry serving basket, arrange hot fries.
Top with cheese and bacon.
Garnish with sour cream and green onions.
If desired, garnish with jalapenos.
Serve immediately.

What are some small things that matter a lot?

It was a hot summer afternoon in the month of May.

I was riding on my bike to home. A man who may be in his early 50s asked me for a lift. He was sweating profusely and needed to reach home. As his house was on the way I was going in, I gave him a lift.

He explained to me that, his sugar levels are dropping and need to reach home fast. I dropped him off at his home and he thanked me whole heartedly. I got back home and forgot about it.

After a month, a small hotel was opened nearby. I went there to try it out. I was checking out the menu and someone tapped on my shoulder from behind. He was the same man whom I gave lift earlier.

He asked me if I had recognized him. I said no. He explained that I gave him lift a month ago. Then, I recollected him. He asked me, what would I like to eat. I was surprised.

He giggled and said that, he is the owner of that hotel and as a token of gratitude I can have anything for free. I politely refused it but he was stubborn in his offer. So, I gave in.He asked the chef to make the best of the dish I ordered and was given for free.

That day, I realized, the good you do however small, goes far.

Any small help you do to people will for ever be engraved in their minds forever and it comes back to you in the ways you can never imagine.

So, don’t stop doing good and spreading smiles!

Why don’t more people move to Wyoming?

This map of Wyoming offers one of the reasons:

The areas shaded in green are owned by the federal government. Although Wyoming is large, the federal government owns about 47% of the land. So, some of the most beautiful parts of Wyoming are not places to which people are moving because there is very little private land for them to buy and live on.

But the problem is even deeper than that. These federal lands contain timber, pasture, and minerals which are leased or sold to those industries, but those leases and timber sales are prone to fluctuate with political fads for or against use of federal timber, minerals, and grazing. Even aside from that, the bureaucracies in authority over these lands do not take responsibility for maintaining the jobs in these industries. Since they have often not worked in the private sector, they either do not understand or do not care how delays and unpredictability in their decisions kill private-sector jobs.

Another reason for the low population in Wyoming is the 75,000-person tipping point in urban population. There is a pattern in the United States: cities tend to grow faster once they have reached a population between about 50,000 and 100,000. At this population, there is enough demand for specialized services in medicine, law, finance, engineering, management, entertainment, air transport, and other professions to support higher-paying jobs in these industries. There is also enough population to entice specialized types of businesses to locate there. Some of these are businesses that hum along below the surface of your local economy, but are important in helping other businesses thrive: machining, transportation, calibration, training and testing. Some of these businesses are retailers and national food chains that make a place more inviting to new residents. No Wyoming city has broken through this tipping point, although Cheyenne may be doing so now.

A third factor: By geographical accident, Wyoming’s neighboring states tended to have urban clusters near their borders with Wyoming which hindered any Wyoming city from reaching this population tipping point. Specialized, high-paying jobs and businesses are less likely in an area within 150 or so miles of existing firms. Denver and Salt Lake City are large cities with trade areas which include much of Wyoming. But the smaller cities of Rapid City, SD, Billings, MT, and Idaho Falls, ID also have large parts of their trade areas within Wyoming. Have a look at the map of United States trade areas and influential cities. All of Wyoming is depicted as being within an out-of-state city’s trade area. The map has flaws. Certainly Casper, Wyoming should qualify as having a trade area if Butte, Bozeman, and Helena, Montana and Alliance and Valentine Nebraska do, but the map nevertheless makes a valid point about Wyoming’s lack of urban areas with trade areas.

In the long run, Wyoming will be one of the nation’s faster-growing states and will develop larger urban areas. It contains major freight rail lines and major interstate highways. It has cheap electricity, low taxes, and lots of money in the bank from all the mineral wealth. It has major electricity transit lines and energy pipelines. Culturally, it has a good work ethic and an openness to newcomers. It has enough water resources to accommodate lots of population growth.

Which incident did you consider to be an absurd hoax but later found out to be crazily true?

Many, many years ago I received a letter in the post. It was a recorded delivery and I had to sign for it to confirm delivery. I was intrigued and opened it immediately. It was a summons to appear in our local small claims court. I was being sued for £6,000. There were no details about the charges or any explanation of what the case was about other than the name and address of the complainant. I was mystified as I didn’t recognise the name. Lets call him Mr Smith.

In the three weeks before the stated date I convinced myself that one of my sons was playing an involved joke on me. I quizzed them all mercilessly but nobody would admit to knowing anything about it. As the date drew closer I determined to go to court just to find out which of my boys was the perpetrator of this rather involved joke.

Court day arrived and I went into the court building and presented my summons to an attendant, still expecting to be told it was a forgery. I was wrong. I was politely directed to a small waiting room and told my case would be called in 10 minutes. I was stunned.

When I was escorted into the courtroom the Sheriff (a lay judge in Scotland) asked me if I had a legal representative. I explained how I thought that the summons was a joke and I had no lawyer. He said that I could ask for a deferment to get legal advice if I choose but he didn’t think that was necessary. I sat down still stunned and confused but by now rather scared.

The Sheriff now asked the other side to outline their case. I listened in stunned amazement as the story unfolded.

Apparently some 6 months previously I had sold Mr Smith a tenpin bowling ball and drilled the ball to suit his hand. I had explained to him the need to keep the ball clean of lane oil on a regular basis. Mr Smith had taken me at my word and had left his bowling ball soaking in a bathtub of hot soapy water overnight. Feeling that the finger and thumb holes were wet when he fished the ball out of the bath in the morning he had decided to dry out the ball. Fifteen or twenty minutes in the microwave should dry it out nicely.

Some time later the ball had exploded. The force of the explosion was enough to destroy the microwave and send the door of the microwave flying upward with enough energy to punch through the ceiling and the floor of the room above his kitchen. Unfortunately the room above his kitchen was his neighbours bathroom. The microwave door not only punched through the floor but punched through the actual bath. Really unfortunately the poor woman was taking a bath at the time.

She was suing Mr Smith for the damage to her bathroom from the flying microwave door as well as the water damage to her carpets from the bath full of water. She wasn’t suing for the shock of a microwave door suddenly puncturing her bath although it must have been a terrific shock.

Mr Smith was suing me for the same amount on the basis that I had sold him a bowling ball without specifically telling him not to put it in the microwave.

By this stage several people in the gallery were laughing and the sheriff was definitely smiling. I was still worried but feeling considerably less scared. We all sat politely until Mr Smith’s lawyer had finished. The Sheriff then drew himself very straight and without a trace of a smile said that he was here to apply the law of the land and not to educate idiots. Case dismissed.

WARNING something BIG is happening in Ukraine, Putin stays quiet

Something big is about to happen in Ukraine. Is Putin about to launch a pre-winter offensive now that Ukraine has exhausted all of its resources? Logistical signs are showing newly built railway tracks and large troop movements on the Russian side. Also multiple reports over the past 48 hours show an increased number of young Ukrainian men racing to get the hell out of Ukraine.

How has living in China changed you?

it’s aged me!

I was in my mid-20’s when I came, and after 30+ years here I’m already 57. If I stay here a few more years I’ll be 60. No one cares!

I don’t know which changes are due to maturing and which are due to living in China, but I can say how I’m generally different than Americans who haven’t lived in China.

I’m less emotionally invested in news reports, especially about politics. If you’ve lived in a place or have a job that’s occasionally the focus of the international media (as China manufacturing has been) then the discrepancy between what’s reported and what you know is obvious. It makes you skeptical at first, then cynical. Apathy soon follows.
I don’t take it for granted that multi-party democracy is superior to one-party rule. I tend to look at the results not the process.
I accept rapid, sweeping, head-spinning change as the norm. instantly accepted and accommodated.
- Yesterday we used paper currency to purchase things. Today we use cash cards. Tomorrow we’ll buy everything with our phones…. oh wait… we’re using the phones now, today, not tomorrow. OK, ok. I got it. Yesterday we used cash cards, today we use phones, tomorrow well use something else.
  
  I don’t remember when I stopped carrying cash and then stopped using my cash card. But that’s where I am now. That’s where everyone is—even beggars on the street accept mobile payments.
- Got a meeting in the next city… ? Better schedule 1/2 a day to get there. Then, all of the sudden, you realize you’re always arriving early to meetings. Everything started moving faster like this. Now that half a day gets you from Shanghai to Beijing by train. And if you start in the morning in Shenzhen, you can have an authentic Hunan lunch in Hunan, and be back in Shenzhen for an authentic Cantonese dinner.
I’m more appreciative of people in general, Chinese or expat. I don’t love everyone, but I value my relationships and feel grateful for the respect and assistance I’ve been given. I often feel like the big bang has distributed the universe’s molecules with my wellbeing in mind.

Koreans React To ‘Mr. Rogers’ For The First Time

Why are many Indian Ph.D. graduates from top institutes now choosing China for their postdocs? How is the life of an Indian post-doc in China? Do the Indian postdocs settle in China?

Money!!!

Chinese programs in Universities today get more funding than even USA, as US focuses on Private Funding

In 2022, US Universities spend $ 208 Billion in University Research against $ 346 Billion by China

You write a good paper for your PHD in Biotechnology, you could get offered an Research Associate position for 25000 RMB a month that’s around ₹ 34 LPA plus housing against a mere ₹7.6 LPA in India

That’s equivalent to $ 83,666 a year in US that’s higher than the US median of $ 64,712 for a Research Associate in PPP terms

China pays highest in PPP terms for most research today barring Norway and Switzerland and Taiwan

Life of an Indian Post Doc in China

My son is one

He is doing research for a Private Company on a 5 year grant (2023–2028)

Here are his observations:-

Knowing Rudimentary Mandarin is very important. The Lab assistants, the research students do their best in mandarin. The english is pretty accented. Luckily most Universities offer you Mandarin elementary classes for free if you are doing research there.
Softwares and Settings are programmed to Mandarin. You have to set it to English. Then print in English and Mandarin.
Money is pretty good. Housing is pretty good.
You will have two security reviews by the Government.
If you do research funded by the Government Or research classfied as National Research , you get a ID that gives you some powers. You get clout with cops. Now technically these IDs are only for National projects but like India, my sons director has managed to wrangle these IDs for these guys as well.
Very easy to get a Chinese girlfriend if you are unmarried. Unlike Singapore where girls are steady since secondary school. My son has 3 Assistant Researchers from Vietnam, Indonesia and Kerala. All have Girlfriends in less than a year.
Research is very well funded. You want to buy a $ 300,000 machine, you get approval in a matter of 2–3 days

It’s damn good

Settling down in China ?

Not encouraged

Finish your grant, extend your grant, live for 15–20 years in China and then go home or to Singapore

Meanwhile train as many Chinese as possible

Most people who settle down in China are married to Chinese Mainlanders and have kids and full families

They become Chinese themselves, speak like mainlanders, act like mainlanders

They are eligible for Citizenship of China

Are Indian Postdocs selecting China?

Yes

China beat Japan to the fourth position in 2023

It’s US, Germany, UK and China at fourth position beating Japan which was at fourth place until 2023, France is sixth, Middle East & Africa is seventh (no idea how), Singapore is Eighth and Canada is ninth

However in absolute numbers only 8.63% Postdocs go to China with almost 39.44% going to US and 71% going to US, UK and Germany

However this is a huge increase because in 2006 only 0.51% Postdocs sought careers in China meaning a Eighteen fold increase in a mere 17 years

Men DESTROYED Modern Women’s Beauty Standard

Rating women’s attractiveness is dramatically affected by make-up. I’ve seen them transform from as much as 2’s to 9-10’s. Truly amazing results.

https://youtu.be/pf3qHed8TtA

How has living in China changed you?

A few years back I had to change my careers. At that time I took a big change and moved halfway across the world to China.

I lived there for 3 1/2 years. I was there for 3 years in NE China in a small rural area. Then about 4 years later I move back but to the big city of Shanghai(but only for about 1/2 a year).

That’s the background story now to your question.

My first 3 years in China was very humbling. I was in a rural area still governed by old rules and ideas. I met a friend who lived in South China in a big city and she told me that I experience things that she never experienced while there. Each person’s experiences are so different. In the rural areas you live like the Chinese, but in a big city, you live like a foreigner in China.

When I say humbling it’s because I learned to live on very little. I spent $200 a month for food, shopping and traveling. When I went back to China in a big city you definitely can’t live on that. I learned to appreciate what I had and how to make do with what I had.

I discovered that my own culture lack respect for elders. That we are far behind when it comes to public transport. (China is far ahead of us). I gained a love for food, Chinese eat all the time (but are skinny). They eat tons of vegetables and meat as well…but it’s fresh produce…which my own country lacks…we eat way too much processed food. Of course, I learned how to use a squatty potty.

Now, when I went back to China 4 years later…so much has changed. They are so advanced when it comes to technology. While China was a humbling place for me for my first 3 years. It was not so the second time around…why? The simple answer is that times have changed. Don’t get me wrong I loved Shanghai and appreciated it, but I learned that sometimes you can’t go back…memories are better left in your mind.

China will always be a part of me. It has changed me so much more than I can ever put into words. But for me, “humble” is what learned from all my experiences in China.

No Handyman Jobs! People are BROKE!

I guess I was spoiled with the abundance of jobs these past few years. Well, I guess that has come to an end…

https://youtu.be/eJTOxnL_nBw

If a drone is flying on my property and I have already notified that I do not want it to be flying on it, can I destroy it without legal repercussion?

Ok, so here’s my experience.

A few years ago, a kid in our neighborhood got a drone for Christmas. He started flying it around people’s houses. The first time. I was sitting on my deck and it flew to the edge of the deck. I waved and it flew away. The next day, the same thing. After a few days, the kid got bolder. He started to fly it right over the deck. There was also one time that I was doing dishes in the kitchen it was hovering right outside the kitchen window, watching me.

This went on for about a month. I would see it right outside my windows or around my yard. I knew it was just a kid but it was getting kind of creepy. I wasn’t sure if I could be heard on it but I tried telling the drone that the fun was over and please don’t come back. Guess what? It came back the next day again. I didn’t know who the drone belonged to so I called the PD and they really didn’t know what to tell me. At this point, drones were just becoming popular and there wasn’t really any protocol. I asked around the neighborhood and no one seemed to know where it was coming from. I tried to follow it but it was faster than me and was piloted over houses and through other yards that I couldn’t go through.

Another month passes and now this kid is just taunting me. I tried throwing things at it, putting up a sign asking them not to fly it near my house anymore, my then-husband actually had it in his hand at one point but those things are pretty strong and he wasn’t able to keep a hold of it. We would flip it off when we saw it or curse at it, anything we could think of. I even fired a few warning shots with a BB gun. Nothing worked.

Finally, we were just done. The last day I ever saw it, I was again sitting on my deck and I hear the familiar drone sound. I tried to ignore it, hoping it would go away. I could hear it getting closer to me but I just kept my head down, pretending to read my book. The living room window was open so without looking up I yelled “It’s back again!!”. My then-husband walked out onto the deck and the drone moved towards him. He pulled out his pistol and pointed at the drone. No shots fired, it wasn’t even loaded and the drone high-tailed it out of there. Within 15 minutes, a very angry father and 2 police cruisers were in my driveway. The father wanted us arrested for threatening his kid. We explained what had been going on and the cops had several reports over the last few months from me as well (including pictures of the drone in various places around my house, date and time-stamped). Basically, nothing happened. The gun was registered to a licensed gun owner, no property was damaged, and the documentation from the police department showed that this kid was a nuisance. The cops went and had a talk with the kid. I found out later that other neighbors had the same issue with the drone so the cops had not only our complaints but many others. I don’t know what happened to the kid but I do know I never saw that drone again.

***EDIT***

A lot of people are commenting about the police not doing their job and yes it does seem that way. However, we have to remember that this was the first year that drones became really popular and it was the IT thing to have. People were having a lot of fun with their drones but there weren’t any clear laws that the police could follow. Also, you couldn’t trace them so you had a basic idea of the surrounding area where the drone was coming from but unless you actually saw where it went “home” to, there was nothing you could do so I believe that the police did the best they knew how at the time.

I don’t even blame the parents that much because the kid was like 13 or 14 years old. When I figured out who the drone belonged to, I knew exactly who this kid was, and quite honestly, he was an entitled little sh**. His parents were actually pretty nice people who tried their best but had very little control over their kids. The father showed up with the police because the kid made the father believe that a gun was pulled on him while cutting through our yard. That was not the case and when given all the facts, the father was still upset but it didn’t have a whole lot to say anymore.

And before you come for me, yes, most times kids are a product of their environment but sometimes the parents are doing everything right and the kid will still be a jerk. My kids are 21 and 17 and I have been involved in many of their activities over the years and have seen it all.

The Real China Shocked This British Man

Whenever I hear the China collapse theory, I always ask the person if s/he wants to take a bet, just provide a time frame when you think China will collapse and I bet you two whiskey that it won’t. I had been winning so many whiskey in the last 15 years, but none of those losers pay up.

Do the majority of people in China wish to remain communists, or if they had a choice, would they want democracy?

Seriously, do you really think the people in China really care whether China is a Communist or a Democracy if all there is to it is just some meaningless labeling.

Is like categorizing races by color, when you call it white I saw pink, when you call it yellow I saw light beige, when you call it black I say are you color blind, do you know what black looks like?

Chinese people in general are very much pragmatic, results orientated and doesn’t give much crap to whose camp they are in as long as they prosper and live a better live then the past. Also, Chinese history and philosophy never taught them life is simply black and white we know it has at least if not fifty shades of grey in between.

Furthermore, if one look at the Tai Chi symbols we see the black and white are not shown as antagonistic to each other, whilst they may be opposite to each other in direction but they intertwined in a circle with the opposite instead of a straight line in between a square. It also house a fraction of the opposite too, all for the purpose of equilibrium and in layman term it is call Win-Win or Harmony.

Life cannot always be a equal sum game, it has many elements and each play an important role, if one element does not survive well or is missing rest assure others will also get affected adversely by it. In science term, it is what we call a Eco System.

Balance reduce conflict, hegemony are always short lived and unintelligent, longer it stretches it more violent is the snaps when it breaks.

So is it really true that there are no democracy in a Communist system and when a country is not run by Communist does that mean they have no tyrant, no dictator, no ruthless regime, no poverty, no corruption and their people live a much better happy life?

Whats’s the big fucking deal about democracy if the leader doesn’t really practices it. “For the People, To the People, By the People” my arse when I see what’s going on in their land of Oligarchs Plutocracy.

What are some things you genuinely like about living in China that back home still needs to catch up to?

That is a great question indeed.

Safety – yesterday, today and tomorrow.
At first, right after moving to China I was truly amazed that there are so many chairs for valets randomly placed on the sidewalks. In Russia these chairs will end up at someone’s country house.
Small businesses
In Russia shops, restaurants, coffee-shops etc. belong to the large chains, you cannot find a small bar with homemade food for example. And places like that are my favorite in Beijing.
Infrastructure – in Russia you hardly can:
– get anywhere by subway and pay under 10 kuai for it,
– get anything delivered to your house,
– pay for the stuff via wechat,
– get foot massage in the middle of the night,
– pay for electricity and water using your own terminal, etc. etc.
Variety of entertainment choices
The only places that are really good for eventful life would be Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, other cities cannot be ever compared to Beijing: lots of events, activities and parties. Russia does need to get on this level.
Taobao
This is the most genius thing ever – I am a big Taobao fan and would love if a platform like that will be developed in Russia someday.

China moves into position to support Syria

So happy to see China & Syria are working together! Stronger united against the Empire!

School Bus Driver Rant

As a school bus driver, I would like to explain something.

My job is to transport your child from point A to point B safely, on time and ready to learn.

That is all.

What do I mean when I say safely? Let me explain. Safely means I pre-trip my bus daily to ensure it is running properly and that it hasn’t been tampered with. Safely means my eyes are constantly scanning all 7 mirrors, blind spots, and the road in front of me.

I’m NOT a babysitter.

I’m NOT a mediator.

I’m a BUS DRIVER.

I would absolutely love to be able to watch and hear each and every little thing that goes on in the 40 feet of school bus behind me, but while I’m watching Johnny jump across the seat, I just missed a car pull out in front of me. And oops, while I’m yelling at Susie to keep her hands to herself, the light changed and now I’m slamming the brakes to stop in time at the intersection. And what’s that? Now Joey has a nose bleed? And now someone dumped all of Katie’s stuff out of her bookbag, and “bus driver, Bobby is flicking me”, and “bus driver, Lily said she doesn’t like me anymore”, and what’s that? While I’m looking in the mirror behind me reprimanding your perfect children, a car just ran my reds and Sally almost got run over!

It’s Never Ending to us…

And that doesn’t even include the way the children speak to us. I’m pretty certain they don’t speak to other school faculty like that. And certainly don’t speak to their parents the way they speak to us.

So please, parents, tell me … where do you want me to look? Behind me? In front of me?

Would you prefer I pull over each and everytime someone yells “bus driver”? Because then YOU will complain that the bus is never on time, and trust me if I did pull over everytime, we wouldn’t even make it out of the school parking lot before I’d have to stop. Incase you didn’t know, your children are not perfect…no one is.

Would you rather I continue down the road watching what’s going on BEHIND me more than what’s going on with other vehicles on the road around me? Because I can assure you, if I’m not scanning every angle around the bus, there WILL be an accident, and then I will again be to blame, because I should’ve been paying attention to the road.

Now, on top of that, we see your children for less than 30 minutes a day, in most cases. Please teach your child to respect the bus driver, and to behave themselves when riding the bus…because we want to return them to you, SAFELY.

~ Unknown

Russian & American In China Are SHOCKED What They Experienced

What is the craziest request you have gotten when you were buying something (car, boat, bike, furniture, etc.) from someone who was so deeply attached to the item it felt like they were losing a part of their family?

Not crazy at all, just unusual and — under the circumstances — quite touching.

A 1969 Ford F250 was advertised for sale located in a town about 400 miles away. I called and spoke with the elderly original owner. He was not an enthusiastic seller and seemed to be throwing up obstacles to buying it. For one thing, he asked the questions, not me. The conversation went like this:

Me: Hello, I’m calling about the F250 for sale. Is it still available?

Him: Yes. What do you want with it?

Me: Uhhh, well, sir, I was thinking about buying it.

Him: Why?

Me (looks at phone with a WITW? expression): Because I need a truck.

Him: What do you need a truck for?

Me: To haul tools and material.

Him: That’s good. How old are you?

Me: (Young in spirit but wise beyond my years. More or less.)

Him: That’s good. How’s your driving record? Any accidents or tickets recently?

Me: No wrecks, no tickets.

Him: Will you put different wheels and paint and interior and engine in it?

Me: Gosh, no. I want it all original. Like it is now.

Him: Okay, you can come look at it. My address is…

I went all that way, looked, endured another vetting from him and was finally judged worthy of his treasured pickup that he could no longer drive because it had manual steering and he could no longer turn the steering wheel. As I drove away in the truck he’d named Whitey back in 1969, I glimpsed him in the rear view mirror crying unashamedly.

But wait, there’s more.

I drove directly to the other side of town and viewed a second 1969 Ford F250 for sale by its elderly original owner who also subjected me to a lengthy qualifying interrogation. Satisfied, he sold me the truck he’d named Rita in 1969 and helped me disconnect the driveshaft then attach a tow bar so I could pull her home with Whitey. After I had remote lights rigged up on his Rita, I got into Whitey and pulled away. In the rear view mirror I glimpsed Rita’s original owner crying unashamedly.

Nearly 10 years later Whitey and Rita are still exactly as they were the day I brought them to their new home. It was a good day, as have been all all the rest with them. As their original owners requested I have kept them exactly as they were: working trucks, now 50 years young, in original condition and carefully maintained. I even built them a canopy to protect them from the sun and inclement weather.

When you speak this way, your reality evolves…

Fair video. Fits in with my affirmation campaigns.

If the one child policy was such a disastrous idea, then why didn’t the Chinese experts object to it?

Was it a disastrous idea though? Who said?

Sure it wasn’t a comfortable idea for the people. I haven’t had children yet. But I do want to have two. One is scary in many way. What if something happens to him or her? What if he/she wants to join the military… and not come back?

But if I insist on having a second child, I would end up paying a fine. Then I would be liable to pay for the child education. The first child will get free ride from K-12 and university.

In fact, I can have as many children as I would like. I just have to afford raising them all with minimal government support.

Why the one child policy?

Look at China in the 60s – 80s

It was a simple life. Classism may have been at the lowest in Chinese history. To be a well respected person, you can be a teacher, a village chief, a policeman, a small government official, a factory manager, etc…

This simple peaceful life was made possible by the One child policy.

Do you know that unemployment was low? Job selection wasn’t great, but as long as you were willing to work, someone could find you a job.

Despite the scare of Western invasion and atomic bombs, it was a relatively safe society. Petty crimes were plentiful, from pickpocketing, theft, to scam artists. But it was unlikely your house would be broken in at gun point.

All these wouldn’t be possible if the population was left to balloon unchecked. Far more crime, homeless, desperate people out for blood, and money.

If I went back in time to 1970s…

Knowing the future is a hell of an advantage. I would start trading goods, then collaborated with the government’s economic expansion programs.

Humble start, this was how many Chinese entrepreneurs in the 70s and 80s had their start.

Moving up, buying a truck. One man transportation company in the 90s.

Eventually able to have enough money to open a factory. TV production company in the 80s.

Not really a photo of China, but of 1980 computer stores in the US. My computer store would look like this.

I would get into computers as early as 1975. This was around the time Bill Gates and Steve Jobs founded their companies.

I would even go to India in 1974 to meet the penniless backpacker Steve Jobs and offered him his first initial investment before he even knew he was to found Apple. He would be indebted to me for life.

Two prospects regarding to One Child policy:

One Child Policy: Boosted economy. I could be rich, easily affording 4–5 children if I wanted to.
Booming population: China would still be a shithole like any of the third world country China’s BRI is helping now. Raising one child and keeping my family fed would be very hard.

I actually knew people in China who had more than one children after 1980. They were not jailed or anything. Their neighbors and friends were supportive of their decisions.

Putin at Valdai, civilizational world order is here to stay

“I thought Putin was exceptionally clear, rational, even handed, well spoken, honest, and painfully accurate about everything he said. He has my vote for US president.”

Have you ever judged someone and realized you were wrong?

Oh my, yes!

Steve seemed such a surley man. Unsuprisingly older than me by a couple decades since this was my first professional job as a newly minted college graduate, he seemed to growl at me whenever I saw him.

With the confidence only available with youth, I judged him.

I judged him mean, old, and a bit scary.

Imagine my horror when after about a year on this entry level job when I was reassigned to work for Steve. Of course, the reality was that I knew nothing about him.

What happened over the course of the next year was one of those special times of life that changes who you are forever. I learned that while I knew nothing about him, he knew quite a bit about me. Turns out that this wasn’t some corporately bland reassignment, but, rather, he asked to take me on as a project.

As I got to know Steve, it turned out that the gravelly voice, which I can still hear in my imagination as I write, was just his voice. And the surley demeanor I had judged so harshly was a product of a direct and unassuming style this loquatious post-adolescent did not yet grok.

One teaching moment in particular is one I’ll never forget. I carry this lesson with me every day.

You see, I’d made a mistake. Not a huge one, but a clear screw-up. I had a plan for spin control. I was confident in the plan. The lies were off-white lies at best.

But Steve believed in me enough to ask questions gently. And after he had twisted me into a logical knot, he said, and I’ll never forget his words, “Tony, you can do better than this.” He proceeded to teach me the value of not spinning and just dealing with my own limitations as a human. He showed me the real value of honesty: building trust.

And, Steve was right. I came clean and it was all ok. And, a few months later when I made a yet bigger mistake, that was ok too.

I got to know Steve better over the next couple of years. I learned that we shared some basic interests and religious faith, but he was not the type to over-share or brag. Sadly, when I had this incredible access to him, I never fully understood Steve.

But, I understood far better when he died.

Just a couple years after this priceless mentoring, Steve was stricken with brain cancer. He was far younger than I am right now, so even in death he taught me to value every day.

But this wasn’t the last lesson he had to teach. Not hardly.

I was invited by his widow to his funeral. I had known of his faith, but not quite the extent to which he walked the walk. I’ve omitted a great deal of detail, but Steve had not had an easy life. In my mind, he was doing all he could to just survive and raise his own family. I assumed his faith was like my own: sincere, yet mostly a coping mechanism.

In the shadow of his recent death, some mutual acquaintances filled in some details. There was far more to the man than even I suspected. My admiration was already deep. My tears were quite real.

Steve had been an elder at a prominent church for many years. The details of his service to others would make this long answer far too long. The debts others expressed dwarfed my own sense of gratitude.

But, the funeral blew me away.

You see, it was a large church. Very large. That day, it was filled to the rafters. I have never been to anything like it since. The love expressed for Steve that day over powers me even as I write this.

And there, in that pew, I knew i wanted to be like Steve.

Not for glory or acclaim—not at all. Just to have left this place a better place than I had found it. And, as I traverse my new career in coaching, I am still chasing his example.

Thank you, Steve, for teaching me how to be real. I’ll never forget you. I’ll never achieve what you did, but I am so much happier for trying.

And, I even learned from misjudging you.

How did Huawei replace over 13,000 components in its range of products with local substitutes in response to US trade sanctions?

In a short sentence, the completeness of the supply chain.

In brief exposition, this is the bitter fruit of embargo.

No, I’m not referring to Donald the Orange’s tariffs and dismantling of Huawei.

I’m talking about the 30-year EMBARGO that the US enforced on China after the breakout of the Korean War, along with the withdrawal of Soviet tech support as relations cooled heading into the 60s.

In fact, the Cultural Revolution’s deurbanization was a direct policy response to having the economic rug pulled under by foreign forces.

China learned a very important lesson: Any weakness in a supply chain can and will be exploited.

The Chinese prioritized the control of key enabling heavy industries, beginning with steel manufacture, before using policy tools to encourage the organic growth of eco-systems downstream.

The Chinese were not happy with assembling a shoe from components. Rather they focused on being able to make every component, down to the dye and synthetic materials suitable for footwear.

This process was repeated up the tech ladder, and by the 2010s, the Chinese had the most complete supply chain in the world, encompassing all categories of the UN industrial sector classification. China remains the only country to maintain this milestone.

China’s strength is hardware, and the world’s greatest concentration of hardware engineering talent—whether it is chips, IC, antennas, speakers, motors—are found on the mainland, and overwhelmingly Chinese.

These are world class talent who’ve delivered on big projects, and thoroughly up-to-date with their field of expertise. I daresay set them loose on any problem and they will find solutions, because the intensity and breath which they attack problems is unrivaled. The Chinese have the scale to apply multiprong strategies in parallel*, while the competition iterate sequentially. This is the famed China speed, and China has made up plenty of ground in recent decades expertly harnessing economies of scale.

America uses its heft to force compliance, through the threat of market access withdrawal. But the Chinese market is already bigger than the US, especially hardware components, just because China is the world’s factory. Huawei is able to find enough domestic partners who don’t mind losing the US market, because there are enough customers within China. Besides, this is a matter of survival for entire industries, and it is imperative to break the tech embargo.

Huawei’s telecoms gear isn’t like cellphones, because they are tethered to the mains. Power efficiency isn’t a make or break consideration, and there is no need for the latest and greatest off the cutting edge node, chip-wise.

This makes domestic substitution a breeze compared to say, the Kirin SOC, because hacks are always available, especially under the umbrella of Huawei’s immense patent portfolio.

In the final analysis, I’d say it boils down to the quality and quantity of talent, and it shows in the remarkable speed of the turnaround.

欺负华为没人？

门儿都没有。

Heinz Guderian noted in his diary that he had observed snow for the first time in the campaign in the Soviet Union.

The original plan for Operation Barbarossa was extremely sketchy for such a massive operation. One of the odder aspects of planning was that the endpoints for the invasion were never set forth, and became vaguer and more nebulous the further along planning got.

The first battle plans, prepared for the OKW by General Erich Marcks in mid-1940, actually did set forth a terminal line of the invasion. Marcks proposed the “A-A line” as the operational objective. This was to run from the northern city of Arkhangelsk on the Arctic Sea through Gorky and Rostov to the port city of Astrakhan at the mouth of the Volga on the Caspian Sea. This assumed that the European portion of Russia and its satellites was the only part of the country of any interest and importance. There, the German Army could stop and set up a defensive line beyond which whatever was left of the Soviet Union could be allowed to wither away, as it would pose no threat.

After the Marcks Plan (as it came to be called), though, the idea of any kind of ultimate objective for the Wehrmacht disappeared. The debate instead degenerated into one of whether or not it was even important to get to Moscow, let alone reach any points further east. The prevailing theory – primarily Hitler’s – was that the entire Soviet Union would capitulate after a few decisive border battles destroyed the Red Army, failing that Hitler issued a directive to pursue the Soviets.

As of 6th October 1941, there has been no “pursuit” in the Soviet Union or at least none that has lasted very long. Every step has been contested, every river has been defended, every city has been fought over and sometimes even been boobytrapped after the Red Army has left. The defense has been uncoordinated and lacking in effectiveness on many occasions, but the Red Army has been fighting all the way. Now, the best campaigning months of 1941 are already gone and it is only going to get worse before it gets better again. Given all that, the astounding underestimation of the effectiveness of Red Army opposition during the planning stage of Operation Barbarossa has not really hampered German operations yet, it just has required adjustments to compensate for a slower rate of advance than anticipated. The tanks still run, the trucks still carry supplies, the horses are still fed from grain in the fields.

However, everything is about to change forever, and the men on the front line see why after dark as the snow begins to fall around them. The lack of effective antifreeze for trucks or tanks, the lack of chains for wheeled vehicles, the absence of winter clothing which was considered superfluous in June – all of a sudden these omissions loom large.

Late Night Flight

While drinking, a Pilot bet he could land outside the bar, 2 hours later he touched down in central New York in a stolen aircraft. Years later he repeated the stunt because someone wouldn’t believe him.

In September 1956 after drinking heavily at a bar in New York City, Thomas Fitzpatrick made an intoxicated barroom bet that he could travel from New Jersey to New York City in 15 minutes.

At 3 a.m. he stole a single-engine plane from the Teterboro and flew without any lights or radio before landing on St. Nicholas Avenue near 191st Street in front of the bar where the bet was made.

The New York Times called it a “fine landing” and a “feat of aeronautics”. For his illegal flight, he was fined $100 after the plane’s owner refused to press charges.

In October 1958 just before 1 a.m., Fitzpatrick again stole another plane from the same airfield and landed on Amsterdam and 187th after another bar patron disbelieved his first feat.

For his second stolen flight, judge John A. Mullen sentenced him to six months in prison. When asked why did had undertaken the 2nd flight Fitzpatrick told the police “he had pulled off the second flight after a bar patron refused to believe he had done the first one”

Fitzpatrick was a Marine during the Korean War and received a Purple Heart. He has three sons and was married to his wife, Helen, for 51 years working as a steamfitter. He died in 2009 at the age of 79.

Fitzpatrick has a mixed drink named after him for his feat called the “Late Night Flight”

Oh SH*T, The Collapse Has REALLY Begun

The threat of a US recession is escalating fast as corporate bankruptcies and debt defaults pile up. As the Federal Reserve continues to hike interest rates, small businesses are starting to collapse and close down. There’s going to be a tipping point where job losses will accelerate and consumer spending will crash.

What is the best case of, “You just tried to scam the wrong person,” that you’ve witnessed?

I got the “You owe money to the IRS and are going to jail” phone call. I knew it was a scam because not only does the IRS not call you, but I could hear multiple voices in the background…classic boiler room. Duh! So I decided to play along. I let the guy go into his spiel and about halfway through I started crying. When I say crying, I mean REALLY wailing, gasping for breath, totally panicked! The guy has to stop talking in order to calm me down as I’m really losing it. As soon as he calms me down, off he goes again, telling me if I don’t pay, I’ll go to jail. Well, I just lose it again…crying, wailing, the whole nine yards.

Again, he tries to calm me down. Finally, with hitching sobs, I calm down enough to ask him how much I owe the IRS. When he tells me it’s $24,000, well, you know, I just lost it again. Crying. Wailing. Sobbing. What am I going to do?? OMG, I’m going to lose my house! I won’t be able to feed my kids! I’ll have to give away my dogs! Oh, noooooo! Noooooo! He calms me down (again) with the suggestion that he might be able to reduce what I owe to just $12,000. Which, of course, just sets me off again. Where, oh where am I going to get that kind of money?? I’m going to lose everything! Death! Doom! Destruction!

Finally, for the last time, he manages to calm me down enough to where I can ask him one final question…before I gave him my credit card number, would it be okay if I ask my husband first? After all, he IS a tax attorney. Dead silence for the space of about five seconds, then he let loose a torrent of profanity such as I’ve never heard before (and I’ve heard a lot) while I’m laughing my ass off. He then warns me that, “I’ll be sorry” to which I reply, “Not as sorry as you, you thieving, scum-sucking piece of humanity!” He hung up on me then, and surprisingly enough, I’ve never gotten another IRS phone call again.

It was the highlight of my week!

What are the biggest culture shocks people face when coming to Germany?

I’ve been in Berlin for about two months now.

Here’s my longish list:

I started learning German before coming here. People said I was wasting my time, that everybody here speaks English. That’s not true. Many Germans don’t speak English. Also, a number of people (usually officials or clerks) were upset that I don’t speak their language yet, as if my not having learned the language yet in the span of two months is some grave offense.
Maybe it’s only this year but the summer isn’t really summer. There are hot and cold days. Sunny and overcast days. Clear and rainy days. A day can start sunny and end in rain. You can walk out in your shorts and have to wear pants and a light jacket by the end of the day. Also, the days are unbelievably long. The sun rises before 5 AM and sets at around 10 PM.
WWII and the Holocaust. I am of Jewish descent. Many of my ancestors were taken to Auschwitz and other camps to be exterminated. I remember the first time I saw a stolperstein or “stumbling stone” in Berlin (these are brass plates inscribed with the names of Jews and information about the dates of their deportation and extermination, inlaid in the pavement outside their last place of residence) I froze. My heart sank, and a deep sadness welled from within me.
Ethnic Diversity here is wonderful. There seem to be people from all over the world, all co-existing. Yes, there have been some glitches, but seeing this melting pot of diversity brings hope to the heart. Plus, you can have authentic food from almost anywhere—from Mexican to Vietnamese to Turkish to Lebanese to Korean, etc., etc.
Many, many people are tattooed, so much so that un-tattooed individuals seem rarer than tattooed ones. And so much so that I sometimes wonder if even the businessmen and women, under those fine tailored suits, are hiding some large and colorful dragon or tiger adorning their skins.
I assumed Berlin would be cleaner. Before I came I had a vision of Germany as a glinting-clean place. And although it’s not filthy, there’s some waste strewn about in parks and on the streets—empty beer bottles and food leftovers and dirty plastic packaging, etc.
And speaking of beer bottles, people drink alcohol. A lot of it. I see many people walking around with some kind of drink in their hands, or people sitting outside bars or even in parks with an unbelievable amount of empty bottles by their side. Or in supermarkets, walking out with cartfuls of booze.
Maybe I notice it more because I’ve never lived in a place with so many churches, but there are so many of them here. Imposing ones with rising spires and crimson bricks and huge bells resonating blocks and blocks away. Having grown up in Israel, I find it hard to imagine how the visions of a carpenter in the Middle-East, over centuries and millennia, transmogrified into these massive, gothic places of worship in a completely different culture and milieu.
The other day we went to a pleasant park and there were a bunch of kids playing in the nude, splashing each other with water and running around in the sand giggling. My son took off his clothes and joined them, and I thought, how wonderful that no one is embarrassed seeing naked kids playing around, that they are granted this easy, unconscious freedom that in many other parts of the would would have been considered inappropriate.
Sex seems to be less of a big deal here. I’ve seen a number of adverts in the street depicting some form of sex in illustrations. In the US, there would have been a lecherous quality to it, some kind of cleavage or exposed thighs, something to suggest and tease and taunt. But here there is something unassuming about its depiction—a couple or even a threesome lying in bed covered in blankets, a cartoon of a man with his loins covered by a popping champagne bottle and a smiling woman by his side. Unassertive—as if this, too, is a natural part of life and there’s no need to make a fuss about it.
Organic food is available in most supermarkets and is not necessarily exorbitantly priced. In fact, almost every little place that serves food will have some kind of organic lemonade or soft drink.
Although I am not vegetarian, when I came here I imagined würste (sausages) everywhere, and a dearth of other, non-pork based offering. But, in fact, it is very easy to get vegetarian food here. From vegetarian gemüse kebap (Turkish food—vegetables in bread) to vegetarian asian dishes, to tofu, grain- or legume-based meat substitutes in supermarkets, it is not only possible to be vegetarian here, but even easy.
The streets and the curb are wide and spacious, oftentimes cobbled and shaded by evenly-distanced stately trees. Having grown up in Israel and lived in India, this was novel for me—this European expansiveness.
Some people can be incredibly proper and strict here. I’ve been scolded for standing out in the street when the bus came, and then for standing in the wrong place inside the bus as I was paying. In some places and settings people are expected to behave in a certain ways, and are frowned upon if they are not.
The bicycle is a serious mode of transportation with its own lanes and a substantial number of riders.
Drivers are not as courteous as in other places—in less trafficked streets with no stoplight, and unlike the US, cars will mostly not stop when they see a pedestrian, and one has to wait for an opportunity to cross.
Things are well made. The walls of the apartment I’m staying in are almost as thick as my outstretched arm. The woodwork is precise and sturdy. Some of the buildings around look like they’ve been in existence for centuries, and that they will last for many centuries more. There is an assuring sturdiness in the material existence here—like things are dependable and robust. Also, it is not difficult to find objects that are Made in Germany or Europe—be it knives or rucksacks or wallets, etc.—that look like they will last for a lifetime. I like that.
Almost all shops are closed on Sundays.
Parcels are left with neighbors. If you’re not in and you have a package, it will be left with one of your neighbors, who will then, perhaps later in the day, come knocking on your door and claim the package with a slip.
People have been incredibly helpful. When I arrived, a neighbor helped carry our luggage from the street. Another neighbor helps me whenever I need something in German translated. I’ve had people in the street, after asking for directions, pull out their phones, search for the place, and give me clear instructions. Of course, as with everywhere else, there are also unfriendly people, but the friendly and helpful ones have left a greater impression on me.

Boeing is Panicking! Brunei and China Order 30 Aircraft | Boeing Completely Loses The Chinese Market

In May 2017, China successfully conducted the historic first test flight of the C919 aircraft, which marked the complete break of Boeing and Airbus’ half-century monopoly on large commercial aircraft. Soon after, China’s C919 aircraft attracted cooperation intentions from many countries.

Up to now, China’s orders for C919 aircraft have exceeded an astonishing 1,061 aircraft, but I think this is just the beginning of the emergence of China’s C919 aircraft. At this year’s 20th China-ASEAN Expo, China’s C919 aircraft once again became the focus of attention.

Among them, Brunei spent US$2 billion to purchase 30 large passenger aircraft from China, including the much-anticipated C919 aircraft. As more and more countries purchase China’s C919 aircraft, Boeing in the United States begins to panic and even begs to regain the Chinese market.

https://youtu.be/7kIH65mOefQ

What’s the most useless map ever made?

One day at the end of the School year, my teacher was throwing out some old junk. One of which was this old globe that was so inaccurate, I’m surprised it wasn’t thrown away as soon it came off the assembly line.

Some Countries don’t exist at the same time.

As far as I know, Tibet did not exist at the same time with a unified Independent India, Southeast Asia with a unified Vietnam, and what’s that little country north of Mongolia?

Oh that’s right, It’s Tannu Tuva! You know the country that was annexed into the USSR during the middle of WW2. Because the Partition of India took place after the World War ended (1947). The inconsistency with time are the least of this Globe’s problems.

Making major countries the same shade of blue as the OCEAN!

As you saw above, China is the same color of the Ocean, but that’s not the only one.

The color they chose for Turkey just makes it look like the Black Sea is part of the Mediterranean if you’re not looking close enough.

Same goes with the Great Lakes area.

Since the State of Michigan is sandwiched between massive lakes, it should be a different color to make it stand out more. Well the designer didn’t think so, because instead of the Great Lakes, it’s just ONE Great Lake.

Plus New York makes lake Ontario and Erie look like an extension of the Atlantic. So does Quebec.

But this doesn’t go with what makes the map the most useless.

They got the freaking hemispheres on wrong!!!!

I’m pretty sure Australia is not directly south of Ethiopia!

South America is just floating in the middle of the Ocean.

Though Southern Africa actually fits well with the Northern Hemisphere part of South America.

This Globe has to be the most Useless reference of the World ever!

Have you ever let your dog loose on someone who was on your property and refused to leave? Is it legal to do so?

I got Montana at a church fundraising garage sale for $1.15. She was a Rottweiler/GSD mix and the owners were selling the puppies for $3. After three hours of wheedling my mother, and scrounging as much change as I could from the car, I paid for her quite proudly. She’d been the runt of the litter, and all her litter mates had long been snatched up. I brought her home, and made a bed for her in the bottom drawer of my dresser. Took her to the vet the next day to get her all of her shots. Did basic obedience training with her and all the requisite fun things a teenage girl could do with a dog.

Flash forward three years and I’m off at school across the state, and she’s at home with my mother, grandmother and younger brother. Due to her general quirkiness, she never barked or growled unless she felt that her family was in danger. She was quite content to roam the backyard, playing chase along the fence lines with the dogs that neighbored on either side. About three am my mom hears the neighbor’s golden retriever barking up a storm, then hears the fence rattle. Thinking it was a raccoon or opossum, she laid back down. Then Montana is growling right under her window. That’s when she hears a lot of cussing, more growling and then a whimper and the fence on the other side rattle. Now there’s even more cussing and growling as the other set of neighbor’s black malamute is in on whatever is happening now. Mom grabs a flashlight and the cordless phone, calls 911 and rushes out to find out what’s happening. That’s when she sees a man vaulting the far side of the fence in the neighbors yard, only to be confronted by a massive Great Dane. Montana comes slinking to her, whimpering with cuts running down both her flanks. Grabbing her leash, she takes my dog out to greet the police, explaining what happened. Apparently they caught up with the guy a few blocks away, having been bitten by about four different dogs. Mom took my brave girl to the vet immediately. The cuts were superficial and shallow, needing nothing more than some cleaning. She had a chemical burn on her backside because he’d sprayed her with either mace or pepper spray. Montana was handsomely rewarded with a steak for doing her job protecting the family, and no one ever set foot in our backyard without permission again.

Do the majority of people in China wish to remain communists, or if they had a choice, would they want democracy?

Not the slightest chance of that

There is anger against the CPC by some people, especially in the big cities however none of these people want democracy or voting

They simply want more capitalist reforms by the CPC

The Majority are very satisfied and happy with the CPC

Especially the younger generation

They regard US democracy as a JOKE

They are so proud of their country and it’s growth and the CPC that they only want reforms, reforms and more reforms

Here are the main suggestions

The Average Age of a Party Member is 49 and they want it to reduce to 40
The Average Age of a Politburo member is 56. They want it to reduce it to 50.
70 Investments were banned by the CPC between 2017–2023. They want these investments regulated.
They want flexible and productive work hours to enhance maximum output instead of the rigid slogging workstyle of the older generation

They have contempt for the USA

Especially the 17–30 year olds born post 1993

Chinas future

They are brilliant, they have the midset to be the BEST in the world

The Older generation in their forties and fifties, born between 1973–1983 are more of the WHY IS THE US SO UNFAIR rather than any contempt for the US

They have a lot of relatives in US and the West who migrated from 1965–1990

They have contempt for the Russians and Russian Technology

They are also a bit colonial and sub consciously believe they are not in the same league as the West deep down

They MAY have no problem if China becomes a democracy but they wouldn’t want it as a choice

The even older generation in their 60s and 70s, born between 1945–1965 are steeped in Patriotic Ideology. They remember the old days and the way the CPC took China to the top

It’s for their sake that China still has the name Communist when it’s anything but communist

They would abhor any democracy

Xi has created a very nationalistic patriotic generation of Youngsters brimming with confidence

The CPC needs to make some changes though in the next 10 years to ensure the Youngsters connect to the party and that wave of nationalism is retained at it’s same fervour

But Democracy? Especially Western Style?

Good God No!!!!!

Could China force all countries to use their yuan instead of American dollars for trading internationally if they took over from America economically and militarily?

No to both questions,

Economically,

Countries opt for local currencies in bilateral trade due to several reasons that align with their own interests:

The high interest in the US dollar has driven up the cost of purchasing US dollars.
Foreign exchange transaction fees associated with using US banks are expensive (3%), and the SWIFT system not only takes several days to settle transactions but is also subject to US monitoring for unilateral sanctions, even when the transactions involve purely business matters.
A surplus of expensive US dollars is circulating in the global economy, with many countries selling them back to the Federal Reserve Bank where billions are used to fund the record national debt and crowding out private investment by keeping the interest high.
There is a concern that the US dollar could face a collapse if the Federal Reserve Bank ceases its policy of increasing interest rates, as this could exacerbate inflationary pressures and erode the currency’s value.

Military,

In contrast to historical colonial powers and the dominant influence of the United States, China lacks the ambition of global control through culture/racial superiority, military endeavors, and covert activities. Instead, China offers an alternative vision to the world by fostering connections among people through infrastructure development and trade.

The Real Reasons I Left United States (and won’t go back)

I really enjoyed this video.

Real Talk about why I don’t like living in the United States anymore and why I can’t see myself ever returning. I had invested a lot of time and money to research and travel the world to find where I best fit in, which culture I feel more comfortable in. After almost 6 years of continues life abroad, I really can’t see myself ever going back.

What are some strange things that only happen in China?

The sheer logistics of trying to feed a nation of 1.4 billion people are insane. Take this building right here — it’s a pig farm. A 26-story pig farm named Ezhou farm. It’s one of the biggest ‘only in China’ moments for me.

Basically, China has been having some pretty major geopolitical tensions with many of its neighbors lately, and there have been a lot of issues with the ongoing trade war with America. So China wants to be less dependent on imports of vital things such as food.

[1] As a result, it has started building absolutely MASSIVE pig farms on an industrial scale unseen anywhere in human history. It’s pretty crazy. Also, I gotta say, pretty impressive.

So yeah, 26-story pig farms are a strange phenomenon I’ve not seen anywhere else. Anyone who’s ever enjoyed Chinese cuisine knows it cannot survive without pork. So if ever war breaks out and trade routes are blocked, China is ensuring it’ll never run out of pork chops.

Who are the most professional and skilled foreign soldiers you have served with?

Let’s start with the worst:

Unfortunately, some stereotypes might be true. When I served in the German army we trained for a week with Italy’s famous “Folgore” parachute unit. Although they were considered elite in Italy, they really sucked.

When we went with them to the shooting range my job was to count the targets they were hitting, which weren’t many. With one guy it took me a while to figure out that he was missing his target by at least 5 meters- at a 150 meters shooting distance.

These guys failed at everything they did, except for one thing: The last night of their stay we went to a bar with them and after a few German beers they started singing Italian songs. Very well and beautiful and not like our “barbaric” German singing.

I also trained a lot with French units. Most of them were really decent fellows, but their officers were completely useless. They were unable to motivate their soldiers and always seemed to be screaming at them. As a result the French troops we trained with didn’t perform as well as they could have.

Although I trained with British troops on several occasions, they didn’t leave an impression with me. Neither good nor bad. Later on my German army unit got their a** kicked by a British Special Air Service unit during an exercise in Denmark. I didn’t participate in this exercise and therefore these SAS guys are not in my ranking.

In Bosnia I fought for the Croats. They were all decent soldiers and what is very important, they were eager to learn. The Croatian army during the war lacked material and sometimes professionalism, but they more than compensated these flaws with outstanding bravery and high motivation. Especially their leadership was exemplary.

Later I fought in Kosovo with the Kosovo Liberation Army. I trained the unit that I fought with, so of course, they did ok. What I often saw in battle was that with the right guidance one could really make a difference. Sometimes we had soldiers from other units under our command and although we first thought that they were completely useless, watching our guys fight it out, these soldiers started to give their best.

I trained twice with US Army units and both times it was a pleasure. First time with a battalion of the 82nd Airborne in Italy and later I had the privilege to attend the German commando course with a US Army Special Forces unit. While the Airborne soldiers, although very good soldiers, were not really a match to our German “Fallschirmjäger” platoon, the US Army Special Forces (SF) were amazing.

They somehow weren’t that good at achieving many tasks during our training inside the barracks and were also not the fastest team on the obstacle course, but as soon as they were in the forest they showed admirable infantry skills, very good adaptation to the terrain, speed and stealth.

These SF would make the first place on my ranking if it wasn’t for a couple of Dutch LRRP’s (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol) soldiers who also attended the same German commando course. They were good at everything and in the end had the highest score from all attendees.

They were also very modest, quiet and polite, almost shy, and these are qualities one doesn’t find very often with elite soldiers. Therefore I rank them first.

If a drone is flying on my property and I have already notified that I do not want it to be flying on it, can I destroy it without legal repercussion?

I will answer with my experience in this. There was a drone that would come over my house three times a day and roughly the same time each day. I put out a sign said please stop recording my house and yard for a couple of days but it kept coming. Thay is when I noticed a police car parked in the lot behind my house while the drone was there. So each time I’d check and see on my camera if the cop car was there and every time the drone came around sure enough. So new sign unless you have a warrent stop filming my house and yard. At this time I checked with courts for any investigation warrents for me and my property and none. So I then went out and threw rocks towards the drone each time it would take off. But still coming back. So I set the trap. I sat out front and waited for this thing to come flying over my back yard with a rather large rock. I nailed it the first try. It broke and landed in the back yard. It took three days for the cops to get a court order to come and retrieve it. Seems in the attempt to get me into trouble they had to show the footage of the drone and the warning to stop recording was enough to exonerated me for damage to the drone. They have not been back since.

Man Didn’t Want This Cat. Now They’re Inseparable Swimming Buddies

At first this man didn’t want a cat, but his swimming buddy Frosty changed everything. It took time for them to develop the bond, but when they did, a cat dad was born. Soon, Stefan discovered Frosty’s affinity for swimming, He was super curious about water and started jumping to the shower, and then the bath and finally the swimming pool.

https://youtu.be/-wSl9unZ7wE

What’s something commonly eaten in America that British people find strange or disgusting? I’m looking for foods that are viewed as normal in America that British people can’t understand.

So what the bloody hell is this?!

Biscuits and gravy is a popular breakfast dish in the United States, especially in the South.

No.

No.

NO!

I don’t care that you have your own version of English – that is an abomination.

That quite clearly consists of a scone:

With some kind of weird elephant ejaculate on top.

So not only is the name utterly wrong to British ears (if you ask someone here if they wanted “biscuits and gravy” here you will either a) end up in a mental institute, or b) be hounded out of town like a demon), but:

The actual thing doesn’t look much better.

I mean seriously guys – that stuff looks pretty damn unappetising, and that’s a “glamour shot” taken from some recipe website!

So America – let’s recap:

You’ve taken a food item traditionally eaten in the UK with cream and jam – and decided it would be better with some weirdass sausage-jizz-sauce.
You gave it a name which makes it sound bloody awful to British people

In case you haven’t gathered – this is not a popular food item in the U.K.

And we would rather it stayed that way – it looks ghastly.

EDIT:

From some of the very angry comments, it seems like some of you Americans just can’t seem to take a light-hearted ribbing, or a smidge of sarcasm. The whole point of the question is that us Brits don’t understand why you like it.

And for crying out loud:

yes, I know you call biscuits “cookies”. That’s part of the bloody joke.
Yes I have tried it. Calling me ignorant isn’t going to help.
Yes some British stuff is weird too. But we’re not talking about us – the question is about America.

Some people are treating this answer like I did a big squishy turd on your beloved flag.

It must be that sarcasm is hidden away in the ‘u’ in humour….

Which countries have the most brutal and horrific history?

This answer isn’t really about saying what one single country has done the worst, but I do want to share below on the cruelty of humankind that many people don’t know about.

Graphic content below but I want to make this known because so many people around the world have heard of Hitler, Nazis, concentration camps but they have not heard of the Asian holocaust that took place around the same period. In western schools, history classes do not teach people about this part of the world.

This is regarding what the Japanese did during their occupation of China and Korea and the war crimes they committed to the surrounding Asian countries, including some Pacific Islands they invaded: Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar, East Timor, New Guinea, Indonesia, Guam, Nauru, Wake Island, Attu and Kiska Islands, and Kiribati.

They even had some prisoners of war from the west such as America, any forces against them at the time etc.

Hundreds of thousands of women from my country in Korea were forcefully abducted (called comfort women) during the Japanese occupation in WWII. They endured torture beyond imagination if they did not sexually submit to these vile men and were forced to have sex with 60–100 men every single day. Their innards rotted because of the STD’s and they were destroyed, unable to have children even after they were rescued. They have still not been compensated for the war crimes that they endured and majority have died.

Pregnant mothers were cut open and rape victims were sodomized with bamboo sticks and bayonets until they died in agony.

On top of this they literally tore the unborn from women’s wombs and speared them alive with bayonets in front of them. They’d crush the infant’s skull against concrete floors. They would actually do this for fun.

They tied sons and daughters up and tore them apart, spearing them and forced their own parents to watch.

They raped and pillaged women of all ages, even toddlers to old women in the most vile, disgusting way imaginable. They would often disembowel them while in the process, leaving them to die in agony.

They conducted unspeakable evil torture and experiments on LIVE prisoners from these countries even children and infants in UNIT 731. Torture methods such as vivisecting pregnant women without any anesthesia, centrifuging and killing people in pressurized chambers, and slowly burning and freezing people alive. They artificially created what is similar to the ‘bubonic plague’ to see the effects on the prisoners. They were forced into X-rays until they perished and hung people by their thumbs or tongues etc. These torture tactics were deliberately planned to see death happen SLOWLY, not fast as the scientists wanted to observe the resilience of the human body.

Unbelievably Inhumane Japanese Torture Methods Used During World War II

(image deleted – too unsettling)

Bodies of slayed, raped, mutilated women in China.

(image deleted – too unsettling)

Carcasses of babies and children piled up

Despite this, Japan still presently denies what has happened and even believes that it is a rumour. The young people as shown in this video are absolutely clueless on the whole tragedy, or are so far removed in cognitive dissonance and lack of care it is astounding. There is even a middle aged woman in the video who even says “Well I’m not sure if it’s a rumour or not…” which is an absolute lunacy and an embarrassment of the failure of the country in not properly educating their citizens of what truly happened. One young girl even says “Well, I wonder when they will ever get over it…” How are people supposed to get over it when there are still thousands of victims still alive who didn’t receive any form of compensation for what they have been through??!

Their government still warps their history books and deliberately tries to hide the evidence of what truly happened. There are active groups within Japan who refuse to accept what happened and truly believe that it is just a ‘rumour’ to make Japan look bad.

Below is a real life account by a South Korean comfort woman on the horrors she went through. It is heartbreaking to watch but quite educational. She sadly passed away early January of this year, fighting until her last breath but still never receiving any compensation or apology from the Japanese. They don’t even recognize that she went through this or who she is.

(Video no longer available on YT)

What Japan did wasn’t just an invasion or occupation, it was a literal carnage, hell on earth genocide. They didn’t have to go this far as majority of the Koreans and the people they invaded were helpless farmers, uneducated servants, and innocent people who were not trained in war at all. They did this because they did not see these people as human, and their goal wasn’t simply to occupy, but to desecrate the spirit from within. They knew when you destroy someone’s spirit from inside out, the enemy will bend the knee and yield to the point where they do not have the soul to fight back. On top of this, it was just pure, raw sadistic savagery because all of these helpless people surrendered and begged for mercy yet they were still tortured for absolutely no reason.

(Video no longer available on YT)

Presently Japan is one of the most wealthiest and prosperous Asian countries in the world yet they cannot even fully take responsibility for their own committed atrocities. It shows the savage barbarism that still resides in some of these people and makes one question just how this is even acceptable. Instead they choose to warp their own history books, flat out deny it existed and have refused to offer sincere, acceptable compensation/apology for the people who are still alive. They are waiting until every last victim is dead so they no longer have to worry about it. They are not truly ashamed of this past, they just see it as an eyesore they want to bury. Keep in mind Japan has very strong political parties that strives to ensure this shameful past does not reach the masses to retain their false honour. Still to this day, they praise their war criminals in shrines.

From the invasion of China in 1937 to the end of World War II, the Japanese military regime murdered near 3,000,000 to over 10,000,000 people, most probably almost 6,000,000 Chinese, Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Indochinese, among others, including Western prisoners of war. This is more than the estimated Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe controversially claimed that “there was no evidence to prove” that the women had been coerced into sex.

“The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is engaged in an all-out effort to portray the historical record as a tissue of liesdesigned to discredit the nation,” wrote Mindy Kotler, director of Asia Policy Point, in 2014.

“Mr. Abe’s administration DENIES that imperial Japan ran a system of human trafficking and coerced prostitution, implying that comfort women were simply camp-following prostitutes,” Kotler continued. “The official narrative in Japan is fast becoming detached from reality, as it seeks to cast the Japanese people — rather than the comfort women of the Asia-Pacific theater — as the victims of this story.”

Japan’s Textbooks Reflect Revised History

Japanese Broadcast Official: We Didn’t Commit War Crimes, the U.S. Just Made That Up

Why is it so hard for Japan to say sorry?

China criticises Japan after Shinzo Abe honours war criminals as martyrs

Letter threatening to hunt Koreans sent to South Korean embassy in Japan: media

The Harrowing Story Of Filipina Women Enslaved In Japan’s Wartime Rape Camps

Edit: Since I’m getting quite a lot of people who clearly don’t seem to understand and may not have read or researched in depth in this matter. They are saying that ‘Japan does not need to offer apology or compensation for what people of their past did etc’

It’s more complicated than that.

Please read the links again. Even if they can’t take full responsibility for their past, they SHOULD take responsibility for the future by not warping textbooks and giving power to political parties who enforces the dangerous fallacy of denying any of this ever happened or triviliazing everything that has happened. They should make sure to teach the correct history not just for educational purposes but to ensure their citizens fully know and accept their own history and in hopes that it never happens again. This is also to help not silence the voices of the people who did suffer in the past and to not spit into their graves and ruin their legacy by spreading false lies.

Also the comfort women and people who were forcefully taken into labour camps as prisoners, many are still alive who didn’t actually get any compensation or even sheer RECOGNITION. They suffered their entire lives without anyone hearing what they have to say with nothing from Japan. This isn’t just about wanting Japan to go up to a stadium and saying ‘I am sorry’ and stepping down. Words are meaningless and worthless when not backed up by actions.

They are hypocrites by warping textbooks and also praising their own war criminals. Imagine what the world would say if Germany praises Nazis and gave strong political power that has the power to make Germans never even hearing of the Nazis or even contemplate if it was just a rumour or not. Think about how insane that would be.

So why do they need to apologise? Because unlike Germany what they are doing is absolutely deplorable and morally bankrupt by continuing to CONTRIBUTE to the legacy of the abomination Japan was in the past. You don’t see Germany do the same about the Nazis and for good reason. It means Japan hasn’t learned and is not truly remorseful. By Japan I am talking of the FACES of Japan which are the politicians who represent that country. The rest of the Japanese experience their trickle down effect so while it’s not saying it’s their fault, they end up indirectly contributing to supporting these vile politicians. So yes the people who represent JAPAN who hold the power of influence does need to sincerely apologise and stop contributing to what they are presently doing.

As I am getting tired of having to repeat the same information again and again, any comments that say things along the lines of ‘Japan does not need to apologise’ or those questioning or defending the existence of any of these crimes, their war criminals will be either ignored, deleted or blocked. It is extremely disrespectful to the victims and deplorable. The links are already here clear as day for reading and one can also do the research themselves. Also for anyone who brings up another atrocity and pitting them against each other, STOP. This post isn’t about pitting one atrocity against another, it is disgusting to even keep doing that and seriously lacks any insight into the original point of my post.

Otherwise thank you for reading and have a nice day.

TLDR: Japan did some truly horrific shit that many people including the present day Japanese citizens are unaware of. What they did is abysmal carnage from the Antichrist itself.

Also, piece of shit apologies that require uttering words and throwing money at victims isn’t a true apology when they are still in 2019 warping textbooks and none of their youths know anything about their crimes.

Why do you think Germany forces every citizen to learn about their nazi history and Japan doesn’t ? It is to deliberately ignore and not acknowledge their past due to their pride and selfishness. I’d equate this to even pathological narcissism and psychopathy due to how far they have gone in managing stomping this knowledge out of their own present day citizens.

Edit 2: As I am still getting very disrespectful, deranged comments on here pitting atrocities against each other, saying that I am spreading lies and others spewing ignorant hatred against Koreans, here’s my final message.

Instead of blaming others, look at what Japanese Nationals do. Stop diverting the attention away by blaming the mistakes of other countries yet not acknowledging the corruption of the Japanese government

Japan’s leaders are still stubbornly refusing to admit their war crimes

What Japanese history lessons leave out

Japanese people often fail to understand why neighbouring countries harbour a grudge over events that happened in the 1930s and 40s. The reason, in many cases, is that they barely learned any 20th Century history. I myself only got a full picture when I left Japan and went to school in Australia

The Germans in contrast have personally done everything possible to make people aware of their Nazi past. Japan doesn’t scratch the surface of what it means to have true honour while Germans go to great lengths to do humanitarian work and to allow their citizens to understand the FULL facts. This is what true compensation and remorse actually is, not the dogshit excuse of what Japan does by also denying people, correct history. End of.

We must remember Nazi crimes, says Merkel

Westoids get rid of this sick mentality

Disappointed that china isn’t collapsing and Chinese people are not starving with 50 cent hoes selling their body to you?

A channel which is ironically named “Economics Explained” is possibly the worst when it comes to it. Western propganda is not just limited to mainstream media, but to nutwits like these.

Imagine if a Chinese made a video “sorry to disappoint America/India isn’t collapsing ..yet”. What wud their reactions be.

In all honesty, the best channel for economics is Xiao Lin, light years better than these sick bas***ds.

Meanwhile Indian videos on China’s economy are even more hating than that of westoids.

Like seriously westoids, get a forking life other than hating a new country every decade. Last decade was Russia, last to last was Iraq. You guys got no job other than invading countries and telling “we love the people hate the government” then getting sad why that country hasn’t collapsed yet?

Original San Antonio Chili

Ingredients

2 pounds beef shoulder, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 pound pork shoulder, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/4 cup suet
1/4 cup pork fat
3 medium-size onions, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 quart water
4 ancho chiles
1 serrano chile
6 dried red chiles
1 tablespoon comino seeds, freshly ground
2 tablespoons Mexican oregano
Salt to taste

Instructions

Place lightly floured beef and pork cubes in with suet and pork fat in heavy chili pot and cook quickly, stirring often.
Add onions and garlic and cook until they are tender and limp.
Add water to mixture and simmer slowly while preparing chiles.
Remove stems and seeds from chiles and chop very finely.
Grind chiles in molcajete and add oregano with salt to mixture. Simmer for another 2 hours.
Remove suet casing and skim off some fat.

Notes

Never cook frijoles with chiles and meat. Serve as a separate dish.

What is the toughest difficulty you have ever faced in life?

The pain was beyond anything imaginable.

Chiang Mai Thailand 2013. I had a rare form of Tuberculosis cysts lodged in my spinal cord and on my right kidney. The doctors didn’t know how I contracted this deadly bacteria. I was too ashamed to tell them it was from drug abuse and the unhygienic practices that came with it.

It felt like a hot knife piercing my back continuously for months as I lay immobilized on the bed of my apartment. I could not hold down food and went from 220 lbs to 163 lbs. There was no sleep, only my body eventually shutting down from the pain.

My mother was an LPN and flew in to take care of me because I could not afford a hospital. My poor mother, I screamed at her to take my life. I switched from fentanyl to methadone to morphine, but none of them worked – they only made the pain worse because my feeble body could not process the drugs. It was gasoline on the fire raging inside me.

Once a week or so, my mother would help me to sit up, place a back brace on me, and help me move six feet to the bathroom so I could attempt a bowel movement and a brief shower. Every inch of every movement was excruciating pain; I had no more tears; it was hollow bellowing, and even cursing was painful. And then back to bed. That simple exercise would be an hour of horrific suffering.

After three months of strong antibiotics, I could finally eat and hold it down. With a back brace and cane, I could stand and walk briefly. The photo above was from this time, taken with my beautiful mother. You can see the back brace under my shirt and the cane I used to walk.

This life I have today is beyond anything imaginable

I never thought it possible. I thought I was doomed to the bondage of self, and the slavery of active addiction.

Now, I live a lifestyle of sober recovery – drug and alcohol-free at 56. I train daily in the gym, go for power walks and jogs in nature, and have a purposeful, meaningful life.

I Just Got an Email That Left me SPEECHLESS. WE’RE AT DEFCON 2

This is really good, from a prepper. DEFCON 2. Holy Shit!

What are things about corporate life no one tells you about?

Your appraisal is dependent on last 2 months efforts and not 12 months
You ask for a raise, and your boss thinks you’re looking for a job change
You complain about administrative issues and your manager thinks you’re trying to be a rebel
Don’t share secrets with your colleagues, they might be sharing your secrets with colleagues or managers
Your office friend is not your real friend and they won’t swear by your death bed
If you die tomorrow, there is a replacement within a week
Your efficiency is decided by number of hours you clock in vs number of productive efforts you place in
A junior person can outsmart a senior person but he will still be called junior
Your mistakes will always be discussed during appraisals
Your best performance will be discussed when you want to quit
If you finish your work on time and leave early, this is getting noted in the system as you don’t have enough work. [Your efficiency is not counted 90% of the time.]
Hiring is done based on communication skills and not on management, writing, negotiation, programming, analysis, attitude and mindset
Your CTC, Variable, Bonus and Take home salary are different components (understand the difference)
Utilize your earned and casual leaves when you get time
Find your interests and do some certification courses from LinkedIn, Coursera, edX etc
Documentation is king
Lazy ones are the smartest but are difficult to manage
Love your job and be committed to the work. Period.
Your salary will increase by 1.5x, 2x or 3x only when you switch companies
At age 20–30 skill set is primary and salary is secondary.
If you find a mentor in your current company, listen to him/her and always consult when you get stuck
Be open to change and learn how to become smarter
Try to be 1% better than yesterday
Kill the boredom, go for a walk when you don’t have anything to do at office or talk to your colleagues and find out how they do what they do
Be happy and learn the financial management, this will help you stay afloat after 10–15 years

Chen Si.

He works at a logistics agency in Nanjing, China. He also spends his free time saving other people’s lives.

Let me tell you his story.

In 2003, a very close relative of Chen’s committed suicide after watching his sons argue over who would take care of him. The incident was deeply traumatizing. Having to lose someone he held so dear to his heart just because his sons didn’t seem to show enough respect and compassion for him. Chen also read in the local newspaper that the Nanjing-Yangtze River Bridge was a major suicide hotspot — in fact, by 2006, about 2,000 people were estimated to have killed themselves by jumping off the bridge since the year it was constructed (1968). He then became greatly determined to devote the rest of his life saving those of others trapped in hopelessness by foiling suicide attempts.

In response, Chen began to patrol the Nanjing-Yangtze bridge either on his motorbike or on foot, continuously on the lookout for people willing to jump from it.

He has been there almost every day, even on holidays and weekends, regardless of the weather.

He has kept a lookout for signs of depression, for example, in the way some of them walk, which Chen describes as “passive with no spirit or direction”.

Chen also keeps a diary documenting the people he has encountered and the reasons why they wanted to kill themselves.

Some had been greatly shamed for not being successful enough in school.
Some had broken up with their boyfriend or girlfriend.
Some had wasted away their money on needless things.
There was also, for example, a migrant worker who was drowning in debt because he couldn’t pay off the $15,000 bill for his daughter’s leukemia treatments.

Chen also gives out suicide prevention pamphlets to potential jumpers, detailing emergency contacts.

And not only does he simply pull people off the bridge. In fact, he has spent 10,000 yuan ($1,457 in dollars) renting a two-room house not far from the site, which he calls “a station for the soul to rest in”.

He sits with people and lets them share all their suffering in their stories, which in a way ignites friendship, trust, and newfound confidence. Chen also occasionally brings victims back to the bridge as volunteers, helping others see a way forward in life.

Throughout his time engaging in this, Chen has stopped over 300 people from ending their lives. That is an example of being a hero without having to fight. An example of generosity and compassion at work without the necessity for bloodshed. Sometimes the best heroes simply dedicate themselves to lending a hand to people who feel like they’ve got nothing left for them. Chen Si isn’t called the “Angel of Nanjing” for nothing.

“Not all heroes wear capes”, they say. That is most definitely true.

Footnotes

[1] Chen Si – Wikipedia

What are some of the oldest contracts still in place that include some regular payments, like a lease that requires the user or tenant to pay something?

Every October since 1211 the City of London has paid rent to the Crown for two pieces of land even though nobody knows their exact locations.

The Ceremony of Quit Rents is the oldest legal ceremony in England apart for the Coronation of the Monarch. It takes place between St Michael’s Day (October 11th) and St Martin’s Day (November 11th) every year in the Royal Courts of Justice in London where the City pays the King’s Remembrancer.

The King’s Remembrancer is the oldest judicial position in England and was created in 1164 by Henry II to keep track of what was owed to the crown.

For the first piece of land, called The Moors, the City pays two knives, one blunt and one sharp.

The Remembrancer’s duty is to test the knives. The billhook is tested on a hazel tally and should make a mark representing the payment. The sharp axe then splits the tally in two, one for each party as a receipt. The Remembrancer then calls “Good service”.

This is called a split tally where in order to record debts a stick was marked with a number of notches and then split lengthwise. This way the two halves both record the same notches and each party to the transaction received one half of the marked stick as proof.

The second quit rent is for the use of the forge in Tweezer’s Alley, somewhere near The Strand. It is believed that the first tenant, Walter Le Brun, was a blacksmith who had set up his business near the tilting ground of the Knights Templar sometime around 1235.

The rent for this land is sixty-one nails and six horse-shoes. The horseshoes used are believed to date back to 1361 and are probably the oldest horseshoes still in existence. After the payment is received, the shoes and nails are then loaned back to the City of London for the next year.

When presented with the horseshoes and nails, the Remembrancer calls “Good number”.

There are also other quit or peppercorn rents. In Medieval times when a piece of property was deeded over as a reward for service a nominal rent was often charged as a reminder that the tenant didn’t own the property outright. A single peppercorn (or a single rose i.e. rose rents) was among the most popular forms of this style of rent but there were various other interesting forms of payment, such as a frog, a roast pork dinner, the donation of a petticoat to a poor woman, or even a raw calves head and a pair of gloves.

What do you dislike most about the U.S.?

Hi.
I am an Australian who is married to an American and, due to the nature of my work, lived ALL OVER the US over a decade.

Half my family are American and many of my closest friends.
In short, I’m very fond of the United States and support my nation’s close affiliation with them.

So please forgive me if I’m blunt.
This is NOT an American bash, it’s an honest expression of the one thing that [SOME] Americans do that never fails to trigger me.

“We saved your asses in World War Two”.

Americans often tell us bluntly, over and over how they “saved our arses” in both World Wars.

I assure you, EVERY SINGLE Brit, Aussie, Kiwi or Canadian reading along can hear those words spoken in an American accent as they read them.

That’s how often we hear it.
Almost weekly.
Certainly once a month.

Wars that we ourselves stepped up and fought in the protection of others.
Wars that wouldn’t even have affected us directly.
Wars we fought for YEARS before the United States.

Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand particularly could have turned their backs on Western Europe.

Britain herself could have closed her borders and looked the other way.
Hitler had no designs on the UK – He admired them.
All they had to do was stand back and allow the holocaust to happen.

But of course they couldn’t because fighting Nazi Germany was the right thing to do.

We didn’t make Britain wait 3.2 and 2.3 years to enter either great war.
We were there from day one.

We didn’t charge Britain for our goods or help.
We didn’t keep a tally and make them pay it back for seventy years.
We didn’t insist they realign their trade preferences to favour our markets setting their still very young colonies prematurely adrift or cost them their empire, wealth, dignity or preeminence as a world power.

We didn’t use Britain’s plight as a springboard for our own wealth and dominance or spend the following century diluting their culture with Pan Americanism and shallow consumerism.

CANZUK didn’t ask for anything.
We just went because we’re family and that’s what family does and despite what some of you are going to assert in the comments, yes, America, though you are the black sheep you are also family.

Speaking for Australia, from a population of six million (2/3 of which were women, children, the elderly and infirm), a full one million Australian men served in the military during the Second World war.

Let that sink in.

We had, from our far-flung nation gathered together the fourth-largest air force in the world and the fifth largest navy and lost so many men in every theater of both World Wars that we had a noticeable lack of them right into the 1980s.
Indeed, by the time American boots had touched the ground in North Africa and Europe, CANZUK had already sacrificed literally millions of men.

It’s SO, rude.
I’m not even sure you understand just how disrespectful it is and how much damage it does [at street level] to our relationships with the US.
Honestly – it’s there in the pit of all our stomachs whenever we even engage with an American.

I will leave you with this quote from the memoirs of one of your own.
American journalist Ernie Pyle who was killed in action by the Japanese in April 1945.

His account of D-day and the liberation of Paris.

“One cannot help but be moved by the colossus of our invasion. It was a bold and mighty thing. One of the epics of all history. I hope that we can rejoice in victory but humbly. The dead men would not want us to gloat.”

Peace.

Do people realise that China is an authoritarian country?

Probably. So?

I don’t live in China. But I do live in another country that is often said to be authoritarian (Singapore). And what else can we say about Singapore?

It’s ranked in the world’s top five richest countries (by GDP per capita). It’s ranked among the world’s top five least corrupt countries. Its public transport system is often ranked as the world’s best. It’s also ranked as the world’s no. 6 most peaceful country. It has one of the world’s highest average life expectancies. It’s ranked No. 1 for infrastructure. Singapore is ranked the 2nd safest city in the world. Singapore students are the world’s best in science, math and literacy. Its economy is ranked the 4th most competitive in the world. Singapore has the lowest infant mortality rate in the world. Homelessness is very rare here. Singapore’s rate of death by drug overdose is 81 times lower than in the US. There hasn’t been one gun homicide in the past 17 years.

Etc etc etc. I could go on and on. Basically Singapore is a very successful country across a wide range of different indicators and criteria. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it – what exactly is so bad about authoritarianism.

Yeah, yeah, you can’t smoke pot; you’ll be caned if you are a rapist, and you have no right to utter hate speech to bully anybody. Sounds quite good to me.

Which is the best thing to import?

Cigarettes 😀

You do the maths. I used to be able to buy them at HKIA for $90HKD a carton. The airport staff said you have to pay duty if you take more than 2 cartons. I said yes and filled my suitcase.

I’d take them to the UK and sell them for £35–40 a carton. I’d sell them to somebody who looked like he’d stab you in the face. First time I met him he wanted to rob me, but realised I could supply him regularly. Anyway he’d sell them for £50–60 a carton (it’s about £50 for 100 a carton is 200).

The trick was to land late at night, if you did this the customs agents were usually not too attentive and wanted to go home.

Same thing with France, I’d go for a razz now and again and come back with a car filled with cigarettes.

It was easy money and made me my seed money to get my business off the ground.

What are some sad truths about life?

Chris Langan was born with a freakishly potent brain, having arguably the highest IQ of any living person.

Langan began speaking at six months old and went on to skip several grades. He had an adult vocabulary by age 10. He breezed through college-level tests as an adolescent. He took his SAT several years early and got a perfect score in half the allotted time and took a nap.

Today, he is a rancher. He never finished college. Most of his adult years were spent as a bouncer at a bar, and in manual labor jobs.

It all stemmed from his rough childhood. He grew up in a poor family. His mother married multiple times before he turned 12. One stepfather committed suicide. Another was psychopathic and abusive.

His stark upbringing created behavioral problems and a persisting contempt for authority. Combine this with inadequate mentorship, resources, and an absent professional network and he never weaponized his extremely rare gift.

The sad truth is that there are many like Langan, who are like the gifted child working on a 3rd world farm, born into poverty and dealt a common, cruel blow to the chance of success.

TikTok on the cost of living | RANT ON INFLATION | EVERYONE IS BROKE AND TIRED

“Hi guys, just to clarify I do not own any of these videos I just thought it would be interesting to see how people are dealing with the cost of living, sending prayers and well wishes to you ”

Tiny treasure

When I was a teenager I would explore all the abandoned homes in my tiny small town. I grew up in Western Pennsylvania; coal and steel was our life, but during this time, the factories were all closing. So the homes would be abandoned. And we would explore them.

One of my friends, not me, was rummaging around in one of the old bedrooms and found an interesting object in an ancient shoebox tucked in the end of top shelf of a closet.

It was a handbook.

He found an operation manual for a biplane! It was a World War I era instruction manual for a Curtiss JN-4. And it was cool as Hell. I loved the illustrations, and the classic format in this small leather-bound book. Totally awesome.

I have no idea what happened to this little jewel of a book, and sometimes I muse what happened to it.

I will never know, but if you see me sitting quietly watching the rain fall down, thoughts of this little book is but one of my many many meandering thoughts.

Today…

Japanese Women

How can humans only live up to 11 days without sleeping?

So after researching, apparently the longest anyone ever stayed awake was this dude named Randy Gardner who did it for a science fair project back in 1963.

He lasted 11 days and 25 minutes without sleep, which is insane. He set a world record, but they don’t do that anymore cuz it’s too dangerous.

We all know that sleep is super important for your body and your brain. It helps you heal, grow, learn and stay sane.

When you don’t sleep, you mess up all kinds of stuff in your body, like your hormones, your metabolism, your mood and your stress levels.

You see, you start feeling the effects of sleep deprivation pretty fast. After just 24 hours, you’re like drunk or high.

You can’t think straight, you can’t remember stuff, you can’t see or hear well, you get cranky and you might even start to hallucinate.

It gets worse the longer you stay awake. After 36 hours, you lose your motivation, your reasoning skills and your attention span.

You might also start to have microsleeps, which are like mini naps that happen without you knowing. You just zone out for a few seconds and then snap back to reality. Imagine this happening while driving.

After 48 hours, you’re in trouble. You might start to have delusions, paranoia and psychosis. You might see or hear things that aren’t there, or believe things that aren’t true. You might also get really emotional or aggressive.

After 72 hours, you’re basically a zombie. You can barely function at all. You might not even be able to stay awake if you wanted to. Your immune system is shot, your blood pressure is high and your risk of getting sick or having an accident is through the roof.

So yeah, don’t try this. It’s not worth it. Sleep is awesome and you need it to live a healthy and happy life.

The average adult needs about 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night, but it varies from person to person. Find out what works for you and stick to it.

Texas Fajitas

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

Fajitas

2 (1 1/4 pound) skirt steaks, trimmed of membrane and fat
16 to 20 flour tortillas, warmed

Marinade

1 cup bottled herb and garlic or Italian salad dressing
12 ounces beer
1 large onion, minced
Juice of 3 or 4 limes
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons minced, fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons lemon pepper
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 bay leaf

Accompaniments

Mild or medium salsa
Guacamole

Instructions

Place the meat in a Pyrex dish.
Combine all the marinade ingredients in a bowl, mixing well and then pour over the steaks.
Refrigerate the meat for 6 to 24 hours, turning occasionally.
Remove the meat from the refrigerator and drain off the marinade.
Bring the steaks to room temperature.
On an outdoor grill, grill meat to medium-rare.
Cut the steaks diagonally through the grain, into finger length strips.
Serve meat on a platter with tortillas and serving bowls of salsa and guacamole.

What work secret did you accidentally find out that changed everything?

One of my first “real” jobs as a young man was working in a distribution center for a pharmaceutical company. I loaded and unloaded trucks, unloaded box cars and pulled orders, and I found the work to be enjoyable. I was the youngest employee in the place and the older women in the office would dote on me, which I also enjoyed immensely.

The general manager was a former college jock and I became friends with him and would play volleyball, basketball, and softball with him and his friends. After a softball game one summer I overheard him talking to one of his friends and he mentioned that the company we worked for was in trouble. He told his friend that he was afraid the DC where we worked was going to be shut down, and he didn’t want to move to North Carolina, where the company was headquartered.

I didn’t really think about it until I started noticing that the shipments we received weren’t as large, or coming as frequently, as they had in the past. A warehouse than had once overflowed with stock was starting to look barren. That’s when I recalled what the GM hold told his friend and I decided to start looking for another job.

I found a job working in a DC for a wholesaler and gave notice, but the GM tried to talk me into staying. He said I had a future with the company but I still decided to leave. Six months later the distribution center closed and the entire warehouse crew was let go. Some of those guys were in their 60s, so their only option was to take early retirement. I felt bad about not letting them know what was coming, but what if I’d been wrong? I was lucky to get out when I did.

Deserve the world

Tech hegemony name of NSA’s game — Zhang Zhouxiang

Had the Ministry of National Security not mentioned it on its official WeChat account, it would have been hard to imagine that the US National Security Agency, a key department of the US government, had invaded the server of China’s Huawei headquarters in 2009 and was monitoring it ever since.

This was at a time when the US had not even triggered trade frictions with China and “partnership” was the key word defining their bilateral relationship. That was also the time when the US was keeping a tab on allies and imagined enemies alike, such as by bugging the then German leader’s phone, as Edward Snowden revealed.

All these incidents once again prove that even when the US smiles at you, you cannot take it at face value. The US can use one hand for a handshake and the other to point a gun at the person it is shaking hands with.

It’s ironic that despite spying on the Huawei server for 14 years, the US still could not find any evidence of Huawei having “stolen” technologies from it. That is the biggest evidence that the NSA is not at all concerned about the United States’ national security, but about the US’ technological hegemony. Anything called “national security” for the US is based on the insecurity of others.

With this mentality, the US cannot become a worthy leader of the world. It can only arouse the whole world’s suspicion with its actions, as everyone knows that the US gained its current superpower status by cheating, stealing, hacking and blackmailing.

And such conspiracies won’t persist for long because the rest of the world cannot be overshadowed by the US forever. That Huawei has released its new smartphone model Mate 60 Pro, despite the sanctions, proves that the US’ blockade and surveillance don’t work.

It is time the US woke up from its own dreams.

China’s LASER Tech Achieves Yet Another MASSIVE Breakthrough

In a groundbreaking announcement, Chinese military scientists have unveiled a remarkable leap forward in laser weapon technology. The researchers claim to have developed an ingenious cooling system that eliminates a long-standing obstacle – the buildup of excess heat during the operation of high-energy lasers. This achievement, which could redefine the face of modern warfare, promises to enable these laser-based weapons to fire with unprecedented longevity and precision. Today’s episode will cover another breakthrough in China’s laser technology.

What is the most “technologically illiterate” thing you’ve ever seen someone do?

Wasting an entire tech budget on peripherals, with no computers to attach them to.

Several years ago, I worked at a school where the majority of teachers and the principal still used overhead projectors. I bought my own projector and used my own Macbook instead. When the principal saw what I was doing, she put me in charge of setting up Smartboards for every classroom.

Apparently, the year before I got there, the principal (an older woman) went to an education convention and got swindled into spending thousands of dollars on new Smartboards. Someone must have had a display where they showed all of the great things you can do with a Smartboard, so she used the school’s technology budget to buy one for each classroom.

They’d been delivered over the summer, before I was hired, and they were still boxed in the storage room when I got there.

Except she didn’t buy the computers or projectors to go along with them.

A Smartboard by itself is useless. It’s basically a large track pad. It requires a computer and a projector to work. The Smartboard is the cheapest part of the equation.

I got one up and running in my room, since I had my own laptop and projector. She was so excited that she had the janitor unbox and hang several others in other classrooms over a weekend, before I explained to her that they only worked when connected to a computer and a projector.

When I came to work on Monday, half of the classrooms looked like this:

They had nice, new Smartboards hanging there, completely useless.

Then I gave her an estimate for cheap laptops and projectors to get the other Smartboards up and running like the one in my room was.

She got mad at me. It’s the first time a principal ever actually raised their voice to me. She insisted that I could make the Smartboards work without buying extra parts, because the guy who sold her the Smartboards didn’t say anything about needing a computer or projector to go with them.

I think she was mad that she’d been ripped off. She spent literally the school’s entire tech budget on those Smartboards.

She raised her voice to me a few more times throughout the year, for leaving to get coffee on my lunch break (I’m an adult and I can do that), not keeping the students busy every possible second (I don’t believe in busy work), and not using the Smartboard in my room enough (It was a bigger pain to use it than it was worth). Basically, she micro-managed and treated me like a student, not a teacher. I left there after just one year. She ended up being forced into retirement after that year too. I suppose a lot of people complained about the way she treated the teachers, and pissing away the school’s money on pointless tech was the last straw.

Nice Guys finish last

Do you think that money gives you absolute happiness?

Whatever your opinion may be about this man, Dan Bilzerian, he said something very true in an interview, and I would like many people to reflect on it.

In the Joe Rogan Podcast (the most famous and most listened-to podcast in the world), Rogan asked him the same question:

Joe: Hey Dan, for the people who are listening to us, and most of them won’t even make a quarter of the money you’ve made, do you think money brings happiness?

Dan Bilzerian: Money, Joe, brings satisfaction. Money can undoubtedly give you a lot of satisfaction, but never complete happiness.

When I go to a fancy restaurant, when I drive a brand new car, when I party at the best clubs, for me, that’s already normal.

But the day I can’t afford to eat at a restaurant of the same quality, or drive the latest car, or go partying, how do you think I’ll feel?

In my case, I raised the ‘satisfaction bar’ so high that I have to maintain this lifestyle forever because if I don’t, I get depressed.

Happiness, even if it sounds cliché, cheesy, or however you want to call it, comes from within, from your person. It doesn’t come from material things. Material things give you ‘satisfaction,’ but they will never give you happiness.

There’s always someone who says something like:

‘Money doesn’t bring happiness, but I’d rather cry in a Lamborghini.’

Now, let me ask:

Wouldn’t you rather smile from ear to ear in a Kia?

Regards.

If I Compare Both – CHINA is The Winner

China’s space program and Elon Musk’s SpaceX represent two major players in the rapidly evolving field of space exploration. In recent years, both entities have made significant strides in rocket development, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in terms of space travel. From the famed Falcon series to the proud and furious Long March family, both players have redefined space sector on their own terms.

Ukraine SitRep: Storming Andivka – Ukrainian Losses

The Russian military has launched small attacks along the whole frontline. A major effort is made near Andivka which yesterday was bombed to smithereens:

The headline reads “RF Army has delivered a blow of previously unseen might against the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU)”. What they are describing is an aerial bombing of Avdeevka, the heavily fortified Ukrainian town 14 kilometers away from Donetsk city, which is an urban center of more than a million inhabitants and capital of the Donbas oblast (region) of the same name. Donetsk city has been struck by missiles and artillery shells launched from Avdeevka on a daily basis from the time before the Special Military Operation, and with ever greater intensity during the SMO. Video images of destroyed homes and apartment buildings have appeared on Russian evening news together casualty figures and the testimony of victims.

The attack on Avdeevka came early in the morning when the Ukrainians were attempting to carry out a rotation of their troops. Eyewitnesses said that “the earth shook” in the whole area as a result of the bombing.
…
The bombing of Avdeevka today, like the reported destruction of a major Ukrainian command post by 1.5 ton bombs a couple of days ago, would suggest the “softening up” phase before a major ground offensive.

bigger

Since 2014 the Ukrainian military had made Andivka into a fortress. It requires big bombs to break its bunkers.

bigger

That something important was coming up could be seen it the recent Daily Reports by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The ones put out on the 8th, 9th and 10th of October showed relatively few Ukrainian casualties (655, 630, 580) and a reduced counter artillery campaign with only 6, 7 and 8 Ukrainian guns hit on those days. It was a sign that something was coming up.

Today’s report, which includes the numbers from yesterday’s campaign against Andivka and other places show high Ukrainian casualty numbers (895) and hits on some 24 Ukrainian artillery systems.

The Ukrainians seem to fight almost exclusively on foot. Losses of armored fighting vehicles have become rare. Today’s report reports hits on only 7 armored combat systems (including tanks) but also hits on 35 transport vehicles, i.e trucks and pick-ups.

Yesterday’s evening summary by Strana.news described the bad state most of Ukraine’s brigades are in (machine translation):

Reports of the beginning of massive attacks by the Russian army coincided with the appearance of an increasing amount of information about significant problems with the offensive potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

As we have already written, ex-adviser to the President’s Office Alexey Arestovich called on the Ukrainian command to go on the defensive and abandon the offensive, which, in his opinion, is hopeless with the current balance of forces.

Also in social networks, a video from a Ukrainian military man was distributed, who talks about problems in the “Guards Offensive” brigades due to heavy losses and poor organization.

“I communicate with different military personnel from different branches of the armed forces and, in principle, I understand that cp@ka is everywhere. But I did not expect that in the rampant “Offensive Guard” we will meet with those mistakes that even the most meaty brigades no longer make,” says a National Guard soldier in Tiktok.

Then he describes various problems in specific teams. Let’s list the main ones:

Platoon commanders in critical areas, including on the Zaporozhye front, are appointed junior lieutenants without military experience and knowledge.
Many fighters have not received sufficient training;
Coordination at the company and battalion level is almost nonexistent. Maximum-squads and platoons;
Huge losses – “three companies enter, only a few go back”;

“One village took an infantry company in a short period of time. 120 plus or minus people,” says the military man.

The Russian Federation has many times more forces and resources – “no matter how strong you are, you will be stupidly beaten by the crowd”;
In some cases, the assault fighters go on foot – 7 km in equipment for 35 kg.

Other reports have confirmed that the Ukrainian military has long lost its middle officer and NCO corps. Smart kids fresh from senior high school are leading platoons of men mostly in 30s or 40s and 50s. Brigade commanders give direct orders down to platoons because the staff of battalions and companies in between is no longer there.

The Ukraine lacks artillery. The Russian counter battery fire has become more and more intense.

The advantage the HIMARS systems with their 70 kilometer reach had given Ukraine is also gone. The U.S. delivered HIMARS systems, which previously had been positioned safely out of reach of Russian counter-battery fire, are now easy to reach targets.

Russia’s new versions of the Lancet kamikaze drone have destroyed Ukrainian fighter planes on the ground some 90 kilometer behind the frontline.

Smaller Russian First Person View (FPV) suicide drones now come with thermal night vision.

The new Tornado-S Multi Launch Rocket System (MLRS) provides a reach of 120 kilometer with GPS guided missiles.

It is pretty much over for the Ukrainian military. The only sensible action it can now take is to shorten the frontline and to retreat behind some natural defense barrier like the Dnieper river.

However, Zelensky still talks of victory and is unlikely to order such a move.

Posted by b on October 11, 2023 at 15:00 UTC | Permalink

The number one rule

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

Who is the most accidentally famous person ever?

Charles Ramsey

On May 7th, 2013, Clevelander Charles Ramsey sat down in his living room, and was about to eat a Big Mac when he heard screaming coming from outside…

He opened his front door, and realized that it must have been coming from his next door neighbor’s house, so he walked over. But instead of his neighbor, Ariel, he saw a woman in the doorway clutching a child. She said that they needed to get out of the house, but that the door was secured and they were trapped. Although hesitant to break his neighbor’s front door, Ramsey agreed, and together they kicked out the bottom panel. The woman and her daughter crawled through…

But that was just the beginning! The lady said that she had been trapped in the house for years and that there were other women still inside! She ran to a nearby house and called 911 while Ramsey did the same on his cell phone. Within minutes, police and press had swarmed the street. What was going on?

The woman’s name was Amanda Berry. She had been kidnapped by the owner of the house and kept inside for 10 years, where she and two other women, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus, were kept in dismal conditions and sexually abused. They were all rescued and reunited with their families after a decade. The kidnapper, Ariel Castro, was arrested minutes later at a nearby McDonald’s. The whole city of Cleveland, Ohio, was overjoyed to learn that the missing women had been found alive after so long, and the rescue made headlines across the world!!

Ramsey gave an iconic interview with a local news station, just minutes after the news broke, and it quickly went viral.

“I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man’s arms. Dead Giveaway. Something is wrong here.” – Charles Ramsey

His candid demeanor during such a stressful episode caught people’s attention. The Gregory Brothers recorded a song by remixing his statement. Mike Epps parodied his reaction. Drew Carrey, a fellow Clevelander, personally met with him. He was skyrocketing to fame but his big break came on Snoop Dogg’s show talk show.

Snoop Dogg received an audio recording of Ramsey’s 911 call. In it, the dispatcher asked for Ramsey’s phone number and Ramsey gave it, but whoever provided the audio did not mute or obscure it to protect Ramsey’s identity. Snoop and his guest decided to call the number themselves to congratulate him, and Ramsey picked up. But they also broadcast the number to the entire world!

Ramsey received an unbelievable amount of support and praise. From across the world many sent their thanks and Ramsey was absolutely overwhelmed by the attention. As more evidence came to light, Ramsey also had some choice words for Castro and described in graphic detail how he would exact revenge on him. Talks of a reward for Ramsey abounded. He even received several marriage proposals. When a news reporter asked how Ramsey felt about all the congratulatory phone calls and texts he was getting, he replied that he now wished he had paid for an unlimited phone plan, as he had exceeded his allotted data. He eventually solved this by throwing his phone into the Cuyahoga river.

McDonald’s — whom Ramsey had referenced in his viral interview and where Castro had been arrested — gave Ramsey tons of $50 Mcdonald’s gift cards. Ramsey gave them out to children and the homeless, and when McDonald’s heard about this, they stopped giving him gift cards.

Ramsey appeared on Anderson Cooper, wrote a memoir, and since then has sought to avoid the spotlight. He met with Amanda Berry in 2019 on the sixth anniversary of the rescue, and claims that he and Michelle Knight, now known as Lily Rose Lee, sometimes see each other when out walking because they live nearby.

What is something you have learned about relationships while you were single?

As I was sitting on the beach with my friend Courtney, she turned to me and said, “You know, I really love Landon. I’m going to marry him. But, if he were to leave me, I would be okay.” They had been dating for four years and her boyfriend was asking her dad that summer if he could have her hand in marriage. They were very happy and comfortable together.

It was a stark contrast to my old roommate. In the four years I had known her, she had been single less than two weeks. Every time she became single, it had not been her choice. After each breakup, she had immediately gotten a new man within days. Eventually she settled with a guy who emotionally abused her. She had eventually caught him cheating more than three times and broken up with him, but her fear of being alone had driven her back into his arms after ten days. She married that guy.

Both of these girls are wonderful people who I enjoy hanging out with. But, they have one stark difference. Courtney is comfortable being alone. My old roommate is not.

Courtney dated her share of frogs but was always able to leave if things got bad. She liked being single and was comfortable with herself. So, she found a man perfect for her who added something amazing to her life. She settled for nothing less.

My old roommate stayed in abusive relationship after abusive relationship. Being single scared her, so she’d rather stay with someone who treated her badly than face the world alone. She will depend on someone else for her happiness for the rest of her life and they will consistently fail to provide it.

Being single taught me that you’re not ready to be in a relationship unless you’re truly happy and comfortable being single. If you don’t, you make yourself very vulnerable to abuse and a life of heartache.

Learn to be alone and to depend on yourself. Don’t date anyone before you date yourself. It is the most important basis of a healthy relationship.

Filipino Girls Get BRUTALLY HONEST

As the Philippines welcomes foreign tourists back for the first time since 2020, countless interested bachelors are arriving at the shores of Davao City specifically to find a Pinay to share their life with. Known around the world as amazing women, Filipinas entice foreigners to travel halfway across the globe just to guaranty a match through face to face interactions. As more men dream of romantic connections with Filipino women, solo travel to the magic city of Davao becomes a bucket list item for countless guys.

Davao City plays host to a couple dozen foreigners several times each year who arrive to meet Pinays in one on one introductions or during group speed dating events arranged by local matchmakers. Because dating in Davao remains a foreign affair for Philippine women seeking love beyond borders, foreign guys also interested in meeting Filipino girls are once again solo traveling to this magic city to try and guaranty a match among some of the most stunning ladies in the entire world.

Know to be ultra family oriented in nature, most Filipinas are seeking traditional family life with a good man who seeks the same. While many Western men begin to adopt alternative philosophies towards domestic dating like MGTOW or Red Pill, many are simply seeking a traditional wife or what they call a tradwife within these Red Pill or MGTOW circles. While most Filipino women fit what men use to describe their tradwife, it must be recognized that Pinays are also industrious and independent completely out of necessity in the Philippines.

Most Filipinas find the domestic dating scene in Davao City to be lacking, which leads many towards furthering their educations and/or careers to make a life for themselves. Because most Pinays will want to create a family of their own, dating beyond borders to establish a WMAF ( Western Male Asian Female) relationship becomes a focus for many who are seeking such a life. WMAF relationships in the Philippines have become quite common in cities like Davao where dating often feels like a foreign affair because of the expat population and constant foreign tourists who frequent the region.

While Filipino women dream of lasting connections with foreign men, the ability to guaranty a match in the Philippines via solo travel rather than making a Filipina dating app your cupid has become the go to method for guys wanting the same type of lasting relationships.

There are advantages to dating Filipinas in cities like Davao, where an overwhelming number of Asian women are wholly open to the idea of WMAF ( Western Male Asian Female) relationships. While most marriage minded Filipino men are already starting families by their early twenties, the vast majority of bachelors are single by choice. Because countless Pinays still seek to create a family of their own, dating beyond borders with visiting foreigners becomes the most practical way to achieve the dream of loving connections that can create such dynamics.

WMAF relationships are quite common in cities throughout the Philippines like Cebu, Davao or Manila. Because the majority of Filipino women are fluent English speakers, men who share this language are able to communicate well, which expedites the courtship process for many WMAF couples. As men venture into the Philippines specifically in search of the Filipina pea to their pod, cold approach in the street scenes of Davao can seem appealing, but the most serious Filipino women often find such interactions with strangers to be unappealing.

Sure, Filipinas may say hello to you in the street scenes of Davao if you initiate this interaction, but in the less savory parts of the city, these interactions rarely signal a woman interested in starting a lifelong loving relationship. In the interest of being able to guaranty a match during solo travel to Davao City, more men that ever are partnering with local matchmaking agencies to meet serious Pinays to achieve their dream of lasting connections with Asian women. Matchmakers in the Philippines commonly organize private speed dating events for Filipinas and visiting foreign men who have a stated purpose of finding lifelong love as the key motivation for attending these events.

During speed dating events in Davao, men meet over 100 single Pinays in a matter of hours, with only a couple dozen guys in attendance. The odds of meeting 100+ Filipinas in 4 hours via cold approach becomes less likely, especially when factoring in the pre-qualification process administered by matchmaking agencies like A Foreign Affair. Because more men than ever seek to guaranty a match with Filipinas, dating agencies play a crucial role in creating lasting connections via one on one introduction or the world famous speed dating events held in Cebu and Davao.

What does it mean now that BRICS has added Iran?

What does it mean now that BRICS has added Iran?

What is the longest time a soldier has spent firing a weapon continuously?

The longest recorded continuous firing of a weapon took place in 1963, when a group of British Army armorers decided to put the venerable Vickers machine gun to its most extreme test ever attempted. Having a stockpile of around 5 million obsolete .303 British rounds, they took turns continuously firing a single freshly-rebuilt Vickers for an entire week.

The men took 30-minute shifts operating the gun, with others shoveling the spent brass and bringing more ammo and cooling water, pausing only to reload and change worn-out barrels. Amazingly, in a week of non-stop firing, the gun never malfunctioned a single time, and a follow-up inspection found it to be within design specs in every parameter.

This hardly came as a surprise, as Vickers MG was already legendary for its reliability, having been continuously fired for over 24 hours on multiple instances during WWI. In one recorded instance in 1916, a British machine gun company of ten guns expended a million rounds over the course of 12 hours to suppress a German position, at the end using their own urine to cool the barrels after all available water was expended.

What to expect from Iran’s membership in BRICS

Friday, 25 August 2023 11:24 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 02 September 2023 6:26 AM ]

Iran’s membership in the BRICS group of emerging economies is a significant national, regional and international development, which is important both to Tehran and BRICS members, including China and Russia.

In recent years, there has been a lot of focus on Iran’s membership in global political and economic organizations, institutions and groups in order to spur economic growth and provide a ballast in the face of geopolitical and structural changes.

BRICS has gained a special place in Iran’s foreign policy due to its increasing importance in the international political economy and geopolitical developments.

The Islamic Republic has good political relations with all five main members of the BRICS group consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Tehran is motivated by the international prestige, the geopolitical and geoeconomic linkage with the emerging world powers, and the regional and international status which joining BRICS can potentially bring in.

New economic partners are about to come out of the woodwork after membership in BRICS and access to new financial resources, technological findings, knowledge-based production methods in agriculture, food security and trade could enable Iran to better deal with the hobbling impact of sanctions.

BRICS is developing internal institutions for integration and increasing effective economic power in order to support development programs of its members and strengthen their regional and international position.

The establishment of financial institutions independent from Western institutions can be considered the most important success of BRICS in promoting convergence and its most important advantage in the new global economic structure.

Two financial institutions within BRICS are the pillars of the group’s power, which also offer opportunities for Iran.

The New Development Bank of BRICS is the most important economic pillar of BRICS, created with the aim of forging convergence among the members in the world economy.

The bank was established in 2014 with the initial authorized capital of $100 billion to finance infrastructure projects in BRICS countries and other emerging markets. It is headquartered in Shanghai, China.

According to the agreement, the bank “shall support public or private projects through loans, guarantees, equity participation and other financial instruments”.

Another key institution established with the aim of strengthening financial convergence among the members is the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA).

It is a framework for the provision of support through liquidity and precautionary instruments in response to actual or potential short-term balance of payments pressures.

Although US financial sanctions make it difficult for Iran to access the resources of these two institutions, BRICS has adopted various methods under its de-dollarization scheme to provide loans and services to members, which can reduce the impact of the sanctions.

The New Development Bank uses methods such as providing loans in the national currency of BRICS powers, cryptocurrency and currency swaps.

Bear in mind that Iran’s integration into the BRICS economic framework is fraught with challenges as regards alignment with the economic policies, regulatory mechanisms and commercial laws and regulations of the main and new members.

Ensuring the coordination and synching of the domestic bureaucracy with BRICS institutions in areas such as customs, tariffs and investment regulations requires time and complex expert reviews.

Nevertheless, the geoeconomic benefits of the membership are so many that any misgivings are roundly misplaced.

As a full member, Iran would have closer economic relations with other member countries, which can gradually lead to increased business and investment opportunities.

This cooperation can include various sectors including energy, production, agriculture and technology and provide access to new markets and potential sources of foreign direct investment.

Joining BRICS would also give Iran the opportunity to diversify its economic partners beyond the current circle.

The BRICS countries have an overall population of more than 3 billion people, which potentially provides a vast consumer market for Iranian goods and services. This diversity would reduce Iran’s dependence on a limited set of business partners and increase its economic resilience.

Membership in BRICS also increases Iran’s regional influence and geopolitical position.

It enables the country to interact with emerging economies and have a say in shaping global economic and political affairs. In addition, Iran can actively participate in regional projects and contribute to the development of convergence in the region.

By becoming a member of BRICS, Iran would access the financial resources of the BRICS Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingent Reserve Arrangements (CRA) to fund the development of infrastructure, energy projects and other potential priority sectors.

This can help to solve part of Iran’s development needs and spur long-term economic growth, even though access to the resources of these institutions under sanctions would be difficult.

Iran is a large producer of oil and gas and its membership in BRICS can strengthen closer cooperation on energy security initiatives.

BRICS countries, especially China and Russia, have significant energy needs. They can potentially cooperate with Iran on energy exploration, production and infrastructure development. This cooperation would improve Iran’s energy sector and provide ways to diversify exports.

Meanwhile, BRICS countries stand out for their advances in technology and innovation in the developing world.

Iran’s membership in BRICS can facilitate the exchange of knowledge, carrying out joint research projects and technology transfer, which could enable the country to increase its technological capabilities and competitiveness in different sectors.

This can help Iran’s economic modernization and reduce technological gaps with other countries.

Iran is facing the most draconian US sanctions, which has limited the country’s access to global markets and financial systems. Joining BRICS can potentially give Iran more leverage in international negotiations and potentially reduce the effects of some sanctions.

Moreover, the collective power and influence of the BRICS countries may provide a platform to defend Iran’s economic interests and reduce trade restrictions.

BRICS countries have forged increasing cooperation on agriculture and food security. Iran, with its diverse agricultural sector, can benefit from the best methods and joint initiatives through knowledge exchange with the aim of increasing agricultural productivity, production and distribution of foodstuff.

This cooperation can help Iran’s food security goals and strengthen its agricultural sector.

Finally, Iran’s membership in BRICS can activate the Russia-Iran-India corridor, facilitating exchanges among the member countries, and provide access to Eurasian resources along the Belt and Road Initiative stretching from China to Russia up to Central Asia and beyond.

In 29 Days The Internet Will Change FOREVER

Through increased legislation such as the Online Safety Bill and Google’s own repression of new emerging competitors, independent media and free speech has a fight on its hands.

What moment completely changed how you saw someone?

“Can I trust you?” she asked me quietly as we walked in the school grounds.

She didn’t even wait for me to reply.

“My father was diagnosed with cancer. Two years ago. Of the prostate. He was under treatment since then, but these days, he’s been getting worse. And we don’t even have that much money, we’re a simple family.”

Sarah was the ‘weird girl’ in the class. Or that’s how the others saw her.

She was always energetic. So much that you’d think she was high on caffeine every day. She had a prominent personality, something so sun-bright that you couldn’t help but notice. And being talkative and making loud, obnoxiously lame jokes were a fundamental part of her.

Sarah was just so full of life. The fullest you can be. The fullest I’ve ever seen someone.

I think that’s what began, slowly but surely, irritating others in a way.

She would laugh at her own awkward jokes and people would roll their eyes. She’s so random and so extra, they’d say.

She became the class clown.

One day, during the sports class, the conversation written above took place.

And I couldn’t help but silently wonder: how/why was she so buoyant and full of life all the time?

A second later, the tone of her voice shifted.

“You wanna know why I’m so cheerful all the time?”

It’s like she read my mind, I swear. I looked her in the eye, then quickly looked away.

But what she said left me open-mouthed because it was completely different than what I expected.

“You know, I believe that you have to create what you want for yourself. As I see it, everyone has to create their own happiness. There is no other way out. I have so many things to be sad about. But that is exactly what I won’t be. I just work like that,” she shrugged.

And suddenly, just like that, I saw her in a whole new light. And I’m not even exaggerating. It was literally like depicted in the movies.

In fact, I felt guilty, on behalf of my class, that we’d been so utterly stupid.

Not to be dramatic or anything, but Sarah taught me things that I have not learned from anyone else.

I’m not gonna lie and say that since that moment, I’ve been the happiest person alive. I haven’t. It’s a slow process. But I see myself getting there very soon.

Sarah reminded me that one has to create their own happiness. You can’t rely on life or its circumstances to do that for you. She was a living example of the quote: “When life knocks you down, smile and stand up taller than ever before.”

I like to call Sarah my ultimate friend.

Is China going to aim to be self-sufficient in all ways to further frustrate US sanctions? Or will China still try to cooperate with the US on other projects in the future?

Yes.

China learnt that thinking that it should share a loaf of bread with the west is unnecessary and unappreciated. Well perhaps the west is not matured enough. So why not have the entire loaf of bread themselves.

So why not just produce the very best in everything for China and 7.5 billion earthlings and let the west decide if it wants to be up to date and advance. Or suffer a triple digit inflation and stay backwards.

Like what they say one don’t know how fortunate they are till they lost it for good. It’s a shame. For the U.S. China is willing to be a good partner to help bring about a better world but the U.S. chose its own demise.

The U.S. behaviour befits the 247 years old hoodlum mafia that they are and China need to let the U.S. grow out of puberty. Sure China prefers to work with the west and the U.S. and it will do better with them. But without some say 50–70% of worlds 30% of the market it will still do rather well.

US may need to make a million adjustments just to stay afloat. But heck. That U.S. their problem. It is their choice. They can de-risk on each other for all we care. Essentially the U.S. has decoupled with the world.

What’s the most shameful thing a co-worker has done to you?

My former supervisor came to my wedding and told guests that she felt terrible, but when I got home from my honeymoon, she was going to have to fire me.

I was working at a staffing agency, and my supervisor Snowflake (for her appearance and mental condition) came to my wedding as my guest and the date of my fiance’s friend.

During the reception, she told multiple people that as much as she looooved me, she was going to have to fire me when I got back from our honeymoon. We were gone for a week, and knowing what we would be facing when we got back, her date called my husband and told him the bad news.

Talk about landing the balloon with a crash! At least I could walk into the office the next day armed and forewarned. They transferred me to another department, she was reprimanded, and within months was transferred to another office. I will never trust people like that again, and I feel for anyone who had to be involved with her in the future.

THE DURAN AND BRIAN BERLETIC ON UKRAINE’S DEFEAT SENDS NATO INTO PANIC

Four giants discuss NATO.

Do people in actual gun fights miss as many shots as shown in movies? What is a realistic gun fight like?

I will answer from my personal experience. I do trauma anesthesia and every now and then I will get someone in who has survived a shoot out with the police. I usually talk to the police during the case since they are waiting to hear if the prisoner will survive or not so they can file the paperwork. The truth is they miss more.

Last one was a murder suspect who they rolled up on as he was exiting his car. He pulled out a gun and they unloaded on him. The police expended more than 350 rounds. He was hit 3 times. One hit on the hand which took off 2 fingers, one hit in the meat of the thigh and the one that took him down was a hit directly between the eyes. But he was a lucky SOB. The police were shooting 9 mm. The shot that hit him between the eyes bounced off his skull, traveled under the scalp and exited near the rear of his head. That one knocked him out and probably saved his life.

Shootouts are a very stressful situation. The target is hiding behind obstructions. He is shooting back at you. And the distances are more likely to be 25 to 50 feet. The adrenalin is running high. Even in a perfectly comfortable range with a paper target it is almost impossible to put in precision shots at 50 feet with a hand gun. That is a pretty typical outcome in that type of shooting.

The scary part of all that is that there are 340 plus bullets traveling down range which can strike anywhere.

I hope that puts some perspective on the subject.

Insanity in the USA

Is the influence of the US in the world gradually decreasing?

Of course it is!

Unless one is blind, deaf or dumb you can conclude otherwise. Of course BBC, CNN, Fox & Sky News sing a tune that US are popular are needed or or respected. But it is no different from Nazi propaganda selling the Aryan nation and the Nazi’s view on Jews!

But let us stick to the facts. Zero nation in Latin America and Caribbean supported the U.S.stance on Russia! And that is the U.S. closest neighbours.

Take the Beijing Olympics boycott. In 2020. After a year of shuttling around the world. Convincing nations to boycott China and billions invested to demonised China. Only 5 nations agreed to withdraw uninvited officials from the games! Just 40 years ago the U.S. wanted to do likewise in the Moscow Olympics and 65 nations joined them!

US influence? It us a thing of the past. Good riddance Uncle Sam.

What did you assume was exaggerated until you experienced it?

Originally Answered: What have you assumed was exaggerated until you experienced it yourself?

Expensive paper towels.

What the hell, Bounty? You think you’re worth twice as much as my grocery store-brand paper towels?

Oh, you’ve got “super-absorbent pockets” that can soak up that entire sippy cup’s worth of juice and then still have room for the drips the other leading paper towel left behind?

Riiiiiiight.

The “quicker, thicker picker-upper”?

Screw your fancy camera tricks and stupid, gimmicky pockets! I’m not going to fall for your crafty advertising and excessive -er-ending tagline!

Oh, what a fool I was.

Enter: the Infant.

Through drips and spills and mud and snot, the infant could take out an entire store-brand roll in a single afternoon. My discount paper towels may as well have been tissue paper against the sticky onslaught of a lunchtime feeding. Spit and mucus passed right through those weak sheets, so much so that I would have been better off just wiping my daughter’s mouth with my own hand.

Oh, “just double them over,” you say?

Ha! The acrobatic, one-handed tear needed to secure a double sheet (while holding a leaking child) would simply rip a corner sliver from those generic towels, leaving the bulk of the sheet flapping wildly off the roll and onto the floor.

In a delirious panic, I’d resort to mummifying the child and letting the mess soak through, sheet after sheet, until she was just dry enough to slip a new shirt on.

There had to be a better way…

I finally caved and bought a roll of the more expensive Bounty brand—they were on sale. I figured maybe I could stick my daughter into one of the “super-absorbent pockets” and just let her eat from there like a quilted, drooling baby kangaroo.

Dear sweet sanitary Jesus.

Those paper towels are amazing.

Yes, they can soak up the sippy cup juice, and the snot, and the milk, and the spaghetti sauce, and the toilet water on the floor, and—why is there toilet water on the floor?!—and the strange brown mess that probably isn’t that, but you’re not going to get close enough to smell it.

All of it.

And double sheets? Ha! Only if you want to clean out a frying pan right off the stove because those babies can insulate like a fiend when you need to wipe hot grease out of a pan.

Bounty paper towels are freaking magical. I buy them all the time now—though I still wait for sales. They are worth every penny, and they are every bit as amazing as the attractive hand models on the commercials imply they are.

Thank you, super-absorbent pocketed picker-upper. I’m sorry I ever doubted you.

5 GOOD REASONS to File for Social Security at Age 62

This is for Americans on SS. Otherwise ignore. I took my SS at age 63.

The strategy is based upon your anticipated life expectancy.

What is the best way to deal with failure at everything in life ?

On December 9, 1914, Thomas Edison faced probably the biggest test of his life when a huge fire destroyed his lab in New Jersey.

The fire destroyed more than half of the buildings in the laboratory complex, including many original records, prototypes, and valuable research work.

The damage was estimated to be around $7 million dollars at the time, which is equivalent to over $180 million today.

Insurance only covered $2.3 million.

How would you react if your entire life’s work went up in flames at 67 years of age?

History tells that on the night of the fire, as Edison calmly watched his life’s work go up in flames, he told his son Charles, “There is a great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew.”

Edison wasted no time in rebuilding. In just a few weeks after the fire, parts of the lab were operational again. Within about a year, most of the facilities were fully reconstructed.

To answer your question, what is the best way to deal with failure at everything in life?

We should learn from Edison…

Accept that failure and setbacks are just part of life’s journey.
Be persistent, don’t ever give up. If we ever stop trying, that’s when we let real failure take over our lives.

As Edison put it, “We’ve just got rid of a lot of rubbish. Although I am over 67 years old, I’ll start all over again tomorrow.”

Life will always throw challenges our way. But like Edison, we can choose to get back up and start building again.

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison

Men and burdens

How can I feel productive when I don’t feel like being productive?

When you are feeling unproductive, don’t allow yourself to do anything. This means no entertainment devices, no books, nothing. It is very boring. But if you make this rule and allow yourself only to do only one thing, you will find yourself walking the plank and doing that very task.

It feels like putting yourself in time out. But you’ll find your task beats the despair of boredom.

Meditation is also extremely effective if you can’t get focused. When I’m most distracted, I close my eyes and focus on not allowing in any thoughts. It is in those moments that mental silence is most difficult. My head is full of chaotic energy and thoughts that gust and jerk around inside of me. But in the end, I feel still and focused. I am prepared to work. Start with 5–10 minutes. A little bit goes a long way.

Sad but funny

What’s your shoplifting story?

Shoplifting was a regular occurrence at the auto parts store where I worked. Headlights were the most common thing people stole. At least once per day we’d find an empty package for a headlight on the shelf.

That’s how a lot of people shoplift, by the way… Just open the package and take the product. Chances are, if there is some anti-theft tag on it, the tag is in the package, not on the product itself.

Also, the fancy retail word for product loss through shoplifting and internal stealing is “shrink.” Now you know. My store had a pretty high “shrink” rate, because the neighborhood around the store wasn’t all that great. The last time I visited that store, about five years after I quit working there, they’d finally wised up and put most of the products behind glass displays, so you had to ask a worker to get them for you.

We’d catch shoplifters sometimes. They’d usually get loud and try and cause a scene, but then leave. None of them ever got physical. They also frequently worked in pairs… one person distracting the counter guy, while the other walked around the store and cut things out of their packaging and put them in his pockets. I got good at spotting that scam eventually, and would stare at the guy walking the aisles until he got the hint that I was on to him, and they’d leave.

But my best story was the Great Heist of 2008. That’s what I called it when I was telling my coworkers about it after it happened.

I was the opening manager that day. It was six in the morning and there were just two of us there. That was the minimum number of people we had to have working in order to be open. The first few hours every day were always uneventful, especially during the week.

This particular day, a guy came into the store and said he needed antifreeze for his car. We looked up the type he needed. He said he needed four gallons. I showed him where they were on the shelf, and he immediately complained about the price. The type his car needed was expensive… like $20 a bottle, if I remember correctly. He left the store without them.

But he didn’t go far… just to his car. He drove up next to the door, left his car running, ran inside, grabbed four gallons, dashed out the door without paying, and sped off, tires squealing and everything.

Except he grabbed the wrong thing. He stole four gallons of washer fluid:

Not even the good washer fluid either. The cheap stuff that we gave away for free sometimes. It was like $1.25 per bottle, max. This guy made off with $5 worth of, basically, tap water with a little alcohol in it.

I didn’t even fill out a report. To be honest, I felt kind of bad for the guy. I hope he didn’t put it in his radiator. That would be two boneheaded mistakes in a single day.

Unbreakable Friendship

U.N. approves invasion of Haiti, US forces already there

Redacted has confirmed that the U.S. has special forces inside of Haiti as the U.N. is set to approve an invasion. The United Nations will vote today on the United States’ request to invade Haiti with Kenyan troops. The U.S. says that a military invasion is necessary to “conduct joint security support operations as it works to counter gangs and improve security conditions in Haiti.” The force will help secure “critical infrastructure sites and transit locations such as the airport, ports, and key intersections.” The people of Haiti have been pushing back against this rhetoric and begging the United States to stay out of their politics. Redacted correspondent Dan Cohen brings us the story.

Why has Foxconn decided to relocate its operations from India back to China?

Thanks for request

There are currently two Foxconn situations regarding India. One is iPhone production and one is a project to build semiconductors.

iPhone production in India is below the output volume and quality demanded by Apple. This year’s production in India will sold only in India and maybe in some other Asian countries. Foxconn will seek to improve the production in future. For now China will remain the primary production location.

Foxconn has broken off a JV with Vedanta on a project to build semiconductor chips in India. Foxconn decided end plans after delays by the Indian government to approve incentives for the project.

Foxconn has operated in India before and left after a few years. It knows the business situation there. It likely is aware of other prospective projects that were to receive government incentives by India that led to years of foot dragging, and decided there are other opportunities. Meanwhile India will look to attract others interested in the project.

Saudi Arabia compared to NYC

What is the best indicator of a person who will become successful one day?

You are on your way to the airport.

It’s the first time this year that you are going on an actual holiday.

You booked the ticket months in advance, and have been preparing for this trip for weeks.

Today is finally the day on which you leave.

You arrive at the airport earlier than you need to, get your luggage checked in and are in front of the gate, ready to go, 2 hours in advance, when you hear this over the announcement:

“Flight 206 to Honolulu has been cancelled. We apologize for the inconvenience. Have a nice day.”

Your heart sinks into your chest.

That was your flight.

You lean back in the chair you were sitting in, stare up at the ceiling and take a deep breath.

Then you pull out your cell phone, grab your carry-on and start walking.

On your way to the information desk you check various’ other flights, check hotels in the area, and when you get to the information desk you ask about alternative, last-minute routes.

Within 20 minutes you have an alternative booked, have gotten your ticket refunded, and are ready to go.

This is the difference between those that will reach success and those that won’t.

The key indicator of those that will be successful later is that they do not let their situation stop them.

They find a way, are solution oriented, and will act a hundred times more often than they will complain.

Stop complaining about your situation and stop focusing on the problem. And look at what you can do now instead.

WW2 From the German Perspective (Full Documentary) | Animated History

Texas Ranch-Style Taco Salad

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

1 head lettuce
1 onion
1 (16 ounce) can Ranch-style beans
1 package Fritos Corn Chips
2 avocados (ripe but not too soft)
2 tomatoes
1 pound Cheddar cheese, grated
1 bottle Catalina dressing
1 pound ground beef or turkey
2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice

Instructions

Sauté ground beef; drain well and set aside to cool.
Tear lettuce into pieces.
Dice tomatoes and onion.
Grate cheese.
Drain beans.
Break corn chips into smaller pieces.
Chop avocado and sprinkle with lemon juice, lightly tossing to coat.
Toss together all ingredients except corn chips.
Top with chips just before serving.

She just keeps on laughing

Women of the West. Sad.

What can we do to support teachers who are frustrated with underperforming students?

Ability-track students into separate classrooms, starting at around fifth grade.

The frustration for teachers usually isn’t from an underperforming student alone; it’s from underperforming students in the same class, at the same time, as average and over-performing students.

Underperforming (the more PC term is “struggling”) students often take longer than average to learn the same concepts as their peers, and/or require different teaching methods. All of that is fine and easy for a teacher to do, if students like that were all in the same classroom at the same time, with no classmates who were too different from them, learning-style wise.

I have the same issue with my English classes every year. I always begin each year with three days’ worth of lessons on proper comma usage when writing, because so many students struggle with that. About 25% of the students understand how to use commas after the first day of lessons. Another 50% of them understand the concept well enough by the end of the third day.

But about 15% of students need longer than three days to get the concept, and 10% of them will never get it, no matter how long I spend on it. So, what’s a teacher to do? Bore the smart kids? Frustrate the struggling students by leaving them in the dust? Or aim for the middle and hope for the best?

Of course, is all of the smart kids were in one class, all of the average students in another, and all of the strugglers in another, I could spend as much time as I wanted on each concept, without worrying about boring anyone or leaving anyone in the dust. And I could use lesson plans tailored specifically to each group’s learning style.

The classes wouldn’t even have to have even numbers. I can easily teach 50 students at a time, if they’re the “average” students, while teaching smaller classes of advanced and struggling students.

There are a lot of reasons why separating students by ability isn’t popular these days. I’m not saying that they’re good reasons, or that I agree with them. I’m just saying that there are reasons that exist.

Still, it would help de-frustrate teachers to have fewer mixed-ability classes, and more mono-ability ones.

Have you ever seen an employer fire someone without realizing what a crucial role the employee played?

That was me. I worked for a biotech firm that was cutting costs. I was a corporate recruiter. People were being laid off. My only HR colleague left because he had to do all the firing as the big boss didn’t want to do the dirty work, he was also never in the office. That left me having to fire the employees which I hated doing but there was no one else to do it.

I had to fire the finance manager, it was year-end and we had to do merit raises and bonuses. The payroll manager didn’t know to calculate the merit increases based on the allocated budget and bonuses. The company was going to ask Ernst & Young to calculate this but the CEO rejected this as the cost was enormous. The CFO didn’t know how to calculate this so he asked me to calculate this.

this task can be done manually but it would have taken weeks as there were over 200 employees. I downloaded ADP salary data and created an Excel template using formulas to allow scenario analysis as there were lots of changes. (fighting between managers on merit and bonuses) This took a whole week but I completed it on time to pay the employees.

It was yearend and I had to fire most of the salespeople, the new sales manager cleaned house. After I fired the last person my boss called me in to fire me. He said sorry we have to cut costs, you’re a great recruiter but we won’t be hiring anyone next year.

Well, this was the first time in my life to get fired. I was very upset but luckily I found a good job in 2 weeks and I was working. A month later I get a call. They had lost key employees in the IT department and had struggled to find anyone. They wanted me to help. I had started a side business – a staffing agency so I said I will work on commission which they agreed. In 45 days I completed 2 searches and billed my former employer 45K. This took about 40 hours of my time. The fee is 20% of the annual base salary. I made more money that year than any other year.

They wanted to hire me back but I was upset that they fired me in the first place so I did not go back.

At the end of the year, they called me to ask me how to use the spreadsheet that I created. No one could figure out the formulas to change the parameters.

I said no, why don’t you call Ernst & Young?

An unfiltered conversation on why I live in china now, what china is like for indians, college, etc

“Thank you for sharing your insights. I agree with you, China is much safer for walkability and touring. I stayed 1 year in China and nobody ever gave me any problems and everyone was so hospitable and friendly. India tends to be more lawless in many ways compared to China. I still love India though! Jai Hind”

Gaza nightmare

Some disturbing stuff going down right now. The idiots in Washington DC are Hell-bent on war, and all of us are feeling like we are trapped in some kind of cage lashed to the back of a speeding car driven by a madman.

The West has gone completely koo-koo.

No shit.

In case you all haven’t noticed, I am not “reporting” or commenting on the insanity of the Middle East. It’s all a cluster fuck that I want no part of.

Today…

What is the smartest thing you have seen a lawyer do in court?

How about the Judge?

A long time ago, I owned one of the first Honda Accords. I had bought it new in 1977, and around 1984, the engine had a very bad oil burning problem. I was pulled over by a Metro Toronto Police constable, who gave me the choice of a ticket for “excessive smoking” or a visit to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment testing centre.

I chose the test, filled the engine with 50 w oil and while there was no smoke, the rest of the needles went fully to the right. Busted.

I was given a chance for a repeat, but knowing I would fail that one also, I put the car on the driveway, pulled the plates and used a borrowed vehicle. About a month after the missed test, a summons came in the mail to appear at the Provincial court one morning in the not too distant future.

I showed up early, and approached the clerk to find out where I should be and when. They never tell you that on the summons, just to appear. While talking the the clerk, a man walked up and was dealing with another of the clerks. I asked the clerk I was talking to “what the fine would be” if convicted. She didn’t know, and man beside me became interested in the matter. I had no idea who he was, but we kind of looked at the summons and neither of us could see anything about a fine. There was a little conversation; I assumed he was a lawyer, and we had a friendly chat. Court was starting shortly, and the fellow left, so I also went inside, told the bailiff I was there – important to do so, otherwise they might not call you for hours – and sat down.

At the stroke of 10:00 am, someone says “all rise” and in walks the Judge, the fellow I was talking to at the desk. Before the proceedings began, the Judge asked me if I had received an answer from the clerk. I told him that I had not, and then the proceedings began.

The Crown (prosecutor) presents the charge, an environmental offence, which he obviously felt was on par with burning down a forest or killing baby seals. Looking very smug, he sat down.

I am called forth, and I told the Judge that yes, the car had failed, but it was off the road and here are the license plates in my hand proving that it was no longer driving or polluting.

The Judge then asked the Crown what the minimum fine was for such an offence. The Crown responded that “the Ministry has a range up to $5000 for such an offence and the usual fine is this case would be $100.”

The Judge asked again about the minimum fine and the Crown repeated his same line. The Judge then asked “so there is no minimum fine?”

The Crown sheepishly answered “No sir” and the Judge turned to me and asked “the car is off the road?” and I responded affirmatively, at which point he said the charges were dropped as the intent of the law was to keep polluting vehicles off the road and obviously this had happened. Case dismissed!

I can’t say for sure, but there was a bit of smile from my new friend on the bench as I walked out of the court.

The smartest lawyer in the room was the Judge.

What are the best socializing tips that are not said but everyone should practice?

I couldn’t unsee it.

We’d just celebrated a diversity milestone as part of our quarterly meeting. It was one of those corporate cheerleading events where I stood in the back resisting the painful urge to roll my eyes.

“We are far more than a team of coworkers,” the CEO said, gesturing wide with his arms to the crowd, “We are a family.”

He was such a phony. The summit concluded and I went to the lunchroom. Right as I walked in, I stopped in the doorway and noticed something obvious that I hadn’t noticed before this diversity meeting.

All the white people were at their tables. All the black employees sat at another set of tables. Three Asian ladies sat at another. It was like we were living in the 1950s. And it wasn’t confined to this office. I still see this trend so often when I walk through malls, or along the sidewalk.

A similar phenomenon was observed on the set of Planet Of The Apes in 1968. The director noticed that during lunch, the people dressed as gorillas sat with other gorillas, chimps with chimps, and humans with humans. He described feeling a chill in the air and wondered if we were already in a dystopian sci-fi future. It even happened on the set of Babylon 5. People self-segregated according to their alien skin color.

This trend has long predated echo chambers, and it’s detrimental to your growth.

The closed network problem

The trend is called homophily, where we magnetize towards clusters of people similar to us. Race isn’t the only sorting mechanism. People sort by social class, age, political ideology, and even the type of music they listen to. And the unfortunate result is that we often live in a “closed network”. We sort ourselves into increasingly tight homogeneous groups.

A closed network forms in these four steps and I suspect you’ll be able to think of a few examples as you read this (I certainly did):

Putting all moral platitudes aside, social diversity has great predictive qualities for your career and life.

Count on one hand your closest friends. I’d bet that for many of you — they are pretty similar to you across a few demographic touchpoints. It’s no fault to you. This happens naturally, but you can disrupt this habit.

By mixing up your friend group, you are exposed to ideas different than your own and stretch your thinking. Your professional network also becomes much more potent, which is especially important: Within 10 years of graduation, a majority of people won’t work in the area they majored in.

Beware of gatekeeping your network

My ex’s family was deeply conservative — which is fine on its own. People are entitled to their beliefs. But this was often a barrier to who could spend time with them.

They were constantly sizing people up and figuring out their political opinions to determine if they were friend-material. Many people do this without realizing it. These parents were just explicit about it and they had a very small town syndrome (cliquey behavior, when you forget there is an entire world outside of your own).

This introduces the other pesky problem. It’s not all that easy to make friends — especially as we get older. So what next? There are a few solutions.

A route out of Cloneville

I moved 15 times before I turned 18. I lived in California, DC, Florida, Virginia Beach, North Carolina — and every new batch of people was so different than the next. I went to an all white, deeply conservative private school in 9th grade, a liberal high school in Coronado. I was one of the only white kids at an inner city middle school in DC. It wasn’t always easy.

Every summer, I waited for the talk. My mom or dad would come to my bedroom and tell me we were moving and how I was going to love this new school and place. Early on, I realized implicitly, “OK. I need to learn to make new friends.”

I was a new 5th grader at Linkhorn Elementary. We had a substitute teacher who happened to be gorgeous. She was passing out quiz papers. Before she passed out each quiz, she did that thing where she licked her finger to grip the paper.

After she handed me my quiz, I looked across the table at a classmate Joe and say, “Hey Joe! Pssst.”

He turned to me and I pretended to lick my finger and put it down to my thigh and made a hissing sound, like bacon hitting the frying pan. It was a corny joke — but it made Joe laugh and we were instantly friends. And from there, I learned that humor was one quick path to win anyone over.

Often, it’s less about how funny a joke is — and more about the energy it establishes. It signals, “I want to play.” Think about how a dog plants his chest down to the ground while keeping his hind legs standing to get another dog to play with him. This is the human equivalent.

It says, “I like you. Let’s have fun.”

“What if I’m not that funny?”

An even better solution that is painfully overlooked is to smile. Researchers have proven that smiles motivate people to interact with you. They are seen as a “prosocial invitation”. Stand upright and give them a quick, natural smile right when you spot them. It signals you are excited to see them.

After getting to know so many types of people, I’ve realized most people just want to be accepted as a complicated human being. And if you are just nice to them, and seem happy to see them and talk to them — you’ve nearly won the battle already.

When you go to your lunchroom, consider sitting with a new group of people. Don’t be afraid to talk to someone who looks different than you.

There’s a concept called contact hypothesis whereby tension between groups is reduced when they are brought together and interact. It promotes trust and reduces stereotyping. It reminds two different people that they’re both human beings. But the only way to make different types of friends is to actually spend time with people who are different from you.

One of my close friends couldn’t be more different from me. His political views and background are a full 180. But we are both fully candid about our opinions and thoughts, and know we can do so without fear of judgement or being disliked. Sure, he says crazy stuff sometimes but that’s fine. He’s still my friend. He’s taught me a few things about the world and changed a few of my opinions, and I’d like to think the reverse is true.

My hope, is that in a world that is so divided, more people from different walks of life can share the same path. They’d expand their own perspectives. They’d have more love and understanding, and more career opportunities.

And it would save us from being fenced in with our own. Closed networks beget closed minds.

Quite an intriguing visual.

Brazil was inches away from recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital not very long ago, mind you.
Surprising split in South America nonetheless, you’d imagine they’d have a uniform stance like they had for Ukraine.
A sea of yellow in Asia with only the usual suspects in blue but hey there’s someone new this time!
India’s position sits perfectly with our new found friends and within our domestic political landscape but ought to disappoint the fellow global southerners. But tbf, it is not to be construed as a paradigm shift in our policy, our Ministry of External Affairs clarified our two state stance on Palestine only yesterday, rather bad memories getting rekindled.
Nepal lost about a dozen citizens to Hamas’ attack. Poor folks go under the radar and didn’t even get sufficient coverage.
Irans sphere of influence, man, from Caspian Sea to Red Sea. Bush what have you done?
This is a map from TRT— Türkiye’s state run broadcaster. Interesting that they construe Erdogan’s position as call for de-escalation.
Sudan’s case is the perfect microcosm of the viability of normalisation deals that Israel is pursuing. You try so hard and get so far, and then a coup happens.
Morocco, UAE understandable, but Saudi and Pakistan? Who would have thought? Not me. Only 2% of Saudis are in favour of normalisation, I wonder if that matters at all. And 2% would be too high a number for Pakistanis.
Those who follow Bangladesh’s politics ought to find Bangladesh’s silence intriguing, if not outright discombobulating, especially with Hasina up for election soon and US breathing down her neck (yeah, not making this up, US is the biggest threat to Hasina’s re-election).
I don’t get Mexico’s neutrality, they don’t even recognise Palestine.
I don’t get New Zealand’s contrarian take either. What gives? I imagined if anyone from the West was going to have a contrarian take it would be Norway. The right is on the rise in Norway, left rules New Zealand, perhaps that explains?
Ghana coming all out to condemn Hamas? With a similar religious demography split like India, I wonder if there’s domestic political considerations involved.
Foreign policy really is domestic politics with its hat on.
Given that Indonesia’s support will be construed differently then Iran’s support, Venezuela joins the “axis of evil”. But in all fairness they joined the club previously after Ukraine invasion.
DPRK has been silent?
What explains the silence of that many African countries? None of our business paradigm?

Putin tells it like it is…

Fudge Cobbler

Yield: about 9 servings

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1 (1 ounce) square unsweetened baking chocolate
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, beaten
Vanilla ice cream (garnish)

Instructions

Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease an 8 inch square baking dish.
Melt the chocolate and the butter in a saucepan over very low heat. Stir often. Remove from the heat.
Stir in the sugar, flour, vanilla extract and eggs.
Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish.
Bake for 20 to 22 minutes.
Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

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

Everyone in the office was paid on an hourly basis and it was each person’s responsibility to keep track of how many hours they worked each day on a paper time sheet. At the end of each week each employee turned in their time sheet to their supervisor who would sign them and then give the to HR so everyone can get paid for the hours they worked. In practice, everyone showed up each day, did their work, wrote down”8 hours” on their time sheet and went home. Everyone was happy.

Then along came a new guy in management who stated that nobody was actually keeping track of their hours and just writing down what HR wanted to see. This meant that the company was losing money and productivity from people not working a full day but being paid for it. So he instituted a new digital time sheet system where each person had to log their times in and out on their computers and the system would track how many hours each of us worked.

What the company discovered was that everyone tended to come into work 10–15 minutes early, hardly ever took a full hour for lunch and often stayed 10–15 minutes late to get their work done. Thanks to the new time sheet system every employee was now getting paid for all that overtime they had been working but not tracking. This affected the company because it was added payroll expense that wasn’t budgeted. So management put out a new rule that nobody would be allowed to work any overtime without written permission from their supervisor and HR. So everyone was very diligent to log in and out exactly in time.

Except now productivity had fallen because nobody was working those extra minutes each day, which multiplied over all staff added up to an extra 60 hours per week of work. The company ended up needing to hire two more people to make up that productivity.

After Huawei released Kirin 9000S, Biden revised the bill: banning China from owning high-end chips.

So China cannot make their own, if they do, they will violate American law.

Malaysia’s switch to a dual 5G network will allow for more effective participation by China’s Huawei – PM Anwar

Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Wednesday the country’s switch to a dual 5G network will allow for more effective participation by China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

Malaysia in May had said it would allow a second 5G network to operate from next year, following concerns over a monopoly held by a single state-run network.

The European Union and the U.S. had warned Malaysia of risks to national security and foreign investment amid efforts by Huawei to bid for a role in its telecoms infrastructure.

Anwar on Wednesday acknowledged concerns from some countries over the “security and capacity” of technology stemming from China, but said the decision to allow a second 5G network was made so that Malaysia could benefit from different technologies.

“We in Malaysia… and I believe rightly, decided that while we get the best from the West, we also should benefit the best from the East,” he told an event hosted by Huawei in Kuala Lumpur.

“After extensive discussion… we made the decision to allow for a dual network, and thus the decision for more effective participation by Huawei.”

Malaysia had in 2021 unveiled a plan for a state-owned agency, Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB), to own the full 5G spectrum, with various carriers using the infrastructure to provide mobile services, but the plan had come under industry criticism over pricing and competition.

State-run DNB partnered with Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson to roll out Malaysia’s 5G network. It is unclear how Malaysia’s plan for a second network would affect DNB’s agreement with Ericsson or other mobile operators.

WHAT THESE FILIPINAS CAN OFFER TO THEIR PASSPORT BROS!

Three chicks talking.

How do expats view other expats in China?

I really don’t like most western expats in China.

They are generally ignorant about China and Chinese, and conversations about China are very shallow and full of misconceptions. It is not worth my time to correct those misperceptions, and there is no reward for doing it.

Chinese are much fun and interesting, and even if they have silly ideas, they are often entertaining. Most importantly, they know the local restaurants and dishes, and can introduce me to some dish I have never had before. Unlike for most westerners, dining out is a social event, not just filling the tummy.

What was a gift that made you speechless?

I was age 14 in the early 1960s and living with a family who had one child around my age. On my 14th birthday, my mother said I needed to pay room and board. I decided to pay for a room in other homes where there was no violence. My rapidly increasing scoliosis was becoming a problem. I had three jobs to pay room and board — (1) feeding and washing people in a nursing home and doing laundry), (2) babysitting at the country club 1.5 miles away, and (3) stocking shelves in a dry goods store. I made $29.00 a week. My room and board was $28.00 a week. I went to high school about three days a week.

I was happy with this family. The father was Welsh and sang Welsh songs every Friday night as he walked home from the Legion. The mother was one of the cafeteria ladies at the high school. They were good to me.

Then one day, the father came home with an envelope and pulled out a Beatles ticket and handed it to his daughter.

And then he handed another ticket to me.

TO ME!

It cost $15.00. I told him it would take me years to pay him back. If I didn’t buy shampoo, pads, or deodorant, it would take me 15 months to repay him. The father disregarded this idea with a flick of his hand and a Welsh phrase I didn’t understand.

The father drove us the 80 miles to the venue, let us off and circled the building during the performance and was right there when it was finished. Not only that, but the man put up with us singing Beatles songs all the way home. We were not good singers.

Even now, decades later (and I am a retired person), whenever I do something nice for someone, I think, ‘this is for you, John Cooper, this one is for you.’

I carry such lightweight debts with me.

Pepe Escobar: China Has DEFEATED the Neocon Agenda as US War Fails Before It Starts

I don’t expect Xi or Putin to meet with Biden. He doesn’t make the decisions.

This is really, really, REALLY good.

Do you think Huawei can produce smartphones with advanced chips in large volume despite the US claims that Huawei may violate trade restrictions?

LOL, this is China.

If they know how to do something, they automatically know how to do it at scale.

This is a country that builds entire new cities at one go. They produce 600,000 engineers per year. They make four out of every five solar panels in the world. They can build a 57-storey skyscraper in 19 days, and as we saw during the covid-19 pandemic, a brand new hospital in 10 days. They are the world’s biggest factory.

If they know how to make one Huawei Mate 60, they already know how to make 100 million Huawei Mate 60s.

China does not know how to think SMALL. It is unnatural and weird for them to think on a small scale. China has cities with populations larger than countries such as Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, even Australia. Thinking big is China’s default mentality.

New round of US sanctions started against Huawei! U.S. tech war enters stage 2.0!

In this episode, we dive into the latest updates on the potential second round of sanctions by the United States on Huawei. Huawei, the Chinese tech giant, unveiled its new smartphone, the Mate 60 Pro, sparking intrigue amidst ongoing U.S.-China tech tensions.

These cutting-edge smartphones, powered by 7-nanometer chips from China’s SMIC, bring 5G connectivity to the forefront.

The implications of this move are significant, causing a reevaluation of the technology blockade against Huawei and even calls for a complete halt to technology exports. We also explore China’s efforts to boost its self-sufficiency in chip production and navigate U.S. export restrictions.

https://youtu.be/CI-ZOcv2CaI

What sort of sexism do most women face in the workplace?

I generally like my employer.

But the worst part of my job is that I occasionally have to be the “male voice”.

One of my female colleagues will refer a call to me to tell a caller about some iron clad policy we have that we can never, ever overlook.

I am on the same pay level as all of them. I am not the manager. I often work in a different department. I am, however, the only one of this fairly large group of people that is male.

I tell them the iron clad policy. They shut up. End of story.

Part of the problem is that the engineering profession is still about 80% male, and so is the applicant base. They are not used to being told “no” by someone who isn’t male. It’s not like it’s just immigrants either.

Here’s the irony. The second highest ranking staff member, and the person two steps above me, is a woman. She’s had to put up with it too.

But I will tell you about my ex-colleague, boss and PEO president. She left her position as my boss to take on a five year position at the university she was hired by to get female enrollment in the engineering program up to 40%. It took her one year and she shot past the 40% goal to boot. Then she went to another university and did the same thing.

China’s LATEST Hypersonic Drone Can Destroy US F35 Stealth Fighter in Seconds

China’s hypersonic program has emerged as one of the biggest and heavily advanced sectors of the nation. In this remarkable sector, the PLA boasts having a drone in its arsenal which is capable of reaching hypersonic speeds and destroying world renowned stealth fighters that have dominated the aerial warfare sector for years. Today’s episode is covering China’s hypersonic drone and how it can be used to destroy US Stealth fighters.

Why is Quora full of Westerners who praise China?

Many of the westerners have been to China, like it, and see a lot of criticism of China in the western media which is based on planted information and is basically untrue, in order to drive western public opinion against China.

These westerners try to compensate for this distorted view by praising China. Their intention is to restore balance in how China is viewed.

Unfortunately, the western view of China has become so distorted that it is impossible to have a balanced view of China: either it is completely bad, or it is good.

A balanced view of China would say that there are many good things about China, and there are some bad things as well.

China is just like the US: it is just another country and society, each facing its own set of challenges.

What is the most satisfying thing you have done to someone who blocked your driveway?

I live in Northern Maine. My property borders a state park/forest. The state forest has a parking lot you need to pay to park in the lot although the park/forest is free to enter. Alot of people will park along the main road and walk into the park. my property is on a side road that is beside the park the park entrance is 2 mile up the main road from my road.

Some park/forest visitors have taken to pulling down my road and parking on my property and hiking across my property to enter the park. they block driveways and the road with poor parking abilities. Some pull into driveways.

My property is a farm I have many driveways used by tractors and equipment to enter the feilds for feeding livestock and tending crops. All driveways are gated (keep livestock in feilds and out of crops)

One group of annoying tourists pulled up in 3 vehicles (2 rvs and a 12–15 passenger van) All had New York plates. they pulled in blocking the access to the feilds and began hiking across my feilds. I caught up to them and informed them that they would be towed if they did not move the vehicles. The leader of the group told me to f-off while giving a one finger salute. I watched as they walked away across the feild. once they entered the park/forest I went to my equipment barn got my large green and yellow tractor hooked up a slurry spreader tank and drove over to the slurry bin and filled the tank. ( Slurry is cow manure that is mixed with water to make it able to spray) I adjusted the spray bar and drove over near the area and sprayed liquified manure (did not spay any on the vehicles) just near the road along the fence a nice heavy thick layer then sprayed more along the area they entered the forest. Since it was 85 degrees outside the smell would bake in the sun to keep it fresh I placed a water tank and sprayer/ sprinkler nearby and set the timers to run for 5 minutes every hour. After 4 hours I called and had the vehicles towed.

They returned and found me spraying slurry in my feilds as they walked across the feilds the slurry is sticking to the shoes (most wearing sandles or flip flops – Nothing like the feeling of liquid poop between the toes) They find the vehicles gone and ask me where they are. I tell them where the inpound lot is and inform them that as they exit onto the main road they should stop and read the large SIGN that says private road. I called the police who informed them that they could walk to impound as it was 20–30 minute walk down the road.

I would imagine that they found out that the oder of sun baked slurry permeates into things. (they left the widows open on the vehicles) and with what was on the shoes it must have been an interesting ride back to New York.

Josep Borell, EU foreign policy chief, accuses China of treating Europe as a US puppet. How can this perception on the part of the Chinese be changed?

The problem with the EU is Josep the Chief Diplomat’s words do not represent the cohesive attitude, or indeed, policy decisions of the EU towards China. EU member states hold even more divergent and polarizing attitudes.

The fact of the matter is, the G7 does not have a China seat, but the EU gets its own seat, on top of individual EU members. The currencies of these nations power the global financial market, while the yuan issued by the world’s No. 2 economy is an afterthought in BIS reports.

Senior figures in the EU have repeatedly made rude and damaging attacks on China and Chinese interests, including the core issue of Greater China sovereignty. Entities and individuals have been sanctioned, just like their American counterparts, whose actions they mirrored.

Nord Stream is a key European infrastructure that cost billions to build. After it was bombed, the lack of condemnation for an act of war is curious, to say the least. Government findings were blocked from release, while there remains a shocking lack of blowback and demand for accountability in the press.

The EU-CHINA CAI, which is tilted in Europe’s favor, is also dead in the water, after 10 years of painstaking negotiation securing an agreement in principle. EU leaders are complaining about lack of market access in China, when it is self-inflicted.

There is also the issue of the EC, with Ursula completely at odds with Josep’s conciliatory, if shaky, diplomacy. She was given the cold shoulder on a recent visit to Beijing as Emmanuel’s invited partner. The message was clear. She wasn’t the guest invited by the Chinese state.

Who represents the EU? Who has the authoritative voice that can be trusted? How has the EU demonstrated long-term policy independence from the US?

Wang Yi, and before him, Yang Jiechi, have had regular hours-long closed door conversations with Jake, the National Security Advisor. Jake is 46, and not even elected, but he has access to top Chinese leadership that the EU can only dream of, because he is the personal envoy of Joe.

Do we really have to spell out who calls the shots in NATO, which is tied at the umbilical with the EU power structure?

As the Cantonese say, 画公仔唔使画出肠。

Israel Conflict Just Became Scarier And Weird!

Yes. Too odd. For certain.

How does culture influence human behavior?

During a 10-hour flight, she was heading from Seoul, Korea, to San Francisco, USA. This mother distributed more than 200 passengers on the plane a plastic bag for each one. The bag contains candy, chewing gum and earplugs as a kind of advance apology for using them in the event that her 4-month-old baby screamed during the flight.

The bag also contained a message containing (hello, I am Jan Woo. I am 4 months old and today I’m traveling America with my mom and grandmother for my aunt’s outfit. I’m a little nervous and scared. This is my first flight in my life. It’s normal for me to cry or cause some disturbance. I’ll try to stay calm, but I can’t promise you. Please use it if my voice gets too loud.. Enjoy your trip. Thank you)

A culture of respecting the freedom of others…

Is China still a communist country? Can we say that the rivalry between the US and China is the ideology conflict?

Not at all.

Communism and Marxism is hardly an issue to the U.S. with Vietnam that the U.S. is courting shamelessly and Saudi Arabia a Islamic Monarchy hardly liberal democracy but does it bother Uncle Sam for the last half a century?

For me it is as simple as China cannot be made submissive and subservient to the U.S. that is all to it. And worst China is simply a lot lot more efficient and effective than the U.S. can ever be! In fact China has a better human rights record than the U.S. anyway! That perturb the US to no end.

But what is worst for the U.S. Is 150–175 nations out of the world’s 195 nation prefers Chinese and China way and none in the global south wants anything to do with Uncle Sam. They find them obnoxious and despicable. To me this is not due to China at all but due to the shit U.S. did to the world since 1945.

I know Americans who are mostly highly naive and hugely made ignorant to think the U.S. media or government is well liked by the world. But in truth it couldn’t be further than the truth!

Abusing nations has consequences, bullying nations turned them off, arbitrary sanctions puts nations off, they will hedge, they will stop letting you fxxk them! It does not matter what your media lies and your propaganda says. The world is no fool!

Just figure this. US the biggest murdering nation telling China in Alaska about human rights! Is totally laughable and utterly ridiculous! Chinese officials told Blinken save the advise for your dogs and slave vassal nations!

The “American Dream” is actual Slavery (It’s all a Lie)

Harsh truth about the United States. Soak it in.

What’s the dumbest thing your boss has gotten mad at you for?

I was an admin assistant at a department at my local university. I was just about to clock off and make my way home in a wild windstorm that eventually knocked down 20,000 trees across the city when for some reason I decided to check one of the grad student offices and discovered that the skylight had blown off, exposing multiple desks and computers, some of them running data, to the elements. I called the relevant campus department and was told that restoring electricity and clearing roads and whatnot took priority, and they likely wouldn’t get to replacing the skylight (which I’d located, but lacked the strength and roof access to lug it up myself) until the next day at the earliest. So I cracked open the earthquake kit and rigged, using tarps and duct tape, a patch, then moved, ever so carefully so as not to accidentally disconnect the computers, all six desks away from the skylight shaft, in case my patch failed.

This all took about four hours past my usual knock-off time. Everyone was really glad I’d taken the time and initiative to do it, but my supervisor refused even to consider giving me time off in lieu for those four hours because she hadn’t pre-approved them, never mind that, in those pre-cell days, I’d had no way of reaching her. So I appealed to the department head, who overrode her. She was livid, and thereafter made my life so miserable that I leapt at the first decent opportunity to leave.

If universal healthcare is actually cheaper than our current system and covers everybody. Why not just do it?

I’m a retired US citizen who moved to Uruguay in 2015 after spending my entire working career in “Corporate America”.

It’s entertaining to read discussions about the possibility of implementing Universal Healthcare in the United States.

It will NEVER happen. It’s 1000% impossible. The reason? Health insurance companies.

The concept of Universal Healthcare does not involve insurance companies. There is no need for a bloated middleman.

There are 563,366 Health & Medical Insurance Employees in the US, costing approximately $50 billion annually.

These companies would have to be closed, freeing up all this cash for actual medical care, instead of bloat.

The main problems with the US Healthcare system are listed below. None of these problems exist with Universal Healthcare.

Greedy Health insurance companies run by highly-paid executives.
High-paid pharmaceutical & insurance company lobbyists.
Greedy congressmen who take millions of dollars in bribes annually.
Expensive TV commercials pushing expensive drugs.
Doctors who earn outrageous salaries to pay for outrageously expensive college educations with insane education loans.
Outrageous malpractice lawsuit settlements, requiring doctors to carry outrageous liability insurance.
People with no medical knowledge make decisions about whether a patient can have a medical procedure, overruling the attending physician.

Now, with the outsourcing of call centers, people with no medical knowledge in Jamaica, India, and Pakistan make those decisions.

Here are some typical costs in Uruguay:

Office visit: US $8.00
ER visit: US $ 10.00
House call: US $12.00.
Electrolyte blood analysis: US $7.11.
Cerebral CT Scan: US $23.29

If you call an ambulance, it arrives with a full-fledged MD, not an EMT.

Before I turned 70 years of age, I paid around US $55 per month for health coverage.

Now I pay around US $70 per month. For that, I get totally free hospital stays and all costs are free, including hospital stay, surgery, medications, doctor care, and nursing care. When you check out, regardless of what was done or how long you were hospitalized, you pay nothing.

The monthly cost for my cancer medication is around US $2.50. The same medication in the US is around $500.00.

Here are the main reasons everything is so cheap:

No claims to file

No EOB

No Deductible

No Out-of-Pocket

No Coinsurance

No Allowed amount

No Benefit period

No Preauthorization

Sincerely, A Tax Payer

“It sucks being poor…”

Can China manufacture semiconductor chips and create a rival to Intel, Apple, TSMC, and NVIDIA?

It’s been proven China can with Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro.

Chinese companies can rival the giant U.S. tech companies like Intel, Apple and Nvidia but what takes time is building up the ecosystem to make this possible. Thousands of companies make up the support system that manufactures and supports the tools and machines for the manufacturing processes of semiconductors.

The most critical of these companies are in the design (specifically EDA tools) and packaging (chiplets) processes, as well as the lithography machines for the making of the chip itself. There are now Chinese companies with the leading edge (or close to) technologies to rival industry leaders.

Just as critical is the consolidating of resources and capabilities to have the companies to ensure adequate supply of legacy chips. These are actually the more important players because they make up 90% of demand.

U.S. sanctions have forced China to come up with its own self-siufficient semiconductor indiustry.

If the average Chinese person supports 1 party rule and the average American supports democracy, how can we determine who is correct?

Chinese don’t necessarily support single party rule; they support a strong central government to maintain order.

Whether it is single party or not is secondary.

In today’s China, it is led by a single party, but it is much more than any western political party because it has 100M members who meet monthly to discuss local, provincial and central government issues, and how to solve them.

Do the Republican and Democratic parties ask their members to meet monthly to discuss how to solve social issues? I think not.

My point is not that one system is better than another, but they are very different, and talking about the ruling party in China being the same as the political parties in the US is silly and ridiculous, because China developed according to its historical conditions, and the US developed according to its historical conditions.

As Everyone’s Lοοking At Ιsrael, Something Τruly Unbelievable Has Begun Ιn America

Very interesting.

He’s saying that (it’s official) World War III is on-line.

https://youtu.be/DA3aRJrAyOo

Why is it NOT a good idea for an American White woman to marry a Middle Eastern Muslim man?

I did it. I regretted it.

People are imbued with cultural and religious ideas they don’t even recognize and simply take for granted.

I, an American, was imbued with the idea “I am my husband’s equal. In marriage we will have the same freedoms and similar expectations of each other. I would never shout at him for wearing shorts, so of course he will not do that to me. I don’t consider cooking his job, so I am sure he won’t consider it my job. I would always discuss a big purchase with him – and naturally he will give me the same respect.”

That sense of equality and “Don’t treat your spouse in a way you don’t want to be treated yourself” was my cultural norm.

I found that my husband had absolutely no cultural or religious norm of equality. He absolutely was willing to treat me in ways he would hate to be treated himself. He did not think a woman deserved what a man deserves.

He found it absolutely normal to expect control over me, and be resentful thst I didn’t make his life as comfortable as he believed a man’s life should be. He was constantly looking at the very unequal marriages of his (Muslim Arab) friends and resenting me for not being a submissive woman who cooked and cleaned and expected nothing but money from him.

My husband and I are in the same profession. I worked longer hours than him. I was also the one who was sometimes pregnant or recovering from childbirth.

But he could not appreciate me. He had a cultural and religious idea in his head : a man should come home from work and be catered to. Clean house, good food, obedient wife who wears certain clothes and lets her husband forbid her from certain activities or friends that do not please him. The man should be comfortable, should be served, should have things his way. (It is similar to the relationship between a dog owner and his dog. They love each other – but the owner does not think the dog should share in decisions or come and go as it pleases. A dog is expected to be happy being owned and trained and played with.)

My husband started off claiming he would love me forever.

It did not last.

But his cultural ideas of what a man is owed and how a wife must serve — those ideas will last in him forever.

What is wrong with American politicians’ fascination with Huawei?

Let’s answer this question using 5 Low IQ positions that the US politicians are taking –

Low IQ action 1 – Raimondo threatens Huawei before her China trip. She is simply arrogant and lacks intelligence. Who in the right mind threatens someone’s kid before visiting their home?

Low IQ action 2 – It is simply embarrassing to see a country using full state resources to bring down a private company. You brought an army to a fist fight and didn’t knock your much smaller opponent out!

Low IQ action 3 – The Western chips companies are making large profits selling products to China. And you stopped the sales and force your biggest customer to make their own?

Low IQ action 4 – You give billions of dollars of subsidies to your own chip companies to build factories. But you stop the demand from your top customer. So where are US companies gonna sell their excess chips to?

Low IQ action 5 – You take away Huawei’s access to Google and they went to develop their own operating system to threaten Google’s and Microsoft’s future dominance. You like shooting your own foot?

Irish Girl Watches MISTER ROGERS For The First Time

Oh nostalgia tv, except I don’t know who Mister Rogers is. I’ve always heard the name Mister Rogers as a reference in American tv and films but this Irish Girl had no idea who that was. Join me on a very emotional journey as I watch Fred Rogers first through last tv appearance, see him sing “I like you just as you are” and “ it’s a wonderful day in the neighbourhood” Mister Rogers Neighbourhood. Couldn’t we all do with some nice insight from a Fred Rogers right now.

What was your experience like when you realized that life outside of the United States was better than inside it?

I was in the US Army stationed in Germany for 3 and half years… Just turned 18. During this time I never took leave and went back. Travelled all over Europe! In Germany, I drunk my first beer, had my first kiss, and my first Girlfriend, was amazed by the people, the culture, the infrastructure, the cuisine, almost everything. I even took German courses and was proficient at least with speaking German. Anyway the day came, when i was being discharged ( I never really liked the army, andjoined for the Gi Bill) Back in the rural midwest, working at Walmart while going to community collage, I realized how much I missed Germany, the lifestyle, the urban vibe and so many things ( missed having a GF too, in the US I wasnt rich enough or cool enough to date anyone, in Germany this was never a thing at all, about money and all that. I decided if I was going to have a dull dead end life with no future, why not go back to Germany? At least have an adventure of some kind, i could always come back to the US.. 7 months after I ETSed ( left the army) I got a passport, got a cheap one way ticket and reconnected with some German civilians I knew.. I ended up staying in germany, has been 30 plus years now. I remember when the plane landed and I was disembarking, and set foot on the ground, I felt like,, this is it..the place you are meant to be.

Will the US dollar lose its global power in the next 5 years?

Yes it absolutely will.

I takes longer than that but slowly and surely it will.there is not even a speck of doubt. Tell me which nation wants to save in U.S. dollar reserve if can be confiscated away from you at the whims or fancies of the U.S? Do you want to keep your savings in a bank using a currency that the US can take it all away anytime it wants?

No one do, no want does, no one will ever want to. The fact that the US and the west can even phantom that by stealing gold from Venezuela and US dollar reserves from Russia is an acceptable behaviour tell how little the west thinks of the rest of the world.

Every nation on earth, even the US allies are figuring how to hedge against the US dollar. Direct Currency swap arrangement is very popular and it must have have grown several fold in the last year alone! Some agree on a basket of currencies, Others revert back to barter.

JEFFREY SACHS ON A HISTORIC DEBT

Israel Attacks Damascus Airport as IRAN Foreign Minister Plane Coming-in; Plane Forced to Divert

World Hal Turner 12 October 2023

The Israeli Air Force fired missiles at Damascus Airport and Aleppo Airport this morning, just before a plane carrying the Iran Foreign Minister was approaching Damascus for an official state visit. The Iran Minister’s plane was forced to divert from the area to avoid conflict.

Attacking Syria was an illegal act of aggression by Israel. Conducting that attack while a Diplomat was approaching for a state visit is arguably an Act of War.

Damascus Airport is now damaged and closed. Aleppo Airport is also reported to be damaged and closed.

The Iran Foreign Minister plane appears to be returning to Iran.

Syrian Defense Ministry: “At approximately 1:50 pm this afternoon, the Israeli enemy simultaneously carried out an air aggression with bursts of missiles, targeting the international airports of Aleppo and Damascus, which led to damage to the airports’ landing strips and them being out of service.

This aggression is a desperate attempt by the criminal Israeli enemy to divert attention from the crimes it is committing in Gaza, and the great losses it is suffering at the hands of the Palestinian resistance.”

( HT Remark: Nothing like escalating the already bad situation with Gaza into an international incident with a foreign Diplomat. Unschooled, these Israelis. Totally devoid of class.)

How does the cost of Whoosh, Indonesia’s first high-speed railway, compare to other high-speed railway projects around the world?

According to our Singapore media reports, the cost of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail is approximately US$7.3 billion. We tentatively believe that this number is real.

So this figure exceeds the budget given by China when bidding for the project eight years ago by US$1.2 billion. The project completion time was delayed by 4 years than originally planned.

This doesn’t seem like a good number.

But compared to current plans in other countries around the world to build high-speed rail, these are two very good figures.

1. Cost per kilometer

Even calculated based on all costs after overruns (including land costs), the cost per kilometer of Indonesia’s high-speed rail is only US$58 million. The high-speed rail in the United Kingdom is US$300 million per kilometer, and the high-speed rail in California is US$200 million per kilometer.

India’s high-speed rail was originally planned to cost US$35 million per kilometer. However, it has not actually been completed yet. Only ten kilometers have been built. The cost has been doubled and the final cost cannot be estimated. Due to serious delays in construction, some experts predict that there is a high probability that the cost per kilometer will exceed US$80 million when completed.

2. Time spent

The Indian high-speed railway started construction one year earlier than the Indonesian high-speed railway and is scheduled to open in 2023. According to media reports some time ago, only 10 kilometers have been built so far.
The completion date has been changed to 2028, but many experts believe that the actual completion time may be after 2032.

The first phase of the British high-speed railway is planned to build 160 kilometers. Construction will start in 2020 and is scheduled to be completed in 2029. It has now been changed to 2033. The real completion date cannot be determined.

Therefore, although the Indonesian high-speed railway experienced a 16% cost overrun and a 4-year construction delay.
But this is mainly due to the virus problem over the past 3 years.

Judging from similar large-scale projects around the world, Indonesians have reached the top level in terms of project time and budget control.

I believe that for many years to come, no country will be able to surpass Indonesia’s level.

This is due to the efficient work of the Indonesian government, the unity and support of the Indonesian people, and the technology and efficiency of the Chinese. Their achievements deserve congratulations.

Star Trek – Fire On the Forcefield

America Can’t Stop China’s Rise — Foreign Policy

There’s little doubt that the American government has decided to slow China’s economic rise, most notably in the fields of technological development. To be sure, the Biden administration denies that these are its goals. Janet Yellen said on April 20, “China’s economic growth need not be incompatible with U.S. economic leadership. The United States remains the most dynamic and prosperous economy in the world. We have no reason to fear healthy economic competition with any country.” And Jake Sullivan said on April 27, “Our export controls will remain narrowly focused on technology that could tilt the military balance. We are simply ensuring that U.S. and allied technology is not used against us.”

Yet, in its deeds, the Biden administration has shown that its vision extends beyond those modest goals. It has not reversed the trade tariffs Donald Trump imposed in 2018 on China, even though presidential candidate Joe Biden criticized them in July 2019, saying: “President Trump may think he’s being tough on China. All that he’s delivered as a consequence of that is American farmers, manufacturers and consumers losing and paying more.” Instead, the Biden administration has tried to increase the pressure on China by banning the export of chips, semiconductor equipment, and selected software. It has also persuaded its allies, like the Netherlands and Japan, to follow suit. More recently, on Aug. 9, the Biden administration issued an executive order prohibiting American investments in China involving “sensitive technologies and products in the semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies, and artificial intelligence sectors” which “pose a particularly acute national security threat because of their potential to significantly advance the military, intelligence, surveillance, or cyber-enabled capabilities” of China.

All these actions confirm that the American government is trying to stop China’s growth. Yet, the big question is whether America can succeed in this campaign—and the answer is probably not. Fortunately, it is not too late for the United States to reorient its China policy toward an approach that would better serve Americans—and the rest of the world.

America’s decision to slow China’s technological development is akin to the folly revealed by the old cliché: closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. Modern China has shown many times that China’s technological development can’t be halted.

Since the creation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, several efforts have been made to limit China’s access to or stop its development in various critical technologies, including nuclear weapons, space, satellite communication, GPS, semiconductors, supercomputers, and artificial intelligence. The United States has also tried to curb China’s market dominance in 5G, commercial drones, and electric vehicles (EVs). Throughout history, unilateral or extraterritorial enforcement efforts to curtail China’s technological rise have failed and, in the current context, are creating irreparable damage to long-standing U.S. geopolitical partnerships. In 1993 the Clinton administration tried to restrict China’s access to satellite technology. Today, China has some 540 satellites in space and is launching a competitor to Starlink.

The same principle played out with GPS. When America restricted China’s access to its geospatial data system in 1999, China simply built its own parallel BeiDou Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) system in one of the first waves of major technological decoupling. In some measures, BeiDou is today better than GPS. It is the largest GNSS in the world, with 45 satellites to GPS’s 31, and is thus able to provide more signals in most global capitals. It is supported by 120 ground stations, resulting in greater accuracy, and has more advanced signal features, such as two-way messaging. Other nations have also previously tried and failed to block China’s technical rise. In the 1950s and 1960s, when the USSR withheld nuclear weapons technology from China, China launched its own “Manhattan Project” in the early 1960s and succeeded in testing its first nuclear weapon by 1964. Russian nuclear leverage over China ended that day.

Many of the measures taken by the Biden administration against China were also executed without factoring in China’s capacity to retaliate. While China does not physically construct many truly irreplaceable components of the American technology stack, they are keenly aware of the importance of their raw materials inputs (rare earths) and demand (revenue generation) in fueling the American innovation ecosystem and are now using them as leverage. In the current tit-for-tat dynamic, China will start squeezing these two critical ends of the value chain in response to American technology and capital export restrictions. China’s July ban of the gallium and germanium exports was merely an opening shot across the bow to remind America (and its aligned allies) of China’s dominance in the rare earths and critical metals space. The country has a near monopoly in the processing of magnesium, bismuth, tungsten, graphite, silicon, vanadium, fluorspar, tellurium, indium, antimony, barite, zinc, and tin. China also dominates in midstream processing for materials essential to most of America’s current and future technology aspirations such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and copper, which are critical for the rapidly developing EV industry globally.

While America and other neutral countries have mineral reserves of many of these materials, it would be naïve to believe that one can simply flip a switch on mining and production. It will take at least three to five years just to build the requisite extraction and processing infrastructure. This is to say nothing for recruiting and training skilled labor, or receiving requisite operational and environmental permits for such activities. Both could prove impossible. The processing of rare earths is a highly toxic and environmentally destructive endeavor. It’s unlikely such approvals will be granted. If Arizona is struggling to find qualified workers for its TSMC fabrication facility, and to address domestic union opposition to importing foreign skilled labor, it’s unlikely that America can develop similar capabilities for material processing. Along the way, China gets to play kingmaker in how it doles out access to its processed materials, likely restricting supply to American technology and defense giants. The failure to factor in China’s retaliatory capacities indicates that the United States doesn’t have a well-thought-out and comprehensive approach to dealing with China.

American measures to deprive China access to the most advanced chips could even damage America’s large chip-making companies more than it hurts China. China is the largest consumer of semiconductors in the world. Over the past ten years, China has been importing massive amounts of chips from American companies. According to the US Chamber of Commerce, China-based firms imported $70.5 billion worth of semiconductors from American firms in 2019, representing approximately 37 percent of these companies’ global sales. Some American companies, like Qorvo, Texas Instruments, and Broadcom, derive about half of their revenues from China. 60 percent of Qualcomm’s revenues, a quarter of Intel’s revenues, and a fifth of Nvidia’s sales are from the Chinese market. It’s no wonder that the CEOs of these three companies recently went to Washington to warn that U.S. industry leadership could be harmed by the export controls. American firms will also be hurt by retaliatory actions from China, such as China’s May ban on chips from US-based Micron Technology. China accounts for over 25 percent of Micron’s sales.

The massive revenue surpluses generated by these sales to China were ploughed into R&D efforts which, in turn, kept American chip companies ahead of the game. The Chamber of Commerce estimates that if the United States were to ban semiconductor sales to China completely, U.S. companies would lose $83 billion in annual revenues and would have to cut 124,000 jobs. They would also have to cut their annual R&D budgets by at least $12 billion, and their capital spending by $13 billion. This would make it even more difficult for them to remain competitive on the global scale in the long run. American semiconductor firms are painfully aware that U.S. actions against China in the chips arena will harm their interests more than Chinese interests. The U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association released a statement on July 17, saying that Washington’s repeated steps “to impose overly broad, ambiguous, and at times unilateral restrictions risk diminishing the U.S. semiconductor industry’s competitiveness, disrupting supply chains, causing significant market uncertainty, and prompting continued escalatory retaliation by China,” and called on the Biden administration not to implement further restrictions without more extensive engagement with semiconductor industry representatives and experts.

The Chips Act cannot subsidize the American semiconductor industry indefinitely, and there is no other global demand base to replace China. Other chip producing nations will inevitably break ranks and sell to China (as they have historically) and the American actions will be for naught. And, in banning the export of chips and other core inputs to China, America handed China its war plan years ahead of the battle. China is being goaded into building self-sufficiency far earlier than they would have otherwise. Prior to the ZTE and Huawei components bans, China was content to continue purchasing American chips and focusing on the front-end hardware. Peter Wennink, the CEO of ASML, stated that China is already leading in key applications and demand for semiconductors. Wennink wrote, “The roll-out of the telecommunication infrastructure, battery technology, that’s the sweet spot of mid-critical and mature semiconductors, and that’s where China without any exception is leading.”

Germany Just Warned Europe On “China’s Counterstrike Move” | Silent EV War Explodes

Simple, like the UK with Brexit, Germany should leave the EU. This will solve the problem, as Germany will then be able to distance itself from investigations implemented by the EU parliament.

What is the most dangerous thing you have done and why?

I used to be a Tower Climber.

Installing antennas and transmission lines on cellular towers.. Day in and day out we would climb 150, 200, 300feet and stay up there literally all day – often 10–12 hours.

Those heights were the norm, but I also did 400ft a couple of times, and then 500ft once.

And I did it because I needed a job and this paid really well. Plus I was a brand new divorcee and just starting over, so at the time working this tough, dangerous job with other guys was a very good thing for me. I made close friends, we partied and had fun, we laughed a lot, and it was just what the doctor ordered.

The end of Evergrande.

Bloomberg News has reported that billionaire founder and chairman Hui Ka Yan was taken away by police earlier this month and put under so-called residential surveillance , a type of police action that falls short of formal detention or arrest.

The surveillance doesn’t necessarily mean that Hui will be charged with a crime, and the exact circumstances of his situation remain unclear. But it’s not looking good: Evergrande has halted trading and confirmed in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing that authorities have told the company that Hui has been subjected to “mandatory measures,” due to “suspicion of illegal crimes.

The latest twist in an ongoing saga for the world’s most indebted developer has left creditors confused and concerned about what’s to become of their investments. The fate of the developer’s restructuring plans are now at risk, and the chances of a full-on liquidation have increased.

There’s a long list of victims: the hundreds of thousands of homeowners who bought into some 706 residential projects that are still being built; people who bought into Evergrande’s wealth management products, worth 40 billion yuan ($5.5 billion) a few years ago; global investors who collectively own at least $30 billion of offshore debt; suppliers and banks who are among those owed some 2.39 trillion yuan in liabilities. The company is facing more than 2,000 lawsuits, too.

I remember a time when Evergrande was still able to overcome its detractors. When a shortsellertargeted it for alleged financial mismanagement back in 2012, a Hong Kong tribunal provided vindication by saying the report was misleading and false.

But so much has changed since then: Evergrande has become a harbinger of the nation’s real estate meltdown. Its fate seemed to be sealed back in 2020, when a liquidity scare fueled by its massive debt load triggered aggressive regulatory tightening. Compounded by pandemic-related woes, the company defaulted the following year.

What happens after Evergrande? As we know, this property crisis is far from over. China’s property developers face a liquidity shortfall worth some 19 trillion yuan, or 15% of GDP, that could morph into a solvency crunch by year-end, Bloomberg analysts estimate.

Property downturns are always painful. In China, that’s especially the case because of the outsized role that the sector plays in the economy: As much as 70% of household wealthis tied to the industry.

The government has responded by relaxing property buying rules, since it doesn’t want the current distress among developers to trigger financial contagion — nor does it want to see social unrest.

Dragging out the Evergrande saga, though, has wreaked havoc among homebuyers, construction workers, suppliers and investors. And as the government has shown no intention of bailing out developers, the only certainty we’re left with is the idea that this pain is far from finished.

Asian point of view

Have you ever tried to fire someone and it backfired?

This happened to my ex.

My ex was the CFO of one of the largest private construction companies in the world. His main role was to make sure the company stayed profitable. Simple really.

The owners’ son, who recently graduated from college and was having trouble finding gainful employment, (seems nobody would hire him to get stoned) was parachuted into my ex’s job. My ex was quickly let go.

He didn’t mind too much. Even though a little disappointed, he still was paid out fairly and started his own firm with the severance money.

A tender came up for a new skyscraper in London. My ex’s former company put in its bid and came in ahead of everyone else by millions. Turned out months into construction that the new CFO had forgotten to add the cost of electrical wiring into the cost of construction. A mistake that sent his family bankrupt.

Luckily there was one new firm with the creditor’s backing, experience and ability to jump in immediately. My ex hired a lot of the now redundant employees and bought a large chunk of his old company’s heavy equipment at a huge discount in a mortgagee sale.

The lesson here is to never kill the golden goose!

Elderly shelter cat had weeks to live. So this woman adopted him.

This woman is a saint! What she does for these cats is beyond compassion!

Capitalist and socialist modernisation

The Sixteenth Forum of the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE) took place from 25 to 27 September 2023 in Fuzhou, China, co-organised by Fujian Normal University. The theme of the forum was Chinese modernisaton and the prospects of world modernisation. Although unable to attend in person, Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez was invited to submit a video presentation.

Carlos’s presentation, entitled Capitalist and socialist modernisation, takes up a number of questions: What is modernisation? Is modernisation desirable? How has modernisation been achieved in the West? What is China’s modernisation plan? What are the unique characteristics of Chinese modernisation? How does socialist modernisation differ from capitalist modernisation? What effect does China’s modernisation on the global journey towards development and socialism?

The video and the text of Carlos’s presentation are available below.

What is modernisation, and is it necessary?

Modernisation is a somewhat nebulous concept. It means different things to different societies at different times. By definition, its parameters are constantly changing.

In the broadest sense, it means adapting to the latest, most advanced ideas and techniques for meeting humanity’s material and cultural needs.

In sociology, there is more or less an equals sign between modernisation and industrialisation, and is generally held to begin with Britain’s Industrial Revolution. We can think of it essentially as the transition from ‘developing country’ status to ‘developed country’ status; from a predominantly rural society to a predominantly urban society; from a technologically backward society to a technologically advanced society.

Is this desirable? Beauty is of course in the eye of the beholder, but most people consider modernisation to be desirable, because it enables higher living standards for the masses of the people.

With modernised industry, production techniques, communication methods, transport systems, energy systems and healthcare strategies, there exists the possibility of providing a healthy, meaningful and dignified life to all, such that each individual has reliable access to a healthy diet, to decent housing, to clothing, to education, to healthcare, to a vibrant cultural, social and intellectual life, and to fulfilling work. In short, modernisation makes it possible to attend to people’s basic human rights.

The fruits of modernisation have thus far been divided extremely unequally: the process of industrialisation in North America, Europe and Japan has created previously unimaginable wealth for a few, but this has been accompanied by desperate poverty and alienation for significant numbers. However, modernisation creates a material basis for common prosperity, far beyond what a pre-modern economy can offer.

Specifically in the case of China, the government has set a goal of “basically realising socialist modernisation by 2035”, and has defined some parameters for this:

Reaching a per-capita GDP on a par with that of the mid-level developed countries such as Spain or the Czech Republic
Joining the ranks of the world’s most innovative countries in the realm of science and technology
Becoming a global leader in education, public health, culture and sport
Substantially growing the middle-income group as a proportion of the population
Guaranteeing equitable access to basic public services
Ensuring modern standards of living in rural areas
Steadily lowering greenhouse gas emissions and protecting biodiversity, so as to restore a healthy balance between humans and the natural environment

If achieved, these aims will constitute a significant – indeed world-historic – improvement in the living standards of the Chinese people, and will blaze a trail for other developing countries.

How did the West modernise?

But is China doing anything new? After all, it won’t be the first country to achieve modernisation.

In mainstream modernisation theory in the West, the dominant narrative is that the countries of Western Europe, North America and Japan achieved their advances via a combination of good governance, liberal democracy, free-market economics, scientific genius, geographical serendipity and a dash of entrepreneurial spirit.

Historical investigation reveals a considerably different story.

The most important precursors of the West’s modernisation are colonialism, slavery and genocide. The conquest of the Americas, the settlement of Australia, the transatlantic slave trade, the colonisation of India, the rape of Africa, the Opium Wars, the theft of Hong Kong, and more. The profits of colonialism and the slave trade were essential for propelling the West’s industrialisation, as was so eloquently uncovered in Eric Williams’ classic 1944 work, Capitalism and Slavery.

As Karl Marx famously wrote in Volume 1 of Capital: “The discovery of gold and silver in America, the enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins, signalled the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production.”

Such is the ugly truth of European modernisation. And the story is not so different in the United States. Many of the so-called founding fathers of that country were slave-owners, and they established a slave-owners’ society. They went to war against the indigenous peoples and against Mexico in order to expand their territory.

In the 20th century, having established their domination over the Americas, they constructed a neocolonial global system that is still in place to a significant degree, imposing American hegemony on the world.

A network of 800 foreign military bases. NATO. An enormous nuclear arsenal. Genocidal wars waged on Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. Systems of economic coercion and unilateral sanctions.

Proxy wars, coups, regime change projects, destabilisation.

This is the global system of violence that has facilitated and accompanied North American modernisation.

Japan’s rapid rise was facilitated first by its brutal expansionist project in East Asia, particularly Korea and China, and then through adaptation to and integration with the US-led imperialist system, the much-vaunted ‘rules-based international order’.

South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan Province constitute the small handful of non-imperialist territories that have been able to achieve modernisation, but these are special cases. Their shared proximity to China and the DPRK is no coincidence; they have been inducted into the imperialist club by the US, to play a dual role as regional policemen and living advertisements for capitalism on the frontline of its confrontation with socialism. Both roles rely on at least a certain degree of prosperity for a section of the population.

There is no shortage of countries of the Global South which have attempted to apply the “liberal democracy plus free market capitalism” formula, but none have been successful in modernising. Indeed the West’s prescriptions for (and interference in) developing countries have largely led to chaos and disaster.

The contrast between the West’s success in modernising and the Global South’s failure has fed into a largely unspoken but widespread and pernicious racism: an assumption that white people are somehow inherently more advanced than everyone else.

This supremacism is allowed to fester, because in addition to dividing working class and oppressed communities, it provides convenient cover for the reality that capitalist modernisation is built on the foundations of colonialism, imperialism and hegemonism.

As Kwame Nkrumah commented, “in the era of neocolonialism, under-development is still attributed not to exploitation but to inferiority, and racial undertones remain closely interwoven with the class struggle.”

How is China modernising?

China’s journey towards modernisation starts in 1949 with the founding of the People’s Republic, the early construction of socialist industry, land reform and the extirpation of feudalism and the landowning class, and the provision of at least basic levels of education and healthcare services to the whole population.

In 1963, Premier Zhou Enlai, supported by Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun, first raised the question of the Four Modernisations: of agriculture, industry, national defence, and science and technology. Despite a complex political environment this goal was revived in the early 1970s, and, with the launch of reform and opening up in 1978, China accelerated its pursuit of those goals, and ushered in an era of rapid development of the productive forces and improvement in the people’s living standards.

China’s journey of modernisation has evolved again in recent years with the pursuit of the second centenary goal: of building a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful by 2049.

China is on a fast track to becoming an advanced, developed country, and this process stands in stark contrast to the West’s modernisation process:

First, China’s modernisation is built on the efforts of the Chinese people rather than on war, colonialism and slavery.

Second, its fruits are to be shared by everybody, not dominated by the wealthy. As General Secretary Xi Jinping said in his work report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China’s modernisation is “the modernisation of common prosperity for all.”

Even today, not everyone in the West is able to enjoy the fruits of modernisation. Consider for example the US, where tens of millions lack access to healthcare; where over half a million people are homeless; where life expectancy for African Americans is six years less than for their white counterparts; where – according to the US Department of Education – over half of adults read below a sixth-grade level.

Third, China’s modernisation is becoming a green modernisation, fuelled by clean energy, careful not to destroy the planet that sustains us. Again quoting Xi Jinping’s work report, “it is the modernisation of harmony between humanity and nature.”

Capitalist modernisation has had a disastrous impact on the environment. With 4 percent of the global population, the US alone is responsible for 25 percent of historic greenhouse gas emissions. The simple fact is that humanity literally cannot afford for China’s modernisation to follow this pattern.

Socialist modernisation will become the ‘new normal’

The West’s modernisation path is not open to the countries of the Global South, and it wouldn’t be desirable even if it were. Today, the road of capitalist modernisation is closed, so how is China able to modernise?

China does not have an empire, formal or informal, but it does have a particular advantage of being a socialist state, a “people’s democratic dictatorship based on the alliance of workers and peasants”, to use Mao Zedong’s expression. Such a state can use its power to direct economic activity towards the goals of the social classes it represents.

Thus the specificities of China’s modernisation – the commitment to common prosperity, to ending poverty and underdevelopment, to preventing climate collapse and to peaceful development – are a function of China’s political system, its revolutionary history, and the leadership of the CPC.

At a meeting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2016, Xi Jinping made this point very succinctly: “Our greatest strength lies in our socialist system, which enables us to pool resources in a major mission. This is the key to our success.”

Or as Deng Xiaoping famously commented in 1984: “the superiority of the socialist system is demonstrated, in the final analysis, by faster and greater development of the productive forces than under the capitalist system.”

In a world still largely dominated by capitalism – and an intellectual world still dominated by bourgeois ideology – it’s easy to forget this system’s fundamental and irreconcilable contradictions, which Marx identified with such clarity and profundity 150 years ago; contradictions which lead inexorably to inefficiency, stagnation and crisis. A political economy directed at the production of exchange values rather than use values can never result in common prosperity.

In China, the capitalist class is not the ruling class and is therefore not able to direct the country’s resources according to its own prerogatives. At the top level, resources are allocated by the state, in accordance with long-term planning carried out by, and in the interests of, the people.

This is what is enabling a new type of modernisation, which is blazing a trail for socialist and developing countries the world over.

The fruits of this process are being shared with the world, via mechanisms such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative, which are creating a path for the countries of the Global South to break out of underdevelopment, even where they lack China’s resources and political advantages.

As such, China’s evolving modernisation has great historic significance, and offers valuable lessons for the world. It is an embodiment of historical materialism in the current era: capitalism has long since exhausted its ability to fundamentally drive human progress, and therefore the future lies with socialism.

What were the most ‘badass’ moments of history?

Galvarino was a legendary warrior of the Mapuche people who rebelled against the Spanish Conquers who had invaded their land.

The Mapuche people were natives of the Araucana region of Chile who fought against the Spanish conquest of South America. The Arauco War was the bloodiest and longest-running battle in the history of the New World.

In what became known as the Battle of Lagunillias, Galvarino led his people in a fight against the Spanish invaders who were trying to force them into servitude.

During the battle, Galvarino and his men were captured by the Spanish. As punishment for defying the Spanish, Galvarino had both his hands amputated at the wrists and sent him home as a message to the other Mapuche tribes.

He returned home defeated and severely wounded. He showed the war council his wounds and begged them to let him lead an army against their oppressors. For his bravery, he was named commander of a squadron of men in a fight against Governor Mendoza.

With long Sharp knives fastened to his mutilated stumps, he led his army into battle against Governor Mendoza and his men. The Brutal battle lasted for an hour, with Galvarino striking and killing Mendoza’s number two in command with his modified stumps.

Although Galvarino and his men fought a brave battle, they were soon overwhelmed and captured. All the remaining captured warriors including Galvarino, were executed on the orders of Governor Mendoza.

Has Huawei successfully challenged the dominance of American tech giants and truly democratized the tech industry?

Huawei has established the third truly COMMERCIAL Asian Tech Ecosystem from China and the eighth in Asia after Toyota, Nikon, Canon ,Samsung , BYD, Trina and Xinyi

The Huawei Ecosystem now has

The Chip
The OS
The 5G Modem
The GPU
The Networks

Yet Huawei Ecosystem is fragile because SMIC the manufacturer of the 7 nm Node depends on Advanced DUV equipment from ASML

Now SMIC has stockpiled massive orders from ASML and that will keep SMIC going till maybe 2026

However that’s still dependence, a lot of dependence on the West

So i would say HUAWEI has made a start

Meanwhile people forget the REAL WINNERS of the three companies that have established it’s own dominant ecosystem on which the West is entirely dependent on :-

BYD

BYD has:-

The Chip – The Mature 28nm Chip that only China can today manufacture cost effectively and in huge volumes
The Software
The Satellite Navigation System
The Battery
The Dynamic Unit

It’s completely and entirely Independent from Western Technology

Trina and Xinyi who have :-

The Intelligent Chip
The Micrograde Wafer Panel (That to this day no nation can produce except France but at 87% higher cost)
The Carbide micro layering etching equipment (Chinas equivalent of the EUV Lithography Machine)
The Silicon extraction process into Mono, Poly Crystalline Silicon with infusions

Yes Huawei deserves all the admiration for its clawback and fighting

Yet BYD, Trina and Xinyi actually get Proprietary License Fees from the West which is unique for a Nation that to thia day didn’t kowtow to the West unlike Japan, Israel and South Korea

Huawei to win, needs SMIC to become another BYD or Xinyi or Trina

If SMIC can achieve that, then China truly begins the challenge to the established Semiconductor industry

Lego just hit a climate BRICK wall

Lego says that it cannot make bricks from recycled material. They tried and they simply cannot do it without increasing carbon emissions. That’s a refreshing admission. Most companies take on “green initiatives” anyway, even if they prove to make the problem worse. In a similar vein, the CEO of Lufthansa admitted that“going green” would require the airline to use up HALF of Germany’s electricity. So not green at all then. Meanwhile, Ford says that it will pause construction of a $3.5 billion plant to build EV batteries in Michigan. They aren’t saying why. It just goes to show: It ain’t easy being green.

Is the Belt and Road Initiative losing steam?

You’ve probably heard of China’s ambitious plan to connect the world with its Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI for short. It’s a massive project that involves building roads, railways, ports, pipelines, and other infrastructure across Asia, Africa, Europe, and beyond. China says it’s a win-win situation for everyone, a way to boost trade, development, and cooperation among more than 140 countries that have signed up for it.

But not everyone is buying it. Some critics in the West say that the BRI is a trap, a scheme, or a tool for China to expand its power and influence at the expense of other countries. They say that the BRI is saddling poor countries with unsustainable debt, damaging the environment and human rights, and undermining the international order. They also say that the BRI is losing steam due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the backlash from some host countries, and the changing global dynamics.

So what’s the real story? Well, if you listen to what China has to say on its official websites, you’ll get a very different picture. According to them, the BRI is not losing steam at all. In fact, it’s gaining momentum and achieving positive results in various aspects.

First of all, they say that the BRI has shown strong resilience and vitality amid the COVID-19 pandemic. China has actively cooperated with other BRI partners to fight against the virus, provide medical supplies and vaccines, share prevention and treatment experiences, and support economic recovery. The BRI has also contributed to the global efforts to build a community of health for all.

Secondly, they say that the BRI has promoted high-quality development and green cooperation. China has adhered to the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, and has followed the international rules and standards in implementing BRI projects. China has also attached great importance to environmental protection, social responsibility, and debt sustainability, and has encouraged green investment and financing under the BRI framework.

Thirdly, they say that the BRI has enhanced mutual trust and friendship among different countries and peoples. The BRI has fostered dialogue and exchange among different civilizations, cultures, and religions, and has supported education, culture, tourism, sports, media, and other fields of people-to-people cooperation. The BRI has also created opportunities for poverty alleviation, job creation, livelihood improvement, and social development for millions of people in the participating countries.

So there you have it. The BRI is not losing steam but rather advancing steadily and fruitfully. The BRI is not a solo show by China but a chorus by all participants. The BRI is not a challenge or threat to anyone but a benefit and opportunity for everyone. The BRI is not a zero-sum game but a win-win cooperation for common development. That’s what China wants you to believe. And if you don’t believe it, well, too bad for you. Because China is not going to stop or change its course anytime soon. It’s going to keep pushing forward with its vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Why Australia’s Housing Crisis Is a Warning for the World

My goodness!

What is something that needs to be said that nobody wants to hear?

Trump supporters have a point.

They weren’t misled by Russian trolls. They weren’t ignorant. They weren’t racist or sexist or xenophobic or homophobic. They were mad… they felt left behind and ignored by the media and the federal government… and they had a point.

They were left behind, and ignored.

For many of them, the America their parents and grandparents grew up in was a lot better. And no, that’s not because other groups were oppressed. It was because the economy was better for working-class people back then.

If your grandparents raised a large family on a single income, while the media and politicians cared about what your grandparents cared about, and now, 50 years later, you and your wife can’t get by on your dual incomes, and the media and politicians spend more time talking about transgender bathroom usage than the fact that families like yours are falling further behind each year… then yes, you have a point, and Make America Great Again makes sense.

Blueberry Grunt

Ingredients

4 cups fresh blueberries
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons grated orange peel
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk

Instructions

In a skillet, combine blueberries, sugar and water; bring to a boil. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes.
In a bowl, combine the next 6 ingredients; stir in milk just until moistened (dough will be stiff).
Drop by tablespoonsful over blueberries.
Cover and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until dumplings are puffed and test done.
Serve warm.

Should secondary sanctions be imposed on China and Russia for their complicity with genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Myanmar?

All terrorism in the world is linked to the United States! It is no longer a secret that the United States Government supports terrorism in South-East Asia!

US-backed Terrorism Targets Vietnam & Myanmar in Wider War on China

Two terrorist attacks this month (June 2023) in Southeast Asia have been carried out by groups backed by the United States government and its allies for decades;
This includes a singer murdered in Myanmar and a series of armed attacks carried out on police stations in Vietnam killing 9 including several civilians;
British state media, the BBC, and US government-funded media platform Radio Free Asia have attempted to spin and even justify this terrorism as part of a much wider pattern promoting and defending terrorism as a means to counter China’s rise and punish nations working closely with China;
The opposition in Myanmar has openly been backed by the US and UK for decades – fighting to reinstall Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy back into power;
In Vietnam, the ethnic Montagnards had fought alongside US invaders in the Vietnam War, and since then have worked closely with the US through the National Endowment for Democracy toward separatism;
Much of this context is omitted from Western state-media accounts of the terrorism;
Both Myanmar and Vietnam’s current governments have close relations with China. Vietnam, while depicted in the Western media as “anti-China,” has worked with China to build infrastructure within its borders and access Chinese rail projects to bring their products all the way to Europe;

Why Companies That Go Woke Go Broke

I saw the title and I instantly clicked to watch, really wanted to see a documentary about all these companies that went woke, then broke!

What is the most amazing thing you overheard because people didn’t think you understood their language?

Well one fairly amazing thing happened in Penang. I (white Australian) was speaking to my friend (Asian Australian) in English.

An American tourist interrupted us and asked “excuse me, do you speak English?” We were both quite shocked and I said “a little.” I don’t know if she really couldn’t understand Australian English and didn’t realise what language I was speaking.

She said “Can you direct me to XYZ hotel?”

Now ordinarily two Aussies, neither of whom have ever been to Malaysia and speak no Malay wouldn’t be the best choice. But I pointed to the building we were standing in front of and said “walk about 10 yards that way.”

She was WAY out of her depth and her next international holiday should probably be to Hawaii.

However, I did the opposite in Austria. I speak no German, but if I look at a menu and plan out my sentence I can pretend to. So I asked in perfect German “Could I please have 2 hot chocolates; one with whipped cream and one with rum thanks.” She answered with something as simple as “that will be 8 euros” and I looked at her blankly and said in English “I’m sorry, I don’t speak German.” She laughed and did the transaction in English. She said I fooled her.

Pretty much the same thing in Poland, back in the days before Schengen membership. Apparently I needed a visa. So they berated me in Polish for a while, and I said I didn’t speak Polish. They went to the lingua franca of Eastern Europe and said “something something Russky.” I replied with what I’m told is an excellent accent “nye poni mayu po Russkiy.”

Here’s a guy in Lithuania, driving an Estonian-registered car, saying in perfect Russian in response to a question IN Russian “I don’t understand Russian.” I’m sure they weren’t thrilled and may not have believed me but I looked blankly at the rest of their diatribe. So eventually they wrote down my name, pointed me to Vilnius and said “visa.”’

Why is Urumqi, Xinjiang cleaner, safer, civilized, and developed than New Delhi?

Almost every Chinese City beats Indian Cities hollow in terms of Cleanliness, Safety and Development

There are Primarily three reasons for this :-

A. One Party Meritocracy & Funds

In China, fund allocation for Cities and their overall Urban development is based on the Urban Development Index (UDI) plus between 15% upto 46% of the revenue generated by a City is used by the Local Government of that Province and the Administration of that City to develop the place

There is no political rivalries or party based discrimination between Fund Allocation and Revenue sharing

It’s all about How much the City develops and how well maintained the City is

In India, funding is a nightmare because the State themselves have no claim over the money they generate as revenue. Everything is handed over to the Centre which then decides how much each State should get and then the State decides how much each City should get

China has 20 times the provincial autonomy than an Indian State

B. Continuous Development to prevent overcrowding

India keeps on dumping on the same city again and again for year after year. Thus every such city attracts migrants like flies and that leads to overcrowding of the worst order

China keeps developing and expanding new Cities regularly

Chengdu, Chongqing etc were small towns a decade or so ago that are now bustling cities, brimming with Prosperity

Urumqi was once a town , now it’s classified as a Tier 3 City

Thus if you notice Shanghai and Beijing both lost 4% and 5.6% of the population due to migration between 2013–2023 whereas Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad netted between 7.6% and 12% SURPLUS population by migration between 2008–2023

C. Chinas Housing Policy

Everyone living with a proper Job in a City in China MUST have housing

This is a law from the time of Chairman Mao and when it’s a Chairman Mao law, it’s enforcement is very strict

Public Housing is thus available for every single resident of the city including the poorest of them

Only Shanghai and Beijing has slums today , which existed before the 1998 law and thus can’t be torn down

If you have a legitimate job in CQ City, you get a Public Apartment of 39–52 Square Meters with indoor plumbing, heating, air conditioning and gas and electricity and drinking water for a mere 78 RMB / month

Of course many Chinese become prosperous enough to rent much nicer places and sub lease their public homes for which they pay rent of 78 RMB/ month for 400–500 RMB / month

During Covid 19, many such people were discovered and fined very heavily (30, 000 RMB plus 60 months rent or 100 Days in Prison)

A Fourth reason is the fact that Migration into Cities is heavily controlled

You just can’t come to a City that easily without housing or a job unless you are a tourist there

In India it’s the opposite

You can flood into cities and sleep on the roads and everywhere else and even defecate

It’s like a Zoo

So it’s the Chinese System

They may have their flaws but by God they have excellent City maintenance and keep themselves very clean

Their Air Quality improvement in a mere decade is something every nation takes notes on

Primarily another reason is the Chinese are proud of their country and love their country

Not the bogus love that Indians show which translates into defending India for all it’s weaknesses, glorifying mediocrities as superheroes, forcing people to stand up for the National Anthem etcetera

The genuine love that ensures they actively take pride in their development and their cities

When stray cats see this man, they compete with each other to get a place on his lap.

This is fun.

A global interruption to the BRI

If you take a moment to look at the globe, you will notice that the United States (and remember they OWN both Ukraine, and Israel) started wars in Ukraine, and in Israel (After all, HAMAS is Western trained).

Why?

Well, for one, war is a business racket. But that is not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the BRI.

Both wars effectively block two major routes of the BRI to the West.

War in Ukraine = Europe BRI
War around Israel = African BRI

Thus the BRI is now geographically limited to the Asian nations.

Hum…

Today.

What “black technologies” have shocked the world at the Hangzhou Asian Games?

The Asian Games in Hangzhou, which kicked off on Sept. 25, are not only a showcase of athletic prowess, but also a dazzling display of technological wonders. China has spared no effort to impress the world with its cutting-edge innovations in various domains. Here are some of the most remarkable examples of what I call “black technologies” that have made the games a spectacle to behold:

– Digital torchbearers: This is the first time that the Asian Games have used holograms to create virtual torchbearers who can carry the flame across different locations and interact with real people and surroundings. The digital torchbearers include some of the most famous and influential figures in sports, entertainment, and history, such as Yao Ming, Jackie Chan, and Confucius.

– Electronic identity registration cards: These are smart devices that replace the traditional paper-based accreditation cards for all participants. They can perform multiple functions, such as verifying identity, controlling access, monitoring health, making payments, and providing information. They also support various authentication methods, such as NFC, QR code, and biometrics, making them convenient and secure.

– Digital spectator service platform: This is a comprehensive platform that offers a range of features and services for both online and offline audiences. For example, users can watch live streams, replays, highlights, and VR videos of the games; chat with athletes, coaches, and experts; join quizzes, games, and lucky draws; and access information about venues, transportation, tourism, and culture.

– Intelligent robots: These are robots that can assist in various scenarios and tasks. For example, there are robots for guest reception, patrolling, firefighting, and distribution; robots for public performances, such as dancing and drumming; robots for sports training, such as playing table tennis and badminton; and robots for media coverage, such as interviewing and reporting.

These “black technologies” reflect China’s leadership in digital transformation and innovation. They also add to the cultural significance and social value of the Hangzhou Asian Games. By blending technology and culture, the Hangzhou Asian Games have created a new paradigm of sports events that is more intelligent, interactive, and inclusive.

Blueberry Dumpling Cobbler

This is good served warm with vanilla ice cream. Strawberries may be substituted for the blueberries.

Ingredients

4 cups blueberries
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup milk
2 1/4 cups Bisquick baking mix or Biscuit Baking Mix
3/4 cup Quaker oats, uncooked

Instructions

Bring blueberries, 1 1/3 cups sugar and butter to a boil in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring gently until butter is melted and sugar dissolves. Remove from heat.
Beat cream cheese and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy; add milk and beat until smooth.
By hand stir in Bisquick mix and uncooked oats.
Spread two-thirds of dumpling mixture onto bottom of a lightly greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
Spoon blueberry mixture evenly over dumpling mixture.
Dollop remaining dumpling mixture evenly over blueberries.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes.

This is a Briefing, I’m not asking for your consent.

I love how in this altered timeline, the relationship between Picard and Riker is completely different. Far more strained and much less casual as well. It’s little touches like that that make the overall picture clearer and more believable. Great writing and great execution by a very talented group of actors.

Hersh Reveals U.S. Motive For Destruction Of Nord Stream Pipelines

Seymour Hersh just published a new piece about the bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines.

When the pipelines were blown up on September 27 2022 I had asked:

Whodunnit? – Facts Related to The Sabotage Attack On The Nord Stream Pipelines

I had collected the various known facts around the incident and they in sum suggested that it had been the U.S. of A.

Seymour Hersh put the same question to some of his intelligence contacts. He was given the same answer.

He now reports on further facts and final motives to trigger the incident.

A YEAR OF LYING ABOUT NORD STREAM
The Biden administration has acknowledged neither its responsibility for the pipeline bombing nor the purpose of the sabotage
(archived version)

At the core of Hersh’s report is this:

It was no surprise to the agency’s secret planning group when on January 27, 2022, the assured and confident Nuland, then undersecretary of state for political affairs, stridently warned Putin that if he invaded Ukraine, as he clearly was planning to, that “one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.” The line attracted enormous attention, but the words preceding the threat did not. The official State Department transcript shows that she preceded her threat by saying that with regard to the pipeline: “We continue to have very strong and clear conversations with our German allies.”
…
The German leader was considered then—and now—by some members of the CIA team to be fully aware of the secret planning underway to destroy the pipelines.
…
What I did not know then, but was told recently, was that after Biden’s extraordinary public threat to blow up Nord Stream 2, with Scholz standing next to him, the CIA planning group was told by the White House that there would be no immediate attack on the two pipelines, but the group should arrange to plant the necessary bombs and be ready to trigger them “on demand”—after the war began. “It was then that we”—the small planning group that was working in Oslo with the Royal Norwegian Navy and special services on the project—“understood that the attack on the pipelines was not a deterrent because as the war went on we never got the command.”

After Biden’s order to trigger the explosives planted on the pipelines, it took only a short flight with a Norwegian fighter and the dropping of an altered off-the-shelf sonar device at the right spot in the Baltic Sea to get it done. By then the CIA group had long disbanded. By then, too, the official told me: “We realized that the destruction of the two Russian pipelines was not related to the Ukrainian war”—Putin was in the process of annexing the four Ukrainian oblasts he wanted—“but was part of a neocon political agenda to keep Scholz and Germany, with winter coming up and the pipelines shut down, from getting cold feet and opening up” the shuttered Nord Stream 2. “The White House fear was that Putin would get Germany under his thumb and then he was going to get Poland.”
…
All of this explains why a routine question I posed a month or so after the bombings to someone with many years in the American intelligence community led me to a truth that no one in America or Germany seems to want to pursue. My question was simple: “Who did it?”

The Biden administration blew up the pipelines but the action had little to do with winning or stopping the war in Ukraine. It resulted from fears in the White House that Germany would waver and turn on the flow of Russia gas—and that Germany and then NATO, for economic reasons, would fall under the sway of Russia and its extensive and inexpensive natural resources. And thus followed the ultimate fear: that America would lose its long-standing primacy in Western Europe.

The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will now have to answer some serious questions …

Added:

This is of course related:

Stephen Stapczynski @SStapczynski – 22:47 UTC · Sep 25, 2023

Europe must rely on LNG from the US for decades, said EU’s top energy official 🇪🇺🤝🇺🇸

🚢 “There will be a need for American energy,” said Jørgensen, energy director-general

⚡️ This is one of the strongest signals that the EU needs US LNG well past 2030

ft.com – Top EU energy official says US gas will be needed for decades

Posted by b on September 26, 2023 at 14:26 UTC | Permalink

Get Out of America Now… Something Strange is Happening

“Hey fam! Let’s talk about why we believe you should leave America for good. Back in 2020 we left America and have never returned and hope to never go back. As time goes on, the country isn’t getting better from everything that happened with the planned-demic and now hyper-inflation. What do you think? Will you be leaving America in search of greener pastures? It’s up to you to decide!”

Mainstream Media Admit – Ukraine’s Propaganda Is Full Of Lies

As a sign of the turning narrative of the war in Ukraine we find a new New York Times piece about ‘disinformation’ that is not about Russia but about lies from Ukraine.

Andrew E. Kramer, the NYT correspondent in Kiev, opens with an anecdote from the first weeks of the war:

Six weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Ukraine sank the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, dealing a serious blow to the enemy navy, and, a Ukrainian official said, killing the ship’s captain.

“We do not mourn,” an adviser to the interior minister at the time, Anton Gerashchenko, said.

The only problem was that the captain — or somebody who resembled him — later appeared in a video of survivors released by the Russian Navy. He had escaped his sinking ship, the Moskva, the video seemed to indicate.

Then comes a paragraph that could fit both countries but the following one it is again related to disinformation from Ukraine:

What is clear is that misdirection, disinformation and propaganda are weapons regularly deployed in Russia’s war in Ukraine to buoy spirits at home, demoralize the enemy or lead opponents into a trap. And it is often hard to know when reports are false or why they may have been disseminated.

Now, Ukraine and Russia are offering dueling narratives over whether a more senior Russian naval officer, the commanding admiral of the Black Sea Fleet, is alive or dead.

Well, in this interview Adm. Viktor Sokolov looks quite alive.

Then comes an astonishing admission:

Few military analysts, […], believe the Ukrainian military’s optimistic daily account of Russian casualties running into the hundreds that is nonetheless reported widely in Ukrainian media.

It is the first time I see a public refutation of Ukraine’s laughable claims about Russian casualties in the mainstream media. It is also an indictment of the Biden administration and the Pentagon who publicly use the Ukrainian numbers.

The piece ends with a wise acknowledgement:

Mr. Gerashchenko said that, in the end, war propaganda is only effective when it accompanies battlefield successes. The missile strike on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet last week, he said, was a “stunning success of Ukrainian intelligence and the air force that fired the cruise missiles on a supposedly well-defended site.”

“You cannot win the propaganda war without winning the real war,” he added.

Oh really? Guess who told you so:

Disarming Ukraine – Day 13 – Lies Do Not Win Wars – Moon of Alabama, March 8 2022
Propaganda Does Not Change The War – The Ukraine Is Still Losing – Moon of Alabama, March 25 2022
No – Such Propaganda Delusions Will Not Win The War – Moon of Alabama, June 8 2023

Good to see that this obvious truth is finally sinking in.

—

Yesterday the Minister of Defense in Russia, Sergei Shoigu, gave an update (in Russian) on the war in Ukraine. The speech seemed to include a time frame for the war to end (machine translation):

The United States and its allies continue to arm the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the Kiev regime throws untrained soldiers into senseless assaults, for slaughter.

Such cynical actions by the West and their cronies in Kiev only encourage Ukraine to self-destruct.”

“Under these conditions, we continue to increase the combat power of the Armed Forces, including through the supply of modern weapons and improving the training of troops, taking into account the experience of a special military operation. Consistent implementation of the activities of the Action Plan until 2025 will allow us to achieve our goals.”

Shoigu expects the war to run throughout 2024 and into 2025. But if the current loss rate of the Ukrainian army continues the country will be running out of soldiers and armored vehicles before the end of next year.

—

Schadenfreude:

Canada’s House speaker steps down after making tribute to Nazi veteran
Canada’s honoring of Nazi vet exposes Ottawa’s longstanding Ukraine policy
60 Minutes video (1997) about Nazis war criminals living in Canada

Posted by b on September 27, 2023 at 13:50 UTC | Permalink

Ask Prof Wolff: China Vs. a Myth of Stolen Technology

China has pulled it off because it is unique with huge, diligent and hard working population, and a one party state with consistent long term goals but flexible enough to adapt and adopt so as to be pragmatic.

Other Asian and South East Asian countries have similar ethos but their populations and geographical size are much smaller.

More to the point, those countries have multi-party political systems that would ensure continuous changes to whatever the previous government has done, ie no consistency in long term targets but all short term political gains (Western style).

Vietnam is actually a communist country but the US and the West like Vietnam; they rarely publicly criticise or smear Vietnam because it is not seen as a “threat”.

Singapore is a prosperous city state virtually dominated by one political party.

Rarely, if any, have I seen negative opinions of Singapore from the West. Some local and Asian people think that Singapore acts like a dictator.

So you know what I am leading to.

Political system may or may not matter. It is a matter of effective governance.

During an interview, the founder of Huawei questioned that how could the West accuse Huawei of stealing technologies from them that they had not got?

A senior employee said in an interview about 5G that the company had been researching on 6G several years ago.

By the end of 2020 the entire underground transport network in Shanghai was covered by 5G.

In contrast, the Mayor of London has promised to cover the entire London Underground network with 4G by the end of 2024.

That’s how much more advanced Chinese technology is in terms of development and implementation. Without Western interference of all kinds, I bet that African nations with help from China will leapfrog the West.

This may sound far-fetched.

The US will do its utmost, including starting a war and regime change, to next suppress the rise of Africa.

Many areas on the Belt and Road Initiative have since 2013 had bombings, massive political protests and chaotic civil wars etc.

This is the dirty work done by a particular organization to stop the success of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

If China and the Chinese had the technology to migrate to live in Mars, I bet the US would try to stop the Chinese travel in mid-space.

My 18-year-old believes that as an adult, he doesn’t have to respect the rules of my home. He refuses to do his only chore, so I grounded him but he’s ignoring it. What do I do here?

Grounding an adult has no effect other than making them more belligerent.

Instead, I changed her living conditions…

Turned off her phone service
Changed the wifi password
Changed the password for all TV services and accounts
Put a lock on the laundry room door, where the breaker box just happened to be located
Flipped the breaker for her room
Finally, I ordered take out for me for a full week and bought no groceries

After a week, she came in throwing a tantrum. I was abusing her! How dare I do this to her.

I calmly told her that family enjoys the perks of living in a family, including my electricity and food…but they also are respectful, do household chores or pay their share. Squatters get no considerations of family. And next week, there will be a lock on my room and no hot water in my guest bathroom.

She was a butthead for another week. She talked to other adults and the cops and CPS (who asked if she was a vulnerable adult who needed guardianship)…then decided being pleasant and respectful and doing about 2 hours of chores a week was worth the perks of being family.

I never raised my voice, never argued with her, simply impressed upon her what I no longer HAD to provide for an adult.

‘Armed to the Teeth’ Frankish Warrior’s Untouched Grave Found

In a discovery that has left historians and archaeologists astonished, a completely untouched grave from the Merovingian period was uncovered in Germany. Hidden among other graves that were plundered over a millennium ago, this singular grave had rested undisturbed for over 1,300 years.

The discovery was made by the archaeologists from the Kaiserpfalz Research Center , who have been digging at this early medieval burial ground since 2015. Christoph Bassler, excavation manager described the discovery:

“We first spotted the edge of a shield boss…It wasn’t immediately clear which grave it belonged to. But, as we dug further, the realization dawned that we had stumbled upon a grave that, for some reason, had been overlooked by ancient grave robbers.”

A 7th Century Frankish Warrior, ‘Armed to the Teeth’

The grave’s occupant, known as the “warrior from grave 447,” was evidently someone of importance in his time. A splendid double-edged sword, or ‘spathe’, lay next to him, measuring nearly 93 cm (3 foot) in its entirety. Its blade, even after so many centuries, remains slightly flexible , pointing to an impeccable state of preservation, noted Bassler.

The sword wasn’t the Frankish warrior’s only companion in the afterlife. A massive broadaxe, another heavy knife, a lance tip, and a shield were found, showcasing an array of almost every weapon from that era—except for a bow.

Interestingly, while adorned with an impressive weaponry collection, this man was not a full-time soldier. In the early Middle Ages , there were no standing armies as we know them today. Free men were expected to gear up and respond to their leader’s call to arms when required.

The Franks in Europe

The Franks, one of the prominent Germanic tribes, played a central role in the reshaping of European geography and politics after the fall of the Roman Empire . Their history in the region was rich and transformative.

Between the 5th and the 8th centuries, with the decline of Roman power, the Franks under King Clovis I unified various Frankish tribes and expanded their territories. In 486 AD, Clovis defeated the last Roman governor in Gaul, marking the end of Roman rule in that region. Clovis and his successors, known as the Merovingians, expanded the Frankish kingdom into what is now Germany, establishing a significant portion of the region as “Austrasia.” Under the Merovingians, the Franks converted to Christianity, and the fusion of Germanic and Roman traditions began.

Secrets Remain intact, For Now

While the grave’s goods have been handed over for restoration, further studies are expected to shed light on the precise dating and intricate details obscured by rust. For instance, silver inlays hidden beneath the rust layers, might offer deeper insights into the artistry of the time. “This incredible discovery adds a significant piece to our understanding of early medieval Ingelheim,” remarked department head Eveline Breyer.

Analyses are also underway to ascertain the cause of the man’s death, who was believed to be in his 30s or 40s when he passed. Whether he succumbed to illness or fell in battle remains to be seen, but given his grave’s martial ambiance, a warrior’s end in combat wouldn’t be unexpected.

How does China feel about the ban of Huawei products in other countries?

Typically China doesn’t use political muscle to counter Anti Chinese sanctions or Anti Chinese hostility

China is in a very good position today

It is very strong, it is bustling with emerging technologies, every day sees new developments and it’s people are enjoying the lowest inflation possible and saving the most money in the world with very little personal debt

China is developing at a very rapid pace and surging ahead

It’s Military and Navy are building up at a rate that the US has not hit since 1944

Israel placed an order for 1.5 Million units of Body Armor Vests for their Paramilitary with China

Delivery within 30 days

Express order at 2.5 times original tender price

Bangladesh can do it, India can do it

Yet the quality, price and time taken combo is entirely Chinas baby

No Nation on earth can come even 50% close

At this stage, China is too prosperous to get into fights and get into any situation that could jeopardize it’s progress

In fact if you go to China, you will realize that a Company sanctioned by US is a MARK OF HONOR in Beijing

DJI is flush with orders from South America, Central America and the Middle East today

They lost a potential $ 4 Billion of deals in US and Europe and gained almost the entire $ 4 Billion in Saudi, Oman, Qatar and Brazil and Peru

Huawei has China

The Sheer Network in China alone would ensure Huawei covers 5G for 1.4 Billion people

Add the BRI Nations and another 36 Nations and you have a whopping 3.47 Billion People who are using Huawei equipment for their 5G

Plus Chinas smartphone market of 867 Million Units a year is more than US and EU and UK and Japan combined (574 Million Units)

Plus Huawei is an expert at using Western IP developed for Billions using a few tweaks and minting money on the same by spending pennies on the dollar

Best example is 3G and 4G.

The Collective West spent almost $ 15 Billion on the development

Huawei modified these IP and developed their 5G Patents by spending a mere $ 600 Million

Thus while Cisco hasn’t even recovered 15% of it’s investments, Huawei has already quadrupled it’s investments in 5G

China thus is in the best position to just sit by and surge ahead while doing very little

Things are so good for them that any counter action could make things worse

Huawei too is building a base among its Global South clients and will ultimately reach the peak without the West or their markets

Don’t under estimate China

They use their soft power for other things

This UNHRC is the best example

The Collective West twisted arms until they broke

Yet China grinned and became a full member for 2 more years

The Collective West twisted arms until they broke to avoid the BRICS expansion or the G20 condemnation of Putin

China crushed both these plans through tough diplomatic manoeuvres

The US is in a very weak place

It’s breaking up and is in deep trouble

Thus all this posturing to divert attention from the problems at home.

Same for UK, Canada and Europe

China has no such diversion needed

They just want to keep doing their job – developing Technology and soft power and surging ahead

FIRST TIME REACTING TO | Merkules ”Rich Men North Of Richmond” Remix

He’s been around many years. A true badass rapper. Dudes flow is always crazy.

What’s a point in time when you realized nothing would ever be the same again?

I was 14. No friends. Each day I dragged myself home to where I lived with my schizophrenic Mother, just the two of us.

I would be in trouble for something: I lived in a perpetual state of confusion as I often couldn’t remember what she told me I had done.

She told me I was stupid and needed to go to a special school because I didn’t know what I had done wrong.

In the past she had often slapped me until my nose bled and beat me with the metal pole of a fly swatter, but that stopped the summer before high school.

She told me she didn’t love me repeatedly for months.

According to her I was a horrible daughter.

Her friends from church had stopped coming weekly to yell at me and slap me senseless as well. I knew when she sent me away with my Aunt and Uncle the summer that had passed she had read my diary, where I detailed all the abuse and talked about wanting to die.

She denied reading it, but it stopped the physical abuse so now it was just verbal and believe it or not that hurt just as bad.

I was unloveable and alone.

She didn’t work and depended on government assistance.

She just sat at home chain smoking and playing cards.

During the week I woke myself up, made breakfast, went to school. She complained about the smell of eggs in the morning and of course I was useless.

I had a hard time socializing, and she decided she didn’t like the friends I’d managed to make the previous year, so put me in a very small private Christian high school the church paid for.

As a low income, single parent house I was a freak among higher income two parent families.

So I spent my days an outsider and bullied at school and then came home to be bullied some more.

I got in trouble once because someone told her I walked around with my head down and never smiled!

I remember trying out and making the school play that year. I was so proud.

My Mother decided to use that as leverage for her every whim: if I did anything wrong (sang doing dishes) she threatened to not allow me to be in the play. It got so bad I just quit the play rather than have it continually be held over my head as a threat.

A school councillor regularily made me talk to him.

I refused to give anything up.

He persisted. He asked me if I was abused: as she was no longer hitting me I said no.

I had no words to explain the verbal abuse.

Being stupid and unloveable didn’t seem to qualify.

Then one magical day a girl at school approached me and we became friends.

A few weeks later she asked me if I could spend the weekend at her house.

Her house was beautiful and she lived with her parents and siblings and it was loud, noisy and chaotic.

On the Saturday of this weekend sleep over, my new friend had to take piano lessons so I was to hang out in her room until she got back.

I was surprised when both her parents wanted to speak with me while she was gone.

They informed me that the school had asked them to be my foster parents and presented me with a ‘contract’.

They gave me 30 minutes to decide if I wanted to live with them.

I was 14 years old.

I had no friends.

My Mother was the only family I had ever known.

I knew I was stupid. I knew that I was worthless and unloveable. 30 minutes was a ridiculous amount of time for a decision that would change the course of my life that I was too young to make. I didn’t know these people at all.

But a voice in my head screamed at me to do it, with everything it had.

So I took that leap of faith. I jumped off the cliff away from everything I’d ever known.

My roller coaster ride wasn’t over my any means, but to this day I am so grateful I left.

My life 30 years later is wonderful and I often wonder where I would be if I had stayed growing up in that horrible house.

U.S. Confirms M1A1 Abrams Tanks Arrive in Ukraine

World Hal Turner Hits: 10439

The United States is confirming that the first (official) group of M1A1 Abrams tanks have arrived in Ukraine to be used against Russia. The escalation of fighting between Russia and Ukraine continues.

At some point, and we are now very close to it, Russia is going to declare the US a “combatant” in the fighting, and when that takes place, it will be public notice that we — here in the USA — are now subject to Russian military strikes.

Americans will be caught completely blind-sided if and when this takes place; they won’t understand how or why we got attacked by Russia – because our Mass-Media has not done its job to inform the public just how far our government public servants have escalated the fighting.

China just gave US chip materials’ permission, the US ordered to escalate sanctions against China!

Tired of this wicked government of america.

What is the biggest surprise about getting rich?

I made $30M from my previous tech company.

For me, the most surprising thing about being rich is that it’s an incredibly isolating experience. What I mean by that is you can’t really complain about your problems except within your small circle of rich friends. Otherwise, you will sound like a douchebag. Even if you do, non-rich people can’t really empathize with you.

There are a few problems associated with being rich such as general (lack of) motivation for work, family/friends asking for money, worry for how to motivate kids, spouse with different attitudes toward life after getting rich, potential spouse being a gold digger, unexpected jealous reaction from friends/family, pressure to deal with more complex tax, estate planning and investment planning and etc.

The joy of “set for life” doesn’t seem to offset the anxiety from hoarding the huge sum of money. In addition, when you don’t work because you are rich but can’t hang out with your friends who have to work during the week, you feel like an outcast of society.

Overall, being rich is very isolating and that’s the most surprising thing I have experienced.

China’s new missile DF 51, called a small Sarmat, can evade the Aegis defense system at sea

The New DF-51 ballistic missile can carry 10 miniature missiles. When the DF-51 flies to a certain area and launches 10 atomic bombs at the same time, the power is so great that the existing air defense system of the United States cannot bear it at all.

What is the best moment you witnessed in which somebody proved they weren’t “all talk”?

I watched a 90 lb female put a 235 lb guy in the hospital. This was a fight between 2 neighbors in my neighborhood. This guy harassed her for weeks then for some reason he decided to walk up to her front porch and knock on her door. I was sitting on my front porch when it happened. I was thinking this is not going to be good, and had my cell phone within reach.

She open her door and in a clear loud voice, she requested he get off her property. He said, what are you going to do about it. She said, I’ll call the police. He laughed at her and reached for the screen door. Before I could move she kicked him in the head twice, swept his legs out from under him, and he was down and bleeding.

I started to call the police, but again before I could dial the number a patrol car pulled up and the officer put the guy in handcuffs. I just sat there, drank my coffee and waited for him to come over and ask what I saw. I told him and signed the bottom of the form.

As he walked away he said you know the woman? I replied yes, she’s a former Marine. He chuckled and said. I guess the guy didn’t know that, and I laughed.

How I see the US after living in Europe for 5 years

“I moved to France 5 years ago. Came home to Maryland to spend Christmas with the family. I got sick, went to the ER, and came out with a bill worth $1,900. The doctor saw me a week later for a follow-up. I needed surgery and it would cost more than $ 45,000. I went back to France after the holidays, saw a doctor, got surgery, 2 months off work and I PAID NOTHING. “

What kind of leader is Xi Jinping?

What kind of leader is Xi Jinping?

He’s somebody who will deal with shit.

I mean it literally.

In 1974, Xi volunteered to go to Liangjiahe, a dirt-poor village in Northwestern China. His dad was getting the rough treatment during the Cultural Revolution, so he probably felt that getting out of Beijing was a safer move. So he volunteered.

China’s GDP per capita in the 70’s was around $100 per year, which is obviously not great. But Liangjiahe was a totally different ball game. It was a famously poor place. I would guess the GDP per capita was maybe $20 a year. No, I did’t miss any zeros. It was really that poor. There was no electricity, no indoor plumbing, no toilet, no heat, no rice or flour. Corn was a luxury, millet and wild grass were the normal diet. and people just dug dirt caves out of mountains to live.

The villagers that Xi lived with – were mostly illiterate and covered in fleas. So Xi looked around, and was like, fleas, oh well, I just have to get used to it. Food? That’s OK, I’ll take a hoe and go farm with the villagers. We can feed ourselves. Electricity? Water? Nah, nothing can be done about that. So what do we have? Poop! OK, so we have poop. We can make something with that, maybe.

So he read about fermenting poop to make methane gas, and tried to build a poop-fermenter in his village, so that people can use it for light and cooking at night. He was only 16 or 17 at that time, so he wasn’t very good and got the pipe stuck, so he had to jump into the cesspool to clear the pipe, and got poop all over himself, but he got it working. The next year he traded his motorbike for a water pump and some other tools for the village, and pretty soon his village was getting more prosperous. He stayed and worked in that village for 7 years, applied to join the CCP 10 times, got rejected 9 times, and finally got admitted on the 10th time. The villagers promptly elected him the Party Secretary of the village.

That was how he started his political career in China.

He’s not unique.

Actually, all of China’s leaders have been through absolute hell to get to where they are.

CCP tradition is that unless you start from the very bottom, you’ll never get to the very top. I mean, you are selecting 7 out of 80 million, once every 10 years, so the CCP traditionally has been absolutely ruthless in terms of discipline and promotion.

Election bribery? Expel 70.

Industrial accident? Send 25 to jail.

Corruption? Punish 100,000 in one year.

Get GDP to grow at 10%+, while keep your nose clean? OK, you get a one step promotion.

A small purge once every 2 years.

A big purge once every 5 years.

You’ve got to beat out 80 million people to get there, and everybody is swimming as hard as you are. The ones who pop out at the end, after 35 years, are all NOT your normal people!

When Beijing announced the plan to eliminate extreme poverty in 2015, most foreign observers were dubious. Can China Wipe Out Poverty By 2020?

Since the announcement, People Daily, the top Chinese newspaper, has been literally reporting on poverty reduction DAILY – success, failure, method, strategy, recidivism, lessons learned, statistics, etc. Everyday! I suspect the guy is actually serious about it.

Why I Am Leaving The United States and Never Coming Back

In this video I will be explaining why i am leaving the united states and never coming back. this discussion consists of reasons like social life in the united states, dating in the united states, cost of living for quality of life and more. I am going to thailand for the first time leaving the country in a couple months. expect upcoming traveling vlogs.

What is one absolute cast-iron classroom practice you use all the time that your day wouldn’t be the same without?

I sit behind the students and use an iPad hooked up to a projector to show them things on a screen in front of them.

It’s a really big screen, too. It’s one of those “backyard movie projection” screens, for which I built a frame and now it’s taking up the better part of one wall in my classroom. I have the projector at the back of the classroom, aiming over the students’ heads. And, since the projector is next to my desk (which is a sit/stand desk, by the way), I can physically plug my iPad into it. I tried doing this all wirelessly a few years ago, but it was more trouble than it was worth.

Usually, I’m showing them pages from their textbooks or workbooks. I snap pictures of the relevant pages for that day, turn them all into a single .pdf, and work my way through them, for the class to see. I use an Apple Pencil to mark them us as I go.

If the students seem bored, I ask for volunteers to come over to the iPad and do a few problems for everyone to see. The students enjoy it when one of their classmates takes on the role of “teacher.” The students who are taking on that role enjoy using the iPad and Apple Pencil.

Every now and then, I have to sub in another teacher’s classroom for a single period. No one else at this school has a set-up like mine. I genuinely don’t understand how teachers can stand being in front of their students while they’re trying to teach them, writing things on a whiteboard. Turning your back on your students while you write on the board is nerve-racking for me.

As an added bonus, when I’m using the iPad as a whiteboard or e-reader, and our textbook mentions something interesting, I can quickly and easily pull up YouTube or Safari, to enlighten the students a little more. Just this morning, our lesson on appositives featured 10 sentences about jazz music, including several about Louis Armstrong and Wynton Marsalis. I was able to pull up videos of both men, so the students could see who we were learning about. I was then able to find out that, not only is Marsalis still alive (the students asked me), but he’s playing in Chicago next spring.

At least once per day, I pull up something online that one of our textbooks mentions, to teach the students a little more about it.

Originally, I sat behind my students so I could see their screens when they were online. Yes, there is monitoring software, but just looking around at their screens in much easier. That was 15 years ago, when I began teaching. I’ve been doing it like this ever since.

The Video I Never Wanted to Make.

This is honestly getting scary hopefully it doesn’t get as bad as we all think but something tells me that we may not get that lucky. Crazy to think I am only 28 years old and I am prepper but i might have to start teaching my family how to do this stuff. Everyone stay safe.

When have you fired someone on the spot?

Yes.

Several years ago I inherited a “team” of people that included a lady I’ll call “Nancy.” She was what we called a houseplant: she’d been there forever and didn’t do much, but firing her would be a mess.

Nancy was a disaster from day 1. She would take two hour lunches. She’d hand in work so poor I could have just done it.

I once asked her to compile a spreadsheet and all she did was dump files into a folder and send it to me. She literally had one job of compiling a single report that she was doing. We even made her a simple guide that anyone could follow. We had her do this because it kept her away from everyone.

She also had beefs with three of my other people, so much that I moved people around the office to avoid her. She once accused a lady of drinking beer at her desk and it turned out to be some generic cola from Winn Dixie. When she wasn’t satisfied by this she reported me and the lady to HR. One fellow on my team was on long term pain management after being wounded by an IED in Afghanistan. He took some serious pain medication but he was a fantastic employee. Again, she called HR on him after telling her to mind her own business. When HR didn’t do anything she called the police and tried to have him arrested for drug possession.

One day we were doing end-of-year reporting and needed the report that Nancy was running. I go to the share drive and it’s empty. I ask her for it and she claims it’s there. I check again and it’s just raw data from our database.

I go over to her desk and ask what was happening. She immediately lies and says I never told her about the report. I point out the file detailing the steps on how to pull the report on her desktop.

One of my other employees, Wondah (pronounced Wanda) walks over and is trying to help. Nancy keeps trying to just push her away or delete files. Wondah tells her she’s costing us time and resources and it hits. Nancy looks at Wondah and yells “Shut up n*gger!”

The office goes quiet. I take two steps back. I put my hand on Wondah’s shoulder and gently pull her back a bit. I call over a neutral guy on another team. I ask him to walk Nancy out of the office and wait.

30 seconds later I’m on a conference call with HR confirming she’s getting fired. Wondah and five other employees confirm what she said.

I walk out in the hallway. Any illusion of civility is gone. Now she’s spitting and swearing at everyone. I tell her she’s fired. I get deluged by a string of racist screeds and threats to send her sons to my house to kill me. Security is there to escort her out. She turns and spits at me.

She tried suing the company for everything under the sun. On the stand she was a total disaster of a witness and I think the jury hated her as much as I did at that point.

She lost and had to pay our legal fees. Last I heard she’d fled the country to avoid paying a bunch of debts.

Silvio.

What is the most interesting fact you know about a film?

This is a somewhat worrying fact.

In the movie “The Wizard of Oz”, aluminum powder was used as makeup for the “Tin Man” costume.

…

This dust ended up getting into Jack Haley’s eyes and causing him a chronic infection.

…

But this was not an isolated incident. Buddy Ebsen, the original Tin Man, retired when he realized that makeup was slowly poisoning him.

The Tin Man’s character makeup was changed when Jack Haley replaced Buddy Ebsen.

Haley’s eye infection became so severe that he was forced to undergo surgical treatment and use antibiotics for years.

The production of this film was complete chaos.

Reacting to the Song that Stole America’s Heart

What is the best case of, “You just tried to scam the wrong person,” that you’ve witnessed?

As a gullible 30 y.o. I met a really cute man that seemed to like me. We started dating. His car broke down and he asked to borrow $80. I loaned it to him and he returned it. About 6 weeks later, his Mom had an emergency and he needed $400 and asked to borrow it until the next payday. I loaned it to him. Then I found out he had a live-in girlfriend and child. She came to my work and tried to beat me up for trying to steal her boyfriend. I broke up with him but I tried to get my money back. That wasn’t happening. He kept trying to get back with me, but I found a note that he had written about how much money I had in my checking account. He didn’t realize it had fallen out of wherever he put it. So I decided to beat him at his own game. I asked him to meet me for lunch at a restaurant. I had stashed a dear friend of mine at another table within ear shot and vision of what I was doing. I had handwritten a small “loan agreement with interest” that I told him I needed him to sign for me to rebuild trusting him. The Sucker signed it thinking it wasn’t valid. My friend witnessed it and signed as a witness. I then took him to Small Claims Court, asked for damages and Court costs, garnished his wages, and got my money back over time, including interest.

10 Reasons Why You Should NEVER Move to the United States

The USA has become a TERRIBLE place.

Apricot Cobbler

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

Filling

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup water
3 (15 1/4 ounce) cans apricot halves, drained
1 tablespoon butter

Topping

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cold butter
1/2 cup milk

Instructions

Filling

In a saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Stir in water; bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil and stir for 1 minute; reduce heat.
Add apricots and butter; heat through. Pour into a greased 2 quart baking dish.

Topping

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl; cut in butter until crumbly.
Stir in milk just until moistened. Spoon over hot apricot mixture.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown and a wooden pick inserted into the topping comes out clean.

What is a split-second decision you made that changed your life?

When I was 14 years old my Mom suddenly decided she wanted to move to Colorado. Apparently it was a place she had always wanted to see, so next thing I knew we were living in the ultra small town of Limon, Colorado. I was not happy about this at all. My brother, who was 19 at the time, had stayed in South Carolina. All of my friends were still in South Carolina. I was miserable.

I spent my freshman year in Limon, and hated almost everything about it. The one part I didn’t hate was that my freshman class of 30 students included 5 guys and 25 girls. That was fun. On the other hand, I was the fattest kid in school, so even playing football didn’t help me in that arena.

One day, about a week after school let out for summer, I was sitting in my bedroom listening to music when I suddenly really wanted to hang out with my brother. I didn’t even think about it. I grabbed my rucksack that I used for camping, loaded it up with clothes, my radio and some tapes (this was 1990), and I walked out the door. I was going to hitchhike the almost 1500 miles to South Carolina.

It took me 63 hours to get there. To this day I am amazed at how easy it actually was, and how fast I made it there. What’s even more amazing is that when I showed up at my Aunt’s front door (my brother was living with her after we moved) it was my Mom who met me at the door. As soon as she had gotten home from work and I wasn’t there she knew what I had done and where I was going. Since she was able to drive straight through she made the trip far quicker than I did.

My Mom was angry, but she was just as relieved that I was safe, so she agreed that we could stay for one week before we headed back to Limon. That was on a Friday. The following Wednesday was June 6th, 1990. That date might not matter to most people, but it was very important to us, because of this:

Limon marks 20 years since devastating tornado

A tornado ripped through the town, destroying almost half of the town – including the apartment we were living in at the time. If we hadn’t been in South Carolina, I would have been home when it came through, and likely would not be alive right now.

Oddly enough, this would not be the last time something like that would happen to me. In 2010 I made the split-second decision to move back to South Carolina again, leaving behind my apartment in Joplin, Missouri. I had already been planning to move, but my plan had been to go to Florida to be near my parents. At the last minute my Mom told me not to come because the Space Center had just laid off 10,000 NASA employees, and that was a job market I did not want to try to compete in during those hard times. I could have stayed in Joplin, but I had already sold off most of my furniture, so I just decided, “Screw it, I’ll go back to South Carolina.”

A year later, Joplin was hit by an F5 tornado that destroyed almost 25% of the town — including the apartment I had been living in when I was there. Combined with the fact that an entire street I lived on in South Carolina was destroyed by a tornado a couple years after I moved away, and the fact that I left South Carolina months before Hurricane Hugo hit, and again just before Hurricane Andrew hit, and now my friends joke that if I ever move away they are all coming with me.

Jamaican Sista Warns Black Immigrants, The American Dream Is A Farce Because US Is A Plantation

“You will work until you are literally DEAD!”

Stacked 1,400-Year-Old Zhou Dynasty Emperor’s Tomb Uncovered in China

Archaeologists in Shaanxi Province, northwest China, have discovered the tomb of Emperor Xiaomin (birth name Yuwen Jue), the founding emperor of the Northern Zhou Dynasty (557-581). Emperor Xiaomin’s tomb, a medium-sized one in the context of the Northern Zhou dynasty, is situated in Beihe Village, Weicheng District, Xianyang, an area known for its concentration of high-quality tombs spanning from the Northern Dynasties (439-581) to the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907).

Uncovering Zhou Dynasty Emperor Tomb: Medium-Sized but Power Packed

The tomb itself faces south and is a single-chamber soil cave tomb with four patios along the sloping tomb passage, according to a press announcement by Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology on Tuesday. Covering a total length of 56.84 meters (186.5 ft) from north to south, the bottom of the tomb lies 10 meters (32.8 ft) beneath the current surface.

According to the press announcement:

“The archaeological discovery of Yuwen Jue’s tomb from the Northern Zhou Dynasty is of great significance. It is the second Northern Zhou emperor’s tomb that has been excavated after the Xiaoling Mausoleum of Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.”

Though the tomb had previously been looted, archaeologists have managed to recover 146 burial objects, primarily pottery figurines in a single chamber holding funerary offerings, depicting warriors and cavalry units. Furthermore, the presence of an epitaph on the tomb’s eastern side has allowed archaeologists to confirm that the tomb belonged to Emperor Xiaomin (542-557), reports Heritage Daily .

This discovery holds immense significance for historical research into the emperors of the Northern Dynasty , as highlighted by Zhao Zhanrui, an assistant researcher at the academy.

Northern Zhou: Foundation of a Short-Lived Dynasty

Rather than assuming the title of emperor, Xiaomin, also known as Emperor Ming of Northern Zhou, chose to adopt the Zhou Dynasty’s title of “Heavenly Prince.” However, his reign was marred by internal strife and power struggles. A significant conflict unfolded between Xiaomin and his cousin, Yuwen Hu, who sought to consolidate his own power.

In a dramatic turn of events, Yuwen Hu managed to depose Xiaomin from his position and subsequently had him killed. This political maneuvering further highlighted the instability and internal divisions that plagued the Northern Zhou Dynasty during its relatively brief existence.

The Northern Zhou Dynasty , which reigned from 557 to 581 AD, was a significant but relatively short-lived era in the history of ancient China . Founded by Yuwen Tai, who took the title of Emperor Wen upon his ascent to power, the dynasty was established following a successful rebellion against the ruling Northern Wei Dynasty .

The Northern Zhou’s capital was Chang’an, an influential city located in what is now Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. Chang’an was known for its cultural richness and strategic importance as a center of trade and governance .

One of the most notable aspects of the Northern Zhou Dynasty was its association with Buddhism. Emperor Wen and his successor, Emperor Wu, were fervent Buddhists, and they played a pivotal role in promoting Buddhism as the state religion. They supported the construction of Buddhist temples , sponsored the translation of Buddhist scriptures, and actively contributed to the growth of Buddhism in China. This period marked a significant turning point in Chinese religious and cultural history.

Emperor Wen and Emperor Wu also implemented important political reforms aimed at strengthening the central authority of the emperor. Land redistribution was one such reform, aimed at reducing the power of the aristocracy and redistributing land to the common people. These efforts were indicative of the dynasty’s desire to create a more equitable society.

Despite these reforms, the Northern Zhou Dynasty faced challenges. The empire’s unity weakened over time, leading to regional fragmentation and conflicts among various power centers. Eventually, the Northern Zhou Dynasty succumbed to internal strife, and it was conquered by the Sui Dynasty in 581. This marked the end of the dynasty’s relatively short but culturally impactful existence.

Legacy and Historical Relevance of the Northern Zhou

The legacy of the Northern Zhou Dynasty lives on in several ways. Its patronage of Buddhism had a lasting influence on Chinese religion, culture, and art. The dynasty’s contributions to calligraphy and sculpture, particularly in the context of Buddhist art, marked significant advancements in Chinese culture. Furthermore, some of its political reforms, such as those related to land distribution, influenced subsequent Chinese dynasties, including the powerful Tang Dynasty.

Notably, the Northern Zhou Dynasty was unique in its ethnic background. Its founding emperor, Yuwen Tai, belonged to the Xianbei ethnic group, making the dynasty one of the few in Chinese history to be ruled by a non-Han Chinese ethnic group, a rarity.

FILIPINA WIFE DEFENDING PASSPORT BROS.

One of the best, most intelligent responses to these woke, American women. Thanks Leah. You and Gary have a great family and life. Wish you both the best!

Stressed out PP

When I lived in Shenzhen (ripe out of the ‘States) we had a little dog. We called him ShaoPi, or “PP” for short. He was a good little Bishion breed. He was a mini version, and so didn’t live as long as a normal breed would of.

Anyways, we also had his son; “Super”. Which was a mixed breed. Bishion and Bomei. And he was absolutely one heck of a handsome dog.

One thing, though. He hated my guts.

…

I mean it. He HATED me; with a searing level of disgust and malice. Including biting me, and forcing me to get rabies vaccinations. Ugh!

I was an “outsider” and he “owned” my wife and her ex-boyfriend. And to exert his displeasure on me, he would make messes all over the place, bark non-stop and generally did everything he could to try to chase me away.

Well, that was causing our PP to get super stressed out. And he was a good dog, always trying to straighten out this wayward son. But it was to no avail. Eventually, both dogs were super stressed out, and start a non-stop peeing contest in the house. I mean, they were urinating over everything.

Everything.

And so we would take PP out with us and we did out chores and made our rounds, and it helped some. But, you know, he was so stressed out that he still continued to pee everywhere and over everything.

We knew that there was a problem. But we didn’t know what to do.

…

Then one day, while riding on an elevator there was a really cute 20-something girl all “decked out” wearing nice clothes and makeup going out (probably) on a date. We were also going out. PP was at our feet, and we were making arrangements for an evening dinner.

She was checking out her phone while adjusting her makeup, and sure as shit…

…PP urinated all over her high heels, and her nylons and her dress.

…

She screamed out so loudly that PP jumped back as if electrified….

…

That week we found a home for “Super”, and that was another trial, I’ll tell you what. But the moral of this little story is when people, or loved ones are stressed out…

…do something about it, before things get out of hand!

Todays…

Shi Jiangiao

This is Shi Jiangiao, a Chinese assassin who lived during the Warlord Era (1916-1928) in China.

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Shi came from a family of humble beginnings as her grandfather was a simple farmer and tofu seller. However, that all changed when her father and uncle became decorated soldiers, rising through the ranks in the Chinese military. This helped raise the social status of her family.

In 1925, when Shi was only 19 years old, her father was leading a brigade of soldiers to capture Guzhen, Shandong, when he became surrounded by a warlord by the name of Sun Chuanfang. Sun decapitated her father and had his head mounted on a pike and put on display at a local train station.

Two years later, Sun was disposed of by the Kuomintang (aka Chinese Nationalist Party) who wanted to reunify China, which had become fragmented after the 1911 Revolution, which overthrew China’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing. Sun peacefully retired from his life as a warlord and founded a Buddhist society.

Meanwhile, Shi spent her 20s tracking down Sun who had disappeared without a trace. In 1935, ten years after her father’s death, Shi managed to track Sun down in Tianjin, a major port city close to Beijing. (If you recall, Tianjin was the city that had that major explosion in 2015.)

Shi entered the Buddhist temple and found Sun kneeling in front of the altar. She approached him from behind and shot him several times with a pistol. She did not attempt to flee the scene of the crime but began distributing pamphlets explaining her actions.

Her case drew significant coverage and reached the Nanjing Supreme Court. In the eyes of the law, she was guilty. However, Confucian morality stipulates that one must avenge their parents. Ultimately, the Nationalist government decided to pardon her on the grounds that the assassination was justified because it was an act of filial piety. It also helped her case that the man she had assassinated was guilty of trafficking opium, suppressing strikes by factory workers in Shanghai, and collaborating with the Japanese.

What did someone say to you that instantly made you realize their life was in danger?

While I was working as a Hospice Nurse one of my patients had a great grand daughter that visited often. One day she came in and could hardly walk.

She wouldn’t look at me.

…

I made an excuse to get close to her.

Her eye was almost closed shut and her face was black and blue.

…

I ask her who beat her but she was too scared to talk.

I didn’t wait.

I immediately called 911 just as her boyfriend came in and was going to pull her out of the room.

…

Security came and the boy tried to hit them.

It took 3 police and a taser to get him in their police car.

The poor girl had [1] broken ribs, [2] a ruptured spleen, [3] collapsed left lung and [4] she had a miscarriage the next day.

We made good friends regardless of the age difference and her family is so nice.

I thank God that I didn’t look away and could help her.

I had to be a witness at his trial and he got 40 years for attempted murder and spousal abuse.

Exposing Philippines!

Take a little vacation and look at how the “Global South” looks like. This is the Philippines.

Green Chile Steaks

Ingredients

1/2 pound lean ground beef
1/2 teaspoon Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
1/4 teaspoon Lawry’s Garlic Powder with Parsley
1 fresh green chile, seeded and minced*
3 tablespoons chopped scallion

Instructions

In medium bowl, thoroughly combine all ingredients.
Form into 2 oval steak patties or 4 hamburger patties.
Cook in skillet, broiler or on grill until done.

What accidentally rude things do Americans do while traveling even without realizing it?

Saying “Give me this/that” instead of asking for it.

I was once in a bar in Turkey, watching football (as in kicking a ball with the foot) with some other foreigners, German & Danish IIRC, drinking beer, & nibbling cacik & bread.

A group of American men walked in (I think from the nearby air base). They knew the barman’s name. They asked if the back room was free, & on being told yes, headed for it & commanded the barman to bring them beers – all done by shouting across the bar in English. He smiled to their faces & scowled at their backs. Then he noticed two of us looking at him & looked embarrassed.

A little while later we needed more beer, & it was my turn, so I went to the bar & asked (in Turkish – as we’d all done) for more beer e.g. “beş bira, lütfen”. He still seemed embarrassed, & said something like (IIRC) “You’re OK. You say lütfen” (Turkish for please). In his terms, the Americans were extremely rude. They probably had no idea. We, on the other hand, were at least trying to be polite. We knew how to ask for a beer (or a few), & how to say please & thank you, & understood that was customary.

I expect the Americans would have been very surprised to know that they were constantly being rude to locals.

They’re FINALLY Been Arrested in MAUI,The Rock & Oprah

Thank you for speaking on our Maui brothers and sisters. Thank you James Okeefe also. This is unacceptable as well as unbelievable!!

https://youtu.be/cXv1Cb93OGA

Confession of the Day

I started self directed investing in 2012 with $20k. My first big success was betting on American Airlines after they filed bankruptcy before the merger with US Airlines. It was a 5x return in less than two years. I took that money and bought a house to Airbnb and ended up with about $250k.

I reinvested into the market and made my way all the way up to about $600k during the Covid spurt. Then I began to fuck with options. The first few wins were big for me, $5k, $10k, $20k, etc. then I really started betting big and hit returns over $100k in a single day. I couldn’t stop. The dopamine rush was too good.

The ups were euphoric and the downs sent my mind and body into a total whirlwind of intense emotion. It was the sickest drug. I couldn’t get enough. Nothing else matter other than becoming as rich as possible. And then I finally crossed the $1m threshold…. For only one day.

The next day I the market looked like shit but I was so hard up for my next fix I played anyway. Down $100k – eh it’ll come back, I can’t lose. Down $200k – if Itake the hit now that means I’m a loser, no way. Down $250k – ok I was wrong, time to switch sides and redeem myself. Down $330k – fuck fuck fuck!!! Don’t worry, I’II get it back next week…. And I did. $980k. Nice, almost back to $1m.

And then down. And down. And down.

All of it. Gone. 9 years of building $20k into $1m. Because the high was never high enough and the low was never enough to stop me. I went through deep depression, lots of suicidal thoughts, and darkness I didn’t think I’d come out of. A year of therapy, books, podcasts, support, and I’m doing better. Relapsed once and lost another $90k in a single day, just because I couldn’t lose.

We’re a dopamine nation now. This forum says it all. Gambling at your fingertips and the ever looming reminder that some people actually win and get super rich. At least for a little while. But the highs are never high enough and it never ends. Check yourselves before it’s too late. Day trading can be a real gambling addiction and you really can lose it all no matter how good you are.

I hope this helps save even just one person.

Is there Any Hope for this Once Great City?

Who do you fear the most in your country?

As ridiculous as it sounds, roving bands of young fellas off the estates, typically aged between 10 and 16.

I know some Americans will probably read this and think I’m a right pussy for being scared of a load of kids, but you don’t know man! You weren’t there!

See, the thing is with these kids, be they scallies, chavs, neds, roadmen, townies or whatever you call them in your region, is that typically they appear in large groups, they have little to lose and so don’t care about doing the stupidest shit possible, and they are not afraid to hound you and make your life a misery if you challenge them.

Sure, one on one, I wouldn’t be particularly scared about a 14 year old scal (although they increasingly carry knives and machetes and shit), but the point is that you rarely do encounter them one on one.

And let’s say, there’s a load of them camped outside your nan’s house chucking stones at her windows and you think, “Fuck that, I’ll go chase them off,” what is likely to happen is that they’ll start posturing around you and throwing stones at your head or they might fuck off, but then they’ll find out where you live (if you live nearby) and they’ll start wrecking your house and you might even find your house firebombed. It might sound extreme, but it does happen.

The police are ineffective as they have no respect for the police and, anyway, they’re minors so cannot properly be held accountable unless they do something really bad. And anyway, being tough on crime only goes so far. A more holistic long-term approach to the issue is required, but sadly no government has the vision or appetite to really commit to such policies.

So, essentially, you are powerless to do anything meaningful against them because you will only exacerbate the situation. These kids have the capability to make your life hell. They can make going to the local shops a genuinely nerve-wracking experience, particularly for the elderly and those with disabilities. They can really ruin the atmosphere of otherwise solid working class communities.

And that’s the thing too, it is the working class communities where they live and hang out that suffer the real brunt of their aimless destructive behaviour. You can be somewhat insulated against them if you live away from them or even just on a road they don’t frequent, but if you are forced by circumstance to live where they congregate, then your life can be pretty miserable if you get on their bad side.

And yeah, I’m scared of them. I’m less scared of some actual high up gang leader than I am these kids because at least with the real gang members they’re not interested in you unless you give them a reason to be, whereas, like I said, these kids have nothing to lose and might target you simply because they can and they think it’s funny.

It’s the one thing I really don’t miss about living in more working class areas, which can otherwise be much more friendly and interesting places to live

US efforts to strangle China & reassert hegemony – Jeffrey Sachs, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen

“Emerging nations fight wars at their borders, declining nations fight wars far away.” ~Chris Hedges

What is the rudest thing anyone has ever done to you in your own house?

My mother-in-law was visiting us in Canada from her home in South Africa. There she had two house servants and a garden “boy” who did all the work. She sat smoking her cigarettes and “supervised”. Staying in my home where I had two children under age 6, a lot of my mornings were spent in child care, household chores, meal planning and all of the hundred other jobs of the Canadian housewife. One morning my mother-in-law sat at the kitchen table drinking coffee I had made and smoking her cigarette (which I had objected to from day one) and told me that I needed to change my routine to do my household chores after everyone had gone to bed so that her day was not “spoiled” by me having to do chores on “her” time.

What legitimate reasons does the US have for prioritizing military goals over economic ones in countering China’s influence in the developing world?

Let’s see

Is there the slighest chance that China will invade USA or any NATO country?

Absolutely not.

The US is impregnable with Canada and Mexico as buffers and the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans as it’s maritime buffers

There is a nuclear deterrent as well

So why else is US prioritizing it’s Military Goals

The Answer is IT HAS TO KEEP FEEDING IT’S MILITARY INDUSTRIES

Critical issues

The US has to keep paying money to keep it’s Defence Industries rich and profitable so that their shares are profitable and so that the Corrupt Senators, Congressmen and Lobbyists get rich

It’s a vicious cycle

Guess how many Senators have more than 30% of their investments in Defense Stocks?

61 – SIXTY ONE

35 Republicans and 26 Democrats

Guess how many Senators have more than 30% of their investments in Tech stocks?

67 – SIXTY SEVEN

38 Democrats and 28 Republicans and 1 Independent leaning to Democrat

Congressmen?

209 – 108 Democrats and 101 Republicans

Of these 51 have more than $ 5 Million worth of stocks

Lloyd Austin has earned $ 4.3 Million after leaving the Pentagon just by sitting on the boards of various Defense Contractors

He doesn’t have 50 grams of brains in that massive skull of his

So the Military Industry in US is like a shark that has to keep swimming

They always need an enemy to keep selling weapons to

They HATE PEACE because any peace means less potential to sell weapons

First it was the Cold War – Weapons sale

Next it was fighting Communism – Weapons Sale

Next it was fighting Saddam & Milosevic – Weapons Sale

Next it was fighting Terror – Weapons Sale

Now it’s fighting Russia and China – Weapons Sales

Tomorrow they may decide India is the enemy and wage a war on India and sell weapons or decide it’s Japan Or even Aliens

Their Military Goals have led to the worst disasters on earth

Vietnam
Cambodia
Laos
Afghanistan
Iraq
Libya
Syria
Ukraine
Taiwan (Next)

They have single handedly led to their deaths more men than Taliban, Al Qaeda, ISIS and Saddam Hussein and Gadaffi COMBINED

They have destroyed countries with their bombs and Agent Orange

Today their Target is China and Russia

They don’t have the balls for a direct fight because a MAD means the evil politicians will also die and they don’t want that

So these proxy wars will be their way of milking and flattening the military defense industries

Basically they are part of a corrupt hellhole with many idiots even today proudly saying how the US Dollar is backed by the US Army

They will be destroyed one day as history is proof of

One day they will collapse when their own people begin to rebel and fight this evil system

Until then these a**holes will keep harrassing everyone and lying to the whole world

I refer only to around 300,000 Evil Americans in US and another 2 Million more brainwashed evil corrupt minions

The other 336.7 Million Americans are very decent and nice people

Eliminate these 2.3 Million a**holes and the US will be back to the Pre Eisenhower era. A Nice Country with genuine morals

OH. MY. GOSH.🤯😟 MUST SEE: Can Americans answer ANYTHING correctly!?

I fully support the movement to require a civics test before voting or even just knowing the difference between a STATE and a COUNTRY would be a start.

Dog-fight between France & Germany. But drag China along. What is the dog-fight about?

Chinese electric cars surprised the world in the 2023 car exhibition.

France started the dog fight. It called for EU investigation if China has subsidized its electric car industry. EU chief took France’s case.

EU Commerce Chamber in China right away told EU that there is no electric car subsidy by Chinese government. What makes China successful in electric car is because China has lots of scientists who work hard to improve their car tech so as to compete in the world, said the Chamber.

German business-people also opposed the EU investigation. Saying it will force China’s to react & counter EU’s unreasonable action. It will harm German economy.

It is a dog fight between France & Germany.

France’s car sales in China accounts for less than 1%. Germany, more than 17%. No need to explain further, right?

France can afford to lose its <1% to weaken Germany’s >17%.

If Germany wants to, Germany can counter target France’s luxury products eg cosmetics & fashion that sell well in China.

Despite objection from German business people, German politicians agreed to EU investigation. … really, politicians do not care about the welfare of the country & its people. They only care about votes ie personal interest.

Has German government subsidized electric car industry? Many times. From internet.

What is more irony is that: when USA subsidized its electric cars under the disguise of Inflation Reduction Act, EU protested & warned USA that EU will also subsidize its electric car industry. Today Germany is subsiding its electric cars industry based on … false accusation as testified by EU Commerce Chamber.

Is it true that Chinese people seemed not to get offended and are too weak to fight back when abused racially because interracial fighting is something very shameful in their cultures?

Chinese do not like direct confrontation. Confrontation is seen as a sign of stupidity. Two thousand years ago, the founder of the Han dynasty summed it up: 吾寧鬥智不鬥力: I prefer to fight with my wits, not by power. From a very weak start, he thrashed 項羽 Hsiang/Xiang Yü, his main rival, whose army was much more powerful.

Fighting is for children and inferior people. Look at it this way: a four year old can strike out in anger, but is incapable of coming up with a better plan.

Chinese always prefer to use strategy rather than brute force. 難忍能忍大丈夫: a powerful cultural standard is that a real hero is someone who can say, “My head is bloody but unbowed.”

This is strength, not weakness, and does not mean that Chinese will not fight back. Look what happened to the mighty Japanese warlords when they attacked China. The Chinese in general avoided direct confrontation, drew the Japanese in, and overcame them. China has stood off some of the most powerful armies in the world. Even though the Mongols eventually conquered China, it took them decades and weakened them so much they were unable to conquer Viet Nam (of course there are other factors, such as VN fighting prowess, but this is an essential factor.) In China, the Mongols were close to their home but suffered great losses at Chinese hands. Compare that to the European powers, where the “flower of chivalry” was butchered in short order on their home territory by Mongols far, far from their home base.

I do not know how much the person asking the question knows about China, but I would guess that most people have heard of China’s long tradition of martial arts. Chinese will fight, but consider it uncivilized, immature, beneath an adult’s dignity.

We left America for Police putting guns to our heads. Part 1-2

This channel is to bring the awareness to the world of the beautiful continent of Africa. My intentions are to show the development, people, property and investment opportunities. All the adventures and opportunities that is for people to take advantage of. Also showing how America is not necessarily the perfect place for people to live.

ASMR: What it is, what it stands for and how it works

What is ASMR? How does ASMR work?

What does ASMR stand for?

Are you “ASMR sensitive”? Do you get ASMR tingles?

Is this the first time you’ve heard of ASMR which stands for “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response”?

It might not mean what you think it means.

Millions of people experience ASMR “tingles” when exposed to certain stimuli.

Triggers like hair brushing, whispering, finger tapping, clicking, chewing and caring role-playing send shivers down some people’s spine.

These same ASMR triggers are actually “misophonic” triggers for others; meaning these sounds cause negative responses.

For example: nails on a chalkboard will drive some people nuts but others aren’t affected.

The Why Files answers these questions and raises a few more. The science behind behind ASMR is still new but research is underway.

Though ASMR is a relatively new phenomenon, the online ASMR community is vibrant and growing rapidly.

Are you ASMR sensitive?

What are your triggers?

Who is the most evil person you have ever met?

I once had a therapist for four years. He spent every session of that 4 years grooming me. Yes grooming me as if I were a child and he were the predator – except I was an adult and never knew what was happening until it was too late. If I questioned anything about the ethics of something he did or said – he always twisted up an answer that made enough sense in my mind that I would disregard. It was a disgusting abuse of power. He was extremely subtle about his approach and he nearly destroyed me as a human before it was all finished. Looking back years later I can see how correlated he was in what he did and I am sure he had many victims besides myself. At one point he even talked of “getting rid of my husband”. (I never told me husband this part of everything)

In the end he chose the wrong victim. I had to rise above the fear and confusion. I did. I had to be careful to make sure to keep all of my complaints and even my lawyer was a secret till the moment that he was piled with so much legal shit and my states’ board and Human Resources was all brought out at once. I did this intentionally so there was no way he could get out of the situation or harm me without someone knowing who did it to me. And so what he was doing was made known without ANY space for “reasonable doubt”.

I’ve taken a lot of time to heal and am still now in the process of forgiving him, forgiving myself, and moving forward to be as healthy as I can be. Sometimes I wish he’s a trash guy now… except the get paid too much. But he’s the most evil person I have ever met.

It’s unfortunate that what he did to me isn’t a criminal offense in my state as it is in many states. I plan to make this change through whatever legal route I need to take and make a difference so nobody else ever has to go through what I did. That man should be in prison. He’s a rapist and a cunning one at that. A sick sick human.

Syrian conflict.

When the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011 , Western-backed rebels launched a full-scale attack on the Syrian government, and an extremely bloody color revolution began.

We Chinese often say that we experienced 14 years of hard resistance against Japan during World War II. Warning the war in Syria is not over yet! The United States also steals oil, food, and cultural relics in Syria…

No one expected that at the opening of the Asian Games in Hangzhou , China would make a move that would completely change the world.

On September 21, the Syrian president and his wife arrived in Hangzhou, China, and then arrived in the capital Beijing on September 24, visiting two places in a row.

Below is a picture of the Syrian president and his wife arriving in Hangzhou and Beijing. My heart moved at this moment.

Perhaps the whole world did not expect that Syria, which has long been completely blocked in the West, has received the most respectful reception in China. We do not belittle Syria just because it is a small country in war.

Put yourself in my shoes, if you were a Syrian , how would you feel when you saw this scene? What is the characteristic of a great country? This is the It! China has deservedly become a true morale beacon of human civilization. The picture below is really shocking.

During their visit to Hangzhou, the Syrian president and his wife visited Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou . During the visit, a female tourist could not help but touch Asma, the Syrian lady, because she was so beautiful. The female tourist said to Asma, “You are so beautiful.” Unexpectedly, Asma replied: “You have a beautiful country.” From the look of the video, the female tourist seems to be an older person, but even so, I don’t think it’s good to touch her face, since she is the president’s wife after all. However, this reply from the wife of the Syrian President suddenly sublimated the matter. Yes, we have a beautiful country, and for the Syrian people, this is their biggest dream. Syria was once a beautiful country. There is an old saying that goes like this: “If there is a paradise on earth, Damascus must be in it. If paradise is in the sky, Damascus will be as famous as it.” Asma, the wife of the Syrian President, is known as the Desert Rose . She is a very beautiful and gentle person, but behind this beauty, there is an extraordinary experience, which can even be said to be legendary.

Asma was born in London, England, to Syrian parents. Her family conditions are very good. In 1996, Asma graduated from King’s College London with a BA in Computer Science and French Literature . After graduation, she started working at Deutsche Bank Group as an economic analyst in the hedge fund management department. In 1998, Asma joined JPMorgan Chase & Co. in investment banking. She was also preparing to pursue an MBA at Harvard University, but moved to Syria after meeting her husband, Bashar , while on vacation with her family. I can be said to be an absolute intellectual and business elite. Her husband Assad is the second son and is not the successor that the family focuses on training. The family focuses on training his eldest brother. As a result, his eldest brother died unexpectedly in a car accident in 1994.

Assad himself is relatively flat. His early dream was to be a doctor and he had little interest in politics. He himself has been studying medicine in the UK. After meeting Asma, we hit it off and became even less interested in politics. However, the eldest brother, who had been trained by the family and was supposed to take on the succession, unexpectedly passed away. Assad could only return to his country to take charge of the overall situation. At this moment, the gears of fate began to turn. The Assads would never have imagined that they would be pushed to a turning point in human history by chance.

The general background of the outbreak of the Syrian civil war is that the United States instigated the ” Arab Spring ” throughout the Middle East . Don’t read the name and think that is a good thing like it’s name “spring”. In fact, it is a large-scale national subversion. According to Egyptian statistics afterwards, the Arab Spring caused more than 1 million deaths in the Middle East and damage to infrastructure worth 1 trillion. It started with the collapse of the political situation in Tunisia , followed by the complete collapse of the situation in Egypt, Libya , Yemen, and Bahrain…

That is, in 2011, Gaddafi’s regime came to an end. He himself was caught in the north of the country. He was tortured, then executed on the same day, and finally his body was exposed in a market… After trouble occurred in the above countries, it was Syria’s turn. This was the background of the early outbreak of the Syrian civil war. At that time, no country believed that Syria could survive. The United States in 2011 was not the sick cat it is now. It was the peak moment of the US imperialist regime. Hanging Saddam , destroying Gaddafi while laughing… Moreover, at that time, the United States had almost no opponents in the world.

Let’s talk about China and Russia back then . At that time, Russia was still dreaming of integrating into the West. It had already joined the G7 and became a small G8. At that time, China did not have a falling out with the United States and was still busy doing business and making money. Except for Iran, an absolutely anti-American country, almost no one in the world supports Syria. However, China and Russia still helped Syria during the UN vote. Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the United Nations Security Council has held seven votes on the Syrian issue. Due to opposition from China and Russia, all seven votes have been vetoed.

That was only the beginning… After all, if you look other than Syria, no country in the Middle East can withstand this combination of punches from the United States. At that time, Russia was not realized being duped and China was not strong enough. In the first four years, the only way for Syria to survive was to hold on by itself. After all, if the Syrian regime collapses at the first sign, it will be useless for outsiders to help. But no one expected that the Assads would refuse to surrender! I swear that I will never surrender to USA. Assad said that this is not a matter of the Syrian civil war, or that once our regime fails, the entire country will be carved up by foreign countries, and the Syrian people will have no future. From a current perspective, Assad’s judgment back then was very accurate. Just think about today’s Libya and today’s Iraq . Since the civil war, the economy has not recovered yet, and the country is still in a state of fragmentation. It was very smart to be able to make this prediction in 2011. We can recall that in 2011, support of the US was rampant on the Internet in china. The point is USA really fooled many people into believing that the United States was good. The United States in 2011 was still at the peak of its empire, and its influenced was indeed much stronger than it is now. At least in those days, American women were still women, and men were still men… When the Syrian civil war was at its most dangerous, the rebels fought directly near the capital. Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, has been occupied by Syrian rebels for six years. It is only a stone’s throw away from the capital. At this time, it is a great test for the Assad’s resilience.

After all, the fate of Saddam and Gaddafi lies ahead if Syria government lost. If they do not flee for their lives, once the rebels enter the city, their entire family will definitely be killed. But Assad insists on one thing. No matter how crazy the “expendable” supported by the Americans are around me, I will not surrender. I will live and die with my motherland! I believe that many people at that time advised Assad to save the country and choose to surrender. But Assad has an attitude, I will not surrender! I don’t care how strong the opponent’s is, but this is our own motherland, if we the Syrian people don’t resist, won’t we just perished? However hopeless we must fight! This scene suddenly reminded me of our people during the Anti-Japanese War. “Yes, no matter whether we can win against the Japanese or not, this battle must be fought. If we don’t defend our own motherland, who will we defend?” “And if we don’t fight, how do we know we won’t win? Those who say surrender is a way to save the country, better die as quickly as possible!” As a result, with the help of Russia and Iran, it was actually recovered!

Although these external help are important, I think the most important thing is the persistence of the local people. Russia’s military intervention in the Syrian situation was in September 2015. The war in Syria broke out in 2011. If Assad himself could not hold on in the first four years, it would be useless even if reinforcements came. What is touching is that in the Battle of Aleppo , the Syrian army, after repeated bloody battles, was about to completely regain the lost territory… However, Western countries have appealed for an armistice at the United Nations, and they are talking about providing humanitarian relief. What it actually means is that you stop fighting and give me some time. I will re-arm the rebels so that I can kill you after.

It was immediately vetoed by China and Russia. Don’t stop, keep firing, shoot with all your might! Just beat up the drowned dog. Our veto vote greatly helped Syria and won them a lot of space at the level of international public opinion. On the New Year of that year, China became the guardian symbol of the Syrian people. In the New Year of 2016, Aleppo, Syria, was liberated. The five-star red flag was raised on the Syrian land, and countless Syrian people grateful to our country’s flag.

“Thank you, China, thousands of miles away. “

If you look at the first half of Assad’s life, you will feel like a young college student, a refined intellectual who did not have a strong desire for power and just wanted to spend a comfortable life with his beautiful wife. It was the wave of history that pushed him to the critical point of life and death in Syria, but he actually withstood the test of history, which no one expected. The United States not only funded the Syrian rebels, but also created the Devil Isis organization. What the Isis organization has done can be said to be insane. If I were to tell what they did, I’m afraid this article wouldn’t even pass the censorship. In short, it’s extremely anti-human and more Nazi than the Nazis… During the process of regaining the territory, the eastern Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor encountered a siege by the “Isis Organization” for more than three years! No one knows what kind of will the Syrian people relied on to survive and win again…

In the end, this city, under the leadership of the legendary Syrian general Issam Zarushidine, and the 104th Brigade, finally changed the tide of war after four-year defense, which can be called the Syrian version of battle of Leningrad, and the situation in Syria began to fundamentally change. reverse! To be honest, I feel that the Syrian Civil War is very similar to our country’s Anti-Japanese War, both of which are won by persistence . During the Anti-Japanese War, there were some bastards who were promoted as liberal masters by domestic intellectuals. His so-called literary character was just like a piece of shit…

Hu Shi (bastard liberal master) once said: “We should have the determination of a strong man to cut off his own limb, make the highest sacrifice of abandoning the three eastern provinces, seek the preservation of remaining territories and administrative integrity, and seek a peace relations between China and Japan…”

During the Anti-Japanese War, our country was too poor and weak. To be honest, the key to reversal in World War II lay in Stalingrad and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . Stalingrad laid the foundation for a complete Soviet counterattack, and the German army was defeated decisively . The attack on Pearl Harbor meant that the United States could no longer stay aloof and had to personally attack Japan. So for our country, it really means victory in the “anti-Japanese war”, and we “carried” it by force ! The whole process was extremely arduous. But this definitely does not mean that our resistance is meaningless. Before the war started, the Japanese army said that China would be conquered in three months. If there was really no resistance and we would be wiped out in three months, then the situation in World War II would be impossible to reverse! Because once the Japanese army obtains China’s vast territory and resources, it will not be so easy for the United States to attack Japan, and the US military may not even go to war personally. The same is true for Syria and Assad. They have endured it for 12 years, during which they have defeated countless opponents… Now think about it, among those Western politicians who originally called for Assad to step down, how many of them are still on stage?

At the opening ceremony of the Hangzhou Asian Games, one of the most touching details was that when the Syrian athletes first entered the venue, they were very nervous and reserved , because after all, Syria has been blackmailed by all Western countries on the international stage. Now, what the world sees every day is the fake news about Syria. They don’t know whether they will be welcomed after entering the venue. After all, they are just a small country in war…

But what none of them expected was that the Chinese audience gave out a roar of welcome for twice make a wave a tsunami.

Then the Syrian athletes became more and more relaxed and began to wave the national flag vigorously. The Syrian president and his wife stood on the stage with peace of mind and smiles, watching the scene below.

This scene seems to say: “We the Syrian people are still exist in this world!” This visit by the Syrian President to China is not simple. Syria has been sanctioned by all Western countries. Many airspaces are inaccessible and many places are very dangerous for them.

Being able to bring the President of Syria to China is in itself a manifestation of the strength of a great power. We need to have sufficient aviation endurance and at the same time have enough friendly land neighbors so that you can have the transportation capacity and airspace to welcome distinguished guests.

Currently Syria’s cultural relics have been placed in China for more than three years. This is also a high degree of trust in our country. After all, the US military is still stealing things in Syria. The whole of Syria has not ended the war. Syria can only put the cultural relics in a place that he thinks is safest. country, that is China. At the same time, this time the Syrian President visited Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou, which sent a positive signal, because after all, Syria is a “Middle East religious” country. As a “Middle East religious” country, they often do not go to places of other religions, but this time the Syrian president personally visited Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou. This also expresses to the world that Syria is an extremely tolerant country and is not as extreme as Western society has smeared it to be. As a Chinese, I sincerely hope that the war in Syria will end soon. The visit of the Syrian President to China made me deeply moved. Back then, our athlete Liu Changchun , as the only Chinese athlete, represented China in the Los Angeles Olympics . It was precisely because we were caught in the “Rain” that year that we always want to hold an “Umbrella” for others… .. The difference is that our country faced an extremely brutal world back then. Now Syria is living in a rising new global order.

Liu Cixin once wrote a sentence in his novel The Three-Body Problem: “I hope that one day, the bright sunshine can shine into the dark forest.”

Today China is that beam of light to fight unipolar world order!

In today’s China, we are the deserved to be called as beacon of multipolar world order!

May China’s multipolar world ray shine upon the victim of bullies on the entire earth and human civilization.

I came across a video in which their president praised China and said this during an interview:”China is great but humble”. At that moment, I suddenly felt very touched. This was the most accurate, heartfelt, and profound compliment.

1.8K views

What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever said in a foreign language by accident?

“I am very allergic to penis.”

When I was learning English, I had terrible pronunciation. Combined with the fact that I had just lost my front tooth (I was 7 at the time), it was very difficult for me to pronounce “t”, “th”, and “s” sounds.

The story starts with my mom taking me out for lunch. I wanted Kung Pao chicken, which is a delicious, succulent dish made up of spicy stir-fried chicken, peanuts and vegetables. The problem was, I was allergic to peanuts.

Excited to show off my English speaking abilities to my mother, I proudly waved over the server and asked, “Does this dish have pee-nits in it?”

Confused, the server repeated, “Penis?”

Delighted that he understood what I was saying, I nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! Penis. I am very… allergic. To penis.”

“We typically remove the penis from the chicken before we cook it, so that’s not an issue. Unless you were referring to you being a lesbian. In that case, let me assure you that our restaurant is very LGBT friendly.”

“So no penis?”

“Uh, sure. No penis.”

At this point, my mother interjected the conversation. Wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, she said, “She means peanuts. Alex is allergic to peanuts.”

The chicken was eventually ordered, and luckily contained neither peanuts nor penis.

In what significant way has American culture shifted?

The Balkanization of pop culture, entertainment, and news outlets.

There is no single screen that families gather ’round in the evenings to watch together. Everyone in the family now has their own screen, with which they can watch whatever they wish to watch, without worrying about if anyone else in their house also wants to watch it.

There is no single television series that dominates the ratings on a regular basis. Currently, the single most-watched non-sports television series is “Yellowstone,” which gets around ten million viewers per episode. So… barely 3% of the adult population in America watches the single-most-watched television series these days.

There is no more “must see TV.” This includes most sports finals, too. Ratings for things like the NBA finals peaked in 1998 and now aren’t even half of what they were back then. Only the Super Bowl has seen an increase in ratings since the 1990s. If not for that one four-hour event every year, there wouldn’t be a single time when more then 40% of American adults were all tuned into the same thing.

Any form of entertainment that finds a substantial audience across demographic lines is rare these days. With the exception of the NFL, seeing a large, diverse group of American adults enjoying the same event or even enjoying the same music is rarer now than it was in the past.

There is no single news outlet that most Americans consider trustworthy and rely on for their news. There is no modern-day Walter Cronkite. Sure, many Americans trust their particular news sources. The problem is that there are so many news sources, and they all cater to their particular audience’s interests, that there isn’t a single news narrative upon which most American adults can agree. The current events you know about as an American adult, and the facts of those current events, are largely determined by which media outlet you get your news from.

In any crowd of American adults, the chances of finding even two of them who partake in the same entertainment options is low. The “pop” in “pop culture” used to stand for “popular.” Now it’s just “popular, relative to the thousands of other options people have to entertain themselves these days.”

We’re not really living in a pop culture melting pot anymore. It’s more of a miles-long pop culture charcuterie board, where everyone takes exactly what they want, with no need to worry about what others are taking. There’s no peer pressure to “fit in” with what the popular crowd is doing. There is no real “popular” crowd anymore. Just relative popularity, in a culture of unlimited choices.

Passport Bros Love TWO Countries

This video showcases how passport bros and other of men can live an amazing life outside of The West and away from modern women. Feminism has gone too far in America which is driving men to seek more traditional lives in countries like Thailand and the Philippines.

We compare the crazy woke women to the masculine movement.

We encourage the manosphere, redpill and MGTOW community to self improve, work hard and live your best happy life. We also enjoy a bit of modern woman fail, cringe and hitting the wall along the way.

Is it possible to have a bias without being aware of it?

Corporates in US now have Blind Hiring

No Voice, No Name, No Direct Interviews – the Candidate is vetted first and then the name is deleted and replaced with a Number like 287. Then the Interview is completely in generic voice which means man or woman the voice of candidate is generically modified by software so you wont now if its a man or woman.

The Numbers are then selected or chosen and only then is it known who the Candidate is

The reason is to avoid Civil Rights Lawsuits on Workplace Discrimination and Equal Opportunities.

Likewise in Promotions too – An outside agency is hired to evaluate the employees and they do so using Blind Techniques and output monitoring programs.

This is because EVERYONE HAS BIAS

If you sit on an interview panel and see a Beautiful Girl and an Average Looking Girl – you will either develop bias to the beautiful girl or a grudge against the beautiful girl in favor of the average looking girl.

If you had a bad interaction with a Nepali person , then you may bear negative bias against a Nepali who comes for an interview even though he may be from Manipur or Mizoram.

My wife is one of the most liberal persons in the world and always talks about secularism etc. Yet when one of the houses in our Colony was to be sold to Muslims, She was among the neighbors who persuaded the owners not to sell. She could not explain it. She had a subconscious bias.

Another example is me. Having seen so much bungling done by Mr Modi – even if he does something good now – I develop bias and start looking for the negative aspects only. This is why before answering – i always consult with the Bank community and only if others feel similarly do i know i am on the right track.

During the Cauvery Riots – Tamilians develop Kannada Bias and vice versa. So in an interview if a Tamil employee appears and the Authority is a Kannadiga – then you could have a subconscious bias.

Its Human. Only Machines and Robots can be unbiased. We can develop subconscious bias all the time.

Tractor-Trailer Carrying NUCLEAR WARHEADS on-the-move-North Dakota

Nation Hal Turner

A Tractor trailer carrying nuclear warheads was caught on video Saturday afternoon in North Dakota. The truck was being escorted by local police, Military Police, armed Military troops, and protected overhead by helicopter gunships.

Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota is the most well-known nuclear missile base in that area of the country. All the missiles in that base are already armed. So why the additional warheads?

Under Barack Obama, the US nuclear arsenal was made much smaller. Missiles that had previously carried TEN (10) Multiple Independent Re-Entry Vehicles (MIRVs) were reduced to only one warhead. Perhaps the US is re-installing multiple warheads on our existing missiles?

Why would they be doing that unless they are expecting an actual nuclear war?

Hal Turner Personal Remarks

And expect one they should, given the meddling the US is doing in Ukraine, and the harshest economic sanctions ever imposed, against Russia, are all adding up to the US being hit by Russia.

Of course, the American people remain blissfully unaware that their government has us all on the threshold of actual nuclear war. They’re unaware because the “mass-media” has utterly failed to do its job of reporting actual news. The mass-media seem more interested in the severely mentally-ill who think men can be women and vice-versa.

Do you have a favourite joke from a homeless person who asked for money?

I was sitting on a bench outside my business smoking a cigarette. I had been there since 8 AM and it was already 9 PM, and I was just waiting for a few people to leave.

A homeless man, riding a bicycle with an attached cart in the back, stopped near me. I expected him to ask for a cigarette, but instead he said, “I’ve got a lighter in each of my hands. One works and one doesn’t. If you pick the lighter that doesn’t work, I win a cigarette. If you pick the lighter that works, you win the lighter.” I thought that both lighters were probably non functional but I decided to play along.

I picked his left hand and he handed me the lighter. I tried it a couple times, but it didn’t work. I handed him a cigarette and he lit it with the lighter in his right hand.

We sat and smoked, and I asked him how he pulled off that trick. He told me that he was an amateur magician and he used some kind of slight of hand to do his trick. I was working at a recovery house, and we had a party coming up on Saturday. I asked him if he wanted a job doing magic tricks as a wandering performer in the room. A little negotiation and he was hired for a two hour gig for 200 dollars.

Saturday came, and he had shaved, cleaned up, and dressed casually but well for the performance. He did card tricks, coin tricks, and other kinds of sleight of hand for the 2 hours and then some.

One of the people who was attending the party owned a coffee shop, and he ended hiring the guy to perform in the coffee shop on weekends and some week nights.

His funny way of tricking people for cigarettes turned into a gig and then a job. He performed a trick on me that changed his life.

(Sopranos) Christopher Moltisanti || Soldier On [for Reece]

Sopranos was the only show that came so close to capturing what life is really like, and what it’s all about. Never seen a show cover complex themes and problems like this in such a captivating, real way (and even funny often).

Why are most engineers not rich?

I’m an engineer and I’m rich.

Most engineers, like most Americans, spend everything they make. Then they run up credit card debt. Then they borrow $100k each to send their brood of children to liberal arts colleges for degrees that don’t make them employable. If they’re lucky, when they retire, they can sell the family home and live modestly on that and social security.

Why am I rich? I saved at least 10% of every paycheck since I was 24, and invested in no-load stock mutual funds, mostly as IRAs. My family lived modestly, but well. I didn’t buy bitcoin, didn’t day-trade, didn’t hit a lucky startup. Later in life, I gave my savings to a reputable stock manager, but I’m only doing a little better than if I’d stuck with mutual funds. I bought a house and paid down the mortgage when I had unspent income, three times. Have I been lucky in investments? Hell no. It took me a few years to learn to steer clear of retail stock brokers’ siren songs, for instance.

My investment strategy goes like this:

Spend less than you earn.
Invest unspent income in no-load stock-index mutual funds and ride the long-term upward bias of the stock market.

It’s really that simple.

A real coup

I think Huawei executed a ruthless, cold-blooded coup on Apple. It successfully kept Apple in the dark, getting complacent with its delusional domination of the Chinese market, so much that it thought it could maintain its grip by introducing the next model with not much more than a new metal case and USB connector. Then a week before Apple’s new release, with no time left to make any last-minute changes (no matter how much FoxConn can turn on a dime), Huawei dropped the bombshell. Classic!

What if you had a gay son?

Actually, I might have a gay son now.

There he is, sleeping in his green room, in his little bed.

Here are things I know about him:

He is the most talkative toddler on this earth. He literally does not shut up. Ever.
He loves to play with his sister’s dolls. He feeds them, carries them around, and puts them gently to sleep.
He is also obsessed with handy-man tools. He walks around with his drill, chain-saw and hammer, and repairs things that are then irreversibly un-repairable ever again. After this, he is utterly proud of himself.
He is compassionate. When his sister cries, he will drop his toys and run to hug her. Yesterday he used his shirt to wipe her tears, while telling her: Don’t cry, don’t cry…
He loves to dance, and when ever he can get himself an audience, off he goes..
He snores like a grandpa, and giggles in his sleep.
He wakes up in a great mood, proclaiming: “I woke up!” and every day he fills our home with love, music, laughter and dance.

These are some of the things I know about him, but let me tell you one thing that I don’t know:

I do not know if my little son is gay. And I don’t give a damn.

Is this the beginning of the end of China’s economic dominance?

It is the beginning I would say

China had an enormous trade surplus for nearly one and a half decades plus enormous savings by its people

Here

Chinas problem is that the three years of lockdown meant the expenses were much lesser and thus people have huge savings and thus very low inflation

This is why China is issuing more and more debt instruments, to push that savings and prevent a glut of money

It’s why China is so keen on pushing up Consumption

It’s why when everyone is raising rates, China is slashing them

Because China has a lot of money in the banks and wants to discourage saving and encourage spending

This is the US, the total opposite

Expenses are higher than wages, Savings are at an all time low compared to the SUPERB TRUMP ERA pattern (Call him all the names but that man ran a good economy until Covid)

Thus people don’t have money in the US

Savings have been depleted and so now US Fed encourages savings by raising the rates

Same with other nations including Bharat

As you can see, Economy is doing beautifully under Modi until 2017 when Demo happens and Wages crash and expenses rise

Again by 2018, there is a recovery but by 2019 the savings are depleted by rising expenses

Two years of lockdowns mean savings crash but expenses rise due to the opening up policies and finally today you are NECK TO NECK

Better than the US

So today China has too much money

US and India and EU and UK have too little to no money

The best solution would be China lending to UK, EU and US by buying more Debt

They said it was a WIN WIN

China has too much money and if they don’t spend it, it will lead to a glut and a deflation

US have no money and keep printing and piling inflation

However China said NOTHING DOING

They don’t trust the West anymore and believe the West may renege on their debt

After what they did to Russia

If only China and India were closer, China would have lent to India and invested heavily

Best to get 6% from India than 2.5% in China with great difficulty

My guess is China will spend huge money on Technology investments and hope it yields a big change

Meanwhile China has a huge economic dominance today.

They can cut a cheque of $ 300 Billion without printing money

The entire EU and UK and US combined can’t do the same

Post 1950

US was also flush with money while UK and Europe were broke

Thus US lent the money and invested in Europe and UK and grew their money enormously

They then invested this into Military Industry and sadly it mutated beyond recognition

China has a BRI luckily

FIRST DAY in Beijing, China – America warns NOT to visit CHINA but I Did

This is John Eisenman.

main qimg c0cfd14689a0f3abb6a3cc4c68cf7818

He lost his daughter to sexual trafficking.

She was sold for $1,000 in Seattle Washington.

He did what a father should do and researched, investigated and found out about her abduction.

He RESCUED her HIMSELF.

…

He found out the person who sold her into trafficking was her 19 year old boyfriend.

He met up with him, abducted him, bludgeoned and stabbed him to death in Nov, 2020.

The authorities found him [dead AF boyfriend] in Oct 2021 in the trunk of the car he abandoned.

John Eisenman sits in prison knowing his daughter is safe and growing up after he has already lived 60 years of his life.

I bet you, he rests easy.

Live your life to the fullest. Do your absolute best to make sure your children have the opportunity to do the same no matter what the sacrifice.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 things:

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

Why don’t doctors put dying patients under a medically induced coma to suppress the pain? Why can’t the patient and/or family members opt to do that so that the person will not have to be conscious while they die?

The day my mother-in-law died they called and told us that she was not going to live through the day that her whole system was shutting down and she didn’t have more than a few hours.

My wife and I went to the hospital she was conscious and complained because they had the bed in a head lower position. She complained that it was uncomfortable and asked to have it moved to a sitting position, the nurse said that they couldn’t do that because it would shorten her life.

We insisted and they moved it so she was more comfortable.

While we sat there they kept coming in and drawing blood, etc. Finally, when they rolled in a portable x-ray machine, my wife stood up and threw them out.

Eventually, she got to the point where she wasn’t conscious any more and in the evening she finally passed.

I still believe that they were trying to bill everything they could get on her bill before she died, why take ex-rays of someone they already told us was dying?

Fortunately, when my wife died of cancer she died at home in hospice and not in a hospital. She died peacefully in her sleep, with no hassles.

Why Do We Have to PAY Others Just to LIVE?!?! IT’S INSANITY!

We are out here on this Earth and surrounded with everything we need to live amazing lives. So why have we created, and continue to tolerate, a system that makes us work our whole lives earning money so we can pay for the privilege of living?

What are your opinions about the sanction against Huawei?

The explanation given to me by a Dumbo on Quora was that Huawei which used US Technology and US Patents, did not follow US rules and did business with countries sanctioned by the US

This despite the WTO ruling on 8/7/1998 clearly citing that

Trade restrictions on Technology and it’s free and fair use shall be determined by the commercial aspects and by the political ones

This was wrt Iraq

So the sanction on Huawei was illegal

Plain and simple

So the US essentially claim that because they control the technology, they can use it to demand obedience from the entire world

That because they control the dollar they can demand obedience from the entire world

They are immune from WTO appeals and rulings

So if the US is against you, you have no where to present your case

If the US is against you, you either comply or die

That’s the RULES BASED ORDER

Tell me i am wrong

Tell me of one example where the US sanctioned a nation and reversed it when the Nation without any change in its Government Or Leader Or Policies, appealed to a higher authority

It has NEVER happened ever

Under the same Rules based order, Saudi Arabia cannot decide to refuse to sell Oil to a paying customer but the EU can decide to cap the price of oil and force the whole world to comply

I wouldn’t have had a problem if Huawei had been taken to court and fined billions of dollars for patent violation

That’s Commerce and Trade and Business

However merely because you sell stuff to Iran, just because you use US technology, you can be sanctioned and cut off from Chips on a mere order from a US President is terrifying

Xi, Putin, Assad may all be many things but today they are the ONLY PEOPLE preventing us all from becoming slaves of the United States of America

Its why I support them wholeheartedly

As long as they are strong, there will always be two camps, and the US better be on its best behaviour or it will lose friends to the other side

I believe Huawei was the beginning

When Meng Wanzhou was arrested for baseless charges that were never established for 3 years on the whims of a 70 year old syphilitic promiscuous orange man with half his brains eaten out by some STD or another

It was the moment when one realized that the United States was growing not only too big for their britches but capable of becoming something that would put Nazi Germany to shame

Plus these evil men would justify it saying “We are the good guys”

Huawei paid a heavy price for trusting the US

Yet they also ensured that every other Chinese company was now on its guard when dealing with the US

Plus other companies too

Today ISRO is tolerated because it’s so much below NASA

The day it starts climbing higher, you will see sudden references to Kashmir and Genocide and sanctions will begin

Unless India learns from Huawei like China did, Russia did and Iran did

Hawaiian Steak

Ingredients

Individual steaks, 1/2 inch thick or less
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Pineapple slices
1 large can mushrooms

Instructions

Punch both sides of each steak well with a fork, then marinate for 24 to 36 hours in a marinade made by combining soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar and sugar.
Simmer steaks on a low fire for 10 minutes in the marinade.
Remove them and place steaks in a 350 degree F oven for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on thickness of meat. Three minutes before removing steaks, place a pineapple slice on each.
To make gravy, slowly sauté a large can of mushrooms in butter. While doing so, boil down the sauce used for the marinade to make a gravy.
Combine mushrooms and reduced marinade sauce.
Serve individual steaks with the pineapple on top, over which has been poured a generous amount of gravy.

Have you ever come into contact with a deranged lunatic who made you fear for your life?

Yes, I nearly died.

This is a bizarre survival tale that includes jaguars, politics, cactus, assassination threats, near-death, and yes… a deranged lunatic. Oddly enough, even though I’m a dedicated liberal, this mad-man was a far-far-left liberal himself.

It was the mid-2000’s, and I was actively engaged in all sorts of wildlife research for a variety of government agencies and civilian groups. One of my projects was with a great organization called the Sky Island Alliance, in Tucson, AZ. (Read about them here, if you’d like: What are “Sky Islands”, and do they exist? ) This particular project involved looking for signs and tracks of jaguars that were reportedly crossing over the border from Mexico and setting up shop in the mountains of southern Arizona, in order to have data to set up protected areas for this extinct-in-America Big Cat.

One day, I received a call from a graduate student from a University in Colorado, who was looking for a research assistant for his project. The project consisted of living out in the wilderness and setting up camera-traps throughout the mountains, trying to get photos of the elusive cats, and learn more about their habits. Since I had a very good reputation among the environmental research community, I was recommended for the job by a professor at a local university. So I interviewed with the guy over lunch, we seemed to bond, and I got the job. I spent the next couple weeks putting in a lot of extra time at the Tucson Zoo, observing their two beautiful black jaguar sisters, Nikita & Simone, up close and personal. I would help with the feeding, collect scat and urine samples and do a lot of watching, reading and interacting. [1]

Eventually, it was time to head out toward the Mexican border and set up in the cabin. No electricity or running water. Right in the middle of the smuggling route from Mexico. Surrounded by the wildest remote mountains around. I was looking forward to a great adventure and a chance to get some good science accomplished. Emil and I got started with our automatic cameras. The challenge was to make continuous hikes into the mountains, replacing batteries and exchanging film in the many dispersed camera traps. It was some treacherous hiking. We were getting along fine. On the second day, we got a surprise… Emil’s dad decided to come from Colorado and join in.

He was a surly old guy from the Rocky Mountains. He probably wasn’t as old as he looked, because he was extremely “weathered”, leathery and wiry, with deep creases in his face; a constant suspicious squint. Grey stubble grew from almost right under his eyes, down to his chin. Not an ounce of fat on his stringy hard muscles. When you said something to him, he’d jerk his face left or right like a chicken, to look at you sideways, always seeming to be about to say an accusatory “Wha’ju say!?”, and perhaps bite your head off. He happened to look incredibly similar to this actor, Roberts Blossom. [2]

He wasn’t very trusting and he took an immediate dislike to me for some reason. I think he wanted to be the assistant, and have me leave. There was some weird father/son dynamic going on between them, and I got the impression Emil had grown up with beatings being a normal part of life.

Emil’s and my relationship suddenly subdued and the atmosphere changed.

These were the days of the George W. Bush administration. Emil’s dad turned out to be an extreme far-left liberal. The most far-left I’d ever come into contact with. I was also a liberal… but a moderate. I wasn’t a fan of Bush, but I was pushing through it, waiting for the next election. On that second night, we sat down to dinner. Tin plates of beans and bacon, with some tin cups of coffee. Emil’s dad sat across from me at the small wooden table. I tried to talk to him, and it immediately turned to politics. I nodded my head at all he was saying about the damned republicans and “that asshole Bush”. He spat out a long list of complaints. It wasn’t long before he said something about killing him if he had the chance. Oddly… I was of the mind that we shouldn’t be thinking of killing our president, whoever it may be. I said something to that effect.

Dad growled, “You mean you wouldn’t kill him?” He looked straight into my eyes, like a maniac.

I half-laughed out a response of, “Look, I don’t like him, but I’m not going to say we should assassinate the President”.

He glowered through me. His hands were in fists on the table, one of them holding a fork. I felt a pressure tank across from me, building up steam. His lips were pursed, breathing hard through his nose, staring at me. Suddenly he exploded up in a jerk, flipped his plate of beans toward me and about leaped on top of me, ranting about what the president was doing to destroy the country! He bent over and got in my face. I stood up quick and said, “Back the fuck off!”

Emil finally got involved and said something. I was fuming. I looked at them both, then left the cabin to go chill out outside in the night air. This suddenly took a weird turn.

Eventually we all went to bed, as we had to get up very early. In the morning, we had breakfast in silence, then all headed out in the pickup, toward the beginning of the trail. The whole way, he was insulting me in every way possible; from my knife being too big; “Only green-horns and pussies think they need a big knife,” to my hair, “Why don’t you get a haircut and look like a real man.” Beyond all belief, I kept my cool and waited for Emil to reign in his crazy old man. Emil wouldn’t look at me, and stayed silent. The old man hadn’t been with us on our last outing, and we had used a comfortable pace to make our rounds. But this time dad took the lead. It turned out that not only was he half jack-ass… he was also half mountain goat. He set off at a crazy unnecessary pace, clearly meaning to break me, or leave me behind. I was in average shape, but I had a trick knee from an old parachuting accident I’d had while I was an Army Paratrooper. So I needed to watch my step. As we sprinted up and down the mountains, eventually the worst happened and my knee blew out as I was racing down a steep slope of forest. I yelled out. They kept going. Eventually I stumbled down to the rocky dry river bed at the bottom, where they were waiting.

I explained I had a bad knee from the Army. “How many jumps you got?” he scowled. I told him 26.

He says, “My buddy has over a thousand and he never had no bad knees.” At this point, I was vulnerable, and I really needed to restrain myself for my own safety. He pointed up a steep rocky slope and said he was heading out. I told them I couldn’t make it. He derided me some more and told me to wait while they continued. I had no choice. I agreed. They left me with most of the heavy batteries and set off. “3 or 4 hours,” they said. I waited, surrounded by dry boulders.

There was no shade in that valley. I had to get out of the sun. The nearest shade was 150′ straight up a cliff, where I saw a tree. I made the choice to climb after about 2 hours. I got up and started hobbling toward the cliff of rocks, dirt and some dry grass. Now came my biggest misfortune. All the extra batteries they piled into my backpack made it extremely heavy. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that my pack was on top of my camel-back, which held all my water. It was fine when my pack was light, but all the batteries were pressing down on my water bladder, and at some point during my climb, the pressure popped the end off the drinking tube. I didn’t notice as all my water squirted out and left me empty, until 30 minutes later, I reached the top. I pulled out the tube for a well-deserved drink, and… nothing. “Damn it!”

The tree wasn’t as full as I wished and only gave a smattering of shade. Better than nothing. It was about 118 degrees F. After a total of 5 hours had passed since they left, I was getting desperate. As I sat on that cliff side, I saw a barrel cactus not far away. I stumbled over. Ya hear that they have water in them. So, I gave it a shot. Luckily, I had my big knife with me and was able cut off the top. No puddle of water. Just an off-white mash of cactus innards. It was moist. It would have to do. I don’t recommend this method. It had a bitter tannin taste to it, as I scooped out a chunk and sucked on it. Horrible! Again… better than nothing, but not much better. 7 hours passed and I was dehydrated and starting to get hazy vision and a crazy headache. I considered starting a signal fire. But I worried about it getting out of control and consuming me. 8 hours.

Finally, I saw them down in the valley of rocks. I yelled out. Again and again. At last they answered. “Come on down!” I heard. Clearly I had to go down. But I was only thinking of water. I scrambled down the cliff again, knowing that in just a few minutes, I could drink. At last… “Water” I croaked.

“You don’t have any water?” he says. I wasn’t up for a discussion to explain, I just needed a fast drink. I shook my head.

Again, I asked for water. “We don’t have any water.”

What the hell? I see them both with canteens. Emil started to give me his canteen. The old bastard again yelled out, “I said we don’t have no water” and he shot a look at his son. Emil backed down silently. I couldn’t believe this! I reached out and tried to grab a canteen and the bastard got up and started walking away, saying, “There’s water at the truck.” I was dumbfounded. I started following them, listening to the water sloshing in their canteens just feet away. I was going a bit mad from the sound.. and from the entire situation. But I barely had the strength to be mad. I did my best at keeping up but fell further and further behind. I tried calling out. They stopped one time for me to catch up and as soon as I did, again they took off. At last, I could go no further. Five minutes later they came back, with the old bastard bitching at Emil. Emil gave me water. One drink, and then that evil bastard yelled out, “That’s enough! We need it!” Emil put away the water. They started to take off again.. my knee was throbbing and I could hardly walk. I set short range goals of just making it to the next boulder. One after another. My vision made everything wavy. And finally Emil grew a pair and defied his old man, and put an arm around me and helped me the rest of the way… another mile. He mumbled an, “I’m sorry” quietly.

The truck was ahead of us. 100 yards more. I willed myself to keep going. Then… we were there. A 5 gallon jug of water that had been heating in the sun was brought down. It was hot enough to brew tea, but I drank. And drank. Near-boiling water. It was good.

It was a quiet ride back. I packed up my gear and got in my car and drove off, back to civilization. All I keep thinking about was that water sloshing ahead of me, out of reach, and hearing him insist “We don’t got no water” while I was looking right at it. All this, because I didn’t agree that President Bush should be assassinated.

It’s quite clear that he would have left me to die out there and concocted some story of me wandering off and getting lost, if it wasn’t for the intervention of his minimally-less corrupt son.

Months later, Emil got indicted for illegally trapping our jaguar in a noose, causing stress in the poor cat, which eventually led to the death of the only jaguar in the United States at the time. Here’s the picture he took of the tortured, snared cat. [3]

It was a whole big deal with scandal and blame spread all over. It became a Federal case. After being indicted, he lied to investigators and blamed his assistant for putting lure around the trap without his direction. This wasn’t true and eventually came out. This assistant was the person who took my place! In the end, he was banned from practicing any more research, anywhere. You may be interested in reading about the debacle here: emil mccain prosecuted over jaguar

Conspicuously absent from the indictment, was one old, evil, bastard goat, that I damn well know had a hand in the unethical activities that led to the jaguar’s death, due to over-bearing parental pressure. And he certainly had a hand in convincing his son to lie about the circumstances afterwards. I have no doubt. It was, after all, the government against his son. The government that he wanted to take out with a bullet. I know that lunatic bastard helped kill our jaguar, and let his son take all of the fall. Not that his son didn’t deserve it as well. I’ve no proof. But I know it. He damn near killed me.

Damn near. But not quite.

What is the most famous crime case that’s unsolved in the United States?

John Holmes was a legend during the golden age of porn. He played the famous Johnny Wadd, a fictional detective in a series of porn films. At the time, he was most famous for having a 13-inch penis, although this was never proven. He also claimed to have sex with over 14,000 women. This is also disputed, but he did star in over 500 movies.

As his porn career was taking off in the early 70s, so was his drug use. At his height, he was earning 3,000 dollars a day from his films, which was mostly spent on freebasing cocaine. His habit greatly affected his ability to maintain an erection, and by the end of the 70s, he was selling drugs and prostituting himself for drugs to both men and women.

By the early 80s, Holmes was heavily involved in criminality. He was a close associate of drug dealer and nightclub owner Eddie Nash and was also close to the notorious “Wonderland Gang,” a group of heroin-addicted cocaine dealers, that ruled the drugs trade in Los Angela’s.

Holmes had confided with some members of the Wonderland Gang about a stash of drugs and money being kept at Eddie Nash’s house. Holmes had fallen out of favour with the Wonderland Gang after taking more than his fair share of drugs. So he helped them by setting up the home invasion and robbery of Eddie Nash.

Eddie Nash suspected Holmes was involved in the robbery. He admitted to his part in the robbery after Nash threatened to kill his family. In the early hours of July 1st 1981, a gang of Nash’s enforcers along with Holmes entered the Rowhouse located on Wonderland Avenue, where five members of the Wonderland gang were sleeping. All but one of the gang members were beaten to death, and the fifth barley surviving the brutal attack.

A handprint belonging to Holmes was found above the headboard of one of the slain gang members, putting Holmes at the scene during the attack. Eddie Nash was the prime suspect for the crime along with Holmes who took more of an active role. Holmes was charged with personally committing all four murders but was acquitted due to lack of evidence after a three-week trial. The trail was a landmark case, where it was the first trial in history to introduced video as evidence. The Wonderland murders remain unsolved to this day.

By 1986, Holmes was diagnosed as HIV positive, and it was around this time he landed a lucrative deal to star in two adult films with “Paradise Visuals.” He went on to have unprotected sex with his co-stars while not revealing his diagnosis.

He died from Aids related complications on March 13th 1988, at the age of 43.

i gave up on the american dream | regularism

“I feel you girl! I’m 34 renting a room in a house, I hardly own anything anymore. I let go of the illusion of how life is “supposed to be”. We are free this way, living simply! It’s all a state of mind starting with gratitude for what you have.”

The case of the light-fingered PC thief

As my life crumbled apart, back in 2005-6, I tried all sorts of measures to stop my “retirement” from MAJ.

But, at that time, I didn’t know the entire picture. I didn’t know what was going on. I thought that I was just “having some problems”.

Nope my entire life was crumbling away before my eyes.

Still I tried to do something about it.

I made arrangements in China, and tried to make various arrangements in the Philippines as well. I was tricked, abused, and basically thwarted at every turn. So many swindles. So many scams. So many selfish pricks. So many liars, tricksters, and generally selfish narcissists.

In hindsight, my Fate Forecasting was Black-on-Black, overlaid with black. It was triple negatives; or to use the parlance of Fate Forecasting and Bazi, it was very inauspicious, on top of very inauspicious.

It was one bad thing after the other, and my life fell apart in complete stages of collapse.

(Which, by the way, you are now starting to watch the entire United States government go through.)

Anyways, I was stuck in the Hong Kong airport,and spent about ten days there after being swindled in a number of places… by numerous people… and left alone to ROT.

While I was waiting there, my resources started to dry up and I was living off airport coffee, and hope. I slept on the hard metal chairs. Used the bathroom, and took sponge baths in the sinks.

And sure as shit, I eventually had to go to the bathroom and pee up a storm, so I put my backpack (with my laptop computer) in it, on my back and stood at a urinal peeing away…

…and some jackass gets really close behind me, but I must have been pissing three liters out, …

…he stood there right behind me, so close. Sheech.

Anyways, soon he left. I still kept a peeing.

I’m not kidding. I must have needed to pee out three liters. It just kept draining.

…

Then I exited the bathroom, and settled down, and low and behold, my laptop was stolen!

That asshole plucked it skillfully and silently from my backpack while I peed. Sheech!

Yeah. It really sucked, and I was flabbergasted. Shocked, and upset. I didn’t know if I were to laugh or cry.

It was profoundly a disaster, on top of a fiasco, surrounded by trouble at every turn.

…

I relate this little story to make a few points of interest.

When things are going to shit; they will go to shit no matter what you do.
The only thing that you can do is to reduce the damage, hedge against it, and be extra cautious.
It was a new computer, but has all my passwords, codes and critical communication methodology. I placed way too much on electronic means of record keeping, and communication.
After this event, I made it back home, computer-less, of course, and then was seized and set into the “system” to endure my “retirement”.

So to keep things simple.

Let’s distill the lessons here.

Friends are valuable. Never dare try to do things alone; and on your own. Work as part of a team with your most trusted friends.
Fates must be endured. These are gravitational / planetary alignments that you cannot modify. The only thing you can do is “nothing” on very inauspicious times.
Hope is critical. No matter how bad and hopeless things are, it is always temporary. Eventually it WILL change. Just hang on.
It will end. Sure it will, and an equal period of greatness will occur. You simply must endure the bad first. Consider the “bad events” to be your entry ticket to the life you desire.

Todays…

Nice Picture

Do you think Huawei can produce smartphones with advanced chips in large volume despite the US claims that Huawei may violate trade restrictions?

LOL, this is China.

If they know how to do something, they automatically know how to do it at scale.

If they know how to make one Huawei Mate 60, they already know how to make 100 million Huawei Mate 60s.

Barbecued London Broil

Ingredients

1 (1 1/2 or 2 pound) flank steak
1 tablespoon sherry or any dry red wine
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

Score meat on all sides.
Mix together remaining ingredients. Put on meat and let stand 1 1/2 to 2 hours, then place meat in broiler pan about 4 inches from heat. Broil for about 10 minutes or a little longer on each side. Ten minutes is for medium rare.
To serve, cut diagonally across the grain into very thin slices.

What were the worst two minutes of your life?

Watching my wife die.

My wife’s had cancer for the last seven years. It was well-controlled. She was on maintenance chemo to prevent it from coming back.

All was going fine—she always felt sick a few days after chemo—but she was generally doing well. She had good quality of life and wasn’t really limited in any way except she had doctor’s appointments and scans nearly every week.

After a routine PET scan… Well, to make a long story short, they found cancer in her brain. It wasn’t “brain cancer”, it was the same cancer (inflammatory breast cancer) that had made its way to her brain. It was already fairly extensive by the time they found it, but they were confident they could take care of the lesions through radiation.

The day after her penultimate treatment, she complained that it hurt to breathe. I took her to the hospital and after giving her some pain meds, they admitted her. She was still having pain breathing, so the doctor thought they’d give her something to help her sleep so she could get some rest. And maybe in the meantime, they could figure out why she was experiencing painful breathing; it hurt to breath in and out.

While they were checking her out to prep her for some sleep, she flatlined. About a dozen people sprang into action. Some were specialists, some were support, but all were fighting to bring her back. I stood in the corner out of the way watching in horror as the hoard of medical professionals tried to bring my wife back.

About a million thoughts flooded my mind. Was I really watching my wife die? Was she really gone for good? I just hoped they could get her back.

The doctor pulled me out into the hallway. She asked what I wanted them to do.

I said, “I’m not a doctor, but I want you to do whatever’s reasonable!” She said okay, and they tried shocking her back. Every time, they got no pulse in response. They tried at least three or four times when it was clear she was gone. I gave the signal they could stop.

That was two weeks ago. I’m still trying to process it. It wasn’t like she was on a slow or steep decline. Everything pointed to her recovering.

But she’s gone. My kids are doing a good job helping keep my spirits up, but they’re devastated too. They’re all adults now, but they very nearly worshipped her, as did I.

Girls Standing In The Middle of Tokyo to Sell Themselves.. Japan Has A Serious Developing Problem.

Thank you for posting this. Japan is a complex society, with many ancient traditions, some of which are clashing with modernity even today after 150 years of intense exposure to (and copying of) the West. As with many things, prostitution there has uniquely Japanese characteristics and doesn’t necessarily involve physical intimacy, though such certainly exists. Anyway, these sad stories of girls from the countryside being exploited in the big city are all too common not just in Asia but in the West as well.

https://youtu.be/yo3IUSfTiMY

Our 18-year-old daughter enlisted in the Marines without discussing with me or my husband. What should we do now?

Every few weeks, bake 100 chocolate chip cookies, wrap them in wax paper, put them in a large Tupperware container, and mail them to her in Boot Camp.

Whatever you do, NEVER send packaged cookies from the supermarket! If you do this, her Drill Sergeants will hold them up for everyone to see at Mail Call and mock her mercilessly, saying, “This means yer parents do not love you!” Seen that happen in Army Basic Training a few times.

Homemade cookies the sergeants hand out to everyone and she will be the most popular and well liked Boot for the next half hour.

Why were the Japanese so merciless to Chinese people during World War II?

It happened, but not only to China.

Japan has historically been a very xenophobic and racist culture. Once you’ve convinced yourself your enemy are subhumans not even worthy to live, and you’re a dick, you go nuts.

The interesting contrast between the German and Japanese atrocities is that the German stuff was much more hidden. People have the impression that the holocaust was openly known to everyone, but the Germans took great pains to tell the population that they were shipping undesirables off to newly conquered territory to the east, to live seperately from Germans.

Whereas the the Japanese, their atrocities were rarely hidden. Entire military units would make a contest out of beheading prisoners. They’d round up women and children into a tall building and set it on fire and watch them jump from the roof in desperation. Their newspapers would cover these incidents and it would be celebrated back home.

Not to downplay the evil of the Germans at all, but the Japanese never get their due – I consider them to be as evil or more than the Germans, but you almost never hear about it, whereas you’ve heard about the holocaust at least 100,000 times in your life.

In addition to that, the official policy in Japan is dangerously close to the equivelant of holocaust denialism, whereas at least the Germans are thoroughly ashamed and sorry for what they did.

The American Dream is a Scam

Long comment. -MM

I think this subject matter is 100% correct and I agree with you on it and I also think that its a major part of the reason why America steadily has been becoming more toxic of a place over time.

I think its the perfect storm of capitalisms worst traits being compiled on and exacerbated by the people that are winning at capitalism.

What I’m saying is, in the course of the last 80 years at least our capitalist society has become more and more structurally corrupt.

Because the only people with any real power over how these systems are built and the people that they screw over vise versa, the people that it benefits.

Are the people who have the power and the success to influence it.

This is done with lobbying and both political parties USE lobbyists to this day which is essentially legal corruption for the political system to thrive on.

How it works is this, If im the owner of Apple or something like that and I value things like gun control or mandator vaccines and a community based culture , Im gonna give the politician that most closely values what I value and ima give him multi millions of dollars to run his campaign for election.

THEN I ask this person for political favors and to represent ME a little more than anyone else BECAUSE im handing them a multi million dollar check to run for whatever.

America has done this for a very long time and its one of the reasons way our election cycles are meaningless.

The elite class literally have more valuable voters than you do lol. Its NOT an even playing field. I think red or blue doesnt matter because the problem is both parites are dog shit.

Both parties got some good they wanna do and the bad shit they do is there too.

With republicans its the positive of them understanding personal freedom and things like guns remaining protected rights. but negatively speaking the republican party Is just as tone deaf and stupid about stuff like corporate greed and how bad that is, as the democrats are tone deaf to the importance of gun rights and being able to have the scary shit they wanna be able to dictate HOWEVER democrats do understand corporate greed and greedy elite cocksuckers who are siphoning the people of this country of their time and labor value. It sickens me that republicans will support selfish people like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk who are prime examples of people who do ALL THE SHIT that’s killing society over time.

This idea that they “earned” this when the money the get is being farmed off the backs of 20k employees.

We live in a country where we got the worlds largest GDP and the most ready to fight population of people ready to defend our country if someone wants to try us. and we got people like Jeff Bezos living in massive excessiveness while FAMILIES of people cant afford insulin or food or housing without government assistance programs and hand outs.

I mean its really no wonder why drugs are such an issue in the modern world, and people are doing shit all the time like walking into a place and killing your fucking children because theyre fucking sick.

This country BREEDS sickness. The hormone changing foods we eat. The garbage media we consume way to much of.

The sheltered life we have in dependency to the system being the norm and self sufficiency being a less sought after thing. People need to understand what freedom is. Sometimes it sucks.

But its way more liberating than this shallow illusionary world we created for ourselves. It dont even make sense to go out here and farm money like we do with our jobs, killing our bodies and our backs to MAINTAIN a life style when that money your working for is being PRINTED off a press by the trillions in our government. Its MAKE BELIEVE.

There is no backing to the value of our currency other than what we say its worth. Its just a catalyst to make way for modern slavery.

The type of slavery where the average slave doesn’t even see the shackles attached to them or they see it as a necessary inconvenience rather than what it is. Its a scam. Its a rigged game built to siphon the actual value of your life way from you. Money is nothing.

The value comes from skill and time.

The reason they created curency like money is because with this extra step in between, you can figure out ways to siphon it down without people knowing. I These companies use every dirty trick in the book to maximize profits.

Oh our employees want better pay, well just make everything we sell twice as expensive as to not take any cut to our current lifestyle.

This is why I was pushing back against minimum wage being increased to 15 an hour. Because this DOES NOTHING. People could do more with their money back when they made 1.35 an hour at minimum wage. The wage isn’t the problem its the scope of how much these companies WANT out of what they put in to a product or service. Its the fact that per hour of your time, you make less than half of what the same money could afford back when the world had a better capitalist balance going on before every motherfucker was exploiting every facet of every thing for maximum profits.

The average American doesn’t understand this concept of how they are stealing from you, while making it look like their giving you more when they aren’t.

The ONLY way to fix the issues is if these rich greedy cocksuckers decide one day that they are tired of being super duper rich and excessive, which has no chance of happening.

The people who hold the heys to the cookie jar are gonna dip into the most for themselves when nobody is looking.

That’s just human nature.

I do think that if people don’t mentally evolve enough to realize this entire system wand cultre we have is bogus and we dont need it at all to have everything we got, and keep working just like we have.

The only difference is, instead of working for selfish reason and necessity, people would work for others and out of wanting to serve the human race. Like if EVERYTHING was free..

I think people would still work. The only difference would be people wouldn’t settle for a job because they NEED money to eat, they’ll do shit they find more meaningful to them to do. It would actually probably IMPROVE the quality of work being done IF we just made it to where we operated as a community.

You like building houses ok, go build some hosues for people.

You know tech?

Okay go build tech or set it up for people. You know farming and food? Okay teach people how to be self sufficient and help them get set up. Society CAN function perfectly WITHOUT this idea of being in competition with each other and having more than the next guy.

That’s all that capitalism really is, its the idea of fuck the community I live in so I can get ahead of all of them and earn my status in society. And I don’t think capitalism is even the problem.

I think its just people. People are the ones who infest something and start corrupting it to be beneficial to themselves.

It doesn’t matter what system we call ourselves because people will always find a way to reach the top rungs of society in any society and they will begin to manipulate how society is from then on built, and they will most likely create it in a way where its unfairly exploiting one class of people sop another class can have more than they honestly need or deserve.

Communism wouldn’t fix it because that system is just as exploitable and manipulatable as capitalism and any other system controlled by human beings. I hope this all makes some sort of sense. people really need to fully wake up and we do need to throw this system overboard as a whole and we need to start restructuring society in a way where its beneficial to the human race equally.

Nice Picture

What is a true personal story that people have a hard time believing?

I was representing the USA in an international table tennis (ping pong) tournament in Osaka, Japan. The night before, I wandered over to the tournament site to check it out. When there, I noticed a guy wearing a Chinese team jacket. They were and still are the best in the world. Being somewhat cocky, I went over and asked him if he would like to hit some. He did and we eventually played a best-of-three match. I was playing well and managed to eke out a win.

Back with my teammates I modestly mentioned that I had beaten a Chinese player. To my astonishment some skepticism was expressed. Being fed up, the next day I suggested to the most skeptical teammate that we stroll over to where the Chinese team was camped out. I didn’t see the player from last night, so I started talking to one of the other Chinese players. Finally I casually mentioned that I had won a match with one of his teammates. “Which one?” he asked.

“Well I… Oh there he is, walking over now.”

“Ah yes”, he said, “That’s Mr. Chen. He’s our cook.”

Have you ever lost any respect for someone instantly?

I had worked at the car dealership for a year when they decided to shift me from sales to service. It wasn’t what I wanted, but at least I still had a job.

The Saturday before my job changed, the service manager grabbed me by the arm and dragged me into his office. He then filled me in on his philosophy…

“I can’t stand having women working for me”, he said. “They have menstrual periods. They’re nothing but bitches for 3 weeks out of the month. They can’t make rational decisions. You can’t trust them.”

I just sat there, silently. He’d apparently decided that I would be replacing a woman who I had great respect for. She’d helped dozens of my customers, and they loved her. Nobody ever had a bad word to say about her.

I was floored at his attitude. He could think what he wanted, but by opening his mouth, he became a liability to the company. I have no idea why he felt the need to ”share” that with me.

Months later, I had to testify against him in an unlawful termination lawsuit brought about by that female employee. I don’t know what it cost the company, but I hope it was worth it to them.

My mother raised me by herself until I was about 5 years old, and I have nothing but respect for hard working women in the workplace.

With his unsolicited diatribe against women, he instantly lost my respect.

How to Leave the USA in Five Steps

I think this guy is a puke. However, his information is pretty good. Hold your nose and watch. -MM

Why does the West feel so intimidated by Russia when Russia has shown by its poor performance on the battlefield and its looking for outside help that it is not a proper threat?

Poor Performance?

Aw give it up for heavens sake

The Western MSM have been forced to acknowledge that Russia has had a massive win against Ukraine and NATO by ensuring the 115 day long counter offensive with :-

14 Fresh Brigades – 56,000 NATO Trained troops
4 Fresh Divisions – 120,000 Ukrainian Reservists trained over 6 months in Ukraine from June to December 2022
116 NATO Tanks
440 Armored Vehicles
540 Soviet Era Tanks (T 62, T 72)
1.7 Million Artillery Shells 155 mm

Has been ground to dust

Literally

Only ONE BRIGADE the 71 UK Yeger is still left untouched

The Ukrainians have 258 out of 656 Tanks left

They have 190 out of 440 Armored Vehicles left

They have barely 200,000 Artillery shells left

They have lost in the last 115 days, around 44000 Men and another 27000 men have been seriously wounded and disabled for minimum one year from fighting

And what have they gained?

Exactly 152 Square Kilometers that too, territory still under Russian Offensive

That’s why the West are worried

That Russia of their imagination is a different Russia from this Vigorous fighting force

Apple Reacts to Huawei Challenge in China

Unconfirmed reports that Apple is reacting by:

Apple corporate has decided that the newest Apple products would be supplied to China before the US market;
Price war to keep China users from switching (back) to Huawei mobile phones.

Obviously Apple sees a major Huawei challenge with the Mate 60 Pro and upcoming products, and sees that this market is key to Apple’s future, even if it has to sacrifice profits.

What is something Westerners don’t know about Africans?

In many African countries, money changers effortlessly swap bundles of cash by the roadside, operating under the implicit but rock-solid assumption that they won’t be robbed. And we walk out of banks with wads of cash, sometimes on a tiny nylon or envelope. Such security measures are largely unnecessary.

Lawyers and signed agreements may be the norm elsewhere, but in many parts of Africa, your word is more valuable than gold. Break it, and you’ve essentially declared social bankruptcy. A broken promise doesn’t just tarnish your immediate reputation; it haunts you for life, impacting your relationships and prospects. I, for one, have family members I wouldn’t lend a penny to, much less enter a business deal with. All because they failed to uphold their word when it mattered.

In most Western cities, shoplifting is a perennial problem, and law enforcement often turns a blind eye. Not here. Young people aren’t emboldened by societal indifference. On the contrary, the idea of swiping even a candy bar sends shivers down their spines. In our world, retribution is swift and comes from the community itself. Misbehavior is universally scorned.

Kids don’t engage in senseless acts like random street attacks, burning of shops, or joyriding in someone else’s car. It’s not just the fear of punishment that deters them. Rather, it’s a collective societal understanding that these actions are fundamentally wrong. Our young people may admire your shiny sports car, but they’d rather beg you for money than dream of damaging or stealing it.

Respect is in our DNA. Children back-talking their parents happens rarely and is frowned upon. We quickly give up our seats to older people and pregnant women without being asked. Titles like Sir, Ma’am, Daddy, and Aunty aren’t just terms of address; they’re badges of honor for the wisdom that comes with age. We greet older people by bowing or semi-kneeling. Communities act as a self-regulating mechanism, making certain transgressions practically unthinkable.

Violent acts like public shootings of innocent people remain alien to us, not because we’re oblivious to the global mental health crisis, but because the fabric of our communities simply doesn’t allow such chaos to unfold.

While discussions around the treatment of women in Africa often lean toward the negative, there’s another side to the coin. Any man who dared to raise a hand against a woman in the presence of people would swiftly face communal justice even before the police arrived. Spectators don’t stand back to dial emergency numbers, we make the fight ours.

The Magic isn’t necessarily in governmental laws or policing. It’s in the unwritten code of conduct, the communal upbringing that checks our moral compasses and teaches us to respect one another.

U.S Hold Top Secret Talks With China in Malta! U.S Beg China

September 22, 2023

American plans are turning to shit, quickly. Actions must be taken. Can China bend a little to help out the Biden Administration?

“It would be wonderful should the United States regain some measure of sanity again! Then we in the rest of the world may be able to breathe again without the thought of forever war and death intruding in our dreams only to become nightmares.”

What is the most eerie declassified CIA document you have seen or heard about?

A US Marine group had killed Sixty Afghans

So a group of angry Afghans pretended to be PRO US and requested a few marines to help them and abducted them

They proceeded to skin the marines alive literally and chop them into pieces and cook them

They then wanted to feed this to the other marines

However there was a road block and the truck was abandoned and the men saw the huge container that was full of some flesh

They soon DNA tested and found it was human remains , cooked meat of their comrades

The remaining Marines were so frightened that they were relieved immediately to stateside and took treatment for mental shock

This was related to a Congressional Committee in the late Obama era when the issue was declassified to justify keeping Guantanamo

The Taliban and the Islamic fundamentalists are the only mortals who can defeat the USA and bring them to their knees

Russia has missiles, China has missiles

No use

The Fundamentalists have a nice 14 year old boy who befriends a majors son, becomes a close friend and them calmly plunges a dagger into the kids heart and smiles as he waits for deliverance

Invincible!!

Sad but true

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED to the USA! (REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK)

“I’m an American ex-pat who has been living overseas for 35 years. I try to fly to the States at least every other year (with the exception of the Corona-lockdown years), and I always get the reverse culture shock. I think what shocks me most is the huge increase in homelessness and drug addiction, as well as the political polarization. Back in the 80s, you could discuss politics with others, even if you didn’t agree, and in the end you stayed friends.”

22 things. Yuppur.

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

When I was about fourteen years old I was walking home, at about 8 PM, through a local park in The Bronx when three boys from the gang that came from an adjacent neighborhood appeared. It was about dusk. I knew I was in trouble. As things were getting tense for me, Ronnie appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

Ronnie and I attended the same public school from grades K to 6. In 2nd grade the teacher had me sit next to Ronnie. The seats were arranged in three rows of two. Each pair were adjacent. Ronnie was a slow learner. I taught him to read that year. We became friends…only in that class as we didn’t live “near” each other and didn’t have much in common. In those days, near was within 2 city blocks. For seventh grade I was sent to another school and I hadn’t seen Ronnie for two years.

Ronnie was short but he had bulked up a bit and had taken up boxing. I had lost track of him. As he stood next to me facing the three boys, it became clear as what was going to happen as Ronnie took a step closer to the other boys and slightly in front of me. They all took a step back. And then walked away.

Ronnie and I said the mandatory “Good to see yous”, walked a couple of hundred feet together and said. “see ya.”*

*A couple of years later I heard that Ronnie had become a Golden Gloves boxer and had done OK.

Bacon-Wrapped Filet Steaks
Topped with Roasted Garlic Butter

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

12 large garlic cloves, peeled
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
Kosher salt
3 1/2 teaspoons chopped chives
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
4 (6 to 7 ounce) filet steaks, about 1 inch thick
4 very thin slices of lean bacon
6 inch wooden skewers or toothpicks, soaked in water for 10 minutes and patted dry

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Place peeled garlic and olive oil in 1-cup, ovenproof ramekin, soufflé dish or custard cup. Cover dish tightly with aluminum foil and place in oven. Roast on center rack until garlic is golden and very tender and soft when pierced with knife, about 30 minutes (start checking cloves after 20 minutes and then every 5 minutes until done).
With slotted spoon, remove garlic from bowl and reserve oil. Place garlic, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the reserved oil, butter and 1/8 teaspoon salt in food processor or blender and process, pulsing machine on and off for 30 seconds or less until garlic is coarsely chopped and blended with butter and oil. Transfer garlic butter to small bowl and stir in 2 teaspoons of the chives. (Garlic butter can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature 30 minutes before ready to use.)
When ready to cook steaks, oil a grill rack and prepare grill.
In small bowl, stir together 1 teaspoon kosher salt, coarsely ground black pepper and thyme. Rub both sides of each filet with some of this seasoning. Then wrap each steak around its sides with 1 slice of bacon. Skewer bacon in place with wooden skewer or with 2 to 3 wooden picks.
Grill steaks until lightly charred on the outside and until bacon is cooked, about 5 minutes per side for medium-rare.
When done, remove steaks from fire and place on warm serving plate. Remove toothpicks.
Top each steak with 1 generous pat of roasted garlic butter and sprinkle with some of remaining chives. Butter will start to melt and season the steaks.
Serve immediately.

The United States is fucked

The historical plate

When I was a boy, I had a friend named Jeff B. I spoke about him earlier. He was the kid with the great idea of growing “night-crawler” worms in his garage so he could become a millionaire. Anyways, today’s story is about his plate.

You see, in his living room was a glass curio cabinet, and at the top of the cabinet, proudly displayed was a pretty normal ceramic dish. It didn’t look anything special to me. I’ll tell you what. But, they (his entire family) revered that plate.

You see, that plate was used to serve George Washington back in the 1780’s.

It served duck, maybe turkey… maybe chicken to the President.

The telling of the tale seems to be blurred at this moment in time.

Yupper. My local boyhood friend was in possession of a major American historical artifact. And it was there; right there in plain sight. Imagine that!

That’s it.

(crickets)

I wonder how many great historical artifacts lie hidden in everyday homes, long forgotten and their histories lie undusted? Hum.

Like a cache of 1950’s era men’s magazines. Or a box of world war I metals. Or perhaps, an original 1950’s barbie doll in a pristine box.

Or, even more interesting…

A metal fob found in a lump of coal, or the old “Indian tale” of a certain place in the woods with magical histories…

Makes you think.

Don’t you know…

…

Todays….

Southern Pork Loin with Fall Flavor Infusion

This pork loin recipe is easy to make and has been a Southern favorite for generations. Apples and pork have always been a great duo and this crock pot recipe is no exception.

Ingredients

3 pounds pork loin
1 apple, cut in half and sliced
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 Vidalia or other sweet onion, sliced

Instructions

Slice slits into pork loin horizontally about 3/4 through meat.
Fill each slit with an apple slice and drizzle honey over top.
Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Transfer pork loin to slow cooker. Layer onions over top.
Cook on LOW for 3 to 4 hours.

How did Chinese companies make so much money exporting to the US from Mexico and Vietnam?

This is an interesting business phenomenon.

1. China’s industrial transfer (active transfer)

After 30 years of rapid development, China’s society has entered the level of a middle-to-high-income country.
In 2022, Chinese people will buy 25 million cars, and per capita GDP will reach US$12,000.
In this case, if you want a Chinese to turn a screw on the production line, or sew a shirt, their monthly salary requirements are often more than $1,000.
But, it’s only $300 for a Vietnamese or a Bangladeshi to do the same thing. What do you think the Chinese company will do?
Yes, as early as a few years ago, Chinese enterprises have already begun to transfer abroad. The first thing to be transferred is clothing, toys, shoes and other industries with a high proportion of labor.

Just because an enterprise or factory has moved to Vietnam does not mean that it has no connection with China. For the production of clothes, toys, shoes, household appliances. They need upstream support. Equipment, computers, software, buttons, batteries, switches, wiring, paint, circuit boards, everything.
from where? Can only be imported from China.

Therefore, the transfer of industries is accompanied by a sharp increase in China’s exports to target countries.

2. Decoupling of the United States and the European Union (passive transfer)

Since Trump launched the trade war, the United States and the European Union have begun to “decouple” from China. They said “Hey! Let’s not do business with China, don’t buy Chinese stuff, okay?” In order to force importers and consumers, they imposed too high tariffs and created a sanction list with only one purpose, to prevent the sale of Chinese goods.

However, what will happen to people’s lives without Chinese products?

So they need to find a replacement. Some countries with large populations and low wages are the best choices: Mexico, Vietnam for example. They signed trade deals, lowered tariffs for these countries, and hoped they would replace China. It’s a pretty naive idea: New cheap suppliers replace old ones, with nothing to lose.

However, businessmen in Vietnam and Mexico soon discovered that they simply could not make these items (or it was more expensive to make them than in China). The easier way is to import from China, label it with Mexican or Vietnamese labels, and sell it to Americans or Europeans.

Another strange line appeared: China exported semi-finished or finished products, and Vietnam and Mexico completed the final assembly and outer packaging.

Finally exported to America and Europe.

3. Everyone wins The Chinese found that their exports were not reduced.

From January to July 2023, China’s total exports increased by 3.1%.

Vietnam and Mexico saw a massive increase in their exports and imports, and people made more money.

Politicians in the United States and the European Union are finding that trade decoupling from China is paying off. Imports from China fell.

All three parties are very happy.

In this interesting story, there is no loser.

Which movie that fared poorly at the box office when it was first released, introduced a character that went on to become a cultural icon?

The Big Lebowski (1998). Jeff Bridges portrays Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, a passionate bowler, White Russian drinker, and consummate slacker.

The Big Lebowski received mixed reviews when it first came out. The movie seemed a bit odd for audiences and reviewers to initially appreciate, especially in comparison to the Coen brothers’ previous hit film, Fargo, which received seven Oscar nominations and went on to win two Academy Awards.

Peter Howell from the Toronto Star wrote, “It’s hard to believe that this is the work of a team that won an Oscar last year for the original screenplay of Fargo.” Doesn’t exactly tickle your interest, does it?

Over the years though, The Big Lebowski has developed into a cult classic. Passionate fans of the film call themselves “achievers” (an ironic reference to the Dude’s lack of ambition), and several lines from the movie have become memorable quotes, such as:

• “I’m The Dude. So, that’s what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or, uh, Duder, or El Duderino, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.”

• “Obviously you’re not a golfer.”

• “Hey, careful, man, there’s a beverage here!”

• “That’s just, like, your opinion, man.”

• “This aggression will not stand, man.”

• “The dude abides.”

As the film evolved into the cult status it has become, it spawned “Dudeism”, a way-of-life that celebrates The Dude’s philosophy and laid-back lifestyle.

In 2002, what began as a Lebowski Fest in a local bowling alley in Louisville, Kentucky, has evolved into 4,000 people now attending the fest. In addition to the original fest, several other Lebowski fests have taken place in cities around the US.

Jeff Bridges has described The Dude as his favorite role, and the only one of his films he feels comfortable watching.

“It’s just a really good movie,” he told Vanity Fair in 2022. “The characters, the way everything is executed from the set design to the wardrobe, everything is just right.”

The Big Lebowski, what began as one of the Coen brothers most misunderstood and underappreciated films, is now regarded as one of their best films. The Dude’s iconic repute is still alive and kicking.

Why should adults be legally forced to wear seatbelts? Absolutely require anyone under 18 to wear one. But shouldn’t adults have the freedom to be stupid?

In 1997 I witnessed a pickup truck flip and roll, and saw one person fly out of the truck. I was first on scene. A teenaged boy was sobbing, only a few scratches, asking me where his grandpa is. The boy said he was driving and got distracted.

50-60 yards away I found his deceased grandpa, head totally caved in, blood spot from every pore in what was left of his face. His hands were clutched in an agonizing pose.

I grabbed a blanket from my car to cover his body so that his grandson wouldn’t see him like that, nor bystanders who began to appear.

I comforted the teenaged driver for 30 minutes until police and fire rescue arrived on scene. The boy was devastated, saying “I killed my gradpa” and “I’m so sorry grandpa “ all in the midst of his sobbing. I told the boy his grandpa was gone.

Cops told me it was obvious the old man was thrown from the truck, which then landed on his head, causing instant death. The boy was wearing his seat belt; the grandpa was not.

After that I insisted that everyone in my family buckle up. A year later, my sister in law rolled their family car 3 times, only a mile from where the old man died. Everyone was wearing a seat belt, and only got minor scratches and bruises, but their car was a mangled mess.

My sister in law told me that when they left the house, she told everyone to buckle up because of what Uncle Danny said happened.

That was 36 years ago. Once in awhile I still wake up from a nightmare of that sobbing teenaged driver, and the image of the smashed head of an old man I did not know.

When I first saw the man’s face, I was stunned to realize that I was seeing blood drops from every pore in his mangled face from the impact of the pickup truck.

I remember it like it just happened, all these years later.

Please, wear your seat belt for your family, friends, the EMTs, and innocent people who might see your smashed head when they stop to help.

What is the best personal submarine for sale?

A Polaris Nuclear submarine for only $6.98.

When I was a kid, they had all kinds of neat things you could send away for in comic books.

I ordered the Big Bang cannon and scared the shit out of my family one night when I fired it off in my room. After that it was an outside cannon only. Worse was when I was 10, I fired off a .22 starter pistol in my room. That gun was confiscated. Then there was the black chewing gum that turned your mouth black when you chewed it. I gave a piece to my older sister Tracy when she went out with her friends. Funny! Younger brothers did things like that. My pal Earl ordered the X Ray Specs, glasses that you were supposed to see through things with, like girls clothing. Didn’t work. Earl was vastly disappointed. He wore them over to my house hoping to see through my sisters clothes.

“Those are pretty stupid looking sun glasses,” Lori said to him. Earl felt stupid.

I ordered the footlocker full of soldiers, tanks, boats and airplanes. A FOOTLOCKER FULL OF THEM! WOW. When I finally got the footlocker, it was about seven inches by two inches full of flat, tiny, half inch crap, not even to scale. Very poorly made. Disappointment was real though. This stuff was all junk but they made it look so great.

I remember when I was ten I asked my mom at the breakfast table if I could get the little monkey advertised in the comic ads. My twelve year old sisters burst out laughing.

“I’ll look after it,” I promised.

“RJ, those things aren’t real. They’re all fake,” Lori said to me. But they actually were real. Live animals shipped to kids for $18.99, a lot of money in those days. Unbelievable.

Mom laid the law down. NO MORE ORDERING FROM COMICS!

But the dream of many boys was the Polaris Submarine. WOW! A real nuclear submarine! For only $6.98! Many boys dreamt of getting their sub and taking it down to the river where they could float around, dive, and shoot nuclear missiles and torpedoes. The ad actually said you could hunt for sunken treasure and explore the ocean floor. To good to be true? Yes it was. When the package arrived, you had to build it, ‘out of cardboard’. It would last two minutes in the water. It wouldn’t last an hour out in the rain in the back yard.

Most of the ads were lies but they got away with it. Many children were disappointed. But still, it was fun to look at those pictures and dream.

What is the likelihood Xi Jinping will never meet with President Biden during Biden’s term?

Very High

The Biden administration has made it very clear that China must operate in the manner in which the USA sees fit

That China must develop in the manner in which the USA sees fit

In short –

Make all the Washing Machines, Laptops, Smartphones, Microwaves and Televisions you wantMake all the Jeans, Toys, Textiles you wantMake all the low and medium grade components you wantHell even make all the Robots you want and High Speed Trains, EVs and Solar Panels and Green Energy

Yet at the same time

You cannot go ahead of us or our allies in the areas of Advanced Computing, Space, Quantum Computing, AI etc. You should always be No 8.You cannot modernize your Military technologicallyYou cannot pursue your own foreign policy and Geopolitics against our foreign policyYou cannot support anyone who doesn’t follow the Rules based orderYou have to buy more Bonds of ours and acknowledge the Dollar as the world’s only reserve currency

This was the BIDEN DOCTRINE TO CHINA

Qin Gang and Blinken apparently discussed this where :- In exchange for China acknowledging the Biden Doctrine & relinquishing support to Russia & Forcing Putin to sue for peace by weaponizing the Yuan The US would remove tariffs on Chinese products, remove export controls on certain equipment, remove 215 Chinese entities from the blacklist and propose Status Quo for Taiwan with no support for Taiwanese Independence The plan was likely for QG to deliver an ultimatum to Lavrov and for Xi Jingping to gather Global South Leaders like KSA & UAE while US could persuade India and together force Putin to call a ceasefire in Ukraine

The Old Fox Wang Yi likely told Blinken to f*** himself which is why Biden was so angry that he called XJP a dictator I believe Raimondo tried the same thing, asking China to trade and develop in a direction acceptable to the US I believe China again said GO SCREW That’s why Raimondo was so angry when she returned back

Blinken, Yellen, Raimondo all pushed China to follow the Biden Doctrine and China said No each time which was why they all returned back in a state of fury So now Biden will say the same thing if he meets Xi Jingping

Maybe Hu Jintao would have agreed

Not Xi Jingping

So Biden and Xi meeting is a pointless exercise

There is no US Leader who is willing to ask China to do whatever it wants and COMPETE with China directly and win

Why was the G20 summit so soft on Russia?

Simple

Ukraine is losing and losing badly

It’s very unlikely that Ukraine can turn the tide in the next 45–50 days after which the rains descend in all their fury

The West is very angry

They expected a breakthrough by Ukraine and a belief that such a breakthrough would force the Russians to negotiate from a position of weakness

It didn’t happen

Instead Ukraine lost too many men and too much equipment

Bradleys, M113s, M777s, M109s, Leopard Tanks, Strykers all burning on the battlefields
Almost 70% of Ammunition used up. Ukraine had almost 700,000 Shells in June 2023, sufficient to use 8000 Shells a day for 90 days, yet they used up 270,000 Shells in the first 16 days of the offensive and are down to their last 200,000 Shells today
They have sent over 110 Drones into Russia but only 17 caused any damage and now they are short of Drones

Plus the men they lost!!!

See the horror here

The Russians tag every dead Ukrainian now and they accurately estimate 4700 Dead in the past 14 days.

That’s Dead

Not Wounded

The Estimate of the Dead Ukrainians in the last 3 months ranges from 40,000 to 70,000

Almost all of these were NATO TRAINED

They were not conscripts

NATO trained 70,000 men and it’s likely most of them perished in the counter offensive

So the West simply hang in there because they can’t lose face and they can’t appear to have LOST

They spoke too much

The West can’t really keep pursuing aggressive strategy here

They tried begin aggressive, threatening people in 2022 and 2023 but that was because they hoped they would be in a winning position

That’s not happening

Now they need to end the conflict without appearing to look defeated

And divert attention to Africa or China

What is the best thing you saw someone do when they got fired from their job?

Bernie Marcus was CEO of the Handy Dan Home Improvement Center chain when the parent company declared bankruptcy. Marcus was fired by a vindictive board even though the Handy Dan division was not in bankruptcy.

“They threw me out of my office and put bars on the door. They searched my files. It was pretty terrible — one of those corporate things. You hear about them, but you don’t know what they are like until you live through one.”

He was convinced to drop his lawsuit against the company by a mentor who encouraged him to get on with his life. Another friend advised him to open the store he had always dreamed of. And that’s how The Home Depot was born. He was fired from a top spot in hardware retailing and went on to redefine the hardware industry.

What is the worst compliment you’ve ever received?

In Japanese culture, when you reach 20 you are officially considered an adult. Cities across Japan have “Coming of Age

” ceremonies where 20-year olds would dress up in formal attire or traditional Japanese clothing to attend.

This was over six years ago, but being in the U.S. at the time I had no ceremony to go to. Still, my parents and I decided it would be nice for me to dress up anyway for a family photo shoot.

Putting on a furisode

(long-sleeved kimono) or any kimono is a complicated art form impossible for amateurs to do. Fortunately for me, my best friend’s mom happened to be certified, and she offered to dress me free of charge.

As she was tying the stings around my waist, she said:

“Serina, you have the perfect body type for kimonos! You’re going to look so good.”

My genuine smile froze as she continued,

“They’ve always said people with a flat chest and no waist are ideal. It’s such a struggle to dress my daughter….“

-_____________________________-

I died a little inside that day, but I still managed to smile for the camera.

What did a neighbor do to you that you will never forget?

Two things (different neighbors).

We purchased our first house in Hampton, VA in 1976 for $15,000. It needed painting and we were planning on starting on Saturday hoping we could get it finished in a couple of weeks. Talking to our neighbor who had a crew doing restoration painting. I asked him what the best paints were that was reasonably priced and told him what we were going to do. “When are you going to paint it?” “Starting Saturday.” “I can probably get some folks to help if you are buying the beer.” “Great!” “How much is the paint going to be?” “My price.” A crew of six showed up at 6 am Sat and were finished inside and out by 5 pm and ready to party.
We moved into our new (to us) house in Burleson, TX on the day before Thanksgiving. As I am working on unloading the POD’s our neighbor walked over and waited for me to come back out. “I know that you are busy and don’t need me intruding. I just wanted you to know that you don’t need to worry about a Thanksgiving turkey. I am going to my mom’s tomorrow and deep frying two, I will cook one for you also.” He showed up the next day with Turkey, sides and a fresh baked pie.

We have been blessed with good neighbors.

What’s the most scummy business tactic you’ve ever seen?

Another story of America. -MM

…

Predatory towing.

While this may not be the most life-ruining experience, it certainly causes you to fantasize about using baseball bats in ways you’ve never imagined after being a victim of such an atrocity.

It still boils my blood thinking about it.

Let me explain:

I live in quite an affluent and liberal area – Montgomery County, MD to be exact. Montgomery County borders directly against Washington D.C., so the government basically fuels the entire economy and causes people to flock to the area. Of course, not everyone is rich, or even well-off. There are a lot of poor people in the area, including immigrants – a lot of whom are ‘undocumented’. These people are hurt the most by this specific brand of towing.

Basically, here’s how it works –

At first, a parking lot may be abused. Let’s say I want to visit a friend, but there’s no parking, so…eh, what the heck? I’ll just park in the grocery store parking lot nearby and walk over. Maybe Safeway gets tired of people taking up their parking spaces, but not doing any shopping. Let’s say it gets really bad after a while and there’s no spaces for paying customers to park, so they start to have cars towed away when people park there and walk “off premises”. Seems pretty logical, right?

That’s the innocent example, but here’s what it snowballed into:

A woman pulls into a McDonald’s parking lot – her son wanted a burger. She parks. He walks into McDonald’s, she walks to the post office 2 doors down. She comes out 7 minutes later to find her car, front wheels hoisted off the ground by a tow truck (one of the short ones with no bed, just a crane on the back). She is confused, scared, angry that someone is ‘stealing’ her car (as far as she understands it). She confronts the Shrek looking man who is operating the tow truck. He tells her (in his most practiced rude attitude) that ‘walk-offs’ are not allowed. He points to a sign in the far corner of the parking lot, under a tree. When examining the 18″x24″ sign (minimum regulation size).

It basically says “2 hours parking only; if you park and leave you will be towed” then a bunch of fine print, but at the bottom it says “Towing charge $440; storage per day ~$40” (can’t quite make out the storage price). So, you get towed, you go pick you car up immediately, and it’s “$480 to get your car out” they say with a smile.

The woman argues, saying she has a receipt for the McDonald’s. Her son is holding the food in the McDonald’s bag.

He ignores her and says “The tow bill is $440 plus $40/day when you pick it up from Rockville (12 miles away), or I can drop it now for $250 cash.”

She tries to argue more, but he continues lifting the car up. As she is yelling she doesn’t have $250 in cash, he walks to the truck, gets in, and leaves with her car.

Scenario 2:

In addition to pretty much all businesses having some sort of deal with towing (the business gets a kickback because the towing is so profitable), all apartment complexes have adopted a similar deal. Remember how I said immigrants are a large part of the population in Montgomery County? Do you know that immigrants usually live crammed in one household? Well…When you’ve got 8 hispanics living in a 2 bedroom apartment, and 6 of them have jobs, they all have cars to get to work. But the apartment complex only gives out 1 parking permit per adult resident allowed to live there – 1 per bedroom. So the hispanic family only has 2 parking permits, but they have 6 cars. What do they do?

Well, the first night they likely make a huge mistake – they park in the lot without a permit. Towing is allowed to start at 10pm, so a “scout” or “spotter” shows up at 9:48pm walking around with a flashlight looking for parking permits in the window. You remember “oh crap! I need to move my car by 10pm!” You walk outside to see your car being towed up the hill at 10:02pm, gone. $480 at the tow lot in Rockville, 12 miles away. An entire week’s pay – gone.

Scenario 3:

You see your car being raised off the ground. You run up to the guy and start arguing. He says the “$250 cash and I drop it”. You pay him, he pockets it, and goes to hook up someone else’s car 10 feet away. Rinse and repeat.

These towing companies quickly realized how profitable it can be to employ these predatory towing practices (a tow company could make $5,000 per tow truck in a night), and it became rampant in Montgomery County throughout the 2000s. There was very little regulation on the books. Around 2013 it really started getting atrociously bad. Even though there were some rules on the books by then, they were nearly unenforceable, or just plain not enforced. The use of “scouts” was made illegal, but hard to prove, so the towing companies kept using scouters because they are so profitable. Additionally, these tow companies will ignore some smaller rules – such as being required to have an ATM on premises. Another problem is them damaging your vehicle. You ever try to get an auto shop to admit they dinged your door while they were working on your car? These guys are 100x worse. I’ve seen all-wheel drive cars being towed (front wheels on the ground) that are jerking and bucking all over the place because the transmission is still in gear and it’s catching. I was once towed and they broke my windshield. In addition to the $300 tow bill, I got a “it was like that when we towed it” in respond to my cracked windshield.

There is nearly zero recourse.

Me, an angry white male who speaks proficient english, tried to file a complaint with the “Office of Consumer Protection (OCP)” in Montgomery County. The investigator (investigator XXY) told me things like ‘the owner is never in the office’ and ‘they haven’t responded yet’.

BRO! You are literally THE government. It’s your job to police these guys.

About 6 months later, my dad’s truck had been towed so we went to pick it up from one of these scumdumsters. As we were paying, an official looking guy comes in and starts talking all buddy-buddy with these chumbuckets. Stuff like “oh how’s Linda? And the kids?” I realize that he’s supposed to be some sort of inspector. I talk to him and find out he works for the OCP. “Oh, wow. Do you know investigator XXY by chance?” ‘I am investigator XXY!’ oh well fuck you then

It’s starting to be cracked down on. Here are some articles that make my heart sing

Montgomery County Looks To Crack Down On Predatory Tow Trucks | WAMU

Drivers to Receive $214 After Ruling Against Towing Co.

Illegal Towing Continues in Montgomery Co. Ahead of New Law

Better Call Saul: Gale’s first appearance

This clip is from season 4 episode 3. I fucking love gale. His death was genuinely the hardest to watch for me, he was such an endearing dork.

A first comment on B’s site

I write here just to address Pacifica’s point at @7, which is dead-on accurate I think. First comment ever here, but love this site B. So good.

This is kind of a general plea, but we get so lost in the politics, and this team or that team, it’s as if we’ve failed to figure out that the whole damn system is rotten, both teams. As the Founding Fathers realized, this is what poisoned so many governments in Greece and Rome and throughout history.

In any event, Trump was basically a 1980s Democrat who loves the country, hates wars, and just likes doing deals. Remember that MSNBC interview, where they listed out a bunch of positions and Trump is like, hey, you’re describing me, and they said no, that’s Bernie Sanders’ platform. LOL. He is very close to the Kennedy family, which is why he and RFK do not attack each other. I would love to see that combined ticket. I truly believe that 2016 was the last free election, and the deep state was so sure he was going to get beaten in a landslide they did not activate all their plans/contingencies.

In any event, look at what Trump said on the campaign trail with regard to Russia. Why can’t we get along?? What idiot wants to start WWIII??

Indeed. And then look how Trump dealt with China. Yes, he had very serious hawks on China on his team, but it really dealt with trade and business. Repeatedly, he made the comment that he doesn’t blame China for these crappy trade deals and eating our lunch, they are just doing what’s right for them, he blames our stupid leaders for allowing this to take place and completely hollowing out our industrial capacity. It is the fault of OUR politicians. That was completely respectful to the Chinese. (And of course, he would scapegoat this or that, such as Corona stuff, but that is just politics, even the Chinese get that)

As Pacifica said, Trump can be manipulated by the oligarchs, but it’s even deeper than that. Understand how our entire system has been hijacked to work against the PEOPLE and for the benefit of the few at the top. Trump wanted no wars. Trump wanted to pardon Assange and Snowden any many others (he was threatened with immediate impeachment conviction if he did so). He wanted better labor deals and to secure the country.

The guy was impeached twice for essentially nothing. The Democrats were firing at will. And HIS OWN PARTY hated him. Opened up all these idiotic investigations like Russiagate. FFS, that scumbag Paul Ryan wouldn’t even give him money to build the wall, which is the issue he won on. The deep state of McConnell, et al., had at their fingertips the ability to convict him with 20 GOP Senators standing at the ready if Trump went too far off the reservation. I think everyone has to remember that.

If one studies his errors, just consider what was arrayed against him. The Soleimani attack. True, I did not like that, but Trump was the only thing standing in the way of a full blown war against Iran. The MIC had those plans ready and literally said let’s do it and put it before him. Trump said no.

Sending weaponry to Ukraine. Again, the WHOLE system was saying he was a puppet of Russia, so of course he was boxed into that corner. If he said no, can you imagine the fury of the system saying, see, we told you so!!

Pacifica, I’m not sure about MacGregor, and I’m willing to give some benefit of the doubt here b/c I really like his thoughts on Ukraine and military matters generally, but I do worry about any saber rattling with China. It makes no sense and is idiotic. They had nothing to do with the opiod plague. All one needs to do is look at the Sackler family and that whole rotten cabal and so many towers of power would come down if the people knew and the fury was put in the right direction. But certain ethnic clans and regulatory agencies would get nervous. There was a 25 page or so New Yorker article on that that was just brilliant.

It’s amazing how much the system is against the people. You had Walgreens pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for ivermectin, which is essentially aspirin, but if you need some opiods, just come on up, no problem!!

Sorry for the very long winded message. The American system is rotten to the core. The only people in the ring that actually care about the American PEOPLE and peace and lives throughout the world imho are Trump, RFK, and Sanders to some extent. I don’t trust anyone else quite frankly.

And finally, with the weaponization of the court system and these ridiculous indictments, which themselves are an indictment on the American populace as to the stupidity to which they have devolved and the darkness or partisanship that should have had these grand juries laughing this stuff out of the room, we are in sad and dark times now. Even though Hillary clearly was rotten to the core and an absolute criminal, I never supported anything criminal against her, you open that pandora’s box and you don’t know where it leads.

It’s why there’s a famous saying, grand juries are so retarded you can indict a ham sandwich. Very dark times ahead I think. The system is pulling out all the stops. I have no idea where this leads.

Posted by: Johnny | Sep 9 2023 17:32 utc | 50

Why are Chinese characters so fascinating?

My Chinese friend asked me a question:
As we all know, there are 7 days in a week, when you need to express the eighth day, how do you say it in English?

This stumps me. There is no such word in English. I can only say “Monday next week”, or “the day after Sunday”.

But the Chinese can create a new word “星期八” at will, and other Chinese people don’t need to learn anything. The Chinese people can immediately understand what he means.

Another Chinese teacher asked me a question:
If you went back to England hundreds of years ago and asked Queen Anne: “What are trains, wires, televisions, refrigerators, telegraphs?”
Queen Anne will know nothing.

But if you go back 2000 years ago and ask Qin Shihuang the same question.
Qin Shihuang will tell you: Yes, I know the general meaning.
train: a vehicle powered by fire
Wire: A rope that can spread lightning
Television: A machine that displays shadows by means of lightning
Freezer: a box full of ice
Telegram: Reports sent by lightning

Since it was finalized 2000 years ago, the number of commonly used Chinese characters has dropped from 50,000 to 7,000, but its meaning has expanded countless times with the development of human science and technology.All professional words, including words that have not yet appeared in the future, can be expressed using these 7,000 Chinese characters.People can understand the meaning of these future words without detailed study.

But the number of English words has expanded to 1 million in the past 300 years, 98% of which are professional words that ordinary people cannot master. Basically, every time humans discover new knowledge and items, English needs to create a new word. Moreover, people who have not studied cannot understand it.

Chinese characters：This is a magical text whose underlying architecture can be infinitely expanded without incurring too much learning cost.

FACES OF KENSINGTON (Zombies in the real life of the United States) Streets of Philadelphia – Part 2

So sad.

https://youtu.be/SBbN8IdSvUI

Why do sanctioned Chinese companies dare to do business with another sanctioned Chinese company in China even though the international and US law are forbidding it?

Whose law? US laws are for US people in the U.S. International must be written by all nations! Not one? Or a few Chinese or China hating ones!

US don’t rule the world.

Even though some in the U.S. thinks so.

It may be a strong nation and likes to talk and behaves like it does.

It is just a single nation amongst other nations.

The U.S. has every right (though hurting itself) to stop buying any products from any nation. But to tell others not to is not the U.S. right. Some dog nations, slaves nations and cronies wants to do so is up to their cowardice and lack of courage but it don’t matter. It is their right to destroy their own nation.

Take the UK for example. Today they don’t even have half the Chinese 5G capability spending more than twice to set up unworkable and inefficient 5G non Chinese systems and today it is the worst performing Europe nation. But it is theirright to destroy itself.

Australia under Scott Morrison nearly self destructed Australia but the Aussies send him packing.

Good bye!

We the rest of the world must understand this and see to it that the U.S. cannot and won’t ever control the world.

This is good for the world and it’s good for Americans too.

US excesses are killing and collapsing the United States.

SO, The Rumours are True! Oprah Shady Maui Deal with The Rock Exposed

An AI Model Tested In The Ukraine war Is Helping Assess Damage From The Hawaii Wildfires Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Oprah Winfrey face backlash for asking fans to donate to Maui fund instead of contributing more themselves The family of a woman who died trying to flee a wildfire on Maui is suing the county, the state and one of Hawaii’s largest landowners, alleging they neglected to maintain their fire-prone property.

Why is the yuan one of the worst performing currencies in the region?

Simple

Because China isn’t artificially modifying it’s currency and a low yuan helps the Chinese stay competitive

As I have reminded you Japan was strongest when it’s yen was 291 to the Dollar

It became stagnant and a zombie economy when it’s rate went to 115 a Dollar

It was FORCED to do so by the US in 1985 as part of the Plaza Accords

China won’t do that. EVER.

The US hopes to weaken the Yuan and use that to pull out investments and force China to appreciate the Yuan by other means including purchasing US Debt

China is already busy with establishing it’s own BLOC

Tomorrow instead of wasting time with G20, Xi meets President Maduro of Venezuela and inks a Oil Contract paid fully in Yuan and Priced in Yuan

If this works out then in 2024 – China will be purchasing 41% of Oil in Yuan or Ruble or Infrastructure Projects

US hope for China to print money, bail out their real estate companies and buy long term debt in Dollars and Euros to keep the Yuan floating

Like India has done, purchasing more US Debt than selling in the first eight months of the year

China knows how dangerous that can be and prefers ECONOMIC FORCES to handle the same while taking care of it’s energy supply

Family Guy British Radio

INDY speaks

Given matters in China have a bearing upon the SMO, a few items to consider….
LINK HERE
Tech war: China’s top memory chip maker YMTC making progress in producing advanced 3D NAND products with locally sourced equipment: sources
YMTC’s top secret project, which aims to use Chinese-only equipment, has placed big orders with domestic tool suppliers, including Beijing-based Naura Technology
The ramped up sourcing of local equipment comes after YMTC received fresh funding to the tune of US$7 billion from its state-backed investors, including the ‘Big Fund’

Chinese chip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (YMTC) is planning to use domestically sourced equipment to make advanced flash memory products after it was put on a US trade blacklist last year, according to industry sources.

If successful, the strategy would represent a breakthrough in China’s efforts to become self-sufficient in semiconductor production after the country was denied access to advanced chip making tools over Washington’s concerns that the technology would end up in the hands of the Chinese military.

LINK HERE
Huawei Teardown Shows Chip Breakthrough in Blow to US Sanctions
The company’s Mate 60 Pro is powered by SMIC’s 7nm chips, according to analysis that TechInsights conducted for Bloomberg News

LINK HERE
China is the breakaway global leader in new nuclear construction.

China has 21 nuclear reactors under construction which will have a capacity for generating more than 21 gigawatts of electricity, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. That is two and a half times more nuclear reactors under construction than any other country.

India has the second largest nuclear buildout right now, with eight reactors under construction that will be able to generate more than six gigawatts of electricity. Third place Turkey has four nuclear reactors under construction with a presumed capacity of 4.5 gigawatts.

The United States currently has one nuclear reactor under construction, the fourth reactor at the Vogtle power plant in Georgia, which will be able to generate just over 1 gigawatt.

“China is the de facto world leader in nuclear technology at the moment,” Jacopo Buongiorno, professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told CNBC.

China is “the determined and pacing leader in global nuclear ambition at the moment,” agrees Kenneth Luongo, president and founder of the Partnership for Global Security, a nuclear and transnational security and energy policy non-profit. China is “leading, even racing ahead,” Luongo said.

LINK HERE

CHINA / SOCIETY
China to employ multiple methods to enhance monitoring of marine environmental pollution: MEE
By Shan Jie
Published: Aug 28, 2023 10:47 PM

In this aerial image, nuclear-contaminated water is released from the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean on August 24, 2023 in Okuma, Fukushima, Japan. Photo: VCG
In this aerial image, nuclear-contaminated water is released from the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean on August 24, 2023 in Okuma, Fukushima, Japan. Photo: VCG

The dumping of nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan has raised concerns among Chinese citizens about the state of the marine environment. Chinese environmental authorities on Monday vowed to strengthen the monitoring of marine environmental pollution through multiple means, including conducting baseline surveys of marine pollution and utilizing satellites for monitoring.

China has launched its third marine pollution baseline survey, with the goal of completing a thorough investigation and assessment by 2025, said Wang Juying, the director of the National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, at the ministry’s monthly press conference on Monday.

LINK HERE
Thailand’s confusing election was a win for China
Thailand’s election saw winner Move Forward pushed to the opposition. It vowed to reset foreign relations including that with China. The current Pheu Thai-led government won’t likely deliver that.

LINK HERE

Chinese scientists look to 6G to hunt submarines, testing device small enough to fit on drone
Defence researchers say sensors can identify extremely small surface vibrations produced by a low-frequency sound source in the open sea
UAV-mounted platform could work in concert with other submarine detection methods such as a magnetic anomaly detector (MAD), microwave radar or laser

LINK HERE

China’s most advanced Fujian aircraft carrier on track for 2025 PLA handover, latest Weibo photos suggest
Covers taken off all three electromagnetic catapults on the deck of the Fujian, social media photos posted by military buffs show
Images indicate readiness for sea trials and systems testing, with warship likely to join the PLA within two years as scheduled, observers say

Not included above…. Passenger traffic on the Laos High Speed Rail Network has more than doubled since the beginning of the year..

INDY

Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Sep 9 2023 17:54 utc | 61

Huawei success a sign the US should rethink its containment policy

Neither the markets nor consumers are easily surprised any longer by tech developments. Huawei’s deceptively low-key launch of its new “breakthrough” smartphone has turned out to be an exception, sparking patriotic jubilation on the mainland about a victory over American efforts to block China’s rise. At the same time it has caused consternation in the US over the apparent failure of a tech containment policy towards China, which has been progressively tightened under the Biden administration.

Analysts and market observers believed that even if the US could not head off China’s tech rise in the long run, its policies would significantly slow it down – that it would take Huawei, for example, longer to reach the stage it now has. Most people are taken aback by its progress.

The question for Western technology experts – and US security officials – is how Huawei developed the advanced semiconductors that drive its Mate 60 Pro. The device is powered by the new Kirin 9000s chip whose processor runs on the 7 nanometre technology, the kind of advanced chip the US seeks to deny China.

Sales of the new phone may be largely confined to the mainland and China may remain five years behind but, in simple terms, it is within one technology generation of the West. Beijing has spared no expense to build a domestic semiconductor industry, including billions in reported subsidies for Huawei to develop a network of fabrication plants. The aim is to boost the domestic supply of high-end products such as 5G smartphones, according to a plan released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Finance last month.

Huawei’s apparent breakthrough is in some senses symbolic. It is just one battle in a long war in which it will remain the weaker player. This is nonetheless a morale booster for China, a reminder of resilience and huge potential. That said, it still makes more sense, whenever the situation allows, for China to seek cooperation rather than fall back on total self reliance. Economically that does not make sense for any country.

That is not to discount China’s achievement. It is a reminder, as many have said, that US containment policy may backfire. A major concern is possible fragmentation of the global tech development and supply chain, creating problems such as oversupply and incompatibility, or so-called Balkanisation of the tech sector.

Technological development is going to be extremely expensive. Division of effort can help bring down costs and speed development. If Washington cites security concerns, unsupported by evidence, for trying to contain China’s tech rise it can only raise costs for everyone. In the light of Huawei’s new smartphone launch the US should come to terms with the need to revise its policy for everyone’s sake.

What was your “I am surrounded by idiots” moment?

Not me, but my daughter who was 17 at the time, was working at a McDonalds in a bad neighborhood. They had to constantly check the bathrooms for needles and passed out junkies (she actually found a nice Bowie knife in it one day and the manager let her keep it). So one day she steps outside for a break and finds a man laying on the sidewalk, bleeding from a stab wound (not from a Bowie knife), so she does what they were taught to do and calls for a manager, grabs some gloves and a towel and comes back outside.

The manager (30 something male) is standing outside, wringing his hands, along with several older staff members and none of them will take the gloves. The manager is trained in first aid as part of his job, but he won’t calm down. So my daughter tells one of them to go back inside and call 911, and she puts on the gloves, takes the towels and applies pressure to the wound. She talks to the guy while they wait for the ambulance and keeps him calm, while her manager is trying not to pass out from hyperventilating.

When the ambulance arrives, the paramedics assess the man and while one is getting the guy’s wound stabilized, the other one starts asking questions. When he finds out my daughter is only 17, he lost his crap on the manager and then commended my daughter for doing such a good job. He told her that she should be a paramedic because she was so cool under pressure. She laughed and told him she hates the sight of blood, but didn’t want the guy to die. She then went on break and had a little cry, then returned to work.

What red flag did you have the week before your wedding that you wish you had heeded?

I was a 20 year old newly licensed pilot flying solo from picking up my wedding dress one state over. There were thunderstorms in the area that my small plane should never fly in, not to mention i was a VFR pilot not qualified to fly in instrument conditions…so I landed at a small airport about halfway home. About an hour or so later the storms passed, and I called my fiance to see if the weather was clear at my destination (he worked as a fuel guy at the airport I was flying to). Earlier we had been in an immature fight where I thought he told me a lie, so there was some tension between us but we had put that aside for the moment. When I called him about the weather he said “yep it’s clear as a bell. Sunshine and rainbows.” So I took off and had about 45 mins in the air before getting there. The sky got darker and darker and by the time I landed it began pouring rain and lightning/thunder. I got there in the knick of time. When my fiance met me at my plane I said “omg! That was a close one! I was expecting rainbows and sunshine.” And he said “oh you believed me? I thought you thought I was a liar so why would I tell you the truth about the weather?” So he played with my life and safety in order to play a game and prove his point. My mother begged me to call off the wedding but foolishly I did not. It was a rough 9-month marriage before I got the hell away from him.

Robin Trower – Too Rolling Stoned (REACTION)

I love this.

Why can’t India and China just fix their border? What will they lose by fixing it? It’s not like they will get any long term benefits with these border conflicts comparable to cooperation.

Well, Mcmahon is long dead, and he is neither Chinese nor Indian.

The problem with the Indian side is the rather inconvenient history of the Raj, which unilaterally drew the “border” that is at the heart of the dispute.

Nehru singlehandedly upset the gameboard, when he overreached and concluded China was too weak to fight his well-equipped elite frontline troops, distracted by the Taiwan crisis, embargo by the US-led west, and rapidly cooling relations with the Soviets. He also judged that China would find resupply over the roof of the world challenging, unlike India which held the lowlands.

Nehru’s forward policy reached its crescendo in 1961/62, with unbelievable rhetoric from New Delhi fueling provocative orders to establish guard posts NORTH of the Mcmahon line (in other words, the occupation of Chinese territory, even by Indian standards). Delhi granting asylum to the Dalai Lama in 1959 raised suspicion that India was complicit in the 1960 Tibetan armed rebellion and had evil designs on Tibet.

By then, Nehru had rejected Zhou’s proposal for a East-West swap, despite China being prepared to accept the Mcmahon line as the basis of settlement. Instead, Nehru demanded China withdraw from Aksai Chin while retaining control of NEFA, today’s Arunachal Pradesh, as the essential condition for border negotiation.

Nehru wanted the cake cut India’s way as precondition, before negotiations had even begun!

The Chinese responded to Dhola Post after losing almost 80 men in early October to a skirmish with Indian troops. A massive attack was launched that decimated an Indian brigade. In the three-week lull that followed the battle of Namka Chu, India refused to negotiate, despite Nehru’s illusion of the Chinese unwillingness to attack being shattered. Mid-November exploded into full-blown war, with Chinese troops punching a hole through Indian lines that led straight to Delhi. The military loss was strategic and conclusive, despite China’s voluntary withdrawal.

India, in particular, Delhi, has never forgotten the humiliation, and fear of the capital being overrun by China. No leader since has criticized Nehru for his strategic blunder and overreach. That is why the border remains frozen in time. India, for the foreseeable future, will not come to the table unless China gives up claims (and actual control) to east and west.

Having shed blood to obtain the status quo, China will not agree to such terms as precondition for negotiation.

India needs a superman to courageously forge a new path distinct from the father of modern India, and come to the table as an equal, if slightly disadvantaged, party.

Unfortunately, he hasn’t appeared yet.

Does the U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo believe that Huawei’s research and development is a threat to the US national security, which is why she wants Huawei to abandon it?

Absolutely Gina Raimondo and the state department believe that the rise of Huawei is a security threat to America and the world.

Let me give you an example of why Americans think like this. In 2012 I was in America and found a group of professionals who cycle twice a week. Everything was terrific. I purchased a second-hand mountain bike for $150 because I didn’t know how long I would stay. This is the bike I owned at the time:

Everyone in the group had nice road/racing bikes that looked something like this:

The first two months were incredible. All the males were very nice to me, the females wanted to introduce me to other females … it was love and humanity everywhere in the group.

Keeping up with fast road bikes on a heavy aluminium mountain bike was too much for me. So, one stupid day I decided to buy the below bike so I can keep up with my cycling group:

From that day forward people in the group started to distance themselves from me. People started to find me ‘rude’ and ‘arrogant’ all of a sudden. Females started to feel ‘intimidated’ in my presence. The males in the group started suggesting that maybe I was homophobic? maybe I’m misogynist?

Then they started to worry about the ‘safety’ of members of the group because of my presence.

Whenever I spoke people would become irritated, their faces would become red with anger.

When I stopped attending the group cycle meetings they became even angrier and more contemptuous of me. When I returned to cycle with them the anger and hate increased even more.

They didn’t want me in the group, and they didn’t want me to leave the group either. What I’m describing is the process of ‘ni*gerization’ that Western people put others through.

Raimondo, with most of America’s institutes, are desperately trying to ‘ni*gerize’ China.

Why don’t illegal immigrants try to go to Canada?

What is the point of foreign actors playing Americans?

I hate to say this, but the talent pool of American actors has been shrinking for years.

Most American actors came into movies through stage (like Brando) or adult television (like Burt Reynolds). They trained with good acting coaches using innovative techniques.

But now, most American actors come into movies from juvenile television. It’s a massive logistical problem, but it’s much easier to hire actors who have already had membership in the Screen Actors Guild than to try to get an actor who has trained on Broadway or at a university theatre program into the Screen Actors Guild.

And teenage American actors get virtually no training. They come into adult acting with no real background in how to act, so, when you need someone really good, it’s a really small pool of talent.

However, in Great Britain, where America draws most of its “Screen Americans”, teenagers who are on juvenile television are still in some sort of serious theatre program learning stuff like Shakespeare. They likely have theatre experience before they get into movies. They learn how to act.

Take one of my favourites, Maisie Williams.

Although she got her job as Arya Stark at the age of 14, she already had three years of experience at a performing arts academy. Prior to that, she already had dance and drama training. Americans of the same age would probably be more interested in polishing their resumes than their acting skills.

Spike Lee noted that the film Selma featured British actors in all the lead roles, including playing Martin Luther King, Jr. He was somewhat upset that a black American didn’t get the role, but had to admit that he would be hard-pressed to name a young American actor who could carry the role.

And it’s that way for many serious productions. The big American actors aren’t bad, but they don’t have the same sort of training on the whole. There are exceptions, like Robert Downey, Jr., who have outstanding acting chops, but they’re few and far between, and their number keeps shrinking.

What do you dislike most about the U.S.?

That’s right. $15,500 for one semester.

What exactly are all those fees and charges? You’ll notice my tuition (the last one on the list) is only about $7,000.

What’s the rest?

Rent—$3,345: I need a place to live, and the only way to get student loans/scholarships to cover my housing is to live on campus.Dining plan—$2,355: No kitchen means I need an on-campus dining plan. My plan is the cheapest they offer, giving me ten meals per week.STEP 161 supervision fee—$11: Presumably a fee to compensate my host teacher (or to pay for some aspect of that supervision) during my in-classroom observations.Student Capital Fee—$400: “The Student Capital Fee supports bonded facility debt service and facility operations as well as capital repair and replacement.”

[1]

I have no idea what this means.LEAF Fee—$10: “The Student Leadership for Environmental Action Fund (Student LEAF) is intended to move the campus community toward a sustainability-minded culture. This fund finances environmental improvements in campus infrastructure and educational initiatives.”Student Services Fee—$444: “Student services and support are funded by this portion of the Student Fees.”Health Insurance—$1,290: You have to have health insurance on campus. You can fill out a waiver proving you have your own health insurance and have this fee removed (which I’ll be doing).Library Fee—$70.80: “Covers print and online library materials.”Online course fee—$45: An extra fee due to the fact that I’m taking one online course. “On-Line Course Fee-online fees pay for adjunct costs resulting from increased course sections and smaller class sizes; it also funds instructional designers, development and training to enhance online course offerings.”THEA 100 and THEA 275 course fees—$40 each: Supposedly to cover the cost of materials and anything consumable used in-course (which really doesn’t exist in these courses).Theatre program fee—$128: No clue. I’m guessing it’s to fund the theatre program, which is bizarre.Technology fee—$160.80: “Used for equipping new smart classrooms, staffing and maintaining computer labs, and providing students access to academic software.”Differential tuition for theatre—$144: Theatre classes are more expensive, so we pay more in tuition to allow the university to keep having them.Tuition WUE—$6,966: My actual tuition. “Covers classroom instruction, student services, administration and facilities. Based on cost and demand, differential tuition may be charged for certain classes (Sciences/SES/Art, Business, Nursing, Theatre).”

So that’s how we get to that beautiful number of $15,449.

I’m only taking six classes—note that three (THEA 100, THEA 275, STEP 161) had extra fees attached in addition to the over $1,000 they already cost.

And on top of that, I pay an extra $250+ dollars in a program fee and differential tuition to cover the mere act of being in my major.

And, I already receive reduced tuition as a Wyoming resident. My tuition is, by default, 150% of in-state tuition, which is significantly less than out-of-state. Imagine what this bill would look like if I was from New York and not Wyoming.

“Get a job!” you say. “Stop being a lousy freeloader! Work, save up some money, and pay for it yourself!”

Let’s take a look at that— “pay for it yourself”. How possible is it for one to pay for their own college?

I did some math. The minimum wage in Colorado is $9.30/hour. If you worked 40 hours a week making $9.30 an hour, you’d have $19,344 in one year. That’s assuming you work 40 hours every single week, with no time off.

My student bill for one semester (four months of education time) is $15,500.

I could take a whole year off from college, work at the minimum wage, and if I didn’t spend a cent of it I could pay for a little more than a semester of college.

“Don’t get a minimum wage job, then!” you say. “That’s on you!”

Right. The good ol’ “Just make some more money, then” argument. See, I’ve tried that. I currently have a few jobs that pay $20 an hour. If I worked 40 hours a week at $20 an hour, I could make around $41k a year.

That’d be fine and dandy, except for the fact that I still have to go to school. At most, I can work 20 hours a week (and even that’s being optimistic).*

If I work 20 hours a week at $20/hr (which is well over both the Colorado and federal minimum wages), I could make about $20K a year.

Once again, that assumes I never have to get gas. Never go to the doctor. Never buy groceries (remember, my meal plan covers 10 meals a week. The average person eats 21). Never buy clothes. Never fix my car. Never buy shampoo.

Even then, I could afford just over a semester of college.

The days of “save your pennies from your summer job to pay for college” are long gone.

“Well, you should’ve gone somewhere cheaper. That’s on you.”

Right. Because it’s on me that the cost of going to a mid-range school three hours from home is so exorbitant.

Sure, I could’ve gone to another school. Let’s consider my less expensive options:

University of Wyoming—AKA, the only 4-year school I can get in-state tuition at.Casper College—2-year community college.

Problem with both?

I couldn’t get my degree.

As in, neither school offers an equivalent degree program. I couldn’t study to be a theatre educator at either of these schools.

So sure, I could go somewhere cheaper, but then why bother spending the money at all if I’m coming out with a degree I don’t even want?

There are lots of others, too— “Your parents should’ve been saving up” (their savings went down with the economy, yo). “You should take out loans/apply for scholarships” (done and done. Still not enough). “Not everything in life is fair” (that’s not an argument. It’s just, like, philosophical bullshit). “You need to talk to your school’s financial aid department. There are resources to help you” (Oh, if only you knew…).

I’m not saying college should be free. I’m happy to pay for it.

I’m saying that it’s insane that college prices keep rising, and there’s no clear way for young people to pay for it. I’ve already taken on $10,000 in student loans from the past year. I’ve applied for every scholarship I can find.

It’s still not enough.

Jobs are requiring college degrees, but to get a college degree, you need a damn amazing job to pay for it (or parents who can afford it).

It’s a vicious cycle. I don’t know what the solution is.

I just know that it’s one of my top complaints about the US.

I don’t need free college—I need affordable college. Please.

*Ignoring the fact that few jobs will hire you for that much without a college degree, and that my current $20/hr gigs are really limited as to how many hours I’m allowed to work (one is max 5 hours a week).Footnotes[1]

How Undergraduate Tuition and Fees are Used

Southern Pan-Fried Chicken

A country ham (such as a “Smithfield” ham) is salt-cured, smoked and aged well. Whole country hams are expensive; it is possible, however, to buy country ham steaks. But you may also substitute thick-cut, smoked, streaky bacon for the ham in this recipe.

Ingredients

2 quarts cold water
1/2 cup kosher salt (regular table salt will make the brine too salty)
1 (3 pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces
1 quart buttermilk
1 pound lard
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup country ham pieces, or 1 thick slice country ham, cut into 1/2-inch strips (see note)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Combine the water and the salt, stirring until salt is dissolved.
Place the chicken pieces in a bowl and pour the salt water over.
Cover and refrigerate for 8-12 hours.
Drain the chicken and rinse out the bowl it was brined in.
Return the chicken to the bowl, pour the buttermilk over and cover and refrigerate 8-12 hours.
Drain the chicken on a wire rack, discarding the buttermilk.
Meanwhile, prepare the fat for frying: put the lard, butter and country ham into a heavy skillet or frying pan. Cook over low heat for 30-45 minutes, skimming as needed, until the butter ceases to throw off foam and the ham is browned.
Use a slotted spoon to remove the ham carefully from the fat. (Reserve the fried ham for another use, such as snacking.)
Just before frying, increase the temperature to medium-high and heat the fat to 335 degrees F.
Blend together the flour, cornstarch, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl or on wax paper.
Dredge the drained chicken pieces thoroughly in the flour mixture, then pat well to remove any excess flour.
Slip some of the chicken pieces, skin-side-down, into the heated fat. Do not overcrowd the pan; fry in batches, if necessary. Cook for 8-10 minutes on each side, until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through.
Drain thoroughly on a wire rack or on crumpled (not flat) paper towels. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

As a doctor or nurse, what’s the saddest scene you have ever witnessed?

As an ED nurse years ago, middle of the night – MVA. We got the 6- or 7-year-old boy who had 2 broken femurs. Dad was dying in surgery at a huge trauma hospital in Portland. He had been driving drunk and went through the windshield. Mom didn’t have custody as she was an addict and lived who knows where. The room was flooded with people – two surgeons, police, nurses, etc. while I spoke on the wall phone to the surgical team at the trauma hospital. Went into my little guy’s room and I wrapped my arm around his head to shield him from the chaos and bright lights and leaned in to ask him how he was doing. He asked me if his dad was dead.

I asked him what made him ask that. He said that he saw his dad and thought he might be dead. I told him, “Yes, I think he did die.” (I knew by then he had.) He said (without tears) “He can’t be dead.” “If he’s dead that means I have nowhere to live.”

I got the very real feeling that this little man had been through too much in his short life already. We did a brief meeting before he went to surgery and I shared with everyone what he said. He did well in surgery and I found out that within 2 days he had 5 offers for actual adoption. One was one of the surgeons, one a firefighter, and one a paramedic, and two nurses. He ended up living three hours away with his maternal grandmother. I never forgot that little boy. Rough.

Extraterrestrial mummies in Mexico

There is something that has been bugging me / pestering me, over the last few days. And that is the Mr. Titor saga.

I covered this time machine / dimensional vehicle elsewhere on MM.

But sure, his dates were wildly wrong, but what I want to discuss something that bugs me to no end.

When he described what 2035 looks like, Lordy… I mean it sure sounds like what the United States is shaping up to become. From the home-made videos and demise of major TV shows. To the lack of retail and big retail stores. To the emphasis on more natural and “real” music a.k.a. Oliver Anthony… it is all too strong and makes me wonder.

Certainly his ideas about world war 3 in 2008 or so were wildly off. Wrong as in catastrophically wrong. They described a world more akin to 1995, than what the world looks like today.

However…

It is his description of his vehicle, and his predictions of the future that were spot on.

…

His vehicle ran world-line slides. A crude method compared to what I was involved in with MAJestic.

And anything can happen.

And what he described… world war 3, destruction of the USA and China, and all the rest seems like it is not going to occur today. If anything, it is a balkanization of the planet into quarters, and alliances accordingly.

But the social trends are bench-marked. They seem to be occurring.

…

I am reading this as a lateral slide event.

Social and societal changes are unchanged. They are common and associated with human trend-lines.
Geo-political events, and national trends are very different.

…

You see, in all of my MAJ slides, the societal trend lines seemed to be rather constant. With some very minor changes. But the major changes were Geo-Political in nature. The factors that moved herd / mass migration events seemed to be wildly divergent.

As such, then, on this template; on this world-line base start point, we have a different frame of reference, and the United States has just gotten weaker, while China has gotten stronger…

Quite different from the John Titor narrative.

…and thus the great nuclear war was delayed with some very different outcomes manifesting.

That is what I have been thinking about.

Very different outcomes.

From what John Titor narrated to the US public in 2000.

…

No wonder Domain is in China now.

The trend lines are reaching some very dangerous cross-roads, and the switching of templates are limiting the destruction while all the evil / malevolent are trapped within certain geographical regions.

Very interesting.

Don’t you know.

…

Today.

Is it safe to say that China is pretty much public enemy#1?

Of course. China is the cause of all of the USA’s problems.

See how the white cops keep killing black people in the USA – this surely is China’s doing.

Observe the mass shootings that plague the whole of the USA – at schools, malls, supermarkets, churches, pubs, cinemas, workplaces – this too must be China’s doing.

Did you know that the USA’s literacy rate has plunged t0 78%? (Developed countries usually have a literacy rate between 95 to 100%). China must have caused this.

Look at the ever-increasing number of homeless people living in tents in the streets of the USA. We know that this is China’s fault.

US engineers say that many of the bridges and roads and other public infrastructure in the USA are “crumbling”. Why didn’t China take steps to stop this?

In the USA, even the water pipes are leaking lead into the supply of drinking water at public schools, poisoning the children. China must be blamed!

Look at how Americans hate each other! Even families stop talking to each other, because some are Democrats and some are Republicans. Once again, China is guilty.

The average life expectancy in the USA keeps dropping! Americans keep dying at a younger age. Becauae they are more and more obese these days and; their healthcare system is too expensive. Surely China had something to do with this.

Women in the USA even have problems getting birth control and abortions! The infant mortality rate AND the maternal mortality rate in the USA have fallen to the levels typically found in developing countries. Let’s blame China for this too.

But not to worry. The USA still has more gender pronouns than China. So the USA will prevail.

Southern Style Smothered Ham

Ingredients

2 slices ham, cut 1/2-inch thick (uncooked)
1 teaspoon dry mustard
2 onions, sliced
2 cups sliced pared apples
12 whole cloves
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place 1 slice ham in shallow baking pan; spread half the mustard on ham.
Top with onions and apples; cover with second slice of ham.
Rub remaining mustard onto meat; place cloves in fat portion of ham.
Mix sugar and water together; boil 5 minutes.
Pour syrup over ham.
Bake for 1 hour, basting with sugar and water syrup 2 or 3 times.

The Sopranos – Breaking Balls Goes Too Far

Joking around goes too far between Eugene Pontecorvo and Paulie Jr at the esplanade construction site.

Mexico Congress reveals 1,000-year-old ‘alien corpses’

Ufologist Jaime Maussan stated that scientists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico used radiocarbon dating to obtain DNA evidence from specimens found in Peru

Written by Annesha Barua –September 13th 2023 04:05 PM

Mexico, September 13: During a public hearing in the Mexico Congress, two alleged ‘alien corpses’ were unveiled, along with videos displaying UFOs and unidentified phenomena. The small mummified specimens, believed to be 1,000 years old and found in diatom mines in Cusco, Peru, were showcased in windowed boxes.

Ufologist Jaime Maussan, testifying under oath, stated that the specimens were not part of Earth’s evolution. DNA evidence and X-rays were presented during the hearing, revealing unusual characteristics such as unknown DNA and rare metal implants, including Osmium. Ryan Graves, a former US Navy pilot, was also present.

Unusual DNA and rare implants

Jaime Maussan, a journalist and ufologist, explained that the specimens had been studied at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where radiocarbon dating was used to determine their age. Comparing the DNA from the specimens to other samples, researchers found that over 30% of the DNA was “unknown.” X-rays of the bodies were displayed during the hearing, revealing the presence of “eggs” in one of the bodies and implants made of rare metals, including Osmium.

Ryan graves in attendance

Ryan Graves, the executive director of Americans for Safe Aerospace and a former US Navy pilot, was present at the hearing. He had previously testified under oath to the US Congress about the national security threat posed by unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP).

Credibility and skepticism

While the hearing took place in the Mexico Congress, it’s important to note that Jaime Maussan has been associated with ‘fake’ claims of ‘aliens’ in the past. In 2017, he was involved in the analysis of alleged mummies discovered in Peru, which were later debunked (by whom?) as the mummified remains of human children.

If the US dumps chips in the Chinese market at very low prices, how will the Chinese government react?

Unlike the White House, the China government does not interfere with the corporate behaviour of civilian companies.

The issue is essentially that as a solidly run mobile phone manufacturer you have to choose a stable supply chain.

Before the United States launched chip sanctions against China, the United States had been dumping chips into the Chinese market!

In Q1 2021, MediaTek accounted for 37% of the smartphone SoC market in China and Qualcomm 29%. The total of the two is 66%.
In Q2 2021, MediaTek accounted for 40% of China’s smartphone SoC market and Qualcomm 31%. Total 71% for both.
In Q3 2021, MediaTek accounted for 43% of the smartphone SoC market in China, Qualcomm 32%. Total 75% for both.
In Q4 2021, MediaTek accounted for 38% of the smartphone SoC market in China, Qualcomm 30%. Total 68% for both.
In Q1 2022, MediaTek accounted for 41% of the smartphone SoC market in China, Qualcomm 34%. Total 75% for both.
In Q2 2022, MediaTek accounted for 42% of the smartphone SoC market in China, Qualcomm 36%. Total 78% for both.

Now, the U.S. chip has been unable to return to the former dumping state.

Replacing a mobile phone chip is not an easy task; its software and hardware must match. Moreover, Chinese mobile phone makers have already found a new domestic chip supplier.

Business partnerships are like marriages. Once a marriage loses trust, it can never be the same again. Because there is no guarantee that you will not have a second betrayal?

It’s like if you divorced your ex-wife and regretted it so much that you wanted to remarry, but your ex-wife has already remarried, and you still want your ex-wife to divorce her current husband? Even the most arrogant person would not be so delusional.

Once you exit the Chinese market and lose market share, it is almost impossible to come back. Unless American chips are given away for free, but can chipmakers do that at 0 cost?

Developing market share costs money.

If you lose market share, you lose market share. No one’s always there for you.

What screams “I’m upper class”?

When I did a year at an English university I shared a house with girl who was from what the Brits call old money.

She dressed fashionably but never wore anything with logos. And she noticed right away that Im the same and never wear clothing with logos. She was polite to everyone from the bin man to the university cleaning staff and even if guys tried to talk to us she didn’t let them crash and burn but made it clear she was not interested in a polite way without soundy bitchy.

She always introduced me right away to her friends before getting into a conversation with them and when I had friends come over from Norway she always introduced herself using her full name which always sounded odd to me but I noticed her friends and family did the same.

She was not a girly girl either. She visited me in Norway and when my grandfather caught a salmon she grabbed the club and killed it without flinching which is very unlike 99.99 percent of British girls.

She was very observant of everything around her and used disarming charm to get people to help her with anything she needed. And I noticed it was the same with a lot of her friends from similar backgrounds.

My dads a Brit and joked to me he could smell her class the first time he visited us, I said don’t be rude and he just pointed at her wax cotton jacket hanging in the hall and said, I can smell the old money from here.

What brutal firing strategy is often used by companies?

My favorite was the trader who called his mistress on his trading phone. Big things with multiple lines of which each and every one is recorded for compliance reasons, in case a trade is contested or whatnot.

But the management wanted to get rid of him (and his rather large compensation package) so they asked him to the HR office.

Management: we want you to resign
The guy: no way, we’re in France, if you want me to go, you’ll have to pay a hefty severance package.
Management: <presses “play” />
Management: (after the record finishes) We already have a delivery guy in the lobby, if you don’t sign your wife will have the record in thirty minutes. Your choice.

The guy quickly calculated that the divorce settlement would be worth more than the severance package and resigned on the spot. The delivery guy was paid, and the delivery cancelled.

That is brutal. Almost maffia like.

Edit: I must add that it was completely illegal of course, but as they kept the record, he was not going to go to the police… the place was fun we also had a guy who was so well known for sexual harassment or worse that he had a clause in his contract to deduct any settlement with his trainees and employees from his bonus.

Edit 2 : In the same company but another country, I also witnessed a fantastic boot up the arse: the top management was thinking about replacing a MD. Just about 5 people were aware of the plan, but it leaked. So, five emails with different plans were sent. Old spy stuff. One came out.

The tantrum was spectacular and the guy was carried out by security. The head of compliance was spilling the beans. He got a good yelling and was kicked out of the building without ceremony, all in half an hour.

Did you survive a gun fight? How did it go?

Yes.

Routine traffic stop.

Stolen car with cold plates.

Driver had been drinking but unbeknownst to me, he’d walked away from our County jail farm two days earlier and committed an armed robbery earlier in the evening.

The driver pulled a Colt .357 Magnum on me.

After a few exciting minutes we exchanged gunfire at a distance of about 15 yards.

I was in an open field, he had the cover of his vehicle.

Fortunately, while I came *very* close, we missed each other.

He was captured the next morning and, eventually was sentenced to fifteen years in San Quentin.

I had nightmares for several years but they eventually went away.

Secret Hidden Tunnels found 300′ below Maui, Hawaii

Always up for a adventure We take off into the depths of Maui in search of secret passageways. Hidden in the cane fields there is gate ways into the unknown.

NATO Commences Snap “Northern Coast Exercise” in Baltic Sea

World Hal Turner

Today, Saturday September 9, 2023, NATO began a snap military exercise named “Northern Coast” in the Baltic Sea near St. Petersburg, Russia.

the “exercise” involves about 30 ships and more than 3,000 NATO member-country service members. It will, for the first time, practice how to respond to a Russian assault in the region, Germany’s navy chief said on Friday.

“We are sending a clear message of vigilance to Russia: Not on our watch,” Vice-Admiral Jan Christian Kaack told reporters in Berlin. “Credible deterrence must include the ability to attack.“

Troops from all NATO countries on the Baltic Sea, plus soon-to-be member Sweden and non-Baltic allies the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, will train side by side. They will practice amphibious operations and strikes from sea to land.

It is Russia they will be practicing to attack. Even the name of the exercise, “Northern Coast” is a direct reference to St. Petersburg, Russia, as seen on the map below:

The U.S. navy will send the Mesa Verde into the drills, Kaack said, a ship of more than 200 meters (656 ft) length, designed to transport and land some 800 marines in an amphibious assault.

Securing the sea routes through the Baltic Sea is another focus of the exercise that will take place off the coasts of Latvia and Estonia.

“Finland and the Baltic states depend to almost 100% on the maritime supply routes through the Baltic Sea,” Kaack noted.

“Should the Suwalki Gap be blocked – and this can be done easily as there are only two roads and one railroad line – then we are left with the sea routes only, and that’s where we will then have to make our way through.”

The Suwalki Gap, a narrow land corridor of some 65 kilometers (40 miles), is the only connection linking the Baltic states to Poland and NATO’s main territory in Europe.

It will be the first exercise of this size that the German navy, the biggest navy on the Baltic Sea according to Kaack, will command from its new maritime headquarters in Rostock which just reached operational readiness.

Germany aims to provide the facility to NATO as a regional maritime headquarters, capable of leading the alliance’s operations in the Baltic Sea in case of a conflict.

It is vital to remember that just one mis-step by NATO during this so-called “exercise” will trigger a massive Russian defensive engagement to protect St. Petersburg.

You’ll never believe what Biden just said!

NO one is prepared for what’s coming in this economy and they are trying to hide it. The Biden administration says inflation is coming down, jobs are being created, and Bidenomics is working! That sounds like a lot of spin. In fact the data shows us something devastating is on the horizon.

As a landlord, have you ever decreased the rent for someone because you really liked them?

Yes I did. Not necessary because I liked them as in say friends but because they were real people in a tough position. I reduced their rent by $500 a month for two years. They finally got on their feet, overcame a health challenge and began building their own home. When they finally had a roof on the place they moved their son’s small camper into the garage and lived there until the house was complete. I routinely saw this older couple at a local restaurant so we kept in touch.

Amazimgly they sent a check every month after they moved out. It took almost five years but they insisted on repaying my lost income. We had dinner together the month they had completed making the rent payments. I surprised the couple with a savings bond for approximately 60% of what they had repaid. I insisted they set the bond aside for retirement. The woman was ecstatic hugging me over and over, her husband was all tears, saying “this never happens in real life, never!” I get a Christmas card every year.

What was a red flag that made you stop talking to a person immediately?

Like many people today, I was using a dating site to meet new people. I met one guy who seemed nice, we had mutual interests, and we emailed a bit back and forth before deciding to meet for coffee. We chose a very small boutique coffee shop in a mutually convenient location. Then we chose a date and time.

“Give me your cell phone number,” he messaged me.

Oh, no, hardly anyone gets that. And certainly not a guy I’ve never met. I don’t want to be changing my phone number for anybody, and it’s not that hard to find someone from a cell phone number either.

“What for?” I replied.

“In case one of us misses the other when we’re supposed to meet,” he replied.

Well, that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. We had chosen a very small place, and both of us had a lot of pictures on our profiles, there was really no chance of one of us sitting there and not seeing the other, or recognizing the other.

“You can message me here on the app if you need to,” I replied.

He told me he wanted my cell phone number, that there was no reason why he couldn’t have it. There was no need for him to have this. Him messaging me on the dating app would send a text to my cell phone just the same as if he had texted me directly. Surely any man today understands that women have to take precautions. Right? The dating site itself had pages of advice on how to stay safe.

So I gently said I doubted we would not recognize each other, or not see each other, and I preferred to use the app for now, but I looked forward to meeting him in person.

He went ballistic.

He messaged me over and over, progressing to caps, demanding that I give him my cell phone number as a condition of meeting. WHAT DID I THINK HE WAS? The messages got longer and more abusive and I sat there reading them, not responding. After I had seen enough of them, I deleted them, and blocked him on the app.

You know, if you draw a boundary, especially if it’s a reasonable one, and someone doesn’t respect it, it will never get better. Back off immediately.

The Sopranos – Uncle Philly’s reign as the King of New York begins

What is something in your life that you no longer give a damn because of your age and it gets worse as you get older?

Being social.

I think my social life peaked around age 18. I had a core group of four good friends my senior year of high school. I’d always try to make sure I hung out with at least one of them each weekend. I felt like a weekend without spending time with a friend was somehow “wasted.” I never went to parties or anything like that (wasn’t invited), but I at least drove around with Chris or went over to Bo’s house or chilled with Brandi or Ed at their places.

I only made one really good friend in college (well, besides my wife). He and I were roommates for awhile, so “hanging out” with him wasn’t especially difficult.

Time went on. I got married and had kids and my career took up a lot of my time. I haven’t spoken to that old college roommate of mine in about 14 years now. For awhile there, in my late 20s and early 30s, I still tried to find something “social” to do from time to time. But it got more difficult as the years went on.

And now, in my early 40s, I don’t give a damn about being social.

I have plenty of opportunities to be social. My church is always planning social events. So is the school where I work. Most of those social events are fundraisers, but still… I can go there and talk to people I kind of know from church or work, and feel like I’m “being social.”

I do go to them sometimes. I usually last less than an hour before I just want to leave. When I actually socialize at those events—actually talk to people—it feels more like a chore than something enjoyable.

When I was in high school, the thought that I’d have nothing to do but sit in my room alone and read or play video games or spend time online on a weekend evening horrified me. What kind of loser did such things on Friday and Saturday evenings?

Now? I’m writing this on a Friday evening, and I can think of nothing I’d rather be doing right now than sitting in my recliner, as I am now, alone in this room, taking a break from reading the book I’m reading to key out a few thoughts on Quora.

I would be perfectly happy if I never had to socialize again. If, God forbid, I end up alone in my retirement years, I think I’d be happy with it. One of my grandfathers lived alone for almost 15 years before passing away. He would go months with no human contact, besides exchanging pleasantries with the cashier at the grocery store. When I was younger, I thought he must have been really sad and lonely, living like that. Now that I’m older, I think that he was probably very content, living like that.

Remy: Rich Men North of Richmond (Federal Employee Version)

This is creative and hilarious!

“it takes one person to do my job, so we have two” Absolutely perfect, this sums up the government better than any Wikipedia page could.

What personal habits of Westerners are most repugnant to Chinese people?

1. In Taiwan, I talked about taking a shower with some friends. They found it so strange that I preferred to shower in the morning rather than in the evening. I told them that showering in the morning is quite common in America. They found it very disgusting because I would go to bed with all the day’s dirt on my body. They were actually right about that, showering at night sometimes makes more sense.

2. Another thing that some people made fun of me in Taiwan was my tendency to wear long-sleeved shirts with shorts, more or less like the style below:

I understand it was hot in Taiwan, but it was just a style that I sometimes wear and they thought it was really weird, not really gross, but still something they thought was weird (although one girl told me my fashion sense was weird/ disgusting) .

3. One thing I was told was disgusting was the tendency for us westerners to eat too much dessert. In China, desserts are usually not very sweet fruit or ice cream, they don’t like incredibly sweet and sugary things. One of my favorite things to eat is cheesecake, so I naturally gave Cheesecake to some Chinese friends (usually in the US because it’s so hard to find in China). In the photo below it looks delicious doesn’t it?

Well, my Chinese friends hated it, they said it was too thick, creamy and gross. One of them told me he wanted to throw up. I was like, “Fine, I’ll eat it all myself then.”

Douglas Macgregor: DURING RETRATING, UNITS WERE MASSACRED

Thank you Colonel Macgregor for being honest.

https://youtu.be/j4m9MFcj8Nk

What are the benefits of a one party system? Why does China have a one party system?

Do you know that Democracy was in fact a NO PARTY SYSTEM?

In Athens:-You had an assembly of people who chose their speakers among men who were 20+ years old based on their appeal and ability and their speaking style

In short an Assembly of People, qualified by estate or property or wealth who selected people based on ability or speaking style aka MERIT

No Parties, Agenda, Propaganda

Zilch

Remind you of something?

China – An Assembly of Qualified People based on Ability and chosen by their peers from the grassroots or chosen by tough examinations

They choose their leaders based again on ability and merit

Sure they have one party and call it a party but the name is long redundant

China is thus the closest to the original Athenian Democracy

Benefits:-

Consistent Policies over several decades
Controlled Consensus
Country above everything else since there is lesser vying for Power

Drawbacks:-

Chance of becoming Rigidly Bureaucratic and Stubborn
Chances of running away with rule without opposition

What is something your neighbor did that you couldn’t believe?

I inherited two dogs when my daughter passed away. I realized after a few months that a fence would make my life with the dogs so much easier. I was out looking for the property markers and my neighbour came over and asked if I was thinking of building a fence? I said I would like too but no one was returning my calls. He had a friend who did fences as a side job. Anyway, long story short, friend came, took the job, neighbour helped him so it was less cost for me and the fence was completed by the end of the next week. The friend also threw in two beautiful flower boxes made from the same wood as the fence. The dogs are so much more content and I have privacy. These two men likely have no idea how they have made my life so much easier. I am so thankful.

Will US troops come to defend Taiwan if China invades it? If so, at what point will they intervene?

They telling everyone they will bomb Russia if Russians dare attacking Ukraine in 2020.

Think about it.

1.China’s military size is three times bigger than Russia, more advanced in technology.

Chinese Navy vs Russian Navy.

2.China’s reserved military population is 260 million.

3.China produce all, even including the USA’s own bullets.

4.The first day, Russians took 40k㎡ of Ukraine’s land,and entire size of Taiwan is only 30k㎡.

5.Taiwanese speak standard Chinese.

6.American rich guy is still investing into both China Mainland and Taiwan.

7.China Mainland is still doing business with Taiwan.

8.the technology chips war between US and China, is actully between Taiwan Chinese vs Mainland Chinese, because the world chips industry was ruling by enthunic Chinese people(maybe add some Korean), it’s actully, a civil war.

Attempted Coup Against Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traoré Thwarted

Here is your latest African news. Attempted Coup in Burkina Faso Against Interim President Ibrahim Traoré Thwarted.

What is the most important thing someone has ever done for you?

When I was 15, I started a new school on the opposite coast of where I grew up.

At my old school I was unpopular and bullied harshly, so I was very shy and socially awkward with very low self esteem. The first week of school, I sat by my locker alone eating lunch, terrified of social interaction.

One day, up walked the most bubbly, outgoing, beautiful “popular” girl with maybe 6 other girls following her. She asked “Why are you eating lunch alone?! Wth? Come sit with us!!”

No one had ever done that for me. Then a few days later I casually mentioned it was my 16th birthday that weekend and she said “What?! We need to celebrate!!” and she organized a birthday dinner at a local restaurant.

She and her group of friends brought me pink balloons and gifts, I had a very memorable 16th birthday that I’ll never forget.

I literally had only known them for a week.

Then one day soon after, she saw that I rode my bike (3miles) to school everyday (due to my single mom’s work schedule and not being able to drive me – there was no bus at this school), and again, she said “Wth?! Why are you riding your bike to school?! That’s dangerous with all the traffic!!

My mom and I will pick you up at home and give you a ride!”

They drove me to and from school the entire year and we always did fun outings in the way home.

Experiencing their kindness at a hard time in my life was probably one of the most profoundly positive things I’ve experienced in my 43 years.

She remains my best friend until this day and is an amazing mom of 3.

Definitely the most important friendship of my life.

Jesse shows the cartel how it’s done

Is Elon Musk considered a rags-to-riches billionaire?

No, he was never in rags.

He was a child of well-off professionals, who built a phenomenal fortune in his own right.

It’s unclear exactly how well-off he was growing up. I suspect his family’s wealth has been exaggerated, both by his detractors, and by his father, who has been know to brag about how much money he made, but it’s clear that the Musk family was never poor.

On the other hand, there’s very little indication that Musk relied on his family, either for investment or business connections, in starting any of his companies. Insofar as a billionaire can be “self-made”, Musk has built his own business empire.

But his upbringing and education and whatnot come from being part of a family that was at least reasonably well-off.

After having significantly increased your income, do you feel happier than you were before?

Indeed.

When I first entered the gaming industry, I earned around 30K to 40K a year. And I lived in one of the most expensive cities in the world, San Francisco. The hostel I lived in cost me 700 dollars per month for rent. I have to be very careful with food. At the time, my weekly food budget was 40 dollars. I work from 10 am to 8 or 9 pm in the evening.

Then things started to get better. By 2019, I was making about the industry average for a mid-level producer. Both of my parents are dead, and I don’t have family and children, so I have some disposable income—no more “40 dollar food budget”. I think my weekly grocery cost me about 60–70 dollars, and I often dine out during weekends. Being able to buy a box of Kyoho grapes for 14 dollars feels very good.

But I think more than anything, the money gave me a sense of security, and it allowed me to pursue my many interests. Both had a tremendous positive impact on my mental health and quality of life in general.

I’ve made the decision very early on in my life that I do not want to get married or have children. While I’m happy with my life choices, I’m also very aware of the risks of choosing this lifestyle. After all, plenty of people feel the need to remind me that when I’m old, I’ll be sad and alone, and nobody will visit me at the hospital or senior care facility.

I mean, are you sure your kids will visit you when you’re old and sick? You know, the kids you abused and traumatized for 20 years? The kids who couldn’t wait to get away from you? I’ve read many articles written by medical professionals. They had made consistent observations that in a senior care facility, those with children are often mean-spirited and friendless, and their children never visit, while those who are single actually know how to make friends and are liked by everyone. Do you even know how to make friends based on shared interests that fall outside “childcare, PTA, soccer practice, family”? Not to mention, do you have children just so you get to have free nannies and ATM machines when you’re old and frail? I feel bad for your kids.

I digress. Still, being single and a social recluse, I need to be better prepared for my retirement financially. A long-term care nursing home in the US currently costs about 5,000 to 8,000 dollars per month, and if you want one with a better facility and nicer staff, the cost can easily ramp up to over 10K. And Medicare does not cover long-term nursing home costs.

Since I don’t have children to leech on, I must prepare for my retirement when I can still make money. I’ve set up some investment accounts like mutual funds and bought some annuities and US treasury bonds, on top of maxing out my 401K and Roth IRA every year. I’m glad I have some extra cash I could put away for my retirement. It definitely reduced a lot of anxiety.

And I have money to spend on hobbies and travel. I don’t care about luxury goods. Most of my clothing is from Uniqlo and Muji. Most of my furniture is from IKEA. As I grew older, I found myself caring less and less about such things. I found 3 holes in my T-shirt the other day due to wear and tear, God only knows how long I’ve been wearing T-shirts with holes on them, LOL. But who cares? I certainly do not.

I spend a lot of money on personal interests. I spend money on Wacom tablets and Macs.

I’m particularly happy with my current setup.

I really like my craft studio. I need to use it more, LOL.

I also spend a lot of money on video games and game consoles. And I recently picked up the expensive hobby of Lego.

I spend money on crafts materials and courses. I mean, why do I buy this thing for 15 dollars when I can buy all the tools and materials and make it myself (poorly) for 95 dollars? That’s my motto now. DYI is NOT cheap.

On top of all that, now that my work is a bit less chaotic and less stressful, I finally have the brain power and energy to focus more on my writing. I had spent money on editors and programs such as Scrivener and Plottr to help me write.

None of these are possible without money.

Money does not buy you happiness, that’s for sure. But money can buy you security, peace of mind, and freedom to pursue your interests. While I’m acutely aware that, like many Americans, I’m one major illness/major accident away from bankruptcy. I’m much happier now than 10 years ago when I lived in a hostel and worked 60 hours per week.

I’ve since receive the same type of comments every time I talk about being single.

Me: I don’t want to have children.

Comment: Fuck you! You’ll die sad and lonely! Having children is the best thing ever! You aren’t a real man/woman without having children!

… Every. Single. Time.

Like, you people have no imagination.

Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond [REACTION)

How Putin and Kim Throw Down a Challenge to US Hegemony

© Sputnik / Michael Metsel/POOL

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea Chairman Kim Jong Un held extensive talks on Wednesday. Dr. Kiyul Chung explained to Sputnik why the meeting of Putin and Kim is nothing short of historic.

The Russian and North Korean leaders met on September 13 at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a Russian space port in the Amur region.

“Now today’s historic 2023 DPRK-Russia Summit at Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia first and foremost highlights one of the most significant geopolitical and geostrategic importances,” Dr. Kiyul Chung, editor-in-chief at the 4th Media and a retired professor of Tsinghua University, told Sputnik. “The 2023 Summit itself powerfully culminates, defines, embodies, and witnesses the arrival of the anti-imperialist and self-determined multipolar world of the 21st century.”

Per Dr. Chung, the idea to hold the meeting at Russia’s spaceport symbolizes the two nations’ future collaboration in the field of space exploration and other high-end technologies despite pressure from the West.

“Both DPRK and Russia are facing all sorts of threats from the already-collapsed ‘five century-long West-dominated unipolar power’. One of the threats they’ve had forcibly imposed is the very existence of both of their nations,” the scholar continued.

To the Stars: Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un Meet at Vostochny CosmodromeOn September 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed North Korean State Council Chairman Kim Jong-un at the Vostochny Cosmodrome. The North Korean leader payed an official visit to Russia on September 12-13, holding talks with top Russian officials.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230913/1113340697.html

Russia and North Korea: Strategic Longterm Cooperation

Vladimir Putin noted that his meeting with Kim Jong Un is taking place “at a special time”: just recently, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) celebrated 75 years since its creation. For his part, Kim thanked Putin for the invitation to visit Russia, stressing that relations with Moscow is Pyongyang’s “priority”

. The North Korean leader called his trip to Russia a demonstration of the importance of strategic ties.

“Comrade Putin and I just discussed in depth the military-political situation on the Korean Peninsula and in Europe and came to a satisfactory consensus on further strengthening strategic and tactical cooperation, supporting solidarity in the struggle for the protection of the sovereign right of security, for creating guarantees of lasting peace in the region, and throughout the world,” Kim stated during an official dinner held in his honor later in the day.

During the meeting, Kim reiterated his support for Moscow’s special military operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine, stressing that “the DPRK will always stand with Russia in the fight against imperialism,” a clear reference to NATO’s proxy war in Eastern Europe. The DPRK chairman pointed out that he and his Russian counterpart will build “stable, future-oriented and long-term relations” between Moscow and Pyongyang.

All-Weather Friends: Why Are North Korea-Russia Ties Strong Against All Odds?North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pays a high level meeting to Russia amid the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) hosted by the Russian Pacific city of Vladivostok. When did Russia-North Korea relations start and how have they evolved through decades?

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230912/all-weather-friends-why-are-north-korea-russia-ties-strong-against-all-odds-1113317356.html

The two countries have a long record of cooperation which originates in the early years of the Cold War era. Together, the Soviet and North Korean military protected DPRK independence and sovereignty against US intervention in the course of the Korean War (1950-1953). When the hostilities were over, the USSR helped Pyongyang restore the nation’s economy.

Presently, the DPRK is interested in the opportunity to cooperate with Russia in the field of aviation, transport and infrastructure, as Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday. In addition, the sides discussed cooperation in the field of joint space exploration, Putin said, hinting that Russia-North Korea military-technical collaboration is also on the table.

Per Dr. Chung, “the Kim-Putin summit first and foremost apparently intends to nullify, pacify, or ruin whatever attempts the US-led suicidal nuclear war games, specifically both in Korean Peninsula and Ukraine.”

Furthermore, the summit is openly challenging the West’s illegal sanctions, according to the scholar.

“Today’s summit in Russia is the defiant denunciation, disregard, and complete rejection of illegal economic sanctions regimes of all sorts the US-led unipolar imperial powers have unilaterally wielded for decades. By the way, the latter Russia is one of the latest and by far ‘the most far-reaching’ cases. According to the most recent news reports about the US/West-led UN sanctions against DPRK, Russia apparently intends to dismantle the [sanctions] regime by strengthening both nations’ economic cooperation at all levels,” Chung said.

North Korea's 'Visible Show of Support': Key Takeaways From Putin-Kim TalksVladimir Putin has met Kim Jong Un at the Vostochny Cosmodrome to discuss a number of pressing issues, including those related to bilateral cooperation, as well as regional and global security.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230913/north-koreas-visible-show-of-support-key-takeaways-from-putin-kim-talks-1113347691.html

Western Media Up in Arms About Kim-Putin Meeting

The Kim-Putin meeting has stolen Western mainstream press headlines: the media has expressed unease over the summit of two leaders whose countries are under severe Western sanctions. American and British journalists particularly cited their respective government’s discontent with an alleged arms deal supposedly discussed by the Russian and North Korean leaders.

The American press also quoted US administration officials expressing fears that Pyongyang could receive technology that could advance North Korea’s satellite

and nuclear-powered submarine capabilities.How Russia and North Korea Could Benefit From Joint Space ExplorationRussia and North Korea could develop cutting-edge satellite technology, the Space Research Institute's Nathan Eismont told Sputnik, commenting on the DPRK leader's high-level state visit to Russia.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230913/how-russia-and-north-korea-could-benefit-from-joint-space-exploration-1113349741.html

Russia and the DPRK are cooperating for the benefit of the peoples of the two countries, and not against anyone; bilateral relations should not be a matter of concern for third countries, Peskov summarized on Wednesday.

“All other issues concern only our two countries, two sovereign countries, and should not be a subject of concern to third states. For our cooperation is carried out for the benefit of the peoples of our two countries, but not against anyone,” the Kremlin spokesman stressed.

The summit of Russian and North Korean leaders has demonstrated that the US’ dominance is fading, while a new multi-polar world, free of Washington’s diktat, is taking shape, according to Dr. Chung.

The scholar noted that the seeds of what is happening today were sown back in 2000, when President Putin met with Kim’s predecessor, Chairman Kim Jong Il. In July 2000, the first summit in the history of Russian-Korean relations (after the collapse of the USSR) took place and a Joint Declaration was signed.

“In that historic declaration, there is one item I’d like to highlight,” Dr. Chung said. “It’s about the number 1 Clause of that Declaration. There is a most important and historic language, expression, or declaration which was worded as in the following: ‘The DPRK and the Russian Federation …. [are] creating a multipolar world and building a new, fair, and rational international order based upon the principles of equality, mutual respect, and friendly cooperation’.”

“Today’s Kim-Putin Summit in Russia which can be interpreted as an assessment is kind of a recommitment as a rededication, reevaluation, and revelation of that historic 2000 Summit in Korea which I argue laid the most significant historic foundations of the anti-imperialist and self-determined multipolar world in the 21st century, 23 years ago for the sake of the future of the whole humanity,” the scholar concluded.

Russia and North Korea to Cooperate in Space, Military, Stand Together Against 'Imperialism'Russian President Vladimir Putin will sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Russia's Far East later on Wednesday to discuss a range of issues of mutual interest.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230913/live-updates-russias-president-putin-arrives-at-vostochny-spaceport-1113328717.html

How Putin and Kim Throw Down a Challenge to US HegemonyRussian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea Chairman Kim Jong Un held extensive talks on Wednesday. Dr. Kiyul Chung explained to Sputnik why the meeting of Putin and Kim is nothing short of historic.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230913/how-putin-and-kim-throw-down-a-challenge-to-us-hegemony-1113353161.html

Is Australia good for travelling?

Imagine this – In a pub 200km from the nearest town, an Aussie in his 60s told me this story over a pint:

He left school at 15 and decided to train it up to Darwin for a few weeks. To experience real Crocodile Dundee territory.

After 3 weeks he was at the train station waiting for his train home.

While waiting he got chatting to another guy who was on his way to work as a chef at some remote town. Whoop Whoop probably, but location doesn’t matter. The guy said they’d been looking for staff, so if he wanted to earn a few bucks he could join.

He called his Mum back in Perth and said he’d got a job and would give it a few weeks.

Skip to the day I met him. That had been his life – travelling around Australia, working here and there, and collecting amazing stories (we talked for a while).

What a life he’d had.

The beauty of travelling Australia is it’s easy, and you’ll see and experience things only Australia can offer.

Imagine waking up on pure white sands, next to a crystal clear ocean, on a beach many miles from any pollution – even light pollution – and taking a morning swim with a school of 20+ dolphins.

That was one of many experiences I had travelling most of Australia, for many months, without a care in the world.

I bought a 4×4 in Perth which became my home, with a makeshift bed in the back, solar panel, and bare necessities.

Months later when I was done travelling and went back to “normal life”, I made a profit on the car. Enough to cover the whole trip, all the fuel, and all the food.

I saw the incredible blue waters of Esperance, experienced the Nullarbor, Adelaide Hills, Great Ocean Road, Ned Kelly Country, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, dived the Great Barrier Reef, saw whales off Hervey Bay, snorkeled at Exmouth, took a tinny boat around swamp lands of Kakadu within arms reach of crocs, went up mountains, through rivers, over salt lakes, and saw the incredible red dirt of northern WA, bumped into the Australian prime minister (Julia Gillard), and English comedic legend Ben Elton. Oh, and met and dated an Australian movie actress.

And more.

Nothing hard about it. I just got out there, did it.

Then I read answers from people on Quora saying it’s hard to travel Australia because it’s so far away.

It’s a flight away.

And those answers get hundreds of upvotes, by people who will never experience the amazing things I experienced travelling such an incredible country.

Can Russia and China make HIMARS and How soon?

What exactly is the HIMARS?

It is a system that fires Rockets

That’s it

A System that has a Launcher and that has a guidance system that helps launch Rockets or Missiles on the Enemy positions.

The Rockets could be ATACMS Or Precision Strike Missiles or mostly ordinary guided Rockets

The Chinese and Russians both have similar systems

China has the PCL 191 system that has a longer range of almost 357 Miles and has even Laser guided Rockets in its latest version

Russia has its own Tornado systems that are comparable to HIMARS including the latest Tornado S which has a larger range and a 1 meter tested accuracg

It’s what China has along the Indian Border

Yet the Russians don’t use their Counter Battery System in this SMO

Many believe this reveals a lot of Russian Weakness. They are WRONG.

The Reason is simple : COST EFFECTIVENESS

This is a War where the biggest obstacle is fortifications of concrete and steel every step of the way

Every few miles you have fortifications where you have ammunition and soldiers with artillery guns

These fortifications are spread over 8–20 Kms and you don’t know where the Soldiers are Or where the Artillery Gun is

So what are your options?

Precision Rockets?

Nopes.

At $ 125000 a Rocket, you may blow off at least 20–25 rockets and spend a whopping $ 3.5–4 Million before hitting the target and even then there is a chance you miss and run into an artillery ambush when you advance

That would be at least 2000 Rockets and a price tag of $ 320 Million for Severodonetsk alone

So instead Russia use the cheaper artillery shells with no guidance and entirely range, range and range

Russia has at least 3 Million Shells available for each phase.

Instead of 25 Rockets, they use 10,000 Shells and pulverize the entire position and the Ukrops either lose their artillery gun and flee or die.

They advance and use flamethrowers and that’s a higher guarantee of death

Crude yet Cost Effective

At a price of $ 500,000 for a single fortification, that’s 1/8 the cost of using Guided Rockets like Himars

That’s around 800,000 Shells and $ 40 Million for Severodonetsk

Much more cost effective isn’t it?

That’s the problem today.

Everyone thinks Russia uses crude shells and artillery because they don’t have guided rockets or counter battery

The actual reason is Ukraine is using WWI style warfare with fortifications and trenches

Russia has to go crude to remain cost effective and yet maintain an advance pace

It’s so old fashioned it’s downright brilliant

Old Warfare at lowest cost , maximum deaths of enemy and minimum loss of own men

Who cares if the glamour is absent right??

Attempted Coup on Ibrahim Traore Fails. Who is Behind this?

What did you assume was exaggerated until you experienced it?

Originally Answered: What have you assumed was exaggerated until you experienced it yourself?

A freegan in Singapore told me he collected 1 ton of items every month when he goes dumpster diving. I couldn’t believe it. But when I saw him collect 30+ kg of stuff every day, I believed him.

30+ kg x 30 days = 900+ kg (almost 1 ton)

When I started doing the same, I believed him even more.

This is 20kg of clothes retrieved from the dumpsters in a single hour.

When he told me that he collects so much fruits that he felt like crying because he didn’t know what to do with them, I thought he was exaggerating.

Then this happened to me last night:

Man, what do I do with 82 oranges??

What did your father do to your mother that you will never forget?

My mother and the man she’d left my father for, had taken my brother and I out somewhere and had run out of petrol, stranded on the side of the road.

This was the 80’s and in South Africa, options were limited. They called my Dad who came to our aid with a 2 litre bottle filled with fuel.

Enough to get to the closest garage (gas station). He followed us there and paid in full. My soon to be stepfather was drunk and belligerent, swearing at instead of thanking him but Dad was the perfect gentleman as always.

I was barely 5 but will never forget that afternoon and always fill up on half a tank. My dad never, ever had a bad word to say about my Mom, (who referred to him as A**hole), always answering any questions about their divorce (she’d cheated with several men) by saying all that mattered was my brother and I.

When my mom was blacklisted after her third husband embezzled and stole everything from her, my Dad, who’d stopped working due to illness, scraped together enough cash to buy her a second hand car.

When I was an adult I asked him why he’d done all these things, his response was that the best revenge is to be the bigger person but I think he just did what he believed was best for his children and by default their mother.

He simply loved his kids. I miss him.

Southern Style Barbecued Chicken

Ingredients

1 cup ketchup
2 to 3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Dash Tabasco sauce
2 to 2 1/2 pound chicken pieces
Salt and pepper

Instructions

Combine ketchup, honey, lemon juice and Tabasco sauce. Brush on chicken during last 5 to 10 minutes of grilling time.
Season with salt and pepper.

Rescued cat gets final wish in life

Heart warming.

The End.

The mighty continues sparring

Right now, the East and the West are sparring.

Sigh.

Dancing around each other in the ring. Throw a punch or two, and the West believes that “it has rigged the game”. I disagree, but what do I know?

I am tried of all this “shadow boxing”, but there are only two directions; two vectors left.

Full scale military HOT war
A subsiding of hostilities

I think that the East (China, Russia, the Global South) are just biding their time in the eventuality that the West will run out of “steam” and slow down on the provocations.

It’s safe and reasonable. And they have systems designed…intentionally designed to force all the steam out of the “mighty beast”.

But I am sure that they are all ready to unleash bloody Hell if need be.

…

Nothing that I can do about it.

So, I’m just gonna drink my coffee and enjoy the day.

Ukrainians Caught Trying to Sabotage Russian Nuke Plant; Putin says “Trained by British” – for whom “There will be consequences”

World Hal Turner 12 September 2023

Putin British trained Ukies Nuke Plant Sabotage large

“Vladimir Putin today warned Britain of ‘serious consequences’ and said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ‘doesn’t understand’ the risks after the UK’s special forces tried to disrupt Russian nuclear power plants.

President Putin said that Britain’s elite forces were training Ukrainian troops on how to damage atomic power plants in Russia.

The Russian President declared dire consequences for the UK while admitting his words would be interpreted as ‘nuclear blackmail.’

Putin claimed during a speech at an economic forum in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, that Russia’s FSB security service had interrogated a Ukrainian team caught operating inside Russia.

‘It turned out to be a sabotage group of Ukrainian special services,’ he said.

‘Interrogation showed they had been tasked to damage one of our nuclear stations by exploding a power line… to damage the work of the power plant. And this is not the first attempt.’

He alleged: ‘During interrogation, they admitted they were trained under supervision of British instructors. Do [the British] understand what they are playing with, or not?

‘Are they provoking our response at Ukrainian nuclear sites, nuclear stations, or what?

‘Does the British leadership, or the Prime Minister [of the United Kingdom. Rishi Sunak] know what their special services are engaged with in Ukraine?

‘Or do they have no clue at all? I assume this is possible, too. I assume it is possible British special services act on the orders of the Americans. Either way, we know the final beneficiary.”

When in war, do you think about the people you’re killing?

There was a moment after a short firefight when we shared a few thoughts about a dead enemy soldier.

We were on the top of a small hill in the mountains near our Kosovo Liberation Army base and a group of enemy infantry was coming up towards our positions. They didn’t see us, but we could hear them talking to each other. One guy, probably their leader, told his troops: “Stop whining, guys!”

When they were close enough we opened fire. We heard one of them screaming in pain. After we had ceased fire we went down the hill to look at the aftermath. We found the body of a dead soldier and what struck me first was how well this guy was equipped: a US-style Kevlar helmet, combat fatigues, boots; all his gear was of the best quality. One of my comrades searched his pockets and found his documents.

My comrade read out loud what was written in the dead soldier’s papers. This guy had been a sergeant and a professional soldier. He had fought in Bosnia as well and was the member of a Special Forces unit.

Then my comrade told me in a tone of regret: “Look at him! This guy did all the training, fought everywhere and then he gets himself killed by some peasants like us. What a waste!”

That was quite an objective and modest statement and I was honestly surprised. We had very good soldiers who were well trained and highly motivated, but they were no match to the soldier we had just killed. He was better trained and equipped and far more experienced than we were. Still, he was dead and we were alive.

We took the dead soldier’s gun and left the place.

This was the only time that we’ve ever talked about a dead enemy. Usually, we were just interested in the number we had killed: one there, three over there and so on. They were numbers for us, nothing else. We fought for the right cause and they didn’t. No regrets.

Tex-Mex Meatballs

Crushed tortilla chips is the ingredient that sets these Tex-Mex Meatballs apart from the rest!

Ingredients

2 pounds ground beef
1/2 cup tortilla chips, crushed (about 2 ounces)
6 tablespoons water or beef broth
4 ounces canned green chiles
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons chipotle powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
15 ounces red enchilada sauce
2 cups Mexican style shredded cheese (or any easy melt style)

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a bowl, combine the crushed tortilla chips (they should be the size of large breadcrumbs) with the water or beef broth. Stir to make a thick paste. This helps keep the meatballs moist but also adds a great corn flavor.
In a large bowl, combine ground beef, green chiles, salt, garlic powder, cumin, chipotle powder, onion powder and the tortilla chip mix. Using hands, mix lightly but thoroughly (do not pack).
Form the ground beef mixture into balls, using about 1/3 cup of the mixture per ball. Do not overwork or form the meatballs too tightly.
Place the meatballs in a large skillet, leaving space between them, then bake for 15 minutes.
Pour the enchilada sauce over/around the meatballs, and return to the oven for an additional 7 minutes.
Sprinkle the cheese all over the meatballs, and return to the oven until cheese is melted, about 3-5 minutes.
Serve immediately. Caution, skillet will be extremely hot.

Yield: 8 servings

In Canada

In Canada, they combine orphanages with retirement homes. And it has given new meaning to the lives of older people, who can share their time with children who so desperately need a father or mother figure.

For a few hours, children and elderly people play, discuss and share together.

As for the little ones, they grow up and learn in an atmosphere of respect and admiration, not only between themselves, but also in front of the elders.

And older people have the opportunity to pass on some of their wisdom to children. They no longer feel so alone and isolated and now look forward to getting up in the morning to play and talk with the little ones.

It seems to me that this initiative should be applied everywhere in the world, we would help the elderly to feel less alone and the children to grow better.

Chinese in the entire world are excited to hear that Huawei China introduced its new 5g phone with 7nm semiconductor chip in it. How long will it take for China to catch up with South Korea and Taiwan trying for 2nm chip as of September 2023?

The Chinese can’t make domestic chips below 5nm process using their present methods of innovative stacking

The Chinese used the “Necessity is the mother of invention” saying to fullest use and have managed to mass produce 7nm cost effective Chips using DUV and innovative stacking

They will crack 5nm Chips in a year and by 2027 – the Chinese will make 25% of all the 7nm and 5nm Chips on earth

They would have saved their Semiconductor Industry and would be able to make Robots and develop advanced technology

I don’t think the Chinese want more than that

Fact 1:- 3nm Chips are very different. It may look like 5 to 3 is just one step below but in reality 7nm process and 3nm process are two generations (6 years) apart. So if the 3nm is 2024,then 7nm is 2018 and 5nm is 2021.

Without Western Equipment and without the advanced know how that TSMC and Samsung offer – the 3nm Chip is almost 3 generations or even 3.5 generations ahead in commercial manufacture

This means to China, the 3nm Chip is around 10.5 years apart, meaning 2035 at least

It’s not worth it and China knows that

Fact 2:- The West cannot develop 3nm Chips commercially and not sell to China

China and Hong Kong together consume around 43% of the World’s Chips produced

China and HK account for 30% of the sales of Advanced Technology and Hardware needed for Advanced Applications

It makes no sense to invest billions into 3 and 2 nm Chips and NOT SELL in a market that today has a 30% demand and could well have 45% demand in the next 15 years

That’s like increasing oil production by 30% and refusing to sell to China or India

That’s like spending crores of rupees on refining Gold jewelry and refusing to sell them to Telugu or Gujarati weddings

It’s UNVIABLE

So the West HAS to sell the 3&2 nm Chips to China if they have to sustain a market.

At present the rest of the World only has a 7% market for these advanced applications of which Saudi and UAE have a 3.4% market share and they certainly can’t create the applications even if they get the equipment for the next 15 years

India has a 0.7% market today for advanced applications ($ 767 Million)

That’s 3% of Chinas market and 2.3% of China and HK market combined

Fact 3:- The 3nm Chips, 2 nm Chips and 1 nm Chips may be redundant advanced technologies

Artificial Sun, Hypersonics, Nanogrid Laser Arrays – these were all areas where good studies were made by the US in the 1980s -1990s , well before China and Russia

Yet they faltered because there was not sufficient necessity for such advanced stuff back then

The assumption that people will use advanced smartphones for the next 30 years would be silly

Today Defence equipment works perfectly with 450 nm Chips and Drones with 150nm -65 nm Chips

Today the most advanced Robotic applications are done without 7/5 nm Chips

The Memory, GPUs and other hardware are more crucial than Chips now

Again these products need China which is a 30% market to them

Otherwise they cannot be viable commercially

They HAVE to sell to China and if the US tries too hard, they will find alternate ways

Like NVDIA which custom made advanced chips and sold $ 5 Billion of these to China just breaking the threshold

If they say China can’t be sold a car that drives at 100 Kph, simply modify your engine a bit and sell them a car that drives at 99 Kph and stay within sanctions guidelines

Fact 4:- If China develops it’s own 7/5 nm Chips using the innovative stacking process and DUV, that alone is a major blow to Global Players

Today TSMC sells most 14,7 and 5 nm. chips to China

China accounts for 36.5% of TSMC and it’s revenue

Yet now its estimated by the SIA that

By 2027, SMIC and other Chinese entities will sell most of the 14,7 and 5 nm Chips to China

TSMC and Samsung will lose a lot of sales to China in the next five years and simply be unable to sell anywhere else

By 2027, China will account for 14.6% of the same sales to TSMC and there won’t be market for TSMC to compensate for the loss

Same for Qualcomm, Intel and other players selling Modems and other 5G technology

This means China is a part of a War where it suffers the LEAST

China won’t make 3nm and 2nm Chips. They will buy these Chips if offered by others but won’t waste billions on trying to commercially make these chips with their own equipment

They DON’T NEED these Chips even for their most advanced applications

TSMC and others HAVE TO SELL TO CHINA if they commercially produce 3/2 nm Chips

China likewise knows it will be SOLD equipment and hardware that keep defying sanctions all the time to survive

And in a few years time – China will take away a huge chunk of TSMCs market in the mainland and TSMC cannot replace the Chinese market, even half of it in the next decade

To answer your question

China is never likely to catch up with commercial 3 / 2 nm Chips
China will come out of the Chip war with the least damage and most positive effect for the mainland.
Taiwan, Korea and US will find their players badly mauled by economics
China will deliver a strong blow to TSMC and Samsung by 2027 from which they can’t recover

Unless Biden removes ALL EXPORT CONTROLS today and goes to free market mode

Then Chinese players will start being swamped with aggressive growth.

The Sopranos – Johnny Sack And Paulie

Paulie complains about Tony ruling against him in a sitdown to Johnny Sack, This is the first of many conversations between the two. These conversations lead to major problems down the road.

What are the best closing arguments to ever be used by lawyers?

Fedor Nikiforovich Plevako was one of the most famous Russian defence lawyers of the 19th century. Many of his speeches were recorded and became legendary. I will quote two of them.

Once, he was defending an old Orthodox priest accused of adultery and theft. The jury was very unfavourable. The public prosecutor described the depravity of the vicious priest. Finally, Plevako rose from his seat to say:

– Gentlemen of the jury! The affair is clear. The prosecutor is absolutely right in everything. The accused really perpetrated those crimes and confessed them. Nothing to discuss. But there is something I wish to draw your attention to. You behold a man, who listened to our confessions for thirty years. For thirty years, he absolved us from our sins. Now he is waiting for your decision. Would you absolve his sin?

The priest was acquitted.

In another case, Plevako defended an old townswoman who stole a tin kettle worth 30 kopecks. The prosecutor, knowing that she was going to be defended by Plevako, decided to knock the bottom out of his arguments and took pains to describe the hardness of her life and show that she was worthy of compassion. However, he explained, private property is sacred and if you acquit her, you would have to acquit criminals who are much more dangerous, and this may lead to the destruction of Russia. The jury nodded in agreement. Plevako started to speak:

– Russia has suffered a lot in over 1,000 years of its history. It was invaded by numerous foes. Moscow was taken by Napoleon’s army. Russia overcame all these challenges and not only survived but became stronger. Unfortunately, an old lady stole a tin kettle worth 30 kopecks. This is a heavy blow. Now Russia will perish, that’s for sure.

The old woman was acquitted.

Ukrainian Soldiers REVOLT Against Military Leadership

If only we could send all the Ukraine flag twitter users as conscripts, then we’d have reasonable discourse on the internet. LOL.

https://youtu.be/UBSPV58xkJc

Was the War of 1812 a war of independence for Canada?

Not at all. the two colonies involved in the war, Upper Canada and Lower Canada, both remained colonies after the war. Even if the Americans had succeeded in their objectives, they may have just handed both colonies back to the United Kingdom. The war was started by the Americans, although they felt some of their grievances against the United Kingdom were legitimate. The end of the war essentially put things back exactly as they were before the war, and everyone in Upper Canada and Lower Canada were just fine with that.

However, the war did create a Canadian identity, both tying together people of both Protestant and Catholic backgrounds through the six British Colonies in eastern Canada, and by establishing an identity separate from the United Kingdom for Protestant Canadians.

Prior to the war, you pretty much had five distinct groups of people living in Canada, each of whom identified differently.

Catholics (mostly French speaking) who identified as “Canadien” and not as British. They didn’t see Protestants as “Canadian” but as “British”.
Loyalists, who had been born in the United States prior to the American revolutionary war. They always saw themselves as “British”, but largely spoke and acted like Americans.
British immigrants, who also saw themselves as “British”, but were more diverse than the Loyalists, who tended to be English and Anglican, while the immigrants were English, Irish and Scottish, and were often Methodists, Baptists or Presbyterian. The largely Anglican Loyalists weren’t very welcoming. The immigrants also spoke and acted like the British.
American immigrants, who still saw themselves as “American” and came to Canada looking for opportunity well after the revolutionary war. They didn’t get along well with the Loyalists, and also had a rather diverse set of religious backgrounds.
First Nations, a mix of those who had been in Canada for some time, and some that had fled from the United States because they had supported the British. Most of them didn’t get along well with each other. They got along well with British authorities, but not with the other four groups.

Shortly into the war, and by no later than 1813, all five groups had pretty much put aside their differences and started identifying clearly as “Canadian”. There were two basic reasons for this. The first was that the Americans treated everyone they encountered brutally. They would routinely loot and burn settlements, including York (now Toronto), where they burned the new legislative building (which is why the Ontario legislature isn’t on Parliament Street, but the burned down structure was). Anyone who dealt with the American forces largely found the militia (not so much the professional soldiers) to be undisciplined and arrogant.

The other was the indifference of the United Kingdom to their plight. Yes, the UK was busy with Napoleon, and the professional British forces in Canada were competent, but a lot of the fighting was done by the First Nations with help from the local militia. The militia often complained they had to answer to British leaders who were often indifferent to their suffering. For people in Upper Canada, that often meant that their local forces answered to the British governor in Quebec City.

So, yes, the British did most of the fighting, with some help from Canadians, but the real stars were the First Nations, who terrified the Americans but worked well with the British. When the Mohawks heard the Americans had invaded York, and the British had abandoned the city, they put together a force of 400 warriors (to face an American force at least three times that size) and only turned back when they found the Americans had abandoned the city too. In late 1813, after the American unsuccessfully tried to attack British forces near St. Catharines (where they were ambushed), the natives surrounded the Americans at Fort George and kept them from venturing outside the fort. The Americans withdrew for the winter.

Over in Lower Canada, the Americans found the locals not to be hospitable. Two attempts to invade Montreal were turned back by a mixed force which was largely French-Canadian. That sent morale throughout the country through the roof.

As for the American immigrants, they soon realized they wanted nothing to do with their own country as the American forces looted and burned farms and houses without discrimination. That drove them further towards the British and their fellow residents of Upper Canada.

Meanwhile, over in Nova Scotia,. Halifax became rich as Canadian privateers preyed on American shipping. Once privateer, the Liverpool Packet, took fifty prizes during the war despite being captured once – the Americans sold the ship at auction back to its former owner. Everyone in Canada got involved in the effort.

The events eventually pushed all the colonies towards self-government by the 1840s (governors became figureheads without real power) and a new country by the 1860s (when the Americans went to war with themselves).

Glenn Beck reacts to Oliver Anthony’s POWERFUL testimony on The Joe Rogan Experience

As a police officer, what is the kindest thing a suspect ever said to you?

Over the years, there have been several people (suspects, offenders, witnesses, victims, etc.) who have said kind things to me. One that comes to mind is probably the most recent. As a captain, I’m not often out on patrol and I make very few traffic stops. A few weeks ago however, I saw a vehicle traveling the wrong direction in a traffic circle. Given the danger presented, I stopped the motorist and saw that the vehicle was driven by a tiny African American lady of about 65 (I am a not so tiny 55-year-old Caucasian man), and that she was confused and upset by the unfamiliar traffic control device into which she had driven. I helped get her turned around and pulled to the side of the road where we were both safe. Pursuant to Department policy, I asked her for her license, registration and proof of insurance. She paused a moment and then started looking through her purse, center console and glove compartment for the requested documentation. Based on my experience, this suggested to me that she did not have one or more of the documents I had asked her to produce. I asked her if she had a driver’s license and she admitted that her license was suspended. I couldn’t help but notice the tears welling up in her eyes. I had already noticed that her license plate was expired, as was her motor vehicle inspection sticker. I then asked if her automobile was insured, and she told me it was not.

In my jurisdiction, unless there are exigent circumstances, a vehicle found to be uninsured is to be towed and impounded. In addition, a motorist found to be driving under suspension may, at the discretion of the officer, be arrested, and should not be permitted to drive away from the traffic stop absent exigent circumstances which mitigate against preventing the motorist from driving any further. The lady had tears streaming down her cheeks, knowing she had a problem. She was wearing a business outfit, so I asked her where she was going, thinking that I might be able to drop her off if time was a problem. She explained that the previous week, she was hired by a local hospital and that day was to be her first at her new job. She explained that she had lost her home and job in August of 2016 when our area suffered through the worst flood to affect the area in modern history. Approximately 80% of the homes and businesses in our area flooded during the event. Many had never flooded before, were not in flood zones and consequently, many families and businesses were left with nothing, following the inundation. This lady was one of those.

She understood that she was in trouble, and she understood that despite her good intentions, she was breaking the law. But there was no anger or bitterness. In her face, I saw only resolve and determination. She never once suggested that she deserved a break. She didn’t hint at leniency. She expressed no self-pity and did not seek to shift the blame. While I may not have shown it, I was very impressed with the way she was handling the experience.

I told the lady, whom I’ll call Ms. Smith, to have a seat in her car, turn on her air conditioner (it was about 95), and that I would be back with her as quickly as possible. I then returned to my unit and checked her registration and driver’s license. I determined that her license was suspended due to her inability to honor a payment plan with the DMV that she had reached in order to resolve the fines assessed to her when her insurance lapsed. She was uninsured; her history showed that over the last several years, her insurance lapsed several times, She always managed to have her insurance reinstated but the administrative fees had built up over time. Her registration had expired two months earlier. However, with a suspended driver’s license, she could not renew her registration or obtain an updated motor vehicle inspection sticker. Clearly, she was in a vicious spiral and putting her in jail or doing anything to cost her the new job would not be helpful.

I carefully considered my options, recognizing that my obligation to protect and serve includes keeping people without the mandatory liability insurance off of the road. Her failure to have the required insurance presented a problem for me. Under our law, were she to have an at-fault accident and it was discovered that I had stopped her and failed to take the appropriate action, I could be held responsible. If I towed her car, she would likely lose her new job which was going to pay her enough to get the required insurance, take care of her suspended driver’s license and generally make her life better for the first time in two years. As I sat there considering what to do, I suddenly remembered something. I got out of my unit, walked up to car and looked in the back seat. There, behind the front passenger seat was a rear-facing baby seat, buckled snuggly into place. “I meant to ask you about the baby seat,” I told her. “Oh,” she replied. “That’s for my grand baby,” she told me. “I take her to day care each morning so that my daughter can make it to nursing school on time. This is our only car.” “Do they live with you all the time.” I asked. “Yes, sir! They’re my best friends,” she said with a smile.

I thanked her and returned to my unit. I smiled too and thought to myself, “Exigent circumstances! Can’t tow that car if there are exigent circumstances.” I prepared the lady a citation for driving under suspension. I hated to do it, but the only discretion we have in such cases is jail or a misdemeanor summons. I did, however, exercise my discretion and prepared a warning for the expired driver’s license and expired vehicle inspection sticker. I then made a quick phone call before walking back to her car, ticket book in hand. As the little lady waited to hear her fate, I began. “OK, Ms. Smith, here is where we are,” I told her. “I have to issue you a citation for driving under suspension. I have no choice. However, you’re not being arrested, only fined.” She asked me how much the fine would be and I told her that I did not know, but that I had called the Clerk of Court, asked that they let her pay over a period of six months, and that they had agreed. I then handed her the citation and asked her to sign where indicated. She signed and then remembered the other charges. “Is there another ticket,” she asked? “No Ma’am,” I told her. “Apparently, I am out of tickets and don’t have time to go and get some more.” She seemed confused and asked, “I know you have to tow my car, Captain. I was just wondering if there is any way that you can let me get to work first. I can park it around back where nobody will see it and you can tow it from there, if it’s not too much trouble.”

“Well, Ms Smith, it looks like your car isn’t going to be towed today. As it turns out, there are exigent circumstances that allow me to let you keep your car. But you have to get insurance within 30 days.” She didn’t understand, so I explained that since there is an infant in their house, since they had only one car, and since that car was the child’s sole means of transportation to day care, such a situation created exigent circumstances which allowed me to decline to tow the car, provided that I had a reasonable belief that the required insurance would be obtained within 30 days. She assured me that they would get the insurance they needed.

I wished her good luck and told her to be safe and I turned around to walk back to my unit as the tears started rolling down her cheeks again. Before I could walk away, however, Ms. Smith called out to me, “Captain Sharp!” I turned back to her. “I don’t know if you’re allowed or not, but would it be OK if I gave you a hug?” I told her I would love a hug, and it was the best hug of the day.

I’m sorry that it took so long to answer your question, but, “Would it be OK if I gave you a hug?” was one of the kindest things that a suspect ever said to me. Thank you for your question!

Nearly ALL of America FEELS This | Oliver Anthony “Rich Men North of Richmond” | Just Jen Reacts

Americans are crying out! And not one Senator is addressing this!

Covert Intel: Another “Gulf of Tonkin” Incident Planned? Black Sea. Next Week.

World Hal Turner

This content is for Subscribers Only — In order to get the United States involved in the Vietnam War, the “Gulf of Tonkin Incident” was staged by the United States, to claim one of its ships was attacked by the North Vietnamese (Viet Cong) and thus, the US had to enter the war.

Years later, it was revealed the entire incident was staged by the US to provide an EXCUSE to enter the war.

Next week, in the Black Sea . . . .

I don’t like to eat, but I’m not insecure in any way about my weight. I only eat when I feel hungry, and eating often feels like a chore. Is this unhealthy? Should my mom or doctor worry?

First and foremost you should worry. Feeling eating is a chore is not healthy at all. Meals are one of the core moments of socialization, our whole human identity is tied to eating collectively and many paleoanthropologists believe that the practice of sharing meals is what pushed us to develop the linguistic skills. This is how important are meals. Your refusal to eat may be a symptom of something extremely serious and you should see a psychologist about it.

What if the idea of ‘The Purge’ became real?

‘The Purge’ would cause a massive shift of capital to the rich, causing society to essentially collapse.

What would be incredibly rare is private citizens going out hunting and killing each other for sport. People would naturally band together in groups of those they trust and heavily arm themselves. Neighbourhoods would become fortresses. Rich people would hire extremely well paid private security for the night. If you had a murderous grudge against someone, Purge night would be the dumbest night of the year to actually try and carry out that grudge. It is the only night where it should be literally impossible to find your victim unarmed, unaware and alone.

It would also be unlikely to be an opportunity to rob banks or stock up on luxury goods or cars via looting – people who run banks or supercar showrooms know a thing or two about security, for purge night those places would be patrolled by heavily armed private security with orders to drop anyone who comes within a 100m radius of the place.

What would take place is massive amounts of corporate, financial and environmental crime, mostly by rich people.

Say you have a factory which produces gigantic amounts of toxic waste. Treating and properly disposing of that waste is damn expensive, so how about instead of doing that, you just store it all up in a giant vat through the whole year and dump it all into the sea on purge day! Millions in overheads saved, and your company isn’t on the hook for the cleanup. You could probably even get away with claiming that your company has produced zero toxic emissions that year and claim environmental subsidies as a result.

Say you are a hedge fund manager responsible for managing a multi billion dollar portfolio of assets mostly made up of people’s pensions. There are strict rules about how you manage pension funds, however on purge day, you simply transfer all of the money into your own account and become a billionaire overnight.

Say you are a major property developer who has big plans to demolish a poor neighbourhood to make way for luxury condos. There’s no way you can get away with doing something like this in normal times, but on purge day? Shit you could hire goons to put the whole place to the torch.

The premise of ‘The Purge’ is that it is supposed to act as an outlet to enable people to express their frustrations with life for one day, allowing them to live the rest of the year normally. What would actually happen if this law was passed is that normal people would spend the night huddled together in fear whilst rich people systematically rape and pillage the rest of society with zero repercussions.

The World WON’T Believe How SAFE China is! (Americans Shocked)

“I live in Los Angeles. It’s true that I will not go out walking around after dark by myself. It’s definitely not safe. I don’t understand why the government cannot do anything effectively about homeless people, zero-dollar shopping, and all sorts of hate crimes. I hope Chinese people continue to enjoy the freedom of walking around in the cities day and night without worrying about safety.”

What are some examples of criminals who have been caught due to their own stupidity?

My friend is a police officer and what he told me was surprising: the thing that gets most criminals caught is often simple stuff—usually with their car.

Speeding. Expired license. Broken brake light. Turning without using your signal.

Stupid stuff.

Officers need probable cause to pull you over. So at night, when many criminals are out, they just look for these little things.

Once you are pulled over, the officer runs your name in their database and asks you questions. He notices you acting weird while you churn out lies while darting your eyes around nervously. He notices the slight smell of crack coming from your car because you couldn’t leave it at home. But just to be sure, he has a drug dog come and sniff the car.

It all starts with something as simple as that license plate tag you were too lazy to update, which has a new color cycled in each year, to immediately call you out.

I see it happen over and over again on bodycam videos on YouTube.

Most criminals aren’t these genius conniving psychopaths you see on TV. They are generally quite stupid.

Another American “Volunteer” Killed in Ukraine

World Hal Turner

In March of 2022, former US Army Soldier Jericho Skye, made the decision to leave his young child and family behind, and go fight for the Ukrainian government.

An avid mass-media consumer, he was convinced that Russia’s “unprovoked” war was merely the start of a bloodthirsty campaign for global conquest.

The photogenic Californian was killed in battle yesterday, along with NINETEEN other “volunteers.”

He thought it would be like shooting Ducks . . .

…turned out, HE was the Duck.

How did the Chinese military background of the Huawei founder, Ren Zhengfei, give Huawei the strength and resilience to survive the most powerful sanctions which the US has imposed on any tech company in history?

I am not sure about you but I don’t think any military background would have helped Huawei’s founder in any way to survive and fight the most powerful nation in the world, because he does not lead an army, but a private company.

I would think it is his engineering background that’s behind his success,which translates to a single-minded purpose to transform factual information and physics into something that benefit Huawei’s customers more cost effectively and efficiently. This is the true cornerstone of Huawei’s success.

Even when his daughter was detained/kidnapped by Canadian authorities to blackmail him into submission,he did not immediately confront the unfairness of the detention, as what all hot-blooded military folks would do, but instead make him want to motivate his company to continue producing high quality products for the consumers. He took three years to reorg and rally his staff to launch the Mate 60 Pro and Mate X foldable smartphones recently, despite U.S. sanctions.

He probably foresee what’s coming, as he had wanted to sell Huawei to Motorola back in 2003, knowing Huawei will one day challenge America’s high tech Infocomms hegemony … but Motorola was not keen at that time and the deal was called off. After that he held an after-event-review and asked his employees if they wanted to sell the company again and the majority gave a no-vote.

Thus he decided so be it, and warned his employees they will one day battle the most powerful nation on Earth.

He’d never looked back since. The rest is history.

A woman found three kittens running right up to her, and knew they needed her help.

Today’s smile video.

What is the most offensive thing someone has ever asked you?

My sister asked me right before my father’s funeral as she was processing his final arrangements if I wanted to be buried next to him when I pass away myself. I felt that question was a self-serving, insulting slap in the face to me. My father and I had a very toxic relationship. We didn’t speak to each other the last 2 years of his life, although I was gultt-tripped by the family to attend his deathbed and funeral. Going all the way back to my early childhood, my sister, mother, stepmother, grandmother, and everyone else in the family have made it clear my dad matters more than me. Once he was gone, I couldn’t even enjoy the quiet relief from his emotional abuse of me in peace without having yet another female made on me, although I told my sister to go to Hell.

Oliver Anthony Plays His Biggest Show Ever

He’s the real deal. This is great. Check it out.

Why does the ASML CEO seem worried about the Huawei Mate 60 Pro, despite previously stating “Even if we provided them with the drawings, they wouldn’t be able to make it.” regarding China’s technological capabilities?

With Huawei Mate 60 Pro, the writing on the wall is clear: China’s chip ecosystem can make the chips to power the 5G technologies to meet current market needs. . . .and producing its own high end lithography machines can be achieved in as short as 5 years.

ASML should be shitting in their pants right now.

If Huawei can make do with 7nm node and work with chiplet technology in packaging to boost power and utility for the next few years, this means that U.S. chips will not be needed by China. And when the U.S. chip companies are decimated in their prime market and bankrupt, where else can ASML sell their machines to?

Weak or even the collapse of the EUV machine market will mean choking off the large capital funding needed for their even more expensive NA EUV machines. All these can collapse on its own immense weight within these 5 year period. ASML does not have the luxury of time.

‘To hell with spinelessness!’ | Neil Oliver

Neil Oliver shares his thoughts on the climate agenda.

Why didn’t European countries help Africa in the way China did?

Africa is an imaginary place to most people. A lot of commentary about Africa is a fictional genre that reveals more about the writer than the subject of their analysis.

If Europe was written about like Africa, it’d be a place that Arabs and Turks colonised, then an Austrian and Corsican did evil stuff before Uncle Sam saved them from themselves. They’d best watch out for dreadful Chinese and Russian propaganda! Europeans are a bit childlike, you see.

With that out of the way, countries can’t help each other. They can trade, but that is mutually beneficial. By sheer proximity European countries have paid more for African products than China has.

Even now, my country sells more to Spain than we do to China. It’s their dollars that funds our imports of Chinese widgets. Last I checked, Britain was also our largest source of foreign investment.

Much is made about infrastructure, but it’s one of those topics where people have more opinions than facts. The infrastructure explosion across many African countries is downstream of their increased prosperity and the expansion of global financial and industrial capacity.

China Civil Engineering is one of many foreign and domestic contractors vying for construction contracts from the Nigerian government. But it is ultimately Nigerian taxpayers financing the construction. I bet it’s no different in other African countries.

Infrastructure is also an investment. For example, a consortium of American internet firms have built out the underwater internet infrastructure linking Africa to the world. They’ll recoup their investment from increased usage and selling access to their property.

Similarly, a Chinese firm granted a port concession will recoup their investment through port management fees.

There is richer, more informative story waiting to be told once people drop their caricatures and deal with reality.

Dell’s Revenue Collapses After Losing Chinese Market Share De risking Became Destruction

Dell has lost China as its market share plunged posing an existential challenge as Lenovo, a Chinese company, has about 3x higher market share in China and growing. Dell is moving out of China as it cannot survive against the competition against China’s local companies due to the usa’s de-risking policy. Without components from China however makes Dell uncompetitive against China’s local companies. Going out from China Dell loses the huge China’s market forever. The de-risking policy shoot Dell in its foot as it struggles for survival.

https://youtu.be/fOBDyICFVP0

What is the funniest thing that happened to you while shopping?

Back in the 80s, I lived alone in a cheesy one-bedroom apartment in a building full of apartments rented to gay guys. I developed significant friendships with these men; one of them eventually became my “maid” of honor at my wedding, and we are all still in contact to this day. I was alone in the city and these men became my family. We were always hanging out in one apartment or another and I rarely ate dinner alone.

Back in the 80s, our 24-hour Walmart was still a fun place to hang out. If we were bored, we’d all pile in my car and go to Walmart; half a dozen gay men and me.

One December weekend afternoon we were just hanging at Walmart. Some of us were picking up Christmas gifts but mostly we were just enjoying the Christmas displays and each other’s company, cutting up amongst ourselves. We landed in the Christmas toy aisle.

Oh, lo, and behold, hey guys come check out the fire truck!

It was metal, and heavy, and fully as long as my arm. Bright red, it was built to resemble a real fire truck, not a cartoon truck. And it was covered with buttons labeled “Try me!”

By God, it was the coolest thing. One button sounded the siren. Another button and we heard water gushing out of the hose. Another button and we could hear the fireman admonishing the driver to go faster. Sound effects for everything: a 911 call reporting a fire, tires screeching around the corner, firemen calling out to rescue the cat. Probably two dozen buttons worth of sound effects. By God, it was the coolest thing.

The seven of us crowded around this fire truck; for five minutes we repeatedly punched buttons, crowing with delight.

Finally, the old lady standing behind us asked to be excused and pushed between us to grab three of the fire trucks. “If it keeps seven adults that amused, it might work for my grandsons.”

…

What is something your neighbor did that you couldn’t believe?

I was tearing down my old house, and building a new house. I got some outrageous estimates for tearing it down. I live 80 km from the nearest waste transfer station that would take this kind of material, so the hauling was expensive.. It was surrounded by trees, that I wanted to keep, so I couldn’t burn it down. I was talking to a neighbor about how much it cost to tear it down, but that looked like my only option. He talked to my other neighbors, and then on my birthday, the whole neighborhood showed up and helped tear down the house. One guy worked construction, and brought out a 40 foot dumpster container for the waste. We kept a fire like a large bonfire going, small enough to not be a threat, but big enough to burn a lot of tinder dry 80 year old wood . We filled the dumpster with the crushed shingled roof, windows, hot water heater, insulation, and kept burning as much wood as the fire would take. One neighbor brought over a Bobcat to pack everything into the dumpster. Others had sawzalls, cutting the walls into manageable chunks. My wife was BBQing up a storm. One neighbor who was disabled brought over 10 pizzas for the crew. Others hooked their winches to the walls and brought it down.

Some people hauled stuff away, my refrigerator became someone’s beer fridge, etc.

One neighbor stored all my furniture in his garage.

One neighbor let me plug an extension cord into her house, so we didn’t overload the little generator I had.

Another neighbors leant me in his bigger generator.

It took one day, a lot of burgers and pizzas, and my neighbors had saved me a small fortune.

Would your neighbors do this for you? I couldn’t believe my neighbors would do it for me.

BRICS: Bank of China opens branch in Saudi Arabia, New World Order

This is significant. Very significant.

https://youtu.be/bMIU65zrXsc

What are the reasons why some people believe that buying goods made in China is bad? Should we boycott Chinese products?

If you are dumb to asked this question you should take my advise. First open up every product to ensure 100% nothing is made in China. Check the materials. And every single parts need to be sent to a laboratory to check.

Any part of any items with even a small oration or materials made in China as throw it away. Yes you should absolutely not buy anything made in China. China don’t need you. You can throw everything you have and China still has 7 billion customer.

You and your six racist friends can keep buying and keep throwing everything away for all we care. You can burnt down your home because chances is the materials. Are China made, the wall paper U.S. Chinese made, your paint is made in China. Stop asking redundant questions no one gives a shit of your hate.

We don’t gives a shit if you think Chinese products is bad, inferior, trash or dangerous 175 out of 195 nations has China as their biggest trading partner and 7 billion out of 8 billion use a Chinese product 23 out of 24 hours a day. You are as insignificant to China as a one of the germ on planet earth. Get it through your thick skull.

why am I speaking out for China part.1

Once you get past his accent, it’s a very nice perspective.

As someone with expertise in hi-tech, why does Huawei, the Chinese telecom company, pose threat to national security of the USA and its allies?

Huawei is taking up the leadership in various tech fields, from autonomous vehicles to semiconductors. Huawei is moving so fast, the US has little chance to catch up, let alone compete. Huawei has gone beyond its original mandate of telecom gear and is now a strong voice in the EV sector, cloud computing, semiconductor design, production and all the attendant software and hardware items needed for the complete supply chain to produce semiconductors.

Huawei’ unannounced sales of its Mate 60 Pro with its Kirin 9000s chip during US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit to China stole the show. Not only is the chip self designed and produced in China, but it features no US parts. In fact, the messaging in the semiconductor sector is continuous and fast moving. Not only did SMIC produce 7nm chips, but TSMC is now taking orders from the mainland for 7nm chips.

Further, Samsung is set to rebuild its China semiconductor factories, Micron is expanding its Xian plant, Intel and Qualcomm have created ‘ innovation centers’ in China, and TSMC is expanding its Nanjing fab. Rumor has it that TSMC may acquire or build a couple more fabs in China. A rebellion is taking place to flaunt Biden’s bullying and destroying any effort to quiet the rise of the semiconductor sector in China.

Mission accomplished

Love this!

Tex-Mex Ravioli Casserole

This dish is good as is, but for an extra pop, serve with a dollop of sour cream and a few jalapeno slices.

Ingredients

1 (16 ounce) jar mild salsa
1 (10.75 ounce) can tomato puree
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 (28 ounce) bag frozen cheese ravioli, unthawed
2 (19 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Instructions

Combine salsa, puree and cumin.
Pour 1/2 cup of sauce mixture on bottom of a lightly greased 2-quart baking dish.
Top evenly with frozen cheese ravioli. Layer with black beans, chopped cilantro, green onions, and remaining sauce mixture; top evenly with cheeses.
Bake, covered with aluminum foil, at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes or until bubbly.
Remove foil, and bake 5 more minutes. Let stand 5 minutes.

Yield: 6 servings

What will China do to grow its economy under the current climate and how will the CPC find ways to tap on that huge Chinese saving resources to its best of advantage?

Right now the Chinese government and companies are striving to make tech breakthroughs in all areas: the most recent example is the launch of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro 5G mobile phone, which was made completely without using any US technologies.

As a result, share prices in tech companies have gone up.

The current trend is to let the air go out of the real estate balloon, while building up the tech sector.

China is also welcoming investment money from Saudi Arabia and UAE, while the US is forcing US tech companies to cut back on their sales and investment to the Chinese market.

Niger France Uranium Operations Shutdown As US Ambassador Is Given 48hr Ultimatum To Leave

Why would you send an ambassador to or insist on being in a country you don’t recognise the regime? The US and France definitely have something under their sleeves.

Newly unsealed court papers have publicly confirmed that the US government seized almost one million barrels of Iranian crude oil from the Greek-managed tanker M/T Suez Rajan.

The State Department said on Friday that the US government had seized the vessel and its cargo of 980,000 barrels of crude oil, alleging it was transporting Iranian oil to China in violation of Washington’s sanctions against Tehran.

It further claimed that the US government obtained a warrant earlier this year for its seizure.

On April 19, around the time of the seizure, the vessel’s owner, Suez Rajan Ltd, pleaded guilty to sanctions violations and was fined $2.5 million.

Subsequently, the Greek vessel’s operator, Empire Navigation, agreed to cooperate with US authorities and ordered the ship, located in Southeast Asia at the time, to take its load of oil to the United States.

The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy warned on July 20 that any oil company unloading hundreds of thousands of barrels of seized Iranian oil sitting in a Greek tanker off the coast of Texas would be held accountable.

Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri’s remarks came on the anniversary of Iran’s confiscation of a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz in 2019 after Britain seized an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar.

A few days after the seizure of the M/T Suez Rajan, Iran’s Navy seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Sea of Oman, which was carrying Kuwaiti oil for the second-largest energy company in the US.

The oil tanker, named Advantage Sweet, had been involved in a maritime accident with an Iranian fishing craft, which resulted in the injury and missing of a number of its crew.

After the collision, the oil tanker attempted to flee the scene in serious breach of international laws and regulations, which require the provision of medical treatment and supply of proper and sufficient medicine to seamen in case of sickness or injury.

After sitting off the Texas coast for months, the Suez Rajan began the hours-long ship-to-ship transfer of its oil to another tanker, the MR Euphrates, on August 21.

The newly released court documents confirm the US government then seized the oil.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference on August 21, spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry Nasser Kan’ani emphasized that the Islamic Republic won’t remain silent on any violation of the Iranian nation’s rights, will show an appropriate reaction, and will “cut off the hands of violators.”

He reminded the parties that have plans to confiscate Iran’s oil to review the history of Iran’s actions in similar cases.

“Measures that involve attacking oil tankers carrying Iranian oil are a brazen example of piracy,” Kan’ani stated.

The United States and its allies have been seizing Iranian oil cargoes since the previous US administration of Donald Trump withdrew unilaterally from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May 2018.

What is an insane coincidence that you’ve experienced?

In the early 1970s I was at a cocktail party. There was lots of standing about in small groups making small talk about nothing consequential. I was introduced to one particular person who was from Canada.

When in other countries myself, I have often been asked by strangers, when they discovered I was Scottish, if I knew their aunt, or uncle, or cousin or some other random relatives. No one seemed to realise that Scotland has a population of 5 millions and it was impossible for me to know everyone who lived in the same country as myself.

With the above in mind while chatting with this Canadian visitor, I made a joke saying “I won’t ask you if you know my friend Billy who lives in Canada”. We both laughed at that and talked about other things. A couple of hours later we had both circulated through various other groups and came across each other again. We had both run out of meaningless Smalltalk and simply smilled at each other.

Our Canadian guest then broke the ice by saying “Aren’t you the one who has a friend living in Canada? “

I responded yes, in Toronto.

He asked where in Toronto.

I replied, Missauguia.

He asked, where in Missauguia.

I replied, 26 High Cliff Drive.

He looked surprised and said, “Do you mean Billy Skinner. I live next door at number 24.”

Do police lie to cover up crimes?

On the night of August 23rd 1987, 16-year-old Don Henry and 17-year-old Kevin Ives decided to go hunting in Alexander Arkansas. It was believed, at 4 am the two boys were in a horrific accident when they were hit by a train.

It was determined to be a horrific and tragic accident by the state medical examiner, who said the boys were sleeping on the tracks due to marijuana intoxication from smoking 20 Joints. Those were his words, and the authorities closed the case.

Anyone that knows anything about weed would see that as a major red flag. The parents didn’t accept this finding and had a second autopsy done which showed the boys only smoked one joint and they were already dead when they were placed on the tracks. Don Henry’s shirt showed evidence of a stab wound and Kevin Ives had his head smashed in with his own rifle.

The theory is the boys stumbled upon a drug smuggling operation that was run by crooked cops and town officials. Several witnesses that came forward with information died under mysterious circumstances with each of the victim’s bodies examined by the same guy who first examined the two boys.

The prosecutor for the case Dan Herman, was arrested for drug dealing and was implicated as one of the murderers. Keith McCaskill was another man implicated but died when he was stabbed to death by an unknown attacker.

Phil And Tony Sitdown With Carmine Lupertazzi Jr – The Sopranos HD

Phil Leotardo And Tony Soprano Sitdown With Carmine Lupertazzi Jr.