On one of my many affirmations, I asked to be made aware of all the people who hurt me.
I forget the exact phrasing. But yeah. I asked for this knowledge and understanding.
And I was surprised at what happened.
I started to remember old events. Events that happened years ago. Events that I thought were innocent, or mistakes, or just simply bad luck.
One memory was the death of my cat; Texie.
I was in Boston living with this model named CJ. She always had this bad anger and nasty streak about her. Which was controlled by medication, but when that beast was out, oh lordy. Watch out.
Long story short…We had a “falling out” and she left. Calling me a “coward” for having her mother come up and get her.
Around that time, perhaps a month later, my beloved Texie got very sick; very quickly. His nose was white and his neck was all swollen.
I took him to the vet, and she said that he had no red corpuscles left. She just couldn’t understand how he could be alive. We tried to help him, but it was impossible, so we were forced to put him down. I loved that cat.
That was twenty five years ago.
Now, over the last few weeks I have been having the suspicion that CJ might have poisoned my cat. No proof, of course. Just a hunch.
A hunch, mind you, triggered by my affirmation directives.
It doesn’t seem possible. How could she enter the house? What poison would she use? It seems so unlikely.
But there you have it.
I take this as an answer issued forth from one of my affirmations.
And as such… I do believe in my affirmations, in hunches and in other aspects of life. I do not ignore them.
So…
I have thrown her, where ever she is today, twenty five years later… into the most thorny cornfield that I could come up with.
In my reality, time does not matter, and forgiveness is but a crutch that you used to maintain happiness.
So she will find, and discover things going really bad for her out of the blue, and she won’t know why.
Because you know, she thought that she got away with something without consequence.
She didn’t.
She only laid the flagstones for easy entry…
…into the limitless cornfield.
I know that I can be a dick.
But, I do not care.
Today…
Ungrateful Girlfriend Rejects £4000 Rolex Then This Happens
Why is China considered “the most secret country”? Is it political issues, trouble within the country, maybe they simply aren’t the “open” type of country we are use to?
First, it is the language.
Second, it’s the culture.
Most westerners are too lazy to learn, but they don’t want to admit they are lazy, so they say China is “difficult”, “opaque”, “closed”.
I read, write and speak Chinese.
China is NOT closed; it just follows completely different rules.
Reactors Reacting to the COOPER DOCKING the Endurance | Interstellar
Who is the worst customer you have ever had?
We had to ban Karen from our store.
Karen attempted to manipulate Domino’s refund policy, time and time again.
Ultimately, we were losing money because of her.
She liked to place pizza orders online quite frequently.
And would then decide to request a refund for whatever reason, be it from the order was messed up to ‘the pizza just doesn’t look that great’.
Yes, she actually said that to me.
It got to the point where we would ensure her order was immaculate.
Quality over quantity, eh?
And guess what? She’d try and get a refund.
Naturally, she’d get one, since there’s the whole thing about how the “customer is always right”.
We attempted to logically defend ourselves, telling her we did nothing wrong, but she ensured to find something flawed with her order.
Eventually, we got sick of it, and so we called in our district manager.
She places an order, and I crafted damn near the best pizza the world has ever seen. Even my manager agreed, so it’s legit.
Everything else associated with Karen’s order was on point.
So about 5 minutes or so after the driver returns from her house, we receive a call from Karen.
“Hi, I’d like a refund for my order.”
I notify my manager it’s a no go.
“Don’t refund her.”, my manager said.
“Ban her.”, my district manager said.
It’s about time.
China has to know it can never defeat the U.S. militarily. Shouldn’t it focus on peace and trade instead to become like Japan?
The US knows that they cannot defeat China. Remember that the US lost to China in the Korean war at a time when China was very weak militarily. But today, China is much stronger and are not too different in strength compared to the US.
If a war were to be fought between China and the US, it would be around China. China would have all its weapons and forces at its disposal while the US will have to depend on what they can carry to the region in their ships. And China has already worked out how many unstoppable hypersonic missiles they will need to sink each US ship. They will sink all of them. The US would not be able to sink the Chinese forces because they will be firing their missiles from land.
The US is also very dependent on their GPS satellites to guide their missiles. China will destroy those satellites early in a war between China and the US, rendering most of the US missiles useless.
China has always called upon the US for cooperation but it is the US that wants to quarrel with China. And they have no business putting their military offic ers in Taiwan!
China Refused U.S.A. Wheat
Which country produces the fiercest soldiers?
Probably Nepal. And they’ve been that way for a long time.
Now my patriotism wants to say “The Americans Duh”. But I can’t ignore the amazing feats that the Gurkhas manage, and it would be a disrespect upon them not to recognize that.
The Gurkhas have been in service to the British for about 200 years, supplying the bravest and most dangerous soldiers for decades. They’ve stopped brigades singlehandedly, killed dozens of soldiers alone, all without fear for their own life. They carry the famous Kukri blade into battle, and damn they know how to use it.
Damn. Google has good photos of Gurkhas.
One of the many impossible feats of Gurkhas was the insane defense of Rifleman Lachhiman Gurung in 1945 during the Second World War. With his comrades wounded, he held his own against a force of over 200 Japanese soldiers storming his position at Tanungdaw in Burma, present-day Myanmar.
According to warhistoryonline.com, Lachhiman reportedly:
“threw back enemy grenades until one exploded in his hand, blowing off the fingers and shattering his arm as well as injuring his leg. Although severely wounded, he continued fighting for four hours, inspiring the other men to keep going.”
That is insane! And that’s just one of the many, many, many amazing feats the Gurkhas have accomplished! Overall the Gurkhas have amassed Twenty six Victoria Crosses, and honestly should have earned many many more for their bravery.
Another more recent account was the story of Seargent Dipprasad Pun. Dipprasad, who at the time was on guard in a rooftop of a checkpoint, was attacked from nearly all sides by 30 Taliban Soldiers. Utilizing around 400 rounds, 17 Grenades, a mine, and a fuc**** machine gun bipod, killed the Taliban. All of them.
They have been involved in every major war, most minor wars, and even freedom fighting movements all over the world. They are renowned as some of the most dangerous soldiers on the planet, and often times even the knowledge of them being on the battlefield is enough to make the enemy rethink their plans.
The Gurkhas are amazing, and to be honest I doubt we’ll see anything like them without a super soldier serum anytime soon.
You can find more stories of Gurkhas here at Popularmechanics.com
Drink your milk and become Gurkha Strong!
-Cotta!
What is the biggest scam you’ve ever seen?
PASSPORT VERIFICATION BY LOCAL POLICE
Few days back I had applied for an passport,I had filled the form and procedure had been carried out.The forms were verified by the passport office, and they told me that “your case will be sent to your regional police station for residential verification”.
After 2 to 3 weeks I recieved an call from police station to come over for verification. I went police station with all the necessary documents. When I reached there 2 to 3 peoples were already standing for verification, after 20 minutes of sitting on bench my turn came. I went inside.
Police officer asked me all relevant information and took the Xerox copy of all documents and said:
“Aapka ka verification ho jayega, aap ₹500 jama kar do”
(Translation: Your verification will be completed , you need to deposit ₹500 for that)
I felt this is the fees of an verification, so I gave him ₹500, he had taken the money and said “u can go now”.
Fow which I said “sir reciept of giving money”.
He gave me very digust look for my sentence and said “passport chahiye ki nhi”(do u want passport or not)
Me: Sir mere paiso ki reciept de do main chala jaunga(sir u give me reciept i will go my way).
He got very angry and slammed ₹500 on the table and said “main bhi dekhta hu tumko passport kaise milta hain”.(I will also see how will you get your passport).
I took the money and came back home. After 2 to 3 weeks , I recived an letter from passport authority that your passport application is rejected due to residence issue,please communicate with policestation.
After communicating with my neighbor and friends they told me that U have to give money to police officer for verification,otherwise they will give some random reason and reject your case.
This is most common scam now a days.
Edit 1 :Recently I went to the passport office and and told them the situation and guess what i got my passport within 15 days that too without bribing anyone and without double police verification.
The Police are Way out of Control
Easy Lasagna Casserole
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
- 3 cups uncooked egg noodles
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 (1 1/2 ounce) package spaghetti sauce mix
- 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup Pet Evaporated Milk
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Cook noodles in boiling salted water until tender. Drain.
- Cook ground beef and onion in skillet until ground beef is browned. Drain.
- Stir in tomato sauce and spaghetti sauce mix. Cook until thickened.
- Combine cream cheese and evaporated milk in warm saucepan until smooth.
- Stir in noodles and garlic salt.
- Pour into a 9 inch square baking dish.
- Spread meat mixture over top.
- Top with shredded cheese.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes or until bubbly.
How much land would Chinese people be willing to give up for peace with China?
This is the Galwan River Valley in Xinjiang, at an altitude of over 4300 meters, with eight characters written on it.
The soldiers stationed often hold flag raising ceremonies here.
The meaning of these eight characters is, Our vast and beautiful land and river, not an inch shall be yielded.
Did you ever walk into an antiques store, see an item you wanted, and bought it for less than it was worth because you had more knowledge about it than the dealer?
Yes, I bought a $90,000 painting, from an $83 million dollar house, that was sold by Christies Auction House for $1200. How?
I went to a once-per-month place that sells items from large estates. As an art lover, I subscribe to a website that provides millions of historical art prices from auction sites around the world. While at the estate sale I noticed a very nice work that seemed to be well-framed and of higher quality than one might normally see at a typical estate sale. I liked the piece but balked at the $2000-ish price tag.
I took a photo of artist’s signature and went home. It was late in the day and the business was about to close. The estate sale business conducts a sale each month on Saturday and half a day on Sunday. On Sunday afternoon prices are reduced until everything sells. I thought that I might go back on Sunday to see what kind of price they had on the art. If low enough, I would perhaps buy it for a particular spot in the house.
On Saturday evening I casually pulled up the artist’s sales records. I was amazed to see he had some extensive sales with many pieces in the $50,000-150,000 range. The particular piece I had seen was last sold by Christies in the early 1990s for $90,000! Needless to say I was going to be the first person through the door on Sunday to buy the bargain artwork.
True to form, I was the first person to go through the door. I found the owner of the business and negotiated a $1200 price. I paid for the product and he helped me take it to the car.
I asked, “Where did you get this piece?” He said he couldn’t say due to a confidentially agreement. I finally got him to tell me that it had come from a mansion in Palm Beach that had recently been torn down to make way for a new home. He said, “When we picked up the piece it still had the Christies auction tag attached to the back.”
At this point I confessed knowing the auction history and that it had sold for $90,000 in the early 1990s at Christies. His reply?
“You gotta be shitting me!”
The piece now graces a prominent spot above my dining room sideboard. It is well lit, well liked, and one of my better stories to tell when asked about its origins.
China VS America | Yanis Varoufakis on Big Tech, Capitalism and Techno-Feudalism (Part 3)
Why did China mainland more choose to buy weapons from French than the USA during the West China honeymoon during 1970-1990?
The “honeymoon” was started by Nixon. Mao & Nixon met in 1972.
The Nixon was in a Watergate scandal & the honeymoon was put aside until 1978.
When Carter continued the honeymoon & officiated the “ONE CHINA policy & Taiwan is part of China” by signing a China-USA joint communique in 1978, some US hawks scolded Carter (for being too weak with China). 4 months after the communique, US hawks pushed out a “Taiwan Relations Act” & continued selling weapons to Taiwan.
See, by selling weapons to Taiwan = no armed sales to mainland China.
Was it a mistake to sell weapons to Taiwan instead of mainland China? Only USA can answer the question.
But we saw USA instigating a Tiananmen coup in 1989.
It looks like USA did not trust mainland China because USA could not control communist China but USA can easily control a country that has a democratic election.
Crowd Goes Nuts For RFK Jr. At Trump Rally!
HISTORIC!
Democrat traditionalist joins with Republic “Dark Horse”.
That is amazing!
“End of the grip of the neocons in charge of Foreign policy!!!!”
Why is China so possessive over Taiwan? Is the Chinese state really that weak?
???
Taiwan is part of China. It was part of China before the Japanese stole it 1895, and it was returned to China after Japan’s defeat in WWII.
Name one country that won’t protect its territorial integrity. Just one.
Why is America so possessive over Hawaii or California?
Why is Canada so possessive over Quebec?
Why is Britain so possessive over Scotland?
Why is France so possessive over Corsica?
Why is Spain so possessive over Catalonia?
You feel me?
What was the slickest thing you have done or seen when negotiating a car price?
My daughter graduated from college. I wanted to buy her a car, a new Honda. I explained to my daughter what we were doing today and we may not get the car on first go around, but that we needed to be patient.
I let her find a car she likes. Salesman in tow, we drove the car, she liked it, we are ready to deal. We walk into the sales office, a row of cubicles, and sat down with the salesman.
I had done my homework, market comps, talked to other dealers, and I am willing to pay a reasonable price. The salesman was working off of the list price and I let him present his figures. I came back “this is what i am willing to pay” followed by “we are motivated buyers and can do this today”. (i am sure I did the last week of the month thing that you always hear about. )
of course the salesman scoffed at our offer, and i said “do we need to speak to your manager?” {in negotiations there is a rule that says you cannot “close” someone you can’t “close”. so trying to make a deal with the sales person is useless because he does not have the authority to make this deal, and most likely the manager does not either, we need to be setting in front of the general manager. He is the final say on this deal. So i need to work my way up the food chain so to speak).
The sales person is punching in numbers on his calculator, my daughter is uncomfortable with the confrontation (her perspective, not mine). We are waiting on a response… he throws down a “this is the best we can do”. I say “well we are close, let’s get your manager out here. I know you are doing your best.” and reluctantly he says “okay, I’ll be right back”.
He goes away for five minutes, comes back with a new “this is the best we can do” counter followed by “we can write this up today!’
I say “that’s better but we have some work to do here if you want the sale. Let’s go back together and make this happen. We are not that far off, and I’m sure the manager will reason with me.” I give the salesman my homework, comps, market analysis. He says “I’ll be right back.”
In just a few minutes later he comes back and says “okay you can follow me”. we go back to the managers office, a nice fellow, shakes my hand and sits back down… he is all up into his computer screen punching numbers saying “i just don’t see how we can do this”.
Me “sure you do or I would not be back here. Look, I’ve done the math, you are still making a nice profit here, I am not ripping you off, its a good deal. Lets write it up and get out of here.”
He starts talking about a used model, or tells me he has more profit in a different model or color. He is bantering and we are not. The interesting thing about this is his office has windows to the office area. People can see me in the office, negotiating with the manager. Finally the GM walks in… Very nice man, very professional, we get down to it, and he looks me in the eye and i am right back at him… We have not said anything for a few minutes. I have my daughter with me who is squirming. He talks to her about her graduation, and he has a daughter that’s grown and he can remember what that’s like. He says to me “your offer really cuts into our profit, because its not just the walk out price, it is the warranty we have to cover for the next year I am worried about”. I say “Well, we are going to buy a Honda because of its reliability. My father drives one at it has 150,00 miles on it. Never a service problem.” we look at each other. tick tock time goes by. He tell the Manager. Do the deal. We stand up, shake hands, he hugs my daughter.
We all walk back to the cubical area and the we finalize the paperwork. the car will be ready tomorrow as they have to do Make-Ready.
The coolest thing happened. A lady in another cubical leans out and says “that was wonderful, can you help us buy a car?”
Women don’t understand why men are walking away & want to call them TERRORISTS?
Will malls ever make a comeback?
Only if they become an experience for visitors.
I live in Macau and our casino resorts have huge retail spaces. The Venetian like its Vegas counterpart has canals with gondolas and singing gondoliers. They have human statues in the mall. A huge food court. Art exhibits. Classical music performances.
In China, malls are supersized. 8–10 floors. Humongous food courts. Skating rinks. Go kart tracks. Swimming pools. Petting zoos for the kids. Huge play areas for the kids. Learning centers. Tutorial centers. Cooking and baking classes. And they are packed.
How do you think the international community’s support for the Philippines in its maritime row with China could impact future negotiations between the two countries?
International community?
The Philippines is a founding member of asean.
Asean, which operate by consensus, hasn’t supported the Philippines in the recent spate.
In addition, NO MEMBER OF ASEAN has backed the Philippines. This include other claimant states of the SCS. Leaders are openly asking Bongbong what he is trying to pull, expressing their worries of destabilizing escalation.
The SCS issue has been ongoing for decades. What has been secured is a gentlemen’s agreement to work towards a diplomatic solution, and limit confrontation to the coast guard.
The SCS code of conduct which was supposed to formalize the agreement and limit fallout remains in limbo after many years of negotiation.
It must be noted that the Philippines continues to hold the ante, refusing to demilitarize the issue.
Why is the Sierra Madre still grounded? The Philippines insist it is an ACTIVE DUTY NAVAL VESSEL, despite the wreck being older than the Philippines herself. It is being guarded and manned by military personnel.
No kidding.
It was widely reported that special forces troops were used to attempt a resupply of the Sierra madre. The President himself awarded a medal to the injured NAVSOU sailor.
So much for demilitarization.
In fact, the Philippines has used the publicity to remilitarize the issue, deploying air force and naval assets recently.
Which was probably the goal of the latest provocation—paint the Chinese as a huge threat and remilitarize, allowing the US military back into the Philippines and NATO/Five Eyes/Japan/Korea to demonstrate the “international community’s” MILITARY support for the Philippines.
The Philippines military is a Salvation Army beneficiary, counting Japan and of course, the US as fairy godmothers. Billions in free arms have already been promised or delivered.
If the Philippines does not walk the talk with China, or if busybodies attempt to militarily intervene in a bilateral issue, the situation will deteriorate, and may reach a tipping point.
It all depends on what China does, because they have the power to take decisive action. Break any agreement and China will respond disproportionately.
Recently, the largest Philippine coast guard cutter, the ~2,000 ton Teresa Magbanua which has been moored at the Escoda Shoal since April raised anchor and left the area after the Chinese dispatched a tugboat capable of towing ~5,000 tons in response to consecutive ramming of Chinese coast guard vessels to forcefully resupply their compatriots.
Leaving Only Darkness
Submitted into Contest #247 in response to: Set your story on a spaceship exploring the far reaches of space when something goes wrong.… view prompt
Arne Cambourne
This story contains themes or mentions of physical violence, gore, or abuse.
Their first sleep had been pre-set to wake them within days of entering a planetary system their astronomers had considered “extremely likely” to include a planet consistent with supporting life.
In those early days they were soothed by the sense of awe as they entered a new star system. Perhaps their new home would be here, and they could send that message back home to start the colony ships on their way. Sadly, this sense of awe didn’t last.
It was only after 4 suspensions that hope began to fade. They came to realise that though they had been awake for a few months since they left, they had been gone for well over their people’s average lifetime.
Everyone he had ever known was gone. There was no one at home that had seen him through living eyes, held an image of his face, or the sound of his voice, as a memory attached to a feeling of fondness.
None of the crew had children. They had been selected that way, for obvious reasons.
He remembered how the crew had originally spoken of whether they regretted not having children. They had universally agreed they did not regret this at all. How could they have this opportunity and had children? It just couldn’t work.
After a few suspensions, when the despair first began, some of the crew became upset they had chosen a career above family. They had missed what they now saw as the important stuff, and there was no-one to remember them.
By the time they had been in suspension six times, more than 150 years had gone by.
Now the despair changed. They realised that if they did have children, they would be gone now as well.
Like footprints on a sandy beach, time would have wiped these imagined children away. Even their fantasy grandchildren that brought hope and joy would be gone and long forgotten.
Each new solar system brought new despair.
There was no chance of life here. The heat was wrong, the gases were wrong, the planet had not enough resources, in the right quantities. The colony could not be risked here.
****
No one realistically expected to run into any sort of advanced life out in the expanse of space either. He did fantasize about it, and he was relieved early in the trip to find out that many of the other crew had similar fantasies.
Imagine that! Being the first to encounter a new culture. An advanced peoples so far from home.
He hoped these new people were more advanced than they were. They will have perfected space travel and can warp from one part of the galaxy to another in a flash of light. No sleep sickness. No time loss.
They could all quickly get back home. Maybe there was new technology at home that had allowed people to live longer. Maybe his parents would still be there, or some of his friends.
He had had fallen asleep thinking of this fantasy the last few cryo-sleeps. No one dreamed in suspension, but it was still nice to think you might, as you felt the cryo-film wrap your body, and the world disappeared.
This is why when he woke this time, he had to check he was actually awake.
As the lead engineer he was always woken by the AI first, to make sure the process went well for the rest of the crew as they woke.
He would check the location of the ship, and the time they had been under, then make sure each of the cryo-fluids instilled for the wake cycles were in the right proportions. A little variation was ok, it went better if someone manually adjusted the equation each time.
This time he had been woken earlier than had been expected. The ship had been on course to a system that included a star at its centre much like their one at home.
The third planet from the sun had been identified on their long-range scanners many years ago as a possibly habitable planet. It should have the right mix of gas, water and heat that could mean this place was suitable.
The AI had woken him early. He soon found out the reason, and sitting alone with the hum of the ship the only noise he could hear, he knew he had to act.
With at least a month left before they were near the target planet, the ship had begun detecting radio transmissions from the planet. The ships AI had been able to assess the target planet was inhabited, and these inhabitants were more than simple animals.
This had triggered the wake cycle, so the AI had woken the lead engineer.
Unknown to the rest of the crew the lead engineer had also been briefed by their government about how to respond to such an occurrence. He was to enact the Colony X Protocol but leave the rest of the crew asleep.
When he had first been told about the Protocol it had all made sense. He knew he would start the protocol without delay, and wait patiently for the Protocol to run completion. His feelings about the Protocol came to change.
The Protocol was designed to make sure the work they had all done, the sacrifice, the costs in time and treasure, would not go to waste. No one thought it would be a likely scenario, but the social planners and the ethicists at home had finally agreed on how the Protocol would work.
His people had learned the hard way that it can be difficult to share, and a habitable planet with an advanced life form, posed to great a risk for this endeavour of stellar exploration. There had been years of debate but, in the end, the pragmatists won out.
The Protocol was a military procedure. It was precise and efficient. Once enacted it could not be reversed, and without fail it would achieve its aims. The residents of their new home had to be removed.
His role was to complete final assessment of the new peoples the ship had found, and the environment of the planet, to confirm its suitability as a new home.
The designers of the Protocol had agreed that given the significance of the decision the Protocol involved, reliance on AI was not reasonable. A live oversight of the decision was necessary, and his role as chief engineer had come to include the arbiter of this decision.
Once his assessment had been made, he would send the authorisation code home and, eventually, the battlecruisers would arrive.
His assessment could be done at a distance, and he did not need to wake any of the crew for this role. The Protocol actually forbid he wake anyone, for risk they may interfere with the Protocol’s application.
He looked at the viability of the planet.
A planet with water and firm ground, no significant extremes of temperature. Its atmosphere was gaseous, with a good mix of oxygen and nitrogen, some other rare gases. Its gravity was mild.
The planet had a blue green colour, a reflection of its life forms and the water on the surface. Its land was in some places covered by plants, and rivers of water ran across some of its larger land masses.
He spent more time looking at the non-plant life forms on the planet.
He learned about them from the transmissions that had been reaching the ship now for months. The ship had logged and recorded hours and hours of sounds and images, and his review involved listening to and viewing these recordings.
They were an interesting people.
He fell in love with the music they had produced, and the AI had sorted these recordings, so he could observe how their music had changed over time. He learned that this music often talked of the things these people enjoyed, or the things they fear and worried about.
(He particularly liked a type of music characterised by beating drums, shouted vocals, and a strange mix of other loud and varied instruments.)
They had produced writings about their world, and he came to understand the fears these people held about their lives, and the aims they pursued. His AI was able to differentiate these writings that were likely historical records and those that were like his own people’s legends or myths, or fictions just for pleasure.
He needed to learn more about these people before he activated the Colony X protocol. He was short of time though.
His government had written into the protocol a requirement that it be enacted within two weeks of the AI initiating the wake procedure. Any longer and the ship may come too close to the target planet and risk the protocol.
After two weeks the ship’s AI would send the authorisation code and destroy the ship.
He originally told himself he just needed more time, but knew he had decided he might not be able to enact the protocol. He gave the appearance of finalising his research, whilst at the same time he worked out how to disengage the ships AI from the protocol.
He researched the history of these people hoping to understand where they had started, what they had achieved. They had a history not unlike his own people. They had started from simpler animals but had come to master their world.
They had learned to fly; they had built vehicles and ships to travel their planet. He learned that they had organised themselves into larger groups. These groups built cities. They had spread their ideas and ways of thinking over this planet, and that had changed and challenged these people over time.
They had, like his own people, fought amongst themselves.
After nearly ten days of looking at these people he even felt a tear run down his face as he learned the pains these conflicts had caused. He felt the shock from images of brutality that he viewed as if these had become his people.
He enjoyed their happiness when conflicts came to an end, and their hope this would be end of the fighting, a hope that seemed to survive in their literature, their films, their music, even though there always seemed to be more fighting to come.
Fighting between his own peoples had become almost non-existent. On the day they had left, it had been over 50 years since any significant fighting had occurred between the peoples of his planet.
His people had learned to talk, used technology to make sure more people could be heard. They had come to share more, both culturally and emotionally, and this led to a fairer share of the fruits of labour.
His own people now needed to find somewhere new to live, to grow, or there was a risk that their world of stability may begin to crumble. This was the purpose of his mission – to keep their own violent natures at bay by joining together in finding a new world to share and grow.
It had been so long though.
The mission had taken longer than anyone had expected. By the time he put the Colony X Protocol into effect, and home had learned of its activation, and the fleets from home had arrived to clean the new planet, it would be nearly a thousand years since the mission began.
He was still alive, but he knew that for the world at home, he was not even a memory. At best he, and the crew, were abrief entry in a database, that a junior public servant confirmed each a year, and the world moved on.
Maybe things at home had changed, maybe home was now a mess, maybe they had taken to long. Maybe none of this was now worth it.
He could now see a future before him. Though these ‘people’ looked different to him, he had come to feel close to them. He felt he could understand who they were, and he had come to think they would understand him.
Perhaps he and the crew could help these people gain the peace and cooperation his home had enjoyed, even if it might have now fallen into disrepair.
The mission could be better served by not enacting the protocol. It was obvious to him now. Instead, his people would survive by meeting with this new people, merging their histories, learning new ways to grow into the galaxy.
He had learned how to disengage the AI and, after so much deliberation, it was psychologically easier than he expected to put an end to the Colony X Protocol. None of the other crew knew of its existence, and he swore himself to keep this secret forever.
He planned what he was going to tell the crew when they were awake and felt a sense of peace when he realised that he was once again happy. It had been so long, but he felt a new future was there for them. They had made it to the New World.
He rushed to get them all awake, so he could tell them of these new peoples, how similar they were, and tell them of how this new planet was going to ensure the survival of their own peoples, and their way of life.
****
Major Michael Jones stared directly at his commanding officer, awaiting his reaction to what the Major had just confirmed. There was no answer, so he spoke again.
“Sir, we have confirmed the location of the object, and that it has arrived from outside of our system” he said again.
General Tsang looked back at his subordinate and nodded. Major Jones continued his report.
“It’s also most definitely not natural” the Major said, “Our analysts all share the opinion that this vessel is large enough to be considered either a military vehicle, or a major logistical ship, sir.”
“Perhaps an exploration vessel?” the general finally spoke.
The Major nodded and the general continued, he had wistful look in his eye as he turned on the display screen on the wall behind.
“You know Major” the general continued, turning to look at the display “after looking at these images, and the reports from our experts, you know what this reminds me of?”
The Major stood at ease but did not answer. The general continued whilst he pointed at the image of a strange vessel that was now on the screen.
“It makes me think of the ships of old, the sailing ships” he said.
The Major remained blank faced.
“You know, they appeared over the horizon, off the coast of some then undiscovered land, and the people living there had no idea what was to come” the General said before sitting at his desk and motioning to the Major to also sit.
The Major sat and finally spoke.
“Yes sir” he said, “before I joined the United Nations Defence Force I came from Australia.” General Tsang raised an eyebrow, and it was clear to the Major he did not understand.
“Well sir, our Indigenous people had no idea what was to befall them after the English crossed the horizon” the Major explained.
General Tsang slapped his hand on the table.
“Exactly Major” he said “the ‘Indians’ of the former United States, the native victims of the Conquistadors, your Australian Aborigines. If only they knew”
The room was silent for a brief period as the general peered back up at the ship still on the screen. He finally spoke.
“And we have confirmed with the General Assembly we are to enact the Colonising X Protocol” the general final said looking at his Major.
The Major nodded.
The General nodded back. “Very well” he soon said “make it so. It is for all our best interests”.
The general stood, then unlocked a safe below his desk. He removed an envelope from the safe and handed it to the major.
“Take these to the control room Major, and authorise the missile launch” the general said. Major Jones took the envelope, stood up and saluted before he left the room.
The general sat again, turned in his seat and looked up at the ship on the screen briefly, before turning the screen off and turning to sit quietly at his desk.
*****
The chief engineer had woken all the crew and told them of the planet now so close, and about the people there that they would soon contact. He had spoken for a long time to about what he had learned and the hope this discovery had given him.
There was some resistance, some anxiety and fear, but he had spoken with those who were fearful, and soon the whole crew were as excited as he that the mission had succeeded and it was coming to an end.
They had agreed the engineer should make the first contact with these new peoples the next day. There had been a vote about what they would ask of these peoples, and what they would be able to offer.
When he had disabled the AI, the engineer did not realise he had also disabled various alert functions in the ships navigational and security array. The expanse of space is such that, without these, it is difficult for any person to keep a close eye on all that is happening.
The chief engineer was the only crew member still awake when the missiles hit the ship. His excitement about the next day, and the impact of the decision he had made, alone, had made it hard to sleep.
The blinding flash of light as the missiles tore the ship apart, and the searing pain the engineer felt, were over almost immediately.
Leaving only darkness.
Joe Cocker- With A Little Help From My Friends (REACTION)
On August 23, Powell’s speech hinted that the Federal Reserve will cut the interest rates soon. What does this mean for countries like China and Japan? Why do they want to cut interest rates?
What does this mean for China? Likely that China will be vindicated in reducing US dollar assets.
It’s also possible it’s a big black swan event for the USA.
You see there’s nobody left to buy US T-bills. China ain’t buying especially after the 2008 fiasco. If you listened to Chinese radio and television talk shows people were angry China had gifted the US an entire US battle carrier group on the devaluation of the T-bills.
The circular money trick isn’t working either, this is how Belgium of all places became a massive holder of US T-bills. The US loaned money to Belgium who bought T-bills with it.
So after all of the above? There’s two buyers left.
The Fed – If they buy it, it causes mega inflation. I mean there’s Americans on here where inflation is a LOT higher than claimed.
Yield seeking private buyers.
Drop the rates? The Yield seekers are what it says on the tin. They seek yield so they’ll let go and buy other things. This means the Fed will step in to mop up what they sell.
This leads to mega inflation.
I won the lottery 10 years ago, but I didn’t tell a soul, not even my family. Was I wrong to do this?
One of my cousins won a lottery for several million dollars in the 1980s. It was public knowledge. At the time, the only option was an annuity that paid out the jackpot over 20 or 26 years. He bought his mom a new car. He helped her out when she needed help.
His siblings maybe thought that they were owed something. I don’t know the specifics of that. What I do know is that he continued to live his life the way he had before.
He and his wife had a couple of kids. They adopted a couple of other kids, girls from China, at the time when China had the “one child policy” and girl children were not so popular. He kept his job as a truck driver. He lived a pretty simple life, and as far as I know, his only indulgence was his beloved Harley Davidson motorcycle, which he probably could have owned on his truck driving salary.
We were not close.
The only memory that I have of him was his wedding, before the lottery win, where the wedding reception was in a state park, not a posh affair. Very simple.
When he died last year, we took my mom (then in her 90s) to the memorial service. There were lots of friends, and his immediate family, his wife, his biological children, his adopted children, all of them just…his children. That was lovely. They were thrilled that my mom was there as a connection to their grandmother who had passed away in 1996.
None of his siblings were there. A couple of his siblings had passed away, another had moved away to another state. I can’t say why none of them were there.
So if you have had good fortune, and you are able to hide this good fortune from your family, maybe it’s best to hide it as best as you can so you can keep your relationship with them.
Food Porn
The American dream is a lie
Yup it is.
What work secret did you accidentally find out that changed everything?
I worked for a small city police department. One weekend, we did not have a sergeant on-duty so being senior officer, I was in charge. Two officers (Steve and Mary) responded to a domestic dispute. A short time later, I was asked to respond to the call. Steve explained one of the participants in the dispute wanted to file a complaint on Mary for being discourteous. I released the officers from the scene and spoke to the participant. After a brief conversation, the participant decided there was a misunderstanding between him and the officer and he no longer wanted to file a complaint.
I cleared the call and spoke to Steve who explained how the misunderstanding occurred. I then spoke to Mary and advised her no complaint was being filed but to be careful how she speaks to the public.
In turn, Mary felt Steve and I were setting her up and decided to file an internal complaint against us claiming bullying. The Chief assigned Mary’s complaint to a detective named Jim. It was widely known in the department that Jim was trying to sleep with Mary but she continually turned him down.
The police department was located in the municipal building where several other city departments were located. A friend working in another department observed Jim and Mary speaking in private and when they parted, Mary gave Jim a quick kiss. It was clear something had changed in their relationship.
My friend told me what he observed and I held onto that information in case I needed it later. Sure enough, about three weeks later, I’m pulled into the Chief’s office. Jim made up allegations against me and Steve and claimed to have substantiated Mary’s allegation. The Chief was ready to issue discipline when I asked the Chief how a detective sleeping with Mary could be unbiased in his investigation. The Chief’s jaw hit the ground. Mary eventually admitted to striking a deal with Jim that if he got me and Steve fired, she would sleep with him.
A short time later, Mary was fired and charged with altering prescriptions when a doctor filed a complaint against her. Jim resigned and was charged with dereliction of duty. The Chief was also shown the door.
I took a job with another department making more money and never looked back.
Have you ever asked someone (who later passed away) to give you proof of an afterlife? For example, a word/gesture that only you two would know. And did you get the proof?
For years I drank heavily, beer at least. I would drink close to a 12 pack every weekday and close to a case on both Saturday and Sunday. I had a good friend who was an atheist and my drinking buddy. We would debate on whether there was an afterlife or not, me insisting that it was possible and he insisting that I was being foolish and there was no such thing.
One Friday after work I was following my standard drinking routine, a 24 oz can of beer for the drive home and a 6 pack of 16 oz beers for the rest of the evening. I made it home shortly after 6 that evening and was drinking the first beer out of that 6 pack. I was maybe a third or a fourth of my way through that first beer and I just decided I didn’t want it anymore. This was around 6:30 Friday night by now. The next day I didn’t drink any, or the following day either. I haven’t drank any since and that has been 6 years now since I last drank anything with alcohol in it.-
The following Sunday I had an unexpected knock at my door, it was an old girlfriend I hadn’t seen since high school but, she and my drinking buddy had kept in touch. She told me that our friend had been struck and killed while walking across a busy road and on his way to spend the weekend in jail for his third DWI. When he was hit and killed, It would have been around the same time I put down my last beer, unfinished.
I can’t help but to think he was the one that turned my mind around and put me on my way to sobriety. Maybe I’m just being foolish and trying to make something more out of those events than there really is. I still can’t help but to think otherwise, though.
I know I’ve told this story before, and for those that have read it previously, I apologize for sounding like a broken record.
“WORSE Than 1929-1946…” – Doug Casey
Damn! This is an amazingly great video. A Must Must WATCH!
Why is China lagging behind India while its GDP is higher than India’s?
China is not lagging behind India in any manner. China is far more advanced than India in every respect.
Chinese society is far more harmonious and stable.
China has far better infrastructure.
Chinese education is far superior.
China has far better health care for its citizens.
China eradicated absolute poverty in 2020, while India is still mired by over 100 million people living in extreme poverty.
China’s military is far larger and far more powerful.
China is the one and only global manufacturing superpower.
China has a better human rights record. Indian women are regularly abused. There is ethnic and religious inequality.
China’s female participation rate in the labor force is 70%, while in India, it’s only 25%.
China is not burdened by the caste system.
I could go on and on, but you get the picture. Name one thing that puts India ahead of China.
Can the defense of Black Myth: Wukong by Chinese gamers against criticism from foreign media be seen as a reflection of national pride or a form of cultural protectionism? Share your thoughts.
Make no mistake, Chinese people account for one fifth of the world’s population, and almost all you hear are NON-CHINESE people’s rebuttals to the defamation.
Most of us are dismissive of non Chinese Internet content. Your barking cannot hinder anything happening within China. Now it’s a showdown between YOUR public opinion distorters and YOUR masses.
We did not participate. We’re just being there.
Why don’t you reflect on why your PC groups are so hated by your public.
At what ages were you the happiest and saddest?
In my 20s I was the saddest I have ever been. Actually, ages 23–29 were the worst years of my life. Why?
Because I had not settled on a good career and was not sure I could find a career I liked even reasonably well. Consequently, I was also making low wages. Thus, I lived in a crummy apartment, had very little money left over from each paycheck, drove an old car, and had no real prospects. Could not even imagine a happy future for myself.
Additionally, having left the family to accept the responsibility of being on my own, I was lonely. Had no steady girl and couldn’t pal around with my old college and high school friends anymore because, guess what? They were all married and had kids! Now this was during the 1970s, when all my generation was marrying early. Most girls of the time were married by 21, 22, or at most, 23. Even many college students were married, which is why my school had a large dormitory for married couples. Even most boys married no later than about 23 or 24. And there I was 27, 28, 29, and still single with a crumb job. I felt like a complete loser.
Then, just as I’d sunk about as low as I could get, my dad called with some news. “Son,” he said. “I know you like to read and that you majored in English in college. A friend who is a school principal was telling me he needs an 8th grade English teacher. Would you like to meet him?”
“I don’t know, Dad. I’ve never done anything like that.”
“Well, you’ve nothing to lose. He’s at West Hill Middle School. Go talk to him.” So, I did, and so I was hired.
My first few weeks were a little shaky, but I learned quickly and soon realized how much I liked teaching English. By the end of the year, my career path was decided. My principal wanted me to return to college that summer, and on fall afternoons and evenings to pick up some extra coursework to upgrade my certificate. Late that summer I met a young lady at the university who was also taking coursework toward a master’s degree in education. We hit it off quickly, began dating, and by Christmas we were married. And she was the best thing that ever happened to me.
I call that year – the year I turned 30 – my ‘annus mirabilis,’ my year of miracles. Over the space of about 12 months, my sad life had changed into a miraculously happy one. I’d turned from an ugly duckling into a happy swan.
Today, my wife and I live on 40 beautiful rural acres in northwest Florida, and we are contentedly retired. We have had a happy life yet are happier now than ever because we have the time and money to do anything we like. Yet our tastes are very simple. We enjoy sitting in our pecan orchard when fall turns the leaves bright yellow. We enjoy standing or sitting on our long field at sunset and watching the sun sink below the distant tree line. We enjoy playing with Freckie, our lively border collie. And I, at last, have all the time to read so many of the fine books I’d always wanted to read.
So, for me, these years in my 70s are the best and happiest ever. I can now sing, with the great Carly Simon: “These are … the good ol’ days.”
Fatal Mistake: Argentina Offers Its Lithium & Critical Minerals For US Money & Investment
Shorpy
Why aren’t the Chinese or Indian aircraft carriers considered a great threat by the West?
Question: Why aren’t the Chinese or Indian aircraft carriers considered a great threat by the West?
Answer:
Well, depending on who you ask and China is quite different from India.
If you ask the average English audience, then just go with the quick and magic answer of:
“The Chinese is somehow evil and constantly threatening, so we are morally justified to pull any kind of shit. And magically, at the same time, they must always be a push over, so no one will worry their pretty little head about how constantly antagonizing the biggest industrial power on the planet is a bad idea”.
Now if we are talking about reality, then it is another story entirely.
The first two Chinese carrier is actually less threatening, in the sense that they don’t bring much to the what the Chinese can already do. This is because the Chinese fleet are organized differently from US fleets.
In US fleets, the carrier represents the bulk of the striking power against comparable opponents. The aircraft from the carriers represent majority of the fleet’s offensive power and a significant amount of defensive power. This means you NEED large and long endurance carriers which can carry a lot of planes and by nature, the carrier is what makes and breaks the fleet.
The Chinese fleet are different because majority of their strike power comes ship-based missiles.
Yes, the picture shows Ticonderoga has more VLS cells, but the ones on Type 055 are much bigger and can actually host missiles that are threatening to the surface combat vessels.
So for the Chinese carriers, the strike power from planes are actually not quite as important because whatever missiles J15 can carry, 055 can carry much bigger ones with better range and accuracy.
This means the main purpose of the Chinese carriers are mostly about hosting electronic warfare, early warning crafts. These aircraft are typically much bigger and heavier than the fighters jets and as the result, can’t really be launched from the Kuznetsov-class based Liaoning-Jian and Shandong-Jian.
The type 003 Fujian-Jian is a different story. From what we have seen so far, the electric catapult system is indeed working and this means it is capable of providing long radar/electronic warfare coverage for the Chinese fleet. This means the PLAN will be projecting power away from its shore.
Well, to be fair, the away part may be a bit misleading. Since antiship missiles in the DF series has a such a long combat range, China is already capable for projecting its influence thousands of kilometers away from its shore. But with Fujian and other EC capable vessel now in the building stage, you’d start to see PLAN showing greater presence in places like Middle East, Africa and even Latin Americas.
Why would you want to take a concealed carry gun everywhere you go?
Suzanna Hupp was a chiropractor living in Copperas Cove, Texas. She generally carried a little pistol in her purse (it’s a Southern Lady thing, I’m not going to take the time and space to try to explain it here). There was some utility to this habit – she frequently would work late, and would have to walk to her car in a semi-deserted parking lot late at night. A young woman alone in a deserted parking lot late at night is kind of a classic situation where the young woman might, indeed, want to have a little pistol in her purse.
The little pistol in her purse was also, at the time, totally illegal (although, traditionally, such laws were not vigorously enforced against respectable white women with a little pistol in their purse). At the time, however, the authorities were increasingly “cracking down” on people illegally carrying firearms. Even respectable middle-class white women with just a little pistol in their purse.
One day, Suzanna met with her parents to go out to lunch. They rode together in Suzanna’s car. When Suzanna opened her purse to put her car keys in, her mother saw her pistol in the purse. Mom told her that she should probably leave her pistol in her car (this, at the time, was legal – you could keep a pistol in your car, but it was strictly against the law to carry it concealed in a purse or pocket outside of one’s vehicle). If a waitress or other customer saw the pistol when Suzanna opened her purse, they might call the police and there would be trouble. Safest to just leave it in the car.
Besides, this wasn’t a dark deserted parking lot late at night; this was Luby’s Cafeteria in downtown Killeen, at lunch hour. It wasn’t dark, it was noon on a bright autumn day; and it wasn’t exactly deserted, Luby’s that day was packed. Certainly not the time or place where one would need to be packing a gun.
It was October 16, 1991. While they were at lunch, a deranged merchant sailor drove his pickup truck right through the floor-to-ceiling front windows of Luby’s, stepped out of his truck, and began shooting people. Suzanna reached in her purse for her pistol, then remembered that she’d left it safely in her car.
The police came, the nutcase killed himself, but by that time he had killed 23 other people, including both of Suzanna Hupp’s parents.
Suzanna later testified to the legislature, “Maybe I wouldn’t have been able to stop him, there’s no guarantees. I would at least have had a chance. But my gun was a hundred feet away, in my car, and I had no chance at all.”
I don’t want to be Suzanna Hupp. I carry wherever and whenever I legally can.
The MQ-28A Ghost Bat, Unmanned Systems and the Future of Australian Air Power
Easy Goulash
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 (17 ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (15 ounce) can whole-kernel corn
- 2 cups macaroni
- 1 cup shredded cheese, if desired
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Brown beef with onion and bell pepper. Drain.
- Add tomatoes and corn. Cook until heated well.
- Cook macaroni and drain. Add to beef mixture.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour into baking pan.
- Bake for for 15 minutes.
- If desired, sprinkle cheese over the top and bake just long enough for cheese to melt.
How do you view the popularity of “Black Myth: Wukong” and the spread of Chinese culture?
Selected comments from China Uncensored’s YouTube video titled “There’s a Reason China Made Black Myth Wukong…”
- All my comments on here are also “mysteriously” removed. What’s the point when you are a CCP yourself?
- Lol telling gamers not to play Wukong is like telling a starving person not to go buy that big reasonably priced juicy steak right over there but instead go lick the Dustborn off the floor till they’re satisfied instead because ethics or something.
- Hate to break your little bubble mate; but people/gamers don’t care, if its a GOOD game they will buy and play it no matter how many links you can chain towards someone dying at a long end of a rope somewhere because of it. The only people who won’t buy it because of political reasons, are people who wouldn’t PLAY it anyway.
- You are screaming into a void. Gamers are tired of politics from any side trying to influence gamers. Yo’all do your politics and let gamers enjoy their games. I can point out more than 100 items you use in your daily life and in your studio and 99% would probably be made in China. The selective outrage is pure hypocrisy. Leave Black Myth Wukong alone or leave us gamers out of it! WE DON’T CARE! Gamers play games for escapism from the real world, politics (no matter which side) takes that away.
- A game about Chinese mythology made by a Chinese developer? Oh no say it ain’t so. All I care about is if it’s good or not
- I mean, I’m anti-CCP as much as any American, but a good game is still a good game, and Black Myth Wukong is still a good game. Its not my fault that US based games are all DEI crap these days, and that one of the best original IP games that isn’t filled with DEI wokism is from a chinese company.
- I respect your content a lot, but I think you’re just wrong about this one.
- Too late. The game is anti woke. I bought the collectors edition.
- Gamers will always buy games that are good. If it isn’t, they will ignore it. Black Myth Wukong did something right, and it was a fun boss rush game. Pushing to boycotting a good game will backfire, since gamers isn’t biased when it comes to masterpiece games. Majority of the ppl/gamers don’t care about geopolitics they just want to play good games.
- Nah bro, a game is a game. People know about the propaganda and stuff, don’t worry about it. If you want to report on it, go plat the game, and tell us whether there are any lies/ obfuscations in the story or something
- So here’s the dilemma. Buying Black Myth Wukong supports the CCP. That’s bad. Buying Black Myth Wukong puts numbers behind a legitimately good game. THAT’S good. What are we supposed to do?
- Wont lie i bought wukong and will continue to buy non woke games. Wokeness is a cancer. And wukong is a relief from such wokeness.
- As much as I don’t like China gov. it’s a pretty good game. Already finished it
- Imagine not buying a game because you don’t like of where the company resides. Gives off the same energy as not buying a drink or a food because the company comes from said country. This is just as silly as that boycott of Atomic Heart. Buying a game that looks fun and you wanna play, isn’t gonna bring your country and the gaming industry closer to ruin. Chill.
- Bought it anyways
- I’m going to fight against woke games by supporting communism! Big brain move, guys
- My dude, I love you, but you lost the plot with Black Myth: Wukong here.
- will buy it anyway
- They stood against Sweet Baby Inc so they deserve praise. They made a great game. Who cares about their government. This channel is very informative and I will continue to support China Uncensored but not this “boycott”
- Hey , Chris . Quick question – why do you hate fun ?
- I will buy it this time sorry not sorry
- If we’re worried about China dominating the video game industry, you’re about 15 years too late.
- China uncensored if you want to continue to be taken seriously, don’t bring a single player action game that have absolutely zero social elements in it that anybody could misconstrue well when you like that
- Don’t tell me what to do nerd
- The woke lefties made that game a super hit. There nothing one can do now
- Shut up about video games.
- Sorry dude, I find your attempt to insert YOUR politics into computer games just as sickening and vile as when the woke crowd does it. It’s not even a political game to begin with. First dislike after years of watching. Hands off the games!
- Leave black myth wukong alone.
- The probelem is Black Myth Wukong is opposed by the western liberal leftists. So that makes people wanting to buy that game.
- Man I am just find it ironic. People are buying this Chinese game because it is a great game that doesnt push any agendas or politics, then telling gamers not to buy it because of political reasons. Gamers dont care about politics, we care about good games that respect our time and intelligence.
- I agree with your battles but this is not the hill.
- Honestly the game is mad fun and if the west is trying to push concord and dustborn on me i am very happy playing the Monkey Game because god its fun to play
- Homie, I don’t have to “trust a game” to enjoy it.
- That’s a shame i really like this channel
- is this sponsored by sweet baby ???????
- I have to disagree about wukong, I won’t boycott it. There is a battle with woke ideologies and traditional ideologies that you might have not lean in to.
- If china makes good video games, i will buy chinese video games.
- If its a good game its a good game, fuck the politics
- It’s hard to choose which I hate more, china or woke DEI culture…
- Bro is onto nothing, never cook again and stay away from games please
- I bought Blackmyth and I’m having fun with it. I haven’t had this much fun with a game in years but now I’m conflicted.
- Too late bro. Bought it and LOVING it. The game is a MASTERPIECE.
- It’s just a game. You have to turn everything into politics just because it’s originated from China
- too late, I bought it and it’s a good game
- I disagree, even though I usually agree with your other videos.
- And buy Concord instead? Wukong is attractive because there is nothing similar in the West.
- “Don’t Buy it” nope. I will buy it. The game is that good. Majority of western games are caving into DEI narratives in story telling for games
- Up til now, I liked your videos, but you are bad mouthing the game like everyone else. Shame on you
- do you want me to stop buy Black Myth Wukong? ok I want 2 thing 1 all game most stop do DEI shit 2 game development most focus on tall good story and good gameplay that’s it
- Ima buy this game. I think they earned it. All those awesome graphics aint no joke to produce. Their artist deserve a win. Now we just need to get the US and japanese game dev to step up their games and compete instead of whining about it.
- Oh shit too late, at least it’s a good game
- It’s a good game, doesn’t matter who makes it, people will play it.
- Yea, this is a final nail to the coffin. This time it’s unsub.
- Yeah no I’m out
- Fire the script writer for this one. Lost a subscriber.
- This game you told me not to buy has hundreds of times less political messages than most Western games created today, so I think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill
- Wel it is a good game compared to the last few years of garabge
- All my friends and buddies are getting Black Myth Wukong.
- I already bought it….. im sorry but you’re waaaayyyyy too late in reporting on wukong.
- you are shitting out of the toilet on this one. keep politics and propaganda out of my games, please
- This take is cringe and stupid. How about we just start making better games in America again
- rule number 1: Never tells the gamer what to buy and what’s not.
My short take on Black Myth Wukong’s impact on the West:
It’s a war. Not between China and the US. It’s a war between gamers and woke culture (which I call “Western depravity”). The whole YouTube gaming channels are in this together.
I’m not too sure about the promotion of Chinese culture, but the game will be remembered as the game that finally defeated the woke culture. Gamers know this. That’s why they love this game so much!
I’m not a gamer myself, but even I can understand that gamers worldwide see Black Myth Wukong as the game that saved their gaming culture from the toxic woke culture.
Famous influencers are dropping like flies: Why?
What is the worst country you have ever visited?
India. I went to India twice on business.
I worked at a copper smelter in Tamil Nadu. I saw women carrying enormous loads on their heads. They wore hard hats with flat tops. Men wore regular hard hats. When i asked why i was explained that men are stronger so they don’t have to balance loads on their heads. Men wore safety boots. Women wore unsafe sandals. They were used as beasts of burden.
While we were there, they found the bodies of two female infants. They suspected selective infanticide.
The car we used didn’t have safety belts. Driving was like playing chicken all the time.
I saw carts pulled by Brahma bulls or by half-naked men. It was like being teleported to the middle ages.
One day for lunch we had vegetables containing wriggling maggots, the other day medium-rare chicken for dinner.
The hotel was ~$10/night and, according to a colleague, it “wasn’t worth it.” The shower head broke off. The crank opening the window broke off, etc.
Someone joked that maybe i could get married there. The local engineer said only a black man would want a local wife. This reflects another aspect of the culture – darker-skinned people are considered “ugly.”
The local paper was full of stories of people taking revenge by using a knife, a scythe, or throwing acid, often over a dowry. It also contained personal ads from women who described themselves as fair-skinned to be more marriageable.
One of the young engineers at the plant died when his bike hit the carcass of a water buffalo left in the middle of the road at night. He slowly succumbed to his injuries while nobody would help. I’ve read people are afraid of dealing with the corrupt police.
To be fair, on the second trip the flat hardhats were gone and the car had safety belts.
But, by and large, we were not bothered by the locals. It was a different story in northern India.
Some guy offered my colleague a shoeshine in New Delhi. When he declined he grabbed him by the leg, smeared some stuff on his shoes, and aggressively demanded money.
Streets were full of beggars, some of them for some reason missing fingers.
We asked a taxi driver to take us to a government store so we could buy some gifts. He took us to his friend’s (or relative’s) place instead where they aggressively tried to make us buy stuff we didn’t want.
When we finally got to the government store we got some good stuff. I got sandalwood statues of Ganesh and Hanuman and a book of Mughal miniature paintings. I found the culture as really interesting.
Mumbai had a cholera outbreak. We saw people having diarrhea by the road. The hotel was very nice but the neighborhood next door was full of garbage, with open sewer, and scrawny cows roaming the streets.
The Taj Mahal and the Red Fort in Agra were breathtakingly beautiful. A lot of the rest of Agra looked, according to my sojourner, “like a dump.”
We almost missed our plane as the lady checking passports took almost sadistic pleasure in checking each page of each passport. By the way, the Indian visa application is some 3 pages long and it contains questions about religion (three is no “atheist,” “agnostic,” or “secular humanist”) and whether one’s grandparents were Pakistanis.
This was all a while ago so maybe things have changed…
What surprised you most when you first came to China, as a foreigner?
Disclaimer: All the comparisons are done with Indian life as benchmark
Oh that’s plenty…where do i begin with? let’s see.
- There are no cops on major roads of the cities in China , yet traffic stops at red light. This may sound absurd, but this is not the norm in India.
- Fitness level of people. I don’t remember finding any obese person in China. I visited three cities: Beijing, Shanghai & Harbin. None were obese .
- Absence of google, facebook, twitter. Sites like weibo, wechat rule the roost.
- Participation of women in the economy: in all the three cities we had women tour guides who stayed with us from morning 7:00 am till night 10:30. Pretty difficult to expect that in India.
- Toilets: this one is quite weird. while traditional chinese go the indian way, what was quite shocking was to find that public toilets have indian seats, with no partition in between!!!. no privacy whatsoever. ofcourse you will not find water as well. and quite possibly toilet roll too would be absent. Certainly not the best country to do your business.
- Electricity quota: China only switches on its ACs during restricted months during summers. The Government decides that duration.
- Infrastructure: everything out there…be it roads, monuments, factories, its just huge. More importantly it is working. While we are debating the need for bullet trains, china is using them like crazy. We struggle to get mobile network at stationary places, i was talking trouble-free with my sister in India during a train ride with this train speed…
No doubt Sydney opera is outstandingly beautiful , but take a look at this
That’s Harbin grand opera, no less picturesque than Sydney in any way. Chinese are extremely determined to match the best in the world & even beat the best.
There
- Friendliness of people: Indians are treated the same way indians generally treat white skinned people..with awe. they were quite willing to have pics with us, help us & what not.This China Vs india rhetoric is not known to people
- General absence of religion in public discourse. Religion doesnt feature in the lives of Chinese people in general. No bullshit in the name of religion
- Discipline. I found Chinese quite disciplined in their schedule & daily lives. What to eat, when to eat , its all quite structured. They are an extremely hardworking & disciplined people. No wonder China has grown so much
- Eye for detail: These guys plan way ahead. and execution is too good. They also focus quite a lot on maintenance of things. I was surprised to find a man scrubbing a dustbin early morning on my morning run at Harbin. That’s something i would not imagine here.
- Lack of pvt ownership. You don’t own land/apartment. it is leased to your for 99 years & that too can be taken by the government any time & you will be given a replacement , not necessarily of your choice
- 2nd copies aka fakes. very difficult to differentiate from the originals. China has dedicated malls which deal in them
China is a very interesting country & is definitely worth a visit. You could learn quite a few things.
Do military personnel receive training on reading maps, using a compass for navigation, and identifying their location using stars if they become lost?
I can only speak for the Army. Yes. We get courses on map navigation and compass use.
There is no using stars for navigation as that requires a sextant. You will see the Navy personnel on ships doing this.
It’s too complicated for infantry soldiers. Not that Army can’t do it but it requires extra equipment. It’s just easier to use maps and compass. The Navy uses stars because one part of the Ocean looks like any other part. Blue and flat. There is literally nothing to look at except for stars.
On land, you have land features and with a map you can easily find out where you are. And for the Army, carrying extra equipment that you won’t use is simply not done. Every ounce of equipment has to be useful for the Army soldiers. Space and weight is at a premium.
Bride-To-Be HYSTERICAL After Getting Caught With Ex’s “Sausage” In Mouth At Engagement Party!
What scared you the most about going to prison that turned out to be untrue?
Rape. Like everyone else out there, it was what you first associate with the scary things about prison. Such BULLSHIT. I’m sure it happens.. I never witnessed it, I was never even slightly at risk of that happening to me … and never even heard a rumor on the yard of it happening … and there are few secrets on the yard.
When I went to prison the first time in my twenties, I was stripped down naked and left on a wooden bench during processing and intake. I was very scared. A brotha came in saw me naked and yelled at the CO to give me my prison-issued clothing. An hour or two later, still getting processed, another brotha who worked there asked me if I wanted an extra bag lunch he had. I quickly said NO… cuz that’s what I was told led to you being someone’s bitch. He asked me again, and once more I say no… but I was starving! He smiles, and leaves it anyways. What I learned that day was there were many, many men who were strangers to me but gave without expecting anything. It wasn’t at all like I had expected.
When I returned to prison in my fifties, I thought I was too old to fight and worried about how I was going to be treated. Again, as soon as I appeared on the yard, a group of brothas appeared at my bunk with shower shoes, ramen, some hygiene products, chips, candy, and even some sweat shirts and pants! It’s what they do for every new black inmate’s arrival and I was honored to do that for others as they arrived.
What can immediately make a person unattractive?
A big one is body odor. If a person doesn’t smell right, attraction dies on the vine. I once read a story about a famous actor turning down Marilyn Monroe, despite her being rather into him and “ready to go”… he had her in front of him. Needed only to say the word.
But she smelled bad. And she didn’t take care of herself. And any other man would have been able to overlook it — it’s Marilyn Monroe, after all. Of all people! A queen, no, a goddess amongst women! To the actor it was a dealbreaker. And I’ve seen this play out in life, in a way. A beautiful person with horribly decaying teeth? No way, José. A gorgeous face may lean in for a kiss and if the smell from his or her mouth is the foul scent of death… that’s the end of all attraction.
Be clean. Be fresh. Smell right, so people will be eager to taste you, be near you, explore you. But smell like death and it’s the death of your dating life. Not to all people — desperation’s one hell of a drug — but to many.
With all the news reports, can we conclude the Chinese are not exactly being truthful to put it mildly?
Nopes
You can conclude that they are either lies or exaggerations
Why?
In 1978 – Soviet Union issued exactly 5260 Tourist Exit Visas outside the Iron Curtains to other nations which were not Soviet Satellites
In the same year 12,400 Visit Visas were issued to enter the Soviet Union from Non Communist Nations (Including North Korea + Vietnam + Cuba + China)
In 2024 – so far to date Chinese Passports have been issued 8.72 Million Tourist Visas upto 30/6/24 while around 12–14 Million Chinese Visas have been issued for Foreign Passport Holders into China
12,400 vs 14 Million!!!!
So trust me, China can’t hide anything today
They don’t hide anything today
Since most of their Media is STATE OWNED there is no incentive in insane TRPs and thus the Chinese Media does not go for SENSATIONALISM
They often appear “Boring” to the outsiders used to Western or Indian media with their sensationalism and their quest for TRPs
The Problem is most people still look at China with a 1980s lens
Had my sons not gone to Singapore, had I myself not done business with Singaporeans and had my Nephew not gone to Shanghai, I would have had the same 1980s lens
You have to go to China to experience the new China and conclude that it’s entirely and diametrically opposite to what the Western Narrative Suggests
For instance the West says Chinas stock market is performing badly
In reality Chinas Stock prices are CAPPED in a way
They can’t rise beyond a certain maximum
In that way the shares are kept undervalued
Any Banker working in China knows the truth
For instance the West says Chinas Real Estate sector is collapsing
In reality, the Sector is deliberately allowed to kill off speculation and ensure affordable housing to all Chinese
Every Tier 2/3 City is going to have some fixed price housing projects which will rise by a fixed 4% a year for the next 30 years
That’s to ensure every couple can buy an affordable house before they are 30 years of age
The West doesn’t cover this news
You need to live in China to know this news.
For instance the West says Chinas Demographic collapse is coming
In reality Chinas age of retirement is pegged at 55 Years
If it’s raised to 65, China would have 66% of their working population supporting 13.50% of their elderly population in 2042 and 60% of their Population supporting 18% of their elderly population in 2060
It’s still more than 3:1
Plus Chinese people SAVE at a rate more than the entire world
A Chinese Household saves 44% of their income earned against less than 24.8% for the Global Average and 17.7% for the G7
However while this is something every Chinese Actuarian knows, no Westerner will ever talk about this
They have no idea how China works
Even on Quora
Only those who genuinely live in China or know China like Bill Chen or Aya Shawn and some others have some idea of what’s going on
Most others simply either quote Western Media or 1980s Narrative like “CCP is bad, CCP is Evil”
to use drones to transport and disperse substances are particularly interesting."
— Pipers Creek (@piperscreekway) 
Of course.
Is the United States still the world’s greatest power, in control of the entire planet, or has that moment in history already come and gone? We are constantly hearing how the situation is becoming dire: relations between the US and NATO countries and Russia are going from bad to worse; there is a trade war going on with China; North Korea remains an intractable problem and an embarrassment.
Many people maintain that we are very close to a world war. But does “very close” actually mean anything? It is quite possible to stand for hours with your toes hanging over the edge of a cliff and never jump. Suicide is a big decision: big even for a person, much bigger for a large country.
On March 1, 2018 president Putin unveiled Russia’s new weapons systems against which the United States is defenseless and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Previously, the plan was to surround Russia with military bases and missile batteries, then launch a preemptive first strike, destroying its ability to retaliate and forcing it to capitulate.
This plan has now conclusively failed, and a US/NATO attack on Russia is once again assured to be an act of suicide. Worse than that, even limited military confrontations are now mostly unthinkable, because Russia can now inflict unacceptable damage on US/NATO forces from a safe distance and without putting any of its own assets at risk. If Russia won’t attack and the US/NATO can’t attack, then how likely is a war?
The new weapons systems have made it possible to start ignoring the US. It is still important to maintain a credible military posture, but politically the US is no longer in control, and neither are the global institutions on which it has relied. Instead, what we are seeing is the reemergence of nation states, and even of empires.
The political future of Syria is being decided by Russia, Turkey and Iran, with no useful input from the United States at all.
Significantly, whereas Russia and Iran are in categories of their own as far as the US is concerned, Turkey has been a US ally and the second-largest armed force in NATO. The fact that Turkey is no longer eager to please the Americans is quite telling.
Except during the strange and tumultuous twentieth century during which the US briefly flashed across the world stage, these three countries went by different names, which all ended in “empire”: the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire. Of these three, the Russian and the Ottoman empires were heirs to the Holy Roman Empire, whose eastern half, with its capital Constantinople, went on for centuries after Rome had turned into a depopulated ruin and a dark age had descended on Europe.
After Constantinople fell to the Turks and Islam took over the region, the center of Orthodox Christianity migrated north to Moscow. Now add China, or the Chinese Empire if you like, which is now aligned with Russia, and complete the picture: all of the greatest and most ancient Eurasian empires have come back and are talking and cooperating, while the has-been upstart on the other side of the planet isn’t even invited.
Given this situation, what is the US to do?
It has three choices.
The first is to start a major war, thus committing national suicide (while taking other countries with it). It lacks the political will to make this decision, although it could blunder into a major war by accident.
The second choice is to basically just fold: give up trying to project power around the world, retreat into its own borders and lick its wounds. It lacks the political will to do this as well; all that remains in the realm of possibility is to pretend that everything is still fine for as long as possible.
But how is it possible to pretend that everything is still fine even as everything is falling apart? The answer is to start faking it.
If the US manages to convince enough people, at home and around the world, that it is still dangerous, then it will be able to hide its increasing enfeeblement for a while longer. It may no longer be capable of achieving any of its aims, but it is still very much capable of mass murder, as was recently demonstrated by the US “coalition” bombings of Mosul and Raqqa, which now lay in ruins. Similar wanton acts of mass murder have been committed America’s Saudi-Arabian proxy in Yemen, and by their Ukrainian proxies in the Donbass.
But even the opportunities to commit mindless mass murder with impunity are now becoming fewer and farther between, forcing the US to resort to more boutique acts of violence. To justify these acts, the US (and much of Europe) curtains itself off from the rest of the world using an elaborately constructed wall of complete nonsense.
A favorite trope has to do with dreamed-up chemical weapons as the main frightener. Take a look at the recent Israeli rocket attack on Syria. It was justified using obviously fake video footage produced by the White Helmets—a group known for staging fake terror events. At this point, they don’t even care how fake their product looks: this time around, they didn’t bother editing out the clapper (used to sync up video with sound). The setting was obviously a movie set, but production values were rather missing. Instead, we had actors, some wearing white helmets, but no protective gear whatsoever, dumping buckets of water over shivering children. How is that even supposed to make any sense?
And then note that the rockets (five which got shot down by the Syrians, with only three making it through) came from Israel. Why Israel? Because the Russians had warned the US that they knew the fake chemical weapons provocation was being organized as a pretext to launch a rocket attack, and that they were going to shoot not just at the rockets but also at those who launch them. Therefore, Americans decided that it would be too risky to launch the attack from navy ships, and instead asked the Israelis to do the honor of lobbing a few missiles at a remote airbase in Syria, correctly thinking that the Russians wouldn’t immediately retaliate against Israel if no Russians would hurt, and knowing that there would be no Russians at that airbase during their attack. This is, on the one hand, quite pathetic, but on the other it shows that the Americans are still capable of a modicum of rational thought.
This, then is the strange period of history we are going through. The US is lying nonstop (since truth is not on its side) while pretending to still be dangerous by committing wanton acts of mass murder (small-scale ones, which it can be sure to carry out with impunity).
Meanwhile, both national suicide (via large-scale war) and the decision to shut down the whole imperial project both remain politically impossible. How long this strange, unstable period of murderous nonsense can persist isn’t known—your guess is as good as mine—but it obviously can’t go on for ages.
Give it a few years, or less. 
